Korean Musical

This is a short excerpt of the 2 hour musical I went to with my landlords last week.  Most of the music was really good, but I had no idea what was going on most of the time.  It was very kind of my landlords to invite me to go see this traditional music.  Enjoy!

Ms. Ban

Happy Tuesday and Happy Birthday Mom!

I'm having a good day thanks to a little girl who came up to me after English class today and proudly presented me with two stickers she made for me.  They are hot pink with white typed font - one reads "ANDY <3" and the other says, "MS. BAN"  Most of the students call me Ms. Bawn because they can't make the V sound for Vaughn (kind of like they cannot make the z sound and I have to repeatedly say "No, you didn't go to the Jew...you went to the Zoo.) , but I had no idea most students actually think this is my name.  Anyway, despite the fact that she got both my names incorrect, I thought this was the cutest thing in the world.

On Thursday I had another cute incident when I was finishing class and talking to my coteacher.  A little 1st grade girl came in, and she was round as she was tall.  To get the full effect she was also wearing white sweat pants and a neon orange tshirt and had her hair in pigtails.  She walked up to me and just STARED at me like I was a celebrity and I said "Hello" and she was just staring then goes "HELLO!" and I smiled and go How are you?  and she stares for a minute and goes "I LOVE YOU!" while simultaneously making an M with her hands on her head (like you would in YMCA) in order to make a heart while courtseying down and just grinning at me then BOLTED away.  She was SO cute I want to bring her home with me and have her do that every hour.

This made me feel much better about myself since I made a 5th grade boy cry on Thursday morning.  Sometimes I think I'm probably the worst teacher in the world - these kids really try my patience.

Another thing that has seriously been upsetting me lately is the humiliation of shopping in Korea.  A saleslady actually made me cry over the weekend.  Anyway, I'm in desperate need of some jeans, boots, and underwear.  I went shopping all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (in between a rugby game, meeting up with friends, and exploring my neighborhood more).  I don't normally think of myself as a big girl, but it's really depressing when I walk into a jeans store and the saleslady says, "oh, we don't make you size," or how in a shoe store I wasn't allowed to try on boots because "my legs big."  The worst was at the underwear store where I realized even the XL wouldn't fit me, and the lady told me that I should come back for the 2XL when they get some in stock.  I'm thinking that my shopping problem may be cured by the time I come back home due to the fact that I'm apparently way to large to be shopping in Asia.  I came home empty handed all three days.

Anyway, last week I also got my first idea of what it is like to live in a country that is technically still at war-- a fact that I normally completely forget.  I was just sitting in my classroom waiting on some little 6th grade crazy to finish writing "I will be respectful." fifty times, when all these loud sirens start going off and there are loudspeakers- not just like in the school but coming from outside too with someone shouting in Korean.  What. The. Heck.  I didn't know if I should like get under something or what... I was like oh no my mom was right I'm about to get nuked by the North.

Alas, no one around me looked the least bit concerned.  Apparently they do this for 15 minutes every other month for "practice."  You can't go outside and all traffic and movement stops.  Why didn't anyone tell me this?  (looking back it really isn't a big deal, but I think they still should have mentioned this to me!)  When I finally asked what was going on, it was whispered "It's because...you know.... of the North.  Andie, we are country in two.  You know?"  Yes, got it.  Ridiculous.  I literally thought I was about to get bombed.  

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
Happy Halloween!

-Andie

Fall is here!

Hi all,

Fall is here in Seoul!  I'm currently at school, and I'm freezing.  I figured out that there is no central heat in my school or my apartment.  My apartment only has floor heat (my floor gets very warm.  I don't really understand how to work this function right now.  I actually can't turn it off?).  My school is like a concrete ice box, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to teach all bundled up throughout the winter.  It is really bizarre- every day I come in and all the doors and window of the school are wide open.  When I go to my classroom, my coteacher always opens the windows too "because the air is not fresh."  I think I'm missing something.

The last couple weeks have been fairly uneventful.  I've been trying to stay in more often - I waste a lot of money and calories going out to eat, out to coffee, and out to bars.  My schedule now consists more of going to school, going to the gym, making dinner, taking a shower, and watching tv, reading, or hanging out with my friend Arianna who lives upstairs.  

School has also been fairly uneventful too.  I'm still battling the 6th grade- working daily on how to teach kids not to be little punks.  It's really exasperating some days because I get so frustrated and want to just yell at them, but none of them have...any...idea....what...I...am....saying...unless....I .....talk....like...this....and...it....is...sooooo...hard....to....talk...like...this....when...a...kid...is...being...absurd...Even....at...this...speed....half...of...what....I...say...is...beyond...their...comprehension...level.  Ugh.
I've started making kids stand in the corner, write sentences, or pick up the classroom after class.   

There are, of course, the kids that make my day enjoyable.  Some of them are absolutely adorable and really nice.  There are others who are hilarious.  For example, the other day I had words on the board in a large video game controller I made, and when I hit the "button" next to the word, the students had to do whatever the word said.  I hit the button "Dancing," and while most kids shyly boogied, I had one kid jump all the way across the classroom singing and dancing to "Superman that Ho."  He can't make a full sentence, but he clearly has picked up on at least some American "culture."  Most of my kids know completely inappropriate or useless English- I don't know where they get it from, but I catch them giving each other the finger all the time and I had an adorable little 4th grade girl come in with "F*** You" on her binder the other day.  I made her erase it and tried to tell her that it was a very bad thing to say, but I'm pretty sure she didn't really grasp what I was saying.  Where do they get this stuff??  Most of them can't even tell me what day it is.

My principal, per usual, has also been hilarious this week.  Yesterday, he walked over with the vice principal and goes "Andie. every year. we take picture. our school family.  you family.  you take picture.  you choose. today or yesterday."
and I go, "tomorrow?"
and he responds, "today or tomorrow. you choose."
"and i go, "it doesnt matter... today is fine."
and they look me UP and DOWN and say, "tomorrow?"
and I say,  "today?"
and they respond, "andie. you choose! today or tomorrow."
and I say, "today."
and they look at me, and my hair and clothes and go "oh ok tomorrow."
Before I left school yesterday he told me to make sure I "look good" tomorrow "for photo."  Then he added to "do make-up."  I want to say I was offended, but he really means well, and I know he really likes me so I don't think he is being mean.  This is my life, haha.

I've started studying Korean in the afternoons.  It is not going anywhere fast, and although I can read Korean/Hangul, I have NO idea what 99% of it means.  I have no desire to be fluent, I really would just like to be functional.  When I speak with Koreans here who only know a little English, they all seem so impressed that I speak English.  It's weird- I want to say YOU are the one who is practically bilingual- I only speak my native language and a little French.  They need to give themselves more credit.  

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to Seoul Fashion Week to see two designers.  I have no idea what to expect.  Then Friday I am debating on going on a hiking trip with my school that lasts until about 10pm.  I can't imagine this will be fun, but I'm thinking I should probably go anyway.  If I don't go, I have the day off and I'm going to put together a Halloween costume with my friend Sam.  I'll probably spend the rest of the weekend enjoying more of Seoul- shopping and exploring!

Miss you all!
Andie

For my "mental health"

Happy Weekend!

First of all, Happy 90th birthday Grandma!  I know I'm a day late, but I hope you had a great weekend full of festivities.  Please send a picture of your birthday party!  

This past week was very low key for me.  Monday was part of my 4 day holiday, and the rest of the week just seemed to breeze right by me.  I went out for a wonderful Italian dinner on Tuesday with two good friends, spent a lot of time at the gym, and went jogging in Olympic Park with a friend on Thursday.  I escaped this week with almost no ridiculous incidents at school; however, Friday afternoon was my first day attending the newly implemented and weekly "school sports day" at Gil-Dong Elementary.  All teachers must join one of four clubs - badminton, table tennis, hiking, or yoga.  Once a week, your club spends an hour and a half doing the activity.  Because I'm embarrassingly bad at badminton and table tennis and I don't want to hike because it's only done by the men in school who speak no English, I joined the yoga club.  I did some yoga classes at my gym at school during spring semester, and although I'm not terrible at it, I am of the mindset that it's, for lack of a better term, a load of crap.  I usually want to giggle through most of the classes, and I think it's kind of a bad excuse for exercise.  Anyway, I digress.  

Friday afternoon, I got my yoga clothes on and got ready for the "class."  I entered the gymnasium where there was a huge projector with a yoga video on it.  The entire thing was in Korean and it only had badly translated English subtitles sometimes.  The name of the video was  "Diet Yoga."  Anyway, we did poses such as "The Awkward Pose," "The Pose that Twists Your Spine," and "The Baby Pose."  None of the poses were anything I had ever seen before- most of the time we just contorted our bodies into the most awkward positions possible and had to hold it for minutes at a time.  At one point I just started giggling.  Luckily, I survived "diet yoga" and made it to the gym Friday afternoon for some real exercise.  

The weekend was fun, but it was also kind of hard.  Saturday was Homecoming at Wake, and I knew that was going to be harder to miss than anything this year.  All week I got emails on the listserve I'm on with all my friends talking about flights into school and I watched as hundreds of facebook statuses changed into something like "Heading to the Dash" or "It's like Christmas!"  I'm definitely happy here, but I would have given anything to be in Winston-Salem for the weekend.  I almost cried a few times on Saturday, but I went shopping all weekend instead to console myself.

Shopping in Korea is amazing.  There are shoe stores and little boutiques everywhere.   As in, there are actually alleys that only have shoe vendors selling anything you could ever want on your feet. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have a terrible shopping problem (Dad I'm going to have to start sending you excel spreadsheets of every penny I spend again since I'm not mature enough to budget myself).  I've gotten into the bad habit of telling myself that what I buy is "for my mental health."  I always think, Oh, I'm far from home! This will make me happy! This is just what I need to stay sane!  For example, today I went all the way to Itaewon to an English bookstore and paid an absolutely obscene amount for a stack of English books and magazines.  I also broke down and bought two avocados that I found today.  So no one goes into shock I won't tell you how much they were, but, obviously, I needed them.  For my mental health.  I decided I'm going to have to start trying to stay sane in other ways.  Shopping here is going to be my downfall.

Anyway, I miss you all.  I hope everyone who spent the weekend at Wake had a great trip.  I want to hear about it!

Go Deacs,

Andie

Tokyo!

                 Imperial Palace grounds with Tokyo Tower in the background

Imperial Palace

                                                Hama-rikyu Gardens!

                                              View of Tokyo from the Mega Web!

                                                   The 5 story Pagoda.  My favorite!

                                                           Senso-ji

                                                              Ueno Park
                                                                   Ueno Park

Hi all,

I just returned home from a great weekend in Tokyo.  Before I begin to tell you about my adventures, I want to go ahead and apologize to anyone from my school who may eventually see this post.  I know I told you I had a great weekend camping with friends on Deokjeokdo like I did a couple weekends ago.  I hate lying to you, and I honestly do feel really bad about it.  However, since the principal told me I could not leave the country for fear of getting "the influenza" (despite the fact that I have a multiple entry visa, no stipulations about this in my contract, and most importantly that there were already 2 H1N1 cases at school the day I left), I decided that keeping my mouth shut was the best policy.  I do want you to know that I feel terrible about blatantly lying to you.  Since I am being honest, however, you should know that I will probably do this every long weekend and holiday for the next year if the same situation occurs.  I apologize in advance.

Anyway, Tokyo is an amazing city, and I had a great trip.  I arrived a little after lunch on Friday then got on a train to Ueno Station to meet my friend Rachel.  For those of you who don't know, Rachel is one of my best friends from Wake and my roommate senior year.  She is teaching English about two hours out of the city.  I finally met up with her (miraculously) about 3oclock, and we headed to our hotel.  Surprisingly, we found it really easily only a short walk away from the station.  After checking in to our hotel room (which was really tiny and looked something like the inside of a camper), we went exploring.  Unfortunately, it was raining, but we did stumble upon a cool temple in the neighborhood and a graveyard.  After this, we headed down to the area of Tokyo with the best restaurants and nightlife.  As you can imagine, there was an insane amount of people.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen more people in my life- to make it worse, it was still raining and everyone had umbrellas up.  We joked that you needed protective eyewear to safely navigate the streets.  I got poked and hit with so many umbrellas it is a wonder I am not all bruised in the face.  We took our time with our fantastic Japanese dinner then met up with some of Rachel's friends.  We didn't stay out too late though since we had so much sightseeing to do the next day.

Saturday morning we were up early and headed (still in the pouring rain) to Ueno Park.  The park was my favorite part of the weekend.  Around every path there was a cool temple, statue, garden, or fountain.  It all had an intensely Japanese feel to it- very simplistic and peaceful.  We meandered around for about two hours in the rain before deciding we better move on to other sights.  After a short sushi lunch and a quick tour of a large market, we headed over to see a great temple- Senso-ji.  The temple is at the back of a long shopping street.  The walk was beautiful despite the rain (and less crowded too!)  After exploring the temple and the nearby 5 story pagoda, we wandered around the area looking a few more smaller temples and some shopping streets.  Done with our plan for the day, we decided to head to a peaceful corner of the city where there were supposedly a lot of temples.  Unfortunately, our guidebook failed us and we ended up very confused, but we did find a lovely cemetery that had several important families in it (none of which I remember, but I remember being impressed at the time.  Fail, I know).  We looked at a few of the tombs and statues, and they were all really simple and beautiful.

Saturday night, we decided to take on the Mega Web- the largest ferris wheel in the world.  It took a little talking it up to get Rachel on board with this, but we finally decided to do it.  To get to the MegaWeb you have to take the newest subway line which is a monorail that goes around Tokyo Bay.  This may have been one of the highlights of my trip haha.  I actually recommend that if any of you go to Tokyo you need to just buy a monorail subway pass and ride from one end to the other at night.  I'm not even kidding.  Anyway, the ferris wheel was really cool- it takes about 16 minutes to go around one time then you have to get off.  We went to a late dinner after this- more good Japanese food!

Sunday morning we got up early, put our stuff in lockers at the train station, then headed to catch a boat which would take us down the river to the Imperial Palace.  After crossing under 16 bridges of varying shapes and colors, we got off our scenic boat ride and headed for Hama-rikyu Gardens.  The gardens are really simplistic- we explored the paths and a temple and looked around at some duck ponds.  Starving though, we headed out of the gardens pretty quickly.  Tired of Japanese food, we had lunch at "Oktoberfest"- stuffing ourselves with overpriced pretzels and sausages.  Later, we explored the palace grounds and gardens then rested in the park on the grounds.  I headed for the airport again about 4:30, and successfully made it back to Narita Airport right as my flight was boarding.  

Now I am back in Seoul ready to start a new week of teaching.  I even did my hair for tomorrow.  Last week my principal came over to me and said "Andie come here."  He then tells me in all seriousness (as serious as you can be in Konglish) that my hair looks better down.  I think it went something like this: "Andie, Uh, Andie, yo hair.  Yo hair.  It look better, I like better.  When it (make lots of gestures around shoulders).  What word? Down? Down.  Andie.  I like better yo hair.  Down.  Ok?  Ok Andie?  Down."  It was only the second time I'd pulled my hair back for school.  Now I'm self-conscious and will probably not do this again.  Ohhh Korea.

Miss you all!

Andie

Lemon Tree!

Today the kids worked on the chapter "What are you doing?" and they were just too cute not to film when we got to the part of the lesson where they sing "Lemon Tree."  What a great way to learn about verbs :)  

Just another week in Seoul

Konkuk University area on Saturday night

Hi all,

 

It's been another great week in Seoul, and I am looking forward to my upcoming long weekend.  Last week flew by - I stayed busy every day meeting up with friends after work and enjoying the city.  Thursday, FINALLY, was pay-day so I am now a millionaire.  Seriously though, after I got paid, I immediately bought a one year gym membership, worked out (FINALLLY!), and then I spent Thursday night celebrating the end of my poverty at a rooftop bar overlooking the city in Gangnam sipping chocolate martinis with my friends.  So this was probably excessive, but it was a good celebration for all we have been through together the last month.

 

To further my happiness, Friday was a school holiday at Gil-Dong Elementary.  The calender I got said it was a "Self-Control Day" which no one seemed able to explain to me.  I'm pretty sure something was very lost in translation, but I'm not one to complain for a paid day off.  I spent the day shopping in my neighborhood for necessary apartment items.  I'm now the proud owner of things like spoons, a collander, picture frames, cleaners of every type, and a squeegee mop so I can not hate my bathroom the following hours after I shower.  I also got my boxes from Mom and Dad on Friday- finally FedEx delivered them! Friday was pretty much the greatest day ever.... I now also have bedsheets!  Thanks Mom!

 

Friday night I went all the way across Seoul to On the Border for terrible, overpriced Mexican food for my friend's birthday.  Saturday, I got up early and met some girlfriends to shop at Myeong-Dong.  This area is amazing- its just tons of stores crammed into a few blocks where the streets are all walking streets with tons of vendors for food and junk on them.  They actually have one street that is all shoes.  It is completely overwhelming, but so much fun.  I got a few things, but we left around 3pm because the crowds just got too intense.  Saturday night I went to the Seoul drum festival (so cool!) then spent the rest of the night out in the Konkuk University area with friends.  It was really fun until five of us waited in line to get into a bar only to be told by the bouncer that we couldn't come inside.  When I asked why he said, "because of your skin. You can't come in because you white."  I've never been discriminated against, and it really made me angry.  

 

Monday morning I was back at school for another short week.  We have Friday and next Monday off for Chuseok (like Korean Thanksgiving).  This week I realized I have more kids with crazy English names.  Today I had one who had a nametag that said "Hell" and another that said "Black."  I still can't call on poor Transformer without cracking up inside.  I had the kids brainstorm words that relate to Chuseok for an activity the other day.  They had recently learned about utensils and some food items so I thought it would work.  Later, I was scanning one kid's sheet of paper and it read, "Game, Song, Money, Grandpa, Grandma, my Babymama" Babymama? Really?  You're 10...how did you get that word?

 

Yesterday, I got in trouble with the principal. I was trying to get off work a little early for an appointment.  I have a log I keep when I leave work and I have to get it signed by the principal. Unfortunately, yesterday, I wrote the one line entry in red pen.  I'm still not exactly sure of the cultural issues Korea has with red pen and marker, but I think it means something like blood, death or bad luck, and when I took the log to my principal you would have thought I came at him weilding a butcher knife.  He FREAKED out on me, and I had to redo my entire log and make a new one.   He was like "this is like blood! Andie! No! No!  Andie! Red pen! No! Andie, you go get new paper and redo this. This bad. This not good" I probably inappropriately responded, "can I use white out?" And he just took it from me and wouldn't give it back.  I think he thought I was trying to kill him or curse him.  I was so embarrassed haha.... he didn't speak to me the rest of the day.

Anyway, last night I had a great dinner with a friend at a korean barbeque place that was fantastic.  I am going out tonight and tomorrow night too - the food here is just so good!  Friday morning I am flying to Tokyo to visit Rachel- one of my roommates from senior year.  I am so excited!  I will let you all know how the trip goes when I get back next week!

 

Below is a video of Gil-Dong Elementary School's 3rd Grade Field Day.  These kids have been doing this for 2 days now and they line up like this all day.  It is hilarious!

Deokjeokdo Camping Trip!

         Our view from the tent in the morning!

Sitting on the beach watching the sunset

Another island we passed on the way to our island

Hi all,

 

It is a rainy Monday here in Seoul, and fall is definitely here.  I have finished teaching for today (I love Mondays- my 4th grader's are really good and so fun to work with!), and I wanted to give you all an update on my weekend in the great outdoors.  I stayed in Friday night to get some sleep, and I woke up early on Saturday and headed towards Incheon station (all the way on the west side of Seoul at the verrrry end of one subway line) to meet my friends Jason and Nick for camping.  We met up at the station then headed to the Incheon port to catch the ferry for Deokjeokdo Island.  A one hour ferry ride and a short bus ride later we were sitting on a beautiful beach looking out into the bay.  After some sunbathing on the beach, we swam out to a rustic metal boat out from shore.  The water was pretty chilly and once I climbed up on the boat I was freezing.  We only stayed on the boat a short time before heading back to the beach.  Starving, we headed to find some food.  Deokjeokdo, however, is pretty rural.  We found one restaurant and had a delicious meal that was incredibly overpriced/they totally saw us coming.  Following this, we headed back to the beach to set up camp.  The beach was small, but it had basketball nets, volleyball nets, 2 restrooms, and a wide stretch of sand that went back to the woods.  We chose a spot at the top of the sand in front of the trees.  The sunset was beautiful!  The beach, however, rapidly expands when the tide goes out.  We had never seen anything quite like it- the water went out for hundreds and hundreds of yards.  After it got dark, we walked out in the bay where the water had been over our heads only hours earlier.  It was really cool.  The metal boat and other fishing boats were just sitting on the sand.  We hung out and had some beers on the beach for awhile, but we went to bed pretty early, and all 3 of us crammed in the little tent.  One of my friends was nice enough to bring me a sleeping bag, and although the night was kind of chilly, in the sleeping bag all zipped in the tent, we were not cold at all.

 

We woke up early on Sunday and sat for a little while on the beach before heading to town.  Because we spent all of our cash on the outrageously expensive dinner Saturday night and the rural island didn't have any place that took debit cards, the man who owned the restaurant told us he would drive us to the ATM by the port at 9am.  After piling in the back of a truck with lots of fisherman, we finally got dropped off at Doekjoekdo's one ATM machine.  Finally with money, we found a restaurant and had a good brunch of rice and some sort of weird black sauce.  We had about five hours until the ferry left, so we hiked to a little beach we saw and laid out for a few hours.  Here, the tide also went out an extreme amount.  According to our calculations (aka Jason's footsteps), the tide went out 800 yards.  It was nuts, but it was also really cool.  The sand was more like mud and it was full of little critters - tons of crabs, snails, fish, etc.  We walked out across the flats to the water (which was dirty on this side of the island), then went back and got some sun before catching the ferry back to Incheon. 

 

Although I had a great weekend, I came back kind of pink.  It's only my face, and I don't think it is that bad.  Anyway, Koreans don't go in the sun -they constantly reapply sunscreen and apply skin whitening creams - tanning is a completely foreign concept to them- they avoid the sun at all cost.  All day the students stared at me, laughed and would say "Teacher, Your Face REDDDD."  Or they just per usual stare at me as if I am from outer space.  The other teachers keep asking me if I was ok.  The principal looked at me this morning and sincerely said "Is your health ok?  Uh, Andie, what happen your face?"  One vice principal goes, "Are you angry today?"  You red.  You look like fire engine," and the other vice-principal said, "what has happened to you?"  I reply, "sunburn," and he goes "NO, it CANNOT BE!" It cannot be! Cannot! Did you have a "cosmetic accident?"  No, I say, I am just a little sunburnt.  Five minutes later, the school secretary who doesn't speak a word of English tried to give me an icepack for my face.  So embarrassing.  Late afternoon, the principal walked by, handed me a tomato, laughed, and walked away.  I'm pretty sure he was making fun of me.  Now I have learned my lesson though, and will not be venturing out in the sun for the next year of my life. 

 

Miss you all!

Happy 21st Sarah!

These are my 4th grade extracurricular students learning to sing Happy Birthday!  Happy Birthday Sarah! Have a great day!

Because nothing says Korea like Obama in a speedo.

This lovely poster greets me every time I enter the subway, and I think it really says a lot about Korea.  I wish I could tell you what it says, what it is for, or why on earth they slapped President Obama's head on this body, but my Korean language skills are still nonexistent.  I giggle every time I see this, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  

I <3 Korean Baseball

The Gardens at Gyeongbokgung Palace - the best part of the grounds

                                                      Gyeongbokgung Palace

                                             Korean Baseball at Jamsil Stadium!

Hi all,

 

My time here is flying by so quickly!  I am staying busy all the time, and I am still having the time of my life.  I just got home from scoping out gyms with my coteacher (I finally found a good one!), and then she was nice enough to take me to a really good traditional Korean dinner.  Sometimes I still cannot believe how welcoming everyone has been to me the last few weeks! 

Last Thursday, I met up with about 15 people after work and headed to Jamsil stadium to watch a baseball game.  Unlike the States, in Korea, fans can bring their own beer into the stadium.  If you get there early, you can "tailgate" (sans actual tailgate) in the stands. I had no idea it would be so crazy.  Korean baseball fans are really intense- the entire time they are standing and yelling, singing, chanting, and banging these huge plastic tubes together.  Everyone follows the lead of one really goofy male cheerleader who stands in the front of the crowd with a whistle.  It was hilarious.  Unfortunately, none of us knew enough Korean to join in the singing and chanting, but a good time was had by all. 

 

Friday, I was invited out to dinner by my landlords.  They are an older couple that live on the top floor of my building, and they are making a sincere effort to help all 9 foreign teachers living in the building.  We went to a fantastic little restaurant around the corner from the building and I had a delicious roast duck for dinner.  After the meal, they invited us up to their apartment where we sat on the roof and chatted while we stuffed ourselves with fruit (specifically the grapes- they are really good here- unlike anything I've ever had), rice cakes (I'm obsessed with the rice cakes here.  The ones that have a red bean in the middle of the rice goo are delicious), peanuts, beer, and soju.  Anyway, the landlords (who insist we call them Mama Liz and Papa Kim) are really generous and helpful.  Although their English is not great (Papa Kim usually has no idea what's going on- he just nods and smiles a lot), they do their best to make us comfortable and welcome.  I am still working on getting my apartment like I want it.  I need a few more items (for example, a lamp.  I only have one big flourescent light on the ceiling so I asked for a lamp from my school out the budget they are given for me to use.  I received a very futuristic looking lamp thing that looks something akin to a security surveillance camera.  It is also flourescent.  And ugly. Great.)

 

Saturday I spent the day exploring Gyeongbokgung Palace with my friend Sam.  It was kind of bizarre - it looks quite like an ancient kingdom was dropped into the middle of a parking lot in the middle of an urban city.  The palace was also empty and although it was sprawling, most of it looked exactly the same to me.  I would love to say this was a great day trip, but I got bored pretty quickly.  Sunday we went to Seoul Forest (think Central Park).  Each weekend I am hoping to get at least one cultural item checked off.  Although I'm here for a year, Seoul is one of the biggest cities and the world, and if I'm not careful I'm going to miss out on really getting to know the city.  Saturday night I spent out in the Itaewon area of Seoul for a friend's birthday celebration.  Itaewon is fun because it's mostly foreign bars filled with ex-pats and everyone is speaking English.  I love the area, but I need to start seeing nightlife in other parts of the city.

 

Monday I officially became an Alien!  After teaching 5 classes on Monday, I headed to the immigration office where I picked up my Alien Registration Card.  This was immediately followed by a bank account (so I finally got paid!).   Tuesday, I got a cell phone! I have been without a phone since I left home in July, and I feel like my quality of life just increased dramatically with my new cell phone plan.  I'm slowly becoming a real person.  (Unfortunately this means I now have real bills to pay.)  Wednesday night I went to another baseball game with a friend.  One of my co-teachers gave me last minute tickets, so I got to see more crazy Korean baseball. 

 

Unfortunately, today is Thursday which is probably the worst day of my week.  On Thursday I teach 6 classes to, in the words of my coteacher "wicked" students.  I shouldn't even use the word teach - it's more like I do damage control, yell, and pray that no one dies in my classroom.  Some days I feel like I'm not even working at a school- more like an insane asylum.  All of my 6th graders are, well, probably typical 6th graders - really obnoxious.  Class 6-1, however, is just horrific.  Most of them speak no english- they don't even understand basic directions.  Today, besides confiscating every near and dear item to their little 6th grade hearts, I had to deal with a girl cutting one kid's clothes off with scissors and a kid sobbing because he was poked in the eye.  The students here are all very violent - even the 4th graders.  It's a huge cultural difference that I cannot seem to get over.  The teachers don't even flinch as the kids punch each other, pull each other's hair, and slap one another.  (Then again, the teachers will hit the students too sometimes).  It's painful to watch, and I find myself pointing and yelling "No touching!" way more than I should.  It's at times like this that I realize I'm really not qualified to be a teacher.  I have a degree in History which doesn't exactly translate well into classroom management. 

 

The kids I teach are also all on really different levels which is frustrating.  I have kids who literally can't say one word, and others who are practically fluent.  For example, the other day after class I had a 4th grader come up to me and say, "I hear you are from Atlanta.  I went once to Atlanta.  I was on the way to Florida.  I didn't leave the airport, but I found the Atlanta airport to be very satisfactory."  Satisfactory?  Where did he learn that?  The kids also are still fascinated by me.  I realize I'm American, but I might as well be from outer space.  A lot of times the kids will stare at me in the hall, and if I say Hello, they giggle and run away.  It's ridiculous.  I'm also realizing it is a mixed blessing to live so close to my school.  Every day I literally am escorted to school by a passle of Korean children who are all YELLING "HELLO TEACHER" repeatedly.  It's nuts. 

 

Anyway, I am looking forward to the weekend, and I will keep everyone updated on my adventures!

Coteachers and Dental Hygiene

This is my 5th grade co-teacher!- I call her Jenny. She's wonderful.

These are my other 3 co-teachers- I call them Sue, SJ, and Sophia!  They're great!

Hi!

Today was a great day!  I taught 4 5th grade classes this morning.  It was pretty uneventful.  It was better than yesterday's classes I think.  Yesterday I presented a powerpoint presentation that I had not seen before- my coteacher said she had one made with our vocabulary on it so I could use that for teaching comparisons.  I meant to look at it before class, but I forgot.  Anyway, after getting through taller/shorter, older/younger, etc., I come to bigger/smaller.  The example sentences were "My eyes are bigger than yours." and "My eyes are smaller than yours," and these included pictures of Asian characters.  All the kids thought it was hilarious, but I thought it was kind of offensive haha.  I also accidentally clotheslined a kid yesterday.  Before each class can leave, each child has to answer a "password"/vocabulary phrase to get past me at the door.  Yesterday, this one kid looked really scared.  I was passing someone else out, and this kid decided to make a run for it.  As he was about to bolt past me at the door, on absolute reflex I stuck my arm out and clotheslined this poor 6th grader.  I felt really bad, but I felt worse when my co-teacher was like, "oh, he doesn't speak English.  He just moved here from China.  That kid has no idea what's going on."  Haha oops.

Anyway, today was a great day.  At lunch today, I ate octopus.  I don't think I actually would have gotten it if I knew what it was, but I was deceived in the lunch line (I thought it was baby corn hah) and after I sat down I realized I'd taken a huge spoonful of octopus tentacles.  They were surprisingly good with rice, but they weirded me out a little bit.  My Korean lunch friend, Jenny, also taught me about cleaning products today.  I asked her for help because I can't figure out what I need to buy to wipe off my counters or clean the bathroom- all the cleaning products look exactly the same to me and all the labels are in Korean.  I've yet to wipe my counters with anything but water, and it's beginning to really gross me out.  She is so helpful!

This afternoon I had another moment where I thought there must be a hidden camera somewhere.  I was sitting at my desk working on a lesson plan when the principal comes over talking to me in English that I apparently did not understand. I clearly said the wrong thing or nodded at the wrong time, and then he goes, "Andie come." So I jumped up and followed him to the the large sink area outside the bathroom where he proceeded to give me a demonstration on brushing my teeth.  I'm not sure what I did to deserve that awkward moment, but I watched intently as he told me about dental hygiene in Konglish.  I don't brush my teeth after lunch, and I think that someone must have caught on to this fun fact.  As my friend Rachel told me, however, "sometimes you just have to play the foreigner card," and I'm still not planning on packing my toothbrush every morning.

After school, I went with all the teachers and administration to a duck restaurant.  The dinner was for all new teachers and administrators and, apparently, me.  I wasn't really aware of this until I had to stand up and "say something."  Although no one knows what I am saying, for some reason this makes me really uncomfortable.  I've already had to go on morning announcements and "introduce myself" at two faculty meetings to the same people.  So tonight, I stood up and start with "Hi." and everyone goes "Hi!!" because I think that's the only word some of them even know.  Anyway, I made up a little speech then sat down.  I sat with my English co-teachers on the floor at the end of this very long little table.  They are SO nice!  The entire dinner they were telling me about the food, and laughing with  me as I struggled with chopsticks.  The dinner was amazing- it was kimchi, duck in salad, duck on a grill, baked duck, and some sort of duck casserole, salads, soups, beer, soju, and sodas.  I was practically soju hazed by a vice principal.  I'm not a huge soju fan, but I took my shot like a champ.  I also was given beer and strawberry wine.  Everyone was so generous and so helpful.  They are so concerned that I am lonely and miss home- they are always inquiring into what I do and if I want to go places or meet people.  One of the teachers has 2 children in college and she wants me to go out with them- she was so excited when I said I did indeed want to make Korean friends.  I remember just sitting there looking around at dinner and thinking that it was absolutely amazing- I was having so much fun and I was thinking I didn't know how I could go back to the States and have a regular office job after this much excitement.  The food is amazing, the people are so wonderful, and everything is just so relaxing and new.  

After dinner, the teacher who bought my microwave for me and read me the instruction manual (refer to older post), gave me a bottle of Pepsi he took from the restaurant, and my co-teachers invited me to go get coffee with them.  We walked to a coffee shop and sat for over an hour talking.  Two of them are a little older (even though they don't look like it at all!) and both have two teenage daughters.  One of them, Jenny, kind of reminds me of my mom.  She's very concerned about me, and although she is my co-worker, I do let her mother me some.  It's kind of nice to have that.  The other two are both very young and cool.  All of them speak very good English.  They say they don't, but I always understand what they are saying so I think it's fine.  They tell me places to go, what I need to see in Korea, and how to navigate the city.  I'm so happy they are so nice to me and so helpful - I feel so lucky to be here!