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!