Fordpride

and you also have about 600 reasons why Korea ain't so bad!

(believe it) i love this sign because it makes me think of disneyland...only not the happiest place on earth I went to North Korea on Saturday. NBD (no big deal). Some friends and I headed up to the Demilitarized Zone (the area that separates North and South Korea) on Saturday to hang out with the guys up north. Like this guy! He had some binoculars for awhile and was staring at us through them. The Army guys/tour guides who took us around gave us strict instruction to not point or make gestures of any kind towards these guys because they take note of everything that happens. (sooo it could be bad?). We even had to sign a "Visitors Declaration" stating that "The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death". DEATH I like this picture because the guy in the forefront of this photo is a South Korean and the guy in the background is a North Korean soldier. And they stand in this position. A...

The second installment of "Meet the Ptaek Family" ALEX . (alex has left us physically, returning to the states earlier than we would like, but her presence is still felt in every step we take) I think of her every time I see a hot dog. Alex is a bundle of fun! We love her because she makes us laugh, she can quote movie lines with the best of them, and she is a whiz at dizzy bat (among many other things). I am really lucky to have Facebook stalked her when I first got to Korea. And I'm really glad she didn't think I was creepy when I did it. And that we went to Beyonce together. And that we've had so many blissful memories since then. Also, I hope the YMCA appreciates her as much as we do. In the words of Mariah, "there's a hero, if you look inside your heart. You don't have to be afraid of who you are". Long live Harry Potter. And Catch Phrase.

Just because I want them on here. And, say it with me, I do what I want. (an accurate representation of the boy to girl ratio among the singles in the church here) I love Buddha's birthday!

This is the first installment of my new segment: MEET THE PTAEK FAMILY! There is a great group of friends down here in my little city and they have become my peeps. We are a family of sorts. A dysfunctional and sexually crazed (or frustrated) family. But we have whats important: LOVE. First up... Meet Chase! Chase is funny. Koreans love him. We love him. We share a passion for mullets. He is currently sporting this look. I respect it. And he falls asleep on my shoulder a lot. (ok so maybe...twice?) Favorite Chase quote: "I really want to black out tonight. Being sober sucks"

I feel like I can consider myself a seasoned talent show performer. It started when I was younger and I have participated in many a nights on stage. We won't mention how many of these times my alter ego Cher-indy came around. So last week when I stopped by the adjacent high school after school to talk to my friend, and ended up walking in on a group getting ready for their talent show the following day, and having them asking me to join them on stage, I wasn't shy about saying yes. Does that make sense? They were doing a medley of two songs. The first was some Korean pop song I didn't know. The second was "Let's Get it Started" by Black Eyed Peas. I remember I used to kind of hate that song. But after spending so much time listening to it last week with my new Korean friends, I love it. It all started with a simple request from them for me to dance in the background. Because why wouldn't a random white girl dancing behind them on stage NOT help them out...

The day before our school's Sports Day (like unto Field day, only not so many ribbons), one of my students was in my office and was talking about how he would score so many goals during the soccer games the next day. He was so confident. So sure about it. Of course with this kind of confidence, a bet was sure to happen. Either he would knock me off my chair with his soccer skills or he'd shatter into pieces in front of his English teacher. I was really hoping for the latter. So we shook on it. If he scored three goals the following day I would buy him a Coke. If he didn't, he'd buy me one. I could already taste the sweet carbonation down my throat. Oh Cheong-hoon. You with your matching jacket and hat. You with your soccer abilities. You came ready for Sports Day. And ready to win that Coke. I sat in the sweltering sun for over 5 hours watching soccer game after soccer game, hoping Cheong-hoon would just stop. Stop running, stop playing, stop scoring. But then ...

Sometimes I think I'm teaching my young students something. Challenging young minds, if you will. Take the current lesson I'm teaching. The chapter in their book is entitled "How MP3 Files Work" or something equally lame. So from that, I draw out the lesson of "Music Mania" wherein I discuss different types of music we listen to in the U.S. of A. For the country music selection I play some old school "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by the one and only Brooks and Dunn. And for a more modern 'country' song I play some Taylor Swift. The moment she appeared on the screen, there was a gasp from the class. They were in love. At first I wondered if this was too inappropriate. But I mean, its Taylor Swift. She's more modest than 98% of current music artists. So I kept it going. They LOVED it. They didn't want me to change songs. Ever. Also, surprisingly enough, they enjoyed my rock music selections: KISS, Van Halen (i thought about playi...

That last blog post was meant to head in a different direction, but I just decided to let it go where it wanted to. So now I write this blog. Last weekend I had the luxury of having a four day weekend. WOOT WOOT. Thanks to Buddha's birthday and my school's anniversary, I had four days to do anything I wanted to do. And I wanted to go to the beach. So I went. I packed up my bag and jumped on a train for Busan, located in the southeast corner of the country. It was about a 5 hour ride but luckily it went by fast. And then, I was at the beach. Thank goodness. The water was still freezing but the sun and the sand made my trip already worth it. From there I saw a couple Buddhist temples (in my opinion, two of the most beautiful temples I've seen in this country) and for maybe the first time since landing in Korea, I thought it had striking natural beauty. I loved being in the mountains and being surrounded by nature. I also headed into the biggest shopping mall in the worl...

Lately I've gotten into calling people 'babe' and 'boo'. And when I say people, I mean every single person around me. I don't really know where it came from. I mean, I have been using these terms very selectively for the past few years, but now they come out of my mouth at an alarming rate. A couple weeks ago some of my students let out a "Whats up baby?!" to me and it took me a second to replay every conversation I've had with them for the past 8 months to see if they got that phrase from me. I don't think they did. So now its kind of a joke between us. I love having inside jokes with students. One time when I was teaching a lesson on giving advice, I told the class I had a problem. I said that I really missed my family because they are soooo far away and that I needed advice to make me less homesick. They threw out the standard things that I was hoping they'd think of: call my family, webcam, email, etc. Then one student yells o...

So there's this guy at work who makes me feel a little uncomfortable. 90% of the time he's really funny and tries talking to me and on my second day here he dropped me off at a photographer studio, so I know he's a nice guy. I don't know his real name, but in my mind I call him "The Punisher". Only today I found out he does more than punish the students. I seriously though that was his only job: keeping the kids in line. It's all I see him doing. My school sits up on a hill. Every morning The Punisher stands at the top of the hill with about 8 students. I call this his "posse". So The Punisher and his posse are there to make sure all the students come to school on time and in full uniform. If they don't...well, you don't want to know. What I do know is that I'm consistently 3 minutes late to school every day. My first class starts 20 minutes after the first bell, so I like to think I'm 17 minutes early. The Punisher and ...

Today is my eldest brothers bday. David is soooo good that even if he were faint, he would never give up his birthright for a pot of pottage, true story. Happy birthday brother! You deserve the best. Please go to Wingers and eat an extra wing for me. Also, we need to work on taking more flattering pictures together. Throw that on the to-do list. Until then, yes, this will be on the internets.

I remember when I was in 11th grade we had to choose a book to read out of so many options and from that book we had to prepare a presentation for the class. It was one of my first 'big' projects, as the presentation would have to last about 10 minutes and I was nervous. Whenever I have presentations like that I flash back to my most traumatic school presentation from third grade where my fake mustache fell off, causing me to forget my lines and tears to flow from my eyes. Anyways, by 11th grade I had overcome my overzealousness for school and fear of embarrassing myself. So I knew I wouldn't have a problem. Point of this story is that for my book I read the biography of Buddha and I made a sweet presentation (sweet meaning if i remember right i got a B. i blame mr. pruett . JK! some of my fave books ever come this class). From this simple school assignment, I found myself fascinated with Buddha and his teachings. The four noble truths , the eightfold path , it was...

I came to Korea and fell in love with a Brazilian man. (do we see a trend here? first Kei in Japan , and now Elleo from Brazil. Sorry Korea). It all started when we walked into the Brazilian restaurant on Saturday night (like unto Tucanos only less classy and better potatoes) The dinner celebration was in honor of my friend Ange. We all gathered for a nice meat buffet and a good time, but I knew not what kind of good time would be in store for us. I was starving, and, well, I like to eat, so pretty much the second I got there, I had a plate in hand and was loading it up with the variety of side dishes and salads. And then, barely after sitting down, there was the meat man (you know, the guy who cuts the meat off the skewer for you). We made eye contact and our bond was instant. Even with my plate full of whatever food I piled on it, I made it known to him that I wanted meat. (hahaha some things never change?). He quickly obliged to my needs and from that moment on, I was the firs...

(please read this post using the best Mexican accent you can muster, because that is how it is sounding in my mind as i type). !Hola! Mi amigas! Cinco de Mayo is a festivity celebrated every year with mucho gusto in my life. I love it. But we all know I love any day that gives me extra reason to be ridiculous in whatever way. Usually I spend Cinco de Mayo in America, the land of the Cinco de Mayo. You know, because they don't celebrate it in Mexico. Last year was a fantastic Cinco de Mayo and included a delicious meal at Cafe Rio and a half-dried self made pinata that was busted open in the middle of my friends apartment complex. This year was also fantastic! (i don't want to say better but it might be true? for different reasons). I spent the day in Suwon with some friends exploring, and that night I ended up going out for some Mexican fiesta in its truest form! Meaning: mustaches We showed Korea (well, more like American Korea) whats up. Our Mexican family photo. AND fro...

I'm sitting at my desk with red arms and a crispy sunburned forehead. Yes, its starting. Summer. Korea decided to go from below freezing to hotter than hellllo operator temperatures without so much as blinking an eye. Just in time for today's activity: Sports Day! Where all 800 students and teachers hang outside all day for soccer games, soccer games, and more soccer games. There was a dash of relay racing and jump roping thrown in there, but it was all over shadowed by the soccer games. Which works for me because I bet one kid (hey, i taught him the word 'bet'. i'm such a teacher) that if he scores three goals I'll buy him a coke. So far he's only made 1. Meaning I'm one coke richer. Suckaaaa!! I also met this kids mom and tried to tell her she has a good kid. But simplifying that down turns into 'good boy' which sounds more like a compliment for a dog. And he's not actually that 'good'. He's just really fun and we like ...

To the person who has helped me achieve so many dreams, who has put up with my crazy, who has supported me, prayed for me, and let me be me, I hope you have the most amazing awesome fantastic day ever (well, as much as possible with me being gone...but Aaron being there more than makes up for it). Happy birthday to my Dad!!! The best one out there. And the funniest. And the smartest. Also, my Korean students saw your picture the other day and said "ohhh very handsome!" (fyi) Miss you and love you!