Things to know about Korea: SEX

So Yesterday I was basically keeled over in pain because of my massive monthly pains.  TMI?? Well get the hell off my blog then!  (Can you tell I still have it?) I could barely finish my classes because I was dead by the afternoon and my Co-teacher (the teacher who is kind of in charge of you)had to drive me home because I couldnt walk.  As I am sitting at my desk just now she starts asking me if I am ok and I explain to her that the 2nd day is always the worst for me and she says

"Don't worry, when you get married it will be better"

Me- "I don't understand"

Her- "Well you know when you are not a virgin anymore after you marry your period will get better"

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (pump your car breaks please)


STOP TRAFFIC

ME THINKING- "you got to be fucking kidding me right... I gets it in boo boo" (ghetto girl style)


WHAT I SAY INSTEAD- "Oooo yeaaa right, ok I see, I hope so hehehe"

Hmmmm can you say awkward?

Which brings me to my point:  PREMARITAL SEX in Korea is definitely not something you want to talk about with your co-teachers or bosses.  

I bet you are thinking "Why would I have to talk about sex with them anyway"?  Let me answer that question by providing another short real life scenario.

I was interested in looking into birth control a while back but being that I dont speak Korean it would make an informed doctors visit quite the difficult task.  I asked my boss if my friend Mindy (young korean teacher who is much more westernized and is actually my FRIEND) could be the person to take me to the ...ahem... lady doctor.  And she said NO IT MUST BE YOUR CO-TEACHER.  I explained to her that I did not feel comfortable talking to my co-teacher about lady things but she wasn't trying to hear it.  1. Because Mindy and I are friends and 2. Because if Mindy goes she can't get the scoop on everything I had to talk to the doctor about.  Nosey is the rule rather than the exception when it comes to the Korean Way.  

So I am supposed to go talk about Birth Control so I can have free and happy babyless sex with my honey pie with a woman who thinks I am a virgin and who will no doubt relay the message to the rest of the office?  Not a chance in hell.  On the other side of that, she is one of the sweetest women ever, and I'd rather not have her know all the business of my VagCookie.

POINT:  If you are coming to Korea, make sure you know what kind of birth control and things you need and remember that its definitely old fashioned here so if you aren't married they probably think you are a virgin!

I am so glad none of the other western teachers were in the office when this happened because I could just imagine the snickers I would have heard.

My apartment in Cheongju

I just realized that I dont have a video of my apartment here in South Korea.  Here we go.  For anyone thinking of moving here, Check it out...

Getting sick in Korea

This is so real... all I can say is watch and understand.  If you plan to teach in Korea, know that this is REAL!!!  Not just a joke!  Enjoy!

Shaina

My Job at Cheongju English Center-- City Center

My class this week is pretty cool.  They are kind of loud and Rowdy but they are pretty awesome.  I took a video and some lovely pictures of them.

This week I teach city center and it just so happened that I had my camera on the day my homeroom class came in.  They were quite the crazy bunch.

In the city center I have students listen to my "About me" power point and then they get a chance to draw their own city center on the board (pictures below).  When they finish, I go over each picture and pretende to judge them, then I give everyone reward point stamps.  After that we go through the City center power point (city center is downtown) covering everything you may see downtown; stores, shops, restaurants, clothing stores, ect.  Then we have a role play where students get a chance to be bank tellers, travel agents, postal workers and customers.  Super easy job. 

Things to know about Korea--- BEDS SUCK

So I have been thinking about this for some time and its time to talk about it.  As always, I must remind you that this is a Diva's Guide, so my opinions might be a little biased.  Here in Korea, one of he first things I noticed (literally because I got here at night) was that the bed was hard as shit.  This has been the case in almost every place I've slept.  Whenever I think of this I am reminded of the princess and the pea.  I have always been  particular about where I sleep and how I sleep, but this is no exaggeration.  The beds are hard as stale shit. Not to mention my boss does everything backwards and takes no responsibility for her dumbass actions so I was definitely pissed last night.  That stress along with the bed defintiely kept me up all night.  I wanted to slap the damn taste out of her mouth scream at the top of my lungs.

On top of not sleeping last night, I tossed and turned around that hard ass bed for about 5 hours and just could not get comfortable.  About a month after I arrived in Korea, I purchased one of the mats they use to sleep on the floor, and I put in on my mattress.  Thats how bad it was.  Now, I'm guessing with all the heavy weight of both me and Robert, this mat needs replacing (or turning, this thought just occured to me lol).  So I am going to try that when I get home.  My whole body is in pain right now.  Maybe this is insignificant to some people, but in my world, one of the most important purchases a person makes is a bed.  You could have shitty furniture all day long, but when you rest your head a night, THAT needs to be taken care of.  Right now I dont feel like my Diva-esque needs are being taken care of.  So today I am going to Dreamplus downtown to check out the Sauna/gym/spa and then hopefully a massage.  I am hoping to come home feeling refreshed and worked so that I just pass out when I get to that hard ass bed.  And since I havent spoken to that dumbass my boss today (not even hello) I should be stress free and relaxed.  All she has to do is steer clear for another hours.

Will blog about Dreamplus when I return.  Wish me sleeping luck

My job at Cheongju English Center--- United Nations

 This session at CJEC I am all about the United Nations.  I start class by discussing all the different situations in which the UN can be helpful.  Droughts, floods, hurricanes, and war are all included in this discussion.  After we talk about that, I move into some key aspects of presenting a speech; posture, eye-contact, volume, ect.  This is all just working up to the big deal of the class-The Speech!

After we talk about some of the major countries involved in the UN they are given country cards with information and a speech outline.  They proceed to fill in that speech outline with the information and then comes the hard part.  The students have to memorize their speeches!!! How awesome/awful is that?  I walk around and help them with pronunciation and they get to ask me questions (basically trying to explain to me that they can't do it).  I just give them that O so needed comfort and at the end of the day they do a pretty good job.  They stand up at the podium and give a shaky performance but they seem satisfied with themselves afterward.  Can you imagine giving a speech in a foreign language?  I couldn't do it in Korean, and I make sure I explain to them how proud they should be of themselves.  Today was my last day in the UN.  Next week we have a "planning week" so we wont have any kids!!!  WHOOOOO.  Next up: Clinic.

Speech practice

Joking around

Helping them memorize their speech

And occasionally come nose picking

Thing to bring to Korea...Medicine

So starts the list of things you should bring to Korea.  I am officially experiencing my first cold in I don't know how many years.  As I return from the bathroom after coughing my lungs out, my boss says, "Oh you look so healthy but your system is not hahaha".  That is code for "we didn't hire you to get sick".  Usually I come down with allergies followed by a serious sinus/nasal drip, but in South Korea, I am coughing... I don't like to cough, and I don't gross snottyness either (Diva's view of South Korea remember).   A few of my other friends happen to be sick right now, and boy o boy you should see the shit they are being given here; pellets of some kind of medicine, drug seeds, ect, so once again, I find myself extremely lucky to have access to the military base.  Thankfully I am sitting pretty and enjoying the effects of NyQuil, Ibuprofen, and some other powerful meds.  

My bedside tissue bag and cup of tea

Point: Before you come to South Korea, make sure you stock up on all those meds you think you will need.

• NyQuil
• Allergy meds
• PMS meds
• Cough medicine, ect

Trust me, when you are sick and lying in a bed surrounded by your own mucus, you will be glad you did!

This weeks job at Cheongju English Center--HOCKEY

 Last session at cheongju English Center, I taught Hockey.  It was sooooooooo much fun (as is evident from the pictures) especially since I didnt have a homeroom.  The first 15 minutes was spent talking about hockey (the extent of my knowledge was in the power point!) and learning the rules.  We then proceeded to practice our swings.  One of the biggest issues with Hockey is "High Stick" where people lift their stick up in the air way too high and run the risk of busting someones mouth (see my demonstration on the left)!  No fun.  After we ran through all of those things, it was game time!  I had a blast.  Im sure this will be my most exciting job while I'm here.  Sadly, most of the time in class was spent playing hockey so I have very little to report in this blog but you get the point.  Next session is UN... more to come on that!  Don't you wish you were me!

I love them!

Me hitting him because he was high sticking lol...Shaina whips ass in ANY country!

Busted!

Team Spirit

I stay in the game!

All day!

Halloween and Everland Amusement Park

I had the BEST week ever starting with last Friday.  I went to dinner with Chanel and her friend before going to the Halloween party.  It almost started kind of rocky because Robert missed the first bus so he had to go to Dejeon before making it here which ended up working out ok anyway.  Once he arrived I made sure he had some good Eats (chicken from Kyo chon...yum) and we pregamed a little before heading to the Halloween party that I talked Ciara into coming to!  Photos below.

It was so much fun.  We ended up being so drunk that we barely remembered how we got home.  THAT NEVER HAPPENS.  So basically it was awesome.  We finally went to bed around 330 so that we could get up and go to EVERLAND bright and early at 730 on saturday. 

We taxi-ed down to the bus where Chanel was waiting for us (and only Chanel).  It seemed that everyone else who was supposed to join us canceled so it was just the three of us which was totally cool because like I told Chanel, we are NOT the lovey dovey couple. The entire trip took about 2 hours and we stayed awake and clowned the whole time, included when Rob and Chanel started photoboming this little Korean couple who took a million pictures of themselves.  Something interesting to know about Korea is that EVERY couple is so in love... for like 2 months, then when its over they never speak again lol... Not generalizing, just something I picked up.

We get there and the first thing we do is gun it to the T-express, the biggest roller coaster drop in the whole world.  Its clear that I do NOT want to take part in this roller coaster adventure from my face in the "before" shot but I did and it was awesome.  We waited in line clowning for about 30 minutes which was exceedingly short for this ride in particular.  EVERYONE wants to ride this one and I could see why.  That drop was ASSinine (yes I know that is spelled wrong).  After this ride we grabbed some horrible fair food (I was hoping for a turkey leg and a funnel cake but this is Korea remember) and then we ended up finding our way to the the ZOO!!! Yes ladies and Gentleman there were animals at the Amusement park and that was all I could ask for.  I was in heaven.  The monkeys, the birds, the "Wild Babies" it was just beautiful.  Then there was a seal show...need I say more!  Fabulous.  Anyway, we concluded out trip taking pictures and riding a few more rides.  It was SOOOO much fun.  I had the best time ever. 

He was so serene!

My Job at Cheongju English Center-Restaurant

 

I spent the whole first 2.5 months of my Korean life teaching "library" where I taught students how to check into the library and check out.  I also taught them several games and talked about some of the popular English books ("TEACHER I LOVE TWILIGHT").  It was such a wonderful change from what I was used to in the States.  I'm a little bit luckier than most of the other teachers I know here for several reasons.  The first being, I know what its like to be a real teacher in my home country.  I hear a lot of my buddies complaining about their jobs, but if only they knew what life was like when you are actually a real teacher and your content areas are tested!  Try being an algebra teacher!  Because of this, I have a deeper appreciation for my job here and the lack of stress I am under.  The second reason is because I teach more of a summer camp than a real school.  Our students come in on Monday and we bid the adieu on Friday, starting the whole process over the following week.

This is a blessing and a curse because it causes me to have to have high energy at ALL times (because I only physically have students in my class once) and it makes my life completely redundant.  At the same time, I know that certain kids that annoy me will be out of my room in 50 minutes or less and I will never have to see them again!  Its beautiful!

Now, I teach "Restaurant".  We cover the types of restaurants- fast food, buffet, dine in- we cover the meals in a day- breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch - and several other things.  Majority of my time is spent having them repeat after me and asking them fun questions like "What do you eat for breakfast?" "Yummy!  What is your favorite dessert".  Then we have a role play where the student have the opportunity to be waiters/waitresses and customers.  They take orders, have menus, get the food from the cabinet, pretend to eat, pay, and tip.  They have an excellent time and so do I.  At the end of the role play we have a boys vs. girls memory game where they have to match cards together.  They get so into it and they do all of this for a few reward points that I stamp into their "Passports".  This is my day. 

People have been wondering why I am so happy... its because I know what my life could look like right now had I done what most people urged me to do and stayed in Phoenix within the comforts of normalcy.  I know how bored and utterly dissatisfied I could have been had I listened and not done what was in my heart for the first time ever.  I know how much I could have been hating my job had I not just said Fuck it!  And I am going to happily keep doing things that make me happy, and Korea is definitely this first of many!

25 so far... I like it!

Sexy??? I know lol

Ajumma Hats from Nick!

So I have literally been 25 for 2 weeks now and I've got to say that I have brought it in pretty well.  I had the best weekend with my buddies that included much laughing, drinking, eating, and half naked debauchery on the pole between me and my Robert lol.  The korean men didnt know what the hell to do with what was going on between us in Frog Rain this time.  And I was a mess as was to be expected.

Everyone

Dinner was awesome and everyone was there except a few people so I was sooooo happy because for me, dinner was the most important part of the night.  Anyone can go to the bars afterward.  The dinner was the part that I felt was really for ME.  ANNNND they had free beer so everyone was happy (except me).

The Bars were great and the club was NASTY (like I like it) and the company was awesome.  The next day Rob and I just stayed in the bed except to get a Kabob from Shinnae.  It was a lovely weekend!

Work is awesome and working out is kicking ass... Last weekend I ventured off to the land of gunsan once again where Rob and I spent another weekend wrapped up in eachothers arms making jokes, having laughs, and watching movies.  AND THANK CARL FOR THAT! LOL!

This weekend will be spent in Seoul getting my hair done and taking myself out to dinner before my VACATION!!! WHOOOO!!!  Such a wonderful life I have!