My Travel History

Sorry this post is a little longer than usual but I thought it might be helpful for you to know where I’m coming from and my past experiences with traveling. Besides, according to the average adult reading speed (250 words per minute) this will only take you about 4 minutes to read! 😀

I grew up in a small town in southwest Kansas on a wheat farm. To give you a sense of how small — we have one stoplight in the whole town and I graduated in a class of about 32. It was also pretty homogeneous  Aside from a handful of Mexican-Americans, pretty much all of my peers had exactly the same background as me.

My third year of high school (2008) I went to Ecuador for two weeks with our youth group, including spending four days deep in the jungle in a Waodani (a Native American tribe in Ecuador) village. That experience changed my life. I had always loved reading about people in other cultures but had never experienced it before. It felt like my eyes were opened, like I was seeing colors I didn’t know existed.

Me with my little friend Christian (a native American from the Waodani tribe) at one of the rare times he was fully dressed. What can I say? The kid had an affinity for just not wearing both a shirt and pants at the same time. o.0

5 Blogs You Should Definitely Follow If You’re Interested in Korea

Even since I decided I might want to teach in Korea about a year ago, I’ve done boatloads of research about it. I ❤ the Internet so much for allowing me to find so much information! Though I’ve searched through countless sites, forums and blogs, some have been more helpful than others. These 5 wonderful blogs have kept me coming back for more and more!

A Change in Plans: Goodbye GEPIK

Slight change in plans.

Yesterday I learned that GEPIK is no longer funding middle and high school NETs, according to numerous first-hand accounts of current teachers who got emails from GEPIK telling them this information. Since GEPIK is the government funded program for NETs, schools can still choose to keep or hire NETs out of their own budget, but there will be much less schools who do that so competition will be a lot tougher.

Korea 101: Intro to K-Pop

K-Pop means Korean pop music and it’s becoming more popular around the world. I like it even though my friends and family don’t quite understand why. If you’ve never heard of K-pop before or are just becoming interested in it here is some information to get you started.

1. You’ve probably heard of Gangnam Style if you have any contact with the outside world, so I’ll start with that. First, please learn how to pronounce it correctly. The “gang” in “Gangnam” is not the same as the English word “gang” in case you didn’t realize that from all the times it’s pronounced in the song. PSY is not the typical K-pop star because most are very young and pretty. Even though it is a very fun song, it’s not that special compared to other K-pop songs. Don’t ask me how it got so popular, but here is a link to a good explanation by Ask a Korean. Right now it has over a billion views!

Korea 101: Food

Food is one of the most important things in any culture. It is a topic very near and dear to my heart! ^-^

Here are the top 6 Korean foods! Some I have tried, and some are just food that seems very popular.

1. Kimchi 김치 is the national food of Korea. Most Koreans eat it every day as a side dish or as an ingredient in a main dish. Kimchi is to Korea as salsa is to Mexico. ‘Spicy fermented cabbage’ may not sound very appetizing but it is very delicious! 맛있어요! There are different varieties of kimchi such as radish and cucumber but the most popular is made with cabbage. It is made in a unique spicy red pepper sauce. It has been known for its health benefits.

Things I like about Korean boys!

Yes, I realize that this post will be full of stereotypes and generalizations. But I’m gonna write it anyway!

1. Korean guys have fashion sense! Koreans in general are much more conscience about appearance than in America. American style is usually pretty casual. Guys here just wear jeans and whatever T-shirt is on top of the pile. Korean guys have good style and always look nice! And yes I know they don’t all look like drama and pop stars! I’m just saying they take care of their appearance more than American guys in general.

Korea 101: Introduction to Korea

It seems many of the people I talk to (in Kansas, USA) know next to nothing about Korea. Sometimes I forget that fact, even though I didn’t know hardly anything about it before I started my research. I hope to inform you about this wonderful and interesting country and perhaps you will understand why I love it.

Alphabet Soup: What do all these abbreviations mean?

Whenever you dig into a new area of interest, you’ll find abbreviations people use to talk about it. This can be confusing to outsiders. I want to help. I will be using these terms in my posts, and although you can just google them, it might help to have them all in one place.

Aren’t you scared?

Scared of what exactly?

This is another FAQ I get when talking to my friends about going to Korea. I’m not sure what they mean I might be scared of, so I made a list of what they might mean and whether or not I should really be scared. (I’m a big fan of lists. It’s my working theory that all problems can be solved by either making a list; rock, paper, scissors; or a cup of tea.)

You’re going to Korea? North or South?

*Headsmack*

I’ve been asked this question heaps of times by friends and other well-meaning people and let me just say that I love you very much and I’m not trying to offend you by the following sarcasm; you’re not stupid, just uninformed, and I hope to change that.