MAN???

There is a male teacher!! WHO IS MY AGE!!! At my school!!! I didn't think I would ever see the day. Hahaaa, finally someone (other than me) who is younger than 30.

In other news, kids did an activity today where they had to create a movie script. Here' s a good one:

Type of Program: Documentary

Directors: Kim Dragon Ticket, Kim Fall Brother, Mr. Um

Actors: Anna, Universe God, Bigbang-Top, Alien

Number of Cameramen: 1

Summary: Long time ago, there was no earth. But there was a woman there. Her name was Anna. Anna was very angry because an alien ate Anna's nail. So she hit the universe god. So the god afraid of Anna. So he made a bigbang. But Anna was very strong, so she killed Top. And she became god of earth. So she made a earth. This is a earth story.

Most Important Scene:
A: Alien ate my nail. So I will hit the god.
B: I'm sorry.
A: Shut up. I must hit you.
B: Okay. I will make a Bigbang-Top for you.
A: You motherfucker. I will kill Top and I will be a god of earth.
B: Oh no! Help me.

1st week of new semester

Jeez, so I completely neglect to write about China and Japan, yet here I am writing about school?? *roll eyes* I need to sort out my priorities. :-p

This is my first week teaching the new kids, and I am astounded at how GOOD their English comprehension is. I mean... WOW.

When I came to this school 6 months ago, most of the students could barely understand me. But these 1st graders are almost at the same level as the current 2nd and 3rd graders are.

Almost all of the kids had a foreign teacher in Elementary school, and I think this is the key. Don't get me wrong - their speaking ability is pretty crappy - but they can already understand me very well.

I did meet one kid who is very outgoing (yeah he's gonna be a handful in the months to come) and who speaks exceptionally well. The class fell silent as he spoke, "Teacher. May I ask you a question? I am just wondering: are you single, or are you married?" :D I was amazed.

Speaking is such a huge issue, overall. The current 3rd graders recently had to read some sentences in their classes, and the teachers noticed just how poor their pronunciation is. It makes me think that we are ultimately failing as teachers. I know that my co-teachers do most of the teaching and that I only teach each class once a week, but I feel partially responsible for this.

I gotta change something this semester. Now if I wasn't so damn tired all the time, I could maybe think of some ideas right now. :-p

Yesterday I visited with some 2nd graders and let a kid taste my coffee for some unknown reason. After a few minutes I spun around in circles saying, "Where is my coffee??" to find that he had drunk it all. ("Teacher! One-shot!") Poor kid was probably jumping off the walls later on.

In other news, just saw this picture of Austria, and I'm wondering what my life would be like if I had decided to teach in Europe instead of Asia. I really do love Korea, but man, I miss Europe.

Errr yeah so... why the hell won't my picture stay at the bottom of this post? Bah. Oh well.

Failed perms, New Years, and China!

First post of 2009, YAY!!!

So the other day I decided to get a haircut, and the Korean I was with (Sojung) insisted I get a perm.

The hairstylist was a really really nice young guy who didn't speak any English. He sat me down in the chair and proceeded to cut my bangs REALLY short, in a style which I specifically said I did NOT want. :-p Oh, Korea. The rest of my hair he made all complicated and layered, so I was happy about that. (At one point he wanted me to close my eyes, and he said, "Ears... Put - down!" and I totally understood. I deserve a round of applause, here.)

Then I spent the next 2.5 or so hours sitting in curlers with machines rotating around my head, getting my hair permed. In the end it didn't turn out the way that was expected, so rather than sitting an additional hour in that place I decided to leave. I was really hoping that the guy wouldn't feel guilty, but my friend just HAD to guilt-trip the place into giving me half price for the treatment.

Anyway now I have ridiculous hair that I would never have in the States, but Korea makes me brave. About a lot of things. *cough*

On New Year's Eve I went to Itaewon to meet Jethro. We had a really chill time at a coffee shop before heading over to his Hapkido practice. That was actually pretty fun to watch, and now I'm inspired to take a class like that myself. Jethro surprised the hell out of me. That man can really move butt in there...

Jethro and I debated for ages on what to do the rest of the night. My problem was getting home early enough to get some sleep before leaving for China in the morning. I called the magic number of 1330, and they told me it'd be extremely difficult to get a cab back considering it was the holidays. So, we decided to just head home early... I'm really sorry to Eric for not meeting up with him. :-( I hope he's not too upset and that I can still meet his "friend" before she leaves.

Anyway, off to China in about 8 hours, so I better go to bed. 我不是中国人!! Fuck yeah that's the only thing I can remember from my semester of Chinese.

Fun at the lesbian club.

Well.

The day started off with me, Anne, and Sojung getting some really good shopping done at Forever 21 in Myeongdong. I've never shopped at this store in the States, but it's probably my favorite place in Korea. Eventually I had to force myself to leave before I spent ALL my money there.

Molly joined us afterward, and we grabbed some coffee somewhere in Myeongdong. The place was incredibly busy, and there was of course the whole "pali pali" atmosphere going on which made me miss coffee shops in America... Other than that the place was really awesome... modern, comfortable, and the view out the window was incredible. Sort of made me think of all those pictures of downtown Tokyo with all the neon signs and whatnot.

Anne left our group not long after that. For various reasons she just got sick and tired of Korean culture that day and needed to go home. I definitely understand her. Sometimes hearing about people's experiences makes me want to reconsider my quest for a Korean boyfriend.

So the three of us had dokkpokkee (my third time in two days) in Hongdae, and that's where we began drinking away our sorrows. :-p I had a lot of fun in that place, mostly laughing hysterically at nothing in particular. One of the highlights was the "what animals have thumbs" game. Trust me, it's REALLY fun when soju is involved.

After that we began our long and arduous journey to the lesbian bar, helping a random drunk Korean girl get back on her feet along the way. (That, by the way, is definitely not the first or the last time that will happen.) We found the place eventually, and that's where Sojung started to show us a whole new surprising side! :-p I danced as long as I could before I began to get incredibly tired, and being followed around by a random Korean girl who didn't speak any English wasn't helping me at that point. So I peaced out and plopped myself onto one of the inredibly comfortable couch things they had there. (The design of the place was just so cool, by the way.) I began drunk texting people to try to stay awake, telling people where I am and what I'm doing, and one of the most helpful replies was from Max: "Pics?" Thanks, buddy.

Shared a cab back home at like 4 in the morning. Got dropped off at the station near my place and walked home by myself and was completely safe. Only in Korea, man.

Christmas Eve, Day, and day after.

Christmas Eve was spent in my area of Hwajeong with my friends Anne and Sojung. (Korean people always call Anne "Anna" and it really confuses me when I'm around.) We had much soju along with this dokkpokkee (however you spell that in English) stuff. After eating this dish a few times, I finally understand why Korean kids prefer this above pizza, chocolate, all that stuff. Though I wish I could for once try a less hot version.

Christmas Day I met up with Anne early to help her cook... I managed to help pay for things and help cut other things up, but that's as far as my assistance went. :-p Later in the night Anne's Korean boyfriend attempted to play the trumpet for us. It was going well at some points but not at others. My favorite quote was from an art teacher there who said after a pause, "Maybe you need more alcohol." I also learned all about soju bombs, which some people were quite excited about.

Today I'm sitting around trying to recover from the semester. I've been exhausted for these last few weeks, and now I finally have the chance to sit around and do nothing. It's wonderful. I'm even almost fully recovered from snowboarding (the picture on the left sums up my experience).

The only down side at the moment is that there's a crazy old lady living below me, and for one reason or another she's been doing nothing but yelling in the hallway. I'm actually a little afraid at this point. :-p

First tears in Korea

Before today I haven't cried in this country once. Not in public, not in private, nothing. Not even close.

But today was the last day of school, and the kids were all leaving for vacation. Some of them stopped by my office to say goodbye, and I all of a sudden just got so SAD. So I escaped to the bathroom and started to cry. I quickly stopped because I was thinking to myself, what the hell is going on... So I ran to find my best teacher friend (a really bizarre 35/36 year old woman) to distract myself, but I just BURST into tears right in front of her.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't cry, so she got really scared and thought something horrible had happened... Well the embarrassing truth was that I was just sad about the kids leaving!!

Then later some of the youngest little girls saw me with my red puffy eyes and mothered me so well... "Anna... No cry! Be happy!"

Ahhhhh... I am so weird... Kill me now.

My ridiculous Korean kids.

As I write this there's a boy getting punished in my office. He did something very serious (something involving stealing money), but I don't care... He started crying and all I wanted to do was give him a big hug! It's really a good thing that I'm not in charge of any kind of (serious) discipline, because I just wouldn't be able to do it. I'm too crazy about these kids. I don't even know why. It's not like they're always little angels or anything remotely close to that.

I'm going to miss the third graders like crazy when they graduate. I really don't know what's going on... It's not like I particularly like kids or something like that. Maybe it's because we're so close in age and I'm an only child that I think of them as my little brothers and sisters, haha. (But be careful not to say that to a Korean, because they take that to mean you like your students in some kind of romantic way. It's their own fault... having the same word for "boyfriend" and "big brother." Oi.)

Corporal punishment is something that has long since been shown to be a terrible disciplining method, but it's still going on full-swing here in most Korean schools. I have a favorite student here, third grader, and probably the only reason he's my favorite is because nobody else likes him. I mean, everyone needs SOMEONE on their side, right? Anyway, he's a big trouble maker (outside of my class); teachers take out their anger on him by beating him harder than usual. He gets beaten probably every other day. Do they honestly think they're doing him any good? He obviously hasn't changed his behavior... and he's probably going to grow up to be a really violent person because of it. Don't get me started on their education system here, and how this boy is going to go to a high school filled with kids just like him where he will have no motivation to better himself...

I wish I could take him away from this place while there's still a chance of giving him a good future. But what do I know, I'm just the foreign teacher. *roll eyes*

And of course as I'm writing this, my office is FLOODED with students. There comes a point when a person can no longer handle this. :-p So now I'm listening to some trippy song by Enya just to try to calm myself down, hahaha. (Actually it's not a bad song. Caribbean Blue.)