Lots of Activities

 

 

So within the last three weeks, I have started going to a yoga class with some of my coworkers who were already doing it.  I figured I needed an activity that was away from my computer and my idea of yoga was that it was relaxing, easy exercise.  I was very wrong.  The yoga class I joined is very intensive and the teacher will physically adjust your body into the right position.  It is constant movement and hurts quite a bit but it is definately good exercise.  The first few classes were brutal and I kept getting nautious (probably cause I never exercise and my body was suddenly moving a lot) but I am thinking about continuing it for another month.  It cost me only 33000 won (roughly $33) for two 1-hour classes a week on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  I definately come home sore and find that I am sleeping more.  But it is good for me to exercise, so lets see if I can keep at it.

 

The cherry blossom trees started to really bloom but sadly they are dying very quickly.  I made sure to take pictures before they were destroyed by the rainy season that is about to start.  I was really surprised to find that these trees practically bloomed over night.  I mean there were no flowers when I went home the frist day and when I came to school the next, they were half filled with flowers.  Talk about amazing.  It is really nice being able to walk to school or the store surrounded by cherry blossoms.

 

So, one of my favorite classes to teach is my sixth grade literature class.  Even though it is the class in which I probably have the most prep work to do, it is a lot of fun and the students seem to enjoy it a lot.  And since they like fantasy books, I can choose any fantasy book that I like for them to read.  For example, we are about to start reading Eragon in two weeks, and though it is a series, they can still read the first book without needing the remainder of the books to understand it.  Plus, it is one of my favorite fantasy series that I get to reread. 

 

We are continuing to do project themes in class and besides giving reports on Arctic animals, we finished up this Arctic animal theme with making polar bear hats.  It was a lot of fun for the kids and me, and I got some really cute pictures out of it.  Though I have to say, I'm surprised at how complicated a simple hat making project can be.  It was too bad that two of the students were absent and couldn't make the projects.  Other than the theme projects, classwork is going along as usually.  We are trying to learn a song for the song contest in a very short amount of time ... I'm not really sure how well that will go but hopefully the students can memorize the lyrics in time, even if they don't fully memorize the dance ... which I still need to figure out. *sigh* Dances and me are not a good combination.

 

Then we had a field trip with the students to a farm, where they could enjoy lots of flowers and stuff.  They had a lot of fun walking around and spending the day outside instead of sitting doing classwork all day.  I enjoyed the break as well though it does leave one physically tired, especially with no lunch break as we enjoyed lunch with the students.  They all had lots of snacks and kimbab and some fruit.  I had some egg salad sandwich and random snacks that were placed in my hands by the kids.  There was also a play area where the kids could experiment with different old style agricultural tools and a bug museum.  The bug museum was interesting because it had pictures made out of bugs.  Though it was also kind of creepy when you realized some of the bugs were cockroaches, not just butterflies.  The kids also had a lot of fun trying on my sunglasses.  On the way home, Michael ended up really interested in my phone.

Trying on Teacher's Glasses

Checking out Teacher's Phone

Picture Made out of Butterflies

PSY Concert and a Few Random Things

I posted recently (like a week ago) so there aren't too many new things going on at the moment.  First, which many of you who follow this blog already know, I extended my contract for an additional six months so my Korea Adventure will now be ending (unless something changes) end of February 2014 (a little after my 24th birthday).  I am excited to be staying in Korea longer and hope to enjoy me stay here.  Maybe actually travel more places and try some new foods.  I did try Tofu Soup, and got a ham and cheese soup but it was still spicy so could only eat about half of it.

Also, for those of you who follow the news, I am perfectly safe, North Korea hasn't done anything yet.  Thank you for your concern but at the moment I believe there isn't too much to worry about.  I have signed up to the travel abroad safety alerts and they haven't changed since I have been here.  Besides, Korea has always technically been at war, they just have been under a ceasefire for the last 60 odd years.  I knew these facts before coming to Korea.  But again, thank you to those who are worrying.  I send you my love from Korea!  <3

My students did a fun project during the Arctic Animals project theme class.  Basically, the goal was to see how a polar bear's blubber kept a polar bear warm when it swam in icy water.  So we had a bucket of ice and a glove with butter (to act as the blubber) in it.  They stuck one hand in the blubber glove and then once it was in nice an tight and their hand was covered, they stuck both hands in the icy water to see which hand was colder.  Obviously the hand that was not in the glove was colder.  My kindergartener Mellisa made a really cute face as she stuck her hand in the water because she was so cold.  When we asked her if she was cold, all she could do was nod and she was barely able to keep her hands in the water.  It was really adorable. 

My mom sent me a box from home.  Thanks mom!  It is always nice to get a box from home.  Let's see ... what was in it...  Ah yes.   Shoes ... tennis shoes .... work shoes ... rain boots (really needed these as the rainy season will be starting soon and Korea gets a lot of typhoons).  Movies that I had ordered and sent home like LOTR series and the final series of InuYasha.  Reni Mimura's newest CD.  And some other random stuff that I wanted or needed.  Though a few things that were not meant to come to me ended up in my box... Well at least I can scan or take pictures of the few things that needed to be returned.  Ah but I did get my lovely black Chinese change purse that Karen's car had stolen right before I had left for Korea.  Thanks Karen!  <3  I will definately use it .... old blue one is kind of falling apart ... :(

Ok, now for the main reason for this blog.  So, Megan and Chris randomly realized that they were able to still get tickets for PSY's concert Happening.  For those of you who don't know who PSY is, he is the singer for the world-wide known song Gangnam Style.  Look it up on youtube and you will see what I am talking about.  Anyway, he is really popular all over.  According to my friends in America, it is popular there too and even basketball players are doing his dances as victory dances when they score.  Anyway, wanting the chance to see this famous and popular Korean singer in person, I managed to buy tickets the day before. 

Picture Taken By Megan

Chris and I had to go to three different PC Bans (places where people go to play computer games from what I understand ... my kind of place ^.^) to find a printer to print off our confirmation emails since I got my ticket after work on Friday.  Getting to the concert was pretty easy, it was at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul.  It took a while to find where to get the tickets but we made it in time and it was a lot of fun.  Before we found our area, a guy with a camera came up to us and started asking us questions about PSY's new video and if we had any words for PSY.  It was a little awkward for me as I hadn't even heard the new song yet and he wanted us to sing part of it.  But Chris did really well with the cameraman despite my awkwardness.  I wonder if anyone will actually see that ...  ...  ... That thought is a little scary. 

Picture Taken By Megan

We were in the front standing section and could see the singers and dancers in person and on the big screen.  The crowd was really energetic and I had a lot of fun.  Again ... I forgot my camera and had to steal pictures from Megan.  So, the concert was amazing.  Though I have been to small scale and a few school concerts, I have obviously never been to a concert like this one.  Especially a concert of such a big name and let me tell you it was quite an experience.  Fire shooting out of the stage, fireworks, lasers, confetti, and that was just a few of the special effects.  The back group visuals on the big screens, the blow up wings for the Paradise song, flying in the air with supports ... again can I saw AWESOME!  And those at the concert were the first in the world to see PSY's newest music video Gentlemen, the song having only been released the day before.

Not to mention PSY danced in a red and white bathing suit with red heeled boots to one of Beyonce's Single Ladies song.  It was hilarious.  Lee Hi, 2NE1, and G Dragon also made guest appearances.  According to Megan, I was really lucky because 2NE1 and G Dragon are also really big names and I was lucky to see them all in one concert.  Lee Hi sang a duet with PSY and 2NE1 and G Dragon each did two songs.  The concert lasted 3 hours, and the encore consisted of six songs.  We missed the last two songs because we needed to get home and public transportation eventually stops.  But from what I found out it was just a repeat of Gangnam Style and Gentlemen which we had seen earlier in the concert.  Everyone was jumping up and down waving the free light up sticks that we were given and I found out that the event had been live streamed on youtube for those who couldn't be there personally. 

Picture Taken By Megan

Picture Taken By Megan

So we left and ended up getting home around 11:30 so we stopped at McDonald's, the only thing open, as we were all hungry, having left for the concert around 3:45.  So we didn't get home until midnight.  It was a blast for me and it was a really cool experience to go to such a big concert.  I hope I get the chance again.  Anyway, thank you Megan as I stole your pictures again.  Also, on another random note ... The Cherry Blossoms are starting to bloom!!!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!

Settling Down Once More

Random Backpack at Cat Cafe

So I haven't posted in a while ... and for those of you waiting for a new post, here it is.  And yes, I finally took pictures of my new students so please enjoy.  Anyway, it took a little bit of time for things to settle down.  The kindergarteners' work level went from little to crammed full of work and so they needed time to adjust to the increased work loads and the new teachers, including our newest teacher, Elliot.  There isn't much new except Heather Teacher left and Elliot Teacher is here, but my classes seem to be going well.  There is a lot of work to do but I enjoy it for the most part (well except when I get sick .... again) but that is one of the hazards of working with kids.  I also seem to be eating out for lunch a little more often though still need to work on trying more foods.  Tried a random ramen the other day and my tongue yelled at me for a while and I didn't get to finish it even though it tasted fine. 

My Afternoon Kindergarteners

Another funny story is when I overheard one of my 6th graders asking Lucy Teacher where I was in the teacher group photo.  So I basically said, "Jin, turn around," and then at the same time took off my glasses and let my hair out of its ponytail.  It amused me just how wide her eyes got and she was like, "Wow, you look so different!"  Now that I wear my glasses more often ... eyes don't seem to like contacts anymore ... I tend to forget how different I do look when I take my glasses off.  The one day I randomly showed up in contacts, all of my students were like, "Who are you?" and I was like, "Your teacher...."  And of course my kindergartener Amy (new kindergarten) screamed cause it startled her so much.

My New Morning Kindergarteners (Missing Amy)

From Left to Right: Britney, Daniel, June, Michael, Mellisa, and Clara

Otherwise, we had a field trip to see a play about two kids and a tiger.  Basically, at least from what I understood, the girls didn't listen to their mother and opened the door to the strange tiger.  This caused the tiger to get there mom and eat her.  The tiger eventually catches them and they use many silly antics to get away from the tiger and eventually the girls ascend safely to heaven and become the sun and the moon.  My students (minus Britney) said it was not fun, but I think they actually enjoyed it and just want to give me a hard time.  Britney said she liked it because the tiger was funny (and it really was).

Went to see the movie Django in theaters with some co-workers.  It's nice to go to English movies here once and a while.  Django was pretty bloody and I hear there was a lot of controversy because it was a slavery movie made by a white person that made you laugh.  But at the same time, it really showed how cruel slavery was.  I enjoyed the movie, though at the same time it felt odd to laugh at things that really did happen but because of how they portrayed it, you couldn't help but laugh.  And the bad men (and women) got what they deserved in the end. 

After talking to my dad before his wedding, I came to the realization that when I was in Itaewon, I had only been maybe a 15 minute walk from the hospital that I had been born in.  It was ironic because when I was heading into Itaewon, I mentioned to Megan and Sarah that I wondered if that place was near where I had been born, because the area sounded familiar to me.  According to my dad, he figures that he and my mom had mentioned it enough that it was subconciously in my mind.  Either way, it was a little ironic and amusing that my hunch had been right.  I will have to convince myself to go back and check out the hospital where I was born because I hear it is open to the public.

Otherwise, I finally tried the Dino restaurant (all you can eat meat buffet that you cook yourself) that everyone was talking about.  It was pretty good though I do like to have more than just meat in a meal.  I also started watching Japanese dramas with Chris (*shakes fist at Chris for getting me addicted to them) and occassionally Megan.  We will have to try some Korean dramas sometime, too, as I know Chris really enjoys them.  The weather is finally starting to get nice out again, so hopefully now that I am getting better I can enjoy the weather on the weekends.

Ah, and I also went back to the cat cafe with Chris (this time without Nathaniel) and we stayed for quite a while.  There were a lot of people there that day, and a lot of kids, so the cats were running around everywhere.  I finally got ahold of my favorite little black and grey one ... if only I could adopt him...  but alas it would not be fair to have a pet when I would have to eventually put him on a plane and deal with all of that and the fact that many weekends I am visiting Nathaniel and a pet would be left alone.  But I can still go visit the cats a the cat cafe occassionally.  And I still need to find that dog cafe and drag Nathaniel to it.

And something else that is new, we are now doing themed projects with the kindergarteners.  Basically, they learn about a theme and do fun projects based on the theme.  Last month's theme was Seasons and this month's theme is Polar Bears (or maybe Arctic Animals).  Either way, they are having a lot of fun.  Last month, they got to make a tree for each season with a bunch of different materials.  It takes a lot of time, but I think it is one of their favorite activities.

New Schedules & Classes & Fun Weekend

So, I wasn't wrong when I said that the first week would be hectic.  Brutal is probably a better word choice as we changed Korean and foriegn teachers, most classes advanced up a level and changed teachers and books, new students, changed the lesson plan designs for first-third grade, and have all new books which require all new schedules, lessons, and tests.  I know how hard it was for the foriegn teachers, so I can only imagine how hard it was for the Korean staff.  Not only do they have to direct the teachers, but they have to deal with all the parents.  Trying to figure out everything was definately stressful.  For the first time, I actually remembered to stretch (if only I was always good about that) as I came home very sore and barely able to move the first day.  Thankfully, after a week, things are starting to settle down and hopefully will continue to get easier.

So, my new kindergarten class consists of 7 students.  Their names are Amy, June, Clara, Mellisa, Michael, Britney, and Daniel.  This was a combination of students from Megan and Sarah's classes.  I like them, but I won't deny I miss my class.  My old kindergarteners are always grabbing onto me in the hall and getting excited when I see them.  They make me feel a little guilty, as if I betrayed or abandoned them (to steal Megan's words).  I notice many similarities in personalities to students from my old class.  For example, June and Amy reminds me of my old Amy (very ironic), Daniel reminds me of Anthony, Clara reminds me of Serry, and Mellisa reminds me of Sohee.  So hopefully my experiences with the first class will help me with the new class.  I promise when I have time to take pictures I will... as I said, it has a very hectic week.

I kept my afternoon kindergarteners, Bella and John, but gained two new students, Sunwoo and Hillary.  I like them so far.  My third grade upgraded to fourth, but I still will be teaching them.  I will teach them newspaper after we finish science.  I got Megan's afternoon kindergarteners who are now first graders, along with a few new students, and I have to say those boys will keep me on my toes.  I have a full class of ten students for third grade and I really like them so far. 

I'm teaching two advance kindergarten after school classes, and those are interesting.  Not only do I teach them, but I get to call them once a week for three minutes, asking them questions about the readings we did in class.  The first time was awkward for me, so I can only imagine how they felt about talking to thier teacher on the phone.  Many of them were unable to answer the questions, so we will have to try a different approach next time.  And I really like my literature class so far, but one of the students always comes in late, and since I am their first teacher, I haven't actually taught him yet.  One of the girls is really eager and works ahead.  She is one of the students who teachers love cause she is always prepared and ready to answer questions.  We definately have some interesting characters in that class. 

Picture Stolen From Megan

Otherwise, it was a long week, and rough, but it was definately a fulfilling week and I was doing a lot of prep for my literature class at home, so I decided to relax this weekend (Nathaniel was busy so didn't harass him).  Megan invited me to go to Itaewon with her and Sarah, and that was fun.  All the Turkish men were hitting on Sarah (she could pass as Turkish I believe, but that is my opinion) and joking around with us.  I found it amusing, but I know that can bother some people.  Got a free orange out of it.  And bought REAL cheese at a foriegn food market and going to cut it up for a tasty snack ... yum!!!!

Picture Stolen From Megan

After Itaewon, Sarah left and Megan and I headed to the Palace, but sadly it was closed by the time we got there, so we only looked at the outside.  Will definately have to go back sometime, and I'm pretty sure the mountains that were around us were the ones that I had hiked with Nathaniel and his co-workers.  While walking around the Palace area, we saw some statues, and also what seemed to be a peace rally.  It made me happy to see people who wanted peace with North Korea (at least that is whom I'm assuming the peace rally was for).  After that, we headed home to find that a fire had occured at the building above the convenience story where I always withdraw money.  The building was completely dark and it was late at night, so I couldn't really see the damage, but there were three firetrucks there, and my apartment, which is fairly close, smelled like smoke because I had kept the windows open due to the nice weather. 

Picture Stolen From Megan

So I actually left my apartment and explored a bit.  One of my lightbulbs burst the next day (probably due to water damage), but Mr. Hang (not sure about spelling) was nice enough to make sure there wasn't any damage, and fixed another problem while he was here.  He seems to be here a lot lately fixing things, as one night, a tube snapped off and tried to flood my kitchen.  He came and repaired that.  Thank you Mr. Hang!  So it seems my apartment is mad at me for some reason .... I wonder why?  ^.^

23rd Birthday & Last Week Before New Classes

I apologize in advance, but this post will not have many pictures.  So, since Megan couldn't make my birthday brunch, we decided to drag Nathaniel around Myungdong and I got to explore a bit.  It was a lot of fun, though still a bit cold for walking around.  We went to a PuriKura machine which took your pictures with various K-Pop Star backgrounds.  I didn't recognize any of them, but Megan knew who all of them were.  Either way it was a lot of fun and we made them look really silly.  And yes Megan ... they are stickers ^.^ hehehe.  Then we went exploring again and she showed me Artbox which has a lot of different cute art supplies and items.  I could spend a fortune in there if I'm not careful (it is also where Megan bought me some really cute birthday presents ... Thank you again Megan!)  After that, I bought cotten candy on the street ... yay!  Sugar!  Then we went to lunch at a very expensive American buffet with a friend of Megan's.  But considering wine was on tap ... I guess it has a reason to be expensive.  After that I went home Nathaniel and Megan went to her K-Pop concert where I'm told she had a lot of fun.

 

Sunday, a bunch of the female co-workers went to Jeonja to have a breakfast brunch with me near Heather's place (which is really nice by the way).  It was called Butterfingers and was an American breakfast diner/waffle house type of place.  I wasn't very impressed with the food, but it was a nice change from always cooking.  We had to wait a while, and they even took our orders before we were seated and asked if it was okay to put us at a four person table (which was plenty big enough for all of us).  They were a little flustered because their English wasn't the best so were worried about communicating with us, but another customer helped them out.

 

Monday rolls around (my actual birthday and I have to say I feel weird on birthday now ... just like I remember that yeah I'm an adult) and it was pretty hectic.  Got Japanese candy from Ben (thank you thank you thank you ^.^) and found out that I am getting a real literature class in March.  It is a lot of work, but I am super excited.  My boss apologized a lot when she realized she forgot to buy me a cake, so I got that on Tuesday.  Was understandable since we were all really swamped, especially the Korean staff.  Met Nate, the new teacher, on Tuesday and he seems really friendly.  I'm looking forward to working with him.  David and Alex are officially done and leaving Korea.  I'm a little jealous of Alex who is visiting Japan with his family before returning home.  Graduation went well, though I didn't really have a part of it since my kindergartener's were not moving on to first grade yet.

 

We found out our new classes, and I've got a lot of hours and classes that need prep the next semester so I will be very busy.  But that means a little more money to go towards paying off those *not so small* student loans.  And my new classes look like they will be a lot of fun.  I am keeping my afternoon kindergarten and my third (though now fourth) graders.  Sarah will be teaching my old kindergarteners but I found out I will be their math teacher, so I still get to see them once a week.  I haven't told them yet, I wanted it to be a surprise.  ^.^  I will miss those two classes though, but I'm sure I'll like the new students I get too.  Many of my kindergarteners' moms gave me goodbye and thank you presents.  They were really nice, and one mom insisted on coming in and thanking me in person.  It was sweet.  Another mom had recently taken a trip to Japan  with her daughter and brought me back a Japanese snack and even wrote in a little Japanese (instead of just English) back to me.  I was really excited about that.  And I got a really nice butterfly hankerchief and some practical stuff.  Shared some things with the co-workers and it was just a nice way to end the semester.  Though we all are doing some spring cleaning it seems. 

Otherwise, I am trying to get rid of a large spot of mold.  I tried to buy bleach, but the worker didn't understand English, and I didn't understand Korean, so I think I just got regular laundry detergent.  Well, if it comes back, just means I will have to clean it again and have Nathaniel or someone else come with me to buy bleach.  And can always use the laundry detergent after I run out of the stuff I currently have.  Though I scrubbed pretty hard, the wall is still black.... and I'm afraid to do more and rip of the wallpaper. 

Kate's Birthday Party & Festival

 

A week after Anthony's birthday party, we had Kate's birthday party. It was a lot of fun, and the student enjoyed the break from work and festival preparations.  So like I said before, after the time I had nothing to do, now I am extremely busy.  We are starting to use all new books at work, and I was the main editor after the Korean staff spent many weeks, including weekends, writing up classwork and homework books.  I took home editting work at least three nights, and have to say, I can only imagine what the Korean staff had to do.  And of course they were all due by the day of festival so that meant even more work for everyone.  And then graduation is the following week.

Festival was a lot of work for everyone, as there were musicals, speeches, and much more for each class.  They even had costumes for the musical (my class did Aladdin) and my class had costumes and props for their speech (What I Want To Be When I Grow Up).  Wendy - Scientist/Genie, Joseph - Police Officer/Aladdin, Winston - Soccer Player/Aladdin, Sohee - Painter/Jasmine, Amy - Doctor/Jasmine, Anthony - Taekwondo Fighter/Jafar, Kate - Ballerina/Jafar, Sally - Teacher/Sultan, Serry - Veterinarian/Gazeem.  We had a lot of rehearsals, but the day of festival went by really quickly.  Most of the parents were there to watch their kids.  Though I think they were all really stresses as I had three kindergarteners burst into tears in the classroom at various times of the day.  But thankfully they all did very well on stage and spoke nice and clearly and remembered their lines and dances. 

I even had to dress nicely (which led to many "Teacher, you look pretty!" comments ^.^) and give a speech, which wasn't too bad.  I just said how wonderful my students were and how they have improved over the last six months that I have had them.  One of the grandparents even gave me some lovely yellow flowers which was nice because I don't see fresh flowers often in Korea.  Then Anthony saw that and took a flower from his fake bouquet and said, "Here Teacher."  It was so cute that I couldn't say no.  Sally tried to give me her entire bouquet too but I wouldn't let her.  Serry gave me a random petal that had fallen off hers.  The things children do definately can make you smile, but it did leave me very tired afterwards.  Thank you Meena and Heather for taking pictures for me.