Hump day.

Wednesday May 29th

Nothing big to report today. None of my kids cried today... I think Sharon and Juliet both teared up a little, but it never evolved into actual tears falling. Sharon just did not want to work today. Normally she is pretty good at working. Today she just for whatever reason was not feeling it. 

My Denmark class... well today was the last day of the May session (dont ask me why... all of the foreign teachers are confused and annoyed) so I spent all of the time trying to get them to do the work that I had planned for them to do for the rest of the week... you know, until the end of May. The kids did not like it that much because the work was monotonous and boring instead of doing science like we normally do in Wednesdays.

My afternoon classes went well. It was my Canada classes Chloes birthday today. We did nothing special, but I did let her go first in the class discussion. 

With my afternoon Greece class, we lost Eric. He told me that today was his last day. Probably for the best. I hate to say it. But some kids are behind and the way the hagwon system is set up, if they are behind they stay behind. We are not really able to tutor or help these kids. As soon as their classes are done at my hagwon, they are off to their next place. Though when I asked him why he was leaving, he said "Roy is bad." Roy is a student that should not be in my class. He is nice, but his level is so far below everyone elses, it really just hurts the class. Not saying that if Roy was not there that Eric would be up to speed, but Roy does not help. Its tough with Roy... I want to help him, but it takes so much time... and he just does not understand the basic concepts. I may have mentioned this before... Roy went to another English hagwon. His parents were not happy with it so they enrolled him in ECC. The class he was enrolled in was absolutely the wrong class for him. But he parents wanted him in a more advanced class because they spent 3 years at this other hagwon. Hagwons are about making money... if my school would have told his parents 'no, we are putting him in a class that is his level' his parents most likely would not have enrolled him and taken him to a school that would put him where they think he should be. I have 7 year olds that are better than he is. Nothing against him. I believe he could really learn. But different schools develop kids differently... and what his previous school was doing... just is not on par to ECC.... So we lost Eric whom was just a little behind the others but still have Roy whom is really behind the others.

After school, I went to emart. I bout the stuff I needed to make the base of my stage. Now I just need fabric and some assembly. I am so excited. I also bought some prizes for my France class sticker tree. Juliet finished hers today, so she needs a prize. I got an assortment of Hello Kitty and Princess prizes. I figure I will have a prize bag and she can pick what she wants. I think it is funny she is the first done...She doesn't talk, and by her not talking, she does not lose stars. But I would much rather her talk... not because of the prizes, but because when a student talks, it makes you feel like you are doing your job.

After emart, I came home and watched Star Trek (the first one from JJ Abrams). I really want to see the new one. It opens up either on the 30th or 31st.

I took a shower tonight and used my electric razor to shave a layer of fur off of me. I brought an electric trimmer over from the states... it does not work that well. It is a 120 volt device, and here it is 240, so I have to step it down... but the transformer I use does not seem to give it enough amps to really work well. It seems like it vibrates slowly, so it pulls my hair instead of just trimming. I think I may invest in buying one. Originally I did not shave my chest because I thought it would be me admitting shame in who I was. I am hairy... But after I tried it, I kind of like it... not because of how it makes me look... but because taking off a layer of insulation really cools you down. The extra hair is great during the winter, but now that it is getting how, having a thinner layer of insulation keeps me much cooler, and I hate being hot. Though I do wish I had some Gold Bond... after shaving your chest and instead of a nice smooth trim, all of your hair gets pulled before it gets cut... well Gold Bond would just be so soothing.

Okay, Im hitting the hay so I can start our June session tomorrow, the 30th of May, with a lot of energy.

Monday and Tuesday....

Monday May 27th
The day was good. No problems in France. No tears. Everything went well. We had show and tell today, and everyone brought something except for Sharon. This of course had the potential for waterworks. Luckily it was avoided because her mom brought her show and tell just in the nick of time.
Emily in Australia cried today and it was my fault. Whenever I catch a student with their shoes of in my class and I can pick up the shoe I make a deal out of it. Sometimes hooding the shoe or doing something silly with it. For repeat offenders I walk the class through the hall but do not allow the shoeless person to wear the shore. Will it was Emily's first time so I was just having fun... She was not feeling it and she cried. People always think it is funny when someone else is going through it... But when they do is different. During lunch I saw her with her shoe off again. I told her to put out back on... It was on faster than I had seen a shoe go on before.
One of my previous afternoon kids was at ecc studying or something. So I talked to her. I saw her on the street last week with a friend. She does not strike me as the person that would be popular in school. Physical traits and personality ones. Almost an outcast type. So... I take a few minutes to bond with her. She shows me something that she made for a class. So instead of just saying "that's nice" I go further. She starts taping to me about anime and Japanese music and pop. I of course know nothing about jpop. But she is really into the convo. She starts talking to me about a singer she likes. So I tell her I will listen. I leave. I come back several minutes later with this singer she likes up on YouTube. She gets a huge smile on her face and starts teaching me and telling me all about the music. The singers are in the same style as Gorrilaz. Aka animated singers. But she was having such a good time. Shine I know nothing of that music I open a webpage about Gorrilaz. She knows of them but is excited that I am going further with her and sharing what I know.
Sometimes taking that extra minute to talk to someone is important. I do not know if it really affected her but it taught me a lesson... Just that excitement she had. Even if it only lasted 5 minutes with her... I know those 5 minutes she was happy.
I went to emart. I do not know if I have typed about this. I am going to build a faux stage for my kids. We do drama presentations and cartoon network presentations. I am going to make a curtain stage so the kids feel like they are really acting! The materials are 70000 for the structure, and I am not sure how much the Fabric will cost. I am hoping not too much. Not only will the kids like it (I have seen kids drawing their princesses on a stage with curtains), I will like it because I like building and making things. It is filling a void that I have... It will also make my school look good, which as cheesy as it seems, is really important to me.

I came home and more or less zoned out until I went to bed. I watched some netflix. I hate being unproductive, but wow... energy is so hard to come by.
Working a desk job is tough. Working a job with all of these kids.... all the while standing and walking all day, and having to keep your energy level really high... it just drains me. Drains me in such a wonderful way. 

Tuesday May 28th.

No tears today! There were a few instances when I thought someone would cry but I saw that look on their face. I was able to avoid the situation (whichever it was) in order to prevent them from crying!

The day went pretty good. One of my France girls gave me a hello kitty sticker. I do not know if I spoke of this several weeks ago... but Emily in my Australia class gave me a hello kitty sticker on Teachers day, and I put the sticker on the brigde of my glasses. I wore it there. When I cam back after the 4 day weekend we had and I still had it on my glasses, she got so excited! I proceeded to keep it there for the rest of the week. So I did the same thing today with this new hello kitty sticker, but I already know it will not last as long.

I love getting cards from my students. Just simple I love you notes. It really makes me feel happy inside. One of my France girls gave me one today. It said something like I love you, thank you for being nice, you make me feel happy. Last week I got one from one of my Denmark kids. When she writes them, she says I love you 100 times. It is so adorable. I also really love when a student draws a picture and gives it to me. It really just warms the heart. Teachers day was good, and I got a lot of neat stuff... but really if each student just wrote a card for me, I would have been just as happy. I think part of it is just making me feel that I am changing and affecting these kids lives. I know that I am only one of many English teachers they will have and in the long run, there is a good chance I will just be another face in the crowd. But right now... knowing that I am something to them... I love it.

Today was the last day I will be teaching my afternoon Denmark and afternoon Spain (Both Tuesday/Thursday classes). I know the Denmark kids were sad about this. They all really liked me, and I liked them. They are the smartest class in ECC. They all want to be there. They speak good English and try hard. When they found out it was my last day, they wanted to take a picture with me. I definitely did. It was great. 

So in this picture there are 3 of them. One has been on vacation for the last month so he was not in it. There is Dan, Sunny, and Torry. These kids had some of the best moments of really 'getting' something. Sunny probably had the most ah-ha moments, but that may be because she was often late to my class and missed the initial teaching. She had to come straight from school which got out at 4:20, which is the same time my class started. These students definitely all had different but developed personalities. Dan was always straight business. He was very serious as a student, though he still liked to have fun. Sunny was definitely one of the happiest students I teach. She almost always had a smile on her face and laughed a lot. Torry was slightly immature, but he got it and always had great answers. It seemed to come very naturally to him.  They were excited to learn and were one of the easiest classes for me to teach. I may get re-assigned to them later. Just watching them develop was great. They know what is going on in English, so in my class I was helping them fine tune their skills, and it was amazing to watch.

Today was also my last day with my afternoon Spain class. I think they would have been better if I had better subjects to teach them. I was teaching them vocabulary and read and debate. Vocab is boring and the read and debate class is horrible. The material sucks. 

So in this picture we have Sarah, Stella, Amy J, Amy H, Hannah, Charlie, Kevin.

The personalities in the class made it semi cliquish. 3 girls came from another school together (Stella, Hannah, Amy H), so the three of them were always real close. The two boys hung together (Kevin, Charlie). Then there were the 2 other girls. One was an introvert (Amy J) and was fine working and seemed to prefer working alone. The other wanted to be accepted (Sarah) by the 3 that were always together... but was never quite there. So she seemed to end up working with the introvert that seemed like she was more annoyed to be working with someone. The dynamics were slowly starting to shift. Not that the clique was really changing, but it seemed that they were starting to be able able to branch out and connect with others.

After work today, we went out to celebrate the end of open classes (from last week). Ronnie treated all that went out. All that went out, was once again only the foreign teachers. No Korean teachers (except for Stephen, whom is not really a teacher but Ronnies assistant). We went to a chicken place Ronnie likes. Everyone was impressed with how much I could eat... which is definitely a lot. Ronnie kept buying food until I was full.  It is great getting to know him outside of school. Same with Stephen. Both have so many interesting stories to tell. We are talking about taking Ronnie out to dinner sometime to treat him. It is against Korean culture (normally the oldest is expected to pay for everyone) but since we are not Korean, we figure that we might as well give it the good old effort. We think he would really like and appreciate it, since it is not something he's used to.

Okay, I have to be up for Wednesday in several hours!!! Thats all for now!

I cleaned my room!

Saturday May 25th
I cleaned. I did not do much else, but I cleaned. I cleaned my apartment so it is cleaner than it was when I moved in. I had been piling up trash (because of the recycling rules here) and not taking it down. I cleaned my floors, most of my walls, desk...
Other than cleaning, it was a mostly wasted day. It was beautiful and I spent all day inside. Though I guess in the long run, it is worth it... having a clean place feels good.
Eva, Rob, Sarah and I went to Hongdae for dinner. We ate at a camping themed restaurant. Camping themed means we sat in camp chairs at camp tables for the food. The food was not especially "campy" but was served on camp trays. It was definitely delicious, but that may have been more because I was hungry.
We went to Hongdae Park because there was a small music fest there. It was actually pretty entertaining. There was electronic, punk, rap, and folksy all going on. There were different stages and each type of music was preforming at a different place in the park. We had a late night second dinner. We got some ice cream and came back to bobo.
Very chill day and fun night. Just not much to type about.

Sunday May 26th.
I cleaned my bathroom. That was the biggest accomplishment. I cleaned my bathroom. I wake up at 8:30 in the morning, and all I got done today was cleaning my bathroom... Yikes. I rested and relaxed, I listened to music, I watched the movie Outbreak, went to church, came home, ate food... that is all. We talked about playing settlers tonight, but nobody was really feeling it.
I watched 2 episodes of the new Arrested Development. I am not sure what I think yet. I guess I cannot give it a fair rating... because the proxy I was using to access my netflix account was really going slow tonight, so every couple of minutes, the episode paused to buffer.
So I do not know if I said anything about this when I bought my bbq grill. When I was getting on the subway coming back with it, an 아저씨 saw me and as soon as he did, he got the biggest smile on his face. He was getting the biggest kick of seeing me carrying a bbq grill on the subway. Maybe it was me being a stereotypical foreigner... or maybe he liked to grill. It just made me smile.
Work starts soon. All I have to show for this weekend is a relatively clean room. Still needs some work...

So, to leave you... here is a song. I have heard it several times, but just found out what it was. I did it. Its interesting, fun, emotional, and just has a good ring to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYeFk5ukTDQ

This week ate my energy.

Friday May 25...
Whew, this has been a long week. It went by really quick, but just the drain the week took was incredible.
School was good today. Juliet cried in France class. She cried because I was helping Kelly and Juliet wanted help. So I finished with Kelly, and went to Juliet. Juliet then wrote down the answer with me standing there. Maybe she just wanted the attention... I do not know. I got icecream bars for my Canada class. I told them all week if they were on their best behavior I would get them ice cream. The week started off loud and crazy, but today, they were all in their seats and nobody got in trouble. I gave them the ice cream and they were all happy. The way they react... it almost seems like other teachers tell them that they will get them something... and the teacher never does. So when I keep my word, they are all shocked that I actually followed through.
I did all of my report cards today. We were told that they were due today so I did them. It seems like most of the other foreign teachers did not. We were just given them yesterday, and normally we have a week to do them. I stayed after class school to get them done.
I came home thinking I might go out tonight, though as I was walking home I started to get a headache. I came home and took a nap (I love naps). I woke up and still had the headache. I stayed in and did nothing at all. I was thinking of drinking a beer and watching a movie, but neither of those happened.
I did end up eating the chicken nuggets I bought several weeks ago. I waited too long. They were all pretty much frozen with ice around them. I didnt care. So I cooked them in the microwave. They were tough (cause I think all of that ice was naturally from the nuggets, dehydrating the nugget). Even so, they were delicious! There was some kind of spice on/in them (not sure which) but the chicken tasted fantastic. I will buy them again and this time not wait so long to eat them.
I think I was going to post some other philosophical thought tonight, but just cant remember.I'm off to bed and I am not going to set an alarm. Hopefully when I wake up I will be full of energy.

Thank you cards...

Thursday May 23
Today was a fast/long day. No criers in France. No criers in Australia. Denmark thought... Chloe cried. We were watching the cartoon for our Cartoon Network class. I noticed her playing with some toy. So I stopped the cartoon, asked her what the last thing that happened was. She said she did not know. I told her to put away the toy and lectured the class on paying attention. At the end of the cartoon, somebody pointed out she was crying. Not loud crying, just tears coming down her face. So it was a low maintenance cry.
I had my Korea class today. We were doing vocabulary. Vocabulary is tough to teach when the kids do not want to learn it. But I did the one thing that we are not supposed to do often. Play hangman. The kids love hangman. Getting them to participate requires caving to their needs. If you don't they freeze up and the class takes forever. Doing what they want to do... well I hope it helps them by osmosis. Erica was fantastic at it. Dylan and Danny were not. After she got the first one right (with only 2 wrong guesses) they guys accused me of giving her an easy word. So I let them pick the next word, and she got it right again with only 2 wrong guesses. Neither of them were able to do that. So I let her come up and choose the words and be in charge of the board. I do not know if I have ever seen her as happy and smile as much. She was actively participating... then I changed it where she reads the definition to the other two... and she did. Without delay. I dont know what it was but it was great. I just wish she had that attitude all of the time. I partially think it is because her level is below the others, but her winning and her having some control and responsibility... well that makes her feel good and confident. As she is confident she seems more willing to participate. I need to find a way that I can give her that responsibility more and help her grow.
About my open class yesterday, Christina teacher told me a little more. The parents were happy that their kids enjoyed my part of class. The liked seeing the kids laugh and be happy. My lesson did not go over so well though. I made the rookie mistake of making the open class lesson like a real lesson instead of a presentation. So, next time, I will make it more presentation like... the parents will like it because it will show a lot of improvement over this last open class.
After school Sarah and I had some food at one of the restaurants below the school. Hudson was going to join but backed out. I had some of the fried pork cutlet. It was delicious. Though it could have just been because I was extremely hungry.  Eating and noon and not eating again till 7:30 is tough.
I bought a BBQ grill. Last night at the GS we were talking about grilling. There was an ad on craigslist for a weber charcoal bbq grill for 30,000. I bought it. Ama had a grill, but the person that was lending it to him wanted it back. Is it the best purchase I could make? Nope. But if we use it to cook burgers and hotdogs and steaks infront of the GS... well then it is definitely worth it.
I spent the rest of the night doing my thank you cards. I got them done for my Kindy classes. I will do the ones for my Canada class this weekend. There is only one that I did not make for the Kindys yet... I did not make Jins card. I did not write down what she got me... I am hoping I wrote it down at school (or that the box it came in is still there). I cannot remember what she gave me. So if I have to do a generic thank you I will, but in everyone elses I referenced what they got me.
I'm off to bed. School starts soon and it is a Friday!!!

2nd and final open class

Wednesday May 22nd.
School started out good today. I only had France for an hour because I was doing my second open class and I had to leave France to go to Denmark for my open class.
I was worried about my Denmark open class. Some of my worry was justified. My top student... the student that I can rely on to answer any question was frozen. He could not speak, could not answer, and when I called on him he said I dont know. This is the first time he has ever said that. He normally is a leader in the class, and him knowing things helps the class... not today. Open class was definitely tough with them. Seeing how the kids react when their parents are in the room is definitely telling of what I should do in the future for open classes. Thankfully the open classes are only 2 times a year. If I could do it over again for them I would... But it did not turn out too bad. My smart kid that froze up... his mom gave the second lowest scores. The mom that gave the lowest scores was from the girl that almost every class says she is sick and does not feel well. Her name is Angelina. She often shows that ability to be one of the best in class.... but often is just unmotivated or comes up with an excuse to not do work. I wish the parents could see their kids work on on average day instead of a day when their parents and their friends parents are watching....
In Australia class today, Hayden cried. We were doing science today (science that kids love, but teaches nothing of science). I told everybody not to play with their science materials... Hayden decided he wanted to play with his... The science material we were using today... a spring. What happens when you play with a spring? It bounces... So he bounced his spring and could not find it. I told him I would not help him find it until all of the other students that followed directions were helped. So he sits and soon starts to cry. After everyone else was helped, I have everyone get up and look for his spring. It was found in seconds.
After my Kindy classes, on MWF I have my first-graders in Canada class and 2/3rd graders in my Greece class.
I was talking with Ama after school today. It would be so easy and fun to start an English Hagwon over here. He has been teaching here 2.5 years and myself almost 2 months. It is discouraging to have absolutely no ability to change things. The hagwon system is broken. If we were teachers and could create a curriculum, my gosh, these kids could be great. Instead we have to teach to a strict schedule using bad materials. It is so strict that it does not allow us to spend more time on what we need to. Also, as mentioned in the last post, parents have this strict idea system for their kid. Instead of letting us place the kid where they need to be, We place the kid were they are "supposed" to be. This brings down the entire class.
After work, we all got dinner at a HOF (eating/drinking establishment) by Bobo. I have not idea what it was called, but it was a spicy chicken cheese meal served in a frying pan. It hit the spot.We all then went to GS and had a beer and then all went our separate ways.
Gonna shower and get to bed happy that my open class schedule is done!

Open Class #1

Tuesday May 21st.
Thoughts and prayers sent out to all in Oklahoma.
Today was a good day.
I had my first open class with France class. It turned out pretty well. One kid misbehaved, another spoke a lot of Korean, and Sally, whom normally is one of the best speakers, froze up and said almost nothing. On the plus side... None of them cried!!!
The reviews from the parents were all pretty good. Except for Sallys. I wish her mom could see her on a good day.
Tomorrow I have my open class with Denmark. I am pretty worried about this. I am doing nearly the same thing that Australia is doing. Australia is the normal paced class, and Denmark is the slow class. I do not get to practice with them in the morning either. I start the day with France and then go immediately to Denmark. So... I have my fingers crossed that the kids will do well.
The rest of the day went well. Nothing big nor exciting. We did the debate in 2 of my afternoon classes. The first class tied. They actually tied. I did not want that to happen. I promised to buy the winning team treats. Oh well. It was the best debate yet. They were talkative and did a good job with it. My Korea class. It was a struggle as it always is. I was talking with Rob. This class has gotten pushed through the system and that is why they are so miserable. They need to be split up and join classes that have people with similar abilities and speeds. This will not happen.  Ostensibly they tried one time, but the parents wanted the kids to stay together. Bad decision. The kids are at all different levels and they just do not care. If they were with people the same level as them, it could potentially get them to get more active. But thats not gonna happen.

It is amazing thinking of all of my students as so young. I pretty much work with Korean 7-13 year olds. They have so much in front of them. Who will they become, what will they like, what will they do, what will they look like, will they get married, will they die young, will the live to be 100, will they go to college, will they suffer, will they succeed...? It is so weird to think I was once that age, and my teachers must have wondered the same things about me. Children are so amazing. I love working with them. Yes it sometimes stresses me out a little, but jut that possibility that lays in each of them. Sometimes it is hard to remember that they are so young. I am not used to dealing with kids like I do not. Sometimes I catch myself trying to hold them up to the standards I hold other people I know up to. It is a really grounding (humbling) experience for me and puts to much more into perspective. I used to be so concerned with so many things. Politics, news.... the endless list. But being in another country and working with kids is completely changing my world views and what I think is important  I have friends that still post so many things on Facebook and the likes. But all of these things that seem so important to them... really in the grand scheme of things... just seems pointless. I think I may continue on with these thoughts in a later post...

After work Hudson, Rob, Sarah and I all went to the department store to buy thank you cards. A pack of 2 cards was 1000 and that is the cheapest we could find them. We then went to a store because Rob and Sarah wanted to buy some clothes. I actually bought a t-shirt (I wanted to see if they would fit me). It is pretty close to fitting me. So that made me happy. I now need to try to buy pants. If I can find a store that has my sizes (or close to) I will be happy. It would be good to be able to expand my wardrobe just a little.
We got back, all had a drink at the GS, and then headed back to our rooms. I am going to watch an episode of something on netflix, iron my shirt for tomorrow, and hopefully get to bed and do to sleep so I will be prepared for whatever happens in my Denmark open class tomorrow.

Korean War Memorial then a Monday

Sunday May 19th

I woke up early and proceeded to continue my general attitude of not doing anything. Sitting wasting away seemed good enough for me. I watched several episodes of Breaking Bad and just just relaxing. Putting off doing anything. My feet still hurt from the sunburn.

Eva Kakao talks me and asks what I am doing. Tell her nothing. She tells me she is going to go to the Korean War Memorial Museum. So that is what I decided to do. 

My feet really hurt, but oh well. 

Outside there were planes, all sorts of planes. I love planes. I spent a great deal of time looking at them.  I was telling Eva about them and flying, but I am not sure how much she understood, since she does not understand a lot of English.

We went inside the museum but did not stay for very long. She was really hungry.  We got the Army Base Stew (which I found fun because that came about after the Korean War). So I am definitely going to go back and take some time at the museum.

Came back to Bobo, met up with Rob and we all hung out by the reservoir park by our apartment. We then spend a while outside of the GS.
That was it. Sunday was pretty relaxing too.
I have some pictures of the planes in front of the memorial. I will post them soon.

Monday May 20.
High energy kids and low energy teachers.
Juliet weeped today. She did not bring her chopsticks, which I guess is a weeping matter. She was the only one. We have open class tomorrow. Open class is where the parents come to watch us. All of us teachers are stressed. We can only teach the kids, but throwing parents into the mix... we never know what will happen. I was talking with some of my fellow teachers about students we are worried about. I said Juliet. The other teachers did not know who she was. Camille thought she might know. She asked if it is the girl that usually wears a bow in her hair. She then asked if it was the girl that had darker eyebrows and features. Once again I did not know. Then she asked if it is the girl that always looks like she is on the verge of tearing up. Bingo.
So I am kind of nervous about open class. When I practiced with Louise and Ronnie, the kids were good and were able to do the work. When I did it with just the kids, they could not do the simple math. So hopefully with their parents there, they can do it, and they do not talk too much in class.
I have not written my thank you cards for teachers day. I looked for some... Koreans love stationary .. you can get all sorts. The one thing I cannot find... Thank you cards... or any cards that have envelopes. I can buy single cards, but buying 30 cards would be tough. Not only the process of it... I cannot read Korean (or understand it) so I would have to find someone that could confirm that I am not buying a card that says I'm sorry for your loss (or something similar). I'll try to get it done by Friday.
A week or so ago, I was grading a test in one of my advanced classes as they were taking a test. I chuckled. I was grading papers for my Canada class. During Canada's test, these two girls were sitting next to eachother, I told them repeatedly not to look at each-others test. So, as I am grading it, one of the girls put the persons name that she was sitting next to where her name was supposed to be. Then the two girls got the same answers wrong. I made a comment about how suspicious it was. And that when someone cheats, they may think they are being clever, but writing the persons name that you are sitting next to on the top of your test just isnt good. Turns out that the one of the boys in my advanced class, well his sister is the one that was cheating. I had no idea. Then this boy tells his mom. Mom scolds daughter and talks to Korean teacher. Korean teacher asks me whats up. I show her the test and she just shakes her head and says she will show this girls mom. I should not have made the comment to the class... So I need to be more careful. Though one of the things that teachers do to "reward" the older students is let them help grade things.  They like it because the responsibility and we like it because that helps us. Now I know I cannot do that with this class.
I got home from work and took a nap. I love naps. I was running low on energy and knew that if I went to bed early, I would wake up way too early or not sleep well.  After my nap, I ordered McDonalds. I had been hungry coming home from school. I walked by the usual places that I get dinner food and nothing sounded good. So, McDonalds it was. I then watched several episodes of the TV show Seven Days. Oh the nostalgia. I did laundry and ironed my shirt for tomorrow.
Time to hit the hay and hope I sleep well so I have energy for my open class with France tomorrow. After that, I have Denmark open class on Wednesday. 

Lazy Saturday

Saturday May 18.
Today was a lazy Saturday. I am sad I was not able to go on my other adventure, but sort of relived. The sunburn on my feet and shins (the only real place I burnt) is killing me. Walking hurts, walking with shoes is very uncomfortable.
Rob and I went to Taco Bell. He was craving it as he did not go yesterday, and I am always craving it. We also both wanted to get Aloe for our sunburns. Aloe for sunburns is EXPENSIVE.  There are a ton of aloe products here in korea, but many of them have perfumes and other chemicals.  We wanted the regular stuff. A 240 ml bottle was 14 bucks. But we were both in pain so we each got one. We then ate delicious Taco Bell. Then we headed to Daiso. It is almost like a dollar store (large random assortment of random things), but more expensive. We both had to get some stuff for our apartments and school.
As soon as I got back to Bobo, I put on the Aloe. Instant relief. I updated the blog from my mini trip, and pretty much lazed out for the rest of the day.
It was raining outside, but I wanted to go to the hardware store because I needed something. When I got there, they did not have it, but I still went shopping. I bought a VGA cable to hook up my small TV to my computer and also a scale. The TV shuts off as soon as I plug in the VGA cable, so that was a failure. The scale sucks. But it gives me a rough estimation of my weight. I am somewhere between 105kg and 110kg. So I need to stop eating so much and start doing some form of exercise. Then again weighing myself after a day of doing nothing after a gluttonous 2 day vacation might not accurately reflect my standard reality.
I watched Camp Nowhere. A film from the 90's. Comical and nostalgic. I went to bed early.
I did not do anything of value today, but just zoning out and recharging is so good. I know I say that a lot, but much of my life I have always bitten off a lot more than I should, always being busy, always having to do something. It wears you out. I am working on trying to find a balance. I am right now on the too lazy part which can be as bad as the too busy part. I'm working on it.
One pic to leave you with. I bought this at Daiso, because it made me laugh out loud in the store. You also have to read the text.

The text says since it is hard to read "Hand your guitar safely and conveniently on the wall. The yoke on this guitar hanger adjusts to perfectly fit your instrument. The authentic hardwood block looks sleek and mounts firmly to the wall."
I have no idea what the people are saying...

무의도

May 16/17
무의도 (Muuido) Island adventure.
So we woke up on our day off, Thursday. We went to 이태원 (Itaewon) to have breakfast. There is a place called the All American Diner. Ama had been there, and we thought it would be a great way to start off our 2 day adventure. The had chicken fried stead and biscuits and white gravy and sausage. Not anywhere near as good as the food back in in the states, but for what it was, delicious. Expensive. I do have to say it is better than the chicken fried steak in NY. But Oklahoma has it beat by miles. I do not think they were expecting anyone to come on Thursday morning, cause everything took a long time to get.
Ama, Hudson, Rob and I then hit up the subway to Incheon Airport, we took a bus to a ferry, we took a ferry to the island, we took a bus on the island to the beach. In all about an hour and forty five minutes to get there. We were thinking there would be a decent number of other people there. Nope. Empty. There were 4 other people there.
The beach is cool. The tide goes out half a mile. So when we get there, we walk out to the edge and we can actually see the tide coming in. It is extremely flat.
The restaurants all closed early. There was a general store that closed at 8. So we bought a lot of 삼겹살 though it was frozen. We had no way of cooking it. Luckily of the 4 people there, we made single serving friends with 2 of them. 2 girls. They were staying in the quasi hotel, we were staying in a beach side bungalow. They had a grill. One of the girls ended up cooking out samgyeopsal for us. They even had homemade sauces that they shared with us. Just listening to music, drinking, eating, then shooting off fireworks. Yes fireworks. The general store had fireworks for sale. I bought a lot of them. I love fireworks.
The bungalow was pretty small. The four of us fit, but it was tight. If the weather had been a little warmer I think we may have just slept outside. I think it helped that we all had a few drinks in us, so sacrificing a little comfort just to sleep was perfectly acceptable. The four of us woke up and were out of bed by 7:30. Pretty amazing.
We had a seafood jeon (like the Kimchi Jeon I spoke of in a previous post). So basically a seafood pancake for breakfast. Using locally caught seafood. Then after that Ama and I both has clam ramen. Delicious. People started coming in and the beach started filling up. Foreigners and Koreans. So we sit on the beach and drink some. Koreans are not keen on going into the water and swimming at a beach. Its interesting. Ama was saying that his girlfriend was afraid he may drown. The only people that were going in the water (all in) were foreigners. there were some Koreans that were in the water up to the mid-shin, but no deeper than that. Also the Koreans that were sunbathing were completely covered. They were laying in the sun, but were totally clothed and had a towel on their heads. They do not like tans. For them, being lighter is better than darker. I had never seen so many clothed people at the beach. The only people in bathing suits were the foreigners.
Swimming was difficult because the water was shallow. So, I guess not really swimming was possible, but we were still able to lay down and be fully submerged. As the tides rolled out, the Koreans were all on the beach digging for clams (or something). It is like the reasons they were at the beach was not to be in the water, but to find food. It was cute though. A family adventure of digging for clams. Entire families had buckets and shovels and were just digging together. So instead of everyone splitting off to swim, they all stayed together to clam.
We all were feeling kinda pooped and sunburnt and much much poorer. We were thinking it was going to be cheap. Well it was not. We thought about bringing our own food and drinks... we did not. Big mistake. So instead of staying the next night, we decided to head home. We stopped by Taco Bell to get some good cheap unhealthy food in our stomachs.
We took a cab from TBell to home. We were expecting to all go out at night. Instead we all went home and passed out.

Chicken Fried Steak!

Ferry to Muuido

Welcome to Muuido

Boats during low tide.

I like how you can see Songdo through the Muuido mountians.

Beach

Zipline tower

Snails and the snail tracks

Panorama during low tide

Tide coming in (really awesome to watch. It was coming in about a foot every 2 seconds)

Sunset. I wish one of the pictures would have turned out with the colors as beautiful as it actually was)

Our Bungalow. Yes it is messy. 4 large guys slept in this.

Goodby Muuido!

I'll definitely be back.

Teaching is done for the week

Tuesday May 14th
Only one cry in France class! It was Sally. Why did she cry? She was sick! Not that I am happy she was sick, that really sucks for her, but I'm happy there was no crying for dumb reasons. Sharon and Juliet almost cried, but I was able to solve their problems before they became all out sobs.
Only my France class has problems with crying. It has happened rarely in my other kindergartners classes, but nowhere near the same level as France.
The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly. Louise told me my schedule was going to change come next month. I am going to pick up another hour of Kindergarten every day. So I will have 6. But because I am doing that, they will be taking away some of my Tuesday Thursday classes. Which ones? Well the ones I enjoy the most, not my Korea class (The students that do not want to be there). The reason... because they think I do really well with the Korea class kids because I have such a great energy. I do not let their bad attitudes bring down the class that is already down. I appreciate that. But while I can keep that energy up in class, it really drains me. I really wish I could connect with them. The 2 Tuesday Thursday classes I am loosing, the kids are 1 year above Korea and 1 year below. All of them still have an evergy to learn and attempt to do good in class.  I also found out that I am going to be starting a 1 on 1 with my Canada Chloe (my Vanellope from an earlier post).
I went with Hudson after school to emart. I almost bought a desk fan for 17000... turns out it is only USB powered. Nope. Not for that price. I ended up buying a bottle of wine...I have really been craving a nice glass of wine. So I figure that some day, I may really just want one... so I will have one on hand.
We then went to the GS and had a few beers with Ama, Sam, Rob, and Hudson...
We talked about literature and books. I seemed to be the only one that likes that pop fiction books. None of them did. I look at pop fiction as good quick fun reads, and I do not expect them to be life changing.


Wednesday May 15th.
Teachers Day!
Not that it is a competition, but I think I came in 2nd or 3rd place. Ama had the most gifts, I had the second most. Sarah did not get many gifts, but one of the ones she got was a coach purse. So... I am not disappointed in any respects. Some of the best gifts I got were the hand written and hand drawn cards from some of my students. I have not opened everything yet. I am going to go by school tomorrow morning and pick up all of my stuff and take it home. Then I will head away for my 4 day weekend.
Only one cried in France class, and it was right as the bell was getting ready to ring. Sharon and Julie sat next to each other (some agreement Christine had with them yesterday). So, some sort of drama happened between them, so Sharon gets all red and starts to cry. I say "If you two cannot get along and cannot sit next to eachother, I will move you" and instantly Sharon stops. I have no idea how the psyche of a kid works, but that sudden shift was amazing. If it could always be so easy. They really wanted to sit together, and maybe Sharon did not know that crying would make me move her.
My other classes all were pretty well. Ama gave me a tip that he uses when kids act bad. It is sort of a corporal punishment, which normally I would never be a fan of. But this kid is loud, stands up, talks, and is a general hassle in class. Today I did what Ama suggested. I think it will be great. Instead of just having a kid stand which I do, the kid stands with their arms out (like a cross). As soon as their arms start to sink, look at them, and sternly tell them to put their arms straight out. I had this kid like that for 10 minutes. I then asked him if I let him sit down, if he would sit nicely and quietly. He said yes. I let him sit back down, and he was a model student after that for the rest of class. Also after that all of the other students were on good behavior. These kids are first graders. I know it is tough to ask too much from them. But they can get so lout. It was much better being their first teacher instead of their second. First they still had energy. Now when I teach them, their learning energy is gone, but their apathy, not caring, just want to play energy is skyrocketing.
After school, went to the Nexen Heroes baseball game. I met Sarah's parents at the subway station. She was still teaching. So I took them to the stadium, and I got the tickets for them, Sarah, Ama, and Hudson. It was a beautiful day for baseball. The Heroes rocked! 19-1. I had a hotdog, which was okay. I had chicken bites with barbecue sauce, and I had grilled squid. I love eating. All of the food was delicious and decently priced. The hotdog was 3 bucks and relatively small, but I would get one again, because it is nearly the closest thing I have had to a real hotdog since I have been here.
Got back from the game, sat outside of the GS with Ama, Sam, Sams GF, Rob, Hudson just drinking beer and talking and having a good time.

I leave tomorrow morning for an adventure (well 2 adventures in 4 days). I will write about it if I can. It is Thursday/Friday (for one) and Saturday/Sunday (for the other). Not sure if I will be able to do intermittent post, or if I will do just one covering all four days. We'll see.

Short week!

Saturday March 11th.
I woke up too early, though that being said, I was actually moderately productive. I started putting together the materials I need for my open class. I was actually thinking about going into school to prepare, but the laziness which I suffer from took a hold of me.
I was planning on going out and just wondering and going to a few stores before the Lantern Parade. As I was getting ready, Sarah asked what I was up to, and she asked if she could join. So we went out. I went by a camping store to look for my lantern stands. They didnt have any I could easily see. But the did have something that I almost bought. A hammock. Not just a mesh net hammock, but a heavy duty one. It cost 40 bucks. I did not get it, but there is a chance I will. Just the thought of going to a park to read a book and lay in a hammock sounds amazing.
We got to the Lantern Parade about an hour and a half early. We got seats which we were not really supposed to get. There is a foreigner section. Thats where we sat. Appearantely we were suppose to reserve seats which we did not do. We did not get kicked out. We were supposed to hold some seats for others that were coming, but were unable to do so. Eva was able to make it and we pulled up a chair so she could sit with up. I took a ton of pictures, but almost none of them came out. I will have to go through them and try to find a few.
The lantern parade was amazing. Thousands upon thousands of people marched holding lanterns. There were also huge paper lanters that had to be pushed and pulled. A completely amazing experience. They gave us cheap plastic lanterns to put in front of us during the parade. Near the end of it, they invited all of the foreigners in my section to march. I did. I loved it. A lot of pictures were taken of me. I had a huge smile on my face. I was also wearing a shirt that said Nepal, which is where Buddha was born. So that just made it even cooler. I paused for pictures, I waved at people. So great!
After that, we went to Hondgae and got dinner. We had 김치전 (Kimchi Jeon) which is a kimchi pancake thing. Not exactly sure what it was other than delicious. I had a huge appetite, and apparently the others did to, so we ordered more food. I have no idea what the next thing we ordered was. The best I can describe it was Korean style Bangers and Mash with french fries covering it. Interesting... but I would go back to that restaurant again just to get it.  It worked really well with the mixing of flavors.
We went to Joons because it was his birthday. A good time. We played a game of beer pong, and me and my partner won. It was some guy that Sarah knew. It was him and I verses Sarah and Eva. Sarah and I did not drink much there, Eva had a little more. Getting her into a cab was a bit tricky, but we were successful! Sarah and I went back to Bobo and saw Ama and his GF just getting back too. Random chance at 4am.

Sunday May 12.
Mothers Day!
I woke up early, especially considering that I did not go to bed until late. It is what it is. I worked on some stuff for work and did my laundry. That was it. Went to church, and after that, they dad dinner. They had spaghetti. I think it is funny how much Koreans love spaghetti. Anyway, they gave me a fork because they were afraid I would not be able to eat spaghetti with chopsticks. WRONG. I am not great at chopsticks, but I was better than some of the Koreans. I was able to pick up a bunch of noodles, I was able to pick up single noodles without breaking them. All were impressed. They thought it was really spicy, and none of them could believe that I did not break a sweat. All of them did.
I went to homeplus because I wanted to buy some stuff. When I got there, I did not feel like buying anything, so I just walked around and looked at stuff.
I got home and called home and talked to my parents for nearly 2 hours. Got ready for bed. Very simple Sunday.

Monday May 13
School. Energetic kids. Short week. Sharon cried again today. It really interesting because she did not used to ever cry. She was loud, so Ronnie came in and asked what was going on. She was crying because I would not let her get water. Why did I not let her get water you may be asking. The rule in my class is one person can get water at a time unless it is snack time. Someone else already had water and she was behind on her work. The other rule is that you have to be on the right page, which she was not. Right when she was stopping is when Ronnie came in and got her. I have no doubts he gave her water.
This is something that all of us foreign teachers have noticed. These kids are babied. If they get in trouble and have to see Ronnie or Louise, they do not get yelled at, they get given candy. If they cry, they get taken out of class and are given candy. I know the school wants to keep the kids happy, but when this happens, it completely undermines the rules and authority of the classroom. Kids used to fear being sent to the principals office. Now if they go, they know they wont get yelled at and will get candy. If a kid cries for some simple reason, instead of bucking up, they get given everything they want. There is cartoon that talks about this. I will have to find it...
One thing that I am starting to do a little though we really are not supposed to, is to drop a work of Korean in. Granted, I do this extremely rarely. Today when the lunch lady came by to pick up the trays left in our class, I quietly said thank you in Korean (she does not speak English). Or when I hear students pointing and saying 'this' or 'that' in Korean, I say, no not that in English. Or if they are talking about something where I recognize a word, I use that word in English. So if they are talking about water in Korean, I go up and start talking about water in English. It keeps the kids on their toes. If they think I know what they are saying in Korean, they do not seem to speak as much Korean. Its like sometimes they talk it as a secret language, but if they think I understand it, they don't want to get in trouble. It is one of the tricks that the English teachers use. It seems to get us a little respect with the students. Then when they ask you to say something in Korean, we never do, we just say English only at ECC.
In my Canada class, I have a girl that lifts up her shirt. Most of the time it is just to her belly but sometimes it goes a bit higher than that. It just started, and I keep telling her no. I tell all of my students no. She seems to be doing it to elicit a reaction from the class, which she gets, but then after she does it, one of the boys does it ant it gets a far bigger reaction. This has only started since the weather started to get warm. They are only first graders. In one of the other classes, they had paper doll types of things talking about clothes etc. And both the little girl and the little boy were topless. So maybe in Korea there is not the same shaming standard put on children... Maybe that does not happen until later in life. I'll talk to one of my co-teachers about it. I do not want to impose any standards that are against the cultural norm.
I stayed after and worked on my open class stuff. I have done more cutting today that I have probably done in a decade. printed and then had to cut out the numbers 0-10 (twice) the words zero-ten (twice) groups of apples 0-10 (twice) and then the  +-= signs twice. So that is like 72 things I had to cut out. Then I had to laminate them all. then I had to cut all 72 things out of the laminate. So that took far longer than I was expecting.
I was going to order McDonalds today, because I was just worn out and did not want to have to leave my apartment and I just wanted some junk food. Instead I went and got Pizza. More food for less money, and still fulfilled my junk food craving. Sometimes you just want something that is cheap and will fill you up. Lunch today was huge. It was the birthday celebration day, so there was a lot of extra fruit with normal lunch. But the 7 hours between lunch and leaving school just really depletes that lunch energy.
I came home and worked on the open class project for Denmark. Now I am getting ready to go to bed.

PICTURES (May take a long time to load)

FIELD TRIP TO FARM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Mountains in Background is North Korea)

ROCK MUSIC and CLUB in HONGDAE

 

 

 

WALK-A-THON 

 

(These are famous performers in Korea. It is sort of like STOMP but with cooking supplies)

(Yes the bird is dead. but the color was beautiful) 

 (Building a temple)

 (Temple)

 

 

 

(Some dance group that is semi popular)

 

 

 

 

WILL SMITH AFTER EARTH