Typical Day Schedule

I thought today I'd just give a general account of an average day in my school.

This is my Tuesday schedule...

7-7:30am: Wake up, shower, dress and have breakfast
8:30: Arrive at school, takes less than 5 minutes to walk over. Go up to the English Room and unlock the door, turn the computer on and settle in.
8:30-9:00: Prep time when students are in their homeroom classes doing... something.
9:00-9:45: 1st grade class 1-3 with Ms. K. Except today she is taking them and they are not coming to my class at all. So I am sitting here with free time. This is very typical. She says she is behind and I "don't need to worry" abou teaching them until June!
9:45-9:55: Class ends and students have a 10 minute passing period. Oh wait, they stay in the same class all day and its the teachers that move from room to room. Seems a long time to me... Anyway.
9:55-10:40: Class 1-1 with Mr. B. Here I stand next to the podium and read sentences out of the book, line by line, and then he translates them into Korean. Every now and then someone asks me a question about the USA to which Mr. B translates everything between Korean and English. We also from time to time watch US pop music videos or funny videos that are totally unrelated to English on the interent.
10:40-10:50: Another 10 minute passing period
10:50-11:35: Period 3, Class 3-3 with Mr. P. In this class I am soley responsible for making and teaching the lesson plan, slightly related to the book but presented however I want. Mr. P helps when I ask him to and is always engaged.
11:35-11:45: Another 10 minute passing period.
11:45-12:30: Period 4, Class 1-4 with Ms. K. Again I don't get to see them today. More free time.
12:30-1:30: Lunch in the school cafeteria. Costs 2800 won. I sit everyday with three other women teachers. Only one speaks English. No one says anything to me although lately I can hear my name being brought up and when I ask the English teacher to translate (what what?) she shruggs and keeps eating.
1:30-2:15: Period 5, no class. Free time.
2:15-2:25: 10 minute passing.
2:25-3:10: Period 6, class 3-5 with Mr. P. Another third grade class same as above. Although today I suspect their class might be cancelled so they can go to an assembly prepping them on the field trip they are taking tomorrow. We shall see. If so, free time.
3:10-3:35: Cleaning time. The students clean the school, half heartedly. I chat with the girls that come to see and talk to me in the English Room.
3:35-4:20: Period 7. Most of the time all the students go home now. I never have a class except on Tuesdays when I teach 10 "gifted" children. Its a nice small class where we mostly do talking or simple activities. I believe it is actually on for today. I haven't taught it in over a month.
4:30: Go home.
4:35-on... Watch TV, eat dinner, go for a walk...


Repeat.

School Sports Day

Last week at Sangji Girls Middle School was School Sport's Day. Instead of the normal schedule, all the classes were cancelled and the entire school spent the day outside engaging in numerous sports competition. The day was tons of fun, one of my favorite days at school so far!

Right after the first bell rang students began to carry the chairs out of their class rooms and place them around the large dirt sports field in the center of the Sangji campus. Every class from all three grades was outside and ready to compete against one another. There would be a winning team from every grade. The competitions started with some speechs by the school officials and then the strangest stretching warm up I've ever seen! I couldn't stop bursting out in laugher as I watched the whole school, and even the teachers, stretch in unision while a loud, slightly annoying kids sound blared over the field loud speakers. The stretches were the whimpest stretches I'd ever seen, almost more like a half hearted dance, but everyone knew the moves. I was surprised the teachers did too and I figured they must have all learned them in elementry school. It was too cute! (And hilarious!) 

After that the classes broke off to start the various competitions. There was a form of dodgeball, tug of rope, jump roping, kick ball, another strange game sort of like kick ball and sprinting. The teachers kept track of what classes won and which ones lost and the students moved up their grade level brackets. I enjoyed walking around and talking to all the different groups of students, taking their pictures and eating candy. The mother's of many students also came to school that day and passed out sandwhiches, water and Power Sweat, which was very nice!

The best part about the day though, aside from seeing the girls happy, outside, being atheletic and cheering for one another, was the costumes! Sport's Day is a big deal and every classes dresses in their own home made costume! It was hilarious to see the kids so dected out! Some classes had bought soccer jersey's and had them personalized with their names on the bag. One class had cat ears and tales, another straw hats, another pink rimmed classes with clip on angel hallows on top. They were all so cute! It really added to the festivity of the day and made it all the more enjoyable to hang out with them. Each homeroom teacher also dressed up like their students so there was great unity among groups.

1st graders

I love their different outfits! Hawaiian, old people skirt, pjs

Tug of War

2nd grade, so cute and colorful!

3rd grade class 3-2, most are also in my after school class

Her friend, Yum Yum and Me

Our school President is on the right

These girls are such talkers in class, but cute and sweet outside of it!

Some of my favorite students

More colorful 1st graders

The entire school at the end of the day

After lunch there was only one more sport, the rely race all around the track! But before that could start, I was roped into a kick ball game, female teachers versus the student's mothers! I just happen to be walking by when a teacher pointed and me and said "Madeline could play?!" I agreed and had half expected to have to play some sport during the day. It was actually really fun to do something athletic and team orientated again! I've missed it. I was also definitely the best player. The female teachers at my school, well most of them, aren't that athletic, but they were trying and doing pretty well! I was just able to kick and catch better than everyone else. We ended up creaming the moms.

Then the rely race started, the whole school lined the track and cheered for their classmates. Each grade ran a race. At the end all the points were tallied and the first, second and third place winners were announced for each grade. Each winning class was given a large box (they got progressively larger) filled with goodies.

Then the day was over and it was time to go home early! I wish everyday was Sport's Day! The weather was perfect, hot and sunny, and the kids were so relaxed and excited.

New Year's and Basketball and Winter Camp

New Year's 2011

For New Year's this year I really wanted to do something "big." I decided going to Seoul was what I was looking for. Thus Jason, Scott, Amber, Brian and I hopped on the bus to Seoul Friday night, New Year's Eve, and headed for the Downtown City Hall district. Jason and I had only returned from Seoul to Wonju the day before. We were tired. But, I was determined to make it to the big city! When we got off the bus we decided dinner was a must, Mexican food was suggested and enthusiastically agreed upon. Brian new of an On the Border near Yonsei University so we headed that way.

After a few subway changes we emerged from underground, only to wander around for 15 minutes or so, until finally using an iphone to locate exactly where the restaurant was. It was already 10pm by then and they just barely squeezed us in, they closed at 10:30! We ate delicious Mexican food, tacos and enchiladas, mmmhh so good! We also got margaritas and good beer! No soju or cheap beer for us! It was great! The drinks were weak though, and left me wanting more, but alas were kicked out. We also needed to get to our final destination. That required a quick ride on the subway and we emerged in Downtown, right near the skating ring Jason and I had walked by numerous times recently with my family just days before. I knew right were we were! The crowds were huge and before we entered them we stopped at a convenience store to buy some cheap beer. Amber said she needed so liquid courage if we were going to stand in a huge mob in the freezing cold. We pushed our way in and only had to wait about 15 minutes before midnight. We were on the edge of a crowd filled with thousands and could barely see a glimpse of the stage show and hear the music that occupied the main festivities for the day. At midnight we cheered and could hear people shooting roman candle fireworks around us. On the outskirts only a few went off next to us, but some ash managed to get in our eyes to which I screamed "oww! my eye!" Although Amber tried to get us to leave right away, fearing the mob would move, we didn't want to. But then suddenly we were forced to move along. The mob was lurching forward, a mass wave of people moving as one, without the ability to stop or change direction. Our little group was pushed along, with Amber and Brian in the front, we all tried to hold on to each other and not get lost. If you were to fall, you would have been trampled! Amber was getting pretty freaked out at this, squeaking out "I told you we were gonna die! I told you to leave! I told you this was a bad idea!" For the rest of us, while a tiny bit scary, the mob wave was more fun than anything! And we managed not to spill our beers. We did see some little kids in strollers, their parents standing around them to guard them from the wave, and wondered why there were out there, as it was definitely dangerous for small ones. The rest of the night Brian couldn't let Amber live down her quasi-hysterical cries, or my "my eye!" He poked fun at how we were being big babies!

After that our group split up a bit and Jason and I ended up in a sit down pub with Brian. I really didn't want to go to sleep that night. We had no hotel, but were planning to stay in a jimjilbang. Although jimjilbang's are nice, I hate sleeping in them and get really hot and uncomfortable. Brian agreed but was contemplating sleeping because he had planned to stay in Seoul for the day. Jason was just tired. But I decided I would make it all night and be on the first subway at 5:30am headed towards the bus terminal, then on the 6am bus to Wonju! That's when things started running again. And you know what? We did it! We made it all night! We stayed at the first bar for a long time, just chatting and having a few drinks, it was really nice and relaxing. Then we headed to a hooka bar where we payed way too much for some "nachos" and cheap beer. But the hooka tasted good and the atmosphere was pretty hippy and relaxed. Somehow we made it all last until 5am when we tugged back out into the cold to find the subway. Slipping and with teeth chattering, we made it on a second wind! The second we were on the bus to Wonju, we all slept. We woke up briefly to say bye to Brian, got home and crawled into bed to sleep the day away. Was it worth it? For sure! Were my sleep patterns screwed up for days, of course.


Winter Camp 

For the first week of January I was teaching at an Immersion Winter Camp at a different school than Sangji. The camp was for middle school and elementry students from all over Wonju. I was one of 12 English teachers located in Wonju chosen to teach at it. There were six classes of each grade and I was with the second highest level of middle schoolers. Although I was dreading camp originally, I enjoyed it. At first I was super nervous because I'd had to turn in lesson plans and supply lists just the week before my parents arrived to visit. I was given no warning and had to created 12 lessons from scratch in just a few days. With help and advise from friends, and luckily no teaching in December, just sitting at my desk, I somehow finished them all. Yet when the camp started I was really able to get a sense of my students abilities, which was super high, and their enthusiasim for English, which was also high. I lucked out majorly and got a class of 11 students, boys and girls, with high ability and the strong ability to try and speak. They were perhaps too loud and talkative at sometimes, but I am getting better at controlling them. They were an extremely fun class to teach! As the week went on they became more outgoing and I was able to challenge them more and more. I'm not sure how much they really "learned" that could be measured on a test, but I hope the English immersion gave them some confidence and the time to practice speaking, something Korean kids NEVER get to do in class, unless it is with a foreign English teacher. In their English classes with their Korean teachers, all they do is bookwork and test prep. I was happy at the end of the week when one student remarked "wow its weird to see Korean writing again!" as he was handed an evaluation sheet. All week he read in English, which is an accomplishment in itself for teaching in Korea. Many students, perhaps just flattering me, perhaps sincere, said they were so sad English camp was over, that they would miss me, that I was the best teacher they'd ever had, that they wanted me to come teach at their schools! I just laughed and said thank you. I gave the students my email address in case they wanted to keep talking to me, and one boy, my favorite, has been emailing me since then! He is so cute and sends super sweet messages about playing with his neieces, or what movies he's seen, I hope we continue to be in contact! I think its harmless good practice for him.

I really enjoyed the English camp in the end. It was such a huge change from my usual school where the classes are huge, I only see kids for 45 minutes each week, I have no supplies, very little support... at camp I could request any supplies I needed for craft time, science time... every teacher also was assigned a Teaching Assistant. The Assistant's were all Korean university students who are studying to become English teachers. My Assistant was awesome! She obviously spoke Korean, but also English, fluently! And she's only 22! She was way more help than any of my usual teachers. She also was awesome in that she would only speak English to the students, when they would ask her something in Korean, she would say, speak to me in English. I could always rely on  her and felt I had the backup I needed and thought I would get when I first came here. Camp was also great because all the native English teachers could talk and bounce ideas off of each other. Every day also included an awesome snack for teachers and students, from pizza to hamburgers to kimbab! We also got done at 1pm everyday and got to go home! We taught four hours in the morning and were finished. It was so nice to have a slow lunch afterward, I'd either go home and take a nap or eat out with Brian and Amber and still be home by 3pm to relax and plan for the next day. I enjoyed making difficult lessons that I knew the kids would listen to. That week Jason was also at a winter camp, but at an elementry school that doesn't usually have any native teachers, he had a really similiar experience. We were so down in the dumps after everyone leaving after the holidays that our camps were an awesome pick me up and reminder that teaching can be fun and rewarding and challenging all in one, you just need the proper support and motivation!


Basketball

The orginizers of the English camp also paid for all the teachers to go out to dinner twice, norebang, and go to a basketball game. Wonju has a team that plays for them in the national leauge. They have a nice basketball stadium in Wonju too. Basketball here is played exactly the same as in the US. So we got to go to a game one Wednesday night! We had front row seats and enjoyed watching Wonju beat Seoul! Both centors, for Seoul and Wonju, were big black guys, probably from the US, while the rest of the team was Korean. They were pretty good! (I didn't think the centers were that great though.) The Wonju coach even got a technical during the game and was kicked out! Unlike in the US though, he didn't kick and scream, he just quietly left after arguing over a call. It is not right to show those kinds of emotions in Korea, you would be shamed and loose face, so he kept them in.

The highlight of the game was the halftime show. Earlier they had told us that one of us might be choosen to paly the game at the half time show and win a prize. I had casually mentioned to one of the organizers that I played basketball in high school. Thus when I arrived at the game she handed me my ticket and said "you are playing the halftime show!!" I was so shocked and just started laughing! Should have kept my mouth shut. I had told Amber earlier too, I would never volunteer for something like that!" Karma got me. Never say never! I was nervous and a little worried I would have any idea what to do because I can't understand Korean. Luckily when it was time to go down to the court for the competition, the Korean girl, Ashley, was there to translate! I was against two super not athletic Korean high school girls, haha! We had to run from the base line to half court, put on a wig, place a rubber ball between our legs, jump with it between our legs to the basket and then shoot. So that's what I did! It was great! I shot the ball twice and then made it! I won!! Yay! For my prize I got two tickets to a shabu shabu buffet resturant, not too shabby! I also got interviewed and broadcast on the giant TVs! They warned me this would happen! After I said my name and that I was from the US they asked who my favorite player was, luckily Ashely had told me a name to say, otherwise I would have been clueless! The interview was a little rushed so I don't know quite what I did or said but it was a silly and fun experience! How lucky am I. Later that night Jason also won a free pizza from dominos, delieverd on the spot to our seats. He did this by dancing well during the cheering time, we were copying the cheerleaders moves and she picked up out of the crowd to win. I've decided we need to go to more basketball games.

Reflection: I don't mean to be a downer

Life in Korea has set into rhythm. Now that testing and holidays and other random interruptions have finally settled down I've actually taught two full weeks of school, IN A ROW. And it has been exhausting And challenging.

I go through moments of extreme reflection where I just can't figure out what I'm doing here in terms of teaching. As in, what am I accomplishing? I see 22 different groups of students a week, plus two special "genius" classes. Each class has between 20 to 35-40 students. Their ability levels are extremely varied. The coteachers I work with are opposites as well, some assist me throughout the entire class, some don't show up at all. While I think I have some qualities that go into making a "good" teacher (I care, I'm prepared, I'm reliable, I'm hardworking, I'm nice, I'm well versed on the subjects) I definitely lack quality in some important areas: classroom management and creativity. I feel if I was teaching my own set of students, every day, and had a curriculum or textbook to follow, things would be easier or more manageable for me. Sure there would be the days when I don't know how to teach a topic but I think I work well with clear set goals and structure. Korea is not like that, or at least my role in Korea. I have no clear goals nor structure. Every class is different. I have no textbook and have to come up with things from scratch. This is where I saw creativity is a big key. I'm slowly learning how to be adaptable to things that change literally on the spot, like as class begins. My most constructive advice on how to approach teaching in Korea came from a student who said, "usually we just listen to the teacher translate from the book, with you we want to do things we can't do with the book, like listen and speak and watch movies and music" -- I'm not really teaching a conversation class and not really a culture class and not really a class on grammar, or a review class or a camp filled with games... but a combination of all of that. I'm trying to relax more and not take lesson planning so seriously because... I'm not taken so seriously. I definitely think not being a "notice" teacher would be helpful.

The kids are cute though and curious and challenging and time goes on!

Observation #2 Here I Come!

Last Thursday I was observed by the coordinator for the Wonju Office of Education EPIK teachers. My coteacher and I were actually required to coteach (shocking! we never actually do!) and taught from the book. The lesson went fine and we got mostly positive reviews. One comment was to NOT use the book! Ah well, they never want me to, but the school thought since this was a special lesson that we should. Oh well.

Somehow I got roped into ANOTHER observation tomorrow. I thought this one is more about the school than about me, but the more I learn about Korea, the more I realized the presentation and appearance is everything. Thus I'm beginning to realize that I am going to be watched with a close eye, even though one would think that when a supervisor visits your school he would prefer to focus on the examining what the noraml teachers do, reather than some guest foreigner who is only there for one year. But that is not the case. If I do well with this evaluation class people will think I am a "good teacher" regardless of how much I prepare for every other class, or preform in every other class. I am coteachering tomorrow with a different teacher than before and today and tomorrow we are doing two "practice" classes before the real demo/observation class tomorrow. My main coteacher Mr. Byeon told me that in Korea for observation classes you are "like actors" and that "practice is good," Oh brother. So in 20 minutes or so I have to go run through the lesson with a teacher who usually doesn't even show up to class when I'm teaching. I also have to miss one of my favorite first grade classes for this practice as it is scheduled for the same time. I've already taught this lesson once so I feel like tomorrow should go fine but... I'm still not looking forward.

Otherwise this week I've been doing a Halloween lesson. I thought I had a pretty good plan. We'd watch the clip from Nightmare Before Christmas called "This is Halloween," then talk about monsters and then the students would draw their own monster. It actually was a pretty good lesson. Too bad due to finals, scheduling, demo class, etc. I've only got to do it maybe six out of 12 classes. Tuesday night Jason and I also hosted a Halloween party for our genious students class. It was pretty fun! The students, especailly the girls, really liked it! They were all very excited for Halloween, some dressed up, and some brought snacks and pizza to class. We had to race through our usual lesson so we could party! We made dirt cups (yogurt, pudding, cookie crumbs and a gummy worm) and apple cider. They thought both were really strange when they saw us make them, but after they tried it, they realized both were really tasty! We also did bobbing for apples, which was extremely difficult and entertaining for the kids! People were having so much fun we didn't even get to the the "pin the wart on the witch" game. I wanted to find a pumpkin to carve so badly but there were none in Wonju! So sad. Only super tiny green ones.

My after school class today is also getting a party. We're doing pretty much the same stuff I did on Tuesday, just with different kids. Hopefully it isn't too chaotic.

Whew. I'm tired. I did a lot of planning for Halloween. Some may so overkill. Its only because I miss it!

Saturday I am going to a Halloween party at Scott's house though, so that will be really fun! I've got to put together a good costume! I have an idea, just got to see if it is feasible. :)

Lazy day at school...

So as I've said, next week is midterms, so the students are mostly in study mode this week. Which means that today, while I would usually teach six classes, I only taught one class. And then actually when I went to that class my coteacher asked the students "who wants to talk with Madeline teacher?" -- only about 10 of them raised their hand. So he said, "okay, you guys can go to the English Zone and talk with her while the rest of us stay here and study from the book." They were so excited!!!! We went down to the English Zone, put our chairs in a circle and just talked. This is probably one of the highest level classes at Sangji, it is third grade class, and they girls were very excited to talk with me and ask questions. I love hanging out with the students, that's how I learn the most about Korea! They told me they wanted to be a nurse, a hairdresser, a social worker, an accountant, one jokingly said a professional taekwondo artist! They asked me to bring in my makeup to show them (I've never thought how I do my makeup was anything special, but since they are not allowed to wear makeup, and really wish they could, they were so interested!) Two of the girls also asked me "teacher, hair, touch?" so I said "you want to touch my hair? I think it feels the same as yours." And they said "YES!!" and bouth came up to tentatively touch a few strands. They screamed with delight "OOOHHHHHH" and ran back to their seats! What a celebrity I am! The other students also asked for advise on how to get better at English, one student asked specifically how she could become better at grammar because she is good at speaking, usually things are reversed. I felt so lame answering them, I didn't know what to say! I told them to keep talking with me and said if they want to practice grammar they should write to me and gave them my email. I need to come up with some better advise. I'm not sure they quite understood what I was saying the whole time either... but I really do think those are good ways to improve, better than if you just sit and try to memorize! I tried to convey that I think they should study for a half hour and then take a break instead of just sitting and sitting and sitting like I know they do! One student who writes me notes a lot told me she spent three hours writing me a note last night!! She wanted it to be perfect so I'm pretty sure she looked up everything in the dictionary! Her note was great, I wish I could convey to her that for a 14 year old her writing is better than some American children. Maybe I should ask if I can start an English club at school, that might be a fun alternative to classtime, it would mean less students, and only those really interested...

Last night Jason and I also experienced our first Korean bathhouse, or jimjilbang. Our sweet tooths got the best of us again and we hit up Ti Amo for another yogurt smoothie (soooo good). That brought us to Scott's neighborhood. While we were eating he called and asked if we'd like to join him at the jimjilbang since there is one very close to Ti Amo. It is called "bo sock sa u na" and is actually the landmark we give the taxi drives to take us from Sangji to Ti Amo (to get home we always just have the taxi drivers take us to the front of Sangji, its easier than if we tried to give them our addresses!) Scott is an experienced patron of the jimjilbang, having studied abroad in Korea last summer, and was a great guide for us novices.

For only 6000 won you have access to the baths and the sauna. Apparently some jimjilbang's are very elaberate, but this one was a little smaller. Still the 6000 won gets you in the door, a locker, a sweatsuit to wear, access to three sauna rooms, all at different temperatures, access to the communal baths (seperated by gender) and best of all if you want to make a night of it, they are 24 hours so you can stay in them all night! There are dim rooms for you to sleep in on pull out mats, water coolers and even a big flat screen TV! Inside a small shop also sells a variety of simple snacks and drinks, plus some clothes and underwear.

The three of us got changed and met again in the sauna rooms, which are not divided by sex. First we started in the 42 degrees celcius room. The room was very pretty, with different colored stones covering the walls and ceiling in a mosaic style, hidden on the walls were the shapes of animals and plants. This room was a perfect temperature, definitely warm but comfortable. We laid on a bead of little beads that perfectly comformed to our backs. I pretended I was in an ancient cavern.

The next room was a 82 degrees C, which is about 160 degrees F. This room had mats covering boards to lay on. It was so hot. Scott told us the Korean way was to last 15 minutes. I only made it to 8 but he and Jason stayed in for the entire 15. I was sweaty when I got out but the two of them were worse, they were red and looked like they'd been working out! We then went in the cool room which was around 30 degrees C. In that room there was a large tarp that covered small, unpolished rocks. After we stopped sweating it started to feel pretty average in the room so we switched back to the first one. Our bodies had left sweat marks on the tarp, eww. We made sure to keep drinking water every time we switched rooms since our bodies were letting it all out.

Finally we decided to head out. We told Scott we would pass on the baths this time and he seemed a little dissapointed. But it being my first time and all, and it being very cold outside, I didn't want to strip down or have wet hair for the taxi ride home. Jason told me later that the last he saw of Scott he had decided to check out the baths on his own. I quickly changed in the locker rooms, which were empty. Suddenly the doors to the baths opened a six year old Korean girl appeared, totally naked. She was followed by her younger brother, also nude, but covering himself. Maybe he knew he was really in the girls side and was a little bashful? Then came their Mom, in the flesh. She just walked around the locker room like it was nothing. I tried not to stare. As I made my way outside I realized she was browsing through the racks of cloths for sale, still totally nude!!!!

All in all my first jimjilbang experience was really fun! I will definitely be going back, especially when it gets colder out because it really warms you up.

The rest of the week has consited of school days with little work. Answering emails. Cooking. Eating sweets (Jason and I decided we have to cut back because we're gaining back the weight we lost.) We also realized the fall TV season had started so we had to download How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang, NCIS, Vampire Diaries and Smallville. Yep, those are my shows of choice. It doesn't feel like we are so far away when we can download shows, put them on a USB drive, plug the drive into the DVD player and watch everything on the TV. We are totally caught up with the US! (And my goodness, VD is as thrilling as ever! Smallville is finally in its last season too!)

This weekend we might head out to Seoul, we have a lot to explore there. Plus my Dad informed me that they just opened a Taco Bell and we are SO excited to check it out! Read about it in this great article I found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402715.html

Time to Recap: Photobooth, the Eastern Sea and Chuseok

Today is one of those days at school when I feel like I should be doing more/should have been doing more, but I'm not quite sure... what I mean is Korean's don't like to be very direct about things, so instead of saying "you will do this" they will often say "it would be nice if..." -- so today I usually teach four classes, but midterms are next week so many of the teachers want to power through their lessons or give the students time for self study. Although no one told me before hand, I had a sneaking suspecion that when I arrived at school today I would be told I wasn't teaching. Right away one coteacher said, "you will not teach," then my other teacher said, "you teach grade 2 but I'll teach grade 3." So I taught one class and offered to help with the other but my coteacher just told me I could go to the office. Then just now I was supposed to teach, I asked my coteacher before he went in if I should teach or if he wanted to... here is where I get confused and unsure if I did something right or wrong... He said, "whatever you want," and I said, "well what do you think is better?" And he said, "well I'd like to study with them, but I want you to decide," so I said, "if you think that's better than that's fine, I have a lesson but I can hold onto it," he then said, "okay good, thank you, I think that is good, I will see you next Thursday then" (in a week and a half, when midterms are over...) I offered to help but he just sent me on my way... So I guess that's what he wanted in the end? What if I'd insisted on teaching?!

Photobooth:
Two weeks ago on Wednesday one of my students insisted we hang out after school. I told her I was busy but she wouldn't take no for an answer. After I convinced her we could only hang out for about an hour, right after school, and only if we went somewhere close to school, that was fine. I wasn't sure (and am still not quite sure...) if this kind of thing is allowed or frowned upon, hanging out with students outside of school. The girl is super sweet and only 12 and was so excited! She told me this was the first time she was going to "play with a foreign friend" -- she was in elementry last year and still seems very young, which I think is why she kept saying we were going to "play" (hang out.) We walked to one of the local markets/downtown shopping areas and decided to get food at Lotteria, Korea's fast food resturant. We got Tornados (which are just like Blizzards or Twisters) mine had cookies, her's had pop rocks. I paid for her's. Another student saw us sitting and eating together and came and begged me to buy her something too. Oh boy. Next we went to a Photobooth and took silly pictures. Photobooth is really common here, and there were many mom's and daughters and small groups of friends taking pictures. Afterward you can decorate the picture with all kinds of clip art right on the machine. Then they print in duplicates, you can cut them up and they are stickers. Again I don't know if its considered okay to take photos with your students, but it was totally innocent and we were in public places the entire time. I found out later the student's sister goes to Sangji High School, Jason told me the next day that the girl came up to him, showed him two of the pictures and said "your girlfriend? Cute!" or something like that. So I guess it was okay. The entire time my student kept saying, "very excited" and told me "everyone looks at you because you are so beautiful" -- haha, like I said, flattery is in abundance here. It was a nice little hang out. I don't want to keep this up though because, as another teacher warned me, everyone will want to go out and get ice cream with me!

Chuseok:
Last week was Chuseok, a big holiday in the Korean calendar. This year it fell righ in the middle of the week and our school decided to take the entire week off because of it. Its a national holiday. Its a day to celebrate the Harvest, to visit the graves of your ancestors, get together with family, give gifts, eat lots of traditional foods (like rice cakes with honey.) Many people travel on Chuseok to be with family. (Read more on Chuseok here.) For us foreigners, it meant a huge vacation, nine whole days, and we'd only been working for three weeks! The break was nice of course, but definitely has gotten me out of the swing of things.

Eastern Sea:
For our Chuseok, Jason and I traveled to the Eastern Sea (or Sea of Japan for all you non-Korean's.) We originally were thinking of being really bold and going to Japan via ferry (sounds fun right?!) but decided we didn't have enough time, didn't want to make ourselves super exhasted and didn't really want to spend the money just yet. Our second plan was to visit the ocean town of Busan in the south of Korea. We were just looking into hotels and things to do when my coteacher Mr. Byeon invited us both the Eastern Sea with his family. This year they weren't doing the whole Chuseok thing, they weren't visiting family or going far away, they just decided to stay pretty close to Wonju and be together. Mr. Byeon has a wife and two boys, one is about 11 the other 14. He seemed like he really wanted Jason and I to join he and his family at the sea. He told us how the Gangwon-do Office of Education runs a seaside resort (hotel) that is only for Gangwon-do teachers. The resort is extremely cheap (rooms go from 10,000-30,000 won, so less than $30 at max) and provides a room with bathroom, full kitchen, bedroom and all the appliances and sheets you need. The more my coteacher talked to us about it, the more it became evident he wanted us to go. I don't think if I were here alone he would have invited me because he is a little conservative and old fashioned and I think he would have thought it improper to invite a girl, but because Jason is here and he could invite a couple, he was excited! We agreed and he made the necessary reservations for us. Due to "Korean standards of morality" we had to make a reservation for two rooms, even though we only used one. (When he told another coteacher about the trip, and today when he told the principal he made sure to say "hana room for Jason and hana room for Madeline." Hana means one in Korean so I figured that's what he said at least!) We tried to get some friends to fill the other room, but everyone was busy. (Maybe next time!)

My coteacher bought our bus tickets for us because he was worried they would sell out because of Chuseok and then drove us to the bus terminal on Friday night to show us where it was and how to buy tickets. To get a little off track, we discovered the area around the bus terminal is very happening! There were tons of bars and new buildings just waiting for stores to arrive. We ate dinner at "New York, New York" -- Jason was really excited to have a steak! We ordered two of the cheaper options which were pretty good. The salad had balsamic vinagerette on it and the steak was plain steak with sauce, it was nice to eat something non spicy, haha! We also found a billards place, shooting gallery, arcade... there was even a bar called "WA Ice Bar" WA=Western Alcohol! We were excited because we hadn't seen a bar with anything but beer and soju since we arrived. (We found out later our friend Scott lives next to the same bar, so we guess its a chain after all...) Jason pulled me inside and we had a quike drink. The place was really nice, it had a blue "ice" bar and was really pretty yet hip. The next night we went out for Sam Gip Sal, pork that you grill on your own bed of hot coals! It was really fun! We called it my birthday dinner since in August things were really busy and Jason didn't have a chance to take just me out. We didn't have soju, but we followed up with beer and fruit and then went back to WA Bar because I liked it so much.

Then came Monday, we got up early and made it to the bus terminal no problem. We started out the day right with Dunkin Doughnuts and coffee. Our bus was really plush and I was excited to see out the windows. We were headed to the town of Gangneeung, which is only about an 1 hour and 20 minutes away. One of my old friends/residents from UCI who is also an EPIK teacher is living in that town, he is doing his second year with the program. I didn't get to see much out the window though because of all the rain clouds, but between the mist I did glimpse some rolling green hills. Soon enough we were in town. We attempted to do some exploring but really just walked in a huge circle and ended up back at the bus terminal. LOL. Jason dragged me into H Mart, which turned out to be a huge electonic store. He was happy to buy a wireless internet router there. I was eying the toaster ovens but the smallest one was 80,000 won! (Real oven's were 500,000 won and up!) After poking around H Mart we caught a local bus to Jumunjin Beach, a smaller town 20 minutes north of Gangneung. We tried not to hit the locals with our giant backpack and learned first hand that some older Koreans do not value personal space... I was sitting and Jason was standing and an old lady managed to slide between us on the bus, she was so sly! I couldn't tell if she was trying to get me to move or if she just wanted a better spot to hold onto the rail! Either way, she made no gesture, asked no question, she just slid right between us! Akward.

The bus dropped us next to Jumunjin Harbor. We walked through it and saw all the super fresh fish! There were live octopus in tubs filled with water, fish big and small, bright red crabs... we were in a real harbor where fishing boats were pulled up the dock and workers were pulling buckets and barrols of fish right from them. Water was sloshing everywhere and people were decked out in rain boots, overalls and visors. I was super enthralled! As we were walking through a man stopped us and asked where we were from, told me I was cute and Jason must be the luckiest, mentioned he was 70 years old (no way, he looked 50!) and that he used to be a liasion officer between Korea and the US Navy; so that's why his English was so good! Foreigners, we're so easy to spot.

The beach resort was only a short taxi ride away but we decided to walk up the beach from the harbor to the resort instead. The resort was literally right on the beach so we knew we'd have to run into, plus we had maps. The walk up the coast was really pretty, we saw lots and lots of drying squid, it hung on cloths lines mingled with clean laundry. Jason spotted a cafe with Nescape logos in the window and we went in. The place offered comfortable couches to lounge on with beautiful ocean views. I ordered an latte and he a coffee. It was the best coffee we have had here! The woman who made it used a real machine, instead of just a pot or instant! It was such a good find!

A short while later we made it tothe resort, checked in (with the help of my coteacher via phone, he and his family would meet us later) and gawked at our literally ocean front view. Jason and I were talking about how fortunate we were to be able to come to Korea, to stay in a place like this, to have such welcoming coteachers... we truely are.

Jason convinced me to play some tennis and then we checked out the beach. It was hot that day and the water was warm! We put our feet in and had a good time running around and taking pictures. Families were out and people were riding quads on the sand. Very soon after my coteacher arrived and we met his wife and sons. They were very nice but the sons were super shy. His wife made us a truely scrumptus dinner of sam gip sal (she just whipped it up!) complete with side dishes, rice, fruit and coffee. We talked and learned more about them. We decided that the next day we would meet and in the morning and do some sightseeing.

When we woke up Tuesday morning it was a bit cloudy, I think it had begun to rain during the night. At first Jason and I thought we would have been able to swim in the ocean (if we hadn't forgotten our suits!) but by 10am the weather had quickly changed to dark rain clouds. We met my coteacher and his wife (their sons did not want to sightsee with us, go fiture) and they drove us into town and back towards Gangneung to look around. My coteacher was so nice that he made sure to drive next to the beach the entire time instead of taking the faster highways so we could look out. We stopped at beautiful Gyeongpodae Pavilion, one of the eight scenic wonders of Gwandong lake. The Pavilion was really amazing, I love how traditional Korean structures are decorated with such bright colors! There were dragons painted on the pillars inside and you took your shoes off to walk around it. It was/is a spot to hang out and view the beautiful lake, and beyond that, the ocean. Although when we were there it was cloudy. We also learned that the woman on the 50000 won bill is considered the ideal mother and is the one girls should aspire to be like.

After that we headed down to the lake to see more of the eight wonders, but we stopped after only one site because of the rain. I'd like to go back because people were still out biking, walking and renting those little carts where everyone pedals that you find at the beach. Maybe next time! We -almost- stopped at the Gramaphone Museum, or we could have checked out the Edison Museum (bizzarre museums here we come!) but due to a communication mix up we headed to the beach instead! It was pouring by now and while Jason and I got out with our umbrellas and walked around the beautiful boardwalk, flanked by pine trees, bright flowers and smooth sand, my coteacher and his wife stayed in the car. Again, it looked like a great place to go in the sunshine! As we were climbing back in the car my coteacher jumped out, grabbed Jason and they ran over to a vendor's cart. He bought us ice cream, in the rain! Mmm good.

After that my coteacher decided it was too hard to sightsee in the rain so we headed to E-Mart to do some food (and clothes?) shopping. He told us to stock up on whatever we needed because everything would be closed the next day for Chuseok. We bought some long sleeves shirt, bread and cheese. We were thrilled to find the cheese! It was only 5000 won for 6 six slices! (I'm kidding, that is SUPER expensive for cheese!) For lunch my coteacher's wife made Japchae, a traditional Chuseok dish. It was super yummy!! She showed me how to make it and I took notes the entire time, so I'll have to try to reproduce it!

After we finished eating my coteacher dragged his super shy sons out of the second room and plopped them down in front of us. He claimed his elder son wants to study in America and told us "tell him about Disneyland, so he will want to go to the US!" Ummm... it was one of the most awkward situations... we four just sat there staring at each other. We tried to ask the sons questions but they either didn't understand or gave us one word answers. Finally after an agonizing 10 minutes (for all of us) Jason said "okay I think we better be going..." HAHA.

It was still early afternoon at this time but the storm was raging outside. Sheets of rain were coming down in diagonals. I decided we should go for a walk. We grapped our umbrellas and headed out. We walked down the beach, our umbrellas shielding our faces but our legs and torsos were left to the elements. We were getting soaked and people inside the shops and resturants on the beach, the few that were open, with the few customers (who arrived in cars) looking at us like we were crazy. We walked about 20 minutes and made it back to the caffe we had visted the day before. We were the only people in the place and they lady recongized us! She was kind of laughing and shaking her head but again made us a great cup of coffee! As night began to fall we made our way back to the resort, effectively soaking the other side of our bodies as we walked into the wind.

That night we just hung out and watched TV. We saw on the news that Seoul was flooded there was so much rain and Wonju got about 9 inches between Monday and Tuesday! The next morning we headed home and made it to Wonju by noon. The following days were spent scrubbing clean the last of my apartment, eating, sleeping and watching the X-Files.

Busy so far!

The last few weeks have been so busy! I can barely keep up on my blogs! I'm ready to do more exploring of Wonju and the Gangwon-do area, but I'm still trying to settle into the routine of teaching, living in Korea, etc. I need to come up with some kind of reward system for my classes other than just giving out candy all the time. So I think I'm gonna do some kind of "money" system where you can cash in money for a prize at the end of the month. Maybe this will work? The kids just talk so much and there are so many of them!

Today was a nice day thought because I got to go to my second school, the one I teach at on Friday's only. It is technically still in Wonju but it is a 40 minute bus ride from my place. The first 20 of which we pass through the main town of Wonju, the last 20 we are in rural Wonju, were there are farms, rice paddies and very few homes. It was beautiful up in the hills! So green and lush! It was also very gray and raining off and on all day. This second middle school, which I visit on Friday's only, is called JiJeong. It was so cute!! There are only 15 students in grade three, 10 in grade two and five in grade one! That's less students in the entire school than in one normal class at Sangji Girls!!! This made it so super easy to teach them. We basically just talked and I was able to have every student introduce themselves to me. They were like a dream school! I can't believe they staff eight teachers and a principle just to teach 30 kids! The school had to be larger at home time, it was two stories, but they only used three classrooms, one for each grade. I wonder about its fate in years to come... Anyhow, I only had to teach three classes (most days at Sangji I have five, yesterday I had six, which was killer) and all of the teachers are really relaxed. Plus the principle just came and hung out with them all day in the office!

It was a little strange to me, but a lot of the women teachers were giving themselves a "natural manicure" they said. One teacher sat on the side pounding down these bright pink flowers into a pulp. Then they put the pulp on their fingernails!! They left the pulp there for a long time, then washed it off and their nails had this yellow/pink-ish tint to them, thus natural manicure. I asked if this was healthy for their names or something (because I didn't think it looked that great...) but they said no, just for the color! I'm guessing it was some kind of traditional practice, and they didn't take it too seriously, but serious enough.

Like I said I had six classes yesterday, didn't get home until 6pm and then went to a beginning Korean class at the Library at 6:30. The class is free so we figure we need to take advantage, especially since that was one of my goals when I came to Korea! (Now that I'm here I'm realizing how hard it will be to learn since I know NOTHING.) The class was helpful, more on reading the alphabet and sounds. I can read the alphabet but the sounds are really difficult. There are sounds like "eo" and then just "o" or "u" or of "uu" -- all different vowel sounds but super similar! Better do my homework...

Last Saturday was a fun break from everything though! Jason and I made plans to meet up with Scott and Brian in the Lotte Cinema area for dinner and drinks. We managed to find Scott but Brian who was taking a bus in from his place outside of town was no where to be seen. We decided to head towards Scott's area of town where he knew of a famous chicken dish we could try. Of course right when we got to the restaurant Brian called to tell us he was in town. He and Scott managed to meet while Jason and I held down the table at the restaurant. The chicken was really delicious, you cooked it on a large hot plate in the middle of the table with lots of vegetables, but I thought it was so spicy! Everyone else seemed to have a fine time eating it but I was sniffing and my eyes were watering throughout. I kept eating because underneath the spicy it was really good!

After that Scott took us to a gelato shop where we got dessert. It was super cute (and I didn't know gelato was in Korea!) Then we headed to Scott's apartment to check it out (very nice and new! we are all so lucky!) We met his neighbor who is a 20 something Korean girl studying to be an English teacher. We all decided to get drinks at a local place. We were required to order food with our apple soju pitcher, so we went with fruit. Good thing Scott's neighbor (Chi) could read the menu, because we didn't even know fruit was an option because there was no picture! We didn't want to have to get more meat. And the fruit was delicious, all very high quality and sweet. Also in Korea, cherry tomatoes are considered fruits and come on things like fruit platters. (After all they are fruits.) The apple soju was super sweet and tasty!

We wandered over to a batting cage that Scott had been eying and he and Jason swung a few rounds. It was a cool little batting cage right in the middle of town! Scott definitely lives in the newer and hipper part of town as compared to where Jason and I live. It was a nice change from traditional restaurants and older streets! Our last decision of the night was to go norae bang (karaoke!!) It was awesome and ridiculously cheap! 15, 000 won for one hour, flat rate! (So, less than $15 split between five people.) The place was really nice, the room was huge and the song selection was fun and modern! I definitely am hooked and want to go again and again and again!

A fun Saturday night led to a boring Sunday of... lesson planning! I'll be glad when I have the hang of lesson planning because right now it takes me a long time. Hello Sunday. Wednesday was a small "orientation" at the main education office for all EPIK teachers in Wonju. It was pretty short but they did pay for a great dinner for all of us. It was tofu soap with beef and a raw egg cracked on top. I've had it before in Lancaster (of all places!) and its delicious (but, ready for it, spicy!! I was dying again!) After that Brian, Scott, Jason and our friend Amber decided to go out for some beers because it was still early. Three pitchers later Jason, Brian and I were still going strong! Beer is so cheap and we were having such a great time talking we didn't want to stop! We finally called it quits around 10pm so Brian could make his bus home and we could get some sleep.

Tonight I was finally able to laze around and do nothing! Tomorrow we are all supposed to be meeting again for the Wondu International Tatoo Festival (its a music festival! its NOT about tatoos people get on their skin! haha.)

Classes Thus Far

Classes so far have been large and varied. The first graders (grade 7 at home) are all very nice, attentive and usually excited to learn. I feel like they are more similar to how elementry students would be. The second graders (grade 8 at home) are usually super loud and unfocused, for the most part! They want to play games and get candy. The third graders (grade 9 at home) are the huge classes of 35, so they are definitely loud and hard to handle, their language ability is better than the second years (but the first years still seem best.)

Its hard to generalize too much though... each class varies based on who their primary English teacher is and based on their English language ability. Some teachers seem to allow talking and sleeping more often in their classes than others, and while they are nice teachers, I'm not always sure their discipline method works the best. Some teachers don't allow any talking. Some teachers don't have to say anything and the class is just quiet. I'm trying to make notes about each class so I can remember the traits of each group. I need to come up with some kind of discipline/rewards system. Especially since my class is ungraded (thus to the students that equals free period.)

I realized this week (after introducing myself over and over and over last week) that although I've prepared a new lesson plan and am ready to go, I'm not going to teach every class I am scheduled for. Like this week, there is an English oral listening exam conducted over the radio which every grade has to take, nationally. So yesterday, Mrs. Kim told me that her class would be studying, not meeting with me. Then again today with Ms. Kim, I met two new class that I only have every two weeks (so back to introduction lesson) and then was told that two of my classes have to study. So only on Monday was able to try the lesson, which involves listening to key words in the song "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas and standing/sitting every time the key word is heard. It went really well in some classes on Monday, while some kids looked confused, some looked totally bored, some looked like I was asking too much from them by having them sit and stand. So I decided on somethings I would change for Tuesday, yet now its Wednesday and I still haven't been able to try the new lesson. Maybe tomorrow??? Maybe not. I'm not trying to complain though! Having five classes in one day is exhasting, so I'm totally okay with not teaching and just sitting back. Gives me time to blog, erh I mean email, erh I mean lesson plan. (Someday, really, I'll start using my time more constructively.)

Yesterday was a long day anyhow because Jason and I had to teach our "Genius Class" at the main Wonju Office of Education. I don't think I mentioned it before, but on Tuesday nights from 5-7:30 we teach gifted students from different middle schools all over Wonju. My main co-teacher Mr. Byeon helped develop the class because he thought it was important for Korean children to experience what it would be like to be in an "American" class setting in case they study abroad. Last quarter the topics were Economics and World History, this quarter we are teaching American History and Science! Perfect for Jason and I!

The class was actually really fun! The kids really are gifted. Their English is amazing (they know words I don't know) and they are just generally smart kids. They would be like 8th graders at home. There are also some boys in the class, which is a nice change from our all girls school. I made a powerpoint explaining "early North America" and Jason went over the names of lab equipement. My co-teacher was there the entire time and said "Jason is very good at teaching science" - I think it was true! (Plus my teacher gets so excited to be around a male native english teacher instead of always me, a girl! I think he feels more comfortable talking sometimes.) The kids didn't look too bored, and were actually really attentive and answered questions for most of the period. It was like what a really good class would be like at home. It was definitely easier to teach when the kids understood English! We teach this class every Tuesday, each half the time, we are paid extra for it and it only lasts until December.

My co-teacher was also great because after the class he took us out to sushi! The place was awesome! It was only 6,000 won for all you can eat! And it was really good sushi, sushi rolls, wontons, soup, coffee... mmmm, so good and so cheap. We will for sure go back and bring our friends!

Cleaning Time!

No, I'm finally not the one cleaning (my apartment is allllmost in shape) -- this time its the students who are cleaning! Well, they clean everyday actually. In Korea there is this really awesome time of the day called "Cleaning Time." For 25 minutes every school day the girls clean the entire school! They sweep, take out the trash and even mop! Mind you, the school isn't the cleanest place I've ever seen, but its pretty darn good for havintg 800 middle school girls go through it everyday. I think this is a practice that should definitely be implemented in the USA! I think it forces the students to take more pride in their surroundings. They are still kids so of course there is still random trash on the ground, backpacks on the floor, etc. but they don't blatently disregard the need for cleanliness the way American kids do. There is no gum stuck to tables or sodas poured out on the playground. The girls don't jump for joy when its cleaning time, they usually do an okay job and then have some free time, but I think it works. I don't believe there is more than one janitor that works here and it eliminates the problem of stinky trash being left in a room. It also shows the kids that they are not going to be cleaned up after if they make the mess, giving teachers who don't have to clean more power and the kids a lesser feeling of self importance. I think at least.

It works well here though because of the way the classrooms are structured. instead of the kids moving from class to class (except for taekwondo, music and PE, where they go to specialized rooms) the students stay in one room all day. Thus they have homeroom in the morning, and then 6-8 classes for the rest of the day. They actually study a huge amount of different things! 13 different subjects! They have classes like "morals" and "sociology" -- sounds interesting but the school system is soon to restructure to a system more like ours in the USA, 7-8 subjects. There is just too much pressure on the students to preform exceptionally well in every subject as it is. Yet, because the students start homeroom in the same place everyday, that's where their home bases is, they leave their shoes there and don their inside slippers, they hang out there in the 10 minutes between classes (I have no idea why they need 10 minutes... most of the time they stay in the same room... in the US we have only about 5 minutes between classes and that's to hike from one side of campus to the other! Here we are only in one building as it is.) Yet students can make this room their own as much as they like. There are some decorations, permanent desks, easy to rearrange furniture, a computer and TV. It is very common to walk by the rooms during lunch or the passing period and hear screaming, musical instruments, screaming, pop songs, screaming, chalk on black board, screaming, giggling and most commonly, screaming!

Thus, the students each clean their own class, while some classes are assignd the hallways, stairways and teachers offices. There is a cleaning woman who takes care of the bathrooms. Since all bathrooms in Korea have tile floors, they are all sprayed down (and thus always wet) -- but its an easy way to keep them clean. And they are cleaned midday.

Yet each classroom is definitely the student's, not the teacher's.

(On a side note: Many of the students think Jason and I are married! Apparently that is the story going around! They think boyfriend means married! Or that if you have a boyfriend, you can marry your boyfriend. I don't think they know that the term then changes from boyfriend to finance to husband. Whenever they ask I'm like "What?!?! Noooo!!! Where did you hear that?" and they go "rumor." LOL)

I'm trapped at school!

Like I said, I'm trapped at school! On Friday's I am usually supposed to go to a different middle school. The other school is in a small town 40 minutes outside of Wonju and I have to take a bus to get to it. There I only teach 3 classes. But today my co-teacher Mr. Byeon had to take me to the Immigration Office to apply for my Alien Registration Card. Even though I already have a VISA for Korea, you basically have to go prove you are in the country and have a residence. I also needed to apply for a multiple entry VISA. This means when I leave the country and come back into Korea, my VISA is still valid. I had a single entry VISA which meant if I left and tried to return (get it, single entry) my VISA would have been automatically invalidated. Thus my co-teacher called the other school and told them I would not be coming in until next week. I thought this meant I got to come in late and leave early from work! Nope, not the case. Even though I have zero classes today, I have to be here. ALL DAY.

Mr. Byeon drove me to the Immigration Office in City Hall, which was nice because I got to see more of the city, its really pretty when you get near the hills. Everything is so green! I understand why since its been raining everyday since we got here one week ago. (There was a typhoon the other night!!) My co-teacher commented how when he visited LA in the summer (he's been to a lot of places in the US) he was surprised that even in the summer time the grass was brown (as in Wonju summer is super lush because that is when they get the most rain.) I told him LA is very dry. Applying for the Alien Registration Card didn't take long, I met another EPIK teacher who wasn't at the orientation and ran into Jason and his co-teacher doing the same thing. They were way behind us in line though and his co-teacher didn't have all the documentation that mine had brought, haha.

Then we came back to the school by 10:30 and I just wasted time until lunch at 12:30. I tried to lesson plan for next week, but PowerPoint is in Korean which is hard to figure out and plus I just don't have any ideas... I want to plan with Jason so he can help me.

While I was intereting my co-teacher came in and said that our department was going to go out for lunch together. I wasn't sure if he meant the English teachers or the "Gifted Students" teachers, of whom I am now apart of. My "office" is in there office. Most of the teachers have cubicals in one large office where the VP sits, but these three guys get an office to themselves. As in Japan the teachers change classes here, not the students, so they have desks where they keep everything and lockers. There is good and bad in this. The good is that the teachers can't shut themselves away in their classrooms, they have to interact with each other and the VP, and students are allowed in the room whenever they need to come in. In the US its so taboo for a student to walk in an admin area, its like "what are you doing here? What do you want? Who are you?" -- here the girls just burst in, asking questions, complaining, talking.

Anyhow the "Gifted Students" teacher all went out to lunch, me included. First they wanted to get spicy fish soup, which I said was fine with me. (Ahhh more spicy... ewww fish stew.) But they change their mind to dumplings instead, lucky me! We drove to this small resturant, sat on the floor and ate huge bowls of noodles with dumplings instead. The noodles were really tasty and I was able to finally opt for a non-spicy food option (red pepper sauce/paste/seasoning is everywhere, on everything!). I was excited that the dumplings might be some kind of meat but alas, they were filled with... kimchi! What else?! It was good though. Kimchi is good, better than some I've had at home, its just so spicy! It doesn't smell though, which I think is a common misconception in the US. I stomach it down at every meal to not be rude, even though my nose runs and my eyes water. It is apparently impolite/disgusting to blow your nose in front of anyone here, so I just have to sniff sniff sniff. (It is not impolite though to randomly spit on the street though, everyone does it.)

The meal was nice and pleasant, only my co-teacher spoke English but he asked questions and translated. He asked if I liked drinking soju, I said yes, they went "oooohhhh" -- I thought maybe I should have said no. They said, we will go out to soju then. They also said, "we heard Jason can drink two bottles of soju!!!" -- they were so excited! I said yes, that's how much he said he and his co-teacher drank the other night, plus two pitchers of beer. They were so impressed. I added that he was pretty tipsy at the end of course of they just laughed. They also said next time we will bring Jason too. (And I almost forgot, they said that's when we would try chicken feet... oh my I can't wait. They kind of laughed like "hahaha, or heeheehee" under their breath when they said this. At least they didn't say dog!) They are nice though, and Jason's co-teacher said the same thing to him, next time we will bring Madeline.

(Click here to read more on soju.)

This is actually the second time I've been taken out for lunch. On Tuesday I thought I was having lunch with Mrs. Kim only, off campus, but then suddenly all the English teachers were there. There is Ms. Kim, Mrs. Kim, Mr. Park, Mr. Kwon and Mr. Byeon. I teach with all of them. Usually students call them by their last then first name, so like Byeon Jung, etc. The family name always comes first in Korea, as family and community are always valued more highly over the self. If a Korean child does poorly at school it is not only themselves they are worried about dissapointed (or devestated at dissapointing) by their family because it can bring a lot of shame on a family to have children without good schooling and good jobs.

The lunch with the English teachers was also good. We sat on the floor and ate boiled chicken. And I mean the entire chicken (no head or feet thankfully). I'm still confused on how I'm supposed to eat the chicken when it has bones in it and all I have are copsticks and a spoon (spoons are totally acceptable to use to aid in your eating here, yay!) but knives, don't even look for them. And it is also totally acceptable to slurp your food! (See Dad, its good to slurp!) Again the food is ridiculously cheap (like $60 for six people to eat two whole chickens plus like 10 different side dishes) which is awesome. They also boil the chicken on the table in front of you, in a broth of sprouts, greens and tree bark.

To return to my original heading though, now I'm trapped at school! Its only 3:00 and I can't leave until 4:30. So I'm blogging and trying to memorize the Korean alphabet. My co-teacher loved that. He gave me a mini lesson and then typed up some homework for me. He said I must practice and he is going to quiz me on Monday!! The alphabet isn't too hard to learn, its just hard for me to read quickly. Its vowels and consanats. Their language is called hangul. I think everyone could easily learn how to read it if you just memorize. (See more on hangul here.)

Leave me comments and/or questions!

I've arrived in Wonju and taught my first class!

Well I made it! Actually we arrived on Friday around 1:30pm after having a fun goodbye show organized by EPIK on Thursday night, and then a formal goodbye program on Friday. (It was like a double goodbye.) It was nice making new friends, and especially great because now we can keep in touch, travel, trade stories, etc. but it was also definitely time to get on to our placements!

We arrived in Wonju in the afternoon and were immediatly grabbed by our respective co-teachers. Jason and I didn't even say bye and I quickly waved by to a couple other of the new EPIK teachers. There were only about 10 of us on the bus to Wonju (and Wonju area towns.)

My main co-teacher is named Mr. Byeon and he drove me in his car to the school, with all my luggage thankfully. He said we had to go to the school first to get the key to my apartment. I didn't realize that meant he was actually skipping class aka leaving his students to do whatever on their own, while he picked me up. I also didn't realize I would be meeting the Principal and VP. Yikes! EPIK told us so many times how important a meeting these two would be, to bow deep, be polite, small, compliment the school, to dress for success. I was dressed well, but not as well ask I could have been I don't believe. I mean, we'd been sitting on a bus for a few hours from Seoul and no one told us we'd be meeting the big wigs so soon! The VP was very nice, he used to be an English teacher so he speaks very well. The Principal has his own huge office, with a large table and chairs around it for meetings. It was very formal but he was also nice, my co-teacher translated our conversation. He generously gave me a guide book on Wonju and I made sure to ask about the school's achievements. Everyone said "you are so beautiful" but they say that to everyone. (I mean that literally, "you are so beautiful, you are so pretty, you are so handsome." -- Although they can also be blunt the other way, at least the kids, I showed the girls a family photo today and they saw my long hair and were so disappointed that I cut it, they liked it before, haha.)

Oh and did I mention that Mr. Byeon introduced me to two of his classes that he was leaving while he showed me around. I didn't realize school was in session yet! I thought it started Monday! The girls are super cute and I wish I had a video of their reactions every time I walked into a new class. They screamed, cheered, yelled "OOOOOHHHHOOOOWWWOOOO, you are so beautiful teacher!! I love you teacher!!" (I think that's all the know how to say in English... practically.)

After that fun crash course in the Korean educational system we went to my apartment. I was shocked! It is so nice! It is the nicest place I have ever lived for sure. Two bedrooms, leather couch, everything I need... and its free/paid for by the school! The only downside is that the previous teacher who lived her left it a gross mess, she must have never cleaned. Almost everything in the kitchen has grease all over it. Needless to say I am still cleaning. But I am proud of this place, I can't believe its mine for a whole year! No moving, no rent!!

What's great is that the school also has $500 to use on buying apartment essentials for us! So later that night another of my co-teachers Mrs. Kim came by and picked me up. We went into town to shop for sheets, that was really all I wanted. We went to this great indoor market and got some beautiful sheets and pillows. They were kind of expensive! Things I wouldn't buy! She also thought I needed some things for the kitchen so we went to a kitchen store. Then to an electronic store where I got a coffee pot and hair dryer! All for free again! It was so much fun! She's really nice and warm and the whole time I felt like we were on a shopping spree. I got the hint too that when she said, "tell me what you want" she didn't realllllly mean it so much. I said "how about this cutting knife?" and she said "oh no, you don't need that, you have one" (I can't find one in the kitchen...) and then instead said "I think you need... a lunchbox, a water pitcher, a pasta strainer, etc. etc. -- it was lots of fun!

Then she took me out to a quick dinner since I said I was hungry. It was really good food. Sushi made on the spot and gold noodles in a rice water, which was great on such a hot and humid day. Funny thing also is that I didn't have interent at my place until tonight. So when we were at the indoor market, Mrs. Kim asked the owners of the bedroom store if I could use their computer! They of course let me (and gave us free juice) and lo and behold there was an email from Jason (left alone at his desk at school after meeting the Principal he had no idea what to do, haha.) I quickly emailed him saying to meet in front of the school (his high school is on the same school grounds as the middle school) every hour until midnight to see if we could find each other that night. Neither of us had email or phones. As Mrs. Kim was driving me home we passed in front of the school and there was Jason! The plan worked!

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning, eating, sleeping A LOT finally and making a trip to E-Mart the crazy busy Korean version of Target or Wal=Mart via taxi. Oh did I mention that Jason's apartment is just is nice as mine?! We are so lucky! His is actually a three bedroom in a huge high rise while my building is only three stories. He lives by a great restaurant called Pizza School. Oh yeah, pizza is everywhere. Score!

And as this posts headers says, I've taught my first class. Actually the same lesson MANY many times now! I mean, I have 22 different classes per week. They are middle school grades 6, 7 and 8 (here actually its called Middle School 1, 2, 3, and they actually, age wise correspond to American students in 7, 8 and 9th grade because high school here is only 3 years, middle school 3 and elementary 6). I have introduced myself so far to 12 different groups of girls and its only Wednesday!! There are between 20 to 30-35 girls per class, its insane! That means I have nearly 700 students each week (some classes alternate so I only see them every other week even.) All they want to do is play games and be rewarded with candy... oh boy here we go! But thankfully they are all really nice and excited (at least to meet me, not so much to speak English.)

Tomorrow is one more day, then on Friday I would usually have to go to a different school (a rural school) but we have to go to the immigration office so I can be officially registered in the country now that I have a home address. Whew.

Check out my pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2560216&id=6003282&l=86e5a18957