Home again

Well, Joseph and I have been home for almost a week now. It is hard to believe.

We have just been enjoying seeing our families, friends and ingesting as much "real" food as possible.

Now comes the hard part, getting back to normal. I forsee getting a job, and saving up so I can hopefully update this blog again someday with more adventures.

Living in korea was a once in a lifetime experience. It is funny to me how people keep saying "how was your trip?" Like a whole year of experiences can be summed up in a "Great". Or maybe they are just talking about the flight home in which case " LONG" would be the best answer.

It seems strange now that I even left. I feel like it was just one super long dream, that I have now woken up from. Home has changed some, but will never be as different as the culture, people, and sights of Korea.

Maybe someday I will go back... if not just to see how much our home in Geoje has changed.

That is all for now, I will update my adventures someday, hopefully. Goodbye All.

Thanks for reading.

It really is almost over.

It is funny how when the whole thing is said and done, that you really only want to remember the good parts anyway. I hope that is how I will remember Korea... no screaming kids, making tests and discipline, but funny moments, laughing kids and exploring a new country.

The new teachers are here today, and they are fantastic.... as I knew they would be. It is hard to pass the torch and give up my babies to strangers, but they are in good capable hands, and will probably forget me in a year or so when the next set of new foreigner teachers come, and then it will be all about missing Aaron and Alison teacher ( yes the new female teachers name is Alison, the kids were so excited to not have to learn a new name!)

So here a just a few pictures from the end of last week, I may do another blog on our last night.

Sky with his big scary bug I threatened to kill if it got out from under his cup.
Sweet sweet Peter.

Adorable girls who HATE to have their pictures taken.

Hilarious Jason ( I swear I have seen that face in one of the Aisan horror movies)

My lovely girls who have each managed to hug me three times each today.

I miss them already and I am still here. Tomorrow will be much harder, but I intend to enjoy each class to the fullest.

Special Program.

I LOVE my special Program class, they are some of the trouble makers so I was quite nervous before the class started, but they make me laugh so hard that it is a fantastic way to start the day. I have been teaching them different pop songs, and we may attempt later this week to make a music video, but that may not happen. Here is them working on the Bon Jovi Song

"It's my life"

I had to share this video.

Hero is one of the younger students, but his antics keep the class laughing. He is the boy in the blue tank top, with the awesome dance moves. I told them to pretend to be rock stars, and some of the boys get really into it, while the girls were still a bit shy. Sorry that you have to hear me singing along...it is so catchy.

I am a list person.

I have to make lists, constantly. I make them in my head, make formal lists on my computer and lists all over my daily planner.

I am always afraid I will forget something, and I usually do, so I honestly don't know why I bother... I guess just still aiming for that one perfect list that will encompass everything I want to remember to do...

Here is my to do list for right now

1. Ask Grace about helping Joseph and I close our bank accounts at the end of the week.

2. Going through my old magazines and give the good ones to Dani

3. Selling the speakers, and motorcycle, also a few other books.

4. Go through clothing and throw away what cannot be salvaged.

5. take pictures of my students

6. Pack (obviously it will be at least a week before I can scratch this off)

7. clean the apartment

8. Go see the movie Last Airbender tomorrow (hey we need some fun)

9. eat at our favorite BBQ place one more time

10. And eat at Nolboo one more time

11. wash the bedding.

12. clean out the fridge and cabinets of expired food.

13. Laundry on the sunday before we go (so it will have time to dry by tuesday night)

14. Make a few more tests....UGH.

15. Finish Grading all tests and get them to the Korean teachers.

16. Finish some lesson plans for the 30th and 31st!

17. go for a walk up the mountain to set off the fireworks Joseph insisted on buying that we cannot bring on the plane home ( guess we will be celebrating our leaving of Korea)

18. Nothing else, I just don't like lists with odd numbers.

I guess that is all for now, Hopefully I will finish all this stuff by the weekend.

2 weeks

I cannot believe this journey which seemed to take forever to arrive is now almost at a close. My brain is constantly swirling with packing lists, to clean lists and "what to do first when I get to America" lists.

None of this struck me as anything but exciting and fun until today when one of my youngest students asked me "Teacher, you go America, why?" ( yes, still working on that grammar). When I said, "Oh not today, but in a few weeks", I was shocked that I was met with her tiny tears, She explained that her birthday is in November and that I would not be here and she would be sad and miss me.....

Talk about breaking my heart.

In my hurry to go through worn out clothes, hop a plane see my family and get reservations at Fat Daddies, I forgot.... I may actually miss some of my little monsters. In fact there are quite a few that I know I really will miss.

They have been in my life for about a year now, and I have been in theirs. It will be an adjustment for both of us when the time comes, but at least now I can take time to savor those last few classes I have with them, rather than rush through to get to the homework assignment.

Who else is going to call me Allison Teacher..... These are a few reasons I will miss some students.

Kyle, because everytime he does Hangman on the board he uses the word Crazy. Sara for always wanting to trade noses with me. Grace who always has a fun picture to show me on her cell phone. Lucy who relays messages to my friend Christian at her elementary school and vice versa. Eric because he can rock a hat that says "drunken". Jenniffer ( her spelling not mine) for my beautiful birthday card. Lucas for always telling his classmates to be quiet when he sees me getting frustrated. My Entire Africa 3:30 class for begging to play my jeapordy review game each month.

There are more things, but it is late, and I need to stop being so mushy and go to bed.... night all.

Haircut

I noticed how long my hair was in this picture. I guess because I see it everyday I don't notice how long it is, but after seeing a picture from the airport last year.....

It has really grown, it was just above my shoulders when we got here and now it is probably 6 inches longer. This is the longest I have gone without a haircut and I am going to really need one when I get back to the States.

Japan Part 2

Okay, just a few more pictures (and I took so many this is just a sample of the best ones, and the highlights of the trip, because you really don't want to know how many arcades we actually went too!) But here we go, the last part of the trip....

Below is some of the money we used. Yen is so pretty, but the exchange rate was a constant struggle, because we have been using Korean won for so long, when I see a 1,000 note, I think 1 dollar, because that is what it is in Korea, however a 1,000 note in Japan was 10 dollars.... so I had to get into the mindset that yes, that is quite a bit more money.

It was also different because Korean won has many change pieces, and they are like change, whereas in japan, the small coins could be worth a dollar or even five dollars, which was helpful on the subway, but I feel like you spend it faster when it is in coin form because it still doesn't feel like you are spending so much. By the way, Japan was also much more expensive than Korea.

Entrance to the National Tokyo Museum, we spent the better part of a day looking through all the pieces here. It was a fantastic museum.


Ancient Kimonos.



Warrior Gear.

More Samauri stuff. It was really neat to see all the swords too but none of the pictures came out very well. It was hard to get a good shot because we were not allowed to use flash if we took pictures, and of course all the really cool things had No picture signs on them...

Japanese wall hanging.

Beautiful handcrafted Japanese dolls.

These are pillows... which explains why they like sleeping on the floor.

Recreation of a typical home.

This was the building that had artwork from other Asian countries, so China and Korea were represented as well.

the walkway went through the water to get to another building. Very cool.

I was really sad this part of the museum was closed. It had more recreations of everyday life in early times.

Why don't they have beer vending machines in America? Oh right... haha I guess the Honor code might not do too well for those under 21's right.....

This is a very common dish, Japanese love omelets, this one had tomato rice in it, and it was served with a hamburger patty. Very delicious. (And it had ketchup on it, so I figured my dad would like it too!)

Joseph got fish over rice, with some kind of fishy yougurt and miso soup.....well the miso was good!!!!

Walking through the streets after lunch exploring for more shopping opportunities.

We found another Shrine!!!!

This is the famous 5 story pagoda that Godzilla always knocks over in the movies.

Filled with tourists and buddhists!

The artwork on the architecture was breathtaking.

The shrine, this was as close as we could get. It was beautiful. The picture does not do it justice.

Joseph and the Pagoda.

Me and the Pagoda.

They also had this cool thing, where you donated a dollar and you could shake the big metal thing and inside were a bunch of sticks with japanese characters on them, there was a tiny hold on the bottom so you shook it till a stick came out and then you found the drawer with the matching character and you could take a piece of paper that would have your fortune on it. Joseph and I both got one, such a neat thing to take home.

People could also burn insence and cleanse themselves in prayer.

Ohhh look at the time, I guess we get to go shopping in another traditional market again. These were so fun, because they sold everything under the sun here.

Fans, everyone had one since it was so hot, even the men!

Trying to find our way home in the metro system, you had to make sure the orange light was lit up on your stop or the train would run by it without stopping.

Pork cutlet, with curry sauce.

meat and noodles over rice.

both of the above meals were purchased out of a vending maching, you buy what you want, give the ticket to the lady at the counter and she brings it to you, seriously, a minute later, So much technology!

Video games to play outside the bathroom....seriously!

This is the most busy station in the biggest city on the earth.... and after about ten minutes being lost trying to find my way out.... I believe it!

More sashimi! We got crab, tuna in soy sauce, salmon, and some weird egg sac thing. It was not delicious.

Video game arcade....? Nope.... a bar.

The jockey gambling game, (we went to the arcade down the street since 11am is too early to drink.)

Joseph thought this game was really neat, you bought a pack of playing cards (from a vending machine) and you placed them on the game board and the computer in the game could play with those cards, no idea how that works.

This was a coin medal game (yes medal, not metal) and you could sort of gamble with it, but you didn't win anything... it was fun though.

Lobster dinner out of a crane game anyone?

Pachinko

Everybody, even old ladies, spend

Crepe Enthusiast.

Cool pathway we found, it led to another shrine.

Buckwheat noodles in the airport, our breakfast before we said goodbye to Japan.