Robots Have Feelings Too

I am going to start this post by promoting my beautiful twin's blog about her trip to Palestine over these next few weeks! Not only is she having an adventure of a lifetime, she is meeting amazing new people and documenting it all for everyone to share! Her writing is incredible (MUCH better than mine). It's almost like you are actually there trying to get through the Jordanian border with her and the other members of the Know Thy Heritage crew. Take a look at it when you can! Actually, now. Read it now. Then you can come back and read about robots. 

http://bethanycsaad.blogspot.kr/

Back? Okay cool. Amazing right? She should be published. Then after that she can make a Palestinian cookbook. My sisters are going to be famous one day I just know it.

As for life in Korea, these past few weeks have been very busy as we are prepping for speech contests, song contests, and open house which is in two weeks! The last open house went well and I know this one will too. It just means the Korean teachers are pulling out their hair trying to make it all perfect, when they are kindergarteners and perfection means very little in the eyes of kindergarteners. Did we have fun? Yes. Did we do a game of some sort? Yes. Did mommy smile after the lesson? Yes. Well great!

It seemed that every night last week had some sort of even happening. Now I'm definitely not complaining as the activities were highly enjoyable. For example, Tuesday night was sushi with some coworkers...

The deal at this restaurant is that you get 12 pieces of sashimi for about 14,000W. By the 12th piece I was full and happy. Usually two words that do not go together for me but with sushi...anything is possible. I hope to come back to this place soon. Anyone down for sushi? During the meal I talked to my coworker, Alex, about Kaitie and my trip to Japan in September! Not only will I want to eat my weight in sushi, I asked where else we should go, and what else we should see. she recommended Japan Disney Sea, which has just opened recently. In our three full days there, that will most likely take up a whole one, so we'll have to make that decision soon! She also mentioned shopping, as well as traditional palaces and temples around the Tokyo. Definitely getting excited to see this part of the world!

Wednesday, I met with a friend for Vietnamese Pho noodles, which are always delicious. We spend the evening comparing book lists and talking about what we've read, want to read, and are currently reading. She had been trying to start a book club in her area (Incheon, about half and hour from me). As she is leaving in a month, she will not be part of it but I'm definitely considering it! Reading on your own is an excellent way to relax, unwind, or just pass the time. However, when you get the chance to have meaningful discussions about the books, characters, and events it changes the reading experience for you. Reading becomes an interactive and intellectual activity instead. I would also get the chance to make a whole new circle of friends, and who doesn't want that! We'll see what happens.

Thursday was field trip day at Little America. This week's exotic destination was a Robot Museum! Here the students were guided around and shown several different robots and what they could do. One robot drew a picture of a student sitting in front of it. Some other dog robots danced to a few K-pop songs. Then a few humanoid robots acted out the story of the tortoise and the hare. Not the most thrilling rendition of the story despite the addition of robots, but beggars can't be choosers. Some of the robots were really incredible. A few fought over a soccer ball, while others played music via a circular xylophone of sorts. My girls weren't really as impressed as I was by some of them. For the most part they were scared of them. One robot could talk to you if you asked him simple questions in Korean. He wasn't exactly the cutest robot. Giant robot lips and protruding eyes didn't help my students feel comfortable with him. They kept saying "teacher! So ugly!". Poor guy, can't help how he was made.

not too sure about whatever he's looking at

 

Students then watched a 3D film about a robot babysitter and finally got to do a craft where they decorated their own wooden robots! Colored markers and bedazzling supplies sat in front of each child as they were let loose on their little figurines. Some made theirs wearing 3 piece suits, while others went the rainbow skirt route. My girls of course went crazy over the sparkly, shiny, pink things you could glue all over you robot.

 

Gorgeous 

After a the slew of photos taken at the end of the trip it was time to go back to Little America for a couple classes to complete their speeches! My girls would be giving speeches about what they want to be when they grow up. Dressed in their finest, the girls did an excellent job despite the camera rolling and all of their peers watching.

Jenna has the "jump picture" thing down

My pianist

My violinist

And my ballet teacher

After school was my usual Korean lesson. By the evening after work I'm usually in zombie mode, just wanting to crawl into bed. This week was no exception. These lessons however have a way of waking me up and getting me excited about the (albeit small) progress I'm making with my Korean language skills. I am in no way ready to have full out conversations with a random Korean stranger on the street, although many have tried to do so with me. According to my teacher, my pronunciation and listening has gotten better. I make mistakes the entire time but her patience and humor get us through the rough patches. I look forward to continue meeting with her. I might ask if we can meet twice a week instead so that I can practice even more outside of school. I know after Korea, the skill I've learned wont be incredibly useful for me, but why not take advantage of learning while I'm here for another year? 맞아요?

Friday was the birthday party and song contest. My girls tried their best at our monthly song but I believe I was a bit too ambitious with them singing "When I'm 64". They knew most of the words and the dance separately, however when combining the two they would choose to either sing or dance. Not both. The video has a long section of silence in the middle where I am off the the side (unseen on film) waving my arms and mouthing the words to my oblivious three little ladybugs who continue dancing away. Oh well, not every month can be a hit! We will try with next month's "Put on a Happy Face", which will just remind me of Playbill junior year at Tatnall. The other teachers had similar results from their students. This month felt very rushed with field trips, and other responsibilities of us and the students. I'll distract your disappointment of no video with cute pictures of students dancing and playing...You'll never know.

I'm telling you, Jenna is good!

 

Not sure what's happening to Andy in this picture (the small boy in the fetal position)

Happy birthday hugs

After work on Friday, a group of us met out for dinner to say goodbye to Seol, who is leaving for his mandatory Army service next week! Such short notice for him. We will definitely miss him and his humor on our future adventures around Korea. Not only is he super helpful when it comes to communicating for us, he is genuinely a sweet guy! I hope the Army guys don't make him clean the bathroom with a toothbrush or anything. After dinner we sat in Lake Park with some wine, sides (provided by Stefaan, thanks!) and a game of Catch Phrase until hopping in taxis to Bupyeong where we went to our normal stomping ground, Cheap Shots. Overall, it was a great night, with wonderful food and friends. I know Seol has a large group of people here who will miss him dearly while he is away! We'll be thinking of you Seol.

Kaitie and I couldn't stay out too late as early Saturday morning we were off to a Foreign Teacher's Seminar in Anyang (about an hour away). This meeting was a mandatory function set up by the hogwans of Gyeonggido. Every foreign teacher in Gyeonggi province had to show up, sign in, and listen to some presentations regarding teaching English in Korea. The MC of the event was a very sweet Korean guy. I felt badly for him because, as many nice people as there are here, there are definitely still some bad apples in the bunch. As he showed us some videos of traditional and beautiful areas around the country, one man shouted "We don't care" into the silent auditorium. You could feel the simultaneous intake of breath as nearly everyone turned to see who could possibly be that rude. I won't call out this gentleman (using this term loosely), however he made several more comments throughout the seminar that made myself and I know many other people there incredibly uncomfortable. While the seminar wasn't exactly the most useful one I've been to, nor did I want to be there especially, this is something we had to do for our schools and therefore we had a responsibility to be there. Being rude or complaining about the situation does not change the fact that you are there, and it definitely will not make the day go any faster. Why not sit quietly and listen, point out spelling mistakes on the screen, or just look at your phone, which was what the majority of the crowd was doing. 

Aye Aye Captain!

Yikes... "Cultural" and "Korea". Not sure if it was supposed to be "Sound & Rhythm & and Fan" or Fun either...

A few foreigners made presentations about teaching, which were entertaining, though mainly telling us things we already know. For example, teaching here is much different than teaching in western cultures. Some life changing info there thanks!

Then a cute little old Korean man named Hank came on stage and began a rather painfully slow lecture about the most common pronunciation mistakes that Korean students make and how to fix them. His speech was littered with fillers such as "you know", "okay", and the occasional "blah blah blah". While this man is incredibly intelligent in his field (and his native tongue), he was not the right choice of speaker for this event. He apparently lives in Geongju (where we went for the cherry blossom bike trip. He invited whoever wanted to to go there and he would show them around. Such a sweet little old man. So, in the end, not the most useful nor enlightening, but it was something we had to do and we did it. Thanks again to Kaitie for keeping me company as she volunteered to go along! We ended the day by meeting up with a big group of people at a camping ground near the World Cup Stadium called Nanji Camping Jong (난지캠핑장). Sitting in the sun with some good food, drinks, and meeting new people was a blast. Met a girl from Silver Spring, Maryland and another guy from Salisbury. Small world. This camping ground wasn't exactly so much pitching a tent in the woods with a bonfire as much as renting chairs and a grill, and sitting under portable shade (also rented) while avoiding the sun like the plague. Meanwhile I scared them all by sitting in the direct sun trying to soak in as much vitamin D as I could. Even the other foreigners of the group were not too sure about me I think. It was here I've expanded my group of friends yet again. One guy plays tennis, so we are working on hitting somewhere around Bucheon soon, which will be fun! I'll have to find a good racket somewhere. Headed home early and read until bed. I love relaxing weekends.

The grill master

I have a feeling this month is going to go by very quickly. Before you know it, there will be another post on here for you to read!

xoxoxo

Korean of the post: 

재 담요 어디에요? 내가 담요를 덤불 안에요. 

(Damyo audiaeyo? Damyoleul dawmbool anaeyo)

Where is my blanket? Your blanket is in the bush.

Teacha Teacha Learn Me Somethin'

"He doesn't deserve to be a teacher."

 

This is a quote from a Korean friend last week. For some reason, even as the conversation carried on, this phrase echoed in my head. Not only are teachers more highly regarded here in Korea, but this quote makes teaching an honorable and privileged position. The incredible dissimilarity between the views of teaching in the states versus this stance is incredible to me. Obviously I am slightly biased, however I believe that everyone should see teachers as invaluable members of society. We prepare children as the next generation for our societies around the world, as well as care for them for the majority of the day, usually even longer than their parents see them. Wouldn't you want your child to be with someone who considered their job to be a privilege as opposed to a burden? I know I am not the perfect teacher, nor will I ever be. I have days where I feel tired and unmotivated to teach, but this quote has given me a new energy. It reminded me how lucky I am to be in the profession of education. The students come excited to learn every day, therefore it is my duty to reciprocate that excitement in my classroom. I have the opportunity to make learning fun and hopefully plant the "life-long-learner" seed in them that has grown in me from my previous teachers. For all of my previous, current, and future incredible teachers, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.

Speaking of teaching...What is education without reading? For those of you who know me, I am kind of a bookworm. Only a little bit...Therefore when I was researching things to do this weekend and found the Seoul International Book Fair at the COEX mall in Gangnam I nearly fell out of my chair! Shanna and I had gone to the COEX for the chocolate festival last year, so in my mind I just swapped out all of the chocolate booths for booths full of books. Aka I was obviously going. Kaitie joined me for the adventure and we made our way there Saturday afternoon. The COEX mall is a slightly intimidating place. About the size of a small town, it contains endless restaurants, exhibit halls, an aquarium, and shops (somewhere...Kaitie and I had trouble finding this part of the mall in the labrynth).

Walking up to the exhibit hall area we were met with a snaking queue wrapping around the lobby area. Koreans love their lines (I think I've mentioned this in several posts actually)

The line starts on the left, wraps around behind the camera and then back up from the right.

The line went quickly though and we purchased our tickets for the fair (only about $3!)

The other event happening today was the "World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics". In the words of Kaitie before I read the sign, "Let's not accidentally go to Hall D".

 The book fair is apparently an annual event to promote Korean publishers to countries abroad. Publishers from countries around the world are welcomed as well. Both Canada and India had special areas to promote their own publications. As we walked in we were surrounded by hundreds of booths desplaying an endless spectrum of books from phonics to religious texts. We started in the Indian publications area, looking at books from that area of the world. As teachers, we went straight for the children's books. A man came up and tried to tell us something about the books...something about the publisher perhaps? Not sure. I did a lot of smiling, nodding, and saying "neh". It worked okay for a while. Then we had to sneak away quietly. My Korean isn't THAT good yet.

Next, we wandered around and ran into an English book booth with classics from Penguin Group Publishers like Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Twain as well as newer releases. I picked up a few books here to add to my meager "library" in my apartment including "The Book of Awesome" highlighting little things in life that make it awesome, such as "popping bubble wrap" and "Pushing those little buttons on the soft drink lid cup". This isn't a book to sit down and read all in one sitting, but instead one to pick up every so often to remind yourself just how awesome life is. I'm excited to have this as a part of my small book collection! I also had a little visit from Delaware!

Biden made it to Korea!

My favorite part of the exhibit was definitely the illustrators area. Here, book illustrators from a variety of Korean story books were highlighted in different artistic displays. The "beauty of books" was the theme for this part of the fair. Who doesn't love picture books?

 

Overall, another fun visit to the COEX. We picked up the subway and headed to Itaewon for a friend's birthday dinner at a BYOB Indian restaurant which was delicious! I ordered something I've never tried before called Aloo Gobhi Curry which is cauliflower and potato cooked in an onion sauce. It was really good! I'll have to see if our usual Indian place in Bucheon has it. Paired with several bottles of wine for the table, the dinner was excellent! A Polaroid camera captured some of the fun of the evening- As Kaitie and I are always a couple when we go out, we got a couple photo. Also, a few bags of dry ice accompanied the ice-cream cake that some friends brought with them, so obviously we had some fun with that as well.

 

 

She's a witch!

The next day I woke and decided to go for an exploratory run. Lake Park is beautiful and a nice place to run, however I want to find new routes to keep me from getting bored. Today I ran around Lake Park a few times before venturing off to the other side of the road towards Aiins world. For those of you who do not know (probably most...) Aiins world is a theme park of sorts in Bucheon in which you can take pictures of yourself and your closest friends in front of miniature versions of famous landmarks from around the world. I've never been. My parents and Edward went during their visit. I've heard its pretty run down, but if they clean it up and update it, I'm sure it could be an excellent place to visit! It was neat to run by and see the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids right next to each other. Don't you wish traveling was that easy? I also found a small area with a skate park, baseball field, and basketball courts. Not really made for runniny, but good to know I suppose. My route took me along a river to join a path I've run before. I finished by going through a residential area with beautiful houses and gardens then down a long road lined and covered by trees. Although it was a short exploration, it's nice to know what's nearby and available. Next time I might try to run to Incheon Grand Park, which I've heard about several times.

That afternoon I met with a coworker and my Korean teacher for some shopping in Bupyeong Underground Market. Unlike other adventures there, the purpose of this trip was not finding silly English shirts, but actual functional clothes. I found a skirt with giraffes on it! Very excited to wear it to work tomorrow and have all the kids point out that there are in fact giraffes on it....I will act surprised each time.

Going back in time- Friday we had a cooking class at Little America. The students made patbingsu which is a Korean shaved ice dessert with a variety of toppings from fruit to cake to red bean (of course). The students cut up some watermelon, shaved some ice, and mixed in other fruit, cereal, gummy candy, rice cakes, and sugary syrup to make this super healthy (....) snack. They enjoyed it, which is all that matters!

Ingredients

serious chopping

grinding

More chopping...

Finished product

This week we have a field trip to "Robo Park"...I'm as intrigued as you are I assure you as to the theme behind this one. Although if robots and transformers aren't involved I will be significantly disappointed. After the field trip, the students will be tired and ready to go home but of course they have to present their speeches in front of their peers. My girls are doing their speeches on their future careers. I have a ballet teacher, a pianist, and a violinist in my room! A very artsy-fartsy crew aren't we? Friday we have our birthday celebration...which reminds me that I have to finish teaching my girls our monthly song! Time has been going faster this month than ever before.

As for news from home. Alex is safe and getting established in Nashville, Tennessee. I will do some shameless plugging for her because she is my sister and that's what sisters do. Check out her album here! https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alex-saad/id419721103. She is talented, hilarious, and beautiful and I miss her terribly. Beth is heading to Palestine on Tuesday for her three week heritage trip to learn about our Palestinian roots. My jealousy is only slightly over-shadowed by my respect and excitement for her journey. Again, only because I'm a sister (and twin no less) if you want to follow her adventure, here is her blog! http://bethanycsaad.blogspot.kr/

For now its time to get ready to go headfirst into the week!
xoxox

Korean of the post: 기분 어때요? (gi-boon au-dae-yo) How do you feel?

Giraffes, Tricks, and Cake

I'm sorry! 죄송합니다! I've left this blog til later than usual, but I really need to catch you up on some fun adventures the past few days. Let's begin with last Thursday, which we had off for Memorial Day! After sleeping in a bit, Katrina, Seol, Kaitie, and I headed off to Seoul Grand Park to meet up with some other friends and venture through the Seoul Zoo! I hadn't been to the park nor the zoo so I was excited! And we all know that where there is a zoo there are most likely going to be some giraffes around. Obviously this was the main reason I joined on this trek (sorry guys...) Walking up to the park the sun was beating down on all who decided to spend the day around the area. Never ones to let something small ruin our fun, we embraced the heat and made our way up to the top of the zoo via a trollycar and chairlift.

I really wanted the trunk to blow bubbles or something.

Reaching the zoo entrance we join the queue (Koreans love to queue, it's their favorite) to hop onto the chair lift that brings us to the top of the zoo. that way we can wander down through the exhibits until we get back to the entrance once again. The chairlift was neat in that it offered an overhead view of what we would be seeing throughout the day. We even got to see the lions get fed from a safe and comfortable aerial distance!

Let's be real...I was thinking about giraffes the entire time we walked through the park but there were lots of other cute animals to take my mind off the inevitability of the most exciting part of the trip!

This guy and I have the same diet!

Thought of you mum <3

 

They taught him how to smile for pictures!

 We made it in time to see the seal show as well as the bear feeding! The seal was incredible. It is just so interesting how an animal like that can move around and perform so many tricks that seem physically impossible! One of my favorite parts was hearing the trainer say something about 'exercise' in Korean and then seeing the seal work out on stage. According to Seol she told the crowd that he wont get a girlfriend if he is so chubby. Oh Korea and your constant fixation on weight.  Anyways, the bear feeding was great too! Instead of a trainer lazily tossing hunks of raw meat to waiting bears they hide food around the natural habitat area for the bears to find on their own. The physical abilities of the bears were pretty amazing too; some reaching up on tiptoe to knock a piece of meat out of a tree. It was eerily human-like.

Bear feeding time

 

 Then we stopped in the nursery. Here the baby animals were kept in a sweltering box for people to fawn over and take a million photos. I just hope it was cooler in their rooms than it was in the hallway. This cute little monkey had his own crib to play in!

Selfie with a llama

 Soon, the time had arrived for my favorite animals! I basically ran over like a 5 year old child (guess I'm hanging out with my kindergarteners too much) and bounded up the steps to the elevated observation area. I can't really say why I love giraffes so much...I think they are just so graceful and like nothing else on earth. They move so precisely like they think about every step they take. We should all be like a giraffe! We did learn that they only sleep for 20 minutes every day and not in succession. Let's not follow them in that regard. I like sleep too much.

They are just so gorgeous! One day I will have one as a pet...or at least touch one? Who knows. After that I was a happy camper and was ready to do anything. As the giraffes were one of the last exhibits of the park (of course) it was time to head back to the entrance and go home to prep for a full day at school on Friday! 

In the morning we had a field trip with the little ones to a Trick Eye Museum. This would not be the same as the museum Shanna and I went to a while back, but I have a feeling all of these kinds of museums here are very similar. This field trip was basically Korean Teacher heaven. These museums are meant to be just one huge photo shoot. Therefore we spend the next hour or so shuffling our kids around and saying "1....2...no wait move over a bit...1....2....come back!!...1...2....3 Smiilleeee!".

 

 Standard...

Oh no! Hang on ladies!

So strong

The next star

This musuem was much smaller and a bit run down. It needs a good revamping. Most of the pictures were faded and chipped from the excessive handling by the masses. Some of them just didn't make any sense. I'd have to explain to the girls how to pose in the pictures, get them all set up, then find the best place to take the photo without them moving from the spot I just put them in. While they enjoyed it for a while, after too long kindergarteners just aren't interested anymore. Overall it was a fun trip, but these days always tire me out. After a picnic lunch outside the museum (where we were acquainted with one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen in my entire life) we rode back to Little America to prep for our Elementary classes. I had several absent students whose families had taken off for a four day weekend, which made things a bit easier, or harder depending on how you look at it. I didn't want to move on in the book if we were missing 5 out of 8 of the students in the class, but the ones there still had to learn something. Educational games are the best.

After work on Friday Katrina and made a brave decision to try out the new-ish hair salon in our building. She had usually been going to Hongdae where the stylists spoke pretty good English, but if this one was good and just 5 floors below us, why not check it out? While their English was about as good as my Korean, they did a great job with both of our hair! Now I know I can just go downstairs instead of 45 minutes away. Sometimes you just gotta take risks and try new things.

Saturday, Katrina, Kaitie and I went to Hongdae to our boss, Patti's sister's bakery (sorry that sentence was a mess). She owns Darling's Cakes off the main shopping street. We had been there before but did not get to decorate a cake! This weekend we had planned a picnic with a few friends to celebrate the summer/our friendship/South Korea/other mushy things. We were given a cake, then options for an icing tip, as well as an ipad with several pictures of previous cakes decorated there to get inspiration for our cake. Along a wall of the bakery is a counter covered in little sugar shapes and letters to cover our cake with. After practicing a bit with the piping bag we got to work!

Before picture

Action shot

Almost doneee

So proud of our hard work

Overall this place is so cute! The owner gave us coffees while we decorated as well as some cookies for the road. I will somehow make an excuse to decorate a cake for every event from not on...just a warning...birthdays, weddings, dentist appointments, etc.

The picnic was a huge success. Good company, food, drinks, and weather! The cake had melted a bit on the trip back, but hey it all tastes the same. Amanda made some gorgeous sunglasses for us to don as we spent the afternoon sitting in the hopefully-snakeless-grass near Lake Park.

We ended the night walking to a norebang singing excerpts from Moulin Rouge a bit too loudly for the Koreans passing by us. I have to say, I can't go to a norebang every weekend but once in a while it is such a fun experience. Sang some Grease, more Moulin Rouge, and several other greats before (time to confess) I fell asleep on the couch there. Woken by Seol not long later we made our way back home to bed. A great end to a wonderful day!

Sunday I was able to experience something for the first time here in Korea. In Itaewon there is a swimming pool in the Hamilton Hotel, that is open to the public. I've heard that it was a very popular place to go to soak in the sun and spend time with friends. I was not prepared for just how crazy it would be. Walking out the door to the pool deck I was greeted by a group of very large (muscle-wise) Korean men wearing teeny-tiny speedos...Just past these men stood several teeny-tiny Korean girls wearing very tall heels. It was at this point I wondered exactly where I was. Tentatively walking up the stairs to the pool, I kept my eyes out for a couple friends I was meeting there. Thankfully I found them with little trouble and spent the next few hours getting some sun and people watching. There was definitely not a shortage of people to watch there. Not sure how many times I will feel like being back there, but it is definitely an experience to have while you're here! After the pool we subwayed (yes it's now a verb) back home and experienced a very scary moment! We had stopped at a station and at the last second a little old 할머니 (grandmother) shuffled towards the doors, because I suppose she didn't realize this was her stop. She was halfway through the doors when they closed upon her waste trapping her there! Everyone around simultaneously gasped as we weren't sure how to help her. She managed to squeeze through but her leg became trapped! Laying on the platform with her foot caught in the door I had frightening images of what would happen if the train had begun to move! My friend stood to pull the doors open and free her foot. The next few seconds we were uncertain of how to help her, not knowing when the train would move again. Several people on the platform approached her to help, so we sat and contemplated what we had just seen. I wondered how many times that happens with the amount of subway travel there is here. It was definitely a shock. I just hope she made it home without any major injuries!

Barring that last incident, this last week was a great one yet again. Time is flying as the countdown to the Philippines trip gets lower and lower! Getting very excited! This week is a regular week at Little America. No field trips or cooking class, so I will have to plan something fun to update you on over the weekend! For now it's bedtime here. I'll end with a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little brother Edward who is turning 13 on Wednesday!!! When did that happen? *cue grandma quote* "It feels like yesterday I was changing your diapers and watching you line up your cars across the living room floor". Now you are a star basketball player and overall coolest guy ever. Miss you a lot and can't wait to see you again! My students all send their happy birthday wishes. I hope you spend it exactly how you'd like! Couldn't ask for a better little brother.

xoxo

 Korean:  
생일축하해 (saeng-il chuk ha-hae) Happy Birthday!