I am a website thief.

I recently got my lovely, perfect, amazing coteacher to (re)show me how to look at pictures on our school's website. I was shown how to do this in like March but since I never tried to log in at home and everything on the page is in Korean, I could never find the pictures that I knew were being taken all day everyday.

So I went through all of the pictures last week and found some super cute ones that I thought I would re-post :)

These pictures are from my first field trip to the Traffic Safety school back in March.

Kids in Korea are taught to raise one hand while crossing the street because since they are so short, cars can't see them if they are right up in front of their hood. If they raise their hand, the cars can see them (precioussssss).

Another super fun thing about Kindy is that I pose for pictures pretending to teach a Cooking class once a month. The kids wear adorable aprons and chef hats and I instruct them on how to make simple things. What we make in Cooking class is always a pleasant surprise and I am not told ahead of time what it is. This caused some issues when we made Gimbap and I had no idea how to fold the seaweed.

Instructions on the white board in the kitchen that I have to glance at nonchalantly while pretending I know how to make this stuff.

This was egg salad day. Kids hate egg salad. I heard this dish was a flop in most classes haha.

Another favorite: Birthday parties!

Market Day was a day that students brought in old books, clothes, new candy, new toys, stickers, etc and my school printed fake US money and gave everyone $10. They would go to each classroom, each with a different theme, and buy things to bring home. It was a super cute idea. Very fun for them. The funniest thing for me was after stressing to my kids to save their money because they had 4 shops to go to, some of them came to our class after they were finished and sneakily said "Teacher.... look... many moneys..." and Claire and I would have to take them to shops and explain to them their money is no good outside of school. They were so cute trying to be cheap and save all their money for later.

Kristen Teacher's Toy and Clothes shop.

Song Contests happen once every other month. The kids learn a new song and then perform in front of the other classes. The cool thing about song contests is that we can teach them ANY song. One of my coworkers taught his kids a Bob Marley song haha. My class did this song in June.

"Ah ahahah ahahah ahahah"

"Thank you everyone"

Super cute picture from Children's Day when I got to show off my face painting skillzzzzz.

ZOO FEILD TRIP! (Except Koreans can't pronounce "Z" so it was a field trip to the "Joo"..... awkward.) Super cute day. Super hot day. Ugh I remember how hot I was this day...

My babies <3

Learning about Guinea Pigs.

Field trip to the Memorial museum where we saw an exhibit about the human body. Lots of kids were terrified on this field trip because it was very dark inside the exhibit and there was a sound of a heart pumping and skeletons everywhere. Poor nuggets. The motto of that field trip was "Not scary! Very fun!"

And last but definitely not least, one of my favorites was Water day!

Nugget shield

Soaked

Love these pictures! Hope you liked them too <3

Excuses, excuses...

I recently read an entry from my friend Angela's blog in which she acknowledges that her blog entries have been very far and few between in the past few months. I related and it inspired me to do some catch up! *Remember to click the pictures to enlarge them!*

It's hard to believe that last week marked my sixth month of being in Korea. Time has gone by incredibly fast and slowly at the same time (words from Meaghan). I have many reasons why my blog has fallen on the back burner: wanting to relax over choosing to write after a long day at work or on the weekends, wanting to hang out with my boyfriend Kevin instead of posting tons of pictures, getting so overwhelmed at how far behind I am that I don't even know how to catch up (haha!) etc... But as I've mentioned, this blog is for me to keep track of my adventures also. It's a great way for those of you without facebook to keep track of what I'm doing but it's also something I'll really like looking back at when I move back home and want to reminisce on my time spent here. So, family members with no facebook and future Kristen..... Here's what I've been up to!

(May-July 2013)

1) I've gone to several baseball games in Seoul and cheered for the Doosan Bears! It's been great fun going with coworkers, drinking, trying to mumble the Korean cheers from the crowd. I even bought a jersey! Therefore, I'm definitely committed to this team while I'm here lol. One of my coworkers has been in Korea for several years and it was him that invited everyone to go to the games. I asked another coworker why Doosan was our chosen team and she told me that years ago, Doosan was the only Seoul team (there are 3 in Seoul, 9 total in Korea) that had any English information on their website about the team and regarding buying tickets. For this reason, the Bears have a lot of foreigner (Waygookin) fans!

2) Visited some Palaces

Deoksu Palace on the day of a protest. The protests I've seen while being here lead me to believe that protests are very heavily policed here. There are usually buses and buses of policemen.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

We went to this palace during their Children's Day festival. This was a basket weaving tent.

Mask making tent.

Kite making tent.

3) Attended the 1st birthday party of a son of one of my coworkers. It was such a cool experience! 1st birthdays are a HUGE deal here. The party was in a rented room and there was a large buffet and many tables. It was very reminiscent of what a wedding reception would be like. The best part was the "ceremony" where the baby picks an item off of a platter that is supposed to symbolize what life will be like in the future. There were at least 5 items on the plate and before the party, guests wrote their name on a raffle ticket and put it in one of the 5 boxes depending on what they thought the baby would pick. I know there was a pencil for intelligence and good grades, a golfball to symbolize him being a pro golf player, and I can't remember the others. Later, the platter is held by one parent while the other parent holds the baby and the baby reaches for an item. He ended up choosing the golf ball! Then, the host choses the box full of names of people that picked the golf ball as the baby's grab item and they pick a name out of the box. That person gets a nicely wrapped prize. It was so cool! I'm definitely going to have to bring this tradition home for my kids' first birthday parties!

4) Attended the Lotus Lantern festival celebrating Buddha's Birthday! Gorgeous! Definitely one of my favorite things I've seen since moving here and something that really made me remember how awesome my life is.

5) Field trips!!!!! My favorite part of being a Kindy teacher is going on field trips! I get to go see things around Seoul AND they're paying me for it. Yes please.

My fab coteacher.

Picnic lunch at the zoo :)

6) Hiked up to see Namsan Tower.

7) Continued to eat delicious food. Both Korean and not.

Dak Galbi continues to be my favorite Korean meal. Marinated chicken and vegetables  cooked at your table. Yum! I don't know the name of this restaurant and only recognize it with the help of landmarks. It's a Dak Galbi restaurant in Hongdae close to the H&M for those interested!

Shabu Shabu. First introduced to me by Katy and Andrea on Katy's last day in Korea. Also delicious. There's a big pot of broth that cooks at the table and you order which meat and vegetables you want and you put them in the pot and make a soup. At the end, rice and egg are added to the left over broth to make a type of porridge. Again, don't know the name of this place but it's in Sinchon near the metro stations by the Loving Hut and Dunkin Donuts.

Jyoti! Introduced to me by Mimi on the Saturday after my birthday before we went to see Nanta. I've gone back with Kevin to this Indian restaurant so many times that we couldn't even count. This is my favorite restaurant in Korea. Located in Sinchon across the street from On the Border and down a side street. (At least I know the name of this one!)

Another great restaurant Mimi introduced me to is Garobee. It's a Vegan buffet located in Gangnam. 

8) Kevin and I went to Busan the weekend of his birthday in early June :)

We happened to be there during the Sand Festival

Heading out to dinner.

Birthday boy!

Shooting fireworks off at Gwangli Beach.

9) Visited the War Memorial Museum of Korea

10) Visited the Fish Market again

Prawns & Soju

11) Celebrated the 4th 13 hours ahead of everyone at home!

Yummy burger, fries and soda. Closest thing to a cookout that we could get!

Watched some fireworks from outside of Garrison Army base in Itaewon :)

12) Wrote a little something for my school's Kindy newsletter <3

13) (Kevin) made a fort in my apartment to watch movies in!!!!!!

14) Received lots of goodies from iherb.com

Seriously if you are living in Korea and don't know about this site you are MISSING OUT! It's notorious among my coworkers! They have everything from tea, to beauty products, to laundry soap, to breakfast bars. Shipping to Korea starts at only $7!!!! You can get so much for so much cheaper than trying to find some of these products here, even including the shipping cost! Don't forget to use this code for a discount from your first purchase: FNK519 :)

15) Water day!

16) Work, work work!

I'm still having the time of my life over here. I get home sick from time to time but I know that this is the opportunity of a life time. Thank you so much for all of your continued love and support. I'm so happy to share these updates with everyone <3