New Friends

These are some of the cool people that Mykie and I are hanging out with on the weekends. We all met during our teacher training during our first few days in Korea.

But...

Last night we went out with this new girl named Beth. My Korean co-teacher bumped into her and her friends at the dentist a few weeks back. While at the dentist my Korean co-teacher pimped me out to this girl and her friends. Beth gave my Korean co-teacher her number and we have been chatting through email. We finally met last night. Went for coffee and dinner. Had a great time with her. She is really nice. She already has a large social circle here and they are all eager to meet us. I am excited. She gave us a lot of valuable information about things that we needed info on. Sorry, but I cannot post what she said...

The people in the above picture have been here as long as I have so they are not as familiar with Korea as Beth and her friends. Some of her friends have been here for years. They are great resources for us. I look forward to spending time with them. And, there is a handful of Canadians in that group.

Pee Sticks

Today started off a little rocky. It all started last night...

I went to my school Sunday night at 8pm. There is a caretaker that lives there at night. I knocked on his window. I wanted to get inside my office because I need to get some lesson resources. Well, after an awkward few minutes he did not even let me in. As I was walking home I thought, "Oh gosh, did I just break some rule, great"! I tossed and turned last night because I was worried that I had done something that I was not supposed to.

I only got 5 hours of sleep. Maybe that!

I got to school early because I had to print and create pieces of this game that I am playing with all my classes called the sentence auction. So I walk up to the school and there he is...the caretaker who caused me a sleepless night.

Nothing happened. I worried for nothing. I told me co-teachers about what happened and they think that he probably just did not understand me. Well, obviously!

So, I am really excited about this sentence auction. It has worked really well for Mykie. Sentence auction is exactly what it sounds like. I am auctioning off sentences to the highest bidder.

My first class is with grade 9s. Grade 9s in the morning on Monday are not the liveliest of people. Regardless, I go in with so much enthusiasm. "Students, we are going to play a game". Their reaction was excitement. Thank gosh I thought.

So, we just spent some time explaining the seemingly complicated rules when my classroom door opens...

In come the nurse. She comes right up to me and starts showing me these test strips for testing blood and urine. I am standing there, at the top of my class, confused out of my mind. HUH?

Everyone is looking at me and I am really confused. She keeps saying pee pee. I am thinking to myself that this is not the best time to be asking me for a urine sample.

It turns out that she did not want pee pee from me but my students. Class was cancelled and they all have to take a random urine test for drugs and HIV, I guess. I found this rather strange but it is the norm. I casually gathered my books and went back to my office totally confused as to what just happened. I had one of those feelings like I was in the twilight zone.

A nurse asking me for my pee pee in front of 42 9th graders. So weird.

BTW... I did not get a chance to play with this class but all my other classes seemed to really like the game. My teacher has decided that we will move all my classes to this secluded area of the school. My kids get so loud when we play games that I think it is disruptive. I cannot help being so fun!!!! He He

Book on the head

Sometimes my grade 9s are so bad.

On Wednesday, I thought that I was going to throw some of them out the window. The Korean teachers are preparing for next weeks midterms so my Korean co-teacher was not in class with me for about 10minutes or so. The Korean teachers are supposed to be in class with me to discipline the kids at all times except for my after school special program. That special program I run on my own. But, he was busy and I wanted to start the class anyway. That ten minutes should have been called 'flip your teacher off time'. Everybody seems to think that it was play time and let's say rude things in Korean about the teacher. Note that I have 90% boys in my classes. I have about 500 students a week that I see. I think that I see more students than any other teacher. I teach my classes to every grade and every home room class. Wow, I just realized that is a lot of kids.

Anyway. I was furious in this class. Every 30 seconds I had to stop and yell at someone for disrupting the class. At one point I dropped my books and said, screw this, "if you kids don't want me to teach then this section of the midterm you will get zero on. I don't even care".

At another point I made one kid stand in front of the class against the wall because he was bad. Another kid I bounced my text book on his head. He thought I was playing with him so I don't think that was too effective.

The moment the Korean teacher came in you could hear a pin drop. I was livid! I started screaming at them and saying, "Oh, so now that the Korean teacher is here you all are on your best behavior, eh"?

OMG

I rushed through the lesson. Not really taking the time that I normal would to explain things. At the end of the lesson when the bell rang I made them all stay in their seats. In front of them I told the teacher what I thought. Then he kindly asked me to leave the class and when I saw him again he said that they would never be bad again. We will see what angels appear next week.

My Korean teachers beat the kids with sticks. I tried one of them and they hurt just doing it lightly, ouch. After the class he said I should carry one with me. Hmmmmmm

I think that I have other ideas to control their behavior. I have some army style ideas. Kids hate being embarrassed and I can definitely do that.

I want them to like me and not fear me but I they must respect me in order for me to be nice.

Holy, being a teacher can be rough!

But, I am enjoying it a lot!

A little update about the depressed boy.

I just had a class with him and before the class I was a little nervous about how he would react to getting into trouble last class. I decided to make my lesson for that class really fun. We have exams May 1st so half the class wasn't there. The majority of the kids go to after school English classes. These classes finish at 10pm. These kids go to school from 8:30 to 10pm and we complained while we were in school until 4. So playing games worked out really well. I gave them brain teasers. Unfortunately, one boy knew all of them and kept screaming out the answers. I guess he was showing off a little bit.

Back to the boy. He sat in class with a smile on his face. He looked liked he was having a good time. Apparently, he understood everything I said. So, it looks like the boy and I are in a good place. I am really glad that today he at least appeared happy.

So serious

Ok, So today was one of the weirdest days I have ever experienced. Nothing extraordinary happened but I was warned of something really serious. Last night I singled out two boys in class for not doing what they were supposed to. They got into a lot of trouble by me. Today, I found out that one of the boys is severely depressed and I need to be extremely careful with him. There are cases where students take their own lives and leave notes saying that their teachers are mean to them. She said be careful you don't want a note from him. At first I did not understand what she meant. I get it now.

I almost passed out when my teacher warned me today about this boy. She told me not to give him attention but at the same time try to encourage him. I am sitting in my seat writing this replaying last night's punishment. I am totally overwhelmed by this. I guess the excitement of this experience has clouded my view on everyone's reality. Some people are not in a happy place, obviously. I forget that children are sensitive. Don't think that I did anything to harm the kid but with his mental state, I don't know. The kids get beat here so they are used to extreme punishment. All I did was scold him and give him the extreme stare down.

Everyday this experience teachers me something different. There is never a dull moment in this school. Wow. just thought that I would share this with you guys.

I am still shaking my head at the conversation, wow!

New Friends

Julian, Andrew, Me and Helen.

Andrew works in a city far from where we live so we don't have contact with him anymore. Julian was Mykie's roommate during the teacher's conference. Helen is his girlfriend. We all became rather close. They are a cool pair from Australia. They work in the same city as us.

I am holding a very dangerous drink in my right hand. It is called Soju. It was traditionally made from rice but now i think they make it from potato or something like that. Well, it tastes like vodka and is about 20%. I find it really strong. That is the drink of choice if not beer or cider. Soju is so cheap. It costs about $1.50 for a bottle. That bottle will get you so drunk. This stuff is dangerous because it hits you so hard. This info is from research not experience. ;)

Teacher's Conference

A little cultural experience while we were at our teacher's conference.

We learned to paint traditional Korean Grass Paintings. And, I know that we are wearing matching sweaters, but everyone at our conference got them. We actually had to wear them. Behind us are our masterpieces. Mykie was trying to sell his but we did not get any buyers that day.

We went to Icheon which is famous for its ceramics world wide. We got to paint our own mugs. Mine came out wicked. Mykie's did not come out as good as he wanted to. He has mine at school and I have his at mine.

Our Korea Adventure Begins

This log is a little out of order, sorry.

Our flight over was rather normal. We had a connecting flight in Washington. I ate the biggest burrito ever at the airport! It was so big that I had to use a fork at times. But, in true champion style, I finished it. Then we were off again with Korean Air. The outfits that the flight attendants wore were really cute. Were they comfortable? I doubt it but it was ok because I was wearing sweat pants. He He. The food on the plane was Korean with the option, for the five or so non Koreans, western food. WE went for the Korean. It was good!

So, we arrive at the airport and it seems like we were at Pearson but with a whole lot of similar looking people. I was really the odd one out. At first I was worried at how people would react to seeing me. Of course there were the few odd stares but nothing out of the ordinary. I was really surprised. I think that they were staring at us because of the astronomical size of my bags. I must mention this because 80% of the bags were mine and they were filled to the rim. Ok, maybe I over packed but when you are moving somewhere there really isn’t a thing of over packing. I don’t think so! We jumped on a shuttle bus to the city and an hour and a half through rush hour and we were there. Once we got out of the bus, it was a whole different story.

We were told that we had a ten minute walk or a quick taxi ride. Well, we hailed a taxi that took us to the front of the dormitory, where we were staying for 5 days, during our orientation to our teaching program. Ok, so we get out and realize that we had to walk a good 5 minutes through the university to get to our rooms. OMG! That was a nightmare with the oversized bags. I cannot tell you but I thought Mykie was going to throw me under a bus because I brought so much luggage. After an agonizing 30 minute walk we finally get there, exhausted and sweaty.

We stayed in same sex rooms. I had a roomie from New York who complained the entire time we were there. She complained about everything. My new friends told me at the end that it was a little much. Well yeah, imagine how I felt. She talked so much about herself. She was nice but…

Mykie lucked out and got a wicked roomie from Australia who was going with his girlfriend to the same place as us. We spent a lot of time with them. Basically, everyone at the orientation spent the majority of their time with the people going to the same city as them. We have a group of 27 teachers that all went to our city, Gwangju. And now, we arrive.

This bus took us to Gwangju from Seoul. It was about 4 hours but this was the most comfortable bus I have ever been on. The seats reclined so far and I actually fell asleep. So PIMPING!!!

Dunkin Dounts

Dunkin dounts is really popular here but this Dunkin donuts in Seoul is way too big for a donut shop. That is a lot of donuts.

My school

A video showing my school and its surrounding area. My school is a five minute walk from my house.

My Korean Co-teachers and Kids

My English co-teacher in the center and our Music teacher to the right. These ladies are wicked. They took me out for lunch and a movie today after a really boring light exhibition. They are really trying to make my stay fun. I totally appreciate it. Unfortunately, the one in the center is leaving my school in a month because she is pregnant. Will miss here a lot at school. But, we will keep in touch while I am here,

Today we went to the light expo with the entire school. A really uninteresting expo but I was glad that I was there. I hope the kids liked it. They stayed the entire day but I left after two hours with my co-teachers. I have no idea what they would do there all day but I guess any excuse not to have school will do.

This is one of my English co-teachers. She is basically my go to girl for all admin stuff during my stay. She is really cool and her English is very good. I am lucky because she is really sweet.

In this pic are a few of the almost 500 students I have.

My Apartment

If you are wondering what a Korean studio apartment looks like, well, here is mine. It is larger than most. It is a corner unit so I guess it has more space than most. It is really comfortable and it is a 5 minute walk to my school