mr. sandman

Happy Spring!

The big issue around these parts right now is what's called 'yellow sand'. Basically, China has been cutting down a ton of their trees without planting new ones for decades now and a lot of their previously-forested land is becoming desert. There are also really high winds in the spring, which blow the sand from the rapidly-expanding Gobi Desert to several other parts of Asia, hitting Korea pretty hard. Apparently Seoul and the other northern-most areas are extremely affected - you can actually see the sand blowing in, making it hard for people to breathe, see, etc. You can also taste it in your mouth, apparently. Luckily for Brian and me, the yellow sand is not much of a factor here in southern Korea. It's still around some, and you see small children and older people wearing masks over their noses and mouths quite a bit, but it's not a real problem like it is in other areas. We are discouraged from keeping our windows open much, though.

The weather is getting spring-like! Finally! It hasn't been as warm as in the US (you crazy people with your 75 degree weather!) but it's definitely nice. We hear that the cherry trees will start blooming soon and in April there are going to be a ton of cherry blossom festivals in different cities. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some flowers and things around here.

Next week is the Tongyeong International Music Festival, which is held in memory of Isang Yun, a pretty famous composer who was born in Tongyeong...I think he might be their most famous guy, actually. Anyway, all week they're holding concerts and recitals and things featuring music and musicians from all over the world. The theme is actually "East and West" which is kind've cool. I'm going to try to drag Brian to at least one concert...wish me luck!

Here's Brian! March Madness is upon us! I am currently in two pools at work - 1. a 20,000 won ($14) winner-take-all, and 2. a just-for-fun. The betting pool is just me, Katie, and our boss, and the fun pool is me, Katie, and the two Americans we work with. So far I am in 1st in both pools, but I have the least amount of possible points remaining due to Illinois' loss (I had them beating Gonzaga to make it to the Sweet 16). A couple games worth mentioning: American put up a good fight against Villanova. I wanted American to win since Andy goes there, but that would have killed both of my brackets, because I have Villanova over Duke in one and they're in my Final Four in the other. VCU almost beat UCLA which would have been really exciting. Our friend Alex goes to VCU and was at that game, so that must have been both fun and disappointing. I hope she was able to attend all four games at the Philadelphia site (VCU - UCLA, Villanova - American, Connecticut - Chattanooga, BYU - Texas A+M).

We have also been keeping up with the World Baseball Classic, as Korea and the United States have advanced to the semi-finals. We were hoping to play them head-to-head, but it looks like the only way that will happen is if we both win and go to the finals, or both lose and go to the consolation game. The latter would not be nearly as exciting... to say the least.

I'm not sure if it has been the sports or just getting into a rhythm here, but the time has been flying by recently. The first few weeks dragged on and on and we started to wonder if living here for a year would start to take its toll on us, but this past week at school was a breeze. I have been having a lot of fun with my kids, playing games and finding creative ways to teach them new vocabulary. Sue probably knows all this already, but Katie and I have never taught children before so we are learning as we go! Some things I have learned: children will only learn how to sing a song if it includes some sort of motion (I tried to teach them Skidamarink, but I don't know any of the movements so they ignored me haha), children have short attention spans so playing a game or two to break up the class-time is necessary, using games, songs, and other activities to teach children is much more effective than trying to sit them all down with a book, a reward system usually works better than punishments, and last but not least, letting them sit with their friends is always a terrible idea, but making them sit beside their enemies is even worse. Katie has had kids full-out deck each other in the face...it wasn't pretty.

We have been teaching them the difference between heavy and light, and sinking and floating, so at first I tried to explain it on the board but that didn't work or hold their attention. So I made up a game where they bring me something light, like a piece of paper or pencil or something, and I say "light" over and over while I lift it up and down. Then I pick up the kid and say "heavy." They think it's really funny and they now know the difference. For floating and sinking I have a student lay across my arms and I pick him/her up and try to make it look like they're floating in the ocean. And when I put them down I say they're sinking. It didn't work quite as well as heavy/light, but at least they listened, haha.

Learning how to cook has been a lot of fun, actually. I wouldn't know since I never really cooked back home, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot different here. For example, nobody here cooks with an oven; they do a lot of boiling and cooking over the stove. Also, in terms of the food, there are a lot of things that we have back in the States that aren't available here. But at least now I know that it's possible for me to survive without eating out all the time! Lunch is always the same for Katie and me: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips (Katie), cookies (me), and a piece of fruit. Dinner is a little bit more varied, but rice is always an integral part of the meal. We had been buying microwavable rice bowls, but one of the American teachers showed us how to use the rice cooker and that has been both easy and cost-efficient. All you do is buy a huge bag of uncooked rice that will last you a couple weeks or more depending on the size, measure out how much rice you want, add the same measurement of water as you did the rice, turn the cooker on and it's ready in 15 minutes! While the rice is cooking, I boil water in a pot so I can heat up the supposedly microwavable sauce pouches (they have actually caught on fire in the microwave, so we play it safe now). There are a bunch of different pouches in the store to choose from. Our favorites are curry, meatball, and beef jjajang. Hot sauce comes in handy with all of them. We have also learned how to cook fried dumplings over the stove. They are really good, especially if you soak them in soy sauce, mmmmmmmm. and hot sauce. Sometimes I use the boiling water to make soup.

Nothing I described above is made from scratch, but it is a feat in itself that I have kind've mastered the cooking appliances.

We finally figured out how to get back to the very first place we ate at in Tongyeong, so we are heading there now! Later gators (Katie wrote that).