Well my promise to write an entry every two weeks was complete and total BS. Having said that I'm making a resolution (longer word, therefore I take more stock in it) that I WILL WRITE TWICE A MONTH AT THE LEAST - though I'm pretty sure no one is actually reading this.
Anyways.
I've come to two major conclusions this week:
(1) Lou Diamon Phillips is hot & he should take more film rolls.
(2) I'm a magnet for weird Korean experiences.
The second conclusion was solidified after I ended up in the Pyeongchang Police Department on Saturday night. My trip to the epicenter of crime in PC was due to an extremely drunk-retired Korean monk, who currently owns the bowling alley. When I say drunk, I mean shit-canned - he was rolling around on a vacuum carrying a bottle of soju in one arm and a broom in the other. At one point he ran down the bowling lanes and straight into the pins (I will admit, I tried this immediately after him & got owned by the bowling machine)
Anyways, Mr. Monk got angry at my companions and I when we politely refused to eat pizza with him as we were tired of being the entertainment for everyone at the bowling alley. Basically, we gave him my credit card so we could pay and leave, but the man became became enraedg and wouldn't let us leave (during this time he also hid my bank card somewhere). Upon their arrival, the man was taken into custody - I'm thinking drunk tank type of thing.
But, it all worked out. Somehow the police got my card back from him & they returned it to me early the next morning. I'm still very confused about the whole subject, especially regarding where the man hid my bank card during the whole ordeal.
That is just one of many strange experiences I've had since I've been in Korea. I do think that one has topped all the others that I can share openly.
I'm off on a three week journey in about a week and a bit, so if I don't force myself to write before that. I'll do it as soon as I return.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, November 21, 2010
School Punishment in Korea is Strange(eeee)
Interesting school tidbits for those of you who are interested.
My school has ten minute passing periods and during every single one today this kid has had to come into the teacher's office & stand with his face against the wall. I have no idea what he did, I never have any idea what the punishments are for, I've just learned to accept that kids are going to be in the teacher's office staring at the wall or standing with their arms above their heads on a regular basis.
What I do find strange is that I had my 2nd graders (8th grade kids) soon to be 3rd graders make rules for my classroom for next semester as they will be the oldest grade. The punishments they were coming up for themselves for things were strange. Here are my three favorites so far:
"We shouldn't sleep in class. If you don't do this, you have to run a playground five times." - AKA, they have to run around the soccer field 5 times.
"We should dance at the virtual studio when we hit our friends in class." - AKA, they have to do a dance in front of the whole class.
"We shouldn't talk in class otherwise we sould have a conversation with Kate. If we couldn't answer the question, we should be do 'invisible chair'." - I still haven't completely figured this one out, I think it means if they talk in class & can't tell me why they are talking they have to do a wall sit (I only got wall sit because they demonstrated it for me).
Two weeks ago I did a Halloween theme thing with my high schoolers & I made them draw me a picture/describe the creepiest, most disgusting thing they could think of. This AWESOME girl drew a picture of a pretty girl with a meat cleaver in her head and blood SPURTING out of her eyeball, she made it even better by writing a story of how she came to be in that state. I hung it up on my fridge.
These are the times that I love my students.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving, America!
My school has ten minute passing periods and during every single one today this kid has had to come into the teacher's office & stand with his face against the wall. I have no idea what he did, I never have any idea what the punishments are for, I've just learned to accept that kids are going to be in the teacher's office staring at the wall or standing with their arms above their heads on a regular basis.
What I do find strange is that I had my 2nd graders (8th grade kids) soon to be 3rd graders make rules for my classroom for next semester as they will be the oldest grade. The punishments they were coming up for themselves for things were strange. Here are my three favorites so far:
"We shouldn't sleep in class. If you don't do this, you have to run a playground five times." - AKA, they have to run around the soccer field 5 times.
"We should dance at the virtual studio when we hit our friends in class." - AKA, they have to do a dance in front of the whole class.
"We shouldn't talk in class otherwise we sould have a conversation with Kate. If we couldn't answer the question, we should be do 'invisible chair'." - I still haven't completely figured this one out, I think it means if they talk in class & can't tell me why they are talking they have to do a wall sit (I only got wall sit because they demonstrated it for me).
Two weeks ago I did a Halloween theme thing with my high schoolers & I made them draw me a picture/describe the creepiest, most disgusting thing they could think of. This AWESOME girl drew a picture of a pretty girl with a meat cleaver in her head and blood SPURTING out of her eyeball, she made it even better by writing a story of how she came to be in that state. I hung it up on my fridge.
These are the times that I love my students.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving, America!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Resolution: I will blog at least twice a month.
Hello everyone!
Long time, no writing - sorry! I just got very caught up with school & my extracurricular activities (a lot of binge drinking & money spending). But, as I'm using November as a month to restore my health, sanity, and checkbook, I thought I'd also use it as a month to catch up on communication.
My life is progressing quite splendidly! I feel completely settled into Korean life and I'm 80% sure I'll end up staying here for at least another year. Some things still irk me almost daily (such as not having hot water unless I physically go push the buttons to turn it on) and I don't think I'll ever get use to being stared at. However, that is part of life & I've just learned to accept the good parts of life in Korea with the bad.
Teaching is going really well, I think I'm getting better and better everyday. Either that or I'm just getting faster at lesson planning & better at improvising things at the last minute. I've also become a master of simplifying my language, I can now speak in the most basic of terms while simultaneously miming the most bizarre actions. At this point I would pass mime school with flying colors.
I still don't really care for teaching at the Middle School, but I think that is due to my coteachers/subject matters more than the students. The Middle School is very strict about having me stick to the book's curriculum, I basically spend my classes , repeating phrases, trying to get the students to create their own sentences, and checking pronunciation. It is just repetitive & I don't feel like I'm able to use my creative side during these days. I try to bring a litte bit of fun into the classes as I can only imagine how bored the kids are.
On the flip side, I love being at the High School, it gives me an amazing rush to stand up in front of those kids. You can actually see the enjoyment on their faces & they cheer for me when I walk into the room, it is a really great feeling. The High School has given me free reign over whatever I want to do. They basically told me as long as the kids are speaking in class & enjoying themselves they don't care what I do, so I'm able to use my creative side a little.
That is all for now, I promise to the few of you that actually read this that I will do it at least twice per month.
Long time, no writing - sorry! I just got very caught up with school & my extracurricular activities (a lot of binge drinking & money spending). But, as I'm using November as a month to restore my health, sanity, and checkbook, I thought I'd also use it as a month to catch up on communication.
My life is progressing quite splendidly! I feel completely settled into Korean life and I'm 80% sure I'll end up staying here for at least another year. Some things still irk me almost daily (such as not having hot water unless I physically go push the buttons to turn it on) and I don't think I'll ever get use to being stared at. However, that is part of life & I've just learned to accept the good parts of life in Korea with the bad.
Teaching is going really well, I think I'm getting better and better everyday. Either that or I'm just getting faster at lesson planning & better at improvising things at the last minute. I've also become a master of simplifying my language, I can now speak in the most basic of terms while simultaneously miming the most bizarre actions. At this point I would pass mime school with flying colors.
I still don't really care for teaching at the Middle School, but I think that is due to my coteachers/subject matters more than the students. The Middle School is very strict about having me stick to the book's curriculum, I basically spend my classes , repeating phrases, trying to get the students to create their own sentences, and checking pronunciation. It is just repetitive & I don't feel like I'm able to use my creative side during these days. I try to bring a litte bit of fun into the classes as I can only imagine how bored the kids are.
On the flip side, I love being at the High School, it gives me an amazing rush to stand up in front of those kids. You can actually see the enjoyment on their faces & they cheer for me when I walk into the room, it is a really great feeling. The High School has given me free reign over whatever I want to do. They basically told me as long as the kids are speaking in class & enjoying themselves they don't care what I do, so I'm able to use my creative side a little.
That is all for now, I promise to the few of you that actually read this that I will do it at least twice per month.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
I get paid to sit around.
Since Wednesday, September 29th, I have only taught two days. I really don't do anything, but yet I have no idea where the time goes.
I'll sum up the events of my last week (more so I can remember them in a year from now)
29th: Middle School Exams - I sat at my desk all day & tried to plan ahead. In reality, I did nothing but read things online & stare out the window. It really was thrilling.
30th: High School Exams - I sat at my desk for the first half of the day until noon when we were excused from school. After being excused all of the teachers got into cars & drove to Jinbu to go for a walk in some famous forest with lots of temples (I still don't know why we went all the way there for the walk though). It was a lovely day, I learned to pray like a Buddhist, how to recognize the different time periods of Buddhist graves, and that getting stung by a bee in Korea hurts as bad as it does in North America. After our journey through the forest, we loaded back into the cars & drove to a duck farm for dinner & drinks. The meal was AMAZING, the duck was so fresh (killed that day) & the soju was being poured freely. I was convinced to try out raw duck, which I will say has a nice flavor.
1st: High School Exams - Went for a long walk with KM in the morning, then sat around until we were excused at noon. Went and ate buckwheat noodles (a Pyeongchang specialty), they weren't that great until I poured wasabi and manu kochu (hot peppers) all over it. Friday afternoon brought my first Korean lesson at which I had my only useful lesson of the year. I will learn NOTHING in Korean class. All Korean will be learned with KM or on my own time, the class will be an hour and a half of socializing with the other NETs.
Skip forward to Monday, I'll write about the weekend next time.
4th: I actually taught one full day. It was standard teaching day. After school KM and I went to dinner. We had fish & makoli (frozen rice wine).
5th: School Field Trip to Gangneung. We went to the Thomas Edison/largest collection of gramaphones in the world museum, some other place (no one told me what it was) and for a drive past the sea. We were supposed to go to the sea, but it started pouring during our picnic lunch. The day can basically be summed up as, I spent the day with 12 year olds who kept giving me candy & taking pictures of/with me.
6th: I taught a full day and then had to stay for three hours to practice "Summer Night". All I can say is, F you John & Olivia.
7th: The No Sung (Old Castle) Festival starts in Pyeongchang today, so I am sitting at my desk doing nothing for the whole morning as the students are all at the opening ceremony. I think I teach in the afternoon (we'll see though).
Tomorrow I am skipping school to go to the Pyeongchang English Festival for the day.
Basically, my weeks consist of doing nothing & getting paid. My weekends are a little more involved & would take too long to write about now. So, some other time.
I'll sum up the events of my last week (more so I can remember them in a year from now)
29th: Middle School Exams - I sat at my desk all day & tried to plan ahead. In reality, I did nothing but read things online & stare out the window. It really was thrilling.
30th: High School Exams - I sat at my desk for the first half of the day until noon when we were excused from school. After being excused all of the teachers got into cars & drove to Jinbu to go for a walk in some famous forest with lots of temples (I still don't know why we went all the way there for the walk though). It was a lovely day, I learned to pray like a Buddhist, how to recognize the different time periods of Buddhist graves, and that getting stung by a bee in Korea hurts as bad as it does in North America. After our journey through the forest, we loaded back into the cars & drove to a duck farm for dinner & drinks. The meal was AMAZING, the duck was so fresh (killed that day) & the soju was being poured freely. I was convinced to try out raw duck, which I will say has a nice flavor.
1st: High School Exams - Went for a long walk with KM in the morning, then sat around until we were excused at noon. Went and ate buckwheat noodles (a Pyeongchang specialty), they weren't that great until I poured wasabi and manu kochu (hot peppers) all over it. Friday afternoon brought my first Korean lesson at which I had my only useful lesson of the year. I will learn NOTHING in Korean class. All Korean will be learned with KM or on my own time, the class will be an hour and a half of socializing with the other NETs.
Skip forward to Monday, I'll write about the weekend next time.
4th: I actually taught one full day. It was standard teaching day. After school KM and I went to dinner. We had fish & makoli (frozen rice wine).
5th: School Field Trip to Gangneung. We went to the Thomas Edison/largest collection of gramaphones in the world museum, some other place (no one told me what it was) and for a drive past the sea. We were supposed to go to the sea, but it started pouring during our picnic lunch. The day can basically be summed up as, I spent the day with 12 year olds who kept giving me candy & taking pictures of/with me.
6th: I taught a full day and then had to stay for three hours to practice "Summer Night". All I can say is, F you John & Olivia.
7th: The No Sung (Old Castle) Festival starts in Pyeongchang today, so I am sitting at my desk doing nothing for the whole morning as the students are all at the opening ceremony. I think I teach in the afternoon (we'll see though).
Tomorrow I am skipping school to go to the Pyeongchang English Festival for the day.
Basically, my weeks consist of doing nothing & getting paid. My weekends are a little more involved & would take too long to write about now. So, some other time.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
7-11
I have returned to the world of the working (sort of). After only teaching one day last week, I now only have had to teach two days this week (Monday & Tuesday) as it is exam week in South Korea. Although I don't teach nor do I moderate exams, I still have to be at school. I am being paid to read things online & eat lunch - two things I'm extremely good at. Actually in the next month I don't teach a full week at all, I think I'm going to have a tough time adjusting to teaching five straight days.
Chuseok vacation was really good. I did America proud on Korean Thanksgiving - I drank, ate, and laid around like a true patriot. I also went rafting and ate at Dunkin' Donuts (a highlight of my week).
Thanks to my friends in Yeongdong, I have found the most trash-tastic venue to drink at. The 7-11 and yes, I do mean the local convenience store. In Korea, all 7-11's have plastic tables & chairs outside where you can spend hours drinking cheap beer & eating food, both of which you can buy and prepare at the 7-11. So, basically you go in, buy 40's and cups, go outside, finish one, go inside buy another & some snacks (normally microwable dumplings or chips), and repeat the process until either the drunk Koreans start becoming creep, it gets too cold & I turn blue, or the 7-11 runs out of beer. This needs to start happening in the US.
That is the only interesting thing that happened to me in the last week. I just found out that tomorrow all the High School teachers will leave school early to go on a hike together before we eat, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. Miss Jung (Korean Mom) said it'll be fun, so I'll trust her.
Next week I get to go on the middle school field trip which I'm sure will be me having to take a lot of pictures with students & being incredibly confused as to what is going on around me. But, that is basically my life, I hardly ever know what is going on around me. I just follow when I'm told to.
Chuseok vacation was really good. I did America proud on Korean Thanksgiving - I drank, ate, and laid around like a true patriot. I also went rafting and ate at Dunkin' Donuts (a highlight of my week).
Thanks to my friends in Yeongdong, I have found the most trash-tastic venue to drink at. The 7-11 and yes, I do mean the local convenience store. In Korea, all 7-11's have plastic tables & chairs outside where you can spend hours drinking cheap beer & eating food, both of which you can buy and prepare at the 7-11. So, basically you go in, buy 40's and cups, go outside, finish one, go inside buy another & some snacks (normally microwable dumplings or chips), and repeat the process until either the drunk Koreans start becoming creep, it gets too cold & I turn blue, or the 7-11 runs out of beer. This needs to start happening in the US.
That is the only interesting thing that happened to me in the last week. I just found out that tomorrow all the High School teachers will leave school early to go on a hike together before we eat, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. Miss Jung (Korean Mom) said it'll be fun, so I'll trust her.
Next week I get to go on the middle school field trip which I'm sure will be me having to take a lot of pictures with students & being incredibly confused as to what is going on around me. But, that is basically my life, I hardly ever know what is going on around me. I just follow when I'm told to.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Happy Chuseok
Today is Chuseok (Korean T-giving), so I have four days off of work. Everyone goes to their eldest relatives house & they make a ton of food which they then offer to the graves of their relatives as offerings.
It is only day 2 of my 6 day break and it feels really good. I am going to spend the next six days with other NETs (specifically my two favorite people that I met at orientation). I'm assuming their will be a lot of binge drinking, eating, movie watching, and then Friday/Saturday we are meeting up with a big group to go rafting in a city near my town.
I know I've only been teaching for a month, but it is physically and mentally exhausting. Planning & teaching is a lot of work. Not to mention, it is hard to be constantly nice & cheerful for more than 40 hours a week. I will say that all my years of waiting tables and being fake nice for hours on end is finally being put to use.
I have a very monotonous routine during the week. Wake up, walk to school, teach, eat lunch, teach more, walk home, watch movies online, eat dinner, bed. My life is boring during the week, but I have had some interesting weekends.
I spent most of last weekend with my Korean mom, Miss Jung. We went on a long hike Friday after school, 2.4 km straight up hill and then 2.4 straight down. I was exhausted & super sweaty towards the end while Miss Jung seemed fine. I've come to the conclusion Koreans don't sweat much or at all. It is probably why deodorant is not widely available and why Koreans can wear long sleeves & pants when it is SUPER hot outside.
Saturday I went to Miss Jung's mentor's house up in the mountains. I'm still not sure what the whole mentor-student relationship is, I think the idea of it is not easily translated into English. My co-teacher goes there every other weekend to visit her & she told me she wants to retire to the area (completely understandable, it is GORGEOUS).
Mentor (I don't know her real name) is a tiny sixty year old Korean woman who lives up in the mountains with her driver/right hand man. She has been living on this property for ten years and she recently just started farming the area, the eight years before she meditated all day long. Miss Jung told me that Mentor "meets" people when she meditates - apparently she always meets with Buddha, frequently meets with Jesus, and sometimes meets with E.T. (like Spielberg style E.T.). When E.T. comes, he leaves marks on her arms that disappear after a couple of days. As many of you know, my emotions are written all over my face and it was hard for me to contain myself when I heard E.T., it was the highlight of my weekend.
Besides learning about E.T. I picked & sorted peppers with a bunch of Korean people for three hours, ate a lot of delicious food, and played with a German Shepherd puppy (made me miss my puppy). I was invited back whenever I want to go because according to Mentor I bring good luck to the house as the price of peppers went up twice the cost of last year after I had some dream about ticks. I'm still confused about how my dream brought them luck, I just go with what people say and nod/smile a lot.
I'll probably go back since I like the food & the dog so much and I want to hear more about E.T. You know me, the crazier people are the more I enjoy them.
Cheers!
It is only day 2 of my 6 day break and it feels really good. I am going to spend the next six days with other NETs (specifically my two favorite people that I met at orientation). I'm assuming their will be a lot of binge drinking, eating, movie watching, and then Friday/Saturday we are meeting up with a big group to go rafting in a city near my town.
I know I've only been teaching for a month, but it is physically and mentally exhausting. Planning & teaching is a lot of work. Not to mention, it is hard to be constantly nice & cheerful for more than 40 hours a week. I will say that all my years of waiting tables and being fake nice for hours on end is finally being put to use.
I have a very monotonous routine during the week. Wake up, walk to school, teach, eat lunch, teach more, walk home, watch movies online, eat dinner, bed. My life is boring during the week, but I have had some interesting weekends.
I spent most of last weekend with my Korean mom, Miss Jung. We went on a long hike Friday after school, 2.4 km straight up hill and then 2.4 straight down. I was exhausted & super sweaty towards the end while Miss Jung seemed fine. I've come to the conclusion Koreans don't sweat much or at all. It is probably why deodorant is not widely available and why Koreans can wear long sleeves & pants when it is SUPER hot outside.
Saturday I went to Miss Jung's mentor's house up in the mountains. I'm still not sure what the whole mentor-student relationship is, I think the idea of it is not easily translated into English. My co-teacher goes there every other weekend to visit her & she told me she wants to retire to the area (completely understandable, it is GORGEOUS).
Mentor (I don't know her real name) is a tiny sixty year old Korean woman who lives up in the mountains with her driver/right hand man. She has been living on this property for ten years and she recently just started farming the area, the eight years before she meditated all day long. Miss Jung told me that Mentor "meets" people when she meditates - apparently she always meets with Buddha, frequently meets with Jesus, and sometimes meets with E.T. (like Spielberg style E.T.). When E.T. comes, he leaves marks on her arms that disappear after a couple of days. As many of you know, my emotions are written all over my face and it was hard for me to contain myself when I heard E.T., it was the highlight of my weekend.
Besides learning about E.T. I picked & sorted peppers with a bunch of Korean people for three hours, ate a lot of delicious food, and played with a German Shepherd puppy (made me miss my puppy). I was invited back whenever I want to go because according to Mentor I bring good luck to the house as the price of peppers went up twice the cost of last year after I had some dream about ticks. I'm still confused about how my dream brought them luck, I just go with what people say and nod/smile a lot.
I'll probably go back since I like the food & the dog so much and I want to hear more about E.T. You know me, the crazier people are the more I enjoy them.
Cheers!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I wish they had Homecoming in High School
I now have internet in my apartment! I have no idea how I survived so long with out it. I am WAY too addicted to technology. However even with my internet, I don't know how often I'll write. I'll try to do it at least once a week in an attempt to cut down on the length of my entries.
Anyways, I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL. It is the best two days of my work week. My reasons:
(1) The students are not ever disruptive during class, they are SUPER engaged, and so friendly. I walk down the halls and have pleasant conversations with my students. I don't know if they are still fascinated by my " new foreign-ness" or if they actually do love me.
(2) The school lunch is 284985329 better than at the Middle School, they have a nutrionist on the payroll to plan out the meals everyday. The food is organic & amazing, the only exception is the days they serve mini hot dogs with sardines, it seems to happen more often than it should. They always serve rice, two main dishes, kimchi, and SOUP.
(3) My Co-Teacher AKA my Korean Mom. She leaves chocolate on my desk daily & I'm not talking about Korean chocolate, I'm talking American chocolate. She is like my own candy dispenser. In addition to candy, she gives me gum, crackers, and KOREAN BLUEBERRIES (which are much better than North American ones). Last week she arranged a special dinner for me with world famous Pyeongchang beef and some speciality pear wine that her mentor made for her. It was AMAZING - the beef never gets frozen & it is SO tender. I've never had better beef or pear wine (granted, I've never had pear wine before). This woman makes my week better, I adore her (however she does not compare to my mother at all - shes DA BEST).
(4) The High School staff treat me like a person, not a child - I'll go into that more next time.
Basically, life is going well. I'm slowly getting into a routine during the week & I am planning on traveling almost every weekend. I get a very good chance next week as it is Korean Thanksgiving and I get six days off! I'll post pictures soon.
Anyways, I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL. It is the best two days of my work week. My reasons:
(1) The students are not ever disruptive during class, they are SUPER engaged, and so friendly. I walk down the halls and have pleasant conversations with my students. I don't know if they are still fascinated by my " new foreign-ness" or if they actually do love me.
(2) The school lunch is 284985329 better than at the Middle School, they have a nutrionist on the payroll to plan out the meals everyday. The food is organic & amazing, the only exception is the days they serve mini hot dogs with sardines, it seems to happen more often than it should. They always serve rice, two main dishes, kimchi, and SOUP.
(3) My Co-Teacher AKA my Korean Mom. She leaves chocolate on my desk daily & I'm not talking about Korean chocolate, I'm talking American chocolate. She is like my own candy dispenser. In addition to candy, she gives me gum, crackers, and KOREAN BLUEBERRIES (which are much better than North American ones). Last week she arranged a special dinner for me with world famous Pyeongchang beef and some speciality pear wine that her mentor made for her. It was AMAZING - the beef never gets frozen & it is SO tender. I've never had better beef or pear wine (granted, I've never had pear wine before). This woman makes my week better, I adore her (however she does not compare to my mother at all - shes DA BEST).
(4) The High School staff treat me like a person, not a child - I'll go into that more next time.
Basically, life is going well. I'm slowly getting into a routine during the week & I am planning on traveling almost every weekend. I get a very good chance next week as it is Korean Thanksgiving and I get six days off! I'll post pictures soon.
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