It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but...

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

This is my Nina 2-day class saying Merry Christmas...(to me)

and singing Jingle Bells.

recent developments

from Wednesday & Friday:

after noticing a constellation on the wall by John, Hayley's student, in our classroom . . .

Sally: I know John.

Me: Oh, how?

Sally: We're in same class.

Me: Is he nice?

Sally: Yes.

Me: Do you like him? Is he your friend?

Sally: No, he's a boy.

Me: So you don't have any boyfriends?

Sally (while shaking her head vehemently): No!

after watching me sitting at the front of the class while the students were working on a worksheet . . .

Sally: Teacher, are you boring?

oh Sally, so my fav.

in other developments, i now have an exercise bike, which i was able to purchase for only 100,000won from one of Cindy's friends who is moving. i also scored some speakers and a toaster. i hope it's worth the aching in my arms after carrying the chair half of the bike back. luckily i had Cindy & Jon's help to get the rest back to my place, on the subway of all things. we got even more looks than normal, but we only had to endure one subway stop. fingers crossed that i use it as much as i'm hoping i will.

free day = journey!

so yesterday my 5D class took the term test and that meant that today we had nothing to do really for class so it was entirely up to me what we did. so i decided to do a spelling bee for the first half, and then coerce my kids into singing journey ("don't stop believin'" of course) for the second half. now it was rough going at the beginning cause all the kids were just laughing at my choice of song, like sally who kept asking, "teacher, you like this song?" though lily did eventually say she knew the song cause her younger sister sang it in kindergarten. i tried to take some video of them singing, and this would be the best i got . . .

there's only 4 kids in this class to begin with and one was absent. that would be sally, lily, and william running away from me in this, hehe. it's hard to see much of them though so i took some pics too.

sally is one of my favorite students ever. she says whatever is on her mind, and is always cracking me up. this is her showing off all her stickers.

this is william, lily, & sally. it was pretty hard to get them all to smile at once, especially william.

william is starting to crack a little here . . .

finally got them all! and lily and sally making a heart.

things to know when shopping in gangnam

1. When shopping underground, fitting rooms do not exist.

2. If you try something on, perchance a skirt over the skirt you are wearing, you will receive dirty looks from salespeople. 

3. Or if you look like you are about to try something on, maybe a shirt, then you will be stared at and told, "No try!"

4. And even though you may see Koreans going into a tiny room to try a dress on, when you ask to try something on, you will still be told, "No try!"

5. Shoes are a different story. Do not touch a shoe unless you wish to have attention from a salesperson who will attempt to find your size or try to shove your foot in the smaller size if that is all that is available. Either way, your foot will be felt up. 

6. Be prepared to see the same clothes 50 times over in various shops who pretend to be different stores. 

7. Above ground . . . fitting rooms exist! But trying on something that is 100% cotton is a no-no.

Despite the annoying reality of no fitting rooms for the cheap shopping in Gangnam, I did find some skirts and a couple shirts. And there's also the plus of being underground where it isn't quite as hot as above ground. I much prefer being a shopping mole. 

another fun conversation, same class

Me: What teachers did you have before me?

William, Eric, and Sally: Claudia Teacher and Todd Teacher.

Me: Did you like them?

All: Yes!

Sally: But we like you too.

Me: Thanks, Sally.

Sally, one of my favs . . .

Sally: Teacher, are you from Canada?

Me: No, I'm from America.

Sally: Teacher, do you go home to America every night?

if you wondered what life is like here in korea for us foreign teachers, here's a taste (of the weekends). these guys crack me up, and it's pretty much exactly what life is like here for us, heh.

on monday a new semester started here at my school. and sadly, i hardly have any of the same kids that i had before. :( this time around, things were much more relaxed and ran much smoother. i remember the first day of spring semester, all i wanted to do was cry but i knew i just had to keep going and not think too much otherwise i would've broken down. but it did get much easier once i was more familiar with the way things work here, what's expected, and what the kids are capable of. and now i have to start all over! at least this time, i have less classes so planning is already much easier. and no more atlas class! yay! no more dumbfounded looks for 75% of the class time. i will be much happier now. 

before i came and when i first came to korea, i was nervous about whether i'd like it here and whether i'd be a good teacher. although it has taken some time for me to adjust to constantly having to mime english words to most everyone who is korean, i've come to really enjoy being here. but that might possibly have to do with the fact that i don't have to pay rent and i can spend the weekends with people my age who also speak english as their first language. hopefully soon i can break myself away from continuously going to seoul for drinks and actually do some touristy things. i'd like to explore more when i'm not exhausted during the week and not hungover on sunday, hah. sundays have been quite the waste lately. but i gotta say, the fact that many of the clubs and bars i've gone to play techno or drum & bass or whatever makes me incredibly happy. that is something i have never experienced in the u.s. and it just makes me want to start my own club in the u.s. for fellow techno/trance/drum&bass fiends. now that would be a good use of my degree. 

today was teacher's day, and i have to say it was a good day. i wasn't expecting anything, but i was surprised by the amount of kids who brought in presents, and not just in my classes, but in general. and the notes i got are super cute :) i tried to make time for more games today so i could just have fun with my kids. they deserve some fun. i gave them candy too, hehe. here's my loot:

i've been bringing my camera to class the past couple days. i've started to realize as the end of the semester nears that i'm really going to miss a lot of them. i can't say all of them, heh, but a lot of them. it's gonna be weird to teach all new kids and have to start all over again learning new personalities and such. i hope i still see my kiddies if they keep coming to langcon. i put up a bunch of pics i took of them here.

long story short . . . i sliced my thumb while cutting up watermelon

well today there was no school because it was a public holiday called children's day here in korea. cindy came up with the idea to go on a picnic so we were going to head to a park around 12:30.

i was very proud of myself for getting up around 10 and headed to homeplus for some picnic supplies, like plates, forks, watermelon, and chips. i made it home by 11 and started to cut up the watermelon first. i was eating some as i went along, my breakfast for the day. i was having a bit of a tricky time cause the knife i was using wouldn't really curve much so that i could cut along the bottom of the red bit near the rind. my hands also got pretty slippery from all the watermelon juice. with only one chunk left to cut off, i slid the knife along the rind, and then i'm not sure if the watermelon slipped out of my hands or the knife slipped . . . but something did and the knife slid thru the watermelon and sliced right into my thumb of my left hand.

immediately i held my thumb with my other hand and ran it under water to wash off the blood and see how bad it was. from what i could tell it seemed pretty freaking deep and the bleeding wouldn't stop so i held my dishtowel on it and sat down on the floor. i was feeling pretty weak at that point, having only eaten a couple pieces of watermelon so far for the day. my mind sorta blanked on what to do, but then i called cindy for help. she gave me the number for "korea help" but they didn't have much info about our area and the closest hospital they gave me was kinda far. at this point, hayley came up to help and called anna for me. she told us of a hospital nearby we could get to by taxi pretty easily. 

so we headed to the hospital by taxi, but it was a really bad plan for me not to eat anything more cause as soon as the doctor looked at the cut and swabbed it with alcohol and iodine (i think) it was burning like crazy and i felt like i was going to faint. it was a horrible experience and i didn't watch any of what the doctor did. she was yanking at my skin with tweezers at one point to see how deep the cut was. eek. she had me move my finger too. then i had to move to a lil surgery like room where she put in stitches, i think 4 or 5. i didn't look at it for long before they bandaged it up. i didn't watch the doctor putting the stitches in at all. i had my head between my knees the whole time breathing slowly and trying to not faint. didn't help when i got 2 shots of antibiotics in my arm and also pricked on the thumb (of my other hand). i felt a bit of the stitches but it must've been numbed cause i didn't feel much beyond the first pinch. they didn't speak much english but they understand when i said i cut myself with a knife. i feel like the nurses were laughing at me all faint and weak, not able to look. i was kinda freaking out when they took me in the lil room though. there were like 4 nurses and they just surrounded me while the doctor got my hand ready. i seriously thought i was going to hit the floor during the stitches and i was afraid to stand up at the end. when they were bandaging me up they kept saying "plastic surgery" to me, and i think they were trying to say i'd have to come back to get the stitches out. 

i sat down with hayley for a bit before heading home. she said i was super white. the heat was getting to me some outside (up to 80 today), but i was mostly ok on the way home in the taxi. i even ended up going to the picnic later with hayley after finally eating some food. i was feeling a lot better after that. it was a nice relaxing day . . . once my thumb was all bandaged up. and for the third time since i've been here, i'm on pills yet again. lovely. 

my birthday in korea

so my past few birthdays haven't been that great cause when i was in college my birthday always fell on the week of or the week before finals. not exactly a time when i felt like celebrating or had the time for it. so i mostly skipped over my birthday and went right into celebrating the end of finals week. the only time i did much was for my 21st.

well today i wasn't expecting much at all except a cake at work, only cause i've already seen other people get them for their birthdays. the day started off kinda blah too cause i wasn't feeling that great when i woke up. i finally managed to get out of bed around 10:30 and get around to head into work. and then i found this ... 

hayley decorated my desk with balloons, m&m's, and dr. pepper. she also put balloons on my chair - "my birthday throne." hah. cracked me up. she bought me a bagel too for lunch. as more teachers came in, ju-hee (my co-teacher) brought me a sub from quiznos and ida (our head teacher) brought a birthday hat and some cookies and candy. my desk was pretty much un-useable with everything piling up. 

then my cell-phone started ringing and i didn't know the number so i didn't answer. but they called back again, so i decided just to answer but the person was speaking in korean so i just figured it was a wrong number. but then hayley said that cindy had told her that someone might be calling my phone to get directions to our school to deliver something. i was so confused but i gave my phone to so-young, another teacher, and she called back and told them how to get here. a little bit later, a guy showed up with flowers! i found out that they were from my parents - they had talked to cindy and got her to have someone order them! 

and just before classes started, annie (our director) came in the door of the staff room as i was about to walk out and had me sit back down. they brought in a cake and had me blow out the candles after they sang to me. she also gave me a lil poster they'd all written messages on and a small plant that i'm told might be rosemary. and right before classes started, my atlas kids peeked in the staff room and said happy birthday! they were so cute. sally even came in and gave me a hug. i gave them all suckers to thank them. 

the rest of the day i didn't really tell any of my classes cause i just got into the routine of things and i'm always rushing and behind so i just didn't want to mention it at all. but when i got to my 5th class of the day, i went to walk in and two of the girls came out and said no, wait teacher! they kinda pulled me away from the door and turned me around and said come over here. i figured they were up to something since ju-hee was still in the classroom. they brought me in then and the kids turned off the lights and sang happy birthday to me! so cute. they'd also written all over the board. i ran and got my camera to take pics of the board and of them. they are definitely my favorite class, even before today. my last class all said happy birthday when i came in too, hehe. 

after finishing up some work for our teaching competition, seven of us headed to a bar for a couple drinks after work. we didn't stay that long though, i was feeling pretty tired. we left around 12 to head home. one of the TAs even got me a box of dunkin donuts (his friend worked at one next to the bar). so sweet. headed home finally and snacked on my donuts along with some tea. hopefully my sore throat will go away soon.

all in all, it was a really great day. and if you want to see more . . .

only in korea

so i was just coming out of the subway on my way home from work and i heard a ton of noise, almost like an elephant. i rounded the corner of the block walking towards my building, to find this . . .

yes, that would be an elephant followed by 2 dragons, parading their way down one of the main streets in migeum. i have absolutely no idea why, but it was hard to ignore them. and they were putting on quite the show with all the dragony and elephanty smoke. as to why an elephant was breathing out smoke, your guess is as good as mine.

randomness of the past couple days

well i now have a working cell-phone, but i refuse to attach a dangling charm thingie on it. i even took off the charger converter one that the LG salesperson put on it. it drives me nuts to have it on there, all in the way. i just don't get why it's the thing to do here. 

friday morning we didn't have a meeting like we normally do, so i went to butterfinger pancakes with cindy & two of my fellow teachers. yum yum. quite the tasty brunch. with a side of dr. pepper. it sucked having to go to school after that though. i just wanted to stay out and about, or go home and take a nap after all that food. instead i had to go and teach 6 classes. bah. but then i was free! after speaking tests, that is . . .

i headed to the doctor again on saturday after sleeping in. yes, i am sick yet again. my cold had pretty much gone away after all the pills i took last time, except for a bit of a cough i still had. but then about a week ago i woke up with a sore throat and it's gotten progressively worse since then. my abs are in great shape though from all the coughing. got more pills, hopefully this cold goes away for good this time. did some shopping too, actually found out my size here for bras & undies. i asked the girl working there cause i had no idea what size bra i'd be, and she put her hands on my ribs near my chest and looked at me and said . . . "small." um, yeah i could've told you that. she handed me one though and it fit really good. i asked what size undies i should go for and she pointed at herself and me and said "same" then handed me the size i guess she is. worked out good there as well. but it was a bit weird to discover as i looked at more packages of undies that the size i am (95) is the large size here. i wonder what a small looks like, eek. 

i now have a table! thanks to cindy, who discovered a small table around her building, i now have an actual table in front of my couch instead of a box that i use as a table. whoo. now i just need to find myself some curtains . . .

all in all it was a very low-key weekend of a bit of shopping and mostly resting. i love sleeping on the weekend. doesn't help that i end up staying up late cause that's when it's day time in MI. oops. like tonite again. oh well, i'm sure next weekend is going to be different though. i gotta go out and celebrate being 24!

so i finally have internet in my apartment. it only took 57 days for that to happen. only.

i randomly have cable tv too. when the guys came to install my internet, i started to wonder what was up when they were messing with my tv. and then bam, i had cable tv too even though i didn't ask for it. i have some english channels now, so that's cool. and by that i mean korean channels that play some american shows of the csi variety. that has been my nite, watching csi:miami. and chatting online. good times. it's really annoying having to deal with a cable though since i don't have wireless. mreh, there are cords freaking everywhere. but at least now i can get a lot more work done at home if i want to. though i haven't done much of it tonite. i was super excited near the end of classes today thinking about going home to internet. hehe, i'm just that sad. i ended up finding the music video for a korean song that i keep hearing everywhere, and i've even heard some of my kids singing it and dancing around trying to do the moves. here's the song. it's really interesting to me the way some korean pop is a mix of korean & english.

and now i should probably go to bed . . .

i'm an aunt!

when i came in to work today, i saw on facebook that lindsey's water had broken (monday still in colorado) so i was pretty much glued to fb all day. i told all the other teachers that i was about to be an aunt, so they were all excited for me too, hehe. i'm usually scrambling between classes to gather up my stuff and move on, but today i made sure that i made it to each room quickly so i could run back to the staff room and check facebook. and after my first class, i found out that megan had been born! (11:26 p.m. April 13th) i'll never forget that birthday - my birthday month, hehe. i kept running back between classes to check facebook again for more updates. i can't stop smiling since i first found out, and i told everyone else too. brian was speedy and put up pics already on fotki so i've been showing everyone those too. 

it's so strange to think about actually being an aunt now. it doesn't seem real to me at all, even after i saw the pictures. but i'm sure brian & lindsey will be great parents to megan kathryn ismirle. 

i'm pretty much feeling back to normal cause of all the pills i've been taking that i got from the doctor. it's been over a month since i first got sick, and my ribs still hurt most of the time from coughing. i can't seem to get rid of this cough, but at least i have my voice back. not having water this weekend was horrible. i seriously hope it gets turned back on tomorrow.

today cindy, hayley and i went shopping in gangnam and dongdaemun. i wanted to get some new clothes to wear to school, but i ended up just buying a dress, heh. oops. but i really wanted to try things on! and you couldn't at pretty much all the places we went to. i randomly ran into one of my students though - i heard "teacher!" too cute. after shopping most of the day, i was exhausted and slept for most of the bus ride home. but it was nice to see a lot of scenery on the bus ride there and part of the way back. here's some pics of the day.

today i wandered around a park near my school some. it was in the 70s and there were cherry blossoms everywhere. and it was super sunny. my eyes were hurting from squinting, but it was pretty, heh.

there's more pictures here.

today i went to emart to get groceries. it's such insanity there on a saturday. and maneuvering a cart is ridiculous. i mean, you can't hesitate. it's not allowed here. you just get rammed if you do until you start moving. as in rammed in your cart, or rammed in the bum. eek. i got out of there as fast as i could.

so i've been sick for like 3 weeks. my ribs hurt so bad from coughing all the time, but slightly less today since i haven't been talking at all. i'm not looking forward to monday. not one bit. 

oh, and friday i had mcdonalds for lunch. i was not impressed. hayley and i both did not have good days, so we went out for a drink after work. and had yellow daiquiris and lots of fries. yum. i was quite amazed when i went to use the bathroom and found a toilet and toilet paper! astonishing. really. 

i came down to find internet around 11 but for some reason the signal was bad where i usually sit in the hallway on the second floor. i had to wander around the halls some to find a better signal, looking like an idiot. probably doesn't help my cold at all either when i'm hanging out in the chilly hallways to steal internet. a guard walked by too and stood over me until i looked up. then he started babbling a bunch of korean at me and pointing at me and the hallway. i kept saying i lived in the building, but i finally just said "i have to go?" and he started nodding a bunch and pointing down the hallway. arrr. i want my own internet!

friday nite was an interesting nite. all the staff at our school went out to dinner after work. yum yum barbecue pork. then we headed to a bar after that for lots of drinking games. and then to a noraebang for karaoke. good times. i got home around 2:30. here's some pics.

i had to grade book reports for all my kids and i thought i would share some of what they wrote. the book reports are worksheets they have to print out and do and the activities they have to do are different depending on the book they read. anyways, here's a taste:

good night my fish in the fishbowl

good night my snail in the snail house

good night my doll on the bed

good night moon

see you next day night.

One day, during trip, Lion met shark.

They came from different zoo, And they want to new nice worlds.

They trips the sea and the island.

They eat food and play with together.

And They decided to live together.

It is not zoo. It's where the woods and sea met.

dog and bird are Playing in the land and the dog win so bird was sad.

The cat and fish was friend and they was friend but cat lives on island and fish live on ocean and cat teach how to mack hot and cat teach to clam and cat go to the sea and they live happly the end

Dear racoon

I would like you to take the racoon to zoo because it is too smelly.

Sincerely, Farmer Brown

cat and rabbit are goodboys.

Dog and turtle are reading a books.

Cat and rabbit came to read a book.

They are reading a book.

Dog and turtle like to drink water.

Turtle says, "Could you help me to drink water? Because I don't have my hands."

Cat and rabbit help to drink the water for turtle.

Duck and crocodile

Duck eat the food.

Crocodile see Duck.

crocodile eat 1 egg.

crocodile eat 2 egg.

crocodile eat 3 egg.

crocodile eat Duck.

volcano and the animals

The four animals are sleeping.

The ground is shaking.

"oh, no! The volcano is blow up."

The animals wake up.

They run and run and run.

And the four animals is safe.

The Elephant and penguin

The elephant helped a penguin who tried to cross the river in the jungle.

On his way back to the store Preston stopped by the park to play when suddenly the little bard's dung got in his mouth. He jump up crazy.

Cow has huge. Cow offers many milk.

Cat likes fish. cat has whiskers.

pig likes eat. pig likes to pink sponge nose.

dog is cute. dog has 4 legs.

tiger stripes make body and 4 legs and long tail.

Horse runs fast. Horse likes carrot to munch.

Preston was walk down the street sining a song and fart. Suddenly, The monster comes and said i will eat you.

i put up some pics of the school here.

well it seems that most everything crazy or bad seems to happen in my classes. first a kid showed me his willy when he was asking to go to the bathroom, another kid flicked off some other students and said the f word, other kids have said bad words in korean to the other kids and i find out after the fact, and today two girls in my atlas class (the lowest level) decided to fight each other. i was walking around checking their homework and they were supposed to be working on a review worksheet i gave them. they were all talking a little in korean, which is what they do a lot of in that class. and one girl starting yelling at another girl and i had to keep telling her not to yell, and when i was on the opposite side of the table, she decided to launch at another girl two chairs over from her. they ended up slapping each other and pulling each other's hair. i had to pry the one off the other and take her out of the classroom. i took the other one out too separately. it was freaking crazy. i was shaking afterwards. eek. 

so i found the soundtrack to jersey boys online, and i have it blaring right now. yay for dancing around my apartment singing (or croaking) can't take my eyes off of you! hehe, my neighbors must think i'm nuts. but i don't care.

today i used my penguin in class - the kids passed him around when it was their turn to read. and then one kid started choking penguin! i was not happy about that. 

another thing that i haven't really gotten used to here is the way "westerners," especially around my building cause a lot of english teachers live here, decide to strike up a conversation with me just cause i'm a fellow "westerner," i.e. obviously an english teacher too. i mean whenever i see someone who isn't korean i just kind of smile or nod if they look in my direction cause they always seem to want recognition that we are the fellow oddballs in the vicinity or whatever. but often people decide to start talking to me, as if we already know each other. hayley and i have talked about this, and it's just a bit weird to both of us. it happened again today as i was walking to the grocery store. this guy saw me and was like "hey! are you an english teacher?!" yep. whoo.

today i played real scrabble at cindy's, as in not online scrabble. i much prefer it online cause it tells me whether something is a word or not, hehe. but i think i did ok. 

i took some pics of my money and the kid's artwork in two of my classes. just click here for the album. 

today has been very laid back. i slept in, i laid around, didn't use my voice much. it's slowly coming back, whoo. i watched a lot of peep show too, a british comedy. cindy gave me the dvds of all the seasons so i've been making my way thru it. i did venture out to get pizza with cindy though, yay for pizza school. i felt very productive in the afternoon too. i cleaned up my apartment some and organized things, and i did laundry for the first time. i was really worried i would do something wrong cause all the buttons are in korean and i wasn't sure how much powder & fabric softner to put in, but the clothes seemed fine once it finished. luckily anna had already told me which buttons to push too when i showed her pics of the washing machine buttons, heh. it takes forever though, an hour & a half cause it's a front loader. 

i remembered something my atlas kids said a few days ago (they are my lowest level class). i showed them a picture of a diamond, and they said . . . bling! haha. cracked me up. 

i've pretty much gotten used to the whole not being able to read anything around me (like signs, instructions, bills, etc.) and having to look for food at the grocery store with pictures on it or with some English words.

but i have not gotten used to being stared at. it doesn't happen all the time, but i can't believe how many times i've been on the subway and someone just inches away from me just STARES. and i don't even have hayley's "crazy" blue eyes, heh. it's like they're trying to figure me out by examining me, without blinking. 

the week is over and i couldn't be happier. my voice has been dead for the past couple days, so teaching has been a huge struggle, especially in classes where i really need my voice to keep the kids attention. i've had some rough classes, but i made it thru. 

today our director also observed one of my classes. eek. it didn't help matters when i starting coughing a couple times and couldn't stop. such a hard class to get through. but that class was actually better behaved this time since she was sitting in the back watching everything, heh. but of course she sat in on the only class were i went into a coughing fit. she gave me feedback too at the end of the day, which was helpful. i think i did an ok job, and i'm slowly learning things that work and don't work. i totally stole a game idea from hayley that worked really well today - having the kids make two lines in front of the board and having a spelling contest between the two teams. whoo. 

today i got a package from brian/mom. yay! i was most excited to have my bookbag. i definitely need it for all my crap i take to school. and yay for reese's! if anyone wants to send me m&m's too, i would greatly appreciate it, hehe. 

i'm going to try to take more pics this coming week and next weekend i'll probably venture out more once i'm back to normal, so hopefully i can take more. 

today i also opened a bank account, quite the experience. i was so happy to have one of our TAs with me to talk to the teller and explain what i wanted. much easier than me trying to mime things. and now i have a bank account! as of right now it's empty, but my first pay should be coming soon. whoo. then i'm definitely going to do some shopping. 2001 outlet here i come!

it's st. patrick's day! . . . and i'm sick :( my nose hates me right now, and it is impolite here to blow your nose in public, so i try to do it quiet at least when i can't hide somewhere. i guess it's fine to burp though to show appreciation for your food. 

i remembered a random question a lil girl asked me . . . what are dogs like? we were doing a lesson that involved dogs and one of the girls at the front asked me that. i was like um . . . they're friendly, and they like to fetch, heh. that's all i could come up with. 

yesterday a girl also asked me if i was from canada. i guess she was born in boston in the u.s., and she kept asking me questions about the u.s. while i was trying to do the lesson. 

well i'm hoping today goes by really quick. i only have 4 classes so it shouldn't be too bad. i just have to keep the kids under control. then plan for tomorrow, and go home and crash. whoo.

i am super sick, i have been since saturday morning when i woke up with a really bad sore throat. but today actually went better than i thought it would. i yelled at my really bad class first thing - told them about writing their names on the board and if i got to 3 warnings they were going to go talk to annie, our director (or principal). so they shut up for most of the time and listened to me after that.

so i thought it was bad being sick, but poor teresa (one of the teachers from new zealand) has it way worse. her water in her apartment has been shut off twice - the second time from friday til now. and there's a lot of damage in her place from the previous person who had a cat, and her apartment even smells like cat. it's super gross. poor girl. she's been really frustrated and i can't believe more hasn't been done. she's brought it up a lot and things aren't really getting anywhere. eek. 

anyways, sunday when i was at the cafe across the street working on planning for monday, this guy randomly came up to me and asked where i was from and if i would be his private english tutor. i told him i'm way too busy plus avalon doesn't allow that, but he kept pushing and said he wanted me to come have dinner with his family and teach his 2 kids too. he kept asking where i lived, but i just said a couple blocks over. it was creeping me out. he wrote his name & number down on a napkin in case i changed my mind. weird. 

it's been a long weekend for me. i slept in sat, only to wake up with a really bad sore throat. so i've been taking it easy all weekend, just lying around and watching dvds. whoo that 70s show. i seriously wish i had internet in my apartment so i didn't have to go out to other places to get it, even just to send an email or whatever. 

saturday when i went out wandering around migeum with hayley we were asked if we believed in jesus christ by some random koreans. i was wondering if they were going to start preaching to us, but they just asked a couple questions then left. 

hayley and i also made a list of u.s. words vs. new zealand words cause we have been cracking up over the funny things each of us say. here it is:

hamburger vs. mince

trash vs. rubbish

elevator vs. lift

clean up vs. tidy up

candy vs. lolly or lollies

cough drops vs. cough lollies

fries vs. chips

cookie vs. biscuit

crap! vs. bugger!

pickle vs. gherkin

hot dog vs. sausage

convenience stores vs. dairies

bangs vs. fringe

tired vs. knaeckered

rain boots vs. gum boots

flip flops vs. jandals

sweater vs. jersey

freeway vs. motorway

pavement vs. footpath 

drinking (alcohol) vs. piss-up

eraser vs. rubber

go away vs. rack off and stuff off

talking to vs. rark up

sex vs. root (pronounced like route)

chug vs. scull

break vs. smoko

having a tantrum vs. spit the dummy

sweet potato vs. kumara

thanks vs. ta

make fun of someone vs. take the piss out of someone

white-out vs. twink

bathing suits vs. togs

preggers vs. up the duff

forever vs. yonks or donkey's years

z vs. zed

pharmacy vs. chemist

shopping cart vs. trolley

wilderness vs. forest

so, koreans don't so much believe in waiting their turn. for example, whenever i get off the subway, people are waiting right outside the door and walk right on in when the doors open, no matter how many people are trying to get off. same goes for the elevator . . . and most koreans stand right in front of the buttons so they can push the close door button as much as possible. the doors freaking shut on me today cause some guy pushed the button as i was trying to get on. bah. 

you also can't browse anything in stores without a korean salesperson coming up and trying to talk to you and show you things. and don't touch anything! or they'll think that you want it. 

The kids that come to our school know at least a little English, though the hard part is getting them to speak it - especially the lowest level classes. It's quite hard to get any English out of those levels. But the higher levels are pretty good about speaking English. My classes are mostly Language Arts - they read a lot of stories and we do questions about them to get them to write and speak, and I also teach them vocab in the process and some grammar. 

I'm having a real hard time getting some of the kids to listen to me because they just ignore me speaking English to them. I think I started out too easy too cause they pretty much walk all over me. Today was a pretty crappy day cause I had 3 really naughty classes who wouldn't listen to anything and just kept speaking in Korean. I really need to crack down on that, but today was just a losing battle trying to get thru everything. I think I'm going to start writing their names on the board when they're bad and putting checks next to them. Lindsey told me about that - 2 checks for warnings, and 3=call home, etc. We're starting a sticker reward system at school too. I guess I'll try a few things and see how it goes, but i can't handle any more classes like I had today. I'm exhausted after that. 

today i made one kid in my lowest level stand against the wall and i stood behind him so he couldn't move. it sorta worked, i almost made him do it again but then class was over. 

i think the school is going to come up with some kind of reward system to try to motivate the kids more. 

i see all the other teachers at school every day. we have a staff room where all the korean and native english teachers have desks. 5 of each, cause we have co-teachers. one korean to one native english teacher. we share classes sorta where i'll have one class of kids while my co-teacher has another, and then we switch classes and subjects. i do language arts mostly, with a little bit of science. 

we just eat lunch at our desks, we don't go out anywhere. i get food from a lil restaurant called starlite - it has sandwiches, salads, etc. i usually get a bagel and cream cheese cause i don't like a lot on my stomach before class.  we're all sorta on the same schedules - same hours, but different breaks. 

we don't really ride the subway to school together anymore since we all know how to get there on our own. i usually go in early too to work on lesson plans and printing flashcards for my classes. we make a lot of visuals to keep them interested. we mostly come up with games on our own but we kinda share what we're doing too with others. 

today went okay. my first class wears me out though - it's my lowest level class and they don't listen to me half the time. it's takes so much energy to get anything done. that's the class i made the kid stand against the wall. i was so fed up with all of them, i probably should've made all of them stand against the wall.  

hayley and i went back for our medical checks today, this morning. it went ok, but neither of us could pee! (for the urine test). it took forever for me to, and hayley barely did at all. we're wondering if we'll have to go back, but oh well. it was especially awkward cause they only had squatters. i felt like a lil kid in the woods. 

that picture with all of us was for todd's birthday (on facebook). teresa, hayley, anna, todd & me. go here for the album.

we're the 5 native english teachers at the sunae campus. though anna has it good cause she's australian but she's korean. i think she grew up in australia all her life, so she speaks both english and korean. it's funny, today we were talking about how she can hear the kids when they're talking about her in korean, heh. i wonder about that, how often the kids are talking about me. 

it's pretty funny, most of the cereal i can find around here is post cereal, like in the pic of my groceries. the milk is kinda weird here though, it doesn't taste or smell the same. 

it's sorta getting easier, but i feel like i'm too nice. i need to be harsher i think to get the kids to listen to me. sometimes they are such lil shits! hehe. and some of them are really cute . . . teacher jennifer! teacher jennifer! or jennifer teacher! they say to me, hehe. cracks me up. one kid gave me an orange too. 

i'm hoping this week goes by smoother than last week. and the kiddies behave better. cause jennifer teacher is going to get pissed if they don't. 

i watched lots of that 70s show while i was recovering sunday. i've watched a ton of it while i've been here. i wish i had the rest of the seasons, or internet so i could find the rest. 

did i ever tell you they have love motels here? cindy was telling me about them when we went out for pancakes cause there was a bunch in the area we were in. i guess korean kids live at home til they're married, so they use those to hook up, or anyone else who wants a room, heh. apparently they provide condoms free, are really clean (surprisingly), and there are rates for just a couple hours or overnite. there's also a hidden garage so you can't see the cars going in, and you don't have to drop your keys off to a person, there's a dropbox or something. hah. cracks me up. 

this morning hayley and i tried to go get our medical checks done. we went into seoul, about a 45 min trip, to find out they don't do the medical checks on saturdays! bah. so we headed to emart for groceries then home. we headed out again around 7 to meet up with todd and daniel. we went to a bar called dublin's. it was supposed to be an irish pub . . . and it was so american. all american music and definitely had the atmosphere of one. the bartenders/waiters were crappy though. they took forever to come back and it took like an hour to get some fries we ordered. i had a sex on the beach, midori sour, some of a gross long island iced tea and then we headed back to hayley's apartment to have some soju mixed with orange juice. quite tasty. it was really funny, i found out that daniel likes demetri martin too like me. i went thru a ton of music at hayley's place, i had my laptop. i was the DJ! hehe, they seemed to enjoy a lot of it. todd was the worst of all of us. he was sorta napping on the floor and when he went back to his apartment he forgot his shoes, hehe. 

i encountered my first "squatter" last nite too at dublin's. here there are western toilets, and there are squatters, which are basically a hole in the floor. they flush like a toilet though. so weird and so awkward.  and no toilet paper! i've encountered a lot of bathrooms without any toilet paper or paper towels too. so weird. annoys me.