I am published...

My school has decided to publish the workbook that I created for our Summer ESL language program. It was centered around a Harry Potter theme. I included writing pages (O.W.L.s), puzzles, games, arts and crafts, grammar pages, and a weekly potions class.

I think I will like potions class the best since included in the line up are the awesome Coke + mentos experiment, making our own butter beer, a fun ice cream punch recipe, and something I called "Dragon Tears" which roughly turns out to be carbonated Kool-aide. Over all I think it will be a success. i am really proud. I love Korea because I was actually able to use pictures from the movie with disregard for Copyright issues. You gotta love foreign countries. It looks awesome. We even sprang and got the cover in color. It is really lovely. I am super proud of it.

I also included some super cheesy slogans throughout, but the stuff sells like hotcakes here. FOr example, somewhere on the cover it reads, "Where learning is a magical experience..." haha I thought that was pretty funny myself, but they loved it. Also in some of the worksheets the students are racing to save the magical and muggle world from improper verb tense and incorrect capitalization. How can you go wrong with that? My favorite however whast the section with Mad Eye Moody for the worksheet choosing I (eye) or me with a huge picture of his weird eyeball thing. I was amused while doing this to say the least I hope you enjoy.





To see the book in color you can view it on my post below. :)

Here is my book

Harry Potter ESL Workbook.

Everything is going to be Okay.

It is official. I now know I can make it in Korea for as long as I need to. This past week Justin found yellow label tea. It is a lipton brand. I am pretty excited. It has a little different taste to the lipton family style bags specifically for making sweet tea, but it is pretty freaking close. Closer than anything else we have found here.

We tried a couple of times to get the perfect amounts. So after a few trial runs we have now judged the appropriate amount of teabags as well as sugar content. I feel like I am back at home with Iced sweet tea. It is a nice comfort drink for homesick days and because it feels like it has been a million degrees outside the last two weeks. :) Regardless, it is a welcomed reminder of home.

Sauna part 2

Well, as I stated in the past, the sauna has become a pretty frequent tradition for me. On Saturday I take my shower bucket (consisting of shampoo, conditioner, face wash and mask, and anything else I might need) and head to Kumho Dong to go to the sauna. I choose to go outside of my neighborhood so as not to run into my students. (since people of all ages go to the sauna)

Last Saturday I had a pretty funny encounter while at the Sauna. I was going about my business in the hot rooms, pools, and scrub area when a worker walked in my area. You can usually tell who the workers are because they wear clothing of some sort. In her case just underwear. I was at the sauna alone this week. The worker came over and asked me something. I was unclear as to what it was, but I shook my head and smiled politely. It was at that point she took my scrubber out of my hand and proceeded to give me a rub down.

Aside from my mother and one other foreigner, Katherine who ventured to the sauna with me once, this was the only other lady to ever scrub my back. Koreans are very thorough. She scrubbed my back for a solid five minutes or so. Lets just say it was a cultural experience I am not soon to forget.

Justin arrived

After a grueling flight, Justin has arrived in Gwangju. His arrival was on Sunday evening. Then in typical Korean style, Monday was his first day at the school. He didn't actually have to teach. He simply shadowed the other two foreign teachers who he was replacing. As it was an exam week, he had little to observe. Tuesday was the first full day of teaching and lets just say it was "uncomfortable." haha Some quick thinking and a typed out survival guide did the trick. Justin is now relatively settled in his apartment and had begun his first full day of teaching without having the expected few freak out moments all foreigners experience the first few classes.

King's Feast

This is our friends, Peter and Leah, last full week at school. So Mr. Han decided to take all the teachers out to lunch. We went out just a little from Sang Mu to a traditional restaurant. It was really nice with a great atmosphere. I think everyone had a really good time. I have yet to muster the courage to tell our boss that I don't like seafood. As a result, he piled the fish on my plate. Along with the slow cooked fish was sting ray, crab, seaweed based soup, and a few other dishes.

I don't want to offend so I swallow it down always quickly followed by a swig of tea or water. This has nothing to do with Korean cuisine. I know many foreigners who enjoy seafood so they love it. I just don't enjoy seafood in any country. haha Regardless, I can usually find something nice to fill up on. Today my dish of salvation was a cool mash potato like dish that had nuts in it. It was pretty good and rice and ddeok-galbi (which is a mixture of pork and beef galbi) as well. Another thing I really liked was a tomato based salad. It was delicious. Over all it was a fun lunch a nice farewell to Peter and Leah.

Korea Red Devils

One thing I have come to really love about Korea is how they are so supportive of all things Korea. Whether it be the validity of Kimchi being eaten at every meal to national sporting events, Koreans show their complete and total support. Last night Jack decided to see just how serious they were.

At 3:00 am our time Korea faced off with Nigeria. Although, it wasn't an outright win, Korea was able to win the advancing nod from world cup officials. They advance to the next level of play. Throughout the country people came out in droves to watch the game. No crowd was greater in Gwangju, than that of Guus Hiddink field. Gwangju's world cup stadium was filled with 20,000 people last night all just to watch the game on the huge monitor. Vendors lined the streets surrounding the field. Fans donned their red flashing horns and body paint and the game began. It started at a sleepy 3:30, but by dawn everyone was wide awake again with the news of advancement. I threw Jack's pictures and video clips together into a quick youtube video for you to see. Also I took a few pictures from Seoul to add some flare at the end. :) Enjoy.