I am not sure if this is typical, but I am exhausted right now... and it is Monday morning. I adjusted pretty quickly to the time change when I got here, but there are just some nights when I cannot fall asleep or I could just sleep forever. Since being here, I have slept for 12 hours a couple times, and also slept for 4 or 5 hours a couple times. I do not enjoy sleep deprivation, and oversleeping is also something I am not a fan of. At home, I never even took a nap. Here, I sleep like it's my job.
Anyway, my gross oversleeping and the delicious breakfast that followed last week deserved this quick video for your enjoyment. You can watch it you youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BPE58pM3Q
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
I am SO brave!
It has been raining pretty heavily for the past two days. I hate it. Everyone does. And the more it rains, the higher the humidity levels get. It's pretty terrible. What makes me hate the rain even more is the fact that I walk to school every day. The walk is probably one of the best walks anyone could ask for in a Korean city. It is a walking trail with trees, street vendors, and preschools. Unfortunately (when it rains), my beautiful 35 minute walk to school and then again back from school is torture. The path is paved but it is not even so there are often giant puddles. And it rains so much here that even a golf umbrella starts to leak after about 20 minutes. So, I get soaked. Which leads me to how I was so brave today. Today I rode in a taxi twice by myself! Yesterday I did not even know what to say to a taxi driver, but today I sucessfully got to and from school with no problems. I am so proud of myself. When it is barely raining, or nice out, I will still walk. But it is a relief to know that I know have the option to ride in a taxi if I need to. This might come in handy in the winter, and it will definitely come in handy during the next monsoon season.
On another note, my students gave me a Korean name today.
It is Jung So-Ra. They thought it would be nice if I got to have two names too. I cannot write it in Korean with my computer, but here is what it looks like. Most of my students have English names in addition to their Korean names. What is nice is that the students can change their English names. They are so fluid. I think for now I will be Jung So-Ra and maybe later something else. A few of my students only have Korean names. They do not seem interested in having English names. I feel really bad because I can never pronounce their names correctly. Korean names, when written in English, are not pronounced the way they are written. I have tried writing the names phonetically, but I still suck. Eventually I will get their names, if they don't all leave the school before I do.
.JPG)
I have two really nice coworkers. One is a boy four years older than me. He helps me with everything! And he orders me dinner every time I don't bring something. Here is the soup I had for dinner yesterday. It was great, except I didn't have a very good handle on the noodles. If I tried to eat them with chopsticks, they were very sloppy and slippery. Eventually I just sort of cut the noodles with my spoon and ate them that way. The soup had noodles, half an egg, mussels, octopus, shrimp, crab, and some weird bread/fat like stuff that was fried. It was very good! The girls I work with have some idea that we will date, but I just started an office rumor that I am going on dates with someone else. I would rather them think that then get it in their heads I want to date my office helper. My other nice coworker is the girl whose house I stayed at. She gave me a ride home yesterday in the first downpour. I was so thankful! And we will be designing a speaking class that I will be teaching together. I am really excited about this speaking class. It should be a lot of fun because it is the highest level elementary students. I cannot wait (minus the extra work)!
On a final note for the evening, I thought I would tell you a bit about my classes. I currently have 8 classes, and have between 50-60 students total. My classes range from students who can read/write/comprehend/speak a little to students who are reading about evolution vs. creationism. My smallest classes have 4 students and the largest class has 14. All of the kids are a lot of fun, although a few of them drive me crazy! I will be taking pictures of them soon and maybe I will post a couple pictures here. My students have to write very strange essays sometimes for the book series that we follow. Here is the original version of my favorite essay so far (topic was - What animal is most misunderstood?):
Class: M302
"There are many misunderstand animals in the world. Wolves, snacks or human and etc. I think misunderstand animal is human. Other country people think korean people eat everything But. I think this it misunderstand.
First, the human never eat everyting. Human eat just pigs, cows, chickens and dogs. Not more eat. I think human eat everything is misunderstood. So, I don't think this is not true. And people almost don't eat dogs, too.!!
Second, the human don't like eat dogs. Ofcourse, human think eat dogs is health for we. But human don't like eat cute dogs. Don't you think so?? I think like that.
So, I think human is really misunderstood animal. I would tell another people human is not eat everything and not like eat everything. I hope another people known this truth."
This is my life folks! I love trying to decipher things like "So, I don't think this is not true." The students all work really hard, for the most part, and I think they do a great job. As long as I can figure out how to teach them, it will be a great year!
On another note, my students gave me a Korean name today.
It is Jung So-Ra. They thought it would be nice if I got to have two names too. I cannot write it in Korean with my computer, but here is what it looks like. Most of my students have English names in addition to their Korean names. What is nice is that the students can change their English names. They are so fluid. I think for now I will be Jung So-Ra and maybe later something else. A few of my students only have Korean names. They do not seem interested in having English names. I feel really bad because I can never pronounce their names correctly. Korean names, when written in English, are not pronounced the way they are written. I have tried writing the names phonetically, but I still suck. Eventually I will get their names, if they don't all leave the school before I do. .JPG)
I have two really nice coworkers. One is a boy four years older than me. He helps me with everything! And he orders me dinner every time I don't bring something. Here is the soup I had for dinner yesterday. It was great, except I didn't have a very good handle on the noodles. If I tried to eat them with chopsticks, they were very sloppy and slippery. Eventually I just sort of cut the noodles with my spoon and ate them that way. The soup had noodles, half an egg, mussels, octopus, shrimp, crab, and some weird bread/fat like stuff that was fried. It was very good! The girls I work with have some idea that we will date, but I just started an office rumor that I am going on dates with someone else. I would rather them think that then get it in their heads I want to date my office helper. My other nice coworker is the girl whose house I stayed at. She gave me a ride home yesterday in the first downpour. I was so thankful! And we will be designing a speaking class that I will be teaching together. I am really excited about this speaking class. It should be a lot of fun because it is the highest level elementary students. I cannot wait (minus the extra work)! On a final note for the evening, I thought I would tell you a bit about my classes. I currently have 8 classes, and have between 50-60 students total. My classes range from students who can read/write/comprehend/speak a little to students who are reading about evolution vs. creationism. My smallest classes have 4 students and the largest class has 14. All of the kids are a lot of fun, although a few of them drive me crazy! I will be taking pictures of them soon and maybe I will post a couple pictures here. My students have to write very strange essays sometimes for the book series that we follow. Here is the original version of my favorite essay so far (topic was - What animal is most misunderstood?):
Class: M302
"There are many misunderstand animals in the world. Wolves, snacks or human and etc. I think misunderstand animal is human. Other country people think korean people eat everything But. I think this it misunderstand.
First, the human never eat everyting. Human eat just pigs, cows, chickens and dogs. Not more eat. I think human eat everything is misunderstood. So, I don't think this is not true. And people almost don't eat dogs, too.!!
Second, the human don't like eat dogs. Ofcourse, human think eat dogs is health for we. But human don't like eat cute dogs. Don't you think so?? I think like that.
So, I think human is really misunderstood animal. I would tell another people human is not eat everything and not like eat everything. I hope another people known this truth."
This is my life folks! I love trying to decipher things like "So, I don't think this is not true." The students all work really hard, for the most part, and I think they do a great job. As long as I can figure out how to teach them, it will be a great year!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Oh SK... You amaze me!
There is so much stuff crammed into every nook and cranny of the South Korea I have seen so far. Apartment buildings are 10+ floors high. Stores go up as high as you can imagine in buildings, and people still go to them. Schools start on the second or third or fourth floor of buildings and huge beautiful parks spring up in the middle of it all. To this point, South Korea has presented itself to me as a country filled with contradictions. Some examples:
Koreans really do not like overweight people. The are (overall) a skinny nation, although more peole are overweight now than ever before. Contradicting the hate of obesity is the fact that processed, fried, and chain food can be found on every corner of my town. They even deliver McDonalds here! And because children are always at school or academy, they don't really get proper meals Monday through Friday. They eat cheap fried stuff from vendors by the school or chips and the like from the Buy the Way convenience stores. I think obesity will hit Korea like a ton of bricks... and probably sooner than they think.
Korea is a beautiful country. It is over 60% mountains, but so much of the country is developed that I have not seen a mountain or natural green space yet! My walk to work is between dozens of 20+ story apartment buildings. There are nice trees and a nice path to walk or bike on. Every block or so there is a little park for children. It seems quite peaceful, but it is impossible to escape the fact that the city is just beyond the trees.
While in Lake Park today (largest man-made lake surrounded by a big man-made park), I was struck by just how close the city is. My apartment building was visible to me the whole time. It is nice to be surrounded by green, but depressing to think that reality and concrete are waiting around the corner.
The week went really well by the way! I taught "for realz" on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The kids seemed to respond to me really well, although I am worried about the level of questioning I ask. I need to work on making my questions more open ended for the students so they really get the most out of them. For a while this will mean more planning for me, but I don't mind if the students are able to get more out of it. Teaching in SK is 100% different than teaching in the US though. In the US I had the responsibility of teaching and entertaining the students. Here it is straight business, although I cannot help but feel bad that the kids don't get much fun in their day. I introduced them to tongue twisters this week as a side note to the book we are working on. They were very excited and amazed when I read "Peter Piper" for them. I believe the tongue twisters will help them with their pronunciation of some words. Hopefully it will work.
Being broke in SK really sucks. I love the idea that when I get paid I will be able to eat out with my friends, go any place in the country (for the most part), and not think about money. Unfortunately, until October 10 I am completely broke. It is even more stressful than being broke at home because at home I know I have people I can turn to.... Here it is just me. My parents are sending me a little money (which I feel terrible about) and I have a feeling I will be eating an awful lot of ramen in the next 4 weeks. Once I get paid though, it will be VERY nice!
I cannot think right now of other things to update you on, but if you have any questions put them in the comments and I will try to answer them. Talk care of yourselves!
Koreans really do not like overweight people. The are (overall) a skinny nation, although more peole are overweight now than ever before. Contradicting the hate of obesity is the fact that processed, fried, and chain food can be found on every corner of my town. They even deliver McDonalds here! And because children are always at school or academy, they don't really get proper meals Monday through Friday. They eat cheap fried stuff from vendors by the school or chips and the like from the Buy the Way convenience stores. I think obesity will hit Korea like a ton of bricks... and probably sooner than they think.
Korea is a beautiful country. It is over 60% mountains, but so much of the country is developed that I have not seen a mountain or natural green space yet! My walk to work is between dozens of 20+ story apartment buildings. There are nice trees and a nice path to walk or bike on. Every block or so there is a little park for children. It seems quite peaceful, but it is impossible to escape the fact that the city is just beyond the trees.
While in Lake Park today (largest man-made lake surrounded by a big man-made park), I was struck by just how close the city is. My apartment building was visible to me the whole time. It is nice to be surrounded by green, but depressing to think that reality and concrete are waiting around the corner. The week went really well by the way! I taught "for realz" on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The kids seemed to respond to me really well, although I am worried about the level of questioning I ask. I need to work on making my questions more open ended for the students so they really get the most out of them. For a while this will mean more planning for me, but I don't mind if the students are able to get more out of it. Teaching in SK is 100% different than teaching in the US though. In the US I had the responsibility of teaching and entertaining the students. Here it is straight business, although I cannot help but feel bad that the kids don't get much fun in their day. I introduced them to tongue twisters this week as a side note to the book we are working on. They were very excited and amazed when I read "Peter Piper" for them. I believe the tongue twisters will help them with their pronunciation of some words. Hopefully it will work.
Being broke in SK really sucks. I love the idea that when I get paid I will be able to eat out with my friends, go any place in the country (for the most part), and not think about money. Unfortunately, until October 10 I am completely broke. It is even more stressful than being broke at home because at home I know I have people I can turn to.... Here it is just me. My parents are sending me a little money (which I feel terrible about) and I have a feeling I will be eating an awful lot of ramen in the next 4 weeks. Once I get paid though, it will be VERY nice!
I cannot think right now of other things to update you on, but if you have any questions put them in the comments and I will try to answer them. Talk care of yourselves!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)