Oops...

I've been a bad blogger... :(

Korea has made my English suck so it takes me longer to write out my thoughts which makes me reluctant to take the time to sit down and write. Vacation has made me lazy about updating, and so much has happened since it started but as I put off writing, the more I have to write about, the longer it takes to write and the less I want to do it... The vicious cycle of procrastination.

Where should I even start?

I guess I'll try it Memento-style - start from the end and go backwards.

U.S.A. - Home Sweet Home

Came back to the U.S. to do interviews for Teach for America and JET. (Don't ask.) Teach for America's interview was a day-long marathon and JET's interview reminded me of how much my Japanese has deteriorated. Preparing to be part of America's unemployed next year...

Saw a lot of friends that I haven't seen for half a year. (Felt old.) Funny who you end up keeping in touch with. Even met up with a Japanese friend from Kansai Gaidai who happened to be in New York at the same time.

Saw a lot of family including cousins who are now living on the East coast.

Got robbed in New York? Opened my wallet and all my cash was gone but they left me the wallet itself and all my cards...? (Again, don't ask because I don't know either.)

Seoul

Did a 4-week internship at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. SO much fun. Did a presentation on Black History Month and one on Pocahontas/ Native Americans (except I kept saying Indians, haha) at American Corners in Busan and Gwangju. Went on trips to Paju and Heyri Art Valley with the DCM (who is like the vice-Ambassador).

Met up with some people who studied abroad with me at Kansai Gaidai in Japan and are now teaching in Korea as well. Small world. We're all Americans but haven't even met up in the U.S. yet.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (although I have to be more careful and say Lunar New Year in Korea) was in the middle of my internship. Went back to Pohang to celebrate it with my host family. Celebrated it Korean style. Then watched 꼿보다남자 (Korean drama) with my host brothers (and the rest of country that is in love with that show).

Hong Kong

After a slight mishap in Busan coming back from Japan (see below), made it to Hong Kong to meet up with my mom, dad and aunt. Spent a couple days there seeing the sights (although there wasn't too many touristy things to see besides a laser/ light show at night and the peak tram), did a lot of shopping and A LOT of eating.

Japan

Traveled around Japan after buying a JR pass in Korea (the exchange rate killed my bank account but I figured might as well make the most of it). Arrived in Hakata by ferry, stayed with a friend who just had a baby (SO cute!), went to Osaka where I used to live and spent Christmas with my host family - my host sister just had a baby too. Met up with a lot of friends I'd known while studying abroad and even some Lehigh people in Tokyo. Spent New Year's Eve a friend and her husband. Celebrated Japanese style - went to a shrine, rang the bell and got an おみくじ to tell me how my luck with be in 2009. (It told me I'm supposed to be lucky but with how things have started out so far I guess I am going to be REALLY lucky over the next 10 months to even it out...)

That just about takes me back to where I ended last time! That's the barebones of my vacation although I realize that it would have been a bit more interesting if I had gone a little more in depth about things that happened. More on reflections on 2008, highlights of 2009 (so far) and New Year's Resolutions next time! And I promise it won't take 2 months before I write the next one! (although I think I say something like that every time...)

Last Day of Teaching!

Finished teaching for the semester! Been a busy month. In the 17 weeks of this semester, I've only taught one full 21-hour week of classes... (although I have to say it was pretty tiring anyway) Went to Homigot this weekend with a friend from Daejeon. (Hand sticking out of the sea.) It was so windy... Gave out Christmas/ end of the year presents to the principal, vice principal and other teachers at the beginning of the week. Had a teacher's outing on Wednesday. Off to Busan on Sunday, then Japan and Hong Kong and Seoul for the rest of winter break! I'm going to miss my students though, especially the sixth graders who are going off to middle school next year.

Christmas decorations downtown
(I was so happy to see this because when I was in Japan 2 years ago, there were NO Christmas decorations)

Homigot

some of my students trying to catch snowflakes on the first day it snowed

December

Up until the last week of November, the month went by really fast. Now, things are picking up again in December. Last week, the students have been having tests or end of the year assessments. Two of my classes were canceled randomly, and in another class, the teacher told me not to use the textbook and just do "free talking" because one third of the students were taking a computer test. This was right before the class started and I hadn't prepared anything. So I downloaded Skype and had the students do a Skype session with my mom. It was a little weird because there was no mic so my mom did most of the talking and I type what we wanted to say to her. But I think my students paid more attention in that class than they have n any of the actual lessons I've taught!

Last Friday, we had our first snow in Pohang! It doesn't snow much in Pohang and none of it stuck, but my kids got so excited! When I went into my first class, one of my students said, "Look Teacher! Snow!" I looked out the window, and after staring at the same spot for a while, you can just barely see snow against a dark background. Gradually, it started coming down more heavily (comparatively) and I let my classes out one minute early so they (and I) could go play in it. It was just one minute but they were so grateful for those 60 seconds. The last section of the review included "Let's go outside, Minsu" so I finished the class with "It's 9:39. Let's go outside! I'm letting you out of class one minute early." They stared at me shock for 5 seconds (it might also have been the English sinking in) and scream, "Thank you, Teacher!" as they ran to go outside. They are so cute. <3

Over the weekend, I went to Seoul for proctoring. That part was boring - it reminded me of when I worked at the bookstore, counting down hour by hour, then half hour by half hour, then minute by minute until time was up. But I stayed at a friend's friend's house, met her family and her Canadian friend. She taught me how to play Go-Stop (I wouldn't be able to explain if I tried - I can still barely play), had pizza for the first time in months... Her family was soo wonderful: her mom cooked a delicious breakfast and made me take vitamins, lol. Her dad even tried to give me money but the Chinese or American or whatever part of me just didn't feel right accepting so my friend suggested that we use the money to pay for the pizza that night and we could just say accepted it that way.

I realize how much I rely on the kindness of the people around me. The last two times I tried to get to the express bus terminal to go to Seoul, but I almost didn't make it. Two weeks ago, I waited for forever for the bus and it didn't come so I finally caught a taxi at 5:31pm. I had to catch the bus by 5:40. I asked the driver how long it took to get to the station and he said about 15 minutes. He got me there in 8 after I told him I needed to catch a bus. Unfortunately, I was still stuck on the other side of the road watching the cars and the minutes go by. I could see the bus I needed to take from where I was standing too. Finally, I ran across the street before the light changed, ran up to the bus and asked, "When do you leave?!" The bus driver was like, um... now... asked if he could wait and he pointed in the direction of the ticket booth, told me to buy my ticket and waited for me to get on the bus.

This week, I made sure I had enough time to catch the city bus to the bus terminal, so I left an hour and a half before the bus departure time. But I had never taken the city bus before, ended up going way past the express bus terminal, realized that I was not where I should be when we ended up at POSCO, the steel industry. There were many taxis around and it was rush hour. The bus driver let me off and told me to cross the street and take the 102. At the bus stop across the street, a woman helped me out and made sure I got on the right bus. I made it to the bus terminal 5 minutes before the bus was about to leave...

I'm also amazed at how much my school has lightened up on me since the beginning of the year. Without me even asking, my school offered to give me the Monday off before my contract is up for December. I asked one of the gym teachers if I could borrow a jumprope and she bought me one. I'm going to be sad when some of the teachers change schools next year.

I taught my some of my last 6th grade classes today. For one of the classes, I wrote a letter with individual notes to each of them. With over 35 students in the class, it took me forever to write... In one of the other classes, I had taught them a game a couple months ago. It involves moving chairs and desks around so it gets pretty crazy. It was hard for me to manage most of the other classes without letting it go to complete chaos, but this class picked it up really fast and we had a blast playing it. It made me feel good because at the end of today's last class, I said we could do whatever they wanted and they chose to play that game that I had taught them. :) *sigh* I'm really going to miss them...

Peppero Day

It was Peppero Day a couple days ago. Peppero is a Korean snack that looks like Pocky. (And Pocky looks like a pretzel stick dipped in chocolate if you don't know what Pocky looks like.) Since November 11 (11/11) looks like Peppero sticks lined up next to each other, the company that makes Peppero, Lotte, decided to designate it Peppero Day. So basically, this company made up a holiday and now people all over Korea celebrate it. (Sounds like some Hallmark holidays.)


Two weeks ago, my students were running up to me in the halls saying, "Trick or treat!" (That's what I get for teaching them about Halloween.) This week, it was "Teach, give me Peppero!" (Or if their English was a little more limited, it was more like, "Teacher! Peppero" and their little cupped hands conveyed the message.) Actually, I ended up getting a lot of Peppero from my students. One of the students wrote on the box "Teacher, Happy Peppero Day!" The 6th grade teachers had all agreed to tell their students not to bring Peppero because they thought it was expensive and unhealthy for the students. Some of the students didn't listen and brought it anyway. It was actually one of the 6th grade classes that gave me boxes and boxes of Peppero. Made me feel loved. :)

And of course, in proper Korean style, I redistributed all the Peppero I got to some students I ran into in the hallway while carrying the Peppero back to my classroom, other less fortunate 6th grade students whose teachers were stricter and forbade them to bring any Peppero at all, the 6th grade teachers who didn't allow their students to bring Peppero (but ate it pretty happily), my co-teachers, teachers in the teacher classes I taught after school, students in my Taekwondo class... Half the fun in eating food is sharing it right?

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Time really flies. I can't believe it's November! A lot's happened in the past month and a half. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, I'll tell it partly with pictures...

Sports Day at my school at the end of September

The students and teachers had spent a couple weeks preparing for this event at the elementary school (and sometimes missing my English classes as a result). Each grade had their own tent they sat under and even a stereo system set up so the teachers could DJ music. Some students did the dances to Korean pop songs (like what these students are doing). (Aren't they adorable?!)

Each grade had a routine they learned and performed on the field in front of the school on Sports Day.

1st grade: belly dancing (yes, 1st graders belly dancing)

2nd grade: traditional Korean dance

3rd grade: I'm not quite sure what they were doing...

4th grade: hula hooping

5th grade: Taekwondo dance

6th grade: Korean mask dance

They had taken the masks off their faces by the time I took the pictures but the dance involves clothing with long ribbon-like sleeves which they stuck on their arms.

There were also events like relay races and tug of war that sometimes involved teachers and parents. I got roped into doing tug of war.

That weekend, I went to the Andong International Mask Festival where we were welcomed with this sign:
Many of the events at the festival were surprisingly similar to the events at Sports Day:

Belly dancing

some of the belly dancers at the festival were also elementary school students...

Taekwondo dance to the song "We Will Rock You"

Korean mask dance

There were also performances by a Russian dance troupe that were AMAZING.

At the beginning of October, 1st through 5th grades went on a field trip and I got to go with the 4th graders on their field trip to Millennium Park in Gyeongju.
We saw a play on a part of Korean history of which I understood nothing. Something about a man meeting an important looking woman and her showing him a humongous suit of armor.
Then he went to a town that was then taken over by an army
which was defeated by another army
but then the first army came back and they fought each other the sea
and the second army won and a king came out and everyone was happy...?
Anyway, after that we went to watch a show with men doing tricks on horses. Easy enough to understand.

The last event was some kind of interactive activity that didn't have anything to do with Korean history or culture as far as I could see. But the host on stage challenged the kids to clap some kind of rhythm and do some tongue twister things. I actually started falling asleep when suddenly she asked for a teach volunteer so all the kids started screaming "Debi teacher!" and little hands pushed me up on stage (and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there). They made me dance. I have no pictures.

The first weekend of October was the first of two conferences where all the English teachers in our program have a big reunion and talk about our experiences, teaching, etc.

After the conference, I took a trip with some friends to the Pusan International Film Festival.

While we were at lunch, I overhead the guys sitting next to us talking in Chinese so I asked them where they were from.

Turns out they're filmmakers from China and offered us free tickets to see a movie at the festival. We went to see The Chaser, a Korean movie based on a true story about a serial killer who targets call-girls, usually using a chisel and hammer to kill them. "In the midst of police indifference and incompetence, Jung-Ho, an ex-cop-turned-pimp must dust off his old flatfoot skills to find the killer and save the life of one of his girls who has gone missing."

The Chaser

After the movie, there was a special Q&A session with the director and two of the actors (although it was conducted in Korean so didn't understand much)


Last weekend, my other host brother came back from the Philippines for a week so my host family took a trip to Danyang about 2-3 hours away and invited me along.


After watching other people bungee jump, my host brothers decided they didn't want to do it anymore, lol.

Outside a remake of a traditional Korean house (not quite sure what we're doing...)

The amazing view from our suite

Picture at a museum we went to in Andong

The whole scene is made up of butterfly wings

Last week I did lessons on Halloween and carved a pumpkin with the help of one of my co-teachers. I was so touched when some of my classes came to school in costumes on Friday!




My students are wonderful. :)

Other random things from the past month or so:
Saw my friend playing live classical music at an orchestra concert in Gyeongju

She got more flowers than the soloists

And after the concert, saw my friend that I grew up with at home in a store in downtown Gyeongju

(it's a poster. she's a model)

Saw Crown J, a famous Korean rapper/ singer, live in performance at a night club downtown (after waiting 4 hours for him to perform for just 30 minutes, I guess it was worth it)

Saw an octopus get flipped inside out at the fish market

Before

After

So (after working on this post for almost 5 hours) I think I've redeemed myself somewhat after neglecting my blog for the past month and a half... Maybe I can keep from being lazy enough to post again before the end of the semester!... >>