I live in snow

OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it snowed for the first time since I arrived in Korea Thursday.

I now live in a place where it snows.

Yuck!

Speeches, the cold, Goodbyes, and the cold

So at my open class I met a teacher who didn't have a native teacher. Her school was having a speech competition and she wanted to have a native speaker judge. So she asked if I could come help (well I never actually get asked anything directly, but she asked my co-teacher who told her yes and then asked me...same-same) .

So I headed over there Wednesday. Oh my goodness the kids were ADORABLE! It was fifth and sixth graders. They seemed to fall in two categories which I will horribly explain using politically incorrect stereotypes. If I offend anyone you probably don't know me, some of my nearest and dearest friends fall into these stereotypes and are nothing like the pigeonhole I am putting people in so please, in advance, don't be offended.

The first category is the engineering student who cannot make a public speech to save his life (you know, very monotonous, no nonverbal cues, same pace the whole way through, few visual cues etc.). The other is the SDSU PR student who is basically a ham (their voice hits more tones than a grand piano, their props are sewn onto their clothes, their hand motions are exaggerated and every word has a hand motion!). It was quite a kick to watch.

Some of the students gave speeches on their dreams. One's dream was to become to the head of the UN...the speech was surprisingly good...I feel like I suddenly have very low goals. Another speech was on how people should be nice and not write mean things online because people kill themselves(and actress in Korea recently committed suicide), and one girl read a Halloween story she wrote. There was definitely a lot of different stuff and it was fun to listen to it all. Plus I got $50 (well with the won now about $40) and a box of chocolates...woo!

It is starting to get cold, I wear my ski jacket about every day and do all my lesson planning in bed with the covers pulled up to keep me warm.

This Tuesday Ant leaves the country and heads back to South Africa and this Saturday Aaron leaves. Goodbyes stink! But I guess I am going to have a lot more of them now that I am halfway through (only 10 more teachers classes until I leave).

Cute Random Story

So, I was teaching a discussion class (meaning I am on my own) and my students were being a little rowdy. So I gave them a little, "Hey, I need everyone to be quiet" and one of the boys (not even a very fluent boy, classic average kids who barely speaks English properly) looks me straight in the eyes and says, "Don't worry baby, I've got it covered"

REALLY?

really?

REALLY

He never did tell me where he learned that must have been some song or something. It was probably one of the highlight of my teaching career, although there was the kid that said two...

Well there was the one boy who would never speak English and I went over to him because he had his hand raised. So He crinkled his brow stared at his paper in complete concentration looked up at me and said, "Two?" while pointing to his paper.

I was so proud of him I nodded and said, "Yes, write it twice"

He got so proud he sat up straight in his chair shoulders back and beaming with happiness began writing. His friend, who grew up partly in America looked at me and commented snarkily, "He's very proud for only saying one word, " Prat!

I smiled and told him that that one word was perfect and I do not require my students to say, "Excuse my professor, but am I required to write this word for a total of two times?," "Two?" would suffice just fine.

Open Class

So I had my open class today. Open class is when you teach a class and other teachers from other schools (or your school if they have free time) come and evaluate you. And it is not just for English Teachers. ALL teachers in Korea have to have one open class every year.

I was sick as a dog and afraid my voice would fail, but we did a really really awesome job.

My school posted a video but my Korean is pretty rusty so all I can find right now are the pictures:

The little Korean before the pictures says,"In 5 period today, the 3-grade English teacher with a class has a public class. 3-grade class are nice too calm so well done, guys!

Good job~ Excellent! "

http://daeseon.es.kr/?act=gallery.read&code=1711&id=376

:-)

Suwon RandomTimes

Well guess what happened recently?Makea wish!
It was Leona's birthday so the whole crew got together to celebrate
My eye makeupey stuff forHalloween...yep Ilooktired I am battling a cold:(
Look I was a "killer bee" I made some wings out of nylons and coat hangers, wore yellow and black and used straws as antennas...oh ... annnnd I had plastic guns...get is KILLER bee...hehe I am so clever

Geochang (briefly)and Karen's birthday (Hahn River)

I call it Korean tapas...silkworm larvae, dried squid and some crunchy wheat thing


View from the bus from Geochang to Seoul

Random street performer in Seoul


Random street art
Flowery volleyball
Hahn river by night

I suck at night photos
Me and Vincent

The yogio bell at amigos (usually in restaurants when you want a waitress you say, "yogio" but someplace's have a button you pus, at Amigos its this)

Mexican food in Korea...YAY

Minsu and Aaron's other friend

Aaron and Jorge...Oi vey!

Sue Sunday

So I had a day trip to this small city(well more like a suburb of the city Geochang) called Sue Sunday. That is sooo not the correct romanization, but at least this way you guys will understand how to spell it. It was a REALLY pretty place so here are some random photos from it:

The Geochang crew trying to figure out what busses to take to get there:

A really cool door to one of the houses
A puppy that ran right up to me and was sooo cute I wanted to put him in my purse but I resisted!

The river,lots more where this came from!

GIGANTIC TREE
The fruit/nut thing that come fromthe HUGE tree

Pretty sky, pretty treeI reeallly liked this bench
Look MV colors!!!

Reminds me of Mexico a liitle, they dry the peppers out this way

River and bridge
Built in 1542 ShinGwon (a Confucioan scholar) taught his pupils and lectured here. This pavilion (called Tosujeong Pavillion) was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of Korea (like so many other things).It is considered one of themost important archiectual designs of Geochang because it is designed to withstand cold mountain life.



River and bridge from a distance

One of the paths
Random statues
You make a wish and put the rock on the rock piles. That way your wish is closer to coming true.


Big rock with Chinese and Korean symbols on it (easier to see if you click on it and make the picture bigger)

Me and Jorge in front of the big rock


The sky getting darker on the way home