Hello! Let me start off by saying that this next week better fly by so that Mum, Dad, and Edward can be here visiting me! I am so excited, I think the rest of my coworkers are getting annoyed with how bubbly and smiley I am all day when I think about them visiting... Sorry everyone!
Instead of making this whole blog about how overly pumped I am about seeing my family I guess I'll update you on the past few days. Last week was the first week of the new year. This means new students, new classes, new schedule! My three little kindergarteners are very sweet, and very different from my Texas class. I kind of miss my boys not wanting to make everything "cute" and "beautiful". I don't think I've ever really thought about how much of a tomboy I am until teaching these girls. Oh well, I had a lot of fun decorating the room! I just hope no boys show up and join the class...
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| flowers and rainbows |
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| More Brer Rabbits |
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| Our Brer Rabbits |
Maybe by the end of this year these girls will like other colors besides pink and purple (gasp), baby steps people, baby steps.
Fridays this month are going to be very exciting! This past Friday we had a cooking class where the students made strawberry banana smoothies. Next Friday, we have a field trip to a musical performance and then a St. Patrick's Day party. The Friday after that one my PARENTS AND EDWARD WILL BE HERE *cough* sorry.... and then that last Friday is an Easter party! So many things to look forward to!
For the cooking class, my girls were paired with the brand new class of English students. They are so sweet and some of them just smile and nod when you talk to them! I feel like I am at their level with my Korean. We have a connection. One girl came up to me when I walked into her classroom and began telling me about something that had happened...or that she hurt something...or that her favorite color is blue...not really sure exactly, but when she finished I asked if she was ok and she said yes so she sat back down. I think she just needed to get it out, whatever it was! Glad I could do that much for her. Hopefully one day I will be able to actually fully understand what she is saying!
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| My girls ready to cook |
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| Cut Cut Cut |
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| Cute face Judy |
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| Chef Jean |
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| Good job lady bugs! |
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| Jenna enjoying the final result! |
For those of you who are not interested in the education/teacher talk then please skip to the next portion of the blog. For the rest of you, most likely you are teachers as well, or just being really polite and reading this part anyways. Overall, these three girls are at a lower ability level than my Texas class. Although each of them is at a different individual ability level. One can easily read and write, but has difficulty spelling (normal for the level). Another can read slowly and write by copying letters from the board. The third struggles with reading and spelling. She has very low phonics knowledge. When I have her read our story book she uses a lot of semantic and visual cues instead of using the letters to sound out words. Granted none of these students are below the level of American students their age. They are only 7 years old Korean age (so 5 or 6 western age). I hope to get these girls up to Texas class' level by the end of my time with them. Challenge accepted
***If your eyes glazed over when I mentioned education/teacher talk please rejoin us at this time ****
I'll ease you back into the conversation with these cute pictures of my students!
Time for the weekend! Saturday was absolutely gorgeous outside, sunny and 60 degrees! Today (Sunday) it is back down to 30...goodness gracious Korea. But we took advantage of the beautiful weather by heading to Gangnam (haha song is in your head now, welcome to my life) to wander around the swanky shopping area. Kaitie, Sara, and I soaked in the sun and made our way around Rodeo Street (Rodeo drive spin-off).
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| Tim Burton-esque |
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| Mmm...sounds appetizing... |
The streets were lined with restaurants, clothing boutiques and all sorts of other little shops. It was nice to do a little window shopping and see funny store names here and there. This area is the more wealthy area of Korea. 4 out of 5 cars I saw were either BMWs or Porsches. People watching is one of my favorite sports, and this area is a fantastic place to participate in that particular past time (oooh alliteration). We decided that Korean women are gorgeous and stylish until they reach a certain age when suddenly they wake up and decide they can wear absolutely anything they want. For example, White lace tights, floral dress, cheetah print scarf, fur jacket, and high heeled army boots. Why not? I'm wearing that tomorrow to work.
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| Yes please... |
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| tease books store wall |
One place we found is called Popabubble. Here they make their own sugar candies where you can customize them to have pictures or words on the inside! They are all getting ready for White Day (valentines day, but instead of the girls getting the boys chocolate, the boys get the girls candy). I don't get it either, but I've stopped asking questions here.
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| lime candies |
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| kiwis!! |
As we continued our stroll we came upon this little guy...
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| Why was there a stuffed bulldog outside a store? Just wait... |
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We stumbled upon a stuffed animal paradise. And what was the store's theme animal??...
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| That's right! |
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| Okay the puppies were cute too. |
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| Standard... |
This 4 story building is full of every kind of animal you can think of in multiple sizes. The biggest giraffe was only about $1,200...anyone?...Christmas?...Ok thanks. We took pictures with llamas, giraffes, owls, camels and a variety of other animals before we headed up to the last floor labeled "Playground". What else could it be...
Yep, a giant, nearly life-sized giraffe on the roof of this building. If we hadn't walked into this store I never would have looked up to see this guy looking over the streets of Gangnam. Only in Korea would there be a store like this! I died a little bit with all the giraffes everywhere. I will definitely be back...
After all the walking it was time to find some dinner. We headed back towards the city center to find a barbeque place. Sara has some dietary restrictions so we had to find a place with beef. When we chose a restaurant Sara and I (she is in her second year) began trying to translate the dishes to find out if they were beef or pork. After way too long to still be acceptable, Kaitie was kind enough to point out that at the top of the menu pages it said in plain English "Beef" and "Pork"... I think we have just given up trying to find English some places that we did not even notice the English! Kaitie's eyes, only being here a week, are searching for English still. There is a psychology research project in this story somewhere for whoever wants to tackle that. I'll stick to teaching ABC's and how to correctly pronounce "Laura Teacher".
Once we finished our dinner we had a few hours to kill before it was time to meet up with some of Sara's friends nearby so we found a cafe called Sweet House. This is one of those moments when I ask myself "Where am I?"...You walk into this cafe, take off your shoes and order a drink. Then you are brought into the back which is a maze of small rooms with mattress padded floors and pillows each with its own TV. You have the option of bringing a game in with you too! they had a wide selection of heavily used board games which consisted of Life (two of them), Monopoly (three of those), and an old jenga set. Endless possibilities. We settled into our room and introduced Kaitie to the wonders of Korean dramas. As we walked by other rooms I tried to sneak a look to see what everyone else did here. It was pretty much all couples or groups of friends, but they were either sleeping or watching the same show. The TVs gave an echo of the same channel as we walked towards our nook.
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| Cozy Cozy |
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| Their coffees (waaah) my tea, and their desserts (double waaah) |
We sat and relaxed getting ready to go out later that evening. It was fun to just sit and talk while simultaneously being entertained by the over-excited, outrageously terrible acting of Korean dramas. After leaving the cozy, pink, squishy room we made our way to Pandora, an all-you-can-drink bar with music, darts, and pool. I met a lot of Sara's friends and we made new friends there as well. That is something I really enjoy about living here. The foreigners here are for the most part very open and friendly to meeting new people. Why have a closed of clique of friends if people are coming and leaving so often? Granted I wont see most of these people ever again after this experience, but for now I have a lot of new friends!
Today I am meeting up with my neighbor from home, Mrs. Kim, who is here visiting her family in Seoul! I am really excited to see someone from back home. Hopefully I can impress her with the tad more Korean I've learned since I arrived!
Until next time xoxo
Korean Phrase of the Post:
나는 기린은 사랑 (na-neun geereen-eun sa-rang) "I love giraffes" <3
Hey laura, im so excited !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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