Just An Update

It seems unbelievable to me, but we've been back in the States just a few days shy of 10 weeks.  I feel live we've done a lot but also nothing at all.

We got back on Tuesday, August 26th and my sister, Rachel, got married on Saturday, August 30th.  (Photos by Jessica Strickland.)

We bought a car that next week and took a few trips to Indianapolis.  On September 13th, we took my aunt, Karen, and Zach's brother, Ben, zip lining.

On September 23rd, we took an Amtrak train from Indianapolis to Chicago and spent four nights in Chicago.

There was SMWC Homecoming.

And our last big trip was to Maine on October 11th-18th to see Carolyn.

We've visited with friends and family.  There were several new (and not-so-new) babies to meet.  We've also sold almost half of the stuff in our storage unit and it feels so good!

Zach and I have also been substitute teachers with the Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools.  Zach has been doing it for about one month now.  After having to wait on my FBI background check, I have finally been put on the list and have been in the classroom twice.  It feels good to be back with students.

We have also taken important steps in our certification process.  To be certified teachers, we have to take three tests: General Knowledge, Professional, and Subject Area tests.  We took and passed the General Knowledge test.  We will take the other two this month (and hopefully pass) so that we can get our background checks completed and become certified to teach in the state of Florida.

That leads me to answer a question we've been getting a lot lately: what's next?  Good question!  It's also a hard question to answer.  The plan, for NOW, is to continue subbing for the rest of the current school year.  We are talking about moving down to Florida for the next school year and teach for the next two school years in order to obtain our teaching licenses.  Once we get our licenses, we want to go abroad and teach in international schools or for the DoDEA.

So, that is the plan for now.  As most of you know, those plans could definitely change and I will try to keep you all in the loop as changes occur.

Kids Game or Drinking Game?

Which came first, the kids game or the drinking game?  My first exposure to this particular game was at a bar.  You play by saying numbers in a sequence (1,2,3,4...).  When you say the number, you must stand up.  If two people stand up and say the same number at the same time, those two people must take a drink.  The kids game is very similar except without the drinking.  There are many "drinking" games that are played in school.  Whether the kids learned the games from their parents or the adults are playing games from their past, is unknown to me.  But, I was able to capture my students killing time in class one day.

After doing about five minutes of research online, I found that the name of this game is 눈치게임 (Noonchi Game).

Healthcare in South Korea

Since it's our last week in Korea, I've been going through all bills and receipts that I've collected the past two years.  Yes, I am "one of those people" - I save bills for at least one year.  While going through everything, I came across all of our medical receipts.  In the past two years, we've (I, really) managed to rack up quite a few!

You might think, "So what?  Big deal!"  You're right.  If I were back home, there is no way I would share this information with you.  However, I want to share with you just how awesome the Korean healthcare system is.

As you can see in the picture, one or both of us went to a doctor or the hospital at least 25 times.  When I calculated the total cost, it only came up to 1,607,380 Won (~$1,600.00).  I added in 200,000 Won for the various health checks we were required to get and 300,000 Won for Zach's wisdom teeth removal.  That's a total of 2,100,000 Won (~$2,000.00).

What's more impressive is what the costs included:

• a trip (or two) to the E.R.
• 10 sessions of laser hair removal
• a tubal ligation where I had to spend the night in the hospital 
• a vasectomy
• and countless infections

What's not included is the medication.  However, each time we got medicine, the average cost was about 5,000 Won.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to get sick, the best place to do it is probably South Korea!

Birthdays in Korea

In honor of Zach's 28th birthday tomorrow (June 21st), I thought I would write about birthdays in Korea.  Zach's international age will be 28 tomorrow, but he has been 29 in Korea since the new year (depending on who you talk to, that could be Jan 1st or the Lunar New Year).  Confusing, huh?!  Don't worry, this whole birthday thing always confuses the heck out of me!  Basically, here is how you calculate Korean birthdays, I think....haha!

When you are born, you are considered to be one year old.  When the new year rolls around, you will turn 2 years old.  So technically, a baby born on Dec. 31st could be 2 years old on January 1st.  But like I said above, which new year you use to "get older" depends on who you talk to.  Some use the Gregorian or "Western" calendar and some use the Lunar calendar to "get older", which adds to the confusion.

I guess the easiest way to to calculate your Korean age is to take the current year (2014) and subtract the year you were born (1986) = 28.  If you haven't already had your birthday, add 2 years.  If you've already had your birthday, just add 1 year.  Zach is currently 27 years old, so he should add 2 years.  After his birthday he will be 28, so he will add 1 year.

If this is still confusing, just tell someone what year you were born in when they ask you how old you are.

To help me honor Zach's birthday, I would love it if you could send him a birthday message by posting in the comments section below!  He would love to hear from you!

Election Day in Busan

Today is a local election day which means we don't have school!  Candidates trying to get their names out there is very similar to candidates in the U.S.  Banners, posters, and advertisements of all kinds are everywhere.  However, it lasts only a couple of weeks instead of months and months.

A stack of flyers that were in our mailbox last week.

A stack of flyers that were in our mailbox last week.

Posters on the bridge outside of my school.

Posters on the bridge outside of my school.

And these have been going really strong for at least the past two weeks:

Well, happy election day, Busan!

Coming Home and What That Means

This morning we booked our flights home; we'll be leaving Korea on August 26th and landing in Indiana on August 26th!  My sister gets married that weekend so I'm telling people that we won't be back until September 1st because the wedding will be the only thing on my mind.  I so cannot wait!!!!  :)

We'll be staying with my dad during the first week of September because he took the whole week off from work.  Then our plan is to head up to Terre Haute for a couple of days and then have a get-away to Chicago for a couple days.  Then we will spend the week with Zach's parents.

In September, we have to take several tests for our teaching certificate, so we will be traveling to Evansville a couple of times.  At some point, we will want to get back up to Indy to visit with people there.

In October, we were thinking of doing a trip to different places in the U.S.  The last weekend of October (and maybe a few days before or after), we will be in L.A. for a Go tournament (hopefully!).

Those are our hopeful, not yet definite, plans for the next couple of months.  We will start applying for jobs at international schools as soon as we can.  We won't actually be certified until a couple of months after we take our tests.  So, I'm going to tentatively say that we will be home until at least after the holidays.  But, we may not start jobs until August of next year.

Once we have signed contracts at a school, we want to spend a month or two in Central/South America at a language school studying Spanish before starting our contracts.  It's not out of necessity, but out of want.

Depending on how things go, we might have to get part-time jobs while we are back home.  We've even considered trying to find short-time (3-4 month) contracts teaching in Central/South America.

So basically, everything is still really up in the air.  We aren't making any promises as to how long we will be back.  However, this should give you a timeline of what we are thinking.  There are so many things we want to do while being back.  AND, there are soooooo many people we want to see.  We will try everything we can to spend some time with all of you!

Thank you all for your continued support!

Fake It 'Til You Make It

This title is a perfect description of our time abroad, but mostly of our time living in Korea.  Yes, we can read Korean.  There is actually an alphabet and there are fewer characters than the English alphabet.  But just because we can read it, doesn't mean we always know what it means.  Hence, the faking it part.

Here are some examples:

This is the controller to all things heat-related in our apartment.  It turns the floor heat on and we also have to turn it on every time we want to take a shower or have hot water for anything.

This is our washing machine.

Okay, maybe this one has nothing to do with translating.  I just have a really bad memory and I can't remember which switch turns on which light.

Breaking Down My Time At School

Today I was told that I would not have my 3rd and 4th period classes today.  I only have four classes on Fridays so that means that I would finish my day at 10:30 a.m.  Got got me thinking of how much I actually work.  You may think that I'm bragging.....

......I AM!

So, here is my schedule.  I have to be at work at 8:40 a.m. and I can leave at 4:40 p.m. Monday-Friday.

I "teach"* 17 40-minute classes, 2 50-minute classes, and 2 20-minute classes.  That equals out to me being in the classroom for 14.5 hours every week.

* I put teach in quotes because my co-teacher wants me to plan a game or activity that lasts 10-15 minutes each class and that is all I am required to do.  Except for kindergarten where I am in charge for the whole 20 minutes.

That leaves me 25.5 hours each week to plan my activities and do whatever else I want with my time.  I've never really broken it down like this before.  I have it pretty cushy here in Korea!

Tubal Ligation in Busan, South Korea

If you are reading this and are family or friends, yes, I recently had a tubal ligation.  (I haven't told everyone I know.  Sorry if you are finding out this way.)  However, this post isn't about my decision to have the procedure.  This is to help others who are interested in getting this done while in Korea, specifically Busan.  While I was doing research prior to getting the procedure done, I couldn't find anything.  I hope this helps if you are wanting one but don't know how to go about doing it.

I went to a gynecologist, Dr. Shin's Women's Clinic located near Lotte Department Store in Seomyeon.  She was a great doctor and spoke pretty decent English.  Her phone number is 051-803-5551 if you want to make an appointment.  However, she tried to talk me out of having the procedure.  Thinking that I'm too young is a common reason people didn't want me to have it done.

So, I contacted Suyoung Lee (이수영) at Smart Hospital in Bujeon, Busan.  Suyoung Lee works in the International Department at the hospital and has been so much help to me.  Her e-mail is seinsy@naver.com.  If you have any problems, you can just send her an e-mail and she will get back to you as soon as she can.  The hospital website is www.smarthos.com.  However, she said that Smart Hospital does not perform tubal ligations so she referred me to Ellium Women's Hospital.

To contact Ellium Women's Hospital in Jangsan, Busan, you can call 82-51-933-0239-0230.  You will probably speak to Olga.  Or, you can do what I did and fill out the information on their website, http://www.elliumintl.com/en/kontakty/, and someone will call you back fairly quickly.  I made an appointment for a Saturday morning to talk with the doctor.  To get there, take the Green Line, Line 2 to Jangsan (the last stop) and you can take either Exit 11 or 13.  Go up to the 10th floor.

My husband went with me to talk to the doctor.  The doctor spoke pretty good English.  We were put to ease talking to him.  We scheduled my tubal for May 3rd.  That was a long weekend as Monday and Tuesday were national holidays.  I wanted to have a longer time to recover before going back to work.  He was kind enough to agree to do the surgery on a Saturday.  I was surprised to find that I would have to spend one night in the hospital.

I highly recommend that you bring your partner or a really good friend with you on the day of your surgery.  For some reason, they had my husband sign all of my paperwork.  I was completely knocked out and they performed a laparoscopy.  Everything went well.

When the anesthesia wore off, they took me to my hospital room.  I was not given a call button in my room.  That is why it is a good idea to have someone there with you.  You will need to tell the nurses when the IV bag is empty.  I wasn't checked on as much as I would have been if I were in the States.  Also, bring your own water bottle or cup.  You can't drink for probably 8 hours after the surgery, but once you can, they will not provide it for you.  Once you are allowed to eat, they will bring you food, however, they will not give you eating utensils.  Also bring along slippers to walk around in.  My husband left in the evening so that he could sleep at home.  He could have slept in my room, but it would have been fairly uncomfortable for him.  He came back in the morning before I was discharged.

I had my surgery on a Saturday and I have to go back to the hospital on Wednesday for the doctor to be able to change my bandages.  However, my "bandages" are band aids.  So, I'm not really sure why I have to go back.  I also have to go back this coming Saturday to get my stitches out.  I was told that I cannot shower until my stitches are not.  That just will not work for me, so I put gauze over my stitches and use tape to make it "waterproof".

My total bill was 750,000 Won.  I even got a private room.  Oh, I did pay almost 75,000 Won when went to talk to the doctor the first time because they did blood work and an EKG.

I was given three days worth of pain medication and antibiotics.  I've taken extra Acetaminophen only a couple of times.

I hope this has been helpful for anyone in Busan who is interested in getting a tubal ligation but doesn't know how to go about doing it.  If you have any specific questions, you can always leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

School Picnic

Today, my school had a school picnic.  Actually, the term 'picnic' is a little misleading.  Basically, the students went on a field trip.  Each grade or group of grades went somewhere different.  One of the grades went to an art museum.

For school trips, the Native English Teacher (NET) is usually required to sit at their desk and desk warm.  The only other people in the school are the maintenance/cleaning people.  Usually it's pretty boring to desk warm, but today I had plenty of things to keep me busy.  I have one more month of homework to do before the end of the course and I can always plan my lessons for the upcoming weeks.  However, today, I spent most of my time cross stitching.  (I am working on a secret project so I can't so you the whole picture.)  I can listen to good music and not have anyone bother me.  I definitely don't mind getting paid to do this!!  :)

What We've Learned While Living Abroad and Traveling

No, this post isn't about tips and tricks of the trade.  Though I've done research on travel hacking and get daily e-mails about great deals, we still pay too much for flights and hotels.  So, even if I wrote a post about tips and tricks while traveling, I don't think you should take it.  Haha!

This post is, however, about what we've learned about ourselves and/or each other while living abroad and traveling.  We have been married for almost 5 years and together for almost 10 years so, of course, we could have learned these things just from being together for so long, but I truly believe traveling has taught us these things.

So, in no particular order, here is our list:

1. We can't haggle (or choose not to).

Practice makes perfect (or at least makes you better), right?  That's not the case with us.  We both HATE haggling.  Zach refuses to do it.  So if it's going to get done, I'm the one to do it - and I'm terrible at it!  So far, we've only had to haggle for small things like clothes and souvenirs so it's not that big of a deal if we're terrible at haggling.  We stay away from "big ticket" items so that we don't have to worry about doing it.

2. We need reliable internet if we are going to live somewhere for an extended period of time.

One of our only requirements for where we live next is that we must have access to the internet.  We both need to be able to contact people if we need/want to.  China was difficult for us.  Only one of us could be plugged in at a time.  Facebook is truly a great way to stay in contact with people and to see what is happening in friends' and family's lives.  We could live without t.v. or cable, or whatever, but if we couldn't see the news in some format....  Also, Zach plays Go/Baduk online.  It's his number 1 hobby.  Neither of us want him to lose his favorite hobby.

3. We don't want children.

Sorry!  We've heard it all - "You'll change your mind."  "You're so good with kids."  "Once you have them, you'll understand."  Zach and I have talked about this for a very long time now and are both very on board with this decision.  We've tried to trick each other so many times by randomly saying that we think we want kids and other one just gets this look of terror on their face.  We love all of our friends and family member who have children or want children.  We just don't want that life.  We love our life and having the freedom to do whatever we want without having to worry about how it would affect children.

4. We will never stay in a hostel.

Hostels are awesome for travels, just not these travelers.  Maybe it's because we're married.  Maybe it's because we just want our own space.  We would rather spend more money to have our own room/bathroom than to save money and share a room/bathroom with a bunch of strangers.  I'm sure it's a great way to meet people, but we have both decided this is not for us.

5. Staycations are okay with us.

It's easy to do staycations when you're in a new place or country.  There's always something new to explore right in your area.  Don't get me wrong, I was sooooooooo ready to take our vacations to Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia this past winter.  But before that, we were content to stay wherever we were and do nothing or explore our area.  Staycations are also a great way to save up and go somewhere big on the next vacation.

6. Zach needs to be in charge of directions/maps.

I am absolutely terrible with directions and maps - Zach is awesome with them.  If the two of us are in a car during a time when directions need to be given, I must drive and he must give the directions to me.  I always second-guess myself or tell him to turn too late.  Me giving directions or second-guessing Zach's directional skills has caused many arguments.  Zach must always be in charge of giving directions and holding the map.

7. Sam can find cheap hotels online but neither of us can physically find them.

Excluding the times we've been picked up from the airport and taken to our hotel, I'm pretty sure we've gotten lost trying to find all of our hotels while being abroad.  And, it's usually raining.  Seriously!  The hotels are always cheap and that means that they are down an alley or down a street that isn't listed on a map.  Or, the map they provide online is completely wrong.  It never fails!!  This also causes several arguments.  Haha!

8. We can live on a budget.

Obviously we don't want to be on a budget, but we are.  It's not very strict, but we know how much disposable income we have every month and how much goes to savings.  With our budget we were able to travel, pay for the classes we're taking, put into savings, and go out with friends.  It can be done!

9. Zach wants to do local things and Sam is a tourist planner.

Zach doing local things with local people.

Sam being a tourist.

We both know that we each like to do different things while on vacation and we have to make some sacrifices.  I like to have a plan and do something every day.  Zach likes to relax while on vacation.  It's definitely give and take.

10. No matter what language you speak, Zach can probably communicate with you.

It's actually pretty amazing.  He picks up on non-verbal communication like it's his job.  Facial expressions and body language is a huge part of any language and this helps him when communicating with people.  For example, in Iksan, we had dinner a few times with a co-teacher and her husband.  Her husband spoke barely any English.  Zach spoke barely any Korean, yet the two of them would have whole conversations.  Neither one of us women knew what they were saying, but when she asked her husband what he thought the conversation was about and then asked Zach, the stories matched up perfectly.  

11. We want to do this long-term.

When we started talking about this in 2010, I really thought we would do it for a year and be done with it.  Four years later and we aren't ready to stop!

One of the Best Inventions

THIS has got to be one of the best (or at least pretty great) inventions of all time.  What is it?!  It's a bell.  What's so great about a bell, you say?  If you want more water at a restaurant, just press it and the server will come.  If you want to order your food, just press it and the server will come.  If you want your bill, just press it and the server will come.  I think you get the idea.

Many, many restaurants in Korea have bells just like this.  Servers will leave you alone until you press this bell.  At first, I felt pretty rude pressing it.  Now, I hate when restaurants don't have it.  Some bells are on the wall and some are directly on the table.  When you press the bell, your table number shows up on a small box on one of the restaurant walls.  (It's similar to a restaurant giving you a number to wait to be seated.)  When your number shows up on the box, a server comes over.  Otherwise they leave you alone.  It's a perfect system in my point of view!

Cambodia: Siem Reap (Feb. 25-28, 2014)

I wish we would have spent a little more time in Cambodia and a little less time in Hanoi.  The people are so friendly and our hotel was so nice.  Zach was sick for the majority of the time we were in Cambodia so we spent a lot of time in the room.  (I'm glad the hotel was so nice.)

We had the same tuk tuk driver, Mr. Kun, the entire time we were there and he was wonderful!  On the first day, we saw:
1. Preah Khan,
2. Neak Pean,
3. Ta Som,
4. East Mebon, and
5. Pre Rup.

On the second day, we saw:
1. Angkor Wat at sunrise,
2. South Gate to Angkor Thom,
3. Bayon
    -Baphoun
    -Phimeanakas
    -Terrace of Elephant & Terrace of Leper King
    -Preah Pililay
    -Prasat Sour Prat
    -North & South Kleang, and
4. Ta Prohn

On the third day, we stuck around our hotel area.  That evening we were able to go to the Night Market and Pub Street.  At the night market, we were able to buy a few souvenir t-shirts - one documenting Zach's time in Cambodia to a T!  Haha!

in a tuk tuk

our room

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Pub Street

Zach's shirt that depicts his time in Cambodia