28/04/2006
Lana Lehr
Gurye Middle School
1093 Bongseo-ri Gurye-up Gurye-Gun
Chonnam 542-800
South Korea
Yes folks, there is my address. For now anyway. I am still waiting to find out our apt. address, so for now please send to the school( you may want to include the korean version- or not- it may get here faster once it hits korea- but definitely include the English one!). NOW. tee hee. sit down, write a postcard, a letter, burn a CD or simply send a photo. MAAAIIILLLL!!! she cried out, with a manic look in her eye when the graceful administration woman entered the room with her letter. The 30 Korean teachers in her office looked up in concern and mild panic with sudden thoughts that there may be something on fire on Lana-Teacher's desk. As she opened the envelope, a look of intense satisfaction and euphoria spread across her face and the Koreans around her quickly looked away in shame as though they had witnessed an intimate moment that they were not invited to view- the voyeur in all of them secretly smiled with smug satisfaction.
YOU could be the one to cause this remarkable cross-cultural event if only you'd slap a stamp on an envelope and include a lock of hair, some brownie crumbs, a peice of cheesecake, a dandelion, or anything else that would remind your friend Lana of home ( a paper with some chosen words on it for example) Do it, do it, do it!
I walked past many forms of fish and other unrecognizable seafood, multiple pigs heads, and a very large cow head at the market on my way to work this morning. Behind our house is a traditional market that has been built in recent years. It is open on an odd schedule- every 5 days or the days that end in 7 or 8...or something like that- we've been told something different in 'KOnglish' by various Korean friends in our new town.
So far, this time in Korea has been really fantastic. Our first 8 days were in training in a city called Gwangju. We went to folk museums, saw traditional musical shows, learned how to use a traditional Korean drum, learned how to make Korean rice cakes (a glutinous sweet treat that tasted terrible- maybe because we made it ourselves), and met all sorts of official people and foreign teachers who gave us some great advice for teaching in Korea. We also learned Korean, which was refreshing. I would recommend this program to anyone wanting to teach overseas. They are remarkably concientious with the training they give their teachers.
We arrived in Gurye, our small town the day before yesterday. We got a beautiful apt, with REAL wood floors and very spacious and new. It is officially the first time in my life I have a brand new refrigerator. We even bought a new blender last night so that we can make mornig fruit smoothies with all of the lovely strawberries and other fruit that are in season right now.
Our English coteachers also kick ass, and have both spent time living in San Francisco or Australia. Bryce basically works at Canada's Wonderland. It is called English Town and it has an immense obstacle course outside and an extensive garden with large pools filled with large Japanese carp swimming in it. Every room that he teaches in has been built in a theme like 'the airport' ' a restaurant', etc.. and the whole complex is out in the country surrounded by the largest mountains in Korea. Seriously, its weird. Meanwhile I work at your typical depressing-architecture-from-the-mid-1900s Korean Public school. But I have Ms Kim for my coteacher and therefore I rule. I have yet to teach any of the boys, but they keep coming into the teachers' room pretending to look for someone in order to get a glimpse of me. This job is going to be awful for my ego- when I go home I am going to expect all of my friends and coworkers to call me beautiful and when they dont I'll hate them forever (tee hee).
[ADDITION AS OF JUNE: OUR CELL PHONE NUMBERS ARE : Lana- 010-8694-4458; Bryce: 010-8694-0124]
I am learning how to make a blog and then you can just log in to see pictures and an update on what is going on, since this email thing is getting tedious (i've sent long messages now 4 times that they have gotten erased before I sent it-argh!!).
I am taking pics of the area, of the market behind the house, of the house, of the schools, etc...so that you can get an idea. now I just have to figure out this new-fangled technology of downloading pictures. jeez. I'll send later.
Take care, and get in touch please!
Lana
Lana Lehr
Gurye Middle School
1093 Bongseo-ri Gurye-up Gurye-Gun
Chonnam 542-800
South Korea
Yes folks, there is my address. For now anyway. I am still waiting to find out our apt. address, so for now please send to the school( you may want to include the korean version- or not- it may get here faster once it hits korea- but definitely include the English one!). NOW. tee hee. sit down, write a postcard, a letter, burn a CD or simply send a photo. MAAAIIILLLL!!! she cried out, with a manic look in her eye when the graceful administration woman entered the room with her letter. The 30 Korean teachers in her office looked up in concern and mild panic with sudden thoughts that there may be something on fire on Lana-Teacher's desk. As she opened the envelope, a look of intense satisfaction and euphoria spread across her face and the Koreans around her quickly looked away in shame as though they had witnessed an intimate moment that they were not invited to view- the voyeur in all of them secretly smiled with smug satisfaction.
YOU could be the one to cause this remarkable cross-cultural event if only you'd slap a stamp on an envelope and include a lock of hair, some brownie crumbs, a peice of cheesecake, a dandelion, or anything else that would remind your friend Lana of home ( a paper with some chosen words on it for example) Do it, do it, do it!
I walked past many forms of fish and other unrecognizable seafood, multiple pigs heads, and a very large cow head at the market on my way to work this morning. Behind our house is a traditional market that has been built in recent years. It is open on an odd schedule- every 5 days or the days that end in 7 or 8...or something like that- we've been told something different in 'KOnglish' by various Korean friends in our new town.
So far, this time in Korea has been really fantastic. Our first 8 days were in training in a city called Gwangju. We went to folk museums, saw traditional musical shows, learned how to use a traditional Korean drum, learned how to make Korean rice cakes (a glutinous sweet treat that tasted terrible- maybe because we made it ourselves), and met all sorts of official people and foreign teachers who gave us some great advice for teaching in Korea. We also learned Korean, which was refreshing. I would recommend this program to anyone wanting to teach overseas. They are remarkably concientious with the training they give their teachers.
We arrived in Gurye, our small town the day before yesterday. We got a beautiful apt, with REAL wood floors and very spacious and new. It is officially the first time in my life I have a brand new refrigerator. We even bought a new blender last night so that we can make mornig fruit smoothies with all of the lovely strawberries and other fruit that are in season right now.
Our English coteachers also kick ass, and have both spent time living in San Francisco or Australia. Bryce basically works at Canada's Wonderland. It is called English Town and it has an immense obstacle course outside and an extensive garden with large pools filled with large Japanese carp swimming in it. Every room that he teaches in has been built in a theme like 'the airport' ' a restaurant', etc.. and the whole complex is out in the country surrounded by the largest mountains in Korea. Seriously, its weird. Meanwhile I work at your typical depressing-architecture-from-the-mid-1900s Korean Public school. But I have Ms Kim for my coteacher and therefore I rule. I have yet to teach any of the boys, but they keep coming into the teachers' room pretending to look for someone in order to get a glimpse of me. This job is going to be awful for my ego- when I go home I am going to expect all of my friends and coworkers to call me beautiful and when they dont I'll hate them forever (tee hee).
[ADDITION AS OF JUNE: OUR CELL PHONE NUMBERS ARE : Lana- 010-8694-4458; Bryce: 010-8694-0124]
I am learning how to make a blog and then you can just log in to see pictures and an update on what is going on, since this email thing is getting tedious (i've sent long messages now 4 times that they have gotten erased before I sent it-argh!!).
I am taking pics of the area, of the market behind the house, of the house, of the schools, etc...so that you can get an idea. now I just have to figure out this new-fangled technology of downloading pictures. jeez. I'll send later.
Take care, and get in touch please!
Lana
posted by Lana at 1:58 p.m.
2 Comments:
Hi Lana, I enjoy your website, but it would be nice to see more pics!
Love Lisa
Hi Lana,
Love your website, Bryce looks awesome with his short haircut! More pics please!
Mom
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