Tricia's Adventures in Korea

The Philippines!!!

2010-09-18T13:43:00.014+09:00

Thanks to the idiot who stole my wallet last summer, I didn't get to go anywhere for vacation. This year I decided to go big...and alone. I had been super stressed with work and being homesick, I needed to go somewhere where I could just relax and not worry about anyone else having a good time. My friend Emily (O.G.) went to this awesome resort in the Philippines with her mom last February and had a great time. I decided to check out the website, and it looked like the perfect place for me to go...so I booked a trip for a week at Sangat Island. I flew to Manila and then had to fly to the island of Coron. Now, there are about 7,000 islands in the Philippines. When I got to immigration, the officer had no idea where I was going haha. I then got on the smallest plane ever for the 30 minute flight to the island. I got to the airport, if you could call it that lol. It had 2 gates: This little guy welcomed us all to the airport: When I got to the island, I met a rep from the island and had to take a 30 minute car ride to the port. It was quite an interesting ride. We had to stop a couple times because there were animals in the road. The bridges were made from plywood and 2x4's. I thought I was going to die lol. Then I had a 35 minute boat ride to take. I was put on a boat with 3 people who work on the island. I was a bit nervous at this time...what the hell is going to happen to me? What kind of situation did I get myself into? If I hadn't known someone who had been here before, I would have really been freaked out. Anyway, the water was pretty choppy and apparently there was a storm coming, so I was forced to wear this: I finally got to the island and was brought to my room, which was AMAZING. You walked out the door and there was the beach.

I also had a little friend who came to visit on occasion. The island was beautiful. I mostly spent the days relaxing, but I did go on a snorkeling trip one day. I joined a wonderful family on this trip. They were very kind and treated me like a family member. We stopped at 5 different islands to go snorkeling. I've heard people describe crystal clear ocean water, but seeing it for yourself is indescribable. I also did some sea kayaking. It's quite enjoyable! Sadly, all good things must come to an end, including this fantastic vacation. I had an amazing time and felt refreshed and ready to get back to work...yeah right!

OH! I almost forgot my favorite photos!

Love you all!

My Second Summer

2010-09-18T13:22:00.005+09:00

Summer was extremely hot. It's now September and still disgustingly hot and humid. It's also been way too rainy. Apparently, one of the rainiest summers Korea has had in decades. Thanks global warming!

I've come up with a bit of a bucket list for stuff I want to do in Korea before I leave. One of the things on my list was to go to the COEX Aquarium. I practically had to drag Em and Laura in with me, but then they had a great time. See, you should ALWAYS listen to The Dish.
The aquarium was quite interesting...

For the 4th of July, I decided to put a little picnic together in the park. We had a great time with great people. It was almost like home, minus the fireworks!

Now more pics of my kids :)

Love you all!

My 30th Birthday

2010-09-18T12:53:00.005+09:00

Another birthday in Korea. Who would have thunk it? To top it all off, it was my 30th. Holy shit...I'm 30 years old. Really??? Anyway, back to this. My 30th had to be great. I didn't have my friends and family from home with me, but I celebrated with some awesome people. We began with dinner at the Novatel, which is this really great hotel in Gangnam.

We stayed at the Novatel a bit longer to enjoy the great cover band!

Then is was off to Rainbow for some hookah and Woodstock's for some partying.

So yeah, it was a great way to celebrate my induction into the dirty thirties! Next year, Vegas??????
Love you all!

May 2010

2010-09-18T12:45:00.003+09:00

May was a very hard month for me here. I was extremely homesick and pretty much spent every weekend sitting at home feeling sorry for myself. It was sad, but I feel it was something I had to do to keep me moving along here. I could have easily hopped on a plane back home, but I didn't. That would have been insanely foolish of me.

So not many photos of fun things happening in May. However, I will post some photos of my super adorable students on a field trip we had.

Yay, for cute children!!!
Love you all!

Spring in Korea!!!!

2010-09-18T12:14:00.010+09:00

Ok...MAJOR apologies for not updating in, oh, about 6 months. EEK! So, so sorry. We've got new teachers here who looked at my blog before coming, and so I am embarrassed for not keeping up with it. Please forgive me :)

So I stopped updating at the end of March. April was a great month! Spring came to Korea very, very late this year. So late, in fact, we thought it might never come. It was snowing here in April. This has been known to happen at home, but not here. Everyone was quite shocked.

Well, spring did decide to finally arrive...and spring in Korea means one thing: Cherry Blossoms! When they bloom, all is beautiful. A normal walk to work becomes great when you walk down the street surrounded by those beautiful white blossoms. The whole country smells wonderful! This spring, I decided to take a little trip down south to see the blosssoms. Stacy, Steve, and I joined a large group of people and went about 4 hours south to Gwangju. They say Gwangju is where the Lee family began in Korea. Lee is a very popular last name here...like Smith in America popular.

While in Gwangju, we rented bicycles and rode around the town. It was great, but by the end of the day, my ass hurt like hell! Here are some photos:

I also went to Everland again in April. What better way to spend a beautiful spring day than riding roller coasters with awesome people?!?! Em, Joel, and I met our Korean friend, Claire for this fabulous day! I think my favorite part was when Claire was holding our place in line and talked us into cutting about 200 Koreans in line to get on a roller coaster. This is obviously a huge DON'T in America. I can recall many a time when my mother bitched people out for trying to cut us in amusement park ride lines. In Korea, however, no one says a damn word! It was insane. We felt incredibly guilty for doing it, but they all let us do it like it was no big deal. It was kind of surreal in a way.

We also went into a bird sanctuary to feed some birds. At first, Em was a bit worried, but was soon having a blast.

April also brought to the Korean War Memorial Museum. Not as good as I thought it was gonna be, but still interesting.

Finally, I received my plaque for drinking all 55 Gecko's shooters. It only took me 3 months. It is an accomplishment I am quite proud of! haha

I also saw this really insane fire in Seoul.

There ya have it...my second April in Korea.
Love you all!

My new class.

2010-03-28T16:31:00.003+09:00

So as most of you know, I now have a new kindergarten class. I went from teaching one of the lowest kindergarten classes (6-1) to now teaching the 2nd highest (7-3). I was a little nervous about it because there is a lot expected of these kids. Luckily, I only have 5 students. They are amazing and I love them already. They crack me up everyday. I have Sellina (who was in my class last year), Jaimie, Alex, Robert, and Zeki...yes, Zeki. Here are some photos of them on our last field trip.

I look forward to spending the next year with the little monsters!
My elementary classes are also pretty great. So far, no big behavior issues...not like last year! Things are good with work. I'm pretty damn happy with it right now!

Love you all!

Kickin' it in Gunsan one last time!

2010-03-28T16:03:00.007+09:00

Well now it was time for Dan to move on from Gunsan...allll the way to Osan haha. Which is only a couple hours from Gunsan. We had to go big for Dan's sweep. Boy, did we go big. As a tribute to Dan and St. Patrick's Day, we got special t-shirts made and made lovely black and green tutus. Many of us completed the look with tights, socks, and other things. Here I am ready to party!

The gig was the same as last time: party at Delta, hop on a bus to America Town, eat, party, then back to Delta for more partying, 2am breakfast, and bed!
First was Delta.

Then America Town.

And back to Delta and breakfast!

Of course, we all had a blast! It was an awesome night...push it up!!

Love you all!

More snow in Jukjeon!

2010-03-28T15:57:00.002+09:00

Will the snow ever go away?!?!

Love you all!

One Crraazzzyyyy Night!

2010-03-28T15:39:00.005+09:00

It started off as a quiet evening with friends and turned into ankle injuries, people peeing their pants, street surfing, and noraebang with Korean strangers. I'll let the pictures explain.

As you can see, it was one crazy night!

Love you all!

It's so hard to say goodbye.

2010-03-28T15:35:00.002+09:00

Well the time I had been dreading finally came. I had to say goodbye to my precious kinders. They're staying at LCI, but will no longer be my students. It was a very sad day for me, as I have grown so attached to them. Each of them is extremely awesome and I love them all dearly. Here are class shots on our last day.

Fortunately, I still get to see them everyday. They also always have a hug for me, which makes me happy!

Love you all!

LCI's Festival!

2010-03-28T15:21:00.002+09:00

Every year, LCI puts on a huge festival. This year was to be no different. In December, all the teachers had to write speeches for each of their kindergarten students and pick a song for them to perform. This is all put on so the parents can see how much their children have learned in the past year. The lucky kids in my class got to sing Good Ship Lollipop and recite speeches about holidays. We then had to pick out the most ridiculously flashy, sparkly costumes we could find for our kids to wear. Unfortunately, my camera battery died halfway through so I only have some photos, but you can imagine the rest.
Here are my kids before the festivities began:

Here they are in outfit #1. This is for a song they did with LCI's music teacher.

This is outfit #2. This is what they wore for Good Ship Lollipop.

Unfortunately, this is about the time my camera died so I don't have their speech costumes. Let's just say I picked out the most ridiculous outfits for the following holidays:
New Year (baby new year)
Valentine's Day (cupid)
St. Patrick's Day (leperchaun)
Easter (rabbit)
Children's Day ( a pink sparkly mess haha)
4th of July ( a sparkly red, white, and blue number with stars all over it)
Chuseok (hanbok)
Halloween (vampire)
Thanksgiving (indian)
Christmas (santa)
I'm hoping you can get the image in your head! haha
Anyway, after 2 months of insane practicing, my babies did an AWESOME job! I was very proud of them!

Love you all!

Korean Hockey!

2010-03-02T21:46:00.007+09:00

A parent of one of OG's students sponsers a Korean hockey team. I know what you're saying. Hockey? In Korea? Yup, apparently there's an entire Asian Hockey League with a whopping 7 teams! Anyway, this parent offered OG free tickets to a game, so you know we were there. Emily's old friend from high school is now teaching in the ROK. Her name is Colleen and she Canadian and totally into hockey, so she came along as well. We also enjoyed the company of some German guys that Emily had met the night before. One of them had broken his tooth and didn't remember how. They were quite interesting.
We hopped on a bus and headed to Anyang to see the Anyang Halla in action! Colleen had been to a couple games already and told us that the team was pretty good. Unfortunately, this wasn't their night. They got their butts kicked, but we still had a great time. Here they are in action.

And because we're in Korea, the players bow to the spectators at the end of the game.

Then we got to go down on the ice and meet the players. I believe I met the tallest Korean guy ever!

Love ya all!

My new tattoo!

2010-03-02T21:42:00.001+09:00

Here it is! The Gemini symbol I have been for years now. Yes, it's a tramp stamp and I swore I would never get one, but really now, where else was I gonna put it?!?!

Love you all!

Winter fun with the K-fam!

2010-02-21T12:11:00.008+09:00

So instead of writing a ton of blogs with a couple photos, I thought it would be much easier for all involved to just write one blog entry about everything we've been doing the last few weeks. This is will also pretty much bring me up to date on my blogs, so ya'll can stop bugging me about until June...which will most likely be when I update again haha.
My last blog was about the snowstorm of the century. January was pretty much full of smaller snow storms and birthdays. I think the majority of English teachers in Korea were born in January. At least, that's how it seems. The first of many birthdays that month was OG's. Her birthday is on the 4th, which was the day after the infamous storm, so she got her birthday off. She and some of the ladies went out to lunch, but unfortunately, I was passed out with jetlag and didn't go. That night we all met at Gecko's. Of course, Emily got her birthday shot. The "shot guy" at Gecko's laid out some glasses of beer and then laid a filled shot glass on top of them. OG had to push the first shot glass with her tongue and this is what happened.

Her bday celebration was great!
The following weekend, we went bowling. Ben, Emily2, OG, and I hopped on a bus to Dongbaek to try some Korean bowling. The game is the same, but the venue is very different. What's funny is that you can usually drink anywhere you want in Korea. You can walk down the street carrying an open bottle of Cass and no one will look twice...but ya can't drink at a bowling alley. No drinking and no snack bar...what is this?!?! We were all a bit confused. Ben managed to smuggle some makoli in, but they made him throw it out when they saw it.

Next was Stacy's birthday. I used to work with Stacy at LCI, but she left and came back to another hagwon. She celebrated her birthday at Gecko's as well. It is THE place to be in Jukjeon now haha.

Then it was Emily2's birthday. We started at Havana for some "Cuban" food. Then Cafe Asome for dessert. Then of course, we headed to Gecko's.

Then it was time for another Panton party down in Gunsan. This time it was a Sweep. This is when the squadron says hello to the new pilots and goodbye to those that are leaving. We started out in Gunsan and then headed to a little place called America Town for good food and awesome dancing. It was at this time that yours truly was complimented on her "ghettoness." Apparently you can take the girl outta Willimantic, but you can't take Willimantic outta the girl! Anyway, we had a great time and I finally passed out around 5am after watching Napoleon Dynamite with my girl Stacy in a pilots room. Good times indeed!

Well, I guess that's all. It was a great winter with good times and good friends!
Love you all!

Snow in Jukjeon??

2010-02-14T19:55:00.005+09:00

So I've been told that it does snow in Korea, but it never accumulates to anything decent. This was also my experience during the beginning of the winter here. It was a very good thing that I came back from home when I did. I got back to Korea on Saturday night and made it through Sunday dreading going to work on Monday. Well...I work up on Monday to Emily knocking on my door to tell me we had a snow delay. I'm sorry, what??? Yes, we were having a delay because of snow. Sweet, now I get to sleep longer. Fast forward about an hour or so and Emily knocks on my door again to tell me we have the whole day off. This is insane, we don't get snow here! I look out the window and see that there's abour 6 inches of snow. By the end of it all, we got about 10 inches. Now those of you at home in Connecticut know that 10 inches is NOTHING. Yeah, we'll get a day off, but all the snow will be off the roads in a couple hours. Well, that's not so easy in Korea. Korea has no clue what to do with snow after a snowstorm. I never saw a plow truck nor did anyone I know see a plow truck. I don't think they exist in this country. Instead, they used cranes to put the snow in dump trucks which they dumped in the empty lot by our school. People would shovel themselves out and then put the snow in piles in the middle of the street. A week later, there were still huge piles of frozen snow in front of my apartment building.

And this was a week later...

SURPRISE!!!!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-02-08T22:20:00.006+09:00

So as you all know I've decided to stay in Korea for another year. I decided last fall that if I did extend my contract, I would do my best to get home before my 2nd year started. Well, that's exactly what I did. Only no one knew I was coming home...and boy was it a surprise! First, the plan. I bought my ticket waaaayyyy back in October. Yup, October. I would fly from Seoul to New York on Christmas morning. I found a direct flight and it would take me 14 hours. Now all I needed was a ride home from the airport. I wanted to rent a car, but unfortunately some jackass stole my license in May. Ya can't rent a car without a license...grrrr. Someone had to pick me up, and who better than my daddy. We all know how much my dad loves Christmas...the words "Ho, ho, ho, my ass" come to mind! So I called my dad and told him that I had a huge surprise and he couldn't tell anyone. First thing he says? "You're not married, are you?" What the hell??? My dad obviously doesn't know me that well. "No, dad. I'm not married and I'm not pregnant. I'm coming home for Christmas and need a ride from the airport."
Flight, check. Ride, check. Keeping the secret from everyone at home for 2 months...good lord this was gonna be hard! I talked to everyone a million times during the 2 months. I almost spilled my secret a million times, but I didn't!
I got into JFK around 11am. After a few minutes, I found my daddy, who now looks like an old hippy. Gotta love that man...he's my number 1! We drove home and started surprising the hell outta people. First on the list? Aunt Sarah. I walked right through her door and shouted "Merry Christmas!!!" Suddenly, my cousin Joe is knocked onto the floor and my aunt is running into the kitchen screaming her head off. After she almost fainted (seriously, the woman almost fainted), she sat down to catch her breath...while I ate my 1st Christmas dinner of the day ;-). Then we decided to go surprise Robin. We all drove to Robin's and I hid in the car for a minute. I knocked on the door, walk in and hear "you've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Robin starts doing what she referred to as the "beauty pageant cry" and it was awesome. Gifts were handed out and then we decided to go to Aunt Debbie's. I was ready for Jay to be more surprised to see me than Jen, and that's exactly what I got haha! We then surprised my mom by telling her I was on Skype. My last surprise for the night was Shelley, Larysa, and Cindy. I knew Shelley would be having a party, so that's where I went. I ran up the stairs and shouted something about a party and right away, they knew it was me haha. It was awesome.
I spent a week at home. After 10 months of emails, Facebook, and Skype, it was so great to see everyone. I brought a bunch of friends and my parents to a Korean restaurant so they could eat what I've been eating the past year. For the most part, they enjoyed it. I surprised my mom and dad with a trip to Korea. Hopefully, they'll take me up on it this summer. I did a ton of needed shopping because I can hardly fit in anything they make in Korea. I almost had an orgasm after walking into Old Navy! I spent way too much money, but it was worth it.
It all ended New Year's Day. I had to wake up at 5am and Jen and Aunt Debbie drove me to the train in New Haven. I took a 90min train to Grand Central and then hopped on a bus for the airport. I headed back to Korea to experience yet another year of teaching. I can only hope this second year will be as great as the first. To all my loves at home, I love and miss you all so much! I was so happy to see everyone. See ya in 2011!!!!
Here are some pics from my week home:

Love you all!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

2010-02-08T21:06:00.009+09:00

Christmas in Korea is pretty funny. The Santa Claus' and Christmas trees came out right after Halloween. I didn't realize it would be such a big holiday here, but it is...especially at LCI. Each class had to choose a Christmas song to sing. I wanted to do the 12 Days of Christmas, but was told it was too hard for my kids. These people obviously don't know my kids. They're all performers...each and every one of them. Anyway, we got stuck with Deck the Halls and made the most of it. They practiced their "fa la la la la's" everyday like good little Korean children, and we even had some kickin' dance moves haha. Diego came to school one day and said "Tricia Teacher, I think no more fa la la la la. I think fa ra ra ra ra!" and the class (and I) starting cracking up. I immediately thought of the end of A Christmas Story when they're eating at the Chinese restaurant and the waiters try to sing to them. It was hilarious! Diego kept it up every now and then to get a laugh, but I told him not to give into stereotypes! :-P Before all the LCI festivities, we had a staff Christmas party. We had a Secret Santa and had dinner at a restaurant in our building called Racoon. No, I didn't spell it wrong...that's how the restaurant spells it. Here are some pics from that night. Sally loves her soju! It was a good night...but we were all ready for our winter vacation! The next day was Christmas Eve and Santa was coming to LCI...but not before a magic show! Yes, that bird flew right over my head...and onto Hazel's! I wish I got a pic of that! Oh...and ya can't forget the Christmas time puppet show! I have no clue what was going on, but here ya go... I think the little green guy was like the Korean Grinch or something. It was quite odd, but then again, I DO live in Korea. And heeerrreeeeeee's Santa! The kids all got to sit on his lap and get presents. In the afternoon, we had our Christmas song contest. This was it...their moment to shine! And boy did they!

Come on...my babies are awesome! So awesome that they won 1st place with that performance!
Love you all!

An American Thanksgiving in Korea

2010-02-08T20:51:00.006+09:00

I know what ya'll are saying. "Damn it, Trish! It's February. What's with writing about Thanksgiving in February?!" I know. I've been absolutely horrible in updating this lovely page dedicated to my stay in Korea. The last few months have been INSANE! So I'm gonna start where I left off...and that's Thanksgiving. So quitcha bitchin and just read :-)

My darling Emily Lucille was here for Thanksgiving last year, so she knew what to do. We were going to the Big Rock in Gangnam. First, we had to make a reservation...for like 20! Thank goodness OG took care of all that! All I had to do was show up and that was a pain in the ass all it's own. We all went on the bus together and were supposed to meet at the Starbucks. I was at a Starbucks and so was everyone else...just not the same Starbucks. How did we arrive together and then end up at 2 different Starbucks'??? I have no effin' clue, but leave it up to me! We finally got there and were welcomed with an amazing buffet of REAL food! Turkey and all the fixins'. We were in waygookin heaven!

Pretty damn good for a country that doesn't eat turkey!
They even had pumpkin pie! Emily loved it! As did the rest of us ;-)

They had American football playing too, but I wasn't paying too much attention to it. It was a couple hours of awesome food and awesome friends. I can't wait to do it again!

HAPPY (belated) THANKSGIVING!
Love you all!

Kickin it in Gunsan!

2009-11-24T21:13:00.012+09:00

I have a friend Faith here in Korea who's husband, Dan is in the Air Force here. While Faith is a 10 minute taxi ride from me, Dan is stationed in Gunsan, which is a 2 hour bus ride from Jukjeon. His squadron hosted a little event a couple weekends ago, and Faith invited myself and a bunch of other awesome ladies along. The event was called Save Your Bacon and was kind of a drinking game/scavenger hunt/complete the task type thing. Put all these things together, along with pink wigs and shades, and you've got yourself one friggin AWESOME Saturday afternoon!
A bunch of us hitched a ride on a bus that was supposed to take 2 hours, but ended up taking 3. We were all ready to enjoy a nice American breakfast, but alas, we were too late :-( I did get my first taste of Taco Bell in a looooooong time though. We had to eat quickly as there was MUCH to do to get ready! We all wore fabulous pink and red wigs and these great spade shaped glasses. Here are some pics of us ready to go!

Our first task that we, of course, accepted was all about 80's trivia. Now, those who know me know that I am ALLLLLLLL about the 80's. Love the movies, love the music, love it all! We did a great job at this. I think we only got like 2 answers wrong. We kicked ass! Here we are with our totally rad host:

With our vodka cranberry's in hand, we were off to our next task. This task involved us taking shots of various liquors and then guessing what we were drinking. Unsurprisingly, we got all but 1 correct...haha! We then had to guess how much each bottle of alcohol cost on base. Here we are again, we most gracious hosts:

Our third task was very Dutch. There were 4 different kinds of beer and we had to guess what they were. I'm not a beer drinker at all so I wasn't gonna help this cause any. The second part of this task was to eat 6 bratwursts...yuck! But I ate one for my team!! Finally, we had to dance the German polka...aka The Chicken Dance! We had to do it for 3 1/2 minutes! And of course, he we are with the host of the task:

Then, it was off to golf. Let me remind you that we were drinking all kinda of junk this whole time. This little golf game is kinda hard to explain, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We basically had to hit the golf balls into these hula hoops. I dunno, apparently we did pretty good, so that's cool with me! Here we are with "Shooter McGavin" and his friend:

Then we were led to some abandoned van. It looked a little strange, but these guys said they had free candy, so we went in :-) I don't really remember the rest, I wonder why. Maybe these pics will help:

Then it was off to play some Black Jack:

That was the end of our little game. It was off to party where we found out we won 2nd place!!!!! Woot woot!!! Here are some final pics of us celebrating:

It was an awesome way to spend a Saturday and I met some amazing girls! Can't wait to go to Gunsan again!
Love you all!

Halloween!

2009-11-08T15:46:00.011+09:00

Korea doesn't really celebrate Halloween like we do in the good ol US of A, but we kinda sorta made it happen here haha. The kids and teachers at LCI were all getting very excited about our big Halloween celebration. There was to be a haunted house, a song and class decorating contest, and trick-or-treating! Unfortunately, swine flu became and issue and we closed down for 3 days, one of them being October 30th. have no fear, we still celebration Halloween at LCI, just a few days late...like 5 days later on November 5th.
Of course, I couldn't just sit at home on the actual day of Halloween. I got in my Hogwarts costume and headed to Itaewon. I met Sally there, along with my friends Faither and Dan and some others. We partied at the Wolfhound, which is pretty sweet as far as Irish pubs in Korea are concerned.
Here's Sally, me, Faith, and Selica in our costumes

Faith and Dan looked so cute:

And here are some other people with awesome costumes. Some of these people I know, some of them I don't know haha.

Ok enough of that. Now for LCI's Halloween. The following Tuesday was spent getting ready for the big day. Here are my kids making a fierce looking Jack-o-lantern!

All of the teachers worked til about 9pm on Tuesday decorating LCI. It looked awesome!

And now what you've all been waiting for...my babies all dressed up! :-)
Here we have Lisa and Ryann as princesses, Jerry just in all black haha, Wendy as Sailor Moon, and Diego as a "skeleton bat!" And we can't forget Robin, who is a Power Ranger, Christine as Snow White, and Arial as...well, Ariel the Little Mermaid.

Our class won second place in the song contest for their rendition of "The Ghosts Go Marching." I wish I had a video, but the screen on my camera broke so I can't see what I'm doing with it haha. Also, our class won 1st place for the classroom decorating contest!!!! Yay! Here are some pics of our room:

The kids made handprint spiders and I used their pictures as the spider heads. They also made spiders out of egg cartons and pipecleaners which we hung from a giant spider web on the ceiling. It was pretty cool. They were so proud of themselves!
Anyway, that was our Halloween! I'll leave ya with one last pic...all of LCI's teachers in their costumes!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Next is Thanksgiving, which us Americans will be celebrating the Saturday after at a bar in Gangnam...ya know there'll be pics!
Love you all!

The Swine Flu?!?!

2009-11-02T20:46:00.006+09:00

So about 2 weeks ago, everyone in the office began catching colds. I refused to get sick so I stocked up on Vitamin C and stayed away from coughy and sneezy germs. Of course, I teach 4 and 5-year-olds so staying germ free is really not an option. The school stocked up on hand sanitizer, so I began marching my class down the hallways to sanitize their hands about 5 times everyday.
Then Wednesday came and I felt great in the morning. Worked most of the day without an issue...until about 4pm. All of a sudden I felt really run down. I took my temp and it was bit above normal, but nothing serious. I went home and went to bed. Woke up Thursday, and again, I felt great. Got through my day without an issue. As soon as I got home (at 645pm), I crashed. I slept straight through the night and woke up at 8am feeling like hell invaded my body. It took me 1/2 an hour to get out of bed and another 1/2 an hour to shower and get dressed. I knew I wasn't going to make it through the day, but calling out of work in Korea isn't an option.
I got to work and everyone could see I wasn't well. My temp was 38.8 C, or about 102 degrees Fahrenheit. My supervisor started freaking out and tells me that I need to go to the hospital, but first I need to show my face to the kids and tell them I have food poisoning. I do this then I sit in our cafeteria waiting to leave, face mask in hand. I'm told not to put the mask on until I'm in the car. God forbid a parent see on my way down the elevator.
I get to the hospital and check in. I'm then told I need to wait 2 hours to be seen. The last thing I wanted to do was eat, but I was forced to order Burger King for lunch by Jason, who was probably given orders to make sure I ate. He then left me alone...the only Westerner in the hospital. Yay! I waited my 2 hours and was finally called in. My blood pressure and temp were taken. I was then told that because I didn't have insurance, the hospital was "vely, vely, expensive." I then went in to see the doctor, who in broken English, asked me what my symptoms were. He then told me I had swine flu. He refused to give me the test though, because apparently I had sooooooo many of the symptoms. Ya know, I had a cough and was tired. Yup, must be the flu!
I then had to wait another 40 minutes for my meds. I decided to go pay my bill. Yeah, this place was "vely, vely expensive" alright. An emergency room visit and 8 prescriptions cost me...you ready for this???? 66,000 won, which is about $60 give or take. This same visit would have easily cost me $600 at home without insurance. The American medical system is ridiculous!
So anyway, I went home, took my meds and rested. What a way to spend a weekend! I felt much better by Sunday but was forced to stay home another day by my school. And just a cute little tidbit for ya...my parents were all told I had a bad case of "blah blah blah-itis". I'm sorry, what was that??? "You know, blah blah blah-itis. Like you have to run to the bathroom a lot!" Oh, that's lovely!
I got back to work on Tuesday only to be told that the school was closing the rest of the week. Wonderful! A week without pay! woot!
Anyway, I am feeling much better now.
So yeah...love you all!

Some random shots of Korea

2009-10-24T17:15:00.006+09:00

Thought I'd give you all a little taste of Korea. Enjoy the pics.
Fall in Korea is not quite as beautiful as it is in Connecticut, but it comes kinda close.

The Harley Davidson shop and OG and I enjoying a rooftop lunch in Itaewon:

Me and Diego, one of my students:

A bubble show we had at LCI:

Ok. So I think my blog is completely updated now. ENJOY!
Love you all!

Everland!

2009-10-24T16:32:00.009+09:00

Last weekend I went to what Emily calls "The happiest place on Earth!" I don't know if it's the happiest place, but it comes pretty close. Everland is a pretty amazing place. They had a small Halloween festival going on. Here are a few pics:

And then there was Fairy Land:

Me with 2 of the Emily's:

Found 2 Western guys playing some music. Not sure what they were doing at Everland lol

And some other pics of us having fun:

The fun house was awesome!

Then I met up with my friends Harry and Hermione.

It was a wonderful day!

House of Sharing

2009-10-24T15:53:00.007+09:00

The House of Sharing is a museum dedicated to the women who were kindnapped and forced to become sexual slaves for the Japanese military during World War 2. It is also a place for the women to live peacefully.
These are the hands of the first Halmoni, or grandmother, who spoke out in 1992.

This wall had blocks with the Japanese names of the women. If the blocks were turned around, that meant the girl had an STD or was pregnant.

These are hand and footprints of some of the Halmoni:

This map shows where all the of the brothels were in Asia.

I was hoping that we would be able to speak with one of the grandmothers, but unfortunately, this did not happen. Sadly, the Japanese government still denies this ever happened. The Halmoni, along with many others, have weekly protests at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

Chuseok

2009-10-24T15:18:00.004+09:00

Chuseok was celebrated on October 3rd. It's a celebration of the harvest, and is pretty similar to our Thanksgiving, only much more spiritual. We had a bit of Chuseok at LCI a couple days before the holiday. The kids all came to school dressed in their Hanbok, which is a traditional Korean clothing. Here are all of my kids in their Hanbok.

Aren't they adorable????!!??!?!
Love you all!

Jeju Island Trip

2009-10-24T13:22:00.013+09:00

Another long overdue blog. The only reason I'm writing this is because I'm stuck in my apartment sick with the so-called Swine Flu. Anyway, Em, Anne, and I took an Adventure Korea trip to Jeju Island. It began with a Friday night at a love motel. Nothing too big to talk about there, but we had to wake up way early and take the subway. Here's a pic of me looking way too happy at 6am. Em on the other hand...

The first thing we did after we got off the plane was hop on our bus and go to a horse show. It was to show the life of Genghis Khan. Interesting I guess. Em was kinda hot for one of the guys lol.

After that, we went to a glass museum. It was about this time that I noticed my brand new camera was broken. The screen was busted. How that happened, I don't know. I just hoped my pictures would come out, and they did :)

We then visited some caves that were built during the Japanese invasion. They were built to hold bombs and keep soldiers hidden.

Then we were off to our hotel. On the way, we stopped at a store to pick up necessities...basically alcohol. We got some soju, wine, and these:

After cleansing our faces we headed to another room where we played "Never Have I Ever" with a bunch of the other people on the trip. We learned WAY too much about one another and then were off for a midnight stroll to the beach. One of the girls bought some fireworks so we lit those while some swam in the ocean and flirted with Korean men haha. At one point I was playing with a sparkler while doing a split in the sand. I thought something bit me, but in reality, the sparkler burned my ankle.
The next day began at a tea farm. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Although, this one had golf carts you could ride around. We found one with a key in it and went for a ride. We later found out that we were supposed to rent them. Ah well.

After that we went for a walk at a forest.

Then we were off to Loveland. This is a park with a ton of sculptures that some university made. Only pictures can describe it. So here we go:

And these signs were all around the park. WAY FUNNY!

Then we were back on the airplane to head to Seoul. Then we had to take an airport bus to Jukjeon. While on the bus someone felt it was a good idea to throw up while sitting on the back seat. I'm sure you can figure out how disgusting that was. And...I'm going to leave you with that :-)
Cheers!
Love you all!

Busan!

2009-09-23T22:09:00.009+09:00

Wow! Just remembered that I never blogged the rest of my summer vacation adventure. You heard all about Jeju so now it's time you read about Busan. As I explained in the last blog, I decided to fly back to Busan rather than spend another 11 hours trying not to get seasick on the ferry. Catherine and I got up nice and early and hit McDonald's for a Egg McMuffin. It was the first fast food I had eaten in Korea, and I was very proud of the fact that I had gone that long :-) Anyway, we went to the airport, and after a very short 1/2 hour flight, we were in Busan! After a bus and subway ride, we finally made it to the guesthouse I was staying in. I stayed at the Actor & Tourist Guesthouse. It only cost me 15,000 won a night, and it was great! We dropped our luggage off and went to explore. We found these buses that take you around Busan and drop you off at different sites throughout the city for only 10,000 won. Cat and I hopped on one and were off!
The first place we went was Yongdusan Park. You walked down about 999,999 steps until you got to the ocean...then you had to walk back up the damn steps! It was a beautiful place!

We got back on the bus and headed to Taejongdae Park where we waited to hop a trolley that would take us around. Sure you could walk, but we were Americans and weren't having any of that!

Unfortunately, Catherine had a plane to catch back to Seoul, so we headed back to the guesthouse. I was hoping to catch the nighttime bus that went around the city, but I got there at 6:50 and "bus all full!" So I called it a night.
The next day was Monday and I was on my own. I picked a random stop on the subway to get off at and started my journey. I walked around a good chunk of the city not knowing where I was going. It was great!! I loved it :-) I found a couple museums, but they were all closed. Apparently, all Korean culture takes Monday off. So I walked into one of many Paris Baguette's in Korea for lunch. I ordered my sandwich and coffee and sat down to eat. All of a sudden these Korean chicks start screaming at one another. Sadly, I had no idea what they were saying. It's times like that I really wish I knew Korean! Anyway, it was hilarious and got to the point where the manager had to step in and ask one of them to leave. After lunch, I decided to go to the Busan Aquarium since it was the only place open on Mondays. It's on Haeundae Beach, which is supposed to be the best beach in Busan. Sure it's the best, if you like overcrowded beaches that you can't walk on without walking into a damn umbrella! Anyway, the aquarium was like any other one you've been too. Here are some pics:

And that was the end of Monday. I went back to guesthouse and hung out for the night. On Tuesday, I decided to take another bus tour. This one took a different route. My first stop was the UN Memorial Cemetery. It will definitely be one of my most memorable experiences here in Korea. There was a small museum there, and a man who fought in the war and spoke fairly good English, showed me around while telling me stories of the war. I asked to take a picture, but unfortunately, he refused. I didn't realize what a huge sacrifice America made during those years. Especially when compared to the rest of the U.N. Here are some photos...first the Busan Museum.

I then hopped back on the bus to visit two museums, the Busan Museum and the Busan Museum of Art. Your typical museums, but here are some pics of what they had to offer:

And the Busan Museum of Art:

After all that, I took the bus back to Busan Station and headed back to the guesthouse. At this point, I was done with Busan and just wanted to get back to Jukjeon. I quickly packed and booked it to the train station just in time to get a KTX back to Seoul.
It was a fabulous few days!!!
Love you all!

Finally! Jeju pics!

2009-08-20T19:50:00.010+09:00

My vacation may have been a month ago, but the pics are finally here! I'm just gonna post a few here, but if you want to see them all, let me know and I can email you a link where you can see them on my facebook page. This post will just be about Jeju.
To start my trip off, I took the KTX train from Seoul to Busan. This took about 2 1/2 hours. I then boarded a ferry that would get me to Jeju in just 11 hours! 11 hours?!?!?! Are you kidding me? No, I kid you not. I was ok with it though. The ferry set out at 7pm and went all night, so I figured I could just sleep on the way there. Here is the room I stayed in and the rules to abide by haha:

I thought I had the room to myself...until a woman and her 2 sons walked. They were very nice and she tried her best to speak to me in English. We basically talked about Sex and the City and how no one in America really lives like that!
As soon as the ferry docked, I took a taxi to the airport to wait for Catherine. When she got there, I immediately went to buy a plane ticket to go back to Busan so I didn't have to get back on that ferry! This also meant I got to spend more time in Jeju and do more stuff! Cat and I then went to the hotel and planned our day. Our first stop was Samsunghyeol, the origin of the Tamna Kingdom. These stone statues are called Dolharubang and are put in from of villages as guardians:

This is the whole in the ground from which the 3 brothers emerged:

We then wanted to check out these lava tubes that Jeju is famous for. We hailed a cab and started driving when the driver handed me his phone. He called a friend who spoke English and she told me that we were gonna have to walk a distance to get to the lava tubes. We decided this wasn't for us, but there were many other things we wanted to see. We learned that getting cabs all day would be pretty pricey, so we contracted this cab driver to drive us around Jeju Island all day for 100,000 won! Then we were on our way!
Our next stop was the Trick Art Museum! This was the highlight of my day in Jeju! I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

After this, we were off to the Jeongbang Waterfall. You can click on the link to learn more, and again, the pics will explain themselves. It was so beautiful.

After the waterfalls, we went to a Korean Circus. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos. The circus had everything from 4 -year-old acrobats, to girls who could hulahoop about 50 hoops, to 7 motorbikes riding in a sphere. It was amazing! We then went to the Chocolate Museum. There are more pics to come of this place, but here are a couple:

Mr. Pak then wanted to take us to Mount Hallasan. It was near the end of his time though, so he only took us a bit of the way up. He then brought us back to our love motel and was gone forever. I kinda miss Mr. Pak...he was good people :-) Catherine and I then tried to find this Mexican restaurant. It took the cab driver forever to find it. Then he got out of the cab and left the meter running while he made a phone call to figure out where this place was. I finally turn around and realize the damn restaurant is right behind us! The food wasn't that great, but then again, it was Mexican in Korea!
That was end of our little adventure in Jeju. We went to bed and prepared for our trip to Busan!

Catherine's going away party :-(

2009-08-16T17:54:00.005+09:00

So it's come time to say goodbye to someone I truly love here in Korea. Catherine is an amazing chick who is leaving for home next week...so of course, we had to party it up in style! We first went to Hotel Novatel in Gangnam. We had a cute little buffet and all the wine we could drink for pretty cheap. And, as an added bonus, we got to hear live music from a pretty awesome cover band who sang everything from the Pussycat Dolls to Queen!
Here we are waiting for the bus to Gangnam which took FOREVER!

Having a blast at the Novatel...

Then we went to Woodstock's...

It was a great night! Love you Catherine!!
Love you all!

Marilyn Monroe in Seoul??

2009-08-16T17:40:00.006+09:00

Yup, Marilyn was in Seoul and I witnessed it :-)

Actually it was an art exhibit of photos called Marilyn Monroe "The Last Sitting" for Vogue Magazine with photographer, Bert Stern. It was great. There were about 50 photos of her in the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles, just a few weeks before she died. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the exhibit, but the photographs of Marilyn were amazing. They also had a theater playing clips from her movies. Outside the exhibit was a room designed to look just like the room in the Bel-Air Hotel, complete with a bed and a blond wig so you can look like Marilyn and take photos. Here are a couple of those photos with me and Em posing as Marilyn:

And here I am covering Marilyn's naughty bits haha:

So yeah, it was much fun and Marilyn was sexy as hell!
Love you all!

So I've done some exploring...

2009-08-16T16:33:00.008+09:00

Ok you can all stop sending the emails yelling at me about updating my blog. Here's an update. I did have a wonderful vacation in July...unfortunately I don't have all the photos from it yet, so you're just gonna have to wait for those. I have, however, been doing some exploring around Seoul, and those are the photos you'll see here....a LOT of photos!
We have a couple new teachers, Emily and Sally. Yup, another Emily...that now makes 3 Emily Teacher's at LCI. I have named them as follows: Emily1 is now O.G. Emily, Emily2 is now simply Emily, and the new Emily is Em...haha, did ya'll get all that?? So yeah, the new teachers are cool and have already been out exploring this beautiful country we're in.
My first exploration took me to Seodaemun Prison. The prison was built in 1908 as a place for the Japanese to interrogate, torture, and kill Korean independence fighters during the occupation. It is now a museum dedicated to teaching the history of that struggle.
This is us in front of the prison.

As you walk into the prison buildings, there are depictions of the harsh brutalities many Korean independence fighters experienced.
This tiny cell sometimes held up to 8 prisoners:

These are some of the torture rooms:

Em and I behind bars:

After the prison, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was the largest of the Five Grand Palaces built during the Joseon Dynasty.
These are the guards. They look like they're fake, but they aren't. It's kinda crazy. A bunch of people were taking pics with them, but I didn't feel right about it.

Some pics of the palace:

And me being a dork:

And there's that!
Love you all!

Vacation!!!

2009-07-27T19:01:00.003+09:00

Just a little note to let ya'll know that I've been on vaca for a few days and have a couple more days left. I already spent a day on Jeju Island with Catherine. It is magnificently beautiful. I loved all of it, right down to the chocolate museum that makes some of the best chocolate I've ever eaten. I am now in Busan and have been exploring on my own. I will be back in Jukjeon on Wednesday and will write a full blog sometime soon with a ton of pics included.

Love you all!

Celebrating the big 2-9 in Korea!

2009-07-06T00:10:00.006+09:00

So this post is a few weeks too late, as my birthday already passed, but here it is anyway. I was very sad about not being able to celebrate my birthday with friends and family at home, but my friends here showed me an awesome time of cute Italian waiters, hotel conference rooms, Brazilian soccer players, and army boys!

Friday night was spent in Seohyeon dancing it up at Club LA. We drank bucket cocktails and Emily enjoyed her can of cookies!

Saturday was the real celebration. We (Me, Emily, Catherine, Amanda, and Kimo) went to Itaewon and had an amazing Italian dinner. The waiter was Italian and absolutely gorgeous. Why we didn't get a picture of him, I do NOT know! Shelley, you would have LOVED him...haha!

After dinner, Catherine, Emily, and I went to our hotel to check-in. Of course, with this being Korea, there was a problem. They had us go to the conference room to print out our confirmation. Here's Emily being her very important self at the hotel.

She's SO important, she needs a phone in the bathroom.

So after being at the hotel for more than an hour, we spent the night barhopping, drinking, and dancing!

The next morning we had an amazing brunch at this diner that I keep forgetting the name of...help me out here Emily!
Anyway, it was an awesome weekend!
Love you all!

A 4th of July hello...

2009-07-04T17:05:00.003+09:00

Ok so I made a video for you all...mom will be excited lol. I'm a dork in it, but whatevs. Love you and miss you all SOOOOO much! Happy Fourth! Light some fireworks and have a Mike's Hard Lemonade for me! haha!

Lotte World!

2009-06-24T21:22:00.007+09:00

So you're probably asking "Trish, where are all the damn pics of Korea?!?!?" I know I've been neglecting you all and your need to see some pics of Korea...so here ya are. A few weeks ago I enjoyed a fun-filled day at Lotte World in Jamsil. Apparently it is the 8th largest indoor amusement park in the world. All I know is when I walked in there, I felt like I was 7 years old again haha! Half of it is inside and the other half is outdoors.
This is what you see when you walk inside. It's like a huge version of "It's a Small World" at Disney World and just as creepy :)

And some random pics from the outside part of the park.

Ya'll would NOT believe who ended up being there! I know I've told most of you about my Korean stalker, Grace. Yeah...we were in line getting our tickets upgraded when I hear "Hi Treeeesshhha!" I look say hi real quick and RUN! I couldn't believe it haha!

Anyway, here are some pics of us having a great time at Lotte World! These cute Korean girls wanted to get in a pic with me...who am I to say no? And yes, I look completely dead in the one pic, but I felt smiling in that position wouldn't be right haha!

And that's it for now. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to posting my birthday weekend pics! :)
Love you all!

A "not much to update" Update

2009-06-13T00:38:00.002+09:00

Yeah, so not much has been going here, hence no updates in a month. With my credit card and alien card stolen, I had to live on 120,000 won for about 3 weeks. This is not a fun task. I basically went to work all day and stayed home the rest of the time...totally lame. I finally got my cards back so at least now I have some money to spend. I just bought a new camera, so ya'll will be seeing more pics soon :)

As for getting my money back and stuff, the bank is still trying to figure it all out. I finally got a call from them earlier this week. Apparently, they thought I may have been in kahoots with the guy who used my card because he had my address and other information. This was before they knew my alien card was also stolen. So then I'm told that this idiot who spent my money bought a television and then had it delivered to his house. This meant the bank now had his full name, address, phone number, and the name of the school he works at. So yeah, it wasn't the air force guy i thought it was, it was another English teacher! So now the bank is trying to get a hold of Michael Wayne who lives in Pochon and works at Simbong Elementary School. What they plan on asking him, I have no clue. "Excuse me, but did you steal this woman's purse and use her credit card to make a purchase?" "Why yes. Yes I did." Give me a fucking break! The Korean teachers at LCI seem to think that the bank wants to try to solve the situation before getting the police involved. I had said before that if I get my money back, I will let it be. Screw that, this guy needs to be punished for this. You cannot just steal $750 from someone and get away with it! This is America for crying out loud!!! Oh wait, no it's not. Forgot where I was for a minute...damn it! This is Korea...where the cops just ride around in their cars all day and turn the sirens on for fun!

So for now, I wait. I wait for the bank to call me and tell me what they know, and I go on from there. At least now I can get into my bank account and spend some money!!!!

I hope all is well at home. Just so ya know, as of this coming Sunday I will have been in Korea for 4 months! It's hard to believe that my time here is a third of the way done. It's going by way too quickly. And my birthday is coming up. My first birthday away from home. Makes me a little sad, but I'll get over it! :)

Love you all!
Now show me some love and leave comments for meeeeeeeee!

My really great (until it got really bad) weekend!

2009-05-19T19:24:00.002+09:00

So after the crazy week I had last week, I need to get out...and drink! Friday night was pretty low key. Brett's mom was visiting, so a bunch of us went and had dinner and then headed to noraebang, which as I have explained, is karaoke but you rent your own room for an hour. The next couple hours were filled songs varying from the Beatles to Jewel to Nirvana. It was most excellent.

I spent most of Saturday being a bum until about 5pm. It was Catherine's birthday and we were celebrating with mexican food and motorcycles! For those who know me, you know that was gonna be my kind of night! We went to On the Border for dinner. Yeah, mexican food in Korea...who knew?! The margaritas were amazing and my chicken chimichanga was mashisoyo (Korean for delicious)! After paying an arm and a leg for dinner, (Western food is one of the only expensive things in Korea!) we grab a taxi and headed to Itaewon. Click on the link and find out all about it.

Emily had found this thing on Facebook talking about a Harley Davidson celebration party there. No cover and 20,000 won got ya drinks all night. Girl had me at Harley. You know I had to be there! We get to the bar and I feel like I'm home at the Bach Dor. It was fucking awesome! Harley riders with their club vests and jackets...it was great! The best part was they had live bands playing real music...not the friggin K-pop shit that's all over this country! Suffice to say, we were having a great night! Emily, Catherine, and I were dancing our asses off and laughing at Russian hookers falling on the dance floor...which karma got me back for later, when I fell and whacked my back on an amplifier hahahaha!

Emily disappears for awhile and comes back with some dude trailing behind her. "Guess where he's from?" she says to me all excited-like. "Um...Kansas?" I say because Emily is from Kansas and why else would be so damn excited??? Nope. Not from Kansas, but Connecticut. I've waited 3 fucking months to meet someone in Korea that's from anywhere east of Chicago. So yeah, dude is from Madison and seems pretty cool. He starts chilling with us and 2 other guys come up. They're in the Air Force and apparently Todd, who I referred to as "Todd from Madison, Connecticut" the rest of the time, just met them a couple hours before. So they chilled with us and...blah blah blah. We won't get into that.

Anyway, all of a sudden one starts acting really friggin weird telling his friend "we gotta go, we gotta go now" and they jet. About an hour later Emily and I are getting kicked out of the bar because they're closing (Catherine left earlier) and I can't find my fucking purse! Emily, Todd, a guy I met named "Jaws," and I looked for it all over the damn bar! I'm freaking out! My camera's in there, my money, my cards, my medication...everything! They do their best to calm me down, I give the bartender my number, and leave. So now I'm drunk off my ass, just got my purse stolen, and I'm walking the streets of Itaewon with "Jaws" trying to keep me from being killed. At some point, I fell in some bushes (woke up with leaves still in my hair) and then Emily made me eat some KFC. We said goodbye to Jaws and took a cab home.

I wake up on Sunday to a text message. Now this is where shit really goes downhill. My bank sends me text messages whenever my debit card is used. This text tells me my card has been used for 740,000 won, which as of right now is $592.32 American dollars. At that moment, I knew the bartender would NOT be calling me to tell me he found my purse. I called my boss and got the card reported as lost. Then I get another text message telling me this person tried to use the card again for 318,000 won or $254.51. Of course, the card was denied.

Right away I knew who had done it, and when I heard about where the money was spent, I knew I was right. The money was spent at an electronics market geared toward the U.S. military. Hmmm...now who was I talking to the night before in the military??? I am 99% positive that the 2 air force guys are behind this. Unfortunately, I can't really prove it, but I'm determined to do something. I went to the bank today and filled out a bunch of paperwork in hopes of getting my money back. I'll find out in 15-30 days. I can't even get any money out of my account right now because my alien registration card was stolen as well. So yeah, that kinda sucks.

So that was my weekend! Hope yours was great and no one stole your money :)
Love you all!

A rant...

2009-05-12T18:49:00.004+09:00

Warning:
There will be NO cute pictures of Korean children or of anything else in this post. Instead, please enjoy my ranting and raving of recent events.

At LCI we all have a Korean supervisor for each class. My supervisors for my elementary classes pretty much leave me alone to do my thing. My kindergarten supervisor on the other hand, has done quite the opposite. Ok, I get that kindergarten at LCI is a huge deal and my kids are newbies, as am I. But is it really necessary for my supervisor to be in my classroom all the god damn time?!?!? But Tricia, you might say...you've been a teacher for years, you should be used to being observed while teaching. And I will say, yes, this is very true but I'm really starting to take this shit personally. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I don't care, I'm pissed!

Open Class is coming up next week. This means that all the mothers of my kindergartners will spend 45 minutes in my classroom eyeballing me and critiquing my every move. I can totally handle this. I've been observed by teachers who have taught for 30 years, I'm not going to be bothered by 10 Korean mothers. My supervisor and directors on the other hand, are bugging out about the whole thing.

Bugging out so much that within the next 5 school days, my morning routine will be observed 7 times! 7 fucking times! You've GOT to be kidding me!!!! Nevermind teaching science and math to these kids this week, we've got Show & Tell and our ABC's to take care of!

The 6-1 kindergarten routine is as follows:
Tricia Teacher: "Hello Diego. How are you today?"
Deigo: "I feel happy." Or sad. Or angry. You get the idea. This continues until every child tells me how they feel. Now, they used to be allowed to be creative with their feelings:
Example:
Tricia Teacher: "Hello Diego. How are you today?"
Diego: "I feel like a rainbow."
Let's be honest...sometimes you really do feel like a rainbow or a star or even an octopus. But oh no no no, we can't have 4-year-olds saying they feel like rainbows! What would their uptight mothers think of that?!?!? So now, they must use the expressions we have stapled to the wall.
So after their feelings, we do Show & Tell. My special helper of the day sits in the front of the room while the other 9 kids ask him or her questions from a list we have on the wall. The questions include "what is it?" "what shape is it? "where did you get it?" and blah blah blah. The child answers the questions and shows everyone what he or she brought. We then go over the questions one by one.
Then it's Target Language time. Target Language is pretty bogus. We have a question and answer that each child must say for speaking practice. The sentences can be fairly ridiculous. Yesterday, while I was being observed, the kids had to say "What is your favorite vegetable? My favorite vegetable is sweet potatoes." I mean, seriously?? They were all concerned that the kids didn't pronounce "vegetables" correctly. How many 4-year-olds can actually says vegetables correctly???
We do the calendar and weather next. Each child tells me the date, which might I add is something extra I do that is not required of my kids...but they do it and are awesome at it! We then sing some songs which they have been required to memorize...that's not so bad though, they love the songs.

And that's it. That's my morning routine. I think my kids are awesome at it! They've come such a long way from the beginning of the term. My supervisor doesn't agree. Apparently, the pronounciation of vegetables is extremely important! So important that the other 2 teachers she supervises are only being observed 3 times before their Open Class!

I was told not to take this personally. That it's probably because my parents are more insane than the other classes. But really, how can I not take this personally?? This chick is my class almost on a daily basis, she takes my kids out of the classroom for stupid shit WHILE I'M TEACHING (gggrrrrr!!!!!), and I just can't get my head around this whole "being observed 7 times" b.s.! It seriously makes me feel as if I'm doing something wrong. If I am, tell me! If I'm not, leave me alone and let me do what you hired me to do.

I think I need a shot...or 10.
Thanks for "listening."
Love you all

Mount Jirisan

2009-05-07T21:01:00.011+09:00

Hello everyone!! Haven't updated in awhile, so here ya go.
Had my first experience with a Korean doctor last week. I was supposed to have a wonderful fun filled weekend of Vagina Monologues and birthday celebrations for Buddha...instead, I stayed home feeling like hell entered my body. Woke up Saturday morning feeling horrible, but I was determined to leave my humble abode. I forced myself to shower and began my walk to the subway station to meet Emily, Jordan, and Andrew. Well, Trish got 1/2 way there when she was informed that just the subway trip alone was almost as long as Gilligan's tour was supposed to be...um yeah, not so much. I turned around feeling like I could throw up on the street any minute. I'm not talking about the drunk Korean puke one sees while walking the streets of Jukjeon (or any city in Korea for that matter) on the weekend either. So yeah, I spent the weekend in bed utterly miserable. I finally went to the doctor on Monday where I was told I had tonsillitis. They gave me 3 days worth of pills and sent me on my way after paying only $20! Twenty bucks for a doctor visit AND meds...we are so getting hosed in the states!
Then we had a 5 day weekend...yay!!!! I went on an Adventure Korea trip to Mount Jirisan and had a pretty good time. Unfortunately, everyone in Korea was on the road that weekend, so we got to the mountain 2 hours after we were supposed to. By that time, it was down pouring. Here's the view from where I walked to. I didn't walk for...I'd be damned if I was gonna walk a mountain in the pouring rain!

Here I am soaking wet, but smiling!

The next day we went to the Hadong Tea Festival. It was still a little cloudy in the morning, but beautiful none the same.

Met this tea guy who reminds me of my dad...what do you think??? LOL

Some positive effect of tea...read it. it's a good laugh!

And some tea festivities...

Tuesday was a beautiful day!!! I went to Seoul with Celeste and about 40 other people for a picnic on the Han River.

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some margartias...yup I had Mexican food in Korea.

So, that's what's new with me! Hope everyone is doing good at home. Leave me some love!!!
Love you all!

My Kindergartners

2009-04-21T20:22:00.005+09:00

Not too much has been picture worthy lately. I went to Itaewon last weekend and did some shopping. The next package I'm sending out is for Stephanie and the kids, so be on the lookout for it soon! Since I don't have pics of Korea to show ya, I figured I'd send more of my awesome kindies. First, a video of my kids at Play Gym. They get to play in the Play Gym for 15 minutes twice a week. I'd like to bring them more, but it's beyond me. It's kind of like a small version of Chuck E. Cheese or something. The majority of the vid is sideways, but so is yours truly. Anyway, here it is:

And more pics of the kids:

Aren't they just sooooo cute?!?!?

Love you all!

Birthdays, Baseball, and Brunch, OH MY!

2009-04-14T19:26:00.010+09:00

This weekend was Easter, so...HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!! I hope it was good for all ya'll back home. I had a fantabulous weekend! Saturday started with a trip to the Seoul Museum of Art. I wasn't allowed to take pics, but if you're curious about it, go here. After the museum, I met most of the other LCI teachers at a baseball game. The Bears played the Twins, and when we left the Bears were kicking ass. Here are some pics:

We went out for Samgyeopsal after the game for Tyler's birthday. More pics...

Then Sunday...Sunday wass a friggin blast! I went to the Seoul Hilton for brunch with Emily, Catherine, and Andrew. First a pic of a sign in the parking garage that I found particularly interesting:

Catherine brought some bunny ears, so of course we all took turns wearing them.

And a group pic:

After brunch, we found an international market. I got a few things for some people back home, and a pair of the most comfortable shoes my feet ever walked in! They also had some sweet brass knuckles which Emily decided to try out:

We took the subway back to Jukjeon, and got home around 10ish. It was a great end to a great weekend!
I hope everyone is doing well! The comments are getting a litte thin, so give me some love people or I'll never come back home!! haha
Love you all!

My classroom

2009-04-08T20:37:00.011+09:00

Ok, so I'm getting a bunch of people telling me to update the blog. There's not much happening right now, so I figured I'd show you all some pics of my classroom.

Here are my kids looking like they're hard at work:

Everyday we ask the kids how they're feeling. We try to get them to use emotions words like "I am happy," "I am sad," "I am angry," etc. As you can see, that doesn't always happen...

Lisa doesn't feel like popcorn today.
Diego and Robin feel like hamburgers.
Jerry and Christine feel like ice cream.
I don't know how Louis felt that day!

The other pics are from around town. Sunday was one of the first totally beautiful days in Jukjeon, and I was NOT gonna sit home all day. I went for a walk around a part of town I hadn't been to before.
This was taken at my favorite coffee shop where I had lunch that day. This guy had this horrific ringtone on his phone and was driving those 2 birds absolutely nuts with it.

Jukjeon Central Park.

Hmmm...wonder what this sign means. haha!

Some random eaten apple for kids to play on at the playground.

Pretty tree. They're blooming all over!

That's it for now. I'm going to Seoul this weekend to check out a couple museums and a Korean baseball game, so I'll have another update soon.
Love you all!

Scavenger Hunt!

2009-03-30T20:35:00.004+09:00

For those of you who don't have facebook, I went on a photo scavenger hunt this past Friday. It was in Suji, the next town over. We were divided into teams, and we had to take pictures of video of us completing tasks around Suji. My teammates were Stacy, Gina, and Nancy. Here are some of the pics.

In Korea for a month.

2009-03-24T19:42:00.012+09:00

Yeah, so as of last Sunday I have been in Korea for a month. A month? Seriously? I had to check the calendar! How did these past four (almost 5 now) weeks fly by so fast?!?! I've had such a blast here so far, and am looking forward to the next 11 months with anticipation.
My kindergarteners have come such a long way since I've been with them. They went from hardly speaking a word of English, to saying full sentences like "I feel fantastic today" and "may I use the bathroom please?." They are such awesome little kids, and this is the best way I can introduce them to ya. So here is my 6-1 kindergarten class:

This is Louis. He's a little nutty, but aren't we all?! He's very smart and is always one of the first kids to answer a question (although we're still working on the raising our hands thing). When he first started school, he never wanted to come, but now he loves learning English and wants to speak it at home all the time!

Meet Sunny. Sunny is my Korean version of Kaitlyn at Rising Stars. I love the little girl to pieces, but she's usually the one who tries to push my buttons and succeeds! I regret teaching this one the word "no" because now she uses it ALL THE TIME! Not an exaggeration at all...she says no ALL THE TIME! haha! Isn't she friggin cute though?!

This is Diego. Yup, the kid's English name is Diego. He had 3 different English names his first week of school. He's the coolest kid I've met in Korea. First of all, he reminds of my nephew Matthew...he kinds looks like him, and he's a total goofball!!! He one of the only kids who will dance the hokey pokey with me...he's awesome!

Arial. Arial is a cutie. She's lost some teeth lately, and kinda looks like an old lady who forgot her dentures lol. She dresses like a little diva and hates to sit in her seat. She's a cool kid.

This dude is Robin. He's also incredibly smart and likes to show it off a bit...by shouting out answers at the top of his lungs!!!! His English is pretty damn good though.

Meet Lisa. In her mom's words, she is "very, very stubborn!" haha. I wouldn't call her stubborn at all. She's very quiet and kinda shy, but she's beginning to speak in class a little more.

This is Ryann. She still doesn't answer to that name until the 5th or 6th time I call it! She is the most fidgety kid I have ever met. She told her mom the chairs at school are too uncomfortable, and that's why she doesn't like to sit on them. She doesn't mind standing on them though!

This is a totally goofy pic, but she loved it. This is Christine. She's a bit of a space cadet, but smart when she decides to pay attention. Her English has come a long way too, and she's usually the first one to say "please" and "thank you."

Jerry...my future Korean popstar! haha! He's already memorized all of the English songs I've taught him, and he sings them all the time. Even at home!

Wendy, my little diva. You can usually find her decked out in Burberry, Polo, or some other crazy expensive clothing a 5 year old would wear :P
So there ya go, my kindergarteners! They're awesome!
More to come
Love you all!

St. Patrick's Day in Seoul

2009-03-15T19:48:00.005+09:00

Who would have thought that I would have spent St. Patrick's Day at an awesome celebration in Seoul?!?! I sure as hell never thought it! I went with Jordan and Emily from work, and Catherine who I was introduced to a couple weeks ago by Emily. Here are some pics...it was a great day!

Update Part 2

2009-03-13T22:23:00.009+09:00

Ok...the last pics in part 1 loaded out of order, so the names are wrong, but you can figure it out. That Saturday, the 28th, I moved into my apartment. For those of you who think I may be living in a hut...PLEASE Google South Korea and watch this video:
So yeah, that's the apartment...and here are some pics of Jukjeon, the town I live in: The building I work in:
Outside my apartment building:

Well I got through my first week of teaching...barely. I have a kindergarten class in the morning. They don't speak English at all!!! Fun times! There are 10 of them, and they are friggin adorable. By the end of the first week, I had half of them saying thank you, may I go to the bathroom, and my name is ___. We're basically just going over ABC's right now, but these kids are so smart, it's crazy. I also have 3 elementary classes. 2 of the classes are of students that have only been studying English for a short time, but one class has been studying for quite a bit...they're my favorite. It's kind of refreshing to be able to have a conversation with your students at the end of the day!
That weekend I went out with a few of the teachers. We went to a live bar to sing and got shy Korean women to dance with us...Good times indeed.
Here's Emily singing and AJ on the drums:

Some Korean guy singing:

And some others:

The second week of teaching was much easier. I've been observed a few times, but I've been dealing with that for years as a teacher. We have art on Thursday's, and this week the kids made hats out of paper plates. Here are my darling kindergarteners:

Aren't they adorable?!?!?
Ok That's the update for now. Like I said, more pics on Facebook and Myspace.
Love you all!

Update Part 1

2009-03-13T21:29:00.009+09:00

Damn Trish, where the hell have you been?!?!!? Ok...totally sorry, but I've been in Korea for almost 3 weeks now, and am just able to use the internet in my apartment tonight. So here I am, and here is the update:
Ok...we'll start with the horrendous 30 hours of traveling I did to get here. I sat next to a really great couple on the first leg of my flight. They were going to Bali to ride elephants (it's totally on my "to-do" list now) and the guy had been to Korea before. We talked most of the time, so it went fast. The 2nd leg of the trip did NOT go so fast. 13.5 hours in a plane going from Detroit to Tokyo is the total opposite of a good time. I was sitting next to this Japanese lady who thought she could communicate with me by poking me in the arm everytime she wanted something. I've already decided that I'm upgrading to 1st class for the long flight back. Then I was in Japan for a couple hours before boarding my flight to Seoul, which I completely slept through. I woke up as we were landing with a plate of sushi on my tray.

So I made it to Korea. Now I gotta pray that my luggage also made it there. I go through customs with no issues, and then wait...and wait...and wait for my luggage. It finally gets there and then I have to find my ride. Luckily, the guy is holding a sign with my name on it! An hour car ride later, and I am in the "love motel" that will be my home until my apartment is ready. I've also met Ben and Emily at the airport. They're from Memphis and teach at the same school I do, and they stayed in the room next to me. Here is the lovely view from my room...

Yeah so the Metro 21 Motel is complete with mirrored walls and ceilings and a toothbrush, razor, and condom left in your room on a daily basis. Channel 2 has all the Korean porn you could ever imagine...don't try to imagine it, it isn't any good.
Ben, Emily and I went out for dinner after our first day of observing, which I will get to later. This is just a taste of what we found on the streets of Suji:

I totally ate that!! If you believe that, you don't know me very well! We ate Galbi that night, which is basically grilled meat with a TON of side dishes. You always get a bunch of side dishes with Korean food. It takes ya 2 hours to finish!

Well I lived in the hotel for about a week, and during that time I observed several classroom at LCI. LCI is the school I now teach at. There are 10 other English teachers there, and we all teach kindergarten in the morning and elementary students in the afternoon. By the time that first Friday came along, I was so over observing and totally ready to teach. That Thursday, LCI took everyone to dinner as a hello to the new teachers and a goodbye to those that were leaving. After dinner we went to a noraebang, or karaoke as we know it. And we all know how much Trish digs karaoke! You pay like 30,000 won an hour (about $25 or so) to rent a private room and ya sing your little hearts out:

That would be Tyler and Steve in the first pic, Brett in the third, and Ben and Emily in the last. I'm putting all my pics on Facebook, so you can see more there. Ok...this blog is long enough...but I'm writing another one after I post this LOL
Love you all!!!!

Quick Post...

2009-02-24T14:06:00.002+09:00

This is just a quick post to let you all know that I made it to South Korea, and I am safe and sound. I am currently living in a motel, so I do not have internet access except for while at work. I am trying to find a calling card so I can reach you all and you can stop worrying about me!!! As soon as I get settled into my apartment, I have LOADS to write about my adventure in getting here! I should be moved in by this weekend or early next week. For now, just send me emails and I will get back to them on my lunch breaks.
Love you all!

Visa Interview...

2009-02-07T00:24:00.003+09:00

Went to New York City on Wednesday to have my visa interview. I've been told by a number of people that it's basically a technicality and a waste of time, but still, once I got on that train to Grand Central, I was feeling a bit nervous. I don't know why, I mean I doubt they would really deny me a visa after everything I've been through trying to get it right?!?!!?
My day started with missing the 12:00 train...lovely! I bought a ticket for the 1pm train, which I was told would get to Grand Central Terminal at 240pm. Wait...240? My interview is at 230! Not much I can do about it right now. I call the Korean Consulate, and of course, they're on lunch. I left a message with the operator and she said someone would call me back at 130. Great...I'll already be on the damn train. I'll be totally pissed if they call me and cancel when I've already spent $32 on a roundtrip ticket! They called at 131 and told me it was fine to still come in. Yay!
I get off the train and head out on E. 45th street looking for the consulate. I get there about 20 minutes later and am told I'm at the wrong building. You have GOT to be kidding me! "It's ok though," the lady behind the plexiglass tells me. Apparently, the correct building is only a few blocks away. "Just take a right when you get to Park Ave. and it will be right there." So I head out once again. I take a right at Park Ave. and #460 is nowhere near where I am. In fact, I need to walk another 15 blocks or so until I finally get to #460!!!!!!! My legs are gonna kill me in the morning!
So now I am at the Korean Consulate General and I give another lady behind plexiglass everything she needs...my visa application, passport, another horrible passport photo, college transcripts, and $45. "Just fill out this application for your interview," the nice Korean lady tells me. It pretty much has all the same questions as the application. Another waste of time! "Ok...time come in for your interview."
As we walk to the room, she says to me "Your last name Mekuto? Sound Japanese but you no Japanese!" "No," I tell her faking a laugh. So I finally sit down with my interviewer ready to answer questions about why I want to come to Korea, my teaching experience, etc. Yeah...none of these questions were asked. Basically, I was asked what Early Childhood Education was. I told the interviewer that it means I can teach PK-3rd grade and that was the age group I would be teaching in Korea. PERFECT!!!!! the man shouted! He was WAY too excited about this LOL. After telling me how much of a perfect advocate I would be for U.S. and Korean alliance, I was told to come back to get my visa tomorrow and sent on my way. Tomorrow?? I gotta come back?? Damn it!
So...anyone wanna go to NYC next Wednesday??? Let me know!
Love you all!

Still here...

2009-02-04T02:36:00.009+09:00

I finally got my flight itinerary last night, and I am leaving for Korea on February 21st. This confused me because according to my contract, I am supposed to start teaching on February 15th. Apparently my school changed my start date...AGAIN, and no one felt the need to tell me until I questioned it. Not a big deal except for now I'm here for about 3 weeks with no job, which means no money coming in. It sucks, but it's beyond me.
I fly out of Boston at 9am. I land in Detroit where I have an hour layover...now here's the best part. I get to enjoy a very (un)comfortable 13 1/2 hour flight from Detroit to Tokyo. Should really be wonderful...mmhmmm. Then I have a super 3 hour layover before taking a 2 hour flight to Seoul. Altogether with driving and layovers and such, I will be traveling for about 27 hours...good lord I'm gonna need some melatonin! LOL
Anyway, I thought I'd add some pics of my going away party and my trip to Florida. My lazy ass finally decided to download the pics from my camera LOL.
I've already told you about the party, so here are some pics...

First me...I'm such a lush!

Me and Rissy

Lilly, Greg, and Me

And now a couple pics from Florida. My sister doesn't want pics of the kids on the internet, but I'm gonna sneak one on just to show you all how beautiful my niece and nephews are!

Me at the beach...

The sunset at the campground we stayed at.

And one more pic of the kids...shhhh, don't tell Steph. Even though she's gonna see it LOL. But by the time she does, I'll already be half way around the world :)

All for now
Love you all!

My last few weeks at home...

2009-01-22T11:00:00.002+09:00

This is it. The home stretch before I board that plane and fly for 100 hundred hours acrosss the world. What does a person do before making a trip like that?? Well Trish goes on vacation!

Let's go back a few days. Last Friday, the 16th was my last day as head teacher at Rising Stars. I've been there for about a year and a half and I loved it...most of the time. But who really loves their job 100% of the time?? Anyway, my boss bought everyone lunch in my honor, which was very sweet, and my preschoolers all made me the cutest cards with their handprints on them. It was a bittersweet day.

Saturday was my going away party. I woke up way too early, but had tons of stuff to do. It was so great to see all my friends and family one last time before heading out. I saw friends that I haven't seen since high school, I was so excited! Shelley, Larysa, and Cindy were awesome in helping me with everything. A girl really couldn't ask for better friends!! I love them dearly and am going to miss them SO much. Shelley made these little cards for everyone to write down a memory they have of me so I can read them when I get home sick...how friggin great is that??!!? Isn't it funny how you forget some things until other people remind you of them?! I was cracking up reading them all! They'll definitely help me when I need them to!

And now I am in Florida. Yup, I'm in Florida and unfortunately for me, it is one of the coldest weeks Florida has seen! Yay for me!!! LOL But at least it isn't 25 degrees and snowing like it was in Connecticut :) I'm here visiting my sister and my neice and nephews for a couple of weeks. We went to Busch Gardens today and I think we're going camping this weekend. I haven't gone camping in years, so I'm pretty psyched about it!

I get back home on February 1st, then it's time to get ready for South Korea! I have to go to NYC and get my visa AND still make time to have lunch or dinner or drinks with every person I know before I leave!! LOL

I'm off to enjoy my vacation!
Love you all!

Was someone waiting for a visa number???

2009-01-16T04:51:00.003+09:00

Oh, oh me, me!! And for a very long time too! I got a wonderful little surprise when I opened my inbox last night. An email from Park English with "Your visa number has been issued" as the subject.

Wait a minute, take a breath trish...the little 12 digit number you've been for is just a click away! I click the button, and what happens???? I lose my damn internet connection and can't get it back for about 20 minutes!!!!!!! Complete and utter torture I tell you! I finally get connected again, and there it is, my visa confirmation number! The number I've been waiting almost 5 weeks for is FINALLY in my possession!

OMG! I have my confirmation number!!! That's it, I'm going to Korea...wait a second...I'm going to Korea!?!? I'M GOING TO @!#* KOREA!!!!!!! I can't believe it. Now all I have to do is bring a bunch of paperwork to New York and have a 10 minute interview at the Korean Consulate. Then, in about 3 or 4 weeks I will be on a plane headed for a whole new world totally different from everything I know.

Am I ready for this???
You bet your ass I'm ready for this!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all!

Where the @#!? is my visa??

2009-01-09T04:32:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow will be exactly 4 weeks since my precious little visa documents made it to Seoul. So now why is it that I have yet to hear back from anybody about my visa confirmation number?? It's beginning to drive me a little insane. I emailed Park English once again and was told things were probably running a bit slower because of the holidays. I can totally understand this, but if I don't hear something soon, I may go a little nuts! :P

I told my preschoolers today that I'm leaving. They don't really get the concept of time, but they know they have much left with me. Most of them handled it great, as if it didn't really faze them...most likely because it didn't faze them, and it won't until I'm not there for a week or so. But two of my kids became very upset by it...they are my 2 kids I know are going to have a very hard time with my leaving because they are both VERY attached to me. One of them started crying...I had to keep from crying myself :( They'll be fine and in the somewhat capable hands of the teacher who will be replacing me. Still, next Friday is going to be a sad day for me

Love you all

EEK! What if????

2008-12-30T04:56:00.002+09:00

Ok. So I've been waiting to receive my visa confirmation number. Different places tell you different timelines that range from about 5 days to 4 weeks! I emailed Park English for an update and was told they should get it soon...soon??? Ok soon can be tomorrow or soon can be 2 weeks from now.
Anyway, I decided to look at the esl cafe to see what I could find...YEAH OK! You ever go to like webmd.com to look up a symptom you have, and all of a sudden you have brain cancer??? Well that's kinda what happened to be at the website. I started weeding though the topics and found one where this guy was denied his visa because of a parking ticket. A FRIGGIN PARKING TICKET?!?!?!?! Are you kidding me? What other crazy little things can they deny you for? A credit card? Or maybe an overdue library book, perhaps. :P
So now I'm buggin out thinking I could possibly denied my visa and this whole teaching in Korea is done for Miss Tricia, and that would just totally f***ing suck! I'm sure it's just my over-obsessive mind working crazy overtime, but I can't help it, damn it...and I'm gonna be this way until I get through the visa interview, whenever that is!

Love you all!

Wooo Hooo!

2008-12-12T03:41:00.002+09:00

I just checked Fedex.com and my visa documents have made it to Seoul! Yay's all around are in order! Ya know, I bitched about Fedex costing so much money, but they got my precious little documents to Korea in 5 days! 5 days to travel around the world! I can't even get a package to David in Hawaii in 5 days through the post office! So I guess the $76 was worth it, even though I'm still not happy about it! So now I wait for about 3 weeks or so to see what's next...for now it's outta my hands!

Love you all!

FedEx is on crack!

2008-12-02T10:39:00.002+09:00

So I FINALLY have all my visa documents ready to send to Korea! Yay, I was totally psyched this morning...I went and picked up my apostille's! I'm ready to go! I go to FedEx after work all excited to finally be rid of all this paperwork. I fill out all the information I need and bring it to the not-so-nice looking lady behind the counter. She asks me how much the documents are worth...how much are they worth??? With all the b.s. I had to go through just to be standing where I am standing right now...how much??? I told her they were worth MORE THAN MY LIFE! "I need a dollar amount, dear," she says to me in an unamused voice. So I add the numbers up in my head...let's see.
$20 for passport photos, $75 for a new passport, $25 for the background check, $5 for the fingerprints to get the letter of good conduct which is not accepted by korean immigration; but i should keep anyway, and $40 for 2 apostille's. Not to mention all the crazy mental anguish I've gone through in these past few months trying to acquire all of this paperwork.

Screw it...I tell her $50 and am done with it. I don't care, this stuff is finally going to be out of my hands!!!!

Once again, Tricia is so naive.

Guess how much FedEx is charging me to send a package that weighs .55 lbs. Come on...give it a guess. $25?? Nope. $40? Nope. $50????????? Oh no no no...imagine my surprise when the lady tells me $76!!!!!!!!!!!!! "I'm sorry, I just hallucinated. What???" "$76?? That's a lot of money!" Then the lady says "Well, DEAR (this was emphasized very rudely) it's going very far!." Gggrrrr....I brought $60 thinking I'd have plenty to spare when I went to Target next.

So, I am still stuck with my paperwork. Hopefully, I will make it back to FedEx tomorrow morning before work. If ya ask me, this should be labeled as highway robbery...asboFUCKINGlutely ridiculous!

hmmm hmmm...
blahness
Love you all!

Just a lil update...

2008-11-27T02:50:00.003+09:00

I'm on my break and this lovely freezing Thanksgiving Eve...my kids are acting loopy and need a few days, as do I! Just thought I'd update ya'll on things.

I FINALLY got the Apostille I've been needing for the past 2 months! I had to write a statement declaring my background check being true. I brought that and my letter of good conduct to the secretary of state and paid $40 to get a little stamp on them. That Susan Bysiewicz is a fast lady! I dropped the paper off yesterday morning and, do my disappointment, was told it would take 3-5 days. I just got a call at work that they're all set for me to pick up! Yay! This means I can send out all my visa documents to Korea and be done with them for a few weeks! :)

I got a call on Monday night from Lena at Park English. She asked if I would be willing to go to Korea in January again. I would love to go early, but there are things I wanted to do before I left. My mom is way too excited about planning this going away party for me and I HAVE to go to Florida to see Shaunali, Matthew, and Isaac before I'm gone for a year! I just emailed Lena and told her I could go any day after Jan. 18th...I hope that works for them!

Speaking of the going away party...it's January 17th at the Knights of Columbus in Windham from 6-11. Let me know if you can make it!

Love you all!

GGgrrrr...

2008-11-14T04:05:00.003+09:00

That's right...grrrr. Ggrrrr to criminal background checks that no one will notarize! Now I need to write a letter stating that my background check it truthful, and that, yes in fact, I have never committed a crime. Apparently I can get that notarized and hopefully it will get me my damn teaching visa!

On a lighter note, assuming all goes well, I will be in Korea in 3 months and 2 days...yee haw! For those of you that do not know, I moved out my apartment in New Britain and am now living with Jen and her fam in Newington til I leave.

That's all for now. Wait, no it's not...why aren't you people leaving me comments??? DON'T YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE?????? Ok ok...I don't care all that much now that I'm still here, but if I don't get comments while I am 13 times zones away, I will haunt you all in your dreams!

Sleep well and love you all!

Just an update...

2008-10-28T02:41:00.003+09:00

So, as you all know, I'm back to leaving in February. Febrauary 15th to be exact...at least that's what the plan is today! I'm gonna keep working til January 16th, and then head to Florida to see Steph and the kids before I go. January 17th is my going away party and ya'll better be there :) I know it's a few months away still, but it'll be here before we know it, which is why I'm already inviting people!

The only thing standing in my way is one measly paper...my Apostille notarized background check. grrrr! I paid the $25 to get a piece of paper that says I have no criminal record. Thanks, I could have told ya that! Anyway, I take a 1/2 day off work and drive from South Windsor to Hartford to the Secretary of State to get that Apostille stamp thing on it. Here I am told it needs to be notarized by someone else before she will stamp it. Great! So I call the wonderful people at the Department of Public Safety who tell me CT does not notarize background checks, only Letters of Good Conduct. Soooo, I drive from Hartford to Middletown and pay $5 dollars to get fingerprinted (even though the state of connecticut probably has about 10 copies of my fingerprints from my teaching jobs!) and I will get my letter mailed to me. I come home and email Park English to give them the l.d. Weeeeellll, apparently Korean immigration does not accept letters of good conduct, only...you guessed it, background checks!

I get this number to call in New York for Apostille help and they tell me to email them my background check. Easily done right?? Nope! Who has my background check but the Department of Public Safety! I call them and they don't want to send it to me because they sent me the letter of good conduct instead. I beg and plead and finally talk Becky into sending it to me! YAY!

A week later...I have yet to receive both my letter of good conduct or my background check! Again, I call the public safety people and the woman makes it sound like I'm doubting she even sent me the damn paper! For fuck's sake lady, this is the last g.d. paper I need for my working visa!!!! Hurry up already!!! GGGGGGggggrrrrrrrr...

Guess what came in the mail today???? My letter of good conduct. Now...the irony. What does this letter of good conduct say???
"A search of the files of the Connecticut State Police Bureau of Identification finds NO CRIMINAL RECORD for the following..."
This is the exact same thing the background check says!!!! I'm soooooo confused right now! LOL. I've just emailed Park English to tell them all this...I hope it will work!!!!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Love you all!

Back to leaving in February...

2008-10-16T12:13:00.003+09:00

So I just learned that I am now leaving for Korea in February again instead of January. So now I will change my new plans back to my old plans...LOL Unfortunately, that means another month of work here...I love where I work, I really do, but I really think it's starting to wear me out. I also just put $200 down for my going away party in december, which now will be in like february...I really hope I can change the date without any issues! And I will also be going to Florida to see Steph and the kids in January instead of December. Little changes, but still...changes.

So, I'm leaving in January

2008-10-06T00:22:00.002+09:00

Yup, I told LCI that I would begin my journey in Korea a month and a half earlier...I mean, why the hell not right?!?!? So now, it hits me...I've got to get all my visa stuff done like N-O-W! Should be easy right? RIGHT??? Oh Trish, you make me laugh! Of course it's not going to be easy...you're Tricia. Damn it...I forgot that part!

So anyway, I need my original diplomas from my university. Yes, I know I graduated 4 years ago, but I never needed the damn things til now...I'm not a doctor who needs to display my education, I teach preschool ffs! So I go to the wonderfully expanded campus of Eastern Connecticut State University...wonderfully expanded my ass. What happened to the beautiful campus of 4 years ago???? Anyway, I think I might have parked illegally, but that's ok because this is gonna be quick. Just go to the registrar's office, pick up my little pieces of paper and go. Oh Trish honey, you're so naive.

I go to the registrar and show my ID, because god forbid someone might want to impersonate me and steal my college degrees. "Oh, looks like you have a hold on your account" the lovely lady on the other side of the plexiglass says to me. "I'm sorry, what??????" I get sent to the cashier's plexiglass window. Apparently, I owe $350 for a class I never took! I wanna shout "What the hell is going on here??????" but I try my best to keep my cool. I get sent back to the first plexiglass window..."Here it is. You have an incomplete grade for a class you took Summer of 2004." Hmmm...I graduated in the Spring of 2004. Then I realize this was a class I added, but then dropped. Never even attended a class. So...I have to go to the Dean and ask her to overturn it. There is SO going to be a damn ticket on my car! Dean's office here I come. "oh, the Dean isn't here? I should go to the history department? S-I-G-H!" Off to the history department where the secretary was so awesome! She pulled up my transcript and you can imagine my surprise when she tells me I don't have an incompete in the class...oh no...I have a big fat F! Ok Trish, try not to hyperventilate here. "I have a what??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" So now, I not only owe $350, but my whole GPA is fucked! The secretary tells me that she will talk to the professor and see if he has any record of me in the class. Unfortunately, it's Friday and he won't be in until Tuesday. So, I have nothing to do but wait...

Tuesday comes along and I call Eastern. The professor has no record of me ever being in the class and he writes a letter and sends it to the registrars! YAY! The letter then has to be sent to the Dean for approval. I wait another week or so and...THE DEAN APPROVED THE LETTER!!!!! I can now go pick up my diplomas and get my transcripts! Thank god and the nice supervisor lady at the registrar's office!

Oh yeah...I never got a ticket. The Eastern police must be slacking!

So with those papers in my hand, and my passport FINALLY getting here as well! I just need a few more pieces of paper to start the processing of receiving my E-2 Visa:
-a state background check which i am currently waiting to get sent to me
-a notorization of said background check
-my resume...check
-my contract...check
-this weird little medical form they emailed to me which asked if i ever had an emotional disorder, an infectious disease that could threaten public health, a drug problem, or HIV...check

and I think that's it!

Yup...Trish is on her way! haha!

A month earlier???

2008-09-24T12:18:00.002+09:00

Ok so I'm getting ready to go to bed tonight and I get an email from Park English, the company who found me my job in Korea. Apparently one of the current teachers at LCI needs to get knee surgery, so they asked me to start teaching in January instead of February. A month earlier doesn't seem like much, but January is RIGHT around the corner! There are definitely pros and cons to going a month earlier. One pro is just the fact that I'll be in Korea before you know it! While one con is I'll have one less month with my friends and family.

I need opinions...what would you do?

Trying to learn Korean!

2008-09-21T11:06:00.002+09:00

So, it's 10pm on a Saturday night...and what is Trish doing??? Trish is trying to learn Korean! I can be such a loser haha! Anyway, I really have no clue what I'm doing. I was totally excited the other day when I went to the library and signed out 3 books on learning Korean. Then I thought it would be helpful to get a Korean-English dictionary. $65 later I had my dictionary, along with a book about learning my First 100 Words in Korean, Frommer's South Korea guide, and a book titled I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, which has nothing to do with South Korea but it damn fucking hilarious! I highly recommend it!

But I'm getting off track here. Have any of you ever tried to learn a language that isn't romanized??? This is some hard shit. Thank God I still have 5 months before I actually have to put it to use! Once you learn all the syllables and figure out which consonants go to the right and which go on the bottom, and blah blah blah...you learn that l's and t's actually sound like n's, k's sound like ng's, and p's sound like m's. Are you friggin serious?? King Sejong must have had something good in his hookah when he demanded a Korean writing system!

But alas, I shall continue to try and learn this lovely and complex language in which I will soon be immersed! Wish me luck!

Love you all!

It begins...

2008-09-15T07:02:00.002+09:00

Ok, so after some confusion, I finally got my phone interview with the director of LCI Kids Club. I was all prepared to answer questions about my teaching styles and curriculum and such. So imagine my surprise when I hung up from the director after 10 minutes! She asked me about my education and experience, and seemed excited that I had my teaching certificate. I was told I had a clear and energetic voice and would be good for their school.
2 days later, I had my contract! So now I just need to sign and fax it, and the job is mine! That's as long as I can get my working visa, which shouldn't be a problem!
So yeah, I'm gonna do my best to keep this blog updated so I don't have to call 200 people every time something new comes up LOL. Feel free to post comments for me!
Love you all!