hello, i realize it has been awhile since ive written anything here, but i assure you that i have not died. i have just been to busy for the internet. heres the past 2-3 weeks. i started making dinner with these thin pork things, which took a couple of days to get used to. but i am learning to make more than 8 things, which will help me save money. also, i have a 2 lb block of cheese. i am making grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas. it is glorious. also, my friend dave came, bringing no american gifts, and we made a bunch of videos to send to people. that was a fun evening. oh yea, and there has been like, 5 holidays. Childrens day, Parents Day, Teachers Day, Norwegian Independence day, and Buddhas Birthday. so lots of present. (not for NID) I have been going to a bunch of places inside Seoul lately. for 2 weeks i was there pretty much everyday. The other night i went to see the Doosan Bears, they are a baseball team. that was a really fun night. I was cheering and stuff along with the rest of the koreans. it was really fun, but it seemed like cheering and dancing was way more important than the game. they took tons of breaks to take pictures and to have the cheerleaders dance and then they kept shooting silver streamers into the air. oh yea, and the food and drinks are cheap. i got a BK meal for like 5 bucks at a ballpark. and then i felt sick. On another note, i have been teaching my kids songs from the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack. thats turning out ok, music classes are some times rough because after 3 times of singing a song they are done. so i have to keep things changing. and now i will put some pictures up.

BROWN SHIRT: LOOK AT HIM, HE IS RIDICULOUS

I mentioned this dude to dave, i said "Dave. Look at this dude. He is frolicking"

Korean Pantera cover band

dragon. i call him Mooshou

this is dave giving money to a band playing some spanish song, i cant remember what it was.

Went to a new grocery store today, not new, but different then the other one. I like it a lot. Its about 15 minutes farther, but its a little cheaper and i like it better. so that was good. then i saw Iron Man 2. it was real good. oh, and i talked to a whole a heap of people today. that was also good. well, i am going now, this was short, later i will expand on it.

It's really late, but about a half an hour ago I was working on Hangul (the written language) and it just clicked all of a sudden. so I guess what I'm saying is that I can now read Hangul.

8 weeks in

Today marks my 8th week gone from the ol' U.S. of A. I've been riding bikes a lot at the gym, its making me tired, but I've also been sleeping very well. In fact I haven't had a bad nights sleep since I arrived. My kids are getting sick, I don't know what because everyone else got sick weeks ago. This Friday we have a picnic, so I am sure I will get a lot of great pictures. My kids new favorite activity is making videos on my computer. They only get to during music class, and only if they are good.

Today I decided to try out a hot dog place that is really close to my apartment. I like it, but lets be perfectly clear, they are not hot dogs. They are huge spicy sausages shoved into a tiny bun. Also, there is ketchup, a leaf of lettuce, and something that looks like mustard and tastes like horseradish. But again, I did enjoy it. Also I had a grape slushy. Slushies are good, you should know that, you live in America. I wish I had more to say, but right now it seems like things are becoming more day to day, and the whole excitement of living in Korea is becoming less of a novelty for me. but I still love it. I am thinking about buying a second mattress pad, I mean, I still remember how much the first one improved my life, so I've been thinking that a second one would also be great.

Oh yea, I just found out today that some volcano exploded. Its about time, I mean, these dang earthquakes are shaking up the earths stuff and so I kept saying to myself "Any day now" and why? Because I watched a special on Volcanoes on the Discovery channel.

i feel exhausted. i joined a gym last night and i've been using the bikes and treadmills. today i biked 40km, and i got off and it felt like i was walking in peanut butter. good golly. so then i cooled it down with a brisk 1km walk. A lot of the workout machines have TV's on them, so while doing all that i watched some Community, a little bit of the Batman Begins movie, and then topped it off with a 'lil House. Overall a good night, but now im sweating real bad. so im going to jump in the shower. Just as an update though, there was some alarm, not sure how much because my grasp on korean is terrible, regaurding a South Korean defense boat that exploded a week or two ago. Initially they were saying that it could be the North and so i was told about the safe zone, which isnt terribly far away. I haven't heard anything about it since last friday though, so i think we might be in the clear. It may be too soon to thank anyone, but i think Obama may have had his hand in this.

I have finished the book i started reading upon arrival, it is called You Shall Know Our Velocity. It's really good, i recommend it, it was written by david eggers, so if there are any fans of words out there then this might be a collection of words that your mind finds appealing.

Yesterday i got some street food, thats what i like to call it because its not a sit down place its a tent that you buy food from. So anyways, i bought this street food, Street Chicken, to be exact, and it must have been the spiciest chicken i've ever eaten, and the funny thing is they put this honey mustard on it, which is delicious, but i dont see how anyone could sell something that spicy on the street. I loved it, and i will probably be getting more soon. That is all internet.

Tootles

Hello Interneters!

This week has gone by really quickly. Nothing too exciting really happened until Thursday. Let me set up it all up for you. So I get to school, and it seems like just a regular day, the kids all run to me when they see me and they I count down from 5 to have them take there seats, but then theres some other kid in my room. I ring the button (we have a summons button for our assistant teachers) and I say "who is this kid, is he in another class" and that is when I am informed that I have a new student named Patrick, and that that is that kid. So then I spent the whole day trying to get him to talk to me, but he wont even smile. UNLESS I HAND OUT JELLY BEANS. I handed a lot of jelly beans out on Thursday. OK, so then comes Friday. Friday was field trip day, and I didn't know where we were going, all I was told was "a museum" so we get loaded in the buses and start heading out. 40 minutes is a long time for kids to sit in a bus. a real long time. We get to the museum and we get all the kids inside and start looking at stuff, and then after what seemed like 20 minutes, we go to a playground and then board the buses and leave. So quick. I have uploaded some pictures from the field trip, I took about 90, but I am not putting them all up on here.

Jake and Juliet

Leo, I think he saying something along the lines of "Hello Mr. Steinsland" The reason I think that is because he says that ALL the time.

Patrick (the new kid), Judy, and Jake

This is when we learned karate, but before I taught them the high kick.

Meriel.

Patrick and Judy, Judy looks pretty crazy here

Juliet and Jake

Judy and Leo in front of the fake castle.

Racheal. It's not very often she does something cute, but I think this was one of those times.

Leo and Racheal

Richard (he will be a fine Korean Elvis someday) and Meriel

Jimmy and Katie. Every girl loves Jimmy, he's a regular kindergarten Zach Morris

My class, in front of the fake castle. (there is a floating head in the background)

Me and my class. and Ms. Joel is in the picture too. (She is my Assistant Teacher, but she does a lot of work. especially when the kids cry.)

Pots. they are playing with pots. Except Judy, I have no idea what she is doing, probably touching a plaque?

Leo got bored with this real quick. I think he is the oldest kid in my class, but he gets real emotional real quick. (one time he cried because he answered 3 questions in a row and I said "good job, but now we need to let someone else answer ok?" and he cried because he still wanted to answer the questions)

Patrick and Katie. There were some oddly shaped blocks that you can build some building with, Im not too sure on the specifics because I cannot read nor understand Hangul.

Tall guy is Phil, he taught my kids last year. I am conditioning them to think he is terrible, but we are pretty good friends, I just want my kids to stop running out of the room when he walks by. So they must hate him.

This is a hut, I have no idea if it is supposed to be a Korean hut or not, quite frankly I'm still not sure if this was a museum of Korean history, Asian history, or just mishmashed cultures. It pretty much looked like a Native American hut though.

Today I got my Alien Residence Card, which means I am officially an ex-patriot. Also, as of today I have a bank account in Korea with a balance of $0.00, next wednesday I get paid, but till then all my money is cash. Also, my Korean age is 26. So as of nearly one month ago, I am 26 years old. It feels great. It's a bit strange to be 6 months younger then my brother now, but I will get over it. I think Korea might be the place dude's come to stop aging. Once they get here it seems like they are stuck in their twenties, like a sort of ending-adolescence Neverland. Just a thought I had today. My room is in disrepair, so I'm going to bust a move and clean up later. It does feel nice to have my own place, but I wish my neighbors were a little quieter, but it hasn't stopped me from sleeping at all, so I shouldn't complain.

Weird story. So this morning my alarm goes off, but I was still tired, so I just hit snooze, no big deal because I wake up real early anyway. Well, after about two minutes I hear this weird tone, in my loft, and then some guy talking in Korean. I was pretty worried so I put on my glasses and looked over the railing and no one inside, and i checked the intercom and no one was outside (I would have seen them from the camera). So I shake it off and go back to bed. Three minutes later my alarm goes off so I snooze again and then the tone comes back, followed by the Korean. At this point I'm fully awake and confused so I turn my alarm off and go downstairs. The tone went off again about 10 minutes later but no voice. I have yet to find out what was happening, but apparently it went into everyone's apartment. (there are speakers on the walls)

ok, tootles internet.