The Season of Giving

Like I mentioned in my last post, my favorite part of the holiday season centers around giving, so what better way to celebrate than to give presents, and hopefully some joy, to 70+ children.  Earlier this spring when Aimee, the founder of KKOOM, asked me to help her with the annual holiday part for Samsungwon, I had absolutely no hesitation.  This is the first year that Aimee wasn't able to be in Korea for the holidays since founding KKOOM 6 years ago; she was looking for support from the foreigners here to keep the tradition going.  I attended the Christmas party last year so after seeing the joy that it brought to the kids I knew I wanted to help make that possible again this year.   Unfortunately, the orphanage is currently undergoing construction so hosting a large scale party proved to be impossible, 70+ kids and volunteers running around a midst welding, sawing, hammering and other chaos didn't sound like the best idea. Instead, we decided to host an online gift drive, asking volunteers to support one (or more) children by purchasing gifts from their wish list.  We were able to get enough volunteers (some even sending money from the US), purchase the gifts and organize all of those sent from across the country. It was a bit of chaos for a few days as we sorted through boxes, wrapped, sorted and shopped but thankfully everything came together by 3pm Sunday afternoon. 

Finally organized, 70 some odd presents 

Not your Typical Friday

This blog post is a bit, and by a bit I mean closer to a month, delayed, but hey - better late then never right?  I'm not really sure what I've been busy with that delayed this post, like seriously, i'm not really sure where I've thrown my time in the last few weeks.  Sure outside of school I've fully immersed myself back into yoga, friends, a little running, oh and lots of sweating. But at school I haven't had much to do - movie watching, game playing, oh and the little bit of grading speaking tests of few weeks ago.  Hell, I don't even have an intense summer break to be planning for so I guess it's a mystery, where has my time been going.  Safe guesses go to Facebook, Instagram, Yoga  articles , oh yeah and reading various travel blogs dreaming about future travels. Okay so anyways back to the point, a few weeks ago I was told I wouldn't have classes on Friday but instead could choose between three things 1. Volunteering with the first grade 2. Brain meditation with the second grade or 3. Sit at my desk all day.  It was presented as a choice but any retard that can read body language and knows Korean culture would know I was meant to join option 1, and so that's precisely what I did. 

Published! [Kind of]

Well as many of you know I volunteer regularly at Samsungwon orphanage in Gumi, South Korea.  Recently the founder of KKOOM asked me to contribute to their blog, sharing my experience with the children.  I encourage you to check out the original post here.  Then while you're at it browse through the website to learn more about the amazing things KKOOM is doing for kids here in Korea.

Or if you're too lazy to click that link you can just read this copy of my blog post:

Middle School

When you're living abroad facebook starts to become more important than checking out random friends pictures of food and drunken nights out.  Here it's used as a resource for teaching, living and working.  A few weeks ago I came across a post asking for native english teachers to help out with a middle school overnight field trip.  I emailed the guy, got some more information and figured why not? So last Saturday I found myself on the way to Daegu with Sara (who I dragged into this) for an overnight field trip with 30 middle school students.  We were sent the itinerary in advance (even in English this time!) but still weren't quite sure what we were in for. The up side - they decided they'd pay us even though it was originally supposed to be a volunteer position.

Samsungwon

About two months ago I started volunteering at Samsungwon the orphanage in Gumi, conveniently located right across the street from the foreigner bar. My friend Tami who was in Gumi two years ago volunteered there and since reading about her experience I've had the desire to do so in the back of my mind. Before I show you the adorable children here's some information about Samsungwon that I got from the Aimee the KKOOM representative that helps arrange volunteers at orphanages throughout Korea: