Start of Week 2

Hello everyone!!

I hope you guys slept well (or had a great day, or whatever appropriate thing to say here). I didn't sleep so great. I just couldn't shut my brain off. I was basically half asleep until about 4:00ish (that's the last time I looked at my watch anyway). Then I took a sudafed to help me sleep - awful, huh? But when I woke up at 8:00, I was glad I got at least a little sleep. I was thinking about what's going on with my friends, how stressful my week could be at school, and what I will do when this adventure is over. I know a little early to think about the end, but whenever I think about being here for the full year, I start to really panic. I think about what could happen over this next year (I think about missing the good things and bad things) and think I can't throw away a full year. So I've broken it down into 3 month increments. So at this point I'm considering the end around April-ish. Then I will reevaluate and see where I stand. Anyway, my brain just would not shut up.

Despite being pretty tired, the morning classes went pretty well. One kid (probably a 4th grader), Potter, couldn't be quiet in the first class and the punishment was a few minutes outside with his hands up and then he was allowed to come back in and stand in the corner with his hands up - I didn't want him to miss the lesson. He's a handful... just can't stop talking!
In my second class this morning, I had made up a board game and while it wasn't genious or anything the class (teenagers) seemed thrilled. One boy, Sean, was like "You are the best beautiful teacher." I think he was laying it on a little thick, but it was still nice - that was the worst class to teach last Monday and Tuesday and now I actually don't completely dread those 50 minutes...

Lunch was pork and rice... meat!!!

This afternoon I put an entire class in 'hands up' mode for the last ten minutes. They were openly talking and mocking and ignoring me. Feels strange to be a disciplinarian. I'm a hard-ass.

Well another long day with very little sleep (this is shockingly like last Monday), so I think I'll head off to bed.

Love you all.

Ubiquitous Dream

So today was pretty exciting. This is going to be a long post, so grab some coffee, a blankey and read on...

Woke up and went to EMart which is a slightly higher class Home Plus (a Target to your Wal-Mart if you will.) We were hoping for some breakfast samples, but we pretty much struck out there. Home Plus remains number one in my heart as far as free food is concerned.

Then we headed to Seoul. The subway was an experience and took forever! We were about an hour and a half from our final destination, Gyeongbukgong Palace. On the way there, we saw the great sign, Ubiquitous Dream. I love that! It was gorgeous. It was freezing. I took tons of pictures and will have a link up to them at the bottom of this post. It was so so weird to see these quintessential Asian rooftops right next to huge skyscrapers. The don't have a lot of historical buildings here b/c so many of them were demolished in this war or that occupation, and in fact this palace is in a state of restoration, so there was a lot we weren't able to go into. And the palace itself was originally 330+ buildings and it's down to about 12, surrounded by what would be green in the Spring and Summer. :) It really was pretty, and although I know it was Siam, I just kept picturing scenes from the King and I (etcetera, etcetera). It was very cool. The colors are incredibly vivid, and I don't know if any of my pictures acurately captured how bright and kinda psychadelic the designs are. I hope they do a little.

After the palace, we warmed up in the Folk Museum, which was completely free. It had all sorts of interesting things about Korean culture and history, and I'm sorry to say I've retained very little. I hope I soaked up some of it and it's here... but I won't go on and on about this. Eventually our brains felt full and we decided to do something completely different.

At Hongdaedum Stadium, there is a daily street market. It was massive and way overwhelming. We ate some dumplings, Dwight really enjoyed them.

And we walked and walked and walked. We were about to head home when we heard a ruckus. By now it was dark and freeeeeezing, but we decided to see about the hub-bub. It was a breakdancing show!! It was really exciting and I uploaded a video to youtube (see below, fools). The video isn't great, but still... Here, I saw some of the greatest things (Like a T-shirt that said Together is a Happy) and one of the worst things (a homeless person with no legs, begging). The homeless population of Seoul is heartbreaking. Homelessness anywhere isn't pleasant, but it is so cold here and it feels like our homeless have opportunities for help, and here you wonder if they have that. It was very sad and awful.

After the show we decided to head home. It was cold and we were exhausted.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=qtllvws.4y9k4qtw&Uy=83tljr&Ux=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI9C88OfGj4

You lucky lucky people!

2 posts in one day... how blessed are you? granted that first one really sucked but what can I do?

So last night: After a very long day a work (I got off at 10:00pm) we decided to go out and celebrate the divorce and watch Cassie experience Soju. And I did. We went to 2 bars. The first one was Jjokki Jjokki (www.jjokki.com - it's the year of the gold pig) and the second was 1 Bar (ironic). I'm pretty sure we left the first bar because we were too loud. Luckily 1 Bar doesn't have any soju, so I just drank beer there. Soju tastes slightly like Vodka, but much less strong. I was chasing the shots with a Sprite like soda and that worked just fine - didn't need anything else. I remember laughing a lot and hugging a lot. One thing is for sure, it's a happy-drunk drink. I did get home just fine and fell right asleep, but did turn on the computer, intending to send drunk emails. Didn't manage to do that which is probably for the best (some silly things would've been sent for sure, but since I'm expecting a divorce check, something probably would've been sent about that too). Woke up this morning and had definitely come down. It is not a happy hangover drink. We went to Home Plus this afternoon for the samples and some food stuffs and now am feeling much better. I think showering and walking around are the 2nd best hangover helpers. Coke is obviously the best, but I haven't had any since I left Atlanta because they are fairly expensive and I don't want to get into that habit. Speaking of money, I didn't pay for anything last night which was good, but I'm pretty sure that's a one time deal. :) Divorce has definite benefits!
This morning, I found some porn/advertisements that I had picked up on the way home last night and modestly posed Dwight with them and took a photo, but my memory card reader for my camera broke :( They are pretty cheap and I'm going to try to find a new one tomorrow at Seoul or maybe I'll go back to Home Plus... it's almost dinner time. I am so tacky. Dwight will be going to Seoul with us tomorrow and there should be plenty of pictures to post, so I'll definitely want a new one sooner rather than later.
So Heidi had to work this morning and I was sleeping off that hangover so we decided to go to Seoul tomorrow for some sight-seeing. We were going to go to some palaces, but they are apparently open-air and it's really cold here, so we will probably save that for Spring.
Love you all!
No more posts until tomorrow you addicts!

Soju

Soju is a dangerous alcoholic beverage. It's a drink you shoot - and is clear, but tastes much better than Vodka. So I drank some to celebrate the divorce and the end of week 1. I remember 2 english teachers from Canada walked me home, but I don't remember falling asleep in my clothes. I have certainly earned this headache. More later.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn - I love you and you are constantly in my thoughts.

Thursday (I've got nothing clever to say here)

Hi ho Intenet neighbors!

Well another day has passed and I am slowly running out of thrilling things to tell you. :)

Things I have learned today:

1. upulnee means basket
2. Korea is every night littered with advertisements resembling pornography (or what I would guess porn looks like - I don't know first hand!!!). I don't know what the advertisments are for, but I'm guessing it's not milk and eggs on sale at Home Plus. There are some many advertisments on the ground on the way to work in the 'bar section', that I can play a little game wondering if I can walk that section without stepping on a naked lady.
3. That I shouldn't listen to Johnny Cash when I am alone in the apartment... want to feel lonely, that's a good way to get there fast.

I have to be sure to take my multivitamin and Airborne these days, we have one sick teacher and a couple of sick kids around. I don't want to get sick right away, I don't know that I could handle it!

Seriously... really boring.

Oh wait! For lunch today I had rice, fried seaweed and egg drop soup.

Til tomorrow... hopefully I will have something to write about!

I'm a teacher star!

SO we teach in block days, so today's schedule was the same as Monday's, only so much better! The morning class of 18-year olds actually spoke! It was jlike some sort of freaking miracle. I walked in and they said "Teacher, game." I was like "Whatever game you want!" So we played Jenga for 50 minutes. I don't know how much they learned and retained (Lesson: borrow/lend. They had to use those words in a sentence before they could pull a block.) But I will take what I can get from them.

I was not accosted by the police, I was not told F*** you by any kids of any age and my divorce is final. All in all a pretty good day :) I was very tired at the end of the day, because I did work from 9:30 to 9:45, but I got a good night's sleep last night and am feeling alright now.

So I've had some questions about the mechanics of my actual teaching. Here's what I know: I'm not a great teacher. I'm probably not even a good teacher. But in the words of one of the other foreign teachers, I don't think I'm hurting their language skills. :) I generally will read from the lesson and then try to get them to repeat and write down any words they struggle over. Then after we have gone through the lesson once, I will try to explain the struggle words to them through charades or pictures or examples. A lot of them have cell phones and will look the words up and the cell will translate the word to them. This is interesting to me and I let them do it, as long as they are getting the english and the lesson, I figure it's alright. Then I try to have some sort of game devised to get them to learn the lesson, using involving spelling or finding the right definition or using it in a sentence? And they love to run, so if the game can involve running and the lesson, score! So those are my skills. Skip years of education and instead follow these quick easy steps to teacher stardom...