Hi everyone!
Well, it's now November and we've been in Korea 8 months! Time is really flying now and it feels like we'll be home before we know it.
Happy Halloween to everyone! They don't do Halloween in Korea, really, but my school had a Halloween party because of all the foreign teachers. It was really hard to find a costume here because not many people buy them so I ended up making a very unattractive giraffe costume. My kids had fun in costumes and making 'trick or treat' bags, witches brew, and doing face-painting.
This weekend wasn't too exciting. I had to work on Saturday because my kids had their huge play for their parents and families that they've been practicing for for months. My school got a huge auditorium at a nearby university and it was decorated to the nines with giant balloon sculptures and inflatable rainbows and all kinds of stuff. Each kindergarden class put on a performance. The 7-year olds (6 years old in Canada) all did musicals and the 5 and 6 year olds did ballet performances, songs, and speeches. It was really high stress for the teachers because parents approval is insanely important at hagwons (private schools). All the Korean teachers were super stressed out and were freaking out on the kids if they were doing anything wrong.
My Einstein class was doing a Snow White musical, complete with really fantastic costumes and soundtrack and my Edison class did a Pinocchio musical. My Newton class is only 6 so they did a ballet and sang 'Raindrops are Falling on my Head' and did speeches about their dreams, interests, and people they admire.
My scene in Einstein's play. Pretty sweet.
I was really proud of all my students and they did great. I think the parents were happy - at least none of them complained. And the principal, Mrs. Lyu, seemed satisfied as well. Jesse came and watched the performances and helped clean up afterwards. Then my principal paid for all the teachers do go out for dinner together.
We went to a 'meat buffet' where you could choose from lots of different kinds of meats and grill them at your table. I got rice and kimchi jigae - a spicy soup - but everyone else had a meat feast. After dinner my boss took all the teachers to a noraebong (kareoke place) and we sang songs late into the night.
Sunday we just lazed around and watched Halloween specials and went over to our friend's place in the afternoon to visit with our friends, Katelyn and Mallory, who finished here a few months ago and have been traveling South East Asia since then. They're only back for a few days before they head home so we just hung out with them and heard about their trip.
On Monday, I had the morning off, because I worked on Saturday, and Jesse had the whole day off because his school chose to celebrate the anniversary of their opening by closing. We just relaxed in the morning and didn't do much of anything.
This blog has mostly been about my stuff - not much is new with Jesse. He says his work is the same and so is everything else.
In November, Jesse and I and some friends have signed up for private Korean lessons. It's a bit late in the game but we would like to leave knowing at least a basic understanding of the language. Jesse has been studying a lot on his own so he's, by far, the most advanced out of all of us but we've all agreed to start at the beginning.
Anyway, sorry for another unexciting blog. We don't have much planned for next weekend, either, so I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat for that one.
Hope all is well! Miss you all.
Ali and Jesse
Showing posts with label noraebong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noraebong. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Flights and Farewells
Hello everyone,
So we haven't posted a new entry for a few weeks now and that's because we haven't really done anything new and exciting over here during that time. That's soon to change as our Chuseok Jeju island trip approaches, but we thought we would check in now and let you know what we've been up to so you don't think we've just been watching paint dry this whole time.
Two weekends ago, six of our friends were all leaving for home so it was a weekend full of goodbye parties. On the Friday night the party was an Ajima-Ajashi theme. That means people were supposed to dress up like old Korean women and men in their very distinctive style of dress. Old Korean women wear lots of floral, MC Hammer style pants, giant sun visors, long gloves, and often aprons. Korean men are less distinctive but often wear arm warmers, hiking gear, and similar stuff to old men in Canada with socks pulled up to their knees, collared t-shirts, etc. Anyway, lots of people didn't really dress up because they were afraid of offending everyone. Ali and I just bought sun visors in a half-hearted costume attempt.
We all went for galbi (a huge group of us) and then went to a bar downtown which is one of the only bars that permits US military so it was, consequently, jammed with military guys. Not the most fun ever.
Here's a big group shot of us and our friends outside the galbi restaurant.
The next day we were supposed to have a goodbye party on the roof of one of our friend's apartments but, because monsoon season was delayed this year, it was pouring. Instead, people rented out a huge hotel room for the goodbye party. It was lots of fun with tons of great food but then the hotel staff started freaking out seeing all the waygooks (foreigners) coming past the front desk so we moved to our friend's apartment and had lots of fun anyway, but it was really sad saying goodbye to our friends.
Last week, Ali went to Canada for her cousin's wedding, leaving me here to fend for myself. Since Ali saw most of the people that read this blog, there's no need to go into much detail on her trip.
The day she was leaving was slightly exciting because we both saw our first typhoon. It petered out by mid-morning but it was just crazy strong winds and rain. Apparently five people died from it in Seoul. There was lots of damage to be seen and Ali's morning classes were canceled. Pretty exciting and thankfully her flights weren't delayed because of it.
While she was gone, I had to make appearances to represent the Ali-Jesse image so we wouldn't be forgotten. I went out with Ali's coworkers for a Korean dinner and had a funny encounter. Outside the restaurant, a mother and child were walking by when the mother stopped and said "English teacher?" It turned out I taught her daughter (1 of 350 kids I teach so it's hard to remember them all). I was expecting to say a quick "hi" but the mother wanted me to have a conversation with her daughter (so I guess she could see the English she's learned). The only problem was the daughter was very shy and was clinging to her mom's leg. I said "how are you?" to her and she answered while still hiding behind her mom. The mother then said to me, "She wants to ask you question." She then grabbed her daughter's arm and pushed her towards me. "You ask teacher question now." The girl in her most timid voice says, "How are you?" I said, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking. Are you going to dinner now?" That must've too much for because she was back hiding behind her mom. Then the mom yanks her arm again to push her towards me to talk. It went like this for about a minute. The parents really want to see their children use English with a foreigner. Not sure if the mother thinks I'm a bad teacher though, given how little confidence her daughter had with me.
Later in the evening, we went to a norae-bang (karaoke) because there was a couple of new people with us who hadn't been yet, so that was fun.
The next day I went to a baseball game with everyone, taking advantage of Ali's absence since our opinions on baseball differ greatly. I have fun at baseball games but this one was very hot even though it started at 5pm. The heat has been bad for awhile now and only recently has shown signs of slowing down in exchange for warm damp days.
This weekend Ali had to work on Saturday to compensate for the extra day she gets off at Chuseok. She didn't get home until 8 on Saturday so we didn't do anything. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will probably just relax around Uijeongbu because Ali is still getting over her jet-lag and it's only a one-day weekend for her.
Anyway, it's only one more week until Chuseok so we'll let you know how that goes.
Talk to you soon,
Ali and Jesse
So we haven't posted a new entry for a few weeks now and that's because we haven't really done anything new and exciting over here during that time. That's soon to change as our Chuseok Jeju island trip approaches, but we thought we would check in now and let you know what we've been up to so you don't think we've just been watching paint dry this whole time.
Two weekends ago, six of our friends were all leaving for home so it was a weekend full of goodbye parties. On the Friday night the party was an Ajima-Ajashi theme. That means people were supposed to dress up like old Korean women and men in their very distinctive style of dress. Old Korean women wear lots of floral, MC Hammer style pants, giant sun visors, long gloves, and often aprons. Korean men are less distinctive but often wear arm warmers, hiking gear, and similar stuff to old men in Canada with socks pulled up to their knees, collared t-shirts, etc. Anyway, lots of people didn't really dress up because they were afraid of offending everyone. Ali and I just bought sun visors in a half-hearted costume attempt.
We all went for galbi (a huge group of us) and then went to a bar downtown which is one of the only bars that permits US military so it was, consequently, jammed with military guys. Not the most fun ever.
Here's a big group shot of us and our friends outside the galbi restaurant.
The next day we were supposed to have a goodbye party on the roof of one of our friend's apartments but, because monsoon season was delayed this year, it was pouring. Instead, people rented out a huge hotel room for the goodbye party. It was lots of fun with tons of great food but then the hotel staff started freaking out seeing all the waygooks (foreigners) coming past the front desk so we moved to our friend's apartment and had lots of fun anyway, but it was really sad saying goodbye to our friends.
Last week, Ali went to Canada for her cousin's wedding, leaving me here to fend for myself. Since Ali saw most of the people that read this blog, there's no need to go into much detail on her trip.
The day she was leaving was slightly exciting because we both saw our first typhoon. It petered out by mid-morning but it was just crazy strong winds and rain. Apparently five people died from it in Seoul. There was lots of damage to be seen and Ali's morning classes were canceled. Pretty exciting and thankfully her flights weren't delayed because of it.
While she was gone, I had to make appearances to represent the Ali-Jesse image so we wouldn't be forgotten. I went out with Ali's coworkers for a Korean dinner and had a funny encounter. Outside the restaurant, a mother and child were walking by when the mother stopped and said "English teacher?" It turned out I taught her daughter (1 of 350 kids I teach so it's hard to remember them all). I was expecting to say a quick "hi" but the mother wanted me to have a conversation with her daughter (so I guess she could see the English she's learned). The only problem was the daughter was very shy and was clinging to her mom's leg. I said "how are you?" to her and she answered while still hiding behind her mom. The mother then said to me, "She wants to ask you question." She then grabbed her daughter's arm and pushed her towards me. "You ask teacher question now." The girl in her most timid voice says, "How are you?" I said, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking. Are you going to dinner now?" That must've too much for because she was back hiding behind her mom. Then the mom yanks her arm again to push her towards me to talk. It went like this for about a minute. The parents really want to see their children use English with a foreigner. Not sure if the mother thinks I'm a bad teacher though, given how little confidence her daughter had with me.
Later in the evening, we went to a norae-bang (karaoke) because there was a couple of new people with us who hadn't been yet, so that was fun.
The next day I went to a baseball game with everyone, taking advantage of Ali's absence since our opinions on baseball differ greatly. I have fun at baseball games but this one was very hot even though it started at 5pm. The heat has been bad for awhile now and only recently has shown signs of slowing down in exchange for warm damp days.
This weekend Ali had to work on Saturday to compensate for the extra day she gets off at Chuseok. She didn't get home until 8 on Saturday so we didn't do anything. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will probably just relax around Uijeongbu because Ali is still getting over her jet-lag and it's only a one-day weekend for her.
Anyway, it's only one more week until Chuseok so we'll let you know how that goes.
Talk to you soon,
Ali and Jesse
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Goodbyes and Gambling
Hi Everyone!
Another week is over - time is flying by. I can't believe it's almost July already.
This Friday Mr. and Mrs. Lyu (the directors/owners of my school) took all the staff out for dinner from both of their ECC schools in Uijeongbu. They are two of the richest people in Korea but it still must have cost them a fortune because there was about 40 people there. We went to a galbi restaurant and Mr. Lyu even got me some vegetarian kimchi deegai (I think - it's basically like a kimchi soup) and rice, which was surprisingly good. In Korea it's really disrespectful to decline something offered to you by your elder so we had to accept all the food and drink Mr. Lyu presented us with. It was a really fun dinner with so much to eat and drink and then he paid for us all to get a VIP room at the nearby noraebong (private kareoke place). It was really fun with people singing songs and everyone clapping and singing along.
Analie, Me, Jamie, and Kately singing Brown Eyed Girl.
The reason for the big dinner was because a couple of foreign teachers, Jamie and Sarah, are finishing their contract this week and it was a goodbye dinner for them and a thank-you for all our hard work with the open classes.
After the noraebong, Jesse and the other foreign teachers we're friends with, met us and we all went to the downtown part of Uijeongbu where there are beautiful fountains and park areas and we hung out and played in the fountain for a few hours.
The girls relaxing by the fountain
Saturday night was Korea's big World Cup game against Uruguay. Lots of people were heading in to Seoul to watch the game with the huge crowds at City Hall but, while it would be cool to watch with a huge mass of people, we opted to sit down at a bar and get some fries and chicken wings and watch the game indoors since it was also pouring rain. It was a disappointing loss for Korea but it was fun to watch it with all the fans and they put up a good fight.
Sunday we got up fairly early and headed in to Seoul. We wanted to check out the Coex Mall, which is said to be Asia's biggest mall - I don't know if that's true or not but it was pretty big. We didn't buy a lot but we had lunch at an Italian place, went to this really awesome aquarium, and went to a casino where Jesse broke even on the slots and I won $70... pretty good deal.
Jesse with some sardines at the aquarium
Me with little fishies nibbling my fingers
Shark attack
A woman feeding the penguins at the aquarium. Penguins are too cute for words.
Anyway, we had a really fun day exploring the mall and now we're back home, ready to start another week.
Jesse has his open class this Wednesday that he's busy preparing for. I am training our new teacher, Jonathon, because he's Sarah's replacement, so we both should have pretty busy weeks.
Anyway, that's all for this week.
Miss you all!
Ali
Another week is over - time is flying by. I can't believe it's almost July already.
This Friday Mr. and Mrs. Lyu (the directors/owners of my school) took all the staff out for dinner from both of their ECC schools in Uijeongbu. They are two of the richest people in Korea but it still must have cost them a fortune because there was about 40 people there. We went to a galbi restaurant and Mr. Lyu even got me some vegetarian kimchi deegai (I think - it's basically like a kimchi soup) and rice, which was surprisingly good. In Korea it's really disrespectful to decline something offered to you by your elder so we had to accept all the food and drink Mr. Lyu presented us with. It was a really fun dinner with so much to eat and drink and then he paid for us all to get a VIP room at the nearby noraebong (private kareoke place). It was really fun with people singing songs and everyone clapping and singing along.
Analie, Me, Jamie, and Kately singing Brown Eyed Girl.
The reason for the big dinner was because a couple of foreign teachers, Jamie and Sarah, are finishing their contract this week and it was a goodbye dinner for them and a thank-you for all our hard work with the open classes.
After the noraebong, Jesse and the other foreign teachers we're friends with, met us and we all went to the downtown part of Uijeongbu where there are beautiful fountains and park areas and we hung out and played in the fountain for a few hours.
The girls relaxing by the fountain
Saturday night was Korea's big World Cup game against Uruguay. Lots of people were heading in to Seoul to watch the game with the huge crowds at City Hall but, while it would be cool to watch with a huge mass of people, we opted to sit down at a bar and get some fries and chicken wings and watch the game indoors since it was also pouring rain. It was a disappointing loss for Korea but it was fun to watch it with all the fans and they put up a good fight.
Sunday we got up fairly early and headed in to Seoul. We wanted to check out the Coex Mall, which is said to be Asia's biggest mall - I don't know if that's true or not but it was pretty big. We didn't buy a lot but we had lunch at an Italian place, went to this really awesome aquarium, and went to a casino where Jesse broke even on the slots and I won $70... pretty good deal.
Jesse with some sardines at the aquarium
Me with little fishies nibbling my fingers
Shark attack
A woman feeding the penguins at the aquarium. Penguins are too cute for words.
Anyway, we had a really fun day exploring the mall and now we're back home, ready to start another week.
Jesse has his open class this Wednesday that he's busy preparing for. I am training our new teacher, Jonathon, because he's Sarah's replacement, so we both should have pretty busy weeks.
Anyway, that's all for this week.
Miss you all!
Ali
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Buddha and Beaches
Hello everyone!
Hope this blog finds you all well. This week Jesse and I did different things on the weekend so we're going to write two separate entires - so try not to pick favourites:
Ali's Week:
So, this past week at school we had a field trip to this crazy sand park which was really fun. The kids all had to wear matching sun hats that looked like ducks, which was pretty much the cutest thing on earth. The sand park was really fun. The kids could look for 'dinosaur bones' in the sand, make sand art, make 'fossils' out of clay, build sandcastles and it was very cool. It was a nice break from school and our directors gave all the foreign teachers a really nice picnic lunch.
Saturday was Teacher's Day here in Korea so students gave gifts and stuff on Friday. I guess one of the benefits of working at a private school is that the students are rich so, for my teachers day, I got a $100 gift card to this huge department store, tons of soaps, body washes, scrubs, mists, etc. I got flowers, cards, weird ginsing candies and lots more. Jesse just got a few soaps and an origami flower so I really cleaned up in comparison. Anyway, I love Teachers' Day.
On the weekend I went down to Busan which is the second biggest city in Korea and is way in the South of the country, right on the coast. I met my friend Marijke (from college) in Seoul and then we took the KTX high-speed train down to Busan. The train, apparently, goes 300km an hour, and it took 3 hours to get down to Busan.
Marijke and I with our KTX tickets.
There, we met our other friend from college who is staying in a city near Busan. Her name's Jen I hadn't seen her in months so it was a great mini-reunion. We got a hotel and explored Busan and caught up Friday night. On Saturday we went to Haeundae Beach, the most famous beach in Busan. Jesse actually watched a Korean movie on the plane over here called 'Haeundae'. Unfortunately it was about a tsunami striking the beach and killing everyone but, fortunately, it was fictional. Jen had a bunch of her foreign co-teachers come down and we had a girls day on the beach, just relaxing.
Me, Marijke, and Jen on the beach.
The water was way too cold to swim but it was sunny and warm and a beautiful day to be relaxing on the beach. That night we all went out for dinner and then hit the town and I finally got to go to a noraebong (private kareoke), which I've been dying to do since I arrived. It was such a fun weekend and it was so good to see my friends. Marijke and I took the train home on Sunday and that was the whole weekend.
Koreans are funny because they HATE the sun. All the women wear massive visors and carry umbrellas in the sun and, even on the beach, everyone wears long sleeves and pants to avoid the sun. It's because, apparently, they are very afraid of cancer, which is legitimate, but it would make a lot more sense if they weren't such heavy smokers. Almost everyone here smokes and smoking is legal in every restaurant and bar and public place. I'm not sure if I'm going to understand Koreans, even after a year here, but I'm trying.
A bunch of 'ajeemas' (old Korean ladies) protecting themselves from the sun.
Here is Jesse's week:
While Ali was basking under the Busan sun, I went down Seoul on Sunday afternoon with some of the friends we've made since being here. Buddha's birthday is next Friday and for some reason that I'm not too sure of yet, they have all the celebrations the weekend before. Anyway, when I got off the subway, I saw a vast amount of white tents framing the street, all featuring events and activities varying in form and function. There were arts and crafts tents where you could paint a small wooden Buddah or create a lotus lantern; information tents with all the different forms of Buddahism; sales tents where you could buy clothes and other stuff; and performance tents where you could watch a group of women do yoga moves while holding empty plates (I would have been more impressed if their was food that stayed on the plates, but it was still okay). We walked around for a few hours taking in the sights and enjoying the food. I must say there is a lot of Korean food that I'm getting used to and will probably miss once it's gone.
The main event was at 7:00 pm, the Lotus Lantern parade, which I'd been told was quite cool to see with hundreds of people walking the streets with their cool lanterns lit up in the night. Despite the hype, I was not disappointed; not only were there many lanterns as advertised, but there was numerous floats ranging from kings and queens to fire-breathing dragons and tigers. My camera doesn't take the best pictures at night so these photos really don't do the parade justice.
Fire-breathing dragon float
Peacock that also breathes fire - just like the real ones.
Tiger
Anyway, that was both our weekends. This week has a 3-day weekend, not for Victoria's Day but for Buddha's Birthday. Friday is a holiday, which will be awesome. Jesse and I haven't made a plan yet but it's supposed to be beautiful weather so we should do something cool. We'll let you know what that is in our next blog.
All the best,
Ali and Jesse
Hope this blog finds you all well. This week Jesse and I did different things on the weekend so we're going to write two separate entires - so try not to pick favourites:
Ali's Week:
So, this past week at school we had a field trip to this crazy sand park which was really fun. The kids all had to wear matching sun hats that looked like ducks, which was pretty much the cutest thing on earth. The sand park was really fun. The kids could look for 'dinosaur bones' in the sand, make sand art, make 'fossils' out of clay, build sandcastles and it was very cool. It was a nice break from school and our directors gave all the foreign teachers a really nice picnic lunch.
Saturday was Teacher's Day here in Korea so students gave gifts and stuff on Friday. I guess one of the benefits of working at a private school is that the students are rich so, for my teachers day, I got a $100 gift card to this huge department store, tons of soaps, body washes, scrubs, mists, etc. I got flowers, cards, weird ginsing candies and lots more. Jesse just got a few soaps and an origami flower so I really cleaned up in comparison. Anyway, I love Teachers' Day.
On the weekend I went down to Busan which is the second biggest city in Korea and is way in the South of the country, right on the coast. I met my friend Marijke (from college) in Seoul and then we took the KTX high-speed train down to Busan. The train, apparently, goes 300km an hour, and it took 3 hours to get down to Busan.
Marijke and I with our KTX tickets.
There, we met our other friend from college who is staying in a city near Busan. Her name's Jen I hadn't seen her in months so it was a great mini-reunion. We got a hotel and explored Busan and caught up Friday night. On Saturday we went to Haeundae Beach, the most famous beach in Busan. Jesse actually watched a Korean movie on the plane over here called 'Haeundae'. Unfortunately it was about a tsunami striking the beach and killing everyone but, fortunately, it was fictional. Jen had a bunch of her foreign co-teachers come down and we had a girls day on the beach, just relaxing.
Me, Marijke, and Jen on the beach.
The water was way too cold to swim but it was sunny and warm and a beautiful day to be relaxing on the beach. That night we all went out for dinner and then hit the town and I finally got to go to a noraebong (private kareoke), which I've been dying to do since I arrived. It was such a fun weekend and it was so good to see my friends. Marijke and I took the train home on Sunday and that was the whole weekend.
Koreans are funny because they HATE the sun. All the women wear massive visors and carry umbrellas in the sun and, even on the beach, everyone wears long sleeves and pants to avoid the sun. It's because, apparently, they are very afraid of cancer, which is legitimate, but it would make a lot more sense if they weren't such heavy smokers. Almost everyone here smokes and smoking is legal in every restaurant and bar and public place. I'm not sure if I'm going to understand Koreans, even after a year here, but I'm trying.
A bunch of 'ajeemas' (old Korean ladies) protecting themselves from the sun.
Here is Jesse's week:
While Ali was basking under the Busan sun, I went down Seoul on Sunday afternoon with some of the friends we've made since being here. Buddha's birthday is next Friday and for some reason that I'm not too sure of yet, they have all the celebrations the weekend before. Anyway, when I got off the subway, I saw a vast amount of white tents framing the street, all featuring events and activities varying in form and function. There were arts and crafts tents where you could paint a small wooden Buddah or create a lotus lantern; information tents with all the different forms of Buddahism; sales tents where you could buy clothes and other stuff; and performance tents where you could watch a group of women do yoga moves while holding empty plates (I would have been more impressed if their was food that stayed on the plates, but it was still okay). We walked around for a few hours taking in the sights and enjoying the food. I must say there is a lot of Korean food that I'm getting used to and will probably miss once it's gone.
The main event was at 7:00 pm, the Lotus Lantern parade, which I'd been told was quite cool to see with hundreds of people walking the streets with their cool lanterns lit up in the night. Despite the hype, I was not disappointed; not only were there many lanterns as advertised, but there was numerous floats ranging from kings and queens to fire-breathing dragons and tigers. My camera doesn't take the best pictures at night so these photos really don't do the parade justice.
Fire-breathing dragon float
Peacock that also breathes fire - just like the real ones.
Tiger
Anyway, that was both our weekends. This week has a 3-day weekend, not for Victoria's Day but for Buddha's Birthday. Friday is a holiday, which will be awesome. Jesse and I haven't made a plan yet but it's supposed to be beautiful weather so we should do something cool. We'll let you know what that is in our next blog.
All the best,
Ali and Jesse
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Birthdays and Blossoms
Hello everyone who's still reading this (likely only our parents),
I hope this blog post finds you all well! We're both doing great here. This week we had some interesting stuff happen.
Tuesday was my birthday and, I must say, it's the first time I've felt really homesick since I've been here but Jesse made it really nice for me. I worked until 8:30 that night but then Jesse took me out for dinner at our favourite restaurant here - VIPS - which is an American chain I'd never heard of but that has a buffet of pasta, pizza, caesar salad, fajitas, and a million more delicious things. Then he had bought me a bunch of clothes that I wanted and had them delivered here so it was a very nice birthday.
Speaking of birthdays, every 2 months at my school, they have a big birthday celebration for all the students that had birthdays in the past 2 months. It happened to be this Friday and was an interesting and hilarious experience. I had 4 students in my main class who had birthdays and they all came to school in their traditional Korean outfits (so cute). I took a video of my students at break time all running around like mad and some of them in their birthday costumes.
Julia, Cindy, Aaron, and Thomas in their traditional birthday costumes.
In this video, my kids are running around on their break and some of them are talking to me. Pretty cute.
The actual 'birthday party' seemed more like a glorified photo op for the parents than an actual party. All the kids who didn't have birthdays sat on the floor and then, one by one, the foreign teacher for each birthday student would take their hand and walk them down the aisle through all the kids while the students sang 'Happy Birthday' for every one of them. Once every student had been walked through and sung to, they sat on chairs behind this massive table spread with tons of delicious food: pizza, cake, cookies, doughnuts, kimbap (Korean sushi-ish thing), fruit, etc. Then, each one got to blow out a candle and have a picture taken. Then, each one held a wrapped gift and card and took several photos with their foreign teacher. And that was the whole birthday party. The food wasn't touched and no party was involved.
Speaking of photo ops, I found my school's website that has photos of all the foreign teachers, which you can check out if you want: http://eccybm.com/KGV7/homepage/pageview/pageview.asp?CateCode=INTRO20#
This weekend was pretty low key. Today we got up early and went in to Itaewon (the foreign district) and went to the Rocky Mountain Tavern (the Canadian bar) to watch the Phoenix-Detroit game. It was neat to watch the NHL game and eat nachos. For a while we forgot we were even in Korea because the bar was full of foreigners and all the wait staff spoke English.
After that, we went down to Yeouido Park to meet Jesse's friend from school (the guy who he had a drink with that night after he went to the noraebong - Lee Sung Ho) at the cherry blossom festival. We met him and he introduced us to a bunch of his friends. We sat on the lawn of the National Assembly Building (I assume this is something like our Parliament Hill) while they ate a picnic - we were too stuffed with nachos to eat. Two of Lee Sung Ho's friends were super nice. One lived in Calgary for a year going to school and snowboarding and one lived in London for a year and is now one of the people who puts Korean subtitles on all the English TV shows and movies here. We sat and chatted with them for a few hours and it was neat to finally be hanging out with Koreans here - we've been mostly hanging out with foreigners so far - and, finally, we had a bit of a nice day and it was beautiful in the sun.
Me on the lawn of the National Assembly Building.
We left them after awhile to check out the cherry blossom festival that was happening this weekend. Cherry blossoms are huge in Korea and they plant cherry blossom trees everywhere and they are absolutely beautiful when they bloom. The streets were packed with people taking pictures with the flowers and going for walks and the street was lined with trees. It was really nice.
Street lined with cherry blossoms
Cherry Blossom tree
Then we just came home and relaxed. And that brings us to now. So, not too much exciting news this week. My school's supposed to FINALLY get a new foreign teacher this week from England (if he can ever get here with all the flights being grounded there), which is good because we're losing two more teachers at the end of the month.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Miss you all!
Ali
I hope this blog post finds you all well! We're both doing great here. This week we had some interesting stuff happen.
Tuesday was my birthday and, I must say, it's the first time I've felt really homesick since I've been here but Jesse made it really nice for me. I worked until 8:30 that night but then Jesse took me out for dinner at our favourite restaurant here - VIPS - which is an American chain I'd never heard of but that has a buffet of pasta, pizza, caesar salad, fajitas, and a million more delicious things. Then he had bought me a bunch of clothes that I wanted and had them delivered here so it was a very nice birthday.
Speaking of birthdays, every 2 months at my school, they have a big birthday celebration for all the students that had birthdays in the past 2 months. It happened to be this Friday and was an interesting and hilarious experience. I had 4 students in my main class who had birthdays and they all came to school in their traditional Korean outfits (so cute). I took a video of my students at break time all running around like mad and some of them in their birthday costumes.
Julia, Cindy, Aaron, and Thomas in their traditional birthday costumes.
In this video, my kids are running around on their break and some of them are talking to me. Pretty cute.
The actual 'birthday party' seemed more like a glorified photo op for the parents than an actual party. All the kids who didn't have birthdays sat on the floor and then, one by one, the foreign teacher for each birthday student would take their hand and walk them down the aisle through all the kids while the students sang 'Happy Birthday' for every one of them. Once every student had been walked through and sung to, they sat on chairs behind this massive table spread with tons of delicious food: pizza, cake, cookies, doughnuts, kimbap (Korean sushi-ish thing), fruit, etc. Then, each one got to blow out a candle and have a picture taken. Then, each one held a wrapped gift and card and took several photos with their foreign teacher. And that was the whole birthday party. The food wasn't touched and no party was involved.
Speaking of photo ops, I found my school's website that has photos of all the foreign teachers, which you can check out if you want: http://eccybm.com/KGV7/homepage/pageview/pageview.asp?CateCode=INTRO20#
This weekend was pretty low key. Today we got up early and went in to Itaewon (the foreign district) and went to the Rocky Mountain Tavern (the Canadian bar) to watch the Phoenix-Detroit game. It was neat to watch the NHL game and eat nachos. For a while we forgot we were even in Korea because the bar was full of foreigners and all the wait staff spoke English.
After that, we went down to Yeouido Park to meet Jesse's friend from school (the guy who he had a drink with that night after he went to the noraebong - Lee Sung Ho) at the cherry blossom festival. We met him and he introduced us to a bunch of his friends. We sat on the lawn of the National Assembly Building (I assume this is something like our Parliament Hill) while they ate a picnic - we were too stuffed with nachos to eat. Two of Lee Sung Ho's friends were super nice. One lived in Calgary for a year going to school and snowboarding and one lived in London for a year and is now one of the people who puts Korean subtitles on all the English TV shows and movies here. We sat and chatted with them for a few hours and it was neat to finally be hanging out with Koreans here - we've been mostly hanging out with foreigners so far - and, finally, we had a bit of a nice day and it was beautiful in the sun.
Me on the lawn of the National Assembly Building.
We left them after awhile to check out the cherry blossom festival that was happening this weekend. Cherry blossoms are huge in Korea and they plant cherry blossom trees everywhere and they are absolutely beautiful when they bloom. The streets were packed with people taking pictures with the flowers and going for walks and the street was lined with trees. It was really nice.
Street lined with cherry blossoms
Cherry Blossom tree
Then we just came home and relaxed. And that brings us to now. So, not too much exciting news this week. My school's supposed to FINALLY get a new foreign teacher this week from England (if he can ever get here with all the flights being grounded there), which is good because we're losing two more teachers at the end of the month.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Miss you all!
Ali
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Dancing Queen and Smashed Motorcycles
Hey everyone!
So I'll just update you on what's been up since Jesse's last post. First off, we got our new April schedules and mine got MUCH better. I have started teaching two new kindergarten classes in addition to my original class and they are both great. I don't have to work until 8 any night and finish at 7 two nights, 6 two nights, and 5 on Thursdays. I still have the terrible class but it's gotten much less terrible because the ringleader of all the trouble has been expelled and 4 other kids have been transferred to other classes. They are still my worst class but now I can at least control them to some degree.
The bad news is that my better schedule isn't likely to last long. The guy who was supposed to replace Jake (the teacher who just left) never showed up. Turns out he was drafted back into the American army and couldn't come. Also, another teacher (my roommate, actually) is being fired because she has some vision difficulties and they are worried it will affect her ability to supervise the children (Korea is really un-accommodating to people with disabilities). So, losing two foreign teachers will make us have to cover a lot of work but I get paid well for overtime so it's not such a big deal.
We bought cell phones as well, which was a bit of an adventure. We ended up getting them for 50,000 each (about $50) and apparently it's a good deal. It took us ages to do, though, because, obviously, no one spoke English and we had no idea what they were asking but apparently they asked if we wanted them to charge the phone before they gave it to us. I said yes and we had to wait for over an hour for it without any idea what was going on. Our cell phones both work though and we just refill credit on it when we run out. Texts are really cheap so we text most of the time.
I've been trying to socialize more with the other foreign teachers in Uijeongbu. I went out for a girls night with a bunch of them the other night. It's really neat meeting people from so many places. At my table of 5 girls there was one from Ireland, England, South Africa, and another from Canada. Last night, was Jake's farewell dinner. Jesse and I, as well as all the foreign and Korean teachers at our school went out for gelbi (basically meat that you cook at your table with a million side dishes). I had pizza instead but it's fun to hang out with everyone.
Jesse went out with the teachers at his school one night as well and it sounds like he had a crazy time. I won't be able to explain it as well as him but, basically, they all went to this huge restaurant (there was about 50 people) and ate. He had to sit next to the principal for most of it and had to awkwardly offer to pour him drinks (and was corrected on his etiquette several times). He had to go from table to table socializing with everyone. Afterwards, they all went to a noraebong, which is basically a place where you rent a room and do private kareoke. He sang Dancing Queen because they didn't have 'Don't stop believing' and he was already in the D's. I wish I had photos of this but he said no one was taking any pictures. Everyone else sang Korean songs so he just had to clap along for over an hour. Then some guy walked him home and, it turned out, he wanted to get a drink alone with Jesse so Jesse went with him and they had a drink and talked for awhile but the guy's English wasn't very good. The guy apparently works maintenance at his school and wants to hang out with Jesse more often now.
This morning, on my way to school, I witnessed a pretty brutal car accident. A motorcycle (they drive insane here) smashed into the back of a bus at full speed and he flew off his bike and the papers he was transporting blew all over the road. There doesn't seem to be any real traffic rules and, if there are, they are completely ignored so I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time but it was pretty awful to see. I think the driver was okay and the ambulance got there right away.
As Jesse said in our last post, we are going to Seoul this weekend for a big dinner with all the foreign teachers who went through our recruiter. We're going to try and do one more touristy thing while we're there but we haven't decided what yet. Jesse and I are planning to do a temple stay soon where you spend a weekend in a Buddhist temple and live like the monks do. It sounds interesting and I'm pretty excited.
We're still getting cold and rainy weather. I'm excited for spring to start for real!
Happy Easter everyone!
Ali
This is the group of teachers at Jake's goodbye dinner enjoying some chicken gelbi.
Jake, Me, and Jesse at Jake's goodbye dinner.
One of my kids, Abraham, doing his colouring.
My class doing their work. This isn't their normal uniform, it's their gym outfit.
The South Korean flag waving in the wind.
So I'll just update you on what's been up since Jesse's last post. First off, we got our new April schedules and mine got MUCH better. I have started teaching two new kindergarten classes in addition to my original class and they are both great. I don't have to work until 8 any night and finish at 7 two nights, 6 two nights, and 5 on Thursdays. I still have the terrible class but it's gotten much less terrible because the ringleader of all the trouble has been expelled and 4 other kids have been transferred to other classes. They are still my worst class but now I can at least control them to some degree.
The bad news is that my better schedule isn't likely to last long. The guy who was supposed to replace Jake (the teacher who just left) never showed up. Turns out he was drafted back into the American army and couldn't come. Also, another teacher (my roommate, actually) is being fired because she has some vision difficulties and they are worried it will affect her ability to supervise the children (Korea is really un-accommodating to people with disabilities). So, losing two foreign teachers will make us have to cover a lot of work but I get paid well for overtime so it's not such a big deal.
We bought cell phones as well, which was a bit of an adventure. We ended up getting them for 50,000 each (about $50) and apparently it's a good deal. It took us ages to do, though, because, obviously, no one spoke English and we had no idea what they were asking but apparently they asked if we wanted them to charge the phone before they gave it to us. I said yes and we had to wait for over an hour for it without any idea what was going on. Our cell phones both work though and we just refill credit on it when we run out. Texts are really cheap so we text most of the time.
I've been trying to socialize more with the other foreign teachers in Uijeongbu. I went out for a girls night with a bunch of them the other night. It's really neat meeting people from so many places. At my table of 5 girls there was one from Ireland, England, South Africa, and another from Canada. Last night, was Jake's farewell dinner. Jesse and I, as well as all the foreign and Korean teachers at our school went out for gelbi (basically meat that you cook at your table with a million side dishes). I had pizza instead but it's fun to hang out with everyone.
Jesse went out with the teachers at his school one night as well and it sounds like he had a crazy time. I won't be able to explain it as well as him but, basically, they all went to this huge restaurant (there was about 50 people) and ate. He had to sit next to the principal for most of it and had to awkwardly offer to pour him drinks (and was corrected on his etiquette several times). He had to go from table to table socializing with everyone. Afterwards, they all went to a noraebong, which is basically a place where you rent a room and do private kareoke. He sang Dancing Queen because they didn't have 'Don't stop believing' and he was already in the D's. I wish I had photos of this but he said no one was taking any pictures. Everyone else sang Korean songs so he just had to clap along for over an hour. Then some guy walked him home and, it turned out, he wanted to get a drink alone with Jesse so Jesse went with him and they had a drink and talked for awhile but the guy's English wasn't very good. The guy apparently works maintenance at his school and wants to hang out with Jesse more often now.
This morning, on my way to school, I witnessed a pretty brutal car accident. A motorcycle (they drive insane here) smashed into the back of a bus at full speed and he flew off his bike and the papers he was transporting blew all over the road. There doesn't seem to be any real traffic rules and, if there are, they are completely ignored so I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time but it was pretty awful to see. I think the driver was okay and the ambulance got there right away.
As Jesse said in our last post, we are going to Seoul this weekend for a big dinner with all the foreign teachers who went through our recruiter. We're going to try and do one more touristy thing while we're there but we haven't decided what yet. Jesse and I are planning to do a temple stay soon where you spend a weekend in a Buddhist temple and live like the monks do. It sounds interesting and I'm pretty excited.
We're still getting cold and rainy weather. I'm excited for spring to start for real!
Happy Easter everyone!
Ali
This is the group of teachers at Jake's goodbye dinner enjoying some chicken gelbi.
Jake, Me, and Jesse at Jake's goodbye dinner.
One of my kids, Abraham, doing his colouring.
My class doing their work. This isn't their normal uniform, it's their gym outfit.
The South Korean flag waving in the wind.
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