Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote cartoon collection - Zoom at the Top

We watched this one after the Penguins of Madagascar and they couldn't stop laughing. There are also no words. Interesting.

The Penguins of Madagascar Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan

I watched this after my kids' tests yesterday and I was the only one laughing. :-( Lots of innuendo humor that wasn't just straight interpretation. I enjoyed it though, even if they unfortunately did not.

Keep Poking Me with That and You'll Walk Funny

So I assume because of the holiday my waffle lady was taking an extended break.  I applaud her.  I revisited my street food stand that was closer to my bank on the way to work Wednesday and the man wasn't the one in the actual cart doing the cooking this time, it was his wife and he was doing the prep work on the side.  She was working diligently and was waiting on the waffles that were in the iron to be fresh for me.  I appreciated it, but I couldn't communicate that I wasn't in any hurry.  I was enjoying watching the man work.  He'd look at me then he'd turn and poke his wife in the leg with his rolling pin and motion for her to fix me a waffle.  I'd smile and motion that it was ok.  Then he'd turn and poke her again as she'd go back to more of her cooking.  She hauled off and started ranting at him as he went to poke her again with the rolling pin.  Haha.  I thought I had a hard time ordering food, how was I potentially going to explain this woman beating this man within an inch of his life if he made the mistake of poking him again.  I was all smiles and laughter whenever I left the cart.

Boots in Korea

Yes we are actually back to being a more authentic title for the blog, boots in Korea.  :-)  I had talked earlier in the blog I believe about the heel on my Christmas present boots popping off. :-(  Real bummer so I was sporting my Chuck Taylor's for a while.  I asked my boss at work where a cobbler or shoe repair store is and he told me they're everywhere.  Great, well just suppose I don't know everywhere and point one out to me.  Turns out when he said everywhere he kind of meant it, but you can't look for a storefront like a person might be used to.  They appear to be almost double-wide telephone booth with aluminum curtains and I thought at first it might be just a shoe shine stand, but they do all shoe repair here.  The nice Korean lady that works there had the goofiest smile on her face when I entered her stand carrying a pair of cowboy boots.  I showed her the rubber pad that had fallen off and she picked up a new pad and motioned that she'd be using a new one.  Then she motioned to the other boot in my hand, implying that she obviously wanted to repair both.  I handed it over and she held up 1 finger and did a swirl around her watch face.  Haha.  I smiled and told her thank you and went for a cup of hot chocolate and some reading and prep at a local coffee shop.  When I returned in an hour I was absolutely thrilled at what waited for me.  They were beautifully polished and the heels looked gorgeous, although they were a little taller than I'd like (I've noticed there are numerous Korean products to add inches *to your height*).  :-)  13 bucks and we were all done.  I was so happy to have my boots back and I will definitely be visiting her stall again.  

Pictures : Looking Out the Windows at Work

Laundry Post

This is An Awesome Looking Daycare on My Morning Run Route

Also beginning now I will be posting pictures in a new way that makes them clickable to enlarge them.  There is also a running photo viewer at the bottom of the blog page that connects you with an album that holds all photos that are used on this blog.  Hopefully this will allow captions, titles and bubbles to be easier to read.  Enjoy.

THE TRAIN RIDE, SOLAL (LUNAR NEW YEAR), THIS DUDE “CAN” EAT AND FAG RAGS

             I love my train rides because they're super peaceful.  However, the taxi ride to the train stations are anything but.  My train was set depart at 6:40 Saturday evening and the awesome thing about Korean trains is that they depart ON TIME.  The train station isn't far from work, however it is through downtown which on a Saturday night can be quite bearish.  And it was, but the taxi driver maneuvered it expertly.  For some reason I had put my return confirmation slip in my rolling bag and therefore I only got my going ticket printed.  This would be something I'd learn later on during the return trip home.  I got a lot of reading done on the trip up there and a lot of George Strait listened to.  Haha.  On the return trip Heana dropped me off at the train station and I had about ten minutes so I looked at the line to get a ticket printed and was like my paper confirmation ticket will be good enough and opted to get some food instead.  I then looked at my paper confirmation ticket as I was getting onto the train and there's no seat number printed.  I remembered that I was in Car 1 close to the door for the return trip, but couldn't really remember so I grabbed seat 11 which was empty and close to the door.  I didn't have any issues until three or four stops down the road an older gentleman motioned that this was his seat.  I had no problem giving it up as I technically had no claim to it.  I enjoyed the rest of my trip sitting in the standing area on top of my bag.  This was great because it was only one Korean lady and me and I got a ton, seriously A TON, of prep work done for work and also this entire blog post prewritten in order to publish later. 

             I spent Solal with Scott, Heana and her Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Cousins and their wives in Incheon and had a blast.  They all loved how I would just dive into the Korean food and eat and her Uncle and Dad loved that they could bully me into drinking with them (something that Scott says he doesn't allow himself to get into haha).  After dinner we all went to her older cousin's house and played this traditional Korean game that was a blast.  I saw sets of them on sale the other day and I'll have to wait to find one that I like because I had a blast playing it.  We started out betting a dollar and I WON the first game.  Totally dominated.  It was beginners luck.  Then we started playing with couple's and her Uncle wanted me on his team and we won the first round and then lost then next two.  It was definitely a blast though.  I also found some new Korean foods that I love and some that I can easily make.  Both her mom and her aunt made this rice cake soup that was absolutely to die for that I will need to find out the recipe from one or both of them because I could eat that ten days a week and Scott says it's Heana's favorite too.  I also was invited to the traditional paying of respects to the elders before after the meal and this was fascinating to me.  I had seen it depicted on the news where the kids wear the traditional Hanboks and bow to the ground in front of their grandparents and the grandparents on tv gave them $10 for their homage and respect.  I didn't think it would be this crude of a ceremony where the bowing takes places with the grandparents sitting there with their wallets open, but it DOES.  Scott says that usually this is when they play the Korean game with all the betting so they can win it all back. After Monday brunch we made the trip back to Scott and Heana's house through the holiday traffic where Heana's mom had made the meal for us and a bunch of their military buddies.  It was good times to be had by all.  Scott had told me there was one guy who was coming that constantly talks shit, and he thought it was pretty funny when I easily picked them out.   This same guy however was the one that made the comment about 2 hours into the meal when I was going back for another plate that “D*mn this dude CAN eat.”  Scott and I finished off the night watching Shooter and drinking some flavored Rice Wines that I had given him in a gift set for the holiday.

             I've been having impromptu and informal discussions with my students before the classes for a few minutes to make me seem like a real person who actually gives a darn about Korean culture and about Korean life.  When I showed up on Saturday I had left my bag with the gift sets in it in my classroom and my students were certainly interested in what I got and who I got it for.  They also approved and said that those were good gifts.  (I got some help from my boss on what to get Heana's mom.  It was a real winner.)  This week a great deal of our discussions revolved around the holiday and their travel plans, how they celebrate it, and what they where.  My younger kids (elementary school age) still wear the traditional Hanbok's (Heana's niece had one on on Monday and was adorable).  When I was inquiring about it with the older kids they said they just wear regular nice clothes, but still pay homage and respect to their grandparents.  It then clicked in my head the similarities between Easter clothes for little kids in America and the olders (middle school age).  I then was telling them about how the moms will dress up the little boys and girls for Easter before they go over to their grandparents' houses and search for eggs filled with candy and money.  I was then telling them that you still search for eggs, but you just wear nice clothes later in life.  They were then curious about the types of clothes that kids would wear in America for such a holiday and I started to tell them about seersucker suits and how the little boys will match the older men.  They were curious as to if I ever had to wear them and I told them about my Fag Rags when I was little (without using the term Fag Rags obviously).  They thought it was hilarious so I suspect I'm going to have to get mom to scan a picture in so I can show the kids.

***Random Thoughts***

             I don't have my younger kids this week, so I think that it will give me plenty of time to finish my classroom.  The progress has slowed to a crawl as the black masking tape that I was so tremendously excited about has turned out to be worse than a dollar store kitchen knife.  I did try to get some poster tack from Office Depot, but there was a communication barrier and therefore I just got some double-sided foam tape from there that has proved to be infinitely better in numerous ways.  It doesn't fall off the walls like the black masking tape and it also doesn't allow the pages to curl.

             I've been posting some of the better examples of the younger kids writings on the wall and they're definitely noticing and putting in that extra little effort.  This makes me happy because I put a great deal of focus on writing and getting these students to write better sentences, actually use punctuation and stop over-using words such as like and good.  I had to have an impromptu lesson the other day with several classes over the difference between fun and funny.  Had to explain to them that things you enjoy are fun and things that make you laugh are funny.  The sentences got drastically easier to read after this conversation.

             Before I left for the holiday it was laundry day in Chateau Davis.  I had been looking for a clothesline and most of the ones at the markets were 6-10 bucks which I would've gladly paid had I found one that I liked.  However I didn't.  Especially when I was drying my sweaters (plural, which I wear everyday) I needed something a little more than a common drying rack as I wanted to lay the sweaters out moreso than having them draped over a line bent in half getting longer or hanging from clothespins being stretched out of shape.  Therefore I stopped at the hardware store right across the street from my place on the way home from a morning run and bought a spool of thicker polyester twine and made this elaborate web on the ceiling of my villa so that numerous sweaters could dry at once.  I was lucky because there is a water pipe that runs throughout a majority of the apartment, which allowed me to tie to the brackets, thus preventing any water pipe catastrophes.  Timberlines, clove hitches and figure eights on a bite all came in handy as it was a success.  The washing machine was easy to use, however it plays this really weird song after the cycle is done and even continues it after the door has been opened.

             Heana likes Honey Nut Chex in the mornings and this was awesome because A) not many people think of this variety of Chex rather thinking of Rice, Corn or Wheat usually and B) I could eat a box of it at a sitting.  This stuff rules.  She also enjoyed the fact that I had a text written from my boss as to the name for fresh kimchi that I eat with my meals and when we were at her aunt's house there was some that I was eating and she was telling her aunt and her aunt was offering for me to take some home, however after a few hours its not the same.  My boss told me that all the women in Korea know how to make it, however the older generations make it the best.  I think that's like Grandma Shannon's spaghetti sauce or Grandma Davis' sausage gravy for biscuits.  I can make both of them, however they make them better.

Destressing

It's always nice to know that for me exercise, drawing and a glass of grapefruit juice can clear my head and get me happy again. 

Time Lapse Soup Photos

This is a photographic essay as to the creation of what in the earlier post was deemed "The Almost Perfect Soup".

SOMETIMES IT’S AWESOME BEING LOST, THE ALMOST PERFECT SOUP, A CHATTY CABBIE AND SCREW THE WHITE SOX

           Does anyone know what the best way to discover a city is?  Is there a methodical approach that works for some people that are going to be staying in a certain spot for an extended period of time?  I.E. not just trying to see a city in a week or a weekend.  Idk the answers to these questions and I by no way am saying that my approach is the best, but it works for me and I love it.  I wander.  Haha.  That’s the perfect way to put it.  It can either be on the way to work, on the way home from work, or after my morning run, but anytime it’s enjoyable.  I love having nowhere to go quickly and being able to window shop, people watch and just peruse the city.  I’ve discovered a couple restaurants that I eventually want to try this way, seen a couple of stores that look interesting, and it’s also how I discovered the running trail that’s close to where I live.  On one of my wanders I discovered that on the side of the train tracks in between my apartment and work there is a running trail that has exercise stations placed throughout the run.  I’m highly intrigued and will probably be moving at least some of my runs to this course as it mixes things up.

           Speaking of mixing things up, my soups.  Maybe there should just be a separate blog that I write about my soup adventures.  Until then however you have to sort through it here.  I’m not going to go into infinite detail about the newest soups, however I will just show time lapse pictures.  I call it the almost perfect soup, because I think that I could always add something or take something away.

           I took a cab to work today, I usually don’t but today it had just finished raining and I was just in the mood.  It was funny because when I flagged him down he honked first as he was going the other direction and I didn’t see a point in flagging him to u-turn, but after he honked I signaled him over.  I then figured out that he wanted to pick me up as he could ramble on and on in English, luckily it was a short ride, however it was fun.  He asked the usual question of where I was from and then told me my Korean pronunciation was good (I know it’s not, but oh well) and he also said that I must get all the ladies as I’m the most handsome American he’s had in his cab (tipping not’s typical in Korea so I wonder what he’s fishing for).  When we were almost there he offered me a stick of gum which I already had one in my mouth but took anyways.  I then exited the cab and paid my 2.60 fare with 3 bucks and insisted that he keep the .40 cents change (they always want to give it back, but this was the first cabbie that there wasn’t an argument about it with and I left the cab with a smile on my face.  I was definitely glad that I had taken a cab to work and that he had u-turned. 

           Finally it’s pretty common to see Koreans wearing miscellaneous MLB hats all the time.  However for some reason I have noticed that the White Sox are overwhelmingly popular.  WHAT?!?!  Idk the reasoning.  You also tend to see Yankees, Boston and San Fran hats mixed in, but White Sox ones are the most prevalent in my observations.  However, one of the students at our school (not in my class) showed up a couple classes ago in an Astros hat and it made my day and now I make an effort to see him in the hall whenever he’s on his way to class because see his hat never fails to put a smile on my face.

***Random Thoughts***

           We had a work dinner last night (pictures of the mushrooms have already been posted), but there was also a Kimchi soup that we had where the cabbage was a little less cured than it usually is and so amongst the spiciness you could still taste the cabbage flavor and every bite reminded me of Grandma Davis’ cabbage roll casserole soup (minus the sausage).  It made me very happy and the only perfect ending to being that happy was listening to George as I went to bed.

           During the course of the dinner discussions it was also brought up that the other teacher that’s in my apartment complex digs biscuits and gravy and those who know me know that I could frankly live off of it if it was culturally acceptable and therefore I’m going to be definitely making some batches as soon as I get my countertop over (should be arriving any day now).

           I got my electric kettle today which makes me happy.  I just have a small stovetop kettle and therefore for most breakfasts I have to heat it up twice: once for hot chocolate and once for oatmeal (both manly size portions).  Now with an electronic kettle that holds over a liter of water I no longer have to worry about it, or wait for the stove to heat up.

           Couldn’t find the bar soap that I scored at the little market in Seoul, however I did find some green tea soap that I enjoy.  It’s a good thing I enjoy it as I purchased a 6-pack.

           I haven’t mentioned American TV shows that started in January here.  Prime Suspect with Maria Bello just started, but I haven’t figured out what it’s scheduled time is.  However what makes me happy is the USA drama Suits from back in the states starts at about 11 when I get home from work and I’m in the middle of dinner.  I love the quote:

“I thought I told you to get some new suits.”  “I did.  I spent $500.”  “On how many suits?”  “Five.”

           My kind of humor, my kind of show.  

Work Dinner Last Night

Mmmm Button mushrooms over a charcoal pit slowly filling with delectable juices that make the meaty mushroom caps melt in your mouth whenever you dive into them.  Dip them in spicy red pepper paste for a sweat, savory, spicy mouthful dilemma and you're in food heaven.

My Classroom Window

This is my classroom window from the back of the school looking up.

Movie Poster

Have you ever walked past a sign or a poster and it just reached out and spoke to you.  I had that experience yesterday.

Fooling Around With An Android App

I've been Androided over.  Then once they were done I got a healthy dose of Korean culture added. 

STREET FOOD, “MY” WAFFLE LADY, AND OMG AMERICAN CANDY!!!

Yes I still exist and yes this is finally a written update instead of just photos and captions.  Although there will probably be more of those in the future seeing as how easy they are to upload from my tablet.  

Been experimenting at home with new foods and absolutely love this new combo of noodles, soup and spiciness that I’ve come up with for myself (See former picture for a photographic representation).  It all stemmed basically from my Christmas gift from Santa of a Tofu marinating plasticware with a sealable top (and seal it it does as I really toss this stuff around to get a good blend).  I then saw some red and green Asian peppers at the market the other day that looked absolutely delectable and these were finely sliced and added to both the soup broth and to the bin to marinate the Tofu.  I purchased a garlic press this weekend for the financial sum of 1,500\ which basically is a buck fifty and what a difference it has made in food prep.  It’s one less thing I have to slice when I can just as easily throw it into the thing and have garlic mash to add to anything and everything to my heart’s content (which you might be able to guess from an earlier post is a lot of foods).  I’ve also been steaming these wonderfully delectable dumplings (a big Korean staple) and then I turn around and pan fry them with some sesame oil and soy sauce to be topped by a mix of sautéed green onions/peppers/sesame seeds/garlic with a splash of sweet chili sauce on top.  Mmmmm now that I wrote that I’m definitely making some tonight.  I was iffy before because we ordered in today for work and I ate too much (show of hands who’s shocked) and there were a couple of times during class that I thought I’d be teaching while holding the trashcan.

I’ve also been exploring Korean street foods.  There are street vendors everywhere here and it first stemmed from me taking an alternate route to work (had to stop by the atm to get money to purchase a cell phone) and I saw a cart that sold waffles.  Heck ya I thought.  Then I saw the sign that it was only a dollar and I got even more excited.  Then this little lady took a dollop of whip cream and spread on one side and a squirt of honey all over the other and folded it in half.  I was in heaven.  Mmmm.  The next day I routed myself by this corner and she was gone.  The audacity.  I then walked a different way to work the following day and that’s when I met “My” waffle lady.  Her whip cream has strawberries mixed in with it.  The first day I got the usual.  When I saw her the very next day she had a smile and I got extra honey and extra whip cream.  The third day in a row I saw her she said “thank you” instead of the Korean word for Goodbye (a nice goodbye not a get the hell out) after I had said thank you.  The fourth day I made the effort to learn delicious as I had already been responding with 1 and thank you in Korean.  That day she had learned and practiced Hello in anticipation for me.  I was saddened though when on Saturday she wasn’t opened.  Everyone deserves a day off so I thought that I’d see her today, Monday, but no such luck.  Maybe she’s the sole person in Korea that celebrates MLK day.  Her cart isn’t on the sidewalk so I don’t think she has to move it as even when it is closed it’s on her corner which makes me happy.

           When I haven’t stopped at her cart, usually when running multiple errands or like today when sadly she wasn’t opened, my first waffle lady is back with her husband.  He makes these small little dough dumplings that are delicious and filled with this red bean paste.  They’re not sweet like the waffle, but also not overly savory, a perfect union of the two sides.  The first day I stopped there he gave me an extra, however today when I went there I only got the 6 for a dollar because he was busy and could sell the others I guess.  There are still plenty of other options in the realm of Korean street food and I definitely look forward to exploring them further.  J

           Lastly, I got my Christmas care package from my folks last week later in the week.  It was great because I got it on a break during my Friday class and so I was looking through it and I decided that I would share a little of the candy that I had been sent.  Their response was hilarious.  OMG AMERICAN CANDY!!!  Haha it made me laugh because at the grocery store right next to school they sell Snickers and Starburst so idk what the deal is. 

***Random Thoughts***

           I had some more interesting bar food.  This was at a bar where a couple of us went out with the boss last week for chicken and beer and then progressed into the nightclub upstairs (not connected to the chicken and beer restaurant just conveniently upstairs).  There we had this marvelously wonderful dish that was a saltine cracker, a slice of ham, a slice of kiwi, a slice of banana, and a slice of a cherry tomato.  I know what you’re thinking, but IT WORKS.  I probably ate more than my allotment of them, but they’re addicting.

           My bank lady cracks me up.  I never got this much attention when I’d go see Pizza at Randolph Brooks.  Then again I wasn’t the “single” foreigner that comes in there to see her.  I specify single because the couple that works in the branch with us was at the bank with me one time and he didn’t get the overly helpful service that I got.  The branch manager even makes it a point that after he says the Korean greeting, that I respond to in Korean, he gives me a wave and a HI.  But back to the bank lady, who I think every time I try to do something, there’s always a reason to “come back tomorrow”.  I don’t mind because it’s between “my” waffle lady and work and on the way and fits perfectly into my city exploring time.

           Got my cell phone and it is beautifully simply.  It was a little feminine at first from the previous used with these fruity opening tones whenever you’d slide the lid open or birds and flowers and butterflies on the wallpaper, but I toned it down a little, found some ordinary basic ringtones and silenced all the other nonsensical noises (who really needs a noise when they’re pressing keys?) and I love it.  Then again now the trouble lies within the fact that I have a cell phone and I need to remember I have a cell phone so people can get ahold of me.  Otherwise it turns into a Grandpa Shannon cellphone and only he can get away with that and still be loved. J

My Work Street @ Night

Korean cities are all abuzz and aglow at night with led lights and flashing signs everywhere (evidently neon lights are very last century).  Our work street is no exception.  I love looking at the lights on my walk home. 

This Is My Work Building

Our school is on the top floor.

I Love This Nickname of Our City

Garden of the Earth. 

My Apartment Building.

Fun little playscape out front, and on the right side of that is a small cabbage garden that is fun to look at on my way to work.

Pictures of My Apartment Windows.

The one on the right is home to my Snoopy holiday sun catchers.  The one on the left is usually closed due to it being above my sweater chair and next to my "closet".  The one on the right though lights up the entire apartment and provides more than adequate lighting.

A Beautiful Subtitle for a Beautiful City

Last Night's Dinner Came out Fantastic

Cooked my wheat vermicelli noodles then lightly pan-fried them in a mix of soybean oil, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Then added them to the bowl to be toped by a wonderful broth full of garlic, green onions, Asian red peppers, spicy pan-fried tofu, toasted sesame seeds, mmmmmm delicious.

Garlicification, Bowling Ball Graveyard, and Casino/Call Center Dilemma

           What has been happening?  Has 2012 brought anything new to anyone else?  A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and a good amount of work in between.  Since my last blog I finally received my Alien Registration Card (aka Green Card) after 3 weeks of waiting.  Normal processing time was told to the branch manager and me to be 3 weeks, but then again reflecting upon it nothing about trying to get over here and also with the whole working in Korea process has taken the “normal processing time”. 

           I’ve continued my explorations with noodle soups.  Most recently I’ve been playing around with different methods of cooking the tofu.  It has turned out quite delicious as “Santa” brought me a cool Tupperware type container with a built in strainer that holds the tofu and allows it to marinate in the fridge.  I cooked a massive amount of soup the other night and this was the perfect application for the broth as the tofu really soaked up a great deal of the flavor.  With that and fine cubing it before throwing it in a pan with some oil I’ve managed to get a crust that forms on it before tossing it in soy and garlic.  Right here I should mention that Koreans eat a lot of garlic.  I thought Italians loved garlic, but they just love it to season tomatoes and other things.  Koreans will grill garlic and eat it cloves at a time.  I really enjoy this because the garlic loses a great deal of its abrasive qualities and becomes quite savory.  To explain further how much Koreans enjoy their garlic, there is a special Garlic Whopper from Burger King available over here that is the only thing advertised on TV.  Haha. Back to the soup when the garlic get’s tossed in a hot pan with just a light soy sauce it almost gives the garlic this roasted quality that begins to remind me of the roasted garlic goodies that Macaroni grill puts in the saucers for bread dipping. 

The problem I’ve faced however is I’ve had so much broth though that I needed to figure out a type of noodle that I liked that I could just buy the noodles and then add it to the broth.  I knew that I liked udon noodles, but udon noodles lend themselves to a one serving function and aren’t like what I was thinking of such as spaghetti back home where you buy a big bag of it and it lasts you for a month or so.  Then I saw at the store that their wheat noodles for a good size bag were on for buy one get one free and this made me pleasantly happy and I think the girl at the register knew it too.  That coupled with the 3 boxes of Danish butter cookies (think the ones in the blue tins at Walgreens) which were buy 2 for 90 cents a piece and get one free, and the Sprite that I got for a class reward I think the total was 6 dollars approximately.  I couldn’t understand what the checkout lady said, but the way she was smiling I could tell that she was duly impressed with the savings

We went bowling the other night from work and what an interesting excursion it was.  First of all we arrive at the bowling alley which was in the basement of a building so it looked like you’d expect a bowling alley to look, which made me happy.  However, they didn’t call themselves a bowling alley, although that’s all they offered, rather they were a health club and they were none too pleased about the backpacks full of beer that we had brought in and the Korean lady that appeared to own or manage the lanes proceeded to voice her displeasure to one of the guys I work with.  He didn’t communicate exactly what she said, but we did get the impression she wasn’t nice about it.  The balls were definitely not nice.  This bowling alley is where bowling balls go to die.  There were chips, scrapes and gashes out of these balls and all the holes were odd sizes.  I never claimed to have big hands, but I would suspect in a country where I’m pretty averaged sized that things like bowling balls would fit me, however these balls were drilled from Sasquatch to bowl with.  We played three games, but my hand was pretty torn up after the first one so the scores continued to steadily decline, therefore our first game of great success that looked like our team would easily win two out of three led to our team paying for the bowling outing, which for eight people and three games a piece came out to what 4 people at 2 games a piece would be back in the states so not a catastrophic deal.  We however didn’t let the lady completely ruin our fun as there were long breaks in between frames where we went out to the garage to drink beer.  Dinner afterwards was delicious as well.  I think dinners where we go and it is more a communal family style dinner are always more fun.  This one was a soup in a cast iron pot on the burner at our table and it is always fun to have the people fry rice after you’re done eating the soup in the same pot to soak up the last remnants of flavor and the little burnt specks are like little pockets of flavor heaven

My classes have been evolving nicely as I’ve grown to expect more from the students, and they’ve responded appropriately.  I finally had students in my younger classes that got 100’s on their review quizzes from the previous class and rightfully so I had a stamp with an owl on it that says “Who is #1?” that they received.  Their responses to my stamps have provided great entertainment for me.  I use different one everyday in their writing journals and they’ve caught on to that and try to guess which one will be used for the day and also they’ve begun to notice that a smiley face on a quiz means you took it and didn’t do that great and awesome performances (above a 70) are rewarded with worded stamps such as “good work”, “super” and “nice job”.  I’ve reserved my “great progress” stamp for their writing books because they are in fact making progress.  I’ve stressed not using the same words, such as like or good, over and over again and a few of the students are dabbling in word and sentence play that is showing great results.  I’m grading their revisions currently, but there have been a couple that I think I’m going to establish a writing success wall and post some of their works that should be commended as I think this will lead to a more concentrated effort by the other students

Last, but certainly not least, my older students.  They don’t get the stamps because they’re too cool for stamps.  Not that I blame them, but I’m glad it works for my younger students.  With my older students I’ve enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had within the structure of the classes based on the given topics.  With one level the topic last week was allergies and different theories to explain the rise in allergies.  There wasn’t a great deal of detail given to the treatment of allergies, but the specific explanations of why people are sick more of the time and why they are more people and children with allergies in today’s world than those generations of the past was something interesting to discuss.  This week’s topic with this class in particular is the connection between religion and environmentalism and I’m particularly excited to see how this has developed as the final project wasn’t something that I particularly thought assessed their understanding of the topic and what it meant and I changed it up a little.  The other older group had an equally interesting topic their last class as it involved Native Americans (the book stated Native Indians but I had to clear it up that it meant Native Americans as here in Korean when Indians are mentioned the thought goes to the actual country instead of primitive Americans).  I was super excited as the topic mainly focused on the Black Hills conflict and two of my favorite Native Americans, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.  The final project at the end of class also got me to thinking.  It was about teams and team mascots and the Native American debate.  Now before I begin the prelude to the final project was a small listening lecture that brought up some excellent thinking points I’ll mention, but it did also mention that a survey of Native Americans showed that over 70% aren’t offended by the teams in question.  It did however get the students along with me thinking with “Why are these acceptable?”  One example it gave is would a basketball team named the New York Jews be culturally accepted or would people be outraged?  What about the Atlanta Blackmen?  If these names cause such outrage then why don’t the Redskins or the Indians?  Reflecting on their project however they were charged with picking any sport and picking a mascot for a team of a city of their choosing (making a new mascot) and explain why this particular mascot is a good choice, what does it embody, and what does it represent.  I did think about the debates recently concerning the license plates and Buffalo Soldiers and also the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy and how ridiculously butt hurt people get about flags and meanings.  First of all the flag that everyone get’s uptight about isn’t even the flag that was of the Confederacy.  We’ve bastardized history to the point where we think Custer was a hero and that the “rebel” flag that individuals wave and sport on their trucks represents a country that supported slavery.  In fact it is a specific unit’s battle flag that was a significant force during the civil war.  The actual “star and bars” that represents the Confederate States of America is actually quite reminiscent of the original Betsy Ross flag of the US with only 3 bars instead of the thirteen originals.  That’s why there isn’t a Johnny Rebel flag hanging outside the Texas Capital.  Maybe if the logos of the particular organization mentioned before would change it’s flag to one that is more historically correct and appropriate, people wouldn’t be so sore over it because they in turn wouldn’t even know what it is.

***Random Thoughts***

           After getting my green card I went to the bank yesterday and opened an account.  It was pretty painless.  However it was nice because she was able to correctly pronounce Byron and needed no assistance (so why is it so hard for Americans?).  She kept asking me because of the way that names are on forms and cards if my first name was Byron or Roscoe.  I explained to her that Byron was my first name and she goes “Oh so your last name is Roscoe Davis?”  I don’t know if I was fully successful at explaining to her that Roscoe was a middle name, but we both got a smile and a chuckle out of when she was processing my forms and she says “you know you look like that guy.  Ummm the one from TV.  Steve Jobs.”  Haha.  I don’t know exactly what it is, but the kids seem to consistently say the same thing so maybe to Koreans I do look like him

           Watched the Fiesta Bowl and couldn’t be happier.  When that field goal was missed in the final seconds of regulation by Stanford I knew that Weeden could wrap it up for the Pokes.