Here's a list of some of the things I've missed since coming to Korea.  I'm not complaining so don't get the wrong idea.  It's just a little glimpse of how things are on this side of the pond.

Things I miss about the US:

*Speaking.  I'm ready to be able to talk to people in grocery stores, the bank and restaurants.  Last time I went to the bank, the teller kept talking and talking.  She was asking me questions even though I repeatedly told her I don't speak Korean.

*Dairy products. I'm living in the land of Kraft Singles, and they're expensive.  A package of 8 slices will run you about $4.  I saw a rare can of whipped cream at one of the larger grocery stores, and it was $10.  Real butter is $8 a box... you get the idea.

*Driving.  We take the bus and trains all over, and we're lucky that the transportation system here is so awesome.  But sometimes I just feel like going for a drive.  On a side note, I miss all my CDs I left in our car too.

*Bountiful Baskets.  So right before we left the States, we discovered a fruit & veggie co-op where we got a laundry basket full of local produce for $15.  Today I saw a single pear at the grocery store for $6.

*Family and friends.  We've met so many good friends through work and church and we're so blessed.  And we're so lucky that we live in a world with Skype, Facebook, and e-mail.  But it's just not quite the same as hanging out with your family for Sunday dinner.

*Pandora and Netflix:  Some websites just aren't available in our region.  

*My clothes:  I seriously look like the biggest bum these days.  It's freezing cold everywhere and the hallway windows at my school don't close properly.  I have 3 or 4 hoodies and a couple pairs of jeans that I just cycle through over and over.  Everything we buy over here has to come home with us in a suitcase so we don't see a point in acquiring much of anything.

Things I will probably miss when I leave Korea:  

*Not having expenses.  Our utilities are all bundled together here, and we usually pay under $100 a month for electricity, gas, cable TV, and telephone.  Plus, the school pays for our apartment .

*Being able to travel.  In the past seven months of living in Korea, we've been able to go to the Philippines, China, and all around Korea.  It's much cheaper to fly to Asian countries when you're already in Asia (duh).  

*Trash & Recycling.  You don't get a monthly trash disposal bill here.  Instead, you buy special trash bags for your garbage.  Every apartment complex has areas where you can dump your trash and sort out all your recyclable materials.  The recycling is free. You don't need any bags; just toss it in the bin. Only your garbage has to be in a bag.  You pay the city for trash removal when you purchase the trash bags.  So the less you throw away, the less you pay.

*Living close to everything.  There are three grocery stores that we can walk to within five minutes.  There's not a lot of room for storing food in our apartment, but it's so easy to just buy whatever you need every day.

That just about sums it up.  I'm sure there are a million more things I could add, but this gives you an idea of some of the differences between living in the US and Korea.  I keep telling myself that I'm just ready to go home now, but how many people can say they spent a year in Korea?  I've learned a lot about Korean culture and language, getting around without a car, acting out scenes instead of just using words like a normal person, and I've learned a lot about myself from being here.  We only have 4 1/2 more months, and I think it will fly by.

Carson and I went to the Philippines for a couple of days, and it was so fun!  The people there were so laid back.  It was nice to get away from all of the hustle and bustle of Korea.  The first place we went to was Magellan's cross.  Since it is a tourist spot, there were a lot of beggars there.  There was a lady with a baby right as we got out of the taxi.  Then we just got swarmed by a bunch of people asking for money.  It was really overwhelming at first.  There was one little boy who was particularly persistent.  He kept putting his hand in front of us and saying, "Please, Please.  Hungry."  I felt so bad because we didn't have a ton of cash on us, and it was all in bigger bills anyway.  
A lady at the cross asked what our names were so she could pray for us.  She couldn't quite pronounce Carson's name so she said something like, "Cawkson."  When she was praying for us, the little beggar boy started laughing.  He just kept laughing then said, "Cawkson, my friend."  
The picture at the top of this post is us riding in a horse-drawn cart.  We didn't really have anywhere to go so we just paid the guy to take us around the neighborhood.  After, we asked if we could take our picture with him.  Carson gave him the camera and told him what button to push.  I don't think the guy had ever seen a digital camera before.  He first pointed the camera the wrong way, like he was taking a picture of himself.  Then we told him to turn it around and he was really surprised that he could see us in the screen.  Not a bad picture for his first time right?
Later that night, we were walking around the area that was near our hotel.  We started to walk up a hill and a guy asked us if we wanted a ride on his motorcycle.  He said he could take us to our hotel for the equivillant of  $1.  So the three of us all rode up the hill on his little motorcycle.  It was pretty fun!

We saw Wicked, and it was awesome!  We sat on the highest balcony, and for some reason there were tons of kids there.  It must have been a field trip or something.  That or someone decided to bring her 18tuplets.  Before the show started, the lady who was showing the people to their seats told us that there were a lot of kids there, and if we were uncomfortable we could let her know.  I think she was trying to say that if the kids were annoying and loud, we could tell her.  The kids were actually all silent during the whole thing.  But I wonder what she would have done if we complained?  Move us down to the front maybe?

We stayed in Gangnam.  And at one of the malls, there were some people dancing to Gangnam Style.  It was pretty much all foreigners and they tried to get us to dance with them.  I can't get away from that song!

We went to a mall where was an aquarium, a kimchi museum, a casino and a hotel inside.  We went to the aquarium and it was pretty cool.  We got to see a guy feed the manatees.  So cute!  Then there was a tank full of Dr. fish that we put our hands in and let the fish eat our dead skin.  It felt so weird but I liked it.

Hi everyone! If you would like to talk to us on Skype our account is under Tausha Hanzel. 

Pictures of our students

Here are some pictures of our students that I stole from my friend's facebook page 
 ( Thanks Mairi!).

Oxford Class.  These are the babies.  They're 4-5 years old.

Brian and Olivia

Brown Class.  I love teaching them.  They're very well-mannered.

Cambridge Class.  Don't let the cute faces deceive you.  They are a wild bunch.

Luis, Esther, and Kevin

One of my 13 year old students asked me who it was on my shirt.  I told him I didn't know and he asked, "Is it Jesus?"

Andong: Part 2

Well Tausha told you a little bit about our visit to Andong, but I just want to add in a few things that she forgot about.Once we arrived at Andong we decided to get something to eat. We were drawn in to one particular restaurant because of the aroma that we smelled from half a block away. The restaurant had a picture menu so we thought that we would be alright. We ordered some fries and what seemed to be pork of some type. We waited patiently for our food, but were skeptical once the food arrived. I was brave enough to try the meat (which Tausha didn't try) and found the meat type to be indiscernible!  I'm guessing that it was some type of squid of octopus, but the only way that I can describe the sensation was that it was both chewy and crunchy. The taste however, was similar to a ball of rubber marinated in the chili-sause and the cook's gym sock!
After that we grabbed a popsicle to get rid of the taste and went back to our hotel. The hotel was nice the first night, but the the 2nd night's motel was even better. It had nice showers and a big screen tv, so I was in heaven. Tausha already spoke of the bus ride to the Hahoe Village, which was when I envied any sardines in a can. We did see a Mask Museum as well that was pretty cool though. It had a collection of masks from all over the world. Andong hosts a mask festival every September that that is supposed to be quite the spectacle. Tausha and I thought that it was interesting that Halloween masks made the stage next to the Venician and. African Masks. 

Once we decided to head back to Pyongtaek we found that all of the seats were taken from our transfer city to Pyongtaek. (a 3 hour train ride). We got some tickets, but we either stood or sat on the floor for the three hours. We did manage to get into the back of the cart, where we had slightly ghetto private seats.. Overall, we faced 95+ degree temperatures, bad food, and crowded transportation, but we had the time of our lives doing it. 

This was our super awesome motel on our 2nd night

This is me forging the river. I thought the umbrella was pretty flattering

This was our private train compartment. It's pretty fancy I know, but
 it's only the best when we're on vacation!

Mask Museum #1

Mask Museum #2

Mask Museum #3

Mask Museum #4: Watch out behind you!

Mask Museum #5

Mask Museum #6: My new buddy

Looks like plumber butt was a still a
problem 600 years ago.

Traditional-style Korean home.  The homes in this village are over 600 years old.

5-story pagoda

Andong chicken.  It's not the greatest picture, but it gives you an idea of how huge the plate was!

Our school has a week off for summer vacation so we decided to go to Andong.  It is a city where there are traditional style homes that are about 600 years old.  We took a train there and we had to transfer in Dong-degu.  So the screen on the train says "next stop Degu."  We got off the train and started looking for our next transfer.  We couldn't see it on any of the screens so we showed a worker our ticket and asked him what track we needed to be on.  He looked at our ticket and showed us that we were at Degu station, not Dong-degu.  At that time, we had about 15 minutes until our next train would leave at Dong-degu.  He told us to take a taxi and it would be about 10-15 minutes.  
He motioned us to follow him and we started sprinting through the station.  He took us outside to the taxi stop and told the taxi driver where to take us.  The driver looked at our tickets and kept laughing at us.  It was the kind of laugh that said, "Wow you kids are never going to make it.  You're crazy."  We were laughing with him because we couldn't believe we got off at the wrong station.  He showed us where the station was on his GPS.  We were stuck in traffic and thought we'd never make it.  We started making plans to just spend the night in Dong-degu and catch another train to Andong in the morning.  
The cab driver pulled up to the station at 1:57 and our train was going to leave at 1:58.  We flew through that station and found the right track.  Luckily, the train was delayed three minutes so we made it just in the nick of time.  Just barely.  
We made it to Andong and got a lot of maps and pamphlets from the tourist station.  We got a hotel and the next day we went to the folk village.  There is only one bus that goes to the village, and it only leaves every hour or so.  It was VERY packed.  But we got to the village and it was cool!  They let you stay in the old houses, but we decided not to because it didn't look like they were air conditioned.  And it was super hot. We had to keep sitting down in the shade.  I think we ate around 5 popsicles each for the couple hours we were there.  
We tried the Andong chicken.  I guess it's a big deal in that part of town.  I think you were supposed to share the meal with about 6 people though because it came out on a gigantic plate.  It was chicken, potatoes, vegetables, clear noodles, and a spicy sauce.  Pretty good!  
It's been awesome not having to go to work.  We've been working on decorating our apartment and it's actually starting to feel like a home now.  We got some picture frames and hung a couple pictures up.  And we got a little couch so we don't always have to sit on the bed.  The apartments here have a recycling area where people put their old furniture.  You can just take whatever you want.  It's kind of a cool idea because there's no way we'd be able to buy a couch here.  We don't know where to buy one and if we did, we'd have to take it home on the bus.