One Month!?

Milestone time! I've officially been here for (a little over) a month. It does not feel that way at all! It feels like I just got off the plane and experienced Solomon's driving for the first time. Overall I am still loving every minute of it :) The other teachers are awesome (both the western and Korean teachers), my students are sweet (with very very few exceptions), and the area has been a blast to explore! This past week was super fast. Preparing for the song contest took up most of our time and energy for Kindergarten, and looking forward to movie day on Friday kept elementary classes moving quickly. I thought I'd begin by finally showing you my journey to work everyday in a slightly motion-sickness-inducing film where I try to pretend I'm not video taping as I walk by people...Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed that and did not need a doggy bag!

On Thursday this week, the kindergarteners had a cooking class. We made "songpyun" which is a small rice cake made out of a rice flour dough and filled with sesame seeds, beans, or chestnuts. It is a traditional food made for Chuseok (which if you have been paying attention to my lectures is the Korean Thanksgiving...there will be a cumulative final everyone!). We filled ours with a sweet black bean. The students learned how to make the dough into a little bowl shape and fill with the beans, and then mold the songpyun into that traditional moon shape. The teachers got fancy by putting little flower shapes to decorate the students' handiwork.

So after cooking class Thursday, all that was left was singing our song on Friday! I realize this is a long awaited video for you all so I won't delay any longer. First though I do have a funny story. I've been playing the CD with all of the monthy songs on it for the kids while they do other work in the classroom and one girl, Kelly, has already memorized all of the songs! I captured a short video of her singing our January Song (This will be our year-Ok Go).

Friday I also had to teach my kindergarteners fractions...which was somewhat daunting because my 5th graders last year had difficulty understanding fractions. Anywhoo I printed out a bunch of pictures of pizza and dove in head first. Some of the students actually grasped the concept pretty quickly! Or they seemed to at least. Maybe they just thought I was going to give them pizza.

Oh look what I've done, I've delayed the song even more! I apologize I won't do it again. So the birthday celebration/song contest day follows a schedule. First, songs, Second, dance party (of course which song do you think they all want to dance to...hint: rhymes with shmangnam shtyle), and third, birthday kisses for those students with September birthdays. This month was Jane's birthday! This means that after dancing she got to choose 2 boys to get birthday kisses from (I still can't get over this tradition).

 Ok ok ok I'll get onto it haha here....in living color...is the moment you've all been waiting for...the one...the only....TEXAS CLASS SONG CONTEST!

*applause! Encore! Encore!* Weren't they wonderful? The shimmying was a bit lack-luster compared to previous rehearsals, however overall I am very proud of them completing this classic Broadway tune! Now it is on to our Halloween song...I found it on Youtube so it is nothing well known. Several of my students are afraid to hear it which should make learning it slightly challenging. Oh well- we're up for it! Halloween here is apparently very scary? The teachers stay late on the Thursday before the celebration day and decorate the whole school. We make the lobby into a haunted house and each room is decorated using the crafts that had been created over the past few weeks. The haunted house is the teachers' turns to scare the living daylights out of the students, who pretend to not be afraid as tears are pouring out of their eyes and their hands grasp each other so they are one giant blob of small Korean children. Should be exciting huh? We do the same for our Elementary students. One girl asked me if it is ok if she hits me during it...she says when she gets scared she gets violent haha (if anyone here knows Tairen you know exactly how this can happen. Lovvvee you Tttttt).

Back to the present. This weekend is what everyone? (you: "Chuseok") Very good. So pretty much all of the stores and markets are closed for today and tomorrow. I am going to head over to the park and enjoy the sunshine while the weather is still somewhat warm. Bringing my kindle and a lunch with me, I think I am going to reflect a bit on the past few weeks. I am missing everyone at home- Mum, Dad, Beth, Alex, Edward, Henry, (I'm putting Lucy's name anyways), Mike (shout out to GA), and all my friends from school. It has been amazingly easy to stay connected with people while I've been here which makes it a lot easier I think. If I had dropped off the face of the planet I'm sure I would feel a bit more isolated here without you all. Thank you for your love and support (and care package...which was AWESOME)! Oh ps- should be getting a Korean phone number in the next week, so no more texting via wifi I don't think! If anyone with a smart phone wants to download a messaging app (I will let you know which one I download as soon as I do it...) then we can stay in contact that way!

Next week we have Monday off for Chuseok, so Shanna and I are going to Bupyeong underground market in Incheon to do some shopping. Some clothes there are known to have some pretty terrible "Engrish" where words/phrases are completely bungled up. Pretty excited to find some of these gems (photos will happen). We then go to school Tuesday, but then have Wednesday off as well for "National Foundation Day". I will be spending this public holiday by traveling on my first solo trip through a program called Adventure Korea. They plan trips and excursions for expats and other western travelers over here. The trip I am headed on is to Gongju, which was the ancient capital during the Baekjae Dynasty. We are get to go to the local museum, visit the ancient fortress walls, and explore some tombs! The trip also includes chestnut picking (we get to bring these home with us!) and participating in a festival and parade. Should be a very long but very exciting day! Can't wait :) If you want to check out more info about the trip go to this website http://adventurekorea.com/ and look up the "Baekjae Dynasty and Chestnuts" trip! 

That's all for now--

Korean phrase of the post: 처음 (chaw-euhm) "for the first time"

xoxoxox

Be Respectful One's To Parents

ooOOoo two posts in two days- how did you all get so lucky? I'm spoiling you guys, but it's ok, you deserve it. I wanted to fill you in on the speech contest today! To begin, a little background about these speeches. Students at Little America are given the opportunity to compete in English speech competitions and win a trip to America. Sounds pretty fantastic, no? A few minor details however- firstly, for the most part, these students are told they are doing the contest even if they do not want to. This decision is made by the teachers, parents, and/or both. Secondly, the students work tirelessly on these speeches for months and months and months. They practice in front of their Korean teachers, American teachers, all of the students, and their families hundreds of times until you can tell all emotional connection to the speech has vanished. The speeches are also recorded on the computer, so the students can listen to the "proper" pronunciation of their speech and practice it properly. For the past month I have heard the 6 competing students' speeches countless times and could probably recite each one of them to you. I will save you from that though- you're welcome. The students chosen to do the speech have a lot of courage to stand up in front of a room of their peers and practice daily, sometimes two or three times, in Little America- but also in front of an audience of strangers at this competition. The third thing about the competition is that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners get a trip to America...however it is not paid for. So they win...the idea of going to America? I couldn't wrap my mind around why students would participate in competition like this. I suppose it is an honor to tell people that they won an English speech competition? I'm not sure. Anyways- that is the background to what our day consisted of!

Amanda Teacher and I met up with Patti, Liz, Jennifer, and Tina Teachers at the big shopping complex for brunch before leaving for the competition. We then hopped in the "Little America" bus with some of the students competing today and their families. There was a nervous energy in the air. You could tell the students were repeating their already perfectly memorized speeches over and over and over again during the entire trip there. Some family members tried to keep minds off of the event by playing games or taking pictures, but other student sat quietly the entire way there. The competition was held at Sangmyung University in Seoul. Firstly, getting to the University was an adventure of itself. It was at the top of one of the steepest roads I've seen since arriving here! I was actually semi-nervous about the bus being able to make it to the top of the hill without unloading some people first. But don't fret-we made it. The "campus" itself was a neat juxtaposition of concrete buildings and mountainous terrain which was actually quite breathtaking. 

Korean students from schools around the area came to compete today. I think there were around 400 based on their number cards pinned to the shirts and dresses of the competitors. Actually, Loyola Marymount University in California was one of the sponsors of the event! Kinda neat. The speeches were mainly about Korean traditions, culture, cuisine, and important geographical sights. The company that sponsors this event sends out speeches that students may use if they do not want to come up with their own...meaning many students did the exact. same. speech...I don't think I could know more about the traditional Korean folk song "Arirang" or how to make "jigae". Our students were some of the few that had original, and actually interesting speeches, which I think definitely helped their standings!

The judges sat at a long table on the side of the stage and wrote comments and scores down for each competitor. The speeches had to be under 2 minutes, and if they went over this time, a bell was rung and they had to stop mid-sentence and leave the stage. The awkward silence when a student completely blanks on his/her speech is one of the worst situations I've had to experience. Their face has a look of complete and utter fear while their Korean teacher/coach frantically tries to mouth the words to them from the audience- or in some cases yells the speech aloud with no concern for the possible effect on the student's score. The abilities of the students ranged from monotoned-robot-like voices with the emotions of an eggplant to those over-the-top, to-the-point-of-haunting-my-dreams, squeeky, please-for-the-love-of-all-things-beautiful-will-you-stop-talking voices. Some speeches and posters even had incorrect grammar which was surprising to Amanda and I who turned to each other during one speech and said, "Wait...does that poster say 'Be Respectful One's To Parents'?...yep". Tried to get photo evidence of that but the stage lighting was not conducive to photos unfortunately!

Anyways- our students really shined throughout each age group. We had 6 competitors in a wide range of age groups and 5 students placed in either 1st or 2nd! The sad thing is that the student who didn't place will not hear the end of if from his mother, who put a lot of pressure on him to win. He worked so hard and did the best he could! I will be sure to tell him how proud I am of him Monday at school. You could just see the weight lift off his and the other students' shoulders after putting months and months of time and effort into memorizing their speeches! Not that I have a bias or anything but honestly our students sounded the most natural and had interesting (and grammatically correct) speeches. We also had different displays for our speeches. Most other students had posters or no artistic display of information. Our students had shirts or apron-like picture displays that they could manipulate during their speech to give more information. Overall they did an excellent job and I am SO glad I went to support them! While it was a long day (left around 12, got back after dinner around 10), it was so worth it to see the relieved smiles of our kids after they were finished.



After we found out the last student's results we piled back in the bus and Amanda Teacher and I met up with Shanna for some Mexican food in Hongdae at a place called "Macho Mexican". We shared some Margaritas and surprisingly decent Mexican food to finish off a longgggg day. It was an excellent ending! I will have to visit Hongdae again for a night out. There were lots of cool shops and bars around- I'm sure the other teachers and I will make it out there soon enough.

Korean phrase of the post: 배부른 (beh-boo-reuhn) "I'm full".

xoxoxo

Silly Lorla Teacher

Sorry I've been leaving you all hanging for a week! I'm still loving it here- having fun and learning more every day!

Yesterday at Little America, it was field trip day for the Kindergarten classes. Chuseok is coming up next week for everyone here in Korea, which is similar to our Thanksgiving holiday. It celebrates the fall harvest as well as their ancestors. The holiday has a similar theme to our Thanksgiving- enjoying great food and family. Part of the Chuseok tradition here includes the donning of traditional clothing called Hanbok. These outfits are made out of vibrant colored fabric and have a certain style to them. The girls wear long skirts and short vests/jackets on top, while the boys have parachute-like pants with long sleeve shirts and vests. Seeing the students all wearing their Hanboks was such an incredible experience. They all looked so amazing!

The field trip took us to a building in Incheon where several older women taught the students how to traditionally bow and drink tea during Chuseok celebrations and other traditional Korean ceremonies. The students sat on little mats and listened while the women explained the traditions and customs. They behaved SO well considering the field trip was not the most exhilarating or stimulating event in the world. There was no long cartoon involving mustached-worms or anything like that (see previous post if suddenly completely lost).

The boys have their own specific bow from the girls. The women showed both groups how to bow correctly and had them practice in front of the group. It was so sweet to see my little Texas class bowing!

After all the bowing, the students learned how to drink tea correctly. You hold the cup with two hands- one on the cup and the other underneath it. At first, they got to taste some green tea leaves. There was an overwhelming negative response to the taste of the leaves, which I believe is personified perfectly by this young man right here...

Not the best reaction if I say so myself haha. I did not try the leaves but the green tea after it was prepared was actually delicious! I'll leave the leaf-tasting to the kids. So the students ate and drank their tea and mochi, it was picture time. One thing about Little America is that for each field trip or special day, each student needs to have at least 204853 pictures of them to put on the website so that families can have them. So, each student was placed at the table setting in the room to get a picture taken. While this never-ending task was being completed, the rest of the students suddenly snapped. All sense of organization and structure was completely lost and there were kindergarteners EVERYWHERE! Flashes of bright colors and flowing fabric streaked passed the other teachers and I until they were brought under control by the Korean teachers. It reminded me that they are real kids and not some strange robots from a different planet who sit nicely for hours on end.

After we said our goodbyes to the nice old ladies, we drove to a park nearby. This park had students learning about the traditions and culture of Korea including food, dress, and games. There were probably 10 other school groups there, meaning thousands and thousands of Korean student groups each dressed in a different uniform. Our group was the only one dressed in Hanboks. I felt badly for our kids because not only was it difficult to play properly dressed like that- it was hot too! Students began to hand me various items of clothing to hold. I was tempted to make my own Hanbok out of the provided material but thought better of it. At the park we made some brown sugar snack and rice-crispy-treat-like snacks, and took loads more pictures.

Overall the day was exhausting but I really learned a lot and loved seeing my students all dressed up! Not sure how much they liked it, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. They do enjoy the bus rides where they play a Dory-like game of i-spy (uhh something small...and orange...has stripes...) except the popular answer now instead of just "Lorla Teacher" is "Silly Lorla Teacher". I am somewhat to blame for this recent change because of my common use of the phrase during class when I accidentally forget or miss something in class. Could be a worse nickname I suppose so I'm not too bothered by it.

For now-Silly Lorla teacher needs to get to work! Headed into Seoul this weekend to watch some of my students in a Speech contest as well as just explore the area with some other teachers. I will update you all again soon!

Korean word of the post: 이른 아침 (ee-reuhn ah-cheem): early morning

xoxox

Charcoal Face Painting

What a fun weekend albeit a bit of a trek to get to Muuido! Amanda, Shanna, Katrina, Seol and I left our apartments around 9:30 and followed the following schedule:

9:45--302 Bus to Incheon Airport
10:15--Arrive at Airport, realize we have time to kill before the bus arrives to the ferry
10:40--The "bus" comes in the form of a small van which is immediately occupied to its capacity with colorfully dressed Korean hikers.
10:45--Run downstairs and find a jumbo taxi willing to take us to the ferry (score!)
11:25--Pull up to the ferry dock just in time to see it being loaded, so we sprint in to get tickets and commence a "Baywatch run" to catch the ferry
11:26--Realize we didn't really have to run at all...
11:30--Reach Muuido after the shortest ferry ride in the history of ferry rides, we speed walk up the ramp to get the bus to the beach along with the Korean hikers we thought we lost at the airport...all of them...

 12:00--The bus drops those who are hiking off at the base of a mountain on the island

 Those who are headed to the beach stay on the bus to the next stop--oh wait! That's just us...haha

12:30ish we make it to our destination, buy our beach pass, our huts, and finally exhale! We got settled and hung out outside our rooms basically for the rest of the evening! The rooms we rented consisted of just that--a room. We did have a bathroom and a fridge as well which was convenient for our barbecue! The room comes with mats and pillows for a simple and cheap place to stay for the night. I think the floors are heated as well--So if anyone plans to make a winter trip to the beach...anyone?...Bueller?...

Other members of our group trickled in throughout the afternoon as we began the festivities of soju, barbecuing, and zip-lining! (No, i did not zip-line). The barbecue worked out wonderfully! Amanda put a lot of effort into making burgers, and potato salad, and well..everything! Good thing we had the boys to work the grills...Thanks guys!

The beach itself is small but really beautiful. We rented rooms further back on shore but Katrina and Seol rented out a beach-hut which is on stilts right on the sand. I'll have to try that next time :) The weather couldn't have been better either. The sun came out despite the weatherman's prediction and it cooled off a bit in the evening. There were several other groups of westerners there this weekend as well who we met throughout the day! I spoke with some girls from Washington, and another from South Africa. A Russian man joined our little group at some point just because he was lonely? Or lost? We weren't sure really.

A few brave souls brought a tent to stay in for the evening. The following collage represents a significant amount of time and effort (from them as well as friendly Koreans). At one point a Korean woman came by with her camera to document the event as well--that was slightly unexpected.

Turns out they brought the smaller of 2 tents that were in a pack, but brought both pole sets...needless to say there was some confusion- but they did it!

When the sun had set we went for a stroll to the norebang on the island and belted our hearts out to the classics (Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, etc.) On the way there we set off some fireworks, which looked SO much like spells coming out of a wand! The Harry Potter nerd in me absolutely loved this! "Expecto Patronum!!"....ok I'm done I promise...

Throughout the night I think someone fell out of a wagon, I played with a kitten the size of my hand, someone did the worm (or the caterpillar...Amanda), someone else was passed out with a tambourine on his head (he still doesn't know this happened), and I believe a couple members of our group ended up with some charcoal war paint?

 

 

 ...what happens on Muuido stays on Muuido!

 The next morning we were all a bit slow to rise from the activities of the evening, but we all definitely agreed it was an excellent way to spend the few days off work! Shanna, Erin and I headed home early-hoping to get some things done today before school begins again tomorrow. When I got back I decided to explore a running route that a few of the girls were telling me about near the apartment, then I got some serious cleaning done! Dust seems to accumulate and multiply much faster here so I think as I type this I'm seeing dust form on my gorgeous counters that I just cleaned...grrr. I also brought a GIANT chair down from the loft to the main floor. After several minutes of grunting, twisting, lifting and scratching my head, the monstrosity of a chair is settled down here with me. Now I just have to figure out where to put it! Well enough excitement about my interior decorating- I'm looking forward to another week of teaching and will keep you all updated!

Korean phrase of the post: 건배 kahn-beh: Cheers!

xoxo

Wise Old Harabuhjee Worm

While I sit here having my kimchi dinner, I figured I would catch you all up on my second full week of teaching here! Well- I've made it! I've learned a lot, caused a few problems for the Korean teachers because I haven't done things the right way, and at the same time I think I've taught some English? Although, I've noticed that mine has gotten worse, which seems to be a common theme after bringing up this concern with the other western teachers. I've stopped myself a few times speaking with the students in fluent "cave man": "You don't bring homework?", "Why you sad?", "open book page 50". I'm really working on not doing this so my kids learn the correct way to say things!

Let's see...new adventures for this week include a field trip with school to a Blueberry Garden! The strange thing was that throughout the whole day I didn't see a single blueberry...The kids made some blueberry cookies, but in the form of a purply/green/grey dough (mmm) to roll out and cut into shapes. I was hoping to stock up my fridge, but alas my apartment is still blueberry-less. Anywhoo, the Blueberry Garden consisted of a big room with long tables for the students to sit and make their cookies, and then connected was a surprisingly expansive botanical garden with trees, plants, and animals around for the students to walk through.

When we arrived the students sat at the table and the owners discussed what they would be doing for the day...well at least that's what I think they were saying because this whole field trip was conducted entirely in Korean...aka lots of blank stares and lost faces from the western teachers. The confusion was only then heightened by the way-too-long-for-kindergarten-attention-span cartoon that was shown after the welcoming speech. Just to give you an idea, here is a photo...

1. Yes, that is a worm with a Fu Manchu mustache
2. Yes, this seriously happened. 
The video's purpose was to teach the students how important worms are to the earth. Basically, if any of them kick a worm at anytime in the rest of their lives they will be afraid of an old-man (haranbuhjee) worm turning them into a worm as well. The video covered topics such as worm-love-making, worm-violence, and worm-defecation. The students perked up a that latter bit of the video, otherwise for the rest of the time they looked like little zombies. Once that bit of cinematic genius had finished we got to begin making our "blueberry" cookies!

Some of the kids were much more into the cookie making than others. Some just felt like playing with the dough, others found that the rolling pins made much better percussion instruments than baking tools. Hey, to each their own!

After the little chefs had cut their last cookies, we ventured into the botanical garden side! Through a trail there was an alcove with wooden platforms and trenches filled with what looked like the red clay from tennis courts. Turns out it was a kind of seed from a tree that they heat up and you place your feet into? It supposedly helps with relaxation and circulation (I need to find out how to get back there during the freezing winter!). The kids liked it for a while, but again, the timing was not well thought out for the age group and the clay began to make its way into other students hair, socks, and mouths...aannnddd that was our cue to move onto snack time.

Lunch was sushi, yayyy(well gimbap, but whatever)! The students also brought snacks of their own- mainly candies and cookies. The interesting part of lunch/snack time was the actual promotion of sharing your food with your friends! Schools in the US would have a pink hairy cow if they heard of their students actually sharing their food *Gasp!* but here it is all but required! The students trade and bargain their treats (2 gummy bears for a Pepero stick!). Poor Kelly with her fruit bowl did not make many trades during this time...I would have if I wasn't 99.9% positive that she has a cold!

After lunch we grabbed our cookies that had been baking throughout second half of the field trip and headed home. The bus rides consisted of 40 mind-numbing-minutes straight of "rock, scissors, paper" or "I spy". Although I did teach a student his name in American Sign Language! It's amazing what little sponges these students are. He could already spell some of his classmate's names by the time we pulled up to the school!

After school I had adventure number two! A trip to Costco! Woo! (*cricket*...*cricket*..) Well I thought it was exciting at least. Amanda, Shanna and I took the bus about 20 minutes away to look for some items for our beach trip this weekend. Apparently this bus is notorious for not having any seats open. Sorry Shanna!

 While we didn't find everything we were looking for I got to see the Costco with its maze of cart escalator ramps and strange food items that one commonly stumbles upon over here- and in BULK no less! *shiny rays of sunshine from the heavens* Some of these items include "stick cheese candy" and dried fish.

Overall this second week has been a bit more stable than the first! I know how to get around confidently now, I've gone on a few more adventures both on my own and with chaperones, and I feel much more comfortable with my students' lessons! I think what has saved me is just tagging along with any trip another teacher is taking even if I don't need to get anything. For example, the Costco trip, or my first trip to the U-plex (or mall) tonight! Basically, if another teacher says, "I'm going [insert location] today, would you like to come?", my answer is automatically "yes". That might backfire on me one of these days...hmm...

Headed to Muuido tomorrow morning stocked with food, bubbly, a mini-gril, and prayers for good weather! I will have my camera as well to document everything. Amanda was researching some old-school games to play- Charades (pronounced char-ahhhhh-ds, mum you're not the only one!) and guess-who or 20-questions! Can't wait to relax and enjoy some days off.

Korean phrase of the post:
저를 어디로 데려가십니까?
(jaw-reul aw-di-ro de-ryaw-ga-sim-ni-kka?): Where are you taking me?

xoxoxox