Adios little fella

Before coming to Korea, I would've thought that the majority of the hurdles I would encounter here in the first few months would come in the form homesickness or loneliness... yet neither of these have been even remotely present (yes, I miss you all- but I'm far from homesick!).  What I didn't anticipate is that I'd get super attached to some of the kids, and be crushed when their parents take them out of the school (which happens all the time at English schools around the country - and in a fairly willy-nilly way I might add).  

Over the past few months I've been disappointed to hear about a couple of the kids that have left our school, but on Friday I was shattered to hear that my absolute favourite boy, Leo, would not be returning on Monday.  I would be lying if I said I didn't get a lump in my throat and a little tear in my eye when my boss broke the news to me...

Leo in his favourite pose as the Red Power Ranger.

He is a cheeky, naughty little fella, but I absolutely adore him. Over the last few weeks in particular, Leo has taken on the role of my shadow - literally following me everywhere I go.  I usually have to force him to go back to his classroom when I'm teaching a different class... he tries to stage jail breaks to follow me when I leave the school on my lunch break and is often hovering around the front door waiting when I come back.  He has somehow persuaded the other kids to give him dibs on holding my left hand when I take the class outside and he tells me (and anyone who cares to listen) "Amy teacher, I love you" approximately 7,000 times a day.

 

If it were the 18th century I would've had him to be betrothed to my niece Poppy - they would've made the most adorably hilarious couple ever... I can see the wedding now- him, dressed in a Power Ranger outfit (made specially by the GAP, as he doesn't wear anything else) and her, in a pink princess costume - complete with heels that would make her tower over him.  They would have been married by Merriweather (the little fat fairy godmother from Sleeping Beauty), Spider man and the Little Mermaid would've been in the bridal party and Donkey from Shrek would've been the ring bearer. They would've gorged on fairy bread and lollies and danced their little hearts out to the Wiggles until one or both of them over did it and spewed (something I have seen a combination of sugar and dancing induce in both of them... and yes, I may have had a hand in this happening with both of them... oops).  Anyway, it would have been a magical wedding... 

So school was a lot quieter, not so full of cuddles and just generally not as fun without him today... but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes :(

More about the rug-rats...

My new role as a kinder teacher has not only forced me into morning classes (ugh... I hate getting up no matter where I am in the world), but it's also given me a much better opportunity to be a lot more involved in the hagwon I work in.  Although I still only teach some classes 2 or 3 times per week, there are 19 kids that I teach on a daily basis (one class of 7 and another of 12).  I feel like I'm starting to establish a good relationship with some of these kids (even though some of them drive me absolutely nuts!)

On top of this I'm the only foreign teacher on the full kindy shift and consequently I've become quite the celebrity around school... Often when I walk out of the staff-room for a class I'm confronted by a sea of children fighting over who will hold my hand (lucky I've got two) and who will carry my basket to the classroom.  Upon arrival in the classroom there is often a scramble to give me a back massage (I honestly did not teach nor ask them to do this) and a fight over who gets to be my 'helper' for the class.  If only all of this meant they'd behave themselves a little better during class time... 

The kids seem to love all the teachers and we are often inundated with attempts to get our attention.  Every time I walk down the hallway I'm greeted with choruses of "Hello Amy Teacher!!", vigorous waving and peace signs (très cool yes).  Sometimes they just run up yelling "Amy Teacher, Amy Teacher" (they always say it twice) to get my attention, but then forget to have something to say for after the greeting... or they just say something so totally odd that all I can do is nod, say "oooh" or "hmmm" and smile.  For example, the other day while on my way to the photocopy machine, I had the following random exchange with a girl called Gina who is in her third week of learning English.

Gina: "Amy Teacher, Amy Teacher!"

Amy: "Yes Gina"

Gina: "Hello"

Amy: "Hi" (smile... wait for something more, then continue walking)

Gina: (running after me) "Amy Teacher, Amy Teacher!"

Amy: "Yes Gina"

Gina: (pause) "Uuummm... Zebra!"

Amy: "Hmmm! Zebra.  Good!" (smile... wait for something more, then continue walking)

Gina: (again, running after me) "Amy Teacher, Amy Teacher"

Amy: "Yeah"

Gina: (long pause) "... Glue!"

Riiiggghhht...

Anyway, last Thursday three of my kinder classes were cancelled due to some nasty fumes coming into the school from renovations happening on the floor below.  While the school was being aired (opening up the windows, cranking up the fans, laying out plates of giant chopped onions- wtf? I thought we were trying to get rid of the smell...) we took the kinder kids to the Gyeonggi Provincial Museum.  YAY field trip!!  It was really fun to spend some time with the kids out of the classroom for a change - although I didn't get much of a chance to see any of the exhibits as I was constantly either chasing seven 4 year olds around the museum or trying to get them to stop hanging from my arms screaming "What's that! Look! What's that!".  I have to say, as annoying as the hanging off the arms was, it was also pretty of sweet.  Joey, one of the girls, was particularly clingy that day and spent most of the morning kissing my hand, or my jacket, or my scarf, or my bag, or my camera.... or anything that was remotely traceable to me.  As weird as that was, it was nice to know that my students like me... and really, it's days like that that make the more trying times in class a lot easier to bear.

 Anyway, here are some pictures of my kindies at school and at the museum...

The kinder kiddies en masse.

And now for the classes - little rascals that they are...

SUN CLASS

L-R: Julie, Kelly, Sam and Daniel.  

These are the babies who are 5 y/o in Korean age - hence about 3 or 4 in Western age.  Missing from this picture is Candy.  She was crying - as she does 95% of the day.  I have never seen a kid cry so much... seriously, she colours outside the lines - cries.  Drops a crayon - cries.  Sneezes - cries.

Kelly and Julie are the most awkward, clumsiest little girls I've ever seen!  Consequently I think that they are both an adorable and constant source of entertainment.  They can barely walk without bumping into something - each other usually, otherwise it's walls, doors, chairs, tables... everything.  They both break into a sweat at the slightest hint of physical activity and are often found with food all over their faces, clothes on backwards and shoes on the wrong feet. Standard kid behaviour, yes, but these two take it to a whole new level. Gorgeous.  

As for the boys in Sun class... Daniel is lovely and generally pretty well behaved.  Sam, on the other hand is trouble. Actually, I think he may be a reincarnation of the devil - but he still has his cute moments.  He has 2 older brothers who play rough with him and as a consequence he is indestructible (yet still loves a band-aid on a bruise).  Sam enjoys; breaking things, head-butting things, throwing things, climbing on things and yelling.  I actually really like him, but wouldn't be surprised if he serves a few stints in juvi  before he reaches high school.

I teach Sun class twice a week - one of these classes is Science.  They can't even write their own names and I'm somehow supposed to talk to them about the properties of magnets and polarized lenses! Whatever, we just play with the science stuff, do some drawings and generally just make a mess instead.  

Sam at the museum.  He ran around for a solid hour wielding this beating stick and terrorising all in his wake in the process.  Between 6 teachers, we couldn't manage to take the stick away from him. 

(also, you may notice a little pair of black legs in flight in the background... they belong to Erin - more on her later - who was mid-tumble as I took this photo.  I don't know if you can see it too well on here, but her legs are completely tangled together just from walking... something only Erin can do)

Hmm... Safe kids games.  Let's all stand in a circle and throw a pointy stick into a really small opening.  Of course this turned into 'throw the stick as hard as you can at the person opposite you'...

MOON CLASS

I still can't remember all these kids names... neither can they.  

Moon class are 6 year olds (4 or 5 western age) who have never learnt English before.  They were all given English names on their first day and I can guarantee that 90% of them have either forgotten or changed them without telling us.  Therefore most of them generally don't answer to any name.  They are HARD work... thankfully I only teach them a few times a week!

MOUNTAIN CLASS

Paul, Andrew, Andy (the one who cried through his first week at school), Alvin (I don't know why he chose that name - he was called Eddie before and that's heaps cooler!), Brian, Ricky, Gina (zebra/glue girl) and Judy

I pity the two girls in this class of boys.  They are sweet and quiet while they boys yell, punch and kick each other ALL DAY.  Mountain class are 7 in Korean age and have never learnt English before either.  The difference between the 6 and 7 year old classes is HUGE though, and these kids actually remember their names (despite changing them often), so they are a bit easier to control.  Andrew and Brian had a little stint of sitting outside the classroom earlier in the week and the whole class is starting to calm down a little as a consequence as I think that they are now a little scared of me (mwah ha ha ha!).

OCEAN CLASS

Back: Cherry, Lewis, Lynn, Grant and Jacky.

Centre: Sarah, Kevin and David.

Front: Angela, Andy, Sophia and Ann.

Ocean class is the other class I teach 5 days a week.  I love them sometimes and really-don't-like-verging-on-hate them at others.  Today, I kind of like them again, but yesterday I was definitely not a fan.  There are 12 kids in this class including 6 big, strong personalities.  This creates chaos.  When they are good, they are great though (ain't it always the way?!)... it's just getting them to be quiet for a few minutes that is my greatest daily challenge.  We are all on a discipline rampage with this class at the moment and I really don't like having to be strict, but they get seriously out of control (just thinking about that makes me not like them again)... please be good tomorrow, please be good tomorrow, please be good tomorrow. 

The boys: Andy, Kevin, David and Grant... Andy is an absolute angel (I heart Andy!).  The others are the trouble makers.

Sarah is possibly the sweetest kid in the entire school.

Sophia hugs my leg for a solid 5 minutes every day.  I tell her she is a leech... but I don't think she gets it.

Angela knows how to strike a pose.  She's a feisty little one who likes to dish out the hugs when she's happy...  Tell her off though, and she can deliver a dagger stare that rivals the most practiced divas.

Grant - the smallest boy in the class but the biggest pot stirrer around.  Grant makes the bullets for the other boys to shoot (but he looks so cute!).

STAR CLASS

Leo, Lynn, Rosemary, Joey, Kyle and Erin (hiding behind her book).

I'm not going to deny it, this is my favourite class - hands down, no competition whatsoever.  It was this class that noticed my resemblance to the Korean penguin cartoon Pororo and it is this class that I am generally in charge of when we do anything outside the school walls.  Leo and another boy, Sean (who was sick the day I took this photo), were recently moved into star class, giving Kyle some boy power (and apparently a growing attitude!).  As a class they can be pretty rowdy, but usually quieten down when I tell them to (or threaten to take away their stickers). There are often tears, but we all hug it out and everything is fine (yes, I taught them to say 'hug it out').  They have the attention spans of, well, the 4 year olds they are, but can dance to the Wiggles 'Hot Potato' song for a solid 15 minutes (which I love as it doesn't involve me trying to teach them to write! Plus, let's be honest here, I certainly don't mind a boogie to the wiggles every now and then... or every day as the case may be now). 

Joey (the hand/jacket/scarf/bag/camera kisser).  

Distinguishing characteristics: Very cuddly. Is built like a midget giraffe . 

 Likes: Pinching my cheeks and singing the "5 Little Monkeys" song.

Dislikes: Blueberry lollies.

Favourite crayon colour: Purple. 

Leo

Distinguishing Characteristics: Always wears entire outfits from the GAP

Likes: Saying "I can't do it" and pretending to be the Red Power Ranger (see above pose). 

Dislikes: Reading and writing

Favourite crayon colour: Red (like the Power Ranger)

Lynn

Distinguishing Characteristics: Almost always has her dress tucked into her tights after using the bathroom.

Likes: Saying "No!" (Amy: "Hello Lynne!" Lynne: "No Hello!").

Dislikes: The "5 Little Monkeys" song (she hates it so much that she sometimes covers her ears and hides under the table when I put the CD on... shame, as I have to play it every day because it accompanies their story book).

Favourite crayon colour: Pink.

Rosemary

Distinguishing characterisitcs: Wears nothing but PINK.  Sometimes looks like an old lady.

Likes: Arranging crayons in their correct colour order in the packet.

Dislikes: Being called Rosie. Crayons that are haphazardly put back into the packet. 

Favourite crayon colour: Sky Blue ("No light blue", she tells me, "sky blue").

Erin (the one who spotted my similarity to Pororo)

**Erin has 2 personalities that switch in an instant - happy Erin and angry Erin. See below the next picture for angry Erin's profile**

Distinguishing characteristics (of happy Erin):  The youngest in the class.  Is very floppy, bendy and awkward (trips over her own feet often).

Likes: Hiding behind the door or under the table and calling me "Pororo Teacher".

Dislikes: Leo and Kyle.

Favourite crayon colour: Orange.

Angry Erin

Distinguishing characteristics: Exhibits a scornful look that she has down to an art-form.

Likes: Scratching, hitting and screaming.

Dislikes: Everything.

Favourite crayon colour: None of them.

Like I said, sean was absent the day I had my camera in class and I couldn't get Kyle to stand still for long enough to take a photo, but I will give you their profiles anyway: 

Sean

Distinguishing characteristics: Very small and quiet.  Is often sick.

Likes: Picking his nose. Rosemary.

Dislikes: The "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" song.

Favourite crayon colour: Dark blue.

Kyle

Distinguishing characteristics: Always wears flannel, tartan-print shirts.  Has rainbow striped leggings that he wears as stand-alone pants.

Likes: Playing the part of 'Mr. Crocodile' in the "5 Little Monkeys" song/story book. 

Dislikes: When I touch my nose (no idea why, but it limits my 'Simon Says' and 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' repertoires somewhat).

Favourite crayon colour: Green.

Here they are again as a complete class at the museum... they don't look very happy because they were hungry and pissed off that we had to go back to school...  So was I. 

New Beginnings.

This week saw the beginning of the new school year in Korea, which brought with it new students, new classes and a new schedule for Amy Teacher. Goodbye leisurely days of 2.30pm starts and hello morning classes, kinder kids and full days of work! I knew my dream schedule of the first 6 weeks wouldn't last long and now that my honeymoon period is over, I guess it's only fair that I actually have to work for my pay... but geeze it's been exhausting! I mean, I know the first week of school is always a bit crazy - the kids have new classes, new classmates and new teachers to get used to, not to mention the general sense of disorganisation they must be getting from the frenzied staff at school, but I certainly wasn't prepared for the absolute chaos that I encountered!! 

Early in the week, it became apparent that the normally polite and cute children I had become accustomed to, had morphed into over-excited, seditious little devils with a knack for executing seemingly random yet synchronised acts of sabotage on my classes.  Obviously I have underestimated the organisational skills and cognitive abilities of the 5 year old brain, as I now have reason to believe that somewhere, over the course of a single weekend, a series of covert meetings were convened by my students (most likely in someones tree house... not that they seem to have them here) to discuss mutiny tactics.

 I imagine blue prints were drawn up in crayon (and subsequently buried or even swallowed) detailing the layout of the classroom and the optimal positioning of students within the room so as to create an environment of chaos that is impossible for me to control.  I bet if I got hold of the meeting minutes they'd read a little something like this... 

"OK, so Kevin, you perch behind the door so she won't see you when she comes in... David, you hide in the cupboard.... Grant, you're under the desk to the right of the teacher and Andy you hold the left side... I'll fight with Leo and he'll cry which will instantly distract her.  Girls, it's your job to keep her distracted when she comes into the room, so Angela, you hug her while Sarah gives her a sticker... while she's thanking Sarah, that's when Lynn comes in with the back massage to distract her and lull her into a false sense of security, then she'll be an open target for Ann and Sophia to wrap themselves around teachers legs.  Whatever you do girls, DON'T LET GO... Once we've got her pinned, Grant and Andy will come out from under the desks and get her arms...If you can, tickle her as well. Anything, so long as you bring her to the ground or at least a sitting position so we can reach her head.  When she's down, that's when Kevin comes from behind the door and takes her glasses and David, you gag her so she can't yell at us or cry for help...  It's important that the timing of this is PERFECT otherwise she may try and teach us something and we want to avoid that at all costs..."  

I'm learning that teaching the kindy kids can be very hard and draining work... but it's also a lot of fun and really rewarding.  Whereas last month my students were mainly between 10-14 years old, my kids now range from 3 years old (that's about 5 years old in Korean age) to just 9 years old.  While I teach most classes just 2 or 3 times a week, there are 2 classes (a class of five 4 y/oand a class of ten 5 y/o) that I teach 5 days a week.... I love them.  Seriously, I am smitten. They are both incredibly noisy classes and the kids are almost always terribly behaved, but the glimpses of sweetness they show me has made me fall head over heels in love with them (even if I did temporarily swear off ever having children after a particularly trying class on Tuesday).

  A lot of the new kids who started this week have never learnt English before.... actually a lot of them have never been in an actual classroom before!  One particularly cute little boy, Andy (one of many Andy's) spent his first 3 days at school crying constantly.  Poor little thing just sobbed and sobbed his way through class after class and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what was wrong with him.  He didn't seem sick, the others weren't being mean to him and I'm pretty sure he hadn't just endured some kind of long-term relationship breakup (he is 5 after all)... but he just cried into his books all day long.  On Thursday morning he walked into school dry-eyed.... that was until I said "Hi Andy" at which he burst into tears.  Great. It's me.  He hates me.  He hates me so much that I made him cry with a morning greeting.... but my hate-theory didn't really make sense because he kept coming up to me and holding my hand while saying something in Korean through his tears.  Eventually I went and got one of the Korean teachers to ask him what was the matter.  Turns out he was crying because he couldn't understand English.... because he couldn't understand anything we said to him. aaaawwww .  We then got some of the other kids who had been at the school a bit longer to explain to him that none of them understand much of what the teachers say at first, but that he will learn to understand soon... that's why he's here.  And just like that he stopped crying - and I think even enjoyed school on Friday! Success!

Aside from not understanding us, a lot of the new kids also didn't have English names (yes, taking on English names is a somewhat strange practice widely adopted around Asia it seems).  I was excited at the prospect of naming some kids... until I actually had to name some kids.  First of all, I was shattered to be told by my supervisor that neither 'Lucky' or 'Mad Dog' were suitable names for a child and secondly it was really hard to come up with a name that they liked!  Some had names in mind already (4 Leo's in one class... I don't think so boys!), and others had no clue... I tried to come up with English names similar to their Korean names, but when this wasn't possible I named them after members of my family.... The next day I got to school and half of them had either forgotten their names (why didn't I have the piece of mind to make name tags!?) or had changed them overnight.  Humph. Now they have English names, the next step is to try and get them to actually respond to them - yelling out "Tom, get off the table" doesn't really have any impact when Tom doesn't understand the words 'get', 'off', 'the' or 'table' and particularly when Tom doesn't remember that he is Tom....

 At lunch the other day, some of the little 4 year old girls were showing me their training chopsticks... see exhibit A: 

There's little rings to put your fingers in to teach the correct chop-sticking technique...

Anyway, so one of the girls has training chopsticks with a little penguin called Pororo on top.  As she was showing me how they work she began looking at the penguin, then looking at me, looking at the penguin, looking at me.... this went on for several minutes.  I was perplexed as to why she (a) had a very confused look on her face, and (b) had developed a sudden fascination with both me and the penguin.... but then a lightbulb turned on in her head and she cracked up laughing. And I mean hysterical laughter.  She babbled something to the other girls who also broke into fits of giggles, staring at me then staring at the penguin.  At this stage Lailla, one of the Korean teachers, came into the room.  I asked her to find out what was so funny and after a quick explanation, she too was in hysterics.  Turns out that in the minds of 4 year olds I bear a strong resemblance to Pororo.... what do you think?

In other news, it snowed like crazy again this week.  It actually only snowed for a little while, and as it was a reasonably warm day (when I saw warm, I mean it was above zero) the snow didn't settle on the ground for long... actually it was completely gone within an hour.  But still, it was, without a doubt, the most impressive snowfall I have ever witnessed.  None of the delicate little flakes of snowfalls gone by... these snowflakes were GIANT and hit my face and glasses with a splat. Naturally, i got snap happy...

Really not as impressive as in real life, the photo doesn't really capture the size nor sheer amount of the snowflakes, but it gives a small indication nonetheless...

As you may have noticed from previous posts, snow brings out my inner child.  So much so that the Korean teachers find great pleasure in alerting me to even the most minute sign of snow... apparently they like my 'happy snow dance'.  They also like to come outside with me and laugh as I run around giggling like a little girl while trying to catch snowflakes in my mouth...

Anyway, that's enough from me tonight - I have another big week ahead and should really try and start the week off as fresh as possible!  I hope everyone is well- wherever in the world you may be... In the meantime, if you get a chance, I really recommend you try a new drink I found in Korea.  It's not coffee, it's not beer and it's certainly not whisky....
Yes, that is correct. It's Cocktile.  Mmmmm.

It's all about the kiddies.

Well, I've pretty much covered the social side of my life in Korea so far, but considering that I came all the way here to teach English to some kiddies, I guess it's about time you met them!

So let me introduce you to....

Left: Lynne, Rachel, Amy, Martin, Jeff and Nathan.

This is my one and only Kindy class at the moment.  I teach them for two 40 minute classes a week and it is undoubtedly the hardest 80 minutes of work I do all week!!  I adore them, but they are exhausting!  I'm unfortunate enough to teach them for their last class before home time... and boy do they get ratty! Plus one of them is my boss's daughter which adds a little extra stress to it! 

Last week Martin got a blood nose in class and found it amusing to spray blood on everyone (worse still, they also found it amusing).  In the end I jammed a wad of toilet paper up his nose which, of course, all the others had to copy which, of course, ended in me having to fish chunks of stray paper out of Nathan's nose... colouring in was about all I had the energy for after that!

"Hip-Hip Horray Class" (named after their text book)

Back Left: Kelly, Cindy (or Cindy, Kelly... I'm never sure which one is which), Lina, Sara, Andy.

Front Left: Peter, Glory, Julie, Kevin, Candy.

Playing "What's the time Mr. Wolf?" with Hip-Hip Horray Class

Ah, the Hip-Hip Hooray class... what can I say about them?  They are really smart and so cute sometimes, but the are also incredibly difficult at others (read, almost always)!  Aside from two girls who are absolute angels, there are a lot of bad-eggs in this class .  The boys are particularly bad, although missing from this picture is their ringleader Danny, the cutest, baddest kid in school (who is also one of my favourites... oops, that's not very teacherly!)  When the boys aren't throwing things at the girls and calling them names, they're punching each other and having competitions of who can stand the hardest slap in the face without crying.  I've gotta give it to them though - there are rarely tears!

Sally and Sabrina... I believe you've met them before already though...

"Carnival" Class... (also named after their text book)

Back Left (standing): Adam, Samira (hiding), Love, Anna, Candy.

Front Left (sitting): David, John, Don.

These kids are awesome.  Usually eager to learn and almost always do their homework (some even draw pictures and maps of Australia for me as 'extra homework' I didn't even ask them to do!) In addition to teaching my boss's daughter in kindy class, I also teach my boss's son in Carnival class... but I only found this out last week after teaching him for a month.  Lucky I'm not into favoritism or anything...

"Reading class"

Kevin and Sam.

I love these two boys.  They crack me up non-stop.  I only get to teach them twice a week, but they are definitely one of the better classes to teach.  They are like little sponges who remember how to spell any word I teach them even if they've only seen it written once! While pretty smart, their vocab isn't huge, which means there is a lot of miming and pictionary on my part.  I can' t draw which they think is hilarious... and they now pretend they don't know the meaning of a word just so I'll try to draw it on the board for them while they sit back and laugh hysterically at my wonky stick figures ad crappy animals before coming up and finishing the drawing for me. They also like learning tongue twisters ("How much wood can a woodchuck chuck..." is their favourite) and they bring me lollies all the time, so I like them a lot.

"English Time 3" Class (with Harry hiding under the little pink desk for good measure)

Eric and Harry of E-T3 class

Wendy and Ginny of E-T3 class.

"English-Time" is definitely the best behaved class I have... In fact, they are positively nerdy at times! I think the smaller classes are by far the easiest to teach (except Sally and Sabrina, who are the equivalent of 12 screaming girls)....

Anyway, that's all my classes except one, who tell me they are too old and cool for photos (they're 11 - 13).  Funny kids though.  I really like teaching them - when I can get them talking that is!

I thought I'd also include a few pics of the Kindy Graduation from last week.  Seriously, this graduation ceremony was more impressive than my own uni graduation (which was not at all impressive by the way, but that was uni, and this was kinder!).  It was hilarious.  They all had to make little speeches in English... not in their own words of course, the Korean teachers fed them their lines which they rehearsed for weeks... "our time here at ECC was so so fun! we had many great experiences along the way..."  They wouldn't even know how to say that in Korean!!

  

Yup, they have little robes and hats on!! How cute!

They were singing "So long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music at this point...

My little Amy... a proud graduate.

Jeff (or, Jepuh as the Koreans often say) is one of the best kids at the school. Adorable.  How cute is his little bow-tie and suit!!!

Well, that's all for now.  I have a busy week coming up - a bunch of kindy classes have been hand-balled my way for the next few days and if they're anything like the kindy class I already teach, I think it's going to be a looooong week.

Singin' and Snowin' the time away

The weeks are flying by! I've spent four weeks in Korea already... where has the last month gone??  

Everything is still going well... I'm really enjoying life here! I feel like I'm settling into a bit more of a routine now too, which is good , and I'm really enjoying living by myself (which I was a bit worried about before coming here)- I've even found myself getting a little crafty with some painting and origami (some of which I have even made into fridge magnets! NERD!!) 

After the new year break last week the kids at school were totally ferrel on Monday and Tuesday, which made this week feel a little longer than it was... and a lot more difficult work-wise.  Really, at times, I struggled to get the kids to even sit down let alone open a book and actually learn something. It was so draining and I felt like I was having to be the 'mean teacher' the whole time... there were no stickers given out and no games played in class. I even made some boys write lines (hahaha!!).  Being a hard-ass in the classroom didn't feel so good, but the tough love thing did pay off in the end and the kids were absolutely gorgeous for the rest of the week! I guess there's a very fine balance between fun teacher and push-over and I think I was starting to slide into the latter - which wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't actually have to teach them something. Ah, it's a steep learning curve I'm on, but it's definitely getting easier with every day.

Anyway, turns out that this learning curve is thirsty work, so friday night we headed out to Now Bar followed by a spot of Noraebang action.  Yes, you're probably noticing a pattern developing that involves Now Bar and karaoke on Fridays... I have no rebuttal to this - it's just what we seem to do on Fridays! Something about blowing off steam and singing cheesy songs (badly) with a bunch of other foreigners is strangely alluring for some reason...

Me with Jeff, Tania and Ellen - These are my co-workers. They're awesome. 

Noraebang time!!  Ellen and I peruse the song list.  As usual, we open with "Obla di obla dah" (We think we're pretty good at it... although, I wouldn't really know because you can't hear yourself sing in these places - it's just everyone around you that has to endure your howling).

Oh, geeze...  I don't even know what we were singing, but it looks like it would've sounded real bad.

Jeff, Ellen and I have adapted a few hand gestures which we use to communicate our drinking intentions to each other... 

We drank and noraebanged late into the night but skipped the usual Mandu stop on the way home in favour of a few hours of much needed sleep as we'd arranged to go snowboarding the following morning.... yeah, it's smart to go out drinking the night before strenuous and potentially bone-breaking physical activity...  

On Saturday morning, six bleary eyed foreigners headed to the nearby slopes- this was my first time snowboarding, and it was fun fun fun!  Only half an hour away from home and cheap too - $10 for snowboard hire and $40 for lift passes! Sweet! Although, I might add, that I am so sore today I can hardly move... every single muscle in my body is killing me and I'm covered in bruises from stacking it down the mountain a few times (read several hundred times).  Sitting down is particularly painful as my butt is somewhat tender after countless falls on my behind.  Entirely worth it though!

I was trying to get a snap of a couple in matching outfits, but unfortunately they skied away (in perfect unison of course) before I got the chance... shame.  A good photo of the slopes though!

Oh, hahaha, yeah, I'm all laughs and smiles on the lift up to the top with Ellen and Kit - this was, of course, before I attempted to actually stand and move on a snowboard.  I wasn't so smiley after my butt collided with rock hard ice several times.

I already needed a rest - and I was only at the TOP of the first run!  Trying to stay vertical was so tiring that that the prospect of navigating a negative gradient was positively exhausting!

Eeek!  That's a scary sight for a first timer!

My first snowboarding experience was a little like my first day as a teacher... once again I was thrown in the deep end.  No ski school or flat ground instructions for me!  Jeff and the boys (all with a fair bit of snowboarding experience behind them), thought this was an appropriate starting point for me. I pretty much fell over every meter of the run the first time I tried it, but it definitely got easier and by the end I was making it all the way down with only one or two stacks along the way!

Oh, we were having so much fun! But an outing for Ellen and I isn't really an outing without an attack from Dumb and Dumber... so of course, we accidently got on the wrong ski lift.  Rather than taking us half way up the mountain to runs that we could actually tackle, it took us to the very TOP of the mountain... the place where all the really experienced snow-bunnies go.  There is a reason they go there and we inexperienced people don't... because up there is a triple diamond/black run.   Great.  We only realised what we'd done when we were about a quarter of the way up the mountain, but it was too late to get off the lift.  

We got off at the top and looked down and I nearly shat myself. It was veeeeerrryyyy steep.  Like when I say steep, I mean that there was a section that was pretty much a vertical drop... we couldn't go back down on the lift and it was too steep to try and walk down, so we did what any other person would do in our situation (if any other person was dumb enough to get themselves into that situation, that is)... we slid down on our butts.  It was seriously scary - aside from being ridiculously steep it was also icy which meant that there were several times when we couldn't even stop our graceful butt slide.  There were definitely moments when I wondered if we were going to slip too fast and turn into giant snowballs rolling, with increasing speed, down the mountain  like in the cartoons, but because we survived I can say that bits of 'death mountain' were actually kinda fun (well, sort of... like in a "I think I may die, so let's make the most of it and pretend I'm having fun when I go" kinda way).

Ellen, butt-sliding down the mountain of death...

Aside from the near death experience, we had such an awesome day!  I'll definitely be trying to get to the mountains a bit next season (apparently the slopes close soon... which means it must get warmer soon too - whoop whoop!!!)  

I have a loyalty card at the local coffee shop. That means I officially live here right??

It's something like minus 10 degrees outside and to me, that's pretty bloody cold!!  I have never felt cold like it before but while it's very, erm, cold, it's not entirely unpleasant.  Although in saying that, I'm pretty sure my boogers froze while I was walking to work today... well, maybe not quite, but the disgusting globules of spit that dot the streets of Youngtong have certainly frozen.  I learnt this as one crunched under my feet on my walk home. Gross.

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I haven't even been here a full week and yet it feels like forever... and I mean that in the best way possible.  Somehow it just feels right.  I'm surprised at how easy it's been to slot in here so far, and while I am sure there will be a reasonable period of adjustment ahead, it feels like everything is as it should be. That I am where I should be at this point in time.  

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This week has been filled with a million new experiences - new country, new language, new apartment, new job, new friends, new food, new money, new rules, new weather...  Granted, everything is new and exciting right now, but sometimes new is not always exciting... sometimes it is just plain scary.  Surprisingly, this really hasn't been scary at all - it's just been really, really fun! I'm having an awesome time!

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I woke up for my first day at work to a city that was covered in a blanket of snow. It was beautiful...  What wasn't beautiful was that the front steps to my apartment building had morphed into an invisible back-breaking ice-slide that required the skill of a figure skater and the agility of a monkey to descend (why anyone would think that shiny granite is a suitable material for step-building in a country that rains and snows is really beyond me). Thankfully I was forewarned about the step issue and was able to not-so-graciously make my way to the bottom without serious injury. 

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The following photos were taken on the way to work, in the winter wonderland (aka: a park) 

right near my apartment.

Not the pyramids of Suwon, but the centerpiece of a fountain in the middle of the park.

Above is the bridge I walk across to get to work (which is located in the building on the right).  Very Korean-y no??

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As I walked into the school I saw a bunch of cute kindy kids running around. Then they saw me. Suddenly I was surrounded by a dozen little faces all expressing various degrees of excitement, bewilderment, shock and curiosity.  "What's your name? What's your name?" they yelled out.  "My name is Amy", I replied. "Oooohhhhhh Amy Teacher, Amy Teacher!" they chorused, and in a babble of Korean they ran away. Hmmm... interesting.

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Considering I'm new to the school and that I've never taught before, I was pretty sure that my first day, if not my first week, would be spent observing classes and learning the ropes.  Wrong!  After observing only 2 kinder classes I was handed a stack of text books and left to teach the next 5 classes on my own (and with most of my students being kids from about 7 - 13 years old, the kinder observations weren't exactly relevant)! At least I didn't have time to get too nervous, but talk about being thrown in the deep end!!!

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The first 10 minutes of my first class felt a little weird, but after evoking some tricks of the trade learnt in my TESOL training, I began to relax into it a little more.  Apparently the kids did too...  They were told to be on their best behaviour for the new teacher - a piece of information that eluded some of the boys about 20 minutes into the class.  As I was doing my very teacherly duty of writing a sentence on the whiteboard an almighty crack rang out across the classroom.  I turned around to see two boys lunging at each other fighting over a pencil.  The crack, as it turns out, was the sound of one boy slapping the other across the face.  TESOL did NOT cover this.  After separating them, reorganising the seating arrangements and inspecting a perfect, scarlet, hand-shaped welt on the poor kids cheek, I gave them my best cross face (whilst really trying to hold back a laugh) and was able to complete the rest of the class incident-free.  Phew. I guess it could've been much worse... and at least there were no tears (from me or the victim of pencil-stealing rage). 

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My work hours are laughable really... especially compared to what I was expecting. At the moment I'm working 25 hours per week including class preparation time -and because I'm on contract, I get paid the same amount as I would if I were working the maximum 35 hours a week! The longest day I have is a whopping 6.5 hours and the shortest is 1.5 hours.  My work day begins at 2 or 3pm and ends at either 5.00, 6.30 or 8.30pm depending on the day. New timetables will begin in March, so this dream schedule may not last beyond that, but for now I'm considering myself very lucky!!

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Currently, I have 7 different classes of various ages and English levels that I teach 2 or 3 times per week. I like them all for different reasons, but the most entertaining would have to be the class of just three 8 year old girls that I teach three afternoons a week. My physical appearance seems to be a constant source of fascination and amusement for most of the students (the kinder kids love my hair for some reason and stroke or relieve me of strands of it every chance they get), but these three girls are definitely the most vocal about it.  

Here are some of the questions and comments I've fielded from them over the last 4 days;

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Monday.

Candy/Sally/Sabrina : Amy Teacher, your nose is very pointy.

Amy Teacher : Really? O.K. Thanks.  Anyway, let's keep correcting your homework...

C/S/S : Yes, but Amy Teacher... Your neck is very long. Long like a Giraffe.

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Wednesday.

Amy Teacher : OK, so let's open your workbook to page 23.

Candy/Sally/Sabrina : Amy Teacher... your neck is still very long.

Amy Teacher : Well, yes... it would still be long.

C/S/S : But why?

Amy Teacher : Well guess that's just how I am... Maybe my mother has a long neck. I dunno... let's keep working.

C/S/S : But Amy Teacher! Wait!... Is your mother pretty?

Amy Teacher: Of course she is!

C/S/S : Is SHE a giraffe??

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Later Wednesday afternoon

Candy/Sally/Sabrina : Amy Teacher. Take of your glasses!

Amy Teacher : Why?

C/S/S : Oooh! Puuurrreeeessseee!!!!

Amy Teacher : OK (**take off my glasses**)

C/S/S : (**fits of laughter followed by intense staring into my eyes**) Amy Teacher, look up... look down... look this way... look that way.  Oooh. Your eyes are very blue... very beautiful!

Amy Teacher : Erm, thank you... 

C/S/S : Yes Amy Teacher... They are very blue and beautiful... and big... like a fish.

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Great. I'm a pointy nosed giraffe fish.  I'm told it's a compliment.  Whatever it is I don't care.  It's hilarious and I can't wait to see what next week brings!