Cambodia!

 Children bathing in the river on the boat from Siem Ream to Battambang

           View from the boat to Battambang from Siem Reap

                  View from the boat to Battambang from Siem Reap

View from the boat from Phnom Penh - heading up to Siem Reap

                                          Bamboo Island!

                          Long boat at Serendipity Beach, Sihanoukville

               Angkor Thom. This is where Tomb Raider was filmed...

                                            Bayon.  My favorite Angkor temple

                                         Angkor Wat at sunrise

                Elephant outside Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh

                  View of the Museum in Phnom Penh from our guesthouse

                              The bamboo train.  Battambang.

It's Tuesday afternoon, and I am back at work for the first time since mid December.  It's unsurprisingly freezing outside, and I am wishing I was back in the sunshine of Cambodia.  My friend Sam and I flew out on the 22nd of January to Phnom Penh.  We spent the following day exploring the hot, dusty city.  We ate breakfast outside on the riverfront watching tuktuks go by us.  We explored several wats, saw the Royal Palace, went to several markets, and toured Wat Phnom and the surrounding area where I was yelled at for approaching an elephant and then subsequently chased by a small, but terrifying, little monkey.  We stopped for a shaded break at a French restaurant and spent a couple hours lounging on the terrace admiring the bustling street and French architecture and liveliness of the city.

I forgot how much I loved Southeast Asia. For one thing, I strangely love the pungent smell- It smells distinctly of an exotic mix of bus exhaust and incense.  The streets are always a little dirty, but incredibly vibrant.  There are children, sometimes not even clothed children, running around, street vendors selling anything you could ever want on a stick, unidentifiable and exotic fruit in bunches,friendly but emaciated cows wandering around, and the sights and smells kind of combine to make an atmosphere that is unbelievably alive.  Not to mention, it is always amusing to observe just how many people can actually fit on one motorbike at the same time.  It was good to be back.
     

As much as I liked the atmosphere of Phnom Penh, we woke up early the following morning and took a 5 hour boat trip to Siem Reap.  We rode on top of the boat- sitting on the floor against a low railing so we would have the best views.  This was a highlight of the trip - the scenery was beautiful and the breeze felt wonderful.  We passed lots of little wooden boats and shanty villages in the brown water.  Getting off the boat in Siem Reap, we were greeted by a lot of tuktuk drivers all competing for our attention and yelling offers to take us anywhere we wanted.  We had nothing lined up, but decided to take a tuktuk to the Siem Reap Hostel.  We checked in there then headed to lunch.  Siem Reap was very dusty, but the town was adorable.  We toured a market for a bit and bought more stuff that we didn't have room for in our small backpacks, but that is part of the fun.  
     

Monday morning we decided to do a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat.  As the largest religious structure in the world and as (supposedly) the best tourist site in Southeast Asia, Angkor Wat is awesome.  It was built in the 12th century during the rise of the Angkor Empire which was arguably one of the most impressive and large civilizations of the time (albeit probably unknown to many westerners).  Angkor had a fairly advanced civilization - most notably their irrigations systems were quite impressive.  Angkor Wat is the largest of the temples, but it is surrounded by other temple ruins in the surrounding area.  You could spend days exploring all of the ruins, but our plan was to power through it in one day.
     

We arrived outside Angkor Wat about 5:30 in the morning.  Our tuktuk driver dropped us off, pointed us in the right direction, and we literally stumbled (by the glowing light of my itouch) through the dark on the uneven stones until we reached a pond toward the edge of the temple where a small group of people stood awaiting sunrise.  Finally, the sun came up, and everyone stood in awe at the temple reflected on the still water.  We explored the temple then met our tuktuk driver and headed to several others throughout the morning.  My favorite was Bayon.  I unfortunately was pretty sick on Monday (most likely a combination of horrible sun poisoning and food poisoning), so I didn't get to fully enjoy exploring.  There were several wats that I just sat outside on a bench while Sam explored. The stairs on most of them are incredibly tall and steep, and I just didn't have it in me to go inside.  I did find it very interesting, however, that tourists are allowed to climb all over the temple ruins.  There are no stipulations about what you can and cannot touch or where you can step.
     

I slept the rest of Monday so I didn't get to see much more of Siem Reap, but I felt a bit better by the time we once again got up before dawn to catch the boat headed to Battambang.  I read an article about Battambang months ago, and I was the one very insistent about this unnecessary part of our trip.  Unfortunately, I also read that the boat trip is sometimes dangerous and "not for the faint of heart."  I've jokingly  been told by friends that I have "a weak disposition," but I decided that I really wanted to see the supposedly spectacular views from the boat.  This boat was much smaller than the first boat.  We again climbed on top of the boat and sat on the floor next to very low little wooden railings.  The boat headed out on the Tonle Sap (picture a giant lake) and we realized the boat was noticably lilting one direction.  The dreadlocked man sitting next to me informed me the same boat trip unfortunately sank 2 weeks ago so he hoped this one would be ok.  I took this time to uselessly double ziploc bag all my electronics.  The "captain" stuck his head up and motioned for everyone to get on one side of the boat.  This helped a little bit, but the little boat struggled all the way until we reached the river.  Once on the river, things were a bit smoother, and the view was amazing.  We went through all sorts of floating villages and children waved at us as they bathed and played in the river.  We passed boats full of fruit and goods, and everything was unbelievably colorful.  The boat "captain" unfortunately ran us into the shore about ten times during the trip and a little man with a paddle would have to come push us off the bank, but luckily the boat never sank.
     

At Sam's insistence, I bought a ridiculously large straw floppy hat to wear on the boat trip to cover my head, and I covered up in a lovely little cardigan.  Unfortunately, my get-up didn't really match the pierced, tattooed, backpacker type sitting on top of the boat with us, and Sam finally laughed at me and told me I looked too "Gone With the Wind."  I guess I'll never escape my Southern upbringing.  

     

After 8 hours of sun and motion sickness powder packets, I was more than ready to get off the boat when we finally reached Battambang.  Battambang wasn't as charming as I thought it would be.  It was still distinctly dusty and Cambodian.  We took a tuktuk to a "hotel" where we paid only 3 dollars to stay in what I can only assume now was some sort of strange brothel.  We dropped off our backpacks and then headed out to ride the bamboo train.  The bamboo train is a way that Cambodians transport goods.  The country has a poor rail transport so instead of only moving limited amount of goods, the people created the bamboo trains.  If a real train is coming, the bamboo train can simply and quickly be removed from the tracks.  It makes perfect sense.  You can ride on these little transport devices from one stop to the next for a small fee to the bamboo train owner.  The train is small and flat with no sides and you just sit on the bamboo facing forward while a motor on the back powers the thing along.  I thought it would go no faster than, say, the train that putters around a zoo.  Tourism fail.  The little train amazingly darts loudly down the tracks at breakneck speed.  Sam and I sat crossleg on the bamboo trying not to smile or talk since we were essentially the windshields in this bamboo train situation.  I ate an unhealthy amount of mosquitos and probably ingested more through my nose.  After almost hitting a cow that wandered out of the brush onto the tracks and a small boy who threw a stick at us, we finally reached the next station.  We then insisted to go right back since it was getting dark and the only thing worse than the bamboo train is probably riding the bamboo train in the dark.

Since Battambang wasn't as exciting as we hoped, we woke up before dawn again on Wednesday and got on a bus headed to the beach.  After eleven hours of incessant honking and loud Asian music videos blaring from a motorcoach tv, we finally reached Sihanoukville.  We got a nice little room right on the beach and then ate dinner at a really nice little restaurant for my 23rd birthday.  

The rest of the week was spent lounging on the beach, eating fresh seafood, watching fireshows, and really just enjoying vacation.  I even got a manicure and pedicure on the beach (highly, highly unsanitary. I know) from a little Cambodian lady.  The last day I finally even gave into one lady's prodding and allowed her to thread my armpits (not something I recommend.  Especially not in public.)  We did decide to spend one day on Bamboo Island which is about an hour off the coast of Sihanoukville.  We got tickets for a longboat headed that direction, but it was just about the scariest thing I've ever been on (not including the bamboo train).  The boat was way too crowded and every time someone stood up, the entire thing rocked quickly to one side and everyone would scream.  I was crammed next to a fat and shirtless old man wearing a bandana on top of his head and sporting black fingernail polish.  He had a strange looking pipe contraption sticking out of his backpack and Sam asked him what it was since it looked so interesting.  He pulled it out, put his mouth on one end of it, blew very hard, and demonstrated that something would shoot out of it.  He then added that it was "to kill things."  End Conversation.  Bamboo Island was quiet and beautiful, and we spent the afternoon lounging, swimming, and eating barbequed barracuda.  The Cambodian coast is absolutely beautiful.

This entry would not be complete if I did not somehow try to explain to you the horrible poverty of Cambodia.  The country spent almost five years at war in the 1970's only to come out of that facing Pol Pot's gruesome communist regime, widespread genocide (I chose not to go see Tuol Sleng or the Killing Fields), and the loss of many physical and ideological cultural aspects of the country.  Only fairly recently has Cambodia begun to come back to life, and the battle wounds of their history are still very apparent.  On the boat and bus rides I took through the country, all you have to do is mildly observe to realize that a huge percentage of the population lives in tiny, rickety shacks.  Some of them don't even have real walls or roofs, but are partly covered with a tarp.  As quaint as they look from a distance, it isn't quite as idyllic when you realize people actually live there.  The most disturbing thing to me, however, was the street children and the deformed or crippled children and adults that beg for money.  I'll begin with the latter.  In Phnom Penh in particular, there were a large amount of horrible deformities that I had never seen before- specifically in small children.  These deformities were unlike anything I had ever seen before and looked as if they should be on a TLC documentary.  Some of the deformities were on adults, but most of the adults were crippled with missing limbs.  I imagine this may have something to do with Cambodia's landmine situation, but I am not sure.  I debated a lot about whether to give the deformed or crippled beggars money.  I do not know what type of system Cambodia has in place for those with disabilities, but as most countries lacking strong infrastructures have really horrible conditions (if anything at all) for the disabled, I imagine Cambodia cannot offer them a lot.  As for the street children- they are hearbreakingly young.  I saw one boy who could not have been older than five carrying an infant that could not have been more than a week old.  These children seem to be everywhere peering up at you with big eyes.  Some of them try and sell trinkets or postcards, but most just put their little hands together and stare at you.  I made an immediate decision not to give anything to any child on the street since I feel like that just makes me part of the problem and not any sort of solution to get them out of the situation.  However, to be responsible and clear my conscience, I made a donation to M'Lop Tapang (http://www.mloptapang.org), a haven for street children in the Sihanoukville area in hopes that my dollar will go further this way than had I given it directly to the children.  Check it out.

Despite the poverty, the trip was a blast and I learned a lot about Cambodia.  I am now even more excited to leave next week for my big trip into Laos and Vietnam.  

-Andie

Final Week of "Flying With English Wings"

    Skyblue Pegasus, Skyblue Pegaus, What do you see?  I see a Yellow Snowman looking at me.

                      I see a Yellow Snowman Looking at Me!

My favorite result of the "commercials" my class made --"Wow! I'm so happy!  Happy gum make funny and smile.  Oh! It's Yummy"

     Last day of district winter English camp

                             My students at my school's winter English camp!

It's hard to believe that English camp is finally over tomorrow!  After 2 weeks of district camp (Fly With English Wings) and 1 week of camp at my school, I am ready to be finished with camp.  I thought camp would be really fun, and while it is definitely really easy, no one, including me, wants to be there.  District camp ended with a talent show- I am going to try to post videos above.  The kids were really cute!  At my school's camp this week, things have been pretty uneventful, but most of my lessons have not gone as planned.  The first day, we watched a bunch of commercials, and I put the kids in groups so they could make their own commercials.  All of the groups made pictures of an advertisement, most of which did not make any sense.  Unfortunately, I think this activity was way over their head (see photos above).  I also played Twister (no one understood the rules), and did a scavenger hunt (never do this.  Ever.)  What I hoped would be a really fun week, has mostly frustrated me.  I do not have a co-teacher during camp so explaining directions is really difficult.  

The best part of camp, however, was today.  We read Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? and then I explained (in what I thought was very clear and explicit manner) to pick any animal and any color and make your own page and we were going to make a class book.  I even wrote the directions on the board:

-Draw any animal

-Color it

-Write "I see a _____________ looking at me." at the bottom.

I told them to be creative and I thought it would work out well. I was excited to make our book. I should have monitored better so I guess this is partly my fault that I ended up with 3 skyblue pegasus', 4 pink rabbits, 2 playboy bunnies, 1 blue unicorn, and 1 yellow snowman.  

Our book now reads something like this: "Skyblue Pegasus Skyblue Pegasus What do you see?  I see a playboy bunny looking at me." 

These kids literally could not tell me what the weather was like today, but when it comes to skyblue pegasus' and playboy theyre really on top of their english.  

I leave tomorrow for a 9 day much needed vacation in Cambodia!  I will be sure and let you all about that when I return on the 1st of February!

Love,

Andie

Happy New Year from the ROK

New Years Eve Celebration in Seoul!

Gardens at Gyeongbokgung in the Snow

Gyeongbokgung in the snow

Rachel and I in the MAC Building at the JSA on our DMZ Tour (We're in North Korea. Kind of.)

North Korean Military looking into South Korea at the JSA during our DMZ Tour

Happy 2010!

The holiday season in Korea was merry, and I finished up the school year on December 18th.  In full hibernation mode, I didn't do too much celebrating besides seeing the Nutcracker Ballet at the Seoul Arts Center and having a fun gift swap nuraebong (karaoke room) night with  my friends.  After the freezing weather in Seoul, I was ready for warmer climate, and I flew all the way home to Georgia on December 20th.  Despite the jetlag, being home was absolutely wonderful.  I got to visit with family and friends, sleep on a mattress that gives, drive my car, watch tv, use a dryer (no more crunchy jeans!), and eat hummus, Mexican food, and other wonderful things.  As much fun as I had at home, it made me realize that I am not ready to leave Korea just yet-- I was anxious to get back.  I decided to spend New Years in Seoul, and trekked back across the Pacific on December 29th only to be greeted by snow and ice.  

New Years Eve in Seoul was a sight to see.  I made the unfortunate decision (at the time I thought this was a great idea), to stand outside near City Hall and watch a gigantic bell ring at midnight.  Not only is the bell exciting, but everyone brings packs of roman candles into the streets and at midnight, thousands of people start lighting them.  It's really fun, yet terrifying at the same time.  Luckily, I survived this Korean version of Times Square involving fire.  Before I arrived that evening, I thought New Years Eve at City Hall was a cultural "must-see" for my time here.  Granted, it was interesting, but I have never, ever been so cold in my entire life and will never, ever feel compelled to stand outside to ring in a new year in the future.  Next year, I plan to be in a cocktail dress watching any "must-see" cultural action from the comfort of a television.  

I started District Winter English Camp on January 4th.  For two weeks, I am working from 9-12 at a nearby elementary school for a camp with the lovely title, "Fly With English Wings."  My co-teacher and I teach the same lesson multiple times, and I've been getting kind of bored, but it is fairly easy and even though I'm only working 15 hours a week I am getting overtime pay. Not a bad deal at all.  I'm actually kind of excited for Friday when my group will perform a dramatic interpretation of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"  On Monday, district camp will end and I will start a one week English Camp at my elementary school.  I am kind of nervous about this, but I think my lesson plans are fun, and I'm excited to see how it goes.

The last week, has been miserably cold in Seoul.  On the 4th, the city got more snow than it had seen in a century.  As much as I would have favored amping up my hibernation mode, my friend Rachel flew in from Tokyo on the 5th for a weeklong visit.  We had so much fun, and I am proud to say that I think I now know the city well enough to show everyone around (so all who read this please come visit me for your free tour).  We toured Gyeongbokgung Palace (stunningly beautiful in the snow), shopped the traditional shops at Insa-dong, ate tremendous amounts of Korean food, walked around the City Hall area, the Gangnam area, and Bokchon Folk Village.  Saturday, we got up early and went on a DMZ tour.  We got to go into the Joint Security Area where we awkwardly took pictures of stone-still ROK soldiers staring at the North and more photos of North Korean military with binoculars looking into the South.  We were also allowed into the MAC Building where we technically got to stand in North Korea (kind of).  This was followed by a hike down into the 3rd tunnel (one of the many tunnels North Korea dug in attempt to get into South Korea), and an observatory deck that looks into North Korea.  The day was really informative, and Rachel and I had a really good time.  

I will try and be better about updating my adventures!  Hope all of you are having a great start to the new year!

-Andie

"Teacher Angry"

                                                                  War Museum

                                                                  War Museum

                                                                 War Museum

                                                Su, SJ, me, Sunyoung at Sunyoung's wedding!

Happy Tuesday!

It is Tuesday evening in Korea, and I am catching up on a lot of chores and listening to Christmas music.  I just got home from grocery shopping which is always an adventure.  Every time I grocery shop I have a mild anxiety attack.  There are at least 4 grocery stores (do not picture American supermarket- picture dirty, crowded stores with lots of unidentifiable food) and the street market within a 5 minute walk of my apartment.  All of the grocery stores have a person whose job is to stand in the aisles with a microphone and YELL deals and sales (obviously, in Korean.)  As if boxes stacked up in the aisle, throngs of pushy old women, my inability to read a single label (I buy things based on the pictures on the front.  As you can imagine this does not always work out so well), and not knowing where to find most of what I need is not stressful enough, there is someone just shouting at you in a foreign language the entire time.  It's kind of funny in a "this actually give me anxiety" way.

 Today was a nice day in Seoul- it is still freezing, but it has started snowing which is at least pleasant to watch from the window (some of which are open.  I will never understand this, but the explanation usually amounts to "the air is not fresh").  School is winding down for the students, and they are definitely behaving like it is too.  Today, I became so frustrated with one 6th grade boy, I asked him to leave the class.  I sent him back to his homeroom, and although I'm not sure what they did to him, I gathered he got in big trouble.  He also had to come apologize to me later.  The rest of the students during the day would walk by me and put their fingers on their head to make little horns and say, "Teacher angry!"  Yes, that's right kids, hold on to your hats because Ms. Ban IS angry.  Not all of it is like this though- most of my classes in the last week have been fun.

I think it would make my life easier if I knew all the kids names.  Unfortunately, I do not have the mental capacity to learn 700 Korean names.  I know most of my "favorites," and there are some kids with English names that I remember - such as Transformer, Brain (I'm pretty sure he meant to be Brian), and the best friends in the 6th grade who named themselves Tom and Jerry.  They always remind me "teacher, we best friends."  Not knowing the names is not usually a big deal, but sometimes it is hard to get a kid's attention.  For example, today a girl in the back of my class was just chattering away.  After a generic, "everyone be quiet," "Look up here please!" and "listen!" I tried, "Team 5! Team 5!" (hoping someone in her group would tap her), and finally a sharp, "In the back! Be Quiet!" and "You in the blue!"  I have to remember sometimes that some of these students literally speak NO English.  They don't study, they don't go to "academy" (a topic I will get to in a minute), and, frankly, they do not care.  None of the phrases I say mean ANYTHING to them.  I have to tap desks a lot to get their attention.

A lot of my students, including the little ones go to what they call "Academy."  I knew kids spent a lot of time after school studying with private tutors at these academies, but I did not realize how intense it was until I was practicing "daily routines" with my 6th graders.  Many of them wrote on their daily schedules that they are in class until 10-11PM.  Some of them don't even go to bed until 1am.  I was shocked- they're in the 6th grade.  From what I've gathered, "academy" covers many subjects, but I can definitely tell the kids who focus on English and those who do not.  Academy supplements the education system here, and I think anyone who can afford it sends their kids to these intense lessons.  Although I don't think academy is really healthy for the students, it does not surprise me that Korea is such a technological powerhouse- if you shove education down kids throats like that you're bound to end up with a pretty impressive workforce eventually.

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to get to attend my advisor's wedding.  Korean weddings are very different that American weddings.  To begin with, you don't give the couple gifts - you give them money.  When you arrive at the wedding, you put your cash in a special envelope with your name on it, and then you turn the envelope in to a man at the door.  The wedding was at a wedding hall- apparently, there are a lot of these all over Seoul.  There are a lot of weddings going on at one time- all in different rooms.  The turnover is fast too- the hall gets you in and out of there in no time.  The room we were in looked like a ballroom of a hotel and was full of people.  I sat with my coteachers, and we were served lunch.  While everyone was eating and talking, the bride walks in and the ceremony takes place while people eat.  After a short ceremony, people sporadically get up from their tables to take pictures with the wedding party (No one smiles.  I asked why everyone looked so serious and was told "Koreans do not like to show emotions.").  I was forced into one picture which I could only gather was "the single girl" photo.  It was really uncomfortable because a lot of people were pointing at me - the only foreigner in the room.  Anyway, the wedding was fascinating and my advisor, Sunyoung, looked beautiful, and I am definitely glad I attended. 

Sunday, I entertained myself for several hours at the War Museum.  This museum houses not only tons of stuff from the Korean War, but from all wars in Korea's history.  Obviously, this adds up to a lot of stuff since Korea has been occupied by just about everyone over the years.  Honestly, those academies must be pretty amazing because after visiting the museum, I was even more impressed with how advanced Korea is for having such a, well, repressive history.  They are such impressive people.  Pictures of the museum are above.

Have a great week!

Love, Andie

  

My Fat South African Boyfriend

                                                           Gardens at Changdeokgung

                                                  Tour at Changdeokgung

                                                           Tour at Changdeokgung

                                                        Tour at Changdeokgung

                                                                Changdeokgung

Hi all,

It's the week after Thanksgiving, and I am still surprisingly not homesick.  Living and working here is still great fun.  Last weekend, I spent the weekend shopping in Insadong, a traditional shopping neighborhod.  Most of the stuff in in Insadong is handmade and distinctly Korean.  Despite the freezing weather, there is so much to see here, and I spent hours going in and out of all the little shops.  There is silver, stationary, jewelry, scarves, and knickknacks.  I also spent last weekend touring Chongdeok Palace for a few hours.  This palace, although smaller than Gyeongbok - the first palace I toured in Seoul - is very similar.  Like a lot of things in Korea, its quite simple, but it has exquisite details.  That day was also cold and damp, but it was definitely worth the 2 hour walking tour of the grounds.

Thursday was Thanksgiving Day, and in order to celebrate my friends and I went out to try live octopus.  A video is below.  The octopus isn't technically still alive when you eat it- although it is still moving.  The restaurant we went to took a live octopus and chopped it up on a plate then set it on the table.  Octopus' are surprisingly strong little fighters- getting the moving tentacles off the plate with chopsticks is difficult because they suction themselves to the plate so tightly.  When you chew it up they tentacles also suction to the inside of your mouth.  They taste alright, but are very chewy.   I'm really glad I tried it; however, I'm not sure I'll eat this again.

Friday night I had a proper Thanksgiving dinner at an American restaurant.  A large group of us made reservations and actually got to have turkey, stuffing, and pie.  It was amazing.  I continued eating my way through Saturday at the Fancy Food Show in Seoul.  Although the show, held at a large exhibition hall in a nice area of the city, was mostly coffee, there were some dessert samples and also lots of wine tasting.  

Anyway, teaching the last few weeks has been entertaining to say the least.  My 3rd and 4th grade class is still a huge challenge, but it is getting better.  The kids will not say anything in class though.  No matter what I say or do they all just stare at me like they are terrified and have no idea what is going on - I spend the entire 40 minutes mostly talking to myself.  I played a game with them on the first day where they had to stand in a circle.  After struggling to overcome the blank stares to actually get them in a circle, we played a get to know you game that was about as fun as pulling their teeth.  After we finished, I said, "Ok, good job, go sit down now."  All 23 little bodies just immediately dropped to the floor and continued to stare at me. I had to go tap a desk and demonstrate that I meant sit in your desk not on the floor.

In my other classes I always have to come up with different games to play.  One of my go-to games is Tic-Tac-Toe with words in the boxes.  (2 students stand up and one asks a question and one answers it using a vocabulary word in the box then the team gets an X or an O in that box).  For some reason, no one, including one of my co-teachers, can wrap their head around tic-tac-toe.  Even though they have started calling it "Little Bingo," it still seems to confuse the majority of my classes.  Go figure.

My students are amusing, but I don't think any of them can compete with my principal and vice-principals.  On Thursday our school's teachers had a volleyball game against the teachers at a neighboring elementary school.  The school brought along their English teacher, and I talked to her while we watched the game.  My principal, clad in a windsuit, walked up and asked her if she had a boyfriend.  He then added, "Andie...she...boyfriend.  He...ummm... he South Africa!  He verrrry, verrrrry FAT! (make awkward large gestures using windsuit)"  He then proceeded to crack up and walk away.  I don't even know where he comes up with this stuff.  My vice-principal is also hilarious.  He doesn't speak any English, but at 4:40 on the dot every day he throws his arm up and points to the door and yells, "GO TO YOUR HOME!"  At first it would startle me, but now it just makes me smile.

I miss you all, and I will try to be better about updating my blog!

Love, 
Andie

Thanksgiving Dinner in Korea=Live Octopus

This was my Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm not sure I'll eat it again, but it was surprisingly delicious.

<3,>

Happy Thanksgiving From Seoul!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I've spent this week trying to teach the kids here about the holiday.  Here is the result:

My class with their I am thankful for leaf projects.  Unfortunately, I do not have a close-up of the student who was thankful for "Cake, Food, IceCream, and Money."

This is one of my favorite students.  He is thankful for "his job."  

The student in blue told the student in gray that "you be thankful that you have air, ok?" 

                                                                  Transformer!

She is thankful for "Funny School."  I'm not sure I'm doing a good job haha.

I told the students to label the food in their Thanksgiving books.  This student decided to make a dialogue and draw pictures.  Love overachievers.

My favorite Thanksgiving book cover.  Apparently this is what Thanksgiving looks like in Korea.

                                                                      Santa Clause?

                                Everyone loves turkey in a bowtie.

My market!

Since I moved in a few months ago, I've been meaning to share some photos of the lovely little market I have down the street from my apartment.  I walk through it twice a day going and coming from school.  Sometimes I like to just go wander through it because there is just so much to look at there.  I love it!

Fresh Fish at my market

They sell any vegetable you can imagine. I'm still embarrassingly bad at pronouncing most of it.

                                        The herb and root stall at the market

                      A view of the market that is right down the street from my apartment and school!

Penpals and Lantern Festival

                                    Lanterns at the Seoul Lantern Festival!

                              Zodiac Lanterns at the Seoul Lantern Festival

                                                        Colorful 4th Grade Penpal letter!

Hi all,

I hope you are having a good weekend!  The weeks are just flying by over here, and I am still having the time of my life.  My students never cease to make me smile.  I like observing how every single conflict -from a fight to who rolls the dice first in a board game - can all be solved by rock paper scissors.  They play this constantly, and are all very competitive about it.  It is funny to watch because whoever loses automatically just drops the conflict as if the other person winning rock paper scissors means that the other person was automatically right.  It's fascinating. 

My students have also all started to wear face masks.  Koreans are petrified of getting the "new flu," and they take a lot of precautions.  Despite the fact that they all eat family style at restaurants and don't have hand soap in the bathroom, almost everyone in the city walks around wearing a face mask.  Some students at school have indeed gotten the flu, but most have been back within a week.  My students love to tell me about the powers of Tamiflu and what it does for you if you "eat it."  Almost every day this week a student has said something like, "Miss Ban! Miss Ban! So and so had new flu.  He ate Tamiflu!  Now he (flex muscles, roar, or growl) not have flu.  He eat Tamiflu! (Flex muscles again to show strength of Tamiflu)"  The masks are easy to make fun of (I actually had a man last week sitting across from me on the subway wearing a full on gas mask.)  It's crazy.  The masks drive me nuts though in class because I can't tell who is talking when I hear noise and all their little English voices are muffled.  Yesterday I saw a child wearing a mask that covered most of his face and his jacket hood was covering his eyes and he walked straight into the wall.  I think that's what happens when you cover up too much.

My 4th grade extracurricular class wrote letters yesterday to my friend Christine's class in Atlanta.  They were so excited to hear that they would be getting letters back in a few weeks.  I was really proud of the letters they wrote- they worked really hard on them and many drew pictures on them with Korean flags or hearts or flowers.  For 4th graders who are only learning basic English they did a great job!  They were so adorable-- here are a couple samples and there is a picture above:

Dear Cierra and Anthony,
My name is so hun youn
How are you.  Nice to meet you Cierra and Anthony
What do you like to do?
I'm learn English. 
How do you feel?  I'm happy.
What do you like? I'm read a book.
Where are you? I'm South Korea
I am 4th grade
I like food I Birthday is May 5th
What do you birthday?
I hope to talk to you soon
Best, Sohun

#2:

Dear Ziquavious and Bionca
My name is Jae min Kim
How are you I'm happy
Nice to meet you Ziquavous
Do you like listen to music? like listen to music.
Where are you I'm Asia, South Korea, Seoul, GilDong Elementary School 4th grade, English class
I'm Birthday is August 5th
I'm like Food Kim-chi
My dream is Accountant.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Best, Jae min

These letters all just put a big smile on my face!  I'm writing more letters to a different friend's class on Monday with some of my older students so I hope that goes well too!  School has been going so well sometimes I forget it is even work.  The next month will be very busy though.  I wrote a proposal to the school a few weeks ago asking for overtime hours in the afternoons (since I only teach 22 hours a week and sit on facebook for the rest of they day).  They finally gave me four more classes to teach!  I'm really excited, not only for the extra pay, but so I'm not bored out of mind between 1 -4pm every single day.  The classes they gave me are extracurricular classes though, and they don't have a topic, so it is up to me to plan lessons regarding anything I want.  For next week there will be lessons on penpals, months of the year, and adjectives with MadLibs (for my 6th graders).  I hope it goes alright. The worst feeling is when I spend a lot of time planning something that I think will be great only to realize that no one has a clue what is going on and I only get deer in headlights looks from everyone in the class.

Anyway, my week went by quickly with nothing too exciting to report.  Lunch at school is still something I am getting used to - the other day I had the unfortunate circumstance of realizing that my "crunchy coleslaw" was staring at me.  In the lunch line I got excited to see coleslaw and helped myself to a big spoonful.  After one crunchy bite, I realized my food was looking at me.  My coleslaw was actually made of tiny little dried fish that still had eyes on it.  Gross.  Apparently, I need to inspect my food more carefully in the future.  Friday night I attended the Seoul Lantern Festival which was amazing!  Lanterns from all over the world are there and if you follow the stream through downtown there is a very long stretch of floating lanterns- it was a beautiful scene.  

I will continue to keep you all updated on my adventures.

Love,

Andie

Assimilation

Hi everyone!

Yet another week has passed in Seoul!  Last week the weather here was beautiful- chilly, but a nice crisp autumn.  Sunday, however, the weather got very chilly followed by yesterday and today only being about 30 degrees.  I knew coming over here that Seoul got cold, but I am really not prepared at all for this weather.  As in, before yesterday after school I didn't even have a pair of socks.  My friend saw me yesterday and started practically throwing winter clothes at me so I wouldn't freeze.  I didn't realize winter was such a, well, process.  I still haven't bought gloves, and according to my friends, I still don't own a warm enough coat to be living here.  My co-teacher asked me today where "is your muff?"  Muff??  I replied that I left it at home, and she told me I needed to get one.  I later had to google image search this just to figure out to what she was referring.  Saturday I will be going shopping in hopes of finding boots, socks, gloves, scarves, and a few thick sweaters.  I'm told I should also get some thermals (something else I had to google image search) and a hat.  My deep South winters have not prepared me well.

Luckily, yesterday was the first day Gil-Dong Elementary School decided to turn the heat on.  The heating system is really bizarre though.  The hallways of the school are all linoleum and concrete with rows of windows along one wall.  The windows, even in freezing weather, are sometimes left open with the outside doors that are intermittently placed down the hallway.  I think the hallway is colder than the outside weather.  You have to bundle up to go to the bathroom or walk between classes.  The classrooms have one big heat vent that comes down from the middle of the ceiling.  It gets pretty warm right underneath it, but the corners of the classrooms and around the doors and windows are still very cold.  Today, I wore my coat to teach, and all my kids stayed in their coats throughout their classes.  Some even had on earmuffs and gloves.  I'm pretty sure it's going to be a long winter for me.  Luckily, I did figure out how to work my heat today at home.  I have heat under my floor that makes my floor nice and toasty.  I'm not sure how much it actually heats up the room, but I'm content right now so I guess it will be ok.

Teaching is still going well.  I have been trying to come up with some new games to play since the ones in the book are really stupid.  Not only are they really complicated and unhelpful, they all involve cutting out picture cards out of the back of the text book.  Inevitably, half these cards end up on the floor or half the class loses their cards and can't play the game.  I can't decide how useful this curriculum is to the students.  In the 6th grade last week I was teaching the chapter "Will you help me, please?"  We have a CD we have to listen to and have the students repeat after it from a dialogue.  One of the repeat phrases was, "Honey, will you help me?"  This is fine for a native English speaker, but for language learners the Honey in front is really silly.  I heard a kid the other day ask another kid, "Honey, will you help me?"  I'm also currently teaching a chapter called, "Oh, That's Too Bad!"  I'm not sure how I feel about this being the automatic response to every ailment under the sun.  Someone has swine flu? A broken leg? A bloody nose? A tumor?  Oh that's too bad.  I also need to work on their responses to "How are you today?" (A question I ask all the time).  Most of the kids automatically say, "I AM SO-SO!!"  This is a response, yes, but in any real life situation (aka at a hotel, restaurant, taxi, etc. in an English speaking country) when someone, particularly a stranger, asks how you are, I feel like it is bizarre to just respond "I am SO-SO!!" then walk away. I know I'm supposed to mostly stick to the curriculum, but these kids mostly sound like little automatons, and not only should I teach these kids English, but I have to help them sound less ridiculous doing it too.  It's a really fun job. 

My school lunches are less fun.  I think since it has gotten colder, the food has gotten worse.  For example, today for lunch I ate rice, these weird fried potato things slathered in a ketchupy sauce, an tofu/potato soup.  Oh, and a scoop of seaweed.  Yesterday, I had rice, fishballs (like meatballs made of fish, but way worse than you are imagining), and kimchi.  We have soup every day.  I usually pass on it because it usually has fish in it, and even the smell of it makes my stomach turn.  We also have rice and kimchi every day.  I try and eat a little of everything, but it is really hard.  At least my efforts are noticed since sometimes my principal will tell me "Andie, you good man.  You adjust well to Korean food! Good adjust!"  My chopsticks skills are also quite impressive these days.  Last week we had spaghetti with hotdog sauce on it (I love "international" lunch days), and I didn't get a drop of anything on me, the table, or anyone seated around me.  I like to think eating spaghetti with chopsticks means that I have successfully assimilated into Korea.  That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Have a great week!

Love, Andie

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