where the gates swing outward never...

hey mom, look! new photos!!

by the way, i have skype - my name is karikut. talk to me!

in addition, if anyone feels so inclined, i would always love to receive mail. and my friend who got a letter said the postage was only about 80 cents from the US!

Kari Kutrich c/o KICS
581-3 Songnae-Dong Sosa-Gu Bucheon City
Gyeonggi-Do South Korea 420-844

aye aye aye! only a three day week ahead of me! this next weekend is the Chuseok holiday, the Korean version of Thanksgiving. This means I should have a much easier week, but who knows? we also have some fun things planned for next weekend, so i'm hoping i'll have more adventures and pictures by next week!

this week, i am basically giving two tests, that i hope to finish writing today, in two subjects (Geography and American Government), and planning some activities for ESL-B, like writing sonnets and looking at art, because we are talking about the Renaissance. By the way, my ESL-B class is still by far the most challenging. They did not-so-well on the first test I gave them; one boy got almost 100% and the next highest grade was a D! I thought the test should be simple for them, but now I have a really good indication of how well most of them actually comprehend English.

i know i shouldn't have favorites, but i am loving a few of my ninth grade classes (who i teach geography to). on friday, i gave them some time to work on a review/activity for chapter two and ended up talking to a few students. one boy, johnny, told me about his day trip to north korea. another guy told me about friends he knew from the US who were north korean refugees. i became increasingly interested in NK this past year, through my trip to China and the town of Tumen where we looked across the river into NK, and through the organization LiNK, who gave a powerful presentation on the living conditions of the people. now, talking to people who are personally connected to the country, even in the smallest ways, has been truly fascinating. i hope to explore a lot of south korea, but if i had to choose, my number one destination is the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between north and south. in our limited time, i was struck by johnny's comment about the people - he said they were very small and short (and i thought south koreans were!)

this weekend was eventful, meaning i haven't gotten a lot of (or any) work done yet.

friday night, we took the subway to part of Seoul where we had a massive buffet feast. it was "american-style", but included korean dishes too. it was nice to get my fix of veggies and fruit. we were there for hours, just eating and talking. it was a good way to end the week, especially with some people i haven't spent a lot of time with.





saturday, we made our much awaited trip to Costco. don had arranged for the school to take a group of us foreignors to the store in a school van, and we loaded up with eleven people, plus groceries on the way back. besides the food court, however, everything cost at least double that it does in the states, so we didn't buy all that much. i got some breakfast supplies that should last me through the winter :), plus some beautiful bananas.



in the afternoon, i was able to toss a disc around with don. it was the first time since i've been here!

last night, we went to a korean style BBQ buffet, where i happily munched on grilled tofu, mandu, lettuce, and korean pancakes (kimchi, bisquick, green onion), while the guys ate their fill of beef and pork. not bad for five dollars each.

laughed-out-loud-in-church moment #2: the pastor started talking about a soccer game on Oct 9th, which i thought he was talking about our school team vs their school team (there are two KICS campuses), until he said something about me playing soccer, or so the translator said. after church, someone else told me the translation was more than that - we are apparently having a female vs male game and they want me to coach the females. oh boy. i don't know if they mean students or teachers, but this should be interesting.

i should get to writing those tests! this is for all those scantrons in tenth grade...

...but i could tell you the four types of forest climates and all of their features! (hopefully my students can too...)

write back soon!
<3, kari