Day 2...Lots of shopping

Day 2 went well, we spent most of the day in and out of stores. We shopped for the few little things that we didn't bring to Honduras. I made sure to buy an iron and an ironing board, my grandmother does not approve of wrinkle clothes.

We found the food court in the mall and was surprised by the American fast food restaurants, such as, Popeyes, Wendy's, Burger King, Baskin Robbins (not food), TGI Friday's (not that fast), and a few others.

The best part of the experience was walking into a store that is just like Walmart (they own the store). I almost feel like I didn't leave the country, but just headed out West. I'm not sure what today is going to bring, but I look forward to it.

Until next time...take care of yourselves and each other!!!

Finally made it...

Phew! I made it Honduras, finally. I arrived at the airport yesterday and was denied b/c of a visa issue. I found out that if I book a return flight within 90 days I would not need a visa. I did that and flew out today (the next day). Persistence pays off...you better believe that.

I met Lacey on the flight from ATL to TGU (the capital of Honduras), we sat next to each other and chatted for a while. Naomi picked us up and we headed for Zamorano. It was a quick ride and there were some beautiful and not so beautiful sites to see. A sidewalk collapsed and landed on a 'love motel'...not good.

We made it to Zamorano and went to our school, I think that we will be comfortable there and have a good time. After touring the school, we headed to our houses, Lacey first and then me. I'm rooming with Naomi and Julie, and we have a lot of room in our place. It should be a good time.

Had a good meal (chicken, rice, beans, and a killer bean and cheese dip) at an outdoor restaurant and tasted Honduran beer. I enjoyed that! We also visited the local mini mart and picked up some items to eat. We returned home and played some games. Good times with good people! I'm ready to see what tomorrow brings.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Good bye New Orleans...Hello Honduras!

It's been a while since the last update here.

I left Korea on June 28th and headed home to New Orleans. I spent a month here, and I'm heading off to Honduras.

It has been a great month of family, friends, and food. Oh yea, the Korean night at the Hymel's place was awesome. It was great to have that experience with such good people.

It's so cool to see my best friends with their children, have a good time Lou and Mel, I'm happy for you guys.

I did a lot of work for school, and hope to continue on with my next two classes soon. I really enjoyed studying this summer and spending time with my grandmother outside of the library there in Baton Rouge (it's a boring place).

It was great hanging out with my mother,brother, sister, and niece and nephew in New Orleans, I had a lot to laugh at...Thanks!

Now that my time at home is up, I'm ready to move on and experience all that Honduras has to offer.

I'll write more this time around...I promise!!

Until next time....be good to yourself and each other!!!

I celebrated my 30th birthday last night in Seoul with a few of my friends and co-workers. I must say that I don't remember a better b-day celebration. It was very simple but what I wanted. I had a birthday party with my students first thing in the morning. They each gave me an individual card and a pack of baseball cookies attached. The cookies were decorated with "Go Daniel" and "D" in side of the helmets. What a great way to start off my b-day.

I celebrated my 30th birthday last night in Seoul with a few of my friends and co-workers. I must say that I don't remember a better b-day celebration. It was very simple but what I wanted. I had a birthday party with my students first thing in the morning. They each gave me an individual card and a pack of baseball cookies attached. The cookies were decorated with "Go Daniel" and "D" in side of the helmets. What a great way to start off my b-day.

Next, we had a dinner to end teachers appreciation week at our school. The food was YUMMY!! We all got books that were made by our students and special gifts. I choose a necklace that had teacher written in Korean on it. I will cherish it forever.

On to Platinum Brewery! We got there too early and had to wait outside until it opened. Once inside, we started on the Beer Buffet (all you can drink beer for 16 dollars). The buffet lasted from 5-9. The beer there is really good. I'm glad that Nanah made it over to celebrate with me.

To Orange Tree! I walked into my neighborhood bar Orange Tree and everyone started to sing Happy Birthday to me. I was surprised! The cake was such a nice gesture by the crew there. I love those guys! I hung out with the regulars there and had some cake.

CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN~! I got to the chicken restaurant with Dustin and Jaesub and had some fried chicken. I should have gone home, but we NEVER go straight home after partying. We sat and watched a fight happening across the street. Jaesub called the Police and we sat back and laughed at the fighters. They had no respect for the police. Not a surprise for Korea. It was great ending the night with a laugh.

I had a wonderful birthday and hope to have many more just like it. It's still my b-day in America, but it's over in Asia. I'M A BIG BOY NOW!!!

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Fun Around the World 2010

F.A.W 2010 lived up to the expectation placed upon Jaesub. Jaesub, JB, and I made it to school at 7 a.m. to gather all of the equipment to take over to the park. This should have been a job for more than 3 people, but I know they'll take care of that for next year. We got to the park and started setting up the events, after we were done it was time for the kiddies to arrive.

Everyone arrived wearing their chosen grade level colors with the logo drawn by a K2 student. The event got started and the children had were having a ball. I must stop now and say a big "THANK YOU" to all of the dads that volunteered during the event. The kids were ecstatic to spend this fun day with their dads. The dads were quite athletic as well.

It was too bad that I didn't get a chance to compete in the Parents vs. Teachers competition, I bet that we would have won if I did...hahahhaha! It was a great day, not too sunny and not rainy. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

My hat goes off to the students, parents, and teachers at our school. With everyone doing his or her part, the event turned out to be better than last years. All the success during F.A.W in the future. I have tons of pictures, but I can't post time due to a confidentiality agreement with my school.

Today is Children's Day, so that means I have the day off!

Until next time....be good to yourself and each other!!!

40th Anniversary for ECLC!

What a night...last night was a blast. We celebrated ECLC's 40th Anniversary at a restaurant in Itaewon. Everyone looked their best and enjoyed themselves. Everything about the night was cool, from the Nanta performance to the roaming magician. I enjoyed speaking to the parents of my students that showed up for the night. After enjoying ourselves at the 40th, the parents and a few teachers went to JJ's in the Hyatt Hotel. The night couldn't have ended without us going to a Noraebang (song room). It's always a good end to a great night. Oh, I forgot to mention that I won a few night's stay at the Hyatt. LUCKY ME!!! The celebration at school on Friday was awesome for the kids and they enjoyed their cupcakes and teddy bears with ECLC ribbons attached. Happy Birthday ECLC!

Monday's aren't so bad!

My day started off with a good laugh. We were on our way to school this morning in a cab and this lady who was obviously drunk from the night before was in the middle of the street trying to hail a cab. She didn't have her arm out and waving to the ground as must people do here in Korea, instead she was tapping her foot and shaking her leg like she was in a Beyonce' video. You know the one, 'if you like it, then you better put a ring on it'. I'm not sure if he got a taxi to get to where she wanted to go or an audition for So You Think You Can Dance.

Taught the class without a sub or co-teacher today. Jess, I hope that you are keeping it together on your way home to NZ. We are all thinking about you and your family, and hope to see you soon!! All of the children wanted to send your their regards.

After school, Arts and Crafts club went well,despite that fact that some of the children didn't want to get club on their hands while we did Paper Mache bracelets. It was quite funny.

l went to the best Korean BBQ place that I've eaten at since being here 4 years. The food is great, but the lady closes the restaurant at 8 p.m. daily so that she can eat and drink Soju with her friends. What about making money?

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

A cool weekend!

It seems like forever since the last time that I blogged. There hasn't been too much going on. I'm back to work and enjoying my students as always and also enjoying my weekends. I must say that I'm also enjoying having Korean food just about everyday again. The food in the Philippines was good, but I LOVE Korean food.

I didn't expect to do that much this weekend, but I made it home after work on Friday and decided to rest up a bit. After napping for a few hours I showered and went out. It was a celebration for Cassie,she's heading back home to America for a few months. We met them at Sam Ryan's and they were already drinking. Not surprised at all...hahahah! I met up with Jaesub and his buddies and we all moved on to Grand Ole Opry and the night really got started. Some people were already drunk, but did they stop drinking? NEVER! I did have a college flashback while at the Friends Bar playing beer pong. Good times. Then off to Polly's Kettle. I won't say what time I made it home, but the sun was up...hahahha.

Today I decided to take it easy and went to Sinchon for dinner with Dustin and Jaimie. We went to a bar for one drink and made it back home to HBC. There you have it, there isn't much more for me to talk about. I'll have more to talk about soon.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Spring break, why did you live me?

I made it back to work and got a chance to hear the stories of my kids about their Spring Breaks. They had some great stories and many of them got a chance to visit tropical areas. Talk about a sun tan, oh yeah, my shoulders are still peeling as I type. That's ok with me you can ask the question. I'll answer it for you, yes, Black people can get sunburned. Hahahha! Now that we've gotten past that, I was super excited to see the children. They make it easy for me to get up daily and attend school. I found that I much rather deal with 5 year old children because they tend to be more well rounded and put together than many adults. Are you smarter than a 5 year old? Let that marinate for a while.

Today we took the children on a field trip to the Seoul Zoo. We had 3 parents volunteer to chaperon for us, 2 loyal mothers and 1 loyal father. Thanks Saija, Gigi, and John for all that you do for our classroom, you all are truly amazing! The children raved about the Dolphin Show which I knew that they would. We decided to change our field trip from the Children's Zoo to the Seoul Zoo for the Dolphin Show alone. It paid off because that's all the children could talk about. We saw many animals and the children where asked "are these animals living or non-living and why?". We just started a new themed unit titled "I'm Alive" and we wanted to kick it off with a field trip to the zoo. Once again for the record, these children are the luckiest children in the world. I wish that I had this type of commitment from my teachers and their level of knowledge when I was 5 years old.

We did lots of walking and didn't think that the kids would be able to handle it, but found out that with the joy of seeing animals move and do what animals "do" they didn't think much about the walk. This is one of the best field trips that I've been apart of at school. The children were well behaved, by the way, they always are, but it was great to have such a good experience outside of school with them. I'm quite sure that we are going to go into great detail about the trip first thing in the morning.

I was super teacher again and decided to place all of the children's lunches inside of a container and carry them along. This was heavier then your drunk uncle at the family reunion. One of the mother's and myself carried it about a mile from its origin to the lunch area. The children were happy, so it was all worth it. I'm going to need a massage...hahaha! Lunch went off well, after the lady tried to kick us out for the children having their own lunches. She was hushed and we went on eating as planned. Who would kick 30 children out in the cold?

We made it back to school and the children headed straight to p.e. Many of them were tired but they participated anyway. Strong little kids! The day ended and I made my way home and worked on an assignment. A photo may come later.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Good bye Cebu, Hello Korea...Spring Break 2010

Good bye Philippines :(

We had breakfast by the pool with Jerry and Steve before the taxi came to take us to the airport. It was a wonderful vacation full of laughs and relaxing times. Hanging out with older people is pretty cool, a lot less drama, but at the same time they are trying to rekindle their youth. These guys were from two different continents but were quite similar in some of the things they did and said. In the end, I learned a lot from both of them and would sign up for that “hidden camera” show again…hahahahhaha!

Top 10 moments in the Philippines
10. Arriving to the resort and seeing how beautiful the place was. It sure beat the place down the street with outdoor bathrooms that the taxi tried to take us to.
9. Sitting in the Jacuzzi talking about Margie and Lin Lin with Jerry and Dustin, and right behind us was Margie and Lin Lin waiting. Jerry “keep Lin Lin’s “butt” at home”! I also enjoyed listening to the owner of the resort “foolishly” stereotyping Filipinos. I know he has problems with some of the things that they do at work, but if you paid more than $5 a day, I bet some of those problems would quickly disappear.
8. The taxi driver wanting a White or Black president because the politicians are so corrupt in the Philippines. He used Hong Kong’s status in the world as an example.
7. Going to the water fall in a rented taxi. Where else but Asia can you rent someone’s taxi for the entire day? We tipped him quite well. He said “too much” and began shaking.
6. Shopping with Dustin and Jerry at the Ayala Mall in Cebu. Jerry took a picture of every female walking by. He puts the “creep” in Creepy Old Man (say cheese Jerry).
5. Going to Marco Polo restaurant the first night in Cebu. This buffet was one of the best buffets that I’ve ever had. There were tons of options to choose from.
4. Going to the beach for the day and just hanging out. The fresh seafood out of the tank was a definite plus. I love seafood!!
3. Island hopping and swimming in the beautiful clear waters of the Philippines. The food was great, the drinks were cold, and the company was amazing. I’ll do that again!!
2. Meeting Tanya, Jerry, and Steve in the Philippines. We all had a blast together. It felt like we had been friends forever.
1. Just waking up and going down to the pool for breakfast and staying there until night time for a night time swim. The Alta Cebu Resort was paradise in a box! I describe it this way because the surrounding areas were quite trashy and this place was just immaculate!
So long Spring Break 2010! I enjoyed every moment of it.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Cebu, Philippines 6th and final day

Today was a great day! Our taxi driver showed up to take us to the waterfall. We rented his car for the entire day. We had to pay for gas and the rental fee and we had a secure ride. It took us 3 hours to get to the water fall and we laughed at Jerry the entire way there. He is one funny old man. He doesn't try to tell jokes, but his sentences come out that way. He is old school.

We got to the fall and heard about the Koreans that jumped off of the fall and killed one person while causes injury to some others. We sat next to the fall and drank a few beers that we brought with us. Our driver was hestitant to hangout with us at first, but he came around eventually. I got into the water and swam around a bit. It was a bit cold, but oh well, I enjoyed swimming around in there.

I took lots of pics and walked up to the top of the fall. It was great to look down and see everyone hanging out and swimming around. We stayed for some time and met a tour guide there. He filled us in on how much they make a month and how he didn't get paid unless he took people on the raft. He asked about salaries in the U.S. and Korea. I never like having those conversations because it can be depressing for some. We hungout for about 5 hours there and headed out.

We went to Jollibee (a fast food joint) and stuffed our faces. We even took some home and didn't finish it. Jerry had a great time and so did the driver. We tipped him a months salary, so I know that he'll be smiling in his sleep tonight. It's always great to do things to make others happy.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Cebu, Philippines day 5 (Island hopping)

Woke up this morning to Steve banging on the door to wake us up. He thought that it would be funny to do that...still not smiling. We went down to have breakfast and the dining room was torn up, so we had breakfast in the large outdoor eating area. We called taxis and waited for them. Then we went to the ATM and off to the marina. We got an all inclusive package (food and drinks) for about $120 expensive for the Philippines, but much cheaper than the organized companies.

We waited for a while for our food to come, and once it came we got on the boat for our island hooping tour. At the first stop, some guys came on board and told us that they were life guards and the number of the children that they had. I think they tell you that so that you can support their busy, but it didn't help these guys out. They were selling overpriced "shark's" teeth and pearls. There was no way that they could have had a real sharks tooth...hahaha. In conclusion, we didn't buy anything.

Steve and I swam and held a few sea stars and some coral. I didn't think that we should pick up the coral from the sea, but one of the guys went down and handed it to me. Steve and I swam at all three stops. We noticed some other boats of OLD men and young Filipina girls having fun along the way. Oh well, that seems to be the story of this country!

The food that the guys prepared was delicious. We had a 5 hour tour of the sea with great food music and drinks. We got back to the hotel and hit the pool for a late night swim with our good old American friend "Coors Light".

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Sunny Cebu, Philippines day 4

Woke up today and followed my normal routine of breakfast by the pool. But before I made it to the pool, I was awakened by the work crew tearing up the bathroom in the room below. After that I relaxed for a few minutes and headed back downstairs to call a taxi to take us to the mall. The taxi driver came in and we asked the normal first question, "how much?",and he responded 700 pisos (about $15). We told him that we would only pay him 250 pisos.

We arrived at the Ayala Mall and gave him the meter price plus 50 pisos as he requested. It turned out to be 200 pisos, and he lost out on 50 pisos by trying to get over. Oh well into the mall. We stopped at the 1st store and I bought a t-shirt for my mom and grandma and a hat for myself. I think that I bought something in just about every store I walked into. I picked up some cool shorts and sandles along the way, but my favorite purchase were my Ray Ban shades. They were a pretty penny but I think that it's best for me to spoil myself every now and again!

After round 1 of shopping, we headed to TGI Friday's to have "a" drink. I ended up having two drinks and shared two apps. with Jerry and Dustin. The nachos that they sold were too much for 3 people to eat, and they were very tasty might I add. Every thing was just perfect there, the atmosphere (we sat outside), the food and drinks, and the service. The waiter was a very cool guy and he took about 20 pictures at Jerry's request. Jerry is over 50 and thinks that he's about 21, but that's another story...hahahha. We left the waiter a 500 pisos tip, which was more than a days salary. The maximum wage for most workers here is about $5 a day and totals $100 a month. He was over the moon with enthusiam. I was glad that we made his day.

We went down to the supermarket and bought turkey, beer, M&Ms and other things that we cna't get in Korea, and if we are able to get them they cost an arm and a leg. Things here are so much cheaper than there. I did head to the Korean section and picked up a bottle of 참 이 슬 (Cham i Seul) Soju. I bought it so that Jerry and Steve could try it. Korea needs to get with the program and start selling things cheaper, and they should also start importing American goods. The knockoffs aren't delicious at all!

Got back to the resort and headed to the room put our goodies away. After that, off to the pool for a night time swim. I love Cebu! Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

Philippines Day 3

I woke up and headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. We all decided that 9 a.m. would be a great time for us all to meet to have a bite. Jerry and I were down there first and Tanya showed up shortly there after. Steve was off with his girlfriend and Dustin couldn't get out of bed...yep still sunburned. After breakfast I stayed by the pool with Jerry and listened to his stories, he has years and years of of stories to tell..hahahha!

I took a brief nap (20 minutes) and headed back out to the pool area to do some more talking and swimming. Later on Dustin joined us and Jerry's "girlfriend" came with her friend. He asked her not to bring her friend but she brought her anyway. "Can't always get what you want right?", but in this situation, his situation he should be able to.

Night began to fall and I was still at the pool area. Steve came back and we had beers and food. The food was gross, I guess they switched chefs over night or something. He ordered 6 cheese sticks and the brought out 6 orders. He was not too happy about that. I ordered fried chicken and it was still bloody. Man, what can you do. Tanya left and we all said our goodbyes and wished her a safe flight back to Hong Kong. Day 3 was as relaxing as ever! Is it bad that I don't want to do any tours or "fun" stuff? Nah, I think that I'm just beginning to understanding what relaxing is all about!!

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!!

The Philippines days 1-2

Since the last time I updated my blog, there have been a few more foreigners to come into the resort. The first night ended with a night time swim and I believe that is the last time that I blogged. Breakfast here at the hotel is amazing, and I think tocino is the best cooked meat ever, it tastes a bit like bbq pork ribs that you might pick up at your local Chinese restaurant. The guy makes your eggs however you want them and it's a lot of food, the best part about it is that it's complimentary.

We ended up staying at the pool all day on our first full day here and meet Steve a guy from Australia, Jerry a guy from Seattle, and Tanya a lady from Hong Kong. Steve and Jerry are both 50 and older, but you would never be able to tell by the way that they hangout. These are some cool guys! Well we drink a bunch beers at the pool where Dustin received serious sunburn all over his body, and then headed into town to Marco Polo (hotel/restaurant) to have their buffett. The food was very good there and I was stuffed after leaving.

We woke up yesterday and had breakfast and ran into Steve and his new Philippina "friend". We jumped in the hotel van with a Korean couple who are honeymooning here and went off to look for a beach. The guy ends up taking us to a place with no umbrellas and the amount of sand that I use to dump out of my track shoes after long and triple jumping all day. That was a ridiculous so we decided to move on, but the young Korean couple wanted to stay. On to the next place.

We went to a place called Maribago Blue Water Resort. This place was grand! They charged us about 25 bucks to get in, but gave us half of the admission price to spend on food and drinks. We had some great fruit shakes, enjoyed the ocean, and relaxed under the shed before heading over to one of their restaurants for lunch. We ended up going to the Seafood Restaurant and had "FRESH" seafood. I went to the tank and chose my fish, the guy scooped it up and brought it back out to me in about 20 minutes. That's something that I use to get when I lived in Seosan, Korea. That beats frozen fish anyday.

We ate and headed back to our place after spending about 5 hours on the beach. We got back to the resort and chilled. I played pool with Jerry for a while, this guy has some funny stories to tell. After a few games of pool we went in and got ready for dinner. We took a taxi to Cebu City to the Water Front Hotel and Casino with Jerry and Tanya. ANOTHER BUFFETT! This one was good but not as good as the one at Marco Polo. We ate and laughed the entire time, I didn't get full as quick as the other night. At the end we bypassed the casino and headed home. I came in and passed out. Now, I'm caught up with everything that has happened here.

Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!

Spring Break...made it to the Philippines

I'm now here in the Philippines and talk about relaxing. I'm in a resort in the middle of a village with nothing to do. That's exactly what I wanted. Everything (pool table, pool, restaurant, bar, hammocks,good music, and bedroom) that I need is here but I will go and check the beach out tomorrow. It's great that there aren't any other foreigns here...oh wait there is one other girl and I think that she's Japanese. I'm quite sure that she has planned her trip down to the last minute that she's here. I brought a bunch of reading material here with me because I am taking classes now and thought that this place would give me the opportunity to get much of my work for the weeks ahead done. There isn't much to say about the Philippines right now except for the fact that I'm here now. I hope that I'll have many great stories to tell and pictures to share.

I have a funny story for you all. Yesterday one of my students went up to my co-teacher and rub her bre**, I guess this is something that she does with her mom on a regular basis. Well anyway, she told her "I want to eat your milk"...LMAO, I lost it. She kept saying and told her that she loves the way the milk tastes...hahaha. We had to explain that she hasn't given birth and you know the rest of the story. The children decided to get into a conversation about where the milk comes from and why it's there. Boy boy boy...6 year olds. I think that they have a basic understanding of the process now. There is never a dull moment with kindergartners. It's almost 8 p.m. here and I'm heading to the pool. Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!

Favorite Book Character Day!

Today was a special day at school, the children were asked to dress up as their favorite story book characters. As you may have guessed, many of the girls were princesses while the boys opted for the super hero costumes. This is a part of our book apreciation week. I don't get why we celebrate a "book appreciation" week when we appreciate books every single day in class. The school does a funraiser and donates money and books to orphanages, so that's the cool part about it. The students were so excited to come in dressed up. I think that these children get excited about just about thing...hahaha. Gotta love them!

We had a mini parade where all of the children in the school walked around and showed off their costumes. One little 3 year old stood out the most with his homemade Nemo costume. His mom must be a seamstress because the costume was perfectly made and looked store bought. He even wore little orange spandex pants...hahaha! I got into the celebration and wore a costume.

My co-teacher is really into special events and wearing costumes, so she brought in a few costumes for me to choose from. I ended up going with the lion costume. I'm happy that she brought in the costumes because the children always get a kick out of seeing us dressed up. At the end of the day, it's not about us it's about the students. Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What a day! This morning I arrived at work and had a grade level meeting with my co-teacher and the other two teachers that make up the K2 team. After our meeting we started discussing how we should set the classroom up for the students when they walked in. I did a similar type of celebration last year but this celebration outdid the last year's and probably those to come. We royally messed up our classroom. We sprinkled glitter all over the floor, turned chairs upside down, threw toys and manipulatives out of their containers and re-arranged the children s' name tags on their cubbyholes.

We ran down the hall and hid in the toddler classroom to view the reactions of the students when they arrived. The first student that arrived didn't know what to do or think. She slowly approached the classroom as she had seen the first classroom on the floor trashed. She walked to hang her bag and noticed that the names were out of order. She was still hesitant to walk into the classroom. She finally went inside and came out to look for the teachers. She wanted to know what had happened. As more students started to arrive the other students greeted them in the hallway and told them of what was to come. They all yelled that the leprechaun had done it and they tried to find him. They looked high and low, and in-between. The desperately wanted to find the culprit. After a while of seeing students totally stunned and tons of pictures taken, we asked the children to clean up the classroom and get ready for a normal day of school.

The fun wasn't over yet. When the students went up to the playground we had another note written from the "leprechaun" and strategically placed it were we knew they would find it. The note told them of the leprechaun's tricks and alerted them that they would be going on a scavenger hunt to find the gold coins that he had left behind. They ran around frantically trying to find all of the coins in the classroom. I had to go and get some others because I couldn't remember how many that I had eaten. I wanted it to equal 30 so that all of the children could have 2 coins to take home.

After that we ate the cookies that the children made yesterday and drank milk that miraculously turned green after shaken it. The children had a blast and ending up writing letters to the leprechaun and hiding them around the room. They will never ever forget this experience as long as they know that St. Patrick's Day is approaching. I must pat myself and fellow K2 teachers on the back for a job well done. Amazing!! Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!

Welcome back to the world of Education:)

I recently enrolled in 2 classes through the Transition to Teaching program at Taylor University. I'm becoming a certified teacher after teaching already for 4 years in Hakwons and an international kindergarten. I haven't been a student of someone other than my students since 2005, but in order for me to achieve my goals I have to embark upon this journey.

My courses are Children's Literature and Introduction to Education. The first course has a syllabus out of this world. The professor is asking for me to read at least...get this at least 85 books and he has separated them into several genres and medal recipients. I'm happy that I now enjoy reading more than I ever did in the past, and I'm also happy that I teach at a school that gives me access to many of these books. I do think that this number of books request is a bit much, however in order for me to truly understand Children's Literature and provide my students with books that will not only teaching them language patterns, enlighten them, and grab their attention and foster their imaginations, I must understand the writer and the components of what makes a story a good story.

The other course is just as interesting. The professor gave a list of all of the points she would take off for grammar, sentence formation, APA style, etc. I wonder if she thinks that it's an English class? Is it that serious to subtract 2 points for a simple comma error? Maybe in her world it is, and since I'm now living in her 'world' I better make sure that my writing, grammar, and sentence structure is on point and to her liking. I'll be with this program over the next year or so, so I will be writing many blogs about this new adventure. Wish me luck!! Until next time...be good to yourself and each other!!

Seoul Zoo/St. Patrick's Day Celebration

March 13, 2010-03-14
The Seoul Grand Park…..Seoul Zoo?
Yesterday Dustin and I headed out to do a pre-visit for an upcoming field trip. We jumped in a taxi and asked the guy to take us to Seoul Grand Park. We got there and waited a while for the other two teachers to join us. We went into the park and had about 10 calls between us and the other two teachers. We are trying to find each other and we went to every part of the park and still couldn’t find each other. We finally said lets just meet at the Dolphin Show. Almost to the end of the Dolphin Show, we got another call and were told that we are not in the same park. They were at the Children’s Grand Park….hahahahaha! Talk about hilarious, we walked all over trying to meet up and found out that we were about 30 minutes away from each other. Oh well, I hope that the field trip will be awesome.

After resting and shopping at Shinsegae, we ended up at Phillies for the St. Patrick’s Day celebration. It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a St. Patty’s Day celebration. There were tons of people there, but most of the people hung out downstairs. The Hip Hop comedians performed along with the EV Boys last night. I had never seen an improve hip-hop act before, but I was very impressed with the show. Those guys are clever and very brave to do those shows. The night started to get a lot livelier after drinking green beer. How festive! After the performances were over, Ellen showed up with Lauren and the party went into overdrive. We decided to have a few more at Phillies and then took our party over to Orange Tree. We ran into the same people that we see every weekend, but that’s what makes Haebangchon a special place. Cy, Kenny, and Tom was there and I played pool and had drinks and conversations with my friends and bar buddies. We closed down the bar (what’s new?) and then headed over to the late night samgyupsal restaurant. We ate, drank, and talked for about an hour or so and finally headed home. I woke up at about 2 p.m., so I guess we stayed out pretty late…hahahha!

Until next time….be good to yourself and each other!!

KORCOS

KORCOS (March 12, 2010)
What a wonderful professional development and networking opportunity. We arrived at Seoul Foreign School right before 8 a.m. and assembled in the auxiliary gym to be welcomed by the chairperson of KORUS and be briefed on the day’s activities. First seminar of the day was a Kindergarten Job Alike headed by a teacher that’s new to teaching Kindergarten. She was seeking advice and experiences from others on how to be a more efficient classroom teacher. At the end of the session, I think that she had enough ideas and examples to help guide her through this year and to be much more prepared for next year. There were six teachers from my school in that session and we ended up leading the discussion. It was apparent that we have one of the top Kindergarten programs in the country. At the end of the session, Dustin and I were asked to apply for schools in the DODEA program.

We went to many cool sessions throughout the day, but the best was the book making seminar. There were tons of ideas of how to make books and get children interested in writing. I went to the second seminar with the guest speaker Dr. Jamie McKenzie. He was out of gas during the second seminar, but I did buy his book so that I could get a better understanding of what he was speaking about. He basically said that educators have to teach their students to think critically and to be responsible for questioning ideas and not being a “cut and paste” student. Good ideas there! At the end I went to a Zuumba workout with some of the other teachers at my school and it was amazing! I had never heard of it before, but I was hooked. It’s a Latin, hip hop still dance class. The instructor was very good! The event was a success and Dustin walked away with 3 of the raffled prizes. What a good day!! Until next time….be good to yourself and each other!!

Holy Snow!

Yesterday I sat at Sam Ryan's Pub and enjoyed my weekly plate of ribs and a few beers. I looked out of the window and saw snow coming down. I didn't think too much of it as I made it home and hung out with the fellas. As we were hanging out, the snow was still falling. Still, I didn't think too much about it. When I woke up this morning I was freezing, it was really cold. After showering and getting ready for the day, I took a look out of the window and....HOLY SNOW! It was an unbelievable amount of snow outside. Do you think that school will be canceled today? The was the question that we all had this morning before heading off to school. Cellphones were checked and there were no calls from the school informing us that school would be canceled.

A typical morning here in Haebangchon has Jaesub's car being blocked in from the front and behind. Even though we've called these people early in the morning in the past to have them come out and move their cars, they still park blocking him in. Jaesub went out to clear the windows and get the car ready to make the 5-10 minute ride to work. There was so much snow outside being coupled with 'horrible' drivers already. Thank God that we made it to school safely. The question is, why did we even have school today? We are an early years school where the average ages of the students range from 2-6 years old. It's time for people to start using better judgment during days with inclement weather. Am I right or am I wrong? Regardless of the call on having school or not, the kids had a great time playing in the snow on the playground. Until next time....be good to yourself and each other!!

What a great night!

Yesterday we celebrated Dustin's b-day. We went to the Platinum Brewery here in Seoul to have a 'few' beers at the micro-brewery. For 16,000 won from 5-9 p.m. we were able to drink as much beer as we could. Lets say that we had quite a few between the group of us that showed up. It was a very nice place and all of the food was 50% off during that time also. There were 6 different types of beers to choose from, and I really liked the Belgian White it's almost like a Hoegaarden.

After spending hours at the brewery, the party still didn't stop. We ended up walking by to the new Ho Bar nearby in same Apgujeong neighborhood. The Ho Bar was pretty cool! It reminds me of the other Ho Bars in Hongdae. We listened to great music and had a few more drinks along with some b-day cake to help Dustin celebrate his birthday. And, you know that we had to play darts b/c Paul was with us. The electronic dart board is a friend to all.

After the Ho Bar, we went over to Monkey Beach when we should have been heading home. It hasn't changed one bit, and the way that I feel about the place hasn't changed either. We left after about 20 minutes. The night was a blast! It's the first year that Dustin had a birthday and not a birth week/month. Hope you enjoyed your 28 buddy. Until next time....be good to yourself and each other!!

Happy B-day Dustin!

My good buddy Dustin turns 28 today. We are going to celebrate by going to a beer brewery in Gangnam (Seoul) with a bunch of our friends. I haven't been to a brewery in a while, and will try to keep it under wraps. It's a "Beer Buffet" from 5-9 p.m. that is going to be crazy, we'll have some serious beer drinkers hanging out with us. I guess I'll update this later with more details. Until then...Happy B-day Dust!

It's Friday...and INDIAN food!

Today was a pretty good day! I didn't have to teach but had to go in to work on the Mathematics Continuum. I didn't mind helping out with that because it was a really good time. I usually don't like to be in school when I'm not teaching the students. I have some of the best students in the world (literally). They are expats just like me and come from all over the world. Well, we banged out a nice continuum and had time to spare at the end of the day. Dustin's students gave him a 'surprise' birthday party...he knew all about it. Hahahahha! Well, the greatest gift that he could have received was a huge amount of homemade Indian food from one of his student's parents. This was the best Indian food that I've ever had. She made pakodas and a chicken curry with cashew and vegetable rice. She gets the chef of the year award over here! I had 3 helpings, but I shouldn't have because it wasn't my birthday dinner. LMAO! I'm going to try and get some for my birthday. I much rather have the food over any type of gift(s). I don't know how I'll feel about this comment in a few months. Although very delicious, the food did send me to the bathroom as Indian food normally does. I must say, that this is better than the food that I had in India. I'm a very lucky boy today! Until we meet again...be good to yourself and others!!

Feelin' like crap!

This morning I went to work after waking up feeling weak with flu like symptoms. Ok! Not that bad, but I didn't feel 100%. I think that my co-teacher passed on a little bug as she had to leave early with little to no voice left at all. Well today I found out that she has laryngitis and can't speak at all. Good thing she's not a performer and our students aren't fans...otherwise she'd have a good bit of money to return. Hahahhaaa! As the day went on I started to feel a bit better, but still wanted to go home and crawl into bed. As the day was winding down, I started to get ready for my after school sports club. Man, it's truly amazing watching 3-6 year old's engaged in a game of kick ball. Regardless of how many demos and instructions about what to do and where to run once you kick the ball, the children were still all over the place. I still consider myself lucky to be able to experience these kids playing various sports each week. I was feeling closer to 100% after the kids were strapped safely into their car seats and on their way home. Once I reached home, Jaesub and I were engaged in a battle on the Wii. I walked away with best out of 3 win in Tennis. That's my day in a nutshell. It wasn't the best day, but I made the best of it. How was your day? Hope that it went well. Until we meet again...be good to yourself and others!!

Back to School in March (2nd)

This morning was my first day of school this week. Starting school on a Tuesday is like finding a cool prize in a cereal box. Don't get me wrong, I have the coolest students on Earth and enjoy being in the classroom with them, but who doesn't like a day off? Today started off with a bang! Two students created a large book with pictures and sentences about how much they love my co-teacher and I and are happy that we're their teacher. It's so cool to see that you're appreciate. Remember, "it's the little things that count most". They were so proud of their creation that it was presented during Show and Tell. I really hope that I continue to have such thoughtful and bright students like these for the rest of my teaching career. If not, one can hope right?! The rest of the day happened as usual with us having a lot of fun with each other. I'm now trying to stay away from a cold, my co-teacher went home sick after lunch. I'm taking my Vitamin C and drinking tons of juice, wish my luck. After school went to have ribs at Sam Ryan's in Itaewon. The rib special goes like this, 1 rib=500\ (that's less than 50 cents each). The ribs were washed down with 1 beer and I headed home. Why? Because it was nap time, that's why. LOL! I'm a napper and I'm not ashamed to say. I'm up now and decided to write this blog...more to come tomorrow!

Farewell Winter Olympic Games 2010

The 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone. In the beginning that glitch in the opening ceremonies had people thinking of what more could go wrong? Then, a slippery track and a lack of experience on it claimed a life. R.I.P Nodar Kumaritashvili. Now, we all had something to be concerned about. As the games began, things started to look up and everyone started concentrating more on the events and supporting their countries. The way that the games were meant to be celebrated!

There were tons of ups and downs for the athletes, but there could only be one GOLD medal awarded for each event (unless there's a tie, but that's another story). I'm impressed with the amount of coverage that curling received. So many people had no idea what it was or why it was a part of the games. In the end, I think that a lot more people have learned about curling and found it to be quite entertaining and intense. I would like to send out big Congratulations to Yu-na Kim for winning the figure skating event in record fashion and to all of the other medalists for my host country South Korea. 대한민국!!!

Now to my country that I so dearly love and supported throughout these games...Way to go! We walked away with 37 medals (the most of any other country). Shaun, Apolo, Bode, Lindsey, and the Men's and Women's Hockey teams, these were your games and you all made us proud!! We didn't win all of the medals that we set out to or win all gold, but "an Olympic athlete is as close to a super hero as we get"! With that being said, you all are all champions in my eyes. Congratulations to all of the participants and medalists from all over the world. You have done yourselves and countries proud by competing on such a GRAND stage. Bravo!

My intro to blogging

Today will be a day that I'll remember for a very long time. It's the day that I finally decided to start a blog. I know, I've lived away from New Orleans since 2003 while attending grad school in New Hampshire for 2 years and then moving to New York for a year. Then, I came to Korea in 2006 and wanted to keep a journal, but I stopped after about 2 weeks. It's 2010 and I'm still here in Korea with no written account of my time spent here. However, I have thousands of pictures to show all of the areas that I've been to in Korea, Gyeongju, Jeju, and Gangneung to name a few. Then there all of the countries that I've visited while living over here in Asia. I won't name all of them, but Thailand, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, and Uganda have been some of my favorites to date. I can't say that I planned for my life to turn out this way, but I knew that I wanted to see the world. Teaching has opened up so many doors for me, and at this time I don't think that there's anything else I'd want to do. So now I'm sitting here in my apartment in Seoul, SK on this 'lazy' Sunday relaxing and customizing my blog. I hope that I can inspire at least one or two people to visit some of the places that I'll be writing about in the near future. I told myself that I won't go back and write about the 19 countries that I've visited already, so you'll get tons of updates of my life in Korea and my future endeavors. Sit back, strap on your seat belt and ENJOY THE RIDE!!!!