(To our moms, don't worry, this post isn't about you!! We still love you!)
Every Tuesday, we have the privilege of visiting the kindergarten class at our school. It is probably the highlight of our week. The kids are absolutely adorable and so much fun. We go to the class for about 10 minutes, and in that time we usually read a book, sing a song, and teach them a new English word. The kindergarten teachers are the ones who pick out the books for us, so when we come they hand us the book and we start reading. When they handed me the book this week, the title caught me off guard. It was, "Mommy, I Hate You." I figured there had to be a good moral to the story so I was like what the heck and started to read the book. Basically, the book was about a child who was jealous of his baby brother, and blamed it on his mother. And at the end of EVERY page was the line, "Mommy, I Hate You." I felt a little uncomfortable saying these words, over and over again, even though the kids couldn't understand a word I was saying, but still, I just didn't like saying it. As I was nearing the end of the book, the story still was not getting any better and the kid still hated his mom. I was thinking, this has got to have a good ending, right? Well as I get to the last page, the mom explains to the kid that when he was a baby, she took just as good of care of him as she does his brother. And how does the kid reply? "Mommy, I hate you." The end. I can't imagine who would write a children's book like this. But then I remember where I'm at. Welcome to Korea!
**Update from the mean pills post, as long as we are talking about hate. The other day at lunch we ended up sitting near the poor unfortunate girl at our school everyone is mean to. Children were being so cruel to her and telling her she could not sit at the table (but it was pretty much the last seat in the lunch room). Well these kids did everything they could to get away from her, going as far as to shove their chairs into other children's chairs to slide away from her. Seeing this Shawn decided to say hi to the girl. When our co-teacher noticed he was saying hi, her response was "You're too nice". INSANE. All we can say is we hope a little kindness goes a long way with this girl...because she needs it!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Don't eat the beef!
Recently, the new president of South Korea opened up imports of U.S. beef. This is after imports of beef was blocked in 2003 due to fears of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease (MCD), when a cow in Washington state was found to have the disease. I figured that lifting the ban would be a good thing, since South Korea was originally the third largest importer of American beef, and beef right now in Korea is so expensive, but many people here feel differently.
The other day one of our teachers from school invited us to her house for the night. She told us she was going to take us to T.G.I. Fridays for a little American cuisine, until she heard that they just received a shipment of US beef and there was no way that she would eat that meat.
The very next day, I found an edition of the Wall Street Journal (in English) and started to read it. On page number 2 was a very big article with the headline "U.S. Beef Deal Spurs Rumors, flak in Seoul," with a by-headline of "Mad-cow sparks first crisis for new president." I learned that Koreans believe that they are more susceptible to MCD than other people (for unknown reasons). Koreans also believe that Americans don't eat their own beef, when in fact Americans eat 96% of the beef made in America (it's a wonder we're not all dead). The best part of this article is a quote by a prominent Korean actress (I love half-informed people with the ear of the media):
"Our country is importing meat that even America's citizens are avoiding. I can't believe we are importing cow meat and bones that are covered in mad-cow disease. It would be better to put potassium cyanide in our mouths"
There have been protests throughout South Korea demanding the new president to stop the imports of US beef. Koreans also believe that products such as lotions and sanitary products are tainted due to contamination from equipment that processes U.S. beef. I'm not sure where they are getting this information, but it is quite humorous. And just yesterday, our co-teacher was reading the paper and showed us an article talking once again about how scared the Koreans are of American beef. So if the Korean race is wiped of the earth any time soon...we are gonna come a lookin' for you America and your diseased cattle!
The other day one of our teachers from school invited us to her house for the night. She told us she was going to take us to T.G.I. Fridays for a little American cuisine, until she heard that they just received a shipment of US beef and there was no way that she would eat that meat.
The very next day, I found an edition of the Wall Street Journal (in English) and started to read it. On page number 2 was a very big article with the headline "U.S. Beef Deal Spurs Rumors, flak in Seoul," with a by-headline of "Mad-cow sparks first crisis for new president." I learned that Koreans believe that they are more susceptible to MCD than other people (for unknown reasons). Koreans also believe that Americans don't eat their own beef, when in fact Americans eat 96% of the beef made in America (it's a wonder we're not all dead). The best part of this article is a quote by a prominent Korean actress (I love half-informed people with the ear of the media):
"Our country is importing meat that even America's citizens are avoiding. I can't believe we are importing cow meat and bones that are covered in mad-cow disease. It would be better to put potassium cyanide in our mouths"
There have been protests throughout South Korea demanding the new president to stop the imports of US beef. Koreans also believe that products such as lotions and sanitary products are tainted due to contamination from equipment that processes U.S. beef. I'm not sure where they are getting this information, but it is quite humorous. And just yesterday, our co-teacher was reading the paper and showed us an article talking once again about how scared the Koreans are of American beef. So if the Korean race is wiped of the earth any time soon...we are gonna come a lookin' for you America and your diseased cattle!
P.S. Japan is also terrified of American beef. Check out this poster we found in the Tokyo airport!
Watch out world! Here comes American Beef!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Bali
We recently returned from our trip to Bali, Indonesia. We spent 6 days soaking up the sun and relaxing. This was a truly amazing trip and one that we would recommend to anyone.
We arrived in Denpasar, Indonesia to a warm welcome from the porters. We had really no experience in this situation, so just assumed that they were airport employees who were being nice. The two that latched on to us found our bags and ushered us to the money exchange booth, so we could change our Korean Won in to Indonesian Rupiah. Well as soon as we had money in hand they began asking us for tips. The one who had Shawn's bag simply would not stop asking for money. He kept asking for a few more "blue ones", which would be the 50,000 Rupiah note. By the end of it, mostly due to the fact that Shawn can't say no to anyone, He had given the man 270,000 Rupiah. This would be about $30, a pretty good tip for just rolling a bag through the airport to a taxi. Steph apparently knows how to say no a little better and ended up giving about $11 dollars. I guess you just can't depend on the kindness of strangers any more. Well we were off to a rocky start, but we were in Bali!
After leaving the airport we were taken by taxi to our hotel, which may have been one of the more terrifying experiences of our trip. Since living in Korea we have been exposed to a lot of scary driving. Swerving, running red lights, etc. Well let's just say Korea has NOTHING on Indonesia. This cab ride was intense. We had to hang on for dear life, literally. Besides our life that were concerned about, there was the little matter of all of the other people on the road that this guy nearly killed, but we made it. To top off our cab ride when we got to the hotel the cab driver immediately started hounding us for a tip (it happens a lot in Indonesia). After giving the man 50,000 Rupiah (and being told by him that it wasn't enough), we got to go to our room.
The hotel that we stayed at was called the Ramada Benoa in Nusa Dua (the southernmost area of Bali). This Ramada was nothing like the one that we used to frequent in Minneapolis, for those of you who had those fun experiences with us. This place was amazing there are some picutures below for you to see and we will let them do the explaining.
Most of the time we spent at Bali was extremely taxing for us. Our normal day consisted of getting up around 8:30 and going to breakfast at the wonderful breakfast buffet they had at the hotel. After this grueling chore we would head to the beach to relax for a few hours to get our strength back, before we had to go for lunch. Then we would need another rest and would head to the pool for the rest of the afternoon with our books (JP for Steph, of course!). By the time 5:00pm rolled around we were ready for a drink...and lucky us that is when happy hour started (it was acutally a happy two hours at the hotel bar, good for us huh?). After a drink or two we would head up to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner we were usually exhauseted from our hard day of work, so we would head up to bed to do it all again the next day. All in all it was pretty rough, but we survived.
Not all of our trip was just lounging around though. We booked a day cruise to one of the other islands in the Indonesian archipelago called Lembongan Island. On this day cruise we were treated to banana boat rides (a little raft they drag behind a speed boat, which is a lot of fun), snorkeling, an underwater submarine tour of the reef, and a giant lunch buffet. We decided that this was not enough action for us, so payed the extra $20 to go parasailing (pretty cheap huh?). This was a very good choice. Neither of us had been parasailing before this and it was amazing. The views of the harbor area were gorgeous and it really is a cool feeling to be flying like that. Other than a little motion sickness that we got from the choppy boat ride, this was pretty close to a perfect day.
We arrived in Denpasar, Indonesia to a warm welcome from the porters. We had really no experience in this situation, so just assumed that they were airport employees who were being nice. The two that latched on to us found our bags and ushered us to the money exchange booth, so we could change our Korean Won in to Indonesian Rupiah. Well as soon as we had money in hand they began asking us for tips. The one who had Shawn's bag simply would not stop asking for money. He kept asking for a few more "blue ones", which would be the 50,000 Rupiah note. By the end of it, mostly due to the fact that Shawn can't say no to anyone, He had given the man 270,000 Rupiah. This would be about $30, a pretty good tip for just rolling a bag through the airport to a taxi. Steph apparently knows how to say no a little better and ended up giving about $11 dollars. I guess you just can't depend on the kindness of strangers any more. Well we were off to a rocky start, but we were in Bali!
After leaving the airport we were taken by taxi to our hotel, which may have been one of the more terrifying experiences of our trip. Since living in Korea we have been exposed to a lot of scary driving. Swerving, running red lights, etc. Well let's just say Korea has NOTHING on Indonesia. This cab ride was intense. We had to hang on for dear life, literally. Besides our life that were concerned about, there was the little matter of all of the other people on the road that this guy nearly killed, but we made it. To top off our cab ride when we got to the hotel the cab driver immediately started hounding us for a tip (it happens a lot in Indonesia). After giving the man 50,000 Rupiah (and being told by him that it wasn't enough), we got to go to our room.
The hotel that we stayed at was called the Ramada Benoa in Nusa Dua (the southernmost area of Bali). This Ramada was nothing like the one that we used to frequent in Minneapolis, for those of you who had those fun experiences with us. This place was amazing there are some picutures below for you to see and we will let them do the explaining.
Most of the time we spent at Bali was extremely taxing for us. Our normal day consisted of getting up around 8:30 and going to breakfast at the wonderful breakfast buffet they had at the hotel. After this grueling chore we would head to the beach to relax for a few hours to get our strength back, before we had to go for lunch. Then we would need another rest and would head to the pool for the rest of the afternoon with our books (JP for Steph, of course!). By the time 5:00pm rolled around we were ready for a drink...and lucky us that is when happy hour started (it was acutally a happy two hours at the hotel bar, good for us huh?). After a drink or two we would head up to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner we were usually exhauseted from our hard day of work, so we would head up to bed to do it all again the next day. All in all it was pretty rough, but we survived.
Not all of our trip was just lounging around though. We booked a day cruise to one of the other islands in the Indonesian archipelago called Lembongan Island. On this day cruise we were treated to banana boat rides (a little raft they drag behind a speed boat, which is a lot of fun), snorkeling, an underwater submarine tour of the reef, and a giant lunch buffet. We decided that this was not enough action for us, so payed the extra $20 to go parasailing (pretty cheap huh?). This was a very good choice. Neither of us had been parasailing before this and it was amazing. The views of the harbor area were gorgeous and it really is a cool feeling to be flying like that. Other than a little motion sickness that we got from the choppy boat ride, this was pretty close to a perfect day.
Here are some photos from our trip for you to enjoy...
One of the two pools at our resort
The view from our balcony
Lounging by the pool
Up, up and away!
Shawn's turn
Us in the submarine
Time to go home
One of the two pools at our resort
The view from our balcony
The entrance to our hotel
Lounging by the pool
Up, up and away!
Shawn's turn
Us in the submarine
Time to go homeFriday, May 2, 2008
Did You Take Your Mean Pills Today?
So there is definitely a dark side to Korea...and we're here to tell you about it. Allow us to paint you a picture of just how evil this place can be...in one day!
The first offense was at school. We had a "special" day when the superintendent of the school came to see how the English town works. We showed them what we do in a normal day...OK actually we rehearsed what we were going to do WITH the students many times before the superintendent showed up, so it was really more like a play. Anyway, at the end of class one of the teachers was trying to get the students to show that they understood the phrase "Wow, so beautiful", and she asked one of the girls in class to stand up. None of the students could understand what she wanted from them and she had to prompt them with words like "cute" and "pretty" to get any results. Well after class our co-teachers asked us what we thought of the girl that she pulled up to the front class...did we really think she was "beautiful". Both of us answered yes of course (because she is a cute girl). Our co-teachers LAUGHED!!! They asked us if we were telling the the truth or not...and we answered that yes, we were. The next response was "give me a break". They simply could not believe that we could find this little 11 year old girl beautiful. Could any one give this girl a break? First of all, she is sporting a cast because she broke her arm, and couldn't be smarter. Also, we have not met such a personable child. She's always the first one to run up to us and say hi and give us hugs. I wish we had a picture to post of her (even though that would be unethical) so that you could see the insanity of this situation. We're not being biased, but who says these things?
The next "incident" happened after lunch. We stopped for a leisurely sit under a tree to watch some of the students high jump (on to a mattress) in their PE class. One of the girls in our 6th grade decided to stand next to us to say hi. Well after the high jump was finished the PE teacher walked by and said "hi" to us and hit the girl in the stomach with a rolled up piece of paper. Immediately following this the boy who was carrying the mattress hit the girl with it and almost knocked her over! As we walked up the stairs Shawn said to our co-teacher that it was wrong for them to hit the girl, especially as it seems she has no friends at all (she is often the victim of ridicule). Our co-teacher's response was...why? She could not understand why the other students (and teachers for that matter) should be nice to her. She was different and apparently should be reminded of it as often as possible is what we got out of it. We mentioned to her that we feel this is how serial killers are born (constant abuse with absolutely no sympathy), but the comment seemed to be lost, as we only got a little chuckle as a reply.
And finally, to end our little story, we were walking home from school and heard what sounded like arguing. We happened to glance over at the apartment across the street from ours and saw two ladies standing outside. When we looked closer, we saw that they were the ones who were arguing. And not just with words, but there was an all out brawl going on. These ladies were pushing, shoving, and swatting at each other like they were on WWE. Oh, did we happen to mention that these ladies were probably in their 60's? Never in our lives have we seen two older women fighting like this. If only we knew what they were fighting about! They were screaming things in Korean so it was obviously difficult to understand. I guess it is what it is, what else can we say. We love it here, but WOW!
Side note...We are leaving for Bali, Indonesia for a holiday, so check back in a couple of weeks for an update! Love y'all and keep reading!!!!! :)
The first offense was at school. We had a "special" day when the superintendent of the school came to see how the English town works. We showed them what we do in a normal day...OK actually we rehearsed what we were going to do WITH the students many times before the superintendent showed up, so it was really more like a play. Anyway, at the end of class one of the teachers was trying to get the students to show that they understood the phrase "Wow, so beautiful", and she asked one of the girls in class to stand up. None of the students could understand what she wanted from them and she had to prompt them with words like "cute" and "pretty" to get any results. Well after class our co-teachers asked us what we thought of the girl that she pulled up to the front class...did we really think she was "beautiful". Both of us answered yes of course (because she is a cute girl). Our co-teachers LAUGHED!!! They asked us if we were telling the the truth or not...and we answered that yes, we were. The next response was "give me a break". They simply could not believe that we could find this little 11 year old girl beautiful. Could any one give this girl a break? First of all, she is sporting a cast because she broke her arm, and couldn't be smarter. Also, we have not met such a personable child. She's always the first one to run up to us and say hi and give us hugs. I wish we had a picture to post of her (even though that would be unethical) so that you could see the insanity of this situation. We're not being biased, but who says these things?
The next "incident" happened after lunch. We stopped for a leisurely sit under a tree to watch some of the students high jump (on to a mattress) in their PE class. One of the girls in our 6th grade decided to stand next to us to say hi. Well after the high jump was finished the PE teacher walked by and said "hi" to us and hit the girl in the stomach with a rolled up piece of paper. Immediately following this the boy who was carrying the mattress hit the girl with it and almost knocked her over! As we walked up the stairs Shawn said to our co-teacher that it was wrong for them to hit the girl, especially as it seems she has no friends at all (she is often the victim of ridicule). Our co-teacher's response was...why? She could not understand why the other students (and teachers for that matter) should be nice to her. She was different and apparently should be reminded of it as often as possible is what we got out of it. We mentioned to her that we feel this is how serial killers are born (constant abuse with absolutely no sympathy), but the comment seemed to be lost, as we only got a little chuckle as a reply.
And finally, to end our little story, we were walking home from school and heard what sounded like arguing. We happened to glance over at the apartment across the street from ours and saw two ladies standing outside. When we looked closer, we saw that they were the ones who were arguing. And not just with words, but there was an all out brawl going on. These ladies were pushing, shoving, and swatting at each other like they were on WWE. Oh, did we happen to mention that these ladies were probably in their 60's? Never in our lives have we seen two older women fighting like this. If only we knew what they were fighting about! They were screaming things in Korean so it was obviously difficult to understand. I guess it is what it is, what else can we say. We love it here, but WOW!
Side note...We are leaving for Bali, Indonesia for a holiday, so check back in a couple of weeks for an update! Love y'all and keep reading!!!!! :)
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