Chicken Tuesday

So, it's been a while.

You know it's been cold when you step outside and think 'oh, it's warm today', and it's because it's 0 degrees instead of -6 or something :)

Well, my cold is still hanging around, but every day I wake up a little less congested.

What's been going on since my last proper update over a week ago? Well, nothing earth-shattering, but life is nice (apart from the killer cold/flu thing). The weekend before last I did some shopping in Suwon and got some nice things for my apartment, like a few storage boxes and a cute tiny set of wooden drawers to keep jewellery in. I also went to another ice-hockey game with a bunch of nice foreigners. The game was great - lots of action in the last 3rd! And the we all went out for dinner to a Mexican place. The conversation was good, everyone seemed normal, and there were no obvious arse-holes, so that was nice :)

Last week's winter camp class were the class of my dreams! They were so nice, enthusiastic, and friendly. We had a good time. I'm really pleased I had such a good class, because my cold re-lapsed mid-week, so I was trying to teach as well as expel litres of phlegm. Tasty. Haha, but they were kind, and I enjoyed teaching them. Also, last week I got together with the girls for fried chicken, and it was so nice! We might be going again tonight of tomorrow. Courtney brought one of her work-mates, an American Korean named Mike, and he seemed really laid-back, genuine, and nice too, so maybe he will join us more often. Would be nice to meet some new people :)

This week I am still sick, but not awfully so. My ears are a bit blocked, so it makes teaching feel a bit awkward, but not too bad. My class this week seem ok. They are quite quiet though, and a bit sullen. They seem very bored, which makes me feel bored with teaching them. It so interesting how the different groups of students react to exactly the same materials. Some seem to really enjoy the classes and go at them full-tilt, while this class seems really disengaged. I'm going to try adding a few new elements to the lessons to get them going, but this class has a fairly bad reputation for being like this. So, it's my last week before my holidays, I'm sick, and tired, and can't hear properly - they might not get my 100% full effort :)

Speaking of holidays, I've booked myself a week in Taiwan in February! I'm getting quite excited. It won't be super tropical warm there, but it should be around 17-20 degrees, which sounds like heaven right now. I'm staying in Taipei the whole time, there is so much to do there. I am most interested in visiting the zoo - apparently it is somewhat 'free-range', and pretty awesome.

I don't have much planned for my two weeks off that I have starting next week. There are a bunch of things I want to do, like go back to the Seoul Zoo (for $3 why not!?), art galleries, Theme Parks, etc. However, I just noticed that I've been scheduled to take 15 days worth of vacation in the next month and a half. This only leaves me with 5 days left for summer :( I'd really like to go to Japan in Summer, so I might ask if I can cancel a few of my vacation days this time, so I have a couple more in summer. Even if it's just three days, if I add that to 5, plus two weekends, that's 12 days, which is a god amount of time.

That's about all for now. There's tons of interesting daily details I've left out, but I'll try to keep up with the blogging a bit better :)

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Update on today: The English class computer broke after a Windows update, and the computer guy can't fix it until tomorrow. Since coming to Korea, my lessons have become very screen focused! Luckily, having taught in NZ, with no access to in-class power-points (and I HATE OHPs!) I'm pretty sure I could teach most of my lessons without a computer. However, all my planned games involved the screen, and I had very little time to re-plan. The three Korean teachers at school seemed stumped by this broken computer problem. They were honestly like 'yeah, I have no idea what you can do...'. I just asked if I could plug my laptop into the next classroom over, and we could have English class in there. Apparently this was some sort of revolutionary breakthrough in problem solving?! Haha, so everything turned out fine, and we had a pretty good class. I even managed to get the REALLY bored ones participating at some points.

Like, I noticed one of the girls had made a paper plane out of her finished worksheet, and inspiration stuck! (Ok, the idea was one I'd read somewhere, but never used). I got the whole class to make paper planes, while I wrote animal habitats on the board. I then called out an animal, and they had to throw their plane at that animal's habitat. They loved it! So, that was cool.

And tonight.... chicken!

Also, here's some photo's of the past weeks:

Last week's student's drew each other.

This kid drew himself. As a zombie, no less. My fault for suggesting it.

My new hat! I wear it everywhere.

For mum. I was telling you about how many PC 'rooms' there are? Here's two right next to each other.

Osan River

In Korea, bridges are for wimps. Yes, I crossed it!

Stuff is pretty cold and dead.

I needed new moisturiser. For the same price as at home I got my regular face cream, plus a face mask, eye cream, toner, two travel-sized moisturises, and a pack of cotton face wipes. I love Korean 'freebies when you buy cosmetics' culture!

Still under the weather Thursday

I'm not dead, and I've not abandoned my blog :) I'm just on a different teaching schedule for two weeks, and have had a bit of a cold relapse. So, there are update to come. Just not now.
But, today from the bus window I saw a big, beautiful long-legged white bird gingerly picking its way across a snowy frozen river. It was awesome!

Sloooow Friday

Well, today has been a slow day.

First off, none of my students turned up this morning. I had a quick look around at about 5 past nine, but couldn't find anyone. There wasn't even anyone in the teacher's room. I just went back to the English room where it was warm and cleaned. The students do all of the schools cleaning and they do a fairly crappy job, really. Everything they are not expressly instructed to clean (like anything but the floor) is covered with a thick coat of dirt. No exaggeration, it has progressed from simply a dust coating to a dirt coating. So, anyway, I did some dusting and some tidying, and threw away a whole heap of accumulated stuff that didn't work any more - including a ton of ancient pens, and an open tube of prehistoric toothpaste (!?).

Lovely, nervous, and kind but-a-spy lady stuck her head around the door at about 9.20 to tell me to hang on, she was finding my students. She returned five minutes later with one.. Yeah, one. Turns out the rest are at Church camp, which obviously trumps English camp :) So, I tried some one-on-one time with this one boy, but he was so uncomfortable, and barely able to communicate. And, me still stick and recovering, gave in and showed him 'The Truman Show'. I did stop the video and make him talk about parts of it, and managed to make it last three whole periods, but then it was over, he'd answered my questions and I felt satisfied he mostly understood what had gone on, and he wanted to go home. I was out of ideas anyway, so I let him go. I told the spy lady that we'd got through all the work extra quick because I'd only had one student. I just didn't have the heart to make him sit a meaningless test all by himself, and the rest of what I'd had planned was a big group activity. *Sigh*. At least the movie was good :)

So, now I've been in the office since about 12. I've made some really good progress planning a more structured after-school curriculum for the 1st graders, but I got tired of that, and with no real deadline or extrinsic motivation to do more today, I've just been browsing the web. I did learn a little more Korean. I can now say 'sorry', 'excuse me', and 'enjoy your meal'. Damn. I've forgotten 'enjoy your meal'. More revision. Also, I've looked up some Korean ingredients, so now I can use more stuff from the supermarket. There are so many products I don't know and can't even guess at their uses!

Also, I've been doing really well with eating healthily over the last two days. Today has been a bit ruined though. Korean culture dictates that you accept gifts of food from people, at least most of the time, and today I've been force feed custard bread, ramen noodles made by the students in Science camp, and pecan pie. I ate as little as possible without being rude. I mean, it's really nice to be included, and I'd rather be included than left out, but it's messing with my New Year's resolution :)

Haha, I will make up for it by burning all the calories at norebang tonight :-D

Big Update Thursday

So here at last, I have some free time, and the will to update.

My cold peaked about 1am this morning, and now seems to be going away. Which I am very happy about - trying to teach while coughing your lungs out isn't fun. Though the boys I've had this week were very nice about it. Ok, I'll start at the beginning.

Friday:

My last day with the class from hell. We actually started to make some progress. Maybe. Anyway, I managed to make them WANT to talk by turning it into a competition, and I could barely get them to stop telling me about their favourite animals! It was great! We did the test and watched the movie.. Then I went home to get an early night to rest up for the weekend.

Saturday:

I had to wake up about 4.30am to get ready and be at the Osan station to meet Jen and Nyashsa and catch the train to Suwon, where we would catch another train back in the other direction to Busan. We caught the Osan train fine, but got a bit lost looking for the right tracks and ticket office in Suwon. Turns out the intercity trains leave from kind of a different station. We got there, though, and got on the right train. Then we slept, ate, and played trivial pursuits for five hours until we got into Busan at around 11am. We then got a taxi to the beach! We were bundled up for Osan cold, but it was warm (comparatively) in Busan! There was no trace of snow at all! We walked on the beach for a bit, saw a guy doing an amazing sand sculpture of a dragon (this year is the year of the dragon), and went and had some lunch at an American chain restaurant, TGI Fridays. I had a yummy hamburger, great fires, and because it was new years, a non-alcoholic cocktail. Yeah, I was livin' it up!

Then we went to the Busan aquarium. I'd already been when I was in Busan last time, but didn't mind going again. It was actually a lot of fun. Fish are weird things. I really liked the jellyfish, though. They are so other-worldly and beautiful. Creepy though.

Ok, after the aquarium came the highlight of the weekend for me - my first ever jimjilbang! It's a Korean bath-house/ sauna/ recreation centre type thing. I've been trying to pluck up the courage to go to one for a while, but going totally alone was a tad daunting as you have to be totally naked to use the spa/ bath bits (though it's same-sex). So, Jen, Nyasha, and I went to a nice one I'd read about not too far from the beach. We got given ugly yellow t-shirt and short sets to wear while in the centre, and got told that the 2nd floor was the female only area. So we went and got changed, and then went up to the 3rd floor everyone area. They had a selection of different massage chairs ($1 for 10min), food, drinks, and some saunas of different temperatures. And the whole place was ondol (underfloor) heated, and so warm! We tried a couple of massage chairs, and then some saunas, hanging out mainly in the 37 degree one. We tried a hotter one (maybe 60?), which Jen really like, but it was too hot for Nyasha and I. None of us were game to try the 80 degree one!

So, after warming for a while, I decided to go give the baths a go. Nyasha was keen too, but Jen stayed in the sauna instead. Well, Nyasha and I went and got naked, nervously figured out where to shower, and then hopped in one of the hot pools, hoping we weren't doing anything wrong! No one yelled at us, so I guess it was ok. Oh, and there was one pool that had really powerful jets of water shooting out of the wall - like a water massage! Pretty good :)

Then we really manned up and went to a special area off to the side where older Korean ladies wearing only their bra and undies scrub you down. You're naked. And they use what feels like a pot mitt. A pot mitt. EVERYWHERE. It was actually not embarrassing for me at all. I figured they do it everyday, and they didn't seem phased by two naked foreigners. But, so much dead skin came off! Like literally piles of it. It was awesome, but disgusting! And I felt so clean afterwards! And now my skin is all smooth and lovely. I'd definitely do it again :)

By the time we left it was about 8pm, and Nyasha wanted to go into down-town Busan to see her cousin who was there for New Years too. Before we met up with her cousin though, we had dinner at this incredible random bistro we randomly found. The food was Italian style and actually pretty good. And we had to go to this bar to find Nyasha's cousin, but didn't know where it was, so we asked at the bistro, and one of the guys actually walked us there.. It was like a 5-10 minute walk! I was so impressed with their kindness.

From that point though, the night went downhill a bit. The bar was not great, we lost Nyasha for almost an hour, and when she finally got back with her rather drunk cousin and her friends, we only just made it back inside for a kind of lame New Year's countdown. Shortly after we decided to find somewhere to sleep. Which was a bit of a mission, what with Busan being all but booked out for the New year weekend, but Jen found a motel in the end, and we got to bed. 

Sunday:

Sunday morning we made our way back to Busan station, and caught the KTX (fast train) back to Suwon. Jen had accidentally booked us 1st class KTX tickets, instead of the regular slow train tickets, so we rode in speedy luxury! The train was so smooth. A got in a good hour or two of sleep, and then we were back in Suwon. Another quick trip down the line and we were home in Osan. Where it was snowing heavily, but the ground was too warm for it to hang around. I just did some grocery shopping and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Monday - Thursday

This week I've been teaching a class of six 2nd grade boys, and they've been a really nice change from last week. The class is really an ideal size, big enough for teams games, but small enough that I can keep a close eye on them all. They are also just much better behaved than the last group, and respond REALLY well to any type of competition. However, I've been quite sick with a cold this week, so my enthusiasm hasn't been at it's best. They've been very sweet about it though, and responded well when I've asked them to be quite because I can't speak louder. 

But, here's the boys really getting into a game. They are not doing this for the camera... it's how they played the whole game. They didn't know I was filming :)

Yesterday was the worst day of my cold. I managed to teach them all four lessons, but decided to ask if I could go home for the rest of the day. When I got to the staff room there was no one I could ask there. The VP and my Co-teacher were both away. So, and I still can't believe I did this, I just got my stuff and walked out. Went down the road, caught the bus and went home to bed. I'm not sure if anyone noticed I was gone or not. No one's asked me about it yet.

So, I rested up, go a good night's sleep, and am feeling like I'm on the mend today. Right now I'm sitting in the empty staffroom. Everyone else, apart from Mr Beak, who is around the school somewhere, has gone out for lunch. I was told 'sorry, you have to stay here'. Not sure why - why they've gone for lunch or why I'm not invited - but ok. I'll assume there's a perfectly rational and logical explanation for it, rather than just excluding me. 

Only other things of note this week: I made a 'classroom language' wall display for the classroom. Productively used up a whole afternoon of deskwarming. 

And on Tuesday evening I walked home through the Osan traditional market and picked up a selection of yummy banchan for my packed lunches. I got fern tendrils, mung-beans, lotus root, omelette, and garlic shoots with dried prawns and sweet chilli sauce to add to my broccoli and soy marinated quails eggs. 

Clockwise from left: Sweet chilli dried shrimp and garlic shoot; marinated lotus root; fern fronds; mungbeans; and omelette.  

Flashest packed lunch ever. All in my snazzy pink lunch box :)

Tuesday

Ok, another big update is due:
Friday was a good enough day. The kids were still difficult to control, but it was an easy day with mostly just a test and a movie :)

Blegh, the bif update will have to wait. I'm tired and sick. I'll write about new years soon :)

TGI Friday

Thank goodness! 

Die Zoo Thursday

Yesterday (Thursday) was a really bad day, so today seems much better in comparison! Yesterday, despite my best efforts, the kids were still out of control and gave me a real headache. I asked Mr Beak for a headache pill, but the school had run out, so he gave me a cold pill instead (without telling me!).. It worked, it got rid of the headache, but it made me really drowsy, too. So drowsy that Mr Beak sent me home early. I must have looked pretty bad, and it was really nice of him to notice and be kind enough to let me go home. I'd finished teaching for the day, so I didn't feel bad about it. I went home and went straight to bed. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open on the bus! I slept for nearly three hours, got up, had some dinner and watched some TV, then went back to be and slept for 8 more hours. I'm feeling much better today!

The kids were just as badly behaved, and are really disappointing me with the quality of the work they are doing. I very much want to decorate the class with the things they do, but much of it is such a scribbled mess that it's embarrassing. I've seen 10 year olds produce much better pictures and posters! One activity that did work well today (though I've still to work out why - perhaps because I gave them concrete example pictures to follow?) was making a map of a fictional zoo. They had to decide on the animals they wanted, then draw a map including things like bathrooms, parks, paths, food stalls, etc. Interestingly, the three groups who really went to town on this project were the boys' groups, who generally don't want to do anything (or even less than the girls, anyway). They really impressed me. Here's a couple of photos. 

All the Zoo maps.

Great map from the worst boys in the class!

Grade 1-1's wall of almost awesome.

One boy did a whole map all by himself, but went a little... outside... the bounds of the project. He created some kind of scary gladiator style zoo. In it, a person first chose to go in the lion or tiger cage. If they lost a fight to those animals, they got hammered to death in a special area. If they won, they went to the hospital room, and then on to fight a series of other animals including a tortoise with a gun on its back (actually my idea... I probably should have been encouraging him, but he was writing in English, so I helped), a stomping elephant with three killer snakes for a tail, a werewolf enclosure, and a hydra. Oh, and don't forget the vampire bear. Punishments for losing included beheading by axe, and being attacked with a chainsaw. If you managed to beat all the animals, you got to leave the 'Die Crazy Zoo' with a billion dollars. I was impressed with his imagination, and also how much English he used in the process.

'Die Zoo Crazy'. Note the vampire elephants.

He told me the wall was covered in knives. It had a lot of detail!

I am seriously glad I only have this class one more time though. And hopefully tomorrow will be ok, we have games, a test, and a movie to watch, so fingers crossed it's not the uphill battle it's been everyday so far.

Tonight, though, it's monopoly night at my place! I'm going to make some chocolate fudge :)

And this weekend, Jen, Nyasha, and myself are booked to head to Busan for New Years. At the ripe old age of 24, this will be my first 'proper' (as in outside of anyone's house or camping) New years celebration. It is going to be awesome! And cold. But seeing the sun rise over the ocean will be nice. Yes, I could do that back home in NZ, and from the comfort of the couch, but I never did :)

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In other news, I bought the cutest lunch box today! Because it's holidays, there's no school lunch at work. The teachers order Chinese food each day, which not only more expensive than school lunch, but is pretty unhealthy (like 99% noodles or rice with shiny brown sauce). It tastes ok, but I don't want it for the next couple of months! So, I got this lunch box to take my own food to work. Mr Beak does it too, so I know it's ok to do. Here it is:

It eve came with its own little chopsticks.

Sushi, carrot, tomato, and cheese.

Stacked and packed...

Ready to carry my lunch with style!

I've also just finished making chocolate fudge. It tastes a bit off - I think Korean cocoa is weaker than I'm used to, but it's ok.