September 1st will be mine and Korea's anniversary. And even though I had planned on only being here for a year, when the end of winter came and the arrival of warm weather, vacation and blue skies arrived, I entered a stage of happiness and re-signed for another year. I now will be under contract until September 1, 2014. (Come winter, I, with out a doubt, will regret this decision)
Coming to Korea was an escape from having to face real life. I consider this a pause, a vacation, a break on the inevitable time where I will have to begin to establish myself in a career, pay grown people taxes, own adult things like houses and cars, give up spending Friday nights in the club and Saturdays attempting to detox before spending Saturday night at the bar. Possibly participating in an adult relationship with long-term commitment, putting somebody other than myself first and giving up spending Sundays unshowered, looking like chewbacca, in my underwear, eating ice cream from the carton, while immersing myself in the cheesiest of romance novels or trashiest of television shows.
Teaching in Korea minus the hours that I sat and thoroughly warmed my computer chair as I flipped through mindless websites with nothing to do but try to pass time without offing myself, I have loved. (In Korea we have 20 vacation days to use in our first year, the school has about 40 vacation days, so those extra 20 days we are required to come in to work, despite NOBODY else being around and "desk warm." ) My co-workers and school have both been nothing but great to me. And because I have a zero crap tolerance, my students who started out as insubordinate creatures, have now become well behaved teacher's pets. I couldn't have asked for a better situation.
Life in Korea itself ..... has been interesting. Here every time I walk the streets, enter a room, get on a bus or subway EVERY SINGLE eye that isn't a foreigner is on me as if I were Hitler, Jesus or Tupac returned from the dead. Unfortunately it isn't because I am outstandingly good-looking or endowed with the body of a goddess, it's because I stand out in every single way possible, my appearance, nationality, ethnicity, height, size and language I speak. Despite me being here for a year, people are still surprised that I can eat with chopsticks, like Kimchi, and can eat "spicy" food (to a person coming from a minute north of Mexico, there is nothing spicy about Korean food). When I read something in Hangul, despite it being the easiest alphabet to learn in the world, I receive a bigger reaction than the death of Michael Jackson. And because I am a westerner, which is also defined as a fast, easy and slut here, I have been petitioned for more sex than 6 prostitutes could handle in a lifetime.
But despite the annoyances that any foreigner living in a different country would encounter, life here has also been amazing. I have met people from all over the world and now have acquaintances that span the globe. Next year when my time comes, I will be leaving with a small amount but wonderful lifetime friends. I have been exposed to the orgasmic flavors of Korean food. I have been able to experience a city with public transportation that puts the rest of the world to shame, a city where being hung over is not just accepted, it is expected. A place where floors heat, where there is quick, cheap and delicious front door delivery service for ANY Korean food you could want. A land of self-service bars, alcohol that cost less than water and "service." (service is what Koreans call free gifts that you receive at stores and restaurants for shopping there, ranges from accessories, side dishes, discounts, extra amounts of whatever you buy ext..) I have a job that allows me to not only travel the world and spend money on whatever my heart desires but also to save for what my dad calls "a rainy day." And on top of all of this, I am able to work on my master degree while maintaining my social life.
While I am more homesick than a pregnant woman in the morning, I have high hopes for the next year. I will be adding more stamps to my passport, finishing a large chunk of my degree, setting myself up for a grown up job in America, gaining more weight by feeding all of my cravings with no guilt, hopefully saving enough for a "rainy year" and preparing myself for that unfortunate thing called adulthood.
#CHEERS2MAKINGITTHISFAR
Showing posts with label Gimpo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gimpo. Show all posts
Friday, August 30, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
A week in the hospital
A series of unfortunate events: I got athlete's foot for the first time EVER that I treated with over the counter medicine, didn't work. The athlete's foot morphed into a bacterial infection. But not any normal bacterial infection, this was one that was unaffected by oral antibiotics so after taking a series of ineffective pills the bacterial infection then evolved into staph infection. But my entire calf, ankle and foot region looking similar to Frankenstein's STILL wasn't enough, the staph infection then infected my blood, which landed me in a Korean hospital for a week.
I am very close with my family so when there is anything wrong with me I go to them for advice right away. Even though I know what to expect from each person already.
My sister will give me a worst case scenario diagnosis.
Me: *cough *cough
My sister: "You have tuberculous, you need to go see a doctor. "
Which then I usually ignore because one way or another, whatever is wrong with me always equals a hospital visit.
My dad blames my sickness on my awesome social life.
Me: "My tonsils are swollen"
Dad: "You need to stop drinking so much."
Me: "I tore a ligament in my knee."
Dad: "You go out too much, you know you do have a home."
Which then I usually ignore because I love my social life.
And my Mom will treat me like I am taking my last few breaths on earth.
Me: "I have a cold."
(3 hours later)
Mom: "I went to the store, I got you Tylenol cold, NyQuil, DayQuil, lemons, tea, some new patches that will help you with congestion, some herbal tea in 7 flavors and 6 different kinds of soups."
Which then I usually eat up because who doesn't like being babied by their mother?
And this time was no different. I told my family that my athlete's foot got infected (I didn't mention it was after a 2 day rave where I spent 32 hours dancing in my tennis shoes) and my foot had swelled 4 times its normal size.
My sister
"You have staph and the infection can get in your blood, you have to go to a hospital. You know they can amputate your foot right?"
My dad
First he gave me sound advice on how to treat my foot. But then of course he told me, "You ought to keep your butt home sometime."
My sister
"You have staph and the infection can get in your blood, you have to go to a hospital. You know they can amputate your foot right?"
My dad
First he gave me sound advice on how to treat my foot. But then of course he told me, "You ought to keep your butt home sometime."
My mom
Shipped me some Tin-actin, new inserts for my shoes and bought me new shoes.
Shipped me some Tin-actin, new inserts for my shoes and bought me new shoes.
But as I did in the past, I ignored the warnings figuring that one way or another it would heal itself. WRONG. 2 days later my foot was not only huge but my ankle and calf also swelled up and I had shooting pains. Still ignoring my sisters advice to go to a hospital instead that Monday I went to a clinic and saw a doctor there. The doctor prescribed me some antibiotics, gave me some cream and sent me on my way. I thought I was in the clear, 3 days of antibiotics and taking it easy at most and then back to normal. No instead I got 3 more days of even worse shooting pains, I was limping around, I had a fever and my foot and ankle swelled up MORE.
But I still didn't think it was hospital worthy. I continued to teach, ignoring my families advice along with the pleas from my co-teachers to allow them to take me to the hospital. The was no way I was going. And then Friday came along. I woke up to an email from my mom. It was a link to a website about staph infections. First listing the symptoms, swelling, pain, redness and fever... I had them all. Then showing what could happen, blood infection, skin burns, bone infection and potentially death. Not exactly something one wants to read before breakfast.
It was then I decided that I should probably go to the hospital. I went to work first and I taught all of my classes and had lunch, I was trying to prolong making this trip but my co-teachers realized what I was doing, called me a cab and sent me on my way.
There are not many things I fear. But number one on the list are hospitals. I hate hospitals, they terrify me. They mere thought of them gives me the chills. At the ripe age of 24, before this visit, I had never gone to the hospital with out my older sister or Mom in tow, I am that reluctant to go and I am that afraid of them. After being dropped off at the hospital I sat outside for about 20 minutes, Google searching home cures for staph. No luck. So I went in. After checking in I had to wait, the doctor was at lunch. I can't ever control my emotions when I am in a hospital so while I was sitting there my palms started to sweat and I was unable to sit still. I started a conversation with my sister. The conversation was going fine until she said, "you're probably going to have to stay a few days."
First tears started running down my face. It was like a dam had broken in my eye sockets. I couldn't stop the tears from coming. Then I started to have a panic attack. I couldn't catch my breath, my thoughts were scattered and I was shaking. I put my head between my knees trying to get myself together, it was ridiculous, I hadn't even stepped into the Doctor's office or received a real diagnosis and I was already a mess. There I was, a tall black person with big curly hair sitting in the middle of a Korean hospital as if I already didn't stand out enough now I then started to cry and breathe as if I had just run for my life, needless to say EVERYBODY was staring at me. I couldn't even be embarrassed, I was too worried about just being there, who cared what people thought about me. It took a few minutes but I finally pulled myself together just in time to be called into see the doctor.
The doctor visit was short. I sat down he looked at my foot and in broken English told me he was going to give me antibiotics. I then told showed him my previous prescription. After he looked over it he told me he was admitting me. I was confused, I didn't quite understand him because of his accent.
Me: "Excuse me? You're whating me?
Dr: "Admitting you."
Me: " Admitting what to me?"
Dr: "Here. You must stay. 1 week at least."
I finally understood and it made me hysterical. I started laughing first, I put my head in my hands and sat there and laughed and laughed. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. My sister's worst case scenario actually came true and my Dad was right, my social life was the reason why I was here. I finally realized that the poor Doctor was sitting there watching me lose it probably reconsidering to send me to a psych ward. I gathered myself together and he stent me on my way to check in. Before going to my room I had to go through a series of tests. I had to get an X-ray, blood test and urine test all located in different departments around the hospital. I wandered around like a lost puppy for a while trying to figure out where I needed to go. My brain was mush, any common sense I had was lost. Finally an older Korean woman (an aujumma) noticed my struggled and helped me out. She took my paper figured out where I needed to be and then walked me to each department by hand and waited while I was tested before sending me off the the 8th floor, my home for the next week.
My room had 8 beds including my own and my roommates were my seniors by 40 years minimum. I was told to wait for my doctor so he could go over my actual diagnosis. I sat on my bed waiting, feeling sorry for myself, I was thinking that it was going to be the longest and most boring week of my life. As I sat and moped one of my new roommates walked over and handed me a plate full of snacks and then begin inspecting my body. I had no idea what she was doing, at first I just assumed she were checking if I were real like most other Koreans do and then I realized that she was just trying to figure out what landed me, a spring chicken, in this coup with old hens.
The doctor came in and you would have thought that he was giving a public speech, everybody gathered around to see what the foreigner had. The Doctor explained that I had a staph infection and they found it in my blood.
Doctor: "You'll be here at least a week."
Me: "Why so long?"
Doctor: "Because this is very dangerous, you can die."
You would think that telling somebody that who just had a hysteria attack in your office BEFORE receiving a diagnosis would be a bad idea but I didn't freak out. At that same time he was telling me what was wrong, I had one aujumma massaging my back and another practically spoon feeding me Korean goodies. My usual fear was replaced by comfort from these strangers.
During my stay I had awesome roommates and hospital staff. My friends and co teachers were around to keep me sane. My Mom decided that me being in a Korean hospital was a good reason to add me on Facebook and along with my sister chatted with me everyday. I was able to catch up on some reading(again thanks to my sister and her kindle account), indulge on as much white rice as I wanted and blame all weight gain on the situation, as well as plan my next 3 vacations.
While my stay wasn't bad, my fear of hospitals is still not cured and I am more than happy to be back to my everyday life.
#CHEERS2NEVERGOINGBACK
But I still didn't think it was hospital worthy. I continued to teach, ignoring my families advice along with the pleas from my co-teachers to allow them to take me to the hospital. The was no way I was going. And then Friday came along. I woke up to an email from my mom. It was a link to a website about staph infections. First listing the symptoms, swelling, pain, redness and fever... I had them all. Then showing what could happen, blood infection, skin burns, bone infection and potentially death. Not exactly something one wants to read before breakfast.
It was then I decided that I should probably go to the hospital. I went to work first and I taught all of my classes and had lunch, I was trying to prolong making this trip but my co-teachers realized what I was doing, called me a cab and sent me on my way.
There are not many things I fear. But number one on the list are hospitals. I hate hospitals, they terrify me. They mere thought of them gives me the chills. At the ripe age of 24, before this visit, I had never gone to the hospital with out my older sister or Mom in tow, I am that reluctant to go and I am that afraid of them. After being dropped off at the hospital I sat outside for about 20 minutes, Google searching home cures for staph. No luck. So I went in. After checking in I had to wait, the doctor was at lunch. I can't ever control my emotions when I am in a hospital so while I was sitting there my palms started to sweat and I was unable to sit still. I started a conversation with my sister. The conversation was going fine until she said, "you're probably going to have to stay a few days."
First tears started running down my face. It was like a dam had broken in my eye sockets. I couldn't stop the tears from coming. Then I started to have a panic attack. I couldn't catch my breath, my thoughts were scattered and I was shaking. I put my head between my knees trying to get myself together, it was ridiculous, I hadn't even stepped into the Doctor's office or received a real diagnosis and I was already a mess. There I was, a tall black person with big curly hair sitting in the middle of a Korean hospital as if I already didn't stand out enough now I then started to cry and breathe as if I had just run for my life, needless to say EVERYBODY was staring at me. I couldn't even be embarrassed, I was too worried about just being there, who cared what people thought about me. It took a few minutes but I finally pulled myself together just in time to be called into see the doctor.
The doctor visit was short. I sat down he looked at my foot and in broken English told me he was going to give me antibiotics. I then told showed him my previous prescription. After he looked over it he told me he was admitting me. I was confused, I didn't quite understand him because of his accent.
Me: "Excuse me? You're whating me?
Dr: "Admitting you."
Me: " Admitting what to me?"
Dr: "Here. You must stay. 1 week at least."
I finally understood and it made me hysterical. I started laughing first, I put my head in my hands and sat there and laughed and laughed. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. My sister's worst case scenario actually came true and my Dad was right, my social life was the reason why I was here. I finally realized that the poor Doctor was sitting there watching me lose it probably reconsidering to send me to a psych ward. I gathered myself together and he stent me on my way to check in. Before going to my room I had to go through a series of tests. I had to get an X-ray, blood test and urine test all located in different departments around the hospital. I wandered around like a lost puppy for a while trying to figure out where I needed to go. My brain was mush, any common sense I had was lost. Finally an older Korean woman (an aujumma) noticed my struggled and helped me out. She took my paper figured out where I needed to be and then walked me to each department by hand and waited while I was tested before sending me off the the 8th floor, my home for the next week.
My room had 8 beds including my own and my roommates were my seniors by 40 years minimum. I was told to wait for my doctor so he could go over my actual diagnosis. I sat on my bed waiting, feeling sorry for myself, I was thinking that it was going to be the longest and most boring week of my life. As I sat and moped one of my new roommates walked over and handed me a plate full of snacks and then begin inspecting my body. I had no idea what she was doing, at first I just assumed she were checking if I were real like most other Koreans do and then I realized that she was just trying to figure out what landed me, a spring chicken, in this coup with old hens.
The doctor came in and you would have thought that he was giving a public speech, everybody gathered around to see what the foreigner had. The Doctor explained that I had a staph infection and they found it in my blood.
Doctor: "You'll be here at least a week."
Me: "Why so long?"
Doctor: "Because this is very dangerous, you can die."
You would think that telling somebody that who just had a hysteria attack in your office BEFORE receiving a diagnosis would be a bad idea but I didn't freak out. At that same time he was telling me what was wrong, I had one aujumma massaging my back and another practically spoon feeding me Korean goodies. My usual fear was replaced by comfort from these strangers.
During my stay I had awesome roommates and hospital staff. My friends and co teachers were around to keep me sane. My Mom decided that me being in a Korean hospital was a good reason to add me on Facebook and along with my sister chatted with me everyday. I was able to catch up on some reading(again thanks to my sister and her kindle account), indulge on as much white rice as I wanted and blame all weight gain on the situation, as well as plan my next 3 vacations.
While my stay wasn't bad, my fear of hospitals is still not cured and I am more than happy to be back to my everyday life.
#CHEERS2NEVERGOINGBACK
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Photos: Sports Day and My Sweet, Sweet Children
This week my school, as well as many other schools in Korea, held Sports Day. Put simply, Sports Day is an entire day devoted to a mass competitive P.E class. The students get together and they compete in different physical events. The groups who win the most events receive a small prize. This year was my first Sports Day and I had an amazing time. Luckily, I didn't have a designated job like the other teachers so I was able to circulate among my students, watch them compete, cheer them on and take as many photos as I could.
Photos of a few of the events
Photos of my Sweet, Sweet Children (mostly my 6th graders) ^^
Photos of a few of the events
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| 6th and 5th Grade students |
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| 3 leg race |
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| Ball carry race |
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| Pig Hop Wrestling (Last man standing = winner) |
 |
| When the teacher blew the whistle the students had to rotate clockwise with out letting the sticks fall to the ground. |
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| The students had to pass the balls backwards one by one and put them in a basket at the finish line. |
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| Jumping Rope. Team with the most consecutive jumps wins. |
 |
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| Capture the flag. Students had to take the flags off their opponents backs, last team standing wins. |
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| Shoe throw. Students took turns kicking off their shoes trying to land them in a circle for points. |
 |
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| My favorite 6th grade class |
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| Some of my favorite boys. |
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| If I had to adopt children, they would be them. |
My school year has so far been absolutely amazing. Despite the at times demonic 2nd graders, my students really do make my day, everyday. As the 2/3 mark of my contract approaches, the question is, will I re-sign for a 2nd year?
#CHEERS2MYSWEETSWEETCHILDREN
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
English names
School is officially back in session. Today marks the beginning of the new school year. My angelic 5th graders have now become my demon 6th graders and I have a new batch of wide eyed, easily impressed and absolutely adorable 5th graders who make me think for 40 minutes that I actually might want children.
This year I am now teaching my 6th grade classes with Mc. Dreamy, my young and extremely attractive office mate who to my benefit sits at the desk right across from me. (NOT only is he dreamy he is also an amazing teacher/disciplinary). Mc. Dreamy came up with the idea to allow the students to choose English names.
When I explained to the children that they could pick their own English names I expected them to take a few minutes to get into the activity, I was wrong. As soon as I finished the sentence "Today I want you to pick your own English names." One student's hand shot in the air. If this were me 6 weeks ago, I would have gracefully skipped calling on this particular student, but 6 weeks makes you forget.
Me: "Yes?"
Student: "Call me ZOMBIE!"
I had passed around a paper for the kids to write their new names besides their Korean ones after my beloved Zombie announced his new name the students began to fight over the paper. Actually, the boys began to fight over the paper. It was as if he opened the flood gates for their imaginations. I had to pass out a second sheet just for the girls because they refused to partake in that madness. I sat on my desk answering spelling questions that were being thrown my way, helping some students choose respectable names, denying inappropriate requests from others but mainly avoiding getting myself caught up in the middle of the insanity. After 15 minutes I called order.
Boys: "insert Korean phrase for more time here"
Me: "Say it in English."
Token boy who speaks English (later named Captain Korea): "Can we have more time please Kala Teacher?"
I am a sucker for English, especially when it is polite, so I easily gave in and gave them 10 minutes longer.
I collected the attendance sheets and quickly scanned them over realizing that like so many other English teachers before me, I had made the mistake of letting the students choose WHATEVER name they would like. But here I was, I couldn't go back on my word.
The girls names were mainly normal. Most of them asked for my help and are currently named after people I know, my high school basketball teammates, my old coworkers and of course Beyonce, Madonna and Hilary (Clinton). The few girls that strayed on the wild side chose names such as, Hello Kitty, Tom and Queen Coffee.
Joe was a popular name among my students and I had to have a Rock, Paper, Scissors battle to see who would get to claim it in 4 of my 5 classes. I didn't understand why out of ALL names in the English language they would choose Joe. I dated a Joe (his English name) who also was an ESL student (learned English as his second language) and never asked but I always wondered why he didn't choose to be Michael, Sean even Joseph, something that was more than just plain ol' Joe. So I asked my students why.
Me: "Why do you all like Joe?"
Joe (the Rock, Paper, Scissors champ): "Because I can spell it."
I don't know what I expected the answer to be but I now completely understand why Joe is popular among the ESL crowd.
After I eliminated all of the duplicate names I began role call. I was going to hold a typical role call where the teacher reads the name and the student raises their hand but I didn't have faith in myself not to laugh hysterically after seeing some of the names I would have had to read. So instead I had the students go around the class and stand up and introduce themselves with their new names. I wasn't sure if I thought that this would make it easier for me to keep myself together, but it didn't.
The students in this particular class were extremely animated when introducing themselves, in character if they were named after somebody particular or loud if they were extremely proud of their invented name.
The first three boys stood up together and stated their names,
Student1: "I am Monday."
Student2: "I am Tuesday."
Student3: "I am Friday!"
I understood Friday, who doesn't like Fridays? But Monday and Tuesday...weird kids.
Student: "I am Sorry."
Me: "Why? What did you do? You don't have a name?"
Student: "MY NAME IS SORRY."
Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sorry......
Student: "I am SOJU!"
Me: "No."
Student: "I am WHISKEY."
Me: "No again."
Student:"I am CIGARETTE"
Me: "No, you are Candy"
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry and Candy (who is a male)....
One table of boys decided to go with an Avengers theme, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk and Spiderman. I told him Spiderman wasn't an Avenger but according to him I "don't know anything cool." I decided not to argue but I do plan on showing the Avengers midway through the semester to prove Spiderman wrong.
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk and Spiderman.....
One of my girls decided to be Sugar Lips. I couldn't figure out an appropriate way to tell her why she shouldn't want to be called that name so I just let her keep it. I am sure I am the only person who speaks English well enough at my school to understand the potential inappropriateness of it anyways.
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk, Spiderman and Sugar Lips.....
But having a 12 year old Korean boy slam his hands on the desk, stand up and proudly state "My name (dramatic pause) is Ba-raCk Insane Obam-A (He meant Barack Hussein Obama) was the icing on the cake to my already hilarious day.
So in this particular class I now have Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk, Spiderman, Sugar Lips and Barack Hussein Obama.
With in all of my classes it just so happens every single one of the guys names that I have dated was selected, I just happen to unintentionally included their names on my list of example name the kids could use. Coincidentally my 3 most favorite girls are named Toni, Dianne and Krystle (the names of my three best friends). I have one boy named Potter and his best friend is named Harry. Edward, Bella and Jacob are all in the same class. Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are deskmates and they sit across from Hurricane and BadBear.
My students names range from Sally to Larva, John to Flower Fairy, needless to say this is going to be an entertaining school year.
#CHEERS2CREATIVITY
(I stand corrected. According to my nerdy neighbor Spiderman IS an Avenger in the comic books)
This year I am now teaching my 6th grade classes with Mc. Dreamy, my young and extremely attractive office mate who to my benefit sits at the desk right across from me. (NOT only is he dreamy he is also an amazing teacher/disciplinary). Mc. Dreamy came up with the idea to allow the students to choose English names.
When I explained to the children that they could pick their own English names I expected them to take a few minutes to get into the activity, I was wrong. As soon as I finished the sentence "Today I want you to pick your own English names." One student's hand shot in the air. If this were me 6 weeks ago, I would have gracefully skipped calling on this particular student, but 6 weeks makes you forget.
Me: "Yes?"
Student: "Call me ZOMBIE!"
I had passed around a paper for the kids to write their new names besides their Korean ones after my beloved Zombie announced his new name the students began to fight over the paper. Actually, the boys began to fight over the paper. It was as if he opened the flood gates for their imaginations. I had to pass out a second sheet just for the girls because they refused to partake in that madness. I sat on my desk answering spelling questions that were being thrown my way, helping some students choose respectable names, denying inappropriate requests from others but mainly avoiding getting myself caught up in the middle of the insanity. After 15 minutes I called order.
Boys: "insert Korean phrase for more time here"
Me: "Say it in English."
Token boy who speaks English (later named Captain Korea): "Can we have more time please Kala Teacher?"
I am a sucker for English, especially when it is polite, so I easily gave in and gave them 10 minutes longer.
I collected the attendance sheets and quickly scanned them over realizing that like so many other English teachers before me, I had made the mistake of letting the students choose WHATEVER name they would like. But here I was, I couldn't go back on my word.
The girls names were mainly normal. Most of them asked for my help and are currently named after people I know, my high school basketball teammates, my old coworkers and of course Beyonce, Madonna and Hilary (Clinton). The few girls that strayed on the wild side chose names such as, Hello Kitty, Tom and Queen Coffee.
Joe was a popular name among my students and I had to have a Rock, Paper, Scissors battle to see who would get to claim it in 4 of my 5 classes. I didn't understand why out of ALL names in the English language they would choose Joe. I dated a Joe (his English name) who also was an ESL student (learned English as his second language) and never asked but I always wondered why he didn't choose to be Michael, Sean even Joseph, something that was more than just plain ol' Joe. So I asked my students why.
Me: "Why do you all like Joe?"
Joe (the Rock, Paper, Scissors champ): "Because I can spell it."
I don't know what I expected the answer to be but I now completely understand why Joe is popular among the ESL crowd.
After I eliminated all of the duplicate names I began role call. I was going to hold a typical role call where the teacher reads the name and the student raises their hand but I didn't have faith in myself not to laugh hysterically after seeing some of the names I would have had to read. So instead I had the students go around the class and stand up and introduce themselves with their new names. I wasn't sure if I thought that this would make it easier for me to keep myself together, but it didn't.
The students in this particular class were extremely animated when introducing themselves, in character if they were named after somebody particular or loud if they were extremely proud of their invented name.
The first three boys stood up together and stated their names,
Student1: "I am Monday."
Student2: "I am Tuesday."
Student3: "I am Friday!"
I understood Friday, who doesn't like Fridays? But Monday and Tuesday...weird kids.
Student: "I am Sorry."
Me: "Why? What did you do? You don't have a name?"
Student: "MY NAME IS SORRY."
Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sorry......
Student: "I am SOJU!"
Me: "No."
Student: "I am WHISKEY."
Me: "No again."
Student:"I am CIGARETTE"
Me: "No, you are Candy"
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry and Candy (who is a male)....
One table of boys decided to go with an Avengers theme, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk and Spiderman. I told him Spiderman wasn't an Avenger but according to him I "don't know anything cool." I decided not to argue but I do plan on showing the Avengers midway through the semester to prove Spiderman wrong.
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk and Spiderman.....
One of my girls decided to be Sugar Lips. I couldn't figure out an appropriate way to tell her why she shouldn't want to be called that name so I just let her keep it. I am sure I am the only person who speaks English well enough at my school to understand the potential inappropriateness of it anyways.
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk, Spiderman and Sugar Lips.....
But having a 12 year old Korean boy slam his hands on the desk, stand up and proudly state "My name (dramatic pause) is Ba-raCk Insane Obam-A (He meant Barack Hussein Obama) was the icing on the cake to my already hilarious day.
So in this particular class I now have Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sorry, Candy, Loki, Captain Korea, Hulk, Spiderman, Sugar Lips and Barack Hussein Obama.
With in all of my classes it just so happens every single one of the guys names that I have dated was selected, I just happen to unintentionally included their names on my list of example name the kids could use. Coincidentally my 3 most favorite girls are named Toni, Dianne and Krystle (the names of my three best friends). I have one boy named Potter and his best friend is named Harry. Edward, Bella and Jacob are all in the same class. Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are deskmates and they sit across from Hurricane and BadBear.
My students names range from Sally to Larva, John to Flower Fairy, needless to say this is going to be an entertaining school year.
#CHEERS2CREATIVITY
(I stand corrected. According to my nerdy neighbor Spiderman IS an Avenger in the comic books)
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Alone but not lonely
**I wrote this before I left for vacation but in my excitement I forgot to post it.
In T-minus 3 days I will be on a plane and on my way to spending 10 sun filled, stress free days on Boracay Island in the Philippines. After the hellish winter I have been dealing with here in Korea, there are not enough words in the English language to describe just how happy I am for this. NEVER in my life have I been this pale. I might actually for the first time ever share a similar skin tone to my blond hair, blue eyed, white (Polish/Danish American, it really doesn't get much whiter than this) Mother.
Korea's winters wouldn't be so bad if there were sunlight, but instead every single day is cloud covered and murky. Okay actually Korean winters would still be really bad even with sunlight but at least I wouldn't look sickly. I've always liked my freckles but now that my skin tone is near translucent, having dark brown spots on my face just makes me look like I have contracted scabies or a mutated form of chicken pox.
I have forgotten what sunlight feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to be hot. I have forgotten what a sunburn feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to not be able to wear certain types of clothes because of tan lines. I have forgotten what it is like to WANT to be outside. So for the 10 days that I am in the Philippines I have plans on soaking up as much vitamin D as humanly possible. I do not care how uncomfortably hot I get, I do not care if I sunburn, I do not care if I get a sunglass tan or suffer from a heat stroke, I will force myself to sit and enjoy the heat every single moment of heat because when I return to the ROK I will once again be drown in bitter cold and gloom.
Of course I have been bragging about my future trip on all social media that I actively participate in which then leads to the question, "Who are you going with?"
I am going alone.
This answer usually receives one of two reactions. The first, pity and the second, worry. Those who pity me never worry about me and those who worry about me do not pity me. I understand the worry. People worry that something might happen to me because I am alone and people who are alone are more vulnerable. This reaction doesn't bother me, I understand it. But the people who pity me, annoy me with their looks of "ohhh this poor lonely loser. She doesn't have friends and therefore must go lie on the beach in beautiful weather, clad in just a bikini, losing herself in great novels, great music and consuming amazing food ALL ALONE."
.......still waiting for the point when I see the reason I need another person. I have friends, plenty of friends, all over the world, all ages, all colors, all demographics..there is no shortage in that area of my life. Yes, having my bestfriends next to me would add to the FABULOUSNESS time that I am going to have on my trip, but them not being there is taking nothing away.
To those who have never done it, try traveling alone. It allows you more of an opportunity to meet other people and make new friends. You are able to experience where you are on a different plane. Alone you have to fend for yourself, figure out how to get around, communicate, what to do and where to go on your own. It also gives you much needed time to yourself and allows you to do what YOU want to do on your OWN time schedule. I personally believe everybody should try it at least once. BUT Of course do not forget to be safe.
As for that I will be on a 10+ day hiatus. Stay tuned for my adventures in Boracay :).
#CHEERS2VACATION!
In T-minus 3 days I will be on a plane and on my way to spending 10 sun filled, stress free days on Boracay Island in the Philippines. After the hellish winter I have been dealing with here in Korea, there are not enough words in the English language to describe just how happy I am for this. NEVER in my life have I been this pale. I might actually for the first time ever share a similar skin tone to my blond hair, blue eyed, white (Polish/Danish American, it really doesn't get much whiter than this) Mother.
Korea's winters wouldn't be so bad if there were sunlight, but instead every single day is cloud covered and murky. Okay actually Korean winters would still be really bad even with sunlight but at least I wouldn't look sickly. I've always liked my freckles but now that my skin tone is near translucent, having dark brown spots on my face just makes me look like I have contracted scabies or a mutated form of chicken pox.
I have forgotten what sunlight feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to be hot. I have forgotten what a sunburn feels like. I have forgotten what it is like to not be able to wear certain types of clothes because of tan lines. I have forgotten what it is like to WANT to be outside. So for the 10 days that I am in the Philippines I have plans on soaking up as much vitamin D as humanly possible. I do not care how uncomfortably hot I get, I do not care if I sunburn, I do not care if I get a sunglass tan or suffer from a heat stroke, I will force myself to sit and enjoy the heat every single moment of heat because when I return to the ROK I will once again be drown in bitter cold and gloom.
Of course I have been bragging about my future trip on all social media that I actively participate in which then leads to the question, "Who are you going with?"
I am going alone.
This answer usually receives one of two reactions. The first, pity and the second, worry. Those who pity me never worry about me and those who worry about me do not pity me. I understand the worry. People worry that something might happen to me because I am alone and people who are alone are more vulnerable. This reaction doesn't bother me, I understand it. But the people who pity me, annoy me with their looks of "ohhh this poor lonely loser. She doesn't have friends and therefore must go lie on the beach in beautiful weather, clad in just a bikini, losing herself in great novels, great music and consuming amazing food ALL ALONE."
.......still waiting for the point when I see the reason I need another person. I have friends, plenty of friends, all over the world, all ages, all colors, all demographics..there is no shortage in that area of my life. Yes, having my bestfriends next to me would add to the FABULOUSNESS time that I am going to have on my trip, but them not being there is taking nothing away.
To those who have never done it, try traveling alone. It allows you more of an opportunity to meet other people and make new friends. You are able to experience where you are on a different plane. Alone you have to fend for yourself, figure out how to get around, communicate, what to do and where to go on your own. It also gives you much needed time to yourself and allows you to do what YOU want to do on your OWN time schedule. I personally believe everybody should try it at least once. BUT Of course do not forget to be safe.
As for that I will be on a 10+ day hiatus. Stay tuned for my adventures in Boracay :).
#CHEERS2VACATION!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
School Lunches, Slurping and Permission to Taint Society *unedited
Winter vacation officially ends Friday and the students are back in school for the closing ceremonies starting next Monday so today a vast majority of the teachers were back in school preparing for the next two weeks. It was also the first day I had seen another soul in the school besides the security guard. I wish somebody had warned me.
For the past two weeks because I have been alone on campus and just sitting at my desk for 8 hours, I took that as an okay for me to dress comfortably. Comfortably = sweatpants, spandex pants, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pretty much anything that could be considered gym attire. Today I assumed that once again I would be alone in my office, surfing the web, watching Korean dramas, Facebook chatting anybody possible and doing other mindless tasks to help pass the time, so I wore what I would later wear to the gym, black spandex pants and a black under armor long sleeve. Both of which look as if the are PAINTED on my body.
I get to school and begin my routine of web surfing and nonsense when there is a knock at my office door. In walks in one of my coworkers, Mr. Nice Guy. I was very surprised to see him but grateful that I had somebody to chit chat with for a while to help pass the time. He informed me that today the teachers and Principals would be eating lunch together and I was to join. I did not think anything of it at the time and when noon came around, I joined the staff in the short walk to the restaurant.
I arrive at the place first with Mr. Nice Guy. He is the sole coworker who was confident enough in his English to speak to me, let alone sit with me. We take a seat (on the floor) in the middle of 1 of 3 tables. As the rest of the other teachers file in they all sit eventually leaving us alone at our table. I wasn't surprised or offended, being stuck sitting next to me probably sucks as much as it does when I am stuck seated between people who do not speak English. Last to walk in was the Principal, Vice Principal and two other male staff members. They all took seats at my table.
The restaurant has the floor heating on so I quickly get to the point where my coat was making me uncomfortably warm. I get up, take off my coat and hang it on the coat rack. As I am making my way back to my seat I then realize what I was wearing but it was too late, I could feel the eyes on me. If my coworkers didn't know I was blessed with a chest and plenty of butt, they do now. I sat down and attempted to avoid making eye contact with the men at my table, hoping that nobody would say anything. Of course that didn't happen.
Mr. Nice Guy: "You go to the gym?"
Me: "Yes, everyday"
*he translates to everybody else*
MaleS (in unison) : "AHHHHHHH"
I sit there with the worst posture I could manage, my shoulders are thrown as far forward as they could possible go in an attempt to push my boobs back. Until till today, my school attire has always been body minimizing. Of course I can't hide all of what I got, but I have been able to tone it down quite a bit. The food arrives and the men go around teaching me the names of the different side dishes and what I should eat what with ( they made a sincere effort to include me in the conversation the entire meal). The main dish is a beef soup. Everybody begins to eat.
All staff members: "SLURP, SLURP, SLURPPPPPP."
Me:
Slurping is a common practice in Korea. I have heard it enhances the flavor of soups. I have also heard when people slurp it means what they are eating is delicious. I do not slurp. I wasn't allowed to slurp growing up, I was raised on very strict Western table manners. No slurping, no chewing with my mouth open, no smacking, no slouching. You name it, my Mom enforced it. My first few months in Korea were especially hard when I ate out. I was irked by the mannerism, it was something I wasn't used to. Now I am not bothered at all. I am used to the slurping and smacking, they no longer bother me, I just continue on eating in silence. Today my silence drew unwanted attention my way.
Principal: "You don't like?"
Me: "I love it, it is very good."
I continue to eat, quietly.
Mr. Nice Guy: "Do you want something different?"
Me: "No I like this."
I continue to eat and realize that they are all watching me with worried looks on their faces. The soup really was good and I did really like it, but I don't think they believed me. The looks were making me uncomfortable. The normal conversation came to a halt, I was being eyed from every corner and I was getting nervous. Remembering all of the things I learned about slurping told me to do it. But I wasn't sure how, I was afraid I'd slurp too hard and choke or slurp too softly and have it dribble down my chin. Eventually the silence and the looks got under my skin so tried to slurp. My first attempt did nothing, I didn't even make a noise. So I tried again this time sucking a bit harder.
It was quiet but I had did it, I slurped.
I only did it to see if it would make them stop worrying about me and it did. Once I did it, they seemed to relax, so I did it again and again, eventually perfecting my slurp. Soon after they stopped the looks and the normal conversation picked up. Slurping, didn't enhance the flavor of my soup but it did apparently communicate that my soup was delicious.
Towards the end of the meal the men started to speak about me in Korean. I knew they were talking about me because I could pick out a few words they were saying and they were openly looking at me as they spoke. I sat there waiting for the translation, hoping there would be one. Finally there was a break in the conversation and I was served a very nice compliment.
Mr. Nice Guy: "We think you will find a husband very very quickly. You have wonderful face, you good teacher, very very kind and good S-line(S-Line means I am curvy). Remember, Korean men are good men so find Korean man. Please invite us to your wedding party."
I was a tad uncomfortable hearing from my bosses that I had a nice body but I was extremely flattered they felt me good enough to find and marry a good Korean man and taint the "pure" Korean society.
#CHEERS2SLURPINGANDTAINTING
For the past two weeks because I have been alone on campus and just sitting at my desk for 8 hours, I took that as an okay for me to dress comfortably. Comfortably = sweatpants, spandex pants, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pretty much anything that could be considered gym attire. Today I assumed that once again I would be alone in my office, surfing the web, watching Korean dramas, Facebook chatting anybody possible and doing other mindless tasks to help pass the time, so I wore what I would later wear to the gym, black spandex pants and a black under armor long sleeve. Both of which look as if the are PAINTED on my body.
I get to school and begin my routine of web surfing and nonsense when there is a knock at my office door. In walks in one of my coworkers, Mr. Nice Guy. I was very surprised to see him but grateful that I had somebody to chit chat with for a while to help pass the time. He informed me that today the teachers and Principals would be eating lunch together and I was to join. I did not think anything of it at the time and when noon came around, I joined the staff in the short walk to the restaurant.
I arrive at the place first with Mr. Nice Guy. He is the sole coworker who was confident enough in his English to speak to me, let alone sit with me. We take a seat (on the floor) in the middle of 1 of 3 tables. As the rest of the other teachers file in they all sit eventually leaving us alone at our table. I wasn't surprised or offended, being stuck sitting next to me probably sucks as much as it does when I am stuck seated between people who do not speak English. Last to walk in was the Principal, Vice Principal and two other male staff members. They all took seats at my table.
The restaurant has the floor heating on so I quickly get to the point where my coat was making me uncomfortably warm. I get up, take off my coat and hang it on the coat rack. As I am making my way back to my seat I then realize what I was wearing but it was too late, I could feel the eyes on me. If my coworkers didn't know I was blessed with a chest and plenty of butt, they do now. I sat down and attempted to avoid making eye contact with the men at my table, hoping that nobody would say anything. Of course that didn't happen.
Mr. Nice Guy: "You go to the gym?"
Me: "Yes, everyday"
*he translates to everybody else*
MaleS (in unison) : "AHHHHHHH"
I sit there with the worst posture I could manage, my shoulders are thrown as far forward as they could possible go in an attempt to push my boobs back. Until till today, my school attire has always been body minimizing. Of course I can't hide all of what I got, but I have been able to tone it down quite a bit. The food arrives and the men go around teaching me the names of the different side dishes and what I should eat what with ( they made a sincere effort to include me in the conversation the entire meal). The main dish is a beef soup. Everybody begins to eat.
All staff members: "SLURP, SLURP, SLURPPPPPP."
Me:
Slurping is a common practice in Korea. I have heard it enhances the flavor of soups. I have also heard when people slurp it means what they are eating is delicious. I do not slurp. I wasn't allowed to slurp growing up, I was raised on very strict Western table manners. No slurping, no chewing with my mouth open, no smacking, no slouching. You name it, my Mom enforced it. My first few months in Korea were especially hard when I ate out. I was irked by the mannerism, it was something I wasn't used to. Now I am not bothered at all. I am used to the slurping and smacking, they no longer bother me, I just continue on eating in silence. Today my silence drew unwanted attention my way.
Principal: "You don't like?"
Me: "I love it, it is very good."
I continue to eat, quietly.
Mr. Nice Guy: "Do you want something different?"
Me: "No I like this."
I continue to eat and realize that they are all watching me with worried looks on their faces. The soup really was good and I did really like it, but I don't think they believed me. The looks were making me uncomfortable. The normal conversation came to a halt, I was being eyed from every corner and I was getting nervous. Remembering all of the things I learned about slurping told me to do it. But I wasn't sure how, I was afraid I'd slurp too hard and choke or slurp too softly and have it dribble down my chin. Eventually the silence and the looks got under my skin so tried to slurp. My first attempt did nothing, I didn't even make a noise. So I tried again this time sucking a bit harder.
It was quiet but I had did it, I slurped.
I only did it to see if it would make them stop worrying about me and it did. Once I did it, they seemed to relax, so I did it again and again, eventually perfecting my slurp. Soon after they stopped the looks and the normal conversation picked up. Slurping, didn't enhance the flavor of my soup but it did apparently communicate that my soup was delicious.
Towards the end of the meal the men started to speak about me in Korean. I knew they were talking about me because I could pick out a few words they were saying and they were openly looking at me as they spoke. I sat there waiting for the translation, hoping there would be one. Finally there was a break in the conversation and I was served a very nice compliment.
Mr. Nice Guy: "We think you will find a husband very very quickly. You have wonderful face, you good teacher, very very kind and good S-line(S-Line means I am curvy). Remember, Korean men are good men so find Korean man. Please invite us to your wedding party."
I was a tad uncomfortable hearing from my bosses that I had a nice body but I was extremely flattered they felt me good enough to find and marry a good Korean man and taint the "pure" Korean society.
#CHEERS2SLURPINGANDTAINTING
Friday, November 30, 2012
What the h**l did I just eat?
Yesterday was a day I will never forget, ever.
It started out as any other normal night, 2 friends of mine (and Englishman and a South African) and I decided to grab dinner and drinks. Somehow or another one of the two gentlemen brilliantly (this is complete sarcasm) suggests that we "try something new." We headed in a direction that we have not ventured before to discover a new restaurant and came upon 2 neighboring places. One was a typical Galbi place that only had one table seated and the other was another meat (unknown to us at the time what kind of meat) restaurant that was quite busy. My English friend made the ultimate decision that it was in our best interest to eat at the more popular place, his first bad decision of the night and my South African friend and I willingly agreed, our first bad decision of the night.
Walking through the restaurant all of the tables are eating and enjoying the same unidentified dish. None of us have any idea what it is that they are eating but this doesn't stop us from allowing ourselves to be seated. The EM (Englishman) and myself were left to decide what to order, the SA (South African) left briefly and before he left he said (this is not a direct quote) "Go ahead and order, just no seafood" his second bad decision.
I read Hangeul (Korean) at about the same rate a Kindergartner does, as I am attempting to read the menu on the wall a lady comes over to take our order. She starts speaking in Korean, I assume giving us dinner choices. I was in over my head, I did not catch a single word she was saying so I let the EM deal with it, my second bad decision. The entire time she was speaking when she would pause the EM was reply with "ye" (means yes in Korean) so I assumed he knew what the heck was going on. Finally our order was complete and she left.
Me: "Did you understand all of that?"
EM: "Nope"
Me: "Do you know what you just ordered?"
EM: "Nope, but I am positive it wasn't seafood."
The SA returned and our adventure began.
First came the Soju and beer which were the only two things that would be served to us that we were familiar with. Two completely fine and consumable things.
Then, came the side dishes, our first clue that we had made a terrible dinner choice. The normal side of lettuce, dipping sauces and kimchi were served but then there was this plate of ....stuff. On the plate two different things were served. The first was what looked like snake skin. It was silvery/grey scaly strips of something. Next to it is what I would guess as some type of raw organ, maybe a heart or a chopped up liver. We all looked at each other asking one another if we knew what either of them were, none of us did, but we decided to give it a go anyways. When in Korea, why not does as the Koreans do right? I myself could only work up the guts to try the snake skin look alike, it was chewy and tasted what I imagine earth tastes like. The SA tasted the raw organ and I would bet quite a lot of money that he won't be eating it again.(Later he decided that it tasted better than our main course)
Our main dish came out and was set upon the grill in the center of the table. On it was onions, sweet potato slices and this unidentified meat. We all sat there trying to figure out what exactly it was as it cooked between us. The lady working would come by and flip our meat since none of us made the attempt to even touch it. Finally she gave us the go to eat it. All of us gathered the courage to try it.
Imagine eating the chewiest bubble gum, stuffed with chunky mashed potatoes. That was its consistency.
The flavor... I can't describe. It was, strange for a lack of a better word. For me, at first it was tasteless but as I continued to chew this thick, bland, moldy flavor coated my taste buds.. No matter the size of the gulp of soju/beer I couldn't get it out of my mouth.
We all were pretty horrified. We were fine with eating the onions and the sweet potatoes but after eating one piece of the meat like concoction each and realizing that it was disgusting we still had an ENTIRE grill filled with it.
The SA gf happens to be Korean and she informed us that it tasted good when crispy. This gave us some hope. We all used our chopsticks to hold down pieces of this meat to get them as crispy as possible with out burning them and then gave it another go...
Still disgusting.
We all picked at the vegetables a bit longer before deciding that we needed to finish our drinks and find real food. We left our table, grill still hardly touched and went to cash out. Food in Korea is very inexpensive, well most food. For our dinner if I had to guess the price BEFORE we paid, I would have guessed around 32,000 KRW, boy was i wrong. I handed over my debit card to pay (dinner wasn't on me they paid me their parts) and went to sign... 49,000 KRW. 49,000 KRW for some unidentifiable meat that we didn't even eat. We basically just paid to eat onions.. the most expensive damn onions I have ever eaten.
We eventually figured out that we had dined at an entrails restaurant. I told my COTeachers and other Co Workers about my experience and they all laughed hysterically at our surprise and reaction. I suppose this is something us westerners just do not understand.
#CHEERS2TRYINGEVERYTHINGONCE
Photos of the Meal:
I don't ever use people's names.. that is why I distinguished my two friends by their countries of origin.
It started out as any other normal night, 2 friends of mine (and Englishman and a South African) and I decided to grab dinner and drinks. Somehow or another one of the two gentlemen brilliantly (this is complete sarcasm) suggests that we "try something new." We headed in a direction that we have not ventured before to discover a new restaurant and came upon 2 neighboring places. One was a typical Galbi place that only had one table seated and the other was another meat (unknown to us at the time what kind of meat) restaurant that was quite busy. My English friend made the ultimate decision that it was in our best interest to eat at the more popular place, his first bad decision of the night and my South African friend and I willingly agreed, our first bad decision of the night.
Walking through the restaurant all of the tables are eating and enjoying the same unidentified dish. None of us have any idea what it is that they are eating but this doesn't stop us from allowing ourselves to be seated. The EM (Englishman) and myself were left to decide what to order, the SA (South African) left briefly and before he left he said (this is not a direct quote) "Go ahead and order, just no seafood" his second bad decision.
I read Hangeul (Korean) at about the same rate a Kindergartner does, as I am attempting to read the menu on the wall a lady comes over to take our order. She starts speaking in Korean, I assume giving us dinner choices. I was in over my head, I did not catch a single word she was saying so I let the EM deal with it, my second bad decision. The entire time she was speaking when she would pause the EM was reply with "ye" (means yes in Korean) so I assumed he knew what the heck was going on. Finally our order was complete and she left.
Me: "Did you understand all of that?"
EM: "Nope"
Me: "Do you know what you just ordered?"
EM: "Nope, but I am positive it wasn't seafood."
The SA returned and our adventure began.
First came the Soju and beer which were the only two things that would be served to us that we were familiar with. Two completely fine and consumable things.
Then, came the side dishes, our first clue that we had made a terrible dinner choice. The normal side of lettuce, dipping sauces and kimchi were served but then there was this plate of ....stuff. On the plate two different things were served. The first was what looked like snake skin. It was silvery/grey scaly strips of something. Next to it is what I would guess as some type of raw organ, maybe a heart or a chopped up liver. We all looked at each other asking one another if we knew what either of them were, none of us did, but we decided to give it a go anyways. When in Korea, why not does as the Koreans do right? I myself could only work up the guts to try the snake skin look alike, it was chewy and tasted what I imagine earth tastes like. The SA tasted the raw organ and I would bet quite a lot of money that he won't be eating it again.(Later he decided that it tasted better than our main course)
Our main dish came out and was set upon the grill in the center of the table. On it was onions, sweet potato slices and this unidentified meat. We all sat there trying to figure out what exactly it was as it cooked between us. The lady working would come by and flip our meat since none of us made the attempt to even touch it. Finally she gave us the go to eat it. All of us gathered the courage to try it.
Imagine eating the chewiest bubble gum, stuffed with chunky mashed potatoes. That was its consistency.
The flavor... I can't describe. It was, strange for a lack of a better word. For me, at first it was tasteless but as I continued to chew this thick, bland, moldy flavor coated my taste buds.. No matter the size of the gulp of soju/beer I couldn't get it out of my mouth.
We all were pretty horrified. We were fine with eating the onions and the sweet potatoes but after eating one piece of the meat like concoction each and realizing that it was disgusting we still had an ENTIRE grill filled with it.
The SA gf happens to be Korean and she informed us that it tasted good when crispy. This gave us some hope. We all used our chopsticks to hold down pieces of this meat to get them as crispy as possible with out burning them and then gave it another go...
Still disgusting.
We all picked at the vegetables a bit longer before deciding that we needed to finish our drinks and find real food. We left our table, grill still hardly touched and went to cash out. Food in Korea is very inexpensive, well most food. For our dinner if I had to guess the price BEFORE we paid, I would have guessed around 32,000 KRW, boy was i wrong. I handed over my debit card to pay (dinner wasn't on me they paid me their parts) and went to sign... 49,000 KRW. 49,000 KRW for some unidentifiable meat that we didn't even eat. We basically just paid to eat onions.. the most expensive damn onions I have ever eaten.
We eventually figured out that we had dined at an entrails restaurant. I told my COTeachers and other Co Workers about my experience and they all laughed hysterically at our surprise and reaction. I suppose this is something us westerners just do not understand.
#CHEERS2TRYINGEVERYTHINGONCE
Photos of the Meal:
 |
| Main Course |
 |
| Side Dishes |
I don't ever use people's names.. that is why I distinguished my two friends by their countries of origin.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
teaching my students the cha-cha slide...
Where is The Bookstore? was the title of last week's lesson in our textbook. The focus of this lesson was teaching the students how to give and understand directions. We (my CO and I) always introduce a new song with each lesson, something that relates in someway or another. Obviously, since I was teaching directions the no brainer song to include was DJ Casper's The Cha Cha Slide.
Coincidentally, last week our school had class productions. Each homeroom class put together some type of performance to present to parents, faculty and other classes. My co-teacher decided that we too should put something together for the 5th grade production. Because we are specialty subject teachers we do not have a homeroom class, instead we teach every 5th grade homeroom class English 2/3 periods a week. In order for us to put something together we had to use the ENTIRE 5th grade class, which is roughly about 180 students.
We decided to go with a song and dance performance. My CO organized our performance in 3 segments; the first, a select group of students danced on stage to the song "Can you join us" while the rest of the students in the audience would sing. Then we would have the entire 5th grade class dance the cha-cha slide in the audience, followed by the entire 5th grade class singing the "I can" song.
Organizing what we were going to do was easy enough, teaching the students the dances (mainly the Cha-Cha Slide) was another story.
While the cha-cha slide is an easy dance to learn and do, it isn't easy to do well. It requires rhythm, hip motion and for a lack of a better word, swag. You can't teach these things, they are like natural instincts. All dogs can swim, well certain races naturally have the ability to dance well. I personally wouldn't vouch and say that Korean was one of these races.
So teaching my students the cha-cha slide was an adventure. At first, the only students who would actually even attempt to do the dance were the goofy boys who pretty much just made a mockery of it the entire time. The rest of the students would cling to their chairs as if they were clinging on for life or death, but we didn't give up. I would literally tear my students from their chairs and force them to dance. As the week progressed more students began to willingly participate. It eventually got to the point where I had students asking me to let them practice in my classroom during lunch time.
When my students first started to learn the dance they looked like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs. Stiff, boring, no flavor or attitude. Teaching the steps to the cha-cha was easy, but getting them to sway their hips and move their arms while doing it was not. Because I speak no Korean (beyond being polite and important terms to shop with) explaining to my students how to groove and feel the music was difficult. I would have to move their hips and arms for them (in a totally appropriate manner!) and demonstrate myself. . We might have danced the cha-cha slide well over 100 times.
But come D-Day they got it! My CO and I danced on the stage as our mass of students did the dance in the audience and our performance was AWESOME. The parents LOVED it and the Principal was extremely impressed that we got the ENTIRE 5th grade class to do something as a group with out having any form of destruction occur. Both the Principal and Vice at lunch expressed how much they enjoyed our performance in their best English, I received many emails from other teachers telling me how great of a job we did and the students we so proud of themselves. And even after all the reluctance that my students felt towards the dance in the beginning, the day after the production my students begged me to allow them to do it one last time.
I do not yet have the video of the actual performance but for now I have a few videos from lunch time practices. Enjoy :)
Coincidentally, last week our school had class productions. Each homeroom class put together some type of performance to present to parents, faculty and other classes. My co-teacher decided that we too should put something together for the 5th grade production. Because we are specialty subject teachers we do not have a homeroom class, instead we teach every 5th grade homeroom class English 2/3 periods a week. In order for us to put something together we had to use the ENTIRE 5th grade class, which is roughly about 180 students.
We decided to go with a song and dance performance. My CO organized our performance in 3 segments; the first, a select group of students danced on stage to the song "Can you join us" while the rest of the students in the audience would sing. Then we would have the entire 5th grade class dance the cha-cha slide in the audience, followed by the entire 5th grade class singing the "I can" song.
Organizing what we were going to do was easy enough, teaching the students the dances (mainly the Cha-Cha Slide) was another story.
While the cha-cha slide is an easy dance to learn and do, it isn't easy to do well. It requires rhythm, hip motion and for a lack of a better word, swag. You can't teach these things, they are like natural instincts. All dogs can swim, well certain races naturally have the ability to dance well. I personally wouldn't vouch and say that Korean was one of these races.
So teaching my students the cha-cha slide was an adventure. At first, the only students who would actually even attempt to do the dance were the goofy boys who pretty much just made a mockery of it the entire time. The rest of the students would cling to their chairs as if they were clinging on for life or death, but we didn't give up. I would literally tear my students from their chairs and force them to dance. As the week progressed more students began to willingly participate. It eventually got to the point where I had students asking me to let them practice in my classroom during lunch time.
When my students first started to learn the dance they looked like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs. Stiff, boring, no flavor or attitude. Teaching the steps to the cha-cha was easy, but getting them to sway their hips and move their arms while doing it was not. Because I speak no Korean (beyond being polite and important terms to shop with) explaining to my students how to groove and feel the music was difficult. I would have to move their hips and arms for them (in a totally appropriate manner!) and demonstrate myself. . We might have danced the cha-cha slide well over 100 times.
But come D-Day they got it! My CO and I danced on the stage as our mass of students did the dance in the audience and our performance was AWESOME. The parents LOVED it and the Principal was extremely impressed that we got the ENTIRE 5th grade class to do something as a group with out having any form of destruction occur. Both the Principal and Vice at lunch expressed how much they enjoyed our performance in their best English, I received many emails from other teachers telling me how great of a job we did and the students we so proud of themselves. And even after all the reluctance that my students felt towards the dance in the beginning, the day after the production my students begged me to allow them to do it one last time.
I do not yet have the video of the actual performance but for now I have a few videos from lunch time practices. Enjoy :)
Can You Join Us Song
Cha-Cha Slide
#CHEERS2MYSTUDENTSFORBEINGAWESOME
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Teaching Pet Peeves
While I do enjoy teaching as a now job, there are a few things that I have encountered that really irk me.
#1 Finding a decent side of your chalk that will actually make a legible mark on the chalk board. I can't stand being in the middle of a lesson and trying to write something on the board and having the chalk produce some scrawny dashed line that nobody can read, it kills that moment of emphasis and it isn't ever a quick fix, usually I must rotate and try the chalk multiple times before I can find the good side and by that time the moment is gone.
#2 Chalk boards in general. After 6 periods of using the chalk board my hands look ashy and my clothes look like I rolled around in a pile of dust.
#3 Having 15 different white board markers and NONE of them work. I swear there must be a school boogey man who spends all night wasting the ink in my markers. It is sad that when I find a working marker I feel the same excitement a child does on Christmas.
#4 Those moments when you are in the middle of punishing or scolding a student and they say something that makes you want to laugh.
#1 Finding a decent side of your chalk that will actually make a legible mark on the chalk board. I can't stand being in the middle of a lesson and trying to write something on the board and having the chalk produce some scrawny dashed line that nobody can read, it kills that moment of emphasis and it isn't ever a quick fix, usually I must rotate and try the chalk multiple times before I can find the good side and by that time the moment is gone.
#2 Chalk boards in general. After 6 periods of using the chalk board my hands look ashy and my clothes look like I rolled around in a pile of dust.
#3 Having 15 different white board markers and NONE of them work. I swear there must be a school boogey man who spends all night wasting the ink in my markers. It is sad that when I find a working marker I feel the same excitement a child does on Christmas.
#4 Those moments when you are in the middle of punishing or scolding a student and they say something that makes you want to laugh.
Example: One of my students was extra talkative in class.
His first inturruption I just caught his eye and gave him the shhhhh sign
His second inturruption I said " _____ stop speaking in Korean and listen please."
His thrid inturruption I said loudly "_____ didn't I ask you to stop talking?!?"
His response, "Yes but I speak-y in ENGLISH! You say Korean tee-cha."
I had to keep a straight face, if I would have laughed all my credibility would have went down the drain.
#5 Copies. I might single handedly be responsible for deforestation in Korea. Somewhere between figuring out how many copies of papers I will need for my classes and the actual copying of them I end up with a stack of extras comprable to the thickness of a textbook. There are only so many "arts and crafts" components I can throw in my lessons to cover this up...obviously I wasn't a math major.
#6 Teaching in slippers. Here in Korea you do not wear your outside shoes inside of most places including here at school so teachers and students alike wear inside shoes usually some form of slippers. I wear a pair of knock off Adidas pre-game slippers, the ones with the one thick strap across the top of your foot. The slippers bother me for two reasons. The first because I find myself somehow managing to kick them off of my foot as I walk. A few times I have even managed to accidentally launch my slippers at my students, which they find absolutely hilarious and I find frightening because I am afraid one day I am going to take a student's eye out with it (There might or might not have been a few times I have hit or almost hit a student and wasn't entirely apologetic about it). The second reason they bother me is because they make it very hard to take any male at work seriously. The male teachers here come to school dressed in full on business suits and give up their shiny dress shoes at the door for slide on slippers. It is impossible not to chuckle the first few times you see a man in a suit with slippers...and for me it is impossible not to chuckle EVERY single time I see this. When ever I am around the Principal, Vice Principal or any of the male teachers I am usually suppressing a giggle while attempting to keep my professional disposition present, not easy at all.
#7 (this is a LOVE/HATE relationship) Candy. Imagine a crack addict being stripped of his pipe. Candy to my students is like crack to a crack addict. If I mention giving candy for anything such as participation all of a sudden EVERYBODY knows the answer. If it is for the winning team in one of the class games you would think we were in game 7 of the NBA playoffs with a rivalry as deep as the Celtics and Lakers. My students get cut throat. Today's game required one person from each team to run to the board to read a sentence that they then had to run back and dictate to their team. During one of the sprints to the front the littlest girl in the 6th grade (by littlest I mean shortest and thinnest) chucked a fellow classmate into the desks just to beat him to the front of the room. Candy changes students, before today she was always timid and shy but at the mention of candy she became this vicious little fighter ready to kill anybody that tried to get in her way of winning.
#8 Gangnam style. You think this has nothing to do with teaching, but it does. If another student shouts "Heyyyyy Sexy Lady!!" At me in the hallway as I walk by I just might lose my marbles. I feel like I am back at home where the only pick up line guys seem to know is "Hey Ma." Redundancy is annoying in any country at any age. I just might hold a class period on HOW to talk to women in ways that are affective because it seems like men all over the world are pretty damn clueless.
#CHEERS2MYFIRST9TO5
#6 Teaching in slippers. Here in Korea you do not wear your outside shoes inside of most places including here at school so teachers and students alike wear inside shoes usually some form of slippers. I wear a pair of knock off Adidas pre-game slippers, the ones with the one thick strap across the top of your foot. The slippers bother me for two reasons. The first because I find myself somehow managing to kick them off of my foot as I walk. A few times I have even managed to accidentally launch my slippers at my students, which they find absolutely hilarious and I find frightening because I am afraid one day I am going to take a student's eye out with it (There might or might not have been a few times I have hit or almost hit a student and wasn't entirely apologetic about it). The second reason they bother me is because they make it very hard to take any male at work seriously. The male teachers here come to school dressed in full on business suits and give up their shiny dress shoes at the door for slide on slippers. It is impossible not to chuckle the first few times you see a man in a suit with slippers...and for me it is impossible not to chuckle EVERY single time I see this. When ever I am around the Principal, Vice Principal or any of the male teachers I am usually suppressing a giggle while attempting to keep my professional disposition present, not easy at all.
#7 (this is a LOVE/HATE relationship) Candy. Imagine a crack addict being stripped of his pipe. Candy to my students is like crack to a crack addict. If I mention giving candy for anything such as participation all of a sudden EVERYBODY knows the answer. If it is for the winning team in one of the class games you would think we were in game 7 of the NBA playoffs with a rivalry as deep as the Celtics and Lakers. My students get cut throat. Today's game required one person from each team to run to the board to read a sentence that they then had to run back and dictate to their team. During one of the sprints to the front the littlest girl in the 6th grade (by littlest I mean shortest and thinnest) chucked a fellow classmate into the desks just to beat him to the front of the room. Candy changes students, before today she was always timid and shy but at the mention of candy she became this vicious little fighter ready to kill anybody that tried to get in her way of winning.
#8 Gangnam style. You think this has nothing to do with teaching, but it does. If another student shouts "Heyyyyy Sexy Lady!!" At me in the hallway as I walk by I just might lose my marbles. I feel like I am back at home where the only pick up line guys seem to know is "Hey Ma." Redundancy is annoying in any country at any age. I just might hold a class period on HOW to talk to women in ways that are affective because it seems like men all over the world are pretty damn clueless.
#CHEERS2MYFIRST9TO5
Friday, October 19, 2012
what kind of teacher are you?
I get asked quite often "What kind of teacher are you?" Is there a way to answer this? What are people looking for when they ask me this question? Do they want to know if I am strict? Easy-going? or do they want to know how my class is structured? maybe how I relate to the students? I never know what to say.
This is my first time being a teacher, but this is not my first experience dealing with children. I have coached basketball teams with varying ages since I was 14 years old. Starting with my nephew and niece in rec leagues from ages 6- 12, a few different middle school teams, eventually landing a job at a high school and even being offered a job at a JC as an assistant. Because of these experiences I think I am at a slight advantage compared to other new teachers. I KNOW I do not know it all or even close to it all about teaching but I do know that I have been well prepared for this job.
So now that I have time to sit and think about the question, "What kind of teacher are you?," my answer would be unconventional (although there are probably other teachers who have similar strategies to mine). Here are a few examples as to why.
Talking
If a student is talking in class and I ask them to stop talking and they decide against their better judgement to keep talking I will take an off the chart strategies to shut the kid up.
Example: One of my students is always chatting it up in class. After not being able to stop it I crumpled a paper and threw it at him (I have awesome aim and hit him right in the head). He had no idea it was me. After he was hit it forced him to look in my direction because he was trying to figure out who threw it. For a few minutes this kept his attention (as he was trying to figure this out he started participating!). After a while he went back to chatting so I threw another and again he tried to figure out who threw it and again started participating. After my third thrown paper to his head he stopped chatting and since then I have only had to do this one other time.
If a student argues with me and it is in English, I will entertain his or her argument and even fuel the fire JUST so they will keep speaking in English.
Example: One of my students argued with me that giraffes were not the sexiest animals in the world (later an explanation on how this started). Of course we all know that they are but HE thinks it is a peacock, so I asked why and he gave his reasons, the tail, the colors and they fly. I gave mine for giraffes, their walk, their neck and their tail. For about 5 minutes we went back and forth while the class watched, laughed and some putting in their opinions on which animal was sexiest. We both even demonstrated the movements of our animals to prove the point. My belief is that if the kids are paying attention, listening or speaking English no matter what the topic is, they are learning something.
Participation
All teachers know that getting students to participate can be worse than having teeth pulled. Everybody has the 4 students who will participate ALL the time while the rest sit their and stare. I have effectively eliminated this problem with the Participation Ball. In all of my classes I have a plush basketball that I have named the Participation Ball. It works very simple, if I throw the ball at you, catch it (or try) and then you must participate. BOOM.
Lessons
I have a textbook that I must teach out of, it isn't the best text book ever (could there be a good textbook though?). Every lesson in the textbook follows the same format and is pretty dry. So I like most other teachers throw in my own material to spice things up.
Example: In my PowerPoints I always include funny pictures, pictures of myself, random pictures that have nothing to do with the lesson to grab the students attention, funny videos and bright colors. During a lesson about comparisons I compared an giraffe to a peacock and listed that the giraffe is sexier as one of the comparisons (which started the argument above) and take this type of off the chart strategy in all of my PowerPoints. I have also included into my different lessons a video of myself dancing to Beyonce - Single Ladies (video is at the bottom for your entertainment), pictures of me as a child, celebrities, historical figures doing strange things, cropped in students photos onto different bodies and of course awesome songs to go with the lessons ( Michael Jackson - Do you remember was my most recent, I even taught myself how to moon walk).
I always edit the ESL games as well and throw in a physical component or extra activity with in the game to make it more difficult.
Example: Everybody has played the telephone game. You separate the students into teams and have them line up. You give each team a sentence or phrase which they must pass down student to student to the end of the line by whispering it to each other. The first team to have it right wins. My version is a bit different. First, each team has a different sentence and second the team members are not standing side by side, they are spaced out so they must run to the next person.Giving the teams different sentences eliminates cheating and/or makes it completely obvious. Spreading the students out ups the difficulty on remembering the sentence, students are usually so eager to out run each other they forget the sentence and must run back to hear the sentence again. For my more advanced classes I will make the students do an activity in between passing the sentence along such as a answering a question that deals with the lesson or any other little activity to throw them off.
With vocabulary I always show the Hangul version of the word and have them translate it to English. For added fun, I have them teach me how to pronounce it. This is always entertaining to them because my mouth just can not make the sounds that Koren requires and I know I sound like an idiot.
Interacting
It is hard to relate to many of the students when their English ability only goes as far as the textbook learning but I do my best. I will go and watch them play soccer or dodgey- ball (as they call it), I will let them show me new dances (I learned how to gangnam from my 6th graders) and new music, I tell them about my life and what I do over the weekends (of course I eliminate the things they don't need to know) and I ask about theirs. Even from simply just TRYING to read and pronounce their names has given my tons of brownie points with them. I have realized that any little gesture that shows interest in them goes along way.
Overall, I think back to all of the teachers that I have enjoyed over the years and I try to pull from them and use their strategies in my own classroom and as of month 2 it seems to be working :).
#CHEERS2LOVINGYOURJOB
Ps: I won that argument with that student. I just informed him that the male peacocks were the only ones with the big "sexy" tail.
Kala Teacher- 1
Student- 0
Here are a few pictures from PowerPoints, sorry to my friends and family who have been involuntarily involved.
This is my first time being a teacher, but this is not my first experience dealing with children. I have coached basketball teams with varying ages since I was 14 years old. Starting with my nephew and niece in rec leagues from ages 6- 12, a few different middle school teams, eventually landing a job at a high school and even being offered a job at a JC as an assistant. Because of these experiences I think I am at a slight advantage compared to other new teachers. I KNOW I do not know it all or even close to it all about teaching but I do know that I have been well prepared for this job.
So now that I have time to sit and think about the question, "What kind of teacher are you?," my answer would be unconventional (although there are probably other teachers who have similar strategies to mine). Here are a few examples as to why.
Talking
If a student is talking in class and I ask them to stop talking and they decide against their better judgement to keep talking I will take an off the chart strategies to shut the kid up.
Example: One of my students is always chatting it up in class. After not being able to stop it I crumpled a paper and threw it at him (I have awesome aim and hit him right in the head). He had no idea it was me. After he was hit it forced him to look in my direction because he was trying to figure out who threw it. For a few minutes this kept his attention (as he was trying to figure this out he started participating!). After a while he went back to chatting so I threw another and again he tried to figure out who threw it and again started participating. After my third thrown paper to his head he stopped chatting and since then I have only had to do this one other time.
If a student argues with me and it is in English, I will entertain his or her argument and even fuel the fire JUST so they will keep speaking in English.
Example: One of my students argued with me that giraffes were not the sexiest animals in the world (later an explanation on how this started). Of course we all know that they are but HE thinks it is a peacock, so I asked why and he gave his reasons, the tail, the colors and they fly. I gave mine for giraffes, their walk, their neck and their tail. For about 5 minutes we went back and forth while the class watched, laughed and some putting in their opinions on which animal was sexiest. We both even demonstrated the movements of our animals to prove the point. My belief is that if the kids are paying attention, listening or speaking English no matter what the topic is, they are learning something.
Participation
All teachers know that getting students to participate can be worse than having teeth pulled. Everybody has the 4 students who will participate ALL the time while the rest sit their and stare. I have effectively eliminated this problem with the Participation Ball. In all of my classes I have a plush basketball that I have named the Participation Ball. It works very simple, if I throw the ball at you, catch it (or try) and then you must participate. BOOM.
Lessons
I have a textbook that I must teach out of, it isn't the best text book ever (could there be a good textbook though?). Every lesson in the textbook follows the same format and is pretty dry. So I like most other teachers throw in my own material to spice things up.
Example: In my PowerPoints I always include funny pictures, pictures of myself, random pictures that have nothing to do with the lesson to grab the students attention, funny videos and bright colors. During a lesson about comparisons I compared an giraffe to a peacock and listed that the giraffe is sexier as one of the comparisons (which started the argument above) and take this type of off the chart strategy in all of my PowerPoints. I have also included into my different lessons a video of myself dancing to Beyonce - Single Ladies (video is at the bottom for your entertainment), pictures of me as a child, celebrities, historical figures doing strange things, cropped in students photos onto different bodies and of course awesome songs to go with the lessons ( Michael Jackson - Do you remember was my most recent, I even taught myself how to moon walk).
I always edit the ESL games as well and throw in a physical component or extra activity with in the game to make it more difficult.
Example: Everybody has played the telephone game. You separate the students into teams and have them line up. You give each team a sentence or phrase which they must pass down student to student to the end of the line by whispering it to each other. The first team to have it right wins. My version is a bit different. First, each team has a different sentence and second the team members are not standing side by side, they are spaced out so they must run to the next person.Giving the teams different sentences eliminates cheating and/or makes it completely obvious. Spreading the students out ups the difficulty on remembering the sentence, students are usually so eager to out run each other they forget the sentence and must run back to hear the sentence again. For my more advanced classes I will make the students do an activity in between passing the sentence along such as a answering a question that deals with the lesson or any other little activity to throw them off.
With vocabulary I always show the Hangul version of the word and have them translate it to English. For added fun, I have them teach me how to pronounce it. This is always entertaining to them because my mouth just can not make the sounds that Koren requires and I know I sound like an idiot.
Interacting
It is hard to relate to many of the students when their English ability only goes as far as the textbook learning but I do my best. I will go and watch them play soccer or dodgey- ball (as they call it), I will let them show me new dances (I learned how to gangnam from my 6th graders) and new music, I tell them about my life and what I do over the weekends (of course I eliminate the things they don't need to know) and I ask about theirs. Even from simply just TRYING to read and pronounce their names has given my tons of brownie points with them. I have realized that any little gesture that shows interest in them goes along way.
Overall, I think back to all of the teachers that I have enjoyed over the years and I try to pull from them and use their strategies in my own classroom and as of month 2 it seems to be working :).
#CHEERS2LOVINGYOURJOB
Ps: I won that argument with that student. I just informed him that the male peacocks were the only ones with the big "sexy" tail.
Kala Teacher- 1
Student- 0
Here are a few pictures from PowerPoints, sorry to my friends and family who have been involuntarily involved.
 |
 |
| I HAD TO :) |
and me, as the FABULOUS Beyonce.
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