this week went by really fast. i had a lot of fun on thursday and friday at school. it was a review day for my older kids, so i made them play jeopardy. they were really excited and it was really hard to keep the noise down. i gave choco-pies (a soft wafer/marshmallow cookie dipped in chocolate that the kids love) to the winning team. after the game, i had to make them get back to work.

i finally found some food here that i like!! it's a korean dish called bulgogi (thin slices of prime rib beef, usually marinated). amber, kirsten and i went to a restaurant where all the tables have grills in the center, you order your meat and you grill it yourself. you wrap the meat in lettuce, sliced onions, and garlic. i add a little kimchi in it, too. while we were at the restaurant, a monk randomly showed up and started singing at the restaurant.

today i went on a hike with kirsten and kyle. the trail was really cool, and along the trail, there are mounds (where people are buried) and gravestones. it was kind of strange, but after awhile i stopped noticing them. although the trail was fun and had beautiful sites (every once in awhile you could catch a glimpse of the mountains and sannumdong--the area i live in), we got to a part of the trail where you could hear a ton of dogs barking coming from a dog farm. eventually you could see the building where all the dogs were. it was so sad :(

today, kirsten and i were walking back to my apartment and we saw an almost fully lit cigarette fly down in our direction from one of the apartments we were passing. we looked back and nobody was in their windows. we think it was probably intentional. a lot of koreans are very racist and dislike foreigners living in their country. it's sad that sometimes people will go out of their way (even in the smallest way possible) to express hatred toward others. on a much brighter note, for every one person who is unfriendly, there are so many more who are helpful and eager to meet americans. a lot of the time, people will say hi as you walk by, most small children will stare, and if you are in a coffee shop and start talking to them, their parents will be happy they get to practice their english. a few nights ago i was getting coffee with a few of the teachers and three small children were so excited to see white people and ran over to us to speak (the little) english they knew. their mothers smiled and said bye to us when we left.

it's definitely hard getting used to being stared at a lot. koreans just aren't used to seeing many white people. the same day we were at the coffee shop, a korean girl got out her phone and took a picture of me as i walked by to order a drink. she wasn't even nonchalant about it. very strange...

more things i've noticed about korea:
-all the american teachers have noticed about their culture: men wear purses! they aren't even man purses (bigger, messenger type bags), they're handbags!! i saw one in a grocery store the other day carrying a coach purse! we have also seen men in high heeled boots. not cowboy type boots, but boots with a bigger heel.
-if you give your kids an assignment to do on their own that will be reviewed later in class, when they are finished they will yell, "FINISHED!!" they are sooooo competitive with each other and they need to be verbal about it. i've tried asking them to let others finish, but they don't seem to care.