I did not do much today. We played some settlers, smoked some hookah with Rob, Yuri, and Scott. Did laundry. Did some Korean homework. Cleaned minimally. Went shopping. Skyped with my parents.
Monday October 28th.
Decent day at school. It was Cartoon day and Song contest, so I missed one France class for it and one Australia. Out of all of the classes in the group. My France, Denmark, and Australia were the only classes that had all of their lines memorized. This made me happy. Small victory in my book. I took pictures of the song contest...
Its tough to get a picture of all kids looking forward and smiling and not blurry.
I continued to do the earsing a start anytime anyone spoke Korean, and it helped. Getting kids to help with the policing is grand. Also, besides them keeping themselves in check, they are less likely to let me know every time someone speaks Korean. It gets old quickly.
This starts my last week with Emily in my Australia class. She is moving to Gangnam with her family (duh, she is only 7). That of course means she will not be attending Mokdong anymore. She is very sweet and very smart. Sometimes a little emotional, but she was an absolute pleasure to have in class.
Denmark went okay. We got some work done... they are just so much slower than Australia. They have bigger personalities (as I have said before, they act more their age) but getting through the same amount of material is difficult.
I spoke briefly to Regina's mom. Apparently the whole bringing cupcakes to class was a huge hit with the moms! Here though, instead of cupcakes, they call them muffins. Whatever. When she came the first time, we nicknamed her muffin teacher. She asked me if I minded if she was muffin teacher again. I told her no. I dont. If it got Regina's mom brownie points with the other moms, that means it got Regina brownie points too. She is still trying to adjust to fitting in. Once she starts getting invited over to the other girls houses (once the moms let it happen) it will do wonders for Regina. Yes, I know I may get told no pictures again by ECC and have a talking to... but really... if the moms like it and the kids like it... and if it helps bring one of the kids into the group... I will take a talking to by ECC. It may be hubris on my part... but ECC is about making money (it is a for profit business). Most students that leave, leave because the kids complain or the parents do. Regina's mom also told me how impressed the other moms were with me.... So... I wont do it often... but I could tell Regina's mom was really excited about the response from the mom group.
We have a test on Wednesday in my two afternoon classes, so we spent most of the classes doing some review.
Afterwork, I went to go buy a Wii from a person off of Craigslist for Rob. He gave me money. He was going to a video game tournament. If you do not know... video games are a big deal in Korea. They have stadiums, arenas, and places to play. Top players get paid more money than I will make in a decade or longer. Well, Rob plays a game called Dota 2. It just launched in Korea, and there were 2 of the top international teams playing brand new Korean teams (When I say top international teams, these guys play in tournaments where the prizes are in the millions). Rob wanted to go watch, so I went to pick up the Wii. After I did that, I made my way to Yongsan and Ipark Mall to watch. It took a while to find the entrance... the mall was closing, so there was only one way in. I had no idea what I was in for and I do not know how to play Dota. This match was televised.
So it was pretty darn entertaining even though I was pretty lost.
Tuesday October 29th.
My teaching was once again cut short. We had the Drama presentation today. As such, I only got one France class. It went pretty well, the use of the every one losing one star if anyone speaks Korean really works well.
Drama presentation was okay... though I did not get to watch any of my classes preform. I took France, and I got to watch all of the other classes preform. I had to leave to teach another right when France was going on stage (timing is not a strong suit with my school). I did watch 3 other classes, and took a picture of Sweden to send Ama, and I got a picture of France right when they got to the front. I did get very frustrated though... Not because of that... I was supposed to take Australia for Drama. I told the kids that we were going... several of them told me they weren't, and I said we were... I showed them the schedule. So, when it was time to take the kids, I took them. I got them sat down... all of a sudden I was told they weren't doing it then. They changed the times that they were going, and they did not tell me. I was frustrated. I only have a limited number of classes with them (especially during this week) and the process of getting them to put away their books, line up, go to the gym, sit for several minutes, then having them re-line up, get back to class, and take out other books.... took about 15 minutes. Even worse, I hate telling my kids one thing, and in the end, not telling them the truth. I told Rob "I do not mind if they call an audible, they just need to let all of the players know."
France: Andy, Fred, Sharon, Juliet, Kelly, Sally, Julie, David
Sweden. I do not know all of them by name. I will find out and post another picture sometime. This is the class that Diana from the first several weeks of Denmark moved to. She is the one between the girl in the red stripes and the boy with the gray shirt.
Our Kindergarten students Halloween party... ooops, I mean Book Character Day (generic as to not offend) is tomorrow. I had no idea what to do. Niamh said her boyfriend had a pirate costume that he was not using and she could bring it later in the evening and I could use it. She told me it might not fit me. So, during my break, I went to Emart. I bought a pair of fleece pants for 9,000 and a white dress shirt for 13,000. I figure if her boyfriends stuff did not fit, I could make a costume out of that stuff.
My afternoon Denmark class had their debate today. Oh my gosh. It was actually really good. I set up a point system and incentives to use things we learned. They kids used it. They had actual rebuttals, and well though out arguments. I had one team win.... (not sure yet, I gave points and have not added them up). But I really want to reward the whole class.
I had Hagwon tonight. I was able to do some work during the day, but not all. The longer I am here, the more I feel bad for my students. I have a tough time... I dont even want to imagine the pressure they are under. I do not I would have been a little better younger... just because it is much harder for me to memorize things now as compared to when I was 11.
After Hagwon, Yufei, myself, and another one of his friends went to NY Burger. It was good. Not as good as Gonnys. Gonnys has homemade bread... and that makes a burger so much better as compared to Korean hamburger buns.
After I got home, I prepared my clothes for Halloween.
Wednesday, October 30th
Book Character Day!
It was a little crazy... I hosted a game where the students pick a task, of if they complete it, they get a piece of candy. Tasks like clap 7 times or hop on one foot. The day with the kindy kids was amazing... so freaking adorable all day. Halloween! (alternate http://www.ybmecc.com/mokdong and look for the halloween pictures)The most I can really do is say look at these pictures. They speak for themselves.
I was a pirate. I was really popular. The shirt I bought at emart, I cut, snipped, burnt, and rubbed with coffee to turn a clean white shirt into a dirty used pirate shirt. The pants I cut too. If you look at the pictures, you will see some better ones. Oh, and yes, that is real facial hair.
My afternoon classes, we had a test in both. So in all... pretty much absolutely nothing to report about them. Tests are no fun.
Niamh gave me a toaster oven. She had two and wanted to get rid of one. I did not need one, but I figured it would not hurt. It is supposed to get hot enough to make brownies and pizza. With that, I'd be set. It would not help in losing weigh... but it would make me happy! The group of us also went to Costco.
Scott Rob and I played Settlers. I have a reputation with it now. I have won a lot... so now, whoever I pay against team up against me. It stops me from winning, but I am only one turn away from winning. I can beat 3 people, I can beat 4 people. But when 2 or 3 people work together as one to beat me... while I am good, I am not that good (yet).
Thursday, October 31st
Today was a field trip. A field trip to a park, where the kids got to play some outdoor games. For whatever reason, Denmark (my class) and Australia (Christina's class) were late. Our bus always screws our kids. When we got the all of the other kids had already had snack and just got to run around while our classes had to have snack.
The games part was semi organized... there were 2 teams, and there was one activity going on for the kids to do (aka races). The kids liked it. I think it would have been better if there were multiple things the kids could have done, and they could just run around and do different things. Literally, the kids had to sit in line as they were waiting their turns. So the kid gets 30 seconds of fun and has to sit in line for 40 minutes as everyone else goes. But it is still good to see the kids not having to be in a classroom. There are pictures of it on (http://www.ybmecc.com/mokdong)
I dressed back up as the pirate for the rest of the afternoon. I wanted to be dressed up for the older Tuesday-Thursday kids since they did not get to see me on Wednesday. I had a little bit of time to study my Korean in the afternoon.
Hagwon tonight was pretty good. I am learning stuff, just not as fast as I would like. I am going to keep at it though. I just need to find more time to dedicate to it. If I do that, I think that would help me out a lot.
We jot Julios Mexican food for dinner. It was just Yufei and I, and we got a family meal. We devoured it all. We have had Julios before... not this location, but another. It has always been okay. I think the key is getting the family meal. Instead of just one thing, we got to taste many, and that really helps the flavor.
Friday November 1st.
I got to teach a full day of classes to all of my classes. I know it is small... but I love being able to get what I need to get done, done. Out of this entire week, this was the only day where I could. Today was Australia Emilys last day. During lunch, I wrote her a nice little goodbye note. It may not mean much to her, but to her parents, they might like it. We had a little drama in Denmark class. Some kids were saying Chloe spoke Korean, and this made Chloe cry. So I made the whole class be quiet and I asked Chloe why she was crying... someone else started to tell me, and I told them to be quite. This stopped Chloe almost immediately from crying. When she finally told me, I asked her if I yelled at her or if she had gotten in trouble. I asked if I had taken away a class point. All of which she said no to. I asked her if she needed to cry about it, and she said no. Then I made the class repeat the rules 10 times (speak only in English, be nice to your friends, raise your hand to talk, listen to the teacher, walk in the hallway).
My afternoon classes went okay too. Nothing really big happened in either one.
At the end of the Day, I spoke with Angela about my 2 afternoon classes. She is really concerned about Roy in my 3rd grade Greece class. I am too. I have got him to somewhat behave in my class, but he doesnt elsewhere. His father told Angela that even at home, he doesnt understand whats wrong. So we spoke about it for a while... I showed her the wiki article on Asperger syndrome. I told her I am in no way a medical professional nor have the ability to make any judgement in the matter. She actually agreed. She did not know what Aspergers was, but she told me that she thought he might be autistic (as I have said before Aspergers is on the Autism spectrum). She wanted to know how I get him to behave and why he likes me. I told her that even though I do not know if he has a specific condition, I treat and act like he does (aka not yelling at him, getting frustrated with him, comparing him, treating him 'special,' giving attention to him when he does something bad, praising for good work). He responds. I do treat him different than others. Not completely obviously, but in a way that does not get him upset, and that makes him act better in my class.
Ama came over to GS mart after school. The crew all had a few drinks and just talked for a while. It was a good night. Ama really thinks I would do good at the school he teaches at. He understands my loyalty to ECC, but he really wants me to think about his place.
Saturday November 2nd.
Had to wake up early. We were having an open house at ECC for perspective students (well, parents of the students). The teachers were there too. We manned different stations for the kids. The parents went to a presentation. The kids got to play. It was pretty awesome. Some kids were scared, but warmed up quickly. I was in the gym with Scott. We played with blocks and legos with the kids. It started off really slow, but we had a lot of kids come through. Most kids seemed to get it a kick out of me. I let kids stack big foam blocks around me, and they all thought it was the most interesting thing.
I went to watch FC Seoul with Lyn and Alex (2 friends of mine from NYC that went to OSU) and Karen. It was the first time I had seen them since they moved here. The game was good. Its interesting to say, but I am kind of becoming a soccer fan. At each game FC Seoul gives out fans that have the team name on them. They are used to keep you cool, but you can also use them to make sound... Well on the back of this one, it had a picture of the stadium from last weeks game. My FC Seoul Jersey is Bright yellow. Well, in the picture, you can see a small yellow dot where we were sitting... that was us.No way on earth to tell it was, but we knew it, so that was cool.
We did a quasi Halloween at night. Yufei tried to organize some big thing. It did not turn out that great. A lot of people didnt show. We had Gusto Tacos (yum). Then we made a mistake. We went to Gonnys Hamburgers (yum yum). Why was it a mistake? We filled up on food. We filled up on a lot of food. It is hard to have the energy to dance an drink after fantastic tacos and wonderful burgers. I could have called it a night after that. We didnt. We went to several other places. It was fun, but not an adventure. My stomach was happy, but nothing else really happened.
Sunday November 3rd.
Woke up. Went to Itaewon to meet Lyn and Alex for brunch. We went to the All American Diner. I warned them the service was slow (which it was). But for me, the food is still worth it. White gravy and chicken fried steak. Nowhere near as good as it is in Oklahoma... but it is as close as you can get to Seoul. Being here for over 8 months (wow), sometimes a taste that is close to American food is good. There was a place in Itaewon that had OSU athletic shorts for 10 bucks. I got them. I should have seen if they had more. I only brought one pair of athletic shorts with me when I came... and the are great just to wear around and to exercise in.
Other than that, I just did laundry and a very small bit of cleaning... In all, a pretty good and chill Sunday.
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