Well, it's been almost a month since our last post, so I'm going to put up a short posting sans pictures (they'll go up later) to catch people up on some highlights (as much as I can remember of significant things :)).
November has been a rough month healthwise. November has been Kay's turn to have a nasty case of bronchitis. Our systems are still finding all new and less-than-exciting challenges with the environment and cuisine even after a few months of being here. I'm pretty much better though I had some throat issues and.. my very first mouth ulcer. That's what the doctor called it anyway, I just knew it was kind of like a canker sore on steroids with an energizer battery (it kept going and going). It's since gone away on its own (though I might be starting to get another one... urk!). Kay has had a rough time with the bronchial virus, hacking and coughing. It seems to be getting a *tiny* bit better from what I can tell but it's still long. She also managed to do something to her ribs/back so it's painful when she coughs too hard and feels like something is a tiny bit out of place. It's already shifted once and seems to have gotten a bit better since at first.
Outside of health, it's been a fairly busy month. Our themes for November (and most of December) have revolved around multiculturalism... learning about countries, flags, anthems, traditional clothing and foods, etc from different parts of the world. We also had a week for American Thanksgiving which involved inviting all the grandparents of the students to join us for our 'Thanksgiving Feast' and take part in a special cooking class where they each made a cake with their grandchildren (some elderly from the church congregation were invited as well as some students didn't have grandparents who could make it).
We actually had an extra two days off for Thanksgiving, which was really nice (Thurs, Fri off leading into the weekend). In celebration, Kay and I went out to Lotte World (apparently pronounced -'Lu-teh' but we pronounce it 'lotta' because it that's how we saw it first and it makes for a whole lotte jokes ;) (I suspect a good 70%+ of every consumer product you can buy in a grocery store is somehow from Lotte). Anyway, Lotte World is a big amusement/theme park (partly indoor, West Edmonton Mall style, and partly outdoor). We ended up going in the morning and getting day passes (we stayed pretty much the whole day). It was sensory overload... a lot to see, ride on, hear.. it was kind of like their version of a Disneyland in some ways (though not as big... it was still pretty fair sized).
We'll try to put some pictures up for the month and post more content (I have about 5 minutes until my next class so I need to sign off); I'm sure I've overlooked a lot of stuff to mention.
'til the next post!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
a ladybug, a bee, and some kittens.
Well I think it's about time for a blog entry...
The kittens I found by our school were moved a few times by their mother to actually pretty good hiding places in the front gardens of apartment building. The last one had an open window we could see into the basement, so they can have some warmth in the winter. We had it in our minds to take two home, as there were only two left, but now that they are older, we couldn't catch them. So we fed them and that's that... =(
In school Chris is up to six students with a seventh coming on Monday, and I am up to five, the latest addition being twin girls. They are very sweet and mainly only fight with each other, although hey still don't understand that we don't speak Korean and they talk to us a lot... We went on a field trip to a bear farm on the 24th, which had lots of activities and bears that we didn't actually get to see because it started to rain. Chris' wedding ring slipped off at some point and we didn't find it. They made an announcement but there were so many places it could have fallen to never be seen again. Ironically it's made of tungsten carbide, so it will last forever, wherever it is. The farm gave everyone chestnuts to take home so I had some fun cooking them. The first bunch I boiled for too long which produced mush. This was painstaking to separate from the shells. I tried to save it by frying it with some sugar and a chocolate bar, but I can say I'm never doing that again. The second batch I steamed and they worked, but still tasted very not exciting.
At church on Sunday they had a Canadian cuisine pot-luck lunch. I wore the only Canadian thing I had, my red Canada winter hat, and we brought a cake. There were quite a few good things though, like waffles, pizza, sandwiches and applesauce.
We had a Halloween fun day on Friday, which besides being stressful and exhausting turned out some interesting costumes. I made candy apples with the kids and Chris took them on a pinata treasure hunt. Do Hyun won best costume for being a cowboy, and was really happy to shoot me...
Kay =)
oh yes, and after two months of avoiding it, I now have a cold. Chris still has a lingering cough.
I am starting to find a few food items that I really like, such as aloe juice, sesame seeds, and mandu (pork dumplings.) We get aloe juice every grocery run now, we bought a huge container of sesame seeds, and we found a really great dumpling place where they are served as soon as they are done because of the line up for 1500 won each. I also should mention the soooooo good ice cream bars called Black Crunch Bars by Lotte. It's basically an Oreo cookie with chocolate and cookie pieces as vanilla ice cream, but really really good. We found them on sale the first time, and when we went back tot hat store they were still on sale so we bought 6 bags of them =P.
The kittens I found by our school were moved a few times by their mother to actually pretty good hiding places in the front gardens of apartment building. The last one had an open window we could see into the basement, so they can have some warmth in the winter. We had it in our minds to take two home, as there were only two left, but now that they are older, we couldn't catch them. So we fed them and that's that... =(
In school Chris is up to six students with a seventh coming on Monday, and I am up to five, the latest addition being twin girls. They are very sweet and mainly only fight with each other, although hey still don't understand that we don't speak Korean and they talk to us a lot... We went on a field trip to a bear farm on the 24th, which had lots of activities and bears that we didn't actually get to see because it started to rain. Chris' wedding ring slipped off at some point and we didn't find it. They made an announcement but there were so many places it could have fallen to never be seen again. Ironically it's made of tungsten carbide, so it will last forever, wherever it is. The farm gave everyone chestnuts to take home so I had some fun cooking them. The first bunch I boiled for too long which produced mush. This was painstaking to separate from the shells. I tried to save it by frying it with some sugar and a chocolate bar, but I can say I'm never doing that again. The second batch I steamed and they worked, but still tasted very not exciting.
At church on Sunday they had a Canadian cuisine pot-luck lunch. I wore the only Canadian thing I had, my red Canada winter hat, and we brought a cake. There were quite a few good things though, like waffles, pizza, sandwiches and applesauce.
We had a Halloween fun day on Friday, which besides being stressful and exhausting turned out some interesting costumes. I made candy apples with the kids and Chris took them on a pinata treasure hunt. Do Hyun won best costume for being a cowboy, and was really happy to shoot me...
Kay =)
oh yes, and after two months of avoiding it, I now have a cold. Chris still has a lingering cough.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Life and Death
Hi.
This week the pond in the school yard got a bit low, and one of our students grabbed the only surviving fish and squeezed it until it's eye popped out. The fish lived, and now has one eye. The boy had a half day detention, and we had a long talk with his mother, who was quite shocked... but so were we.
The same day Wednesday, in the morning I was gathering leaves for a school activity in the park beside our school, and I discovered a nest of 3-week old kittens.
They were so cute! all tiny and orange, with their eyes and ears open, but no teeth yet. I kept checking on them throughout the day and then after school their mother was back, which was really glad for because I wasn't sure what to do about them. She picked a good spot for the nest because we'd walked by it so many times and never knew it was there. Friday someone had build a roof shelter over the spot they were nesting in. At lunch recess one of the kittens got adventurous and wobbled over to the school's fence and tried to come underneath it. All the kids saw it and after I told them to be more quiet (they were yelling excitedly) I ushered them away so the Mom would retrieve her kitten. And then they were gone. After school they were simply no longer there. A man who looked like a security guard of some sort brought a dish with some food in it and took away an empty one and paused to look confused because the cats weren't there. So we figure either the mother cat moved her babies to a more secluded spot, or someone came and took all of them... =( I just hope they are ok.
We tried the movie theater near our house, and because we were splurging, bought the 10,000 Won snack combo which came with two kinds of popcorn, nachos, two pops and of course a bag of fish pieces.
We thought we wouldn't be doing anything for Thanksgiving, but at church a bunch of people decided otherwise, because of the number of Canadians attending, that we should all go out for lunch to Ashley's American Grill. Yes, we saw the irony, but there were no restaurants with Canada in the name. We all had the salad bar buffet which is more of a buffet and less about salad, but still very good food. Cheesecake mmm. =)
Today we went on a field trip to a fire station. The bus driver got lost on the way there, but once we arrived it was pretty cool. They had four different hands-on activities the kids could do. the first was where they had to call 119 (that's what it is here) and then 'put out' a fire on a screen by spraying it with fire extinguishers that shot water. =) it was fun - yes I did it too. There were two different mazes you had to go through in the dark with fog... as if you were escaping a burning building, and the last was a simulation of an earthquake in a kitchen. Basically we hid under the table and got shaken up... a couple of the kids were too scared to do the last ones. Poor Ye Jun, he started to cry when we were in the first maze and a door we opened flashed a bright red light, like it was fire, and he pretty much didn't stop crying until we were done doing activities. Then I remembered that although he is in my class of 5 year olds, he's still 4, which by North American age measurement would be 3. They are all so little.
Chris has another student who started today, so he's up to 6 kids, and we got word of another who will start in a few more weeks, also a girl (yay!) although he's teaching more than half the school now. I'm sure more kids will come soon, but I'm starting to think they will all come at once, in March when the Korean school year starts... which could turn out to be pretty interesting.
Kay =)
This week the pond in the school yard got a bit low, and one of our students grabbed the only surviving fish and squeezed it until it's eye popped out. The fish lived, and now has one eye. The boy had a half day detention, and we had a long talk with his mother, who was quite shocked... but so were we.
The same day Wednesday, in the morning I was gathering leaves for a school activity in the park beside our school, and I discovered a nest of 3-week old kittens.
They were so cute! all tiny and orange, with their eyes and ears open, but no teeth yet. I kept checking on them throughout the day and then after school their mother was back, which was really glad for because I wasn't sure what to do about them. She picked a good spot for the nest because we'd walked by it so many times and never knew it was there. Friday someone had build a roof shelter over the spot they were nesting in. At lunch recess one of the kittens got adventurous and wobbled over to the school's fence and tried to come underneath it. All the kids saw it and after I told them to be more quiet (they were yelling excitedly) I ushered them away so the Mom would retrieve her kitten. And then they were gone. After school they were simply no longer there. A man who looked like a security guard of some sort brought a dish with some food in it and took away an empty one and paused to look confused because the cats weren't there. So we figure either the mother cat moved her babies to a more secluded spot, or someone came and took all of them... =( I just hope they are ok.We tried the movie theater near our house, and because we were splurging, bought the 10,000 Won snack combo which came with two kinds of popcorn, nachos, two pops and of course a bag of fish pieces.
We thought we wouldn't be doing anything for Thanksgiving, but at church a bunch of people decided otherwise, because of the number of Canadians attending, that we should all go out for lunch to Ashley's American Grill. Yes, we saw the irony, but there were no restaurants with Canada in the name. We all had the salad bar buffet which is more of a buffet and less about salad, but still very good food. Cheesecake mmm. =)
Today we went on a field trip to a fire station. The bus driver got lost on the way there, but once we arrived it was pretty cool. They had four different hands-on activities the kids could do. the first was where they had to call 119 (that's what it is here) and then 'put out' a fire on a screen by spraying it with fire extinguishers that shot water. =) it was fun - yes I did it too. There were two different mazes you had to go through in the dark with fog... as if you were escaping a burning building, and the last was a simulation of an earthquake in a kitchen. Basically we hid under the table and got shaken up... a couple of the kids were too scared to do the last ones. Poor Ye Jun, he started to cry when we were in the first maze and a door we opened flashed a bright red light, like it was fire, and he pretty much didn't stop crying until we were done doing activities. Then I remembered that although he is in my class of 5 year olds, he's still 4, which by North American age measurement would be 3. They are all so little.Chris has another student who started today, so he's up to 6 kids, and we got word of another who will start in a few more weeks, also a girl (yay!) although he's teaching more than half the school now. I'm sure more kids will come soon, but I'm starting to think they will all come at once, in March when the Korean school year starts... which could turn out to be pretty interesting.
Kay =)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
A Blog out of time
So much happened this week! When I think of it all I’m surprised it was all in one week, which technically still isn’t over yet.
Sunday we found our church! We went to Hallelujah Christian Church in the area of Seongnam where we work called Yatap, and we liked it a lot. It’s the biggest church I have ever seen, with it’s own bus route to pick people up, but the English service is about 30-40 people, and kind of remind me of IVCF, but with a lot more adults… =). The people were friendly, the message was good, and the music was great (although a tad loud) but nothing is perfect. We will definitely go back. http://hem.hcc.or.kr/
Tuesday we finally got our alien registration cards, which means we are legal registered foreigners, and they can’t just kick us out on a whim. We also went and after much time got bank accounts – and got paid! Yay! Even banks are different here, we couldn’t have a joint account which confused us, so we just got one under Chris’ name, and then I had to go back and get one for me, because the school would not pay me into Chris’. Anyway it happened, and then Thursday we transferred money over to pay our credit card and loans. They said it would take a few days, but it was there in a few hours. Double yay! It felt really good to be able to put something on to Chris’ loans, even if it barely made a dent… We also got a cell phone, after much communication efforts at a local dealer who did not speak english, but who was very nice. And we discovered after one month of living here, that there is a fantastic garden on our roof, with a mini put with 4 holes.
Friday was a holiday – Foundation Day, celebrating when the first part of South Korea was founded, more than 4000 years ago! So we thought it fitting to go visit the restored ruins of a palace in Seoul. An 70 min Subway ride got us there just after noon, and we were immediately swamped by groups of university students wanting to take a picture with us… this confused us until one of them mentioned it was homework and they had a list of English words to say. It felt really strange though, because we were surrounded by the palace guards who are not aloud to change face expression or acknowledge anyone while tons of people get their pictures taken with them. I did too, just because. After a while of exploring the palace area buildings we went out for lunch. Suddenly starving we went to the first thing we saw, which was called The Restaurant, although it turned out to be very pricey and mostly fish. =( but it was something. Beside the palace area was the Korean Folk Museum, 
so we explored that too, which in some ways was better because it was a lot more varied. So, we took tons of pictures and I will post them on facebook at some point =). Supper consisted of egg, cabbage, ham, and cheese sandwiches we bought in the Subway when we were switching lines, and I am sad to say I greatly preferred it to lunch. And I can’t forget ice cream sticks from Paris Baguette. They are so good. =)
Our work week is still very exhausting and sometimes very tough, but they are still trying to change it so it is better. Chris got more antibiotics, and is improving but still tired more easily. Thank you for your prayers,
Kay =)
Sunday we found our church! We went to Hallelujah Christian Church in the area of Seongnam where we work called Yatap, and we liked it a lot. It’s the biggest church I have ever seen, with it’s own bus route to pick people up, but the English service is about 30-40 people, and kind of remind me of IVCF, but with a lot more adults… =). The people were friendly, the message was good, and the music was great (although a tad loud) but nothing is perfect. We will definitely go back. http://hem.hcc.or.kr/
Tuesday we finally got our alien registration cards, which means we are legal registered foreigners, and they can’t just kick us out on a whim. We also went and after much time got bank accounts – and got paid! Yay! Even banks are different here, we couldn’t have a joint account which confused us, so we just got one under Chris’ name, and then I had to go back and get one for me, because the school would not pay me into Chris’. Anyway it happened, and then Thursday we transferred money over to pay our credit card and loans. They said it would take a few days, but it was there in a few hours. Double yay! It felt really good to be able to put something on to Chris’ loans, even if it barely made a dent… We also got a cell phone, after much communication efforts at a local dealer who did not speak english, but who was very nice. And we discovered after one month of living here, that there is a fantastic garden on our roof, with a mini put with 4 holes.
Friday was a holiday – Foundation Day, celebrating when the first part of South Korea was founded, more than 4000 years ago! So we thought it fitting to go visit the restored ruins of a palace in Seoul. An 70 min Subway ride got us there just after noon, and we were immediately swamped by groups of university students wanting to take a picture with us… this confused us until one of them mentioned it was homework and they had a list of English words to say. It felt really strange though, because we were surrounded by the palace guards who are not aloud to change face expression or acknowledge anyone while tons of people get their pictures taken with them. I did too, just because. After a while of exploring the palace area buildings we went out for lunch. Suddenly starving we went to the first thing we saw, which was called The Restaurant, although it turned out to be very pricey and mostly fish. =( but it was something. Beside the palace area was the Korean Folk Museum, 
so we explored that too, which in some ways was better because it was a lot more varied. So, we took tons of pictures and I will post them on facebook at some point =). Supper consisted of egg, cabbage, ham, and cheese sandwiches we bought in the Subway when we were switching lines, and I am sad to say I greatly preferred it to lunch. And I can’t forget ice cream sticks from Paris Baguette. They are so good. =)Our work week is still very exhausting and sometimes very tough, but they are still trying to change it so it is better. Chris got more antibiotics, and is improving but still tired more easily. Thank you for your prayers,
Kay =)
p.s. I also made cookies in a pan...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Experiences Galore!
Chris was off of work this entire week. Friday he went to the doctor and discovered that he not only had bronchitis (for three weeks now) but had also recently developed sinusitis, and rhinitis, which are fancy ways of saying sinus infection. So needless to say, he is now on better medication, and doing better. Last night he slept through the night for the first time in a long time. =)
Friday was also a field trip, we packed up the kids and went to an Batangul Art Center, which was an hour drive away. Sigh… I am tired just thinking about it. For only having ten kids, it was a lot harder to keep them all together and quiet/not toughing things than it should have been, but I was glad the actual walking around looking at art part was only half an hour. After lunch they all painted T-shirts to bring home, and then were herded into a large auditorium where another school was waiting to watch a movie about… a piece of poo. Seriously, Poo. And it lasted about 45 minutes! Everyone there thought this was normal. Ok, it was stop animation, and was supposed to teach the kids about fertilizing, what plants need to grow, and the seasons, but the main character was a cute little piece of poo left by a dog on the side of a country road. It cried a lot because it was alone, and there was so much emotion it made the youngest of my kids cry. It ended somewhat happily though as the poo became fertilizer in the spring for a weed that grew out around it, and then it wasn’t alone anymore and it stopped crying. The End. It was very well done, the animation and the sound, but I was not impressed. On the way home three kids in the back of the bus with me all fell asleep, and one in the front did too.
Friday was also a field trip, we packed up the kids and went to an Batangul Art Center, which was an hour drive away. Sigh… I am tired just thinking about it. For only having ten kids, it was a lot harder to keep them all together and quiet/not toughing things than it should have been, but I was glad the actual walking around looking at art part was only half an hour. After lunch they all painted T-shirts to bring home, and then were herded into a large auditorium where another school was waiting to watch a movie about… a piece of poo. Seriously, Poo. And it lasted about 45 minutes! Everyone there thought this was normal. Ok, it was stop animation, and was supposed to teach the kids about fertilizing, what plants need to grow, and the seasons, but the main character was a cute little piece of poo left by a dog on the side of a country road. It cried a lot because it was alone, and there was so much emotion it made the youngest of my kids cry. It ended somewhat happily though as the poo became fertilizer in the spring for a weed that grew out around it, and then it wasn’t alone anymore and it stopped crying. The End. It was very well done, the animation and the sound, but I was not impressed. On the way home three kids in the back of the bus with me all fell asleep, and one in the front did too.
We’re starting to discover more of our neighborhood, including a pizza school three blocks away that has 5,000 Won pizzas ($5) and a shopping mall with a theater and a Subway restaurant. =) We went there on Thursday night for supper as a treat. The prices are pretty much the same, but I must say the chicken teriyaki is definitely better. Someday soon we will try the theater, they have some Hollywood films, that seem to be a few months behind when we would have them in Canada, right now it’s Mama Mia, and HellBoy II, which were out in July.Last Sunday we went to a small English service at a church for the first time. The people were very nice, and kept us after for lunch, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. The singing kind of reminded me of bad karaoke, it was very heartfelt, but lead by a man who was tone deaf and very enthusiastic. I kept telling myself that it’s not about what it sounds like, but about praising God, which the people were very enthusiastically doing. The sermon was kind of like Sunday school for kids, because almost everyone there was speaking English as a second language – so the pastor spoke slowly, simply and used lots of pictures. Needles to say I think we will look around for some other English congregations, maybe even for one that is closer.
But the school is coming along, I’m getting more used to teaching young kids who don’t understand me – and there have been some fun times too.
Kay =)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A Spontaneous Field Trip Just For Teachers
I felt special on my birthday. =)
Chris and I also went out for dinner.
So I’m starting to get used to the routine of being a teacher – except for the things that keep changing.
On Tuesday after we had said goodbye to all the kids, with a “see you tomorrow!” We were told by Mrs. Choi our director (Jasmine), that the next day we would be having a teacher training day and there would be no school. This meant that we got up this morning ridiculously early to meet at 6:30am, and car pooled to another kindergarten 3 hours away to see how they teach there. The only thing was their kindergarten was all in Korean, except for the English class, and they still spoke more Korean than English, so it was not the same at all. They have a nice place though. The facility is government run, so they have excellent materials, and everything is bright and cheery. We were told local students enter a lottery to get in and pay 20$ a month to go. Our hostess, the principal of the school, was very gracious and gave us a tour and some souvenirs, including a Happy Birthday towel (hee hee =) ) and a gift wrapped box of seaweed.
They then decided we should all go out for lunch, so the principal of the school we were visiting, Pastor Kim (who has the final say about our kindergarten) Jasmine, Helen, Chris and I headed off to probably the most expensive place in the area.
We sat on the floor at a low table, which surprised me, only because we hadn’t yet done so anywhere in Seongnam, and ate so many kinds of food they covered the huge table with all the dishes. They just kept bringing more food even though we were getting full, and replacing the empty dishes with more and different kinds of food. Most of it was fish, but there were plenty of alternatives for me. Chris tried most of it, but drew the line at the tiny shrimp still with heads tails and legs.
And so our cultures clashed again. What was supposed to be generous hospitality to me looked like a colossal waste of food and money. Not to say that Canadians don’t waste food, but I really try not to, and it is acceptable in most Canadian restaurants to take your leftovers home, where as here, it’s not meant to be that way.
Now since we were having such a serious teacher training day, they decided to take us to the ocean because it was nearby. =) ya… but it was fun if not a little silly to see us adults dressed in formal office attire standing without shoes in the shallow water while the tide came in. It was a really bright hot and humid day today and the water was nice, even though it also was warm. Chris wasn’t feeling good (from lack of sleep, he still coughs at night) and I’m sure the heat didn’t help.
Also of note, we were told by Jasmine that our building had received many complaints about the disruptive loud pet in #431 which has been waking people up at night, so they called the school to ask them to do something…except that we don’t have a pet. Nearest we can figure is that when Chris gets up in the night with a coughing fit it sounds like a dog barking, loud enough to wake somebody up. =P but on a serious note please pray Chris’ viral bronchitis will be healed soon.
Kay =)
Chris and I also went out for dinner.
So I’m starting to get used to the routine of being a teacher – except for the things that keep changing.
On Tuesday after we had said goodbye to all the kids, with a “see you tomorrow!” We were told by Mrs. Choi our director (Jasmine), that the next day we would be having a teacher training day and there would be no school. This meant that we got up this morning ridiculously early to meet at 6:30am, and car pooled to another kindergarten 3 hours away to see how they teach there. The only thing was their kindergarten was all in Korean, except for the English class, and they still spoke more Korean than English, so it was not the same at all. They have a nice place though. The facility is government run, so they have excellent materials, and everything is bright and cheery. We were told local students enter a lottery to get in and pay 20$ a month to go. Our hostess, the principal of the school, was very gracious and gave us a tour and some souvenirs, including a Happy Birthday towel (hee hee =) ) and a gift wrapped box of seaweed.
They then decided we should all go out for lunch, so the principal of the school we were visiting, Pastor Kim (who has the final say about our kindergarten) Jasmine, Helen, Chris and I headed off to probably the most expensive place in the area.
We sat on the floor at a low table, which surprised me, only because we hadn’t yet done so anywhere in Seongnam, and ate so many kinds of food they covered the huge table with all the dishes. They just kept bringing more food even though we were getting full, and replacing the empty dishes with more and different kinds of food. Most of it was fish, but there were plenty of alternatives for me. Chris tried most of it, but drew the line at the tiny shrimp still with heads tails and legs.And so our cultures clashed again. What was supposed to be generous hospitality to me looked like a colossal waste of food and money. Not to say that Canadians don’t waste food, but I really try not to, and it is acceptable in most Canadian restaurants to take your leftovers home, where as here, it’s not meant to be that way.
Now since we were having such a serious teacher training day, they decided to take us to the ocean because it was nearby. =) ya… but it was fun if not a little silly to see us adults dressed in formal office attire standing without shoes in the shallow water while the tide came in. It was a really bright hot and humid day today and the water was nice, even though it also was warm. Chris wasn’t feeling good (from lack of sleep, he still coughs at night) and I’m sure the heat didn’t help.
Also of note, we were told by Jasmine that our building had received many complaints about the disruptive loud pet in #431 which has been waking people up at night, so they called the school to ask them to do something…except that we don’t have a pet. Nearest we can figure is that when Chris gets up in the night with a coughing fit it sounds like a dog barking, loud enough to wake somebody up. =P but on a serious note please pray Chris’ viral bronchitis will be healed soon.
Kay =)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The wonderful thing about kinders...
So today is a long overdue post on the goings on here in Korea. We've been teaching at the school now for about 2 weeks. Rather I should say Kay has been teaching here for 2 weeks, as I was out sick for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the first week (technically I'm still sick but I'm gradually on the mend). It's been quite an adjustment here between the jetlag, starting class right away and handling handfuls of 3-5 year olds.
The first week was probably easier on me... I just had to stay home and cough myself silly through the days and nights, Kay on the otherhand got to work shortstaffed to manage young children. Fortunately they were able to manage well.
The second week shaped up to be much easier (though as I type this I hear Kay chasing down a four year old calling out 'Come back! Come back to the classroom!' from the hallway ;) ). We lost our original secretary to the other campus but gained another, and we're starting another Korean teacher this week (bilingual) to take care of the youngest class, and Jasmine will get a chance to step back and take on her more administrative duties as head teacher.
This is going to be a pretty erratic update as I'm on one of my 'off periods' but as we're a bit understaffed until the new teacher starts full time my attention keeps getting pulled away. I'll try to nutshell as much as I can...
I've been really sick (some viral kind of bronchitis it seems... meaning antibiotics don't help at all). I'm getting better and hopefully will be back to par by the end of the long weekend.
School is both rough and rewarding. The school started out very ambitiously in terms of what it tries to teach. They have math, science, drama, cooking, music, phys ed, phonics, writing and thematic projects. These children have full days 5 days a week at all ages (3 - 5) and it's made things very packed especially in trying to plan activities and make lesson plans. Usually by the end of the day both the teachers and students are tired (and somehow, tired teachers are just drained but tired students get wired, emotional and often erratic.) We are making progress, though the language barrier has some issues. It's tough to be an effective authority figure when the students don't understand what you're saying. It's one thing to be able to dole out discipline to students when they're bad, it's another thing to try and enforce and explain rules and problems when language is an impediment. The youngest students are also still only 3 years old and often don't always understand that they're doing something wrong when they're joyfully running around smacking other kids. It can also be tough in the reverse when students want to communicate things to us but don't know how to say it in English. We're lucky to be gaining another bilingual Korean teacher to help us with some of the 'lost in translation' issues (her English seems to be excellent).
I'm going to cut this one off now as it's time for the students to get ready to go and parents are arriving... we'll have pictures and more updates probably this weekend.
Chris
The first week was probably easier on me... I just had to stay home and cough myself silly through the days and nights, Kay on the otherhand got to work shortstaffed to manage young children. Fortunately they were able to manage well.
The second week shaped up to be much easier (though as I type this I hear Kay chasing down a four year old calling out 'Come back! Come back to the classroom!' from the hallway ;) ). We lost our original secretary to the other campus but gained another, and we're starting another Korean teacher this week (bilingual) to take care of the youngest class, and Jasmine will get a chance to step back and take on her more administrative duties as head teacher.
This is going to be a pretty erratic update as I'm on one of my 'off periods' but as we're a bit understaffed until the new teacher starts full time my attention keeps getting pulled away. I'll try to nutshell as much as I can...
I've been really sick (some viral kind of bronchitis it seems... meaning antibiotics don't help at all). I'm getting better and hopefully will be back to par by the end of the long weekend.
School is both rough and rewarding. The school started out very ambitiously in terms of what it tries to teach. They have math, science, drama, cooking, music, phys ed, phonics, writing and thematic projects. These children have full days 5 days a week at all ages (3 - 5) and it's made things very packed especially in trying to plan activities and make lesson plans. Usually by the end of the day both the teachers and students are tired (and somehow, tired teachers are just drained but tired students get wired, emotional and often erratic.) We are making progress, though the language barrier has some issues. It's tough to be an effective authority figure when the students don't understand what you're saying. It's one thing to be able to dole out discipline to students when they're bad, it's another thing to try and enforce and explain rules and problems when language is an impediment. The youngest students are also still only 3 years old and often don't always understand that they're doing something wrong when they're joyfully running around smacking other kids. It can also be tough in the reverse when students want to communicate things to us but don't know how to say it in English. We're lucky to be gaining another bilingual Korean teacher to help us with some of the 'lost in translation' issues (her English seems to be excellent).
I'm going to cut this one off now as it's time for the students to get ready to go and parents are arriving... we'll have pictures and more updates probably this weekend.
Chris
Monday, September 1, 2008
Day 2 - Sunday Aug 31, 2008
We woke up around 7 AM (that seems to be what happens when you go to bed around 9PM). We had plans to meet Jasmine around 10:30 to go to church with her (she attends the church that runs the school) but there was plenty of time to wake up and try to learn our way around things in the apartment and learn how much there is to figure out. First it turns out that instead of shampoo, which we intended to use as all purpose hand soap/body wash/shampoo to start out with... was actually conditioner. It's an odd thing to wash with conditioner, it doesn't have quite the same effect. There was no real way to know given the bottle, and our superintendent laughed and told us he's done the same thing in the past when we told him later on. We managed to figure out the stove (it's a couple of those flat countertop electric elements) which somehow wasn't entirely plugged in underneath the cupboards, and we played a bit with the video intercom. I even managed to set off some kind of alarm with it (it has a pile of buttons with no english labels and I was trying to turn it off with the biggest button). Fortunately no security came storming up or anything and we managed to shut it off somehow... After a breakfast of eggs and toast we were ready when Jasmine showed up to introduce us to the subway.
The subway system in Seoul is really, really... huge. I've seen the Toronto TTC subway map and you could fit it in a small corner of the map we looked at yesterday. Subway fares are fairly low. It's either a dollar per trip (1,000 KRW) or if you buy access cards (kind of 'pay as you go') for $2.50 you can fill them as often as you like and trips are reduced to $0.90 each. We managed to get through this process thanks to having Jasmine there to translate a bit. We both got the cards and were set to go.
The church (which is the same building as the kindergarten we teach) is only 15 minutes away by subway so it's really easy to get there. We're already learning our way around a bit. Sadly there was no translator at church on Sunday so there was little we could do to follow the service. Afterwards though, we were greeted by many members of the church who were very happy to see us. We managed to meet with our superintendent afterwards for lunch (he took us ot a little Japanese place nearby) and then met up again with Jasmine to talk about the kindergarten itself. We were loaded up with books and curriculum... it's amazing how much organization she's put into it, and considering we're starting Monday it's a bit up-in-the-air still where we have ideas on how it should be but no laid out lesson plan (we're probably going to have to adjust anything we already know anyway).
The classes are very small to start out as it seems many parents want to see the presence of a western teacher before they commit to putting their children in the school (some of the private hagwans make big promises about things and don't end up even getting western teachers, so there's a little bit of caution on the side of parents). Right now, Kay is the 5 year old (4 by our age system) home room teacher, I'm teaching the 6 (5) year olds, and Jasmine has the 4(3) year olds, including her own son. On top of this, during the day we rotate with given subjects. I'm kind of the official phonics/reading/literacy teacher, and also the science teacher. Kay teaches math and works with students on the 'thematic project' which will vary from week to week and really just be a series of interactive or artistic things to do with the students involving whatever the theme of the week is.
The rest of our day involved finding a really good grocery market area about a 5 minute walk from where we lived (after wandering blindly for a bit) and coming home with a few more foodstuffs to round out the menu. I also ended up with a fever during the night, but I managed to sleep it off and was ready for the first day of school (though I still have a lingering cough).
The subway system in Seoul is really, really... huge. I've seen the Toronto TTC subway map and you could fit it in a small corner of the map we looked at yesterday. Subway fares are fairly low. It's either a dollar per trip (1,000 KRW) or if you buy access cards (kind of 'pay as you go') for $2.50 you can fill them as often as you like and trips are reduced to $0.90 each. We managed to get through this process thanks to having Jasmine there to translate a bit. We both got the cards and were set to go.
The church (which is the same building as the kindergarten we teach) is only 15 minutes away by subway so it's really easy to get there. We're already learning our way around a bit. Sadly there was no translator at church on Sunday so there was little we could do to follow the service. Afterwards though, we were greeted by many members of the church who were very happy to see us. We managed to meet with our superintendent afterwards for lunch (he took us ot a little Japanese place nearby) and then met up again with Jasmine to talk about the kindergarten itself. We were loaded up with books and curriculum... it's amazing how much organization she's put into it, and considering we're starting Monday it's a bit up-in-the-air still where we have ideas on how it should be but no laid out lesson plan (we're probably going to have to adjust anything we already know anyway).
The classes are very small to start out as it seems many parents want to see the presence of a western teacher before they commit to putting their children in the school (some of the private hagwans make big promises about things and don't end up even getting western teachers, so there's a little bit of caution on the side of parents). Right now, Kay is the 5 year old (4 by our age system) home room teacher, I'm teaching the 6 (5) year olds, and Jasmine has the 4(3) year olds, including her own son. On top of this, during the day we rotate with given subjects. I'm kind of the official phonics/reading/literacy teacher, and also the science teacher. Kay teaches math and works with students on the 'thematic project' which will vary from week to week and really just be a series of interactive or artistic things to do with the students involving whatever the theme of the week is.
The rest of our day involved finding a really good grocery market area about a 5 minute walk from where we lived (after wandering blindly for a bit) and coming home with a few more foodstuffs to round out the menu. I also ended up with a fever during the night, but I managed to sleep it off and was ready for the first day of school (though I still have a lingering cough).
Flying in...
We are here. It's funny how such a small statement can mean so much but at the same time not really sink in. We left Toronto at 10:00 AM on Friday morning and arrived at 12 noon on Saturday. I thought I was being smart by staying awake all night on Thursday night to try and acclimate to the time change in advance, but I didn't count on that there would be no sleep on the plane. I've been coming down with a bit of a cough over the past week or so and it managed to keep me more or less awake at nights the past few days. I'm hoping Kay doesn't come down with it (and I'm hoping a class of Korean students won't come down with it either).
The flight was pretty good other than that. They fed us well (3 meals + the occasional walkthrough with beverages), and there was actually a small LCD touchscreen in front of each person (on the back of the preceding seat) where you could choose from a variety of semi-recent movies, classics, TV shows, or radio/music selections. I guess on a 13 hour flight there's a lot of time when you can't sleep to put in a movie. I ended up finally seeing Prince Caspian (and rewatched Iron Man). We sat next to a guy named Nathan who was heading back for his second year of teaching. He seemed to be of Korean-Canadian background and knew a fair bit. When we got to the airport we all stuck together through luggage, customs, etc. Getting off the plane was pretty easy. We did have about an hour wait on luggage though... it was lucky that the plane got in 45 minutes early.
We managed to rendezvous with the head of the kindergarten program, Jasmine (Jung Wha) Choi. She helped us pack up all our luggage and then spent the rest of the day driving us around helping us to meet our needs for our first day. It was a really long drive through Seoul to Bundang. Apparently Saturday is really hectic with all the traffic. I think it was about 3 hours (maybe 3 and a half) to get to our first stop... E-Mart. It's kind of like a Korean K-Mart /Walmartish store though with more.
We stopped for lunch first in the food court in the basement. It was interesting to walk in and realize if we were there alone we wouldn't have *any* idea what was there beyond pictures. Jasmine helped guide us a bit and I ended up with some sort of beef dish (I think it was pronounced something like 'plu' 'gon' 'gi') and Kay and Jasmine each had a vegetable rice plate. Both meals were very large, with the main platter and a series of small sides. Mine had lettuce, greenish peppers, kimchi, some sort of seafoodish sauce, steamed rich, spiced cucumbers and a couple other sauces. Also it had something Jasmine said was similar to Miso soup with tofu and vegetables. Kay's was a rice vegetable dish with a spicy sauce and a number of side dishes. There was also kimchi and spiced cucumbers with hers, as well as a couple soups (one was bean sprout, another was a cold cucumber tomato soup. I think she found hers a bit too spicy so shared some of mine and I tried some of hers.
After the meal, we picked up a few miscellaneous odds and ends we would need: towels, an alarm clock, some shampoo (which turned out to be actually conditioner... not so good when we intended to use it as soap/body wash as well). and food. Things were marvellously expensive so we'll have to take some time to look around and find out what the best options for food and such are while we're here. So far we found eggs were reasonably priced. Large loaves of white bread seem to be OK, and everything else seemed pretty pricy. We managed to get a 5 lb bag of rice for about $15. Eggs were similar in price or at least not mind bogglingly expensive so we went with just rice, eggs and bread. Water too... people don't drink the tapwater so we stocked up on water which is relatively cheap.
At this point, Jasmine was running late for a meeting with the pastor of the church that runs the school, so we went there to find he had already left. Other than that we pretty much came back here to the apartment and unloaded at about 8PM our time.
The apartment is very nice. It's a bit smaller than others I've lived in, but it's by no means cramped. It's very open and modern: it has an air conditioner with remote control for temperature settings, there's a video intercom for the door, the lock is a keypad, there are motion lights in the entry for when you come in... it's also very clean and nice looking. We'll try to get pictures of it soon.
We didn't last very long after all that, it was pretty much a case of 'oohing' over the apartment, washing off what seemed like a long couple of days of travel grime and then going to bed.
The flight was pretty good other than that. They fed us well (3 meals + the occasional walkthrough with beverages), and there was actually a small LCD touchscreen in front of each person (on the back of the preceding seat) where you could choose from a variety of semi-recent movies, classics, TV shows, or radio/music selections. I guess on a 13 hour flight there's a lot of time when you can't sleep to put in a movie. I ended up finally seeing Prince Caspian (and rewatched Iron Man). We sat next to a guy named Nathan who was heading back for his second year of teaching. He seemed to be of Korean-Canadian background and knew a fair bit. When we got to the airport we all stuck together through luggage, customs, etc. Getting off the plane was pretty easy. We did have about an hour wait on luggage though... it was lucky that the plane got in 45 minutes early.
We managed to rendezvous with the head of the kindergarten program, Jasmine (Jung Wha) Choi. She helped us pack up all our luggage and then spent the rest of the day driving us around helping us to meet our needs for our first day. It was a really long drive through Seoul to Bundang. Apparently Saturday is really hectic with all the traffic. I think it was about 3 hours (maybe 3 and a half) to get to our first stop... E-Mart. It's kind of like a Korean K-Mart /Walmartish store though with more.
We stopped for lunch first in the food court in the basement. It was interesting to walk in and realize if we were there alone we wouldn't have *any* idea what was there beyond pictures. Jasmine helped guide us a bit and I ended up with some sort of beef dish (I think it was pronounced something like 'plu' 'gon' 'gi') and Kay and Jasmine each had a vegetable rice plate. Both meals were very large, with the main platter and a series of small sides. Mine had lettuce, greenish peppers, kimchi, some sort of seafoodish sauce, steamed rich, spiced cucumbers and a couple other sauces. Also it had something Jasmine said was similar to Miso soup with tofu and vegetables. Kay's was a rice vegetable dish with a spicy sauce and a number of side dishes. There was also kimchi and spiced cucumbers with hers, as well as a couple soups (one was bean sprout, another was a cold cucumber tomato soup. I think she found hers a bit too spicy so shared some of mine and I tried some of hers.
After the meal, we picked up a few miscellaneous odds and ends we would need: towels, an alarm clock, some shampoo (which turned out to be actually conditioner... not so good when we intended to use it as soap/body wash as well). and food. Things were marvellously expensive so we'll have to take some time to look around and find out what the best options for food and such are while we're here. So far we found eggs were reasonably priced. Large loaves of white bread seem to be OK, and everything else seemed pretty pricy. We managed to get a 5 lb bag of rice for about $15. Eggs were similar in price or at least not mind bogglingly expensive so we went with just rice, eggs and bread. Water too... people don't drink the tapwater so we stocked up on water which is relatively cheap.
At this point, Jasmine was running late for a meeting with the pastor of the church that runs the school, so we went there to find he had already left. Other than that we pretty much came back here to the apartment and unloaded at about 8PM our time.
The apartment is very nice. It's a bit smaller than others I've lived in, but it's by no means cramped. It's very open and modern: it has an air conditioner with remote control for temperature settings, there's a video intercom for the door, the lock is a keypad, there are motion lights in the entry for when you come in... it's also very clean and nice looking. We'll try to get pictures of it soon.
We didn't last very long after all that, it was pretty much a case of 'oohing' over the apartment, washing off what seemed like a long couple of days of travel grime and then going to bed.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Making like a tree...
So apparently as an update, we're leaving.
We went back in to the consulate today to check on our status for the visa, and apparently they were made ready as we were walking there (or something... Karen tells us they appeared as being available and ready right after we left to walk there and check).
So we have very cool looking visas, and we booked a Friday 10 AM flight... that means we leave tomorrow morning I guess.
So... we'll be out of touch for a few days likely, but more will come now that things are happening :)
Chris
We went back in to the consulate today to check on our status for the visa, and apparently they were made ready as we were walking there (or something... Karen tells us they appeared as being available and ready right after we left to walk there and check).
So we have very cool looking visas, and we booked a Friday 10 AM flight... that means we leave tomorrow morning I guess.
So... we'll be out of touch for a few days likely, but more will come now that things are happening :)
Chris
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Lions and Tigers and Consulates... oh my!
Well, it's been a bit longer in Toronto than we hoped initially. We managed to get down to the consulate yesterday (the 27th) for our entrance interview. Getting there, we were directed to a waiting area and found there were a couple other people who were told the same 'time' to arrive for the interview. 10 - 15 minutes later we were ushered out to another waiting room with a few more people in it. Shortly after another half-dozen walked in. By this point, everyone was there for a 3:00 PM interview and it dawned on me that this in fact was not just an interview, but Korea's latest reality TV enterprise 'Who Wants to Have a VISA?'
We spent the rest of the day in a series of gruelling challenges, from trying to make fire with kimchi (a traditional Korean fermented cabbage/vegetable dish) to a mountain climbing race up a full scale model of Mt Hallasan made out of red Jell-O. Many people were voted off and went home with a variety of consolation prizes. In the end it came down to Kay, myself and some fellow named John. Fortunately the jury voted for me, and I'll be heading out. Kay's going to have to try again next season though.
Seriously though... the waiting room had lots of people, but by the time they started interviewing it went very quickly. They spent 2-3 minutes with each person (Kay and I were interviewed at the same time) and at the end they told us it would be up to 2-3 business days before we'd get our visas. There's a flight we'd love to take Friday night, so God willing, if we can have our visas by Friday in the day we'll be off. Otherwise we'll be here through the long weekend (as Monday is Labour Day and the consulate will be closed). In the meantime we're still here with Karen, overstaying our welcome and sleeping on a wide assortment of furniture.
And getting sick. I've started to come down with some sort of coughing thing that's not as good, and Kay is recovering from being bitten by some sort of bugs (that we never found) and having a reaction to the venom. All in all we can't complain, our time in Toronto has been pretty good. Kay was able to get a few secret shopper jobs with a restaraunt called the Pickle barrel giving us a free lunch on three different days. We also had a chance to visit with some friends here in Toronto on different days. Still... here's hoping for a Friday flight! :)
Chris
We spent the rest of the day in a series of gruelling challenges, from trying to make fire with kimchi (a traditional Korean fermented cabbage/vegetable dish) to a mountain climbing race up a full scale model of Mt Hallasan made out of red Jell-O. Many people were voted off and went home with a variety of consolation prizes. In the end it came down to Kay, myself and some fellow named John. Fortunately the jury voted for me, and I'll be heading out. Kay's going to have to try again next season though.
Seriously though... the waiting room had lots of people, but by the time they started interviewing it went very quickly. They spent 2-3 minutes with each person (Kay and I were interviewed at the same time) and at the end they told us it would be up to 2-3 business days before we'd get our visas. There's a flight we'd love to take Friday night, so God willing, if we can have our visas by Friday in the day we'll be off. Otherwise we'll be here through the long weekend (as Monday is Labour Day and the consulate will be closed). In the meantime we're still here with Karen, overstaying our welcome and sleeping on a wide assortment of furniture.
And getting sick. I've started to come down with some sort of coughing thing that's not as good, and Kay is recovering from being bitten by some sort of bugs (that we never found) and having a reaction to the venom. All in all we can't complain, our time in Toronto has been pretty good. Kay was able to get a few secret shopper jobs with a restaraunt called the Pickle barrel giving us a free lunch on three different days. We also had a chance to visit with some friends here in Toronto on different days. Still... here's hoping for a Friday flight! :)
Chris
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Beginnings
So, without any ado, our first blog entry:
-Chris
We're in Toronto. We are VERY in Toronto. We are SO in Toronto that apparently we can't leave until the end of August. We arrived August 13th after a somewhat arduous bus trip from Fort Frances. There were a few unexpected delays with a bus overbooked and many of us had to wait an extra 3-4 hours on top of the 6 hour layover in Thunder Bay. That being said, it was still a blessing to have woken up bright and early on the 12th to leave to find our visa issuance numbers in our e-mail and a enormous golden sunrise complete with double rainbow waiting for us as we departed.
Thursday morning, first thing, we went to the Korean consulate here in Toronto. Fortunately it's a hop, skip and a jump away and we were able to see someone right away. After the paper shuffling, filling out of forms and etc procedure we were told that they would interview us at 3 PM... on August 27th. They seem to be pretty swamped there; there was a large stack of applications and passports piling up. So we took our leave and headed back here to e-mail our school the not-so-good news.
The school was surprised, but they took the news very well. It seems they've looked at pushing back the school year to the beginning of September as we're not the only teachers in this kind of a situation. Some apparently haven't gotten their visa issuance numbers yet, and it's definitely an item of prayer support for the school. Other school surprises include a slight shift in my role in the upcoming year. It seems there is a lower enrollment than anticipated so Mr. Pfister (our superintendent) asked if I would be willing to work at the Kindergarten campus with Kay. He also suggested a possible 'part time' scenario where I'd do some work at each campus, but thinking about it, I'm happy to stick with the Kindergarten for now and work with Kay in corrupting the youth.
-Chris
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