Spring Air

After months of bundling up during winter, there's nothing quite like the first day you can walk around without a coat on.  It's a day that comes gradually--at first you stop wearing so many layers, then you trade your winter coat for something lighter.  Then, finally, the day comes where you are FREE.  No coat necessary. It's the point when it's finally completely comfortable to walk around.  You're not too warm, and you're not too cold.  Although these days are few in number as the oppressively hot summer days are never far behind, for a short period of time the weather is absolutely PERFECT.

Yesterday was the first "no coat needed" day for me, and today was even more beautiful.   Flowers are starting to bloom, and as I walk by trees I see the buds growing each day.  It won't be long until everything is green and full of life again.  I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the infamous cherry blossoms, which I've been told will be the most beautiful 1-2 weeks in Korea.

This spring air is enough to make me happy, but to make things better I had an awesome day with all of my classes today.  I typically dread Thursdays because it's my busiest day of the week.  I have to teach 6 classes, which means I'm rather tired by 5:00.  However, I'm learning that Thursdays aren't so bad.  

The groups of kids I see on Thursdays are proving to be quite entertaining.  I start the morning with my 2-3 second grade boys.  I think just about every energetic boy form the second grade ended up in the same class  this year because despite the fact that I see them at 9:30 AM, they are always my craziest class of the day.  I actually get a kick out this class because these boys love to joke around.  It's sometimes hard to joke around with my students in Korea because of the language barrier, but these boys are a different story.  It's the first class I teach, but I'm always fully awake within the first 5 minutes I spend with them. 

From there, I see a few of my first grade girl classes, who are always adorable.  After lunch I move to the second grade girls in 2-5.  This is also my most energetic class of second graders on the girl's side.  They always give me a warm welcome when I enter their classroom (and by warm I mean most times they clap when I walk in the door....seriously!)

After that it's two more classes with my first grade girls.  Today I had my 1-4 class right after gym class, and let me just say that I think those endorphins had them feeling pretty great.   I've never seen them in such a silly mood, but it made the class quite entertaining because they were presenting dialogues and they were so into it--I couldn't stop laughing at some of the things they said/did.

After that I ended with a writing class with 1-5.  These girls were all really tired (they just had math class...I can't blame them), but they all put in so much effort into their writing assignment.  I know how much writing in another language sucks, especially when you're tired, so I was amazed at the effort they put into my assignment.  They are just so awesome.

Also, one of my students gave me this.

This is a picture she made in her art class in middle school.  She got a 100% on it, but wanted to give it to me.  JUST TOO CUTE.  My friends who are elementary teachers are used to getting presents, but it's not as common with the high school students.  Have I mentioned how much I adore my girls classes this semester?

As I was walking home in the warm spring air I couldn't help but think: life sure is good. It's a shame I won't be able to work with these students again next year, but do I ever feel lucky to at least have a chance to spend this year with them.

It's my birthday! Let me give you a present.

It's hard to complain about my job when my students are always doing cute things.  Like this for example.

That's right, it's her birthday, so she decided to give me a present (they were cookies, by the way).

I have such a rough life.

Only in Korea: Drink Fast, Die Sexy

This is another gem from our trip to Busan last month.  We were walking around when we saw these signs.  We almost didn't notice them, but man we were glad we did! My favorite was the last one that said "Drink fast, die sexy!"  Korea certainly loves its alcohol.

Not just any drink, serious drink! 

Mmmm vodca!

It's the Korean way!

Only in Korea: Coffee Shop or Pro-Choice Slogan?

Last month when we were walking around Busan we were walking by one of Korea's millions of coffee shops when we saw this sign. 

Apparently Korea takes coffee very seriously.  

Brilliant Korea: Park Cameras and Photo Ops

Way back in January I was in Seoul visiting my friend Jackie.  We didn't really have any plans, so we decided to go to Lotte World, which contains a huge shopping complex and an amusement park. We didn't really go into the amusement park area, but we did walk around the adjacent park.  As we were walking around, we came upon some contraptions and Jackie told me they were for taking pictures.  I knew Koreans were fans of photo opportunities, but I had never seen anything like this before.  Basically, there's a camera and you can not only take your picture, but then have it sent to yourself by entering in your e-mail.  Now, I was expecting to have to pay for this, but it was FREE!

Although the quality of the photos isn't the best, I still think it's a great idea nonetheless. I'm a photo-lover, so I appreciate anything that makes capturing memories a little easier.

Our first picture

Take 2! The quality's not that great, but hey, it's free!

After you snap the picture you just enter your e-mail and it gets sent to you!

Lotte World...look familiar?

Some days teaching in Korea goes a little like this...

Today I was reviewing how to give advice and suggestions with my first grade girls.  I gave them different scenarios and they had to practice giving advice for each situation.  One of the situations I gave them was "My boyfriend doesn't love me anymore."  The overwhelming solution I got from my students?

"You must get plastic surgery!"

Just imagine a room full of 15 year old girls telling you that if a boy doesn't love you, you need to get plastic surgery.  Pretty much a dagger through my heart.

In a later class I gave them the problem "A boy likes me, but I don't like him."  One of the solutions was "You should tell him to get plastic surgery."  At which point I tried to explain that the problem actually the way he looked, but the way he ACTED.

And yes, I threw in a lot of relationship problems because hey, it gets their attention EVERY single time.  Seriously, if I ever need to wake up those sleeping students, all I have to do is make some sort of scenario about a boyfriend.

Anyway, I blew my students' minds the other day when I asked them some "would you rather" questions.  One of the questions was "Would you rather be rich and ugly or poor and beautiful?"  I told them if they chose rich they couldn't get plastic surgery to become beautiful.  The overwhelming choice for this question was that they would rather be poor and beautiful.

I told them that I would definitely rather be rich and ugly--they couldn't believe it.  They said it was because I was "already beautiful", at which point I told them I would much rather be ugly and rich because I could travel, see the world, and help countless people with my money. At that point they were all staring at me with looks that were partly confused and partly in agreement.  I think I caused some major cognitive dissonance.  Score!

I know I've written plenty about both the importance of appearance here, and the way in which students talk so nonchalantly about plastic surgery, but after 7 months here, it still blows me away.

My first students are smart and beautiful young women.  It really breaks my heart that they only see all of their "imperfections", which I'm sure have been pointed out to them from a young age.

When we were practicing giving advice today I gave groups slips of paper with problems written on them, then they had to give people suggestions one by one.  For one of the problems one girl was told by her group she needed plastic surgery to change her face.  I was walking by as I heard that suggestion, at which point I exclaimed "No! Your face is beautiful!"

She looked at me in disbelief and proceeded to tell me over and over how touched she was.

I hope my students improve their English while they're in my class, but I think I'll be even happier if they at least re-examine some of their beliefs about what's important in life--if they at least know that there are different perspectives out there.  I love Korea, but man, this is a tough country to grow up in.

School, St. Patrick's Day, and K-Pop Dance Class

Hello all!

I feel like it's been a while since I've written anything.  I suppose that's mostly due to the fact that school is back in session so there hasn't been all that much going on.  I have to say though, it feels quite nice to be back in the routine of classes.  All is still going well with my new students.  Even on the days I don't feel like going in to school, I'm greeted by smiles and "hellos" from some completely adorable girls that it's hard to stay in any sort of a sour mood for too long.  

This past weekend I went to Seoul with another one of my friends from Jeomchon.  She asked me last month if I wanted to go on an Adventure Korea St. Patrick's Day booze cruise with her, and since I didn't have any plans, I figured why not go and see what it was like.  

We went to Seoul on Saturday morning, then got picked up on a bus with the other cruisers and headed to the port where we got on the boat.  I pretty much knew instantly that we were in some unique company.  And by unique I mean I kind of felt like I was surrounded by frat guys.  Seriously, why would a guy ever think it's going to help him win a girl over by bragging about having not read a book in 6 years?!  The sad part is that this was the second time a guy has said something like that to me since I've been in Korea. Pick up line?  Definitely not.  I don't get it.    

Anywho, despite the frat boys, we had a good time on the cruise.  We actually made friends with a group of girls from Europe (Finland, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark), who are studying abroad in Korea.  It was really cool to hang out with them, and hopefully they will come visit us in Jeomchon one of these weekends.

Beautiful sunset while we were on the boat. 

After the cruise finished the bus dropped us off at Hongdae.  At that point the subway had closed (it closes around 11:30 on the weekend)...so we had to either find a place to stay for the night or stay up until the subway opened again.  Of course we wanted to hang out with some of the people we met on the cruise, so we ended up staying up until the subway opened again at 5:30 AM.  From there we took the 7 AM bus back to Jeomchon.  Needless to say we were asleep the moment we got on the bus. 

My sleep cycle has been messed up these past few nights (gee, I wonder why!)  Consequently, it's been a little bit of a rough start to the week.  Darn you Seoul, why can't the subway stay open later than 11:30?!

Besides that not too much has been going on here.  Last night I took my first dance class since coming to Korea.  There's a dance studio in Jeomchon, and I checked it out with one of my other friends here, who also used to dance.  Although we would both prefer ballet, the only option we had was "K-Pop".  Yes, K-Pop dance class.  It's essentially hip-hop to K-Pop music.  It was fun....although not nearly as satisfying as ballet, but I need to exercise and the gym just isn't for me.  

That's about all the news here.  The weather is really warming up--in fact, I'm currently writing this with my windows wide open.  It's been in the 60s the past few days, and although temperatures will drop a bit back to the 50s over the next few days, next week it's showing it in the 60s all week.  I can't complain, especially since I know all of my friends and family back home are still enduring bitter cold weather.  

That's all for now... XO