Parent's Visit- School

On their second day, I took my parents to school for two classes. Gosh, I thought they loved me, but their reaction to my parents was off the charts!!!! I think many Koreans are used to seeing young, white adults, but to see a middle aged foreigner is practically unheard of in my neighborhood. I can't even guess how many "hi's" my parents said, or how many times students compared their height to Dad's.

Here's some pictures of the two classes I taught with my parents assistance:





Here's Mom and some third graders:


And an action shot of me and Hyunhee, my coteacher, at my desk:


I'm pretty positive that this was one of the most memorable experiences of my parents visit!

New School Year Begins

Today is the first day of classes! It's hard to believe this is my 4th and final semester at Suwan Middle School! By now, I've learned all sorts of tips, techniques, and tricks, so this semester should be the best.

I've got a new schedule, of course. I teach 11 9th grade classes per week, and 8 7th grade classes. I won't be teaching any 8th graders, because I taught them last year. The school has also switched the time schedule as well- we're beginning 10 minutes earlier this year, and eliminating 6th period on Wednesdays. We'll make up for this by having 7 periods on both Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We've got so many new teachers this year! Including myself, there are 52 teacher. I'm teaching with 6 different English teachers: Hyeon-hwi (my new handler/co-teacher: 6 classes), Han-su (4 classes), Ms. Jeong (6 classes), Mi-hey (1 class), Young-ran (1 class), and Chi-won (1 class). It will be difficult to stay on the same page with all the teachers and grades, so I'm going to have to work at being very organized.

There's a ton of kids now. We've got 33 homeroom classes for 3 grades, about 30-32 per class. We also had to extend the lunch period by 30 minutes to make sure everyone's got enough time to eat! If I'm lucky, I'll learn 10 new names by the end of the semester.

My new 4th floor office is pretty nice. It's got heat, so that's an improvement from last year. I share with 10 other teachers, though I'm not exactly sure what they teach.

The focus this year for the 9th graders has switched from speaking to writing. Now, the students will have some short answer and/or essay questions on their tests. We're considering buying a new book for them with a variety of writing activities, but it will depend on cost. I don't know too much about this yet, but will probably find out more in the next few weeks.

Spring is always the best semester- there's so many things happening! Field trips, sports day, Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, and the many "democratic" days in May and June. There's a lot going on and I know I'm going to be so busy!

School Field Trip- Kumho Family Land

I know this post is about two weeks overdue... oh well.

Back on the 14th, I went with Mihey's homeroom class, class 7, to an amusement park in northern Gwangju for the day. It was something like "Nationwide School Picnic Day," and the park was so crowded with kids, young as kindergarten and as old as High School. Five of the classes from Suwan Middle School went, and we had a blast.

Here are some pictures from the day. The teachers and I had fun with the elephants. The baby elephants were created naturally, not artificially and they tend to have a lot of visitors because of that.

Social Studies Open Class

There's currently a first grade open class happening in the EOZ. Mihey says it is part of a special teacher training course, and today is the last day.

This is a social studies lesson with class 1-6, a class of 39 students. I counted at least 32 teachers observing. Almost a one-to-one ratio! I heard there are teachers from elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and even a college professor was there to observe. This was also the same teacher who implemented a "radical, new teaching method" before break- group work.

Kim Chi Won has just explained to me the goal of the teacher training- "new school atmosphere." Our school is in the process of switching from Teacher Centered Learning to Student Centered Learning. This is a very different approach compared to other schools in Korea. We really want the focus to be on the students and how they can learn from each other, rather than have the teacher shouting out all the information in front of the entire class. Chi Won also explained that we shouldn't criticize other teachers anymore, but instead the students, apparently even if the teacher needed to be criticized. Guess that's the indirect speaking method, which Koreans are so talented at.

"to kiss"

The last few weeks I've had some great lessons, if I can say so myself.

This weeks lesson is about Gestures that I got from another EPIK teacher here. Basically, the students learn about different gestures from around the world and what they mean. They watch some You Tube clips of different, creative handshakes and get to perform them for the class. Finally, at the end, we play the game Gestures.

Well, it's kind of tricky coming up with funny and easy things to do. One of the actions I chose was "to kiss" because all the kids know it. I was thinking the kids would air kiss, or maybe even kiss their hand. Class 2/7 suprised me though.

A little boy was up front, and I could see he understood. He then took a step closer to me, just a short distance from where he was standing. I backed up, cause I didn't want to get kissed. Then, he must have realized that it would be inappropriate to kiss the teacher, so he called up his best friend, another boy.

The class almost died laughing when he tried to kiss his friend on the lips!! He had his arms around him and everything. That was by far the best gesture I've seen in any classes so far this week, and I'm pretty sure nothing can top that one! I love teaching :)

Suwan Spring 2010 Field Trip

Last week Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I took a three day field trip with my school. It seems like we covered almost all of Korea, and spent so much time in the bus!

Our first stop was at the DMZ on the East Sea. This is the gym teacher and me... he's got a pretty good sense of humor!



Later that day, we went do a different beach where there was a pretty temple:



After a sleepless night in a resort up somewhere in Gangwon provience (the kids didn't have a bedtime), we went to Seoraksan National Park. The weather was very hot and humid, that's why it appears so cloudy in these pictures. It made for some uncomfortable hiking on a very long trail to the famous "Rocking Rock."





Later, we went to Everland. Everland is just like Disneyworld, but smaller. It was the perfect day to go because it was a Thursday, and Korea played Argentina. Hardly anyone was in the park! The most popular ride, the roller coaster T-Express, only took us 10 minutes in line, and usually the wait is three hours!



Here's the kids we went on T-Express with.



We also went on a safari and saw a sea lion show, which was pretty cute. Later, we watched the soccer game in the rose gardens of Everland but had problems finding a seat. It was too bad that we lost the game.

The last day, we went to the Independence Memorial. I was impressed by their museums. A lot was in English, so that was nice. It wasn't really as cloudy as it looks!



By the time we got home Friday night, I was exhaused. On Monday, they gave me a thank you present for going on the field trip- 5 dried squid. I'm so lucky.

Students in the news

My students made it in the news! One of the second grade classes had their picture taken on our field trip back on May 17.

In the picture, they are posing with a politician, a Jeolla favorite, Chung Dong-Young.

I probably would have never noticed this, but "Brian in Jeollanam-do" posted a blurb about my field trip and included this in the post.



http://www.newsis.com/pict_detail/view.html?pict_id=NISI20100518_0002756734

http://www.newsis.com/pict_detail/view.html?pict_id=NISI20100518_0002756651

Brian's post: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2010/05/students-commemorate-anniversary-of.html

Birthday's

Kid's in Korea don't really celebrate their birthdays. I think that's kinda sad, I love celebrating mine (and other peoples!).

This week, I'm teaching about birthday's because last week was Buddha's birthday. For the lesson, we learn about the different ways other cultures (Mexico, India, USA, and Korea) celebrate their birthdays. I also ask them what they do to celebrate, and write their ideas on the board. I haven't had one class NOT say "go to the PC room." I have to pry pretty hard to get them to even mention the word "cake" and "presents."

At the end of the lesson, the kids make their own fortune cookies with a good luck wish inside. I give them a few examples, such as "you will be rich," "you are special," "have a great day," etc, but someone always writes "you will be die," or "you will break your boyfriend." It's actually kind of cute, and the kids think this is hilarious.

Here's what I wanted the cookies to turn out like. Of course, they don't look nearly as cute when they're just crafted out of plain white A4 paper and scotch tape!

5-18 Democratic Uprising

Today is the anniversary of the 5-18 uprising in Gwangju. To honor this day, the entire school took a field trip yesterday (good thing we didn't go today, because it's raining!). There's just under 800 kids in the school, 19 homeroom classes, and went I got to school in the morning, I noticed all the busses. 19 of them! One for each class.

I went with Mihey and class 7, her homeroom class. I hadn't spent much time with them as a class before yesterday, but wow, they've got a lot of energy. I don't know how she does it!

Our first stop was at the new 5-18 cemetary in East Gwangju. This is where people who have recently died that were injured/shot in the uprising 30 years ago are burried. They have a nice memorial there, and pictures of each person burried. They also had a nice museum/expo center where you can learn about the uprising. We had a tour guide that took our class around. God, I loved her outfit so much. It's so Korea:



A little bit about the uprising: It is considered one of the most tragic chapters in modern history since the end of the Korean war. The uprising lasted 10 days, and thousands of people were injured/killed by armed forces who were controlling a new generation of military elites trying to find an excuse to seize power. There were numerous student demonstrations at Chonnam National University, and downtown on Geumnam-ro street. So basically, there was tons of violence- clubbing, beating, shooting, torture, you name it. At one point, there were more than 100,000 protesters. The official number of victims was 4,369!

In the afternoon, we got to go to the old military police headquarters, close to the military airport in Gwangju. The kids got to experience what it would have been like if they had been taken prisioner at the time. Here are the kids being lead to the jail cells. Note the guns:



Here are the kids in prision. The prisioners had to sit like this for 16 hours a day! I think the kids enjoyed the experience, and I know the other teachers and I really got a kick out of it!



I know it probably should have been a serious experience, but it was actually quite funny. I've got some more pictures online, and here's more information about the uprising:

Pictures- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38606019&id=59501140#!/album.php?id=59501140&aid=2202876&s=140&hash=23f212a78f4a58a28a8c376649d1d999

Korea Times- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/05/180_66017.html

This week in school... Part Two

This is a continuation of my previous post. Below are the rest of my favorite names and characteristics of some of the superheroes my classes created.

The names:
Fuck
Dirty and Loser Hero
Captian Park
Transgender
Pneomonoultramicrosilicovolcanoscopicconiosis
Dark Templer
Indiana Jones
Michael Jackson
Japanese Man
Undertaker

The descriptions:
"He looks like Mara"
"He is our teacher Ms. Park's friend."
"She kidnapps kids to eat... her face is disgusting and she doesn't wear clothes."
"His magic stick very small."
"Our superhero name is transgender because transgender is pretty and handsome and has a muscle."
"He can nuclear, he can upgrade attack point."
"He is dance God. He is stick dance. He likes children (goes with Michael Jackson)."
"He has a magic stick. He can't use magic without magic stick."
"She lives in sky castle. She has many servants. She can ride clouds. She makes their dreams come true."
"She eat blood. She has very bad smell. This smell is looks like trash smell."

This week in school...

I'm teaching about Superheroes! I can basically teach about whatever I like, and when I got this idea online, I figured that would be fun. It also allows me to watch "Jack-Jack Attack" from "The Incredibles" 15 times this week. I'll probably be sick of it by Wednesday, but for now, it's still amusing. Plus, the kids love it.

At the end of the lesson, once I've introduced the various super powers and done some warm-up activities, the students get a chance to "create your own superhero." I have them select a cut-out piece of paper with a random animation superhero on it (nobody I recgonize) and afix it to their worksheet. With a partner, they need to write their names, choose a name for their superhero, and write about their superhero. Of course, they are all amusing, but here's my favorite one.

This was read to the class of advanced level 7th graders in my first period Monday morning. Both Mihey and I laughed so hard that we literally cried. Even the students could understand, so they were laughing along as well. This is exactly what was typed, with my notes/corrections in ().

"Alagalamu is bisexual (they meant that shes a boy and a girl). She can eat bugs and even eat human. He lives in Africa. She change into bus. He doesn't help people. Just eat people. But helps environment and animals. Bugs come out of her mouth and dancing with bugs before eat time. His weapon is dandrop (dandruff). She wash her hair once a year. His dandrop (dandruff) has poison. She loves animals and environment very much."

Here are some other great excerpts. First, my favorite names thus far (and will be edited at the end of the week):

Sexy woman
Chita Queen
A pimple princess
Casanova
Thin-thin
Mara
Monkey of Japanese
Cleopatra

Here are some of their "descriptions" about their superheroes (to be added to later):

"She is very pretty but when you take off the mask she is very ugly"
"She likes magazines"
"He likes Girls Generation and children"
"She knows the map of the town well"
"His heart is half bad, half kind, kind is kill knife and enemy kill, brings peace"
"He wears skinny jeans"
"His hobby is fishing"
"...but she has weakness- it's handsome boys (man)"
"He is afraid of scissors... he is very poor barber"
"In fact, she is a transgender. Three years ago he was gay with his boyfriend but the couple broke two years ago. Japan have many strange person."
"His weapon is feet smell"
"He's very kind despite his scary appearance."
"He lacks intelligence"
"He's gay. He likes boys and men. He indifference to girls. He's very strange."
"... but he has a big weakness! He is Casanova! He has many girlfriends! He is a bad boy!"
"His favorite food is swans. So swans are endangered. He lives Jupiter, but he comes to Earth because Swans live only in Earth."
"She has many pimples. She weapon is pimple laser. This is very dirty and bad smell. So she hids her face. She lives in pimple world. She throw poop to the evil. She don't like boys because boys don't like her."
"He eats battery and engine oil."
"She is sexy. She is very many have boyfriends. She is love coach so she is very many have boyfriends...she has a hot belly."

I can't believe it's only Tuesday and I have three more days (9 classes) left of this!

Budget Meeting at Gio's

Tonight we had our English teachers budget meeting at Gio's Italian Restaurant in Suwan. The best part of the meal was by far the fresh mozarella salad! We also had pizza that had what I'm pretty sure was a hunk of butter on top- ew!

We talked about the budget (mostly in Korean, so I'm not sure what all was said), and somebody said we should give out vitamins instead of candy for kids that came into the EOZ during lunch period. I'm not sure how seriously people took that, but Mihey wrote it down. The idea would be to say 5 things in English, then you'd get a Vitamic C pill. Those lucky kids, they'll all be lining up now, I can see it!

Here's the group of us. From left- Mihey, Youngran, Hyunjeong, Me, Jieun, Chiwon, and Ms. Jo. I share an office now with Hyunjeong, and Chiwon's personality reminds me of my Uncle Tim, which means he's great to joke around with. :)

Smile ^^

My kids make me smile (most of the time). No other way to put it. It may be the funny things they say in class, the way they act, or maybe it's them just being stinkin' cute. Most things they do, make me happy.

During lunchtime, kids race into the EOZ room to play games. It makes me happy knowing that they are excited to see me and try speaking English. The little first graders get excited when they are the first ones to arrive. The other day they cheered, "Yay, we're the first ones here!" when they walked in. Here's some of them, playing one of their favorite board games:



During the 10 minute break time between classes, it's pure chaos. Kids running all over, pushing, shoving, etc. One of my favorite "break time" sights is seeing the kids running down the hallway, coming to a sliding stop in their slippery shoes, and almost tipping over while doing a full bow to greet me (stil sliding!). It's highly amusing, although I've yet to see any of the kids actually fall over. I'm just waiting for that day to come though.

Something else that's becoming a popular "break time" activity. The 2nd graders have recently discovered that their homeroom class is directly opposite mine(and up a floor). Because I don't teach them anymore, they're even more excited to see me than usual. They spend their entire 10 minute break times leaning out the open windows and yelling at me ("Hi, Mara!!!" "How are you doing today?" "Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking!"). I've never yelled back, I just wave and give a thumbs up (to which they yell "ohhh-kaaay!!!" This is one of the pictures I snapped of some of the boys- I'm sorry I have bars on my windows- I guess they don't want me to fall out!



Happiness ^^

After School Classes

Today was the first day of after school classes. One of the new English teachers, Mr. Kim, asked me how many I wanted to teach, how many students, and what kind of materials. I decided on three times a week, 20 students or less (but an even number) and that it would be called "Advanced English." The class is grade 2 only, which is great because they're all my kids from last year that I don't see too much of this semester.

Going into it, I only knew of boys that were in the class. There are a bunch of grade two students that I taught last year who come in to the EOZ during lunch time and they've been asking about it for a few weeks. I had an attendance sheet, but I still can't tell if a person is a boy or girl just by looking at the name. I was pretty relieved to find that the class was evenly split, 10 boys and 10 girls.

However, the class might as well all be boys. What I mean by that is, the boys are at their loud, obnoxious stage. The girls barely say a word all class, they just sit in the back of the room and try to hid behind their thick bangs. I'm now used to teaching my first graders, who have yet to go through their growth suprts. The kids still look like they are in about 5th grade. It's pretty strange being in a classroom now with boys my size or larger- I swear they all must have grown 3 inches from last winter!

I'm really excited for the classes, I've got lots of fun things planned. I feel much more confident this semester with my teaching abilities, and I know my co-teachers can tell I am also. I basically can teach whatever I like in my normal classes (like this week I taught about the life cycle of frogs) and I can do the same thing for after school as well, though there is more paperwork I am required to turn in. What I'm looking forward to most is the "Wallace and Gromit- A Close Shave" lessons. It will span 6 lessons and it's only a 30 minute video (each period is 45 minutes). I found an excellent website with an amazing movie guide filled with grammar, vocabulary, and extension activities. I'm not planning on telling my school how many copies exactly I'll be making because it's pretty long ^^

Anyway, I'm pumped for things to get going in the next few weeks. After school classes were my favorite part of last semester, and I hope they are again this semester also ^^

New School Year, BIG Changes

First semester has officially begun! I should start by saying that this year, I will only be teaching at Suwan MS (수완중학교) about which I have mixed feelings, and is a different story. The first day was technically yesterday, March 2. To celebrate, the students came in for a half day that included a welcoming ceremony in the gym. Last year, our school was brand new and was only 7th grade. I asked at one point, "Why aren't there 8th and 9th graders here if we have the room for them?" I was told that the kids need stability in their lives, and that they didn't want to pull them out of their schools that there were attending to come here. I guess that makes sense. It also would have meant hiring many more teachers in what I am assuming was a small time frame.

Now I feel that the school is packed compared to last year! Last years 1st graders (7th grade) are 2nd grade (8th grade), and we've gained over 400 students. Instead of 8 homeroom classes total, now we are up to 19!! At the welcoming ceremony, some kids received scholarships and the new students took a vow of some sort. New teachers were also introduced to the school, I'd guess there are at least 25.

My co-teachers have also changed slightly, along with my office mates. This year, I am teaching 1st grade only, so I won't get to teach the students I had last semester in class. Kinda bummed about that. The 1st graders are divided into 3 levels- low, mid, and high. I'll teach each with a different co-teacher. Mihey and I will still be doing the high level together. Jiyeon, who I taught low level with last year, and I will be doing mid, and a new teacher, Ms. Jeong, and I will teach low level. Mihey has moved up to a 4th floor office, so I won't get to see her as often. I know she'll be busy teaching all of the grade 2 students in addition to high level 1st graders. I'll be sharing my office off the EOZ with Jiyeon and another new English teacher, but I can't recall her name.

Mihey gave me my schedule today, and it looks good. I teach 3 classes every day, one of each level (low, mid, high), and I also run the EOZ lunch period three days a week. So it's 18 hours of teaching, and I think we will also continue our teachers class, to get to my total required teaching hours of 19. The rest of the time is mine to lesson plan, blog, Facebook, and take naps :)

This week we are just doing simple introduction activities and games so I can assess what level the students are at and they can get to know me. I'm anxious to get back into the classroom and start teaching!

Last Week of School

Christmas Lessons:

It's finally the last week of the school year! I can't believe I've been here for 4 full months, and have been doing exactly what I love doing. The little first graders are still just as immature as they were at the beginning of the semester, it seems hard to believe they will be in second grade come March, and that new first graders will be arriving!

The students have finished their final exams and I've been taking it easy with them the past few weeks. They are ready for a break, and I've just been doing fun things with them, like scategories and Christmas songs. Some of the songs we've sung this week are Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Santa's coming to town. Kids have requested Feliz Navidad, they seem to know most of the words, which I found suprising. I had Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas is you playing before class started on Tuesday at Seongdeok, and about 20 of the boys in class 4 were crowded around my podium and TV. Even though the video was blurry, they were so excited to see her dancing. They kept saying things like "Teacher, my girlfriend!" and "Teacher, my mother!" It got them really excited for class I think!

The Good Classes:

Class 2 at Seongdeok is my favorite class there. Huynju is also a homeroom teacher, and she has been very busy with them all year. I've gotten to know a lot of the students on a more personal level because many were in my after school class earlier in the year, and every day about 10 boys come to clean the EOZ classroom for me. They enjoy talking to me and watching YouTube videos, specifically Happy Tree Friends, and Kpop music videos. Some of the boys have even helped me study Korean. Overall, they are sweethearts, though they can still be rambunctious.

At school on Tuesday, the teachers were having a pretty intesnse conversation. When this happens, I just sit there silently, eating my rice, and making up conversations about what they could be talking about. The weather, Iris (a popular drama show), weekend plans etc. Huynju turned to me out of the blue and asked, "Do you find Jindo attractive?" Jindo is in class two, and is 14 years old. I was so suprised! I was like, "Well, I think he'll be pretty good looking when he gets to high school, yes, why?" Apparently, the teachers there all think Jindo is very cute (his nickname that the teachers call him by is "handsome Jindo" when translated to English). He was in my afterschool classes, and is one of the few students whose name I actually know. They said he's the cutest boy in school, and all the little girls have crushes on him, but he is kind of a player and is still single. He's sterotypically good looking, in the Korean way- tall, skinny, and a small head. He's also sporting the standard Korean shag haircut. I just found that whole conversation to be a little bizarre.

Another student in class two, Jindo's sidekick, and who was in my afterschool class was recently elected school president. He's a smart kid and must be pretty deserving of the nomination. Class two had a pizza party to celebrate, and I was lucky enough to take part in that. Because there is no need for me to really ever leave the EOZ, when I ventured down to class two, the kids thought it was like seeing a fish out of water and was swarmed to me instantly.

And the not so good classes:

Not all of my classes can be as good as class two. Class 5 is by far the worst class in the school, and I can't imagine being that poor homeroom teacher. He is so burned out, you can tell just by looking at him. All the subject teachers have struggled with class 5 year long. There are about 6 boys who really get the class riled up, and I always see those six boys standing ouside their classroom with their hands raised high in the air or in the teachers lounge receiving a beating with the standard bamboo stick. Anyway, last week in class 5, I'd had enough of it. I made the 9 loudest boys come up to the front of class and do pushups. 31 to be exact, that was the number between 1-50 the class had decided on. The rest of the class counted outloud together as their classmates did the girliest pushups I'd ever seen. I walked around between them and pushed on their backs to get them to do down farther. Because they couldn't do more than 8 in a row, it took a while to get to 31.

This week, all 9 boys came into the EOZ between class with a written appology. This looked like a pretty official report to me- name, date, location, who, teacher, offense, and goals for the future. In the bottom, there was a place for me to sign. 7 were written in Korean, and 2 were in English. I quickly read over the ones in English, my favorite part said, "I was being loud and I made the teacher go crazy!" I explained to all of them very sternly that when I saw them next, we would be singing Christmas carols, and I expected them to be on their best behavior.

Fastforward to this week's lessons. I always prepare for the worst before class 5. I literally have to mentally prepare myself. However, they did what I was not expecting in class. The boys sat in the front row, right in front of me. When it came time to quiet down, they were the first to stop talking. It was the quietest class I'd ever taught. That would be ideal if we were going over a new topic, but not the best situation for singing upbeat, jazzy Christmas songs. Getting them to sing was like pulling teeth. I think I scared them a little too much last week, and they were terrified to doing anything to make me mad! Since singing didn't go over as planned, I had them each write all the lyrics to Santa Claus is Coming to Town, as well as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I handed these into the homeroom teacher after class, and I think he was pretty impressed that they were all able to focus. Not exactly the fun, end of the school year lesson I'd hoped for, but at least I didn't lose my voice yelling and nobody did pushups.

Whatever happend to a relaxing end of the school year?

Today at Suwan, and schools nationwide, we have testing. There are 5 tests today, including subjects like Korean, Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. The kids were worried about it last week, and it's been pretty quiet around here today. Mihey is in charge of the tests, so I'm alone in my office (and freezing!). I remember when I was young, I was always excited for the end of the school year and I can't imagine having to take a high-pressure test two days before school gets out!

Out with 2009, in with 2010
It's been a whirlwind of activity since arriving 4 months ago, and if 2010 brings half as much fun as 2009 did, it's going to be an excellent year. Merry Christmas, and I'll see you again in 2010!

Weekend of Holiday Spirit

This weekend, as usual, was very busy. We've had light snow flurries all week now, and it is beautiful! There's only about 2 inches, and it melts quite a bit in the day. But first thing in the morning it's very pretty.

Friday night I was going to meet Emily, Ann, Allison, and Shabata for Vietnamese food in Sangmu. I was going to take a taxi because of the weather, unfortunately, so was everyone else! I couldn't get a taxi for the life of me! The busses were traveling slow, and it took about an hour to get there! I was pretty frustrated by the time I got there, cause I hate being late. Everyone else was behind schedule though, and it turned out I was the first on there!

After dinner, Ann, Emily, and I met some Korean pilots downtown. 12 of them to be exact. They invited us to join them, and of course we thought it was going to be very awkard. Luckily, they were good at English (one had spent 4 years at a base in Colorado Springs!!) and we were able to joke around with them. It sounds like it could have been uncomfortable, but when we left 2 hours later, the three of us had nothing but positive things to say about them and had lots of new stories and things to laugh about together.

Saturday morning, we had our "End of the school year" festival at school. Originally, it was going to be cancelled because of Swine Flu, but luckily they were able to throw it together at the last minute. Overall, it was great. Since the school is only 1st graders this year, they knew most of the kids that performed and really cheered for them. There were flutes, poetry readers, drummers, a rock band, lots of skits, dancers, and groups that danced to the latest Kpop songs (my favorite). Some of the boys even dressed up as girls- they had lots of support from the crowd!



The pictures of the performances turned out okay, but the lighting proved difficult. I did take a lot of video, which have been fun to watch again, I'm just not sure exactly on how to post those. I'll try to work on that.

Later, I met Mihey (my co from Suwan), and we went to visit Hyunju (my co at Seongdeok) for dinner. I can't believe it worked out that I was paired with both and that they are best friends! They're both wonderful women, I'm so lucky to have them. Hyunju lives on the 20th floor in a beautiful apartment with her husband and her precious 3 year old. We had a great Vietnamese dinner. Seems like I've been having a lot of it recently!



Hyunju also wanted me to wear her wedding Hanbok after dinner. We took some group pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Here we are:



A popular Christmas party as you may or may not know is the Ugly Sweater Party. Well, there aren't many ugly sweaters here, but there are lots of sweatshirts! Emily hosted the Ugly Sweatshirt Party this weekend, and we had a great time laughing at everyones bad English sayings and funny designs. I had made awards at work earlier in the week. The 5 categories were Fugliest, The sweatshirt you would actually wear, Worst English saying, Best overall, and Most holiday spirit. Vann nominated me for Fugliest, he said "It's so bad, I can't even look at you!" I didn't really think it was that bad, but 9 people voted for me, so I ended up winning. Kenny won both Best Overall and Most Holiday Spirit because he stripped down to boxers with a 10,000 won bill on them and the presidents face just happened to be right on the front!



Here are the winners of the awards!



So it was a very good weekend, but I can't wait for school to be OVER for 2 months in just 4 short days. Only 6 days until Manila!

What's for lunch?

Last week I was playing with my camera and taking lots of pictures at school, when I decided to take a picture of my school lunches everyday for a week. The meals and dishes ranged from poor to excellent. Below are the pictures and descriptions.

Monday



Top row- Pork, rice cake, and sweet potato mix. Cabbage Kimchi. Vegetable and something chewy kimchi. Spicy bean paste. Green Lettuce leaves.
Bottom row- Rice. Soup- cabbage, sprouts, tofu, meat.

Tuesday



Top row- octopus and shrimp with fresh veggies and cocktail sauce. Onion Kimchi. Cabbage kimchi. Acorn jelly and mixed vegetables. Noodles with lots of onion and spices.
Bottom row- Rice. Soup- Tofu, cabbage, sprouts, no meat.

Wednesday



Top row- Drinking yogurt. Rice. Raddish kimchi. Cucumber and veggie kimchi. Fried potato and vegetables.
Bottom row- Korean curry and spaghetti. Soup- potato and veggies.

Thursday



Top row- green lettuce and sesame leaf lettuce. Duck with sauce. Bean paste. Kimchi. Fish. Rice Cake.
Bottom row- Rice. Soup- clear broth with veggies.

Friday



Top row- corn and crab salad. Seaweed. Kimchi. Pork cutlet with gravy.
Bottom row- Rice. Soup- cabbage and vegetables.

Korean Bowling

Let me start out my saying that I am a horrible bowler. I'm lucky if I break 50. I'm really bad.

Today Mihey told me some teachers from Suwan MS were getting together to go bowling. I did not want to turn down the invite, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I went along.

Me and 4 other teachers left school around 5 and went to a bowling alley nearby. The bowling alley was pretty similar to something you would see back in the states, and the prices were almost the same. It had been a really, really long time since I went bowling, but I thought I could pick it up right away. Boy, was I wrong!

We played 2 games, 3 teachers to an alley. 6 teachers total. I was the worst out of the 6 of us. I scored so low, I won't even tell you what it was! The second game, we made teams to even out the skill level, haha. I was with the best bowler :) We decided that whichever team had the lowest score would pay for the games. So, I bowled really really well! Well, I did a granny bowl for EVERY SINGLE frame. No joke. But I scored high! My score for the second game was 102. So since I was using 2 hands, that figures out to be 51 per hand. Still, I was pretty pleased.

Koreans seem to get really excited when you do well, but also are supportive when you do poorly, like me. There were lots of high 5's. Basicallly, I got a high 5 after every time I bowled. They were doing lots of cheering and clapping too, though not necessarily for me. I felt like an idiot for doing the granny bowl, but they had never heard of it! At least I did it well. Our side didn't have to pay for the game, thanks to my amazing contribution.

After, we went out to dinner together to a noodle restaurant. The first course was radish and cabbage New Kimchi and sticky rice. One of the noodle bowls was noodles with a red bean sauce. It was pretty good and tasted exactly like a red bean. The other dish was noodles with clams. The exact same thing that I had at the beach this weekend. It wasn't as good though!

It was a fun night, but no will I not only be remembered for singing the ABC's, but also for doing the Granny Bowl!

Faculty Dinner

Last night I went out to dinner with my co-teachers and all the faculty of Suwan MS. There were about 35 of us all together. We went after our staff meeting where I didn't understand anything. But I was able to successfully say, in Korean, "Hello, my name is Margaret. Nice to meet you. Thank you." I think they liked it. :) Here is a picture of Mihey and I.

We carpooled to the restaurant, which was about a 10 minute drive. Our car got there a little late, and when we arrived, everyone was already seated. There were 3 long tables, and I was at the middle table. The restaurant was really nice. We sat on the floor and I was pretty close to the principal and vice principal. We had duck for dinner. The meat was cooking right in front of us, and we used some seasonings and vegetables to spice it up. We then wrapped it all together in a lettuce leaf. I didn't realize there was more than one course, so I ate a lot. Then, when the second course came, I wished I didn't eat so much. We then had soup and rice which was pretty good.

While we were eating, the principal was going around handing out shots of beer and soju. The proper way to do it is accept the drink with both hands, and turn away from the person who gave it to you and drink it. There was definitely a lot of drinking going on, but not so much at my area of the table.

One thing the Koreans love to do is sing. We had a teacher give an opening toast, which I didn't understand, but everyone started laughing, so I asked what was going on. I was told that the other new science teacher and I were going to be the nights entertainment. We each had to get up in front of EVERYONE in the restaurant and sing a song. I was like, "No way!"

The new science teacher, who is maybe a few years older than me, got up and sang a Korean pop song. Everyone started clapping along to the beat and singing along. Meanwhile, I'm having a heart attack from the nerves. First of all, I don't know many songs, much less any Korean songs! And the songs that I do know would have been inappropriate to sing. Plus, I'm bad at singing without music because I forget the words.

When he was done, I litterally got lifted off the floor by the person who had given the toast. He handed me the empty bottle of Soju that was mimicking a microphone and then I was standing in front of 35 people I barely know. I explained that I couldn't think of a song. Someone shouted out, "Sing the ABC's!!" Well, I know how that song goes. So I start singing the ABC's. No kidding. I was mortified. So embarrassing! Everyone was clapping along to the beat, and after I finished I got applauded of course. I think I was probably still red in the cheeks for a good 20 minutes afterwards!!

A few more people sang and as the teachers drank more, the worse the singing got. It was actually hillarious. Everyone had a really good time. Needless to say, I did not get up to sing another song!!

To see more pictures from dinner, check out my facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?page=3&aid=2202874&id=59501140