My first Christmas in Korea!

Christmas stayed pretty busy, which I was glad about. My first Thanksgiving was memorable at being totally forgotten about by everyone but me and totally devoid of family, which was depressing. Thankfully, I actually enjoyed this holiday, a lot. :)

The holidays started with Christmas parties at school. For every class last Tuesday, I bought big packs of chips and snacks and a bottle of Chilsung Cider(like Sprite) and we just played games or colored pictures all class, depending on what class it was. I had fun in all of my classes that day, for the most part, and it was an easy day for me.

That evening, the 23rd, the teachers all met at Cassie's apartment after work at 10 to have a little Christmas party before our four day vacation. We ordered in chicken, the others drank wine and beer(I had coke), and we talked, laughed, and played lots of Jenga. We ended up heading home a little after 2 am but it was a great time together as coworkers and something we don't do enough of, I think.

Christmas Eve morning, I slept in late and then went out shopping to get a present for Gichon, who's name I had gotten for the secret gift-giving. I took the 4:40 bus to church and shortly after arriving, I went back out with the guys to get some ramen since we were hungry and bored while the praise team(all the girls) were practicing.

The evening ended up being a real blast. We started out with some Christmas songs, followed by the children's Sunday School program, which was really cute and there were about 4 plays throughout the night. After the service was finished, we all headed downstairs for some food. The table was spread with Deok(rice cakes), fried chicken, soup, fruit, various kinds of bread, mandoo(dumplings), and Gimbab. After stuffing ourselves, we all headed to Young-sun's house.

Once there, we played games, ate Christmas cake(a Korean Christmas tradition), talked and exchanged our gifts. Young-sun got my name and got me a very soft green pillow cushion. At 1:30 am, we headed out to go caroling at all the churchmembers house. At the first house, we got a big bag of snacks, at another place we got a huge bag of tangerines. At Dahea's house, we all went in and ate a cake roll and drank plum tea and at Jin's house(who's family has now left for America :( ), we went in for some coffee. We finally got back to Young-sun's house at 3:30 and finally got around to sleeping at 4:00.

The next morning, we had to get up around 9:30 for the 11:00 Christmas service so we could prepare. The praise team had to practice their songs and I had to practice with our little group for the Christmas cantata. It was a nice service with some praise songs, the cantata, and a message. We had the traditional holiday food rice cake mandoo soup for lunch, which was really good and prepared in a special, especially delicious way. After lunch, we just hung out at Young-sun's house and most of us took a nap for a couple hours and I finally headed home around dinner time.

It was a wonderful time and I loved being able to spend so much time with my friends. I don't know what I would do here without them.

And now to the rest of my holiday vacation. On Friday, I took the 1:00 bus to Bundang, Seongnam City to meet an old Homeschool Friend student(Edwin) that I had become close to but never met in person. I met him at the huge and well-known church(for homeschoolers), Global Mission Church. After I grabbed some lunch, we headed to a pc room to do some gaming together.

After sudden attack for two hours, we caught the bus to his house and happened to be on the same bus with his dad. His family is very nice and his mom made bul-go-gi especially for me since she knows it's my favorite and told me to come often since they are like family, which was amazing since it was the first time I had met any of them. lol

We played some cards and listened to some music before heading back out again. We met a friend of Edwin's and went together to a Sauna where we spent the night. In the morning, we ate breakfast out and headed to a pc room again where we played sudden attack for about three hours. After lunch at Subway, we went to a karaoke room(my idea) and sang our lungs out for two hours.

We got some coffee afterwards at the most amazing cafe in Korea. It's called Cafe De Gortieu and I had the best coffee(caramel mochiatto) that I've ever had in Korea. And it was for an amazing price. Due to a campaign because it's a new cafe, we got two for the price of one - $3.50. After coffee, we gamed for another two hours, had pizza, and I caught the bus for home. It was a great time and I hope to do it again sometime in the future, if not just for that amazing coffee. lol

Sunday was pretty normal and yesterday was very boring. I had a whole day with absolutely nothing to do. Everyone was working except me so that left me all by myself to watch tv and play computer games all day. Felt like a very unproductive day. hehe

It's kind of nice being back at school again, but the stress of work is there again. Mostly because we've got a lot of stuff to worry about right now. It's report card time(haven't nearly finished), schedule-writing time, have to write a bio for the new school website, and we're starting a totally new schedule from tomorrow. It's stressful getting new classes when you've gotten used to how you've done things with other classes that you're comfortable with after 3 months. Of course, many of them are the same but there are many new ones, too.

One kind of nice thing is that I start at 4 everyday with no breaks, rather than starting at 3 three days a week with a one hour break in between two classes. Time goes much faster when the classes are back-to-back as opposed to having an extra hour to do nothing, which makes the night feel longer.

For now, I'm looking forward to another holiday the day after tomorrow, followed by the staff trip to Everland on Friday and Saturday. I'll update you as those happen. Sorry for the long post and I'll hopefully get pictures of Christmas Eve soon.

Long time no blog...

Sorry everyone, it's been a long time since I've written, I know. Life has been busy and I've gotten lazy, what more can I say? :P

I've had a good past two weeks and an even better Christmas. Two Saturdays, I went skating with some friends and two little girls from church. I also happened to run into a little girl from school who was skating with her friend. I ended up having four little girls push and pull me around the rink for an hour. It was a blast. :D You can check out the pictures on my Facebook.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that and post a separate post for the Christmas holiday time, it's bound to be long. :P

Another week past

It's been a good week. Last week, I celebrated Thanksgiving(kind of). On the day of, it was largely forgotten, except that I gave two classes pictures to color and gave all of the students pumpkin candy. On Saturday, though, I had a Thanksgiving meal with Youngsun. It was the first time I've made mashed potatoes and steak and both were delicious, especially the steak. :D

Afterwards, we went with Jin and Eunbea for some coffee and an hour of pool before they had to head back home. Sorry I can't say more, hard to remember much from a week ago. hehe

I still enjoy just being independent. Of course, I miss my family, but I like having a life of my own, as well. One night after work, I was hungry so a coworker and I decided to go and get some grilled pork at a restaurant at 10:30. It's the random, spur-of-the-moment stuff that I'm able to do being on my own in a large city that keeps life interesting.

Work went well this week and was pretty normal, overall. Had times where I was so glad that I decided to be a teacher and then had those times where you just want to scream at some of the kids, too. Being a teacher is dynamic and you can never expect the same child to act the same way on a consistent basis. Well, okay, there are some kids who are just plain bad and others who don't have a bad bone in their body. Most, though, are just unpredictable. Keeps it fun, I guess. :P

I was so glad to have the weekend come, not that the week was difficult. I just always love that last day of work, Friday. I have mostly fun, easy classes and it's the final day before two days of no work. This month will be light anyway since we get about 6 days of because of Christmas break and New Years.

Last night, Eunbae randomly texted me that he was in Osan and that it was freezing and could he come to my house. It has been freezing, by the way, like 25 degrees on average. I said sure, it's only 12:30, so a few minutes later he showed up. We stayed up until about 3 watching tv and chatting and he spent the night here. We had made plans earlier to go ice skating today, anyway. At Osan City Hall, which is across the street to the side of my apartment building, they just finished putting in the ice rink for the Winter and I've been wanting to try ice skating for the first time in my life.

This morning, we grabbed some lunch and coffee and then hung out at my place for a while until Gicheon showed up. Since he was totally opposed to ice skating because of the cold, we left him at a pc room and Eunbae and I went an skated for about half an hour to forty-five minutes. We decided to leave a little early cause we were a bit cold, Eunbae moreso because he kept falling. lol It was a cheap enough price, anyway. $1 for the hour and a half, including skates.

After we finished, we hung out at my place and Youngsun and Young-ah came and Young-ah made Deok-bok-ki for us for dinner. It was a great day and I saw about 5 students at the rink that I was able to talk to. I love meeting my students outside of school. :D

Visit my Facebook album for the pictures from today and this past week:
Starting from picture 47.

A day in Gangnam

Initially, our plan for today was for Youngsun and I to go to Namdaemun to exchange something that I bought last week but she ended up having promised two little girls from church that she teaches that she would take them out to get their new study books. So, instead, we invited Eunbae to go along with us and the five of us took a trip to Gangnam, Seoul. It was either Gangnam or Suwon and since neither Eunbae nor I had ever been there, we decided on Gangnam.

I slept until 11:30 this morning since I didn't get to bed until 3:30 am due to the fact that I was at a pc room until 2:30 playing Sudden Attack. hehe

Around 12:30, Eunbae came by to pick me up and we all met at Youngsun's house before driving back into Osan to catch the bus right around the corner from my building. At the next bus stop before the nonstop drive, my boss and her husband both got on the bus and Mr. Sim(her husband) sat in the seat across the aisle from mine allowing us to chat a little on the way.

When we finally got to Gangnam 50 minutes later, we are all starving. I still hadn't eaten lunch or breakfast and by the time we walked to the restaurant, it was nearly 3:00. The crowds were really bad, too. I've never seen so many people in my life. I thought a lot of people crossed at interesections in NYC but in Gangnam, Seoul, it looks like the whole population of Hampstead is crossing.

After lunch at an Italian restaurant, we went to a Kyobo Bookstore to get the books that the girls needed. After a very long time there, we finally finished and went to Coffee Bean for some dessert. I had a large frozen caramel latte....so good. We ended up getting back to Osan around 8:00.

Though it doesn't sound like we did a whole lot of fun stuff, it was really a blast because of the company. We Eunbae and I each had to hold one of the girls hands to make sure they didn't get lost and my partner stuck with me the rest of the day and I taught her some American stuff, like stealing people's noses. It was so much fun playing and talking, and all in Korean. It's so different from my relationships with my students.

Of course, it was also fun being with Youngsun and Eunbae, even though Eunbae kept repeatedly stealing my cell phone or other random articles that I happened to turn my head away from for a second. lol And Youngsun and I had a good time of conversation on the way home on the bus. All in all, it was a really fun day. Anyway, here's some pics from today. You'll need to start on the 37th picture for the stuff from today.

Did I mention...

that I now love that student from EC that I had to take to the counter that I talked about the end of October? I'm not sure whether it's due to the fact that he is so excited when I come to class, that he sometimes hugs me before or after class, that he takes great pleasure in beating me at rock, paper, scissors, or that he really participates well in class(and is learning a lot!). Ah...teaching. :D

ESL Studentisms

ESL Studentisms- funny English phrases spoken by students learning English as a second language.

It was so funny tonight. I have a student in my most basic class. His name is Matt and he's about 8 years old. I've taught them all how to respond to the question, "how are you?" I wrote it on the whiteboard and after several days of repeating it together, they have it down. I say "how are you" and they respond with "fine, thank you, how are you?" Most of them understand it but apparently I still need to do additional explaining to some.

I was standing by the water cooler getting a drink at the same time as Matt had come out of his classroom, where they wait for class to start, to get a drink. He looked up at me for a second and then says to me, "I'm fine, thank you, how are you?" It was so hilarious I had to keep from laughing and just smiled and responded with, "I'm good, thank you!" The kids are cute.

Matt is also the student that finds the hair on my chin fascinating and often reaches out to try to rub my chin if I'm leaning over a book helping them with their work. Fun, fun.

Pepero Day!!

I've been waiting for Pepero Day for so long and it finally arrived!

It's been a good week since my last post, though it's gotten much cooler and I caught a cold. I also did some shopping over the weekend, including buying myself a new camera! I've been needing one since my last one stopped working. I decided on an ultra portable Sony Cybershot DSC-T77. It's 10.1 megapixels and the back is a full touch screen. And the best part? It's green! lol

Church went well and I had fun hanging out, playing soccer, and talking with friends. And now back to Pepero Day.

Pepero Day is a day invented by the makers of Pepero, a chocolate covered stick that comes in several different varieties, that is similar in some ways to Valentines Day. It's a time to buy chocolates for people you care about or just friends and, of course, students. It always takes place on November 11th. Why, you may ask? Because November 11th resembles the Pepero sticks(11/11). No, seriously. lol

So I bought a large container and several boxes to give out to students today in each class. It was so much fun. There were students walking around everywhere with Pepero sticks and I got several boxes and sticks from students as gifts. I was also handing out sticks left and right. Needless to say, I had a lot of chocolate tonight and still have several boxes that I brought home. I took a couple of pictures of the teacher's room and my desk:

The teacher's room from the door. The desk closest is JoAnne's(the Korean English teacher), then mine, Cassie's(the Australian English teacher) and then Xirong's(the Korean Chinese teacher, Xirong is her Chinese name) on the right.
From my desk. The table is where we have teacher's meetings and eat together if we have a meal.
My desk! It was a little messy when I took the picture, with books and my SP-A class folder sitting out...among other things. The bag next to the monitor is where I keep my candy. hehe
And my collection of various kinds of Pepero!

The weekend!

Friday was a fun final day of teaching for this week. We didn't do a Halloween party at school but I did buy a bunch of candy to give to the kids since they were expecting it. I gave out so much candy last night...I had kids from all different classes coming to me for candy if they saw someone else had some. It was fun. :D

Today was really a lot of fun, as well. I met Youngsun(Suzanna) and Young-ah(Amy) at Osan Station to head to Suwon. We arrived in Suwon around 10, where we met Jin, his younger brother Young-gwon, and Dahea(Elizabeth). Together, we rode the bus to Everland. This is the second time this year that I've been there and the fourth amusement park. lol

This time, though, we went to the water park section of Everland, Caribbean Bay. The indoor part is still open and they keep it heated. We had such a blast. Together, we swam in the wave pool, rode the indoor tube and body slides and floated down the lazy river. The river did have an outside section that we went through and it was absolutely freezing. :P I was glad to get back to the indoor section.

We also spent some time relaxing in a couple spas. One was a lemon spa(supposed to be good for digestion) and another was a strawberry spa(with actual strawberry juice stuff in it) and it was supposed to be good for a number of things. Those were outside so it was fun sitting in the hot water out in cold weather. The strawberry spa was 114 degrees, I think. It was almost unbearable, at first.

We left around 4:00 and decided to pay an extra $12 to allow us to get into Everland. We didn't have much time so Jin, Young-gwon, Youngsun and I went straight to the T-Express rollercoaster(the most famous coaster at Everland) and Dahea and Youngah went to ride the Viking. After waiting for over an hour, we finally got to ride and it was as thrilling as I remember it. We took a little bit of time to walk through the zoo as we headed to leave and got on the bus around 6:30 to head back to Suwon.

By the time we finally arrived back in Osan, it was about 8:30. We stopped in at a vendor right outside the station and ate some Korean fried snacks and Deok-bok-gi before I said goodbye to everyone and they got on a bus for home. It'll be nice to see everyone again at church tomorrow. :)

Here are a few pictures from today:

Jin in front of Caribbean Bay

The sun setting at Everland.

Caribbean Bay

Youngsun and Jin in front of the entrance to the T Express.

Me and my pirate buddy. :D

With Youngsun on the bus going to Everland.

Me after riding the T Express. Everybody got a good laugh at my expense when the ride finished. lol

An evening of teaching

Wow, two posts in one day! I had to post about my day of teaching, though. So many interesting and crazy things happened.

My first class was with EC, which is a very basic class. We work out of a phonics book and there are only five students, which I like. With the younger students, large classes can be very tough to control.

I began having problems with one of the students. He would not stop talking and playing with the students around him. Then he began rocking his desk back and forth and repeating everything I said. I gave him warning after warning after warning. Finally, I made him stand up against the wall with his hands in the air. He still wouldn't listen, though, and kept lowering his hands and talking while he was standing there.

So enough was enough. I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the counter, where I delivered him into the hands of the lady that manages students, student records, registrations, etc. The students all fear having to be taken to "the counter." It was quite a peaceful class, afterwards, though, and we got a lot done. I ended up feeling very good about what we accomplished when that class was finished. Dishing out some harsh punishment on one student also tends to put some fear into the hearts of other students. :P

My next class was PR-B. They are also very young but a lot of fun cause they're crazy, which also makes them rather stressful sometimes. Today, they would not be quiet for anything and weren't listening at all. So I decided to tell them that anybody who I saw talking to another student or talking when I was talking would write "I will be quiet in class" ten times. Needless to say, a LOT of sentences were written tonight but the class became much quieter and we got some things done. One girl ended up writing 80 sentences. lol

Probably what ended up being the craziest class of the night was my next one, RB. This is the class where the boys are always getting punished and three of them failed. I promised them a snack, so about 7 minutes prior to class, I sent them outside with 5,000 Won(five dollars) to get some Deok-bok-ki(rice cakes in a spicy red pepper sauce). The three girls that went to get it didn't come back until about 5 minutes into class and brought it in a bag, with nothing to eat it in or with.

I told one of the girls to go to the counter and get some forks or sticks or something. Several minutes later, she returned. She had run all the way back outside to get some sticks from the lady she had bought it from. Now we needed cups to eat it in. She said that there were cups at the counter....but there wasn't. So several more minutes pass and finally she comes back. By this time, I'm anxiously looking at the clock as they put the food into their cups to share. Of course, now they're eating and I can't get them to pay attention to anything.

Finally, they finished eating and I could begin teaching...except now they're complaining that they're thirsty. I refused to allow anyone to leave again and tried to get something done in the 20 minutes I had left. Not until class was finished did it reach its climax, though.

There was some still left in the bag and when I dismissed them, they all mobbed it, crowding around my desk. Everyone had a hand in it and they were tearing the bag up. Soon, sauce started pouring onto my desk and they dripped some onto the surrounding desks. When they finished, it was a mess and I made two students stay and clean it up. It took about ten minutes to clean up after them. I promised myself that I would never again allow them to bring that snack to class. :P

Next, I had RD, which is one of my favorite classes. They were the class that did a welcome message and had balloons on the whiteboard. They're always a lot of fun and we did several games of hangman since we had a test today. Over all, pretty normal. The next class, RG, was also noneventful. My final class, RC, was normal for them. Nobody likes to pay attention in that class so I ended up doing some lecturing and confiscating and crumpling a couple of papers that were being doodled on.

It was a crazy, fun, exciting day of classes. Really just another day in the life, I guess. :D

I couldn't really think of a title for this blog post so I just decided not to put one at all. Hope you don't mind. ;)

This last week has stayed exciting, as usual. I had a few tests that I gave to two classes last week and most of them did well. My RB class, which always gives me a lot of grief(the boys, anyway) actually did better than I expected them, too. I only had three students who failed their tests out of about 11, I think.

Monday, though, they were all mad at me because I promised them a snack(fish-shaped dough filled with red bean sauce) if they got a score about 80%. When I went to buy it, though, the lady was not there and she wasn't there yesterday either. They've been bugging me since then about buying them something so I guess I'll give them some money to buy a snack today since I'm sure they haven't forgotten(since I got a text message from one of them last night :P ).

I wasn't feeling very well Monday, either. At 3 am, Monday morning, I nearly threw up cause I felt so bad. I'm guessing it was probably a combination of things. When I came back to Osan from church, I rode with 2 friends and we went to a restaurant for Sam-gyup-sal, which is slices of pork that you eat with onions in sauce, kimchi, rice and anything else you want to add to it. Most people eat it wrapped in lettuce with a sauce or a few other toppings.

The food was delicious but I had a bit of a problem with how much we ate. Between the three of us, we managed to eat through 1600 grams of pork, rice, soup, and four bottles of soda. I've never felt so stuffed in my life. I have no idea why they ordered so much, but hey, they're Koreans. :P We also managed to add up a nice bill of $20 a piece for our meal. It was fun, though, hanging out and eating with a couple guys.

It's getting much cooler here, though I still haven't really had to turn on the heat in my apartment. Started wearing long sleeves and light jackets, though. Otherwise, Korea is staying wonderful, despite recent threats from the North saying they could reduce the South to rubble and the South warning about pre-emptive strikes on suspected nuclear facilities in the North. It's never a good thing when you have brethren with two starkly opposing viewpoints, is it? lol
Oh well, I don't imagine the North is quite as powerful as they would like us to think. One positive thing, though, Kim Jong-il finally realized he has some problems- he is now seeing a brain surgeon. :D

Random stuff from the weekend...

My fourth week of teaching went faster than I was expecting it to. I'm staying especially busy at work now that we have to prepare our teaching schedules for the next two months. They are due this weekend and we have to have all of our tests and presentations written for the next two months, as well. This is a new thing that has been started so no one really knows what they are supposed to be doing. It's taking me longer than I would like, too, since I'm still getting into a regular daily schedule, much less having to plan for two months in advance.

Class room management is another challenge. I'm still trying to decide how far I let the kids go before I punish and how much talking is too much. Some kids are easy to know when to discipline. Once they say something disrespectful or a piece of paper is flung at you from across the room, it's an automatic punishment. But then when you have good kids who just can't seem to stop talking, it's tough to know where to draw the line. I imagine I'll figure it out.

The weekend was a nice break, though. Friday night, I was up until 1 at a pc room playing Starcraft. I ended up not getting to bed until 3 am! I guess it's not too bad since I'm on a weird schedule anyway. Working from 3 to 10 makes my evenings later than most people to begin with.

On Saturday, I went to Suwon with two friends and we got to eat some real hamburgers. It's the first place I've found in Korea that makes some halfway decent burgers, howbeit expensive ones. I also finally got another pair of Converse shoes. hehe

Ah, I forgot to mention that on Thursday, I finally received my Alien Registration Card. That makes me official. I even have a social security number. On Friday, I took my new card to the bank and opened up an account all by myself(aren't you impressed?). After getting that taken care of, and depositing my money, I went to Lotte to get a Lotte point card. It's very important since I shop there all the time. :D

Sunday was a good day, as well. It's always good to be back in church and around "family." I stayed later than normal and my Korean "parents," who are also the pastor and pastor's wife, drove me back into Osan. They came up to my apartment for the first time and we sat together while the pastor prayed over my apartment. It was very nice. I'm grateful to have people that care about me and my spiritual wellbeing while I'm living here.

The week has started out well, so far. I had some good classes and some tougher ones, but I'm still enjoying it and loving the kids. I accidentally answered one student in Korean, though. We aren't supposed to use any Korean in class, though I can write some words on the board for the low level classes. Coming off of the weekend, which is totally Korean, and then hearing Korean being spoken, I said it without thinking. Sometimes I let on that I understand too much, too. I'll respond to something that was in Korean without thinking that it was Korean, I just understood it, that's all. I'm supposed to discourage speaking in Korean in class, though, not respond to it. Oh well. :P

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

(This is just before the afternoon service. I'll do anything for cute little girls taking my picture. :P)

State of Emergency

I was walking back from picking up a few things at Lotte this afternoon before work and noticed that all of the intersections were shut down. There was an officer in the center of each one preventing any cars from going, which I thought was odd. I was just thankful that we were allowed to cross the street on foot so I could get back to my apartment.

Once I arrived back home, I heard a siren going off. It was one of those steady sirens that you hear in movies when there is an air raid or some other related emergency. It was loud enough for me to hear it clearly while in my apartment with the windows closed. It was actually a little worrying since I didn't know what was going on.

I ended up asking the other teachers about it when I got to work and I was told it was a drill that they do in Korea, though I'm not sure how often. It's to "keep it real" as the Australian teacher put it. Just in case of an invasion by the wonderful Mr. Kim up north, they hold practice emergency drills. Kind of an interesting new experience.

That's my interesting tidbit for the evening. 1 am, time to sign off.

Three and a half weeks in Korea

I'm two days now into my fourth week of teaching and having a blast. Teaching in a classroom environment is so different from what I'm used to. There are so many dynamics in a classroom and I'm still learning classroom management and the students are still learning how far they can go with me. Of course, I'm still learning how far I'm willing to let them go before dishing out punishment.

I still love all the kids, though. I especially enjoy being able to talk with many of them in between class times. I've already gotten several text messages from a few students. It's so fun being a teacher and someone that the kids respect but you can still build a relationship with them.

Of course, being back in Korea means I get to go back to my church and church family. I look forward to every Sunday and the morning worship, lunch time together, and coming back to Osan with a group of friends to eat, do something fun, or just hang out at my place.

A lot of things have happened and I've done a lot of stuff over the past few weeks but I'll start from here on out with some more regular posting, time permitting.