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.