You Feelin' Swiny?

A whole new round of swine flu scare has hit SoKo. Some 3,000 people now have it here. Many schools are not allowing anyone (students and teachers) to return to school for a week after they have returned from an other country. Conveniently, our school is only applying that to our students. Couldn't have our new teachers quarantined for a week...they wouldn't get any training! We couldn't have that, now could we? Other precautions are extra hand washing sessions and temperatures being taken in the middle of class.

We even had our own little mini swine scare. One of our co-workers has had a cold since we returned from Indonesia, and then she found out one of her friends in Seoul has swine flu. She has since been tested and is certain she does NOT have it, but that was close to being our own little crisis. As much as I would love a few extra days off, I have a feeling it wouldn't be worth the school being closed down for awhile....

365 days later....

It has come to my attention that I have been away from US soil for one year officially. With the dawn of this anniversary I would like to renew my sense of wonder with my surroundings. I did "wondering observations" when I first got here. I'm going to try and do a better job of keeping it up this time.

My first theme is my favorite common images:
1. Bikes are everywhere. It is very common to see people of all ages in all kinds of dress going down the sidewalk. Most bikes have baskets and racks on the back which carry anything from groceries to babies to women in skirts riding sidesaddle. My favorite is to see two high school aged boys, both tall and lanky, one riding a severely undersized bike while the other stands on the rack behind him. It's even better when one is hold an umbrella as they ride by.

2. The Korean squat. Male, female, young and old utilize this position when out and about. It's basically a catcher's stance, but the feet are flat on the ground, knees are at your shoulders and your butt is hovering no more then an inch from the ground. It is particularly wonderful when you happen upon a business man in a sparkling pink tie out on a smoke break just chilling like this.

Haeundae

So apparently my student is a movie star. My elementary students came in one day and one girl said she saw Morgan at the movies yesterday. So I replied with "Oh, you saw each other at the movie yesterday." Morgan shook his head and Sarah said "No, he was in the movie". Oh, of course.

He is the son of the lead in this disaster movie. He got his tooth pulled out. It was hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Not so sure I was supposed to though....

Conquering the Night

This idea was put in our heads by our friend Warren, a Korean hiking enthusiast who enjoys organizing hikes with expats at least once a week. His latest installment was a midnight to sunrise hike. Even with fair warning, Megan and I only decided to go commit as of Friday morning, recognizing that we hadn't hiked in far too long.

One would probably think of quite and solitude when you think of a night hike, but sadly 33 other people felt the same way about a chance to hike while avoiding the current heat wave we are going through. Walking with a loud group of head lamps flashing in my eyes was not exactly what we were going for, so at the first chance to really lag behind we did, and the rest of the night was amazing. We sat a stared at the stars and city lights for hours while listening to music. Each time we got a little restless or cold or too bugy, we just picked up and walked to a new beautiful rock formation, which was inevitably 10 mins away. We let our eyes adjust and just walked through the woods on our own. We may have spooked ourselves walking in the absolute quiet and the dark, but for the most part were completely at peace. However, Megan jumped and ran back twice. Once when a stray cat (the only "wildlife" we saw out there) came a little too close for her taste. She then proceeded to throw her bag of tuna gimbap of the side of the cliff so as not to temp it to come back. I assure you she feels bad about the littering, but was genuinely in fear for her life. The second time was in day light on our way down, when she walked into a spider's web and thought it was on her. It was not. Both times I thought she was going to fall down and creak her skull open.

As always, the way down was an adventure. Even though it was much easier in daylight, we did not know where we were. We almost always just pick a path that seems to be heading down and go for it. Not sure why, but we were temped by a narrow "path less traveled" kind of trail because it looked like it went down faster then the one ahead of us. We pasted a few "don't go this way" signs and ended up trekking through the woods out onto a fenced in soccer field. We were not supposed to be there, but we made it. I needed a night like that. Amazing.

The only downer for the night was finding out that the breakfast place that we wanted to go doesn't open until 11. Nothing around here is open at 7:30 am. Not even Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. What's that all about?

Emily

...and that makes a full 12. Emily spent the first 2 days in complete silence. On day three, she spoke her first word to me: "bathroom". Day 4 was silent again and then today she raised her hand to come up in front of the class to answer a question. Go figure. The whole time she has sat very quietly and not interacted with her classmates at all really, but I can see her starting to smile. She is getting more comfortable and I have a slight feeling that she is going to open up into a big trouble maker. Let's hope not. Her worksheets look excellent though.

As long as she dosen't turn Damian on me, I'm really hoping that I keep these same 12 kids for the next six months. It's just easier that way.

Welcome to my Paradise

Bali and the Gili Islands, Indonesia

A mere 7 hour flight took us to the tropical paradise of fresh food, reggae music, cheap everything and beautiful people on the inside and out. I could get used to being there. For a week’s worth of events I think it’s just easier to list the memorable things…all firsts.

The first time I ever:

*went on a purely tropical vacation

*went south of the equator

*was anywhere near the equator

*was in a country where they drive on the right side of the road

*set foot in the Indian Ocean

*got motion sickness and threw up on a boat ~since I’ve never been motion sick before, I thought it would be fine to read a little bit on our 2 hour fast boat ferry to the Gilis. I was sorely mistaken.

*was on an island that has no motorized vehicles

*was picked up by a horse drawn buggy to go to a hotel

* shared a room with 8 girls and was forced to sleep outside (ended up sleeping outside the rest of the nights there because I like it so much)

*stayed in a place with regular rolling black outs

*went snorkeling in the ocean

*saw a bright blue star fish

*danced in a reggae concert mosh pit

*witnesses the skillful and artful use of a pianica (piano harmonica)

*held a monkey

*had a monkey pee on me

*was attacked by a monkey

*held an iguana

*rode an elephant

*played in surfing waves

*made friends with our “tour guide” ~Dade was the best! We were so lucky to have randomly met him on our first night while wondering the streets looking for a place to stay. We would have been lost without him for sure.

Most important lesson: taught to us by Sara

Always make sure you have more then 6 months left on your passport when traveling. In some places, like Korea, it may only mean a slight delay and minor paper at check in, but in other places, like Indonesia, a “fee” of a couple hundred dollars may also be required.