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Published: September 12th 2007
Birthday party
We had a birthday party for some of the students at the school one morning.Wow...I think this may have been the longest period of time that I have gone without posting anything. I should really start writing things down when they happen because after its happened I think "Oh I have to write about that in my blog" But I never write it down and then I forget about it. Anyways, I'll try my best from memory.
Funny story...I was teaching a class of 3 students and we were learning about different things you would find in a kitchen. There was a picture of the item and then they had to figure out what the name of the item was. The first item was a pan or something like that. So they were writing down pan and the all of sudden this girl yells out what sounds like "F*ck!" I was totally caught off gaurd because she just blurted it out of nowhere. So I ask her what she said and she says "f*ck"! Ummm...ok, this kid seriously cant be saying this. So I start laughing and ask her one more time to say it again. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and she says innocently "teacher, f*ck" and points to her
Apollo boys
These the boys in my homeroom class sheet. I look where shes pointing and shes pointing at the next item in the book...which is a fork. Haha, she couldnt pronounce her R's so even though she thought she was saying it right, it didnt quite sound like fork to me.
Another day I was teaching this class with 5 boys in it and 1 girl. This class is crazy to control. They arent my usual class but since the other foreign teacher at my school finished his contract, I have taken it over. So no worries, I was just going to do some work with them. These kids did not want to work though. They kept wanting to play and play and play. I was getting right sick of them so I got super strict and told them to get to work and stop playing...yada yada yada. This one kid starts yelling at me like crazy! I had no idea what he was saying because it was all in Korean...but by the way he was yelling it sounded like he was calling me all these awful names and swearing at me. I was so caught off gaurd that I didnt really know what to do because
this kid was just going off the handle. He finally calmed down, they did a bit of work...all the while probably hating me...and class was finally over.
The next day I was really upset that this kid went off the handle like that and that I didnt really know what to do. So Friday rolls around and I had them again. I was ready for it this time and knew exactly what I was going to do if the kid tried that again. I was actually having a great day so my plan of being super strict teacher kind of went out the window. The kids were behaving much better than they did on Wednesday so it wasnt too bad. There was one incident where the same kid started talking a bit loud to me and saying stuff in Korean but I cut him off before he could continue. I asked him to tell me what he just said to me in English. Another kid translated for me and I had been called a "Yellow-headed monster." That is what this kid was calling me. I thought, by the tone of his vioce, that he was seriously swearing at me
Random passed out Korean
Just a guy passed out in the park... and saying all these terrible things. But a yellow headed monster?! I just started laughing because that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. Then they all started laughing too and tension faded. Everyone just did their work and it was actually a pretty good class.
Another class, my 7 year olds that I teach Math and Science to, sometimes break out in song when I am at the front teaching. Thats pretty funny in itself...but the song they sing is unbelievable. I don't even know what its called but it goes "Cherrrry! Cherry baby iye yie yie" The song is from the 60's or 70's I think. How the heck would these kids know that song?! Anyways, they actually only know that one line in the song, but they sing it over and over. Its pretty funny and they get right into it too. Next time I'll try to catch it on video. I know I shouldnt encourage them disrupting class, but its just so funny!
Another thing I found out the other day was that coffee shops dont open early around here. Back in Canada the whole point of coffee is to wake you up,
so coffee shops are therfore open early. Well one morning I was going to go to work early...and by early I mean it was already past 8...and I went to 3 coffee shops that were all closed. I finally found Dunkin donuts that actually served coffee before 9am. I couldnt get over it, it makes no sense to not have coffee shops open early. But then again there are quite a few things that dont make sense to me....
....and here they are in no particular order....
1) That they drive on the right hand side of the road, but when they are walking they always go to the left. I naturally always go to the right so there have been some near collisions. Not that these collisions would be severe at all because Koreans tend to walk ridiulously sloowwww.
2) Why they actually do walk so slow. I dont get it.
3) That it is completely acceptable to cough, sniff and snort out a huge loogie and spit it right onto the street without anyone batting an eye. I was walking home one day and this guys behind me must have been having major issues
At the Palace
Traditional Korean dancing because he was making these god awful noises getting flem up from God knows where and spitting it out onto the ground. He kept doing this continuosly. I had to cross the street because I was almost ready to either throw up or yell at him to stop being so gross.
4) That it is also completely acceptable to make smaking, slurping, munching, moaning, groaning and any other kind of noises when you are eating. The worst part is that this behaviour is actually encouraged! Encouraged! Can you believe that?! Supposedly the more noises you make when you are eating is a compliment to the chef. Ok...if I'm a chef, a simple "Thank-you" would suffice. If you really really liked it you could say "Wow! That was the best meal ever! Your an amazing chef!" Even if you just ate your food, quietly at that, I would take it as a compliment. The way some of them eat is disgusting. Granted, not every Korean eats like this....and actually the worst offender I've met is....I'm ashamed to admit....a Canadian. I don't know if he was just taught incredibly bad manners growing up or what....but it sounds and looks absolutely horrendus!
At the Palace
More of the performance... I cant eat with this guy, it grosses me out.
5) That a Korean parent would send their 8 year old kid to regular public school, then 2 hours of English lessons, then 2 hours of taekwondoe, then maybe an hour or more of piano and then have about an hour or more of homework to do as well. All in one night, every night. One kid I was talking to actually said his mom made up EXTRA homework for them to do every night. This kid is 8 years old! It doesnt get better either...the older they get the more classes they go to. Its actually looked down on a parent if they dont send their kid to all these after school things. Note to self...never raise a kid in Korea.....
Oh, and another thing about being a kid in Korea is they dont have anywhere to play. Not that they would have much time to, but even if they did have time, almost none of them have a backyard! I asked my one class to draw their house. All of them drew an apartment building! I'm sure that if a Korean kid came back to Sundre
to see where I grew up they would be in awe and think I was incredibly rich.
Ok, finally onto my weekend after the beach. Lisa, a friend of mine here, wanted to go to this music festival that was being held out in the boonies about 3 hours away. So we left here about 7pm and headed to the train station. We ended up not leaving the train station until 9:30 or so because of a mix up, but we were finally on our way to Seoul. We had to catch another train in Seoul to Ganchon and then a taxi to the boonies where the festival was. We got to Seoul station about 11pm and we go to get a ticket but turns out the trains are done for the night. Alright then, guess it looks like we'd be spending the night in Seoul.
Lisa had a friend here so we decided to go out to come clubs in Hongdae and meet up with him. We were hoping to just crash at his place for the night so we wouldnt have to get a hotel or anything. We met up with him and some of his
At the Palace
A guy doing tight rope walking. English friends around 2am and went to a few clubs. We ended up at this little portable outdoor bar thing for almost the entire night. Lisa's friend had to go home at about 2:30am because he was a mess so it was just me, Lisa and these 4 English guys. At about 4:30am I was literally falling asleep sitting. I am not a night person at all. I tell Lisa I'm tired and maybe we should get a hotel pretty soon. She's still doing great so she just suggests we stay up till 6am and then catch the subway to the train station and catch the train. Then, she figured, we would just get to where we had to go early in the morning and we could sleep during the day and go out at night. Ok fine, sounds good enough. I decided to suck it up and wake up.
We all decided to go back to a club at about 5am and party for a bit longer. We go back to the bar and the music is still pumping and I get the worst headache I think I have ever had in my life. I had to leave
At the Palace
This is a wishing tree. You write your wish on a piece of paper and then tie it to the rest of them already around the tree. the club because it was hurting so bad. I just went up stairs and fell asleep on a couch while everyone kept dancing. About 6:30 they come and wake me up and we headed on our way. On our way back to the subway we walked through a park and their were people passed out all over the place. It was quite interesting....I would have taken more pictures if I wasnt keeling over in pain. We get to the subway and its me, who is in incredible amounts of pain and feel awful, Lisa who is drunk....and we both reek like soju. We get on the subway and its all business guys looking at us like we are just some crazy foreigners. So we finally get to the train station, buy our tickets and fall asleep on the benches. I wake up just in time for our train and try to wake Lisa up. That took a good few minutes, but she finally came around. We get on the train and I am feeling worse than ever. My head hurts so much I feel like I'm going to get sick, Lisa smelled like Soju and their are these Koreans eating this foul smelling squid jerky at 8am in the morning. I had to run to the mini bathroom on the train to get sick. Didnt make me feel any better though. That was the most uncomfortable train ride ever.
We get to Chuncheon (because we had missed our stop at Ganchon) and tried to figure out what the heck we should do. We hadnt eaten since the night before so we were starving, we reeked, I was about ready to die, and pretty much no one spoke English. We finally just decided to let a taxi driver take us to where we had to go. It didnt matter how much it cost, I just wanted a place to sleep. So we get to the place (its pouring outside....and this is an outside festival) and one of the organizers wouldnt let us in because they didnt open until 2pm and it was only 10am.
Thank God for taxi drivers. This guy found us a place to stay that was right near the festival. Lisa and I crashed as soon as we walked in our room. The sleep made me feel a bit better, but I was no where near even close to feeling good. We were starving as well. Trying to communicate with the reception guy as to where we could get food was near impossible and there was no restaurants close since we were in the middle of nowhere. We couldnt walk anywhere (because of the pouring rain) and there were no taxi's in sight. Lisa decided to brave the rain and go into the festival area in hopes of food. I have never been so happy to see food when she walked back in. Best curry and burrito I've ever had. So after eating we had another nap. When we woke up I felt like I had the flu or something so I had no energy or anything to even go to the festival. It was still pouring out as well but Lisa braved the rain again to go and check it out. She was back in an hour, so I guess it wasnt that great. Then we just slept for the rest of the night. The next morning we caught and bus and before we knew it, we were back in Suwon. So ya, it was a good weekend to get away from Suwon....to sleep and be sick the entire time. Haha....ah well. It was an adventure if nothing else.
This past weekend I just decided to stay around Young tong. Friday night a few of us went for supper which was delicious as always and then sat in front of a GS mart (like a 7-11) and had some beers. At about 1am we went to the Now bar and by 2:30 I was ready for bed. Saturday morning Lisa and I went to a crepes place for breakfast and then we decided to go to the palace and fortress that is in Suwon. I dont know much about it, but I know back in the day the King lived at the palace and they built a fortress all around it to protect it. Its a really fascinating place actually. The weather was gorgeous and we got there just in time to watch some traditional Korean dancing and acting. After that we explored the palace and took a tour bus around the fortress. There is just so much there to do that you cant possibly do it all in one day. I'm going to go back one day and do some of the hikes they have around the fortress.
Sunday was another gorgeous day that consisted of hanging out side in the park, listening to tunes and throwing a football around. It was great. We went to this restaurant for dinner that looks over Young tong. Very nice place where it is all you can eat and you make your own delicious soup...all for 15 bucks. We decided to go to a DVD Bang after that. A DVD bang is kind of like your own mini theatre. You go in, pick what movie you want to watch, go into your own private room and they project the movie onto a huge screen in the front of the room. I've actually heard these are pretty popular for high school couples to go to so they can have their own little private makeout room and whatnot. So could be sketchy, but actually pretty cool as well.
So that about sums up my life for the last little while. Actually it wasnt much of a summary...more like a detailed description of my life. But anyhow....
Looks like I should have some more stories for you in the next little while. Tomorrow its another school field trip. (Bear crackers anyone?) But this time we're going to ocean so maybe I'll end up eating some fish food or something, who knows. Friday to Sunday I am going rock climbing!!! I am so excited for it. I know absolutely no one thats going to be there. I came across this website that is actually all about foreigners rockclimbing in Korea. I contacted a few people and I am meeting about 6 people here in Suwon to catch a bus to the mountains. They are bringing me a sleeping bag, a tent even and all my rock climbing gear! They seem awesome so I can't wait! The weekend after that is a Korean holiday called Chuseok. Its like Thanksgiving. I decided that this would be a good time to go and see my Korean friend Timmy who I met back in Edmonton. I have the 24th-26th off work so it makes for a good holiday. Last I talked to him it sounds like we'll be going back to his hometown and staying with about 10 of his relatives. So it should be fun. Me and a whole bunch of Koreans for a weekend, Timmy is the only one that speaks English and it sounds like I even get to share a room with people. Yup, should be interesting.
Thats about it! Hope everyone is doing great! Love you all!
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Vic
non-member comment
When r u coming back to visit us???????we all miss u terribly!! jk :P you'd have to be crazy to come back to edmonton :) great to read though that your haveing a great time. Nothing's really changed down here though, except there's no kim to party with anymore :( hope to read more blogs :) lots of love