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.

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 =)

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 =)

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

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).

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.