There is nothing like getting a Christmas hug from Korean men dressed like women. I'm not really sure Ben was up for it, but they were so excited...as you can see!
Rachael and I saved our hugs for the cute Korean lady.
Letter #1 (written by a student who didn't finish her homework):
I didn't finish my M-learning (oral summary and speaking topic) because I forget to do does. And when the Sunday comes. Afternoon was busy, because that day, at the Church, the Birth of Jesus (Christmas) is coming, so, we start the worship at 9:00AM to 12:00PM And I was practice the dance for the worship. And we ate lunch, And 4:00 to 8:00, three years old to twenty three years old of people sing and dance. At my house I was very tired, so I slept. Sorry.
Letter #2 (written by a student I had last term):
To:
My favorite teacher Dalene
Hi teacher~My name is Lynn~
First.. Thank U for teach me for 3 months!
I can't forget you. you was very good teacher~
because. You are so beautiful and kind
Now my teacher is Tina. Tina is good teacher too!
Umm..... Tomorrow is Christmas!!!
Very happy Christmas! but you must come here (CDI)
But I think you want to meet your student.
I love you teacher and happy New Year
P.S. I'm sorry to can't give you present.
Because I don't know what's your perfect~
One more time~ I love you
MERRY CHRISTMAS
From your student
LYNN
Who decided Christmas should be the season when we dip everything in baker's chocolate and drizzle almond bark on the top or vice versa? Seriously, think of how many things we drown in chocolate--Ritz crackers, Oreos, homemade cookies, pretzels. I've even seen healthy fruit fully coated. I hope that you and your coated-food of choice are very happy together this Christmas Eve.
Who knew that painting a carrot nose was so difficult?
I wanted to give a small Christmas gift to the other CDI teachers. There are quite a few though, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Jamie gave me inspiration with a snowman centerpiece she bought for Bible Study. (Thanks Jamie!) I tried to find small candle holders, but the best thing I could find was small soy sauce bowls. It was a cheap gift...only problem is I'm not sure the snowman is identifiable. What do you think???
With Skype I have a local Bartlesville phone number. It's nice because everyone in the States can call me for free. I have it set up to roll to my cell phone if I am not at my computer. The unfortunate part is I get lots of telemarketer calls on my cell phone at 2 am. I also get a lot of calls for "Tracy" and it's the same man! How many times do I have to tell a person this isn't Tracy's phone number???
Whenever a number from Skype calls my cell phone it shows up as 0900-XXXX. I got a call at 7 am the other day from this number. I ignored it. They called back, so I thought it might be an emergency. I answered to a man's voice I've never heard saying, "Oh, hello I want to talk to you." I said, "I don't want to talk to you. I'm hanging up now." He called back again. I silenced it and was starting to think the "roll to my cell phone" feature wasn't the best.
When I woke up around 10 (Give me a break--I don't work until 4 pm), I turned on my Skype and saw a voicemail from my caller. It really brightened my day. I hope it does yours as well.
***Sorry for the video format, blogger doesn't allow MP3 uploads.
A couple weeks ago, I woke up to snow outside. There were very big flakes falling and there was a layer covering everything. It made me very excited. It reminded me of school snow days--those are the best days. It never snows that much in Daegu, but a girl can hope, right? But I was very tired, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up, it was all gone. A few teachers slept through the whole thing, so I guess I can be glad I even saw it.
Then a few days later I went to Seoul for Christmas shopping. It snowed off and on all day. It made me really excited. It has been awhile since I have seen snow! I am still not adjusted to the cold, but I think snow makes winter worth it.
I am really hoping for a white Christmas. I don't think there is much possibility of it. I have to work, so I guess if it did snow it might make me more sad. I'm thinking of y'all and wishing I could celebrate the holidays with you in the States!
I'm sorry to post all at once. I got a little behind. This is the last one for the evening (or day for you). I just had to show you my festive little tree.
Isn't it cute? I paid 10,000 won for the tree, ornaments, fence and all! That usually is equivalent to $10 USD, but the dollar is doing really well right now, so it's about $6.78 USD. It's a great time for Americans to come visit Korea, but a very poor time to be sending money home!
Some days I love my students and other days I want to strangle them.
This was a good day.
This was a bad day. No one did their homework so everyone had to stand for an hour (and take their test).
I love it when they say funny things. It makes the bad days worth it. The other day I asked a class to tell me who they would save with their lifeboat--a man, a woman or a child.
A boy told me, "the man because he is strong and could help me on the island."
The next girl said, "the woman because the man may be strong, but he is lazy and the woman would actually help."
My favorite was a little girl who said, "the child because then we can grow up and marry each other." She is a thinker! :)
I took this video of classroom skits. They have to memorize a comic strip and then act it out. The best part about this video is no one in the room noticed I was filming. The kids are funny, but it's also a great example of how I am not a very strict teacher! Oops!
The Warmerdam genes in me just won't let me ignore these good dumpster finds. This one is a great one though!
My cousin Marlita tagged me. I am supposed to post the 4th picture in my 4th photo album and talk about it. Here it is:
So exciting...I know. The story is this... For those of you who don't know, my family lives in a constant "fixer-upper" house. A few summers ago, Becca had her jaw broken and wired back together. She was in the hospital for about a week. While she was in the hospital, we tried to remodel her room. I think it was mostly done by the time she got it. She was so cranky though I am not sure she fully appreciated it. And she was wired shut so all she could ever say was, "uuuuuhhhh."
Me: What does "homogeneous" mean?
14-year-old Jesse: A homo who is a genius.
(Uncontrollable laughter from the class, restrained laughter from me)
-----------------------------
Me: What would you do if you only have a year left to live?
10-year-old William: I would get married, make a baby and then kill someone.
(Confused and uncomfortable looks from everyone in the class.)
-----------------------------
11-year-old Harry: Teacher, do you know what Dakota means?
Me: (thinking and trying to make up something) I think it means "land of the people or something like that."
Harry: No. It means "friend."
Me: How do you know that?
Harry: I read it in an encyclopedia.
Me: Then why did you ask?
Harry: To see if you knew.
Me: Thanks Harry.
That's not completely true. I still have to finish covering a footstool, but I don't know what fabric I am going to use. The couch took me the longest, but mostly because I never worked on it. I am glad it's finished! It was really nasty before. Here's a close-up of the holes that covered it. Yuck!
And the final product...
Alpha: Celina, I thought I was your favorite teacher!
Celina: (long pause) No, you are number two now. Kay is number three. Rosanna is number four, and Felix is number five.
Alpha: Who is number one?
Celina: Dalene!
(And she's not even my regular student! I love her!!!)
1. My favorite Gospel is Luke (thanks to Dr. Tashjian).
2. In the 6th grade my family got AOL. My dad was setting up emails for the whole family. A girl had spilled nachos on me that day, so I did something like "nachorovie." I had that for about a week when I realized it was stupid. I changed it to leneonme. It started out aol, went to sbc, then cox and now gmail, but it's always been the same. I still use leneonme as an AOL screenname also.
3. When I was little, a drunk man tried to get into our house. I woke up to him leaning in the window over my bed. I think this is the reason I'm scared of the dark and so jumpy. It could be just because I'm a Hemstock though.
4. I have been to five continents and lived in four. Everyone thinks I'm "adventerous," but I'm really just too scared to have a normal life.
5. I am unusually talented at finding anything on the website. Seriously, google should hire me. I could be just as fast as their search engines.
6. I don't believe in "the one," but I love romantic movies...and I always cry at them. Although, it would be hard to find a movie that I haven't cried at.
7. The only website that works in my classroom is wikipedia. I have become a wealth of useless information because of that. For instance, did you know they recently found a new pyramid? Sometimes I even get so bored I read the Dutch wiki pages.
Now I'm tagging Nikki, Roxie and Cara. Have fun! :)
As promised, here is my weekend in Seoul told through pictures.
Ariella was in Seoul, which was my main reason for visiting. Since I was already going, James, Rachael, Alpha and Jack decided to come also. They got to take part in our little Peace Corps reunion. It was my first time seeing Ariella and Levi since I left Suriname.
Since I was already in Seoul, I got to go to one of my favorite places...and I got in trouble for taking this picture. Apparently, it's not allowed. Oops!
We also went to Insadong. It's a touristy area with lots of traditional gifts, artwork, food, etc. There was a lot going on there this weekend though. Koreans love a man with a guitar!
Alpha asked if he could take his picture up there. It is the cart that a little girl was being pulled in during the parade. I was surprised they were so nice about it.
They were doing a public punishment and torture reenactment. It was fun to watch even though we had no clue what was going on.
I loved this couple. They were pounding rice to make some kind of rice cake. Alpha also asked if he could do this. They said yes. People are so nice in Korea!
Private karoake rooms, called noraebangs, are very popular in Korea. I've gone a few times, but this was the first time I actually sang. They had the new Jessica Simpson song though. I couldn't pass it up!
We also went to a restaurant that has a pool full of fish that eat your feet. They are called doctor fish. We accidentally took a family photo while we were there. This wasn't planned...I promise.
PREPARE FOR THE FEET PICTURE.
I am actually grossed out by feet (so I apologize), but I wanted you to get a good feel of what it's like. You can actually see them sucking on my feet. It felt really weird for the first five minutes, but then you get used to it. My feet were SO soft when I got out.
The Seoul Tower was behind us, but the person cropped that part of the picture out. Oh, well. It's a nice group shot. (It was SO cold in Seoul!)
While we were in Seoul, Rachael, Alpha and I got into an incredible taxi. Alpha wanted the driver to adopt him because they could "go buy gadgets together." His exact words were, "He would be a great father for me." I have to admit--it takes a pretty awesome taxi driver to have a car this cool.
As you are "celebrating" Veterans Day in the States, we are "celebrating" Pepero Day in Korea. A pepero is a cookie stick dipped in chocolate. On November 11 each year, young people share pepero sticks with people they like. It is a lot like Valentine's day, but just with this one kind of snack. Basically, it meant I had a room full of kids on sugar-highs from eating peperos all day. A couple of my students brought me peperos.
Lynn brought me a box of 100 calorie pack peperos. Such a sweet student looking out for her large American teacher. Helen Kim just wanted to get in the picture, but I think she's precious so I didn't mind.
And Tae Yon brought me a homemade pepero. I was very impressed. It was decorated with little candy hearts.
This weekend I went to Seoul again. It was a very eventful weekend. I will blog more about it when I get all the pictures together, but here is a small preview of all the cool things we saw in Seoul (and yes--we are easily amused).
Has anyone seen these in the States? They are so cool!
This is Karen. She is one of my favorite students. I know I am not supposed to have favorites, so don't tell on me! She is one of my youngest students also, but she is so self sufficient. Every day before class she goes to the bakery or convenient store and buys snacks for herself, her friends and usually me. One day she bought two giant candy bars--one for herself and one for me. She is so thoughtful. Yesterday she brought a bag of cookie/bread snacks and put one on everyone's desk. I saw that she walked in with this mug also, but I didn't think much about it. Halfway through class I realized it was hot green tea. Occasionally she would fill up the little cup and sip on her tea. How precious is she?
Those who know me well know that I have an absurd obsession with the movie Jurassic Park. I think it's one of the best movies...ever. I could watch it every day and never get sick of it. Although I've never read the book (I have heard it is a lot different and I don't want it to ruin my image of the movie), I was very sad to receive this news from my mom.
And completely unrelated from that--I got a Chinese massage yesterday. It is my second attempt to fix my hip. The masseuse told my Korean friend he could tell it was messed up. He worked on me for over two hours, and it only cost 60,000 won! I think it will help me, but so far I'm thinking I could have just let someone run me over and it would have about the same affect.
Yesterday I bought my new camera! Because the dollar is doing really well in Korea, I got a very good deal. It's usually not good for me because I get paid in won, but in this case I don't mind. I saved about $200 USD. Plus, the camera takes great pictures!
This is Rachael. (I have talked about her a couple times.) She came a couple months after I did. She also bought the same camera as me. We were waiting for the bus and playing with our new cameras.
I'm loving the fall colors, but hating the cold. I don't think my body is handling the adjustment well either.
This morning Rachael and I went to an Opera Brunch with a group of women. It was a shortened version of Rigoletto held at the Daegu Opera House. It was nice, but 9 am is very early! My classes don't start until 4 pm, so I'm usually not awake that early. I felt bad because I kept falling asleep, but I looked around and a lot of people were sleeping also. Sure...say that I don't enjoy the arts...but you try staying awake through a two hour opera during your regular sleeping hours!
This afternoon I went to the doctor with one of the CDI staff members. She came to translate for me, but the doctor understood English pretty well. I have been having problems with my hips and neck. I wanted to see a chiropractor, but I was told it is a lot different here. Everyone kept telling me to go to an acupuncturist, but I wanted someone who could actually work on my spine. I ended up at the orthopedic doctor. He x-rayed my back only (not the neck or hips--the areas which I actually have problems). He told me I have scoliosis--I don't.
Then his treatment--"I recommend streches...maybe yoga."
My translator--"Can you give her some pictures?"
The doctor--"No, she can find some online."
He also prescribed Tylenol to me. Waste of time and money! I still have to visit the chiropractor and maybe even the acupuncturist. I haven't missed home very much, but I sure do miss my chiropractor right now!
TGI Friday's toilets have seat warmers. You won't understand how nice it is until you try it...trust me. I am still impressed with hot showers after a year of icy ones, so this pretty much blows my mind! I want to get one put into my apartment.
My friend Rachael and I were walking home from work tonight when I saw this in someone's trash. Just like Nanny, I went dumpster diving and snagged it. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it, but I thought it looked cool and wasn't ready for the trash. I had to save it! Is that what Nanny says? Oh goodness. Someone stop me.
(Sorry for the pose. I've been watching WAY too much America's Next Top Model, but there aren't that many English options!)
As I was looking through my Suriname pictures for my last post, I found this one. It is too good to not share with the world.
I laughed so hard when I took this I think I wet my pants a little (and I haven't even had children yet). I think the whole table wet their pants. We all definitely had tears in our eyes. Regina would be SO mad if she knew I posted this, but I'm pretty sure she can't even figure out how to get to my blog. I love this woman. She used to always tell us her name meant queen in some language. She's definitely a queen to me!
It's hard to imagine that a year ago I was sweating it out waiting for all the Diwali candles to burn out in Nickerie, and now I'm eating gourmet coffee and cheesecake in a Daegu cafe. (I am still trying to figure out how I managed to gain 15 pounds eating out of LEAVES! And I can keep it off now even though I'm eating GOOD food???)
Some days I wake up and wonder where my mosquito net went and why the temperature has suddenly dropped. Other days I wake up and think about going to the Gap, but then I remember it's the crazy-expensive Gap, not the Outlet I'm used to. I am a very confused girl, but I am glad to have a few constants... Jen is one. I love having her here. I guess it's more that I am here for her since this is her "neck of the woods." I don't think that say that in Korea.
I am also thankful for my iTunes, taco seasoning, my Wii Fit, having a washing machine, high heels, Baskin Robbins, all my fav earrings, friendly Koreans and Jesus. He goes with me everywhere.
My student's mom invited me to a lunch group today. The lunch was really nice with lots of traditional Korean foods. The woman next to me wanted me to try her silkworm cocoons. They call it Beondegi. I tried it, and it wasn't that bad. I am not going to make it a regular snack, but I am glad that I was adventurous. Now I can always say I've licked an ant's bum AND eaten a worm cocoon.
Oh wait. Yes it does. I'm just out of the country when it happens. Ty Pennington and the crew show up and I'm off somewhere...Australia, Suriname, who knows where. And then Christian Bale decides to drop in and I'm in Korea. What's the point of being from a small town if you are never even there during the semi-exciting moments? I am so jealous of all you Starbucks and Price Tower workers that got to see Batman.
I have to say welcome four times because there is a new four-story Forever 21. It is shopping paradise! I like Forever 21 in the States, but it is always really unorganized and there is too much to sort through. Here it is beyond organized. Everything is hung up by colors and sizes. Each floor has a different style of clothing. The best part is the prices are the same--cheap. Sadly, it's in Seoul so I can't go there all the time. I'm sure that it will be one of my regular stops when I do go to Seoul though.
I got to spend this weekend with Jennifer. The last time we were together (below) was in April in Suriname. We both were a little bit tanner and sweatier and I was 15 pounds heavier! It was nice to finally spend time together in a well-developed country--without all the sweating.
We also went to the Passion World Tour. It was so amazing! It was at the Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium. There were a lot of people there. Apparently Korean Christians like to jump around. Jennifer and I sat a little higher, so it was fun to watch everyone.
Chris Tomlin was there. Our camera wasn't cooperating, but this is him. He sang the chorus to "How Great is Our God" in Korean. It was awesome.
And this is me eating a baby squid. I really did eat it. Ask Jennifer if you don't believe me!
Every year Nikki and I try to go to the Tulsa State Fair. We always spend way too much time and money on this stupid coin game. I'm sure you have seen it. You drop coins into the machine at a certain time and it pushes coins off of a ledge. The prize is never worth the amount of money we spend; I don't know why it's so addicting.
I have found a game in Korea that's even better. It drops out candy! There is one that is just chocolate. I could become an arcade-addict because of this game.
I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I bought these fabrics, but I guess the great thing about covers is you can change them out easily. I am enjoying making these anyway.
