These were my first three full weeks of teaching my own classes….and definitely the biggest learning phase I’ve had in a while. It was a bit of a rough start because…well..I haven’t had a full time job in a while, they were pretty long days between prepping and the actual teaching, and kids are flipping tiring! I mean, overall they are good kids, but there’s one or two who can’t handle having a bad day or they like to entertain the others. Obviously, I know kids are tiring. After babysitting someone else’s kids for a few hours it’s kind of nice to be able to give them back. I guess I gave myself a little too much credit going into this by thinking I could breeze into this no problem….8 classes of kids 5 days a week…HA..nothing to it!
In my earlier messages to some of you I mentioned how cool the school was. It’s set up so that each room has a theme such as: Jurassic Park, Universe, kitchen, McDonalds, bedroom, village. This theme is only relating to the decor, not what is taught in the classroom. My room is “The Kitchen” which is quite nice and fairly big. Another cool feature is the ramp to go up to the second floor. It’s just a carpeted ramp, but for some reason it makes a big difference..gives it more of a playhouse feel. We’re supposed to enforce the no running rule, but the kids love running down this ramp so much that I haven’t really got onto it. The walls are covered in colourful pads so they won’t really get hurt. Sometimes they’ve come around the corner and smacked into my basket of supplies in my hand, but they just walk it off. I thought the bell was neat at the beginning too…now it’s just a bit much. It’s a recognizable childhood tune, but I don’t know the name of it….still beats an actual bell.
OK, enough school talk. Outside of school, the main social outing seems to be eating for Koreans and foreigners both. This process is lengthened by how much the group is talking, but it’s certainly never held up by the service! Shortly after you sit down, an array of side dishes are placed in front of you faster than you can say “array of side dishes”. Most places are dedicated to a certain kind of meat and everything is done as a group so all you have to choose is the amount of meat you want. Everything for the cooking part is brought and away you go. Part way through the cooking they’ll often come over and take the tongs and spoon away from you because apparently we can’t stir…. Oh, they have these buttons too where you just press it (instead of trying to flag a server down) and they come running over. Honestly last night we were in a nicer restaurant that one of the Korean teachers took us and we pushed the button only to hear the poor girl running in her high heels to get to us asap!
Besides eating, we’ve been bowling, to the movies, to a Wii bong, and to a bar called “Elvis” that is kind of aimed at “westerners”. The Wii bong is prob my favourite. You pay about $1.50/hour and you get to play any Wii/playstation game you want on big screen TV in the privacy of your own little nook with a couch. It kind of makes Wii more exciting to me just because it’s an actual outing. “Bong” just means room so there are nori bongs (karaoke), Soju bongs (Soju is their very own hard liquor), and there’s another bong that is basically a public bath/spa I guess…anyways everyone’s naked.
This Saturday, we’re going to Busan. I am super duper pumped to see another city. Busan is about an hour and half bus ride to the east. It’s right on the coast near Japan and has very nice beaches, an aquarium and a really wonderful Indian restaurant sooo we’re going to hit all of those places. Since it’s not crazy far away we’re just going for the day although I kind of plan on taking note of other spots I’d like to visit in Busan and come back for a full weekend or two in the summer.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Week One
Hello everyone!!!
So here it is, my blog, finally. This first entry may turn out to be a bit of a novel so you may want to have a seat.
All of my flights went well. The time did seem long though just because I’ve never gone this far completely alone. When I went to Aus, I met my group in LA and we were on the same long flight so it wasn’t that bad. Anyways, my favourite flight was from Seoul to Yeoso because it was daylight and I had a window seat. It was pretty cool to see all the hills from the top to the bottom of South Korea. The hills were nice, the water was nice, and then there was this haze that sort of added a dreamlike quality to the whole picture. I thought maybe it was because it was still morning or maybe because the seasons are changing and the cold water was mixing with the warmer air yadda yadda yadda. Nuh, no! It turns out it’s all of Chinas pollution. Yep, they build their smokestacks at such a height that the winds are strong enough to carry it over. I think for the rest of the year though I’m just going to keep telling myself it’s fog…that way I won’t feel like my lungs are dying as much.
My first week consisted of a few days of observation and 2 days of covering the classes of the teacher who was leaving. All I had to do was entertain them because it was the end of the term. On the Thursday morning it was kindergarten graduation which is a BIG deal. All of the different classes have their own little performance they do before they get to walk across the stage in their caps and gowns for their certificates. All the parents were there with insane bouquets of flowers and their Louis Vuitton bags. Next on the agenda was orientation for the new kindergartens on Saturday. It’s mainly just to show the kids the inside of the school and see how they do when they’re not with their parents. I was in a room with a couple classes, one of which was mine called “Smurfs”. I was able to spot some kids from my other class by following the crying sounds and then double checking the name tags. Yes, they were part of my “Angels” group. The “Angels” are the first group of 4 year olds to come through the doors of Wonderland. They are 4 years old in Korea so in Canada they would actually be 3. You are 1 year old when you are first born here. Depending on when they’re birthday is some of my kids are even closer to 2 years Canadian age. Everyone ages a year right at the beginning of the calendar year. For example there is one boy who was born in November so he basically turned 2 years old a few months ago, but because it’s Korea, he’s 3 and because it’s past January 1st in Korea he is 4. Everyone has nicknamed him the little old man because he is soooo tiny and looks quite frail.
The nights of my first week were great. The head foreign teacher, Jess (who is also from Canada), took me somewhere different to eat each night and sometimes the other teachers came along too. This was incredibly good of them considering they had marking, report cards, and schedules to make for the new semester. The first few meals made my eyes water, but I’m getting better. It’s not really a shocker since at home I didn’t usually venture any higher than “medium” salsa. My favourite food so far are these bean sprouts that are steamed (I think) and they just have a little bit of sesame oil on them…probably some other ingredients too. They’re actually just one of the many simple side dishes that come with every meal, but I get pretty excited for them. My favourite meal has been dok galbi (I’m just using phonetics). It’s a chicken dish that you cook with rice or noodles and the usual veggies. Most meals out in Korea are cooked in front of you then you pile what you want on a lettuce leaf and mow down. There’s really no graceful way to go about it. When you try doing two bites it kind of falls apart and the sauce runs down your hand. When you try just one bite you look and feel like a greedy chipmunk, but everyone’s in the same boat.
Okay kids I’m gonna wrap this up and try and get some more done through the week. Stay tuned.
So here it is, my blog, finally. This first entry may turn out to be a bit of a novel so you may want to have a seat.
All of my flights went well. The time did seem long though just because I’ve never gone this far completely alone. When I went to Aus, I met my group in LA and we were on the same long flight so it wasn’t that bad. Anyways, my favourite flight was from Seoul to Yeoso because it was daylight and I had a window seat. It was pretty cool to see all the hills from the top to the bottom of South Korea. The hills were nice, the water was nice, and then there was this haze that sort of added a dreamlike quality to the whole picture. I thought maybe it was because it was still morning or maybe because the seasons are changing and the cold water was mixing with the warmer air yadda yadda yadda. Nuh, no! It turns out it’s all of Chinas pollution. Yep, they build their smokestacks at such a height that the winds are strong enough to carry it over. I think for the rest of the year though I’m just going to keep telling myself it’s fog…that way I won’t feel like my lungs are dying as much.
My first week consisted of a few days of observation and 2 days of covering the classes of the teacher who was leaving. All I had to do was entertain them because it was the end of the term. On the Thursday morning it was kindergarten graduation which is a BIG deal. All of the different classes have their own little performance they do before they get to walk across the stage in their caps and gowns for their certificates. All the parents were there with insane bouquets of flowers and their Louis Vuitton bags. Next on the agenda was orientation for the new kindergartens on Saturday. It’s mainly just to show the kids the inside of the school and see how they do when they’re not with their parents. I was in a room with a couple classes, one of which was mine called “Smurfs”. I was able to spot some kids from my other class by following the crying sounds and then double checking the name tags. Yes, they were part of my “Angels” group. The “Angels” are the first group of 4 year olds to come through the doors of Wonderland. They are 4 years old in Korea so in Canada they would actually be 3. You are 1 year old when you are first born here. Depending on when they’re birthday is some of my kids are even closer to 2 years Canadian age. Everyone ages a year right at the beginning of the calendar year. For example there is one boy who was born in November so he basically turned 2 years old a few months ago, but because it’s Korea, he’s 3 and because it’s past January 1st in Korea he is 4. Everyone has nicknamed him the little old man because he is soooo tiny and looks quite frail.
The nights of my first week were great. The head foreign teacher, Jess (who is also from Canada), took me somewhere different to eat each night and sometimes the other teachers came along too. This was incredibly good of them considering they had marking, report cards, and schedules to make for the new semester. The first few meals made my eyes water, but I’m getting better. It’s not really a shocker since at home I didn’t usually venture any higher than “medium” salsa. My favourite food so far are these bean sprouts that are steamed (I think) and they just have a little bit of sesame oil on them…probably some other ingredients too. They’re actually just one of the many simple side dishes that come with every meal, but I get pretty excited for them. My favourite meal has been dok galbi (I’m just using phonetics). It’s a chicken dish that you cook with rice or noodles and the usual veggies. Most meals out in Korea are cooked in front of you then you pile what you want on a lettuce leaf and mow down. There’s really no graceful way to go about it. When you try doing two bites it kind of falls apart and the sauce runs down your hand. When you try just one bite you look and feel like a greedy chipmunk, but everyone’s in the same boat.
Okay kids I’m gonna wrap this up and try and get some more done through the week. Stay tuned.
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