Chiang Mai me.

My return to the "New City" has been more than enlightening.

The last time I visited Thailand, it was with an ISV (International Student Volunteers) tour group. ISV is a great program and I probably wouldn't have gotten the guts to travel to SE Asia at all if not for this program. However, there is a huge difference between traveling with a group and backpacking on your own itinerary (or lack thereof). Fortunately, many countries in SE Asia, especially Thailand, will bend over backwards for foreigners because their economy is so tourism-based. We have had many positive encounters with people here who honestly want to help us get from place to place, which counters my original Western perspective that everyone in developing countries is out to rip you off. However, there are always safety measures to take. Some major pointers for a first-timer:

• Never let go of your bags or their openings.
• If you ride on a bus or train, try to keep your luggage with you as opposed to letting staff put it in under carriage storage. Many times, people (planned or unplanned) will raid through your things.
• If you are alone or in a crowded area, it's a smart idea to wear a money belt. If you don't want to get caught wearing the brighter-than-neon tourist symbol around your hips, then cargo pockets are another solid option for you to store your cash, as they are less easy to pick pocket.
• Always travel with a lock and key. Many hostels will provide lockers but rarely have locks.
• If you take transportation (cab, bus, ferry) without a ticket price, confirm the cost of the ride before you take off.

When all else fails, use common sense, ask another foreigner, or follow your gut and you should be fine.

My stay in Chiang Mai has had me utilizing all my knowledge of safety I could draw on, but I also got to let my guard down and join in on the culture more than I have before on a typical vacation abroad. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city with lots of color, life and culture. Home to the cheapest massages around and with breakfast venues on every corner, this place is a paradise to foreigners and Thai people alike for its services as well as its industry.  Chiang Mai also has a plethora of Buddhist temples all around the city, which makes it kind of a love child between a beachy-style, San Fran wannabe and a Thai cultural hotspot.

Basically, I'm in love.


One note-able remark for staying in any city in Thailand (especially the big ones like Bangkok and Chiang Mai), would be to avoid elephant street begging. When you see these guys walking around the street asking for food and money, it is safe to assume they are unhealthy, stressed out and scared. Please do NOT support their business. If you really want to support the tourism industry here by seeing elephants, visit the Elephant Nature Park just outside Chiang Mai. They are a non-profit which supports elephants living free of abuse, and you can have the rare opportunity to see them in a large habitat, feed them, and bathe them in the river. By the end, you will probably even be besties. That's a MUCH more realistic and sustainable way to help our big friends and the Thai community, don'tchathink?

Our hostel in Chiang Mai has also been note-able. A Little Bird Guesthouse is amazing for its location and price (about $3 a night!), but aside from things being at the bare bare essentials (which is manageable), we had a rude awakening this morning when a new guest moved rooms at 7:30am because the one she was settled into wasn't satisfactory. Thus, I feel it beneficial to anyone reading this post to check out some tips on hostel guest etiquette:

• Do NOT wake the travelers. If it is 7:30am. If it is 2pm. If they are hungover. If they are jet-lagged. Do NOT wake them. Guests are paying to, above all else, sleep.
• Do not leave the doors of your hostel room open of there are guests inside who are sleeping/changing/picking their nose. Guests are, secondly, paying for some sense of privacy.
• Only take up the amount of space you are paying for. Got a private room? Throw your clothes and have a dance party. But if you paid for one bed, don't spread your things out with hopes nobody will show up. Odds are they will and then you'll have to go through the Shameful Bed Clearing ritual many backpackers are familiar with.

Those are just some basics. Like with safety, if you use common sense you're sure to be fine.

That's all for now. Tomorrow we are planning on heading out into the mountains for some more temple-seeing. then to Cambodia the next day!

Take care, wherever you may be!
Laura and Cheengu

Intermission.

I couldn't think of a better word for my life right now. I'm going out there, but really everything's got kind of a "we'll be right back to your regularly scheduled programming" kind of feeling about it.

It's probably because I have 8 days til I leave Ulsan, the city I now know better than Seattle, and less than 10 days til I take-off for my trip through SE Asia. So aside from teaching for 3 hours daily and cleaning every conceivable corner of my apartment, there's not much to focus on besides getting-the-heck-out-of-here.

AND.... packing. Which, as any of my blog followers already know, I completely adore.

Packing for SE Asia in August is relatively easy because it's so hot... no winter coats or snowshoes in this bag. However, with this being my 2nd trip to that region, here are a couple of items I thoroughly recommend:

1. Plastic ponchos or a light (and I mean, light) jacket with a hood. Just because it's the rainy season doesn't mean it's cold. Truthfully, the only function of this albeit very important piece is to waterproof yourself or the important things you might be carrying.

2. Motion-sickness tablets. I know there are probably a lot of other important medical concerns people have when they think of Southeast Asia (like malaria or typhoid fever), but honestly unless you are going to be in extremely rural areas, not wearing any bug repellant and rolling around in the dirt while drinking unfiltered water, you will probably be fine. However, this doesn't mean to skip a visit to the travel doctor before you go abroad! It's better to be safe, just not paranoid.

Although I'm not prone to motion sickness, transportation in SE Asia can be kind of rough on a person: long bus rides on continuously winding, undeveloped roads... boat rides for hours... it's just the kind of thing you would rather be prepared for than not.

3. Passport-size photos. Apparently they are a requirement for entering Cambodia and Vietnam, along with copies of the front page of your passport. And some money. They wouldn't want me if I didn't have some of that.

Well, that's it. That's all you need.

No, just kidding. But those are definitely an overlooked top 3. If you'd like to know more about packing for an adventure, check out my Travel Kit 101 page and with that and some common sense you should be all set.

"Boryeong's magical mud cures the everyday case of dry skin, sanity and sobriety", says random foreigner.

This weekend, another first I wanted to experience before my departure from South Korea: getting slicked-up at the Boryeong Mud Festival.

According to my Wiki-ing, this is the 14th annual celebration of Boryeong's healthy, clay-based mud to advertise beauty products made from a local, organic company. What better way to sell something than with free samples? Better yet, what better way to sell something than with mud slides, beach access, and loads of alcohol at the ready? I don't know of many.

We left with a small group of foreigners very early Saturday morning for the 5-hour bus ride from Ulsan to Boryeong. After checking into the pension nearby, we were ready for action and made our way to the beach!

I never experienced a traditional frat-style 'Spring Break', but after this weekend I'm pretty sure any potential desires to join in on one in the future were prematurely fulfilled. People really didn't hold anything back. In fact, for as excited as I was all month to attend this festival, as soon as I stepped off the bus I felt immediately uncomfortable. To be greeted by a sight like this when you are completely clean is really awkward.

Thankfully, the weather soon changed into an all-out monsoon and we were able to get messy enough to talk ourselves into getting muddy. After that, we fit right in!

We also found plenty of time to lay on the beach and go swimming. Cheen-gu also liked hanging out with us.

So what does one bring to a mud festival?

1. Camera (waterproof if possible; if not, wrapped in plastic or inside a ziploc)
2. Money
3. Phone
4. Optional but useful: towel and extra plastic bags for wet/muddy clothes
5. Sunglasses
6. Sunscreen

One extra item we found almost necessary by the end of the weekend were 'wet bags', designed specifically to hold small personal items (see numbers 1-3) in a completely water-proof bag with attachable lanyard for around your neck.

Oh, and you might want to bring some courage too... of the liquid and/or mental variety. This crowd demands it.

What keeps me coming back.

This week, I sent my first box home. Things I don't need here: winter clothes, souvenirs; maybe even some things I will end up donating upon arrival in Seattle (which makes the value of those donations, thoeoretically, way higher because of shipping costs!... but I digress). Two more boxes sit in my apartment now, open but empty. It is a constant reminder to me of my looming departure. There's excitement as well as sadness; hope as well as anxiety. All in all, it's a happy thing. I may not always like change but boy do I love packing.

It wasn't easy, though-- getting to this point. For those of you who aren't famliar with the system here, my 1-year contract is up for renewal in August. To give the Metropolitan Office of Education enough time to fill my place, they needed to know if I was renewing or not by mid-May. I've never had such a difficult time giving someone a "yes" or "no" answer (and for those of you who really know me, you know that's saying a lot). Nay, there were many times I flip-flopped, debated, and utterly freaked out (which, sadly, happened at least twice). I try to refrain from outright asking for advice; however, I found myself in desperate need of some. Friends and family alike had their take on how to make the call.

Some people suggested a healthy dialog.

Others thought I should make a list.

Some even suggested flipping a coin to see how I felt about the outcome.

After trying everything, I almost found myself more lost than before. I talked myself in circles and flipped a variety of coins (for some reason I thought the type of coin might make a difference), all to no avail. And the list part-- MY typical default-- was the worst one yet! On the "Pros" side were the important, hard-hitting and adult-type aspects:

job security
housing security
relatively low cost of living
amazing health care
continue learning a language
continue traveling

Wow. Well that's the way to shove me out the door.

This is a dillemma that many a Guest English Teacher face in Korea. The fact is that, despite our complaining and serious confusion in this culture at times, the Korean government has made it almost too enticing to leave, especially in this economic climate. That's why many of us stay here after a year, whether we had planned to or not. It attracts all types: people who are trying to save money; couples who want to work and travel; legitimate teachers (the rarer breed); and party-hearty die-hards who can reconcile their lifestyle in a culture that accepts them as both an educator and as a drunken fool.

With all that said, many people ask me why I decided to leave Korea after only 1 year.

I often get asked this question as if there must be something wrong with my situation, like I got shafted on the school/principal combination, or I finally snapped after eating kimchi every day.

The best way to describe why I'm leaving is this: it's about love.

"Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being 'drawn toward.' Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one's friends and enemies.

Love creates righteousness, or justice, here on earth."  --Carter Heyward

We all have to listen to our inner voice. Sometimes the voice inside of us is really loud, and it shouts for us to do something. But sometimes it's quiet and small. That doesn't take away from its value, or mean we can ignore it. We just need to listen closer in order to understand what it's trying to tell us.

The love I have inside of me is to affect change for those who need it. It's not the kind of thing that fills me with rom-com joy, or has a 'happily ever after' tacked onto the end. It's not even something I think could lull me to sleep at night. In fact, that voice screams at me daily to get up and do something for others. But the voice that prompted me to go back to the States was small and scared, because starting over-- even at home-- is difficult.

I was afraid, for a time, that going home meant I was failing myself, like I wasn't able to live across the world alone. What I ended up realizing, after a million coin tosses, 2 lists and an emergency international call to my parents, is that it takes just as much courage to follow your passions at home as it does if you're on the other side of the world.

And now that I know, doesn't that make every day an adventure?

those weird foreigners.

Now that I've been living in Korea for over 8 months, I realized how much foreigners like to point out all the strange things Koreans do, but rarely look at it from the other way around. After all, our normal is, well-- normal-- to us, leaving the remainder of things we see outside our realm of comfort as abnormal.

So in the spirit of bridging the gap, I'm compiling a couple lists. Because that's what I do.

WHY KOREANS FIND FOREIGNERS STRANGE

1. We have the obligatory, "bless you" after sneezing, which, when said to a Korean person, hangs awkwardly in the air like a forgotten high-five.

2. We dress in animal onesies to go bowling. This is a new tradition my friends and I have started in Ulsan, because we feel like we get stared at enough already. PS: Our herd is 30+ strong.

3. We like to hug. Sometimes a lot.

4. We play the ukulele, an instrument almost no Korean (and, strangely, some people from the USA) have never heard of.



5. Despite our hugging (see point 3), we like to keep our food to ourselves, and will rarely share a meal off the same plate. That's so Lady and the Tramp.



WHY WESTERNERS WILL THINK I'M STRANGE UPON MY RETURN

1. I will bow to my elders, and maybe to a little head nod to my friends and co-workers.

2. I won't want to use a fork, and maybe pull out chopsticks at the dinner table. Along the same lines, I will eat rice with a spoon.

3. I might forget to give the obligatory, "bless you" when people in my vicinity sneeze. Apologies in advance.

4. I will confuse people with my wardrobe.

5. I will be hugging everyone in sight because that's the one thing in Korea I really don't like living without.


And an announcement for those who haven't heard: I will be leaving Korea in about 100 days (mid-August), and returning by mid-September to Seattle. It was an incredibly tough decision, but I know it's going to be the right choice for me.

What I really love about sick days is...

If I were to finish that sentence, you would probably get something depicting the rituals I did in elementary school on sick days that have carried over to present time, like watching Boy Meets World. Don't kid yourself. We all do these kinds of things.

The one thing about being a foreigner that really annoys me is how sick I always am. A lot of other foreign friends have the same problem. We always have a little case of the Cruddies, which I chalk up to Koreanitis, the random illnesses that we would've already built up immunity to if we grew up in Asia. My little Western T-cells just don't stand a chance sometimes.

When I was sick for the first time in Korea, I pretty much panicked. If there was a high-speed jet that would get me home so I could let my mom make me Top Ramen with extra veggies I would've hopped on it and been on my couch. In short, being away from family when you are sick can really suck.

However, I've learned to cope, and although I so feel the Catholic guilt/ Korean shame try to creep into my day as the afternoon comes around, I try not to let it get to me.

Today, I'm paying homage to my sick day. So although my head feels like it's about to explode, and it took all the energy I had to convince myself to pause Legally Blonde mid-way and visit the doctor (both a mental and a physical feat), I do find comfort in a few things on these days of rest:

The fact that my visits to the clinic have no co-pays, and I am guaranteed to walk out of the clinic and down to the pharmacy and out the door in under 30 minutes... for less than $7 USD.

Feeling how much I can do on my own to take care of myself.

Letting my apartment get a little messy, because it's my place and my day and I don't have to clean 'til I'm healthy again.

Orange juice.

Making myself Korean Ramen (actually pronounced ram-yeon, which is the original version of the ramen we eat in the States). Although I still like yours better, Mom.

Buying those little Vitamin C bites that may or may not be vitamins at all because they are in the candy section, but who cares? They make me feel better anyway.

How to trick your students into thinking you're fluent in Korean.

For those of you who take me seriously always (big mistake), I'm not sure I actually condone tricking your students into thinking you're fluent in Korean. It's good for your students to see someone they look up to learning a language; it's inspiring to them. And whether you realize it or not, learning a language while you're teaching a different language really helps your lesson planning. How better to know how to teach a skill than by simultaneously being a student for a paralleling skill?

However, one of the key advantages for being a foreigner learning Korean is that the little bits you do use in the classroom not only gain control, but awe your students into literally jaw-dropping wonderment.

I'll stop rambling and cut to the chase.

1. Sit down please. 앉으세요. (an-ju-seyo).

This is the more polite version, but if you really want to get to the point and/or some little stinker is causing you grief, 앉아 (an-ja) will do.

2. Speak louder please. 크게말해세요. (ku-gey mal hey-seyo).

Just 'louder' (크게 or ku-gey) will also do... the other great thing about using Korean with students is that you can be fairly informal because you are their superiors. If classroom Korean is all you desire to learn, these phrases are sure to be some of the easiest.

3. Correct! 맞아요! (ma-ja-yo!) or shortened for students can also be: 마자! (ma-ja!).


4. It's also good to have a working sense of numbers up to 35, as student numbers are often used to call on random kids (very effective if a class is virtually silent, or if you want to instill a healthy dose of fear into their little hearts). There are 2 number systems in the Korean language, but the one you will need to know for student numbers (ordinal numbers) can be found here, at Talk to Me in Korean (Level 1, Lesson 15).

5. While you're at it, here's some basic classroom vocabulary:

Student- 학생 (hak-seng)
Teacher 선생님 (seon-seng-nim)
Chalk- 분필(boon-pil)
Paper- You may be using 2 different words for paper in the classroom. 종이 (jong-ee) is literally 'paper.' However, (jang) 장 is the counter used to talk about paper in the context of, "A piece (장) of paper (종이)".*
Period- 마침표 (mah-chim-pyo)

Lastly, please don't be afraid to use this one:

6. I only speak a little Korean. 한글말조금해요. (hangul-mal-jo-gum-hey-oh). Because it's important to know how to express this sentiment when your students get excited that you have the magical power of 'Korean Speak' and they start barrelling you with questions in Korean.


*UPDATE: I would like to thank Marie Frenette for adding (and improving) some useful information to this post. You can find some other useful classroom Korean phrases in the comments section below.

Who's learning from who here?

One of the questions I receive the most from family, friends, and curious internet acquaintances (thanks for bonding me to the internet for life, Facebook) is how well my Korean is coming. The short answer is this: it's coming well. I am beginning to build confidence in my speaking skills, although admittedly I was shocked at how shy my usually-talkative mouth was to use Korean. Now that I'm putting myself out there, it's coming along alright. My main audience during an average day are:

1. taxi drivers.
2. random students on the street by my apartment.
3. the family of the noodle/kim bap house I love so much.
4. street vendors.

Every time I have a success with Korean locals, I walk away with a poker face of cool confidence, which bursts into the dorkiest grin imaginable as soon as I'm out of sight. Some of the highlights include:


1. the first time I directed a cabbie to my apartment.
2. the second time I directed a cabbie to my apartment (yeah, it was a pretty big deal).
3. the time I bartered with a shoe salesman for a sweet deal on some black boots in Busan.
4. the way the teachers and students at my school light up when I try to write their names in Hangul (imagine a poor foreigner sinking into her chair, scrawling on a piece of paper as several Koreans huddle around her yelling, "gim hae eun... eun! euuuuuuun!").
5. actually communicating with the 2-to-4-year-olds I cared for this weekend at children's house in Ulsan (this is going to be a different post entirely so keep an eye out).

So I'd place my language level at 3 years of age. That and taxi driver, which are about equivalent.

Much of this learning has been completed on my own time, but it hasn't been by myself. Aside from my co-teachers and foreign network, the biggest asset to my learning have been the kids I work with. They love taking time from their day to show me new words, test my knowledge of Hangul, or provide me with opportunities to listen to simple sentences being whined over and over... and over.

The best thing about learning from kids is that they never judge you for being wrong. They may laugh, but they never make you feel inferior for asking. They really have been some of my biggest supporters when it comes to learning, and certainly the biggest inspiration. So a big thank you to my students, and all the Korean children who lend a helping hand to tongue-tied foreigners like me.

On the other side of the spectrum is the image of an 'English speaker' I have to present to my students. As a foreign English teacher trying to learn Korean, it is sometimes difficult not to use a little here and there in the classroom just to make things run smoother. On a normal day at my school, this isn't much of an issue because the Korean teachers are already using their native language for much of the class. However, the reason English-speakers were hired to come here is to somehow be a tool for English immersion. I often laugh at this since I have about 1,000 students at my school and somehow must immerse them all in my language.

However, I do work an after-school program with limited numbers of students, so in those classes it is crucial that we have an 'English only' policy, for both me and the students. My classes are well-informed that if they speak Korean, they have to write lines. Although this is not my preferred method for a reward/punishment system, it is definitely effective in Korea. The only problem is that by the 5 o'clock hour (when after-school lessons begin), students do not want to keep to school rules, and they definitely don't want to be kept from speaking Korean.

So, what happens when you have an English teacher in a room of students who want to speak Korean?

 I think we're going to have a lesson on punctuation
sometime in the near future.

Yep. Punctuation.

This student's handwriting got suspiciously larger to cover more space.
Nice tactic.

I particularly like this kid's take on the punishment. Not only did he write 100 times in the smallest handwriting "I will speak English", but he wrote in blaring yellow marker... and still managed to save enough space to scrawl "THE END" at the bottom.

The age hierarchy in Korea would never allow me to say this aloud, but I think I learn just as much-- if not more-- from my students on a daily basis (and that's no knock to my teaching abilities!). Let's just chalk it up to say that what I learned in college still holds true: we all learn from one another.

I love making lists.

So naturally the biggest high is making a list of things to pack when you're moving half-way around the world.

This is a massive, comprehensive list, with colors and quantities and labels (yes; I'm aware I'm totally geeking out and no; this is not a problem to me). Here are a few of my favorites/ most notable items:

1. My Lonely Planet Travel Guide to Korea. Lonely Planet is one of the best sources for travlers to know anything they would want to about a foreign country, and the authors are pretty hilarious (because who wants to read dry paragraphs when they're stoked to travel?!). I loved this book so much I bought the Korean Phrasebook to go along with it; score!

2. A quick-drying travel towel (REI). It's space-friendly for suitcases and dries like THAT, so I never worry about it being damp when I need it. This is perfect for backpacking (which I'll definitely be doing when I'm not at work!).

3. A travel journal. Because you'll want to remember how you felt when you first arrived, and see how much you've been able to accomplish (or simply survive!). Don't forget extra pens!

4. Clif bars. Not because I'll be running a marathon during my first weeks in Korea or anything, but sometimes it's nice to have a little taste of something familiar. I invested in some of these babies on my last trip abroad and am glad I did! Not only did I use them on a couple of occasions when food was scarce or questionable, but bringing enough to share can make you an extra friend or two along your journey. Well worth the extra bit of weight.

That's all for now! I'm going to ride this list-making high and see how much stuff I can get organized.

realities.

1. In 18 days, I will be in the air on my way to Korea.
This week, I secured a one-way flight (!) and acquired my visa to live in Korea for a year. It should make everything more real but for some reason I'm still in denial. Is it okay that I'm mostly excited for the movies on the international flight? I can't think too far past that right now. My head might explode.

2. Getting your teaching certificate online is a lot of work, but it's worth it.
I thought I was good at grammar before taking these classes. What I REALLY learned is that native English-speakers really take their language for granted. It's difficult at best to learn. But now that I've had these classes, despite loathing the English language before I even become a teacher, I feel prepared to teach any grade level now. My hope? 1st-2nd graders. Adorable.

3. I love learning Korean. But I don't know nearly enough.
Knowing the language isn't required to be a teacher in Korea, but I wanted to know some before leaving. Podcasts have been the most helpful. If you are ever interested in learning Korean, Youtube Korean101.com or find their podcasts in iTunes. I even took them on vacation with me and found it pretty easy to pick up.

4. My suitcase remains untouched because I'm scared to put everything in it.
It's hidden by a pile of clothes sitting in the corner of my room. And I don't even want to think about the extra things I'm going to need to get before leaving:

-lotion (because many lotions in Korea have skin-whitening agents in them)
-deodorant (because it's pretty uncommon in Korea)
-grammar book (for obvious reasons)
-watch with alarm (so I can still get up on time for orientation while I don't have a phone)

and probably some other things I haven't even thought of yet.

5. Ulsan is 16 hours ahead of Seattle time.
So if you ever want to know what tomorrow's going to look like, just ask me. Well maybe not.
But to find out what time it is in my corner of the world, you can

a) Guess.
b) Take your current time, add 4 hours and flip the am/pm (for people in PST only).
c) visit this link, which also includes a weather report. You can even search for other locations too, to keep up with all your friends around the world.

6. This is going to be a great adventure.
Enough said. And above any challenge or hesitance I know it's going to be worth it.