Big update Monday

So, again, I've been a slack blogger. Mostly because last week was unbelievably blah. The whole school, so about 160 kids and most of the teachers, went away on camp. The kids were so not keen. They had to climb mountains and go in boats and stuff. I've tried asking them about it today and they all say they hated it. I ask Mr Beak, who went but never even told me he was going, how he liked it. He said it was fantastic. The kids said it was terrible, boring, and really tiring. The said something about having to carry a 40kg inflatable boat along a beach. Haha, they were not happy!

So, they were all away and I still had to some to work for eight hours a day. Which is fine, I was getting paid, but that's not going to stop me complaining. I found enough to do for the most part, and my after school classes are very well planned, but by Friday I was going crazy. It's kind of spilled over into this week too. Having nothing meaningful to do at work, day in and day out is quite wearing. 

However, I did have a very nice weekend. To start off with, I went out for dinner by myself on Friday night. I had a dolsot bibimbap, which was yummy. Then on Saturday I went for a walk, did my grocery shopping and had a big skype talk with Jenni, which was great. Then on Sunday I went into Seoul, to Hongdae, and went to the art student's market and Taco Bell for lunch. I had a nice time strolling the streets around the university. I also bought a painting from the market. I'll probably go back again, and maybe buy more art. There was a guy selling mixed media painting/metal art that were really cool. 

Dolsot bibimbap.. yummy.

Hongdae playground

"art"

More "art"

Funky steets. no idea why there's a blue giraffe.

Craft market just getting going.

Random shop full of dog and cat clothes. As in, clothes for your pet.

My new painting!

After that I went to the Seoul Art Museum,

 

 but only one exhibit was open, and it was pretty un-amazing. Sometimes it seems like all you have to do to get exhibited in a gallery is paint a ton of painting, not actually be any good. I was unimpressed.

Yeah, it's kind of scribbles. (Chun Kyung-Ja) 

 

Seriously, why?

Then, I started for home, and decided on the way to stop in Suwon and buy a cell phone. I HAVE to do something about my internet at home. It is so slow. And I'm paying for a bunch of stuff I don't use. So, I need a phone (and I've talked to Mr Beak about changing ISPs - which hopefully will happen/work). I wanted just a pre-paid phone, no contract. Between my non-existent Korean, and their tiny bit of English, I might have got that. Maybe. But for some reason totally unfathomable to me, no one in Korea will sell SIM cards on a Sunday. So, I got the phone, but have not SIM for it. I'm going to get one tonight after work and I'm just hoping that we communicated correctly and the particular phone I got doesn't have to be on a monthly plan. Because there's no way I'd ever use it enough to justify that. If it does have to be on a plan, I guess I'll try to sell it or something. It wasn't very expensive to begin with ($100), but I thought it was coming fully connected and that I just had to top up at the store. *sigh*. It so often seems like things here are made much more complicated than they need to be.

Then, last night I got together with Courtney for dinner, and we tried a new BBQ place. Neither of us could read the menu, so we ordered meat at random, and ended up with a really nice dinner by chance :D Then we had a walk, and went to a coffee shop for some dessert. I had a chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream and it was so good! Courtney had a berry cheesecake and said that was great too. Sadly, this coffee shop, which just opened a few days ago, is directly on my walk home from the bus. And they serve mint-hot chocolates. This could be hazardous both to my health and my wallet!

 

Today has been pretty mediocre, teaching wise. I have an hour and a half to kill now before home time. Hence catching up on the blogging.. I'm feeling like it's all going nowhere right now, like the system in ineffective, and I'm just a place holder in the classroom. Maybe a nice walk tonight will brighten me up.

I did have a nice lunchtime, though. There's a new kid, one of the new 1st graders, and he's not quite the full quid. Not sure what's precisely wrong with him, but he's mentally handicapped in some way. Not too badly, though, and he's a sweet as kid. Well, I always go and sit outside after eating lunch in the cafeteria, and he came and sat with me today. He was talking to me in a combination of Korean I couldn't understand, the odd English word, and gestures about the game of soccer the other, older boys were playing. I said he should go play too, but he said no, and implied he'd maybe get hurt or something. He was so excited by the game though. So, I got a ball and played with him instead. He was hooting and laughing, it was really fun. The a couple of other, really tiny, first grade boys came and joined in too, and we had kind of social rejects game of kick-the-ball :) Most fun I've had at school in ages. Maybe I can make it a regular thing. That's my nice story for the day.

In blatant misuse of  office products I made this poster for my wall.

 

It looks cool :)