We have a bunch of half days because of exams. On one of the half days, Thursday, April 23rd, I went for a half day trip with some of the other teachers. We went to a restaurant and had scary looking soup. It was served in a black stone bowl (like the volcano rock part) and looks like liquid fire (molten lava). The temperature is sooo hot and the stone pots keep the soup extra hot for a very long time... It was the reddest food I've ever seen, and it was bubbling and steaming for a good 5 minutes. I was scared to eat it because it looked like it would burn my face off. But it wasnt that spicy... Apparently it was so red because a different kind of red pepper was used. So after we ate that we jumped in the cars and drove to one of the teachers' home towns, about 2 hrs away and on the west coast shore. First we went to see what Koreans call a pension. Similar to an inn or B&B, except you do your own cooking. Koreans use them to day one or two day vacations away from life basically. They had some interesting carvings and it was a very nice property... We checked out the shore for a little bit but it was freezing. We went to this place by the shore to eat a special kind of food there. I love cold noodles so I was excited to eat them. There is a cold noodle dish is Korea where you have the noodles, add some veg and a spicy sauce, and mix it all up. So I was happy we were eating this. Everyone sits down to eat. I'm about to take some noodles when I have the horrific realization that they are NOT noodles, but tiny skinny clear fish. AND barely dead, perhaps not totally dead. ack. so I didnt eat that. The fact that the place was on a fishing shore, that it had tanks in the floor with live squids and such should have been a big warning sign. (Pics to come once I have a USB cord for my cell phone). So we hop back in the cars and go to the house that the teacher owns. Turns out he owns a large piece of land, like 50 hectares or something, Im not quite sure... AND that land includes some buildings, farm land, and an SK gas station (SK is a huge company of Korea). We had a little duck BBQ outside of his house. One of the teachers said that I was pretty because of how I eat. Apparently in Korea, if someone "eats prettily" they say they are pretty, that that fact makes them pretty (I verified this with another Korean source)... I know ppl look at me but yikes! even when Im eating??? Oh, and during the BBQ I kept hearing my name(they spoke Korean most of the time), I finally asked, the coteacher said they were talking about me meeting P (my school's vice principal's son), I asked them how they knew that and the coteacher said she just told them... !!!!!!!!!! I've been told Korean teachers are very gossipy, but was trying not to believe it until that point. After the BBQ we came back. and it was about 830, and we had left at about 1230, so it was a long time but I had fun.
On Sunday I went to the Lantern Festival for Buddha's birthday. We got to the area in Seoul around 1pm and spent most of the next 5 hrs wondering around all of the tents. They had tents set up where you could make different things, or participate in different activities. I made a little lotus lantern with one of the girls and failed at making another flower thing, while being teased by the guy who was running the activity... We all participated in a Korean tea ceremony. While the two of us were making lotus lanterns the others participated in a meditation thing. We were given alot of literature, and those of us who cared to get stamps at the various tents also recieved a free tshirt for Buddha's birthday and a bag for the templestay program. Then we watched a 3 hour parade. At first we were confused about where to go but we finally got some excellent seats and some people received some free lanterns, and one of the girls I was with gave me hers. Then I decided I wanted more lanterns so we went looking for some and everyone ended up with more lanterns. Everyone else has pictures of the parade and everything so again, once I get the pics from them, I will post them in this entry.
Tomorrow I will go out for dinner or lunch with the English and Korean teachers from Taesung. During the exam times, the teachers all have 1/2 days. They take this time to meet up with each other and socialize. On Tuesday, all of the different departments gather together for each of their own dinners. Im excited because I've started to realise that the last English teachers (they were a couple) didnt participate in many of the school's activities, and that many of the teachers felt that they were annoying them when they asked them questions about their country or something about English. So now Im working to correct this.
Oh. On Friday the classes did their English conversation exam. And I was told that they felt that the questions were just right in difficulty for them. However, that was the special high grade class that said that. We just have to wait to see how everyone did... I will do a pancake lunch with the one student from each class with the highest mark. So, 6 people will join in.
I'll add more detail to this blog when I have pictures to describe.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
I'm Baaaaack...
So I'm back in Korea. I've been here for a while. How did I get here? What am I doing? Here's my 'little' update... oh if ur Korean and reading this, please let me know any confusing parts or if I didnt explain something about Korea quite correctly :) Watch out, Im sure this is going to jump all over the place... Take that APA!
My former teacher at NSCC told me that she knew that people with NSCC diplomas could teach in Korea... and then informed me she would give me the information when I went to write my exams for Athabasca University (I'm doing distance courses and sometimes I have to write an exam with a proctor, that is another stupid long story), which was a month later...
So I impatiently waited. I prolly could have figured it out myself but as you know, Im the bigest procrastinator ever... like, enough to make my mum think Im dead on multiple occasions (tho not hard to do, 3 days of unreplied messages usually does it, I happen to do it often)... so she showed me what she was talking about and I contacted a bunch of recruiters, which normally I would recommend against, but because my situation is special yet again (in Korea you need a degree to teach at a school, but this year the education board decided that public schools could hire people with 2 yrs of school if they wanted), some of the recruiters gave me incorrect information, telling me that the program was not being offered and all of this even though it was posted on the EPIK (English Program in Korea) and GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea - Gyeonggi is a province) websites that the program was being offered. One recruiter kept me updated nearly every day, waiting for the new contract to come out. Through the best recruiter and another one I was offered a couple positions in locations I didnt want. I couldnt go back to Busan because something was wrong with the program there or it was filled or something. Anyways, eventually the other recruiters fell behind this one girl. She was fantastic and I would recommend her to anyone, even though to get a regular job in Korea you dont need a recruiter. She is sooo great! Mina Jung with WorkNPlay. Look that up if ur interested in working here.
After a million of hoops to jump through, some my fault, some the education board made up after-the-fact, etc, I found a job that sounded good, in a good area... I didnt want to be in Seoul, but nearby since I couldnt go to Busan. I was told its an all boys school and that I will be teaching grade 2 highschool english. In Korea the Education system is set up like this
Grade 1-6 is elementary school
Grade 7-9 is middle school (however, it changes to grade 1-3 middle school)
Grade 10-11 is high school (also changes to grade 1-3, highschool)
So I teach grade 11 boys.
It turns out the school is a Catholic school, ultra conservative (but not formal, I wear jeans most days), and is a kind of private school. The family has to pay for their kid to go there but it is also funded by the government. There is a dormitory for some students who can pass a special test. If I had known that the school was Catholic I would have said no. Im happy I didnt know because I really like the school... Apparently the school was looking for a level one teacher (someone with a masters degree or a BA and a certain number of years teaching and a TESOL cert.) but Im a level 6 (2 yrs of college, no experience that can be counted, and no TESOL cert).
So when Im at school I go to eat at the cafeteria some days, most of the first two weeks at the school I went. I usually ate with the coteacher, but when she couldnt she set me up with what seemed like a babysitter, but was a very nice gesture. So one day I ate lunch with one of the other English teachers. She told me that she had been the person who had received my resume. She said that she really liked my resume (which was sent out with a picture as required for everything in Korea). yay.
Since I came here I learned that this highschool is actually a really really good highschool... maybe the best in the area.
Ok. So the school. Firstly, its a couple of buildings, one is the main part of the highschool, the other main building is the middle school. There is also a dormitory and another building where more highschool students have classes. I have a little cubicle and they gave me an older laptop to use at my desk. yay. But my desk is so plain, there is nothing here at all. So, when its class time I take my books and go to the classroom. Each homeroom class stays for most of their classes in the same room, the teachers go to where the students are. I teach to 6 classes, 3 times a week and I have one coteacher all the time. She is supposed to be there to keep the kids controlled and translate any difficult things. There are 10 grade 2 classes I believe. I've been told that the other teachers are jealous that they dont get to coteach, because they think its a great benefit to them to be in a classroom with an english speaker. And I was also told the other grade 2s and grade 1 and 3s are jealous that they dont get any class time at all with an english speaker. The kids also take a regular English class, an english grammar class I think thats it. Those classes are with a Korean-English teacher, because they are much better than foreigners to teach grammar, because they know WHY. We know what sounds right, they know proper grammar. So the kids get both sides. Oh, of my 6 classes there are 2 special ones, one has all of the students with the highest grades, and the other is the PE class, kids that would not have been able to go to this school except for their exceptional athletic abilities.
Because its all boys there is only one bathroom in the building for women, and the female teachers have to take turns cleaning it. This is because the school doesnt have a janitorial staff. The kids clean everything. They have certain times of the day when they take mops and mop all the floors, even in the office, they sweep all of the outside grounds, clap the chalkboard erasers, clean the chalkboards, windows, and general classrooms. They also clean the bathrooms. Students at this school are also required to complete 60 hours of community service either during one school year or one semester. The highschool kids also mostly stay at the school until 10pm studying. If they leave its because they are going to an institute/academy for some class. Im nearly going to sleep most days when they leave school!
Monday - Thursday my first class starts at 7:10. ewwww. but its the dormitory class. The kids have to pass special tests to get into the dormitory, and so they tend to be better students. This class has grade 1s and 2s. I have no text, I just do whatever I want. After exams are over we will be watching How I Met Your Mother with the script, and then Obama's inauguration speech. They LOVE Obama... When I play games in class, some team nearly always chooses Obama as their name. Classes end at 340, and I teach 3-4 regular classes each day. Friday my class starts at 810 but the last class finishes at 440. Because of how the original schedule was set, I would be working more than 8 hrs a day (7-430 was the original) so they decided to cut my days shorter where possible and pay me extra. Yay.
I had to go to the hospital and pay about 50$ to get a medical exam. It cost me 50$ to find out Im disease free, 56K, 167cm, A+ blood, and normal blood levels. woot.
Then I sent that to the immigration people to get my alien registration card. You need that to get a phone, pay bills, get a bank account etc. And its required if you stay longer than 90 days or something. So after 2 wks I got my card and the coteacher helped me to get my bank account, and cell phone (its part of her job to help me with those things, but Im still sooo grateful). Oh. My phone is purple. And I have free TV ON my phone. with incredible picture, like a real tv. hehe.
On the first day or the second day I was taken to the middle school to meet the english teacher at the middle school. He's also from Canada, Jason. ( I was advised to write that he is 'brown' and loves being brown... ahem... and Im using his whole name bc he said I could, if I ask or mention it to other people I will write their full names as well) Koreans think foreigners love to meet ppl from their own countries and love to put them together to be friends. Anyways. Jason is pretty cool and we pretty much do most things together... ahhhh NOT like THAT. but everyone thinks we're dating. good friends, something just works. its good to have a good friend. and it makes taxis cheaper since we live near each other bc we work at the same school. Anyways, he will likely be referenced multiple times because he is involved with the same group of ppl I am right now. One day we went to go for supper and I wanted to find a galbi place bc he hadnt tried that yet (he came at the beginning of March). We saw some white ppl and I asked them if they knew where a galbi place was (not something I usually do, talk to foreigners randomly, but I wanted a galbi place), they said they were going to eat galbi right then and that we should join them. So we did. So now we have a ever-growing group of foreigner friends, with the occassional Korean. and I need to meet more Koreans. Ppl keep saying they will introduce me to some, so thats good.
Through this group I met a Korean guy and was talking with him (Let's call him P), and it turns out that this guy is the vice principal's (the highschool not the middle school) son. And he's kinda cute :) anyways. And he called me later that week and said that he had fun meeting everyone that night (we had all gone out to a kind of bar/food spot about 12 ppl at least) and me esp because I have a good personality, very active and talking with everyone, so nice :) Sooo nice, esp bc the day before another girl who was there that night pulled me aside and basically told me my personality sucks, Im too loud, and loud things give her headaches (don't know why you would go to a bar if you dont like it loud), and that if it bothers her it must bother the other people as well. Doesn't bother me if you dont like me, but holy you dont need to be mean about it... Anyways. I told her that's how I am, Im a loud person and Im not going to change that for any one person and that I generally act according to the environment, if its a bar, yeah Im gonna be loud and have fun being loud with everyone else, if its a little dinner, then not so much. I was shocked that someone could be so mean (its hard to explain exactly how it was said) I barely said anything, and what makes that thing even worth mentioning is that she acts like nothing happened, like we're friends or something when the other ppl are there... I did ask some other people what they thought of what she said saying, I was told that Im too loud and that it may annoy ppl, the responses that I got back made me feel much better, everyone seemed to have the same thinking as me or at least they said that (Im 100% sure 2 ppl were telling the entire truth)... Back to P, on another occasion (just last weekend actually) I went to a mountain in Seoul with his friends to attempt to climb a small mountain. I was fine for the first 1.5 hrs until we got to a really steep part and I nearly died, couldnt breathe and it hurt what little I could breathe. Grrr. oh well, it was fun other than that. Then we all went for shabu shabu, coincidently a favorite food of mine... And a good chat on the way back.
The group that we meet up with meets for dinner on Wednesdays, which we have dubbed SuYOasis. Jason started calling it mid-week oasis, I thought it needed some Korean in there sooo... Su yo il (수요일)is wednesday and I asked P is there was a shorter way to make it work, he said su yo is short for wednesday, so I told Jason and he squashed it all together to get suyoasis (like su-yo-asis) so tada. Anyways, every time its different ppl bc different ppl are available. Its fun. Good way to find all the good places to eat. Last night we ate at a kind of a buffet, you go and schoose all ur raw foods, inc meat, and bring it to ur table and cook it up over charcoal.
Another day we went to see a soccer game in the next city, Suwon. Yong In supports Suwon bc its the closest place. So we went all dressed in blue to match the team. We were playing Busan :( who, by the way, are red and white, but I still cheered for Busan. We sat in the super-fan section. Where they sing all these cheers and little dancy things. Jason has some great pics and vid ( I don't bc I dont have my battery charger from Busan yet) which I will LINK to... click that for pics!!!
they might not be up yet... he has a tendency to be... very late... (I know ur reading this) ANYWAYS... The soccer game was great fun, I went with Jason, another J (US guy), C (US girl), and A (South Africa girl), we won, then J invited us to dinner with his cheering club, and C and I went, this was pretty funny. Soju, dalk galbi (a kind of stir fried spicy chicken, I made it at home before), and hot peppers running around everywhere...
There is this one teacher that keeps talking to me and Jason but he cant speak any english... Anyways, we went out with him one day for makoli (traditional Korean alcohol) and pajeon (like a pancake but with green onions and fishy bits strewn through - I made this at home without the fishy bits) at this little hole in the wall, and it was sooo good. The ajumma (middle aged woman) who owned the place was fantastic and her food was great. The teacher, aka Yong In Superstar (he's the head of sports for the school or something, middle and high schools), had had someone write down some sentences in English. So with a few English words, and broken Korean, and cell phone dictionaries we had a great time and I think the communication was pretty good. Another teacher wants to go for soju sometime...
Oh, I had broughten a bunch of chocolate easter eggs from home, and an egg coloring kit. Jason came over and we colored brown eggs (couldnt find white ones anywhere, Koreans think white eggs are a bit exotic like we think of brown eggs) which turned out pretty good (he has pics of those too). We also colored quail eggs which turned out fantastic! The next day I had invited one of the English teachers (B) to come to my house to decorate the eggs, we used little chick stickers and glitter glue. The next day I brought it to school and arranged it all in a bowl with a note, that I got that B to help me write (once in English, once in Korean), just saying that they were easter eggs and I hope you enjoy them... then I went to class. when I came back there were only 3 big eggs left!!! 50 minutes later! and there were over a dozen eggs there to start with! Then I gave the rest of the chocolate eggs to students who answered hard questions or came to speak to me in English.
Oh about the classes again! Twice this week I've had kids singing. We were talking about what "drives you crazy" and what "you're crazy about" and music came up so one class, one guy finally got up after much verbal pushing from his classmates and sang a WonderGirls son "Nobody". In another class one guy got up to so the song AND dance to SuperJunior's "Sorry Sorry", and then said "wait can I teach that guy the dance?" so then both of them got up to do it. Remember these are grade 11 students!!! It was soooo funny, I gave everyone involved a bunch of chocolates... The teachers give students little candies when they win a game or something in class. I bribe them with Hersey kisses to come speak english to me. I tell them all the time if you come speak english I will give you chocolate... some of them do it, it worked better when I had Canadian chocolate. They were very excited about that.
So these days are exam days. All exams are ONLY multiple choice. They say it would be too hard to mark all students tests if it was different, I have 240 students, which is only 6 classes... other teachers have many more I think. so multiple choice. anyways, the exams are 1 hour. and they say there arent enough teachers, so they call some kid's parents to come in and invigilate the exams. CREEPY! can you imagine trying to concentrate on math when ur MOTHER is watching everything you do.... ugh.... anyways. Exams are sooo important, even a 0.1 difference in a grade average can be the difference between getting into 'good' universities and not.
There is prolly much more I could write, but Im tired of this long post lol. Oh I got my mum a present already :p Any questions let me know, but dont be sad if it takes me a while to write back :p
My former teacher at NSCC told me that she knew that people with NSCC diplomas could teach in Korea... and then informed me she would give me the information when I went to write my exams for Athabasca University (I'm doing distance courses and sometimes I have to write an exam with a proctor, that is another stupid long story), which was a month later...
So I impatiently waited. I prolly could have figured it out myself but as you know, Im the bigest procrastinator ever... like, enough to make my mum think Im dead on multiple occasions (tho not hard to do, 3 days of unreplied messages usually does it, I happen to do it often)... so she showed me what she was talking about and I contacted a bunch of recruiters, which normally I would recommend against, but because my situation is special yet again (in Korea you need a degree to teach at a school, but this year the education board decided that public schools could hire people with 2 yrs of school if they wanted), some of the recruiters gave me incorrect information, telling me that the program was not being offered and all of this even though it was posted on the EPIK (English Program in Korea) and GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea - Gyeonggi is a province) websites that the program was being offered. One recruiter kept me updated nearly every day, waiting for the new contract to come out. Through the best recruiter and another one I was offered a couple positions in locations I didnt want. I couldnt go back to Busan because something was wrong with the program there or it was filled or something. Anyways, eventually the other recruiters fell behind this one girl. She was fantastic and I would recommend her to anyone, even though to get a regular job in Korea you dont need a recruiter. She is sooo great! Mina Jung with WorkNPlay. Look that up if ur interested in working here.
After a million of hoops to jump through, some my fault, some the education board made up after-the-fact, etc, I found a job that sounded good, in a good area... I didnt want to be in Seoul, but nearby since I couldnt go to Busan. I was told its an all boys school and that I will be teaching grade 2 highschool english. In Korea the Education system is set up like this
Grade 1-6 is elementary school
Grade 7-9 is middle school (however, it changes to grade 1-3 middle school)
Grade 10-11 is high school (also changes to grade 1-3, highschool)
So I teach grade 11 boys.
It turns out the school is a Catholic school, ultra conservative (but not formal, I wear jeans most days), and is a kind of private school. The family has to pay for their kid to go there but it is also funded by the government. There is a dormitory for some students who can pass a special test. If I had known that the school was Catholic I would have said no. Im happy I didnt know because I really like the school... Apparently the school was looking for a level one teacher (someone with a masters degree or a BA and a certain number of years teaching and a TESOL cert.) but Im a level 6 (2 yrs of college, no experience that can be counted, and no TESOL cert).
So when Im at school I go to eat at the cafeteria some days, most of the first two weeks at the school I went. I usually ate with the coteacher, but when she couldnt she set me up with what seemed like a babysitter, but was a very nice gesture. So one day I ate lunch with one of the other English teachers. She told me that she had been the person who had received my resume. She said that she really liked my resume (which was sent out with a picture as required for everything in Korea). yay.
Since I came here I learned that this highschool is actually a really really good highschool... maybe the best in the area.
Ok. So the school. Firstly, its a couple of buildings, one is the main part of the highschool, the other main building is the middle school. There is also a dormitory and another building where more highschool students have classes. I have a little cubicle and they gave me an older laptop to use at my desk. yay. But my desk is so plain, there is nothing here at all. So, when its class time I take my books and go to the classroom. Each homeroom class stays for most of their classes in the same room, the teachers go to where the students are. I teach to 6 classes, 3 times a week and I have one coteacher all the time. She is supposed to be there to keep the kids controlled and translate any difficult things. There are 10 grade 2 classes I believe. I've been told that the other teachers are jealous that they dont get to coteach, because they think its a great benefit to them to be in a classroom with an english speaker. And I was also told the other grade 2s and grade 1 and 3s are jealous that they dont get any class time at all with an english speaker. The kids also take a regular English class, an english grammar class I think thats it. Those classes are with a Korean-English teacher, because they are much better than foreigners to teach grammar, because they know WHY. We know what sounds right, they know proper grammar. So the kids get both sides. Oh, of my 6 classes there are 2 special ones, one has all of the students with the highest grades, and the other is the PE class, kids that would not have been able to go to this school except for their exceptional athletic abilities.
Because its all boys there is only one bathroom in the building for women, and the female teachers have to take turns cleaning it. This is because the school doesnt have a janitorial staff. The kids clean everything. They have certain times of the day when they take mops and mop all the floors, even in the office, they sweep all of the outside grounds, clap the chalkboard erasers, clean the chalkboards, windows, and general classrooms. They also clean the bathrooms. Students at this school are also required to complete 60 hours of community service either during one school year or one semester. The highschool kids also mostly stay at the school until 10pm studying. If they leave its because they are going to an institute/academy for some class. Im nearly going to sleep most days when they leave school!
Monday - Thursday my first class starts at 7:10. ewwww. but its the dormitory class. The kids have to pass special tests to get into the dormitory, and so they tend to be better students. This class has grade 1s and 2s. I have no text, I just do whatever I want. After exams are over we will be watching How I Met Your Mother with the script, and then Obama's inauguration speech. They LOVE Obama... When I play games in class, some team nearly always chooses Obama as their name. Classes end at 340, and I teach 3-4 regular classes each day. Friday my class starts at 810 but the last class finishes at 440. Because of how the original schedule was set, I would be working more than 8 hrs a day (7-430 was the original) so they decided to cut my days shorter where possible and pay me extra. Yay.
I had to go to the hospital and pay about 50$ to get a medical exam. It cost me 50$ to find out Im disease free, 56K, 167cm, A+ blood, and normal blood levels. woot.
Then I sent that to the immigration people to get my alien registration card. You need that to get a phone, pay bills, get a bank account etc. And its required if you stay longer than 90 days or something. So after 2 wks I got my card and the coteacher helped me to get my bank account, and cell phone (its part of her job to help me with those things, but Im still sooo grateful). Oh. My phone is purple. And I have free TV ON my phone. with incredible picture, like a real tv. hehe.
On the first day or the second day I was taken to the middle school to meet the english teacher at the middle school. He's also from Canada, Jason. ( I was advised to write that he is 'brown' and loves being brown... ahem... and Im using his whole name bc he said I could, if I ask or mention it to other people I will write their full names as well) Koreans think foreigners love to meet ppl from their own countries and love to put them together to be friends. Anyways. Jason is pretty cool and we pretty much do most things together... ahhhh NOT like THAT. but everyone thinks we're dating. good friends, something just works. its good to have a good friend. and it makes taxis cheaper since we live near each other bc we work at the same school. Anyways, he will likely be referenced multiple times because he is involved with the same group of ppl I am right now. One day we went to go for supper and I wanted to find a galbi place bc he hadnt tried that yet (he came at the beginning of March). We saw some white ppl and I asked them if they knew where a galbi place was (not something I usually do, talk to foreigners randomly, but I wanted a galbi place), they said they were going to eat galbi right then and that we should join them. So we did. So now we have a ever-growing group of foreigner friends, with the occassional Korean. and I need to meet more Koreans. Ppl keep saying they will introduce me to some, so thats good.
Through this group I met a Korean guy and was talking with him (Let's call him P), and it turns out that this guy is the vice principal's (the highschool not the middle school) son. And he's kinda cute :) anyways. And he called me later that week and said that he had fun meeting everyone that night (we had all gone out to a kind of bar/food spot about 12 ppl at least) and me esp because I have a good personality, very active and talking with everyone, so nice :) Sooo nice, esp bc the day before another girl who was there that night pulled me aside and basically told me my personality sucks, Im too loud, and loud things give her headaches (don't know why you would go to a bar if you dont like it loud), and that if it bothers her it must bother the other people as well. Doesn't bother me if you dont like me, but holy you dont need to be mean about it... Anyways. I told her that's how I am, Im a loud person and Im not going to change that for any one person and that I generally act according to the environment, if its a bar, yeah Im gonna be loud and have fun being loud with everyone else, if its a little dinner, then not so much. I was shocked that someone could be so mean (its hard to explain exactly how it was said) I barely said anything, and what makes that thing even worth mentioning is that she acts like nothing happened, like we're friends or something when the other ppl are there... I did ask some other people what they thought of what she said saying, I was told that Im too loud and that it may annoy ppl, the responses that I got back made me feel much better, everyone seemed to have the same thinking as me or at least they said that (Im 100% sure 2 ppl were telling the entire truth)... Back to P, on another occasion (just last weekend actually) I went to a mountain in Seoul with his friends to attempt to climb a small mountain. I was fine for the first 1.5 hrs until we got to a really steep part and I nearly died, couldnt breathe and it hurt what little I could breathe. Grrr. oh well, it was fun other than that. Then we all went for shabu shabu, coincidently a favorite food of mine... And a good chat on the way back.
The group that we meet up with meets for dinner on Wednesdays, which we have dubbed SuYOasis. Jason started calling it mid-week oasis, I thought it needed some Korean in there sooo... Su yo il (수요일)is wednesday and I asked P is there was a shorter way to make it work, he said su yo is short for wednesday, so I told Jason and he squashed it all together to get suyoasis (like su-yo-asis) so tada. Anyways, every time its different ppl bc different ppl are available. Its fun. Good way to find all the good places to eat. Last night we ate at a kind of a buffet, you go and schoose all ur raw foods, inc meat, and bring it to ur table and cook it up over charcoal.
Another day we went to see a soccer game in the next city, Suwon. Yong In supports Suwon bc its the closest place. So we went all dressed in blue to match the team. We were playing Busan :( who, by the way, are red and white, but I still cheered for Busan. We sat in the super-fan section. Where they sing all these cheers and little dancy things. Jason has some great pics and vid ( I don't bc I dont have my battery charger from Busan yet) which I will LINK to... click that for pics!!!
they might not be up yet... he has a tendency to be... very late... (I know ur reading this) ANYWAYS... The soccer game was great fun, I went with Jason, another J (US guy), C (US girl), and A (South Africa girl), we won, then J invited us to dinner with his cheering club, and C and I went, this was pretty funny. Soju, dalk galbi (a kind of stir fried spicy chicken, I made it at home before), and hot peppers running around everywhere...
There is this one teacher that keeps talking to me and Jason but he cant speak any english... Anyways, we went out with him one day for makoli (traditional Korean alcohol) and pajeon (like a pancake but with green onions and fishy bits strewn through - I made this at home without the fishy bits) at this little hole in the wall, and it was sooo good. The ajumma (middle aged woman) who owned the place was fantastic and her food was great. The teacher, aka Yong In Superstar (he's the head of sports for the school or something, middle and high schools), had had someone write down some sentences in English. So with a few English words, and broken Korean, and cell phone dictionaries we had a great time and I think the communication was pretty good. Another teacher wants to go for soju sometime...
Oh, I had broughten a bunch of chocolate easter eggs from home, and an egg coloring kit. Jason came over and we colored brown eggs (couldnt find white ones anywhere, Koreans think white eggs are a bit exotic like we think of brown eggs) which turned out pretty good (he has pics of those too). We also colored quail eggs which turned out fantastic! The next day I had invited one of the English teachers (B) to come to my house to decorate the eggs, we used little chick stickers and glitter glue. The next day I brought it to school and arranged it all in a bowl with a note, that I got that B to help me write (once in English, once in Korean), just saying that they were easter eggs and I hope you enjoy them... then I went to class. when I came back there were only 3 big eggs left!!! 50 minutes later! and there were over a dozen eggs there to start with! Then I gave the rest of the chocolate eggs to students who answered hard questions or came to speak to me in English.
Oh about the classes again! Twice this week I've had kids singing. We were talking about what "drives you crazy" and what "you're crazy about" and music came up so one class, one guy finally got up after much verbal pushing from his classmates and sang a WonderGirls son "Nobody". In another class one guy got up to so the song AND dance to SuperJunior's "Sorry Sorry", and then said "wait can I teach that guy the dance?" so then both of them got up to do it. Remember these are grade 11 students!!! It was soooo funny, I gave everyone involved a bunch of chocolates... The teachers give students little candies when they win a game or something in class. I bribe them with Hersey kisses to come speak english to me. I tell them all the time if you come speak english I will give you chocolate... some of them do it, it worked better when I had Canadian chocolate. They were very excited about that.
So these days are exam days. All exams are ONLY multiple choice. They say it would be too hard to mark all students tests if it was different, I have 240 students, which is only 6 classes... other teachers have many more I think. so multiple choice. anyways, the exams are 1 hour. and they say there arent enough teachers, so they call some kid's parents to come in and invigilate the exams. CREEPY! can you imagine trying to concentrate on math when ur MOTHER is watching everything you do.... ugh.... anyways. Exams are sooo important, even a 0.1 difference in a grade average can be the difference between getting into 'good' universities and not.
There is prolly much more I could write, but Im tired of this long post lol. Oh I got my mum a present already :p Any questions let me know, but dont be sad if it takes me a while to write back :p
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Busan Fireworks 2007 Part 3 Finale
These are the last videos of the fireworks... The first one shows "snow" falling off of the bridge. This was one of the best things, it was just amazing to see... The show was just over 45mins long!!! There are no words or pictures to describe it.
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