candy

It turns out my students can be bribed pretty easily. Since Halloween is coming up I'm doing a Halloween lesson this week for fun. I went to the Commissary on base and bought a lot of candy, like Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, etc., thinking that maybe some of the students have never tried some types of American candy.

All I had to do was say, "When you finish this Halloween crossword puzzle, come show it to me. If you say Trick-or-treat you can get some candy." The puzzles were done in record time! I had several students get back in line to try to sneak another piece of candy, and a few who tried to grab multiple on the sly. They're teenagers but say the word candy and their faces light up like they're little kids again :)

I feel a little bit bad about the bribery, but in the end maybe they learned some new Halloween vocabulary. Even my co-teacher has endorsed giving out small treats, so that makes me feel a little bit better about it.

field trip

Yesterday I went on a field trip to Seoul Land, an amusement park, with the first graders. No teaching again, but I knew about this ahead of time. I think it was Student Day at the park because there were kids in uniforms everywhere, of all ages. The really little kids were adorable in their uniforms!

Going on a field trip here was very different from my field trip experiences as a kid. First, every first grader in our school went at the same time on the same day so we had a convoy of 10 greyhound-style buses headed from Pyeongtaek up to Seoul. I don't know if permission slips were required from parents, but there were no chaperons except the teachers (maybe 12 of us) for about 400 students and the minute the kids got inside the park entrance they were off. There was no staying in prescribed groups or with buddies or anything like that. The kids went off and did their thing while the teachers gathered for lunch, after which the teachers did their own thing and didn't worry about the students at all. They were in a park where it was mostly if not all students and teachers, so it wasn't unsafe except for the normal trouble boys can get into anywhere they go, but it was just weird. The field trips I remember as a kid were always pretty structured and if you were given leeway to go off on your own you usually had to check back in at least once during the day. Not here. They had free rein of the park all day.

As we walked to a park restaurant for lunch I saw kids with corn-on-the-cob on a stick which looked really good, but I didn't know if I was supposed to stay with the teachers or not so I continued on to lunch with them. Later I wished I'd said I was getting the corn-on-the-cob. The food here is not growing on me. Every once in a while there's something really good, but this lunch was not one of those times. We sat down to a table set with a broiler full of raw beef, onions, long stringy mushrooms and some greens, which was cooked when we sat down. There were some sides of kimchi, some brown jello-ish stuff, some lettuce leaves, green chili peppers, and rice. As much as I still don't want to be eating meat I still try the various meat items at school in small quantities, so I tried this also. It wouldn't have been too bad except there was so much fat left on the meat! If it had at least been lean I think I could have eaten more of it, but as it was I ate a small amount just to be polite, then mostly ate rice wrapped in lettuce leaves and some of the jello stuff. It looks a lot like jello but it's made out of acorns, is a not-so-pretty brownish-gray, is salty not sweet, and was drizzled with hot red pepper paste. This was one of those things that was better than it looked.

I've done food so here's a cultural thing. It isn't uncommon here to see friends walking arm in arm or holding hands. This goes for women, girls, and boys (not so much for adult men). The idea of personal space here is not the same as it is back home. Kim and I were always together growing up, but we never walked around holding hands or with our arms around each other everywhere we went. Even William and I don't always hold hands when we're out, but I've become used to seeing grown women and children walking around in this way. After lunch, several of the teachers wanted to see "Grease: The Musical" playing at the park theater. This didn't sound appealing so when Mrs. Ta, one of the teachers I'm helping with her English, suggested going for a walk I was all for it. We walked all over the park and even left it for awhile to go to The Korean Museum of Contemporary Art nearby. Off and on throughout the day as we attempted to converse she would put her arm in mine or hold my hand as we walked. I'm sure this was a completely natural thing for her, but it was awkward for me since I don't know her very well and it's not something I'm used to doing. But, as awkward as I felt, it was nice to know that she felt comfortable enough to treat me as she would a friend.

It was a fun day but in the end I was a little disappointed about not riding any rides. There was only one roller coaster so the line was huge all day. None of the other teachers rode anything either. At the very end of the day Mrs. Ta and I stumbled across this ride, which was a favorite at King's Island! I wasn't surprised to see the roller coaster and other festival style rides, but I never expected to see a log flume in Korea.


One last food thing I just remembered: if you don't know what a cuttlefish is, look it up online because it is an amazing animal that I can't imagine ever eating. But, I saw a food stand at the park labeled, "butter baked dried cuttlefish." Definitely not something you would EVER see at an amusement park back home! They did have the normal fried foods, ice cream, popcorn, and candy stands to go along with the cuttlefish :)

Here's one last pretty picture from outside the art museum.

no classes, again?

I am continually amazed by the number of days that I don't do any teaching. Yesterday I walked into my first period class as the traditional Korean music that serves as the bell "rang" and was surprised to find a completely empty classroom. I stayed, thinking maybe the students were delayed in homeroom, but no one ever showed up. At the end of the period I learned from my co-teacher that all 3rd graders had a practice exam of some sort so I had no classes to teach all day. I haven't taught a Wednesday class since September 17th. That was five weeks ago! Keep in mind that I only see my students once a week, which means I've only seen the Wednesday kids three times since I arrived here about seven weeks ago. As little as they've seen me, I would be surprised if these students even remember my name.

At least they all recognize me. Some say what they can whenever they see me, which usually entails a "Hello, how are you?" from me, with a "Hello, I am fine, and you?" from them. Many are too shy to say more even if they can. Sometimes when I ask how they're doing, students will run off laughing to their friends to find out how to respond, then come running back with the answer. They may be loud and don't always listen in class, but they do keep me amused :) On my way home on the bus today I was a couple stops away from school when I looked out the window and saw a few of my students standing at another bus stop at the same time they saw me. They all yelled "hello" and waved. It was pretty funny and several people on the bus laughed as I said hi and waved back before the bus pulled away.

a cute video

Kiwi!

This video was shown to the teachers at the native English teacher orientation. It was used as an example of ways to get the students speaking English by talking about it afterwards.

Sarah seongsaengnim

That means "Teacher Sarah" in Korean. I learned this during four days of native teacher training I attended this week with about 250 other foreigners who are all here teaching English as a second language. I haven't heard my students call me seongsaengnim (pronounced song-sang-neem) because they call me "teacher" in English. "Teacher" is one English word my students know so they use it a lot, and only a few ever say my name.

The training provided some perspective on teaching here and made me realize I'm not alone! Most of the other teachers are in the same position I am....large classes, seeing the kids only once a week, loud and disruptive, etc. I actually seem to have it pretty good based on some horror stories people told. At least I get along with my co-teachers and my main co-teacher tries to help me as much as she can. It sounded like some people don't have good relationships at all with their co-teachers. The lectures were mostly fun to attend, and I only felt like sleeping through one incredibly dull one. I learned a lot of creative ways to try to get the kids to speak English in class as well as ideas to use for lessons.

The best part was the new and interesting people I met. It never occurred to me that the other native teachers would be from so many different countries. I met Australians, British, Canadians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. We were divided into groups based on the regions where we're teaching, so I met all the people who are in cities/towns near here. We had a fun group made up of one Australian, four South Africans, five recent graduates of the Univ. of WI-Madison (whom I spoke with the least), one New Yorker, and myself. Two of the girls are actually teaching here in Pyeongtaek and the others aren't far away by train, so we've all exchanged information to stay in contact. Yey, I have some new friends in Korea!

air show

It's been a long day! I just got back about an hour ago from the air show and I'm downloading my photos now. I need a camera with a good zoom for events like this. I'm sure many of my photos aren't any good. The planes looked so close as they flew past, but they looked minuscule on the camera. I took some video toward they end when they did a mock rescue of a downed soldier. It involved four A-10 Thunderbolt's, four F-16 Fighting Falcon's, and two Black Hawk helicopters, so it was by far the coolest part of the whole day. Prior to that, there was a lot of lull time in between things happening in the air, so not quite as fast paced as I was hoping. An air show should have stuff going on IN THE AIR the whole time, or at least most of it. This didn't, but there were lots of planes, helicopters, and other equipment parked around to be able to see them up close, and you could get in some of them. I think I got some pictures of the U-2 spy plane in the air, but if they didn't turn out I got some pictures of it on the ground too.

I started to get a little irritable as I sat there people watching (nothing going on in the air) and realized I might have been the only person there by myself. Everyone seemed to have their significant others, kids, or friends with them. It will be nice when William is done in the field and we can start doing things together.

But, other than that, the day was good. The jets sounded awesome! Normally I hate really loud noises, but with jets the louder the better. I just checked some of the video I shot and the sound comes through much better than I expected. Hopefully I can post videos to Picasa. So, pictures coming soon and maybe video too. Until then, here's one I took of myself at the end of the day.

weekend activities

I was undecided all week, but yesterday I finally signed up to go on a bungee jumping trip on Saturday, through the army's Community Activities Center. I've never been bungee jumping so I figured now's as good a time as any, but it wasn't meant to be. I got a call this afternoon saying the trip was cancelled because only four people signed up. I'm sort of disappointed, sort of not. I was going by myself because William is still in the field, so now maybe we'll get to go together some other time. He's never been bungee jumping either. I wonder if he would give me a shove if I have trouble making myself jump? :)

Even though my plans fell through, I'm still planning to get out and have some fun tomorrow. Osan Air Base (close by train) is hosting an annual Air Power Day. I haven't been to an air show in years. The jets always set off car alarms and rattled our windows at the zoo during Chicago's air show, which I'm sure the animals didn't like too much. I know I should hate the jets because they're weapons of war and they're horrible for the environment, but I can't entirely. There's just something about them.

students and other stuff

Some things I noticed right away about the students here....most, if not all, wear school uniforms: trousers and dress shirts for the boys, skirts with a white t-shirt under a vest or blouse for the girls. I'm not sure if this changes to pants in the winter for the girls. The uniforms can be different shades of blue, khaki, or plaid, but the style seems universal from school to school. The boys in my school wear blue for school and green for P.E.

These are some of my students doing the standing long jump during their fitness testing about a week ago. This day was similar to the once-a-year physical fitness testing at American schools. They were tested in sprinting, standing long jump, push-ups, sit-ups, and maybe a couple of other things.

In addition to a uniform, students wear sandals in the building. They show up in tennis shoes (Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars are still popular here) and change into sandals when they come inside. Occasionally students will walk around my classroom in socks. In theory I guess the floors should be cleaner since the shoes they wear inside don't get worn outside. Even the teachers, myself included, have indoor and outdoor shoes. I leave my dressy sandals at school so that I can show up in tennis shoes and change to my "indoor shoes" when I arrive. I was told of my mistake on day one when my outdoor and indoor pair were one and the same. Oops.

Because of the prevalence of uniforms, it didn't take long to realize that there are students everywhere! One night I ate dinner in Pyeongtaek w/ the other English teachers from my school (all Korean), so I didn't leave the city until 7 p.m. Even then, hours after school had ended, students were still in their uniforms. I'm not sure if these were students who attend the special evening academies for English, or if students are comfortable enough in their uniforms that they don't change out of them after school. Either way it's bizarre to realize how many students are in the city since they're so easily recognizable. If you walk down any city street in America you can try to guess who the students are based on age, but I don't remember ever feeling surrounded by students like I do here.

I also find it strange that the students don't bring things with them from class to class, or at least not to my class. I remember hauling textbooks, notebooks, calculators, pens/pencils, etc. from class to class. Un-needed items for any given period got stored in a locker, but I always had something with me. I have yet to see a single student with a backpack during the day and there are no lockers that I've seen. I've taught for four weeks now and still have students showing up to class without so much as a single piece of paper or a pen or pencil. They have English notebooks that they've been told to bring to every class, but many still don't. It makes it difficult when half the class has nothing to write on or with. That first week I had to make sure I had plenty of scrap paper with me for every class and even now I try to keep some around.

One last thing, I have to mention lunch. I walk past the kitchen each morning when I arrive and they're already getting everything going for lunch. They're often unloading or starting to prepare huge amounts of vegetables and rice by the time I arrive. I try not to think about the quantities and types of meat they're also preparing. The hallway outside the kitchen is lined on both sides with a bunch of metal carts on wheels. There isn't a school cafeteria so the metal carts are used to wheel big pots of rice, soup, kimchi and whatever else is made that day through the first floor hallways to the classrooms. The carts stay out in the halls where the students line up to put their food on metal trays with indentations for each course. Then they eat in the classrooms. The teachers eat in a small classroom next to the kitchen, also on metal trays. After being told I'd put the wrong foods in the wrong spots in the tray on my first two days, I now know where each item is supposed to go and haven't made those mistakes again. Who would have thought rice should be on the bottom left, soup on the bottom right, and the kimchi and other sides in the three smaller indentations at the top? Not me, I was just hungry.

an expat for one month already

Time is flying! I feel like there's a lot that I've been meaning to write about but haven't had a chance yet.

Our shipment of "household goods and unaccompanied baggage" finally arrived last week, which means I have my bike again, yey! And I've already found the best route for commuting to school. I should say that William actually found the best route using Google Earth. Maps seem to be nonexistent here (along with road names a lot of the time).

William's route takes me around the edges of the city then on smaller country roads, but on my ride home yesterday I rode through the city so I could take some photos. This first one is a main intersection near Shinhan Middle School, where I'm teaching. I took a few "this is the city" pictures, then I rode through Tongbok Market, which is a big outdoor market near the train station. Some of it doesn't really look like it's outside because there's a thin covering overhead, but there are no doors to get in, its all open to the street. It's a cool atmosphere! It was crowded with people selling their items, whether food (lots of raw seafood), clothing, household items, toys, etc. and with people like me walking around, looking, or buying. There's a photo of a pile of raw squid in the Picasa web albums if you're interested in being at least mildly grossed out :)

I wasn't the only one riding through the market on my bike. I thought this older guy in suit and hat looked cool on his bike. I like my racing bike, but this guy's bike is what everyone has here....an old metal bike with a chain guard to keep the grease off of pants/skirts (that would be nice), with big shiny fenders, and sitting completely upright. I've even seen people my grandparents age (70's-80's) riding around town. Slowly yes, but still riding.

As for school, it's going okay I guess. I will say I have far more respect now for some of my former teachers, who I thought had to be the worst teachers ever at the time. Teaching is hard and I don't think I'm very good at it. It doesn't help that I have somewhere near 40 students for every class and I only see each student once a week. I don't know a single student's name after a month of teaching. And with so many in a class, I have some who can say next to nothing in English and others that can hold mini-conversations with me if they stick around long enough after class. It makes it difficult to come up with a lesson plan that hits both ends of the spectrum. Either one half is completely lost or the other half is completely bored out of their minds. I'm going to start playing games to hopefully get them motivated to speak more English. Whether they learn anything, we'll see. I think I might be learning more than they are.