Ending of a successful reading camp + only 2 days!!!!

I am so proud of my 9 students that worked so hard in my 3 week, 2 hr a day, winter reading camp. We read the book, The Missing Mummy and I included many many activities, worksheets, and games that helped them improve their vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Tomorrow is our final day for review games, in which I will give them one last "test" over the book in the form of the game, Who Wants To Be a Millionare. The class has been divided into two teams since the beginning. The girls named themselves "Dragonball" (a popular Korean computer game character I think) and the boys team's name is the "Simpons" (which is also very popular here). So tomorrow will be the final game to see who will win for pepperosticks. All my students are so competitive and the teams are very even with ability levels. I also plan on playing a jeopardy review game, pictionary, flippy cup (which I have been wanting to try after hearing how much Keith's kids love the game)and bags. In addition, I will have my students fill out a questionarre so that I can evaluate my teaching for the camp and find out any suggestions for improvements for future reading camps.

On Thursday, the students will come to class one last time and we will all watch Get Smart, an English kids' movie with Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, and Dwayne Johnson. The kids already downloaded the movie and was able to get Korean subtitles to help them understand the English. Originally I was planning on having them watch The Mummy; however, all the kids have seen the movie several times and the girls in my class think it's very scary. So Get Smart, it is. I haven't seen this movie but it looks like a good detective movie for kids. The Missing Mummy was about detectives and mummies, so it will be a fun little way to end the camp. The little party will reward my students for their hard work during the reading camp.

My students have really impressed me with their predictions in the book, with keeping all the clues in their "clues book", which helped them all to figure out who stole the mummy and the gold before the end of the book. This was one of the goals during the camp, along with the students improving their vocabulary, fluency, reading, reading comprehension, along with having fun with all the activities.

Since this is now the second time I have taught this book, I feel that I have improved my teaching style, my activities and my teaching in general. I understand what the students struggle with, which allows me to alter my lessons, spend more time in one area, or include more activities to help them learn, remember, comprehend, and analyze.

I am excited to start the new teaching year in March and to apply new teaching methods and strategies, as well as activities and classroom management that I feel will help improve my ESL teaching. And it will be nice to have some of the same students, since I teach both 1st and 2nd grade in the middle school. So my 1st graders from last year will now be my 2nd graders. It will hopefully be a fun and improved semester.


The last few weeks have been really nice. I have definitely felt like I have been on vacation, since I only have to go to school from 10am-12pm, so have time to sleep in, while also having my whole afternoon off. However, the real vacation for me and Keith starts this Thursday....in only 2 days!!

We will be flying to Busan, South Korea and then the following morning flying to Cambodia. The plan is to spend a few days in Cambodia, where we will see the main cities of Siemp Reap and Phnom Penh, see Aspara dancing, shoot a bazooka and fire a rocket launcher, see Budhist temples and a floating village, check out the Russian Market, see Angkor Wat, the Royal Palace and the Killing Fields, and probably lots more.

Then we have a flight monday night to Hanoi/ Vietnam. The next two days we will be taking a Halong Bay cruise ship to celebrate our 2 year anniversary! Ya!! On this ship, we will visit caves, bays, many islands, do a little fishing, enjoy some Vietnamese wine and seafood meals, learn about Vietnamese culture and traditions, and to see the beauty of the Halong Bay river.

The next night evening we will be dropped back off in Hanoi city, where we will visit the historic Old Quarter area, see many pagodas, have some dinner and then go to a traditional water puppet show near the Hoan Kiem Lake.

From there, we plan on flying the next morning to a beautiful and secluded island called Phu Quoc, which is supposedly the up and running new tourist area in the near future, similar to Thailand. We will spend the day and night on the island exploring what is has to offer and rlaxing just the same.

The final stop will be flying to Ho Chi Minh city and see the cu chi tunnels, along with the rest of the city. The next morning we can spend more time in the city, then take a boat ride back to Phnom Penh airport in Cambodia, where we will then head back to our new sweet little home in Jeju Island.

And the best part....this is only our first trip we will be taking this winter break. Our next destination is Thailand and Laos during the last week of February. We have so many exciting things to always look forward to! Keith and I are very grateful to have the opportunity to travel and see other countries.

Our 1st visitor!

We had our first visitor from Chicago last weekend! Wahooo! Soup, Keith's good friend since elementary school, stayed with us from Thursday night 'til Monday morning. Keith also went to Seoul the weekend of New Years to visit him, along with another friend from Chicago who is also teaching in South Korea.

Since Keith wanted to show Soup everything he possibly could in the 3/4 days that he was here, it was an insanely busy and exciting weekend! Thursday night, straight from picking him up at the airport we took him to Rajmahall, a delicious Indian restaurant in ShinJeju, where spinach cheese curry dip with nan bread, and Indian spice chai tea satisfied my taste buds! We were there with about 10 of our friends, and all of us headed to a coffee/tea house afterwards where we played poker. Thursday is always poker night but sometimes we play at different places. This was actually my first time playing, so I had to catch up on the different hands and rules. Keith, Paul and Mike went and exchanged our $5 into coins so it was fun to play with real change.

The next day, after Keith and I taught our winter camps and worked out, Keith showed Soup around our city area....they went to the food market, ate a hallabong and rice cake, went into the underground mall, hiked Sarabong (the small mountain near us). We then took Soup to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Zapatas, and met about 10 other friends there. You can see in the picture the funny Slamma cocktail that Keith ordered. Afterwards, we took him to our favorite Choco Art cafe, where Soop was lucky enough to try the Vientiose (the delicious melted cocoa bar drink...very very rich!). The bars concluded the rest of the night....we took him to all our favorites- The Factory, The Bar, Island Stone to watch the bartender fire show, the Dart Bar, A Magic Show bar, and to our hilarious after-hrs photo shop!

We stayed out til 4 in the morning, so slept in a good amount the next day, but then continued the festivities. Early afternoon a bunch of us went to one of the orums (small mountains) near Mt. Halla to go sledding, so that Soup could say he went sledding on a tropical island! :) At first, we were hesitant because it was pretty warm out and the sun had melted most of the snow. However, near the top of the mountain there was enough snow so we hiked up until we couldn't hike anymore. The slope we found was very steep and slippery...which made our sledding contests down the hill very fast and competitive. It was a fun time! Plus we took some beautiful pics with more orums in the background. Check them out!

On the way home from sledding, we stopped at "Mysterious Road". Keith and I have always wanted to go check this out. When you drive on this steep upwards hill and put your car in neutral, instead of moving back down the hill, you actually roll upwards. It's so strange!! There's supposedly another one of these roads that is even more apparent somewhere on the island...we'll have to check it out soon!

Since we were all pretty cold from sledding and being outside for the afternoon, some of us decided to go to a jijabong, a.k.a. a bathhouse/sauna. Paul, Sunghee, Keith, Soup and I all went and for all of us except Sunghee, it was a new and very cultural experience! It was amazing!! You first go in and are separated from the males and females. Each have their own floor, along with 2 floors for both genders. The jijabong cost $7 and I received a pair of long shorts and a loose top, plus a few small towels. I then followed Sunghee to the female-only floor and at that point I was feeling a little nervous because I had heard so many things about these bathhouses. When you are on this floor, everyone is nude and most likely everyone will be staring at me (the foreigner) because they are not very used to having foreigners here. Well, we were given a key that we used for a locker to put our clothes in and then we changed into our clothes that were given to us because we were gonna meet up with the guys. So, to give you a visual of what this room looked like, it looked like a huge open girl's locker room, except there was a little convenient shop where you could buy snacks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, panties, etc. There were also lockers, showers, mirrors and sinks to clean up and do makeup/hair, and then there were doors that led to the bath room....literally. There were about 8 different bathtubs; some were very hot, some cold, some were green tea tubs, etc. ...and again, everyone was nude.

Well, we went to the floor below us which was the floor for both males and females, and I couldn't believe my eyes. There were so many Koreans in the center of the floor laying down and relaxing (wearing those same clothes that I was given), playing cards, watching movies on big screens, doing homework, sleeping ,etc. Then off to the side there was another little food shop, where you could buy icecream, soup, dried fish snacks, tea, coffee, noodles, etc. And then the most interesting part of this level was all the small little sauna rooms. There were about 7 of them..all of different temperatures. We would have to duck to fit inside the little door which opened up into a bigger room. Some of the rooms were filled with stones on the floor to lay on and had head rests. Other rooms had mats to lay on and no stones. I remember one room being 64 degrees celcius (extremely hot!!) and these rooms went all the way down to 44 (warm) degrees celcius. There was also a very cold room, but because of the winter weather, it was closed. There were stairs that led to an upper level, which had additional TVs, lounge chairs/small couches, singing rooms, called Notabong, and other private rooms for massages. This was all an incredible and relaxing experience to me! I want to go back already! Plus, the great thing is you can stay there overnight...so for only 7,000 won ($7), this makes it an easy way to travel around Korea without having to spend money on hotels. Soup, Keith and Paul also thought it was a relaxing and cool place to hang out. They were all sooo hot though in the hottest saunas, so we tried to mix up the rooms so we wouldn't get overheated.

After a few hours in the saunas, we headed back to the female floor to dip into the different tubs and then shower. I was happy to leave and feel accomplished that I actually felt pretty comfortable with my nudity in the bath room and was able to enjoy the experience:)

The next stop was dinner, to satisfy our hungry bellies. We went to a Hamatong restaurant, which serves all types of seafood in a soup. I was a little grossed out at first, since the octopus was still alive when they brought out the big bowl of soup. However, then they cooked it on a stove in front of us, and added shrimp, scallops, crab, mussels, oysters, and conch. When all the seafood was cooked, the Korean waiter removed the shells and added many vegetables. The soup was very very fresh and delicious! I was happy I took a risk and tried it. Soup also enjoyed the experience and had never had such a variety of fresh seafood before. After dinner, we all took Soup to Love Land...since this is a top place to see on the island!! And a highly educational experience! Sunghee luckily used to be a tour guide on the island, so knew one of the workers, who gave us a huge discount on getting in, which was nice since we've already been there. We gave the worker the bag of tangerines that the waiter from the restaurant had kindly given us. Loveland was hilarious as usual, with many exhibits, sculptures, interactive displays and love shops. Good times! If any of you decide to come visit Jeju, you MUST visit here. I don't think they have this anywhere else in the world, at least not to this extreme.

The final day that Soup was here, Sunday, was another busy and fun-filled day. We woke up pretty early and took him for bibimbop for brunch. Then we rented scooters and rode them all the way to the Trick Art Museum with Magda, and her friend Liz who was also visiting (she teaches in Seoul). This sounded like a great idea and a good way to show Soup the island; however, to me it was FREEEEEEZING!!! Probably won't do this long ride again on scooters in the middle of January, but hey I lived to tell the story. I rode with Keith, while Soup had his own little pink scooter:) I love riding these things; they're so much fun! And I hope to learn how to ride it myself this summer. It took us about an hour to get to the Trick Art Museum, which is on the South Eastern part of the island. The museum was new to all of us, and it really was a lot more interesting and fun that I had imagined! The place was filled with portraits that added funny illusions to make pictures look alive and real. On most portraits, it showed an example picture of how to sneak in the picture to add to the effect. For example, there's a painting below which makes it look as though the frog is jumping right into my arms. Another funny one is the rock climbing with me and Keith. We were actually laying on the floor and Soup had to stand in a certain position in order to make it look as though we are climbing on a real rock! There were so many different funny illusions. I already want to go back to take more pictures and try other funny poses! Keith always had a good face and creative ideas...like the foot next to his head on the table. Check out the pictures below!

After we saw everything at the museum, we made one more stop at Sunrise Peak, another 30 minutes east on our bikes. We took the 30-minute hike up the beautiful mountain, and although we were not there to see the sunrise this time, we took many pretty pictures and relaxed at the top of the mountain where we could see the huge crater (which is a pretty green color in the summer, but looks brown here in the winter), the city, amazing rock formations, the ocean around us, and mountains off in the distance. I think Soup enjoyed this hike and seeing the wonderful views of our island. You could also see Udo Island off in the distance.

It was a dark and cold ride back, but hugging onto Keith and thinking about the adventurous and entertaining weekend we just had, made the time fly by. The night ended with us returning the scooters, and Keith and Soup going to get Black Pork for dinner. I, on the other hand, put my heating pad on high, snuggled under my comforter defrosting my numb fingers and feet, and ordered Pizza Maru with my wonderful neighbor Kristin! I had to teach the next morning so wanted to take it easy and relax after such a busy last few days. I was sooo exhausted!

Ending the busy week with a new year!

So on our last day of camp we went to the fancy Sushi restaurant. It was amazing and we all were able to drink soju and beer and teach the principal the game Jenga while we waited for our food.

After lunch, I snuck in a lonnng nap and got ready for a crazy night. We were everywhere! We first went to Kyla and Mike's (2 floors up) to finish off those cocktails from our x-mas cocktail party while playing jenga. ( I guess it's the new crave for school lesson activities and drinking games??) Then we headed to Baghdad's, to meet up with about 20 people. We had some delicious Indian food/ chicken curry with garlic naan bread and a few drinks, then headed to a few bars...but first we made a quick run into that fun photo shop...where you choose a fun hat or costume/props and hop into the photo booth with friends for pictures. We had about 15 people cram into a photo booth and let's just say we had a hard time fitting..it was a pretty funny site and I have a few pictures that I snuck with my camera:)

The bars we went to, Island Stone and another new one that I can't remember the name, were fun and full of foreigners...probably about 50 or more foreigners all in a few small areas. We did the countdown at midnight and it was great to hear from drunk friends how much we all mean to each other and knowing the impacts we're already making on people here and vice-versa. Later that night/ morning a few of us went to the casino in Tapdong for a while. My friend Magda and I just watched and had fun seeing Nate and Keith win at Roulette.

After heading back to our place around 3am, we contemplated whether we wanted to stay up for another hour to hike Mt. Sarabong so that we could try and see the eclipse at 4am. Because it was foggy and because we were extremely tired, plus Keith had a 6:30 am flight he had to catch to visit a few friends in Seoul, we made it a night. However, I did hike Mt. Sarabong the next morning...well, technically it was 2pm since I slept in most the day, but it was beautiful and many Koreans climb this on the 1st, to go to the top, see all the mountains/ orums, including Mt. Halla, and ocean in the distance. They believe climbing to the top of a mountain on the 1st will bring good health and many years to come. Koreans also believe that you must not spend money on the Jan. 1st, because then it will show that you will spend lots of money throughout the year. I guess this means that Koreans must do outdoor activities and stay away from restaurants and cabs on this day.

If you did not know this already, Koreans celebrate their new years according to the lunar calendar, which is near the beginning of February. It is their biggest holiday that they celebrate and kids will receive a lot of money from their parents and grandparents, which they then put in the bank and save.

However, on January 1st, Koreans still stay up until midnight and have a little celebration, but they aren't very happy because they all turn a year older on this day. I don't really understand how that works, but apparently all Koreans are one year older. And they don't like getting older, which also doesn't make sense to me, since the elders are treated with such high respect, so you would think they would like to be older. ?? Anyways, Korean age is different than age in the US. I would be 25 in Korean age, because they start counting age once you are born in your mother's stomach, instead of when the mother gives birth.

Another interesting thing that I realized by celebrating New Year's in a different country, is how strange it is to think that we are living in the future. When we were celebrating the new year of 2010 here in Korea at midnight, it was still 2009 in Chicago. How cool would it be to travel around the world on new years eve night and try to go to as many new years celebrations in different countries as you could?! I think Keith and I might have to try this sometime... anyone with us?

Well, today I finally have my first day to relax and do nothing! Looking back on this past week though, I can't believe how much we did, how many celebrations there were, and how much fun it all was! It was nice to have so many close friends to celebrate with and experience x-mas, my b-day and ny's in Korea!

*Above you will also see all the x-mas and b-day cards that were given to us by family and friends. We hung them all up above our bed. Thanks!