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!