Songtan

Ok, so we just got back from Songtan, and I had a great day. For the most part, it wasn't anything super interesting. Just lots of little shops selling a bunch of knick-knacks, souvenirs, clothes, jewelry, DVDs, and other random junk. :-P I did manage to buy quite a few things though. I bought a beautiful comforter and shams for only $40. Dark brown, kinda silky with an asian-type pattern. They match the wall-hangings I bought last week in Seoul really well, so my room is now fully decorated in an asian theme. Besides a comforter I bought a couple DVDs (Juno and season 1 of The Office--which btw, series seasons are way cheap here so if you want one, let me know!), a necklace, some postcards, maple syrup, and microwave popcorn. Both of the latter are very difficult to find in Korea, but Songtan is right by the U.S. Air Force base so things are smuggled off and sold on the outside. It was so weird to see Americans everywhere and hear some many people speaking English, however, the best part of the day was lunch...MEXICAN FOOD! We had been hearing all about this amazing Thai restaurant in Songtan so everyone had pretty much decided that's where we were going for lunch. But, when I was walking I saw Mexican food and talked Anna into going with me. When I posed the idea to the rest of the group, almost everyone else joined us. It was surprisingly really good...I even had horchata! The smells and the decorations were just like every other Mexican restaurant I've seen. Needless to say, my craving for Mexican has been met and you don't have to figure out a way to mail me tacos! :)

More Pics

Here are some pictures from my day trip to Seoul.  My camera died so sadly I don't have many.  But the ones I do have are of the palace and they are beautiful!  Just copy and paste the link in to 

the browser and your should be able to see them. :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020655&l=c5149&id=78300441

I have also been updating my album of Taejon so here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020324&l=14612&id=78300441

School, Seoul, and Sundaes!!!

So, I just completed the second week of school. It went really well now that I am getting to know the kids more.  I love them more and more each day! It sometimes surprises me how normal they are despite the fact that some of them have amazing life stories.  They have lived places I haven't heard of or only dream of going and speak way more languages than I do.  However, besides that, the way they act, the way they talk, the things they like to do is in many ways just like my students in Iowa.  The 6th graders are definitely the most challenging because they are still like elementary kids, but I'm getting the hang out it.  And they are so darn cute!

School is always full of surprises.  This week, my ESL Bible students took a placement test and passed into the next level.  They were removed from my class so I thought I wasn't teaching them anymore.  Then, a day before the test was supposed to be, I found out that I was going to be teaching 7th grade ESL Bible again so I hurried to write the test.  I thought I would just have the 2 boys I had before, but about an hour before class I found out that I had 6 students, 4 of which had been in the 8th grade class learning something completely different!  Luckily I have plenty of experience at winging a lesson and it went fine.  I like having a bit larger class, but it definitely caused a moment of frantic planning.

This past Saturday I went to Seoul with a few of the girls.  It was a great trip...a little wet, but still good.  We visited Gwanghwamun Palace and watched the changing of the guard there.  Then, we went to Insadong and had lunch (Korean! The best I've had yet), shopped, went to a tea shop where I had quince tea (also the best I've had), and met up with Bethany!  It was so good to see a familiar face and fun to spend the day with her.  We got yogurt and fruit, walked and talked, and went to a stream that runs through downtown Seoul.  While we were walking we ran into a break dance crew called the Gamblerz who are apparently the best in the world.  G confirmed so I guess it's true. :-P  I agree...they were AMAZING!  After that we had dinner, said goodbye to Bethany, and headed home.  It was a great day, but we were definitely exhausted.  Luckily the trip isn't long; only 50 min. on the KTX!

I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the teachers at TCIS.  We often have staff get-togethers.  We play volleyball every Wednesday (although we've only had one week where no one has gotten injured and ended up on crutches :-S) and last night we had a sundae party!  Some girls provided ice cream and the rest of us brought toppings.  We don't get dessert very often so it was sooooooo good...and fun!

I am still very happy here and only miss a few things.  Though, if I had to pick the thing I miss the most--other than family and friends, of course--is Mexican food!  It is really hard to find here.  If you figure out how to send me some tacos and some good ground beef, do it por favor! :)  

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

So apparently I brought the Iowa flooding with me to Korea.  Yesterday after school there were torrential rains and the school soccer field had standing water past my ankles.  There is a levee-like wall built near the classrooms so no water got into the middle school.  At staff volleyball last night, a woman who has been here 4 years said she has never seen it rain like that since she's been here.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my umbrella to school that day.  Fortunately, one of the students left hers, so I just borrowed it. :-P Then today, Anna, Janey and I walked to HomePlus.  We found it all buy ourselves and did our shopping.  As we were leaving, it started to sprinkle.  By the time we got home it was a downpour!  Only my Multigrain Os were a little wet.  I hope this rain stops though.  Especially before our trip to Seoul this weekend!

Day 1 down

So, I survived my 1st day of teaching.  Today all I had was my ESL Bible class which only has two boys in it.  Neither of them speak English well, but if I talk slowly the usually get it.  When class started only 1 of them was there; after lunch the second came.  I guess he was in the wrong class.  Poor kid.  The 6th graders are so funny because they are new to the school, too, and don't really know what they are doing.  They need help opening their lockers and finding their classrooms.  Tomorrow I have a full day...no breaks.  It will be a long day, but I'm excited since I will actually be teaching Spanish.  And my classes will be a bit bigger.  Not too big though, my largest is 12. :)

An interesting night...

So, last night Anna and I decided to go on an adventure to see the new Batman movie, which just hit the theaters in Korea this weekend.  We left before supper so that we could buy our tickets, then eat, then go to the movie.  We got one of the 20 remaining tickets for the 9:00 show.  Seats are assigned for movies here so with a lot of body language, we managed to pick out seat D1 and D2.  Then, we went looking for a place to eat.  We were feeling really brave and confident since we had managed to get the taxi driver to take us to the right place, find the theater, and buy movie tickets so we were looking for a Korean restaurant with pictures on the menu.  Was it ever a good choice for adventure! We found one and took off our shoes at the door.  We didn't know if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait.  A lady ran up and got us some pillows and told us to sit.  She asked us what we wanted (I think) and we didn't know what anything was so we just pointed to the table next to us and ordered what they were having.  The waitress brought us lots of little sides, but we didn't know where the silverware was.  We asked and she showed us a little box on our table that was full of chopsticks.  We began to try the little sides when she brought out the grill and the meat, mushrooms, and onions.  After putting them on the grill, she cut them with scissors into smaller pieces so we could put them in the lettuce wrap.  Then, she wiped her hands on my cloth and gave it back to me!  Anna and I were just laughing at everything that was going on around us.  We began eating and "talking" with the men at the table next to us, who were laughing at our poor chopsticks abilities.  One even came up and helped Anna.  At one point in time the lady noticed that we weren't dipping the meat in this oil sauce before putting it in the lettuce so she took a piece from our grill, dipped it, blew it off to cool it, and held it in front of my mouth for me to take a bite.  I did, but it was just so different from anything that would happen in the U.S.  I tried asking if any of the foods were spicy, which worked pretty well, until I took a huge bite of a jalapeno pepper.  If you know me well, you would know that I HATE spicy things.  I had to spit it out and eat more cucumber jelly noodles to cool my mouth. Overall the meal was tasty and an exciting cultural experience.  From there, we walked to Costco where we bought way too much stuff.  I think it weighed about 80 lbs. all together.  We walked back to the theater, but quickly realized we couldn't take it all in so we left the stuff in some lockers.  We arrived at the movie and Anna thought it was necessary to order the family pack of food because it was only w10,000 (about $10) and we got 2 drinks, popcorn, caramel corn, nachos, and...squid.  We thought it was some kind of candy until we noticed how fishy it smelled.  We found our seats in the giant theater and enjoyed the rest of the batman movie.  Besides a slight scare that the area where we had kept our stuff was locked (which it wasn't, we just had to go outside and around) the rest of the night went smoothly.  It was quite an interesting night

Contact Information

Oh, and I almost forgot...a lot of people have been asking for my address here in Korea. So, here it is!

Stephanie Liebe
c/0 Taejon Christian International School
210-1 O-Jung Dong, Daedeok Gu
Taejon, South Korea 306-010

I'm also on signed into Skype all the time. My screen name is stephanie.liebe so look me up! The best times to call me are at 7:00-9:00 am or 5:00-6:00 pm CDT. Otherwise I will most likely be sleeping or at school. Of course, the weekends are different...just remember the time difference; I am 14 hours ahead. If calling doesn't work for you I'm always happy when I get an email. Keep in touch!

La, La, La

So, I have been super busy trying to prepare for the first day of school. Every day is full of meetings, and divisional meetings, and subject meetings, and grade meetings, and technology meetings...you get the picture. So, some of the teachers and RAs decided to go out and have so fun before we got even more overwhelmed with school work. I have officially found my favorite thing to do in Korea so far...no re bang (sp?). I guess it exists in the states, too, but I had never heard of it before. What happens is that you pay for a room, some are small and others are larger, and you do karaoke. We had 15ish people so our room was pretty big. There are lights and screens and couches everywhere; and there are a ton of song options. Almost every U.S. song I could think of plus the ones in Korean and probably other languages. I sang Sk8ter Boi and Breaking Free, from HS Musical. hehe. The mics kinda add reverb to your voice and the music is really loud so I think it makes you sound better than you are. And, it gives you points at the end...like SingStar! It was so much fun and I will definitely have to do it again sometime soon. And, if any of you come to visit me I will definitely be taking you to no re bang. :)

School, Shopping, and Chinese Food

Well, life continues to go well here in Taejon.  I am becoming more familiar with the city.  I have made a few more trips to new downtown and have had the chance to walk around the area around the school a bit more.  I now know how to say hello and thank you with confidence in Korean, but I am still hesitant to say anything else.  Throughout the first semester we will have about 15 hours of Korean class after school.  School starts on Monday--1 week from today! Ahh!--so this week will be spent preparing.  It's kinda nice, we are on a ten-day schedule and all of the students have 10 classes.  I teach 6 classes and have 4 planning periods.  Much of the planning period will be spent with the other world language teachers so it's not like I have 3 hours off in the middle of the day, however, it's not going to be as crazy as in the U.S. where there is hardly time to take a breath.  I will teach 2 6th grade classes, 2 7th/8th grade classes, and 1 8th grade class (for more advanced students).  Because that doesn't give me a full schedule, I will also be teaching 1 section of ESL Bible class.  I am a little nervous trying to teach Bible to ESL students since Biblical language confuses most native speakers, but the curriculum has already been written for me and I just have to teach it.  I'm sure I can handle it.  Besides meetings about school policies and my students, we also have been getting off campus.  Yesterday we ate at Mr. Wongs, a very popular Chinese restaurant chain here.  The Chinese food here is different than in the U.S., but I liked it better than Korean food.  I also think I am getting better with chopsticks even though I still have to concentrate a lot during meals.  Today we went shopping at Costco.  It was so nice to be able to read the labels!  I didn't buy too much, but when our meals are no longer provided, I will be back there to buy cereal and mango juice.  Yum!  Yesterday and today were the first days I really felt worn out.  I'm trying really hard not to take a nap, but I am just so sleepy!  I must have been running on adrenaline the first few days and now jet lag is starting to hit.  Last night some of the new staff got together and played volleyball.  Tonight the returning staff arrive and we are having a cookout/social to meet each other.  I am looking forward to it.  I'm sure they are wonderful people because everyone I've met so far has been incredibly supportive and caring!

Pictures!!!

I have posted some pictures on facebook.  You can just copy and paste this address into the url and you should be able to see them. These are the ones I've taken so far in Korea, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020324&l=14612&id=78300441, and these are from Hawaii, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020323&l=844da&id=78300441. Enjoy!

I'm here!

Well, I have arrived safely and smoothly in Taejon!  All of my flights were on time and all of my luggage arrived with me.  Yay!  I even have it all unpacked.  So far I am doing really well here.  The people are really kind--and from all over the world so it's great, my apartment is awesome and the city is fascinating.  We have been having meetings about all kinds of things, both relating to school and to life in Korea, so I have been pretty busy.  I did have some time to go exploring, though. :)  I went to an everything store the first day we were here and it was so hard to know what we were actually buying since we couldn't read any labels.  It is funny though because there is a clerk in almost every aisle trying to get your to buy certain "bargain" products.  If you buy them, often times you get something else free (like a towel or a smaller bottle of shampoo, etc).  Things are more expensive that I was expecting, but still not outrageously priced and food is really cheap.  Most things are comparable to the U.S.  The hardest thing to get used to so far, is taking out the trash!  I know that sounds crazy, but it is quite a complicated process.  You have to throw away everything in a specific green bag that you buy at the store.  They are different depending on which part of town you live in.  Some of us only live a couple blocks away and have different bags.  Then everything that can be recycled has to be separated, but they don't have bins like in the States.  You also have to put food in a separate bin, as well.  Other things that I have done include going to the "mall" in new downtown, riding in a taxi (SCARY!), and eating in a traditional Korean restaurant.  The entire staff and families went to the restaurant today and it was quite an experience.  First off, you take your shoes off at the door.  Then, many plates of food were already set out on the tables.  The tables are at floor level and at some tables you sit on a pillow, at others there was this half-chair thing.  To sit at the table you step down first, so it feels like you are sitting in a normal chair, but instead you are on the floor!  I have pictures if you don't get it.  :-P  Then, they brought us each out a plate of raw meat, which we put in a pot of boiling water to cook and then ate with a rice-filled lettuce wrap.  It was actually pretty good.  Then, when our meat was all cooked, they put in noodles and things for a soup.  It was really good, probably the best thing I've eaten.  I tried seaweed today as well as more kimchi, which I still can't eat.  It is sooo spicy.  Tomorrow is a free day so I can sleep in until church and then just explore and relax the rest of the day.  I hadn't really felt any jet lag until today, but I have been sleeping well.  There are about 10 other people here my age and we have all been hanging out/exploring the city together so I have enjoyed getting to know them.  And luckily, they are all as adventurous as me!