Korean Princess Diaries

Learn From Yesterday-Live For Today-And Hope For Tomorrow

2009-08-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

To say my students really turned it around would be a total understatement. My homeroom class proved to me that they were amazing children and that the first day at camp was just too hard for them. On the second day of camp I had a heart to heart with them about their behavior and I had Sik (my co-teacher) translate for me. The students nodded in understanding...phew.

The teaching hours long were long, but fun. Each day, we taught a morning class for three hours, had lunch, and then taught a different class for three hours until dinner time. After Dinner time, the kids normally gathered together and participated in some kind of competition. My class tried hard but never ended up winning as group. It was hard on them. Soon they didn't want to participate in these activities because there was so much pressure involved. Usually representatives from each team took turns to answer game show questions. If they got the answer wrong or didn't know it, they would have to take the walk of shame back to their seats and face their classmates. Their classmates would blame them for any team failure. There was a time when none of my girls wanted to participate and Aly (one of my girl students who every time I think about I get this huge smile) took one for the team. She reluctantly approached the front and answered the game question correctly. Unfortunately, because of chance, our team lost all of our points. At the end of the game Aly cried. I did my best to hold her and asked her what was wrong. I found out she felt it was her fault our team lost. I did my best to explain that it wasn't her fault. Sometimes we win, sometimes we loose and we all tried our best...it wasn't really sinking in. I decided she might be homesick and need a distraction. This is the night Aly became my little buddy.

I invited Aly to look at some funny family and friend photos on my computer. She smiled and seemed to feel a lot better after an hour or so. "Teacher, you have a funny life!" She said. The next morning, Aly brought me coffee. :) It was the kind from the vending machine that I always bought. Everyday, for less than one thousand won I enjoyed, "Let's Be Mild Coffee,"and everyday it reminded me of Aly.

One night, Aly and her friend stopped by my dorm room to visit me. She looked at my pajamas and said, "TEACHER! Those are hospital pants!" I laughed and told her about my five day stay in the Mokpo hospital room. Aly stared at me with her eyes wide and said, "I saw you on the NEWS!"

Sure enough, there I was and the back of my head was beautiful! We spent the next 3o minutes watching the NEWS special about all of the English teachers bringing swine flu to Korea. To my dismay, they played some footage from the security camera mounted in our hospital room. Thankfully it was only the back of my head and that all I did in the shot was slowly stroke my hair. In the photo, you can see the back of my head. Thanks to Amaia, my hair color looks great. I was not able to share the video with the U.S. so I no longer have that. :(

Anyway back to more important things, teaching became easier and easier throughout the week, but the days became longer and longer. I stayed up late every single night to use the opportunity to talk to Jon over internet. I paid for my late hours with puffy eyes and slow movement in the classroom. The Koreans ever so sweetly looked at my face and never hesitated to say, "You look tired." I heard that line at least once everyday. I tried to keep the kids engaged and entertained (they were even more tired that I was) by having them do the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey. Their eyes lit up and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

On one of our days at camp (nice transitional phrase eh?), we took the kids on a mini field trip to one of the training ships docked by the university. We all had fun running around the ship and I loved watching the kids excitedly speak Korean to one another as they were fascinated by the ship. We made sure to get a lot of pictures including some with Gene.

Gene was our English Camp Principal. All of the English teachers loved him. He was in his late seventies and never seemed to sleep. Gene delivered many speeches to the camp staff and often recited quotes that he learned. Our favorite one was one that we repeated for the entire rest of the trip. We taught it to everyone and I intend to teach it to my family and friends at home. We all shout it really loud during, "Cheers," then we clank our glasses together.

"LEARN FROM YESTERDAY, LIVE FOR TODAY, AND HOPE FOR TOMORROW!!" -Principal Gene who learned it from Einstein?

Throughout the entire week, our class worked very hard on a dancing and singing routine for our Camp Idol. It was going to be held on the last night of camp and we had to be well rehearsed. We made up a cute little dance to the song "I Want To Hold Your Hand," by the Beatles. We practiced everyday for a little over an hour. The kids were tired and did their best to make the dance great and learned all of the lyrics. There was a lot of encouragement and collaboration to make it work and it was really touching to see it all come together.

Camp Idol night came and my students were super nervous. They rushed up on the stage as planned and got into their adorable starting positions. They danced in unison and sang beautifully. I was so proud of them. All 12 classes performed that night and.....drum roll please....we got 11th place.

After the performances, our homeroom had a little class party with pizza, Coke, and Korean pop music in our classroom. We tried our best not to be emotional or to talk about our losing performance and just to enjoy every last minute with each other. I was a total dork and told them even though we never won a single competition, they were all winners to me. I said winners are kind, support each other, smile and try their hardest. I see you rolling your eyes at me Darryl.

The last day of camp was a roller coaster. All of my students surprised me in the morning with a decorated chalkboard and beautiful cards. They each took forever to write English messages on them along with their email addresses. Turned out that Sik bought each one of them a card to give to me. This was one of the nicest gifts I had ever received..all I gave him was coffee and soju... :(

Then there was the final ceremony. Principal Gene had all of the English teachers line up in a single file line near the stage. Then all of the students lined up in a similar line and walked slowly passed us to shake each one of our hands. Over the speakers a sad song, Auld Lang Syne (you know, that famous New Year's Eve song?), slowly played as teachers and student exchanged their goodbyes. One kid after another shook my hand and soon the kids that shook my hand started to cry. One student after another looked away from me with wet and red eyes. The girls cried openly and my boys held their heads down so their hats could hide their faces. Some of the the students could not speak over their sobs and some of them spoke, "Goodbye Teacher."

"Thank you teacher"

"I'll miss you teacher"

"Don't forget me teacher"

One student cried so hard she couldn't speak. I held her until she calmed down. "Teacher, I love you."

I felt pretty good about myself since my entire class made it through and I didn't cry in front of them. Then Aly approached me for the second time. "I'll miss you Teacher Christine." I hugged her and cried...a lot. My other students walked up behind her to say goodbye a second time. I had completely lost it at this point. Then Sik approached me and I couldn't even look at him. Finally, we hugged and after sniffing and wiping my mascara away Sik said, "Okay picture?" as he handed his camera phone to a friend to take our photo. I laughed at the fact that he wanted one right after I bawled...I'm sure it's really pretty and I hope he tags me on facebook.

That night, we left the camp and traveled to another campsite where we got ourselves ready to meet the governor. I put on my long white skirt and gray turtle neck (I'd like to give a shout out to Stacey for helping me put this outfit together). On our bus ride to meet him, Linzay, Michelle and I made funny faces at the camera...because we're mature.

When we arrived at dinner, I got the biggest surprise. You Sun (Margaret) set up a very special meeting between Megan, Laura, me and our Nurse Monica! We left our dinner with the Governor (since this was the only time we could meet her) and went outside to greet her. She jumped up and down with excitement when she saw us and brought two of her friends along with her. She brought all of us bookmarks as gifts. She held one out to me and said, "This one is for you Christine." On the bookmark, there was artwork created by the same artist as on the flash drive that she brought to us in the hospital. Monica remembered that I specifically complimented the artwork on her flash drive and picked the bookmark just for me (The photo was my attempt to get a good picture of the bookmark). :) I told her I was so sorry that we did not have gifts for her. Monica stared at me as tears welled up in her eyes and she started to cry. She gave me the longest hug to express her emotions. She was happy to see us, but sad we could not stay with her for longer. It was a truly special moment that I did my best to express with words...but I can never capture how incredible and surreal this moment was.

The next day we left to spend two nights in Jeju Korea. My favorite part of being at Jeju was our Beach day. I would have had more fun in Jeju if I didn't come down with a cold. I felt okay on beach day though. We turned our friend Wyatt into a mermaid, which I am so sad that I do not yet have pictures of.

*On a side note, you'll notice some karaoke tour bus pictures...yeah we did that too.

After Jeju, we went to Seoul for two nights. I had a great first night when I met Megan's family. Her mom and brother flew all the way from the states to visit her in Seoul. We hopped around the city and talked about life.

The next day Michelle, Linzay, Dannette, Aly, Jessica and I went Shopping in Seoul. We spent two hours of the first part of our trip on the subway...quit snickering, it's hard to figure out a new city. I was super helpful in navigating and I took pictures of the girls looking a the map. You're welcome girls! I bought four very cute dresses, a million gifts for my family and friends at home and had a great time with the girls. :) This was a great end to an incredible trip.

After the long flight home, I was greeted by my husband, mom, Rachel, Austin, Dannette, Madeline, Corynn, Samantha and Tanner. They were all holding a "Welcome Home Christine," sign and stuffed pigs. :)

On this trip I was quarantined for two weeks in a gross building, so as not to affect the Korean population with swine flu...then I got swine flu. I ended up spending 5 days locked a room that could only be entered by nurses and doctors in space suits. Our stay in the hospital room was documented and shared on the news for all of Korea to enjoy.

On this same trip I made amazing friends that I hope to have for the rest of my life and built beautiful relationships with Koreans. I taught Korean children a lot and I learned even more from them. We laughed together, cried together and are going to make every attempt we can to be together again.

I couldn't ask for more.

Thanks for reading :)

When I Say Mok, You Say Po!

2009-08-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sooo much has happened, but I will try to keep my blog straight and to the point so as not to hurt Lacey's eyes with the length... :)

Alright, so we ended our Wando quarantine with a hike and a, "Last Night in Quarantine Dance Party." The hike was to the highest point in Wando with Kristin, Eric, Shannon and Michelle. It was pretty incredible. Climbing up the hill was killer for me since I had just gotten back from a five day stay in a hospital bed...kinda hard to be super active after that. The view at the top was worth the struggle. Once we reached the summit, we sat in a circle and talked for a long time. We shared funny stories and made it back to camp on time for dinner and got ready for the dance party.

The dance party, to my pleasant surprise, turned out to be a lot of fun! I took about a thousand pictures of some crazy dancing and everyone there was in great spirits. We all definitely made the most of our last hours in Wando.

The next day we left for a cultural excursion of Korea. Our plan is to go on a total of two tours. The first one was before our teaching experience and was for only two days. In the morning we climbed onto a sweet bus that was decorated with purple tassels and party lights. On our entire journey, our tour guide (which happened to be You-Sun) played Korean pop music over the speakers for us. We all loved the music and felt like we were on giant party bus all through Korea.

Our first stop was a famous green tea farm. The entire farm was beautiful and I took pictures of the rows of tea leaves. We drank some delicious green tea shakes in the sun.

Our second stop was a Korean folk village. It was pretty awesome to see the old Korean huts and way of life. It was authentic and there are still Koreans who live in the village. We walked along a beautiful wall that reminded all of us of The Great Wall of China, then enjoyed a stroll through the town while seeing Korean art and playing on seesaws.

After our adventures, we went to a special Korean bacon BBQ dinner (yes I am eating meat on this trip and yes it is kinda gross, hence the lovely picture of me with bacon). The restaurant was really cool. We sat on pillows on the floor and cooked our own food on a grill at our table.

We traveled to a city that our hotel was in and went out one of the nights to see the buildings and had drinks with the Koreans. We had a great night of just sitting around a table and talking with the Koreans about our different cultures.

Now, for the best part of the day....we went to a pay-by-the-hour-hotel!! Yay! In Korea, most affordable hotels are...hmmm, how should I say this?...those types of hotels. It was actually a very trendy and nice hotel, but ummm....gross. They lights turned on low and there were vending machines in the hallway with...ahem...questionable things available for purchase. Michelle and I shared a room and tried our hardest not to think about anything too hard. We switched on the T.V. and frequently said things like, "This is really gross," and "We are going to think this is funny later on, but this is really nasty right now." I think both Michelle and I had too many things on our mind that night because during the night Michelle talked in her sleep. She turned her head over to me and, in a very matter-of-fact tone, said, "You just grabbed my butt." I had no idea if I actually did grab her butt, because I was asleep before she said that, but I promptly responded with, "Sorry," and then went back to sleep. We laughed hysterically about it the next morning and I found out Michelle completely didn't remember saying that...which made it even funnier. Whether I really did grab Michelle's butt that romantic in the special hotel is still up for debate...but it makes a wonderful story! Sorry, no pictures of this scenario.

The next day we left the hotel as quickly as possible and all 70 campers went to a McDonald's breakfast. We took over the restaurant and it was a nice little break from Korean food.

Next, we went to a beach for a couple of hours to relax in the sun and go swimming. It was like a little mini vacation for us and even though I'm more of a mountain person than a beach person, laying in the sun was pretty nice.

After the beach, we went to a beautiful Buddhist temple. We sat in a long and peaceful silence inside a gorgeous temple on the floor with pillows. It was an experience I'll never forget.

We finished our tour and went to our camps to teach. I met my co-teacher and it turns out, he is the coolest Korean guy I know. He has been very helpful and involved with everything. He taught me how to use chopsticks and is a total gentlemen with always carrying my books for me...I know! So cute! He often talks about how much he misses his girlfriend and it feels nice to work with someone in the same boat as me.

Mokpo (my camp) is great! We walked around campus and found some really cool ships docked and looked around all of the college buildings.

As for my class...let's just say I find myself missing my job at home quite a bit. The school culture of Korea is EXTREMELY different than at home. For recess time, the kids are left unsupervised and are allowed to wander the campus to do as they wish. They can be found hiding in the bathroom stalls and when someone walks by, they kick the door open and spray them with the bidet. There is another sweet game the Korean children love to play and it has a Korean name that directly translates to "#%*$ Needle," cute right? When someone is bending over, a child will quickly charge that person with a pointed finger...I'm being completely serious by-the-way. One of our fellow teachers was lucky enough today to have experienced a student playing that with him as he bent over to pick something up....so adorable! Unfortunately, my students haven't tried to play that game with me...bummer. But, I have been able to enjoy other wonderful behaviors. My class was one of the only classes not excited AT ALL to perform their cheer for the school assembly, they also made a class poster that contained picture of people with cigarettes in their mouths and to top it all off, they decided to boo other classes as they performed cheers. I can't WAIT to see what's in store for tomorrow!

Bright White Room

2009-07-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

Five-Hundred, Twenty-Five Thousand, Six-Hundred Days in Quarantiiiiiiiiiine......

As you know, I was put into a room with two other girls so that we could be separated from the rest of the camp. For a while, our friends were coming to visit us, but soon our fellow campers complained of our visitors and our friends stopped. I can't even describe how hurtful it is to be separated from our friends and to have people not want to be around us because we are sick. It is a situation I NEVER want to experience again. Thankfully, Michelle, Susan and Shannon never stayed away from me. Danielle, Megan and I were able to sneak out of our room at 5am on Sunday morning. I updated my blog and talked to Jon and Blaine over video chat. They both got a kick out of the fact that I wore a face mask on camera (It was a strictly enforced rule at camp that we all wear faces masks when inside. This rule actually made me happy because then we, sick people, were no longer being singled out). Before too much time went by, we snuck back to our room where I tried to keep myself busy, so as not to feel hurt by the quarantine in quarantine. It was so hard not to think about the fact that Michelle was just outside my door and I was not allowed to talk to her.

Later on in the day, Danielle realized that she needed to go to the hospital because she was so sick. I opened our door and yelled down the hallway for someone to take us. The wait was going to be about an hour for someone to come and get her. Ethan came to our room and told us we were ALL going to the hospital. I felt a sudden wave of fear come over me and I stared at him. "For how long will we have to stay there?" I asked. When he explained that it might be for a week, my eyes teared up and I said, "But I'm not sick! I don't want to be ALONE in a hospital room for that long when I'm not even sick." Ethan nodded and made a quick phone call. When he got off the phone he told us that the hospital will put us all in the same room. We all breathed sighs of relief (especially me). We had about twenty minutes to pack for our TBD amount of time stay in the hospital. I was able to say goodbye to Michelle from a distance as we were packing. "Pack as much as you can!" She said.

I finally had my bag packed, put my face mask on and it was time to walk out to the, "ambulance" (I use that term loosely because it was pretty much just a smelly, old van). The walk was surreal. There were random clusters of people standing in different parts of the building to say goodbye to the three hospital girls. It was like I was moving in slow motion. I was so uncertain about what was going to happen in my near future. At home, a hospital stay means my family and friends would keep me company the entire time I was there. In Korea, this meant I was being cut off from the world and it would be a lonely trip. At least I was going to be with the other girls. These thoughts were moving through my head on my walk. I said goodbye to the first cluster of people which happened to be Michelle, Ally and Susan. They snapped a picture of me on my way out...I'm sure I looked really pretty. On my way down the stairs Michelle shouted things like, "I'm so sorry I came up with the idea of us coming to Korea! I'm so sorry!" I laughed and told her she wasn't allowed to be sorry since I agreed to go.

I spent a ton of money, time, and effort to prepare for this trip. Michelle and I often talked about how pumped up we were to come to this country. We were so excited about being here that we made a trip to Powels to buy some books about Korea. After we bought our books, we took them to a nice restaurant and practiced Korean phrases over wine. We made jokes and talked excitedly about all of the things we'd see and do.

Well, here I am in Korea. I'm sitting, propped up in a hospital bed with three other girls, all from St. Loius Missouri.

Laura, 22, is in the bed across from me. She actually arrived here with You Sun a day after the rest of us did since they tested positive for swine flu later than us. I find Laura very sweet and highly entertaining. The adjective she uses most to describe things is, "Weird." I love listening to her stories about her friends and family. I love it even more when she randomly says things like, "This show is weird." Laura is thoughtful and often asks things about me and my job to show her interest. I'll miss her when this hospital visit ends.

Danielle, 21, is in the bed right next to me. She reminds me A LOT of someone I work with at home (I always think it's crazy when two complete strangers can have the same voice and mannerisms). Danielle has a great sense of humor and is fun to talk with about movies and music. We often recite movie quotes back and fourth. She does a killer impression of Kathy Lee Griffin's mom and Kyra Sedgwick. Danielle was the person who got the short end of the stick....or short end of the swine flu. She was very sick for three days straight. She had a fever and was told to take more medicine than the rest of this. Unfortunately, Danielle has chosen to go home early next week. Being this sick has just been too much for her...we'll miss her. :(

Megan, 21, is two beds down from me and has the same birthday as Jon! Megan has been the most positve person throughout this entire roller coaster ride. She has an infectious laugh that we all get to enjoy when she talks on the phone to her family. Since her mom is a flight attendant, she gets to fly to places for free. Hopefully she'll be coming to visit me in Portland soon after this trip.

You-Sun, 21 (Twenty in the United States since when Koreans are born they are considered one year old) is someone you are already familiar with. She was sadly placed into another room by herself. Poor You-Sun had to spend this entire hospital stay (about 5 days) all by herself. When she expressed how much she wanted to move into a room with people, the doctor eventually threatened to call the police to put her in jail if she continued to, "talk like that."

Condiscending Doctor, is someone who appears to have extreme distaste for us. Thankfully, we saw Monica way more often then we saw him.

Monica (her chosen English name), 25, by far the coolest nurse I have ever met. She is one of three nurses that worked with us. Monica went to great lengths to make us feel comfortable and happy. Her boyfriend teaches English. On the day of our arrival, she had called her boyfriend and wrote down some sentences she wanted to say to us. She read the sentences to us straight from her cards. "If there is anything else you need, feel free to call me," she said. We all smiled because when she said, "feel free" it actually came out, "peel pree".

We arrived Sunday night around 8:30pm. At the enterance of the hospital, we were greeted by a nurse in a space suit. Monica was covered head to toe with a white, plastic-like material. She wore goggles and a mask (of course) and escorted us down the hallway of the hospital. Ethan was still with us at this point and he carried my backpack on his shoulder. I took my backpack from him and he seemed relieved. We reached a doorway and the nurse pushed a button to make the door slide open. She motioned for us all to walk through and after Danielle, Megan and I went through the doorway, we watched Ethan in the hallway as the sliding door closed. Ethan waved to us with a concerned look on his face as we parted ways. He knew we were uncertain of what was happening.

Once behind the first sliding door, we nocticed we were in a small room with a sink and Monica instructed us each to wash our hands. After we were finished Monica pressed the button to open the next sliding door. The next room we walked into was bigger than the last. The entire room was white and cold looking. There were three beds against the opposite wall as we came in and one bed next to the bathroom. I had a huge smirk on my face as I put my bags on the floor next to my bed. I found it hilarious that we were being placed in this double doorway, sealed off room and that the nurse was wearing a full body suit. Monica took our temperatures and checked our blood pressure with straps that constrict with a machine sooo painfully tight that we laugh everytime we get checked.

The first day I woke up here, there was a gray cloud hovering over my head. I couldn't make any jokes and it was hard to laugh. Everything about staying in this room upset me. The beds are hard, we are supposed to re-use the same eating utensils, the bathroom stinks, it feels kind of humid and worst of all, zero internet access. All I could focus on was the negative. I didn't say much about it though, I just shut down. After a few hours I turned over to take a nap--anything to make the day pass by faster.

When I woke up Megan, with a cheerful smile, said, "We can call home now!" I made quite a few phone calls, but the only person I could get a hold of was my Aunt Dannette since Jon was at a basketball game and my mom was on a trip to North Dakota. I was so happy when I finally heard a familiar voice. "Oh hi!" Dannette said, "How are you?" I explained the entire situation to her. I told her how frustrated and confused I was about the whole situation. Dannette calmed me down by explaining to me what was normal in the medical world (she is a nurse and knows what is going on). She explained what the Koreans' thought process must have been as they put us in quarantine. It felt a little better to hear it from her. Throughout the phone call I was pretty short and to the point with my sentences. Towards the end of the call, Dannette, in a comforting and motherly tone of voice, said, "Christine, I know this is really, really hard, but just be strong because you are going to learn so much from this trip. You are going to have empathy for people who are really sick and have to go through things like this. We are all thinking of you and I will be sure to tell your mom I talked to you." It was when I heard her comforting tone of voice that my eyes started tearing up and my lip quivered. I had a hard time responding to her without a shaky voice. I didn't want to cry in front of the other girls the first day we were in the hospital. I thanked her for everything and said, "Tell Jon I love him." Dannette told me she would, of course. "I love you," I said.

"I love you too."

Our dinner wasn't bad. It was more Korean food, of course, but at least it was fried. It's so funny how at home, I hardly ever ate fried food, but now that I'm in a foreign country, fried food is a little taste of heaven. It's not that I have a problem with Korean food, it's that so far I haven't been able to have a choice of what I've eaten. It has either been cafeteria Korean food or hosipital Korean food....hmmm. I'm hoping to dine in a restaurant somewhere on this trip, where I can pick my own meal. I gladly ate the fried food and passed (as usual) on the kimchi.

Kimchi is served with every meal. It is basically cabbage fermented with chili paste. Koreans fill the cabbage with seasonings and plant it back into the ground to ferment, then serve it. Our teaching handbook had a couple of valuable health tips.

After we finished our dinner, we played with our electric beds. Danielle was the first person to discover the remote control to our beds (see photo of Danielle and the magical remote). Megan and I watched her move the head portion of her bed up and down. We then laughed as we moved our bed around to different angles. We discovered we were able to raise our beds up really high. "Let's race!" I said. We lighted up our beds and started our engines. "On your marks, get set...GO!" Turns out, Megan has the fastest bed...boo.

The next day I woke up feeling ten times better. I felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel, since we heard we might be able to get out of the hospital on Saturday. A lot of other great things happened as well. Our nurse, Monica, turned out to be really cool. She tried very hard to make our stay in the hospital as comfortable as possible. She brought up three bags of goodies she could find around the hospital. There are delicious Figg Newton-like cookies and little marshmallow cake things. I stood up for a while to do some stretches while watching T.V. We are able to watch two different channels that are in English. One of the channels plays mystery/problem solving shows (like House, Cold Case and Law and Order) along with great movies. The other channel is CNN. The T.V. pretty much stays on at all times. It really keeps our sanity and reminds us of home.

The doctor came in to break the news to us about our much more elaborate and accurate swine flu test. He did it in such a kind and gentle manner, "You're all positive." Then he said a few more things and walked out.

I talked to Jon for a really long time on the phone today (Luckly, the hospital is paying for our international telephone calls because we do not have internet here). He talked to me about what was going on at home and he also, oddly, filled me in on how Michelle was doing back at camp. He told me about how she mentioned thinking of going home early because of this insane experience. I didn't blame her for a second for wanting to go home. This trip has been horrible...but I still wanted her to stay in Korea with me after our quarantine was over. I told Jon I'd talk to her about it as soon as I got the chance. I figured, we made it this far, we might as well finish our trip. More importantly, our journey has been mostly negative; I would HATE to go home without seeking out some positive experience.

In the afternoon, Megan had the idea that we should make a count down on our wall so that we can look forward to the last day in the hospital. She pulled out magazines she brought along, then her and I sat on her bed and flipped through to tear out pictures for hanging. We now have a beautiful collage of photos, get well soon cards and inspirational words. We hung our horoscopes on the other side of the room and we have a Community Boyfriend hanging on the door of our bathroom. His name is Roberto and he looks rather beautiful with no shirt on.

As Megan and I sat on her bed cutting out collage pictures for our walls, familiar faces popped up in the window of our sliding door. A nurse stood outside the door with two other campers Dan and Brice. Lara, Danielle, Megan and I all screeched and ran over to the door to say, "Hi" to them. Unfortunately the guys were shoed off to their room before we had a chance. They left us a nice big care package sent to us from the rest of the Wando campers. Inside the package, was a nicely written green note addressed to us...

"Christine, Danielle, Megan, Laura and You Sun,
Well, it's not exactly what you
requested but I hope that these
snacks and drinks will at least
lift your spirits a bit. We all
miss you and cannot wait for
the big reunion! Hang in there! :)

Love, Kristin and all the Swine '09 Gang!"

I laughed for a ridiculously long time at the Swine ' 09 joke. Then I proceeded to repeat the joke to everyone I talked to on the phone that day.

In Korea, everything is "Our". Koreans are thought of as one, so everything belongs to everyone. You-sun explained to me one night that whenever Koreans refer to a noun, they use "Our" before it. I said, "So, that means your boyfriend is our boyfriend?" We both laughed about it and the inside joke has continued ever since. Hence, Roberto is our boyfriend.

When Monica came in to do her usual vital sign check, we were dancing along to one of the Korean commercials. She laughed and talked to us about a popular singing group in Korea called The Wondergirls. She stood by my bedside and told me about how she has songs on her computer at home that she could bring for me to put on my computer. We all got really excited...we loooove Monica. :)

When it was night time, we pulled our beds together and had a night of just being girls. We each took turns asking questions and then going around the circle to answer them. The questions were like, "Who was your first kiss?" and blah, blah, blah. We laughed, talked about my husband and Megan's fiance then sang songs until we passed out from being tired.

The next day we all woke up tired. Another nurse came in to check our blood pressure, circulation and temperature. We all took naps and then in the afternoon, Megan and I spent a little while doing exercises. We copied some moves from out of her magazines and stretched in the middle of the room on the floor. Megan was very patient with me as I laughed my sloppy way through the exercises.

After a sweaty exercise session, I took a loooong and hot shower and as I dried off Megan knocked on the bathroom door, "Michelle, just called! She is going to call back in five minutes!" I squealed. It had been three days since I'd talked to Michelle! I was dying to hear how she was doing and fill her in on my story. I knew she'd laugh about the space suits and the robotic beds. We talked for an hour or so. Within that hour, I was able to chat with Susan and Shannon for a short time. Michelle told me about how most of the people at the camp had gone a little germ crazy and took everything WAY too seriously. Michelle explained to me that everyone has to line up to take their Tamiflu medicine twice a day and that it felt like she was in a "Crazy House."

When I hung up the phone with her I told the girls all of the strories Michelle told me of the people back at Wando. We all laughed, called up You Sun to fill her in on the gossip and watched One Fine Day.

Suddenly, Monica's face popped up in the door window. We were all so excited to see her face that we screamed, "MONICA!!" She held up the flash drive she promised us and left it outside of our sliding door as usual. Just like always, we waited for the second sliding door to close before opening ours. Then we pressed the button to open our door (we've decided being in this room reminds us of The Jetsons) and picked up the flash drive. I was able to con Danielle into putting her songs onto my iTunes. Now I have a ton of great Korean pop music on my computer.

We fell asleep watching Pirates of the Carribean.

We woke up to a nurse taking our blood pressure again. We found out that this day would be our last full day. We didn't do much except talk on the phone, take pictures and watch T.V. I was able to talk to my mom for one of the first times since I've been in Korea. We were both excited to talk with each other except I felt bad because she wanted me to get her details about this situation, but I was over the situation and didn't explain it well. :( I'm sure she'll get an earful when I get back.

Later in the day, we looked up to see one of the nurses standing outside the door again. We stared out the window trying to figure out what she had brought for us this time. Up popped a bag with a familiar symbol on it...it was the golden arches of McDonalds. We all screamed and ran to the sliding door. She put the bag down for us and we waited impatiently for our chance to grab the bag. We savored every last bite of our food

When one of the nurses (not Monica) came in for the final check up for the day she suprised us with nice notes written individually for each of us. She gave us each little pink sticky notes....

"To. Christine
Good luck to you
From. National Mokp'o
Hospital Nurse
Lee Hye-young"

She also had us read a note that apoligized that things have been awkward between us since she doesn't speak English. We all said things like, "Awwww, don't be sorry!" And thanked her for giving us our sweet notes. We quickly whipped out a thank you note for her and Danielle gave her a package of Jellie Bellies. Then we spent the next hour writing thank you notes for Monica using my Twistables Colored Pencils.

Our last night ended quietly with each of us doing our own activity. Laura read a book, Danielle and I typed our blogs, and Megan wrote in her journal. In the background, we listened to a reality T.V. show...ah home. We had random conversations of what we will do when we get back to camp. I told the girls I would miss them when we parted ways. I'd grown comfortable with being around them. They truly are a wonderful group of girls to be stuck in a hospital room with. We are all extremely different people who somehow managed to get along perfectly together for five looooong days.

Tomorrow, we are leaving the hospital after lunch and we are VERY excited.

Stay tuned....

Knock Down Drag Out

2009-07-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today I had to get my temperature checked just like every other day and something special happened--I had a high fever! Being in this moldy and under construction building with 70 people made me catch a really great cold. Despite the fact that I knew I had a cold and just needed rest, the camp staff leader told me that I was to go to the hospital with the other sick people who had high fevers. Many questions ran through my mind and I pondered going to a foreign hospital...would they draw my blood? Would they give me a shot of antibiotics in my rear? Would they give me mysterious medicine? When I told Michelle I needed to go to the hospital she ended up having to comfort me as I freaked out. She then asked if I wanted her to come with me. We role played the customary process of Korean offerings. The first time she asked me I said, "Oh, I don't want to you have to sit through that..." she told me she didn't mind and I said, "No, you really don't have to..." she, again, explained she really didn't mind. I finally said, "Okay, it would really help me out if you came along." Michelle then had to ask the staff if it was okay that she came along because I was really worried. I'm pretty sure the camp staff now thinks I'm crazy.

About twenty minutes later, the camp staff handed out face masks to eight people. We all put them on and took pictures of ourselves, as we and the rest of the camp found it very amusing. Only three of us were technically sick but all of the sick people's roommates had to go with us as well, in case with passed the virus to them. Michelle went to give me moral support and Justin came along out of curiosity and to take pictures. Masks on, we piled into a van to get to the hospital. As we were in the van, we stared out the window the entire way to take in the sights of Wando that we've been locked away from. We "Ooooed" and "Awwwwed" at buildings and people around us. This was our first time actually seeing Korean life.

When we arrived at the hospital, all eight of us walked into the building. Two minutes later, all eight of us walked back out of the building. We were not allowed to be in the hospital since we could infect people in it. Hmmm, irony? Danielle, Megan and I all shared a bench outside so that the doctors could ask us questions and take a cotton swab to our throats. The rest of the people had to sit and watch us in boredom. We were told we would find out the results the next morning.

When we left the hospital, the plan was for all of us to go to the grocery store. For some reason, our camp staff leader allowed us all to walk into the store WITHOUT our face masks on and buy whatever we wanted (I think he was making it up to us or something). We happily wandered around like children in a candy store. We immediately picked out some soda. I found the some Kellogs and Post cereal boxes on their shelves except the box was written in Korean...I thought it was so cool that I took a couple of pictures of it. We also went to a discount store that had a ton of random things to buy. This is were I picked up a few gifts for people at home.

After walking through a couple of stores, we were able to stroll around the city of Wando. It was a surprise to find it was actually a pretty big city with semi tall buildings. I took a ton of pictures of all the Korean signs.

On our way back to the camp, we had a discussion about whether or not to wear our face masks. Dan thought we should all wear the masks to be considerate of other campers...I and some of the other passengers agreed it would be uncomfortable and that we didn't want to be singled out. Not to mention the fact that if we had a cold back in the states, we would not be expected to put on embarrassing masks. The fact that the masks don't actually keep the germs away, makes it seem even more ridiculous to wear them.

We returned to the camp after our exciting day. Michelle, Shannon, Susan, Ally, Marty, Justin, Kyler, Kelly and I were planning to put on a skit for the talent show for that same night. The purpose of the skit was pretty important. We were going to poke fun at a situation that happened on Michelle's birthday. Apparently some people were offended they didn't get any cake and were mad at us for the way we handed it out. The skit was supposed to make fun of us for handing out the cake to only campers who have to stay at Wando for the next few weeks. Since this camp is so gross, we thought it would be nice to give them cake. Other people, however, were very upset with us and even took to being rude to us the next day...so the skit was also supposed to poke fun at the people who threw a fit. We practice the skit a few times through and I got super excited about it.

As soon as we finished practicing, I went to my room to take a shower and make myself look pretty for the first time on this trip. I was really excited when I had my hair blow dried and put my make-up on. Yo-sun suddenly walked into the room and handed me a giant blue face mask. She said, "I am so sorry Christine, but you have to wear this."

I didn't leave my room after Yo sun had given me the mask of shame. I sat on my bed and stared at it for about ten minutes. I finally put on the mask and looked in the mirror. I felt so embarrassed wearing it. I realized it was dinner time and I started getting ready head down to the cafeteria when Yo-sun walked into the room again with a tray of food. She placed the tray in front of me and said, "You are not allowed to go into the cafeteria." This is where I lost it. I started crying and Yo-sun held me and told me she was sorry. She said, "Don't cry! Don't cry! You are not bad, we just have to be careful. I'm so sorry! I believe that you do not have the swine flu and that if you are infectious, I am infectious. It will be okay and everything will be back to normal tomorrow morning." I explained to her that I understood it was not in her power and that I was not upset with her but with the whole situation. I explained that the reason I am sick, is because of this extremely moldy building and the fact that there are 70 other people in a small space. Yo-sun agreed with me and then finally had to leave me alone with my tray of food.

After Yo sun left, I was alone with my thoughts and whomever decided to stop by and visit me. I impatiently waited for Michelle to come to my room. Her and Susan showed up with Snickers bars, juice, cookies and a card they made for me. It was so sweet. :) I sadly told them I could not do the skit with them and then sat on my bed to type my blog on a word document (one of the only things I could think of to do with my time since there is no wireless internet in my room).

After about an hour had passed, the two other sick people, Megan and Danielle, knocked on my door. When they came in they told me some of the worst news I'd ever heard.Megan said, "We got the test results back. They say we have the swine flu."

I sat there dumbstruck. Danielle explained that they had to move into my room and Yo sun had to move out. She said that we are not allowed to teach next week and that we will have to say in our rooms at the camp for the entire week. Then Megan and Danielle moved their belongings into the room and set up camp. We all stood around talking about how stupid this whole situation is and how we seriously doubted that we have the swine flu. We complained of how embarrassed we are and how it felt like a bad dream.

The leader of the camp stopped by our room and shared with us some even more horrible news. The whole first week of camp had been canceled and none of the 70 people could go and teach. We asked where we would be and he reluctantly told us that we would have to say here in Wando for another week.

As I am writing this blog, the staff of the camp is holding a mandatory meeting for everyone else at the camp to break the horrible news to everyone. All of the campers will need to wear the giant blue masks. We don't know how people are going to react. All we know is that they are holding us for another week and that they are going to have an emergency meeting with the governor to decide if they will close the next camp.

I am laying in my room with two other girls. We became sick on this trip and because of us, they are holding 70 people in this building, that everyone hates, for even longer. We are watching Friday Night Lights on a laptop to distract us from our thoughts. Maybe by tomorrow, we will know more...maybe not.

****
Today I woke up feeling just fine. Not sick at all. Words cannot express how I feel, being a healthy person locked inside a room of a horrible building. I feel completely healthy and my "Swine Flu Test" that read "Positive" is the reason everyone is in quarantine for another week. This time, we are not even supposed to go hiking. The camp staff leader got in trouble for taking us around town yesterday...so this time he is following the rules and not letting us do ANYTHING.

Troublemaker

2009-07-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

A birthday in quarantine?? Sounds pretty horrible for Michelle, but we did our best to make sure she had fun.

The day started as usual. Hot dogs and salad for breakfast and then wandering the building until the orientation started. I decided it would be a great time to wash my clothes. I'd already washed some of my clothes by hand, but didn't really feel like they were getting that clean. Susan and I decided we would try the laundry facilities in this building. We gathered some of our clothes and then found that the laundry room had a giant puddle of water in the middle of the room. Plaster and dust from the walls (keep in mind this wonderful resort is under construction) had collected on the washing machines and piles of both wet and dirty clothes were everywhere. We started to pull some other people's clothes out of the washer to put our load in, then opted out of using the machines all together. The idea of some of the guys from this camp pulling my personal items from the washer grossed me out a little and I headed back to my room to hand wash. I started my normal routine of using Woolite and washing my clothes under the shower head. By the time I was finished my outfit for the day (which happened to be a cute green top matched with some long athletic boy shorts. I like to keep it classy.) was soaking wet. I didn't really care about my outfit being wet until I walked out to the hallway and Michelle met me at the stars. "Where have you been?? We started our meeting a LONG time ago!! Why are you all wet?" I arrived at my meeting late and soaking wet. Awesome.

In the afternoon, Michelle, Shannon and I went for a LONG walk down the hill, through the town of Wando, to the beach. It was a very interesting walk because we were paranoid of running into Koreans and then scaring them since we were told to stay far away from them. To our pleasant surprise, a large group of Korean workers spotted us and excitedly waved and smiled at us. It was quite a treat to feel welcomed into their town. When we made it to the rocky beach, there were tiny crabs EVERYWHERE. As we tiptoed through the rocks (so that we didn't crush the poor things) crabs crawled out in every direction. So cool.

When dinner time rolled around I, to Michelle's extreme embarrassment, stood up in the cafeteria and announced to everyone it was her birthday. We all sang her happy birthday and cut a cake that the camp staff bought for us. We were so happy the cake turned out to be a delicious and rich chocolate. There wasn't enough cake to give to all of the campers so we decided to give cake to the people who have to stay in Wando. They were pretty happy with us for about a minute. It's amazing how excited people who are in quarantine become over something like cake.

After dinner, Michelle, Shannon, Susan and I picked up our soju, soda and snickers that we asked Yu-Son to get for us. We took it up to our room and had our own little party. We sat in a circle and told grade school jokes and stories while enjoying our soju.

After a while we wandered around and found Marty, Carl and Jeff sitting around with Marty's guitar. This was the highlight of my night because we passed the guitar around and played songs we loved. We had so much fun with our soju and loud sing alongs. Our voices echoed through the hallways...I'm sure the other campers appreciated us. I could have done it all night but we had to move the party to a different area of the building since it was approaching 10:00 (quiet hours).

We moved to the auditorium, laughed as Carl played I'm On A Boat and cried tears of joy as Jeff played Maggie Mae. Yu-Son surprised us and hooked up the karaoke for everyone. Michelle and I sang quite a few songs (horribly) and then proceeded to be background dancers for all of the other singers. Everyone finished singing...but the party didn't stop there!

Suddenly, a huge group of people piled into the auditorium to join us for a dance party on the stage. People were getting all crazy up in here! Yeah, I just said that. The camp staff turned on stage lights and blasted American Hip Hop music. Campers were bumping and grinding up on each other within the conservative Korean culture...it was really entertaining to watch people go crazy. This is what happens when people in quarantine drink soju.

P.S. We found a giant spider and some crazy girl decided to pick it up and let it crawl all over her arm. I took advantage of the situation and snapped some photos.

Glorious Day

2009-07-22T03:25:00.000-07:00

The best way to start this blog is to just say it...today was AWESOME!

I woke up refreshed and we were served another very special hot dog breakfast. The eggs on the side were pretty tasty. :)

After breakfast we enjoyed a presentation of Korean music. It was fascinating! We sang in Korean, played drums and danced. All of the campers were enthusiastic about participating which made it even more fun. During the break we did Korean chair exercises...yep, it's as entertaining as it sounds. Since then, Michelle, Susan and I have been putting on spontaneous chair exercising performances for others around us...I think they really like it. I think they also really like it when we sing awful Black-Eyed Peas songs in the cafeteria during lunch. Hey, we are just trying to help everyone enjoy their quarantine!

Fortunately, today I was also able to practice my disc-throwing with Lindsey. We played with some laid back guys and they were patient with our less than graceful disc skills.

Being stuck in this building with nothing to do has, surprisingly, not been terrible. Everyone has an attitude that says, "We're all in this together, so let's make the best of it." We find ways to enjoy ourselves with making each other laugh, sharing stories, pictures, watching youtube videos. It's amazing how we all just seem to have an incredible time even under our circumstances. Can we continue to do this until Sunday? I don't know...we'll find out.

Our next exciting event was a hike through the forests of Wando. The views were gorgeous and the pictures don't quite capture it. We hiked to the top of a hill and found a beautiful gazebo. Most of the campers headed back to the camp but Michelle, Shannon and I said, "ONWARD"...I like to make things sound way more exciting than they actually are.

We continued on our journey through forests and man-made waterfalls then found a ton of beautiful Korean architecture. We strolled through some beautiful gardens with trees and flowers we had never seen. There were beautiful dragonflies everywhere and we took our shoes off to walk through a stream of clear water. Then we made our way up to an amazing wooden house with gorgeous pillars and awesome doors. There was a nice looking Korean man walking slowly around the building...he must have decided to take a relaxing walk around on his lunch break. We had a moment of silence while taking in all of the beauty around us. Just as we prepared to take a picture, the man walked passed us let a loud one rip.

To end the night, the camp staff set up a karaoke party for us. It was a lot of fun and Michelle put on an adorable performance as she sang Pasty Cline for us. :) Look forward to the picture of her singing in tomorrow's blog...which I supposed for you would be today. Also stay tuned to see how we will celebrate a birthday in quarantine! Michelle's Birthday is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing just how fun we can make the day for our little Magical Unicorn.

Anyong-he-kaseyo

Say It Ain't So

2009-07-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Four straight hours of travelling and I will inevitably color a picture of multi-colored snakes! Nice right? After 11 hours on the airplane (Michelle and I were able to con the airport check-in people into letting us sit next to each other) we arrived at the airport of Seoul. I've decided Seoul is the coolest name ever by-the-way. The airport was packed with beautiful Koreans...not kidding, the women here are gorgeous! Sorry guys, didn't take pictures of them since I thought that might be a little creepy...

Next, we boarded a bus and drove for five hours. Need I say more?

Finally, we arrived in Wando and set up camp. The Wando campsite is where we will stay for the first week during orientation. We woke up the next morning and found out some special surprise information: WE ARE IN QUARANTINE FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK SO THAT WE DON'T PASS THE SWINE FLU TO THE KOREANS! YAY!!! We get to stay in a dirty, old and under construction building! There is literally nothing to do expect for talk to other campers, walk around outside, and use the internet. If we go outside we are not to speak to or be seen by Koreans. The picture of the concrete building is our resort. It's actually a university for Korean students. I'm not sure how often it is used though...

There are two groups of campers along in this program: the Portland Group and the Missouri Group. The Portland Group is somewhat more conservative and the Missouri Group is pretty...hmm...for lack of a better word, outgoing. Sometimes I just sit back and enjoy the entertainment of the other campers. For some reason, I was really surprised to see how many single people are in this program. There are only a handful of people that are in relationships or are married.

My room is pretty decent. It has A/C and its own bathroom. I just need to make sure to remember the rules, "TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!!" I was super embarrassed when I was shouted at, after marching into my room with my LA Gears...yeah that's right, they still make them and, according to me are still cool! Yu-son, my roommate is a twenty-one year old university student from Seoul. She's the one with the T-shirt. :) Like teenage girls, we stay up all night long talking and laughing.

While living in quarantine, there is not much to update you on except for the little things that have happened so far this week...

In the mornings, I usually, consciously, sleep through hot dog and iceberg lettuce breakfasts.

We have taken a couple of insane hikes through the forest and I've discovered the scary amount I am able to sweat. The humidity here has an affect on me that is worrisome. I won't gross you out any further. The hikes are pretty great though.

Michelle and I have fun talking to our husbands and friends over instant message and video chat. Please enjoy the picture of Michelle and Ian making out over video chat.

Food- We are served a lot of fishy things and we often eat off of metal (see photo). They often serve an extremely fishy broth. I took one bite. But hey, at least I gave it a shot.

Bugs- There are a ton of really unique looking moths and butterflies. I have a lot of really nice mosquito bites.

Living situation - Great news! Michelle and I won a coin toss between us and two other campers and get to stay at the same camp next week. It's called Mokpo and its supposed to be pretty cool with lots to do.

Stay tuned...

Perfect Situation

2009-07-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

It all started as we were on our way home from Las Vegas in our Pathfinder during Spring Break. Jon, Matt, Sarah and I cruised along I5 listening to our iPods and talked about how much fun we had on our trip.My phone vibrated and up popped a text message from Michelle, one of my best friends. The message said, "Want to teach English in Korea this summer?"

Michelle is a second grade teacher in Woodburn. I met her in PSU Grad School two years ago and I decided that I won't ever be letting go of her. She's pretty much the funniest girl I know and a wonderful friend...

All sorts of thoughts ran through my head as I read the text out loud to Jon.

"When?" I wrote back.

"July 18th - August 18th. It's all paid for through Portland State..."

I had a quick conversation about it with Jon. He ultimately told me, "I'll miss you a lot, but it sounds like an opportunity you shouldn't miss."

"I'M IN!"

So here I am, three months later, packing for a trip I have no clue how to pack for. People ask me all the time, "Have you ever been overseas?" The answer is: never. This will be quite an adventure for me since I have no idea what to expect.

Yesterday I made a trip to Target to buy the things (like toiletries) that I thought I might need for my journey. About halfway into my shopping trip I almost had a nervous breakdown when I realized how full my cart was AND how little my suitcase is AND how I couldn't find the flippin' Earplane plugs for the 11 hour flight! In the midst of my freak-out session, I called my mom about three times and called Lacey twice to complain...I'm pretty sure they now both think I'm insane and incompetent. Lucky for me I am still paying Lacey to be my friend...so we're still on good terms.

Three hours and $200 later, I left the store with bags full of toiletries I may or may not need for my trip. Needless to say Jon was not pleased with my spending...it's okay though, I gave him a hug.

The search for my Earplane plugs is still on.
Without something to open up my itty bitty ear canals, I cannot step aboard a plane. Earplaneless, Michelle would have to watch me curl up into a little ball and lay my head on her lap, at which point she will be SO glad to have invited me on this 5 week adventure with her.

What does all of this have to do with the price of eggs in China? Nothing, but I'm sure you feel closer to me now that you know my ear situation. Yeah.

Things I've realized while packing for Korea:

1) Space Bags are the invention of a genius

2) I have a lot of brown tank tops

3) Having laundry done BEFORE packing is a helpful strategy

4) Gus should definitely come with me....

Next steps...leave PDX at 9:30am on Saturday, fly to Seattle, wait for Michelle's flight to arrive and finally fly to Seoul!