On Wednesday, we had an open demonstration on co-teaching. Basically, this means that a group of us English teachers go watch another fellow English teacher teach a class with her co-teacher. Then, there is a panel that critiques them. Then everyone fills out an evaluation. What the heck. This is supposed to teach us how to co-teach, but it just makes me feel weird. There’s a rumor going around that EVERYONE has to do this. I am MORTIFIED. I don’t want to do that! My classes definitely do not go as well as the demonstration I saw today. I’m gonna get ripped to shreds! I hope I don’t have to do it!
On the other hand, I’m doing fairly well in my Korean class, which I’m happy about. My teacher always praises me and it makes me feel weird….like, I want her to stop it. Haha, but it feels good that I’m doing well. Last night, she said in Korean, “Christina, you’re so smart!” and I just looked at her blankly because I didn’t know what she was saying. Imagine that! Someone telling you you’re SMART and you’re looking at them with a blank expression not knowing what the heck she is saying to you. Not very smart. Hahah
Today, after my first period (which is the class with the boys who always talk to me at my desk), the boys stayed after class to talk to me and one asked, “What is your blood type?” and I said, “I don’t know.” And he looked at me in disbelief! Like, “Are you crazy? How can you not know??” Then I explained that in America, not everyone knows their blood type, it’s not really important to know off the top of your head. He’s like “Ohh, OK, sorry.” Then I asked them all what their blood types are and there were 3 As and a B. I asked, what does A mean? And this one guy that works at the school, I’m not really sure of his position, but I think he’s important, he said, “Silent.” And I said, “What? This guy is NOT silent!” and his friends laughed. After class, the boy also said, “Learn English fun today” and I said, “Learning English was fun today?” and he said, “yeah, fun. F-U-N.” I’m having such a great day today. Looking forward to the weekend. I’m going to Seoul :)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sports Day, Picnic Day, & Hiking Day
Wow, it’s already Monday again – the end of Monday. Yeay! I didn’t have the Monday Blues this time, though I was pretty lethargic today. Let me catch you up on another week of activities. I don’t think there’s much, so this post won’t be as long as the other, don’t you worry your little head.
One day, a couple of girl students came up to my desk and was like, “My teacher….likes you. She talks about you a lot” and I said, “who?” and they pointed, but I didn’t see anybody. They dragged me out of my seat and pulled me to a teacher who I have never seen before. I stood behind her and she didn’t realize I was there. The students said to her, “Sonsengnim!” Teacher! And she turned around and she saw me and instantly crouched down on the floor and put her finger to her mouth to shush her students. She was SO embarrassed and shy. She just kept shushing them and shaking her head. We all just laughed as she got up and ran away. The students told me that their teacher wants to talk to me, but she’s shy and afraid. I thought it was so funny. I still haven’t talked to her, but I hope to one day at lunch.
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Thursday after school was Sports Day for teachers – it was actually quite fun. It only lasted an hour, but I wish we had done more. The teachers broke up into 3 teams. We played “who can throw the Frisbee the farthest?”. Three people from each team participated and I was one of the 3 for my team. I didn’t win, but I did throw it pretty far! We also played “Let’s all run through the jump rope while it’s swinging.” My team also lost. Then we played, “Let’s try to make as many baskets as we can!” I think our team won that one! I made 2 of 3 baskets! The last game we played was “Rock, paper, scissors” with money!” We all stood in a circle and played the person next to us. Whoever lost had to pay the other person their money, 500 won. I won the first round, but lost the second. My co-teacher actually won the whole thing. She got a whopping 26,000 won. That’s pretty good for Rock, paper, scissors! It was a fun day; I can’t wait for Sports Day for the kids next month!
My Korean class on Thursday was good, but Okailey and I were scolded in Korean for being bad students! We had a break for 10 minutes and Okailey wanted a sandwich so we went to the nearby coffee shop to order one. They took FOREVER to make it and we were 10 minutes late to class. They didn’t continue the class without us, it seemed, so they were waiting on us. I felt bad! But I redeemed myself later on in the class when I used my Korean skills with the teacher. She was impressed and called me a good student this time! After class, I wanted to walk around the Chonnam area around the university because I didn’t have school the next day, Friday because I had Picnic Day! But anyways, we walked around a little bit and went into a few stores to see what clothing they had. We had gone shopping about a couple weeks ago as well, and our experiences were very similar. They didn’t let us try on the clothes! We were like, what the heck? How am I gonna know whether or not this looks good on me? I guess in Korea, you just have to know. It’s ridiculous. We got the impression that we couldn’t try on the clothes because they’re racists, but Okailey’s co-teacher told her that it’s because Koreans wear tons of make-up and they don’t want it to get on their clothes. However, if you want to try something on that is FULL-priced (which we don’t), then it’s OK. How does that even make sense? Wouldn’t you want the make-up to get on the cheaper clothing rather than ruining the expensive clothing? Crazy Koreans. We didn’t wander around for too long because we had to catch the bus back home.
So Friday, I had my first Picnic Day, which is the equivalent of a field trip in the states. I went to Damyang Bamboo Forest, which was right up my alley. I love nature and Korea has plenty of it. We walked through the forest and a lot of the students said hi to me and even wanted to take a picture with me! This time, no Okailey, however, one of my students did ask where she was. haha During lunch, a lot of the students offered me their food to try, and I obliged without a problem! The food is so delicious! One of the students whose English is pretty advanced was talking to me and she told me that she really wants to visit America because of the food. She really wants to eat New York steak and all the other yummy food she’s heard of. She doesn’t think Korea has good food, but I told her I disagree and she said that that’s good for me. I don’t know how you could live in a country your entire life and not like the food. That would be a miserable life! She also invited me to join them in games and I said, SURE, of course!
The first game was a version of Duck, duck, goose, which didn’t last long because a couple people slipped and fell into a wet puddle of mud. Thank goodness I wasn’t one of them. After that, we played ONE round of the numbers game – the one where someone calls out a number and you have to scramble to get that number of people in your group. After that, we played this snakey game. There were 3 groups of 8 and you are in a snake-like formation…in a line. This game made me SO uncomfortable. You have to hold onto whoever’s in front of you. At first, I was holding onto the person’s waist, which was already awkward for me. Then they told me that I had to hug them. Imagine being in a line of students, hugging one students from behind, and another hugging you from behind, and other students hugging each other and then running around trying to catch the tail of another snake. It. was. so. weird. My team lost practically ALL the games, so we had to spell our names with our butts. That was weird too. Wiggling your booty around and a group of students just watching your ass. Seriously. I had a great time hanging out with the students though. I don’t even feel like their teacher; I feel like I’m their friend or equal. My co-teachers and I left the bamboo forest and they asked if I wanted to go to other “touristy” areas in the Damyang area and even though all of us were tired, I said yes. I hope they didn’t mind. haha They brought me to this place, which I assume to be a home but no one lives there currently, I think? My co-teachers didn’t know much about this place except that it’s the place where a famous poem was written. It was written there and it was written about this place. It was really nice. It was surrounded by trees and a nearby a river. I saw a lady hugging a tree and I felt a connection with her because I am also a tree hugger. After this place, we went to have traditional Korean tea. It was interesting. The teapot was super duper tiny and the first pot is made by the waitress and the subsequent pots are made by you – you had to watch how it was done the first time. It wasn’t difficult, but it was cool to me! They also have a pumpkin cake thingy, which is rather delicious! There’s green or yellow bean (?) in it, which it makes it nasty. The cake looks spongy but it’s chewy. I also bought a pair of earrings at the shop there. They were 10,000 won. I couldn’t resist! It was my first payday, so I decided to spend a little bit of it. After tea, we went home. Yeay! I was EXHAUSTED. I got home and immediately took a nap. I think I’ve taken more naps since I’ve been in Korea than I’ve ever taken in all my years in America. This place tires you out. I had to meet my friends downtown at a certain time. I woke up and made myself some dinner. If I took the bus, I would’ve been late, so I decided to take the subway for the first time BY MYSELF. I made it! It’s not that hard though seeing as that there’s only one line. You’d have to be a complete moron to get lost. So no, I’m not a COMPLETE moron. We met up and they wanted to eat dinner. Boo, I just ate! I sat at the table and watched them stuff their faces with delicious looking food. I would’ve scarfed something down, but I was really not hungry. After that, we headed to German Bar, Soul Train, Bubble Bar for a whole 5 minutes, then back to Soul Train. Had a cocktail and went home.
Saturday was SHOPPING day for the girls! We needed to use our paychecks to buy clothing. We don’t feel as if we brought enough clothes! We gotta buy more, we gotta! I had gone in thinking that I was gonna spend tons of money. It didn’t matter how much it was, I was gonna buy it if I liked it/if it fit me. No, that’s not how I shopped that day. I was the same ol’ cheapskate Christina. I couldn’t bring myself to spend so much on a single article of clothing. I just couldn’t do it. I ended up spending just a little under 50,000 won on 3 dresses, tights, 2 headbands, and a belt. Pretty good, no? I will always be a bargain shopper, no matter how much money I make. After shopping for a good 7 hours, it was time to meet up with the rest of the group. Four of us had already had dinner beforehand, so the rest of them had dinner and the four of us had coffee and dessert. It was this thick, sweet bread with fruits and whipped cream on top. It was tasty delicious. After that, we went to German Bar again, sang some songs, had a beer or two, was tired, and went home.
Of course, there were plans for Sunday – HIKING. I was hesistant to agree to go because I felt so tired that I didn’t know if I would be able to make it the next day. We had a late start though, so I was able to pull myself out of bed to climb Mudeungsan! It was a tough tough hike; I think the toughest hike I’ve ever done. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top and an hour to get down. The mountain is gorgeous and we didn’t even get to see most of it, I think. We picked the longest trail, which I believe was also the steepest. It was an amazing sight and I’m sure I’ll do it again. I wasn’t even that sore the next day. I had minor pain; nothing as intense as I imagined it would be.
One day, a couple of girl students came up to my desk and was like, “My teacher….likes you. She talks about you a lot” and I said, “who?” and they pointed, but I didn’t see anybody. They dragged me out of my seat and pulled me to a teacher who I have never seen before. I stood behind her and she didn’t realize I was there. The students said to her, “Sonsengnim!” Teacher! And she turned around and she saw me and instantly crouched down on the floor and put her finger to her mouth to shush her students. She was SO embarrassed and shy. She just kept shushing them and shaking her head. We all just laughed as she got up and ran away. The students told me that their teacher wants to talk to me, but she’s shy and afraid. I thought it was so funny. I still haven’t talked to her, but I hope to one day at lunch.
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Thursday after school was Sports Day for teachers – it was actually quite fun. It only lasted an hour, but I wish we had done more. The teachers broke up into 3 teams. We played “who can throw the Frisbee the farthest?”. Three people from each team participated and I was one of the 3 for my team. I didn’t win, but I did throw it pretty far! We also played “Let’s all run through the jump rope while it’s swinging.” My team also lost. Then we played, “Let’s try to make as many baskets as we can!” I think our team won that one! I made 2 of 3 baskets! The last game we played was “Rock, paper, scissors” with money!” We all stood in a circle and played the person next to us. Whoever lost had to pay the other person their money, 500 won. I won the first round, but lost the second. My co-teacher actually won the whole thing. She got a whopping 26,000 won. That’s pretty good for Rock, paper, scissors! It was a fun day; I can’t wait for Sports Day for the kids next month!
My Korean class on Thursday was good, but Okailey and I were scolded in Korean for being bad students! We had a break for 10 minutes and Okailey wanted a sandwich so we went to the nearby coffee shop to order one. They took FOREVER to make it and we were 10 minutes late to class. They didn’t continue the class without us, it seemed, so they were waiting on us. I felt bad! But I redeemed myself later on in the class when I used my Korean skills with the teacher. She was impressed and called me a good student this time! After class, I wanted to walk around the Chonnam area around the university because I didn’t have school the next day, Friday because I had Picnic Day! But anyways, we walked around a little bit and went into a few stores to see what clothing they had. We had gone shopping about a couple weeks ago as well, and our experiences were very similar. They didn’t let us try on the clothes! We were like, what the heck? How am I gonna know whether or not this looks good on me? I guess in Korea, you just have to know. It’s ridiculous. We got the impression that we couldn’t try on the clothes because they’re racists, but Okailey’s co-teacher told her that it’s because Koreans wear tons of make-up and they don’t want it to get on their clothes. However, if you want to try something on that is FULL-priced (which we don’t), then it’s OK. How does that even make sense? Wouldn’t you want the make-up to get on the cheaper clothing rather than ruining the expensive clothing? Crazy Koreans. We didn’t wander around for too long because we had to catch the bus back home.
So Friday, I had my first Picnic Day, which is the equivalent of a field trip in the states. I went to Damyang Bamboo Forest, which was right up my alley. I love nature and Korea has plenty of it. We walked through the forest and a lot of the students said hi to me and even wanted to take a picture with me! This time, no Okailey, however, one of my students did ask where she was. haha During lunch, a lot of the students offered me their food to try, and I obliged without a problem! The food is so delicious! One of the students whose English is pretty advanced was talking to me and she told me that she really wants to visit America because of the food. She really wants to eat New York steak and all the other yummy food she’s heard of. She doesn’t think Korea has good food, but I told her I disagree and she said that that’s good for me. I don’t know how you could live in a country your entire life and not like the food. That would be a miserable life! She also invited me to join them in games and I said, SURE, of course!
The first game was a version of Duck, duck, goose, which didn’t last long because a couple people slipped and fell into a wet puddle of mud. Thank goodness I wasn’t one of them. After that, we played ONE round of the numbers game – the one where someone calls out a number and you have to scramble to get that number of people in your group. After that, we played this snakey game. There were 3 groups of 8 and you are in a snake-like formation…in a line. This game made me SO uncomfortable. You have to hold onto whoever’s in front of you. At first, I was holding onto the person’s waist, which was already awkward for me. Then they told me that I had to hug them. Imagine being in a line of students, hugging one students from behind, and another hugging you from behind, and other students hugging each other and then running around trying to catch the tail of another snake. It. was. so. weird. My team lost practically ALL the games, so we had to spell our names with our butts. That was weird too. Wiggling your booty around and a group of students just watching your ass. Seriously. I had a great time hanging out with the students though. I don’t even feel like their teacher; I feel like I’m their friend or equal. My co-teachers and I left the bamboo forest and they asked if I wanted to go to other “touristy” areas in the Damyang area and even though all of us were tired, I said yes. I hope they didn’t mind. haha They brought me to this place, which I assume to be a home but no one lives there currently, I think? My co-teachers didn’t know much about this place except that it’s the place where a famous poem was written. It was written there and it was written about this place. It was really nice. It was surrounded by trees and a nearby a river. I saw a lady hugging a tree and I felt a connection with her because I am also a tree hugger. After this place, we went to have traditional Korean tea. It was interesting. The teapot was super duper tiny and the first pot is made by the waitress and the subsequent pots are made by you – you had to watch how it was done the first time. It wasn’t difficult, but it was cool to me! They also have a pumpkin cake thingy, which is rather delicious! There’s green or yellow bean (?) in it, which it makes it nasty. The cake looks spongy but it’s chewy. I also bought a pair of earrings at the shop there. They were 10,000 won. I couldn’t resist! It was my first payday, so I decided to spend a little bit of it. After tea, we went home. Yeay! I was EXHAUSTED. I got home and immediately took a nap. I think I’ve taken more naps since I’ve been in Korea than I’ve ever taken in all my years in America. This place tires you out. I had to meet my friends downtown at a certain time. I woke up and made myself some dinner. If I took the bus, I would’ve been late, so I decided to take the subway for the first time BY MYSELF. I made it! It’s not that hard though seeing as that there’s only one line. You’d have to be a complete moron to get lost. So no, I’m not a COMPLETE moron. We met up and they wanted to eat dinner. Boo, I just ate! I sat at the table and watched them stuff their faces with delicious looking food. I would’ve scarfed something down, but I was really not hungry. After that, we headed to German Bar, Soul Train, Bubble Bar for a whole 5 minutes, then back to Soul Train. Had a cocktail and went home.
Saturday was SHOPPING day for the girls! We needed to use our paychecks to buy clothing. We don’t feel as if we brought enough clothes! We gotta buy more, we gotta! I had gone in thinking that I was gonna spend tons of money. It didn’t matter how much it was, I was gonna buy it if I liked it/if it fit me. No, that’s not how I shopped that day. I was the same ol’ cheapskate Christina. I couldn’t bring myself to spend so much on a single article of clothing. I just couldn’t do it. I ended up spending just a little under 50,000 won on 3 dresses, tights, 2 headbands, and a belt. Pretty good, no? I will always be a bargain shopper, no matter how much money I make. After shopping for a good 7 hours, it was time to meet up with the rest of the group. Four of us had already had dinner beforehand, so the rest of them had dinner and the four of us had coffee and dessert. It was this thick, sweet bread with fruits and whipped cream on top. It was tasty delicious. After that, we went to German Bar again, sang some songs, had a beer or two, was tired, and went home.
Of course, there were plans for Sunday – HIKING. I was hesistant to agree to go because I felt so tired that I didn’t know if I would be able to make it the next day. We had a late start though, so I was able to pull myself out of bed to climb Mudeungsan! It was a tough tough hike; I think the toughest hike I’ve ever done. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top and an hour to get down. The mountain is gorgeous and we didn’t even get to see most of it, I think. We picked the longest trail, which I believe was also the steepest. It was an amazing sight and I’m sure I’ll do it again. I wasn’t even that sore the next day. I had minor pain; nothing as intense as I imagined it would be.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Epik High & Girls Generation
This song is so catchy! Maybe cuz the chorus is in English. Enjoy!
Here's another one! Girls Generation!
Here's another one! Girls Generation!
Randomosity
I have a post to post, but I haven't finished typing it yet, so I'm gonna do a random post of all the random random random things, random thoughts that I have here and there that I haven't written about in previous posts. Here they are!
1. I've been here for over a MONTH already! A month and 4 days to be exact! So exciting! It doesn't feel like it's been that long, which I think is a good thing. Time is going to fly by like no other.
2. Seeing as that I've been here for over a month, it amazes me that I have still managed to avoid the squat toilets. I am VERY happy about this also. Every time I go into a public bathroom, my heart stops right as I open the stall door because I don't know what to expect on the other side. I am thankful for Western style toilets every time my eyes see one.
3. Couples here really like to wear matching clothes. Every day is like a Sadie Hawkin's Dance or something. I don't only mean matching colors, I mean matching patterns, matching outfits, the whole nine. The guys are so skinny here, they're probably actually wearing the same women's shirt purchased from the same store. It's really bizarre. If you ever lose track of your boyfriend, you can always say, "Have you seen a guy wearing this exact outfit?"
4. The teacher's go to class AFTER the bell has rung. They don't go there just in time for the bell to ring, they get up from their desks after the fact. I find that very strange, but it's cool because it makes the class shorter. Sometimes, it may take upwards to 5 minutes to get to class. It's quite strange. Koreans like to do things at the last minute, which can sometimes be annoying/frustrating. Oh, speaking of teacher's, I don't know if I've talked about this yet, but all the teacher's carry some sort of stick to hit the students with. It's very different than in America, but I guess it works for them. Sometimes, I am tempted to use the stick too. haha
5. The school lunches are REALLY good. I know, I still haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I will today....I will TRY to today.
6. The buses here are really small; they're definitely not like the LA MTA buses. They have rows of 2 seats on each side in the back, but in the front, there are only single seats, which means a lot of the time, you have to stand. I don't like standing in crowded buses. Everyone pushes you and the handles you hold onto aren't stable. It's just a disaster waiting to happen. There are also bus cards that you can purchase for 6000 won. The bus fare is 1000 won and if you buy this bus card (and recharge it with money),the fare is deducted from your card, 950 won. You save 50 won, which doesn't sound like much, but in the long run, you save money because when you transfer buses within the hour, it's FREE! I was excited about that! hahah
Wow, this post must be really boring for you guys. hahah
Alright, I'm gonna end your misery and I will post later about how my week went. :)
1. I've been here for over a MONTH already! A month and 4 days to be exact! So exciting! It doesn't feel like it's been that long, which I think is a good thing. Time is going to fly by like no other.
2. Seeing as that I've been here for over a month, it amazes me that I have still managed to avoid the squat toilets. I am VERY happy about this also. Every time I go into a public bathroom, my heart stops right as I open the stall door because I don't know what to expect on the other side. I am thankful for Western style toilets every time my eyes see one.
3. Couples here really like to wear matching clothes. Every day is like a Sadie Hawkin's Dance or something. I don't only mean matching colors, I mean matching patterns, matching outfits, the whole nine. The guys are so skinny here, they're probably actually wearing the same women's shirt purchased from the same store. It's really bizarre. If you ever lose track of your boyfriend, you can always say, "Have you seen a guy wearing this exact outfit?"
4. The teacher's go to class AFTER the bell has rung. They don't go there just in time for the bell to ring, they get up from their desks after the fact. I find that very strange, but it's cool because it makes the class shorter. Sometimes, it may take upwards to 5 minutes to get to class. It's quite strange. Koreans like to do things at the last minute, which can sometimes be annoying/frustrating. Oh, speaking of teacher's, I don't know if I've talked about this yet, but all the teacher's carry some sort of stick to hit the students with. It's very different than in America, but I guess it works for them. Sometimes, I am tempted to use the stick too. haha
5. The school lunches are REALLY good. I know, I still haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I will today....I will TRY to today.
6. The buses here are really small; they're definitely not like the LA MTA buses. They have rows of 2 seats on each side in the back, but in the front, there are only single seats, which means a lot of the time, you have to stand. I don't like standing in crowded buses. Everyone pushes you and the handles you hold onto aren't stable. It's just a disaster waiting to happen. There are also bus cards that you can purchase for 6000 won. The bus fare is 1000 won and if you buy this bus card (and recharge it with money),the fare is deducted from your card, 950 won. You save 50 won, which doesn't sound like much, but in the long run, you save money because when you transfer buses within the hour, it's FREE! I was excited about that! hahah
Wow, this post must be really boring for you guys. hahah
Alright, I'm gonna end your misery and I will post later about how my week went. :)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
This is the sound of settling..
I feel pretty settled into my new home now. I sleep like a baby throughout the night, and I wake up ready for the day. I may even feel BETTER here than I did back home. I made a great decision to come here. So let's do a little backtracking so I can inform you of my Tuesday.
Tuesday was a packed day, per usual, with work and then Korean class at night. Okailey had missed the first two classes and she was determined not to miss a third, so she met up with me at my school so we could head to the university together. I had gone home to change and get my books and I went back to school to find her sitting on a rock waiting for me. A lot of my students were hanging out at the school gates and said hi to me. I yelled out "Okailey!" and we TRIED to walk to the bus stop but was stopped by a wall of students. They were taking our their camera phones and their cameras saying that they wanted to take photos of Okailey and me. I was like, "WTH, they never want to take pictures of JUST me!" Now that Okailey came around, they're whipping out their cameras that I didn't even know they carried around with them. They wanted us to put our arms around each other for their photos. We posed for a few and then left laughing. It was crazy - English teachers are celebrities. I now know how it feels like to be semi-famous, a D-list celeb. We got to the bus stop and a couple students were there as well. One of my favorites - she ALWAYS says hi to me and she's just soo adorable. We chatted a little bit and the bus finally came and Okailey and I hopped on, ready to escape our fans. We got to school, got some grub, got to class, went through about 35 pages of the book, and then went home. Not too exciting, huh? haha Where are our students when we need them?
So yesterday (Wednesday), I was waiting for my after school class, my favorite class of the day, and the coordinator for the Gwangju teachers came to my desk. Rarity and unexpected. He had come to observe me teach my after school class. Oh, OK...but it was cancelled due to some sort of science test? I don't really know, but I was a bit disappointed because I was looking forward to the class. I ended up just talking with the coordinator and then following the other Korean VIPs around the school for a tour - it's all about face here, remember? I heard a certain VIP at my school was angry that my after school class was cancelled because these people came to observe and it wasn't going on. I guess it doesn't give a good impression of the school, but it's not our fault. It's no one's fault.
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But anywayssss, at night, a small group of the Gwangju teachers went out...YES, on a SCHOOL NIGHT! It was a surprise graduation celebration for Sonia. She was supposed to have her graduation back home in South Africa, but obviously, she is unable to attend because she's in Korea. Jarrod made her a fake diploma and everything. We had dinner and I ordered some sort of spicy udon with seafood and vegetables. Omigosh, was that thing SPICY! It's the spiciest thing I've had since I've been here. I was expecting to eat more spicy food, but it has been pretty mild until this dish. I was on the verge of tears. One bite and I felt it all in my mouth, but I finished it! After that, we went to a hookah bar place, more like a dungeon. It was so nice. Each party gets their own little cave. There is also seating around this elongated pond thingy in the middle of the place with candles sitting on mounds of wax. It was dimly lit with a chandelier and other draperies. It was gorgeously decorated. In fact, almost every place here looks gorgeous. The next place we went to was across the way. It was a coffee shop called Coffee Story. This place, as Jarrod describes it, is reminiscent of Moulin Rouge. I can see where he gets that, but this place is a bit too pink and not enough red. The first thing I thought of when I walked in was, "This place is so...POSH!" It really is. I didn't get any photos of it, but I will the next time we go, which I'm sure we will. We had some ice cream with corn flakes and pineapple and pocky and wafers. Yes, I used a lot of ands in that sentence. The ice cream was yummylicious, normal ice cream, but it satisfied me nonetheless. I got home, read a chapter of "The Kite Runner" and then went to sleep at 1130-ish.
Today I have my first Sports Day for teachers. I wonder what's in store..
and tomorrow is Picnic Day (i.e., Field Trip!). I'm going to Damyang Bamboo Forest. I am so excited, and I just can't hide it. I know, I know, I know, and I think I like it.
Edit: I noticed that I didn't have a post about my field trip, so here are some pictures! We went to the Damyang Bamboo Forest! It was a beautiful place. I love anywhere where there is plenty of green around me! :) The kids were so cute! A lot of them wanted to take photos with me! Yeay!!
Tuesday was a packed day, per usual, with work and then Korean class at night. Okailey had missed the first two classes and she was determined not to miss a third, so she met up with me at my school so we could head to the university together. I had gone home to change and get my books and I went back to school to find her sitting on a rock waiting for me. A lot of my students were hanging out at the school gates and said hi to me. I yelled out "Okailey!" and we TRIED to walk to the bus stop but was stopped by a wall of students. They were taking our their camera phones and their cameras saying that they wanted to take photos of Okailey and me. I was like, "WTH, they never want to take pictures of JUST me!" Now that Okailey came around, they're whipping out their cameras that I didn't even know they carried around with them. They wanted us to put our arms around each other for their photos. We posed for a few and then left laughing. It was crazy - English teachers are celebrities. I now know how it feels like to be semi-famous, a D-list celeb. We got to the bus stop and a couple students were there as well. One of my favorites - she ALWAYS says hi to me and she's just soo adorable. We chatted a little bit and the bus finally came and Okailey and I hopped on, ready to escape our fans. We got to school, got some grub, got to class, went through about 35 pages of the book, and then went home. Not too exciting, huh? haha Where are our students when we need them?
So yesterday (Wednesday), I was waiting for my after school class, my favorite class of the day, and the coordinator for the Gwangju teachers came to my desk. Rarity and unexpected. He had come to observe me teach my after school class. Oh, OK...but it was cancelled due to some sort of science test? I don't really know, but I was a bit disappointed because I was looking forward to the class. I ended up just talking with the coordinator and then following the other Korean VIPs around the school for a tour - it's all about face here, remember? I heard a certain VIP at my school was angry that my after school class was cancelled because these people came to observe and it wasn't going on. I guess it doesn't give a good impression of the school, but it's not our fault. It's no one's fault.
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But anywayssss, at night, a small group of the Gwangju teachers went out...YES, on a SCHOOL NIGHT! It was a surprise graduation celebration for Sonia. She was supposed to have her graduation back home in South Africa, but obviously, she is unable to attend because she's in Korea. Jarrod made her a fake diploma and everything. We had dinner and I ordered some sort of spicy udon with seafood and vegetables. Omigosh, was that thing SPICY! It's the spiciest thing I've had since I've been here. I was expecting to eat more spicy food, but it has been pretty mild until this dish. I was on the verge of tears. One bite and I felt it all in my mouth, but I finished it! After that, we went to a hookah bar place, more like a dungeon. It was so nice. Each party gets their own little cave. There is also seating around this elongated pond thingy in the middle of the place with candles sitting on mounds of wax. It was dimly lit with a chandelier and other draperies. It was gorgeously decorated. In fact, almost every place here looks gorgeous. The next place we went to was across the way. It was a coffee shop called Coffee Story. This place, as Jarrod describes it, is reminiscent of Moulin Rouge. I can see where he gets that, but this place is a bit too pink and not enough red. The first thing I thought of when I walked in was, "This place is so...POSH!" It really is. I didn't get any photos of it, but I will the next time we go, which I'm sure we will. We had some ice cream with corn flakes and pineapple and pocky and wafers. Yes, I used a lot of ands in that sentence. The ice cream was yummylicious, normal ice cream, but it satisfied me nonetheless. I got home, read a chapter of "The Kite Runner" and then went to sleep at 1130-ish.
Today I have my first Sports Day for teachers. I wonder what's in store..
and tomorrow is Picnic Day (i.e., Field Trip!). I'm going to Damyang Bamboo Forest. I am so excited, and I just can't hide it. I know, I know, I know, and I think I like it.
Edit: I noticed that I didn't have a post about my field trip, so here are some pictures! We went to the Damyang Bamboo Forest! It was a beautiful place. I love anywhere where there is plenty of green around me! :) The kids were so cute! A lot of them wanted to take photos with me! Yeay!!
Traditional Korean Dance
Watch this video to see how Koreans dance. Maybe you can pick up a couple moves! :)
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Monday, April 19, 2010
A Week in Review
So those of you who check up on my blog religiously, sorry for not updating in over a week!! I truly apologize. Even if no one is reading this, I still feel bad because I am not doing a good job at documenting my experiences here for myself. However, you are also lucky because I decided to blog despite my desire to finish reading “The Kite Runner”. I cannot put that book down!!! But I did….Hopefully I remember all that has transpired in the past week+. So in no particular order, I will just ramble off the things that I recall.
So to continue with my last post, I met up with the head of the English teachers (HOTET) and her family in front of the Mart near my apartment. This was last Sunday. She told me that her daughter wants to go to the beach. I was down for that, so we went. It was about 1.5 hours but we made it. I was expecting sand, but it was just rocks. I asked if this is what they considered the beach, but she said that it was more like a seashore. It was sooo nice; it was breathtaking. The view was amazing; the little animals living in the little pools of water between the rocks was great. There were little crabs, shellfish, and swiggly things. It was so cool. Climbing around on the rocks was fun too. I love that stuff; thank goodness I wore the right shoes that day. After some pictures there, they took me the birthplace of Buddhism in Korea, which I found interesting because they’re Catholic. I found it very fascinating though. The sites were amazing. You can look at them below (when I have time to post)!
After that, we drove through Kulbi town, which is basically a lot of dried fish tied together with some sort of leaf, I think it is. The HOTET said that it’s not completely dried, but dried enough because if it’s completely dehydrated, it would be hard to cook. It’s pretty weird….I think that’s all they eat in this town because ALL THE STORES HAVE THEM…at EVERY store front. I don’t think I could eat that.
Every day, there is a “stretching period” in school. Yes, it means what it says – the students stretch. Not only do they get up and stretch, the school shows special videos that instruct you on how to stretch. Not only are there videos, there is music. Not only is there music, there are old women showing you the moves. These aren’t your ordinary bend to the side, then over to the other side. They are ridiculous stretches. I can’t even describe it. The kids have fun with it though because they know that they look stupid doing it. I even partook in the stretching, which was accompanied by my laughing. I hope I have my camera next time so I could record it. It was the most hilarious sight. I must share it with you guys.
Another thing that happened was that one of my girl students called me sexy. I don’t think that’s appropriate for a student to call a teacher that, but I guess it’s better than a teacher calling a student “sexy”. I think these girls want to hold my hand. Eeek. (This is in reference to how the girls like to hold hands here. No lesbo. Well, maybe. The boys also like to hold hands. No homo. Well, maybe.)
I’ve also been using Mariah Carey’s “Hero” to teach listening to my 3rd (9th) grade students. I have them fill in the blanks as they’re listening to the song. There’s this part where she sings, “What you are”. I took out the “what”, so the kids have to fill that in. When I ask them what Mariah is singing, they say, “Watch”, “Whatchu” or any variation of that. I just laugh because it sounds funny from them. I explained to them that in America, we blend the sounds together and it forms a sort of “ch” sound. They understood. I was happy. There’s another part of the song where she says the word “answer”, which I also left blank. In my boys’ class, I asked what she said and this one boy said, “GANGSTER!!!” I busted out laughing, it was so funny. I said, “Gangster??” and he’s like, “Yes, gangster!” and he proceeded to shoot fake guns. Omigosh, I almost died. So funny. I love kids. On the other hand, I hate kids. I punished my first kid last week. He sits in the front and he talks SO much to his neighbor. I gave him a warning and he continued to talk. I told him to stand outside. He looked so innocent when I was punishing him, I felt bad on the inside, but I knew I had to harden up. After a while, I decided to let him back in because I didn’t want him to miss the lesson. I gave him a chair to sit in the back. He started talking to people that sat in the back row. I told him to move back. Still talking. I turned his desk around to face the back corner. After a while, I let him go back to his desk. Another boy, I punished him by pushing his desk all the way to the front of the classroom so he’s facing the chalkboard. I also took away his precious comb. I still have it. I told him he can have it back next week. He is my parrot – always repeating what I say, exactly how I say it, even when I don’t say “repeat after me”. It’s quite annoying. I also like to take away students’ phones. I’m an evil teacher!
Tuesday of last week, I had a super duper long day. I had an entire day of classes with only one free period. I was EXHAUSTED. AND it was the first session of Korean class that night. It was to begin with an opening ceremony. They like opening ceremonies here, and powerpoints that have one word per slide, and taking group photos. They also like to feed us. They provided us with these DELICIOUS sandwiches from a popular coffee shop in Korea called Angel-in-us. They also had black coffee for us, which was not as bitter as I expected; it is a tad sweet. I was actually late in arriving for the ceremony, which was to begin at 630, I believe. I took the bus there and wasn’t really sure where to get off. I got off between bus stops; I just said, “I NEED TO GET OFF!” in English, which no one understands, of course. I walked towards what I thought was the university, but it was actually a high school with the same name. I got a group of boys playing catch to help me. One of them even walked me halfway and told me which road to go down. I had a map that the coordinator emailed us and I thought it would be easy to find this place. He circled it on the map. Duh. BUT the map was labeled all wrong. I asked every passerby where this auditorium was and no one had a clue. I was roaming around for about 20 minutes to half an hour. I was super lost and confused. I was growing frustrated and wanted to go home. A guy was very nice and tracked me down after I had left him and proceeded to help me some more. Then I spotted a foreigner and knew I was near the right vicinity. He told me it was in the nearby building and I thanked the Korean guy and proceeded into the building and bought my Korean textbook. Although I was lost for quite some time, I wasn’t actually late because the organizers of the event started late, so I was even early! After the opening ceremony and photographs, we had our first class. It was very easy – we just went over the letters and the sounds. Our teacher is really great. She was very impressed by our skill, shocked! I was the first person picked on in class to read the vowel sounds and I breezed through it. She was very impressed; I did a little bow. But (almost) everyone in my class knows the sounds too, so it’s not a big deal. It’s just that our teacher doesn’t know that we already know this stuff from Korean classes during our orientation or maybe other people know it from studying on their own. Our teacher is so funny; her facial expressions make me laugh, and she always says “Joayo, joayo” good job, good job – always twice.
The next class we had was on Thursday and it was easy again, but a little harder than the first class. We went onto the complicated vowels, double consonants, and ending consonants. We practiced with tissues in front of our face to see how much huff and puff we had to give to each single, double, and ending consonants. I still don’t have it down. I’m glad she didn’t call on me this time. Our teacher was also impressed with my knowledge of some of the Korean words, but they’re easy words. Some of them are like Cantonese words and others I just memorize from seeing them just once somewhere. It’s weird. I’m trying my best! I need a larger vocabulary here or I will have a miserable time not being able to communicate effectively with the locals, which reminds me of my encounter with a local.
We had a Glee viewing party on Friday and I took the bus to my friend Sara’s apartment. We were to meet in front of her school at the stone gate. I got off the bus and the ajumma (old lady) next to me also got off at the same stop. She started talking to me (in Korean) after we got off and I told her I don’t speak Korean. She still continued to talk to me and I picked up like one word of the 300 that she spoke. I told her I was from America and that I speak English. Then at the end, she held out her pinky as if to pinky swear with me, so that’s what I did. I don’t know why, I didn’t know what else to do. I may have sworn my life over to this nice ajumma and I guess I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I don’t know what I did, but she was such a cute old lady. So, my friend’s school…it’s not like my school. My school is big, but her school is BIG. That is because it’s from Kindergarten all the way to college, so all the grade levels are on this huge campus. It was crazy. I got there super duper early so I walked around, not really knowing where to meet her. After I roamed around for a while, I decided that I should figure where the actual meeting spot is. I got a huge group of guys to help me; I think they were on their way out from classes. They all stopped on the stairs and stared at my Hangeul writing on a scrap of paper. “Foreigner?” Why yes I am, mister. Then they immediately pushed one of their pals in the front to talk to me. They pointed me into the opposite direction of where I had been roaming, so I proceeded to walk that way, but they sent another guy to help me and walk with me. I accepted this offer seeing as that I had no idea where I was going and I found the stone gate and a couple of foreigners too! I was happy that I was not gonna have to take the bus back alllll the way home. We waited for the rest of the foreigners to come and then we headed to get some pizza, my first taste of pizza in Korea. We brought the pizzas back to Sara’s place and dug in and pigged out. Then we finally watched Glee and played a Glee drinking game. There was much chatter, so I don’t really know what happened during this episode. haha. The drinking game was as follows: you have to drink every time there is a comment made about Mr. Schu’s hair, any Asian reference, any “eye-sex”, kissing, and singing. I think there were other rules, but I can’t remember them right now. Let’s just say, there was a lot of eye-sex and therefore, a lot of drinking. I was so full after 2 beers and half a small pizza, I was stuffed. After we finished watching Glee, we chatted it up a bit and then headed out to downtown. There, we went to Speakeasy, one of the foreigner bars. Stayed there for a little while, then Sonia, Jarrod, Jarrod’s friend/visitor Nick, Wil, Maggie, and I went to Bubble Bar for some dancing. We were going to leave at around 230am and Maggie and Wil actually did leave in their taxis, but while the rest of us were gonna get a taxi, we decided to go back in because there was a good song playing. I wanted to go home, but I was gonna share a taxi with Jarrod and his friend, so I reluctantly went back into the club and got home around 4am. I wasn’t that sleepy when I got home, but I knew I needed to sleep because I had a school function the next day, Saturday. It was a “club activity” and it was going to be a movie at the theatre. We were to meet at the theatre at 10:30am. There were two movies that I could choose from – Titan (an English movie) and Best Seller (a Korean movie). My co-teacher said that I should probably watch the English one so I could understand it; I agreed. I got to the theatre and I was confused as to where it was. I’ve been to this area before but I never saw a theatre. Mind you, I was expecting an Edwards or AMC, y’know, a building on its own. No, that’s not how this theatre is. It’s not only part of a building, it is in the middle of it, like a sliver. I saw movie posters and knew it was in this building somewhere. I went in and asked a guy where the theatre is and he told me to go upstairs. I did and some students said hi to me, so I asked them where the other teachers were. Their English was pretty bad, so they called their friend for me to talk to. I didn’t get much from her either, but thankfully, my co-teacher came out of the elevator to rescue me. We went to get tickets for Titan and went to the designated theatre. Turns out they gave us tickets to the Korean movie. We were going to change it for the English movie, but I told her it didn’t matter to me, so we watched the Korean movie. I was SO sleepy and I wanted to rest my eyes and listen to the movie, but that wouldn’t do me any good because I don’t understand Korean. I would HAVE TO watch the movie in order to guess what it was about. The dialogue did not matter to me. As I was watching, my eyes were getting heavy, but I fought it and stayed awake through the whole thing. I was surprised. So, during the first half of the movie, it basically consisted of the main character yelling and searching for her daughter that she always lost track of. I grew annoyed by this, maybe cuz it was the only thing I could understand. I was like, c’mon lady, just keep an eye on your kid and maybe you won’t have to waste your energy always screaming her name. By the middle of the movie, it was revealed that the daughter was dead (actually the mom’s fault) and I guess the mom was in denial and thought she was still alive. The second half of the movie grew violent; the women were abused a lot! Oh Korean men. Some people wanted to kill the main character because she knew of some murder they had committed and there has something to do with a book in there. I don’t know. From a person who didn’t understand the movie, it was OK…I give it a C. I didn’t like all the violence. So after the movie, I was REALLY tired and just wanted to crash. My co-teachers wanted to eat lunch. Sure, I’d love to eat lunch. We had lunch at this place called Lemon Table, which was decorated soooo cutely. Very brunchy. Loved it. I had a bulgogi burger was DELICIOUS. Very tender and juicy. Then we ordered drinks – I had pomegranate tea, my second one since I’ve been here. I think it’s gonna become my new favorite tea drink. It was so yummy. After that, I was even MORE ready to sleep, but my co-teachers asked me if I wanted to go to the nearby outlet for some walking and shopping. Oh yeah, I’m not THAT tired; I can totally walk around. We walked around, I tried on a couple things, didn’t buy anything. I finally got home at 3:30pm. I needed to shower and meet my friends by 530 at the YMCA. I immediately took a nap, I was that tired. Y’all know I don’t take naps. I set my alarm for 430. I didn’t wake up until 4:55 and my co-teacher said it’d take about half an hour to get to the YMCA. I decided to take my time and shower and get ready. I left my apartment around 5:15, probably got on the bus around 5:20. Didn’t arrive at YMCA til 6pm. Of course, the foreigners were not to be spotted at the YMCA. I decide to walk around by myself, went into a lot of shops and found really good cheap shopping, really bizarre sayings on shirts (e.g., Bacation time) and really small sizes. Boo. I need to go back once I get paid though (next week!). I’m going to blow my first paycheck on clothes, whatever fits me. I need more clothes here. After half an hour of walking around by myself, I decide to stop into a PC bang to get one of the foreigner’s phone numbers. Thankfully, they had e-mailed it out to everyone. The guy at the PC bang didn’t charge me for my time there (only 3 minutes and because I’m a foreigner!) and through charades, I asked where the nearest payphone was. He then offers me his cell phone. So nice! I called my friend, Austin, and it turns out he wasn’t with the group. He and his girlfriend had just arrived at the YMCA from their field trip. I totally forgot they were on a trip. I hung up and said maybe I’d run into them since downtown wasn’t that big of an area. After an hour, I finally saw the couple, but none of the other foreigners. We walked around for 5 minutes trying to find the foreigner bars just for reference and Austin gets a call from one of the gang. They were at the German Bar, which was where we were heading! After some wrong turns, we found our way to the others and reunited. I was happy to see that Okailey was out! Too bad I didn’t get there sooner! Anyways, I asked them where they had dinner and they said the First Nepali Restaurant. I knew they were gonna eat there! I even peeked into the restaurant, but was too embarrassed to walk in there to see if there were foreigners and if there weren’t, I would have to walk out. But it turns out, it would’ve been in my favor. Oh well. I got to walk around and window shop. I stayed at German Bar the entire night because there was free karaoke!!! The night before, I had danced all I could dance; I was in the singing mood this night! We sang until 1am, I think. It was REALLY fun; I like German Bar a whole lot more than Speakeasy, which I deem to be quite boring and small. Definitely going to German Bar again in the near future. Some of the others went to a club called Houze. I said I was gonna go after German Bar, but I was too tired to go. From what I’ve been told, I missed out on a great night! I don’t like missing great nights, but I’m sure there will be more to come. Jarrod told me that Houze is better than Bubble Bar and that guy LOVES Bubble Bar, so this new club must be hip. It’s not a foreigner club like Bubble Bar though. There are more locals and more K-Pop and free beer! Sounds like a good formula for a good night. I am sure I will be visiting that place soon too.
Sunday, I spent the day with Laurence. We got off to a late start – 1pm. It was sprinkling a little bit and thankfully, I carry my umbrella around everywhere. Not a usual thing for me in California. So, we shared my tiny umbrella. A guy taller than 6 feet and a girl about a foot shorter than he. Needless to say, I got wet. We made our way over to the Lotte outlet, which is basically a mall. A huge mall and there’s a Lotte Mart too, which is a market. This shopping complex has everything you would ever need. Laurence is lucky that he lives like a 10-15 minute walk from it. I would have to walk about 45 minutes to get to it, I think. But it’s definitely worth a trip because it is that great. You wanna know how great it is? There’s a freaken Red Mango in it. The second one I’ve spotted in Gwangju. The other is at U-Square, which I excitedly took a photo of when I was waiting for the bus after my Korean class on Thursday. I got a strange look from a guy standing nearby, but I didn’t care. haha. So yeah, I had Red Mango in Korea and it was really expensive. It was about 7500 won, which is roughly $7. I got a medium with 5 toppings. I had to get 5 toppings, I think. I don’t really know and I didn’t care. I just wanted some Red Mango. It was DELICIOUS. Laurence got a mango yogurt smoothie which was good too, but I was all about the frozen yogurt. Mmm yum. Gonna come back but gonna get the smaller size next time, unless I’m having a bad day. So after we walked around the mall, we went next door to the World Cup Stadium. There was a soccer game going on and we decided, what the hey, let’s just watch it. I asked how much the tickets were and the lady told me 6000. We contemplated the price and decided that it was dirt cheap so we handed her the money. After she talked to some dude for a few minutes, she told us that it would be free in 3 minutes. She handed us the money and we’re like COOL. At first, we thought she said 30 minutes, but we clarified and it was only 3. We waited, not really sure if it was okay for us to go through the gates, but we saw other people do it, and we followed. Monkey see, monkey do. There was only 15 minutes left of the game, and we think Gwangju lost. We’re not exactly sure, but it seemed to be that way. There weren’t many people there; it was rather empty, but I’m glad I got to see some of the game. I’m gonna come back for sure, maybe for a full game. After the game, we took a taxi to Gwangju Bienalle, which I think is an exhibit, museum type building. We came here because we were meeting with a vegetarian/vegan group of people for dinner. They’re strangers; we have never met them before. We got there a lot early so we went into the building and there was an exhibit of photographs. A small exhibit. We finished in like 10 minutes and we semi-split up and walked around the premises on our own. We then ran into each other where the cherry blossoms were. Gorgeous. I love cherry blossoms. They’re so beautiful. The petals that fall onto the ground are like confetti. I love it. We took some pictures and then went to the front of the Bienalle to see if the veggies were there yet. Nope. We stood there, under my umbrella, waiting, waiting, waiting. It was pathetic. I thought no one would show. I had one of the member’s phone numbers so Laurence went to the nearby payphone to give her a ring. I walked down the road a little bit to see if I saw anyone. Nope. So I walked back to the front and saw someone with an umbrella just standing around. He turned around and he was white. Yeay, foreigner! I unabashedly walked up to him and asked if he was there for dinner. He said YES! Then I talked to him for a bit and spotted Laurence walking to find to me. I yelled to him, “I found one!!” Then the 3 of us waited and a couple more showed up and we headed over to the restaurant. It was so delicious. I had a couple plates of food and a plate of fruit. I was stuffed. Several more people met us at the restaurant. They were really nice people and a couple of them were living an hour outside of Gwangju, but they have a car so they drove all the way to have dinner with us. They kind of live in the boonies, I guess. They live near Yonggwang, which is where I had my little seashore trip with the HOTET, but I think they said they live in Kulbi town. They own a dog too, a big one, which is rare in my city. They also told us newbies about the dog eating here in Korea. They have dog farms and they eat anything that is considered to be like American dogs, which are crap dogs, like Golden Retrievers or labs. I was mortified. Completely mortified. They eat the cutest doggies ever. But one of the vegetarians there made a good point, “So are lambs, they’re cute, but people still eat them.” Very true.
So today is Monday. I was having an off day today at work. It must be the Monday blues because last Monday I was also feeling this way. It could also be this gloomy weather we are having. I suffer from Seasonal Affect Disorder, so gloom is no good for my wellbeing. First time was in England. I was depressed when it was raining. Now in Korea. Rain, rain, go away!!
I’m looking forward to Korean class tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t rain.
So to continue with my last post, I met up with the head of the English teachers (HOTET) and her family in front of the Mart near my apartment. This was last Sunday. She told me that her daughter wants to go to the beach. I was down for that, so we went. It was about 1.5 hours but we made it. I was expecting sand, but it was just rocks. I asked if this is what they considered the beach, but she said that it was more like a seashore. It was sooo nice; it was breathtaking. The view was amazing; the little animals living in the little pools of water between the rocks was great. There were little crabs, shellfish, and swiggly things. It was so cool. Climbing around on the rocks was fun too. I love that stuff; thank goodness I wore the right shoes that day. After some pictures there, they took me the birthplace of Buddhism in Korea, which I found interesting because they’re Catholic. I found it very fascinating though. The sites were amazing. You can look at them below (when I have time to post)!
After that, we drove through Kulbi town, which is basically a lot of dried fish tied together with some sort of leaf, I think it is. The HOTET said that it’s not completely dried, but dried enough because if it’s completely dehydrated, it would be hard to cook. It’s pretty weird….I think that’s all they eat in this town because ALL THE STORES HAVE THEM…at EVERY store front. I don’t think I could eat that.
Every day, there is a “stretching period” in school. Yes, it means what it says – the students stretch. Not only do they get up and stretch, the school shows special videos that instruct you on how to stretch. Not only are there videos, there is music. Not only is there music, there are old women showing you the moves. These aren’t your ordinary bend to the side, then over to the other side. They are ridiculous stretches. I can’t even describe it. The kids have fun with it though because they know that they look stupid doing it. I even partook in the stretching, which was accompanied by my laughing. I hope I have my camera next time so I could record it. It was the most hilarious sight. I must share it with you guys.
Another thing that happened was that one of my girl students called me sexy. I don’t think that’s appropriate for a student to call a teacher that, but I guess it’s better than a teacher calling a student “sexy”. I think these girls want to hold my hand. Eeek. (This is in reference to how the girls like to hold hands here. No lesbo. Well, maybe. The boys also like to hold hands. No homo. Well, maybe.)
I’ve also been using Mariah Carey’s “Hero” to teach listening to my 3rd (9th) grade students. I have them fill in the blanks as they’re listening to the song. There’s this part where she sings, “What you are”. I took out the “what”, so the kids have to fill that in. When I ask them what Mariah is singing, they say, “Watch”, “Whatchu” or any variation of that. I just laugh because it sounds funny from them. I explained to them that in America, we blend the sounds together and it forms a sort of “ch” sound. They understood. I was happy. There’s another part of the song where she says the word “answer”, which I also left blank. In my boys’ class, I asked what she said and this one boy said, “GANGSTER!!!” I busted out laughing, it was so funny. I said, “Gangster??” and he’s like, “Yes, gangster!” and he proceeded to shoot fake guns. Omigosh, I almost died. So funny. I love kids. On the other hand, I hate kids. I punished my first kid last week. He sits in the front and he talks SO much to his neighbor. I gave him a warning and he continued to talk. I told him to stand outside. He looked so innocent when I was punishing him, I felt bad on the inside, but I knew I had to harden up. After a while, I decided to let him back in because I didn’t want him to miss the lesson. I gave him a chair to sit in the back. He started talking to people that sat in the back row. I told him to move back. Still talking. I turned his desk around to face the back corner. After a while, I let him go back to his desk. Another boy, I punished him by pushing his desk all the way to the front of the classroom so he’s facing the chalkboard. I also took away his precious comb. I still have it. I told him he can have it back next week. He is my parrot – always repeating what I say, exactly how I say it, even when I don’t say “repeat after me”. It’s quite annoying. I also like to take away students’ phones. I’m an evil teacher!
Tuesday of last week, I had a super duper long day. I had an entire day of classes with only one free period. I was EXHAUSTED. AND it was the first session of Korean class that night. It was to begin with an opening ceremony. They like opening ceremonies here, and powerpoints that have one word per slide, and taking group photos. They also like to feed us. They provided us with these DELICIOUS sandwiches from a popular coffee shop in Korea called Angel-in-us. They also had black coffee for us, which was not as bitter as I expected; it is a tad sweet. I was actually late in arriving for the ceremony, which was to begin at 630, I believe. I took the bus there and wasn’t really sure where to get off. I got off between bus stops; I just said, “I NEED TO GET OFF!” in English, which no one understands, of course. I walked towards what I thought was the university, but it was actually a high school with the same name. I got a group of boys playing catch to help me. One of them even walked me halfway and told me which road to go down. I had a map that the coordinator emailed us and I thought it would be easy to find this place. He circled it on the map. Duh. BUT the map was labeled all wrong. I asked every passerby where this auditorium was and no one had a clue. I was roaming around for about 20 minutes to half an hour. I was super lost and confused. I was growing frustrated and wanted to go home. A guy was very nice and tracked me down after I had left him and proceeded to help me some more. Then I spotted a foreigner and knew I was near the right vicinity. He told me it was in the nearby building and I thanked the Korean guy and proceeded into the building and bought my Korean textbook. Although I was lost for quite some time, I wasn’t actually late because the organizers of the event started late, so I was even early! After the opening ceremony and photographs, we had our first class. It was very easy – we just went over the letters and the sounds. Our teacher is really great. She was very impressed by our skill, shocked! I was the first person picked on in class to read the vowel sounds and I breezed through it. She was very impressed; I did a little bow. But (almost) everyone in my class knows the sounds too, so it’s not a big deal. It’s just that our teacher doesn’t know that we already know this stuff from Korean classes during our orientation or maybe other people know it from studying on their own. Our teacher is so funny; her facial expressions make me laugh, and she always says “Joayo, joayo” good job, good job – always twice.
The next class we had was on Thursday and it was easy again, but a little harder than the first class. We went onto the complicated vowels, double consonants, and ending consonants. We practiced with tissues in front of our face to see how much huff and puff we had to give to each single, double, and ending consonants. I still don’t have it down. I’m glad she didn’t call on me this time. Our teacher was also impressed with my knowledge of some of the Korean words, but they’re easy words. Some of them are like Cantonese words and others I just memorize from seeing them just once somewhere. It’s weird. I’m trying my best! I need a larger vocabulary here or I will have a miserable time not being able to communicate effectively with the locals, which reminds me of my encounter with a local.
We had a Glee viewing party on Friday and I took the bus to my friend Sara’s apartment. We were to meet in front of her school at the stone gate. I got off the bus and the ajumma (old lady) next to me also got off at the same stop. She started talking to me (in Korean) after we got off and I told her I don’t speak Korean. She still continued to talk to me and I picked up like one word of the 300 that she spoke. I told her I was from America and that I speak English. Then at the end, she held out her pinky as if to pinky swear with me, so that’s what I did. I don’t know why, I didn’t know what else to do. I may have sworn my life over to this nice ajumma and I guess I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I don’t know what I did, but she was such a cute old lady. So, my friend’s school…it’s not like my school. My school is big, but her school is BIG. That is because it’s from Kindergarten all the way to college, so all the grade levels are on this huge campus. It was crazy. I got there super duper early so I walked around, not really knowing where to meet her. After I roamed around for a while, I decided that I should figure where the actual meeting spot is. I got a huge group of guys to help me; I think they were on their way out from classes. They all stopped on the stairs and stared at my Hangeul writing on a scrap of paper. “Foreigner?” Why yes I am, mister. Then they immediately pushed one of their pals in the front to talk to me. They pointed me into the opposite direction of where I had been roaming, so I proceeded to walk that way, but they sent another guy to help me and walk with me. I accepted this offer seeing as that I had no idea where I was going and I found the stone gate and a couple of foreigners too! I was happy that I was not gonna have to take the bus back alllll the way home. We waited for the rest of the foreigners to come and then we headed to get some pizza, my first taste of pizza in Korea. We brought the pizzas back to Sara’s place and dug in and pigged out. Then we finally watched Glee and played a Glee drinking game. There was much chatter, so I don’t really know what happened during this episode. haha. The drinking game was as follows: you have to drink every time there is a comment made about Mr. Schu’s hair, any Asian reference, any “eye-sex”, kissing, and singing. I think there were other rules, but I can’t remember them right now. Let’s just say, there was a lot of eye-sex and therefore, a lot of drinking. I was so full after 2 beers and half a small pizza, I was stuffed. After we finished watching Glee, we chatted it up a bit and then headed out to downtown. There, we went to Speakeasy, one of the foreigner bars. Stayed there for a little while, then Sonia, Jarrod, Jarrod’s friend/visitor Nick, Wil, Maggie, and I went to Bubble Bar for some dancing. We were going to leave at around 230am and Maggie and Wil actually did leave in their taxis, but while the rest of us were gonna get a taxi, we decided to go back in because there was a good song playing. I wanted to go home, but I was gonna share a taxi with Jarrod and his friend, so I reluctantly went back into the club and got home around 4am. I wasn’t that sleepy when I got home, but I knew I needed to sleep because I had a school function the next day, Saturday. It was a “club activity” and it was going to be a movie at the theatre. We were to meet at the theatre at 10:30am. There were two movies that I could choose from – Titan (an English movie) and Best Seller (a Korean movie). My co-teacher said that I should probably watch the English one so I could understand it; I agreed. I got to the theatre and I was confused as to where it was. I’ve been to this area before but I never saw a theatre. Mind you, I was expecting an Edwards or AMC, y’know, a building on its own. No, that’s not how this theatre is. It’s not only part of a building, it is in the middle of it, like a sliver. I saw movie posters and knew it was in this building somewhere. I went in and asked a guy where the theatre is and he told me to go upstairs. I did and some students said hi to me, so I asked them where the other teachers were. Their English was pretty bad, so they called their friend for me to talk to. I didn’t get much from her either, but thankfully, my co-teacher came out of the elevator to rescue me. We went to get tickets for Titan and went to the designated theatre. Turns out they gave us tickets to the Korean movie. We were going to change it for the English movie, but I told her it didn’t matter to me, so we watched the Korean movie. I was SO sleepy and I wanted to rest my eyes and listen to the movie, but that wouldn’t do me any good because I don’t understand Korean. I would HAVE TO watch the movie in order to guess what it was about. The dialogue did not matter to me. As I was watching, my eyes were getting heavy, but I fought it and stayed awake through the whole thing. I was surprised. So, during the first half of the movie, it basically consisted of the main character yelling and searching for her daughter that she always lost track of. I grew annoyed by this, maybe cuz it was the only thing I could understand. I was like, c’mon lady, just keep an eye on your kid and maybe you won’t have to waste your energy always screaming her name. By the middle of the movie, it was revealed that the daughter was dead (actually the mom’s fault) and I guess the mom was in denial and thought she was still alive. The second half of the movie grew violent; the women were abused a lot! Oh Korean men. Some people wanted to kill the main character because she knew of some murder they had committed and there has something to do with a book in there. I don’t know. From a person who didn’t understand the movie, it was OK…I give it a C. I didn’t like all the violence. So after the movie, I was REALLY tired and just wanted to crash. My co-teachers wanted to eat lunch. Sure, I’d love to eat lunch. We had lunch at this place called Lemon Table, which was decorated soooo cutely. Very brunchy. Loved it. I had a bulgogi burger was DELICIOUS. Very tender and juicy. Then we ordered drinks – I had pomegranate tea, my second one since I’ve been here. I think it’s gonna become my new favorite tea drink. It was so yummy. After that, I was even MORE ready to sleep, but my co-teachers asked me if I wanted to go to the nearby outlet for some walking and shopping. Oh yeah, I’m not THAT tired; I can totally walk around. We walked around, I tried on a couple things, didn’t buy anything. I finally got home at 3:30pm. I needed to shower and meet my friends by 530 at the YMCA. I immediately took a nap, I was that tired. Y’all know I don’t take naps. I set my alarm for 430. I didn’t wake up until 4:55 and my co-teacher said it’d take about half an hour to get to the YMCA. I decided to take my time and shower and get ready. I left my apartment around 5:15, probably got on the bus around 5:20. Didn’t arrive at YMCA til 6pm. Of course, the foreigners were not to be spotted at the YMCA. I decide to walk around by myself, went into a lot of shops and found really good cheap shopping, really bizarre sayings on shirts (e.g., Bacation time) and really small sizes. Boo. I need to go back once I get paid though (next week!). I’m going to blow my first paycheck on clothes, whatever fits me. I need more clothes here. After half an hour of walking around by myself, I decide to stop into a PC bang to get one of the foreigner’s phone numbers. Thankfully, they had e-mailed it out to everyone. The guy at the PC bang didn’t charge me for my time there (only 3 minutes and because I’m a foreigner!) and through charades, I asked where the nearest payphone was. He then offers me his cell phone. So nice! I called my friend, Austin, and it turns out he wasn’t with the group. He and his girlfriend had just arrived at the YMCA from their field trip. I totally forgot they were on a trip. I hung up and said maybe I’d run into them since downtown wasn’t that big of an area. After an hour, I finally saw the couple, but none of the other foreigners. We walked around for 5 minutes trying to find the foreigner bars just for reference and Austin gets a call from one of the gang. They were at the German Bar, which was where we were heading! After some wrong turns, we found our way to the others and reunited. I was happy to see that Okailey was out! Too bad I didn’t get there sooner! Anyways, I asked them where they had dinner and they said the First Nepali Restaurant. I knew they were gonna eat there! I even peeked into the restaurant, but was too embarrassed to walk in there to see if there were foreigners and if there weren’t, I would have to walk out. But it turns out, it would’ve been in my favor. Oh well. I got to walk around and window shop. I stayed at German Bar the entire night because there was free karaoke!!! The night before, I had danced all I could dance; I was in the singing mood this night! We sang until 1am, I think. It was REALLY fun; I like German Bar a whole lot more than Speakeasy, which I deem to be quite boring and small. Definitely going to German Bar again in the near future. Some of the others went to a club called Houze. I said I was gonna go after German Bar, but I was too tired to go. From what I’ve been told, I missed out on a great night! I don’t like missing great nights, but I’m sure there will be more to come. Jarrod told me that Houze is better than Bubble Bar and that guy LOVES Bubble Bar, so this new club must be hip. It’s not a foreigner club like Bubble Bar though. There are more locals and more K-Pop and free beer! Sounds like a good formula for a good night. I am sure I will be visiting that place soon too.
Sunday, I spent the day with Laurence. We got off to a late start – 1pm. It was sprinkling a little bit and thankfully, I carry my umbrella around everywhere. Not a usual thing for me in California. So, we shared my tiny umbrella. A guy taller than 6 feet and a girl about a foot shorter than he. Needless to say, I got wet. We made our way over to the Lotte outlet, which is basically a mall. A huge mall and there’s a Lotte Mart too, which is a market. This shopping complex has everything you would ever need. Laurence is lucky that he lives like a 10-15 minute walk from it. I would have to walk about 45 minutes to get to it, I think. But it’s definitely worth a trip because it is that great. You wanna know how great it is? There’s a freaken Red Mango in it. The second one I’ve spotted in Gwangju. The other is at U-Square, which I excitedly took a photo of when I was waiting for the bus after my Korean class on Thursday. I got a strange look from a guy standing nearby, but I didn’t care. haha. So yeah, I had Red Mango in Korea and it was really expensive. It was about 7500 won, which is roughly $7. I got a medium with 5 toppings. I had to get 5 toppings, I think. I don’t really know and I didn’t care. I just wanted some Red Mango. It was DELICIOUS. Laurence got a mango yogurt smoothie which was good too, but I was all about the frozen yogurt. Mmm yum. Gonna come back but gonna get the smaller size next time, unless I’m having a bad day. So after we walked around the mall, we went next door to the World Cup Stadium. There was a soccer game going on and we decided, what the hey, let’s just watch it. I asked how much the tickets were and the lady told me 6000. We contemplated the price and decided that it was dirt cheap so we handed her the money. After she talked to some dude for a few minutes, she told us that it would be free in 3 minutes. She handed us the money and we’re like COOL. At first, we thought she said 30 minutes, but we clarified and it was only 3. We waited, not really sure if it was okay for us to go through the gates, but we saw other people do it, and we followed. Monkey see, monkey do. There was only 15 minutes left of the game, and we think Gwangju lost. We’re not exactly sure, but it seemed to be that way. There weren’t many people there; it was rather empty, but I’m glad I got to see some of the game. I’m gonna come back for sure, maybe for a full game. After the game, we took a taxi to Gwangju Bienalle, which I think is an exhibit, museum type building. We came here because we were meeting with a vegetarian/vegan group of people for dinner. They’re strangers; we have never met them before. We got there a lot early so we went into the building and there was an exhibit of photographs. A small exhibit. We finished in like 10 minutes and we semi-split up and walked around the premises on our own. We then ran into each other where the cherry blossoms were. Gorgeous. I love cherry blossoms. They’re so beautiful. The petals that fall onto the ground are like confetti. I love it. We took some pictures and then went to the front of the Bienalle to see if the veggies were there yet. Nope. We stood there, under my umbrella, waiting, waiting, waiting. It was pathetic. I thought no one would show. I had one of the member’s phone numbers so Laurence went to the nearby payphone to give her a ring. I walked down the road a little bit to see if I saw anyone. Nope. So I walked back to the front and saw someone with an umbrella just standing around. He turned around and he was white. Yeay, foreigner! I unabashedly walked up to him and asked if he was there for dinner. He said YES! Then I talked to him for a bit and spotted Laurence walking to find to me. I yelled to him, “I found one!!” Then the 3 of us waited and a couple more showed up and we headed over to the restaurant. It was so delicious. I had a couple plates of food and a plate of fruit. I was stuffed. Several more people met us at the restaurant. They were really nice people and a couple of them were living an hour outside of Gwangju, but they have a car so they drove all the way to have dinner with us. They kind of live in the boonies, I guess. They live near Yonggwang, which is where I had my little seashore trip with the HOTET, but I think they said they live in Kulbi town. They own a dog too, a big one, which is rare in my city. They also told us newbies about the dog eating here in Korea. They have dog farms and they eat anything that is considered to be like American dogs, which are crap dogs, like Golden Retrievers or labs. I was mortified. Completely mortified. They eat the cutest doggies ever. But one of the vegetarians there made a good point, “So are lambs, they’re cute, but people still eat them.” Very true.
So today is Monday. I was having an off day today at work. It must be the Monday blues because last Monday I was also feeling this way. It could also be this gloomy weather we are having. I suffer from Seasonal Affect Disorder, so gloom is no good for my wellbeing. First time was in England. I was depressed when it was raining. Now in Korea. Rain, rain, go away!!
I’m looking forward to Korean class tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t rain.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Cherry blossoms! ... fail.
I woke up today and it was certainly too early for me to meet up with the gang already. I didn’t wanna just sit around my apartment all lonely, so I decided to do something. I was gonna walk around my area to see what was around me, maybe find some cool shops or street food vendors. I stumbled across a little hill and decided I wanted to hike it…even in my heeled boots. Whatever, I want to see what’s there. I go and some women looked at me all strangely, but I was wondering, Korean girls dress up all the time. However, they don’t go hiking, so they may have a point in their minds. I didn’t care though. It wasn’t much of a hike anyway. On my way down, some man was talking about me, I assume, and he laughed and looked at me. Stupid man.
Then I walked some more and saw a sign that said “World Cup Stadium”. Yeah, I’m gonna walk there. I start my stroll, see some markets and some leggings along the way. I finally reach it after what seems like a lifetime. it was really nice! They have a whole bunch of trees, but they’re naked right now because of the cold weather, so when it warms up a bit, the trees are gonna look amazing when they’re all bloomed. It’s gonna be amazing. The gang talked about going to see a baseball game, so I’m really excited for that! I took some photos and then headed back to my place because I didn’t know exactly how long it took me to get to the World Cup Stadium and I didn’t want to be late meeting my friends. I timed myself using the timestamp on my pictures and the unofficial time is half an hour. It took me longer to get to the stadium from my house because I was taking my time and venturing through alleys to see what was there. no Okailey :( She had told me she was gonna come early, but she wasn’t there even after half an hour of waiting. Boo, I spent the day and night without her.
When I got home, I ate some lunch and other random things and then took a taxi to the designated meeting place. Got there and Joe and Doug were there. We talked for a little bit and then Laurence came. Then more and more and more and more people came. But
Once everyone got there, we started talking about our cherry blossom plans. Of course no one knew where it was, so we just winged the entire day.
First, the lunchless ones had some lunch at E-mart while others sat around and chatted or shopped. After lunch, the boys went to buy a ball and the girls looked at purses and cosmetics. When the boys descended with their new basketball, we headed to the memorial park across the street. Some people played HORSE and the rest of us sat around and talked. While at the park, we attracted lots of attention from people, even a paparazzo with a huge camera taking photos of us. We are mini-celebrities in Korea. I only get this treatment when I’m with my friends though because obviously I am not totally foreign looking. Some little girls were watching them play HORSE and some students even appeared at the park. Helen’s students were excited to meet her “handsome” boyfriend too!
After the kids played HORSE, some people decided that they were going to head home while others wanted to stay out. I would be part of the latter group, and we went to a coffee shop after a 15 minute shopping session at E-Mart. We had drinks and had some conversations and then it was time to go. We parted ways, but Jarrod, Sonia, and I spontaneously decided to go meet up with some Sonia’s building mate and her friends, who are also English teachers. We had dinner and then headed to a restaurant/bar called The Pump. The décor was great and the staff was great as well. The people we were with are friends with the owner and employees and told them that we three were new to the place and that we wanted to see him blow the longest fireball in Korea. He was very kind and told us that he would do it when he had spare time. He did it and it was so cool! He did it so fast that I couldn’t get a photograph to show you guys! But definitely coming back to this place in the near future.
Once everyone got there, we started talking about our cherry blossom plans. Of course no one knew where it was, so we just winged the entire day.
First, the lunchless ones had some lunch at E-mart while others sat around and chatted or shopped. After lunch, the boys went to buy a ball and the girls looked at purses and cosmetics. When the boys descended with their new basketball, we headed to the memorial park across the street. Some people played HORSE and the rest of us sat around and talked. While at the park, we attracted lots of attention from people, even a paparazzo with a huge camera taking photos of us. We are mini-celebrities in Korea. I only get this treatment when I’m with my friends though because obviously I am not totally foreign looking. Some little girls were watching them play HORSE and some students even appeared at the park. Helen’s students were excited to meet her “handsome” boyfriend too!
After the kids played HORSE, some people decided that they were going to head home while others wanted to stay out. I would be part of the latter group, and we went to a coffee shop after a 15 minute shopping session at E-Mart. We had drinks and had some conversations and then it was time to go. We parted ways, but Jarrod, Sonia, and I spontaneously decided to go meet up with some Sonia’s building mate and her friends, who are also English teachers. We had dinner and then headed to a restaurant/bar called The Pump. The décor was great and the staff was great as well. The people we were with are friends with the owner and employees and told them that we three were new to the place and that we wanted to see him blow the longest fireball in Korea. He was very kind and told us that he would do it when he had spare time. He did it and it was so cool! He did it so fast that I couldn’t get a photograph to show you guys! But definitely coming back to this place in the near future.
After this place, we went to BUBBLE BAR! My first REAL experience with Bubble Bar. We stayed there for HOURS. We danced and danced, but the DJ was sucky, so we left at around 2am or later. Jarrod and I shared a taxi and the driver scared me! He was snippy with me and I did not appreciate it. I got home and had to deal with my clogged up toilet. UGH. This is the second time!!! Okailey threw some toilet paper into the toilet and it made my restroom flood once again. Not okay. Plumbing sucks here. tomorrow, I meet with the “head of the English teachers” (or whatever her title is) and her family for a day of excursion! I wonder where they’re taking me!
I've got my head and my heart on the dance floor
Today was orientation, which was held at the research center. Okailey and I taxi-ed over there and were 5 minutes early. I met some new teachers before the orientation began. A couple from England, a couple from the states. But anyways, the orientation mostly consisted of paperwork stuff for our Alien Registration Cards and bank accounts and such. Then here was talk about the trash system, how to use a washing machine&water heater, travel, and general life in Korea. The talk was rather short, so most of the time, the teachers got to mingle and eat candy.
We had planned to go to the light show afterward, which was to begin at 6:30pm. We ended orientation at around 4:30, so we had time to kill. What to do? Drink some Soju and maekchu of course! We went to a restaurant and we got our own private room which had a very rosey wall paper. Rosey as in it had huge red roses against a black background. I liked it! but it wasn’t very popular among the others. Our room was kinda tiny for the 12 of us, but we made it work. It was SUPER fun! I had enough alcohol in me where I was feeling good, but not drunk. The best kind of buzz. After we left that place, we lost one of our group, Maggie! I love that girl. We searched far and wide for her but she was long gone. I was really sad; she’s my drinking buddy and she’s such great company.
After that, we ended up going to another restaurant to drink some more. I didn’t have any though. I was done with the drinking. I did have some fried chicken though! I had read yesterday on a blog that Koreans do SOME things right and one of them would be fried chicken. I had to give it a try. It was SUPER DELICIOUS. Wow. Definitely better than American fried chicken. The sauces that came with it are great – a mustardy one and a sweet one. So good.
While at this place, of course, we miss the light show. Oh well. What to do next? Noraebang!!! We go to the nearest one and were taken to a room. I settled down quickly at the comfy booth and the employees told us that if any of the guys want a lady’s company, they would come…. I’m sure the guys wanted that, but we declined and were led to a DIFFERENT room. I guess they have special rooms for these types of things. =/ So we go to another room, which is just as big and we get started with some more drinks and now some songs! It was great! Noraebangs are so much with soo many people..crazy people. People surprise you with their personalities at noraebangs. I surprised myself! I scored 100 (of 100) for my rendition of “Telephone” by Beyonce & Lady Gaga with the help of Okailey, she being Beyonce and me being Lady Gaga. haha We were the only ones to get a perfect score! While at the noraebang, a few people were starting to feel the effects of alcohol and HAD TO leave, so our party was getting smaller and smaller. At the end of our stay at the noraebang, some people were tired and went home.
Some of us crazy folk decided to stay out. We had a new person in our group who had been in Gwangju for a month already, so he took us to all the hip foreigner spots. We went to the Speakeasy and some people had a beer or two. There, we lost three more of our group leaving us with 4 people. We then went to Soul Train and met up with some other English teachers. At this point, it was about half past midnight and we had started drinking at 430, so I was pretty pooped. I was really tired and wanted to go home, but our new friend told us about this other place called the Bubble Bar, which was just across the street. he described it as a place where people dance. I love dancing, so this made me perk up a bit. I said I would check it out for a little bit and go home. Okailey was with me and she said she wanted to see it too cuz she also likes to dance. However, the other 2 in our party were not finished with their beer, so we just left them and went to the Bubble Bar ourselves. It was cool; people dancing and all, but it was tiny! When we got there, we had spotted some of the people that we had just met at the previous place, so we chatted a little. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then Okailey and I left to go back to my place. She picked up her stuff and went home. It was about 2am…I told her to just sleep over, but she insisted! I would see her tomorrow anyway because the group had decided to meet up to go to the cherry blossom festival. We said to meet at 1:30pm…yes, I get to sleep in!! Looking forward to cherry blossoms tomorrow!
We had planned to go to the light show afterward, which was to begin at 6:30pm. We ended orientation at around 4:30, so we had time to kill. What to do? Drink some Soju and maekchu of course! We went to a restaurant and we got our own private room which had a very rosey wall paper. Rosey as in it had huge red roses against a black background. I liked it! but it wasn’t very popular among the others. Our room was kinda tiny for the 12 of us, but we made it work. It was SUPER fun! I had enough alcohol in me where I was feeling good, but not drunk. The best kind of buzz. After we left that place, we lost one of our group, Maggie! I love that girl. We searched far and wide for her but she was long gone. I was really sad; she’s my drinking buddy and she’s such great company.
After that, we ended up going to another restaurant to drink some more. I didn’t have any though. I was done with the drinking. I did have some fried chicken though! I had read yesterday on a blog that Koreans do SOME things right and one of them would be fried chicken. I had to give it a try. It was SUPER DELICIOUS. Wow. Definitely better than American fried chicken. The sauces that came with it are great – a mustardy one and a sweet one. So good.
While at this place, of course, we miss the light show. Oh well. What to do next? Noraebang!!! We go to the nearest one and were taken to a room. I settled down quickly at the comfy booth and the employees told us that if any of the guys want a lady’s company, they would come…. I’m sure the guys wanted that, but we declined and were led to a DIFFERENT room. I guess they have special rooms for these types of things. =/ So we go to another room, which is just as big and we get started with some more drinks and now some songs! It was great! Noraebangs are so much with soo many people..crazy people. People surprise you with their personalities at noraebangs. I surprised myself! I scored 100 (of 100) for my rendition of “Telephone” by Beyonce & Lady Gaga with the help of Okailey, she being Beyonce and me being Lady Gaga. haha We were the only ones to get a perfect score! While at the noraebang, a few people were starting to feel the effects of alcohol and HAD TO leave, so our party was getting smaller and smaller. At the end of our stay at the noraebang, some people were tired and went home.
Some of us crazy folk decided to stay out. We had a new person in our group who had been in Gwangju for a month already, so he took us to all the hip foreigner spots. We went to the Speakeasy and some people had a beer or two. There, we lost three more of our group leaving us with 4 people. We then went to Soul Train and met up with some other English teachers. At this point, it was about half past midnight and we had started drinking at 430, so I was pretty pooped. I was really tired and wanted to go home, but our new friend told us about this other place called the Bubble Bar, which was just across the street. he described it as a place where people dance. I love dancing, so this made me perk up a bit. I said I would check it out for a little bit and go home. Okailey was with me and she said she wanted to see it too cuz she also likes to dance. However, the other 2 in our party were not finished with their beer, so we just left them and went to the Bubble Bar ourselves. It was cool; people dancing and all, but it was tiny! When we got there, we had spotted some of the people that we had just met at the previous place, so we chatted a little. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then Okailey and I left to go back to my place. She picked up her stuff and went home. It was about 2am…I told her to just sleep over, but she insisted! I would see her tomorrow anyway because the group had decided to meet up to go to the cherry blossom festival. We said to meet at 1:30pm…yes, I get to sleep in!! Looking forward to cherry blossoms tomorrow!
Friday, April 9, 2010
JUST FIRE ME.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Today was my last day of work for the week! I have orientation tomorrow! woohoo! I get to see all the other Gwangju teachers! There’ll be new ones that I haven’t met yet from the Seoul orientation or from the commute to Gwangju from Seoul. I’m excited! Something to make me feel better since today was such a terrible day at work.
I feel like such a moron and am so disappointed in myself. Majorly disappointed and ashamed..like I’ve never been before. This is what happened: I went into my second class for the day, a 2nd grade (8th grade in the states) girls class. I put in my USB and start my introduction powerpoint as I did with all my first visits to a classroom. However, this wasn’t my first time with this class, it was my second! I didn’t have a lesson planned!!! I was so shocked, to say the least. I was going on with my introduction, “Hi, I’m Christina..I’m gonna be your new English teacher..” and then some students were saying “Last week!” and I was like, “What?” and they repeated themselves, “last week!” So I thought for a millisecond and said, “I did this last week???” and the class shakes their head and says yes. I was mortified. I told my co-teacher to come to me and I told her I didn’t have a lesson planned. At first I thought, oh, maybe they’re doing study habits, which is what I have been doing with my 3rd grade class. Nope, they weren’t. Not even close. AHH!! I ended up doing the lesson I had planned for my 1st graders about San Francisco and directions. I felt SOOO horrible at the end of the class. It was my lunch break after that so I had time to sulk. I was close to tears, but I held it back. I was really disappointed in myself. When I sat down at my desk, my main co-teacher sitting next to me said, “So I heard you had a bad class.” and I was like, “WHAT??? You’ve already heard???” Awww man! That’s the last thing I want – for everyone to know. She told me not to worry about it and that we learn from our mistakes…but I HATE MAKING MISTAKES! I know it’s only human, but I hate it. A lot. A lot a lot. After that, I had a few more classes and I thought to myself before my next class, “Don’t let it get to you in this class. Just move on, do your job” and I did. It may not have been the best, but it’s how I would’ve done it regardless of how my other class had gone. It wasn’t any worse, so that’s good! After my after school class, I felt so much better.
And also, Okailey was coming to sleep over!! I was really excited! It would be like having a roommate again, except we would be sleeping in the same bed. haha I used the Internet for an hour or so after work ended and waited for Okailey at the front of my school. She finally arrived via taxi and we headed off to my apartment to drop off stuff and chit chat a bit because I had not seen her for a week! This girl is basically my best friend here. She’s an amazing person. So we caught up and then got my (photoshopped) passport picture printed out because I needed it for my Alien Registration Card then headed out to get some yummy Korean food at a poppin’ local restaurant that we walked up and down the street to find. We wanted one with people and we found one! It also had some cute Korean kiddies! haha Then we went to a 1000 won shop (equivalent to the dollar store in the states) and bought some household items and some ICE CREAM. We actually got free ice cream from the restaurant we were at too! We love our ice cream, even if it’s cold outside! The ice cream that we bought at the 1000 won shop is not like any other ice cream we have ever tasted or seen. One of them has some jelly in the center? Strange. and the other one is CORN ICE CREAM. Koreans sure love their corn. They even have corn tea that smells/tastes like popcorn. We have yet to eat the ice cream though. it is still sitting in my freezer and Okailey and I forgot about it, so I’m gonna have to wait until she comes back to my place!
About the photoshopping – Koreans love their photoshop..you would think they’re working for magazines that promote an unhealthy body image or something. They photoshop EVERYBODY. It’s quite ridiculous. Taxi drivers usually have their picture displayed on the dashboard. I always notice that it does not look like them AT ALL. I mentioned this to someone and they said it’s because they photoshop it. That made sense. I thought maybe it was an old picture, but sometimes it doesn’t even resemble the driver. Prior to this, I was looking at the teachers for the Korean classes that I signed up for. I told my co-teacher that I couldn’t wait to meet these teachers and that I would keep an eye out for the people in these photographs. She told me that I would not recognize them from the photos and I asked her why. “Photoshop”. Everything is about “face” here. They are so occupied with how they appear to others, it is life-consuming. That is one thing I do not like about this country. They will keep something super crazy quiet (e.g., kids getting gang raped at a school) just so they won’t lose face. C’mon. There are more important things than how other people perceive you. It is important, I’m not gonna lie, but you’ve gotta get your priorities straight. But yes, enough about that. Tomorrow, ORIENTATION :)
Today was my last day of work for the week! I have orientation tomorrow! woohoo! I get to see all the other Gwangju teachers! There’ll be new ones that I haven’t met yet from the Seoul orientation or from the commute to Gwangju from Seoul. I’m excited! Something to make me feel better since today was such a terrible day at work.
I feel like such a moron and am so disappointed in myself. Majorly disappointed and ashamed..like I’ve never been before. This is what happened: I went into my second class for the day, a 2nd grade (8th grade in the states) girls class. I put in my USB and start my introduction powerpoint as I did with all my first visits to a classroom. However, this wasn’t my first time with this class, it was my second! I didn’t have a lesson planned!!! I was so shocked, to say the least. I was going on with my introduction, “Hi, I’m Christina..I’m gonna be your new English teacher..” and then some students were saying “Last week!” and I was like, “What?” and they repeated themselves, “last week!” So I thought for a millisecond and said, “I did this last week???” and the class shakes their head and says yes. I was mortified. I told my co-teacher to come to me and I told her I didn’t have a lesson planned. At first I thought, oh, maybe they’re doing study habits, which is what I have been doing with my 3rd grade class. Nope, they weren’t. Not even close. AHH!! I ended up doing the lesson I had planned for my 1st graders about San Francisco and directions. I felt SOOO horrible at the end of the class. It was my lunch break after that so I had time to sulk. I was close to tears, but I held it back. I was really disappointed in myself. When I sat down at my desk, my main co-teacher sitting next to me said, “So I heard you had a bad class.” and I was like, “WHAT??? You’ve already heard???” Awww man! That’s the last thing I want – for everyone to know. She told me not to worry about it and that we learn from our mistakes…but I HATE MAKING MISTAKES! I know it’s only human, but I hate it. A lot. A lot a lot. After that, I had a few more classes and I thought to myself before my next class, “Don’t let it get to you in this class. Just move on, do your job” and I did. It may not have been the best, but it’s how I would’ve done it regardless of how my other class had gone. It wasn’t any worse, so that’s good! After my after school class, I felt so much better.
And also, Okailey was coming to sleep over!! I was really excited! It would be like having a roommate again, except we would be sleeping in the same bed. haha I used the Internet for an hour or so after work ended and waited for Okailey at the front of my school. She finally arrived via taxi and we headed off to my apartment to drop off stuff and chit chat a bit because I had not seen her for a week! This girl is basically my best friend here. She’s an amazing person. So we caught up and then got my (photoshopped) passport picture printed out because I needed it for my Alien Registration Card then headed out to get some yummy Korean food at a poppin’ local restaurant that we walked up and down the street to find. We wanted one with people and we found one! It also had some cute Korean kiddies! haha Then we went to a 1000 won shop (equivalent to the dollar store in the states) and bought some household items and some ICE CREAM. We actually got free ice cream from the restaurant we were at too! We love our ice cream, even if it’s cold outside! The ice cream that we bought at the 1000 won shop is not like any other ice cream we have ever tasted or seen. One of them has some jelly in the center? Strange. and the other one is CORN ICE CREAM. Koreans sure love their corn. They even have corn tea that smells/tastes like popcorn. We have yet to eat the ice cream though. it is still sitting in my freezer and Okailey and I forgot about it, so I’m gonna have to wait until she comes back to my place!
About the photoshopping – Koreans love their photoshop..you would think they’re working for magazines that promote an unhealthy body image or something. They photoshop EVERYBODY. It’s quite ridiculous. Taxi drivers usually have their picture displayed on the dashboard. I always notice that it does not look like them AT ALL. I mentioned this to someone and they said it’s because they photoshop it. That made sense. I thought maybe it was an old picture, but sometimes it doesn’t even resemble the driver. Prior to this, I was looking at the teachers for the Korean classes that I signed up for. I told my co-teacher that I couldn’t wait to meet these teachers and that I would keep an eye out for the people in these photographs. She told me that I would not recognize them from the photos and I asked her why. “Photoshop”. Everything is about “face” here. They are so occupied with how they appear to others, it is life-consuming. That is one thing I do not like about this country. They will keep something super crazy quiet (e.g., kids getting gang raped at a school) just so they won’t lose face. C’mon. There are more important things than how other people perceive you. It is important, I’m not gonna lie, but you’ve gotta get your priorities straight. But yes, enough about that. Tomorrow, ORIENTATION :)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
"Teacher very handsome!"
April 06, 2010
My blog is all over the place; I feel like everything is all jumbled up and nothing is in sequential order. For instance, I want to tell you about something that happened YESTERDAY. haha One of my students said, “Teacher, you are very handsome!” and I said, “Handsome??” “Yes! Teacher very handsome!” I thought that was so funny and being the Christina that I am and not a professional teacher, I giggled at the student’s misuse of English. I then went into a brief impromptu lesson on the use of “handsome” and “pretty/beautiful” explaining that obviously the former is for boys and the latter is for girls. The student laughed and apologized. I thought it was hilarious. Today, I think the rest of the other girls got the memo or something because they were all telling me that I am pretty. These students are such ego boosters! Love it!
In all of my classes, I try to talk to students directly and work with them one on one, or at least with their group. So I was talking to this one girl and I noticed that she was using those eyelid tape thingies that make it seem like you have a double eyelid, or a creased eyelid. I was shocked on the inside; I didn’t show my surprise. Then, she looked at me and I saw that she had blue contacts on. That made me even MORE shocked! I felt really sad when I saw this because these kids are taught that western or white people are the epitome of beauty. Any characteristics that white people have must be beautiful and if my students don’t have it, then they are not beautiful. I really did not feel positively about this girl not accepting her Korean race. Then, I went to talk to another group and realized that ANOTHER girl had the eyelid tape too. I just want these girls to realize that they are beautiful too, even if their skin is not white or if they have monolids. It kinda upsets me. They are really influenced by the advertising around them. Most of their ads seem to feature white models and if they do use Korean people, they are the white-looking Koreans/they have had some sort of plastic surgery to westernize their features. This country is great, but they put a lot of emphasis on appearance, which doesn’t seem to be a healthy thing to be teaching the younger generation. Some of my kids brush their hair during class (boys!) and I have other kids who look at themselves in the mirror (boys&girls!). This one girl today was looking in her little pocket mirror and was checking up on her hair then I saw her smile and throw up a peace sign fob style in the mirror. ^_^ Y I thought it was rather funny though. hahah
Another incident that happened today was super funny to me. I was leaving my last class and there were so many girls outside of my class. They weren’t waiting for me though; they were waiting to clean the classroom next to mine. They all sorta tried to talk to me in English but there was one girl who did most of the talking. She was explaining to me why they were waiting there and I nodded in understanding and then we said bye. The other girls around her were ooohing and aahhing at their friend for being able to converse with me in English. Then the girl started clapping and jumping up and down in excitement. It was sooo adorable! I’m glad that some of the students are thrilled about speaking in English. It makes my job a bit easier.
Today, I was not the last one to leave the office like last night. I left around 5:30pm compared to last night’s 6:30pm. Mind you, I get off work at 4:30. Eek! I really don’t like going to my empty home. Today after work, I went with my co-teacher to U-Square, which is a bus terminal and there is a shopping mall there as well, which is where we went. I had to buy a USB stick and I succeeded! It was 23,500 won, which is I think $23 ish? I don’t know. It’s very small and the part that goes into your computer doesn’t look like any other USB that I have ever seen. I feel like it’s high tech, but maybe I’m just behind on the electronic times. After I bought that, we walked around a bit and now I know where to buy books in English if I ever need any extra reading material. Then we headed over to E-mart because I needed to buy some stuff for my apartment. I have a list of 30+ things but I didn’t buy it all today. That would be crazy. I just bought the essentials (i.e., mop, bathroom mat, drying rack, socks, etc) because I didn’t wanna spend too much money and I had to carry it all on the bus back home. When we finished at E-Mart, we were walking towards the exit to get to the bus stop (which is quite a long walk) and I asked my co-teacher if she wanted to eat dinner, my treat! So that’s what we did. They had this walkway of restaurants and the smells were SOOOOO mouthwatering. We decided to eat at this Korean restaurant that she had previously mentioned was very popular. Omigosh, it was absolutely delightful. Whoever comes to visit me in Gwangju, this is where I will take you for one of our dinners. The best dinner I have had so far. It was fairly simple, but it was so flavorful, cheap, and refillable! Can you imagine that? A REFILLABLE dinner! It was a soup, so I guess you could imagine it. But that doesn’t take away from how amazing this food was. I don’t remember what it’s called/how you say it. You just gotta taste it. I guess that means you guys have to come to Gwangju.
My blog is all over the place; I feel like everything is all jumbled up and nothing is in sequential order. For instance, I want to tell you about something that happened YESTERDAY. haha One of my students said, “Teacher, you are very handsome!” and I said, “Handsome??” “Yes! Teacher very handsome!” I thought that was so funny and being the Christina that I am and not a professional teacher, I giggled at the student’s misuse of English. I then went into a brief impromptu lesson on the use of “handsome” and “pretty/beautiful” explaining that obviously the former is for boys and the latter is for girls. The student laughed and apologized. I thought it was hilarious. Today, I think the rest of the other girls got the memo or something because they were all telling me that I am pretty. These students are such ego boosters! Love it!
In all of my classes, I try to talk to students directly and work with them one on one, or at least with their group. So I was talking to this one girl and I noticed that she was using those eyelid tape thingies that make it seem like you have a double eyelid, or a creased eyelid. I was shocked on the inside; I didn’t show my surprise. Then, she looked at me and I saw that she had blue contacts on. That made me even MORE shocked! I felt really sad when I saw this because these kids are taught that western or white people are the epitome of beauty. Any characteristics that white people have must be beautiful and if my students don’t have it, then they are not beautiful. I really did not feel positively about this girl not accepting her Korean race. Then, I went to talk to another group and realized that ANOTHER girl had the eyelid tape too. I just want these girls to realize that they are beautiful too, even if their skin is not white or if they have monolids. It kinda upsets me. They are really influenced by the advertising around them. Most of their ads seem to feature white models and if they do use Korean people, they are the white-looking Koreans/they have had some sort of plastic surgery to westernize their features. This country is great, but they put a lot of emphasis on appearance, which doesn’t seem to be a healthy thing to be teaching the younger generation. Some of my kids brush their hair during class (boys!) and I have other kids who look at themselves in the mirror (boys&girls!). This one girl today was looking in her little pocket mirror and was checking up on her hair then I saw her smile and throw up a peace sign fob style in the mirror. ^_^ Y I thought it was rather funny though. hahah
Another incident that happened today was super funny to me. I was leaving my last class and there were so many girls outside of my class. They weren’t waiting for me though; they were waiting to clean the classroom next to mine. They all sorta tried to talk to me in English but there was one girl who did most of the talking. She was explaining to me why they were waiting there and I nodded in understanding and then we said bye. The other girls around her were ooohing and aahhing at their friend for being able to converse with me in English. Then the girl started clapping and jumping up and down in excitement. It was sooo adorable! I’m glad that some of the students are thrilled about speaking in English. It makes my job a bit easier.
Today, I was not the last one to leave the office like last night. I left around 5:30pm compared to last night’s 6:30pm. Mind you, I get off work at 4:30. Eek! I really don’t like going to my empty home. Today after work, I went with my co-teacher to U-Square, which is a bus terminal and there is a shopping mall there as well, which is where we went. I had to buy a USB stick and I succeeded! It was 23,500 won, which is I think $23 ish? I don’t know. It’s very small and the part that goes into your computer doesn’t look like any other USB that I have ever seen. I feel like it’s high tech, but maybe I’m just behind on the electronic times. After I bought that, we walked around a bit and now I know where to buy books in English if I ever need any extra reading material. Then we headed over to E-mart because I needed to buy some stuff for my apartment. I have a list of 30+ things but I didn’t buy it all today. That would be crazy. I just bought the essentials (i.e., mop, bathroom mat, drying rack, socks, etc) because I didn’t wanna spend too much money and I had to carry it all on the bus back home. When we finished at E-Mart, we were walking towards the exit to get to the bus stop (which is quite a long walk) and I asked my co-teacher if she wanted to eat dinner, my treat! So that’s what we did. They had this walkway of restaurants and the smells were SOOOOO mouthwatering. We decided to eat at this Korean restaurant that she had previously mentioned was very popular. Omigosh, it was absolutely delightful. Whoever comes to visit me in Gwangju, this is where I will take you for one of our dinners. The best dinner I have had so far. It was fairly simple, but it was so flavorful, cheap, and refillable! Can you imagine that? A REFILLABLE dinner! It was a soup, so I guess you could imagine it. But that doesn’t take away from how amazing this food was. I don’t remember what it’s called/how you say it. You just gotta taste it. I guess that means you guys have to come to Gwangju.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Confused confused confused
April 5, 2010
So today begins another week on the job, my first full week. As I was sitting at my desk, they were setting up chairs in the teacher’s room and I asked my co-teacher why they were doing this and she told me that we have an impromptu meeting today. I thought it must be a serious issue to have an emergency meeting. Self-centered as I am, I thought maybe I was in trouble. haha. They handed out a booklet and a couple sheets of paper. I looked at them and couldn’t understand a thing because it was all in Korean. However, one of the sheets of paper had “ESC”, “DELETE”, “EXIT SETUP”, etc, so I knew it was about computers. Whew! I’m not in trouble! The meeting consisted of a couple people rambling on and on and me sitting there not comprehending a single thing except for “hakgyo”, which means school. Then seemingly out of nowhere, I hear “Christina..Christina!” and my ears instantly perked up. “What??!” The lady motioned for me to stand up and walk over to where she was. “Uh…” Then the head of the English teachers said to me, “You have to introduce yourself.” “Oh, ok.” So, she says a little something in Korean and she hands me the microphone. “Annyeong haseyo! (bow) Chonin Christina imnida.” Then I get applause from a group of young ladies at the end of the room. hahah I start talking about nothing because c’mon, they don’t understand me anyway. I don’t even think I talked for a minute. It was so unexpected, but I guess I should’ve seen that one coming! Then I hurriedly went back to my seat. haha
I taught my first class and I felt so down about my teaching ability or lack thereof. My co-teacher was just standing there looking at me and she didn’t seem to be happy with the way I was running things. I guess that just made me feel a bit self-conscious and inadequate. Omigosh! What am I doing here??? I’m not experienced! But I know that it’ll get better in time. I just keep telling myself that over and over again. I know I’m doing good things here.
At the beginning of my second class, I was telling myself to just be positive and don’t let the first class get to me. The second class went a lot better, I felt better. Then, I had my after school class, which I was afraid of because my after school class on Friday (the advanced level) did not go smoothly. During my after school classes, I teach alone and I don’t do my introduction presentation, which I have been doing the past few days. I have to teach a packet that they give me that seems VERY elementary to me, but I guess it’s at these kids’ level. On Friday, the advanced kids just looked at me like, “I can’t believe I’m listening to you. You’re a moron.” But today’s after school class (the intermediate level) went so well. I felt REALLY great after that. I could’ve done some things a bit better, but overall, I felt good. The students really look up to me for information, which is a lot of pressure, but I am certain that I know more English than they do, so I’m good, even if it is elementary.
OH! During one of my classes today, one student asked me, “Why is your hair black?” I was so confused by this question…I didn’t have an answer for her! I just said, “uhh……” I didn’t know where she was going with this question! I’ve never been asked this question before and it wasn’t in a joking manner. I told my co-teacher after school and she said it was probably because she thinks that all Americans have blonde hair! haha, so hilarious these Korean kiddies.
So today begins another week on the job, my first full week. As I was sitting at my desk, they were setting up chairs in the teacher’s room and I asked my co-teacher why they were doing this and she told me that we have an impromptu meeting today. I thought it must be a serious issue to have an emergency meeting. Self-centered as I am, I thought maybe I was in trouble. haha. They handed out a booklet and a couple sheets of paper. I looked at them and couldn’t understand a thing because it was all in Korean. However, one of the sheets of paper had “ESC”, “DELETE”, “EXIT SETUP”, etc, so I knew it was about computers. Whew! I’m not in trouble! The meeting consisted of a couple people rambling on and on and me sitting there not comprehending a single thing except for “hakgyo”, which means school. Then seemingly out of nowhere, I hear “Christina..Christina!” and my ears instantly perked up. “What??!” The lady motioned for me to stand up and walk over to where she was. “Uh…” Then the head of the English teachers said to me, “You have to introduce yourself.” “Oh, ok.” So, she says a little something in Korean and she hands me the microphone. “Annyeong haseyo! (bow) Chonin Christina imnida.” Then I get applause from a group of young ladies at the end of the room. hahah I start talking about nothing because c’mon, they don’t understand me anyway. I don’t even think I talked for a minute. It was so unexpected, but I guess I should’ve seen that one coming! Then I hurriedly went back to my seat. haha
I taught my first class and I felt so down about my teaching ability or lack thereof. My co-teacher was just standing there looking at me and she didn’t seem to be happy with the way I was running things. I guess that just made me feel a bit self-conscious and inadequate. Omigosh! What am I doing here??? I’m not experienced! But I know that it’ll get better in time. I just keep telling myself that over and over again. I know I’m doing good things here.
At the beginning of my second class, I was telling myself to just be positive and don’t let the first class get to me. The second class went a lot better, I felt better. Then, I had my after school class, which I was afraid of because my after school class on Friday (the advanced level) did not go smoothly. During my after school classes, I teach alone and I don’t do my introduction presentation, which I have been doing the past few days. I have to teach a packet that they give me that seems VERY elementary to me, but I guess it’s at these kids’ level. On Friday, the advanced kids just looked at me like, “I can’t believe I’m listening to you. You’re a moron.” But today’s after school class (the intermediate level) went so well. I felt REALLY great after that. I could’ve done some things a bit better, but overall, I felt good. The students really look up to me for information, which is a lot of pressure, but I am certain that I know more English than they do, so I’m good, even if it is elementary.
OH! During one of my classes today, one student asked me, “Why is your hair black?” I was so confused by this question…I didn’t have an answer for her! I just said, “uhh……” I didn’t know where she was going with this question! I’ve never been asked this question before and it wasn’t in a joking manner. I told my co-teacher after school and she said it was probably because she thinks that all Americans have blonde hair! haha, so hilarious these Korean kiddies.
Monday, April 5, 2010
My first hike in Korea
Last night, a few of the Gwangju EPIK teachers went out for dinner and drinks in downtown Gwangju, which is a fantastic area. It was super duper fun and it was a nice way to get to know my fellow teachers a bit better. I didn’t spend much time talking to the guys, but the girls are great. They’re so nice and I’m glad that they’re my new friends! A couple of them are actually younger than me! And here, I thought I was surrounded by all older people.
We went to eat at a Japanese (?) restaurant and had some bottles of soju and hite. The food was pretty good and the drinks were good as well. I was afraid that the alcohol would creep up on me as I have been told it would, but I think that’s if you drink A LOT of it. I only had about 4 shots of soju and half of the bottle of beer. Not too much.
After we ate, the girls walked around the shops and the boys decided to go into a bar called the Soju Room. However, they left as soon as the people there told them that they had to order 20,000 won worth of food. No thanks! We just ate! They ran into us as we left one of the shops and we stood around waiting for 2 of the girls who had become lost because they were being nosy and wanting to see what was going on with these two women who were chasing down another woman who had apparently stolen something from their store. We lost them for a good 15 minutes and we all finally reunited and went to a place called the WaBar. It was a western bar with a large assortment of alcohol from around the globe. I stuck to my one Korean Cass. I was stuffed; I couldn’t consume any more calories. I got to talking to the girls and I really do like all of them. They’re a diverse group – one girl is from Ohio, another from South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand. As for the boys, two of them are the boyfriends of two of the girls so they’re also from Ohio and New Zealand. The other boy is from England, so we’ve pretty much covered the world. We left the bar around 1am ish? I wasn’t even tired, but the night must come to an end.
So today, I went on my first hike in Korea!! I was extremely excited because y’all know I love hiking! or maybe you don’t, but now you do! So I went with one of the other EPIK teachers who had done the hike yesterday, but we took a different route this time. It was tough! It’s definitely unlike the hikes that I do in LA. I was actually surrounded by NATURE and walking on leaves and dirt and not on a paved road, which I enjoyed even though it was a bit scary because of its slipperiness. Okay, well there were distinct trails too, so don’t go thinking I was off in some random forest, haha. The view at the end was phenomenal – a panoramic view of the city. It was gorgeous. It was also the PERFECT day for a hike. The weather has been really cold and even rainy, but today was really the perfect day. I was able to wear shorts! On the way up, you get hot and sweaty, but once you reach the top, there’s a nice breeze to cool you down, but not too cool because the sun is still warm against your skin. Absolutely perfect! Can’t wait to do the hike again!
We went to eat at a Japanese (?) restaurant and had some bottles of soju and hite. The food was pretty good and the drinks were good as well. I was afraid that the alcohol would creep up on me as I have been told it would, but I think that’s if you drink A LOT of it. I only had about 4 shots of soju and half of the bottle of beer. Not too much.
After we ate, the girls walked around the shops and the boys decided to go into a bar called the Soju Room. However, they left as soon as the people there told them that they had to order 20,000 won worth of food. No thanks! We just ate! They ran into us as we left one of the shops and we stood around waiting for 2 of the girls who had become lost because they were being nosy and wanting to see what was going on with these two women who were chasing down another woman who had apparently stolen something from their store. We lost them for a good 15 minutes and we all finally reunited and went to a place called the WaBar. It was a western bar with a large assortment of alcohol from around the globe. I stuck to my one Korean Cass. I was stuffed; I couldn’t consume any more calories. I got to talking to the girls and I really do like all of them. They’re a diverse group – one girl is from Ohio, another from South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand. As for the boys, two of them are the boyfriends of two of the girls so they’re also from Ohio and New Zealand. The other boy is from England, so we’ve pretty much covered the world. We left the bar around 1am ish? I wasn’t even tired, but the night must come to an end.
So today, I went on my first hike in Korea!! I was extremely excited because y’all know I love hiking! or maybe you don’t, but now you do! So I went with one of the other EPIK teachers who had done the hike yesterday, but we took a different route this time. It was tough! It’s definitely unlike the hikes that I do in LA. I was actually surrounded by NATURE and walking on leaves and dirt and not on a paved road, which I enjoyed even though it was a bit scary because of its slipperiness. Okay, well there were distinct trails too, so don’t go thinking I was off in some random forest, haha. The view at the end was phenomenal – a panoramic view of the city. It was gorgeous. It was also the PERFECT day for a hike. The weather has been really cold and even rainy, but today was really the perfect day. I was able to wear shorts! On the way up, you get hot and sweaty, but once you reach the top, there’s a nice breeze to cool you down, but not too cool because the sun is still warm against your skin. Absolutely perfect! Can’t wait to do the hike again!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Lonely Dance Party
I am home now after spending an extra 2 hours at work. I don’t like to come home. It’s so lonely without internet, TV, people, the usual. So I’m typing this on Word and listening to music that I don’t frequently listen to. I need new music on my iTunes! E-mail them my way people!!! Last night was so boring, I decided to look at a map of Gwangju elementary/middle schools and labeled them with the people that work there. The result is very useful to know where my friends are, but it was time consuming and boring, but then again, I had nothing else to do. It also helped me practice reading Korean. Another thing I did to keep busy was write some Korean words on post-its and stuck it to whatever the Korean word said, e.g., door, window, bathroom, etc. Hopefully this will help me learn! I also signed up for Korean class and that begins in less than 2 weeks. When I got home today, I had a solitary dance party in my apartment. That was fun while it lasted (a whole 2 minutes). I need company!!!! PLEASE VISIT ME!!!
Forgot to also say that yesterday, I gave my co-teachers and vice principal, and other important people ( I don’t really know what position they hold…) chocolate that I had bought from America. I handed it to them with my right hand or both hands (because you HAVE TO or it’s disrespectful) and I kept getting the question: “Is there something special today that you’re giving me candy to celebrate?” and I was like, “No, I just wanted to give it to you. I bought it from America.” I didn’t realize why I they kept asking me this until I got home and had all that alone time to think. Before I had left for Korea, I was reading another fellow ex-pat’s blog (don’t remember which blog it was..) and he had written that he had gotten a Yakult type drink on his desk and didn’t know where it came from. He asked his co-teacher and she had told him that so-and-so had bought a new car over the weekend and this was a type of celebration. In America, this would be deemed as bragging or showing off, but in Korea, it is customary to do so. Interesting, ain’t it??
So today, I did my introduction presentation again, and again, and again. I’m really sick of it. How do teachers teach the same lesson over and over again?? It becomes very trite very quickly. I don’t even know if the students are enjoying it. It seems like they do…I’ll just tell myself they do. So today, I have a girl in one of my classes-total attitude. I can tell she’s gonna give me trouble this semester. She sits right in the front and I have a feeling it may not be by choice. She just has that attitude-y look that I do not get a good feeling about, so I picked on her today to share what she wrote with the rest of the class for our little activity. She did it and I’m glad because I don’t know what I would’ve done if she didn’t! haha I’m not quite the disciplinarian yet, but I’m sure when these kiddies push my buttons, I will do something…I just don’t know what yet. Have you guys any suggestions? Please let me know!
Today, I had my first boys class. Oh yeah, they separate their classes into boys and girls. Right when I walked in, I heard, “I like you.” I didn’t respond and wrote the rules on the board. Oh boys. Some of them are gonna grow up to be very handsome! haha I also caught a couple boys sleeping in that class too, but I didn’t yell at them or anything like that. I just tapped them on the shoulder and asked if they were alright. These kids work SO hard in school, it’s really ridiculous. I think I already wrote about this, but I have to stress that they go to school in the morning at, I think, 830am and then that maybe ends around 330 for some, 430 for others depending on if they have after school class. Then they go home for about an hour and then it’s off to academy. Some even attend TWO academies and don’t get home until 9pm. That’s a 12 hour day of school!!! In America, we only stay in school for about 7 hours. It is SO crazy that they go to school for so long. So far in my classes, I’ve asked what their hobbies are and some of they say “studying”. No American child would say that! A lot of the girl students like the Twilight Series. I’ve taken an informal poll and the majority of them prefer Edward over Jacob. I only found 2 students that like Jacob! haha I forgot to mention this before, but at the end of my presentation and the activity, I let the students ask me any question they want. The first class I did this with, almost in unison, they said, “How old are you?” That would always be the first question in all my classes. The second would be, “Are you married??” Then after I say no, they would say, “Why?” Then I would say, “Because I am too young.” Then the next question would be, “Boyfriend?” “No.” “ohhh….” Another popular question is “Do you know Wondergirls?”
I ended the school day with my first after school class. I was given a lesson to teach and that is what I did. Too bad the lesson was freaken boring. I was boring myself, but of course I couldn’t show that to the kids. The class was SO quiet! I couldn’t stand it. My other classes are super noisy and that gets frustrating, but when I’m trying to teach conversation English, I want these kids to talk! The kids I have in my after school classes are voluntarily there and they already have a pretty good grasp of the language. I could actually have a full on conversation with them and I did with one of the students before class, but once class started – silence. It was deafening. My co-teacher said that Korean students are very shy, so they don’t want to sound stupid and lose face. I hope I make their learning environment comfortable enough where they can speak in English. I thought my after school class would be GREAT, but it wasn’t as I expected. I have 4 after school classes a week. Two are with the advanced class I had today, and the other two are for the intermediate level students. I took a look at the intermediate lesson and it’s the same as the advanced class. I don’t know how to make it fun. It’s such a boring lesson, but I’ll think of something…
And now I am singing as if I’m at a noraebang. So fun living alone.
Forgot to also say that yesterday, I gave my co-teachers and vice principal, and other important people ( I don’t really know what position they hold…) chocolate that I had bought from America. I handed it to them with my right hand or both hands (because you HAVE TO or it’s disrespectful) and I kept getting the question: “Is there something special today that you’re giving me candy to celebrate?” and I was like, “No, I just wanted to give it to you. I bought it from America.” I didn’t realize why I they kept asking me this until I got home and had all that alone time to think. Before I had left for Korea, I was reading another fellow ex-pat’s blog (don’t remember which blog it was..) and he had written that he had gotten a Yakult type drink on his desk and didn’t know where it came from. He asked his co-teacher and she had told him that so-and-so had bought a new car over the weekend and this was a type of celebration. In America, this would be deemed as bragging or showing off, but in Korea, it is customary to do so. Interesting, ain’t it??
So today, I did my introduction presentation again, and again, and again. I’m really sick of it. How do teachers teach the same lesson over and over again?? It becomes very trite very quickly. I don’t even know if the students are enjoying it. It seems like they do…I’ll just tell myself they do. So today, I have a girl in one of my classes-total attitude. I can tell she’s gonna give me trouble this semester. She sits right in the front and I have a feeling it may not be by choice. She just has that attitude-y look that I do not get a good feeling about, so I picked on her today to share what she wrote with the rest of the class for our little activity. She did it and I’m glad because I don’t know what I would’ve done if she didn’t! haha I’m not quite the disciplinarian yet, but I’m sure when these kiddies push my buttons, I will do something…I just don’t know what yet. Have you guys any suggestions? Please let me know!
Today, I had my first boys class. Oh yeah, they separate their classes into boys and girls. Right when I walked in, I heard, “I like you.” I didn’t respond and wrote the rules on the board. Oh boys. Some of them are gonna grow up to be very handsome! haha I also caught a couple boys sleeping in that class too, but I didn’t yell at them or anything like that. I just tapped them on the shoulder and asked if they were alright. These kids work SO hard in school, it’s really ridiculous. I think I already wrote about this, but I have to stress that they go to school in the morning at, I think, 830am and then that maybe ends around 330 for some, 430 for others depending on if they have after school class. Then they go home for about an hour and then it’s off to academy. Some even attend TWO academies and don’t get home until 9pm. That’s a 12 hour day of school!!! In America, we only stay in school for about 7 hours. It is SO crazy that they go to school for so long. So far in my classes, I’ve asked what their hobbies are and some of they say “studying”. No American child would say that! A lot of the girl students like the Twilight Series. I’ve taken an informal poll and the majority of them prefer Edward over Jacob. I only found 2 students that like Jacob! haha I forgot to mention this before, but at the end of my presentation and the activity, I let the students ask me any question they want. The first class I did this with, almost in unison, they said, “How old are you?” That would always be the first question in all my classes. The second would be, “Are you married??” Then after I say no, they would say, “Why?” Then I would say, “Because I am too young.” Then the next question would be, “Boyfriend?” “No.” “ohhh….” Another popular question is “Do you know Wondergirls?”
I ended the school day with my first after school class. I was given a lesson to teach and that is what I did. Too bad the lesson was freaken boring. I was boring myself, but of course I couldn’t show that to the kids. The class was SO quiet! I couldn’t stand it. My other classes are super noisy and that gets frustrating, but when I’m trying to teach conversation English, I want these kids to talk! The kids I have in my after school classes are voluntarily there and they already have a pretty good grasp of the language. I could actually have a full on conversation with them and I did with one of the students before class, but once class started – silence. It was deafening. My co-teacher said that Korean students are very shy, so they don’t want to sound stupid and lose face. I hope I make their learning environment comfortable enough where they can speak in English. I thought my after school class would be GREAT, but it wasn’t as I expected. I have 4 after school classes a week. Two are with the advanced class I had today, and the other two are for the intermediate level students. I took a look at the intermediate lesson and it’s the same as the advanced class. I don’t know how to make it fun. It’s such a boring lesson, but I’ll think of something…
And now I am singing as if I’m at a noraebang. So fun living alone.
Friday, April 2, 2010
First day on the job
Today was my first day at Hyokwang Middle School. I was so nervous even though I was prepared with my powerpoint all about me. As soon as I stepped into the front of the class, it was quite overwhelming but my nervousness went away. They're just a bunch of girls (at least today) and I am their superior. I shouldn't feel so weak. I went about my presentation and I think it was received well. It didn't seem too boring for them. I got them up and out of their seats and let them roam around because we played 4 corners. You guys remember that game when we were in elementary school? I thought it would be a good way to get their blood flowing and semi-interested in what I had to say about me. Wonderful little ol' me. I introduced myself to 3 classes today. My powerpoint was nowhere to be found on my laptop during the second class, so I had to go impromptu with the chalkboard. It still went rather smoothly, I hope! I'm not sure. I felt alright, but it may not be what the others perceived. Most of the time, the students didn't even understand me! They say I speak too fast. It's really hard to talk slowly, but I'll have to try. Some of the students are really good with English while others can't even spell their names. I'm really excited though. I have 4 after school classes a week including today (Thursday), but I don't have to go today, so I start tomorrow. I'll be teaching these classes sans co-teachers, so that should be a challenge. However, the number of students in these classes are smaller - 20 students compared to 40 students in the regular classes. The students are a rowdy bunch, but I feel good. These students go to school from really early to really late. It's really ridiculous how hardworking these kids are, so I'm gonna try to be more compassionate and nice to them whilst also being stern.
Another thing! We wear slippers to teach. Is that not the weirdest thing ever? Women on the street are always fashionable with their heels and then when they arrive to work, they take off those shoes and put on slippers. I feel professional from the ankles up and then sloppy from the ankles down. It's really funny. And you have to always remember to wear socks!
On another note, there are always students coming in and out of the teacher's room especially between classes. Right now, they are cleaning the place - mopping, sweeping, taking out the trash. There is a designated period where the students clean because the school does not hire any custodians, and I guess this teaches them to help in their house too. Korean houses are very clean! You have to wear sandals (with socks!). There are outside shoes, home sandals, bathroom sandals. When I first arrived at my apartment, everyone had their shoes off but me. I realized this after a few minutes so I went to take off my shoes, but I didn't have any socks on. I thought this would be ok because the owner of the complex also didn't have any socks, but one of them said, "Oh! You have to wear socks!!!" So I went to put on some hot pink socks with my black shoes.
My first day at work hasn't ended (I have to wait til 430 to leave even though I finished with classes already), but it's been great so far! Some students have been saying hi to me in the teacher's room. It's really cute. Also, at the end of one of my classes, a student said, "I love you" to me. Wow, that was fast. I don't know if I'm ready for such an emotion. I've only known you for 35 minutes! But I'll get there! Can't wait til the weekend to celebrate with my fellow English speakers!
Another thing! We wear slippers to teach. Is that not the weirdest thing ever? Women on the street are always fashionable with their heels and then when they arrive to work, they take off those shoes and put on slippers. I feel professional from the ankles up and then sloppy from the ankles down. It's really funny. And you have to always remember to wear socks!
On another note, there are always students coming in and out of the teacher's room especially between classes. Right now, they are cleaning the place - mopping, sweeping, taking out the trash. There is a designated period where the students clean because the school does not hire any custodians, and I guess this teaches them to help in their house too. Korean houses are very clean! You have to wear sandals (with socks!). There are outside shoes, home sandals, bathroom sandals. When I first arrived at my apartment, everyone had their shoes off but me. I realized this after a few minutes so I went to take off my shoes, but I didn't have any socks on. I thought this would be ok because the owner of the complex also didn't have any socks, but one of them said, "Oh! You have to wear socks!!!" So I went to put on some hot pink socks with my black shoes.
My first day at work hasn't ended (I have to wait til 430 to leave even though I finished with classes already), but it's been great so far! Some students have been saying hi to me in the teacher's room. It's really cute. Also, at the end of one of my classes, a student said, "I love you" to me. Wow, that was fast. I don't know if I'm ready for such an emotion. I've only known you for 35 minutes! But I'll get there! Can't wait til the weekend to celebrate with my fellow English speakers!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Day in Gwangju
Today was my health check up at the hospital. The head of the English teachers at my school told me that it would take 50 minutes to get there from my house, or so that's what I thought she said. She also told me to leave at 12:30 to get there by 1:30. That makes sense, right? Give yourself an hour to get there when it really only takes 50? Seems sensible to me. So I left a little earlier just in case! I left my place at around 12:20 to hail a taxi. I got one and got into the Hyundai. After some crazy driving, not following the lanes, barely missing other cars, I arrived at the hospital within 15 minutes! Whenever Koreans say 15, I think they're saying 50. I had a lot of time to kill, so I decided to walk around the block and into the shops. I bought some stickers for the students and that's about it. I had no where else to go so I decided to head back to the hospital. I didn't know what time it was because I don't have a watch or a cell phone, but I thought it was almost time so I was walking back. Mind you, I've been keeping an eye out for foreigners so I could speak to them in English and have a normal conversation. So, as I was walking back, I spotted a light skinned person in a coffee shop using a computer. My heart stopped and I was SO excited! As I got closer, I realized I knew this white person!!! I walked up to the window with a shocked face. I got his attention and he looked at me with a shocked face! We were both SHOCKED and VERY HAPPY!! I went inside and we hugged in joy and familiarity. Then we started rambling off in English and baristas and customers looked at us with curious eyes. I didn't care though; I found someone I could communicate with effectively in a language we both are fluent in. It turns out, he had to get his check up at the same time at the same place. We talked for 15-20 minutes before we went to the hospital and when we arrived, there were MORE foreigners. I was also not given a form to fill out because the guy thought I was Korean and just accompanying the foreigners. I was like, "What about me??" After a few chuckles, I got the form and we headed upstairs for the tests and that is when I laid my eyes on a room full of foreigners. I was happy to see some people I had met during orientation too. Caught up with them and asked them about their apartments and such. I got my blood drawn and a urine sample. They put their urine in cups WITHOUT lids. Smelly and not a very good method to keep samples that you're going to test. After that, a few of us Gwangjuites decided to hang out for the day because if we didn't, we'd just be roaming around aimlessly not knowing where to go and we'd be all alone. A group of us went to eat lunch and then a smaller group of us went to a PCbang to get connected with the rest of the world and then an even smaller group went to a fellow teacher's apartment to have dinner. I had to go home first because the gas man was coming to turn my gas on. My friends and I decided to meet up at the elementary school near one of their apartments. You have no idea how reliant you on a cell phone until you don't have one anymore. I got there and I didn't see either of them. I walked around the ENTIRE school calling out their names. I didn't see them. I felt like I was gonna have to catch another taxi ride back home. What a waste of money that would be. As I circled around the school again, I saw two white people crossing the street. I screamed their names and ran with my umbrella, but they didn't hear me. Thank goodness they didn't know where they were going because they walked back towards the corner where I was headed. "I MADE IT!" Then we had a group hug for the success! We headed to the apartment and the host was the chef for the night and made an AMAZING vegetarian spaghetti dish. We're newly moved into our apartments, so we don't have a lot of eating equipment. I ended up using the chopsticks and the other two got to use their easy-to-maneuver forks and we ate the spaghetti out of the skillet-all three of us, heads together. It was the most ridiculous dinner I've ever had and I couldn't have asked for a better first real meal with friends in Gwangju. Tomorrow, I start class!!! Not teaching, but I have to introduce myself for the whole class. So basically, a presentation about ME! but I’m also planning an activity. Hopefully it goes smoothly!
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