Relieved

So the biggest day of worry had passed on Monday and everyone has breathed a sigh of relief. Then the North opened their mouths and threatened a 'Sacred Nuclear War'.

There were live fire practice drills going on on the island of Yeonpyeong (the one that has been disputed over since the ceasefire in 1953) and the North said that they would retaliate swiftly if the South went through with their show of military strength. However, all went well. Again, I don't want to go into the details about the history of reasons why these things are happening now but they are.

Instead I would like to take a moment to talk about my friends here. I have no idea why I encounter such wonderful people in this world but my friends are some of the finest people I know. A dozen of us just got together for a Secret Santa gift exchange. Of course this is nothing like the Whitle elephant/ dirty santa/ etc games that others play (including the Miller fam). Last week we all chose names and got a gift for the chosen person less than 20,000 Won. ($20 if you haven't been paying attention). So we all met tonight at the "all you can eat meat buffet bbq) where you get you grill your own food. All for under $10. It is a truly Korean experience and i hope pictures to follow soon. So we exchanged presents, I got a bottle of California wine (good), a pair of underwear that has no description suitable for the internet (think childrens Batman), and a box of chocolates. Most people know their secret Santa's but i think the world may be safer if mine remains a secret.

This week we still had class. The hagwon (academy) I work for as well as every other academy in Korea doesn't close for Xmas. If  Xmas day was on a weekday we would still have school.

And now since I am talking about favorite students I have to mention my favorites Rachel and Emily.
OK, so they arent my students anymore. I have taught them for 6 months and now Anne teaches them, i still make it a point to say HI to them every monday and friday. Please check out the videos of them trying to teach me "I am very angry" (na jjin ja hwan na so). They are sure to make you laugh.

This quarter I have equally cute students.

Two if by sea....

So, I'm feeling much better now that my throat sickness has passed me. But now there is a new worry; North Korea. In case you haven't heard North Korea attacked the island of Yeonpyong 8 days ago killing four people and forcing the evacuation of nearly all 1500 residents.

I don't wont to write a complete summary of the situation or go into too much details of the long history of the Korean War which has technically never ended. But I will say this; there are many factors that are at play here, a regime change as Kim Jong-Il is sick and his son Kim Jong-Un is about to take over. There is the fact that N Korea relies on aid from all over the world just to survive and that aid has been drying up. China's relationship with the North has been slowing decaying over the past years and even they do not seem to be backing their neighbor anymore, and that is just to start with. Many people are angry here, even more are scared. I fall into neither category.

I think the kids summed it up best during the World Cup this year as well as during the Asia Games these past few weeks. I asked a student why they cheered for N. Korea to win a game (not against the south), their response "We are still all Koreans. Even if we are separated by two governments." It was a very touching moment. A lot of my students have talked about wanting Korea to be one again. As the pacifist that I am, I hope for this, too. There is a lot of hatred and anger but this is not the thinking of the entire N. Korean population. Most are malnourished and living in bad conditions, brainwashed to believe in the Eternal President (Kim Il Sung) and the Korean Worker's Party.

Anyway, as I mentioned, most of my co-workers are scared. I am not however. I fear more about getting hit by one of the crazy cab drivers here than the chance of Ansan being attacked by the North. I still believe that an attack might happen, but I believe it will be swift and retaliation by the USS George Washington even more so. I still plan on transferring my money back home when I get paid on Friday just in case the attack will make the Korean Won less than it already is.

Class is over now. BTW new classes are working out pretty good. about 8 kids per class is pretty awesome and I haven't had any rotten children yet. My favorite students are in Anne's class now and I do miss them. In other news it also snowed on Sunday. Not a lot but it did stick on the ground for a little bit. Made everything white for a while, but gone in the morning.

Your homework assignment for the next couple weeks is to pay attention to the news and listen for sounds of attacking. Also, do some research on what WikiLeaks is and how it is affecting international relations worldwide.

Peace (I hope)

Back in the swing of things

So let me just start with a quick re-cap of the everything since last post.
I went to Busan for Chuseok, had a great 4 days there seeing the sights and playing on the beaches with Amber my college friend. It was a nice relaxing week.

I came back to Ansan to start the new quarter and was very lucky to have a class with only 3 students in it, and the best part is the 2 of them were my best students from Summer quarter; Emily and Rachel. So for the past two months I have been getting to play with them for 6 hours a week as I teach them English (and Rachel some Spanish) as they try teaching me Korean.

Which leads me to another endeavor: I have been meeting with Ethan's fiancé's sister (Yes one more bit of news Ethan and Mandy are getting married in February and I am going to be their photographer!) to attempt learning Korean. I have gotten farther than I thought and quicker, too. I am now able to sound out most of the things I see even if i do not understand their meaning at all. It mainly helps me when trying to order food and even being able to pronounce the names of food and the names of people in Korean. I now form them in my mind in Korean rather than trying to write them down in English.

This quarter I had the pleasure of teaching one of our highest level classes here (Albatross Plus). 7 kids in the class of 6th 7th and 8th graders. And all of them are so fricken intelligent. We discussed in depth Plato's Allegory of the Cave (one of my favorites from college philosophy), Racism, Truth, Morality and Ethics, Gaining Knowledge etc. The textbook we use for this class is a college textbook called Critical Thinking which is not intended for use as an English textbook for second language students, it is simply a book for a critical thinking class. This means it is full of idioms that I teach the class daily and full of tough real world topics like terrorism, torture, rape, abortion, gun control, birth control, etc. pretty intense stuff especially for the sixth grade girls in my class. Usually it is not so bad though, I enjoy just talking to them about normal everyday stuff and we always get sidetracked on other topics in class. I can speak as fast as I want with these kids and use whatever words I want, they will either know the words or easily be able to learn them in context. They do a lot better job on a lot of the tests than I think I could at times.

As far as this week goes its been a little stressful. I got sick with the normal throat, cough, runny nose crud, and school testing just got over and the new quarter will start here in just a couple more weeks. I am sad to see the kids go but I have great faith in what the new quarter will bring. I'm sure I will be seeing some of the kids I taught from the first term again, too!

I feel like there is more to tell about the people here in Ansan, I am still hanging out with John quite a bit and have gotten into Korean's national pastime of Starcraft. I've also been hanging out with one of the new Korean counselors. He is really cool and has been showing me some of the more traditional Korean hangouts. There are also a couple other new teachers here in the past two weeks. Jay and Carly; Carly is the new teacher and her boyfriend Jay who is looking for work and without a college degree is having a bit of a hard time. Both are extremely cool and fun to hang out with. Also Anna Lei who I only met once for about three minutes but she will be coming to work on our floor at the new term.

More later, I will try to be more regular.