Sohee's Birthday Party and Halloween Spirit Week

 

So, as you might remember, LCI has birthday parties for the kindergarten students.  This time it was it was Sohee's turn.  I briefly met her mom and the kids had a lot of fun, but none of them seemed to be a big fan of the food, and only a few touched the cake.  They had prepared a more healthy cake with lots of fruit on it.  I guess kids don't really care yet for healthy and still prefer the chocolate and full of sugar cakes.  Either way, Sohee enjoyed her little party.

So a week or so after Sohee's Birthday Party, we started Halloween Spirit Week.  Of course, spirit weeks mean different themes and the kids had a bunch of fun dressing up in different ways.  So did the teachers ... well I certainly did.  Anyway, Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Crazy Hair Day, Wednesday was Sports Day, Thursday was Backwards Day, and of course Friday was Halloween meaning lots of awesome costumes.

Pajama Day

 

Crazy Hair Day

 

I didn't really know what to wear for Sports Day so my coworkers just told me to wear a hat, shorts, T-shirt, and leggings.  *Sorry I do not own a pair of sweats.*  Anyway, I had fun and wore the hat I stole (okay stole with permission) from my Uncle Jon and kind of looked like I was going fishing, Halloween style.  It amused me.

 



Sports Day

 

As I said before, Thursday was Backwards Day.  Though the outfits weren't as interesting as the other days, we did carve a pumpkin.  All the students got a chance to try digging out the insides with a spoon, but the spoon wasn't working so well so Jessica Teacher had to dig in with her bare hands and scrape it out with her hands.  Let's just say my nails definately hurt after that one.  The kids took turns with my camera so had a few pictures of me digging the pumpkin out.  We also had to stay late on Thursday to decorate the school for the big Halloween Event the next day.  They gave us pizza, fried chicken, and beer (which I didn't drink but the food was good) before we got busy with the decorations.

 



Backwards Day & Pumpkin Carving

 

 

 

The Halloween Event was a lot of fun.  As most of you know, I love dressing up in costumes, so I enjoyed myself a lot.  I was a Chinese witch and even managed to dig out my silver glasses to match the outfit.  The male teachers all did a super hero theme, and of course everyone loved it.  I was in charge of one of the face painting rooms, so I drew lots of ghosts, spiders, black cats, and coffins on different kids.  For those who didn't want Halloween face paint, I drew things like flowers, hearts, stars, and butterflies.  It was a lot of fun, though I wish I had more time as then I could have made the drawings look really good.  Sadly there were only really simple.  Though I did manage to draw something on each of my hands.  I am left handed, so I was surprised how well the coffin I drew on my left hand with my right hand turned out.  After face painting, we swapped classes and did a small trick or treating event before the kids went home.  Other events included a Haunted House, decorating Halloween sun glasses, snacks, etc.  Then we did had a song contest and anounced the various winners.  My class forgot the ending moves to the Addams Family Theme, but it was still pretty cute.  Amy from my class won the costume contest as a red crayon.

 

After the big Halloween Event, I gave tests to my second graders before Afternoon Kindergarten.  For the Afternoon Kindergarteners, Megan Teacher and I worked in the Haunted House for a little bit.  I surprised a few of the students, and scared them at first, but once they knew we were there, they started trying to scare us back.  It was amusing.  Then the two Afternoon Kindergarten classes switched and did a small trick of treat, which we were missing candy for, so it took a bit as I needed to go find candy.  Otherwise, that ended the Halloween festivities and now I need to get rid of my decorations for the upcoming open class.

 



Halloween

The male teachers as super heroes.

Ben - Batman

David - Superman

Alex - Spiderman

Serry really does look like Princess Cinderella in this picture.

Amy winning the Costume Contest as a Red Crayon.

Sally the Angel.

Right Hand

Left Hand

Me with Bella from Afternoon Kindergarten Class

 Morning Kindergarten Class

Halloween Teachers

 

 

I tried to upload the video of the kids singing the Addams family that Alex took for me, but alas it kept failing.  Oh, and to top it all off, I lost my voice again afterwards ... I have a feeling I won't be getting my voice back until Christmas break when I can actually stop talking for once ... Never thought I would actually find the day that I wanted to stop talking.  (Voted most talkative in High School)

 



Hiking With Kids, Sick, and Orchestra Concert

So, been busy lately.  First I want to briefly mention a little hike that I went on with the students.  It was to the Gwanggyo Mountains, which is only like a 10 minute bus ride away from the school.  The hike was pretty easy and the kids had a lot of fun.  There were little parks within the hike for them to play in as well, so they definately weren't bored.  Sally decided to start making a big pile out of pine needles and then a bunch of students, not just from my class, started pitching in and helping so it turned out pretty big.  In the end, they used it as a jumping pit, and kept moving its location.  I'm not sure I understand why they kept moving it, but it was a lot of fun.  As you can see, my class is full of characters, but it definately makes the day interesting.  Also, Sohee loves sitting in my lap, she does it all the time in Musical English.  It was quite hard getting them to focus in class after the field trip but it was a fun day.

From Left to Right:

Sally, Kate, Amy, Wendy, Jessica Teacher, Sohee, Serry, Anthony, Joseph, & Winstron

Winston

Top Row Left to Right:

Anthony, Winston, & Joseph

Bottom Row Left to Right:

Amy, Sohee, Jessica Teacher, Serry, Kate, Sally, & Wendy

Serry

Sohee

So the week after the hiking trip, I think it was the week after the hiking trip, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, a bit later I got pretty sick, unable to eat, lost my voice, high fevers, the whole nine yards.  I felt sick enough to go to the doctors, which if you know me, I try to avoid.  Thankfully, the doctor spoke English, and was really quick.  Not only was it quick, but it only cost me 30,000 won ($30) for the visit and medicine, and that is without insurance, which doesn't start until I get my alien registration card, which should be soon.  I think the doctor gave me about 5 different medications.  And Korea does not believe in sick days, and we really done have enough teachers to provide substitutes, so I got to teach in a whisper one day, as I had completely lost my voice.  Some of my older students made fun of me ... yes ... they actually laughed at me.  But my kindergarteners were adorable about it.  I explained to them that they had to be extra good and quiet so that they could hear me, so they all started speaking in a whisper too.  Needless to say, I couldn't hear them, and had to keep telling them to speak up, but it was so adorable.  You know, its the thought that counts, and they were whispering because all I could do was whisper.  I also had to get my bank account set up that week, and had to explain and give all my information in a whisper.  I lucked out again as the bank employee also spoke English.  Either way, I spent a good week feeling sick and teaching with no voice.  Was an interesting experience that I am definately glad to be done with.

After recovering, I spent a good weekend with Nathaniel and we went to Meena's (my kindergarten supervisor) String Ensemble concert.  I misread Meena's directions, and ended up originally going to the wrong place.  But we left early, so we had plenty of time to get to the concert.  As we exited the correct station, we ran into a group of kids who saw us and all decided to say "Hello" to us when they saw us.  It was really cute, so I said hello back.  So we continue to search for the correct building and more students decide to greet us, so I pull out my ticket and point to the address and they point us towards the correct door, as we were already at the correct building by that time.  Koreans are much more friendly than the Japanese.  The Japanese wouldn't randomly greet someone they didn't know on the street, especially a foriegner, whereas the Koreans obvious have.

The concert was really good, honestly the first adult orchestra concert I have gone to.  Saw another coworker there, Heather, as she too had gone with her husband.  Before, I have only gone to high school or college performances, so it was a nice change.  It was an excellent performance, and I especially liked the second half where they did musical pieces.  I recognized two from Phantom of the Opera, 'Music of the Night' and 'Think of Me.'  It was really interesting hearing the songs that I know in English sung in Korean.  And the Korean singers were excellent as well, especially the woman who was singing Christine's parts for Phantom of the Opera.  Her range and expressions were amazing! O.O  Seriously amazing.  I don't know if I have ever heard a singer so good, and I've been around some decent singers.  The first half of the concert was really good too, but it was classical musical, so very relaxing and made me sleepy.

Otherwise, I have mostly been getting ready for the big Halloween event that is coming up on the 26th.  It is a huge event that we do for the morning Kindergarteners and the teachers are required to dress up as well ... not that I am complaining about that.  I'm excited, as are my students.  We are singing 'The Addams Family Theme Song' for our song contest.  Wish us luck.

Chuseok Holiday Adventure

So me being the idiot that I am, was carrying way too much on my way to go visit Nathaniel for the four day weekend.  Because I was carrying a tent (present from leaving co-worker), I had three various things in my arms, and had to carry these on the trains.  I sat down for one of the longer train rides, and forgot that I should have had three straps instead of the normal one or two and left my purse on the train ... the purse which had my phone, my address, some money, some medicine, and worse yet, my passport.  I was about to get on the next train when I realized that I no longer had my purse and started freaking out.  I can get a new phone, but the passport would be seriously bad if I didn't get it back, so I went searching the shops in the train station to find someone who spoke English.  Thankfully one of the girls who was getting off from a local convenience store spoke English well enough to direct me to the Train Station police.  Again I was lucky that he spoke English.

So I gave them as much information about my purse as I could (information I learned to relay in one of my classes in Japan).  What it looked like, what was in it, where I left it, what line I was on, etc.  But they couldn't find my purse.  I didn't know my phone number as it was written on a piece of paper in my purse, nor my address which was again in my purse, for them to send it to me if they found it.  Needless to say we are all at a loss as to what to do.  I am trying not to have a panic attack and after an hour in the train station I was getting out my passport ID number card (in case I lost my passport and needed to go to an embassy to get a new one) that was in my wallet, which was thankfully in my back pocket due to the fact that my train pass was in the wallet and I needed easy access to it.  That saved me, because I found also in my wallet a business card that my boss had given me and the train police were able to call my boss.

Luck must have favored me because my boss had just gotten a call from my phone from the Korean girl who had picked up my purse.  She was in Gangnam, which was only one stop away from where I was in the train station.  My boss called her back, and told her to meet me at exit 11 in Gangnam, so I could get my purse and passport back.  Needless to say I thanked the train police and went running ... caught the next train to Gangnam (banged my hand in the process as I was a bit in a hurry) and hurried to find exit 11 once I got there.  I arrived first, and waited a few minutes for the lady to show up with my purse.  Thankfully, being a foriegner, I was easy to spot and my purse was returned to me, without any contents missing.  I thanked the nice Korean girl profusely, and probably would have stayed longer to chat as she spoke English, but as I was running an hour late, I needed to hurry to meet Nathaniel.  I made sure to call my boss and let her know I had my purse and everything back safely, though it took me a while that night to calm down.

But I arrived safely to my destination, and a point of pride, I didn't get lost once, despite having to take a detour to Gangnam to retrieve my missing purse.  Those of you who know me, know that I had little to no sense of direction, so I was pretty proud of myself, travelling two hours away without getting lost.  Thankfully I have experience with train systems from Japan, and that really helped me out.  And all the stations have the names both in Korean and English, so I had no issues finding where I needed to be.  Anyway, I have never done that before, and had avoided losing anything on the Japanese trains, only to do it here where I don't speak the language.  I lucked out that the people working that day understood English.  Either way, I got extremely lucky and learned my lesson to be extra careful to make sure I have everything when I get off the train as I could lose some valuable things such as my passport (since I haven't gotten my alien registration card yet).  And that is how my Chuseok holiday began.

So Friday night I pretty much crashed, tired both physically and emotionally from my adventure.  We relaxed and took some walks exploring the area, especially on Sunday.  Nathaniel almost stepped on a snake.  I pulled him back but I only noticed it because I was watching the people walking towards us and they suddenly stopped and looked down.  So we all waited for the snake to slither his way back into the tall grass before continuing our walk.  I didn't have my camera so all of my pictures of the walk are from Nathaniel.  There is a lot of free to use exercise equipment along the river path, and that was interesting to see.  We also saw a crane with a baby flying and swimming around, a bunch of ducks and geese too.  There were lots of people out and about because the day was so nice, and it was a holiday.  A few children were in their Hakbuk, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.  You can definately tell though that women and men don't interact as much in groups as they do in America, as they were very much seperated when we saw them sitting playing games.  But that's just one of the cultural differences  between Korea and the United States.  Here are some pictures that I stole from Nathaniel.

 

That weekend, Nathaniel also made an interesting desert with a Japanese pumpkin (small squash).  I think it was called Monjoo, but I don't remember.  Was pretty good and had lots of cinnimon in it.  Monday was a fairly relaxing day, though we did have an interesting, but frustrating incounter with Nathaniel's landlady.  I speak no Korean, Nathaniel speaks very little Korean, and she speaks on Korean.  Nathaniel tried to call a co-worker to translate, but no one was around, so it was interesting trying to figure out what she wanted ... I think it was a gas bill receipt, but either way, spent a long time trying to communicate with her and all the while she is looking at me like 'who are you' and I'm just sitting there completely lost.  Poor Nathaniel was a bit flustered for a while after that, and had to go all the way to his work to see if the receipt in question was there as she didn't want to wait until Thursday when his holiday break is over.  Sadly I return to work a bit sooner than that on Wednesday.  In the end, he never found the receipt and the landlady ended up calling his coworker.  Seems she only wanted to know whether the bill had been paid or not, which of course it had been.  Thankfully the return trip was uneventful and I got to relax my last night of holiday.