Mudfest 2011 video

We went to mudfest AGAIN this year!  Last year, albeit, had more activities for some reason, but because we went with a group of friends this year, it made our time, that much more fun.  And although the fireworks show wasn't caught on video, it was spectacular again.
Here is the video I remade for the US viewers.



This was the first video I made but it can only be watched by people who are outside of the US or Germany because Bob Marley is protected on youtube.  If you change at the bottom of your page on the youtube page what country your in, you can watch it.
Here is the original video of this years event.

Russian restaurant in Dongdamun

Unfortunately, the plans Kyle designed for our anniversary date were kicked into the gutters.  It wasn't fully explained to me, but we were left with having to search for something last minute. Our British friends suggested wandering around Dongdamun for the evening to see what we could find.  I agreed with the location, but instead of wandering frustratingly around an area hungrily looking for a decent restaurant, only to be disappointed, I took it upon myself to find a glittering gem in the stacks of concrete buildings which is Seoul.  You see, I'm adventurous to an extent. I enjoy discovering new places, foods and I'm not afraid to try things that might be considered bizarre by others, but I'm not much into wandering.  I don't care for the search.  If I'm in the rarely patient mood, I can appreciate the searching aspect, but generally searches come up dry too many times, and I'm left hungry, dissatisfied and disgruntled.  In this way, I'm not your average traveler.  I like to know what I'm getting into. So instead of just maundering, I scanned the internet and came across this foodie blog which described a Russian restaurant in Dongdamun.  Ecstatic to find something other than Korean food, we set out in search of this mysterious restaurant.

A pickled herring salad.  Very strange, but most of the table enjoyed it.

This beer was awesome.  Even I liked it, and I HATE beer.

Cabbage stuffed with pork- amazing- get this.

I don't remember what this was called, but it was like grapevine leaves wrapped around a rice meat mixture.  It was great.

the salmon dish, it was delicious.

Restaurant Kazakhstan
Address: Kyungsung Bldg, 4F, 76-2 Kwanghee-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul
Telephone: 02- 2269-7505
Directions: Line 2, 5, and 4 Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station (formerly Dongdaemun Stadium) exit 7 make an immediate right onto the small alley. You need to merge left a bit to keep going straight on the road. Restaurant Kazakhstan will be ahead on the 4th floor.


These directions were provided from the blog mentioned before, but what they didn't mention was that you had to walk blocks underground in the newly built subway addition.  The steamy air beneath stuck to our sweating skin like a fly on fly paper, and the design of the subway was reminiscent of a star-trek film. Walking through the station, we all felt a sense of science fiction surrealism.  We walked so long underground, I began to wonder whether we'd ever reach the surface and if we did surface, if it would we still be on planet Earth. Once we did reach the surface however, we found ourselves in the Russian part of town, in a strange alley.  The restaurant was located, oddly enough, in an apartment building.  Entering what looked like a renovated apartment, we sat down at the glass table observing our surroundings. The decorations were a mixture of grandma's house, and modern art.  A t.v. in the corner played entertaining Russian music videos as we scanned the extensive menu.


There was an added concern in our search, one of our friends was a vegetarian, and Russian foods are not well known for their vegetarian options.  However, this restaurant offered several fish options, including a lovely salmon dish.  The boys bought imported Russian beers, and we all split a bottle of wine for only 25,000 won.  Not only were all the dishes reasonably priced, but they were absolutely delicious.  Instead of purchasing a dish for each person, we ate family style, sharing each dish, which I highly recommend.  If you are an expat in Seoul and looking for a new restaurant to visit, try Restaurant Kazakhstan, you wont regret it!  It was a perfect anniversary evening with fantastic friends and delicious food.

Someone's a rap rap rapping at our door

It comes so quickly,  the changing of temperature.  Summer's humid yet warm and embracing span is so brief it almost feels like a dream.  Fall is a beautiful season in Korea, unlike in San Antonio.  The colors of the trees change from green to bright vibrant autumn reds, oranges and yellows irradiating the blue sky with licks of fiery colors. It's energizing, and foreboding in the same breath. At home, I cherished fall, the reprieve from the suffocating heat.  But in Korea, fall is an omen of the strangulating cold that is sure to  smother all that lives into an icy submission.  Instead of loving fall in Korea, as I feel I ought to, I shiver at the prospects of the coming winter.  Winter is by far, at least in my Texas eyes, the longest of seasons.  Its hold grips tightly from October through April, only allowing Spring, Fall and Summer 6 months to share between them.  This year, I'm happy not to have to endure the full extent of the Korean winter, but even the spirited breeze whipping around my bare calves this morning was enough to make me run to my classroom and its only September. I do look forward to taking pictures of the changing leaves, and runs outside without heatstroke, but other than that, there is only apprehension of the wind changing.  Winter is coming, and not far behind, my hibernation.

Dr.fish

I'd heard about Dr. Fish, but didn't know much about them. Basically Dr. Fish refers to a type of fish who feed on dead skin.  What happens is the patients stick their feet into a tank of these fishies, and these fishes go to work feeding on the dead skin, allowing the new skin to grow. It has its critics as I found out later, but I'm glad we went for the experience.

After finding the coffee cafe, we paid 6,000 won (around $6) for our smoothies and drinks- one per person, and an added $2000 for the Dr. Fish experience. I'd been expecting a spa, or beauty clinic, but instead it was located in a normal, slightly extravagantly priced cafe.  We waited for our turn patiently.  Once beckoned, our feet were cleaned and rinsed, and were directed to the tank of fish in the ground.  The feet swarmed around our feet, softly gnawing at our dead skin.  It felt like tiny suction cups, and made us all scream from the tickling sensations.  Once we found the courage, we made our way to the larger fish tank, where the two inch fish with much larger mouths went to work on our evidently gnarly feet.  These fishies mouths felt more like sandpaper than the smaller guys, and like in the smaller fish tank, we had to work hard not to kick our feet in reaction which greatly disturb the fish.  Kyle was especially funny to watch, as he squealed like a little girl being tickled.  It was great fun, and a strikingly new experience.  I'm not sure how much good they actually did, or if the health benefits are actually what are touted, but I fully enjoyed the experience. There are many places around not only South Korea, but the world which provide these services, but I've listed below the directions to the specific one we visited for those interested in following in our footsteps.

 Gangnam’s Dr. Fish Cafe: 02-599-1210

To get to the Dr. Fish Cafe in Gangnam, go to Gangnam station, exit 6. Walk a few blocks and it is in the building next to Krispy Kreme on the 2nd floor.

Scavenger hunt

For Kyle's anniversary present, I didn't just hand him his gift of a music video.  I was concerned that because it was a virtual gift, it would be lackluster in its presentation.  So I devised a plan, a scavenger hunt. Our anniversary was on a Friday, which meant he was meant to be working, but as anniversaries are much more important than complaining middle school children, he searched for his gift instead.  This scavenger hunt included riddles, secret codes, and picture clues which led him across the campus, and eventually back to his computer where the video lay hidden in files.  Armed with a video camera, this is Kyle's search for his present.
Here's the video on YOUTUBE

The mystery of the missing marriage license: Happy 5 years.

Please ignore the fact that I'm woefully behind in our posts, and that our anniversary actually occurred at the beginning of the month rather than midway through September.

 In keeping with the spirit of marital bliss, I'd like to relay a story which jump started this wacky journey into what is our marriage today.  About  three days before our wedding, Kyle and I made the obligatory trip downtown to receive permission from the state to wed.  And by receive permission, I mean apply for our marriage license. Holding hands, we sat in the overly air conditioned government office in uncomfortable metal chairs, and answered the mundane questions of our applicant processor. When it was all said and done, we were handed a beautifully decorated  marriage license to take home only to return with the appropriate signatures after the wedding date.

Fast forward three days.  On the day of our wedding, there were many loose ends needing re-arranging, and knotting as is often the case on a wedding day. Boxes were full of miscellaneous nic nacs such as photos of our parents, and grandparents on their wedding day, a photo guest book, the wedding leash and other such trinkets.  These boxes fraught with wedding delights were to be taken to "The Vineyard," our wedding location. One of these boxes, also included the marriage license that we were supposed to have signed by our officiant, Kyle's uncle, a baptist preacher.  However, on the day of the wedding, the marriage license mysteriously disappeared. There were witnesses, numerous witnesses, placing the license in one of the boxes only moments before its departure to the vineyard.  Whether it was stolen by a saboteur secretly trying to steal away the bride, or eaten by hungry Texas fire ants looking for their next meal, or it simply grew wings and flew into the humid, pinkish dusk, we will never know.  Because despite desperate searching by family and friends, the certificate never again was to show its face.  The mystery of the missing marriage license may forever continue to remain an X-file.

We're quite blessed however, that Kyle's uncle was quite understanding of the mishap. Previous to our wedding ceremony, I had no idea of the importance of that little paper.  Kyle's uncle Keith although confused as to why we didn't have the license did not make a big deal of the matter. However, once I tried to ratify the situation by calling the downtown offices I was met with disbelief.
 "Our marriage license has been lost, how can I get a new one?"
"Was it signed?"
"No, it was lost on the day of the wedding?"
"How did you get married?"
"I don't understand, we just got married."
"That's impossible."
"Well, it happened, we're married."
'You couldn't have gotten married without the license."
"We both said 'I do.'  I'm pretty sure it happened."

Our exchange went on like this for sometime.  There was a twinge of fear growing that our ceremony wouldn't actually count.  The woman even stated that we'd have to state another date than the one that the ceremony had occurred on.  However, with a little finagling, and much stubbornness on my part, it was all sorted out.  In fact, it was as simple as reprinting the license with the word "copy" inconspicuously placed and as it turned out, we had been married after all.

Five years later, miraculously I still love Kyle Rogers with all my heart, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, he still loves me as well.  Our marriage, like most relationships, as not been all cotton candy and smiles, but it has been an exciting ride, and one that I think I'll stick with for at least another five years :)

"Lucky" anniversary video

Starting in April, I began to think about what I could do to give Kyle as a special anniversary present. What I came up with was a homemade music video.  I thought it'd be fun to put together a video of Kyle and me as a loving couple put to a LOVE song. I interrogated Kyle on what he thought "our song" was, but each song he listed was.... well... they didn't work, for one reason or another.  Eventually I decided upon "Lucky" by Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz. I felt the song was an accurate portrait of our relationship.  I then gave the video camera to friends, explaining in secret what I was up to, and set them to work on capturing us at our most gushy moments.  At one point, Kyle catches on that every time the camera is running, I make attempts at being especially loving.  This can be heard at the very end of the video.  If you have trouble viewing the video, please alert me.

Do you hear me? I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

Lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair

Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning 'round
You hold me right here, right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh, ooh
Here's the video

We're back

We had a fabulous vacation on Jeju island, a small volcanic island south of Korea.  It's considered the jewel of Korea, and the Hawaii of Asia.  And we were both pleasantly surprised.  Maybe this is the jaded Vanessa speaking, but I'm used to disappointment at finding that Korea has once again extravagantly exaggerated the beauty or magnificence of her national treasures. Like many countries, Korea is a proud nation, and there is a lot to be proud of, but sometimes, and this is probably true of many places, exaggeration, and puffed up pride, plays a larger role than the thing being touted deserves credit for.  And maybe its because I had low expectations going in, I wasn't expecting the Philippines, or the Mediterranean, but Jeju held its own. It truly was a lovely island, and had much more natural beauty than I'd expected which is often what I find lacking here in Korea. 

We're spending today relaxing, and resting up from our vacation.  Why is it that we always need a vacation from our vacations?

So this post is not going to be a long post.  Just a short note to explain that we are indeed alive, sun tanned, and resting our sore hiking worn legs this weekend. I do plan on posting real posts soon.  There is oh so much to post, I feel a little overwhelmed, or more like A LOT overwhelmed, and I will try my best to catch up.

It might be a while

before you get to read a real post... I have several posts in the works, but I've been preoccupied.  The other night, I spent nearly 4 hours in the kitchen making three different kinds of banana breads and zucchini chocolate cake- yummy!  We had our five year anniversary, but this next week is Korean Thanksgiving so we're planning on really celebrating in JEJU (the Asian Hawaii) although, we've heard that its not as great as Koreans make it out to be.  Although to be honest, Hawaii wasn't as great as I thought Americans make it out to be.  Also, I'm quite concerned about Texas and the fires.  Please stay safe my Texas friends.  I've heard that almost all of Bastrop National Park as been ravaged by the fires. So to sum up, We're keeping Texas in our prayers, and I'm sorry for the lack of posts.  Hopefully when I return, I will be able to catch up and you will be barraged with interesting and intriguing posts.

In case you want the recipe for the zucchini cake-

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in oil and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in zucchini and walnuts if desired.
2. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

It's been fixed!!

After I wrote the post- Guess what we made- someone wrote a comment that our button, that I'd presented with such pride, wasn't actually working!  So the fiddling began, and continued, and endured, and yet, no progress was made.  I used website after website, code after code, and no button would come into being at my hand.  Finally, after a section of my head, had gone completely bald from the excessive anxiety hair pulling I engaged in, I called in help; my cousin.  HTML is NOT my thing.  It is, however, his thing.  And I'm sure, he was able to create it entirely without any hair pulling, in my world- a miracle in itself.  So once again, I present to you OUR BUTTON!  Hopefully, this button works.  Please let me know if it doesn't.

<a href="http://vanessayrogers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af273/KyRo327/blogbutton2-2-1.jpg?t=1313814036" target="_blank" /></a>

Crab cakes with spicy avocado sauce

  We often tweak our recipes, so we didn't stick to this recipe exactly.  This is the original recipe here. 

 For sauce

• 1/2 ripe medium California avocado, pitted and peeled
• 1 tablespoon low-fat yogurt
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 fresh jalapeño or serrano chile (including seeds), stemmed and quartered lengthwise
• 1/4 cup fat-free (skim) milk

For crab cakes

• 1 pound imitation crabmeat,
• 3 tablespoons low-fat yogurt
• 1/4 cup minced fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup half crumbled crackers and oats with various spices
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• half an onion, diced
• a full bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup corn
• cajun seasoning, cayenne, chilli powder and cumin- to taste

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Make sauce:
Pulse avocado with mayonnaise, lime juice, salt, sugar, and one fourth of chile in a food processor until chile is finely chopped. Add milk and purée until smooth. Add more chile if desired, processing until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and chill, covered.

Make crab cakes:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Melt butter in a medium nonstick skillet over moderate heat, then cook garlic, stirring, until golden and fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Transfer crumbs to a plate to cool.

Divide crabmeat mixture into handfulls. Form into a patties. Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat. Bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve crab cakes with sauce. 

Stir every thing together in a large bowl until blended well, then chill, covered. 

 

Freezes well...

The mixture

We made double so we could freeze a batch.  We forgot to take pictures after the original making of them.

They freeze well in balls, but look better as patties.

Guess what we made!!

We made a button.  All by ourselves.  Well, not completely by ourselves.  We used the internet to figure out how to do it.  This blog helped a lot.  But the really difficult part was designing the button.  When we purchased Kyle's computer, we were really excited because it had photoshop.  But I'm photoshop illiterate, and I'm not good at teaching myself stuff.  I mean, I can, but it takes so long, and requires so much practice, and lets face it, I'm impatient. But, one evening, after watching The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was a pretty great film, mostly out of boredom, we decided to try. Well, Kyle, wasn't as excited as I was, but he was more than willing to indulge me. So we thought of an idea.  I found a picture, and he found the yellow brick road image.  And then, an hour and some change later, we figured out how to merge the two into an image, well, Kyle did.  It was a very exciting moment for the two of us.  And then, we had to learn how to do the HTML code, which is very very specific, and if you mess even a tiny piece of it up, it can screw up the entire image.  This took a while as well because we did mess up pieces of the code.  But close to three hours later, we had our button.

What is a button?  It's basically a fancy link. It's a way to brand your blog.  If another blogger follows my blog for example, they can take the button, and put it on the side of their blog, as a quick, and colorful way of advertising the blogs that they read.  I have a few on the side of my blog, you might have noticed.

And since we worked so hard on this button, we'd LOVE (with a capitol L) if you'd display our button on your sidebar!!!

(The button code has been fixed since the last time- try it out and let me know)




<a href="http://vanessayrogers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af273/KyRo327/blogbutton2-2-1.jpg?t=1313814036" target="_blank" /></a>
How to grab the button?
 copy  the HTML on the side under the heading "Grab a button". Make a text widget on your sidebar, and paste it in.  The end.

Bloopers Reel

At the beginning of the year, when I was still in the Education department (not in preschool) I was asked to make a culture class.  I searched the internet for hours for a video about gestures that ESL students would understand.  Coming up empty handed, I decided to try and make my own. An easy enough endeavor, I thought to myself. WRONG!! I spent over 20 hours putting that little seven minute film together.  The wonderful thing about that video, is that its not used at our school.  The cultural class, I was specifically requested to design was not employed.  Hours upon hours, seriously, I spent weeks on this powerpoint that currently just sits on the Intranet drive taking up space.  Maybe one day, it will be put to good use, but honestly, I'm not optimistic.

After my eyes regained their ability to look beyond a computer screen, I promised to those involved, that I'd make a bloopers reel.  We had a lot of fun in the filming process of this video, as you can clearly see from the video.  Hope you enjoy it!

Link for the Bloopers REEL 

"This is my home"

This week, our class size has grown from 9 to 11 students.  Two may seem like a small number, but I can definitely feel a difference.  We're struggling to integrate everyone into the routine.  However before this addition, our newest student was "four year old" Aden.   Aden came to us about three months late.  It was obvious from the start that Aden had NEVER been to preschool.  He was a wild child, often hitting other students, playing during circle time, and never helping to clean up during "clean up time." Aden was by far our most difficult child.  He didn't ever do his work unless one of us sat with him the entire time coaching him step by step, which makes helping the rest of the children do with their work extremely trying.  His focus lasted as long as a gold fish's memory; two seconds.

His adorable face with two deep dimples was quite endearing however.  And although he often hit other classmates, he'd always freely admit to it, and would apologize with such candor and empathy in his eyes, even reaching out to touch the other student. It made my heart melt the first few times I saw it.  Now, I'm just tired of the words, "Aden hit me!"

But today, Aden did something else to tug at those heart strings; he cried when it was time to go home.  His aunt told us that he's been doing it nearly every day.  He insisted that he wanted to stay at preschool.  When teacher Cindy said, "But Aden, it's time to go home now." he exclaimed adamantly in Korean, "This is my home!"

I'd like to take all the credit for this outburst, but I realize that it most likely has more to do with there being other children to play with than with my marvelous teaching ability. But I'd like to think at least, that I create a fun and safe environment for the children to learn and play in.  And that's enough to make my day. That one of my students, despite, how much we scold him, still wants to be at school with us.  These kids just might make leaving Korea more difficult than I bargained for.

Swing birth

The conversation began simple enough, about children's innate ability to swim.  It was swimming day.  All of our children came completely prepared with life vests and tubes for all.  No one would EVER drown on our swim days there are so many floating devices. One of my coworkers said she'd heard that if you threw a new born in a water, that because of so much time spent in liquid in the womb, they naturally know how to swim.  This led the discussion into births in bathtubs and how it was becoming more popular with the home-birth movement.   I'd also recently heard a talk on NPR about home births, and why it's popularity was rising.   "My friend from Holland says that everyone has home-births in her country." added my co-worker. "When we found out she wasn't going to the hospital, we were shocked, but she said, no one goes to the hospital unless there's an emergency."
"Cindy, what happens in Korea?" I asked, "Are home births common?"
She explained that they were not common, but did occur. She'd recently heard of this thing she described as a swing for birthing.
"A swing?" we asked
"Yes, you swing while you give birth." she continued.

A quick google search came up with zilch.  So she typed in Korean, and through the miracle of a google translator we discovered, THE ROMA BIRTH WHEEL.
Yes, this thing is real, and is not a hoax, as far as I can tell.  Has anyone ever heard of this or seen this in use before?  Very interesting....

Beautiful Seoul Project

This Seoul video is amazingly done.  It gives one a peek into the beautiful side of this rectangular, and often ugly and uninteresting (in the way of looks) city.  Check it out.
Seoul Time Lapse 2011 from Oh Choong Young on Vimeo.

I've discovered the secret

To cutting onions...

yep, I'm wearing googles, cuz I'm cool like that!

No more tears boys and girls.  No more tears!

Strange markings

It began at the start of summer, when the layers of clothing began to shed. When we moved from five layers to four, to three to two, and now, at the height of summer, the lightest material passable for appropriate for work clothing.  I noticed one of my students had strange markings on her shoulder. I began counting, one dot, two, three. There were 18 dots in total.  Two square boxes of 9 dots a piece. I began to inspect all of my children. Almost everyone of them had it.
"What are these markings?" I asked my Korean co-workers.
It was explained, that these markings were a new form of a vaccination.  Previous to this currently used vaccination, the out-dated one, left a scar on the shoulder.  This newer vaccination was created to avoid that permanent scarring.  It is said, that the markings will fade with years.
Now, I was even more confused.  Where was my scar I wondered? I'd had all my shots as a child, and even more shots before I left for traveling the world. My family were not one of the anti-vaccine families, so why was it that all of my international friends had scars on their arms, and I didn't nor did any of my American friends. But no one could tell me even what vaccine it was, that is until recently. I follow a blog called, Ask a Korean.
Basically, people write him their questions and he answers them.  Very useful site for questions regarding Korean culture.  He explained, that this vaccine is the BCG vaccine, and for some reason Americans do not receive it.
Evidently, we are one out of two countries in the world that do not recommend it for children. (The Netherlands is the other) Tuberculosis (TB)  kills more people in the world than any other infection. Currently, it infects 1.6 billion people, about one-third of the world's population.  But the vaccine, that is used, does not protect against the kind that is the true killer, which is the millary TB. The TB vaccine is good at protecting against the severe form of disease found in young children (called "miliary" TB), but not as good at protecting against the lung infection commonly found in adolescents and adults. Because miliary TB is very uncommon in the United States, we do not use the TB vaccine. (Info found here)

  So, my question has been answered. And now, if you made it to the end of this spiel, you are more educated, that when you clicked open my page.  Aren't you glad you visited today?

I've joined

I've joined a new blog.  This blog is a photo blog called Soaring through the World in Pictures.  So hopefully it wont take up too much of my time. And, if your interested in photography at all, there are still some spots open.   Its a brilliant idea.  Basically, its a collection of folks around the world sharing photography from their end of the world.  Each week there is a new theme, and whomever has something to contribute, contributes.  Clever hey? Take a peek.  Come and visit!

Mongolian spots

Not a pic of Richard

We all have accidents. My preschool children, although mostly potty trained, have accidents more often than I would like.  Once while changing Richard, I noticed strange splotchy blue marks on his behind.  Cindy explained that these spots, which are found on nearly 90-95% of Asian children, are called Mongolian spots, and that they disappear later in life.  She also said that when Asians first started immigrating to America, doctors suspected abuse after seeing these markings, not understanding that the marks were birthmarks, and not bruises.
Now that I know what they are, I've been looking for them and its true, nearly every baby I've seen has these markings. The markings are most common on the behind, but they also occur on the back. Our co-worker's baby, even has one on her shoulder.  Wikipedia explains, "It results from the entrapment of melanocytes in the lower half to two-thirds of the dermis during their migration from the neural crest to the epidermis during embryonic development"  Basically, its just some type of discoloration of the skin that occurs during development in the womb and is corrected as the child develops further.  Living in a foreign country is quiet intriguing. You never know what our going to learn next.

Ancedotes of preschool 3

We've been teaching illnesses recently in my afternoon class.  They learned stomach ache, fever, cough, cold, and rash. The picture for the rash, however, was a bit deceiving, and confusing. The picture shows a child with red dots covering her face. I think they were demonstrating chickenpox but what it actually resembles is acne.  We were talking about each of the illness, and as we came upon, "rash" one of the kids observantly said,
"Teacher you have a rash"
Shaking my head, slightly embarrassed, I explained that the red dots on my face were pimples, which are different from a rash.   "Rashes itch, pimples are just red dots that you get when your older."  I didn't even have that many, maybe two or three, but oh, are kids observant.  Almost every time I have a new pimple, one of the children asks me about it.  "Teacher, what's that?" they ask innocently, not knowing that they are rubbing salt into my wounded self-image.


It's summertime.  In Korea, the tale tell signs of summer is the heat, which isn't anywhere near the heat index in Texas, the humidity, which is high, maybe even sometimes higher than San Antonio, and the insects. (I wrote two posts last year about those nefarious bugs, here and here)  These insects, seeking refuge from the great outdoors, or maybe the many cruel Korean middle school children who try take them apart limp by limb, for some reason or another, choose to make their home in our bathroom.  At first, we didn't understand why the kids would wiggling and shaking, doing the pee pee dance, were refusing to go to the bathroom.  Sometimes, they would even have their pants down, as they came back into the classroom, whining. Once, a student in our afternoon class, who is normally quite garrulous, refused to not only answer a question but repeat anything I said.  He then refused to answer, "what's wrong Edward?" We finally got out of him that his stomach hurt.  Later, we found out, that his stomach hurt because he refused to go to the bathroom to poo, as he was afraid of the bugs.

Cindy, my co-teacher, is afraid of all bugs, even moths and butterflies, albeit massive bird sized moths and butterflies, but harmless critters never-the-less.  So that makes me the designated bug catcher. I don't like to kill animals, unless it's likely to harm me.  However, I've had difficulty catching spiders without killing them, as I'm always afraid they might escape and start crawling on me. 
The kids have, out of necessity, have learned the word "bug," a word they use nearly everyday now, when its time to use the restroom.  What I've found, even more cute however is when they tell me,
"Teacher, spiderman, bathroom!"

"Spiderman is in the bathroom?" I ask jokingly. They know who Spiderman is, but haven't learned the word spider on its own.  I'm loving summer, but I'll be glad when I no longer have to fend off the insect invaders so that my kids don't pee in their pants!

Ancedotes from preschool 2

So last Ancedotes from preschool I talked about my little girl Elise, however, the story doesn't end there.  Elise is a four year old (in Korean age) which means she is between two and three; my guess is that she is three years old.  But she is quite mature for her young years, and is by far one of the superior colorers in the class. She is quite adept at staying in the lines, and even color coordinating.  She is reticent, and slow to speak, but lately she has been coming into her English voice with confidence.  After lunch, which is brought to our classroom, I make their toothbrushes.  That is, I put the toothpaste on their toothbrushes to avoid a calamitous sticky disarray that would send me into a cringing, twitching state liable for institutionalism. (I have to say, I'm admittedly, not a neat person, but messy toothpaste is a pet peeve of mine)  And when I first entered preschool, the children raced after lunch to brush their teeth, and found it hilarious to put not only their own toothpaste messily on their toothbrush but to make a hodgepodge of everyone's toothpaste on their own one toothbrush, making what they called rainbow toothpaste.  After a few eye twiches, I put a stop to that quickly.  I digress however...  Where were we?  Awww yes, Elise.  One day, Elise, who hasn't spoken hardly any English outside of circle time suddenly calls out to me,
"Come here!" Two words I haven't heard her speak before. I'm already impressed, but she's just gotten started. She leads me to where I have made up the toothbrushes, and points to one particular toothbrush, Louis's.
"Louis isn't here." she tells me.  I stare at her dumbfounded. Not only had she been observant enough to remember which cup and toothbrush was Louis's, but she had just formed a perfect sentence, with a negative verb and all.  She didn't say, "Louis not here," which would have been impressive on its own, but she used "isn't."  Huge! Colossal! I had to restrain myself from picking her up and twirling her around. My throat constricted, and my heart pounded with pride like a mother just hearing her baby speak its first word.  My children were learning. They were actually not only understanding but on the cusp of beginning to speak English in sentences.

One finale Elise story...(watch her little video here)

As you know, our preschool goes on field trips.  One Friday, we made our way to a beautiful wildflower garden. We picnicked under the shade of  sycamore trees. (I don't even know what sycamore trees are, but it sounded nicer than just saying trees :) )  Lunches consisted of the snacks the children brought, which ranged from chips, packaged goods, candy and fruit, and kimbap which is brought by the school (Korean style sushi roll).  One ingredient in the rolls is a yellow radish.  I don't like radish.  I don't like radish in any form, yellow or no so I meticulously pick it out. On seeing this Elise picked up my radish to hand me, thinking that it has fallen out.  I tell her "Thank you," but explain to her that I'd taken it out because I didn't like radish. Minutes later, Elise handed me a kimbap, an action that's sweet in itself.  However, that she handed me food without my asking is thoughtful in itself, but what really got to me, was that she'd been considerate enough to take out the radish. This is a three year old folks.  A three year old who thought beyond her own needs and desires to unselfishly feed her teacher. I nearly cried. Seriously, I held back tears as she handed me that seaweed rice roll missing the disgusting radish.  Elise has taken my heart and run away with it, and its all I can do to keep up with her.  I only hope that she remains small enough for me to pack in my suitcase when I come home.

An inside look at North Korea

I've been looking at reddit recently, a news site I don't fully understand yet, and came across this article.  It's a montage of photographs taken within North Korea.  There are some 37 pictures, and although I often include many photos, sometimes even too many in my posts, even 37 is stretching my limits.  But I found the pictures intriguing.  North Korea are our hostile, and unpredictable neighbors to the North, and yet we know so little about them.  A country that prohibits almost all foreigners, any photo, even non-revealing photos, allow us a little glimpse into the secretive land of the intensely controlled country.  Below are a few of the pictures from the article. To view all of the photos, go directly to the article, which is linked above.

A multi-lane highway with virtually no cars