so theres this thing on friday

an exhibition of student works....

i had to write a little 3 minute skit, and ill post it up afterwords.

its called 제라드와 대화... chatting with jared... i have to pretend like its my first time there and ask random questions about the county and town and school.... fun...

Past few days

Well the first week I was in training with about 450 other people in Suwon, 90% of them came on time (2 weeks before I did), the week after that we went to our respective provinces, mine was Jeollanam-do, which had about.. 45 people. I got to know some people there but never got really close cause they all knew eachother since the beginning and made their cliques. After that ( a few days ago) I came to my school, Met my fellow teachers, and the faculty.

The principal is pretty strict, the vice principal is a fun loving guy, they both seem to be over 50 or 60. Im staying with two other teachers in a residence adjacent to the school (which is really in the boonies) but Ill have my own place in a week or two in the nearest town (30 minutes by bus). 2 days ago I went fishing with the Vice principal, an administator, a senior teacher, and 3 other teachers... stepped on a rock and sliced my foot a little bit but its not bad.. I caught 1 small fish and 2 pretty decent fish (about 2 hands long), after we caught the fish they field cleaned them and washed them in rice liquor, then sliced em up and ate them raw with korean hot paste. (I didnt eat any but I drank with them and ate watermelons and onions w/ hot paste)

Yesterday there was some kind of ceremony that from what I gathered was to protect the school bus? Im not sure of the details but Im guessing it is an offering to the old gods that involved a boiled pigs head and stuffing it full of money, then burning one of the bills and offering up food and liquor, then bowing to the set(the christians didnt bow) after that we cut up the pigs head (which was delicious) and ate everything and got drunk.

My first day of classes was today, the Kids love me and they chase me around endlessly saying "hi hello hi teacher jared hi hello nice to meet you ha ha ha hi jared teacher!"
When I was actually in a class teaching, when I saw the moment where my kids actually started learning and understanding what I was saying is when I really realized why I came here.

Jared is there, safe and sound.

Finally heard from Jared.
Woke up to this email.

"i didnt sleep at all and i was stuck between a marine officer that was as big as arnold, and a really fat and stinky army sarge. (i was cramped)
and i didnt sleep at all
i watched push, the escapist, the fast and the furious, xmen origins wolverine, and something else

push actually wasnt that bad

the escapist was good

the rest sucked

anyway im safe, the power cord on the laptop broke already... cant get a phone for a few weeks... so... contact will be intermittent."


So hopefully he'll be able to buy a new one or fix his laptop cord.

Jared is off to Korea...again!

Jared will be in Korea for a whole year this time.
He will be teaching "Spoken English" to elementary school students.
Teaching during the regular school year and Summer programs.

This is part of the,
TaLK Program
National Institute for International Education
Kyung Hee University ( Suwon Campus)
Seocheon-dong, Giheung, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

This is further south than he has been before. He'll be out in the country.


We had to get up around 5:30AM to get to the airport for Jared's 7:45 flight to Atlanta.
From Atlanta it is a straight flight to Korea. About a 15 hour flight.

Jared is home!

Safe, sound, and very tired.

Graduation!

Food & Fun

Jared & Friends

On the Train