Kathmandu

I've made it safely back to Korea after two amazing weeks in Nepal and India.  I'd really like to share some of my thoughts and photos about my trip, but I have so many of both that it may take a bit of time.  I'll piece together some of my journal entries, emails, facebook posts and see what I come up with.  So I'll start from the very beginning, I've heard it's a very good place to start.

After many many flights, (Seoul to Taipai to Bangkok to Delhi to Kathmandu--all to save $500, and actually it was kind of worth it) I arrived in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is unlike any city I've ever been to.  It appears to be one chaotic mess.  I got a taxi from the airport to my hotel.  The taxi driver let another random guy hitch a ride part of the way.  These guys were very friendly, I chatted with them for awhile.  The driver said he thought most Americans were very quiet and unfriendly but he was happy that I liked to talk.  I didn't see that I had much choice when they were firing a barrage of questions my way.  As the driver was chatting with me he was effectively avoiding cows, school children, buses, and garbage in the road.  When it comes to driving in Nepal, the rules are there are no rules.  (Except that you should blare your horn loudly and frequently.)  

I met my group at the hotel.  Overall they were a great group of people and I was lucky to get to know them over the two weeks.  My roommate was a Londoner named Olivia.  We had a lot of random fun throughout the trip and I was fortunate to be placed with her.  Although anyone on my trip would have made a great roommate.  

On our first day of sightseeing in Kathmandu we visited holy Buddhist and Hindu places.  

Monkeys just hang out in Nepal and India.  Here's a mama and a baby.
Cows also just hang out in Nepal.  Traffic doesn't stop for much else, but it stops for cows.

The holy Hindu place (sorry I forget the name and am too lazy to look it up right now).

An aerial view of a holy man.

Sneaky monkeys.

Hindu people come to this river because it is considered holy.  

Woman in a sari.

They also cremate people at this river.  Not sure if there is an actual body in there or if they're just stoking the fire in preparation.

Some dye.

Nepali schoolchildren.  So cute!

A Buddhist monk doing some drawing.

The Buddhist temple.  The prayer flags are yellow, green, red, white, blue and represent earth, water, fire, cloud (air), and sky respectively.

The Buddhist temple from the front.  Buddha is watching.

Anna Rickert Minnesota

"I think I'm going to Kathmandu...

I think it's really where I'm goin' to."  I will be MIA for the next couple weeks because I'm traveling to Nepal and India.  Dreams really do come true... I've always wanted to visit these countries.  I may write a post on the road depending on internet access and time, but I'm not sure.  When I come back, I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to share.  Until we meet again....

What are they teaching these kids? Part 2

Two weeks ago I showed you a sign that was up at my school.  I don't understand why the kids needed to know how to say that, but here is one of the phrases that was up yesterday.  Now this is some learning I can get behind.  

The Chaser

I try to keep you updated, dear readers, on the pop culture scene here in Korea (ok, so I do a poor job, I apologize).  I told you about my obsession with Boys Before Flowers.  I shared with you some of my favorite K-pop songs.  Well, now I'm going to let you in on another secret (ok, it's not really a secret, any well-versed movie buff has probably heard about this already), but there is going to be a Hollywood remake of a pretty well-known Korean movie.  This will be like the next The Departed which was a remake of a Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs.  The Korean movie is titled The Chaser.  Supposedly Leonardo DiCaprio is in talks to star in the Hollywood remake.  I watched The Chaser a couple weeks ago and it's very good.  It's a far cry from the cutesy Korean dramas and romantic movies that seem so popular here.  I would highly recommend it, especially if you too want to appear one step ahead of the average movie enthusiast.  You can watch the movie with English subtitles here.   

Say Kimchi!

There are certain things I dig about Korea and wish we had in America.  The photo booth is one of these things.   As a general rule in Korea, nothing is ever too cute.  It doesn't matter whether you're male or female.  Ladies, you want to wear a pink jeweled scottie dog barrette in your hair?  You go girl!  Oh wait, you're forty?  Even better!  Guys, you want to wear a bedazzled purple tie?  Hey no problem here!  And you're straight?  No one would have thought otherwise!  So anyway, the cuteness meter can't get much higher in these photo booths scattered around Korea.  You can take pictures with your friends and then decorate them.  They also have hats, wigs, sunglasses, etc. that you can wear in the photos.  I've visited these photo booths many times over the past ten months.  Here are just a few of the pictures that I've actually scanned onto the computer:

Okay, Chrissy and I frequent the photo booths quite often.  

Celebrating Julie and Adi's birthdays.  We were pretending to be "Woo Girls".  ("How I Met Your Mother" reference)

And Chrissy and me again.

What are they teaching these kids?

Outside of my English Zone there is a sign that flashes English words or phrases and their Korean translations.  Each day the students are supposed to write down the words and then they are quizzed on them on Fridays.  Yesterday I noticed this gem of a phrase:  

Really, some students can't even understand "My name is...", but yet you want them to be able to say this?  And who decided to use Sharon Stone as an example (and then misspelled her name)?  I think 1992 called and they want their celebrity back.  Once again the Korean educational system fails to make sense to me.  

Two months!

As of Sunday, I officially have two months left in Korea.  Last week I booked my flight to Minneapolis for September 5th.  I have mixed emotions about this.  I am dying to see my family and friends, and I truly believe the happiest day of my life thus far will be when I step off the airplane at the Minneapolis/Saint Paul airport.  But I also think about all the people I will be leaving.  Most of them I will never see again, which is rather depressing to think about.  I fully intend to take advantage of my final two months here in Korea.  I will be living it up.  

Actually, I really only have a month and a half left in actual Korea.  I am traveling to Nepal and India from July 31st-August 16th.  Because my schedule didn't work out with any of my other friends, I will be traveling alone (sort of).  Yikes!  This will be a first for me.  But Nepal and India have been travel goals for me for quite some time so I figured I really have to go for it.  But because I didn't totally want to travel all alone (especially in Nepal where they are having some political unrest supposedly--the U.S. has even issued a travel warning), I am going on a tour with Intrepid Travel.    I will begin my trip in Kathmandu and end in Delhi.  

And in honor of going to Kathmandu, here's a little Bob Seger for you:

I couldn't have said it better myself.

If you'd like a clear telling of annoyances in Korea cast in a positive light, please read my friend Andrew's oxymoronic (I mean that in a good way) blog post here.   It's everything I'd like to say but can't without sounding like I hate it here (which I don't at all).

The first of many goodbyes.

Last weekend (not this past weekend but the weekend before for those of you keeping track--which is probably no one, so for my own sake) about 40-50 of us Incheon foreigners descended upon Deok Jeok Do (an island southwest of Incheon). I visited Deok Jeok Do last fall and it's really one of my favorite places that I've been in South Korea. It's really cheap to get there, stay there, and eat there and it's just a nice place to chill on the beach. We swam and laid out during the day and had a bonfire at night. As I left on the ferry on Sunday afternoon, I realized I will probably never go to Deok Jeok Do again in my life. It's weird to think about things like that, saying goodbye to some place for a final time. I'm not really trying to be morbid here, because overall it was a good time, but I just don't really have any intention of ever returning there. Anyway, it made me realize all of the goodbyes I am going to have to say in the next two months. I really hate goodbyes. Here are a couple pics from the weekend. I didn't take any because I took a million last fall, so I stole these from my friends.

We rented some tubes from our pension and laid out in the sea all day.  It was glorious.

Chrissy and me on the ferry.

One of the locals.  I'm not really sure how people survive on the island because it's not a huge tourist destination and there isn't much else going on there.  

Rockin

Can we just appreciate this line-up for a minute? This is a festival that's going on in Seoul in July. Ummm, Weezer, Oasis, Jet, Jimmy Eat World all in the same weekend? Yes please! I am especially looking forward to seeing Weezer in Korea. I've seen them a few times, but never in Korea, obviously. And as all Weezer fans know, Rivers has a thing for the Asian ladies. I wonder if that's why they tour around Asia so much? (Yes, I know he's married now...) Anyway, this should be good.

Lil Kim

I'm not going to lie to you, being within 40 miles of a country run by one of the craziest men alive does not give me comfort.  In fact, I worry about North Korea on a daily basis.  Sure we all know they would have to be extremely dumb to actually try anything because they don't really have any allies anymore, but I'm not sure that North Korea knows that.  Anyway, I equally love and loathe North Korea's newest threat about "wiping the aggressors off the face of the Earth once and for all."  Really North Korea?  Your last two missile launches haven't gone so well.  But anyway, here's a clip from "The Daily Show".  I don't know about you, but I think the mini Kim Jong-Il is adorable:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Welcome to the Jong-il
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Obama Style

Koreans love Obama.  I don't know if it's because they can pronounce his name really easily (unlike our former president who they call Bush-ey --Koreans put a vowel end on most English words), or because he's young or what exactly it is.  But every time I show a picture of a black man in a lesson invariably a few students will yell out "Obama!"  (Have I mentioned that most Koreans are a tad racist?  Because they are.)  Also, I used President Obama as an example in one of my lessons once, and in almost every class, all the students pointed to a student who "looked like" Obama, according to them anyway.  They think there's a certain look that some Korean men have that resembles Obama.  Apparently one of the teachers at my school looks like Obama too.  I don't quite see it.  There's also a restaurant near one of my friend's apartments named "Oh! Ba Ma."

Anyway, one of my students, Jin Sung, was entered in a city-wide English speech contest.  I had been helping him with his speech a bit over the last few weeks.  The contest was last Friday, and the co-teacher who I love, Sharon, got me out of teaching in the afternoon to watch the contest.   There were about 50 students entered in the contest.  After we watched a few contestants, I went out to practice with Jin Sung a few more times.  As we were practicing, Jin Sung told me that he wanted to do his speech "Obama Style".  I looked questioningly at Sharon because I had no idea what he meant.  Sharon explained that he wanted to hold the microphone instead of have it attached to a stand as all the other students had done.  This is "Obama Style". Apparently Jin Sung even asked the judges before the contest if he could hold the mike.  He seemed to enjoy practicing that way, so I told him to go for it.  However, I think "Obama Style" ended up distracting him a bit from his speech because he forgot a small part of it, but he does look cute:

Jin Sung's "Obama Style"

Obama's "Obama Style"

Anna Rickert MN

Korea vs. Iran

Last night I went to my first real soccer game. I'm kind of hooked. In fact I dare say I enjoy soccer more than football. I wish it was bigger in the U.S. As always sports kind of confuse me, but I guess it was the World Cup qualifying match for Iran. South Korea has already qualified for the World Cup. The game ended with a tie of 1-1. Apparently Iran still has a chance of qualifying.  And because Iran is in the news at the moment, the game even made the news in the U.S. as you can see in this Time article.  Here are a few photos from the game:

The World Cup Stadium in Seoul.

We were attempting to do "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil."

Julie, Chrissy, me

And a normal photo...

My fave girls: Jen, Chrissy, me, and Julie

We weren't that close but still a very exciting game.  

Jen and Adam enjoying the game with the thunder stick things.  

Another year older, and another year wiser?

Almost two weeks ago now (wow, time just flies) I celebrated my birth with some amazing people.  Take my word for it, birthdays are a good time in Korea.  On Friday night about 10-15 of us headed out to Hongdae in Seoul.  My friend Julie outfitted us with sweet birthday hats that she made herself.  All of the hats had a lot of photos of me on them.  You can see some sported here:

My birthday ended up lasting most of the weekend.  On Saturday night we celebrated with a cake that Chrissy bought for me.  It's probably the cutest cake I've ever seen:

I was going to write some deep post about being 26.  It seems like such a jump from 25.  But maybe I'll save that for another time.  Instead let's enjoy some good time birthday fun pictures:

Inspiring

My bff Chrissy lent me the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coehlo a couple weeks ago.  I'm not very far yet, but I really liked the following quotation from it.  I think it really sums up my life right now:

"Up until then, travel and the idea of going far away had just been a dream, and dreaming is very pleasant as long as you are not forced to put your dreams into practice.  That way, we avoid all the risks, frustrations and difficulties, and when we are old, we can always blame other people--preferably our parents, our spouses or our children--for our failure to realize our dreams."

I think it can be applied to any sort of dream, not just travel, that anyone is considering but is too afraid to pursue.  Anyway, I just really liked it and I thought I'd share.

What shell I do?

There is a great little holiday here in Korea that was celebrated last Friday.  That holiday is Teacher's Day.  Now if I remember correctly, there may be a teacher appreciation day or week or something in the U.S.  But I know it definitely does not compare to Teacher's Day.  Korean students spoil their teachers with bouquets of flowers, candy, gifts, etc.  I received some candy from students and a corsage.  My favorite gifts were the cards that some of my students made for me.  Allow me to share a few of their (unedited) messages.  Please keep in mind that writing in English is definitely not their strong suit.  In fact, the students' English vocabulary is amazing, and they know more English grammar than most U.S. students, but unfortunately their speaking and writing is sub-par because they are not tested on it.  So here are a few of my favorites:

"Hi!  My name is Kim Dong Woo.  How are you?  You are so beautiful.  Thanks you.  Say good bye.  Kim Dong Woo."

"Hi?  My name is Yang Min Gu.  I am hate English because English is very difficult.  What shell I do?"

And this one is my favorite because he is the only boy who shows up for my conversation club on Friday afternoons...

"Hello Anna Teacher.  My name is Kim Dong Yeoun.  Every Friday I was taught by you.  I was nervous when the first class, but now I'm possible to talking a few in English.  I gratitude to you although this centence something wrong I want talk "thank you" to Anna Teacher."

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer

Alright, time to be honest with you dear readers.  I didn't post for awhile, because for most of April I was feeling a bit negative about Korea and the whole teaching experience here.  And I didn't want to spread my negativity to others.  As I've always been told, "if you don't have anything nice to blog, don't blog anything at all."  I think that's how it goes.    I was rather homesick through most of April.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I think most of it stemmed from the fact that I was not getting along with Peter (my co-teacher) at all.  In fact I'm still not entirely getting along with him, but I basically just ignore him now.  He is a rather despicable person, and it's taken me awhile to realize this.  For the longest time I thought he was what all older Korean men are like.  But from talking more with my other co-teachers, he is a really difficult person to work with.  I'm glad it's not just me.  Anyway, I'm over my homesickness now.  I will be very excited to go home when the time comes, but for now I'm happy to still be experiencing what I'm experiencing.  I'm trying to focus on the positive.  And there's plenty to be positive about.    Allow me to list some good things about my life in Korea: The amazing ex-pat friends I've made here; Korean food that is veg friendly; the abundance of tofu; my co-teacher Woo Yeong (Sharon); my students; the technology at my school; ample mountains for hiking; shoe stores; Korean fashion; kimchi; my nice vice principal; the weather we're currently having; the hospitality of most Koreans; cute Korean children; going out for drinks with Koreans; knowing that I am missed at home; the travel opportunities coming up; spicy Korean food; Korean dramas; the parents in my parents class; the one student who shows up for my conversation class; students who tell me things like, "your eyes are the color of the sky"; having time to read for fun; hearing random English phrases from Koreans that we would never actually say; public transportation; a small apartment which means I have less to clean; soju and juice mixes; cheap food and drinks; pachingae (Korean pancakes); and most importantly, the friends I've made here.

English Zone

I received my laptop charger a couple weeks ago but for some reason still have not blogged.  For that I apologize.  Here's a video of my new office and the new English Zone at my school.  I grouped the two videos together, with the English Zone as the second part of the video.  It is a pretty sweet classroom if I do say so myself.  However, after using it for only a month so far, I can already see some wear and tear to my precious classroom.  I think this is mainly because my school sat around since October not doing anything to the English Zone then about two weeks before it was supposed to open, they put everything together.  I think they'll probably be re-doing the English Zone every other year or so, which is kind of a waste, but as I've come to     realize, is definitely the Korean way.




Anna Rickert MN

I may be MIA for a week or two

The unthinkable has happened. My lifeline (my laptop) is experiencing some technical difficulties. I have to order a new battery charger from the U.S. so it may be a week or two before I blog again. For some unknown reason Blogger does not work at my school, so the only way I can blog is if I brave the stale cigarette smoke, pubescent boys, fake palm trees, and blue lights that is the PC Bang right by my apartment. That is where I am right now (yes, on a Friday night, because I know how to party).

The broken computer is quite a traumatic event in my life. It serves many functions in my apartment. I use it to watch DVDs and stream television shows, listen to music and stream the Current from home, skype with my parents and friends, and waste countless hours on the internet. Now the only thing I can do in my apartment is clean or read. Guess which I'm opting for. I'll give you one hint: it's not cleaning. As the good English major that I am, I should be happy about this gift of extra reading time. But my charger has been broken since Monday night and I've already gone through two books. At this rate I will go through my books in about a week. I should consider myself lucky, my poor friend Andrew lived without a computer for two months, so I should be able to manage a week or two. Either way I have newfound respect for him.

Hopefully I will continue to write blogposts and maybe I will post them if I happen to brave the PC Bang or you may just have to wait until my charger arrives from the States. I haven't been the best about blogging lately anyway, so I can't make any promises. The next time you're enjoying your internet from the comfort of your own home, just think of me huddled in my apartment reading book number 98. Consider yourself blessed.

The students make it all worth it.

This is what I love about teaching.  I can be in a foul mood and then something will happen that will pull me out of my funk.  Today Peter was on my case (when isn't he?--more on that later) and so I was in a bad mood.  My next class was with a loveable group of eleventh graders.  It was their first time having class in the new English Zone.  Now I will upload video soon to show you my classroom, but it's pretty sweet.  Anyway, I was using powerpoint, and when I touch the screen it switches to the next slide (is this smartboard?  I'm not really sure).  Well, one of my students apparently decided it was "suck up to Anna day" because each time I touched the screen to switch slides he yelled out, "Oh Anna, you are so beautiful, you are so pretty, you are so wonderful."  Ok, so maybe it's not so funny unless you hear it with a Korean accent, but it was comical.  And as any good joke, it was funny about the first five times, but then each time I switched a slide, I had to tell him to stop.  But it still made my day.