Archive for ‘October 2009’

It's Halloween at school! This was a great slash exhausting day! All the kids dressed up and they got to go around the school and trick or treat at the different classes. That was pretty hectic, getting them all around the floor. The other teachers and I made a haunted house last night, out of trash bags and cardboard haha. But it was pretty good, there was creepy music, spiderwebs, we made a coffin that Miguel would jump out of to scare the kids.

All the teachers dressed up. It was ridiculously hard to find a costume though, since Halloween is basically only celebrated at English hagwons. The major department store near us had a few capes and a few witch hats but that was it. I sewed myself some mouse ears and glued it on a headband (it was supposed to be like in Mean Girls, where Karen says "I'm a mouse...duh!" but apparently there are far fewer people who have seen Mean Girls than I thought). Miguel was a vampire, Ruth a devil/witch, Walker was a zombie of some sort, Gabby a shaman, Kyla an 80s girl, and Alex was a zombie. Basically they were costumes that you could make with clothes you already have and some face makeup.

I guess all the kids have their outfits ordered ahead of time. A lot of the girls came as princesses though, which basically only required a dress they already had, a tiara and a frilly wand. But it was cute none the less. Some of the girls came as witches, devils or angels, but I think that was the extent of the variety. There were a lot of boys dressed as power rangers or super heroes. Tommy came as a dragon which was adorable, and this chubby kids called Ian was a musketeer of some sort, and that was definitely in my top three favorites. There was even a kid dressed up as Santa.

They got to play some Halloween games, for which I was the MC. Getting about 60 little kids to pay attention when all they want to do it play with their costumes and eat candy is pretty hard, but they had fun. We played spoon race and a skeleton scramble where the kids had to put the skeletons body parts int he right places.



This is my class, from left to right is Becky, Julie, Alyssa, Lily and John. It was pretty funny because a few days ago I was drawing an ocean scene on the board, and they kept yelling a word at me (hapadi) and I found out it meant jellyfish. So for days they were trying to get my to pronounce hapadi right (apparently it's haepari, but they're little kids so I can't understand anything they say) and every time I would say it they would just bust up laughing. So today, the only way I could get them to smile for pictures was to say "hapadi" and instantly they would start laughing. Poor John though, he hated today. It was only is third day in school, and I think he was just overwhelmed. After lunch he started crying, and he didn't want to help carve the pumpkin so he sat out. Then he started crying when it came time to leave, so I had to pick him up and take him downstairs for the bus, and he fell asleep on me while we were waiting. It was kinda cute, but I felt bad for the little guy.

During lunch I stepped out to go to the store, so I took my ears off, but I looked even more strange because I still had my whiskers painted on my face. Luckily though I had my ears, so when the people looked at me funny I took them out and they knew it was for Halloween. I can't imagine the looks Walker got since he was dressed in torn up clothes with a pale face and blood.

We got to carve a pumpkin as well. They aren't like American pumpkins, they are more like a squash so we were all a little apprehensive about carving them, especially because we were given non-serrated knives. But it turned out good, the kids helped spoon out the insides, and I was able to carve a face, then we got to light it up. Becky and Lily thought it was hysterical though when they kept blowing out the candles.

By the time it was time to go, I was totally wiped out. And I still had three more classes to teach! Luckily the last two days of the month are test days, so the kids just have to take a big test and basically get to play the rest of the day. So I had my three classes and i survived. Our director bought us dinner too, pizza and chicken. I had some sort of weird pizza with corn, tortilla chips, a potato wedge and sour cream. It was surprisingly good though. I guess Korean's put a lot of weird shit on their pizza.


Below are some of the other pictures. If you have me on Facebook, I have a whole album.


Group shot of my class, minus John because he didn't want to be in it.


Sharon as Snow White

Becky and Lily with their wands and tiaras

Ian as a musketeer

(left to right) Melody, Dora, and Rea



Our finished jack-o-lantern

carving the jack-o-lantern

a pirate attacking Gabby

Tommy as a dragon

Just a week ago I started teaching Miffy Class, and a guy named Matt from Seattle came and took over Tigger Class. For some reason he had a bit of a hard time keeping the kids in line both behaviorally and school work wise. At our school you definitely have to be firm with the kids, you need to be strict, and you do have to yell a lot. I mean, it's a classroom full of 12 6-year-old kids, it's not like they are going to sit quietly and do everything you ask them to. Although they weren't perfect when I left them, I knew how to keep the class in line and on time, but Matt had a problem with that. Even so, it was only his first week, and although the first week is pretty frustrating and overwhelming, it get's better once you get to know the kids and know what works for you class. Apparently Matt didn't want to wait to find out. He left this weekend. Went home. Didn't tell anyone. Just left. I don't know how someone can just leave a job without telling anyone, especially when that job is half way across the world and you have to pay for a ticket back home.

So this threw off everything. Now there is no teacher for the Tigger Class, so my supervisor Naiad had to teach today. And since Matt was taking over the afternoon classes for Alex since she got hit by a bus and can't work, now they don't have a teacher either. So I guess I drew the short stick and have to take over her classes. So instead of having Matthew and Rachel from 3:00-4:30 and a break until 6:00, I have a class of five 8-year-old girls from 3:00-6:00 and James from 6:00-7:30 (on MWF) and then I have two older girls from 4:30-6:00 on Tuesday and Thursday (even though I usually get off at 4:30) along with Nick and Tommy from 3:00-4:30 on Thursday. So MWF are going to suck, I don't even have time to eat. Luckily I can just eat a cup of noodles or something while I work with James. Hopefully once the new teacher that is taking over for Alex comes next week, and we find a replacement for Matt, things will go back to normal. I like Alex's students a lot, but I don't like having to work later.

This was my first week with my new class, the Miffy Class (I think I mentioned befor1e about how all the classes have some sort of cartoon or Disney theme? I guess Miffy is some sort of Korean Bunny character). I was a little sad to leave Tigger Class, but then again, they were a little exasperating. My new class is absolutely ADORABLE! There are only four of them right now (Lily, Becky, Julie, and Alyssa), all are 5 years old (which remember means they are actually 4 years old). Their understanding of English is pretty limited which can be frustrating at times. They have five books that we use throughout the day, and they can repeat words and sentences when I say them, but they have a hard time understanding directions. They also can't read, so that's a little hard. When we're reading a book they basically just repeat what I'm saying.

When the kids start a new class they are usually already given an English name for the class, but one girl didn't have a name yet, so I got to choose her name for her. I went through a few names to see if she was partial to any of them, but no. So eventually I just named her after my BFF Becky! She is super super shy, so it took a while to get her to say her name. I was so proud when she did though. We learned this week how to say "Hello, what's your name" and "My name is ______" and all the girls are pretty good at that. They all know how to spell their names as well. Becky isn't as good, but I think that's because she isn't as familiar with the alphabet, so she needs help writing the letters.

This week we learned about things like school supplies, colors, shapes, counting. They catch on pretty quick. Julie and Alyssa have pretty short attention spans though, so they don't like to do school work for too long. I think I mentioned before that every class has to perform a song at the end of the month. Our song was Louby Loo, we only had a week to practice though, so it wasn't that great come performance time, plus I think they were nervous about being in front of so many people.

Apparently I made a big mistake in Tigger Class. Since about half the class moves too fast and the other half moves slow, when i was trying to keep the class together, I thought it was ok if they missed a few of the answers. Nope. Not ok at all. So I had to go back through all their books and find every blank that they didn't answer, and I have to help them during my break time until all the kids have the right answers. I asked some of the other teachers about that, and they said they made the same mistake, and that it's ok to fill in some of the answer for them, because I guess the parents are really picky, and don't want anything left out. I really really really hate when I get in trouble for something that no one ever told me about. It's extremely frustrating. But whatever, lesson learned, I'll get over it.

Since we don't have to learn too many pages in our workbooks, I try to make games and activities that the girls can do in class to help reiterate what they learned, like having them find colors and shapes in the room or giving them pictures that they have to put up on the wall. We're also making Halloween crafts this week. I made them little ghost necklaces out of glue and we glued together bats that are now laminated and hanging from the ceiling. I'm super excited for Friday because we are having our big Halloween party, and all the kids come dressed up and just play around all day.

The monetary unit of South Korea is called the South Korean Won (pronounced like "wan"), and it's abbreviated like this: ₩. The bills come in denominations of ₩1,000 , ₩5,0000 , and ₩10,000 while the coins come in ₩1, ₩10, ₩50, ₩100, and ₩500. The current exchange rate is about ₩1,000 = 85 cents USD. The way I usually figure it out, is I'll take the price in Won, divide it by 1,000 and then minus a little away. So if something is ₩40,000 I would guess that it would be around $33-$35.

Things here are either cheap or expensive I've found. When it comes to grocery shopping, if you go to the larger Green Marts (but not the big supermarkets) you'll find cheaper prices. Fruits and vegetables are cheap, I can get a bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves, with about 15-20 cloves in it, for about ₩1,500. The packaged food get a little more expensive, cereal is slightly more here than back at home, but if you stick with the store brand it's a lot better. The general spices and oils that are usually expensive back home are pretty cheap here. The exception being rice. For some reason a bag of rice is a lot more expensive then I had expected. But it might just be that I have forgotten how much an entire bag of rice can make.

There are fruit vendors that you can buy cheap fruit from, I love getting tangerines. Depending on where I go, I can get between 5-8 of them for about ₩2,000. Eggs are also a good deal to get on the street. I bought this entire thing of eggs (36) for ₩5,600 (which is about $4.75). I didn't really want that many eggs, but I don't know how to count in Korean yet, or how to say dozen, so I just bought the lot. When I'm buying something on the street or in a market, even if I can't understand how much they are telling me, I can be fairly sure that it wont be too expensive.

There are a lot of little bakeries around here, the most popular are Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours. They usually have a variety of sweet and savory pastries to choose from, and lots and lots of cakes. Both of these places are right outside my work, so if I want to stop in and get breakfast, I can usually get a bagel and a pastry and a small orange juice for about ₩3,500 which is pretty cheap, but it's the kind of stuff that will add up. There is also a cheap place to get lunch by work, I haven't been there yet, but Grace who is the new receptionist, told me that if I ever want her to show me new foods then she would be happy too. I'm definitely going to hit that up. So far I love Korean food!

Taxis can be pretty cheap as well. Last night we took a 20-30 minute taxi home, and it was only ₩20,000 ( a lot cheaper than New York!!). Of course the public transportation is way cheaper, only about ₩600 per bus or subway ride, but they stop running at midnight (slightly inconvenient for the party goers).

While the cheap stuff is cheap, the expensive stuff is expensive. Dishes, pots & pans, silverware, this stuff can all run pretty high. Luckily though you can go to a Daiso to get most of the stuff you need for your home and it's pretty cheap. Bed sheets, now those are expensive. Since Korean don't sleep on beds, there isn't much need for bed sheets, which means they are super expensive. One fitted sheet runs between ₩40,000 and ₩60,000. The sheets that came with my bed are orange and ugly, but I'm not about to spend $30-$50 on bed sheets!

Is it possible for cats to have ADHD? What about Schizophrenia? We if they can, I think Dexter definitely has at least one of those. That can is crazy. He's constantly running around, attacking my limbs, eating my chords, attacking my clothes. He even tries to jump and attack my face when I'm trying to go to sleep! I have to hide all my appendages under the covers and have my head face the wall in order to escape him! He doesn't listen to anything I say. Ever. I even tried yelling at him in Korean, and that didn't work either. I can't even pet him without him thinking I'm trying to play and have him attack my hand (same goes when I'm typing on the computer. I can see him eying me right now) He usually goes crazy for an hour or two, then konks out and takes a nap, which he looks like he's about to do. Op, nope, he went for the hand. This cat is a little bastard. I'm trying something new today though. The trusty squirt bottle of water. I feel bad doing it, but everything i've read says it's the best way to train your cat, and it doesn't hurt them. But he looks so frightened when I do it. I feel bad. But then he tries to eat my toes, so I nut up and let him have it. Hopefully he learns quickly, before my patience with him runs out.

Here's a video of the little bundle of joy. He doesn't actually appear until about 30 seconds in

This morning Megan and I were set to go shopping at a fabric store in Dongdaemun. on the way out of the building though, we found an adorable little kitten! It was clearly a stray, and stray cats are not treated very nicely here. People often throw rocks at them! So we decided to take him in. Originally Megan was going to take him. But she decided she wasn't ready for a cat. So who jumped to the task? Me! I decided to name him Dexter (hopefully he wont turn into a vigilante serial killer though), and he is just the cutest little thing. I know it's going to be hard to raise a kitten, but I couldn't just leave him to fend for himself! So we brought him up to my apartment, gave him some cereal and water, and we put him in the bathroom while we went shopping.

Dongdaemun is a great place, we went to the giant fabric store there. I was hoping to find a sewing machine, but no luck. I did however find material to make my Halloween costume (Halloween is rarely celebrated here, so it was difficult to find costumes) and I got some yarn to make scarves with. Then we had a look around the town. I tried to find some postcards, but this country isn't very big on them. So if you haven't gotten one yet, it's not because I don't like you!

On the way back we stopped at the Veterinarians by our apartment and told him that we found a stary kitten. We got him some hard and soft food, a food dish, and some flea medicine. I have to take them a fecal sample (yum!) to test for parasites, and then after a week I can take him in to get vaccinated. We also found a little box, but no litter. As I said before, people don't like cats too much, so their supplies are few in number. But I know there is a pet store around here, so I can check that out. I came back and gave him the wet cat food, which he basically inhaled, and he has been spending the rest of the afternoon chasing my feet, attacking my hand, and rummaging through my underwear drawer.

I also figured out how to write his name in Hangul, it's 덱스터 just fyi.

I'm going to have to Dexter-proof my apartment, which I have already learned means to close off the area behind the fridge, remove all plastic from his reach, shuffle my feet instead of picking them up when I walk, removing all biteable cords, and keeping my feet on the bed and not the ground.

This is going to be great!!!

I'm going to warn you, this post is a little intense, and please don't freak out and think that I would ever do something this idiotic.


After work on Friday night a bunch of us decided to go out for Galbi, so I met up with Megan, Alex (guy) and Alex (girl) and we caught a taxi to the restaurant because it was raining. We got out of the taxi, and all three of them had been drinking a little, not a lot, but I'm sure they were buzzed. We spotted two of our other friend behind us, and i decided to wait. Alex and Alex decided to cross the road though. An 8 lane road. An 8 lane road without a cross walk. I was all about not doing that. So they started to dart across because all the traffic was stopped at a red light. I turned to see Ruth and Walker approaching, and I heard a huge *thump*. Alex (girl) in the heat of running across the stopped lanes, forgot to look in the express bus lane, and she got hit full on by a bus! Alex (guy) was about 5 steps behind her, and it just grazed him luckily.

The bus stopped and Alex (guy) helped get Alex (girl) up to the side walk. She was clearly in shock, and she was tlaking about how she was fine, and she didn't really realize what had happened. So the bus driver called the police, and Alex (girl) was taken into a restaurant on the corner into the bathroom. The police came and were talking to Alex (guy) but it was hard because they didn't speak English very well. The bus driver was there, and they were all yelling (or maybe just scared, I hear Korean is a very emphatic language). Alex (girl) eventually came back down stairs, and the paramedics came. She said she didn't want to go and that she was fine, but we didn't really give her that option, she had to go. So Megan went with her, and the rest of us waited for one of the Korean supervisors from work to come to help us translate. Two of them showed up, Chris and Charlene. Alex (guy) had to go to the police station with Charlene, and the rest of us went to the hospital where Alex (girl) was with Chris.

She had to get x-rays taken, and apparently she refused to get a CT Scan, because it was expensive. I thought that was pretty stupid though, since she got hit by a freaking bus and she might have a concussion. It turns out she broke her clavicle in two places, and shattered part of it as well. They put her in a brace to align the bones back up, and she will have to go back for more x-rays on Monday, and there's the possibility that she might have to have surgery if the pieces don't line up right.

And after she got her medication, she had to go to the police station to give a statement, which none of us wanted to happen because her initial pain medication was starting to wear off. But the police said she had to. So I gave her my jacket because she wasn't able to pull her original one on, and the rest of us left. It wound up being 3 hours since the accident happened, and since all of us were on the way to dinner, we were starving. We wound up going to the restaurant that we originally planned on going to. Upside of the night, the food was great. After dinner though, it started monsooning, and I didn't have a jacket since I gave mine to Alex (girl). It took forever to get a taxi.

Alex made it home safe with Charlene, and Megan told me today that she's doing fine.

So week two went a lot better than week one! I got to know the kid better and understand just how long their attention span is. I also came up with some new games, and we started practicing our song that we have to perform at the end of the month. Unfortunately though, I'm getting switched to a new class. Another guy is coming in this weekend in fact, and he is going to take over the Tigger Class, and I'm going to be switching to the Miffy Class, which only has about 5 kids, all girls and all are about 5 years old. I guess they are switching me simply because they want a girl teaching a class that's all girls. Their understanding of English is very limited though, so I'm wondering how this will all go.

But as for the Tigger Class, is was actually fun this week. They do have a lot of work to do in a typical day (Theme Book, phonics, reading, math, spelling) which all happens in the morning. And once I make it to lunch, it's only an hour in the afternoon either doing something fun or practicing our song. I've been working on making sure the kids all move at the same pace, and I take away stars and stickers of people who move ahead. Some still try it though, and I have to take their pencil or crayon away. But they are doing a lot better. Nick, Tommy, Eric S. and Eric H. are the slowest kids in class, and I often have to go to each of them and tell them exactly what to write. Hopefully the new guy will be better at getting them to follow along with the rest of the class.

Matthew and Rachel are improving too. We're basically working on vocabulary words, and short sentences. I've been making flashcards and matching games for them. And I also set up a piece of paper, and they have to either spell or draw a picture of the vocabulary words I list off, and I think it's helping a lot. Rachel is a really great drawer, but sometimes she takes too long because she is adding all the detail. But it's ok because we have plenty of time in class. They are still kinda cheating off each other, looking to see what the other wrote, or repeating what the other says instead of reading the words for themselves, so I may have to move them a little apart so that doesn't happen as much.

I've met some of the other students, Alex has a class with two girls named Julie and Analise, and they are super cute. I think they are 10 or so. I'm also starting to recognize some of the other students when they all have to get together at the end of the day to go on the buses.

I posted a video below of the Tigger Class practicing their performance song. Super cute!

So the joys and excitement of adventuring into a whole new world have quickly become thwarted by the realization that I am actually here for work. This post is all about my first week of teaching.

DAY ONE - What Am I Doing?
Going into my first day, I thought I was going to have an observation day or two. That would seem appropriate for a a person who has never taught before, right? No. Upon arrival at the school, and after a quick tour, I was thrust right into the classroom, with not a clue what to do. The way this school works is that every English teacher has a Korean Supervisor. This person is basically there to help you get your class in order, provide you with a schedule, help you a little with the kids. As time goes on and the teacher becomes more proficient at actually teaching, the supervisor takes a background roll, she's not in the class as much, and just helps run things from behind the scenes. So my supervisor's name is Naiad, and she is super nice and very helpful, thank god, because I had no idea what I was doing.

My first class of the day is the 6-7 year-olds (in Korea, the day you are born you are 1 year old, so basically these kids are 5-6 years old) and I have 11 of them: Dora, Dana, Jerry, Nick, Tommy, Eric S., Sharon, David, Eric H., Melody, and Rea. My class is called the Tigger Class (the other classes are named after other Disney characters: Pooh, Nemo, etc.). So the first day was basically getting to know everyone and remember their names, and we spent a lot of the day playing in the playroom or the Wonder Lounge (which is just a room of toys and games). The kids can speak English already, in sentences, and they know a lot of words, so I think they can understand a lot of what I'm saying. They just choose not to listen. This class runs from 10:00am until 2:30pm.

After the morning class, I have basically a one-on-one session with two older students, Rachel and Matthew, who I think are 8 or 9 years old. So this class is pretty easy, they have three books to work on, phonics and spelling basically, and it's pretty beginner stuff. They also don't speak English very well. They can repeat the things I say, but I have to talk slowly and use simply terms because they can't really make sentences. or maybe they can and they're just messing with me. I have those two from 3:00pm-4:30pm. It's a pretty easy class, and we just worked through some of the pages in their workbooks until time was up.

After Rachel and Matthew I have James from 6:00pm-7:30pm (which leaves me a nice break to get dinner or to work on some stuff for class). James is 10 years old, and he's pretty smart. He has three books that he works on, Grammar, Social Studies, and Vocabulary. So I basically spend an hour and a half going over his books with him, trying to engage him in conversation, and doing some writing assignments.

All in all, the day was hectic. I had no idea what was going on, or what I was supposed to be doing. Luckily some of the other teachers were giving me pointers, so I survived. They swear that it will get better. Let's hope so.

DAY TWO - No Seriously, What Am I Doing?
So the second day was pretty hectic as well, if not even more. Now I was given a schedule for my morning class, and we were already behind by a whole day. I guess I was supposed to teach them more the day before, but no one told me. I quickly learned that this is a place of "find out you've done something wrong only after you get in trouble" such as having the kids line up properly, to wait at the doors, to put their shoes outside of the playroom, you know, little procedural things that you wouldn't really think of. So I tried to get them caught up in their Theme Book, which is basically their book they work on, and each one has a theme (who would have guessed?!), this month's theme is Food, and this week I was working on Fruit. The kids have to get through about 5 pages in 50 minutes, which is pretty hard because you have to make sure everyone does it. So while you're trying to get the slower kids to do it, the faster kids are moving past where they should be, and are running around because they have nothing to do.

After the theme book we have to do their Spelling & Writing book, and their Math book, along with their reading book, all in 50 minutes. Plus there is an Etiquette lesson. And after lunch we have to do phonics. PLUS we have to practice for the end of the month performance where every class has to sing a song and do moves. I was told that as a new teacher that I will be given a little slack on all this stuff the first month, thank god.

As of now, I don't have a class after the Tigger Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I'm sure that will change.

DAY THREE - Sweet Jesus, Birthday Party
Well lucky me! Once a month we have birthday parties on a Wednesday to celebrate all the birthdays for the month, so if your class has a birthday, their parents bring in a ton of food and snack for the kids to have after lunch. Guess who had a birthday? Guess who had three birthdays? I bet you guessed right!

Earlier in the day, I tried a new technique of seat assignments, since I notices that some kids just sit around a fuck with each other all day instead of paying attention to me. I tried to put a stop to that, but there were still some kids that were messing around, so I'll have to keep trying a new seating arrangement until I find one that works. I also implemented that famous Sticker Program. These kids go CRAZY for stickers. So as a way to keep them disciplined and on track, you offer to give or threaten to take away stickers. Each kid has a sticker chart, and it's up to the teacher to decide how stickers are to be given. My system goes like this: first I give out stars when the students do good stuff, like sitting quietly, first person to get out their books, raising your hand, volunteering in class, etc. whatever I choose. When they get 6 stars I give them a sticker for their chart. I'll also do things like, if the class can finish their workbook on time, everyone gets a sticker. So then after they get so many stickers, they get a prize, which is basically stuff I picked up at a stationary store: pencils, erasers, rings, necklaces, Yug-i-oh cards (another thing these kids go ape-shit for). So I'm still working on perfecting the system, and getting them to actually follow it.

Back to the birthday party. Birthdays are a pretty big thing here. Basically the supervisor and the Korean Moms (which is basically what we call the Korean woman whoa re around to help with things like lunch time, setting up class, keeping the kids entertained after lunch, taking them to the bus, etc.) will help set up the class, and the parents of the birthday kids bring in food. They higher a photographer to take pictures of the kids in front of their tabel of food and stuff. And of course, all the other kids bring them presents. Unfortunately for my class, the photographer didn't get done until 2pm, which meant the kids couldn't eat until 2pm, and they had to get ready to go at 2:20pm. So it was a little hectic. But Naiad was there to help.

Again I had Matthew and Rachel after that. I was given a schedule for them, which we already went past the lesson before, so we basically had to go over the things again. This was good though. I forgot that kids forget a lot easier then I do, so they needed to work on the stuff some more. We basically practiced words that sound alike, like:fan, can, man, fat, pan. I spend most of the time getting them to pronounce the words correctly, to remember how to read them, and how to spell them. their workbooks definitely don't cover that enough, so I'm going to have to make supplemental activities for them to do so they'll remember the stuff.

DAY FOUR - I Got Swine Flu
Ha ha, just kidding! I didn't get swine flu! I did get a cold though. I was told that would happen and it's usually caused by two things: one is being in a new country with a different climate and a different air quality, and two being that I'm surrounded by -literally- snotty kids all day. So I could feel myself coming down with a sore throat, which did not make me a happy camper. That and the fact that it was my fourth day of these kids not really listening to what i was saying. Some of them are really good, Melody especially. But some of them either don't pay attention in class, or are super slow and literally need to me tell them what to spell or write for every line. Then there are the kids that are constantly getting up, moving around, bugging the other kids, hitting, pushing, kissing, crap like that. One of the boys, Tommy, goes around kissing all the other boys, and nuzzling the girls. It's pretty fucking weird.

But they did do a little better then the day before. I had to take away some stars to the kids that were talking, and I had to start being strict about screaming in class, and being quiet in the hallways. Naiad had to come in a few times and tell them to straighten out. Miguel (another teacher) says they listen a lot more in Korea, and that we should learn how to say "shut the fuck up" in Korean and maybe they would listen to us.

DAY FIVE - TFGIF
So by now I had a full fledged head cold, with a massive headache and a sore throat, great for working with kids. So understandably I was a little short tempered with them, but I guess I wasn't the only one, since lot of the other teachers were having bad days too. Another new seating assignment proved not to work, and in fact was worse than Thursday. I tried to implement a new workbook plan were no one was allowed to work ahead, and they could only work on the line I was on, so that everyone finished together. Some listened, some didn't, for which I sadly had to take away some stars. I tried to seat the three slowest kids in front, so I could point out what they needed to do, and it kinda worked. but unfortunately, two of the three slowest kids are the two biggest problem causers, so it was hard to keep them in line while they were sitting next to each other.

So we got a little behind in the Theme Book, especially because we were scheduled for the Wonder Lounge. Usually during the week, each class is given time in the playroom and the Wonder Lounge, which means that you get 10 minutes less to work on your work. But luckily we got through the other stuff pretty quickly. Some of the pages in the work books the kids were already ahead on, from that one day were everyone just did whatever they wanted. But I think I got the whole class up to the same page now.

I had Matthew and Rachel again, this time I made flash cards and a matching game for them to play. But I'm pretty sure they were cheating and could see the words through the cards. And Rachel kept talking to me in Korean, like I know what she's talking about. I tried to tell her to talk only in English (which really is what every student is supposed to do) but she just doesn't know enough. But we got through the day, they even did some drawings when we finished the lesson.

I'm going to ask if James can have a few more pages to work with when we're together, because he just blows through everything. And he's smart, so I know he's retaining the information, not just memorizing what the words look like like what Rachel and Matthew do. So we got done with all his stuff in like 40 minutes. So I tried to just get him to talk, because Frank and Gabby said that he needs to work on his conversational English. And then towards the end we just went down to the play room and played soccer for the last 15 minutes. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do when he finished so early. James told me that the other teachers just let him play, but I don't know if I should really just give him more work. I hope not though, jesus the kid goes to elementary school in the morning, he has class with Frank from 4:30-6:00, class with me until 7:30, and Science Academy after our class on some nights. I guess most kids here literally go to school all day and night, they come home, eat, do their hours of homework, and repeat the whole thing again. Really the only break they get is the weekend. Seems a little harsh, but then again, maybe that's why there's the stereotype about Asians all being so smart and multi-talented.

So by the end of the night, I was more than happy to go home and be sick. Which I did. All weekend. I was going to go out and adventure, but the most I did was walk to the super market and get slightly lost going through the back streets.

I think next week will be easier though. At least I certainly hope so!

*Side note*
Things I Learned This Week:
1. I tried to buy butter this week, instead of getting I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I think I would up getting something like I'm Not Sure If It's Butter. It was by the margarine, but was a lot cheaper. But when I got home and looked up the word butter, that word was no where to be found on my giant brick of yellowy/white mass. I think I might have bought lard, but the Korean word for lard wasn't on the package either. So note, don't buy butter unless it says butter.
2. It is perfectly acceptable for moms to let little boys pee on the street.
3. Tteokbokki is good, spicy as all hell, but good.
4. There is a cute little market that goes on outside my apartment on Thursdays, full of food vendors, grocery vendors, home commodities, snacks, and a plant guy. I bought a plant, I named him Travis. I'm thinking about getting him a friend next week so he's not so lonely.

What an adventurous day! I love this city! It's like New York, but cleaner, friendlier, safer, and more colorful!

This morning I went on a little adventure to find a Daiso. It's kind of like a Japanese dollar store, where they have a ton of stuff for the home like dishes and pots, and also cleaning supplies, stationary, nick-nacks. And it's much better than an American dollar store because you can actually use the stuff in this store! It's not just a bunch of random plastic things you really have to use for. I wasn't sure where it was exactly, but I remember Tim showing me one on the bus ride home yesterday, so I went on a little adventure. I never found the one Tim showed me, but I did wind up finding one. I wound up getting off the bus way too early, so I was just wandering around for probably 20 minutes before I found it. This place has a tons of stuff, and it's all really cheap. I spent about ₩25,500 (which is about $22 USD) and I got all this stuff!

Then I came back home and decided to pick up a few more things from a local store called the Everything Store (which is cheaper that the supermarket Home Plus, but more expensive than Daiso, but they had a lot of things that Daiso didn't) and I also did a little grocery shopping. The groceries were a little expensive, but that's because I had to buy the essentials, you know, the things that are expensive at first but last a long time, oils and sauces and what not.

After I got done shopping I cam home and put everything away and rearranged my room because I didn't like how it was set up. And after all that, it was still only 1:30pm! So I mulled about for a while at home, then around 3:00pm I decided that I wanted to go somewhere. There is an area called Itaewon, which is really popular amongst foreigners because they have a lot of clothing stores there, and food places that are more westernized. Unfortunately for me, the website with the Seoul Transit Planner doesn't work on my Mac :( So I had to use GoogleMaps and hope for the best. For some reason I decided not to go to Itaewon, I think because the subway let off a little far away and I was afraid I would get lost. So instead I decided to go to Myeongdong, which is another really popular shopping area. On the bus I went, and then to my first subway ride! All of the signs were in English which is helpful, but if you don't look carefully at the map, and you don't know what the other stops in the direction you are going are, you might wind up going the wrong direction. Luckily for me there was a little old man working for the subway system, and he showed me which was to go. Then on the subway, there are electronic signs that tell you what the next stop is. It was only about a 20 minute subway ride which was nice, since GoogleMaps told me it would be an hour.

I don't know if I can totally describe the scene in Myeongdong. There are multple streets set up on a grid, and on the sides of the streets are shops within buildings, with neon lights. There are a lot of Western shops, American Apparel for example. There is also a Forever 21, my favorite store ever! I didn't go in though because it was crowded. There are people everywhere. It's like New York, on a busy day. In the middle of these streets are the street vendors, kind of like in Soho, and their selling things form watches to purses to socks to kids toys. There are also many good vendors. I didn't know what any of the stuff was, but I decided to try some sort of meat on a stick thing that I saw a lot of people eating. It was pretty good, hopefully it wasn't dog or anything.

*Side note: yes, they do eat dog here. There is a Dog Soup place near Tim's apartment, and he has already threated to take me in there unsuspectingly and not tell me what I'm eating. I should learn the word for dog before I go out with him again.

As the sun set everything got colorful, but still crowded. I did a little shopping for myself. I think you can haggle with the vendors, but 1. I am horrible at that, 2. I am horrible at it in English, so Korean would just be terrible. I did browse though, and I know how to ask "how much is it" in Korean, and luckily they could answer me in English. I got a watch, earrings, a super super super cute new wallet, and I stopped in at the Mac store (which for some odd reason is call Frisbee here). I walked around for quite a while, looking at the different vendors, I even got Starbucks.

Then back home on the subway. The subway is strange because by the time you get into/out of the station, you're bearings are completely thrown off, and you have no idea which direction you should be heading. Luckily though, in the stations they have a neighborhood map, and it will tell you what direction you will be going in depending on which exit you go out off. So I got off at the Mia station, so that I could stop by Daiso again on the way and pick up a few more things I realized I needed. I got some cute slippers for in my apartment (you don't wear your shoes in your home, but you can wear these slippers inside). Then I walked up to Suyu Station and caught the bus back home. It was really quite simply, and I did it all by myself.

*Side note 2: have you ever wondered if there are Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea? Well there are! I got hit up by two on the way home. They were extremely friendly though, and not pushy like the ones in America. They simply gave me a booklet to read, and their phone number in case I had any questions. It was kind of funny really.

Boy was today tiring! It's a holiday today called Chuseok, kind of like Thanksgiving, minus the turkey, and multiple the family travel traffic by 50. So because of this, a lot of stores were closed this morning. I guess I'll save my grocery shopping for tomorrow.

So I met up with my friend Tim, who I've known since freshman year at university. We went and found a restaurant in Ssangmun, which is about 20 minutes walking distance from my apartment, and it's where a lot of buses and the subway pass through. We had some really good food, I think it was bolgi again. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

After that we decided to catch the bus that Tim had taken to get into Ssangmun, because there was some sort of Buddhist temple at the end of the line. So Tim got me a T-Money card, which is basically a reloadable travel card that you swipe when you get on and off the bus/subway. Mine looks pretty cool! So we hopped on the bus and took it to the end of the line in Dobong, which happened to be at Dobongsan, which is the famous mountain in my area. It's in a place called Bukhansan National Park. It was quite gorgeous. Unfortunately for me, I did not anticipate a hike today, so I wore flip flops. Big mistake. We walked up a few hills, but after a while it started getting really steep and rocky, so we decided to go back down. We shall return at another date, prepared. The other hikers though, wow, they were completely decked out. Apparently Seoulites are known for their hiking gear, they really go balls deep, hiking boots, jackets, head bands, even those little walking cane type things. It was quite funny. They all looked as if they were going up Mount Everest, but passing them were taxis that would take you to the top of the mountain.

Upon returning to the city, we decided to check out Tim's district, Sinchon. It's about an hour and a half bus ride there, and there was a ton of traffic for the holiday, so it really sucked. Luckily we got on at the start of the line so we got seats. I don't know if I could have been able to stand that whole time. So we got to Tim's place finally, his apartment is really nice, and its right in the middle of a big party area, so there were people everywhere. But Tim said that what we saw was actually really low key, since a lot of people were away for the holiday. There definitely wasn't a shortage of bars and restaurants in his area.

Tim was kind enough to make me dinner, rice pudding. You just cook rice to a certain consistency, and add whatever kind of spices, vegetables, and meats that you want. It was pretty tasty, I'm going to have to learn how to make that for myself. I left soon after that, I mean, I was tired when I woke up, so after a day of mountaineering and wandering the streets of Ssangmun, I was pretty much beat. So Tim took me to the bus station, and luckily I got a seat for the way back. I actually fell asleep for a while, but I woke up in time to get off thankfully. How horrible would that have been if I slept through my stop?

Tomorrow's adventure: grocery shopping!

Yesterday one of my fellow teachers stopped by to chat. Most of the teachers live in the same apartment as me, just on different floors. Anyway, her name is Megan and she kind of gave me a run through of how everything works. I found out that all the money I spent on buying nice clothes because I thought I would have to wear them to work was not necessary, apparently I can wear jeans and a sweatshirt to work if I want! So Megan took me down to the local department store. The reason I didn't come across it earlier is because I was walking in the wrong direction! She showed me a few other places I'll try to hit up tomorrow, to get more stuff for the apartment. I hooked myself up with an awesome pillow. I still need sheets though, which aren't very popular here since most Koreans don't have proper beds.

After that she invited me to go out to dinner with some of the other teachers. There's Ruth and Walker from Scotland, Alex from Canada, Megan is from New York, and Tim who is from Michigan. He doesn't work at the school anymore though, now he's working in China. So we went to a place to eat galbi, which is basically barbecued meat. They put down a bowl of coals in from of you, and you place the grill thing on top of it and put the meat on it. I learned that you can NEVER burn the meat, or the Koreans will get all mad at you and cook your food for you.

I tried Soju and Kimchi last night. The kimchi was spicy as all hell, so I guess I'm just going to have to burn off my taste buds while I'm here. Soju, that's a whole 'nother story. Soju is the drink of choice for Koreans, because it's cheap and it hits you hard. You can either take straight shots with your meal, or some people mix it with their beer. I would say that it's closest relative is vodka, but when you drink it you don't really taste it until it's in your stomach. And unlike other drinks that miraculously get better as the night progresses, it actually gets worse.

So after dinner we went to a bar. There are two types of bars here, a proper bar and a HOF, I'm still not sure what the difference is, but at one of them you have to order food, you can't just get drinks. I have no idea what we went to last night, but it was a place called Beer Plus. They served us our pitcher of beer in a giant beer bong of sorts, the kind of thing you would see at a fancy kegger. It was a huge tube of beer, with a column of ice down the middle, and a spicket at the bottom to pour the beer from. It was pretty cool. So we got more beer and more soju, we found up staying until closing. Then, I was introduced to noraebang...

I was informed earlier that most neon signs I see on the streets are either going to read 약국 (yak-kuk=pharmacy) or 노래방 (no-rae-bang=karoke). So these no-rae-bangs are karaoke places, where you go into individual rooms with your friends and sing karaoke. Pretty straight forward. The one we went to last night however, must be the craziest one around, because even the others were amazed by it. It was themed in, I shit you not, Alien vs Predator style. It was seriously crazy, I wish I hadn't left my camera on my table. It was a blast though.

As fun of a night as it was, the morning certainly was not. I was warned in advance that Soju would give you a mighty hangover, but of course I've never met a clear liquid that gave me trouble, so I didn't really believe it. Believe it. I mean, it certainly wasn't the worst hangover I've ever had, probably didn't even make the top ten, but it was still quite unpleasant. But, a few Aleve (which I am not EXTREMELY thankful that I decided to bring along), some water and some of those cute little oranges and I'm pretty much back to normal.

Today I'm going to see my friend Tim who I've known since basically the first day of college. I'm super excited! It's a holiday though, so I guess a lot of places are going to be closed. And I just got here myself, so it's not like I'm going to be able to show him around or anything. But I'm sure we'll have fun!

Well, I successfully made it to Seoul! I don't know if you've ever traveled that far by plane, but let me tell you, it really sucks. It was 12 hours of sitting. And watching the same movies over and over again. And there was more sitting. A few uncomfortable, interspersed naps here and there. I think that Lewis Black can better describe it than I ever could. So if you would like a little taste of what overseas flights are like, you can check him out here

I landed at about 6pm local time, and the airport is so big, it took me 20 minutes just to get to customs! Which by the way is nearly as big of a process as it was in Australia. Of course, Korea doesn't have nearly the unstable and vulnerable ecosystem that Australia does. Just a quick stamp on my Passport, a walk through the quarantine temperature scanners, and a breeze through customs declarations. I never know what to put on my customs card, I mean, sure the thign i have once cost money, so I guess they do have a value, but how can I estimate what three bags full of clothing and nicknacks are? I just declared nothing and they guy glanced at my card and let me through. Simple as that.

I was met at the airport by two nice young people who drove me into Seoul. Everyone has nice shiny cars with GPS systems. And most of the street signs are in English as well as Korean which was nice. It took about an hour and a half to get to my apartment. There was a ton of traffic once we got into the city. Soeul has 12 million people, and a lot of them also have cars!

Since I got a new school that means a new apartment. My new address is Dobong-gu, Ssangmun 4 (sa) Dong, Han Yang Apartments. The apartments here are gigantic. I don't remember how tall mine is, but I'm on the 13th floor, and there are a few floors above me. Now, while my apartment definately is not a slum, it's definately not the creme de la creme of apartments. It's probably about the size of my kitchen and family room back home. There are three rooms, kinda. It's more like two rooms, with no border from the kitchen into the "family room" I would call it, and there is a slide door into the bedroom. There's also this enclosed balcony type thing where my washer is, and there are windows and a place to hang my clothes to dry.

I've got a stove in the kitchen, and a sink, along with a few pans and some dishes. Then in the next room is a couch and a comfy chair, along with the (little out of place) refrigerator. And next up is the bedroom, with a twin bed and a pillow, a book case, a closet type thing, and a table with a TV. I can tell you this for sure, I have the most god-awful, uncomfortable bed in existence. I have only come across one other bed that might compare to this one, but it only takes second place by a fraction. I went out to day to try to find new sheets, and maybe one of those egg crate things, but alas, I cannot read the signs on the shops, and so far I have not come across anything like a Target or Khols, or any department store in general. I'm definately hitting up the couch tonight.

And now for the bathroom. I have a shower in my bathroom, thankfully. But rather than in the bathroom, it's more like the shower is the bathroom. There is no shower door or wall or ledge or tub. the bathroom is a tiles floor with a removable shower head, a toilet, and a sink... all in one. I don't understand how you're supposed to keep stuff in the bathroom, because if you drop the shower head, everything will get wet. And knowing how much of a klutz I can be sometimes, that's bound to happen. I guess I'll just have to figure it out.

While I was writing this, one of the teachers that I'm working with came over. She took me to a super market in town and showed me around a little bit. I'll write about all that next time.