new comers

I have two new kids in my class. John and Kyungjun. John has spent that last 15 months in the United States going to school. He came back here last may and was in another private school (Canadian International School, which is neither Canadian nor international) for the past year. For some reason he decided to switch school, no idea why but it does make me a little nervous. The last time a child switched schools and came to me was in Brooklyn and I got myself Charles Bishop. Not surprisingly this kid reminds me a little of Charles, minus the total thug part. John's english is really good and he understands more than most of the kids, his vocabulary is HUGE. But he cannot write at all. This is a common thing for kids who went to school in the states. Since we do not stress writing at an early age or spelling the kids are great talkers and thats about it. In Korea they stress learning how to read and write at the very start. My kids could easily enter probably a 1st grade room in the states even though they are only 5. 

Anyways, John will definitely be a handful but at least we have no communication problem :) Kyungjun on the other hand is another problem. I dont think he understands much English which means he gets into a lot of trouble. He constantly doing silly things like lay across the tables and is ALWAYS speaking Korean. You probably think this is not a problem but in my school its a huge problem. If any child speaks Korean its 5 minutes no play time. Kyungjun spends a lot of time at his desk. 

At the moment my class is at 20 but at the end of April my favorite boy, William, will be moving to the United States (the Americas as William says) for awhile. I don't know how long he will be gone and I really hope that when he moves back he will be back in my class! He is such a fun kid and I am going to miss him alot!

a potential future home

I went to one of the many palaces around Seoul this Saturday with some people from my school and others.  The palace was so interesting and taught me a lot about Seoul and Korea in general. The palace was originally built in the 1300s and then was destroyed by the Japanese in the 1500s. Then in the late 1800s the palace was rebuilt by the current king. Not sure why he needed the new palace, since he already had one, but he managed to almost bankrupt Korea buy bulding it. Unfortunately the palace did not last too long, it was destroyed again in the early 1900s when Japan once again invaded and turned it into some governmental building. It was notuntil 1997 that the palace was rebuilt for the 3rd time! So while the palace looks very old, it is really a replication of a replication. 

When we got there we walked around a bit before our guided tour. We were lucky enough to catch a changing of a guard which actually took about 20 minutes. I think it took so long because they showed the ceremony for morning, noon and night. I am not really sure though 

 because the english translation was not exactly 

audible. 

After the changing we had a guided tour in english. Our tour guide was interesting to sayt he least. She would tell these jokes and then would laugh hysterically at herself. She would keep saying "Thank you" Thank you". She was also obsessed with the heating in the palace. She would keep telling us which rooms had floor heating and would say it again and again.

As we were walking through the palace, which is actually a bunch of small buildings and the king was carried from room to room, we stopped in front of the dinner hall. It was a really cool building in the middle of a lake. The building was open air and two stories. The second story was where the dinner actually took place. As we were looking at it, the tour guide all of a sudden said "here is where the big group (my group) has to take a picture" we tried to tell her no we were okay because there were about 20 other people on the tour but she refused to move, literally sat down, until our group took a picture.

 So we had to put all our pictures on a bench and 3 guys on the tour took all our pictures. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them taking the pictures because they just kept picking up the camera and snapping an used each one about 4 times. After that we decided to leave the tour because we were getting tired

 and there was one more stop....

DRESS UP!!!

Lisa and I decided to get in a line to dre

ss like the guards. It was so much fun to put on all the clothes and get to walk around a bit in the outfit. The best part about it all was that it was free!! I love free things! After that we headed back to a cool little area called Insadong to shop and eat. Overall it was a great day!

I will be the next korean Idol!

So I am continuing my rising as a Korean pop star. We learned a new dance this week in Hip Hop class and it is just as amazing as the other!

Honey Video

I am off to the palace today so I will have more about that later ^^

War Museum

On sunday morning I went to the Korean War Museum with Jon. This was probably one of the coolest museums I have ever been to. I have been to much more moving museums, like the Anne Frank House or the Holocaust Museum in DC but this one was just cool and fun yet very educational. First of all the place is MASSIVE! We were there for 3 hours and we really didnt see 1/4 of the stuff, about 1/2 through we were just kind of started walking by and not really reading. Fortunately for us, there were videos along the way so we just started watching those and ignoring the reading part :)

So one wing of the museum is the history of Korea when it comes to war. It started with the beginning of Korea (long time ago I dont remember details) up through current time. There was a lot on the Korean War which was fascinating. My grandfather fought in the war but I am ashamed to say I know very little about it or the causes. So it was great reading about the background and the fighting. The most interesting part was how ill-prepared S. Korea was for the war. They had no tanks or anti-tank weaponry (N. Korea had tons of both). Also, the day N. Korea attacked all the active soldiers were on leave helping harvest, Seoul was taken in less than 3 days. One of the exhibits we read showed how the main form of defense against the incoming army was BAMBOO STICKS!! Needless to say all very educational.

The second wing of the museum was my favorite part. It was 3 floors, each one dedicated to a different branch of the military. The best part was that this was very 

 hands on. They had a naval ship we got to walk through and

and climb all over. It even allowed you to try to steer with a simulation. Then there were TONS of old cars and tanks. All of them were fair game to climb in and sit down. Then when you went outside there were planes!! All of the machinery had been used by the Korean government which was also pretty cool. I had so much fun climbing around all this stuff like a little kid.

The final thing outside the museum was several memorials. The largest, and most moving, was the Korean War memorial. It is HUGE, the pictures do not do it justice. Around the memorial shows the struggle of the people. The middle of the memorial is half a spear and half a tree. It had something to do with growth and strength of S. Korea. Then on either side the was a deep hole (can't think of a better word) that spiraled downward. All the edge of the wall was a pillar for each country that helped S. Korea.

There was another large memorial which was two brothers standing on a cracked dome. The brothers were fighting for different sides and met on the battlefield. The cracked dome represented the division of S. and N. Korea. It is interesting how no one here really talks about the bad in N. Korea but instead of the wish for the whole country to reunite. It reminds me a lot of the civil war.

Overall, great day!

A Day of Culture

As promised no ant talk for awhile....

So on Saturday afternoon I went to the ballet with my friends Kiwi, Laura and Jennifer. From the very start of the day I could tell it was going to be wonderful. The temperature was about 65F and even though I brought a light jacket I did not wear it the whole day. We started off with an Italian dinner on a patio. Which was about as quiet and peaceful as you can get in crazy busy Seoul. After that we caught a cab to the Opera house. 

The ballet was Cinderella and was put on by the Korean Ballet. The best part of the whole deal was that it was only $5!!! Though the seats were miles away from the stage it really did not matter because we could still see the stage! The ballet was also really cool. I thought it was 

 going to be a traditional ballet but it was actually very modern. The costumes were simple and almost harsh. While the dancers were good, the person who stole the show was the wicked step mother. She was probably the skinniest person I have ever seen and she had the longest legs ever. Even though she was so tiny she dance with some crazy energy, more than anyone else. 

After the ballet we all went to get coffee and split a couple pieces of chocolate cake. It was perfect ending to a perfect day!! 

D-Day

so apple vinegar does not work. Does not work to the point this morning when I woke up there were about 20 ants sitting on the sponge I had used that had not been rinsed!!! So I have taken serious measures. I feel like the Allies in WWII, the Germans have taken most of Europe and there is little hope. But that my friends is when they came up with a little idea called D-Day....

So here is my plan......

I think the cinnamon works but the problem is that the ants are coming in form so many points. My kitchen is fairly old and all the caulk is falling off, leaving nice large holes for my tiny tiny friends. So my new plan is first (mom stop reading now please) to empty about a can of raid into the crevasses around my kitchen. Second I am going to recaulk the areas I have just bombed. THEN I am going to put a ring of cinnamon around the two points of main entry.

I have also rimmed my door to my room in cinnamon because they have found there way into here.

I hope my overreacting is making people laugh because honestly if I do not laugh about/share this I think it would really drive me nuts and I would actually be very upset and not just a little.

I will let you know how D-Day goes tomorrow! I also promise to actually post about Korea soon in the near future because I am doing things other than fighting a war with ants.

Just a preview:

St. Patty's day celebration

SHOPPING

wonderful food

stories from my kids

ants 1 - siiri 0

there are more ants. They are now all over the kitchen walls.... i am feeling this is going to be best 2 out of 3. Round two starts tomorrow! Wish me lucks!

PS if anyone has any tips for getting rid of the smartest/dumbest/smallest ants in the world please pass it on!

UPDATE: I chose my weapon of choice: apple vinegar. I was going to use raid but I heard some concerns from people (mom) about unloading a can of it into my small apartment. I read about apple vinegar online and I actually found some in the grocery store! It says just a small bit at the "source"... I have washed my apartment in it. Lets hope it works!