Some Things You Can't Find In Korea
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Kindergarteners
Visited the kindergarten class today. The kids followed an obstacle course, crawling under the surface of the "water," jumping on lilypad-esque cutouts covered with trash, from which they had to rescue the "fish" and "turtles," then place them in the debris free pond. Adorable.
I love this little girl laughing and getting so caught up in her excitement, she forgets which way she's supposed to go.
I love this little girl laughing and getting so caught up in her excitement, she forgets which way she's supposed to go.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
At last....
I was allowed, for the first time, to teach a group of students in a way that appealed to me, and, so I hoped, to my students. In my usual manner, I must have spent hours crafting a lesson on animals, complete with a slideshow of pictures of animals, improv, songs, a song from Simon & Garfunkel which I played earlier for Kyoung to test her understanding of the lyrics...and then, when I actually left the room with the group of ten volunteers, I did no more than stop by the libaray for a couple of children's books which I read to them, amid much enthusiasm, particularly of my animal noises and special effect sounds. Yes, they were too noisy, but I explained to them afterwards that this new style of teaching would be a collaboration, as much them as me, and that if this were to succeed, I needed their cooperation. I think it sank in that if they were loud, disruptive, inattentive, it would be back to the book, and the threat of this was sufficient to scare them into good behavior. The entertainment provided by my reading aloud to them rather took care of that on its own, but a little warning proved useful; at any rate, they looked nearly panicked at the thought of this treat being taken from them having recieved a taste of it.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Dreams
Weird dreams involving my brothers, amateur productions of Cirque Du Soleil, old college friends, the cast of Flight of the Conchords, and absolutely no kittens, despite that being prominent on my mind when I fell asleep.
Hmmmmmmm...........
Hmmmmmmm...........
A final note for today...perhaps
Oh, I forgot to mention! I spent last night in a "jijimbang," or overnight spa. Will describe that in detail at a later date. On my way home from the spa today, I ran into the girl I've been teaching, and her sister, and a friend, coming back from their art class. She was so excited to see me! She showed me her art when I asked to see it and told me how it was "her dream to be a designer." She mentioned she had an art showing in October and I asked her to be sure to invite me. I'm sure she will, she always follows through when she says she'll do something.
Some random information
Contents of my fridge:
Two kiwis, grapes mostly gone bad, homeade Korean kimchee, anchovies, leftovers from her school lunch, Korean orange juice that needs to be thrown out, half a carton of eggs, assorted juice boxes including one Chilean Grape juice, a large bottle of soy sauce, one bottle Pocari Sweat, condiments from Domino's Pizza, a packet of pickles, one bottle of water, two lemons still in their packaging, a half a jar of strawberry jam, and a half a jar of reduced lemon honey tea.
Two kiwis, grapes mostly gone bad, homeade Korean kimchee, anchovies, leftovers from her school lunch, Korean orange juice that needs to be thrown out, half a carton of eggs, assorted juice boxes including one Chilean Grape juice, a large bottle of soy sauce, one bottle Pocari Sweat, condiments from Domino's Pizza, a packet of pickles, one bottle of water, two lemons still in their packaging, a half a jar of strawberry jam, and a half a jar of reduced lemon honey tea.
Some Company
As lonely as the apartment gets, I thought a cat would be perfect to make things a bit more "homey." Not a kitten, don't have the time to properly attend to a kitten, but a cat. I went to look at one today, Lucy, at my friend's apartment. She's a tortoiseshell, typical of Korean strays, not particularly beautiful, but cute, bobbed tail, yellow eyes. She's not as beautiful as cats we had in the past, certainly nowhere close to my cat Cookie, but more fun, I think. I would love a cat in my home.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tonight
In class today, we covered giving directions, i.e. "Go straight three blocks, and turn right at the bank." I switched it up sometimes, describing a set of directions, and asking the students where I would be if I had followed them. The students seemed to enjoy that. But one little girl nearly burst into tears when I called on her. So I thought I'd try to take her aside and give her special help. A slight fear that being singled out for attention would only increase her embarrassment held me back, but I took a chance and motioned for her to take my hand and follow me out of the classroom. It paid off. She and I walked around the hallways and practiced "go straight," "turn left," and "turn right," using exaggerated hand/arm signals. By the end, I could gesture and she would tell me the correct directional phrase. She was smiling at the end of class. And I had fun.
During lunch, I had arranged for the sixth grader to come to my class. I was eating lunch, but we still talked and I explained to her the significance of the dove, talked about hummingbirds, and she told me her favorite comic books characters (Spiderman).
Tonight, Eric texted me about dinner. I had already eaten, but asked if he wanted to walk with me in the park, bring along his dogs, chat. I met up with him at the bus stop and had a nice stroll through the Children's Park. All in all a good night.
During lunch, I had arranged for the sixth grader to come to my class. I was eating lunch, but we still talked and I explained to her the significance of the dove, talked about hummingbirds, and she told me her favorite comic books characters (Spiderman).
Tonight, Eric texted me about dinner. I had already eaten, but asked if he wanted to walk with me in the park, bring along his dogs, chat. I met up with him at the bus stop and had a nice stroll through the Children's Park. All in all a good night.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Two Months In
Two months, two friends, a social network, the ability to pay bills, and a promising student who thinks the world of me
Life could be worse, no?
Life could be worse, no?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fun Public Humiliation, Etc.
God, people are fun. Just...fun. The Socrates discussion went well; we split into two groups to make it easier. My prominent worries appear to be in everyone's head, at any rate my questions always resonate with the group and make it to the top three topics. Mine actually made it through today, "What does it mean to be an adult?" I'd like to pursue this further, "In regards to children (and those with the mental capacity of children), how much responsbility should be attributed to the child and how much to their environment?" But that will come later.
Adulthood, as it turns out (predictably so), adulthood means different things to different people. One woman, a professed anarchist, believed that an "adult" had a house, family, children, all the typical things of "settling down." Another brought up the distinction between the "private adult" and the "public adult." One might be constrained in one's public life, i.e. women being contained to the household, but still feel an "adult" in private, capable of raising a family, etc, no longer feeling like a "child." A main point of adulthood seemed to be a matter of taking responsiblity, rather than passing it on to a "parental" figure. A woman from England spoke of how 16 year old girls back home would talk about having a kid so that they could get a Council house, etc because if they HAD a child, the government would basically support them. The question, then, became, if you are always taken care of like that, institutionalized, can you ever really be an adult? And so forth.
Afterwards, naturally, we regressed to high school, and ate a lot of ice cream and played Monopoly and Jenga (and held our breaths in anticpation at every block successfully removed). THis group of high schoolers sitting next to us would "punish" the loser by making him or her perform some ridiculous stunt, such as hugging a stranger or asking someone to hit them on the head with a squeaky (I LOVE the word "squeaky") mallet.
At some point, a few of our group had to sing and dance to a Korean pop song in front of a bunch of more sedate tables while wearing wigs. We cracked up, but were generally ignored by the normal chess playing citizens.
When I got back to the apartment, I was still full from the Korean lunch (clear broth with wheat, not RICE!, noodles, kim chee, dumplings), so I ate a bit of glass noodles and beef and chatted with a friend, who as it turned out the next day, was slightly inebriated, but hardly to the point of excess. Slept well, in anticipation of a full week....
Adulthood, as it turns out (predictably so), adulthood means different things to different people. One woman, a professed anarchist, believed that an "adult" had a house, family, children, all the typical things of "settling down." Another brought up the distinction between the "private adult" and the "public adult." One might be constrained in one's public life, i.e. women being contained to the household, but still feel an "adult" in private, capable of raising a family, etc, no longer feeling like a "child." A main point of adulthood seemed to be a matter of taking responsiblity, rather than passing it on to a "parental" figure. A woman from England spoke of how 16 year old girls back home would talk about having a kid so that they could get a Council house, etc because if they HAD a child, the government would basically support them. The question, then, became, if you are always taken care of like that, institutionalized, can you ever really be an adult? And so forth.
Afterwards, naturally, we regressed to high school, and ate a lot of ice cream and played Monopoly and Jenga (and held our breaths in anticpation at every block successfully removed). THis group of high schoolers sitting next to us would "punish" the loser by making him or her perform some ridiculous stunt, such as hugging a stranger or asking someone to hit them on the head with a squeaky (I LOVE the word "squeaky") mallet.
At some point, a few of our group had to sing and dance to a Korean pop song in front of a bunch of more sedate tables while wearing wigs. We cracked up, but were generally ignored by the normal chess playing citizens.
When I got back to the apartment, I was still full from the Korean lunch (clear broth with wheat, not RICE!, noodles, kim chee, dumplings), so I ate a bit of glass noodles and beef and chatted with a friend, who as it turned out the next day, was slightly inebriated, but hardly to the point of excess. Slept well, in anticipation of a full week....
Saturday, May 16, 2009
An Evening in the Rain
Yesterday, I invited Amy, a girl I met through the Socrates Cafe, to come over to my apartment for tea and cookies. She and I had gone together to a dance class in Seomyeon earlier that week, Tuesday night, and had a blast. Choreography to popular songs. Great workout. We played a game of pool after the hour's exertion, which I managed to win properly (not by default because someone sank the 8-ball).
I forgot how much I missed girl talk. She and I sat in the kitchen, listening to the rain, discussing anything from globalization to fortune telling. I turned on the Entertainment channel and she read my palms, told me they showed that I had no strong roots to a particular home, oh, I forget most of it now...but I did tell her I would read her cards.
Hers, like my most recent, was full of trouble, but with the promise of hope. Unlike mine, however, hers stemmed from problems with her mother, whereas mine had more to do with worries of finding romance. Her mother showed up in the cards, as the Queen of Swords. Fragile balances, a tentative belief in control, without true security. She was surprised, like most people I've encountered, at how accurate and personal the reading was to her current situation.
Today, I met Eric for lunch. We got on the subject of art and movies. My knowledge of movies is inferior, or at least more specific, than his, but I did manage to incorporate some theater history, of which he was unaware. He'd never heard of Beckett, for example. I thought Endgame was fairly famous, the one with the irritable parents, Nell and Nagg, who live in trashcans filled with sawdust and occassionally pop out with some grievance, inspired Oscar the Grouch, a rather unpleasant character who lives in a trash can and only comes out to complain.
Anyway, he went off to watch Star Trek, which I expect a review of from him, and I came back to read Love in the Time of Cholera.
I forgot how much I missed girl talk. She and I sat in the kitchen, listening to the rain, discussing anything from globalization to fortune telling. I turned on the Entertainment channel and she read my palms, told me they showed that I had no strong roots to a particular home, oh, I forget most of it now...but I did tell her I would read her cards.
Hers, like my most recent, was full of trouble, but with the promise of hope. Unlike mine, however, hers stemmed from problems with her mother, whereas mine had more to do with worries of finding romance. Her mother showed up in the cards, as the Queen of Swords. Fragile balances, a tentative belief in control, without true security. She was surprised, like most people I've encountered, at how accurate and personal the reading was to her current situation.
Today, I met Eric for lunch. We got on the subject of art and movies. My knowledge of movies is inferior, or at least more specific, than his, but I did manage to incorporate some theater history, of which he was unaware. He'd never heard of Beckett, for example. I thought Endgame was fairly famous, the one with the irritable parents, Nell and Nagg, who live in trashcans filled with sawdust and occassionally pop out with some grievance, inspired Oscar the Grouch, a rather unpleasant character who lives in a trash can and only comes out to complain.
Anyway, he went off to watch Star Trek, which I expect a review of from him, and I came back to read Love in the Time of Cholera.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
What Makes the Job Worth Doing
There are few things right now that make the job worth it. This girl in my sixth grade class does :) Today she got really excited, told me, "I practiced!" and showed me literally pages of her signature. I told her she could have a writing sticker (the kids LOVE stickers). We talked about the Peanuts comic on her pencil case. She knew Snoopy's name, but not the name of the comic, or Charlie Brown, or Woodstock (to be honest, the name of Snoopy's best friend eluded me till I flipped the pencil case over). I explained the meaning of the comic to her, and filled in the missing information of the other characters. She made a point of coming to me to get the sticker after class, almost a gentle chastisement for forgetting. She is absolutely adorable.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Why I Teach
I just wanted to share this...
There's this little girl in my sixth grade class who's simply adorable and very attentive in class. Last class, she finished up her writing early, so I went over and taught her how to sign her name. Today, after class, I caught her before she left and asked her if she remembered how to write her signature. She misunderstood, showed me the copies of her signature from the day before, I covered the previous writing and asked her to write it again, and she did, without hesitating. This coming from an age group that doesn't even know what "cursive" means and, if I asked the same question, would probably respond with a blank stare.
I would love to spend extra time with her, but don't know how. It's not only her, there are a few others that I know could benefit from some one-on-one interaction, or even small group lessons. The ones that would quickly pick up some simple songs or improv games. That's the fun part of the job :)
There's this little girl in my sixth grade class who's simply adorable and very attentive in class. Last class, she finished up her writing early, so I went over and taught her how to sign her name. Today, after class, I caught her before she left and asked her if she remembered how to write her signature. She misunderstood, showed me the copies of her signature from the day before, I covered the previous writing and asked her to write it again, and she did, without hesitating. This coming from an age group that doesn't even know what "cursive" means and, if I asked the same question, would probably respond with a blank stare.
I would love to spend extra time with her, but don't know how. It's not only her, there are a few others that I know could benefit from some one-on-one interaction, or even small group lessons. The ones that would quickly pick up some simple songs or improv games. That's the fun part of the job :)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
A day on the beach
I gave up trying to coordinate going out with friends yesterday, and after wandering around on the beach for a few minutes and getting some food, it occurred to me I had yet to try the spas here. Took a short taxi ride, only a couple of dollars. The spa was lovely...cold water pool to the far right, several tubs of hot water in ascending degrees of temperature (the hottest being around 43 degrees C), two sauna rooms, and an open air pool with a balcony overlooking the ocean (the whole spa looked out onto the ocean). I got a facial, scrub, and massage as well (the most pricey part of the evening, but worth it). And it would have cost me much more back home. I left around dusk, and walked down a pretty little path to the beach, passing the Salsa club I'd gone to the night before with a couple of friends. Supposedly they have free salsa lessons, but only for another week or so, and it's out of my way, which is disappointing.
I thought I'd play some pool before I went home, so I stopped at a nice, relaxed bar where they played mostly rock music. A Korean girl came up to me and asked if I minded if she and her friends joined in on a game. Before we left, we made plans to meet up again this weekend. Despite living in Korea, I still don't know many Koreans, outside of my school, it's so easy to just spend time with other foreigners.
I thought I'd play some pool before I went home, so I stopped at a nice, relaxed bar where they played mostly rock music. A Korean girl came up to me and asked if I minded if she and her friends joined in on a game. Before we left, we made plans to meet up again this weekend. Despite living in Korea, I still don't know many Koreans, outside of my school, it's so easy to just spend time with other foreigners.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)