During the first weekend of March, we ended up getting a four-day weekend. Meghan, Christine and I took advantage of it and went to Jeju Island, which is an island to the south of Korea which is supposed to be like the Hawaii of Korea, except it's not tropical or warm. The day we left for Jeju was really warm (in the 60's) so we all decided not to bring winter coats. Big mistake. It was pretty cold the whole time and rained a bit, which made our outdoor adventuring less than pleasant. We still had a good time exploring the island. We decided to couch surf to have a free place to stay, and it worked out really well. We had a really nice host who let us eat breakfast and served us tea. If you don't know what couch surfing is, I recommend it--check out the website: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Waterfall in Jeju
Christine admiring the waterfall
Inside the biggest temple in Asia (supposedly)
The lava tubes
Besides exploring around the island, we also went to a noraebang (Korean private karaoke room) with a group of English teachers. It was my first noraebang experience in Korea, and it was a lot of fun. But, I think the best part of the trip was couch surfing for the first time and realizing that there are genuinely kind, generous people out there that are willing to let you into their home.
As for my kindergarten class, they are doing so well and have improved in their English and their classroom behavior soooo much. Now kindergarten is my favorite part of the day and I'm really enjoying being around them. I got two new students at the beginning of March, and they are both very smart and friendly. Also, Eileen didn't come back in March, so it's been nice to not have to constantly say, "No hitting!" the entire day. I've also had four birthdays in my class recently (3 in March and one last week). I'm not going to post pictures from all of them here, but they will be up on my Facebook soon so check them out there. I love having birthday parties in class! Except for the after effects of sugar on kindergartners of course.
We also got to have our first actual kindergarten field trip (besides the half an hour hike earlier in the year) in March. We are supposed to have one every month, so I'm hoping that this field trip trend will continue. We went to a Korean play for kids that ended up to be pretty scary. There were groups of kids from other schools who were probably two or three years old, and many of them were crying during the play. I won't try to summarize the play (mostly because I can't remember and it was in Korean), but the moral of the story was if you don't help your mom with the field work, you will be turned into a cow and forced to work for a mean man who will whip you. Most of the play was the boy-turned-cow whining, "OMA!!" which means mom in Korean. This caused many of my students to miss their own moms. Amy's mom wrote to me and told me that Amy told her all about the play, and then the next morning didn't want to come to school. Amy's mom told her that if she misses class, Amy will turn into a cow. So Amy went right into the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready haha.
My class waiting to go inside to the play
The sad cow-boy
Wendy (in front) and my two new girls, Sally (left) and Kate (right)
My ecstatic class after the play
Other than work, recently I have stayed up later than middle school sleepovers on more than one occasion. The reason is usually to save on cab fare back, since if you wait until the buses start running it is much cheaper. I have also experienced racial discrimination first-hand, which really doesn't feel very good. Most of the time, we are treated pretty well as foreigners here in my opinion. But, one night out in Gangnam we were just trying to find a bar to go into to get out of the cold. We tried about 5 different Korean bars/clubs, and no one would let us in. We watched as numerous Koreans walked right by us and got in. There was one bouncer who was shoving me out while I asked, "Is it because I'm not Korean??" I know I only got a small taste of what minorities have to deal with, but it still made me mad. We finally found a place that let us in so it all turned out fine.
That is some of what has happened recently. I know I am missing a lot, but hopefully from now on I will stay up on my blog posts!
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