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.