You Rock! Yes, YOU!

Hello Everyone!

It seems like I was just writing you an email explaining my upcoming travels to South Korea, but it has already been a year. Can you believe it? It has been quite a year for me. It has been year full of learning and exploring. Although there were plenty of hard times, it was an extremely wonderful experience and I wouldn't change a thing. By teaching adults and children, I was able to really learn about Korea through the eyes of Koreans. I have fallen in love with the Korean culture, my students, and new friends, so it is going to be really sad to leave.

I will be leaving next Saturday, November 7th for southeast Asia. I will be traveling with two other friends to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and possibly Indonesia. It will all depend on time and how everything goes. I have to make it back to Korea and catch my flight to the States on December 21st. I will be home right before Christmas. I CAN'T WAIT!

I just wanted to thank you all for your support through phone calls, emails, thoughts, and prayers. I never could have made it through this year without you. I hope you all are well in health and spirits. I will be updating my blog and emailing as often as I can while I am traveling. Hopefully, I will be able to see you all when I am home before I leave for my next adventure...destination unknown.

If praying is your thing, please pray for health and safety during our trip. Thanks! :)

Love,
Megan

Cameras are fun

Hello, again. It's me, Megan. Or as my friend Katie would say, Sprinkle Face. I have been taking my camera with me a lot lately, and I have some pictures that I really want to share with you! Are you excited? It's ok, you can pretend.

Enjoying the last fall days...in Korea...









Something looks a little strange...











p.s. It's October 22nd and I have killed FOUR mosquitoes in my apartment in the last hour. Grrr....

BUSAN PART DOS

Why am I showcasing a cup of coffee?? WELL, it's not just any coffee...CARIBOU COFFEE!!!! I felt like I was home for a minute! Yahoo!


HI, friends! Well, it's crunch time. I have a little over 2 weeks left in Korea. My brain is exhausted from thinking and trying to fit in last minute activities. Leaving anywhere is always stressful. It would be a lot easier if I knew I was coming back, but I haven't made any decisions. My mind changes daily. Go figure.

I went to a film festival in Busan 2 weekends ago. It is the biggest international film festival in Asia. I saw two random movies, one being a documentary through the perspective of a buffolo. It was...interesting. I'm contemplating becoming a vegetarian because of the movie and everything I saw at the fish market earlier that day. I think I'm scarred. We stayed over night in a jinjabong, which is a spa that is cheap and located everywhere. You can stay over night and sleep on the heated wood floor. I slept horrible, but I paid about $5 a night. I can live with that. However, I wasn't excited to wake up to gawkers staring and talking about me. Apparently they thought it was strange to see a foreigner sleeping on the floor.

Hiking/exploring a temple


Buddha will help you find your way, just ask.


Thinking about how cool my house is. (See below)


My crib.


Here is Buddha's room. Clearly, he is kind of obsessed with himself.


Sunset.

Festival/Seafood Market/Beach


Koreans use umbrellas for TWO types of weather- rain and sunshine. Today happens to be a sunny day.




Drying out the squid. Grody.

He is a badass.

We were forced to sit down for some drinks and snacks with this crazy man and his wife. His wife was not happy we were there. We attracted a few gawkers. The man started to get a little inappropriate and his wife got pissed. We were told to leave. Very strange.


It was a great trip. If I come back to Korea next year, I am considering teaching there. Beach + mountains= yes, please.

Sammy

Well, we lost a member of our family this week. I think she is in Heaven licking and playing with my grandma. Best dog EVER. xoxo

Chuseok

Happy Belated Chuseok! I'm SO sorry I forget to tell you. :)

One of the most important holidays in Korea is Chuseok. This year it took place October 4th but it follows the Lunar, so every year it falls on a different day. It is similar to our Thanksgiving, however it is very different. I'll break it down for ya.

*Thanksgiving in America*

1. Turkey and other fabulous foods or drinks depending on your
family.
2. Football
3. Family and friends
4. Nap

Chuseok

1. Go to your husband's family's home ( or your own home if you're not married) early in the morning. You usually go to the eldest son's house or your parents' house. The eldest son's wife (or your mother) does ALL the cooking. LAME.
2. Set up an alter with your deceased family members names and/or pictures on it. Place all the food on the alter.
3. The eldest brother and his wife puts on traditional clothing called hanbok for the ceremony
4. During the ceremony, the eldest son lights incense, has some rice wine, and says the names of the deceased family members. Everyone bows two times for each person. The purpose of having the food on the alter is to allow the spirits to come and eat with everyone. The doors in the house are opened for the spirits to come in. Chopsticks are placed standing straight up in the rice, welcoming the dead and inviting them to eat. (That is why it is very rude to put chopsticks standing up in your food in Asia. The meaning is for the dead.)
5. Everyone allows the dead "to eat" and a few minutes later the table for the living is prepared.
6. The traditional foods include beef, pork, fish, rice cakes (filled with chestnuts or red beans), kimichi, tofu, and assorted veggies. There is a TON of food. Also, drinking rice wine and soju is typical.
7. After brunch, the entire family goes to the tombs of your family. Most families are buried in the same area, so you don't have to travel to many places. At each tomb, a food and rice wine offering is given the spirit and everyone bows two times. After waiting a couple minutes, the family members eat the food and drink the wine.
8. After all the tombs have been visited everyone goes home. Chuseok is officially over.

I was given an amazing opportunity to observe Chuseok with a Korean family. My friend Christina had met this cute old man hiking and he invited her and a friend to come. He is 72 years old and goes hiking everyday. He is learning English right now, because he is going to travel the world with his wife starting next summer. Isn't that awesome?!?! His family is REALLY big. There is about 200 of them and they go to an event hall every year for the 2 major holidays. There they are split up in separate rooms to make the celebration smaller and shorter. Otherwise, it would take ALL day to complete the alter ceremony. Everyone was staring at us and they were shocked to see foreigners there. It is not common to invite anyone who is not part of the family to the celebration, so we were very lucky to be there. It was a great experience, but very overwhelming. Most of the people did not speak English, so all of the grandmas were talking at me all day. Christina speaks a little Korean, so she was my translator most of the day.

Although I thought the tradition was a little strange and slightly crazy, it was refreshing to see family following the traditions of the past. I'm not sure how long the traditions will continue, but I hope it doesn't disappear as the West moves in on this culture. Families are starting to become more separated because many people are moving abroad. Also, many Christians are not celebrating Chuseok because it goes against beliefs of worshiping idols (i think). I think the core of the holiday is remembering loved ones and honoring their memory and what they did for their family. I think that is beautiful.

I didn't take any pictures while we were celebrating Chuseok, but here is some examples that I found on the wonderful thing called the internet. I think you can get an idea of the food and the alter!


Special rice cakes. I LOVE rice cakes.

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Here is a picture of what the food usually looks like. I guess these people are Christians (see cross). By having the cross, maybe they feel better about who they are really "worshiping"? Each bowl of rice represents a family member.

Well, I don't know about you, but I believe our Thanksgiving is lacking some culture. I don't think the pilgrims played football, but it would have been better than what actually happened on that day of "thanks". Does the Thanksgiving Day Massacre right a bell? Ignorance is bliss.

xoxo

K-POP

Last weekend, I was able to use my foreigner status to score free tickets to a Korean pop (K-pop) festival called Asia Is One. I went with a group of people and we had NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into. The concert was held at the World Cup Stadium. When we got off the subway and got above ground, I was immediately overwhelmed by hundreds, possibly thousands of teeny boppers who were super energized to see their soul mates perform. I have had my fair share of experiences in Asia with feeling claustrophobic, so I was able to function. After figuring out our ticket situation and dodging the stampede of screamers running into the stadium, we found our way to our seats. As we entered the "loading zone" into the stadium, we were blown with some sort of antibacterial air that supposedly got rid of the swine flu germs that were all over our bodies. We also went through cameras that tested our body temperature. I felt like I was in some sort of experiment. I probably was. Fabulous. All I knew was that I was swine free and relieved. ha. We entered the stadium and waited for the show to begin. They kept playing the most depressing clip of children in Indonesia moving and carrying rocks on their heads. I'm not sure what the point of that was, but I'm pretty sure I saw it about 20 times during the show. It kinda puts a damper on the screaming and dancing atmosphere. Big Bang was the headliner. When they were finished and came back for the encore, everyone was surprised that it was a different band singing. Strange. All of the bands were entertaining and made me giggle during the entire 4 hour show. Yes, 4 hours. I will be ok if I never listen to K-pop again. I got to hear all the songs that my students have been tormenting me with for months. I have to be careful about saying "Nobody", "Sorry", "I don't care", etc. My students will literally stop what they are doing and sing those damn songs. A lot of the popular songs have a few English words or phrases in them. Right now, there is a commercial on TV that says "Ole!". I hear "Ole" probably 100 times a day, everyday. I love my life. Really, I do.

Here are some of the AMAZING pictures from the concert performers. ha.


RUN!!!!


Paranoia, Paranoia. Everybody's paranoid. Yes, they are serious.



"Girls Generation" Yes, they really have this many members in their group.



I love the lead singer's hair. It looks so natural.


I know your life is now changed by seeing these pictures. Not the best quality, but you can get the idea. Watching all of the girls in the crowds crying, dancing to the music (you can tell they have been rehearsing daily for months), and singing every word, brought me back to my own boy band days. I had a slight obsession with the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync. When I say slight, I mean extreme. I went to way too many concerts and was totally those girls. Awesome. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

ps. I never cried. That's a little much, even for me.


Bye, Bye, Bye, BYE BYE! (Do you know that song???)


xoxo

1 Month left in Korea.

Be Risky

Hello! I'm not sure why, but I am in a "writing in my blog rut". My time here in Korea is coming to an end and it is really starting to stress me out. There is a large possibility that I will be back next year, but also a possibility that I will be somewhere else. During my short life, I have learned that no matter how much you can plan or prepare for something, nothing will ever go exactly the way you think. For example, I NEVER thought that I would be in Korea right now. I SHOULD be in Denver starting my second year of teaching. Ha Ha! I didn't think that little old me from the "country" of Lakeville, MN could have the opportunity to teach abroad without getting eaten alive by the world. But the thing is, anyone can do it. You can do anything, big or small, as long as you are okay with risking everything in hopes of succeeding. So, has this year been a success? For sure, without a doubt. Did I miss my family and friends? Did I miss out on once in a lifetime events like birthdays, holidays, special events, growing children, and laughter? YES. I have learned that when you follow your dreams, nothing is going to be easy. You have to give up VERY important things and risk it all to follow your heart. So, we will see where the wind takes me and where my path will lead. I am open to anything, which is really scary. I just want to change the world. Is that so hard? ha.

According to the media and the government, the world is in danger. The swine flu is making Koreans crazy. I got sprayed with hand sanitizer as I entered a soccer stadium. My school is spraying kids as they enter school and will begin taking temperatures daily, as well. I think the flu is something to be concerned about but it is becoming ridiculous. There is only so much you can do to prevent from getting sick, other than hibernating in your house for the next 6 months. Take your vitamins, get plenty of rest, eat healthy, and exercise. Do what your doctor told you to do when you were five. Also, try not to eat off the floor or lick your shoes. Everyone needs to chill out and stop watching the news. Does the North Korea situation ring a bell? FYI, they have reopened the border here and tensions are at an all time low. So, take care of yourself, but don't forget to live your life. There is no reason to live in fear.



Did you know...

- Koreans believe that there ancestors are their connection to God. Ancestors are kind of like Mary in Catholicism. If Koreans visit the tombs of their loved ones, they will be blessed. They must visit their tombs during Chusok (thanksgiving) every year and preform some sort of ritual/ceremony.
- Korean women are "asked" to quit their jobs when they get married, especially in the business industries. Businesses believe that once women are married, they have too many distractions at home and cannot perform at the same efficiency as before.
- I have a coworker who is pregnant, but she has not acknowledge it yet. It is normal not to converse about it, because it is the workplace. I'm not sure if she is trying to hide it, but her belly clearly gives it away.
- My first grade student wrote a story about finding a baby bird. It was really cute. He even drew a picture and labeled every image. He labeled the bird poop "shit". I didn't have the heart to tell him it was a bad word because he was so proud of his picture and excited to show me. I laughed about it the rest of the day.
- My trouble maker twin boys hid cicadas (HUGE, LOUD bugs) in their pants. Thankfully, it was not in my class. The teacher figured it out because he heard the bugs humming and a student jumping up and down holding his crotch. I guess they were biting or moving around- apparently it isn't comfortable to have bugs down your pants.
- Korean women look like they are going to rob a bank when they are working outside. It is common for them to wear pants, long sleeve shirts, gloves, and hats that have fabric on them that covers their neck and face. Sometimes the only skin you can see is their eyes. Men don't cover up as much, you can usually see their face. I'm not sure if they are worried about skin cancer or getting tan. In the past, people's classes were determined through the shade of their skin. If you were tan, you were seen as a laborer and of a lower class because you worked outside. The wealthy worked inside or not at all, so they were more white.



Be happy. Smile. Laugh. Life isn't guaranteed for anyone. Live like today is your last. TAKE RISKS.

xoxo