Ginseng

Friday October 4th
My 7 month anniversary. Holy jeeze.
France class worked really hard in math first period, because I told them if we did not get the work done, we would not watch cartoon. It was a good motivator. Australia we finished the supplement and caught up everywhere else, so Monday we will only be 2 days behind (and on a monthly schedule, that aint bad. Denmark almost caught up with the supplement, and we are still behind on writing. The next story Australia and Denmark do is Cinderella, and the girls are all excited. I told Denmark that we would not get to start Cinderella till we were caught up in both classes... that seemed to be a good motivator... I think by Tuesday we will be caught up.
It was my first day with out my first graders.... Wendy gave me a note... I do not remember exactly what it said, but it brought a tear to my eye. It was saying how she had a teacher when she was six leave her class and go back to the US, so she cried a lot, but even though she knows I am not teaching her, I am still going to be at ECC so she didnt cry. I will really miss teaching her (as well as almost all of them). I think I was starting to have a good effect on her and she was starting to grow and find her place. I know I often spoke of my frustrations with here.... but she was a pleasure in class.  Emma gave me a note before Cheusok. Ann gave me one this week too. I do not think I talked about the individual students in this class enough. I might have to type a little about some of them so I can remember. I know why the school moved me.... but it doesn't mean I like it.
I have lost a lot of classes and gained a lot of classes... but this one really hits that I wont be teaching anymore.  From what my schedule is now... I am only teaching 3 classes that I started at the beginning of the year. I started with one Denmark and one Australia... Now I have 2 of each of them and 2 France. I still have my 3rd graders. Everything else has changed.
I taught my new class today. They all knew me, and I had seen them all in the halls so I recognized them. They are 3rd graders, but very low English skills. In class, we learned "You look great!" "Thank you!" How many _______ do you have?" "I have __________    __________." So it was mouths, necks, arms, hands, and feet. But it was not the normal answers, there were pictures of monstery aliens with multiple body parts. But thats what we did in class. They are using some of the same books our kindy kids use. But the kids all seemed to enjoy me, and that is a great place to start building up. Older kids are harder to build a relationship with most of the time... they are busy with everything and are coming in to who they are.
My third graders were good. Tomy was sick... by that, I mean when I went into class, he looked like death. He should not have been in class. But he moved a desk to the corner of the classroom and did not sit by anybody. His mom came by when he got to school (before his first class) and yet she had him stay. I have had many sick kids... but he looked pail and out of it...
After work, Rob, Scott and I went to Hongdae. Scott had to activate his cell phone. Rob and I did something partially crazy and expensive. We both signed up for Hagwon. A Korean Hagwon. So we can learn Korean. He is several levels ahead of me, but he has done it before and I have not. Surprisingly (sarcasm added) there are not many Korean Hagwons to learn Korean. The nearest is in Hongdae. I can go to Hagwon to learn Chinese, English, Math, Literature, Piano.... but not so much how to speak and read Korean. I am very excited.... It is a 3 hour class every Tuesday and Thursday. I will give it at least a month to see if I like it and it works. If it does, I'll stick with it. When I was younger I really didnt care to be bilingual... now, I really do. This place is supposed to be pretty legit too. I have tried practicing on my own... but it is tough... There are three different K sound, Different O sounds, different A sound. And practicing by yourself, you have no idea if what you are saying is right. And in Korean, where the Korean word for Chopsicks is almost the exact same word as slang for penis, the Korean word for shoe is one small sound away from f***, and the word for father is one sound away from the slang term for vagina.... knowing the difference between certain sounds is incredibly important.
The three of us went to Mammoth and ate a lot of delicious meat. I love that place. I know I have typed about it before... but 12 dollars for all you can eat.... all sort of meat... this time they had duck too... plus all the other stuff a salad bar has... just feels so right.
I came home and attempted to go to be.

Saturday September 5th
Ginseng festival in Young-Ju!
I had to wake up far earlier than I am used to. I tried going to sleep early last night and failed miserably. So, needless to say I was pretty tired. The bus out to Youn-ju took nearly 3 hours. It was good getting out of Seoul for just a day trip. It was 29,000 to do, and well worth it in my opinion.
We get there, and the first thing we do is peel ginseng and put it into glass containers with soju to make ginseng wine. Locals were very impressed with my ginseng route. The more like a person a ginseng plant looks like, the better.

 Well, as you can see, mine has 2 legs, an arm, and a penis. So, it was pretty special. It would have been better with 2 arms... but what can you do?

 Festival

After that, we went out to a Ginseng farm where we got to dig up our own ginseng plants.

 This is the plant I dug up. It does not look like a person... yet, it got a lot of the ajumma's (adult female) attention. A lot came over to look at it and gave me a big thumbs up and were excited. It had something to do with how many roots my plant had and how they weren't ripped off. Harvesting can be a fragile thing to do, so a lot of plants do not come out with a lot of roots. So they were happy.  I think it has something to do with luck or fortune... both of which are things I like. Also we had a photo shoot with the mayor of the town. There were a lot of cameras and video cameras following us around all day. I bet they are going to use some of the pictures to advertise next years festival.

After the farm we went to Seionbichon. It is a traditional Korean rebuilt to the exact specifications of the village that was around in the 15 and 16 hundreds. It is very popular in Korean Dramas and for Korean history. Something about some important Confusionist scholar founded and lived there. Not quite sure. It was beautiful outside and a great day for walking around and exploring.

 What do you know, they are filming a Korean Drama (winter scene)

 Awesome sky at rest stop on way home.

party bus!

Got back to Seoul and had dinner with several of the other people that went on the trip. It was hosted by Adventure Korea, so pretty much everyone there was a foreigner. There was one guy that was friends of the bus driver. He was there with his daughter... he tried to take a picture of me with here... it did not turn out too great... She has not started learning English yet (though her father was okay... he and I talked for a while). So I was more of a mystery to her than the usual teacher... but it was still fun making funny faces with her.... Its still a nice picture.

I got back to bobo. Then by chatting, we all decide we want to play mario party. In the end it is only me, Rob, and Yuri. We play that for several hours.

In all a fantastic Saturday... I think I may try to do more with Adventure Korea... the stuff is cheap, and Id much rather spend 30 bucks for a day then 30 bucks out in Hongdae at night. Hongdae I have explored... but there is so much more out there.