Asian Invasion

Hi boysssss! :)

Maddy lives. It's true. (I added myself as a publisher or whatever.)

Korea has been great so far - the people I work with are all kinds of entertaining, and Korea lifestyle is equally fun. The beer selection here is decent - it's funny, the only American beers served are Miller and Bud, and they're really expensive, and sometimes I'll see a really "posh" Korean guy drinking one, thinking he's cool, and laugh to myself. The draft beers ("seng mekjoo") are Hite and Ice, pretty decent and, yes, super cheap, which definitely helps. There are few places that you can get good imports, but they're so expensive. I'll just have to wait to get back to Zeno's, I guess.

Everywhere we go, people stare at us. Something to do with the blonde hair, I think. We went out to a dance club one night, and everyone there was staring and copying our dance moves, no matter how terrible. Of course, some of the guys took that to their advantage. Hilarious. If you want to see some more entertaining shots of what life is generally like in Korea, check out the F-Book Group "We love Soju Men!" Hilarious.

My kids are to be super cute - I have a kindergarden class that's there from 10a - 3p (I teach a few classes to them depending on the day - as many as 4 on Monday and 1 on Thursday). The classes, no matter what age, are 40 minutes, which is a pretty good amount of time, I think. Then we get the 6-8 year olds for an hour and a half block, 9-10 year olds for an hour and a half block, 11-12 year olds, then 13-15 year olds. For the hour and a half, the kids get a Korean teacher for 40 minutes to teach them grammar, and a foreign teacher for 40 minutes to practice talking and reading, etc. I was nervous for a while, but it gets easier by the day.

There are 7 foreign teachers at my school at any time, and I'm the youngest by three years (excluding Claire, obvs), so it makes for an interesting group dynamic, especially because we're our main circle of friends, so there are small off-shoots of groups, but things also get brushed under the carpet more in favor of keeping everyone appeased and the group stable. Make sense?

I'm planning a possible trip to Hiroshima next month, and then Thailand for Christmas and Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year. I, again, extend the invitation for anyone who wants to come visit, it's incredible.

Miss you guys, sounds like you're all doing really well. I'm sad that I won't be able to tag along for any Vegas Vacations or PSU games, but we'll just have to plan something for next year at this time.

xoxoxo!! Maddy