Field Trips!

October 28, 2010

Yesterday I got the chance to go on a field trip with the fourth graders and teacher to Gyeongju (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongju). There are over 300 fourth graders so we had like 12 charter buses for the trip and it only took about an hour to get there. However, we were a little delayed because the bus drivers decided to go for an unannounced pitstop and the head teacher was pretty angry about it (I just found out about this today). But the kids were able to get a bit of a refresher for the early morning and got some snacks for their lunches for later on. One of the kids bought me a coffee drink! I was like "Oh! No it's ok, you have it!" and the kid was like "no, teacher, teacher, for you, I don't drink coffee!" lol. So freakin cute. Me and Yooree decided to get some roasted potatoes with salt...pretty freakin good for the rest of the bus ride. By the way, the kids were surprisingly quiet on the way there...I remember if me and my classmates ever went on a field trip we were freakin loud as crap...the kids here are a little more behaved...

(Loading the buses)

When we got there, me and Yooree decided to hang back behind the kids so we could have a little bit of peace and quiet while we explored. We were able to see the ancient buildings and the Buddha statues. I couldn't take pictures of the Buddha statues though :( they wouldn't allow it. It was kind of funny because before the kids went into the village they were given a worksheet to fill out while they visited and they were all running around trying to find the answers lol. I remember those days. After walking around for about an hour it was time for lunch...a picnic! The kids all had their mats laid out on the grass and all scattered across the lawn in the middle of the park. I sat with the teachers which was nice because I never get to see them since every time I come into their classrooms to teach, they leave and it's just me and Yooree. I didn't understand what they were saying but I was able to get a feel for their personalities.

(some of the 4th grade teachers)

Also, I found it interesting that the parents for each class actually pack the lunches for the teachers! I mean, they literally brought no food and all of the food they had was from parents. It was AWESOME too. Kimbop, sushi rolls, loads of fruit and cherry tomatoes...mmm, mmm, good! And then, the kids kept coming up to me and giving me a taste of their food! I was like "no, no, it's ok, I'm ok, I'm full!" but they shoved it in my hands and ran away! ...It was freakin good though! Once the other students saw one student come and give me some food of theirs, all the other students ran up to me just to give me something of their own! Even if it was just a chip lol. Sooo cute! I then started trying to hand out some candies to them for halloween...major disaster. I could only get through 3 different classes before my bag broke because the student bombarded me! So...tomorrow I will bring the candy in a different bag and go one by one to the students lol.

Beautiful Busan and Halloween Candy

October 26, 2010

So, this past weekend, several of the foreign teachers decided to attend the Internation Fireworks Festival in Busan. Many of our friends decided to go on the Friday but a handful of us didn't make it down until Saturday. It was about 5:00PM by the time we got there and we met our friends on the beach where the fireworks were going to be displayed. Let me tell you, the show wasn't supposed to start until 8:00PM (we got there three hours before that) and there were already tons of people on the beach. You couldn't even see sand because people were camped out with their blankets on the beach. Thankfully our friends already reserved their spot and it was a big enough area for the rest of us to snuggle in.

For the next three hours we just chilled with soju and beer until it got dark. The fireworks were absolutely awesome. No other word for it. They did like an "around the world" type o theme so they had a different firework set for the countries. Needless to say...America's was the best. LOL. The finally was amazing. They had these fireworks that looked like birds flying over the crowd (I think you can see them in the video that I posted on Facebook), so we were like "whoa that's awesome," but then the bird things started spewing out sparklers...freakin awesome. I think what made the show even better was the fact that they utilized the bridge for a lot of the show and at one point it looked like there was a waterfall coming out of the bridge. Unreal. This video does not do it enough justice but you can get an idea of how cool this fireworks display was. After the show we all went out on the town for some standard shenanigans.

In the spirit of Halloween, I brought my kids some candy to class. I had smarties, jolly ranchers, and dum dums shipped from home to here so that I could give the kids some candy from the U.S. and they LOVED the smarties (thanks to Cale who shipped them over for me!) I literally ran out of smarties within the first two classes. They were all about some smarties. I'll remember that for Christmas time. Also, I forgot that I teach/see about 700 students...ran out of candy the first day (yesterday/Monday). Good job Nancy. So I went to Home Plus after school and I was a little upset that the candies like tootsie pops, tootsie rolls, snickers, etc. were pretty darn expensive. Yeah...and the amount that I bought was JUST enough for one more day. Just great. I will have to go to Home Plus AGAIN tonight. However, it's totally worth it. The kids love it soooo much because they usually just get stickers for being good and winning a game. The kids were super excited not only to get candy but by the fact that it was from/imported from America. 

Catching up on growing up

October 18, 2010

Well goodness gracious it's certainly has been quite a while since I've updated my blog. I simply cannot believe it's already towards the end of October. I'm losing track of my days. On October ninth me along with several other foreign teachers decided to go to Global Gathering. It was held in Seoul, South Korea but it didn't take very long for the people located in Daegu to get there by train...maybe like three hours. Mike, Gems, Donnie, and I all arrived there about 1:00PM-ish and met up with others to eat before the concert.

 
I was honestly not exactly pumped about being at global gathering because the music they were going to be playing was techno, which I have never been interested in. My group of friends back home never listened to techno so this was definitely going to be an experience. Once we got there it reminded me of Vans Warped Tour that I went to many, many years ago in the way that the venue was laid out. There were three different stages that featured different electronic bands. It was a perfect day do have an outdoor concert like this...just beautiful. I have to say...I had a pretty darn good time. Mostly because I was in great company and several of my friends were there but also because the music is just fun to jump around to! I mean, literally you could really just jump around without a care in the world listening to the music and letting your body move to the rhythms. Pretty darn awesome. Fatboy Slim was the only band I'd heard of before this concert but the best ones were Armin Van Buuren and Justice...apparently they're pretty popular as well. I really liked their music, a new-found interest I'd say. The concert ended at 4:00am and our train was leaving at 6:30AMish so we all just stayed up, hung around the park until we had to make our way to the train station. By the time we got home it was about 9:00AM and I ended up just crashing at Gems because we were both extremely exhausted. Yes, we stayed up for a full day, 24 hours. I'm pretty proud of myself.

The next Tuesday, we decided to have a girls night out and see a ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, because of my interests in music, dance, and performances I thought I would be really enthused about this ballet. It was good but I expected to like it more. I think I prefer to watch performances with dialogue and a storyline that is cut and dry instead of having to figure out what/who the characters were. I'm sure it would've helped had I done a tad bit of research on A Midsummer Night's Dream before actually seeing it...but either way...I think I would prefer different types of performances. It was a good show though, I think. It was a tad bit awkward at the curtain call, however, because the audience did not cease their clapping so the performers bowed literally like ten times. Typically the main performers will come out on the stage, bow, then they will give the others a turn at their bows...then all together come to the front of the stage, the entire cast will bow together, curtains close. Well, because the audience kept clapping...the performers ran through that sequence 10 times. It was very awkward...so we left and they were still clapping (I don't think they really knew what to do and the dancers were also confused as the looks on their faces clearly displayed). Then we figured out that it was something with the lighting as well...the dancers did not get their cue to go off stage lol. Oh goodness.

Since then nothing too interesting. Since my mother moved out (yes, she was living with me in my shoebox apartment...) I really feel like an independent woman. It's very strange. Today I cleaned my entire apartment while doing two loads of laundry...who is this person? I'm glad we've decided to meet! Twenty-three years it took me to do my own laundry and clean. How insane is that? I have learned I'm not as dirty of a person as I (and my mother/sisters) thought I was. I don't like dirt on the floor or seeing dust bunnies anywhere in my apartment. When I was taking a shower, I even went so far as to take a dirty toothbrush and scrub some spots that I just couldn't look at anymore. So strange. I'm also quite comfortable with sitting in silence when I'm on the computer and such. I actually cooked some mandu today as well. Now, mind you, all I had to do was put a little cooking oil in the pan and throw those bad boys in...that's a MAJOR step forward for me. I DON'T cook. I kind of like not having someone do it for me for a change, I can do it myself and I'm completely fine with it. At least I know now that I will not live in a pigsty when I move back. Thank goodness.

Other than the fact that I've recently had to make a very difficult decision regarding my personal life (let's not get into the nitty-gritty details), everything is just grand. Life here moves a million miles an hour and I'm along for the ride. This next weekend several of us are going to the National Fireworks Festival in Busan and I'm pretty darn excited about that...maybe I'll get a new camera by then...

Also, I'm sick once again...yippee! :(