September 1, 2010
First day of the month! It’s as hot as ever here…it’s really just the humidity that gets you. My classes don’t have air conditioning; well, if you can call 5 regular fans attached to the ceiling blowing hot air around in circles air conditioning then that’s what they have. By the time 12:30pm comes around, I’ve finished my classes but I’m exhausted because I’ve been so hot and sweaty in my classes! That’s no good.
Today I taught 2 third grade classes and 2 fourth grade classes. The third grade classes went smoothly because I’ve had some practice now but the fourth grade classes were a little different today. I created a PPT about myself with just like 4 slides about me, my hobbies, my home, and my family. I haven’t really taught with the fourth grade teacher Yuri so it was a little rough. We haven’t really worked out each other’s teaching style yet so that may take some time. I didn’t get to teach very much which was kind of disappointing but I’m hoping that today in the lesson planning I can maybe ask her about more teaching time with the kids. It was rough because the lesson/section I thought I was going to be teaching…well I didn’t get to because her classes are little behind and she teaches at a slower pace. When I was in the front of the class I would ask them to repeat what they heard but in the middle of me asking the question she would play the clip again so it confused the students. It’s all about learning the other co-teacher right? So I imagine it will take us a little time to get to know each other inside the classroom and out. Other than that, it was a successful day and I am about to go eat lunch with the other English teachers (lunch is totally free for us everyday woot woot).
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Snow White
August 31, 2010
Yesterday I was able to meet some of my students…and I definitely mean SOME. There’s no way I can remember all of my students. Back home there might be like 3 third grade classes in the entire school. Yeah, well here there are 10 third grade classes and 12 fourth grade classes. Each class has about 30 students so if you do the math… that’s like 300 third graders and 360 fourth graders. I see about 700 students a WEEK! Goodness gracious. Mondays and Tuesdays I see 4 third grade classes and one fourth grade class. Right now the classes start a little earlier because it’s just too hot to teach any later in the day so I finish teaching classes about 12:30pm and have lunch with the other English teachers. Wednesdays I see two third grade classes and 2 fourth grade classes. Thursdays and Fridays I will teach 4 fourth grade classes each day.
Last night the principle of our school had a welcoming dinner for all of the new incoming teachers (including Michael and I) and most of the teachers showed up at this Japanese restaurant. Literally there was at least 60 of us there. When you walked into the restaurant (had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor) there was food galore! I mean I couldn’t eat most of it because it was raw fish everywhere…like really raw…and not in a sushi roll. But there were some dishes like cooked fish, soup, bi bim bop and so forth that I could eat and it was very delicious. We talked with some of the other English teachers for a bit and then on of the Physical Ed teachers sat next to me and Michael to talk for a while. He wanted to meet us and ask how old we were. He was 25 years old but when I first saw him I thought he was 21. He was very nice but me and Michael can’t remember what his name is! It is extremely difficult to remember the Korean names…I’ll need to work on that ASAP. He asked if we drink (alcoholic beverages), we both nodded and he suggested that we go out for dinner and drinks sometime soon. I can’t wait to start hanging out with my teachers outside of work!
I was super excited today because I was able to actually co-teach with one of my teachers today. Un Hyun is the third grade English teacher so I stuck with her all day. Typically I would teach with the fourth grade English teacher in the last period but 12 classes is too many for one teacher so the third grade English teacher (Un Hyun) teaches 2 fourth grade classes. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, today I taught the students how to write the letters “Aa, Bb, Cc” and then we did a role play. The textbooks are specifically designed to incorporate listening, speaking, writing, singing, and role-play into the lessons in order for the students to get as much exposure to the language as possible within 40 minutes. Un Hyun and I went back and forth teaching specific portions of the lesson. I was very surprised with eagerness of the students. You can tell that they want to learn English and they were very willing to guess the answers even if they were not entirely correct. The role-play did not go as well as intended with the 3rd grade because they did not really understand the instructions even when explained in Korean (the English classes are taught in both English and Korean; sometimes the teacher will ask what a certain English phrase means in Korean, etc.). Un Hyun and I decided that maybe the role-play could just be between me and the class as a whole. That worked much better in the later classes.
I was so excited with my last class of the day. It was a fourth grade class so they understood a little more vocabulary than the other classes because the others were third grade. The lesson went very smoothly; the Korean-English teacher and I worked very well with the tag-teaming and then the last portion of the lesson was role-play. They had to listen and watch a short animated video about snow white and the witch. Before the video I asked them if they could tell me who the princess was and who the old woman was. They answered “princess” and “witch.” They watched and listened to the clip and I asked them questions about what they heard. They recited many of the lines that were said and I asked them other questions for comprehension purposes. They were all right! After watching the video several more times and reciting the lines, my co-teacher and I split them into groups of four students and had them act out what they saw. After some practice, we asked for volunteers to perform in front of class. It was awesome! They did so well! I was so happy! I wish you could’ve seen it! They had some troubles with memorizing the lines (but it was kind of a long skit…I wouldn’t of been able to remember it all!). Overall, a very successful day!
Yesterday I was able to meet some of my students…and I definitely mean SOME. There’s no way I can remember all of my students. Back home there might be like 3 third grade classes in the entire school. Yeah, well here there are 10 third grade classes and 12 fourth grade classes. Each class has about 30 students so if you do the math… that’s like 300 third graders and 360 fourth graders. I see about 700 students a WEEK! Goodness gracious. Mondays and Tuesdays I see 4 third grade classes and one fourth grade class. Right now the classes start a little earlier because it’s just too hot to teach any later in the day so I finish teaching classes about 12:30pm and have lunch with the other English teachers. Wednesdays I see two third grade classes and 2 fourth grade classes. Thursdays and Fridays I will teach 4 fourth grade classes each day.
Last night the principle of our school had a welcoming dinner for all of the new incoming teachers (including Michael and I) and most of the teachers showed up at this Japanese restaurant. Literally there was at least 60 of us there. When you walked into the restaurant (had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor) there was food galore! I mean I couldn’t eat most of it because it was raw fish everywhere…like really raw…and not in a sushi roll. But there were some dishes like cooked fish, soup, bi bim bop and so forth that I could eat and it was very delicious. We talked with some of the other English teachers for a bit and then on of the Physical Ed teachers sat next to me and Michael to talk for a while. He wanted to meet us and ask how old we were. He was 25 years old but when I first saw him I thought he was 21. He was very nice but me and Michael can’t remember what his name is! It is extremely difficult to remember the Korean names…I’ll need to work on that ASAP. He asked if we drink (alcoholic beverages), we both nodded and he suggested that we go out for dinner and drinks sometime soon. I can’t wait to start hanging out with my teachers outside of work!
I was super excited today because I was able to actually co-teach with one of my teachers today. Un Hyun is the third grade English teacher so I stuck with her all day. Typically I would teach with the fourth grade English teacher in the last period but 12 classes is too many for one teacher so the third grade English teacher (Un Hyun) teaches 2 fourth grade classes. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, today I taught the students how to write the letters “Aa, Bb, Cc” and then we did a role play. The textbooks are specifically designed to incorporate listening, speaking, writing, singing, and role-play into the lessons in order for the students to get as much exposure to the language as possible within 40 minutes. Un Hyun and I went back and forth teaching specific portions of the lesson. I was very surprised with eagerness of the students. You can tell that they want to learn English and they were very willing to guess the answers even if they were not entirely correct. The role-play did not go as well as intended with the 3rd grade because they did not really understand the instructions even when explained in Korean (the English classes are taught in both English and Korean; sometimes the teacher will ask what a certain English phrase means in Korean, etc.). Un Hyun and I decided that maybe the role-play could just be between me and the class as a whole. That worked much better in the later classes.
I was so excited with my last class of the day. It was a fourth grade class so they understood a little more vocabulary than the other classes because the others were third grade. The lesson went very smoothly; the Korean-English teacher and I worked very well with the tag-teaming and then the last portion of the lesson was role-play. They had to listen and watch a short animated video about snow white and the witch. Before the video I asked them if they could tell me who the princess was and who the old woman was. They answered “princess” and “witch.” They watched and listened to the clip and I asked them questions about what they heard. They recited many of the lines that were said and I asked them other questions for comprehension purposes. They were all right! After watching the video several more times and reciting the lines, my co-teacher and I split them into groups of four students and had them act out what they saw. After some practice, we asked for volunteers to perform in front of class. It was awesome! They did so well! I was so happy! I wish you could’ve seen it! They had some troubles with memorizing the lines (but it was kind of a long skit…I wouldn’t of been able to remember it all!). Overall, a very successful day!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Side Note
I just still can't believe I actually did this. I mean, I'm actually in Korea for one WHOLE year. It still doesn't seem like reality. I need a pinch or something.
Momma
Sunday August 29th
My co-teacher came over this morning just to make sure I was OK and actually ended up making me some soup because I was coughing so bad and I hadn’t eaten breakfast. What a nice man! I lounged around for a bit and my mother actually made it to my apartment around 5:00pm. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see her; especially being this sick, I just wanted my mom! We had to do some more shopping so we went to that Wal-Mart type store and bought some more food and some other necessities. We’re pretty settled in now except for the fact that my mother is still living out of suitcases since there’s only furniture for one. We’ll have to do some furniture shopping this week to help her get settled in. I will, unfortunately, have to wear a mask tomorrow in class because I’m still very, very sick and can’t get rid of this cough ☹ Hopefully it will go away real soon because I want to teach!
My co-teacher came over this morning just to make sure I was OK and actually ended up making me some soup because I was coughing so bad and I hadn’t eaten breakfast. What a nice man! I lounged around for a bit and my mother actually made it to my apartment around 5:00pm. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see her; especially being this sick, I just wanted my mom! We had to do some more shopping so we went to that Wal-Mart type store and bought some more food and some other necessities. We’re pretty settled in now except for the fact that my mother is still living out of suitcases since there’s only furniture for one. We’ll have to do some furniture shopping this week to help her get settled in. I will, unfortunately, have to wear a mask tomorrow in class because I’m still very, very sick and can’t get rid of this cough ☹ Hopefully it will go away real soon because I want to teach!
Lost and Found
Saturday August 28th
Nothing too exciting today....just still sick…of course. I pretty much stayed in for most of the day. I was able to sleep in so that felt really nice. Michael was planning to go into downtown Daegu to meet some other foreign teachers at the Holy Grill so I was planning on having and uneventful night in. Around 7:00pm Michael ended up coming over because he couldn’t figure out how to get to where he needed to be since none of the taxi drivers could speak English. Neither of us had eaten so we decided to walk somewhere and get some good Korean food. We made sure not to take too many turns because we would totally get lost. We walked for about 10-15 minutes into the town part of where we are and found a small restaurant along the street we were on. We the menu unfortunately didn’t have any English writing so we looked over at the table next to us and said we wanted what they were having. It was SOOOO good. It was some sort of chicken with really good sauce…so good. I couldn’t eat very much because my stomach wasn’t agreeing with me; sad times because it was really good. So we start walking only to realize that we have no idea how to get back home…every turn we made seemed as if we were going further away from where we were supposed to be going. We walked for about 30 minutes in all directions and we said if this corner is not familiar, we’ll get a taxi. Sure enough…we needed a taxi. Our co-teacher, Simon, was kind enough to write down our address in Korean earlier today just in case something like this were to happen. I haled down a cap (I felt like a New Yorker) and showed the driver the address…”I dunno” he said and drove off…WOW, we’re in trouble now. The freakin cab driver doesn’t even know where we live! Deep breaths. So we found our way back to the restaurant and carefully retraced our steps. With some patience and teamwork we found our way to some familiar streets and restaurants and we could tell we were definitely getting warmer. Thank goodness! We walked no more than 15 minutes and ended up getting lost for an hour! We seriously need to learn our way around this place and fast!
Nothing too exciting today....just still sick…of course. I pretty much stayed in for most of the day. I was able to sleep in so that felt really nice. Michael was planning to go into downtown Daegu to meet some other foreign teachers at the Holy Grill so I was planning on having and uneventful night in. Around 7:00pm Michael ended up coming over because he couldn’t figure out how to get to where he needed to be since none of the taxi drivers could speak English. Neither of us had eaten so we decided to walk somewhere and get some good Korean food. We made sure not to take too many turns because we would totally get lost. We walked for about 10-15 minutes into the town part of where we are and found a small restaurant along the street we were on. We the menu unfortunately didn’t have any English writing so we looked over at the table next to us and said we wanted what they were having. It was SOOOO good. It was some sort of chicken with really good sauce…so good. I couldn’t eat very much because my stomach wasn’t agreeing with me; sad times because it was really good. So we start walking only to realize that we have no idea how to get back home…every turn we made seemed as if we were going further away from where we were supposed to be going. We walked for about 30 minutes in all directions and we said if this corner is not familiar, we’ll get a taxi. Sure enough…we needed a taxi. Our co-teacher, Simon, was kind enough to write down our address in Korean earlier today just in case something like this were to happen. I haled down a cap (I felt like a New Yorker) and showed the driver the address…”I dunno” he said and drove off…WOW, we’re in trouble now. The freakin cab driver doesn’t even know where we live! Deep breaths. So we found our way back to the restaurant and carefully retraced our steps. With some patience and teamwork we found our way to some familiar streets and restaurants and we could tell we were definitely getting warmer. Thank goodness! We walked no more than 15 minutes and ended up getting lost for an hour! We seriously need to learn our way around this place and fast!
Haknam Elementary
Friday August 27th
Michael and I worked it out to where we will meet Monday-Friday mornings at 8:10AM in a mini-park right outside of my apartment so that we can walk to school together. This was the first day we tested out our plan and it worked perfectly. It only took like 7 minutes to walk to our school so we were a bit early. Before we set foot in the school, everyone has to take off their shoes and put on their slippers (no complaints here, I would love to stand all day in some comfortable slippers!). We met the principle and vice principles (2 vice principles) and they seemed very nice. We just said “hi” and sat around while they talked in Korean. They said I had a really kind face and they told Michael he was very handsome and that he looked like Matt Damon lol. They said I looked Korean and I told them about Mom. It took them a while to understand why I don’t speak Korean…took me a long time to understand why too! Lol. After our little chat we went upstairs to the fourth floor where our offices are. The English teachers share an office that is placed in the back of the 5th grade room. Pretty roomy and each teacher has a computer (except for me because I don’t think they knew with enough notice that they were getting two teachers).
At this point we were told that I would co-teach the 3rd and 5th grade and Michael would teach 4th and 6th grade. The 5th grade English teacher asked if I would like to observe and I said yes. I had to introduce myself in font of the class and the children were all very interested in me. After a quick intro, I stepped to the back and watched Mina teach. She is quite wonderful with the students. I could tell they respected her and when she needed their attention she would just be silent and stare until they directed their attention to her. The 5th and 6th grade teachers are supplied with a smart-board (Tash, I’m so sad I will not be able to utilize this! It looks so neat and totally handy in the classroom!). They have an English textbook for each grade and the English learning begins at grade 3. The book comes along with a CD for the teachers that includes different voice recordings and sing-a-longs for the children to partake in. As I was watching, I was getting really excited be I have several different ideas that I want to run by my co-teachers in the 3rd and 4th grades. I want to incorporate games and fun music so I’m totally ready to start lesson planning.
After a little discussion, our four co-teachers decided that it would be better and easier if I teach 3rd and 4th grade while Michael teaches 5th and 6th grade. I completely agreed because it just made more sense and each of the co-teachers would just have to plan with one of us rather than both me and Michael. So I will be working with Suri (she’s a newer teacher at the elementary school) and she teaches 4th grade. I was able to observe her class and she seemed like she was very positive and kept the attention of the children without a hitch. I’m really excited to teach with her because she expressed, right off the bat, that I am welcome to share ANY ideas I have about the lessons and she seems like she WANTS me to be there. That was a major relief because we heard some horror stories about some teachers who will not let you really teach. This should be a great partnership. As far as the 3rd grade teacher goes, she seems very nice and the other English teachers call her the “mother” of the teachers because she’s always looking out for everyone. I haven’t had a chance to observe her class but I’m sure I will this next coming week.
Apparently our day starts around 8:40AM and the teaching ends around 12:00PM. After that we eat lunch and then stay at school until about 4:00pm to lesson plan and such. So I will be working 40 hours but teaching only 22 hours…if that makes sense.
So I got even more sick this day and one of my co-teachers Simon, was so gracious and took me to the hospital to get a shot and some medication. This is now the 3rd time I’ve gotten sick…this is the sickness from HELL. I CAN’T get rid of it! ☹ This whole weekend I will have to be inside doing NOTHING, while everyone is out at the Body Painting Festival, which is all I’ve been talking about since the last week. Stupid sickness.
Michael and I worked it out to where we will meet Monday-Friday mornings at 8:10AM in a mini-park right outside of my apartment so that we can walk to school together. This was the first day we tested out our plan and it worked perfectly. It only took like 7 minutes to walk to our school so we were a bit early. Before we set foot in the school, everyone has to take off their shoes and put on their slippers (no complaints here, I would love to stand all day in some comfortable slippers!). We met the principle and vice principles (2 vice principles) and they seemed very nice. We just said “hi” and sat around while they talked in Korean. They said I had a really kind face and they told Michael he was very handsome and that he looked like Matt Damon lol. They said I looked Korean and I told them about Mom. It took them a while to understand why I don’t speak Korean…took me a long time to understand why too! Lol. After our little chat we went upstairs to the fourth floor where our offices are. The English teachers share an office that is placed in the back of the 5th grade room. Pretty roomy and each teacher has a computer (except for me because I don’t think they knew with enough notice that they were getting two teachers).
At this point we were told that I would co-teach the 3rd and 5th grade and Michael would teach 4th and 6th grade. The 5th grade English teacher asked if I would like to observe and I said yes. I had to introduce myself in font of the class and the children were all very interested in me. After a quick intro, I stepped to the back and watched Mina teach. She is quite wonderful with the students. I could tell they respected her and when she needed their attention she would just be silent and stare until they directed their attention to her. The 5th and 6th grade teachers are supplied with a smart-board (Tash, I’m so sad I will not be able to utilize this! It looks so neat and totally handy in the classroom!). They have an English textbook for each grade and the English learning begins at grade 3. The book comes along with a CD for the teachers that includes different voice recordings and sing-a-longs for the children to partake in. As I was watching, I was getting really excited be I have several different ideas that I want to run by my co-teachers in the 3rd and 4th grades. I want to incorporate games and fun music so I’m totally ready to start lesson planning.
After a little discussion, our four co-teachers decided that it would be better and easier if I teach 3rd and 4th grade while Michael teaches 5th and 6th grade. I completely agreed because it just made more sense and each of the co-teachers would just have to plan with one of us rather than both me and Michael. So I will be working with Suri (she’s a newer teacher at the elementary school) and she teaches 4th grade. I was able to observe her class and she seemed like she was very positive and kept the attention of the children without a hitch. I’m really excited to teach with her because she expressed, right off the bat, that I am welcome to share ANY ideas I have about the lessons and she seems like she WANTS me to be there. That was a major relief because we heard some horror stories about some teachers who will not let you really teach. This should be a great partnership. As far as the 3rd grade teacher goes, she seems very nice and the other English teachers call her the “mother” of the teachers because she’s always looking out for everyone. I haven’t had a chance to observe her class but I’m sure I will this next coming week.
Apparently our day starts around 8:40AM and the teaching ends around 12:00PM. After that we eat lunch and then stay at school until about 4:00pm to lesson plan and such. So I will be working 40 hours but teaching only 22 hours…if that makes sense.
So I got even more sick this day and one of my co-teachers Simon, was so gracious and took me to the hospital to get a shot and some medication. This is now the 3rd time I’ve gotten sick…this is the sickness from HELL. I CAN’T get rid of it! ☹ This whole weekend I will have to be inside doing NOTHING, while everyone is out at the Body Painting Festival, which is all I’ve been talking about since the last week. Stupid sickness.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sick of the Sickness
Tuesday-Thursday August 24-26
So I’ve been sick for the past several days off and on. I’m super bummed. It started Tuesday night and I can’t seem to get rid of it. Tuesday night a couple of the EPIK staff took me to the emergency room to try and lower my 103-degree fever. I ended up staying there until 6:00AM. I made it back only to sleep for several hours and to wake up to the same fever. I had to miss my presentation (this presentation was pretty important…like everything we learned about lesson planning and so forth was all preparation for this presentation) so that the nurse could take me to a doctor’s office to get a shot and some more medication. They gave me a shot in my bum and then gave me some pills for the next three days. I made it back to the EPIK site Wednesday, in time to meet our POE’s of whom told us where we were going to be located and which school we were going to be teaching. I found out that I was going to be teaching at Haknam Elementary in Seobu Disctric Daegu. It is a newer part of Daegu that was recently built. I was able to sit through the farewell dinner that night and then made it back to my room to sleep while many other went out for the last night.
The next morning was pretty smooth. We all had to load our luggage onto these UHaul looking trucks according to which city we were going to. The bus ride took about 2.5-3 hours and we arrived at Daegu University. I was super nervous because this is where we were going to meet our co-teachers. This co-teacher was pretty much going to be our go-to person and we were going to be teaching with them in the classroom. It’s very important to establish a good relationship with this person right off the bat. Seobu district was called second and after a bit of confusion was sorted out we were all led to a room that was full of Korean teachers holding up signs with our names on them. I spotted a Korean man holding a sign with my name at the very front of this auditorium. (ok, Deep Breaths, remember to smile, have a friendly face, make a good impression.) I started walking towards the man but he started walking the opposite direction parallel to the stage at the front. I realized that there were TWO people he was there for. Huh? Only one foreign teacher was supposed to be assigned to each school. Sure enough, both me and Michael would be teaching at the same school. Our co-teacher’s name is Simon and we also met a woman who happened to be an administrator for our school. I didn’t know Michael very well while we were at EPIK because he was in a different class so I never really was near him. He seems very nice and I’m grateful that I will have someone who is going through the same thing I am in the same school.
In our lectures, the professors stressed that Koreans feel nervous if you don’t talk or make conversation because they think you are unhappy. So, me and Michael talked it up in the car with our co-teacher and the woman administrator. Our co-teacher’s name is Simon, he’s 40 years old and has 2 little boys; one is 8 years old and the other is 6 years old. Simon has been teaching for 10 years and before that he worked as a medic for the military after only 6 weeks of training. He is very nice and very funny. He was listening to Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton in his car (awesome). We had to drop off the administrator at the school…wow, what a big school! Apparently it’s the largest elementary school in Daegu. 2,000 kids! Let me repeat that….TWO THOUSAND KIDS! In an elementary school! There are 70 teachers and 30 administrators…100 staff members. Goodness gracious! It looks like a small college! No joke! Oh man, the jitters started. But it was only Thursday so we had to do some other things and Friday we would actually go inside.
Our co-teacher took us to a Wal-mart type store in order for us to buy some essentials to get us through until our first paycheck. We were each given 300,000 won which works out to be a little under $300. Pretty good deal. We had to buy things like a clothes rack (no dryers for clothes, only washing machines), bath towel, bottled water, dish soap, laundry detergent, fabric softener, hangers, trash bags (they separate their trash-there are like six different categories…haven’t figured all of them out yet), tooth paste, paper towels, sponges for dishes, sandwich meet, bread, mayo, fork, spoon, chopsticks, clock, and batteries. After this 2 hour shopping spree, me, Michael, and Simon were very tired but we needed to eat so Simon took us to a small restaurant to have some spicy noodles. This restaurant was the real deal…take off your shoes after you walk in and sit on the floor with a pillow under your bum. Welcome to Korea. We had some nice conversation with Simon. Turns out he really likes Soju J and so does his wife. He was making jokes about it the whole time; it was very funny. Michael and I decided to pay for Simon’s meal since he had done so much for us; Simon did not put up a fight lol.
After dinner Simon walked us around a little while to see the night life of where we were. It looked like a Koreanized New York. Very bright, a lot of lights, many vendors on the side of the street, little arcade games (basketball, the thing where you bop the heads) and such. There were a lot of karaoke bars and we passed a motel. Michael told Simon that he’d heard about the motels in Korea and Simon went on to explain that these type of motels were for “one night” lol. Of course. Lol. Simon drove us back home, my apartment was first. He walked me all the way up to make sure I could get into my apartment ok and we said goodnight; I was sure to thank him for everything. I was extremely tired so I didn’t bother to unpack and went to sleep. I had a lot of trouble sleeping but I got through it.
My room is very cozy and nice, a lot more than I expected. Everything I need is here; I may need a couple of end tables for my bed but other than that I am very happy with my place. I have everything unpacked so it's feeling more and more like mine. I may also need to buy some decorations to make it more like my personality...
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
No Internet
Ok so I'm totally going to be without internet for an unknown period of time. I have to get my ARC (alien registration card) before I can set up my internet and that takes a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that when my mother gets her F-4 visa, that will give her less limitations and she can set up the internet in her name. SO, my blog will be pretty lame for the next few weeks, bare with me. I'll post a blog as soon as I can. Wish me luck in my school!
Monday, August 23, 2010
wow
So...I just found out that I will probably be without internet for the first three weeks that I am at the final destination... I mean, ok, let me rephrase... I will be WITHOUT INTERNET FOR THREE WEEKS while I'm in the first weeks of my job. WOW that's really kind of a mess because I cannot register for the internet until I get my Alien Registration Card..which will that several weeks...oh my goodness what will I do. It's not only cutting into my time I have with teaching materials but also with family members that I currently have in Korea...what will happen? I have no clue.
I was finally able to call my mother...however, I happened to buy a 10,000 won calling card before doing so. Little did I know that a calling card was for international calls...my mother already had a phone for South Korea so I didn't need a calling card at all, all I needed was a phone! Silly me. My mother is doing well and just waiting for my placement to be finalized.
It was the last day of Korean Classes...I know not very much more than I did before starting the class because of the way she taught English. What a shame. I think I am going to buy Rosetta Stone for myself because apparently we only teach about 15 hours per semester...which takes into account the academic closes, any holidays that include your co teacher, she will let you know if you need anything. I'm fine...according to our age which will also be discussed once i get my results. I chose for Daegu or anywhere else in China. OK my eyes are closing so bad; i'll keep you posted.
I was finally able to call my mother...however, I happened to buy a 10,000 won calling card before doing so. Little did I know that a calling card was for international calls...my mother already had a phone for South Korea so I didn't need a calling card at all, all I needed was a phone! Silly me. My mother is doing well and just waiting for my placement to be finalized.
It was the last day of Korean Classes...I know not very much more than I did before starting the class because of the way she taught English. What a shame. I think I am going to buy Rosetta Stone for myself because apparently we only teach about 15 hours per semester...which takes into account the academic closes, any holidays that include your co teacher, she will let you know if you need anything. I'm fine...according to our age which will also be discussed once i get my results. I chose for Daegu or anywhere else in China. OK my eyes are closing so bad; i'll keep you posted.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Field Trip
August 23, 2010
So today we had a field trip where they took al the EPIK teachers to the JeonJu Hanok Village and the Keumsan Temple. We met this morning at 9:00AM and it took about 30 minutes to ride from the JeonJu University campus to the village. It was a pretty cool village…however, the weather was not so cool. I think I would’ve enjoyed myself much more if it were not a million degrees outside and if the humidity was not like 98%. I mean really…everyone…and I mean everyone was sweating in their baby blue EPIK polo shirts that they made us all wear. It was horrible, just wretched. The village was nice and very authentic but is was just too hot for anyone to enjoy themselves. But there were some highlights like the making of a traditional fan which ended up being like an arts and crafts session for one hour; Fun stuff! Then we watched the Samulnori Performance and it was really neat…I just couldn’t stop thinking about how extremely hot the performers had to have been with their outfits on! I mean just ridiculous! I could see the women’s faces melting off. It was so hot that we were supposed to have a guided tour throughout the Village but it was called off/cancelled because of how hot it was going to be! They made us go anyway… to explore on our own, in the heatstroke worthy heat. It was THAT bad.
We then arrived at the Keumsan Temple which was really pretty cool and just beautiful decorations. There was a fresh water stream that flowed through the grounds and it was really quite nice. After we explored through the temples, we relaxed in the stream (very cool water); took off our shoes and sat where our feet could sway in the water as we cooled off. It was very relaxing. Families were everywhere; it was wonderful; very family friendly.
I just got back from an outing with friends. We went to the same places but the first place was out of draught beer so we ate a plate of chicken and moved on to the next place that has the slushy soju. This time we brought a deck of cards with us and played drinking games with those. We had a great time and no one got really drunk; we just had a great time socializing, drinking, and laughing. I like all of the people in my class (we’ve been separated into classes depending on the city you will be teaching and I’m in class 3 for Daegu; Daegu has 3,4, and 5 because we’re the largest group). Everyone is very nice and extremely easy to get along with. I can’t wait until we’re actually placed into our schools and then get to hang out with each other on the weekends!
Goodbye Soju, Hello Hangover
August 20-21
After dinner last night we had our first Korean language lesson. An older Korean woman taught the lesson for one hour and it was quite difficult. But, it seems as if the most important part is learning the basics. Learning the alphabet and the sounds is extremely important; then once you’ve got that down and can recognize it/produce the proper sounds, then you can go about figuring out most of the rest of the language. At the conclusion with the first lesson we were all able to say “hello, my name is ________. I am from ______. It is nice to meet you.” So that was good. But while trying to learn this language, I kept trying to pronounce everything with the rules that I learned from Spanish…this didn’t help anything. Trying to learn this language will be more difficult for me because I still have the Spanish language speaking mindset. Goodness gracious. I really think I will buy Rosetta Stone with my first paycheck.
After our Korean lesson a pretty large group of us decided to go out and have a few drinks. There aren’t very many places where we are…there’s literally ONE street that has any kind of life on it and most of the places are little convenience stores but we found this one restaurant that served chicken and beer. The platter of chicken that was ordered was delicious and the Hite beer was a pretty good light beer. The Hite was served in the largest pitcher I have ever seen! I mean look at this…
After we had all had at least one beer, we decided to get some Soju. This was my first experience with Soju . They poured everyone a shot and of course, anyone who knows me is completely aware of the fact that I CANNOT take shots. So, I sipped it to see what it tasted like and it was like watered down vodka. Still not watered down enough for me to take it and everyone was teasing me lol. So I stuck with the beer. After we had a few pitchers at that place (it was super cheap, everyone split it and it was like 6,000 won which is like $6…pretty freakin awesome) we went a couple doors down to a sit down bar type place that was playing western music like John Legend.
This is where I found out about how awesome Soju can be. They had these pitchers of slushy drinks with Soju in them that were peach and melon flavored. It literally tasted like a sweet slushy and you couldn’t taste the alcohol one bit. We were taking shots of that all night and that’s what really messed me up. The next morning (this morning) I felt like death. That was one of the worst hangovers I’d ever had and what made it even worse was the fact that we were in classes from 9:00AM to 5:00PM with a lunch break in between. I wanted to sleep so bad and could think of nothing more than laying in my bed at home in the U.S. with the pillow top mattress and my familiar pillows. Today was a really rough day to get through and it seemed to last for ages! (pictures on facebook)
Most of our classes were pretty cool and one of the classes was about different places in Korea we should visit. I can’t wait to experience all of these places and festivals. There’s this Mud Festival that looks completely awesome and I will make it a point to go there even if I have to go by myself. There’s also a Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring time which would be beautiful. Some beaches were mentioned and some ancient grounds were shown so this year will be full of travels!
I’m taking it easy tonight because I just can’t stomach going out like that again tonight but a lot of my friends here are troopers and hardcore because most of them went out again tonight. You know, it’s funny because most of my friends here are from Britain and I can hear my accent/choice of words changing a bit. Like for instance, a simple sentence like “Do you watch a lot of TV?” When I typically ask a question like this, the end of the sentence is where my pitch would rise to finish the question right? Well now, since I’ve been hearing the British accent so often, the higher pitch is placed on “a lot.” It’s strange how quickly the other’s accents and way of saying things can rub off on you. My friend Gemma is from Britain and I’ve almost got her saying “awesome” on a regular basis. They also call popsicles “ice lollies.”
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Poked and Prodded
August 20, 2010
We had our medical check ups today...they tested everything! We walked into the auditorium and had to answer a questionnaire with questions such as: have you ever had any problems with your back, ankles, hips, knees; Do you have asthma; How often do you feel stressed or depressed; ect. Then they weighed and measured us, tested our vision (strange because the eye sight test is typically with letters of the alphabet and this one was with numbers... so when she pointed to the number I wasn’t sure if it was a 5 or an S!), tested if we were color blind, then took 3 blood samples! I’m surprised they didn’t take a hair sample as well. Then…the urine sample…I kid you not! This was definitely the awkward part.
They gave us a little cup (I mean like a little Dixie cup with NO lid) and we had to fill it at least a third of the way. Well if I had known prior to this medical check up that a urine sample was going to be administered I wouldn’t have peed before we got there! So, I went into the stall and found a hole in the floor…awesome, just the thing to top this whole morning off. A squatie. So I go to do my business and, of course, I cannot produce a sufficient amount…I mean I could only produce enough to cover the bottom of the cup. Awesome. I start busting out laughing because one of my friends here was waiting outside my stall to go next and I told her what the problem was. I literally had to do the walk of shame out of the bathroom, holding my cup of insufficient pee and wait on the steps with a bottle of water. Luckily, my roommate was experiencing the same problems. Then, sure enough, we had a whole little group of people, men and women, waiting on the steps with us because no one had to actually pee. Thirty minutes later I said “to hell with this” and tried one more time...only adding a couple more drops to my cup and I took it to the nurse saying I just didn’t have it in me…literally. Thank goodness she said that it should be enough to get what they needed (it wasn’t even a fourth of the cup full so I don’t even know how the others were able to produce much more than what I had).
After I submitted my urine sample I had to go on a bus so they could take an x-ray of my chest…goodness gracious where does this end….Poked and Prodded this morning. This was the final stage and after this it was over. I was so hungry after this because we were unable to eat 6 hours before these tests were administered and I fell asleep last night before 10pm. We topped off our morning by eating at a Paris Baguette and I had a cinnamon twist donut…mmmm!
First day of classes are today so after lunch we’ll see what happens! I think I’m going out with several of my fellow teachers tonight after the classes end around 8pm. There’s this little chicken place down the street (the one street that’s about a five minute walk there and back and pretty much the only road we have with any type of life on it) that serves beer and such. This should be a good time and I can have some of the Hite beer here!
Snackypoos
Orientation
August 19, 2010
Orientation
Well today was not such a busy day. I skipped breakfast so that I could get an extra 45 minutes of sleep (every minute counts). We had a campus tour at 10:00am and the campus is relatively small so it didn’t take very long. It was EXTREMELY hot outside so we cut it a little short.
*Side note: I thought living in the south (Georgia) would prepare me for the heat in Korea…boy was I mistaken big time! The humidity here is 10 times worse than in Georgia and was completely unexpected. The moment I walk outside my face melts off…not very fun at all.
Our meals are provided for us while we are at orientation and for lunch we had rice, kimchi, spaghetti, soup, and peach tea. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am not a tea drinker; whether it be, hot tea, cold tea, sweet/unsweetened tea or green tea I will not drink it. To my surprise, this peach tea was quite good and I had a second cup of it. So, ladies and gentlemen, I am now a tea drinker…as long as it’s peachy…
After lunch we had a couple of hours before the welcoming ceremony started so I got a chance to head downstairs to one of the Family Marts to get some snacks for the room. Then I was finally able to Skype with Cale and catch him up on everything since I was finally able to get my internet working with the help of a fellow teacher (Apple computers need special attention apparently). Cale filled me in on the new Fresh Market that recently hit the Columbus area of which I am very upset that I was unable to see it before I left. The pictures looked awesome and I can’t wait to hit that up when I get back.
The orientation went really well. The 5 Drum Dance was performed by several Korean women (which was so awesome and the music was great), a Taekwondo performance was put on the Taekwondo students (great stunts and board breaking), and the Traditional Fan Dance was performed by several more Korean women (so beautiful and the women were unimaginably graceful!). Overall, it was a fantastic show (hopefully, video of some parts of the show will be posted once I get some editing done) and I can’t wait to see more of this wonderful culture. Apparently the EPIK staff randomly and quite often invite their teachers to field trips where they visit certain famous places and such so hopefully I will be able to tag along on some, if not most of those little excursions.
We then attended a lecture by one of the EPIK teachers that is currently teaching in another city. She was very helpful in terms of what to do and what not to do. She did really well by making us aware of certain gestures and cultural differences that we will probably encounter in our schools. Like, for instance, the Koreans really do not like to disappoint and generally want to make others happy so sometimes they will say yes or agree to something when really they mean the exact opposite. It’s simply because they do not want to let you down or make you unhappy. Because of this, it is best to ask questions to make sure you are both on the same page.
Dinner was more extravagant than anyone had anticipated. There was a white tent set up outside and underneath it were several round tables with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, glass bottles of cokes, and bottled water. The chairs were covered with blue covers and white bows on the back. It was set up just like a wedding reception would be. It was wonderful. The food was awesome! Rice, kimchi, so calbe, kim bop, chicken, chop chae, and more! It was delicious and a perfect end to a great day (aside from the extreme heat!)
My body is still adjusting to the time difference and right now, in Korea, it’s 9:20PM…I’m about to head to bed…I can’t remember the last time I went to bed before 10:00PM but my eyelids are falling closed! SO tired.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I met a lot of people today. Most of the people I have met are from Europe and the west coast of the U.S. I feel a bit more like myself now and I’m finally being social like normal so it’s slowly but surely getting better. Tomorrow is the beginning of the actual bookwork lessons/lectures so we’ll see how it goes! I’ll keep you posted!
Orientation
Well today was not such a busy day. I skipped breakfast so that I could get an extra 45 minutes of sleep (every minute counts). We had a campus tour at 10:00am and the campus is relatively small so it didn’t take very long. It was EXTREMELY hot outside so we cut it a little short.
*Side note: I thought living in the south (Georgia) would prepare me for the heat in Korea…boy was I mistaken big time! The humidity here is 10 times worse than in Georgia and was completely unexpected. The moment I walk outside my face melts off…not very fun at all.
Our meals are provided for us while we are at orientation and for lunch we had rice, kimchi, spaghetti, soup, and peach tea. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am not a tea drinker; whether it be, hot tea, cold tea, sweet/unsweetened tea or green tea I will not drink it. To my surprise, this peach tea was quite good and I had a second cup of it. So, ladies and gentlemen, I am now a tea drinker…as long as it’s peachy…
After lunch we had a couple of hours before the welcoming ceremony started so I got a chance to head downstairs to one of the Family Marts to get some snacks for the room. Then I was finally able to Skype with Cale and catch him up on everything since I was finally able to get my internet working with the help of a fellow teacher (Apple computers need special attention apparently). Cale filled me in on the new Fresh Market that recently hit the Columbus area of which I am very upset that I was unable to see it before I left. The pictures looked awesome and I can’t wait to hit that up when I get back.
The orientation went really well. The 5 Drum Dance was performed by several Korean women (which was so awesome and the music was great), a Taekwondo performance was put on the Taekwondo students (great stunts and board breaking), and the Traditional Fan Dance was performed by several more Korean women (so beautiful and the women were unimaginably graceful!). Overall, it was a fantastic show (hopefully, video of some parts of the show will be posted once I get some editing done) and I can’t wait to see more of this wonderful culture. Apparently the EPIK staff randomly and quite often invite their teachers to field trips where they visit certain famous places and such so hopefully I will be able to tag along on some, if not most of those little excursions.
We then attended a lecture by one of the EPIK teachers that is currently teaching in another city. She was very helpful in terms of what to do and what not to do. She did really well by making us aware of certain gestures and cultural differences that we will probably encounter in our schools. Like, for instance, the Koreans really do not like to disappoint and generally want to make others happy so sometimes they will say yes or agree to something when really they mean the exact opposite. It’s simply because they do not want to let you down or make you unhappy. Because of this, it is best to ask questions to make sure you are both on the same page.
Dinner was more extravagant than anyone had anticipated. There was a white tent set up outside and underneath it were several round tables with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, glass bottles of cokes, and bottled water. The chairs were covered with blue covers and white bows on the back. It was set up just like a wedding reception would be. It was wonderful. The food was awesome! Rice, kimchi, so calbe, kim bop, chicken, chop chae, and more! It was delicious and a perfect end to a great day (aside from the extreme heat!)
My body is still adjusting to the time difference and right now, in Korea, it’s 9:20PM…I’m about to head to bed…I can’t remember the last time I went to bed before 10:00PM but my eyelids are falling closed! SO tired.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I met a lot of people today. Most of the people I have met are from Europe and the west coast of the U.S. I feel a bit more like myself now and I’m finally being social like normal so it’s slowly but surely getting better. Tomorrow is the beginning of the actual bookwork lessons/lectures so we’ll see how it goes! I’ll keep you posted!
Dorms
August 18-19th
We’ve made it to our dorm rooms and I have met my roomie! Her name is Bethan and she’s from Whales. She seems really nice and I love to hear her speak because of her accent! I mean…she actually says “bollucks!” Love it! She said that she has done this once before in Japan and she loved it. She is currently working on her thesis for her masters and is supposed to turn it in something in the beginning of September so that’s mostly what she’ll be working on while were at this orientation…completely understandable.
I am extremely irritated because I cannot get my internet running! I feel naked without it and completely disconnected from the world. Tomorrow I should have it up and running.
We’ve made it to our dorm rooms and I have met my roomie! Her name is Bethan and she’s from Whales. She seems really nice and I love to hear her speak because of her accent! I mean…she actually says “bollucks!” Love it! She said that she has done this once before in Japan and she loved it. She is currently working on her thesis for her masters and is supposed to turn it in something in the beginning of September so that’s mostly what she’ll be working on while were at this orientation…completely understandable.
I am extremely irritated because I cannot get my internet running! I feel naked without it and completely disconnected from the world. Tomorrow I should have it up and running.
Transport
August 18th
After going through customs and baggage claim, mom immediately found her cousin waiting for her in the airport pickup area. It took us a little longer to find where I was supposed to be but nevertheless, we found it. We said our goodbyes and I am now on the bus to JeonJu University where the 10 day orientation is being held. It’s a 3-4 hours bus ride so here we go. I have to fight the sleep! I need to get on a normal schedule immediately.!
I feel so out of my element; not me. I’m sitting on the bus by myself when typically I’m a social person and would’ve sat with someone. ☹ hopefully I’ll get over this anxiety soon; I don’t like being like this…
After going through customs and baggage claim, mom immediately found her cousin waiting for her in the airport pickup area. It took us a little longer to find where I was supposed to be but nevertheless, we found it. We said our goodbyes and I am now on the bus to JeonJu University where the 10 day orientation is being held. It’s a 3-4 hours bus ride so here we go. I have to fight the sleep! I need to get on a normal schedule immediately.!
I feel so out of my element; not me. I’m sitting on the bus by myself when typically I’m a social person and would’ve sat with someone. ☹ hopefully I’ll get over this anxiety soon; I don’t like being like this…
Spreading My Wings
August 18, 2010
‘Spreading My Wings’
Cale,
It is 2 hours and 44 minutes before our arrival time in Korea; we have 1406 miles to fly before we reach our destination; we are flying at an altitude of 38101 feet. I was thinking that maybe I should keep a log of some sort that describes my experiences while I’m in Korea. Maybe I could do a blog but I’m not sure if people would read it and I’m not sure how often I would keep up with it…basically, if I do it this way I feel as though it would be less pressure ;) If I do start a blog…this can be my first post lol, but for now it can suffice as an attachment I send to you in the first email. J
Well the wait for the plane was not as bad as I was thinking. The time went by pretty fast since I was texting people and went on facebook for the last hour we were waiting for our flight to be called for boarding. When we got on the plane my mom’s backpack almost didn’t fit in the overhead bin because it was too wide lol it was like the PERFECT fit no lie. I took pictures of the welcome goodies we each had on our chairs when we got to our seats… pretty awesome and they even had little slippers lol. I also took pictures and video of the screens we have on the back of all the seats in the economy section of the flight. I mean really? There’s a touch screen on the back of all the seats and a little remote that it attached to it for easy navigation. There are options such as: movies, music, games, flight camera, etc. and then under all of those options there are sub categories like new releases, pop/rock, classical, front or rear camera, etc. I mean…it’s pretty darn neat. Like Naomi said, “who needs first class?!”
The food on the plane is really good too…way better than expected. The first meal was a choice between bi bim bop and something else (the moment I heard bi bim bop I toned her out because I was so excited about eating that meal). It didn’t even taste like airplane food really. They had the sesame oil and red bean paste in little squeeze tubes like toothpaste. Soooo Gooood! Then they kept coming by with juices and wines and such (no I did not have a glass of wine). The second meal was a choice between beef stew and pasta (you know I can’t pass up beef stew regardless of where it’s from) and it seriously was not half bad. It definitely tasted better than any microwavable beef stew I’ve had. I was pleasantly surprised. I just really like Korean Air. The flight attendants are so sweet and their outfits/uniforms are so pretty; makes them look like beautiful, porcelain, Asian dolls. Overall rating of Korean Air: 10 out of 10. Will I choose to fly Korean Air again? Most definitely; will be my first choice.
I got a window seat, which is awesome, however…the only downfall would be the whole getting up to go to the bathroom thing. There is a third person in our row and I feel so rude asking her to get up (sometimes I had to wake her from her nap) so that I can relieve myself. I kept holding it in until it was absolutely necessary that I go. The first time I had to go, the “isle seat stranger” was sleeping and I had to wake her up…I felt TERRIBLE but she did make me feel a little better by saying that she knows how it feels because on her flight to the U.S. she was on the inside and had to do the same thing. What a relief, thank goodness.
Aside from the frequent turbulence we experienced for the first several hours (I had several flashbacks of the movie Final Destination…terrible I know, Hollywood has completely ruined me), the flight was seriously not bad AT ALL because of their movie selections and I was able to watch like 3 movies that I had intended to see before I cancelled my Netflix membership. The time pretty much ‘flew’ by…pun intended ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)