Lonely Planet: Korea gives short summaries of the palaces of Seoul and notes that it is quite unnecessary to see more than one. Similarly, many bloggers note that if you’ve seen one palace, you’ve seen them all. Despite the similarities, I, on the other hand, completely disagree with the aforementioned notions. In fact, visiting the …
How does an American celebrate Independence Day in Korea? By eating food and lighting things on fire, of course. What else? After having to cancel our scheduled cook out (mostly because Itaewon left us all in conditions not able to do anything useful with ourselves), we decided to venture out to Apgujeong for much sought …
Twice a week, my school holds a graduation ceremony to celebrate the students’ completion of the 3 or 5 day program and to celebrate their hard “work” and “studying” efforts. Sitting through numerous graduations proves to be monotonous after a while, as the dialogue is always the same. “Congratulations” by Cliff Richard is played on …
Standing in line for lunch, a younger student saw my Mignon Faget ring that I wear daily and asked me, “Teacher, are you married?” This didn’t surprise me, as I get this question a lot from the students. “No,” I replied casually. “Well, do you have a boyfriend?” “Nope,” I continued. “Teacher, why? When do …
This Saturday, I will have been in Korea for two months. I cannot believe how fast the time has passed; living here has quickly become natural to me. I not only know my way around, but I now feel as if I am now a part of all this: my school, the people, the hustle …
Let’s just make this clear… Koreans can eat. Eat in extremely large portions for an exceedingly long amount of time. With the exception of some children, the majority of them remain stick thin. It’s unreal. The Korean dining experience is pretty fantastic. At most traditional restaurants, customers remove their shoes and sit on the floors. …
I started teaching culture class last week. Immediately after observing the class, I had to teach it to a group of mid-level students. I quickly learned that describing culture is a somewhat difficult task to do. I felt like I was losing the kids’ attention, so I started talking about manners, as there were flashcards …
So, after one too many buckets and being chased around by a masked man who so desperately wanted to play rock-paper-scissors at Monkey Beach in Apgujeong, I was absolutely useless on Sunday. There was no way I was going to be capable of leaving my apartment, so I figured I should do something productive with …
They say that bad things happen in threes. I don’t know who “they” is or how valid this superstition may be, but it seems that it has proved quite true for South Korea recently. As if teaching uncontrollable, kicking, screaming, hair-snipping orphans (not to sound insensitive) was not enough for me, there has been a …
I cannot believe it has been an entire year since my Contiki trip across Europe. Not only was it one of the best months of my life, but I made some friends that I know I will keep in touch with for my entire life. I was so fortunate to be able to spend some …