Week in Review

This week was a week of testing, grading, reviewing,and practicing. It was the last week of the camp. Students were tested on their new English comprehension skills in American culture, writing, math, science, and history. Once the two days of testing were through, we hurried to have the papers graded. Then, we reviewed each student's performance overall and wrote candid and extensive reviews on each of them. This week I've also realized that I'll miss these kids a ton.

Over the last week or so I've also learned a bit more Korean. My instruction comes from some of the best teachers around: 5th graders! I've learned how to say "Be quiet!" and "Stop doing that!" and "No hitting!" and "I'm sorry." Somehow hearing me learn and try to say these words and sounds that they do so easily makes them really motivated to listen closer when we're talking in English. It's crazy how children have sophisticated learning skills by craving a learning dialogue. They want to teach in order to learn. And it makes perfect sense.

On Monday and Tuesday each of my classes will be performing on a mock "American Idol" show where they will sing in a huge auditorium...in English. I'm the show host of their production and together we show their parents how much English the've learned in the Delicious English Camp. There's a video in store, so I'll post it when I get a copy.

As for today, it's Sunday. Beautiful Sunday. My only day off each week. However, starting on Tuesday at 5:00pm, I'll be on a different agenda. First of all, the recruiting company is taking the 4 of us to dinner and paying us (we get paid in the end) and once that's done I'll be on the road for Seoul.

Starting in Seoul, I'll be staying at a "Hanok" (meaning traditional home) in Seoul for at least 2 days. Then I'll take a bus to Busan, where I will take a ferry to Japan. Once I'm in the border of Japan I'll get a JR (Japan Railways) pass and begin a tour in the bullet train. Starting in Hiroshima (2 days) and Kyoto (3 days) and Hakone (1 day) and Tokyo (5 days). I'm working out the details to possibly go to Okinawa and extend my trip by 1 week. I'll be traveling for part of that time with 3 other teachers from this winter camp.

And, of course, lots of pictures to follow. I can't even imagine this trip without a camera. :)

Snowfights!

Yong-In City got yet another snowstorm this morning. I walked to work in the slush remaining from the night's storm, and the snowfall continued through the day. At lunch the kids and I had a terrific snowfight and I managed to completely pelt Anderson in the face with snow, and he was tickled by this. Another student, Peter attacked me with a snowball just after taking the photo.

Anyhow, those and tonight's dinner photos are posted on Flickr. As if those of you in Denver haven't seen enough snow.... Enjoy! :)

Trip to the Spa

I've just discovered that there is a spa in the building where I live, and a trip to the spa was exactly what all of the teachers needed on Friday evening. So, we all went packing our bathing suits, and flip flops and feelin' ready for the hot sauna.

We weren't ready at all.

This spa, which is typical in Korea, was a beautiful haven of saunas, bathing, pools, and more saunas. Here's a trip through the spa.

Check in at the front. It's 6000 won, or about 6 dollars. You get a frumpy pink outfit, a tiny towel, a scrubber, and a key. Then you go around the corner to a room where you lock away your shoes. Then you proceed to the women's locker room. Turn another corner and you find a locker room and another desk. Give these ladies your key and they provide you with a full size locker key bracelet. Find your locker, and strip. Now you're ready!

Wearing nothing but the key bracelet, you soon get over the fact that you don't have your skivvies. Then, find your way to the beautiful sauna and spa room. Take a shower and then hit the pools. We tried each one, and they getting hotter and hotter, (and colder and colder!!) Yep, everyone is still naked and you are too. If you weren't you'd feel way out of place. There are pools that are freezing cold and other pools that have steam rising out of them.

After soaking for an hour, head to the sauna or steam room. You'll be sitting in there with some very hardcore sauna chicks, but after that, grab that scrubber mitt they gave you.

Korean spa culture includes scrubbing your skin vigorously for at least an hour. This little mitt they provide you with eventually takes off all this crap from your skin. Layers of skin continue to slough off. A kind woman sat down with me to show me how to use these tiny sinks and I stayed for the entire time she did, which was a little over an hour. Think about taking a shower for that long! Anyhow, the scrubbing feels wonderful (like finally getting that itch in the middle of your back) and your skin is amazingly smooth afterwards.

Once you've gone back to the locker, put on the crazy unflattering outfit and head to the common room. There's almost everything you can imagine in this place. More pools for your feel, saunas, salt room saunas, charcoals saunas, even a an freezer you can sit in like a sauna. This common room has yoga studio, TV, movies, ice cream, sushi and even beer, plus little cubby holes to sleep in if you're ready for a nap. On the way out I spotted someone getting a treatment of some kind with hot cups suctioned to her back. Later I learned that this is supposed to get rid of impurities in your skin.

Heading back to the main room is hard after being in this haven for nearly 3 hours. It's so relaxing! But just as I was about to step out the door into the elevator, I spotted an enourmous gym....

There's nothing even close to this place in the US, and I think that's really too bad. There's something very soothing about it. You'll be the first to hear about it when I go back...soon!

What is DMZ?

Tomorrow I'm going to the DMZ, also known as the N. Korea and S. Korea DeMilitarized Zone. This is the buffer zone between North and South Korea that's got a few good snapshots and alot of talk behind it.

Other than a fake city looming on N. Korean territory and a wide line of soldiers who you are not supposed to look at, this is a crossing point for N. and S. Korea. Supposedly no South Koreans are allowed into North Korea. Anyhow, we are headed here tomorrow to see the political sights and to further explore some of this nation we've been working in. Next post: A trip to the Spa!

Tasty!

I've made a habit of checking my email before each class, and I teach 7 classes a day, at 45 minutes each. Anyhow, in between classes I got an email from my Dad who has a new dog. He sent me a photo of my mom holding the dog and he was asking for a name.

So I'm standing there, checking my email in the class I was just about to teach, while the boys are still playing Nintendo DS and the girls are drawing with colored chalk on the board. I put up the photo of that unnamed dog and my mom, and asked the class in the first few official minutes ... to name the dog. I thought it would be cute. Well, I was right it WAS cute. But it was also very wierd if you've been following my blogs in the last few days.

Anyhow, so the kids came up with three names. Since the dog was a boy, they gave the names Max, Digger, and ... Tasty. Yes, as in "Tasty Dog". I had to ask at this point: "Do you eat dog?"

The result was sort of astounding. Not only had every child in the classroom eaten it (even the night before) but these 4th graders have been told it's good for their development. A little research and I found out that dog meat is acclaimed for it's effect on "stamina" (shall we call it) for men. Okay, fine. (Okay, GROSS!)

Anyhow, on this particular day I was teaching Venn Diagrams for writing, and not 12 hours before I'd planned a lesson comparing dogs and cows. If you've ever used a Venn Diagram, you know they look like two circles that intersect. They are used in writing as a type of mind-map of sorts for comparing categories before writing a comparison/contrast essay or in math for set theory.

So, the kids insisted that I place traits such as "eaten" in the middle category rather than in just the cow category. Yes. Anyhow, I did get home this evening and do some research and find out that eating dog in South Korea is actually illegal (as of the Seoul Olympics, read: political move) to protect the reputation of Korea. But 100% of my students eat dog on a regular basis! And lets not talk about how man dogs you see roaming the streets here. Let's just say that in 2 full weeks here I have seen about 3 dogs on walks or with their owner, and NO strays. Anyhow, I realize you may be as uncomfortable about this as I am, but I certainly have been rethinking meat while I'm here.

On better news, the students are doing very well!

Halfway!

Well, we are officially halfway through the month, and the kids have showed clear signs of improvement in their English skills, mostly in their verbal skills. I also got a gift from one of my students: mittens that look like bear gloves. I love them!

Today we celebrated Halloween to show the Korean kids what this western holiday is all about. They loved the candy, the extra games, and the costumes of course. It was interesting having Halloween in January; I've never realized how much of the Halloween spirit is in fall. Mid-Winter is just different. But all in all today was an energetic day at the Delicious English Camp.

I just found out that the other S. Korea camp was set to be in Busan, Korea which is the port to all the ferries to Japan! I was excited about that, because I'm thinking I'd love to do this again (for just a month) and Busan would be the perfect place to see more of Asia. From where we are here in Young-in, it's an hour to Seoul, and 3 to Busan, so there are no weekend ferry trips. But I could see that happening in a port city like Busan, with ferries to China and Japan.

I just bought a pint of strawberries for $8. I did it because they looked amazing and I'm really missing some tastes from home, although I'm also beginning to enjoy kimchee quite a bit. We have it with almost every meal in school.

Seoul at Night

If you're wondering what there is to do in Seoul other than shop the markets, just wait until the night falls. We did and discovered exactly how wild Seoul gets on a Saturday night.

We were a group of 7, and it was a bit difficult scoring any of the swank spots in one of the snug Korean food clubs. Eventually we did, and it was well worth the extra time scoping out the University food scene. The cozy architecture and warm food were the perfect way to start an all-nighter.

Not without some surprises, however.

We parked it in a heated tent adjecent to a restaurant, where the server set down two fresh 3000cc pitchers of beer on the table along with a spread of typical Korean appetizer food. Most restaurants here offer little appetizers for free, which is usually a random assortment nuts, edamame, gherkins, or corn puffs.

In this case, we got peanuts and edamame, both delicious. We then added a storm of courses including seafood stew with octopus, egg and fish egg omlette, spicy sausage and vegetable medley, and finally some kind of meat skewers. This is where it got interesting.

The skewers appeared to be beef, but after a few bites everyone realized that this indeed was not beef. Nicole, who has lived in Africa and Mongolia, insisted that it was a kind of rodent; it could have been marmot, or ferret. Others insisted it was, yep, dog. A quick whiff of the skewers after tasting them and we realized it could be anything. More curious than devastated, I called the chef over and pointed to the Korean word for beef in my Korea Guidebook. He shook his head and nodded when I pointed at chicken. It definitely was not chicken. I then pointed at dog, and he almost laughed. Instead he looked stern. Koreans do frequently eat dog, but I don't think they'd serve it in the city, but rather in the country where imports would be expensive and luxury. I also think it's a bit of an insult in this country. Korean restaurants are fully aware that Westerners are not comfortable eating dog.

Anyhow, it ended up that we never discovered what it was. Claire, from Wales, is bound and determined to believe it was dog, but I'm not sold on that.

After the meal and the complimentary dessert salad, we took off across the market to a club called Tin Pan 2. The dancing crowd was energetic and we stayed for a good hour before moving on to a less crowded club across the street.

At Club # 2, the music was more hip-hop and less dance. After Samantha began to show the signs of having had way to much in her glass, we moved on to give her a break. It turned out she was already beyond repair for that night, and we sent her home in a cab.

At this point it's about 2:30 am and we headed to an underground club whose owner, Andrew knew. After we're waved in past the 15 dollar cover, we're the newest guests in a beautiful wide open room with plenty of space to dance. Although it's location was discreet (the entrance was in an alley) the place was full of great college bogey, a marvelous strobe light setup and robot nachos. We stayed here for the rest of the evening dancing the dog off. :)

There is definitely a population of Korean men who seem to pine after American and English women. Although they are very kind, they only know enough English to ask your name, where you are from, and tell you that "You look like model".

You could tell that we've all been cooped for too long in classrooms, as we all hit the town high energy and never really slowed down. It's been a while since I've lost track of time until 5:00am, but it was perfect. Everyone was in a terrific spirit and we even saw two of our teachers begin a love affair. ..

At 5:00 am the subway lines open up again, but we weren't having that. Although the subway system is very safe, Me, Emily, and Byrony split a cab fare home, which cost about 50,000 won, or about 55 dollars.

Well worth it.

Texas is doing well!

A few of you asked early on what company I got this position through. The recruiting agency was Good Day Korea. The organization that runs the education programs is Deli English Camp (It's translation to Korean is something like: Delicious English Camp, and their tag line is Feed Your Education. Interesting, right?

From their website I found photos of my class, Texas.


We had a meeting yesterday where the camp organizers let us know that the students are saying that Chris' math class and my writing class are their hardest subjects. So, today we played Pictionary for the entire class! Hey I'd rather play games too! So we indulged in a little fun for most of the day.

Texas has been doing very well. First we went over basic narrative writing, followed by how to write instructions (I asked them to bring a recipes), and then on to descriptive writing using metaphors. I think it's this section that's getting them.

When I first saw their writing, I realized immediately that they do need help in grammar. Most of them get the tenses all wrong, and leave out "at" and "the" regularly. Some students are frustratingly off and some students are stunning.

Karaoke on a Wednesday

Hello!

If you've ever seen "Lost in Translation" you know the the excitement I'm about to share with you. Singing karaoke in a small room with less than 10 people is the way to feel like you're really in popular Asia.

:) So tonight was Jackie's birth day and to celebrate we went to a karaoke bar. We sang everything short of Prince. In the end, I ended up singing him, too.

I apologize I'm not in the photos more. But I was holding the camera!

I posted some photos.

A day in Seoul

I'm such a bum!

I've been meaning to type here for a few days now, and I missed it really. It's sort of comforting to let a quiet laptop know what I've been doing and to watch this piece of metal hooked up to the Internet pass the word.

I'm doing great!

Before I tell you what happened this weekend, I want to tell you what happened tonight.

Samantha, a gal from Sacramento, had a super rough day with her kids in the "New York" classroom, so her and I headed to find karaoke and a beer immediately after work. We did, and with it, we found a true gem in these parts: pizza! I can't tell you how nice it was to each a crusty wonder topped with random vegetables and cheese. It's heaven right now.

We didn't find karaoke. We did find the pizza and the beer, and she was just a doll to hang out with. Her stories of touring Europe in the last 3 months are too much, but they make me want to visit. I know, I know, I'm in Asia and that's what I'm doing right now. Yes I am. The other teachers here are amazing and each one of them has an interesting story to tell. With this being a one month position, we have a mixture of nomadic types: Jackie (from the UK) who's heading to Cambodia in March, and with whom I'll be going to Japan with; Kim (from Scotland) who also holds a ticket for Tokyo, and who surprises me daily with her wit; Andrew, an eager, funny guy (from the UK) who's got a diarming crush on my fellow American teacher from California; Claire, who literally tried to stop talking for 3 minutes on a dare and failed (from Wales); Bryony (from UK) who is sick with a kidney infection but who manages to bring over apples and conversation to my room at the perfect times; Chris, who's got a heart as bigger than the piles of rice I seem to eat every day; Nicole, who despite having a young class of kiddies manages to smile and enjoy every moment of it.

I think I missed a few. But they aren't reading. You are. I guess it's just been fabulous to get to know and share a bond with a few random people which has really given me warm thoughts towards strange people in a strange land. (But no, not that kind)

The teachers here literally save me sometimes. I'll miss it when I leave. :)

Right, I was going to tell you about this weekend.

All 11 of us headed to Seoul on a subway (an hour ride) to the Palace. It was breathtaking of course. However, the piece of the day (Sunday) that brought me that surreal feeling that you get when you're in a completely different country and nothing seems familiar... was in the market. The downtown Seoul market was a mixture of people, products, pastries, and urban paradise.

So far in Korea, I've seen literally hundreds of deep fat fryers on the sidewalk frying up everything you can imagine. Were you thinking sushi? Nope. I mean there's plenty of it here, but even more plenty is the variety of vegetables and meats you can order ala cart for a small price while walking the streets. I haven't yet had any, but I guess they fascinate me.

Okay, anyway Seoul market was surreal. We sampled fermented honey wrapped in 2000 strands of corn flour (not too sweet, not sweeter than a nice miso)

I also tried out my camera the entire day and into the night, if you'd have a look. The photos can be reached on the sidebar of this blog. Some of them really brought out the culture, and the ones that didn't you won't see with utmost respect to the art of editing bad work. It's a lovely camera. Enjoy!

A little Korean for ya

Words I've learned:

yes: ne
no: anio
thank you: Komapsumnida
hello: anniohaisayo (like saying "onion ha-say-o")

First Day!

Today I started the first day of teaching the winter camp. For not getting any orientation at all I think it went pretty well.

There are 12 teachers: 7 from the UK, one from Scotland and 4 from the United States. I've heard that US accents are more expensive, so that's why there are fewer of us. I don't quite get that yet, because I sure haven't seen any of their expense. They have put us up in very modern rooms, with very efficient showers and a location that's right in the middle of everything you'd want. They also do provide a stocked community kitchen and lunch at the school cafeteria, which is way better than what I've always known as cafeteria food.

I'm teaching writing. Some teachers have math, science, social studies/culture. I'm only envious of the "culture" teachers, whose textbooks are literally last month's Time magazine. The teaching part is dazzling. Some of their English is impeccable while some students are clearly straining very hard to speak and understand. Most students do understand basic language skills and all of the 5th and 6th graders can read proficiently. A few students have problems with long words, like "environment", "observatory"...

The classroom technology is closely updated, so today I showed the 4th graders how to use Google as a thesaurus. I literally got handed my lesson plan 10 minutes before the day started, so I had figure out the chapter as the students are reading it. Tonite I'm swearing to plan ahead just a bit. I both love and loath the process of "teaching" as revealed today. It's difficult and easy, but satisfying.

Each classroom is named after a US state. I got Texas. But the students are very clever, extremely bright, while being painfully shy of speaking. I have the oldest of all the grade levels: ages 11-16, with 75% of the students being 13-16. The 11 and 12 year old students aren't shy yet. They laugh and speak freely. The 13-16 year old girls are terrified of the boys (what a difference in focus 2 years has on otherwise motivated kids!) And, I already have a nickname by authority of the 4th graders: Rebeccasaurus. They think I'm abnormally tall, even though I insisted I'm just a little above average for a woman in the US. Still, it's too cute. Dennis, a 4th grade creative, drew a picture of exactly what an actual Rebeccasaurus would look like, and you'll be relieved to know that my dinasaur "other" still looks like a stegasaurus with hair and raptor wings.

The rest of the teachers are fabulous. We had breakfast, lunch and happy hour together with no struggle in conversation. With a long day behind all of us, and 26 long days ahead, there's no denying we have a common denominator.