Venture to Korea with Amanda & Abi

To all our friends, families, and vistors - thank you for visiting. We will be updating this blog as our adventure develops.

photos

So I don't have a camera and Amanda doesn't  use hers much but here are some pictures a friend took from the retreat. Some are of sports day, our coworkers and the temple in Kyung Ju. Enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/write817/sets/72157594377347881/

posted by: 2SKLadies at 14:21 | link | comments (2) |

the news in busan

Amanda and i recently had a very memorable experience and thought I'd write about it. Thursday and Friday of this past week we had a retreat for our school. In total there were about 200 people there and about 30 were foreigners. Thursday was sports day and they bought us all matching blue track suits. It was a very comical sight. The Koreans were hiding from the sun under theirs while the foreigners all got sun burns in November! We played some semblance of kickball and rocked it out. Amanda got a home run and a double play! The Koreans were amazed with our athletic ability and we were amazed with their inability. After half a lap around the track at least ten toothpick sized women were panting and had to stop. Was a bit of a confidence booster. We played some other very strange games like "cock fighting" which consisted of holding one leg up and hopping on the other while slamming into each other until everyone fell down. Pretty fun and funny to watch.  We then went to a nearby city, kyung ju and had a seminar with other foreigners where we talked about concerns and issues. Not to brag, but after the seminar one of the company big wigs waited for me to leave, which made me quite worried that I was getting fired. He then told me, in very broken English, that he had heard Korean teachers and parents say that I am an "inspiring" teacher and that he thinks I do a very good job. It was really flattering and the first positive feedback I've gotten from Korean's in our company so it felt really good. What can I say, I'm an Alverno grad. I need feedback! Immediately following was required drinking with the Hogwan. Everyone became quite inebriated. I chose to watch but it was very entertaining and I think we both feel like we had a chance to bond more with our coworkers which was nice. After a nice dramatic night (eight girls, one hotel room, alcohol=problems!) and my one hour of sleep there were more seminars and then a trip to, ironically, the only Korean temple I've visited. It was beautiful again and Amanda was approached for autographs. She's so popular! Last night I went to the beach, with a million other people, literally, and watched the second annual APEC fireworks show. It was amazing, Milwaukee's fireworks are now a joke! Had another sobering experience in social interaction and am again grateful to have Amanda here as she seems to be the only normal and intelligent person around. I also spent some time with the Korean celebrity. He sure likes himself but he speaks excellent English which is nice. It was one of my friends birthdays and at his request I accompanied him to meet some people who used to and currently do attend his alma mater. It was the funniest thing...they are all Spanish majors and while some of them speak English, Spanish is much easier for them. So I found myself, in the basement of some bar, surrounded by Koreans (who seemed to think I was some kind of celebrity) and had conversations in Spanish, English and Korean. It was about 4 in the morning and although I wasn't drunk I found switching between three languages to be extremely difficult. Who would have thought, halfway around the world, in the middle of the night, I would finally be able to communicate comfortably with Koreans....in Spanish. Life is full of surprises hey? I'm a bit homesick lately. I'm missing people I know and people who know me so don't think I've forgotten about you. I'd be quite excited to have even a day of normalcy but it's all part of the challenge I suppose. Much much love

Abi

posted by: 2SKLadies at 14:09 | link | comments (3) |

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