No 한글 tonight. It's actually rather difficult to give you those fantastic titles. My computer doesn't type in Korean, so what I do is pick the word, look up the spelling in my dictionary (if I don't already know it) and then run the English word through an online translator. I pick the correct translation and copy and paste the 한글 into the title. My keyboard has all the little 한글 symbols because I use can type Korean in Rosetta Stone, but I have no clue how to make that option available outside of the program.
Does it make me seem less impressive now?
Anywho! I just wanted to blog about my pretty fantastic evening. I met up with my Korean friends for dinner. We had planned this since last week, the idea was that we would go out for fresh seafood. I was under the impression that we were meeting up with a group of their friends at a restaurant. Nope! What we actually did was meet up with their friends (some I had already met) at the fish market owned by one of their friends. So it wasn't a restaurant at all, it was a special home cooked meal in a fish market! It was amazing and delicious! There is always so much food involved in a Korean meal. We had abalone, pork, crab, and crab ramen. It was all amazing. I felt really, really, really bad for the abalone (again). We grilled them alive and watching a snail trying to escape as it writhes in pain is sad and pathetic and fills me with a million different questions and ethical issues... issues I don't seem to face when watching crabs be boiled alive. Grilled abalone with sesame oil is really delicious... I had a good time. It's hard to communicate sometimes, but between there English, the handful of Korean words I know, and the power of charades (and my apparent ability to read people well... I've surprised my friends on several instances when I've answered a question correctly without translation simple based on inference) we understand each other most of the time.
Of course, we were in a fish market. So what did I do? Ran from tank to tank teaching them the English names of the fish (trigger fish! lizard fish! trunk fish!) The Korean name for a trunk fish literally translates to 'turtle fish.' Most of the fish seemed to have some kind of swim bladder disorder, but I suppose if they're just going to be dinner it doesn't matter if they know which end is up. The trunk fish was pretty solidly dead (and still in a tank).
So that was my Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and so special and unique! I'm just sad that I forgot to bring my camera!
~Hannah
ETA: I tried to change the date that this was posted on so that it would line up with the day I actually wrote the post (9/26) but that just put the post as "scheduled to be published" and so I'm adjusting the date so that it will actually post. Don't know what the deal is with this one.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Chuseok: 추석
You say that like "chew-sock." It's the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, only instead of pilgrims and indians and smallpox, there's ancestors, visiting your hometown, and Buddhists!
That's a gross oversimplification. Here's a link to the wikipedia page about Chuseok: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok
In short, Chuseok is the celebration of the harvest. You give thanks for receiving a good harvest. If you are a Buddhist you do this by sacrificing an obscene amount of food to the spirits of your ancestors (because they are the ones responsible for the good harvest). We get three days off for Chuseok, Tue-Thurs. I was invited by a Korean friend to spend Monday Night- Weds Afternoon at her home/her husbands home. So Monday at 9pm, right when I finished work (Lyn and Britton gave tests, I had snack parties! For everyone! Guess who was too lazy to make lesson plans?) I was picked up right from the school and we headed out! We drove about an hour out of Gwangju... I forget the name of the place, but it was a small city famous for their summer aqua festival (YOU STAND IN A RIVER AND CATCH FISH WITH YOUR HANDS!!! GUESS WHO'S ALREADY INVITED HERSELF TO NEXT YEARS???) Her family lives in an apartment in the city, and her husband's family lives shortly outside the city next to a rice paddy in a traditional Korean house.
I was a surprise guest, but my friend's mother was so thrilled to see me, even though she had an already full house (My friend and her husband, her younger sister, her younger brother, her older brother with his wife and two children, her parents, and of course, me!) she was so thrilled. They all really liked me and have invited me back, which is good because I was afraid of committing some horrible social faux paus (like when they took my chopsticks from me and gave me a fork). They kept asking if I was enjoying myself, because I was so quiet. I tried to explain that I'm just naturally quiet, but they kept comparing me to Lori, Petra, and Sandy. Compared to those three I'm a mute! I don't think they believed me when I said that I liked Korean food. I don't know as though I'd ever get used to eating a full Korean breakfast... having fish, mushrooms, rice, and kimchi (along with three or four other dishes) first thing in the morning confuses my western sensibilities (as does having the same meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). I feel like we were constantly eating! If we weren't eating meals we were eating fruit and if I wasn't eating I was being told to eat! The first thing we did when we arrived at the apartment was start eating! We had raw abalone. I don't really like it raw. Cooked and in porridge I like it. Also, killing the abalone doesn't look very nice and one tried to flee in terror and I felt really bad... I bet having your mouth cut out and then being sliced into tiny pieces sucks.
Both nights we spent in the apartment. I spent Tuesday with my friend's sister. We went to a traditional Korean market and I got to see all the fish and the chickens with their heads! I saw the river where the aqua festival is held, and then we went up to Woodland, which is like a forest park, and hiked around. It was amazingly beautiful. There were lots of little traditional style Korean houses. They're there partly for show and also as a vacation spot, so you can rent them. This means that there are big Samsung air conditioning units outside each traditional house! It was so hot Monday and Tuesday. The apartment unfortunatley has no AC, and the room I was sleeping in was like an oven (nope, no fans. You can't sleep with a fan in Korea, you don't want to fall victim to FAN DEATH! "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death).The forests in Korea are so beautiful. They remind me a lot of New England.
After that (and a voyage through the mushroom rotary!) we went back to the apartment and ate more. There was some napping involved, and Min Seo (my new bff) shared her donut with me. Min Seo is the 6 year old daughter of my friend's older brother. We didn't have a lot of direct interaction, but we had that connection, where you walk into a room and you can just tell there is another awesome individual in your presence. Min Seo would run into a room, look at me yell "hello!" then immediately yell "goodbye!" and run out of the room, shrieking with laughter the whole time. And she had a Mashimaro pajama top. We did some language exchange, I taught her some animal names in English and she taught me them in Korean. I don't remember them, of course. But I was forced to practice my minimal Korean skills and can now count from 1-6 and 10-69.
Around 3 I went to a traditional Korean tea house with my friend. We met up with some her other friends, including a woman who has been studying in Australia for several years. She was fluent in English, which made communicating easier! Then up to a different mountain for more hiking and some wading in a stream. A little shrimp tried to eat my toes! From there we dropped off the Australian friend and then went straight to the husband's home. It's a very traditional Korean house, there's no indoor bathroom (just a toilet over a hole in the ground), and there's not a shower or tub or anything. We ate dinner there (very delicious, although I was getting pretty sick of sitting on the floor at this point, I just don't find it comfortable!). Then we relaxed and watched TV. I was not invited to help prepare the alter to the grandfather's spirit, nor did I take any pictures of it after I saw it. It seemed to be a very personal thing. The alter has incense, a picture of the deceased, a little... totem thingy, and then enough food for the spirit to eat for a whole year... my friend and her husbands family had been cooking the food since 6am, all to prepare for the alter! It was incredible.
We slept back at the apartment. My friend had to leave early to go with her husbands family to visit the graves of the ancestors (they are Buddhist). I stayed with her family. They had a quick Christian worship service, but of course I just watched because I don't speak Korean! It was interesting though, very quick. They sang a hymn, read a very brief passage, sang another hymn, said a prayer, and then Min Seo's older brother recited the Lord's Prayer. Then we had breakfast, all this while sitting on the living room floor!
We headed back to Gwangju around 115, took us a fair amount of time to get back, because of all the holiday traffic. We grabbed some food at the Lotteria, which is the Korean version of McDonalds. It tastes like fast food (go figure). So while my break was not super action packed it was fantastically anthropological, and it was so nice to get away and spend some time with a real family. It reminded me of when I would go to my grandparents house during college just so I could be in a house and wander around rooms. It kinda felt like that. I'm treating the apartment very much like a dorm, and the majority of the things in here aren't really MINE. The bed, desk, dresser, etc. are all mine only in so much as the dorm furniture was mine. No matter how awesome my closets are, or how much I love my table and chairs... or my coffee table, I can't take it with me. So as odd as it may sound, being in a real home, with a real family, just being a part of the mundane day to day was so... nice and relaxing!
Oh! We also watched Korean fishing programs... so it was almost like being at home! We also watched some very, very weird Korean karaoke show.
I think that's it! If I forgot anything I'll make an edit!
Happy Choseuk everyone!
~Hannah
Why Our School is Weird
So we currently are on break for three days. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It's a little ridiculous that we have to go to school on both Monday and Friday when the other academies, from what I've heard, had Monday off. But such is life. I had really meant to update this on Monday, and here I sit on Wednesday finally doing it. Oops. Oh well.
Last Saturday I had originally planned to go with Hannah to the GIC to make the rice cakes even though it was Yom Kippur and I was fasting so I wouldn't be able to eat any of them. However, I woke up with a major migraine and stayed home. Hannah came over Saturday night and I made us pancakes and that was fun and delicious, and she brought me some rice cakes and they were not as good, but still kinda tasty. The reheating job was probably not the best. Then on Sunday I went with Britton and Heather (his girlfriend) to Kuma World (i think that's how it's spelled). It's the HUGE electronics store, and furniture, and other stuff. But I was only interested in the electronics. Then we went to the main E-mart which is right next door to that. I now have an external CD player and a wireless router. I am happy about that, except that it's been making the skype connection wonky (seriously mom, stop calling me, I'll call you when I fix it), but I'm figuring it out.
Monday was test day for me. I took the Friday last week to finish up the units I was working on and make sure the kids really understood them. So, Monday I did get better test scores from these classes, which was great. I really think I MIGHT be finally getting through to some of the Grade 5s I have this week. Plus it helps that some of them might be moved down to a slower class. The class is just too mixed. I try to move at the pace for the majority of them, but I'm leaving some kids behind, and I can't slow down for just one or two kids, no matter how much I may want to. And we really don't have an option of after school help because some of them go straight to Math School when we're done with them. It's frustrating.
Speaking of frustrating things. Since I no longer have my Grade 7s (YAY) I have an extra recording period, as I mentioned. For the past few days it's been taken up with me reading vocab words slowly and clearly, enunciating every single letter, ugh. It's kinda fun on some levels, but on others it's just annoying. I also get to record with the secretaries, they say the word in Korean, I say it twice in English. That's fun, they're adorable. Anyway, I'm off to go exploring and mail letters.
~Lyn
Last Saturday I had originally planned to go with Hannah to the GIC to make the rice cakes even though it was Yom Kippur and I was fasting so I wouldn't be able to eat any of them. However, I woke up with a major migraine and stayed home. Hannah came over Saturday night and I made us pancakes and that was fun and delicious, and she brought me some rice cakes and they were not as good, but still kinda tasty. The reheating job was probably not the best. Then on Sunday I went with Britton and Heather (his girlfriend) to Kuma World (i think that's how it's spelled). It's the HUGE electronics store, and furniture, and other stuff. But I was only interested in the electronics. Then we went to the main E-mart which is right next door to that. I now have an external CD player and a wireless router. I am happy about that, except that it's been making the skype connection wonky (seriously mom, stop calling me, I'll call you when I fix it), but I'm figuring it out.
Monday was test day for me. I took the Friday last week to finish up the units I was working on and make sure the kids really understood them. So, Monday I did get better test scores from these classes, which was great. I really think I MIGHT be finally getting through to some of the Grade 5s I have this week. Plus it helps that some of them might be moved down to a slower class. The class is just too mixed. I try to move at the pace for the majority of them, but I'm leaving some kids behind, and I can't slow down for just one or two kids, no matter how much I may want to. And we really don't have an option of after school help because some of them go straight to Math School when we're done with them. It's frustrating.
Speaking of frustrating things. Since I no longer have my Grade 7s (YAY) I have an extra recording period, as I mentioned. For the past few days it's been taken up with me reading vocab words slowly and clearly, enunciating every single letter, ugh. It's kinda fun on some levels, but on others it's just annoying. I also get to record with the secretaries, they say the word in Korean, I say it twice in English. That's fun, they're adorable. Anyway, I'm off to go exploring and mail letters.
~Lyn
Friday, September 17, 2010
Song Pyeon (half moon rice cakes): 송편
It has been a long week. A long, long, long, long, long week. The children have been out of control, discipline issues were rampant, I had five classes straight through with no breaks, by the end of the week I was croaking (so much trying to talk over kids/yelling), exhausted (no sleep weee), and stressed (will the grad school applications never be finished?).
Ended up going out with some Korean friends (as in, they are Korean) Friday night. It was a nice break.
Today I went to the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and made song pyeon, little half moon shaped rice... well... it's a rice pastry and it's filled with either a sweet sesame mixture (that reminded me a lot of the filling for kolach) or red beans. The dough was either white (straight up rice dough) or green (mixed with 'vegetation' not really sure what they were getting at, but they are tasty). It reminded me a lot of making pierogies, only in miniature. They were tasty. Unfortunately they decided to have us count off and divide the tables by number, so I was with three people from CA (who are in our language class) a British woman who was just taking pictures, and a Chinese/American woman. The British woman was very into her picture taking, the Chinese/American very focused on her song pyeon making, and the three Californians were only interested in talking to each other (believe me, I tried to be conversational). It was a fun time, and then afterward I wandered downtown and art street. Saturday seems to be the day to go to art street! In addition to the normal shops (not all of which were open, sadly) there were also street vendors. Art Street was also really busy, which was nice, I felt less awkward not being the only person around. I bought myself a really nice set of placemats with some really nice chopsticks. While on art street I ran into one of my coworkers! We had a brief chat and then parted ways, she was out with a friend and husband. I also saw three of my 6th grade students. It was rather awkward, I said hello and they muttered and looked away. I wasn't even trying to talk to them!
Next week we have a 3-day break for Choseuk, which is like Korean Thanksgiving. I was offered a very, very unique chance to spend some of it with a Korean family. Expect a full report when I return!
And now everyone's favorite amateur anthropologist pulls out her giant list of "things American's will find strange" and finally decides to share them with you:
- My very first day in Korea, when I was sitting in class with Sandy, a kid pulled out an exacto knife. A freaking exacto knife! Coming from a country where any kind of knife can be considered a weapon this shocked me so much that my first reaction was to demand that the kid hand it over. I have actually gotten used to this, kids whipping knives out in class. They use these exacto knives to sharpen their pencils
-Physical contact with the students is allowed. So that means you can hug the kids, pat them on the shoulder, separate a fight, etc. It also means that sometimes your third graders will give you back rubs. It feels like child exploitation when they do it, but not only do they volunteer, they just come up behind you and start beating your back. They are surprisingly good at it. Apparently they are taught from a young age how to give a proper back rub so that they can help out there elders. Which leads us to...
-The children will feed you. Not 'they will give you food' (which they will). THEY WILL FEED YOU. They will say "HERE TEACHER" as they shove things in your face. God help you if you have food allergies or don't like something or have an aversion to grubby child fingers because they just shove it in your face with no explanation as to what it is or if they washed their hands after coming out of the bathroom.
-Your washing machine will drain itself onto the floor. Do not be alarmed. Keep an extra pair of chopsticks handy in case you need to pull disgusting things out of your drain
- (This one's for you, Dad) All the trashcans have lids. All of them.
- (This one's for you, Bridget) Koreans compost and recycle all plastics/glass/metal. There is also a clothes donation bin outside of every apartment.
also, if you are interested
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049825&id=1326450018&l=4104c93786
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048838&id=1326450018&l=795ff8479e
Those are the links to my two facebook albums of Korean pictures. The second look is a more irreverent take on the little odds and ends of Korea (and my hamster), whereas the first link is actually serious pictures. Feel free to look at one, both, or neither!
Enjoy your weekend, and have a happy Choseuk!
~Hannah
Ended up going out with some Korean friends (as in, they are Korean) Friday night. It was a nice break.
Today I went to the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and made song pyeon, little half moon shaped rice... well... it's a rice pastry and it's filled with either a sweet sesame mixture (that reminded me a lot of the filling for kolach) or red beans. The dough was either white (straight up rice dough) or green (mixed with 'vegetation' not really sure what they were getting at, but they are tasty). It reminded me a lot of making pierogies, only in miniature. They were tasty. Unfortunately they decided to have us count off and divide the tables by number, so I was with three people from CA (who are in our language class) a British woman who was just taking pictures, and a Chinese/American woman. The British woman was very into her picture taking, the Chinese/American very focused on her song pyeon making, and the three Californians were only interested in talking to each other (believe me, I tried to be conversational). It was a fun time, and then afterward I wandered downtown and art street. Saturday seems to be the day to go to art street! In addition to the normal shops (not all of which were open, sadly) there were also street vendors. Art Street was also really busy, which was nice, I felt less awkward not being the only person around. I bought myself a really nice set of placemats with some really nice chopsticks. While on art street I ran into one of my coworkers! We had a brief chat and then parted ways, she was out with a friend and husband. I also saw three of my 6th grade students. It was rather awkward, I said hello and they muttered and looked away. I wasn't even trying to talk to them!
Next week we have a 3-day break for Choseuk, which is like Korean Thanksgiving. I was offered a very, very unique chance to spend some of it with a Korean family. Expect a full report when I return!
And now everyone's favorite amateur anthropologist pulls out her giant list of "things American's will find strange" and finally decides to share them with you:
- My very first day in Korea, when I was sitting in class with Sandy, a kid pulled out an exacto knife. A freaking exacto knife! Coming from a country where any kind of knife can be considered a weapon this shocked me so much that my first reaction was to demand that the kid hand it over. I have actually gotten used to this, kids whipping knives out in class. They use these exacto knives to sharpen their pencils
-Physical contact with the students is allowed. So that means you can hug the kids, pat them on the shoulder, separate a fight, etc. It also means that sometimes your third graders will give you back rubs. It feels like child exploitation when they do it, but not only do they volunteer, they just come up behind you and start beating your back. They are surprisingly good at it. Apparently they are taught from a young age how to give a proper back rub so that they can help out there elders. Which leads us to...
-The children will feed you. Not 'they will give you food' (which they will). THEY WILL FEED YOU. They will say "HERE TEACHER" as they shove things in your face. God help you if you have food allergies or don't like something or have an aversion to grubby child fingers because they just shove it in your face with no explanation as to what it is or if they washed their hands after coming out of the bathroom.
-Your washing machine will drain itself onto the floor. Do not be alarmed. Keep an extra pair of chopsticks handy in case you need to pull disgusting things out of your drain
- (This one's for you, Dad) All the trashcans have lids. All of them.
- (This one's for you, Bridget) Koreans compost and recycle all plastics/glass/metal. There is also a clothes donation bin outside of every apartment.
also, if you are interested
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049825&id=1326450018&l=4104c93786
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048838&id=1326450018&l=795ff8479e
Those are the links to my two facebook albums of Korean pictures. The second look is a more irreverent take on the little odds and ends of Korea (and my hamster), whereas the first link is actually serious pictures. Feel free to look at one, both, or neither!
Enjoy your weekend, and have a happy Choseuk!
~Hannah
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Many Things
HI!
I will start my entry off with a minor apology. I'm a bit overtired because I woke up at 5AM to watch the Men's Finals of the US Open (YAY, the US Open made me SOOO happy this year) which you probably don't want me to babble about (I shall try not to, but YAY). This entry will probably have a lot of babble anyway because I'm tired, but I can't sleep until my laundry is done, such is life (and it wasn't even worth it really to get up because the US Open Live wouldn't stream here and because of the rain delay it wasn't anywhere else, so I was stuck listening to the radio. So sad, I wanted to see the beautiful backhands that both of my boys were hitting MAJOR winners with).
Anyway. Sadly, Lori and Petra have left us to go on their next big adventure. I know that they will have fun, but I miss them. I didn't get as close to them as Hannah did, but that's to be expected. The only two up sides to them leaving are that I now have my own apartment and am unpacked, settled in and finally calmer. AND Britton is back too, and I missed him so that's awesome :) (I totally had to say that because he read this :P just kidding, hehe). Anyway, a huge plus with Britton here, he got my Grade 7s, I DON'T HAVE GRADE 7S ANYMORE! YES! I mean, I am happy I no longer have to deal with the two classes that gave me the most stress. Now I only have one really bad class, and I think I scared them enough today (-10 pts for Korean, -5 pts for speaking at all without being called on) that they will be a little better.
I am ridiculously happy to have my own apartment and no longer be living out of my suitcase. I am completely unpacked, decorated (there are ducks EVERYWHERE) and if you are interested I will either post pictures here later (if you ask) or you can check out my facebook page where the four pictures are. I am absolutely in love with almost everything about the apartment for the sole fact that it is awesome, and it is mine. The only thing I have a problem with are the knives, but Britton will come fix them tomorrow (they are sad).
In more school news, because last week was Rosh Hashanah, I did a New Years unit with my Grade 6 and 7 last week (then Britton save the Grade 7 class from the King Arthur unit I had planned, because really? They didn't know who King Arthur was? Blasphemy!). The Grade 6s loved it, the Grade 7 girls were interested, the boys should be wacked repeatedly with a notebook so they stop sleeping in my class (seriously, two of them fell asleep). This week I was going to do the unit with the other Grade 7, but Britton has them, so YAY. My Grade 6s are learning about the founding of Rome (don't judge me!) and my Grade 5 class, because the next book for them was sold out, is doing an inpromptu lesson on the Greek Gods. However, the class is so out of control all we've gone over is who the 14 Olympians are (I count Hades and Hestia, not everyone does) and the myth of Hades and Persephone. I was going to do birth myths, but decided not to (didn't want to get into Dionysus and Athena). Anyway, out of a class of 19, only 7 did their homework today, so I lost my temper and scared them (see above about taking points). Other than that class, I love my classes. This weeks Grade 6, and the other Grade 5 are a bit rambunctious but they are cool kids. I'm starting to hit my stride teaching I think.
Because I don't have the Grade 7s I have an extra Recording period. I like recording by myself. It's fun with someone else, but by myself is a bit more fun. I don't know why. Maybe I just really love talking to myself. Maybe I'm crazy. Hm.
In other news, Hannah and I are also students! We had our first Korean class today. There were three other foreign teachers there (I think all three were from CA) and one older woman who was French, but lived in Australia for a number of years (and that's where her husband is from) so she had an Aussie accent. She's here because her husband is here (teaching?). Anyway. The teacher we had today is apparently not our teacher, she was filling in because our teacher was busy. However, she was Lori and Sandy's teacher! This made me (and maybe Hannah too?) nervous because both are very smart and good at languages, and I'm only half one and it's not the language one. I spent a lot of the class trying very hard not to parallel things with Japanese and any other language I know. Which was kinda hard. But, I really really want to learn this language so I shall persevere! I will probably complain a lot about how Hannah is better then me at it, I am not good with modern languages, give me a dead language any day. The Korean alphabet seems like something I can pick up though, so that's good.
Speaking of dead languages, I have been in contact with UMass Amherst about the Masters in Teaching Latin program I want to get into. So far, sounds good. And the prof that I was e-mailing seemed to think I'd be very good for the program, so happy thoughts!
I can't think of anything else to say that doesn't relate to tennis (YAY NADAL) so I shall end my entry here. I think I wanted to say more about Korean class, but the thought has now passed out of my brain.
L'Shana Tova
~Lyn~
I will start my entry off with a minor apology. I'm a bit overtired because I woke up at 5AM to watch the Men's Finals of the US Open (YAY, the US Open made me SOOO happy this year) which you probably don't want me to babble about (I shall try not to, but YAY). This entry will probably have a lot of babble anyway because I'm tired, but I can't sleep until my laundry is done, such is life (and it wasn't even worth it really to get up because the US Open Live wouldn't stream here and because of the rain delay it wasn't anywhere else, so I was stuck listening to the radio. So sad, I wanted to see the beautiful backhands that both of my boys were hitting MAJOR winners with).
Anyway. Sadly, Lori and Petra have left us to go on their next big adventure. I know that they will have fun, but I miss them. I didn't get as close to them as Hannah did, but that's to be expected. The only two up sides to them leaving are that I now have my own apartment and am unpacked, settled in and finally calmer. AND Britton is back too, and I missed him so that's awesome :) (I totally had to say that because he read this :P just kidding, hehe). Anyway, a huge plus with Britton here, he got my Grade 7s, I DON'T HAVE GRADE 7S ANYMORE! YES! I mean, I am happy I no longer have to deal with the two classes that gave me the most stress. Now I only have one really bad class, and I think I scared them enough today (-10 pts for Korean, -5 pts for speaking at all without being called on) that they will be a little better.
I am ridiculously happy to have my own apartment and no longer be living out of my suitcase. I am completely unpacked, decorated (there are ducks EVERYWHERE) and if you are interested I will either post pictures here later (if you ask) or you can check out my facebook page where the four pictures are. I am absolutely in love with almost everything about the apartment for the sole fact that it is awesome, and it is mine. The only thing I have a problem with are the knives, but Britton will come fix them tomorrow (they are sad).
In more school news, because last week was Rosh Hashanah, I did a New Years unit with my Grade 6 and 7 last week (then Britton save the Grade 7 class from the King Arthur unit I had planned, because really? They didn't know who King Arthur was? Blasphemy!). The Grade 6s loved it, the Grade 7 girls were interested, the boys should be wacked repeatedly with a notebook so they stop sleeping in my class (seriously, two of them fell asleep). This week I was going to do the unit with the other Grade 7, but Britton has them, so YAY. My Grade 6s are learning about the founding of Rome (don't judge me!) and my Grade 5 class, because the next book for them was sold out, is doing an inpromptu lesson on the Greek Gods. However, the class is so out of control all we've gone over is who the 14 Olympians are (I count Hades and Hestia, not everyone does) and the myth of Hades and Persephone. I was going to do birth myths, but decided not to (didn't want to get into Dionysus and Athena). Anyway, out of a class of 19, only 7 did their homework today, so I lost my temper and scared them (see above about taking points). Other than that class, I love my classes. This weeks Grade 6, and the other Grade 5 are a bit rambunctious but they are cool kids. I'm starting to hit my stride teaching I think.
Because I don't have the Grade 7s I have an extra Recording period. I like recording by myself. It's fun with someone else, but by myself is a bit more fun. I don't know why. Maybe I just really love talking to myself. Maybe I'm crazy. Hm.
In other news, Hannah and I are also students! We had our first Korean class today. There were three other foreign teachers there (I think all three were from CA) and one older woman who was French, but lived in Australia for a number of years (and that's where her husband is from) so she had an Aussie accent. She's here because her husband is here (teaching?). Anyway. The teacher we had today is apparently not our teacher, she was filling in because our teacher was busy. However, she was Lori and Sandy's teacher! This made me (and maybe Hannah too?) nervous because both are very smart and good at languages, and I'm only half one and it's not the language one. I spent a lot of the class trying very hard not to parallel things with Japanese and any other language I know. Which was kinda hard. But, I really really want to learn this language so I shall persevere! I will probably complain a lot about how Hannah is better then me at it, I am not good with modern languages, give me a dead language any day. The Korean alphabet seems like something I can pick up though, so that's good.
Speaking of dead languages, I have been in contact with UMass Amherst about the Masters in Teaching Latin program I want to get into. So far, sounds good. And the prof that I was e-mailing seemed to think I'd be very good for the program, so happy thoughts!
I can't think of anything else to say that doesn't relate to tennis (YAY NADAL) so I shall end my entry here. I think I wanted to say more about Korean class, but the thought has now passed out of my brain.
L'Shana Tova
~Lyn~
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sister: 자매
I had an amazing weekend, but I'm starting to feel a little depressed. Why? Because Lori and Petra are leaving Saturday morning. We've been cramming in as much time together as possible before they leave, but it's hard because I have work and they have to clean out Lori's apartment (Petra has moved out of her place and is staying with Lori so that the new teacher's at Petra's school (a couple) have a place to stay) and they also have to pack for their trip to Germany. I've gotten very close to my "big sisters," I'm sad to see them go. Fortunately I got an AMAZING last weekend with them! It started on Saturday morning. Lori and Petra have both heard so much about Josh that they demanded a chance to skype with him and make sure they approved of the relationship. After that they told me to come over later in the evening, so I did. A decent sized group had congregated to say goodbye to them, and we ate pizza and then went out. A few blocks from the apartment is a bowling alley and a Nori Bang (Korean Karaoke). First we went to the Nori Bang, and then we went "backwards bowling." Due to an injury, Petra cannot use her left hand (which is her dominant hand), so the point of backwards bowling was that everyone had to use their 'wrong' hand. It was fun. I'm just as bad at left handed bowling as I am at right handed bowling.
The next day I had more "sister" time. We all went up to the bamboo forest and I met a Korean couple that Lori and Petra have befriended. We went to a traditional Korean style restaurant, which involved sitting on the floor (in a skirt! whoops!) and just eating rice and side dishes! It was interesting, and fun. We also tried bamboo wine, which tasted a little like watered down whiskey. Overall we didn't spend too much time there, but it was neat to see the forest and know what is around the area.
Teaching is going very well, I'm back on the easy week. I had a great moment with one of my 6th graders yesterday. Overall I'm pretty lax on discipline. I don't waste a lot of time telling individuals to pay attention or doling out 'minus points.' My logic is that if they are paying attention it will reflect in their grades because they will know the answers to the tests and know how to complete the homework. So the other day while reading a story that they would be quizzed on (all announced) over half the class failed to pay attention or ask any questions. And then they failed the quiz. The great moment occurred the following day when I handed the graded quizzes back and the students apologized and promised to pay more attention. The rest of the class they had perfect behavior!
I've been super busy working organizing grad school stuff, which is kinda dominating my life. I'm not going to weigh everyone down with that stuff here in the blog, but if you're interested in hearing about it, feel free to ask me! I've also been doing a lot of thinking about Korean relationships and cultural differences and definitions. I will probably make a long scholarly post on that, but I want to write that more like a real paper and less like a blog post, so you will have to wait awhile to read it, sorry!
Hope all is well with everyone. I miss a lot of people, but as you can probably tell I'm having a great time, even if I'm getting sad about the thought of Lori and Petra leaving.
~Hannah
Friday, September 3, 2010
Cell Phones
We now have cell phones! And Hannah taught me how to pay the bills, which I will have to do when I move across the parking lot thingy. But that's less exciting. Anyway.
We got paid on Tuesday, I think, and on Wednesday we started our search. The language barrier has been a little difficult, but it was the most difficult, for me at least, during this shopping trip. The first store we tried said that the cell phones were 200,000 Korean won, about 200 USD. That's a bit ridiculous. Neither of us could decide whether the guy just misunderstood what we were saying or if it was a matter of taking advantage of the "stupid foreigners" but we moved on. The second store sent us back to the first store, so we went to a new one. This one we seemed to be making some progress, and the guy opened up a translator for Korean-English and English-Korean so we could communicate a little bit. However, the trip was cut short because we had to go to work. On Thursday we left early and returned to the last store. The workers were really nice and, with the use of another translator thing, we got rather nice cell phones. The phones were 30,000 and the plan was 24,000 so all in all we paid 50,500 won for cell phones and such. That's about 50 USD, which is way cheaper then I can think of for a phone in the states. It was exciting, and I'm glad to have a phone :)
In other news. I did a quick e-mart run on Sunday, Saturday it was pouring all day and I didn't end up leaving the apartment. The funny thing was that the taxi driver who took me back to the apartment was asking questions, like they do here, and one of them was if I was married. It was so random, and highly amusing. And then on Monday when I was on the bus on the way back from work there was this cute guy on the bus. He started talking to me, asked where I was from, the usual questions, mentioned that he was a policeman, and told me that he had gotten on the bus just so that he could talk to me and asked for my number. I, at the time, didn't have a cell phone and told him this, so we ended up exchanged email addresses. I'm still rather amused by this and am not sure if I'm going to email him my new number.
I'm sort of settling into life here. At least the teaching aspect of it. I will soon, hopefully, but doing the mundane settling down thing that Hannah has down. Lori leaves next week, and I'll get to move in and unpack, finally. On the other hand, I will miss her and am sad she is leaving. I am excited to see Britton again, he comes next week too, I believe. Hannah and I start Korean speaking classes at the GIC soon so hopefully this language barrier will lessen as we learn more. That's all I can think of to write now.
~Lyn
We got paid on Tuesday, I think, and on Wednesday we started our search. The language barrier has been a little difficult, but it was the most difficult, for me at least, during this shopping trip. The first store we tried said that the cell phones were 200,000 Korean won, about 200 USD. That's a bit ridiculous. Neither of us could decide whether the guy just misunderstood what we were saying or if it was a matter of taking advantage of the "stupid foreigners" but we moved on. The second store sent us back to the first store, so we went to a new one. This one we seemed to be making some progress, and the guy opened up a translator for Korean-English and English-Korean so we could communicate a little bit. However, the trip was cut short because we had to go to work. On Thursday we left early and returned to the last store. The workers were really nice and, with the use of another translator thing, we got rather nice cell phones. The phones were 30,000 and the plan was 24,000 so all in all we paid 50,500 won for cell phones and such. That's about 50 USD, which is way cheaper then I can think of for a phone in the states. It was exciting, and I'm glad to have a phone :)
In other news. I did a quick e-mart run on Sunday, Saturday it was pouring all day and I didn't end up leaving the apartment. The funny thing was that the taxi driver who took me back to the apartment was asking questions, like they do here, and one of them was if I was married. It was so random, and highly amusing. And then on Monday when I was on the bus on the way back from work there was this cute guy on the bus. He started talking to me, asked where I was from, the usual questions, mentioned that he was a policeman, and told me that he had gotten on the bus just so that he could talk to me and asked for my number. I, at the time, didn't have a cell phone and told him this, so we ended up exchanged email addresses. I'm still rather amused by this and am not sure if I'm going to email him my new number.
I'm sort of settling into life here. At least the teaching aspect of it. I will soon, hopefully, but doing the mundane settling down thing that Hannah has down. Lori leaves next week, and I'll get to move in and unpack, finally. On the other hand, I will miss her and am sad she is leaving. I am excited to see Britton again, he comes next week too, I believe. Hannah and I start Korean speaking classes at the GIC soon so hopefully this language barrier will lessen as we learn more. That's all I can think of to write now.
~Lyn
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