To friends from home...

So this Dj guy that you see pictures of.... you would get the biggest kick out of this guy! He is funny shit. He is a 36 year old Canadian with the mouth of a sailor that could very easily take over the job of Steve (or whatever the new guys name is) on Blues Clues. His class is extremely animated and makes me giggle like a little school girl. We hang out outside of school and he is a wise crackin, foul mouthed, rage ahoulic. Not so much a rage ahoulic, but he has a little pent up frustration that comes out now and then. lol You all would get a kick out of him.
And his wife Margie, she is amazing and soooo much fun. She is Filipino right, with a descent grasp of the English language. But when she is talking and does not know the word she wants to use.... she just stops and says nothing. It is quite hilarious! She will literally say something like this: "I was walking through the bar and was.... hehe I don;t the word..." And then say nothing else.... I guess to have to witness it to get the whole effect. Anyway... These are our new friends here in South Korea.... DJ is a cool guy and you all would like him... but don't worry, nobody can replace my need for your wise asses in my life completly.

DJ and MARGIE

We've been lucky enough to make friends with some really great people since we have been over here, two of which are this amazing couple DJ and Margie. They have taken us out, shown us where to get products from home and generally been a complete blast.

Gifts from students....

We always get gifts from our students but today I got a strange assortment of gifts from my students.
Boiled potatoes
Boiled sweet potatoes
1 Can of coke
Gum
Donuts
Makes for aninteresting meal no?

Hey keith, miss you! Sorry it's taken me forever to post a note, i've been crazy busy.like the pics! Hope you're enjoying everything over there! Don't plan on getting married in South Korea now! I don't think I could make it to that one. haha. Next time i post something, I will try and not make it so long in between. Have fun and keep me posted! Gwen

Miss you guys

LOL...you look so cute!!!! I can't wait to get over there. I love the pics. It was good to finally talk to you two. I sure do miss you two, but I am so glad you are enjoying yourselves.

Love ya
Mom

Oooo I forgot!

We got to dress up as ancient soliders and hit each other with big sticks! It was sweet....that's one of the pictures. Another is an example of what all the ceilings looked like. And the big building is the main gate into the palace and the courtyard for the commoners.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

SO we finally got around to doing some tourist stuff this weekend. We went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace and learned a ton of cool stuff about life at the palace. The palace is absolutely huge even after most of it was destroyed by the Japanese and during the Korean War. They didn't use any nails to build the structure. Bascially everything in the palace represents the heaven and the earth or the ying and the yang. The pheonix was everywhere representing peace. The king was represented by a dragon. A dragon with 5 claws represented the king and 4 the crowned prince.

Back in the day in Korea they made fires under the buildings to heat the floor since Koreans sit and sleep on the floor. The King's bedchambers were small and did not have any furniture so that assisins couldn't hide in his room. 8 ladies in waiting stayed in the rooms surrounding the king and had to stay up all night in case he needed anything. A portable toilet was brought to the king anytime he needed it and he had a personal doctor who examined and recorded everything that went in or came out of the king's body....smelling and tasting it if necessary.

The queen was never allowed to leave her quarters on the palace, which were seperate from the king. The king always had 8 concubines from the 8 most powerful families. Of the 28 kings only 7 were sons of the queen.

Picture Update!

We have created an account on Photobucket.com to keep all our photos on. This can be veiwed by anyone and there is no need to create a membership account or anything like that. We will repost the link every now and then so that you can constantly find it on this blog site.Hopefully I will stop being sick so we can actually do some cool stuff and get some fun pictures!!!The site:www.photobucket.com/kmsk

Photos of our trip to a sweet ass palace have been added!

Why We Are Big Loosers

This Saturday we traveled over 45 minutes to Hangdae, the University area with lots of bars, clubs, restaurants and anything else you may want. We wanted to check out a Punk Rock venue that was going to be happening. Instead we ended up sitting outside a Family Mart ( basically a 7-11 ) drinking cheap beer all night. Most convient store put chairs and tables outside so people can sit and enjoy their noodles or beer or whatever. All the bars around charged twice as much for the same beer, plus they are majorly smoking and loud. The Punk Rock venue was a bust.....although pretty funny to see like 12 Koreans with crazy died mohawks and 3 hippy weriod ass Americans all bouncing up and down to a Korean punk band in a bar about the size of our bathroom. Don't get me wrong, we had a total blast. I just don't think we needed to travel for an hour to find a Family Mart.
(total ps.....its considered really cool to die your dog's hair here. People like to die the ears and tail, usually green, purple or pink. It kinda reminds me of the Korean punks haha)

Chevorlet

Oh and another really random thing they have in this country... Did you know that Chevorlet makes bicycles? They are definatly all over the place.... Odd right?

Asshole korean on the subway

Ok, so Marie i knew that there would eventually be hostility towards us becuase we are white. I have been told by the foreign guys here that they have had guys come up to them on the subway and they start talking shit, especially when their drunk (the korean, not the white dude). Well marie and i were on the subway tonight (friday) coming home around 11:30 and a korean guys was sitting down when we got onto the train. Well we stood by the door of the train and he imediatly stood up when he noticed us and walked over to stand right next to me. Well then he started to make a clicking/slurping noise (the noise you make when you suck in air through your teeth). We didnt think much of it, but he just kept doing it so of course my curiousity shot up and i glanced past him to see what he was doing. Well i noticed that he was staring at me completely and making this noise. Then he kept throwing his hand out when toward me when he made the noise like he was trying to make me jump. So i tried to look past him for a while and then i turned my head and only looked at marie. Then he started doing it even more and i could see out of the corner of my eye that he was staring at me intensly. Well then the train stopped at the next stop and he flipped me off as he walked of the train.... I was like WTF? So i yelled thankyou sarcastically but he didn;t look back. I have no idea what the hell his problem was. The noise appearantly means that he did not like me and that he was trying to provoke me. Well i was really weirded out by this and it made me uncomfortable. Anyway... I have officially had my first run in with a pissed of korean. I hope you enjoyed my re-encounter as much as i did. lol

Teaching

The Center loves to take pictures of us teaching our classes...especially if we are doing a craft. Check out these pictures. Pictures of Keith and I making choclate bananas and crayons coming soon!

Also check out these links that show our school and our profiles:

http://www.jybooks.com/center/kangnam/introduce_lecturer.asp

http://www.jybooks.com/center/kangnam/introduce_environment.asp

Class update

So we have been here for about 6 weeks now and i am still srtuggeling with some of the kids names. I don't mean pronouncing them, that is actually a lot easier than you'd expect, but matching a name to a face is rediculous! Not only do a lot of the children have the same facial features (yes i am politly saying they look look the same :)) but the names are really freaking simliar too. My classes that meet twice a week, yeah no problem getting their names down. I know them even if i see them on the street. The classes that only come once a week however, a completely different story. Some of the kids stick out because they are unique in some ways, like their looks or how smart or how LOUD they are, and damn they can be loud. Even the extremely quiet ones stick out a little. But their are numorous kids that blend in. This really sux when they give you something before or after class, and you don;t remember their name to thank them personally. I have found that this is an appropriate place to use the korean bow :). Ok well that was my little update. Marie tells me i need to blog more... so there's the first step :)
Peace

Sorry guys, we've been without the internet for a little bit. Justin and Jess are attempting to move out so the internet went with it. If you ever just try dialing my cell through skype, see if that works if you feel / need to talk with me. Sorry if you were trying any lately though. Haha