Halloween festivities

Korea doesn't really celebrate Halloween, but our school celebrated and had festivities the whole week.  Each day was something different, like PJ day, backwards day, crazy hair day, sports day, and then all the kids dressed up for Halloween on the Friday before Halloween.  

Yule on crazy hair day.  Awesome.

Anthony on crazy hair day with his little red hair clip that kept falling out.  He would get really upset every time it fell out and hand it to me saying, "Rachel teacher help-a me" with his sad eyes.  This picture was taken right after he cried because someone took his block.  

 

Winston on crazy hair day

This is our class pumpkin, So-So pumpkin.  The kids had fun cleaning out the pumpkin guts.  When I was starting to carve the pumpkin, I asked the kids what kind of face I should make.  Winston and Yule yelled out, 'so-so face!'  It is their favorite expression so far and they crack up every time they say it.  I think it's really funny, so I went along with it and made a so-so face.

The kids made witch hats for science that week.  I don't know what taping streamers onto hats has to do with science, but they had fun.

Amy in her lion costume.  She won the costume contest, not surprisingly.  She came into the classroom going, "rawr, rawr."  So cute!

My class on Halloween minus Sohee

Serry with her fancy umbrella

A power ranger, a fireman, and a transformer

The kids had fun trick-or-treating around the school and going in the playgym haunted house.  It's too bad they can't go trick-or-treating for real!  The Halloween parties outside of work were going on at the western bars, and some Koreans came dressed up as well.  The Korean women wore super short skirts of course, no different from what they normally wear.  

An update on Sohee:  This week her mom asked her if she would rather go to a regular Korean kindergarten, and she said no.  So her mom told her she had to stop hanging out in the hallway if she wanted to stay at LCI.  On Thursday I got the go-ahead to force her to stay in class, so I stood in front of the door for the first half an hour of class with Sohee screaming, crying and trying to get out.  After that she calmed down and stayed in class the whole day!!  I feel like we have made a breakthrough.  I met with her mom on Friday and she pretty much said that Sohee loves me so much, she just doesn't know how to show it and that Sohee has no idea why she hasn't been in class for the last two months.  I guess she asked her parents where I was from, and then said that Rachel teacher must miss her mommy and daddy a lot, just like she misses her parents during the day.  That's kind of cute:)  

Visiting Daejeon

The weekend before Halloween I went down to visit Sam and Tyler in Daejeon, all by myself!  I was really scared to ride the train alone, because I don't have the best history with getting on the correct train, but I made it and it was actually really simple!  I took the fast train there on Friday night after work, and the T.V. on the train said it was going 298 km/hour, which is pretty fast(about 185 miles/hour).  That night we just chilled out in Sam's amazing two-bedroom apartment.  I don't know what I would do with all that space!  I'm used to having just enough space to fit a yoga mat on the floor, but not enough space to actually do yoga.  Her school is treating her right!  The next day we went to Expo park, which was a bunch of futuristic buildings from some science fair back in 1993.

Expo park

A jumping picture with cucumbers growing overhead

A futuristic playground, surrounded by water.  And yes we played on it:)

Later we rode a ferris wheel in a little amusement park next to Expo park and got to see a nice view of Daejeon at night.  Then we went to this natural hot spring foot bath.  It was just randomly outside in the middle of the city, and very crowded with locals.  The locals made sure we knew to wash our feet before stepping into the hot water.  And when I say hot water, I mean burning hot water!  I had to keep taking my legs out of the water because I couldn't handle it, and the Koreans were just sitting there like it was no big deal.  It was a little chilly out too, so the rest of me was kind of cold and my feet were on fire.  But, afterwards my feet felt great when I put my shoes back on.  

We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was about what you would expect for a Mexican restaurant in Korea.  About halfway through our meal, a Korean rock band came in and started playing.  We went from some nice quiet Mexican music playing in the background to blaring electric guitars, so loud we couldn't hear each other.  Not really the venue for that kind of music, if you ask me, but it was amusing anyways. 

Korean rock band at The Cantina

We went walking around the downtown area after that.  It reminded me a lot of Hongdae, kind of like a smaller version of it.  We saw a woman handing something out, and since I love and am addicted to free handouts, I went up and asked for one.  Turns out they were lighters she was handing out, and she said something in Korean to me as she handed a couple lighters out to Koreans but not to me.  I assumed she said not for foreigners or something like that, so I was sad and walked away to catch up with Sam and Tyler.  Soon after I felt a tap on my shoulder from the woman and she gave both me and Tyler a lighter, saying the same thing she said before.  Thanks to Tyler, I know she was saying 'only for men,' as in the lighters were only for men.  I must have looked so sad not to get a lighter that she chased after me to give me one.  

Also, I would like to share a new hat we saw on the street--the sleeping bag hat!  If you look past the man trying to break all the blocks, there is a girl wearing a ridiculous looking poofy hat.  

Sleeping bag hat

Since the girl worked at that game, we passed her later that night.  I asked her (with Tyler's help) where she bought it, and she said she made it herself.  So I guess Sam and myself will not be sporting the sleeping bag hat fashion anytime soon, sadly.  

Sam and Tyler also introduced me to Pocari Sweat, which is a Japanese athletic drink kind of like gatorade, but it tastes like grapefruit.  It's pretty good, actually.  They had a block of real cheese in Sam's apartment as well (from Costco) and it was so amazing to have real cheese!  I ended up going to Costco later that week (one of my coworkers had her mom send their extra Costco card) and bought a large block of cheddar.  That block is almost gone now, since I couldn't stop eating it once I opened it.  It's funny how something so simple as cheese can be such a big deal in another country.  

I said bye to Sam and Tyler on Sunday and headed back to Seoul.  It was nice to see some familiar faces and share our different experiences.  And I traveled all by myself and didn't get lost!  :)

    

Children

I think it's about time I introduced my kindergarten class, since I have talked about some of them briefly already. I have the newest kids in the school, and I would say it's kind of an odd grouping of different personalities.  I am growing attached to them, even though some of them make me want to scream and walk out.  They all love me for some reason even though I feel like I am just yelling the whole day.  Sohee supposedly likes me a lot too, but I have a real hard time believing that.

I'll start off with the two boys who speak some English, Yule and Winston.

This is Yule, who lived in the US for three years.  He is picking up on things really fast and gets really excited about flashcards.  Without him and Winston, my class participation would be very low.  He is the kid who loves cleaning up just as much as playing.  He loves the expression so-so and likes to say he is so-so while laughing hysterically.  He is definitely one of my favorites.

Here's Winston, who lived in California for a year and went to Kindercare there.  His family went on trips around the US and saw Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Tetons, and more that I have forgotten.  It's neat to share something like that with the parents because I have gotten to write about my memories in Glacier and Winston's mom has shared pictures of them on their trips.  Winston is also really smart and is picking up things very fast.  Yule and Winston are the only ones who can figure out what day of the week it is.  Winston tries his hardest to tell me things that he is excited about, and I can usually figure out what he's saying.  Today I think he was telling me that Yule was coming over to his house after school.  They are best friends now, it is so cute!

Here's Anthony, who doesn't seem too interested in learning English.  He's a funny kid with a lot of energy.  Almost every time we go in the hall he asks, "playgym?"  It kinda breaks my heart to have to tell him no most of the time.  His first week at school he just sat there breaking all the crayons, so he has definitely come a long way from that.  Now he actually tries to do his work after he sees Yule and Winston playing because they are all done.  He likes to give me big hugs and he likes to grab on to my leg every time I try to stand up in big gym (which makes it difficult for me to run around with the kids haha).  And, he is so adorably uncoordinated, always tripping over his feet:)

This is Sohee, aka 'hallway girl' by the Korean staff.  She is literally never in the room and just roams the hallway all day.  This picture shows Sohee in one of her other favorite places, the doorway.  It really stressed me out the first few weeks that she wasn't staying in class, but I was told it wasn't responsibility and not to worry about it, the Korean staff will figure it out.  Well, it's been two months now and I see Sohee on average 10 minutes a day in class.  She cries every time they try to force her into the classroom.  Her mom tells me she actually really loves me, she just doesn't know how to show it.  

Here's Eileen, the girl who hits everyone including me.  It's been two months now, and she is still hitting, screaming and running around.  Her parents don't know what to tell me because they say she doesn't hit at home.  She also doesn't seem too interested in learning English, but if I think back to the beginning she has improved so much.  Even though I yell at her all the time for hitting and I take all of her stickers away from her everyday, she still gets so excited to see me.  She has started hugging and kissing me all the time which is weird.  

Here's Amy, who is the easy favorite because she is so darn cute.  She knew some English coming in (I'm assuming from her parents) so she is doing pretty well in class.  She likes to go under the table during playtime and say, "It's housh!"  as in house:)

And here's Serry, a funny, merry little kid.  She's always singing and jumping around.  She is also very interested in learning English and tries most of the time.  She makes the best faces and makes me laugh a lot.  I hope she can pick up more English soon so I can hear what she has to say!

So there's my class as of now.  I am getting a new student tomorrow and then two more sometime this month.  I am not excited to have ten students in my already crowded little classroom.  Plus, Eileen's going to hit the new students which isn't going to be fun for anyone.  Let's hope the new students know at least a little bit of English already!

  

     

 

Catching Up

I realize I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog.  I was worried that would happen, so now I will play catch up and hopefully stay on top of things from now on.  It's kind of the same as my teaching job here, always playing catch up and never having a chance to get ahead on work.  Anyways, I'll probably make this into a couple of different posts otherwise it would be way too long.

A few weeks ago we had our first school field trip.  We were going to go to a farm and dig up sweet potatoes, but it rained the day before so that was cancelled.  We ended up going on a short hike up a mountain close to school, and the kids had a blast.  Anthony, my most uncoordinated kid, fell multiple times as to be expected.  He trips over his own feet anyways, so add in rocks and roots and it's a bad combination.

My kindergarten class minus Sohee

Sohee, otherwise known as 'hallway girl,' absolutely did not want to be in the picture.  She wouldn't stay on the bench, so our director picked her up and placed her on my lap, where she immediately began to cry and try to get away.  So we took pictures without her.  

A few weekends ago I had my second casino experience of my life.  We went to a casino in Seoul that is only for foreigners because I guess Koreans tend to have really bad gambling problems so they aren't allowed in there.  We had to show our passports and everything, because I guess I could be a Korean posing as a blonde American trying to sneak in.  When we walked in the casino it was really quiet, much more quiet than Black Bear in MN.  After losing 3,000 won right away at the slots, I decided that gambling is stupid and I didn't want to lose any more money.  My coworkers played roulette for a long time, and some of them won a bit of money but others lost a lot.  I can see why it would be fun to gamble, if you win.  

On the subway to the casino, I remember it was really packed and we had a long ways to go.  So, a couple of my coworkers and I decided to sing 'The ants go marching' to pass the time.  We got up to four or five in the song when an older man turned around and said, "Be quiet!" very angrily.  I guess it really isn't acceptable to be loud on public transportation here.  

The kid's birthdays are really big here.  The parents bring in a whole spread of food and cake and we take a half an hour to eat it all.  Sohee's birthday was a few weeks ago, and it was literally the longest she has stayed in class.  But of course she ended up going out in the hallway towards the end of her birthday celebration, after her mom left.  Her mom was really nice and apologized for Sohee always being in the hallway.  I don't think she should apologize, it's her money that she's throwing away every month.  

The happy birthday girl

My students also started getting homework a few weeks ago.  The first few times they were so excited to see my reaction that I would hear, "Rachel teacher, Rachel teacher, Rachel TEACHER!!!" coming from my classroom in the morning because they wanted to show me their homework.  I guess my student Amy loves her homework so much that she almost started crying when she finished her worksheet so her mom had to go online to print off more for her.  I wonder when homework will stop being fun and exciting...

Anyways, I tried cooked larvae for the first time at the nearby galbi place.  It actually wasn't too bad, I had a few of them just to try and figure out the taste.  It was really rich, and I thought it almost had the flavor of corn on the cob which was really weird.  Alright, that's enough for this post:)