All the Pretty Flowers

Flowers are kind of a big deal here in Korea, and for a few weeks the streets and local parks are covered with all kinds of beautiful flowers. I was kind of a lazy photographer during this period, but we did manage to get a few.

Trying to get the waterfall in the background. We were only semi-successful.

We weren't actually going to pay to see the flowers at the International Horticulture Festival so this is what we could see from the outside.

When I was little we used to go to Nannie's on Easter and take pictures in front of her azalea bushes. So as Caleb and I were walking around the Lake Park on Easter I couldn't resist reliving a bit of my childhood. Too bad my wonderful sisters weren't there too.

We really need friends so they can take pictures of us.

Caleb and the cherry blossoms.

So beautiful...

We Apologize

I have been a writer for quite some time. For quite alot of that "quite some time" I have been a top-level writer that regularly receives gobs of fan mail. My tenure here in Korea writing this blog is no exception. Some days, I wake up 3 or 4 hours early just so I will have enough time to sort through all the fan emails and open all the letters. If you have ever opened hundreds of letters in a day, then you know how tedious of a process it can be and how you have to take great care to avoid paper cuts cause one of those babies will really slow you down.
Occasionally after one of my riveting presentations of the written English language, I will get a "themed" response from my audience. They will all write letters that say things such as "Wow!" or "Stunning!" One woman even said my work inspired her to give up her day job and focus full time on writing...her name was J.K. Columnling.... or something like that.

Lately the theme I have received from my audience has been one of deep emmotion and passion. Folks have been saying very loving things like "I can't comment on your blog." or "I still can't comment on your blog!" For this we offer our sincerest apologies.

Below is a post of random pictures that everyone should be able to click on to enlarge. I didn't bother putting comments cause fighting with blogger over pictures has become one of my most hated things to do. And as for the comment thing....in our options menu we definitely have "anyone can comment" and "show all comments" selected yet somehow it still doesn't work. Again, we are real sorry about that but would still love to know what you have to say. Shoot us an email at mriagorilla@hotmail.com or lallen122@gmail.com

And keep that fan mail coming.

Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from our time here in Korea.

A typical day

I thought it might be a good idea to let everyone know what a typical day looks like for Lacey and I so here goes....

We are suppose to arrive at work at 9:30am for morning chapel but Lacey and I are usually about 10 minutes early because the bus is a bit unpredictable. Originally we thought we would be able to walk to work (and we can, it just takes 40 minutes) but we find that taking the bus is much easier and faster, especially since it is still pretty cold outside. So Lacey and I hop on a bus about 9am and ride for 10 minutes and then walk another 5 minutes from the bus stop to the school.
In the morning we usually quickly prepare any last minute things for the day and then go out to the common area at school where we have morning chapel from 9:30 - 10.

After that classes begin and the first class ends at 10:30. All other classes last for 40 minutes but since chapel usually runs long, the first class of the day is only 30 minutes. We have first, second, and third period in the morning all with a 5 minute break in between. We then have lunch from 12pm until 1pm. Having an hour for lunch is really nice and allows us to catch our breath after 3 quick classes in the morning. Some days we eat in the cafeteria with the students (the same common area as they use for chapel) if the food is good. Fortunately, we have the option of going out if the food is not good and lately we have been taking that option.
When we eat out, we go down to the convenience store to get a drink and then to our favorite sandwich shop about a 5 minute walk from school. We eat in a nearby park on our way back towards school. All and all, lunch usually costs less than 10 dollars for Lacey and I both to eat and be full. Sometimes I will even hurry back to school and eat some of the rice leftover from lunch to make sure I am stuffed.

At 1pm classes start again and we have fourth period and fifth period and then regular school is finished. At 3pm some of the students go home and some of them stay if they are enrolled in after school classes. After school classes include some electives like Spanish, French and Multimedia. Others need to improve their English skills so they are in ESL. Still others are younger students (grades 1-4) that go to other schools during the day and just come join our school for a sort of tutoring-style class. I think the main focus for those students is to get some English practice while "studying" another subject like Science. So from 3pm til 5:50pm I teach 4 different science classes for 40 minutes each. First I teach grade 2, then grade 1, then grade 4, then grade 3. Lacey also rotates through and teaches reading. Like I said though, these classes are not the school's primary focus so we do not usually have very involved lesson plans. We basically just lead the students through their books while helping them learn new words.
By 5:50pm we are both pretty tired and its time to wrap up our things and head home. We take the same bus back home and are usually in our apartments by about 6:20pm. If Lacey is in the mood to cook, we eat in, if not, we eat out. Sometimes we go to a nearby pizza place and get a cheap dinner and sometimes we hop on the subway and go to Seoul and eat out at a nice American restaurant like Tony Roma's.

After dinner is study time if we need to prepare for our classes the next day or just relax time where we can send emails or watch TV. If we have the energy, we will head out and explore some more of our city always trying to find the new secret treasure. (Yesterday I discovered a laundry mat!)

So now my clothes are clean and its back to teaching for me. See ya!

1 week down, 51 more to go

We are through our first week here in Korea and wow have we come a long way. I still feel like I don't know how to do anything, but looking back to that first day, Lacey and I have both learned alot. At school we have both learned all about everything and in between have tried to learn how to teach. Here are some more pictures from the new places we have explored around town.

Here is Lacey just outside our downtown shopping mall area. There is a big open space for doing things like sitting around and wondering what the store "Wazzle Wazzle" sells.

I was trying to hold up the tower but the shot didn't quite come out right.

There is a little coffee shop outfit here in Korea calling itself "Starbucks". Not sure if you have heard of it. Lacey ordered a tea and got a hot chocolate. Apparently she is not fluent in Korean....yet.

There was one extra seat on this bench so I thought I would take it. I am a sucker for large stuffed animals and will likely return to this spot and take one home with me.

This is outside our school. We are planning a "all-about-school" post soon so you can see more. For now, here we are standing out front.

East vs. West

Well the moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Lacey and I are in Korea and have checked out our new apartments and we are ready to announce who is East Korea and who is West Korea. After waking up the first morning and taking careful note of which side the sun was rising on, I discovered that....(pause for dramatic effect)......Caleb is living farther East than Lacey.
So that settles it. We both live in the country of South Korea which is near the country of North Korea and Caleb lives in East Korea and Lacey lives in West Korea. This may not seem that significant to you, but allow me to give you a quick history lesson in East vs. West and we will let you be the judge of who got the better end of the deal.
Remember the Wizard of Oz? Glenda, the cute lady in the fancy blue dress with a kind heart and the ticket to get home, was from which cardinal direction?

If you guessed East you were correct.

You might also remember another character from that movie. She was the antagonist and her name was "The Wicked Witch of the ........?"

WEST!!!!!

Now look, I am not trying to say that Lacey is a witch or even that I like blue dresses. I am simply trying to say there are some pros to being East and some cons to being West.

Now that we have that cleared up, stay tuned for more battles between East and West as you follow us through our time in Korea! Below is a collection of photos from our first 24 hours in the country. Enjoy!

We took this shot on the airplane just before the beginning of our 14 hour flight. As it turns out, Korea is not as close as New Mexico and it takes a bit longer to get there. Don't worry though because Korean Air is equipped with the best in-flight entertainment I have ever seen. Each person had their own screen that was double the size of all of my previous flight's screens and over 100 movies to choose from. There were also video games and an onboard network so you could play multi-player with other people on the plane! And if all of that wasn't enough entertainment, you could always check in on the 3-year old girl sitting across the aisle who was brought on the plane asleep on her dad's shoulder and who got off the plane asleep on her dad's shoulder. During the course of the flight I saw her awake for a grand total of 5 minutes. I don't know what kind of drugs dad was packing, but I need to get some for the next flight.

When we arrived in Goyang, some of the other teachers from our school came over to meet us and take us out to dinner. There is a tradition that all the new people go to this particular restaurant just down the street from where we all live. They serve you and assortment of cool things and dipping sauces and you cook the meat right there at your table. The metal tube in the photo is an exhaust fan that sits close to the cooking meat to keep the smoke from being in everyone's face. The meal was very good and it really hit the spot for me because I didn't each much on the plane (I was too busy playing mulit-player yahtzee).

On our first morning in Korea, Lacey and I decided to do some exploring and we headed off towards the famous Lake Park about a mile or 2 down the road from us. It really is a neat place and I look forward to going back there for the various events that take place during the year including a flower festival that is well known throughout the country. The name Korea means Land of the Morning Calm and that was certainly evident as we walked around the lake Saturday morning.

Here's Lacey at the Lake Park. I encourage you to zoom in and see if you can spot her red nose. It was quite chilly!

Here I am on the street between our apartments and the Lake Park. This is a very busy street and has a few of our favorite stores along it. Fortunately everything is in walking distance and it was nice to be able to see so much so close to home. I wanted to get a picture with the Korean flag (the white one on the left) and was pleasantly surprised to get Captain Korean Rocking Dude in the picture as well. Maybe he is the winner of Korean Idol....I am not sure.

Lacey snapped this nice shot while she was sitting outside of E-mart waiting for me to come down and meet her. We bought some stuff at E-mart and then realized we forgot to buy some other big stuff so I went back in to get it. Our area of town has a number of tall buildings and cool looking cars and flashing neons signs that light up the street at night. If you look closely at the pink building you will see some Korean writing which means "I am just kidding, you didn't actually think I could read Korean yet did you?"

Speaking of shopping, here is what we bought. It is fun to guess what the labels might be saying. Is the juice 100%? Is Tony the Tiger the representative for Frosted Flakes in Asia? Does the little character on the toilet paper recommend this batch for comfort and softness? These are all questions you have to ask yourself when shopping in another language.

Ready...Set...Go!

Hello and welcome to our new blog!

Lacey and I are preparing to move to South Korea where we will be working as teachers in an international school in the city of Goyang. We wanted to have a place to write about our experiences and post pictures for everyone at home to keep up with thus, Korea: Southern Style was born.

As I began brainstorming names for the blog, I wanted to come up with something clever that both pointed people's attention to our location as well as giving them insight into our roots. Naturally, I thought of a few duds before eventually landing on the winner. Here are the second and third runner-up titles with a brief description of why they didn't make the cut.

3rd runner-up: "Korea: Land of Enchantment."
Failed because: As it turns out, New Mexico already has claim to this slogan and the last thing I wanted was a legal battle with the government just before I leave the country.

2nd runner-up: "Wake me up before you Goyang."
Failed because: A host of reasons really....namely, that wasn't too great of a song even though it so easily gets stuck in your head AND I was worried that people would start asking "Who is Yang? and why are we suppose to cheer for him?"

Winner: "Korea: Southern Style."
Chosen because: It is a play on words. First of all, Lacey and I are both from the south and will therefore always carry our southern roots wherever we go. Secondly, we will be living in SOUTH Korea. The word "south" in front of Korea makes a real big difference as our neighbors to the north seem to be missing a few bolts in the metal speedo they are wearing.

I found that when I told people that I was moving to Korea, many folks responded "North Korea!?" with a disgust in their tone and fear in their eyes.
No, no, no silly. As far as I know, nobody goes into North Korea, at least not right now, so we will be sticking with the South. That is, until we get our new apartments which will be referred to as East Korea and West Korea.

I already know what you are thinking..."Who's will be East and who's will be West?!"

Stay tuned to find out as we start a new, fun season of our lives! Our next post will be from Korea sometime in mid-February.

See ya then!