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

casting pearls before swine...

H1N1 has hit our school! at least one teacher and a few students had the virus this past week. pray that it doesn't become an epidemic in our school! people are in very close quarters here...classrooms are small and stuffy, most students live in dorms, so germs can spread rather quickly. however, they are taking all necessary precautions - quarantine for three days for the infected and we have a newly installed automatic hand sanitizing machine. woot.

really, though, we'll be fine.

hello there, friends. i wish i could sit down and talk to you face to face. what is going on in your life? somedays i feel really far away from home, but, as my mom says, "hearing" your words on this blog makes you feel closer. wish you were here!

word on the apartment: i should move in on the 26th. yes, that means i will be in this dorm room over two weeks total. it really isn't so bad, i just want to get out of my suitcases. here's where i have been:

the lovely green bathroom                                                             

not quite emerson... :) but it does have a/c

(dad! there's your cinnamony suitcase!)

the end of this week was...interesting, yet very good! always surprising, and usually rewarding.

wth moment #1: five minutes into fifth period on monday, Mrs. Ko (our vice principal) told me i was supposed to be teaching a class. so i was thrust into yet another class spur the moment, this time teaching PUBLIC SPEAKING to a bunch of eighth graders (again, what is it with the subjects i know nothing about?). despite picking up the book and reading it as i taught, it was actually quite an enjoyable class. one girl, esther, i had met the night before and learned that she lived in tacoma the last four years, so having her in my class was fun (plus, she speaks fluent english and korean so she'll be very helpful to the other students and to me when they don't understand!)

humorous moment #4: on thursday, a minute or so after starting my geography class, Mrs. Ko walks in with a girl about my age and tells me there is a student teacher in my class. precisely one week minus one day after i start teaching, i now have someone sitting in my class who is supposed to be learning how to teach. you've got to be kidding me.

blessing point #1 (this is funny because we give "tallies" for bad behavior and "blessing points" for good behavior): after class, the student teacher came up to talk to me and had really good things to say about what she saw. i couldn't even believe it. i almost wish she would've told me what i did wrong (cuz i know there are many things i have to work on), but she gave me really positive feedback. she especially liked that i smile at my students while i'm teaching. i didn't even realize i did that. she was shocked when she learned that i am only a couple of years older than her and had only been teaching a week (she told me she thought i was a 'professional teacher'. ha)

cruel joke #1: i gave a pop quiz to my geography classes on friday. there are people in every class who haven't been doing their homework, so i wanted to check up on them, keep them awake.

the sched: basically, i teach five classes everyday (out of six total class periods, and i teach six on thursdays). they split up classes by grade, and sometimes the grades are split because there are more students in some grades. so i have three ninth grade geography classes (9-1, 9-2, 9-3), one eleventh grade american government class, one ESL-B (7th grade) world studies class, one eighth grade speech class (once a week), and then my homeroom is 10-1 (so half of the tenth graders). most classes are five times a week, forty-five minutes each. i enjoy the variety.

teaching the same exact thing to three different classes (of geography) has been an interesting experience. i usually learn during my first class what works, solidify it by my second, and have the class completely memorized by the third (i kind of feel bad for that first class, but it kind of evens out because the schedule isn't the same everyday).

teaching bonus #1: all this repetition has its upside. at this point, i can tell you the difference between a bog, a marsh, and a swamp. booyahhhh. i would totally ace my own tests.

friday joy #1: went to korean BBQ where we sat outside and had delicious lettuce. there was other food too, but i loved having fresh veggies. it seems that every time i get veggies, it is cooked and smothered in some nasty sauce.

friday joy #2: went to the "other side" of Bucheon Station - college town central. shopping, night clubs. our stop, however, was for some amazing ice shaving dessert with fruit. not like shave ice, but ice shavings ( i wish i took a picture) that tasted sweet. new favorite.

friday joy #3: i met person #2 who is my age and gender (rare these days, it seems), and we clicked. it was nice to have some "girl time". i got to see her apartment (her parents also work at KICS) and it is so much nicer than the other ones i have seen. i hope mine looks more like hers, but i highly doubt it will. we even watched the disney channel in english and mr. bean was on. talk about a great friday night.

blessing point #2: i took a lot of rest, did a bit of work and grading, watched 'beauty and the beast', and went to dinner for bibimbap and cold noodles with grace (who offered to pay). i told her i needed shampoo from the OK Mart (our local convenience store for urgent needs) and she gave me a bottle that she had at the dorm.

this is getting really long, but this last part is the best part of the adventure so far! so go get a cup of tea, sit back, and breathe in...

i, along with some fellow teachers and administration, went on a hike today! too much time in the city has left me longing for some good air and green...

most of our group, plus random woman in blue.             

yes, i was the only one in the group under forty, but i enjoy all of them.

it was a short hike, but exactly what we all needed on this grey sunday afternoon.

things to note about this hike:

-although people call it a "mountain", it is no more than a glorified hill.

-the trails were packed! koreans, decked out in hiking gear (hiking poles and all) were out and about, young and old.

-we came to three different exercise stations. these sets of equipment are also found in the city, but i found it quite funny that you can hike to a place to work-out (what is the hike for then?). we came to the final stop, including a fresh springwater fountain, weight-lifting, badminton courts, giant hula-hoops, parallel bars and more where a good amount of people were working out.

-we also climbed up a series of stairs to an army base and the top of the climb. the trees blocked our view of the city, though.

-the air. as we came into the gardens which led to the trails, i could feel and taste the difference. crisper, cleaner, absolutely lovely. i think i'm going to make this hike a weekly occurance. there are still more trails to explore!

sunday funnies #1: when we got back to our "neighborhood", we ordered from "Big Mama Pizza" since we thought it would be a good post-hike dinner. the korean koncoction of sweet potato on pizza proved to be a welcomed treat to my taste buds.

i finally exercised my camera! check out more pictures on my facebook!


thanks for staying with me, friends. i give my first test tomorrow. i hope my students won't murder me with any icy glares (but at least they knew about this one!). hope to hear from you soon :)

count your blessings...

on my last post, david (yep, that's a shout-out to the mccoy - did you know that part of the earth's crust is called "sima"? tell sina.) inquired as to my name on this blog - kareoke. the reason it is spelled like way (of course, to be clever :) happened as i was searching for anagram for "korea". when i thought of the karaoke habit, i couldn't pass it up. it also makes it sound more like my name, so that works. also, as to the outback, the menu is definitely american-style - no barbecued kimchi! :)

humourous moment #1 (aka when i laughed out loud in the middle of a shopping center):

really, america? you had the send the dregs of yourself to other countries? really?

this weekend was mostly restful, although i spent a considerable time working and talking about work (disregard the numerical specifications. they are mostly useless.):

unexpected moment #1: on friday, they informed me i was to join the "foreign teacher choir". so we sang a song in church on sunday.

humourous moment #2: most of the sunday service is in Korean, so the monolingual foreignors wear translators with headphones, through which an administrator translates the sermon. during the announcements, at one point the pastor looked and motioned to me, and then i realized a few others were looking as well, but not until a few seconds later did i hear through my headphones, "and we have a new teacher, Kari. Kari, please stand up". i stood up to the translator giggling in my ears.

odd incident times sixty: most everyone here simply refers to me as Kari. all the homerooms list their teachers, and most say things such as "mr. mills, mrs. jobeth" but mine just says Kari. i have no idea why. or maybe i do. as funny as it is to hear koreans say "kahreeh", you should hear them pronounce my last name.

super fun time: i sat in the office (which is really a bunch of desks all pushed together, in groups of six - they really pack the teachers in like sardines), trying to figure out the next week, when mrs. briscoe (i'm still not sure what her title is, but she works with the foreign teachers) asked if i wanted to take a break and play ping-pong or soccer. she said "sunday is a time for play!". i ended up playing soccer on a sand field with about 18 students - all male. ever since, the teachers that speak Korean say that the students have been talking about me as a "soccer player". soccer is a huge thing over here, but i especially find it funny that they find it a big deal that i can play. during the game, if the ball was in the air and i went up for it, the boys never challenged me.

humourous moment #3: these same teachers also informed me that there has been a buzz about me among the male students because they think i am "very pretty". oh, boys.

on a more less-than-fun note, teaching so far has been much more work than i thought it would be. these last two days, i have been at the school for at least twelve hours a day. when they say "8-5", it is more of a suggestion, not the actual time it will take to get everything done. since i arrived two weeks after school started, everyone else has course outlines for the semester, so in the last two days, i have made three syllabi, learned the computer grading system (as well as every other "system" - tallies for punishment, school schedule, teaching styles), graded three classes tests, taught five classes per day, read the first few chapters of three textbooks plus the added activities and ideas...i got really overwhelmed at one point yesterday, but things are evening out as i get into a rhythm and it should calm down eventually as i actually figure out how to teach effectively. right now, it is a lot of experimenting, remembering that every class is both the subject and the english language, which is the second for most students.

i'm really enjoying my students, most of the time. there is a class of ESL beginners, meaning they have an extremely low comprehension of English, so teaching them World Studies on top of English has been a huge challenge. also, when i walked into class today, some boys were physically fighting each other and yelling (cursing, probably) in korean and things got worse from there, although it quieted down once two boys were sent out. i felt bad for the students who were actually trying to learn. after class, two sweet girls, rachel and joy, said to me, "i'm sorry teacher! the boys...so bad!".

the teachers and staff here are wonderful as well. most of the weekend, i didn't have to think about where to get food or even pay for most of it. there is always someone to eat with, to show us a good restaurant and what to order (very few menus with pictures).

necessary survival skill #1: i'm learning to like spicy food.

it's been fun getting to know my fellow teachers - they are quite the fascinating bunch of people.

thank you, thank you, for your words and prayers - all of you reading this have been a blessing in my life and i couldn't imagine getting through this year without your support. i love coming back after a long day and being refreshed by you! despite the difficulties, i am learning a lot, experiencing great things, and interacting with some wonderful people. God is so good! please pray for patience, endurance, and wisdom as i continue teaching this week!

day two...

another quick post, as it is almost noon and i have still yet to leave this little room (i've been taking care of a few things - figuring out my cell phone, internetz, and all that good stuff)! i'm hoping to go exploring today, although it was raining hard this morning (and the roof in the hallway was leaking). i have no idea if it still is raining, unfortunately i can't see outside from here.

yesterday was day one. i was functioning on little sleep (i kept waking up every few hours and staying up for a long time) and no food (i couldn't eat before visiting the clinic) and had to introduce myself in front of the school, which was actually only the high schoolers (and besides that is a fairly small school anyway) in chapel. i have no idea what i said up there.

i met my fellow teachers, who are proving to be nothing short of amazing. i'm working at Korea International Christian School, which is incredibly conservative, but for the most part, the people are great. some of them took me out to dinner last night (asian fusion and the outback steakhouse of all things for dessert) and showed me the town. don (dallas), steve (uk), sunny (new york/chicago/las vegas), and dustin (oklahoma) are all great, interesting, and very diverse and i'm excited to get to know them and everyone else (they are a lot of foreign teachers as well as korean teachers). a few were excited to hear that i go to mars hill, as they have heard a lot about mark driscoll and the church.

imagine my surprise when i was introduced to everyone as the new GEOGRAPHY and AMERICAN GOVERNMENT high school teacher!! i almost laughed out loud, knowing that i will be learning right along with these students, a few chapters ahead if anything. it turns out that most foreign teachers here weren't placed in their element. i even had to teach a few classes yesterday. the lady in charge told me i was to be "introduced" to the class, then she handed me a book, showed me where she left off (she was filling in for me since their school actually started two weeks ago), and left the room. wow. this should be interesting.

this is turning out fairly long, but i need to get over to the school and to run a few errands. oh, and about the doctor? not too painful, although i have a huge bruise in my elbow-pit where the doctor jabbed a needle in to draw my blood...

here i am...where am i?

i told a few of you that i would be getting a blog, and it has finally come to pass. hopefully you won't regret making this request, because now you have to read it. :)

[i have only a few minutes until i am supposed to meet someone to take me to the clinic for my health exam, so this will be rather short.] after roughly 10 and a half hours, i made it to the Seoul-Incheon international airport around 5:30 pm and met my driver around 6. the drive through to Bucheon took about an hour, mostly because we hit rush-hour traffic. at first, i just stared out the window, taking in the green rolling hills and ports of Incheon to the increasingly hazy skies and bright lights of the city. not being able to sleep on the plane meant that by now, it was close to 2 am back home and i had a hard time keeping my eyes open, thus the statement that i am quite unaware of exactly where i am besides my immediate surroundings.

we finally made it to the school where we waited. i didn't even know who for until the woman showed up who i had talked to on the phone. a woman named Grace took me to my temporary room (for a night or two) in the girls dorm, which is where i am now, picking up a random wireless signal.

living out of four different bags (there is no such thing as packing light when packing for a year!) makes me hope that my apartment will be ready to move into for tonight. the only minor explosion occuring in my suitcase was a small container of cinnamon (they told us to bring spices we liked), and besides a powdery mess, my suitcase now smells like a snickerdoodle (probably some of my clothes as well). i can't wait to unpack and get settled, but i don't even know how long that will be.

i haven't even taken out my camera, much less taken any pictures. this short update will hopefully turn into an interesting account of new adventures once i get settled in (hopefully i will be able to steal wireless there, at least at first).

from the land of the morning calm...