Saturday with Andy

My flower tea



Today I met Andy and he took me downtown to a store that was filled with musical instruments, a palace, and Insa-dong, a street in the traditional neighborhood filled with vendors (among these serving bugs and something that I would describe as ocean snails).

After seeing the palace museum, we went to a tea shop...very nice. Then we went to dinner at a nearby place. The food was really good and I had ton gass (toon gahssuh), chicken-fried pork basically.

Then we walked back to the metro by the river, a spot he tells me is for couples, and there were tons of couples there and some families sprinkled in. Very pretty.

On the metro ride home, I was tearing apart a napkin so Andy could write in Korean that my shower won't turn off all the way (I've duct-taped it for the time being) and a woman nearby handed me a pouch of kleenex basically and said something, so I asked Andy what she said and she said I should go to church! I laughed for a while about this, but a map to the church was on the back of them and Andy said they sometimes give out candy or other small things. She should have asked me first if I was a Christian so as not to waste them, but I don't think it would have mattered.

Second Teaching Day

Forgot to say that this morning a maintenance man came for my hot water. He messed around for a bit before saying "small pressure long time, big pressure short time" which I take to mean that if I want hot water, I need to not turn on the shower all the way. Nice.

He also fixed my bed.

He left, and I left right after him to get to work and I missed the train by literal seconds. So annoying. So I had to wait 10 minutes for the next train and ended up a few minutes late getting to work.

Today was much better because my classes were shorter. I had the Basic 5 class again, and they were much better. I isolated Tom in the front row so there were no incidents. My second class was Reading 3.2 (or was it 2.2?!) and there were 14 students! Pretty insane. It went well though, or well enough for the first day. People participated. We read a story, obviously. This one was about animals cleaning themselves basically. And then we did grammar. My last class was Reading 2.2 (or 3.2...) and there were only 6 students. Honest, a boy, was looking at his cell phone, so I took it away. In that class we read about a Rooster that is cooking a strawberry shortcake...and then we did grammar.

After that I took some stuff for the house that I found in storage at YES (a pan, a laundry bag, chopsticks, hangers, etc) and came home, picked up some water that had been delivered, and went with Nhi and her friend Allison to eat barbecue. It was really yummy. You have a table and a circular grate in the middle with hot coals underneath and they give you a platter of raw meat and you put it on the grate yourself. It comes with about a billion side dishes, but I thought the corn was the best.

Then we walked about a block to a place with hookah. It was nice and chill...there were cats running around here. You have to take your shoes off at the door and the guy puts them in a bag and brings them over by your area. You sit on the floor around a tiny red table and they bring you whatever you order and a complementary bowl of what I think was something similar to fried pretzels...really yummy and had a good crunch to them.

Now it's off to bed. Tomorrow I'm meeting Andy again and he's going to take me downtown from what I understand...so we'll see...

First teaching day

Today was my first day to teach. I prepped for 2 hours and then taught my first class, Basic 5. There are 7 students, 8-9 years old. Tom, Raphael, Milro, Karen, David, and two names I can't remember. Basically, Tom is a little punk. I was warned by Nhi too, but today he hit Raphael when we were on break. He must have like zero boundaries and consequences at home because he doesn't seem to give a damn. That class was from 14 30 - 15 50 (it's my every day class) and we read pages 2-5 in "Kick the Ball" by Lord knows who...

At 16 00 I started my second class of three. This one lasts till 18 50 with a 10 minute break at 17 30. This was Grade 4, reading "Treasures 3.2". Five students: Eric, Paul, Daniel, Diana, and Amy. Paul is pretty much ADD so that's really hard for this long of a class and that small of a classroom. I got in trouble for this: there was a drawing activity about halfway through the lesson that took like an hour. Too long apparently, which I get, but there wasn't enough material really. I guess I'm going to have to get really creative to take up all that time...

From 19 00 to 22 00 is my last class. Middle school student = the worst students. They are impossible to motivate. Almost. It really was like pulling teeth because NOBODY would talk. They wouldn't answer my questions even. It was like "Sally ate lunch" and me: "What did Sally do?" and no one would answer. Very hard. We read a story and then did grammar at the end. I hope after a few weeks they start talking more.

I'm tired, the maintenance guy is coming tomorrow morning at 11 and then I gotta go to school to prep. I have to turn in my lesson plans for the first month (grr) and I need to figure out some things about quizzes (they have quizzes every class and I also need to look at their homework because we go over it every class too)

Sigh.

Also...

To help Chile, my friends are saying the best ones to donate to are Red Cross, World Vision, and UNICEF. you can do this by texting "chile" to 90999 (RC) or 20222 (WV).

buta q soy tonta

More things I forgot:

MY FRIGGIN PASSPORT! It was one of the THREE things I needed to take to the clinic with me. I got all the way there, was about to walk in the front door and realized. Turned back around, and came back home. So, I'll try again tomorrow I guess...I don't have time to go back today because I have to be at work at 12 30. ugh. annoying.

All cell phones come with a metro map....something I was told yesterday that made a lot of since since the first time I rode the metro pretty much everyone was looking at a map on their phones. The phones are insanely awesome here.

There was something else, but right now I don't remember, surprise, surprise. So I'll put it up later. Hopefully...

Training Day #2

Today I had to prepare 3 practice lessons, each 20 minutes long. First I had lunch, bibimbop, which was ok, not great. Then I prepared the lessons and taught each one to Sora who then gave me feedback. Then I got my books and went home early....tonight I will have to prepare my lesson plans to hand in to her tomorrow. Tomorrow morning before work I'm going to go get a health exam, the first step towards getting my ARC. I have to bring 64,000 won, 2 passport photos, and my passport. I've been told someone at this clinic (near the Samseong exit on the green line, line #2) speaks English. So we'll see...

On my way home I got a waffle in the metro (1,000 won, about 1 dollar) and they put honey and butter on it. It was pretty much amazingly delicious.

Off to make my lesson plans! Hurrah!

Forgot

Here are pictures of E-mart. And yes, there's a McDonald's on the bottom floor.

ALSO, I forgot earlier that for 2 avocados it costs around 7 dollars!!!

Forgot to mention that shortly after arriving and getting my class schedule and books, Sora ordered lunch for me and Nhi. It came in a large black stone bowl with a wooden panel underneath and you had to stir it all up. Inside was rice, cabbage, egg, and some other vegetables...I'll ask the name today. It also came with a little bowl of soup (basically broth with something resembling a dumpling inside though whatever the dumpling-like thing was, it was all dough) and a tupperware of five compartments containing the side dishes (mushroom, egg, shrimp with green beans, something that looked like liver that I didn't touch, and kimchi). When we were done we had to put everything inside a blue garbage sack and tie it up and put it outside the door...pretty neat system...

And they don't drink the tap water for some reason. They all say it's safe, but they all buy bottled water. I'm drinking the tap water and I've been fine so far...

Training Day #1

Today I start training. I train today and tomorrow. Normally you have 4 days, but I guess I'm just special. My contract starts on Thursday so they have to have me teaching by then and not just training....will update more tonight since right now I have a long list of questions for them and I don't even know how long the training is supposed to last!

Found this in my door, what I can only assume would be a food delivery service from a nearby restaurant...

Ok well I got to the school and got my class schedule that starts Thursday (I have 5 classes, 1 MTWRF, 2 MWF, 2 TR) and I have to be at school every day at 12 30 and will get out on MWF at 20:30 and at 22:00 on TR. Today I observed Nhi's class from 16:00 to 17:30 and then Jeff's class from 17:30-19:00. After that I talked with Sora until 22:00. Nhi's class gave me a headache from all the noise...10 youngsters. But it was fun, high energy. I am about to get most of her students (the new term starts Thursday...each one lasts 3 months and then they go up a level). Jeff's class was much more low-key, with only 5 students. And they were doing reading. So not much going on there. When I spoke with Sora, my manager, she went through the basics of the school and teaching English then I got to ask her questions....so now I know more things and she is going to send her brother to my apartment tomorrow to help me with my hot water, or lack thereof, situation. Also, of the aforementioned water heater, it is supposed to automatically turn off, so Sora will go with me to E-mart to exchange it.

Then I went and met Ray at the next metro station to buy some plates, bowls, and wine glasses from him. I found him on craigslist and I'm glad I did...much cheaper than E-mart.

Now I'm eating a baguette with some sort of mystery meat and mustard. Bedtime soon. I'm beat.

Korean

Thought I should mention for those who don't know, that Korean has an alphabet that make up their characters, so it's not like Chinese that have over 10,000. Basically, if I memorized the alphabet, I could sound out words, just like in English (but easier, since their sounds are always the same and never change like in Spanish, unlike English where an "a" can be pronounced in various ways) but won't know what I'm saying.

here's a link to the alphabet: http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/Language/Korean.htm, and this is much more in depth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

Apartment

view from my apartment:

I don't live in a touristy or foreigner part of town, which I love, because I'm interested in their culture, but it also means hardly anyone speaks

English. I will ask my manager at the school today if she can call about my shower knob that seems to be faulty. And ask Nhi about the recycling/trash...I t

hink I have to separate the recycling too....

I bought a water heater today. I had to go back a second time because I had left it on the bottom floor when I was getting groceries. I used it and I'm pretty sure it doesn't automatically shut off. It was boiling the water and sort of overflowing and it didn't stop. So

I took it off. I hope I

don't burn myself and/or the apartment down with this thing...

here's downstairs where you walk in:

What I absolutely love about my apartment is that to get in, there is no key, only a key code.

The thing on the bottom is a camera to the right side of my door. When someone rings the doorbell, I see their face on the screen inside that's on the wall.