Sadly, it's true. I am without speech at the moment... that is what we're talking about, isn't it? haha. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I seem to have sinusitis. It could've been the air quality, or the "yellow sand," or maybe the flowers opening up. Whatever it was, it's not the most fun I've had and I am now mute, or dumb :) I was able to teach my first class yesterday and I attempted my second class, but my voice gave out halfway through and my boss had to fill in for me. I was able to teach my last class of the day because there were only four students in the class and they're older than most of the other kids at the school, so they're not too hard to control. I went in today and helped with the Art class before they sent me home. Sick days are not very common here and the other American teachers said they were never allowed to take any, but I guess not being able to speak is a little different.
Friday night was the going away dinner for the other American teachers. It was supposed to be combined as a welcoming party for the Canadian teacher that is coming, but his visa was delayed and he hasn't arrived yet. Later that night we saw a belligerent drunk resisting arrest, very entertaining! On Saturday, we accompanied the Americans to the dinosaur expo in Goseong (a half hour or so by bus). The scenery was much different from what we are accustomed to seeing in Tongyeong. The countryside is much flatter and there is plenty of room for fields and farms; everything is more spread out. The expo really made me appreciate the museums we have in America. The exhibits were really lame and cheaply done and a few of them looked like cartoons almost (we guess for the children). There was a small area up on a hill where they had some carnival games, a few arcade games, and a big swinging ship. Katie didn't want to ride it with me, so I went on it with one of the other teachers. Katie and I played the carnival game where you get four balls and you have to knock four cylinders off the table. We both lost, but we got a keychain ornament out of it! After that we went down this huge slide that took you from the top of the hill down close to the parking lot. At the end of the day, we had to say goodbye to one of the Americans (the other one leaves in ten days).
We did absolutely nothing on Sunday because I was sick and we both had to write a ton of lesson plans. We started an entirely new schedule yesterday, but we didn't get our new books until last Wednesday so we had a lot to do in a very short amount of time.
That's pretty much all that's happened since the last time we posted on here. We've been getting more and more used to living here. There are less and less things about life in Korea that we find weird or interesting. Pretty soon we won't think twice about jumping out of the way of a motorcycle driving on the sidewalk! It'll probably take me a few weeks to stop taking off my shoes as soon as I enter someone's house when we come home.
In the world of sports... Japan beat Korea in the WBC final. Everybody here was so mad. I kept track of the score the entire game until the bottom of the 9th when I had to teach a class. I don't remember the exact situation, but there were two outs with two runners on base and the score was 2-1. I was so mad I had to leave right then haha. I locked up first place in the betting pool for the NCAA tournament over the weekend. I won 40,000 won ($25)!! I went 6 for 8 and 3 for 4 in the Elite 8 and Final 4 rounds. The only way I can lose the just-for-fun pool is if UNC loses to Villanova AND Connecticut wins the entire tournament. I went 7 for 8 and 4 for 4 on that bracket!! Both brackets have a UNC - UCONN final, with UNC winning 78-72. We'll see how it goes. I think this year's tournament was fairly predictable. The only games that really surprised me were: Cleveland State upsetting Wake Forest and Wisconsin over Florida State. I didn't call Dayton over WVU but it didn't surprise me. Later
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
A few things we forgot to mention...
1. We think we have found a good church home here in Tongyeong. We had been asking around for English churches or Korean churches with English services for a while with no luck. But then we found out that the church that our director and secretary go to has an English service! We found out about it three weeks ago and we have gone two Sundays so far, and we really like it. The sermon is delivered by an associate pastor who speaks English pretty well; he and his wife are from India and they have a 4-month old daughter. The music director, Jieun, leads us in praise and worship along with a Korean boy, named David, who plays piano. A Korean girl named Esther also attends. The first time we went, we were introduced to an American lady that had worked as an ESL teacher in Tongyeong for awhile and had gone to that church, but she was just visiting. There was also another Indian man at the first service, but he was leaving Korea to go back to India... so this past Sunday, it was just me, Katie, the pastor and his wife, David, Esther, and Jieun. Supposedly, there are some other members that attend the English service, but we haven't seen them yet.
2. We found the movie theater and saw "Push." We think that's what it's called, anyway. The first time we asked somebody where the theater was, they said it's in the yellow building. We were thinking, 'gee thanks... i'm sure there's a million of those around here.' There is literally one yellow building in all of Tongyeong haha. I'm still not quite sure why that is, but it's true. The cool thing about going to the movies here is that they don't dub over the voices, they use subtitles instead. The only problem is that they lower the volume of the voices, which sometimes makes it hard for us to hear what they're saying. Also, certain scenes in foreign languages that would normally have English subtitles in our theaters have only Korean ones here... so there were a couple scenes with Chinese people that we completely missed out on. We were just glad to find the theater and be able to listen to movies in English.
3. Today is March 23rd, which marks the beginning of our 23rd month together, and we are both 23 years old :) so that was cause for celebration today, although Team USA losing to Japan dampened the mood a tad. GO KOREA!!!
2. We found the movie theater and saw "Push." We think that's what it's called, anyway. The first time we asked somebody where the theater was, they said it's in the yellow building. We were thinking, 'gee thanks... i'm sure there's a million of those around here.' There is literally one yellow building in all of Tongyeong haha. I'm still not quite sure why that is, but it's true. The cool thing about going to the movies here is that they don't dub over the voices, they use subtitles instead. The only problem is that they lower the volume of the voices, which sometimes makes it hard for us to hear what they're saying. Also, certain scenes in foreign languages that would normally have English subtitles in our theaters have only Korean ones here... so there were a couple scenes with Chinese people that we completely missed out on. We were just glad to find the theater and be able to listen to movies in English.
3. Today is March 23rd, which marks the beginning of our 23rd month together, and we are both 23 years old :) so that was cause for celebration today, although Team USA losing to Japan dampened the mood a tad. GO KOREA!!!
Friday, March 20, 2009
mr. sandman
Happy Spring!
The big issue around these parts right now is what's called 'yellow sand'. Basically, China has been cutting down a ton of their trees without planting new ones for decades now and a lot of their previously-forested land is becoming desert. There are also really high winds in the spring, which blow the sand from the rapidly-expanding Gobi Desert to several other parts of Asia, hitting Korea pretty hard. Apparently Seoul and the other northern-most areas are extremely affected - you can actually see the sand blowing in, making it hard for people to breathe, see, etc. You can also taste it in your mouth, apparently. Luckily for Brian and me, the yellow sand is not much of a factor here in southern Korea. It's still around some, and you see small children and older people wearing masks over their noses and mouths quite a bit, but it's not a real problem like it is in other areas. We are discouraged from keeping our windows open much, though.
The weather is getting spring-like! Finally! It hasn't been as warm as in the US (you crazy people with your 75 degree weather!) but it's definitely nice. We hear that the cherry trees will start blooming soon and in April there are going to be a ton of cherry blossom festivals in different cities. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some flowers and things around here.
Next week is the Tongyeong International Music Festival, which is held in memory of Isang Yun, a pretty famous composer who was born in Tongyeong...I think he might be their most famous guy, actually. Anyway, all week they're holding concerts and recitals and things featuring music and musicians from all over the world. The theme is actually "East and West" which is kind've cool. I'm going to try to drag Brian to at least one concert...wish me luck!
Here's Brian! March Madness is upon us! I am currently in two pools at work - 1. a 20,000 won ($14) winner-take-all, and 2. a just-for-fun. The betting pool is just me, Katie, and our boss, and the fun pool is me, Katie, and the two Americans we work with. So far I am in 1st in both pools, but I have the least amount of possible points remaining due to Illinois' loss (I had them beating Gonzaga to make it to the Sweet 16). A couple games worth mentioning: American put up a good fight against Villanova. I wanted American to win since Andy goes there, but that would have killed both of my brackets, because I have Villanova over Duke in one and they're in my Final Four in the other. VCU almost beat UCLA which would have been really exciting. Our friend Alex goes to VCU and was at that game, so that must have been both fun and disappointing. I hope she was able to attend all four games at the Philadelphia site (VCU - UCLA, Villanova - American, Connecticut - Chattanooga, BYU - Texas A+M).
We have also been keeping up with the World Baseball Classic, as Korea and the United States have advanced to the semi-finals. We were hoping to play them head-to-head, but it looks like the only way that will happen is if we both win and go to the finals, or both lose and go to the consolation game. The latter would not be nearly as exciting... to say the least.
I'm not sure if it has been the sports or just getting into a rhythm here, but the time has been flying by recently. The first few weeks dragged on and on and we started to wonder if living here for a year would start to take its toll on us, but this past week at school was a breeze. I have been having a lot of fun with my kids, playing games and finding creative ways to teach them new vocabulary. Sue probably knows all this already, but Katie and I have never taught children before so we are learning as we go! Some things I have learned: children will only learn how to sing a song if it includes some sort of motion (I tried to teach them Skidamarink, but I don't know any of the movements so they ignored me haha), children have short attention spans so playing a game or two to break up the class-time is necessary, using games, songs, and other activities to teach children is much more effective than trying to sit them all down with a book, a reward system usually works better than punishments, and last but not least, letting them sit with their friends is always a terrible idea, but making them sit beside their enemies is even worse. Katie has had kids full-out deck each other in the face...it wasn't pretty.
We have been teaching them the difference between heavy and light, and sinking and floating, so at first I tried to explain it on the board but that didn't work or hold their attention. So I made up a game where they bring me something light, like a piece of paper or pencil or something, and I say "light" over and over while I lift it up and down. Then I pick up the kid and say "heavy." They think it's really funny and they now know the difference. For floating and sinking I have a student lay across my arms and I pick him/her up and try to make it look like they're floating in the ocean. And when I put them down I say they're sinking. It didn't work quite as well as heavy/light, but at least they listened, haha.
Learning how to cook has been a lot of fun, actually. I wouldn't know since I never really cooked back home, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot different here. For example, nobody here cooks with an oven; they do a lot of boiling and cooking over the stove. Also, in terms of the food, there are a lot of things that we have back in the States that aren't available here. But at least now I know that it's possible for me to survive without eating out all the time! Lunch is always the same for Katie and me: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips (Katie), cookies (me), and a piece of fruit. Dinner is a little bit more varied, but rice is always an integral part of the meal. We had been buying microwavable rice bowls, but one of the American teachers showed us how to use the rice cooker and that has been both easy and cost-efficient. All you do is buy a huge bag of uncooked rice that will last you a couple weeks or more depending on the size, measure out how much rice you want, add the same measurement of water as you did the rice, turn the cooker on and it's ready in 15 minutes! While the rice is cooking, I boil water in a pot so I can heat up the supposedly microwavable sauce pouches (they have actually caught on fire in the microwave, so we play it safe now). There are a bunch of different pouches in the store to choose from. Our favorites are curry, meatball, and beef jjajang. Hot sauce comes in handy with all of them. We have also learned how to cook fried dumplings over the stove. They are really good, especially if you soak them in soy sauce, mmmmmmmm. and hot sauce. Sometimes I use the boiling water to make soup.
Nothing I described above is made from scratch, but it is a feat in itself that I have kind've mastered the cooking appliances.
We finally figured out how to get back to the very first place we ate at in Tongyeong, so we are heading there now! Later gators (Katie wrote that).
The big issue around these parts right now is what's called 'yellow sand'. Basically, China has been cutting down a ton of their trees without planting new ones for decades now and a lot of their previously-forested land is becoming desert. There are also really high winds in the spring, which blow the sand from the rapidly-expanding Gobi Desert to several other parts of Asia, hitting Korea pretty hard. Apparently Seoul and the other northern-most areas are extremely affected - you can actually see the sand blowing in, making it hard for people to breathe, see, etc. You can also taste it in your mouth, apparently. Luckily for Brian and me, the yellow sand is not much of a factor here in southern Korea. It's still around some, and you see small children and older people wearing masks over their noses and mouths quite a bit, but it's not a real problem like it is in other areas. We are discouraged from keeping our windows open much, though.
The weather is getting spring-like! Finally! It hasn't been as warm as in the US (you crazy people with your 75 degree weather!) but it's definitely nice. We hear that the cherry trees will start blooming soon and in April there are going to be a ton of cherry blossom festivals in different cities. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some flowers and things around here.
Next week is the Tongyeong International Music Festival, which is held in memory of Isang Yun, a pretty famous composer who was born in Tongyeong...I think he might be their most famous guy, actually. Anyway, all week they're holding concerts and recitals and things featuring music and musicians from all over the world. The theme is actually "East and West" which is kind've cool. I'm going to try to drag Brian to at least one concert...wish me luck!
Here's Brian! March Madness is upon us! I am currently in two pools at work - 1. a 20,000 won ($14) winner-take-all, and 2. a just-for-fun. The betting pool is just me, Katie, and our boss, and the fun pool is me, Katie, and the two Americans we work with. So far I am in 1st in both pools, but I have the least amount of possible points remaining due to Illinois' loss (I had them beating Gonzaga to make it to the Sweet 16). A couple games worth mentioning: American put up a good fight against Villanova. I wanted American to win since Andy goes there, but that would have killed both of my brackets, because I have Villanova over Duke in one and they're in my Final Four in the other. VCU almost beat UCLA which would have been really exciting. Our friend Alex goes to VCU and was at that game, so that must have been both fun and disappointing. I hope she was able to attend all four games at the Philadelphia site (VCU - UCLA, Villanova - American, Connecticut - Chattanooga, BYU - Texas A+M).
We have also been keeping up with the World Baseball Classic, as Korea and the United States have advanced to the semi-finals. We were hoping to play them head-to-head, but it looks like the only way that will happen is if we both win and go to the finals, or both lose and go to the consolation game. The latter would not be nearly as exciting... to say the least.
I'm not sure if it has been the sports or just getting into a rhythm here, but the time has been flying by recently. The first few weeks dragged on and on and we started to wonder if living here for a year would start to take its toll on us, but this past week at school was a breeze. I have been having a lot of fun with my kids, playing games and finding creative ways to teach them new vocabulary. Sue probably knows all this already, but Katie and I have never taught children before so we are learning as we go! Some things I have learned: children will only learn how to sing a song if it includes some sort of motion (I tried to teach them Skidamarink, but I don't know any of the movements so they ignored me haha), children have short attention spans so playing a game or two to break up the class-time is necessary, using games, songs, and other activities to teach children is much more effective than trying to sit them all down with a book, a reward system usually works better than punishments, and last but not least, letting them sit with their friends is always a terrible idea, but making them sit beside their enemies is even worse. Katie has had kids full-out deck each other in the face...it wasn't pretty.
We have been teaching them the difference between heavy and light, and sinking and floating, so at first I tried to explain it on the board but that didn't work or hold their attention. So I made up a game where they bring me something light, like a piece of paper or pencil or something, and I say "light" over and over while I lift it up and down. Then I pick up the kid and say "heavy." They think it's really funny and they now know the difference. For floating and sinking I have a student lay across my arms and I pick him/her up and try to make it look like they're floating in the ocean. And when I put them down I say they're sinking. It didn't work quite as well as heavy/light, but at least they listened, haha.
Learning how to cook has been a lot of fun, actually. I wouldn't know since I never really cooked back home, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot different here. For example, nobody here cooks with an oven; they do a lot of boiling and cooking over the stove. Also, in terms of the food, there are a lot of things that we have back in the States that aren't available here. But at least now I know that it's possible for me to survive without eating out all the time! Lunch is always the same for Katie and me: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips (Katie), cookies (me), and a piece of fruit. Dinner is a little bit more varied, but rice is always an integral part of the meal. We had been buying microwavable rice bowls, but one of the American teachers showed us how to use the rice cooker and that has been both easy and cost-efficient. All you do is buy a huge bag of uncooked rice that will last you a couple weeks or more depending on the size, measure out how much rice you want, add the same measurement of water as you did the rice, turn the cooker on and it's ready in 15 minutes! While the rice is cooking, I boil water in a pot so I can heat up the supposedly microwavable sauce pouches (they have actually caught on fire in the microwave, so we play it safe now). There are a bunch of different pouches in the store to choose from. Our favorites are curry, meatball, and beef jjajang. Hot sauce comes in handy with all of them. We have also learned how to cook fried dumplings over the stove. They are really good, especially if you soak them in soy sauce, mmmmmmmm. and hot sauce. Sometimes I use the boiling water to make soup.
Nothing I described above is made from scratch, but it is a feat in itself that I have kind've mastered the cooking appliances.
We finally figured out how to get back to the very first place we ate at in Tongyeong, so we are heading there now! Later gators (Katie wrote that).
Saturday, March 14, 2009
hansan island pictures
Last weekend, one of our co-teachers, Maya, took us to Hansan Island, one of the hundreds of islands off the coast of Tongyeong. The island is historically significant because it served as a naval outpost/headquarters for Admiral Yi (the famous navy guy) during his battles with the Japanese. The entire naval compound has been converted to a memorial to Admiral Yi (and his descendents as well) and seems to be a fairly popular place to visit for tourists and Koreans alike.
one of many memorial markers scattered around
ocean and islands
us on Hansan Island
cherry blossom trees are blooming already!
Brian lighting incense at Admiral Yi's shrine
shrine to Admiral Yi. visitors can light incense in the bowl and say a prayer (see above)
one of the Admiral Yi memorial compound buildings
diagram of the korean - japanese battles that were fought around Hansan Island
Suru Tower - where Admiral Yi supposedly sat and watched for enemy ships
view from Suru Tower
entrance to the Admiral Yi memorial 
ferry passengers were throwing food to the seagulls...there were dozens of them swooping around. brian swears he saw one dive deep into the ocean after a chip.
turtle boat lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor of Hansan Island
random little island. you can see some of the buoys marking oyster fields.
Jackie Chan picks up litter...so can you!Friday, March 13, 2009
It's been awhile...
Sorry we haven't updated this in over a week. You might have to get used to it though :\ I (Brian) started work this past week to fill in for a part-time teacher who quit abruptly, so things have been pretty busy for the two of us. I've been getting used to teaching a few classes, and Katie has been getting used to teaching a full schedule. It's funny because Katie and I actually teach a class together a couple times a week. The kids think it's hilarious to call me "Katie" and call Katie "Brian." Another funny thing is that one of the students in my class is named Brian (all of the Korean children choose or are given English names) and they think it's really funny that we would both have the same name. When they aren't calling me "Katie," they call me "Big Brian." Also, every kid has a nickname they chose for themselves, and since Brian's nickname is rocket, mine is big rocket. Some of the nicknames that stuck out to me: baseball, puppy (the girl with this nickname always barks twice after she says her nickname), pig (this boy always snorts like a pig), fiery lion (a girl that roars), and rocket, of course. Over the course of the past week, I have come to realize just how difficult teaching can be, especially with young children. And I admire the effort of my past teachers because I'm sure I was a handful when I was younger. It seems to be rewarding, also, so I am looking forward to that.
Today was White Day in Korea! It's basically a day where boys give girls presents, similar to Valentine's Day in the U.S. They actually celebrate Valentine's Day here, too, except the girls give the guys presents on that day. Of course we were still in the states that day so Katie got two V-days in a month... haha. To celebrate, we went to an Italian restaurant that we had been meaning to try. Surprisingly, it was really good. I was skeptical because we've only been able to find one kind of cheese here, and a variety of cheese is important for an Italian place in my opinion. I had a "chicken oven" which was spaghetti noodles with a lot of cheese, marinara sauce, pieces of chicken, onions, and peppers, served on a hot plate. Katie had a bread bowl with spaghetti noodles with broccoli and alfredo sauce. Both were very good and delicious, which coincides with their motto: "It's good delicious."
We're gonna go ahead and do another post with pictures immediately after this one...stay tuned!
Random story: the other day when I was walking home from school, I heard what I thought was an ice cream truck. It had the cheesy children's music blaring and kids from a larger school were crowded around it buying things. When I got closer, I realized they were eating fried chicken, haha. Apparently fried chicken is somewhat of a treat around here... something saved for a special occasion. It is very expensive to eat at a chicken restaurant here; it is on average 3 times more expensive to eat chicken than almost anything else. I just thought it was funny to hear the ice cream truck music and find out it was chicken they were selling. Along the same lines... sortve... we heard a truck driving down the road near our school with a recording being played through loudspeakers (which is how they advertise what they are selling lots of times). So we asked our boss what they were saying, and she said that it was a repairman that specialized in sewing machines lol! Really specific/random.
Today was White Day in Korea! It's basically a day where boys give girls presents, similar to Valentine's Day in the U.S. They actually celebrate Valentine's Day here, too, except the girls give the guys presents on that day. Of course we were still in the states that day so Katie got two V-days in a month... haha. To celebrate, we went to an Italian restaurant that we had been meaning to try. Surprisingly, it was really good. I was skeptical because we've only been able to find one kind of cheese here, and a variety of cheese is important for an Italian place in my opinion. I had a "chicken oven" which was spaghetti noodles with a lot of cheese, marinara sauce, pieces of chicken, onions, and peppers, served on a hot plate. Katie had a bread bowl with spaghetti noodles with broccoli and alfredo sauce. Both were very good and delicious, which coincides with their motto: "It's good delicious."
We're gonna go ahead and do another post with pictures immediately after this one...stay tuned!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
let's get one thing straight right now...
...i did not cry!
ok, now that we've cleared up that misunderstanding, we can talk about my teaching job! for those of you who didn't know, this was my first week of actual teaching. thankfully it has been a fairly easy week because the kindergartners (who i'll mainly be teaching) are on spring break and so i only have a class of 1st graders on monday and wednesday and a class of 6th graders on tuesday and thursday to deal with. i don't get to just hang out because i don't have classes though...i'm basically stuck in the teacher's office, writing lesson plans feverishly and acting like i know what i'm doing.
my first grade class has 6 kids in it and they're fairly smart kids. they know their colors, most of their numbers up to 20, and they understand english pretty well and can even speak it, within reason. there are a few super shrill, loud ones that make me want to pull my hair out but most of them are actually pretty well-behaved. in our first class i had them draw pictures of monsters and most of them ended up drawing things resembling the ghosts in pacman...i thought that was funny. i was like "this is the scariest monster you can think of? really?" although one girl drew a girl who looked like samara from the ring and it made me a little scared-ish. well played, 6 year old.
my 6th grade class is something else. those kids are smart. i can actually have real english conversations with them, which is so cool. let me just point out that the class consists of just two boys...identical twin boys, to be exact. identical twin boys whose mother still dresses them exactly the same, down to their backpacks and pencil cases. there is no way i'm gonna be able to tell these kids apart. anyway, back to the topic at hand - these boys are really good at english. and funny too, it turns out. i had them answer some questions on the first day of class, just to see what their english level was and to find out a little about them. i'm going to post some of their answers here (one in blue, one in green) along with some comments from the peanut gallery for your reading pleasure:
1. What would you do if you had one million won (about $650)?
- i would buy many things i want..like a car. good luck kiddo!
-in order to make a fortune, you have to put it in a bank. i could buy anything i want, but i would put it in the bank. obviously brian got to him...
2. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?
-i want to be a turtle because turtles live more than 100 years. touche...
-i could be a rabbit but that's too small and weak. that's why i want to be an eagle. an eagle is strong enough to defend himself, isn't it. indeed.
3. If you were a superhero, what super powers would you have?
-i would have a jumping power because i could go anywhere faster than before.
-i would be like superman and be able to lift a car. his brother's car, perhaps?
4. Where would you like to go on vacation? Why?
- i want to go to france because i want to taste france food. consequently, he has no idea what 'france food' really is...i asked!
-i want to go to germany because germany is a cool place. brian thinks it's funny the brothers would have been supporting opposite sides in the world wars
those are just a few highlights...there were several more questions and i found out that one brother loves super mario (and is awesome at it...his words, not mine) and that the other is terrible at soccer. they both want to be scientists when they grow up and love the disney channel, but not as much as nickelodeon. some fun facts.
so that's basically what i've been doing with my life recently. next week will be total mayhem when the kindergarten kids arrive, so i'm trying to enjoy my relatively easy week. i'll keep you posted!
this is brian now. had i written earlier, i would have written about how our heating got fixed today and everything was working perfectly. but literally as i was handed the computer to write my section, it stopped working again. so apparently the only way for it to stay working is for it to shriek at us while it's on.
another exciting discovery was made today, by none other than myself! i spotted only the 2nd non-hyundai/kia car we've seen this whole time, another bmw. except this one had a flat tire, so i'm wondering if your tires get slashed around these parts if you dare buy a non-korean manufactured car. it was funny because this korean lady was driving it and i pointed to the tire as she passed me and she smiled and waved in acknowledgement that she was driving around on 3 wheels.
the other day i had an extremely rare moment of thoughtfulness. normally i don't think about things too much, but when you're in a foreign country you notice things much more because you're constantly absorbing information from your new surroundings. katie and i were walking along the water to get to a sculpture park and i noticed a fisherman on a boat. he had his rod and reel (two actually) and he was just sitting there holding his lines to feel for bites i guess. he was just an average guy and normally nothing about him would have stood out to me, but i noticed that he was listening to an ipod. and i began to think about a dave matthews song, in which dave points out that "everyday things change, but basically they stay the same." i thought it was so true for this man. he probably has ancestors going way back, all fisherman. and here he is centuries later, still fishing... but now with an ipod :D how times have changed!
tuesday night i decided instead of walking katie home from work, i would have a feast waiting for her when she got home from work. the only problem... i got the time wrong and had the meal ready an hour too early. after heating it up about 3 times in anticipation of her arrival, i gave up and surfed the net until she got back. so needless to say, the dinner wasn't very good after the 4th reheating session when she got home. also, she got much much more attention from the korean men/boys on her way home when i wasn't beside her. so i think i might be picking her up from now on lol.
ok, now that we've cleared up that misunderstanding, we can talk about my teaching job! for those of you who didn't know, this was my first week of actual teaching. thankfully it has been a fairly easy week because the kindergartners (who i'll mainly be teaching) are on spring break and so i only have a class of 1st graders on monday and wednesday and a class of 6th graders on tuesday and thursday to deal with. i don't get to just hang out because i don't have classes though...i'm basically stuck in the teacher's office, writing lesson plans feverishly and acting like i know what i'm doing.
my first grade class has 6 kids in it and they're fairly smart kids. they know their colors, most of their numbers up to 20, and they understand english pretty well and can even speak it, within reason. there are a few super shrill, loud ones that make me want to pull my hair out but most of them are actually pretty well-behaved. in our first class i had them draw pictures of monsters and most of them ended up drawing things resembling the ghosts in pacman...i thought that was funny. i was like "this is the scariest monster you can think of? really?" although one girl drew a girl who looked like samara from the ring and it made me a little scared-ish. well played, 6 year old.
my 6th grade class is something else. those kids are smart. i can actually have real english conversations with them, which is so cool. let me just point out that the class consists of just two boys...identical twin boys, to be exact. identical twin boys whose mother still dresses them exactly the same, down to their backpacks and pencil cases. there is no way i'm gonna be able to tell these kids apart. anyway, back to the topic at hand - these boys are really good at english. and funny too, it turns out. i had them answer some questions on the first day of class, just to see what their english level was and to find out a little about them. i'm going to post some of their answers here (one in blue, one in green) along with some comments from the peanut gallery for your reading pleasure:
1. What would you do if you had one million won (about $650)?
- i would buy many things i want..like a car. good luck kiddo!
-in order to make a fortune, you have to put it in a bank. i could buy anything i want, but i would put it in the bank. obviously brian got to him...
2. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?
-i want to be a turtle because turtles live more than 100 years. touche...
-i could be a rabbit but that's too small and weak. that's why i want to be an eagle. an eagle is strong enough to defend himself, isn't it. indeed.
3. If you were a superhero, what super powers would you have?
-i would have a jumping power because i could go anywhere faster than before.
-i would be like superman and be able to lift a car. his brother's car, perhaps?
4. Where would you like to go on vacation? Why?
- i want to go to france because i want to taste france food. consequently, he has no idea what 'france food' really is...i asked!
-i want to go to germany because germany is a cool place. brian thinks it's funny the brothers would have been supporting opposite sides in the world wars
those are just a few highlights...there were several more questions and i found out that one brother loves super mario (and is awesome at it...his words, not mine) and that the other is terrible at soccer. they both want to be scientists when they grow up and love the disney channel, but not as much as nickelodeon. some fun facts.
so that's basically what i've been doing with my life recently. next week will be total mayhem when the kindergarten kids arrive, so i'm trying to enjoy my relatively easy week. i'll keep you posted!
this is brian now. had i written earlier, i would have written about how our heating got fixed today and everything was working perfectly. but literally as i was handed the computer to write my section, it stopped working again. so apparently the only way for it to stay working is for it to shriek at us while it's on.
another exciting discovery was made today, by none other than myself! i spotted only the 2nd non-hyundai/kia car we've seen this whole time, another bmw. except this one had a flat tire, so i'm wondering if your tires get slashed around these parts if you dare buy a non-korean manufactured car. it was funny because this korean lady was driving it and i pointed to the tire as she passed me and she smiled and waved in acknowledgement that she was driving around on 3 wheels.
the other day i had an extremely rare moment of thoughtfulness. normally i don't think about things too much, but when you're in a foreign country you notice things much more because you're constantly absorbing information from your new surroundings. katie and i were walking along the water to get to a sculpture park and i noticed a fisherman on a boat. he had his rod and reel (two actually) and he was just sitting there holding his lines to feel for bites i guess. he was just an average guy and normally nothing about him would have stood out to me, but i noticed that he was listening to an ipod. and i began to think about a dave matthews song, in which dave points out that "everyday things change, but basically they stay the same." i thought it was so true for this man. he probably has ancestors going way back, all fisherman. and here he is centuries later, still fishing... but now with an ipod :D how times have changed!
tuesday night i decided instead of walking katie home from work, i would have a feast waiting for her when she got home from work. the only problem... i got the time wrong and had the meal ready an hour too early. after heating it up about 3 times in anticipation of her arrival, i gave up and surfed the net until she got back. so needless to say, the dinner wasn't very good after the 4th reheating session when she got home. also, she got much much more attention from the korean men/boys on her way home when i wasn't beside her. so i think i might be picking her up from now on lol.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
a day of firsts
so today was my first day off, and thus katie's first day of work without me. it was a little sad... i felt like i was sending my child off to her first day of school. i walked her there, of course. at the door she began to cry, but i gave her a pack of colored pencils to calm her down. after a short visit with our director (to inform her that our heating unit works, but now sounds like a tea kettle... don't ask), i went back home to eat lunch and prepare katie's lunch. most of you know katie, but for those who don't, desserts are kindve a big deal, so a cookie AND a ghirardelli chocolate square were placed on top of her pb&j and her apple. i was a bit more adventurous and ate some sushi (i said a bit more, haha). it was bland, but nothing some soy sauce couldn't fix. as an aside, i do have my hot sauce with me and it has come in handy several times already. it goes well with eggs in the morning, spaghetti at night, and almost every korean dish, although i haven't taken it into a restaurant yet because i'm not sure it would be ok to do so here.
after i ate i took katie's lunch to her. now, if i sound like i'm whipped/ a suck-up, it's most likely because i know that sue (katie's mom) will be reading this at some point. her dad would not approve, but sometimes you can't please everyone... doug. :P
until i get my bike, i'm not sure what i'll be doing with myself for the next couple of days. reading is a viable option, i've already finished Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen (the protagonist's name had nothing to do with it!). i have the complete LOTR trilogy with me... that would definitely take a lot of time, except i really want to read The Hobbit again before i delve into the trilogy.
i haven't had much of an opportunity to write on here, it's kinda cool. i can talk about whatever i want, cuz i'm the captain of this boat... or as katie would say, "i'm in charge. he's in charge when i'm not around!" on a more serious note, i've always wanted a really big glass container to put change in cuz it looks cool and i like collecting coins. so i washed out a bottle of spaghetti sauce and we've been putting our change in it everyday. i'll have katie take a picture of it and post it in the next batch of pictures when she gets the chance. i found a really big glass bottle at the live fish market here in tongyeong, so i might buy that towards the end of the trip and try to transport it home somehow.
well, it's about time for me to pick up katie from the school. today we have to go to lotte mart and get passport pictures taken for our work visas/health check-up (or something like that... i have never once been completely confident that i understand what's going on from the time we applied to when we got here to now when we're still getting things worked out after having been here for 10ish days... they never fully explain things to you and then act surprised when you ask questions. i think it's part of their culture to just do as you're told and never question authority.)
later
after i ate i took katie's lunch to her. now, if i sound like i'm whipped/ a suck-up, it's most likely because i know that sue (katie's mom) will be reading this at some point. her dad would not approve, but sometimes you can't please everyone... doug. :P
until i get my bike, i'm not sure what i'll be doing with myself for the next couple of days. reading is a viable option, i've already finished Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen (the protagonist's name had nothing to do with it!). i have the complete LOTR trilogy with me... that would definitely take a lot of time, except i really want to read The Hobbit again before i delve into the trilogy.
i haven't had much of an opportunity to write on here, it's kinda cool. i can talk about whatever i want, cuz i'm the captain of this boat... or as katie would say, "i'm in charge. he's in charge when i'm not around!" on a more serious note, i've always wanted a really big glass container to put change in cuz it looks cool and i like collecting coins. so i washed out a bottle of spaghetti sauce and we've been putting our change in it everyday. i'll have katie take a picture of it and post it in the next batch of pictures when she gets the chance. i found a really big glass bottle at the live fish market here in tongyeong, so i might buy that towards the end of the trip and try to transport it home somehow.
well, it's about time for me to pick up katie from the school. today we have to go to lotte mart and get passport pictures taken for our work visas/health check-up (or something like that... i have never once been completely confident that i understand what's going on from the time we applied to when we got here to now when we're still getting things worked out after having been here for 10ish days... they never fully explain things to you and then act surprised when you ask questions. i think it's part of their culture to just do as you're told and never question authority.)
later
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