Days 82-85

Friday, I had to go to Cheonan for a TaLK training session. It was really boring and stupid, but I got to see a lot of my friends, so that was good.

Afterwards, I came home for a conversation group. We had Vietnamese food. It was good.


Saturday, I hiked to one of the peaks in the Gyeryongsan ridge. Jina, Miok, Daniel, and I all went. I had a lot of fun. It was so beautiful when we got to the top! It took us 7 hrs to get to the top and back down. Jina was pretty worn out. The rest of us were just crazy. I think we were all a little dehydrated, so our legs were shaking and we kept saying the silliest stuff and laughing non-stop. Daniel said he wanted to suck the sap out of a maple tree (talking about syrup), so Miok called him a tree vampire. It stuck. Daniel is now the tree vampire. Jina got the nick-name "One-woman gang". I am "Crazy hiker girl" and Miok is just "crazy girl!"

On Sunday, Jina, Eunmi, and I went to Everland, an amusement park. My legs were really sore from the day before, but I still had a lot of fun. I got to ride on the steepest rollercoaster in the world, at a 77degree angle desent.
I also got extra candy because I'm a foreigner! We went on a stamp scavenger hunt (sort of), and when we turned our sheets in, Jina and Eunmi only got one piece of each item. I, however, got three bars of chocolate, three sticker sheets, and a handful of hard candies.
I also bought a really cute witch hat hair clip. I must say though, it looks much cuter on Rose.

Monday, I didn't do much. School was good. Bingo, describing jobs, and writing stories about Halloween characters. I also tried teaching one of my 4th graders how to knit, because she bought some yarn and needles at a shop so she could learn to make a scarf. It was kind of cute. She really didn't get it.

Today, we did Halloween stuff at school! For the younger kids, we made animal masks, since they were learning about animals. For the two older classes, I had them try and find 15 ghosts I cut out and hid around the classroom. I think the kids enjoyed that. They also got candy.
Daniel wasn't teaching today because his school is closed for cleaning because of Swine Flu (My school will be closed until Sunday for cleaning), so he came to school with me today to see stuff. After school, we went for dinner and then shopping. Dinner was alright. Not the best, but okay.

I really like the other side of the river. They have a lot more shops and the shops have better stuff. I bought three pairs of socks, and a headband. I bought socks with JunPyo, from "Boys over Flowers", and socks with Kang Ho Dong and MC Mong from "1 night, 2 days".
Daniel bought a cell phone charm and lots of groceries! We went to a grocery store and he couldn't seem to stop buying things! Then when he was checking out, he said "When did I put at in there? I don't remember buying cheese." He's a total shopaholic when it comes to groceries.
We walked back from the grocery store because it was close and Daniel didn't want to pay for the bus ride back. It was a little cold, but nice. I enjoyed seeing more of the city and learning my way around.

When I got home, Jina had another gift for me. A cute turtleneck that I was wanting! It has cute puffy sleeves, but I don't have anything that will show them off. I guess that means I just have to go shopping again! ^^

Day 81

My kids are so cute!
Agnes and Rosemary saw the book we were going to be reading at the beginning of class and started doing exactly what I was planning on doing. It was so cute that I had to record it. (I was planning on posting it, but blogger is still having issues with uploading things)

I also had to teach by myself today because Chaewan was sick. I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it really wasn't all that bad. Things didn't go smoothly, but they never do on Thursdays. First/second graders were running all over the classroom. Third/fourth graders were mostly okay. We changed units to job, so there was a lot of new vocabulary. I had flash cards, and I tried to make it interesting by showing the kids the flash card and asking questions to find out what the job was. The kids liked it when I remembered what the jobs were after we went through the cycle once "Is it a doctor?" "Yeah" "Police officer?" "Yeah!" "Nurse?" "YEAH!" "Pilot?" "YEAH!!!" etc. I was having so much fun, class ran over by five minutes. Fifth/sixth graders, we just had a video day because they were way too wound up and I was way too worn out. The problem with that was that the videos they watched were all in Korean, because naver loads a lot faster than youtube, and the only words I could understand were the cuss words.

We also had workers coming in and out of the classroom all day because my classroom has access to the roof. I had to stop a few 1st/2nd graders from going out there. I also gave 10,000won to one of my 2nd graders because she lost her money and spent all of class crying about it. I don't know what the money was for, but she seemed really upset by it, and it was only $10. Quite a bit for a 2nd grader to need, but maybe it was for books or something.

Days 76-77

Okay, I'll post a real blog update today!

Yesterday, I didn't do anything. I stayed up until 4am, slept in until after noon, made breakfast for myself, watched Love Actually and just kind of vegged out. It was a good, relaxing day.

Today, I had to wake up earlier than normal in order to get on a bus heading to Cheonan at 10am, because Jina and I were going to the global festival in Incheon. I arrived in Cheonan at 10:50, and the bus for Incheon left at 11, so Jina arrived and we ran to catch the bus. Literally. It was pulling out of the loading dock when we arrived. We made it, however, and had a rather uneventful hour long ride.
It seemed like everyone was going to the global festival. The subway was really crowded and when we got to the stop for the global festival, EVERYONE got off the subway.

We arrived and the first thing we did was go see Borami. I hadn't seen her in so long that I sort of forgot what she looked like! When I first saw her, I was kind of hesitant and held back, trying to figure out if it was her or not. Jina made funny of me for it. I felt really bad.

After talking with Borami for a bit (she was working so I couldn't take too much of her time), she gave me five (5!) free pens, and then Jina and I headed off to see other things.


There wasn't a ton of exciting stuff to see, and the lines were really long everwhere, but the weather was nice and I enjoyed myself.

My favorite part about the whole day was the lego stuff. There were a ton of amazing lego scultures everywhere! I don't have many pictures, but I have a ton of pictures of lego things to share!

Cool Lego man! I love him!

Amazing palace-like building

Storm-trooper or something similar. It was really hard to get a picture with him, because there were all these people who kept standing in the way. They kind of glared at me at one point. -_-

Big display! It was supposed to represent the changes Incheon has made to become a global city.

Days 62-75 (Picture Post)

I got in trouble for not posting a blog update. Eep!
I've been meaning to post, but when I want to, I don't have the time, and when I do have the time, I don't feel like it.

Currently, I don't feel like it. So I'll just post some pictures of my life here in Korea.
(Click pictures to make it bigger)

Two second graders, Agnus and Jessie, playing around before class. The candy Jessy is eating whistles when you blow through it.

Wednesday night conversation group. The four 'princesses', Hyeonju, Can't remember!, myself, and SungEun. Our 'servant', MinKyu, is taking the picture.

My 5th/6th grade class on a Thursday afternoon, eating slushies that my co-teacher bough before class started. That was a bad day.

Very pretty view of the country.

Bell house or something like it by a temple.

Underwater tomb of King Munmu. He wanted to become a water dragon after he died so that he could protect Korea from Japanese invaders.

Astronomical observatory in southern Korea.

Gongju had a big festival to celebrate the chestnut harvest. They had a very large light up display on the river.

Also at the festival. the bridge was very lit up with lamps shaped like the ancient Baekje diadems.

Heidi walking among our 1st/2nd grade class on Monday, looking at what they were drawing.

5th/6th grade class on Monday, playing a game. I say a sentence, each team has to write the sentence, with each member writing only one word and then passing the marker to the next person.

One of my 4th graders, Kevin. He likes to stay after his class and draw on the white board. It says "Kayla :heart: Max". My name, however, is spelled wrong. Kind of cute though.

Friday afternoon conversation group (Jess, Nancy, Angela). We went to a coffee shop and were a little buzzed from that. The following pictures were to relieve stress from midterms (which I didn't have to take!)
This picture makes me laugh. They were both laying down, so I thought it was cute. But right as I took the picture, Nancy looked up. She looks as if she's trying to steal something from Angela.

Days 53-61

I think I must have settled into a routine here in Korea. How else could time be flying by so quickly? They say time flies when you're having fun, but honestly, I feel more busy than anything else. This weekend is 추석 (Chuseok), Korea's Thanksgiving Day. Everyone is visiting family, and I finally have some time to breath. But this weekend, I'm still busy. The International Affairs Office of KNU had a lunch and dinner today for international students that I felt obligated to attend as the first American student. Especially when I was on my way to the dinner location, and I recieved a call from Mr. Kim with a minute left asking me where I was.
Both meals were rather awkward for me, as I don't know Korean, and I only knew a few people there. The guys from Central America were there, but we haven't really talked since that dinner at the end of the first week of classes. Two girls from one of my conversation groups (Jess and Angela) were at lunch so I sat with them. I was also forced to sit with two guys I didn't know. Mrs. Kong said they spoke good English so she told them to sit by me and talk with me. It was weird. I was really tired (stayed up until 3am) and I didn't know them so I didn't want to talk with them. I was also feeling a little homesick, so I wasn't in the best of moods.
For dinner, Jess stayed in the dorms because "she's lazy" (Angela's words, not mine). I spent most of my time there with Angela and her friend from China who doesn't speak any English. Her friend was sweet. I could see us being friends, even though we don't have any language in common (she knows Chinese, Korean, and Japanese).

Well, that's what I did today. What else have I done recently?

Monday night, I met with two girls in one of my conversation groups for a walk by the river. They had never actually been down to the river, so I was happy to show them my favorite place in all of Gongju. They couldn't seem to understand why I enjoy the fishermen so much. I'm not really all that sure why I like them so much either, but I tried explaining it. I mentioned how it made me feel like I was a little closer to home, because fishing is the same back home. People just sitting on a quiet river, watching nature, not saying anything. It's very peaceful for me. After going to the river, we went to a coffee shop and had waffles. They were good but made me crave pancakes.

I went to a stationary shop on Wed. afternoon and bought some postcards and stationary (go figure, that's what I would buy at a stationary shop), as well as a cutting mat and some construction paper for my class on Thursday. My Wed. night conversation group was good. We went out for samgyupsal and then coffee. We joked around and had a good time as usual.

Thursday, I had my kids make sticker books so I can do a rewards system. Surprisingly enough, my 1st/2nd graders disliked the activity the most, and my 5th/6th graders liked it the most. Part of that might have been that I got better at explaining how to make the books, and we watched Kpop music videos in 5th/6th grade (also in 3rd/4th grade, but they seemed uninterested).
When I got back from teaching, Jina and I tried making pancakes for the first time. It was quite....interesting. We didn't have a spatula so we had to use a mix of using a ladle and throwing the pancake in the airto turn them. They weren't the best pancakes ever (tasted fine but looked funny). I got better with each one. Next time, I'll be even better! We then went to the movies to see Fame. About a minute into the movie, I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen in the movie. It was just like every other movie about a performing arts school when they try and focus on more than two or three people.
After the movie, Jina left for home, and I went to exercise with Nari. She wanted to play badmiton, but I'm terrible at it. After a while, she (mercifully!) said we could quit. We then walked the track for a bit, until my legs started hurting. I feigned being sleepy, and we went our separate ways.