Korea's Weird Friday

Life here is different :)

I had a fantastic dinner with Courtney, Nyasha, and Courtney's boyfriend, Mike, last night. We had this pork bone and aged kimchi stew that cooks at your table, and it was delicious! Even better, I got to take the leftovers home, so now I have super tasty stew for dinner again :)

Now, on to some differences:

- It's local election time in Osan. Opposite the main Osan bus stop this morning, one of the campaigners had parked a small truck complete with TV, neon signs, and blaring loudspeaker playing messages and music. It was really obnoxious! But funny for the short amount of time I had to stand in front of it.

- One of the other teachers gave all the other teachers (including me) a pretty box full of ddeok before school today. She said it's her babies first birthday. So, instead of people giving her or the baby presents, she gives all he co-workers a present. I told her thank you and congratulations. Sadly, ddeok is very pretty, but has the taste an texture of a huge glob of semi-dry craft glue.

- I had three lessons on the schedule today. My co-teacher says he'll do both 3rd grades alone, which leaves me with my one scheduled, alone, 1st grade class. I mosey on up there and start class. We're 10 minutes into the lesson when Mr Beak shows up and asks if I'd please 'take a break' and leave him to teach alone. What the heck is going on? 

Anyway, I now have absolutely no teaching all day. Might take this opportunity to attempt to get some Skype students. Or just read my book. And plan my next moves after Korea.. And dream about wearing a dress in summer.

So, today's five things:

1) Leftovers for dinner! Yum.

2) Once again, well above freezing all day. Maybe I have seen the end of -0? It's also more humid than it has been. Interesting how used to the cold you get though. The bus stop tells me the temperature this morning was around 2-3 degrees, and it felt warm enough that I could have worn a t-shirt :) The lack of bitingly cold wind keeps taking me by surprise too.

3) I'm going to go chill in the coffee shop after work today.

4) It's Friday! Which means tomorrow is Saturday :) Yay! 

5) Skype date with Jenni tomorrow!

Still frustrated Thursday

Some days I wish I was the kind of girl who could throw a massive paddy and not feel bad about it afterwards. I really feel like throwing one right now. Mostly I was to scream, stomp my feet, and then storm out of the building. 

My co-teacher told me this morning that I'd be teaching all the classes alone today because he was really busy. That's not a problem, I prefer it, in fact. The problem comes when he says "Maybe should do the 'new words' section today". Ok, that's cool. 'Maybe' means it's not set in stone though, right? 

Wrong. 

My first two classes were great. We were up to the new words bit anyway, so that was fine. Then, in the third class, they weren't up to there, so I started doing where we were up to. They were a bit unhappy about doing the reading work, so I was working hard on getting them motivated, and gave them a bit of a talking to. Then, About 20 minutes into the class, Mr Beak walks in. He looks at what were doing and goes "No, I told you, do the new words". I was like, "But, we're not up to the next chapter yet", but he said I had to skip what were were doing (and maybe do it later?) and do the new words today. He didn't even let me finish the exercise we were doing.

I was pissed off because I'd just spent ages getting them to get into the work, he'd come and interrupted my class and undermined me in front of the students, and he is consistently unclear in his instructions, no matter how much I try to clarify. I think my anger is probably mostly unjust, and mostly caused by communication barriers and cultural differences, but that doesn't make my frustration any less.

Ok, I just deleted a whole paragraph of anti-co-teacher rant. I feel like maybe I should take up boxing or something!

I love teaching, but some (most?) days this particular job is a pain in the arse. I miss my happy old NZLC job!

Oh well, tonight is a late teaching night for me (unless it is magically cancelled at the last minute, AGAIN. I'm hopeful that it'll be a good lesson. Also, I'm going out tonight with Courtney and Nyasha for dinner, which is always nice.

Now, to try and inject something positive into the post, today's five:

1) I cleaned my apartment this morning, so now it is nice and clean. Also, I did some laundry before leaving for work, and hang it up to dry, so my apartment should smell like clean clothes when I get home.

2) Because it's a late work night and I'm so angry, I've decided that a good sure is a hot chocolate from Holly's Coffee on the way home :)

3) I went shopping at the market last night and got some yummy strawberries on sale, which I'm going to eat after school.

4) It was so warm this morning that I had to take off my jacket when I walked to the bus.

5) Grass is starting to grow everywhere. Korea no longer looks like a compelete wasteland. 

Wednesday's Five

I finally wrote down a list of things I need my co-teacher to do for me (mainly work towards confirming my summer vacation days so I can plan a holiday). I wrote at the top that I know he's busy, so he can leave it until he has some spare time. He seemed happy enough with it, and said that he thought he could probably have some answers for me by next week. "Gosh," I thought, "he is perhaps competent after all". Ha ha. While I was at his desk, I asked about the two third grade classes we had next. He usually teaches them alone on a Wednesday, and he said that he'd do them alone today too. Then, 15 minutes into the period he comes up to me and says "Sam teacher, you have class". I was like WTF, you *just* said you were doing it. He said the schedule had changed and he'd do it Monday instead. So, I had to rush to class, with no idea where in the book they were up to, and muddle my way through the lesson. What is wrong with this place?!?

Then, he comes up to me and is really confused about the list I gave him, so I explained it, and he was asking if it was to do with the students' writing assignments (again, WTF?). I *think* we now both understand it's about my holidays. I know some of it is the language barrier, but seriously.

And just now, I walked into the staffroom to find a lady teacher hitting a student. It looked playful until as she was hitting him, she accidentally hit his pen and hurt her hand. Then she yelled at him and started pinching his cheeks and pulling his face around. It was short-lived, and he didn't seem disturbed by it, but it was unpleasant.

*Sigh*.

Anyway, today is market day, so I'm going for a walk through after work to pick up some vegetables and some dinner. I'm thinking of bringing some vegetables to eat with my lunch eat day, because my intake is WAY down. Then, later in the evening I'm going bowling with some other Osan folks.

Ok, lets try for five things today:

1) It's above freezing all day again.

2) I finally got up the courage to talk to my co-teacher about organising my summer vacation.

3) Lunch today was chicken drumsticks, which were nice.

4) Despite a totally abysmal 4th period lesson (the one I got told to teach 15 minutes in), my other two classes went really well. I know a lot of resposnibility rests on the teacher for how lessons go, but the students play a HUGE part to. I've done the exact same lessons with two classes and one will be fantastic, join in, participate, and learn, and the other just messes around and does nothing. It's really not me, sometimes it is them.

5) One activity in class today was to write a sentence and reply about the future, using "We will ______ on the weekend/ next month/ whenever in the future", and then a reply. Most group wrote good stuff like 

a: "We will go swimming in summer" 

b: "that sounds like fun" 

a: "We will go to school tomorrow" 

b: "Ok, I'll come too", etc. 

One group cracked me up when the wrote:

a:"We will be adults in the future" 

b:"No I don't want to".

Haha, good job, kids :)

Frustration Tuesday

I was reading some of my very first blog entries this morning, from all the way back in June. I was interested to read about how my teaching was back then, and how excited and happy I was with most of my day's classes. It sort of highlighted how dull my days here are. I read about how thrilled I was to find the students interested and motivated, and I didn't write about discipline issues at all. Fast forwards nine months and I'm bored, undervalued, and feel like this work might be making my teaching worse rather than giving me valuable experience. It's tricky because teaching is definitely what you make of it, but there are also a lot of restrictions in place here that are... well... restricting. I am trying to use it all as an opportunity to learn and improve, but a lot of the time now, I just feel tired. Back in NZ I'd teach for three hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, every day. And I had to plan every lesson, and had a minimum of technology available to me. We weren't even able to print things in colour. Here I teach for 45 mins at a time, often no more than three or four times a day, there's a huge touch screen in the English room, the computer is a touch screen, everything is done via power-point, and all the books come with interactive CDs. I do a minimum of lesson planning, and even then, my co-teacher teaches over half of everything anyway. So, my work load is way reduced, but so is my reward, it seems.

The kids are nice, and I enjoy interacting with them, but it is so different being in a public school. I don't think it's something I'd choose to do again. I think that in the future I'll stick with dedicated language schools in the hope that at least the materials will be better, and that the student's will actually be there to learn English. Don't even get me started on the quality of a lot of the teaching materials here. The English used in them is awkward, I'm not allowed to teach grammar (which means my own knowledge of the subject is stagnating), and sometimes the books are just plain wrong. For example, we were looking at a "culture" bit of the 1st grade book, which was about famous things in Australia, one of which the book said was 'Bonti Beach' in New South Wales. I tried to tell my Co-Teacher it was spelled "Bondi", but as usual he didn't even listen. His reply when I said it was spelled wrong? "Oh, really?! That's good!". Sorry, what? And then! He was doing the bit about America, using the map on the book's interactive CD, and I was thinking, 'Hmmm, there's something wrong with that map of North America...'. And then I realised, it was in French! New Mexico was 'Nouveau Mexique', and so on. For goodness sake! Can you not even put an ENGLISH map in the ENGLISH textbook? It's not like maps of the USA are difficult to come by - why was it in French? I didn't even both saying anything about that one :)

I'm really hoping that after-school class goes well today!

And here's five for today:

1) The American map in French actually made me laugh :)

2) My little buddy came up to me after class to ask if I'd come play with him at lunch time. He didn't use a dash of English, but man can that kid mime!

3) I played with my buddy at lunch. He like to run races and despite being about as tall as my elbow, he can almost beat me. I think I'll start letting him win... it's a bit mean to win all the time, isn't it?

4) I got two lovely messages this morning, one from Jenni and one from Brook. They really brightened up my morning! Getting out of bed seems to be getting progressively harder, so to wake up to awesome letters from friends is the best :)

5) I think it's been above freezing all day today. Progress!

*              *                   *

Update: 

Class did go very well :) I had fun, and I think they did too. Also, I had some udon noodle soup for dinner, and then stopped by the coffee shop for a hot chocolate and to read my book. A nice evening :)

Monday update

Once again, it's been a few days.

Well, dinner last Thursday did turn out to be spectacular. It was pricey (for Korea at about $25 a person), but it was all you can eat, and was so, so good! It was all different cuts of raw tuna, which you dipped in soy sauce and ate with seaweed. There was wasabi too, but I'm not a fan (actually, I hate it). The tuna came frozen, and so the meal was really slow and leisurely as you waited for it to thaw. Every mouthful was like a treat. The tuna was so tender and really very good. We were enjoying our meal so much that they gave us a special dish - cuts of tuna with gold leaf on top! Yeah, actual gold! So fancy. I really enjoyed it, and will definitely go back there. I was so full of tuna by the end though. Sadly, I forgot my camera! Next time I will get photos.

Friday was a normal day. Well, it was 'test' day again, so I had no teaching (which they only told me about a third of the way through the day... madness. So, I was pretty bored, but I spent some time proofreading my brother's new website, Waterfront NZ. It's a really cool site for buying and selling waterfront property in NZ. And, just incase someone other than my mum reads this blog, eve, here's a link :) 

There was one really funny moment at school on Friday. At lunch, I was sitting with the rest of the teachers, and the vice-principal started making some gesture with his little finger. It was exactly like the gesture we use to imply a guy has a small... package. I must have been looking at him strangely, because the teacher next to me said that that gesture means boyfriend or girlfriend in Korea, and that the VP was making a joke about having a girlfriend (he's married). I was like 'Ooooh, ok'. She asked what it meant in English, and I was kind of reluctant to say, but eventually, I told her. She cracked up, then I cracked up, and then she told the VP, and he looked really serious. The he was like "Hmmm, no, no, more like this...." and started making a bigger gesture, which cracked everyone up. It was pretty funny, and a nice moment considering I'm usually left out of everything :)

Saturday was a relaxed day. I went to a Welcome Dinner in the evening in Seoul. Quite a big group of expats got together and we had Brazilian BBQ meat. I feel in wasn't that good quality, and over priced (Korean food would have been better - it was welcome to Korea, after all), but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I had an ok time, but was sat next to a really annoying guy. It's nights like that that remind me that there's nothing wrong with your own company!

Sunday night was my trip to Lotte World! This was a let down, but only because there were so many people. The lines for the rides were really long, like over 40 minutes for most things, which kind of ruined my enjoyment a bit. I think it is somewhere I'll try to go back to on a weekday sometime though. It was a pretty interesting place. I took a few photos, but because we were there at night, it was difficult to get pictures to do it justice.

And now it is 3pm and I have finished teaching for the day. I now have to find a way to spend the next two hours before I can go home. It seems like a long time  between 3pm and 5pm some days :(

Waiting to go home Wednesday

The P.E teacher in the desk next door is falling asleep at his desk, and is about to snore. He's like doing that heavy breathing not quite snoring thing. Ok, now he's actually snoring. And I'm trying not to laugh. I am cracking up on the inside though. His snoring is getting louder. Oh! A big one - he's partially woken himself up. And down he goes again.

Weird.

Awkward..

And he kind of smells like a sheep.

Haha, anyway. Today's been nice. Had a really great last period with one of the first grade classes. I was teaching alone, and they were really on fire today! Like, seriously, they did so well. I was impressed. We did a speaking game. They had to introduce themselves and then say they were "someone's friend/sister/brother/etc" and where they were from. We brainstormed a bunch of countries so they couldn't all say 'Korea'. One girl even suggested both Mexico and Chile... quite international. They all were so enthusiastic and worked really well. They used the example I gave them and did an excellent job. I thin they did a better job that some of the older kids would have done on the same task. It was a of of fun.

Now though, I've been sitting for over an hour, pretty much just waiting to go home. Only another 40 minutes to go. I'm going out to dinner tonight, to some sort of tuna restaurant with Courtney and Nyasha. I'll try to remember to take some photos.

Today's five things:

1) It's really sunny, and while the wind is very cold, there is actual warmth in the sun.

2) I got my phone up and running no problem on Monday evening, so that's great.

3) Had a great solo class 6th period.

4) Hung out with the social rejects club again at lunch. Today we tried skipping :)

5) I'm stuck on number five again. Um. I'm really hungry. Which means I get to eat something soon. Hopefully. Lame number five. Hopefully I'll have an awesome dinner and that can be number five.

Big update Monday

So, again, I've been a slack blogger. Mostly because last week was unbelievably blah. The whole school, so about 160 kids and most of the teachers, went away on camp. The kids were so not keen. They had to climb mountains and go in boats and stuff. I've tried asking them about it today and they all say they hated it. I ask Mr Beak, who went but never even told me he was going, how he liked it. He said it was fantastic. The kids said it was terrible, boring, and really tiring. The said something about having to carry a 40kg inflatable boat along a beach. Haha, they were not happy!

So, they were all away and I still had to some to work for eight hours a day. Which is fine, I was getting paid, but that's not going to stop me complaining. I found enough to do for the most part, and my after school classes are very well planned, but by Friday I was going crazy. It's kind of spilled over into this week too. Having nothing meaningful to do at work, day in and day out is quite wearing. 

However, I did have a very nice weekend. To start off with, I went out for dinner by myself on Friday night. I had a dolsot bibimbap, which was yummy. Then on Saturday I went for a walk, did my grocery shopping and had a big skype talk with Jenni, which was great. Then on Sunday I went into Seoul, to Hongdae, and went to the art student's market and Taco Bell for lunch. I had a nice time strolling the streets around the university. I also bought a painting from the market. I'll probably go back again, and maybe buy more art. There was a guy selling mixed media painting/metal art that were really cool. 

Dolsot bibimbap.. yummy.

Hongdae playground

"art"

More "art"

Funky steets. no idea why there's a blue giraffe.

Craft market just getting going.

Random shop full of dog and cat clothes. As in, clothes for your pet.

My new painting!

After that I went to the Seoul Art Museum,

 

 but only one exhibit was open, and it was pretty un-amazing. Sometimes it seems like all you have to do to get exhibited in a gallery is paint a ton of painting, not actually be any good. I was unimpressed.

Yeah, it's kind of scribbles. (Chun Kyung-Ja) 

 

Seriously, why?

Then, I started for home, and decided on the way to stop in Suwon and buy a cell phone. I HAVE to do something about my internet at home. It is so slow. And I'm paying for a bunch of stuff I don't use. So, I need a phone (and I've talked to Mr Beak about changing ISPs - which hopefully will happen/work). I wanted just a pre-paid phone, no contract. Between my non-existent Korean, and their tiny bit of English, I might have got that. Maybe. But for some reason totally unfathomable to me, no one in Korea will sell SIM cards on a Sunday. So, I got the phone, but have not SIM for it. I'm going to get one tonight after work and I'm just hoping that we communicated correctly and the particular phone I got doesn't have to be on a monthly plan. Because there's no way I'd ever use it enough to justify that. If it does have to be on a plan, I guess I'll try to sell it or something. It wasn't very expensive to begin with ($100), but I thought it was coming fully connected and that I just had to top up at the store. *sigh*. It so often seems like things here are made much more complicated than they need to be.

Then, last night I got together with Courtney for dinner, and we tried a new BBQ place. Neither of us could read the menu, so we ordered meat at random, and ended up with a really nice dinner by chance :D Then we had a walk, and went to a coffee shop for some dessert. I had a chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream and it was so good! Courtney had a berry cheesecake and said that was great too. Sadly, this coffee shop, which just opened a few days ago, is directly on my walk home from the bus. And they serve mint-hot chocolates. This could be hazardous both to my health and my wallet!

 

Today has been pretty mediocre, teaching wise. I have an hour and a half to kill now before home time. Hence catching up on the blogging.. I'm feeling like it's all going nowhere right now, like the system in ineffective, and I'm just a place holder in the classroom. Maybe a nice walk tonight will brighten me up.

I did have a nice lunchtime, though. There's a new kid, one of the new 1st graders, and he's not quite the full quid. Not sure what's precisely wrong with him, but he's mentally handicapped in some way. Not too badly, though, and he's a sweet as kid. Well, I always go and sit outside after eating lunch in the cafeteria, and he came and sat with me today. He was talking to me in a combination of Korean I couldn't understand, the odd English word, and gestures about the game of soccer the other, older boys were playing. I said he should go play too, but he said no, and implied he'd maybe get hurt or something. He was so excited by the game though. So, I got a ball and played with him instead. He was hooting and laughing, it was really fun. The a couple of other, really tiny, first grade boys came and joined in too, and we had kind of social rejects game of kick-the-ball :) Most fun I've had at school in ages. Maybe I can make it a regular thing. That's my nice story for the day.

In blatant misuse of  office products I made this poster for my wall.

 

It looks cool :)

 

Things are good Thursday

School is just as crazy and disorganised as ever, but I am totally just taking it all in my stride. Today, for example, I was told 15 minutes before my after-school class was due to begin that it was cancelled. Bonus though, I asked if I still had to stay till 6pm anyway, and they let me go at 5 :)

I got off the bus really early and walked 20 minutes home, which was great. I've decided once and for all to make a much better effort at being healthier. After my walk I bought some art supplies for a decorating project to do over the weekend. I will post pictures when I'm done. And let me say, the stationary shop here in Osan has the best selection of coloured and textured paper and card that i have EVER seen. I wanted to buy way more than I did... but I couldn't think of anything to do with it. Maybe paper craft can be my new hobby?

After shopping I decided to go to a restaurant for some dinner. I was too tired to be bothered cooking, I knew if I went home I'd eat crap. I've been kind of a scaredy cat about going to restaurants alone here. I haven't done it since I moved to Osan. Tonight though, I plucked up my courage, and felt I'd learned enough Korean to get by with a Korean only menu and staff. And what happens? The menu has perfect English, English descriptions, and the staff speak English. Haha on me :) Anyway, I had a very tasty Soo-gogi Dookbaegi (which means beef... something?). It was a beef. vegetable, and glass noodle soup with side dishes and rice. It was super tasty! And also really relaxing. I actually enjoyed sitting down to eat a meal and not watching TV or having to talk to anyone. I love eating out with friends, but this sort of reminded me that I've gotten into some REALLY bad habits.

Today's five:

1) Got off the bus early and had a nice walk home.

2) got some neat art supplies to decorate my apartment.

3) got to go home early.

4) Had dinner out and tried a new Korean dish (which I'll be doing lots more of!).

5) had a leisurely morning because I only had to start work at 10. So, my day was actually two hours shorter today :) And Tomorrow is some sort of test day for the whole school, so I think I have no teaching. Better take a book.

Pretty big day Tuesday

Phew, what a day! And it's not over yet. I had to teach three regular classes alone today, because my co-teacher was really busy with something else. It was nice to get some teaching totally to myself, and things went well, but the class sizes are well beyond what I'm used to dealing with, so things got noisy. The kids were mostly very well behaved, and I had fun. I'm quite tired from having to constantly speak so loudly though. I jokingly told Mr Baek I was tired from all that work and he was like "Oh, well why don't you take next week off work?". He wasn't joking! I told him that if I did that, I'd have no holiday days left to take in summer, and he seemed to understand. I'll bet the prinicpal wouldn't have actually let me take days off anyway. Mr Baek has offered me things like that before and then had to re-neg because of the principal.

Anyway, halfway through today I'm told I have two hours of after-school class to teach today. Ok, thanks for all the notice. I asked Mr Baek how many kids and what level, and he just said... maybe 10, and maybe low or middle level (whatever THAT means?!?). Haha... oh dear. So, I pick a nice, easily adapted lesson plan I'm familiar with to get me through this first day. I assumed class would run at the time I was used to 3.40-5pm. Well, in Korea, assuming just makes an ass out of ME and no one else. The after-school lady comes and tells me I have 14 students, one from 1st grade, about seven from 2nd grade, and six-ish from 3rd grade. Yeah, three grade levels in one class... crap-sticks. What's more, these classes run from 4.40-6.20pm. Yeah, without warning, they want me to stay at school until after 6 :( It just keeps getting better.

It's in my contract that I only work 8 hours a day though, and I've been at work since before 9am. The school is a real stickler for the rules (sometimes luckily, sometimes not). I just innocently asked Mr Baek what time I was supposed to be coming to work, and he realised the problem. He cut tonight's lesson short by an hour, and told me that on Tuesdays and Thursdays I only come to work at 10am. The rest of the week is regular old 9-5. So, that's all ok, I guess. Now I only have 4 hours of after-school classes, which means I'll have to be in 18 hours of regular classes. Scheduling nightmare for whoever get's that job... and I think it's Mr Baek. No wonder he was so busy today.

OK, today's 5:

1) I have a new fruit that I like: the kumquat. It's like a tiny citrus fruit that you can eat the skin of. Yummy.

2) I managed not to work nine hours today :)

3) I'm going out to dinner again, with Courtney and Nyasha.

4) I had fun teaching the classes solo.

5) Lunch today was better. Beef stirfry - pretty good :)

Getting sick Monday

Boo! I am coming down with another cold. The perils of living in a totally new country - I'm susceptible to every single bug. At least I'm quickly getting the hang of Korean cold medicine. And this time, if necessary, I'll nip the annoying cough in the bud!

Today has been a return to total normality, as far as work is concerned. Which is a bit sad for me, because it means my student interaction and actual 'teaching' time goes WAY down. I'm not sure if/when after-school classes will start back up. Maybe later in the week, or next week. I had to sit in on four classes today, and had about 10 minutes at the end in which I had to do a read and repeat power-point. On the 3rd graders ppt, which comes off a CD that is shipped with the government recommended, full colour, flash interactive textbook, there were two mistakes! And, really often, the example sentence used for the word uses new and complicated words... dumb. For example, say the target word is 'concentrate'. Instead of using a sentence like 'It's good to concentrate in class', they have ones like 'It's not practical to concentrate too long'. Seriously, 'practical'? Dumb. One sentence, with the target word 'although' was: 'the man was old, although he was strong'. Not a great sentence... it should be 'although the man was strong, he was old', or even better 'although the man was old, he was strong'. Luckily, the slides can be edited, so I fixed them up :)

In other news, I got one really great example of a student's written work today:

I asked my co-teacher what I should do with it. He said 'just correct it'. I told him it made no sense, what should I do when the English was so confused I couldn't understand it. He just stared at me in consternation for ages (I swear, like a minute), and then said 'just correct the spelling and grammar'. I told him there wasn't much point, it needed re-writing. Again, with the totally confused stare. So, I read some of it to him. He goes 'Oh, that's so strange! Why is it so strange? Hmmmm, maybe just tell them to re-write it'. I really don't think that's going to help, but there's not a lot I can do - the kid is WAY over their head with attempting this piece of writing. They can't even write 'my name is Ok-Jo', but have written 'I'm... in a Ok-Jo'.

Lunch today was a disappointment too. The main dish was tofu, and while the sauce was nice, I find the blandness and texture of tofu difficult to overcome. There was also a pleasant, but unexciting noodle dish (which the V.P told me is called 'jap-chae' in Korean - he loves to tell me what the food's called), boiled rice, and soup made of salty water and seaweed. It was all totally pleasant, but not as good as usual.

To make up for it I might be going to dinner with Courtney when she gets off work tonight. Just waiting to hear back from her. I'm supposed to go running after work, but I'm feeling all weak and spaced out from this cold. Not sure if it's a good idea to exercise or not. I think what I'll do it take a long way out to dinner if I end up going, and power-walk.

And while I wait the next 40 mins until I can go home from work, here's today's five:

1) The bus was really crowded this morning, but I managed to get one of the last seats. Good start to a Monday :)

2) I just found out that next Monday is the school's birthday - which means we all get a day off! I am going to plan something cool to do, because everyone else will be at work, so it will be quieter than usual out and about. Everland maybe?

3) Damn, I'm stuck on three. Slow day today. Ok, I listened to my new CD again on the bus this morning and am still really enjoying it.

4) Um, it's nearly home time? Does that count?

5) I might get an ice-cream on the way home. I need to get to 5 things somehow...

Lazy Sunday

I have had a very lazy Sunday!

I stayed in bed until 8am (which is really late for me), then played a couple of hours of StarWars. Then I've been reading my book most of the day - really nice and relaxing. I was supposed to go running, but I wimped out and did another walk instead. It was actually a really good walk. I just went wherever I felt like going and ended up in some really quaint residential areas, with all ornate fenced backyards and stuff. It was nice.

Now I'm back home for an hour before Nyasha comes over. We're going out to dinner with a girl, Jess, who I met the other night and maybe her friend too.

So, today's five:

1) Another lovely walk.

2) I bought some biscuits to take to work with me and they are yummy!

3) I'm really enjoying the book I'm reading.

4) I got to level 40 on StarWars.

5) I can comfortably go outside with just a normal jumper and jeans on now. Yay!

Edit: Bonus!

6) Just wanted to add in a number six. Dinner with Jess and Nyasha was lovely. The new restaurant was really cheap, had nice food, and we had a good chat. So, Sunday has been a very nice day :)

Big Walk Saturday

Last night's Osan get-together was awesome! As the night went on, more and more people turned up. I met some really nice people, including a bunch who actually live in the same apartment building as me. Sometimes there did seem to be a bit of cringe-worthy 'I know so much about living in Korea' posturing going on, but it was pretty low key. Also, by about 12am, everyone else was getting very drunk, and I was sick of all the smoke, so I came home. But, I actually had a very fun night, and would like to do it again :)

I did not find any suitable running pants at E-Mart. So, instead I went for a big two hour walk today in my jeans. I couldn't find any good pants on my walk either, so I've actually cut the legs off my too small $5 China trackpants and will wear those until it's warm enough for the shops to sell shorts. I first walked down to the river and along it for about 40 minutes. I had my new Donkeyboy CD on, and I walked REALLY hard. It felt fantastic, and the CD is so good! I really enjoyed myself. About 10-15 minutes into my hard-core walking I got a massive mood surge! I felt awesome.

After the river, I went and had a poke around in the Osan market. I got another yummy whole fried chicken (was more cost effective than buying chicken bits), and had some lunch. I had some kimchi filled potato pancakes, which were very nice. Then I came home, and despite my massive mood high this morning, have been in a bit of a decline this afternoon.

I didn't go to the Korean class in Suwon - I was utterly exhausted this morning, so I just stayed home.

OK, today's five:

1) The new Donkeyboy CD is amazing! I wish I could take it intravenously or something. I really love it.

2) I wore my new running shoes on my walk today and they were great. Very comfortable. I'm going to run tomorrow in my cut up pants, so we'll see how they go then.

3) On-going exercise might be one of the answers to my low mood. And I'm making a concerted, if mostly fail-ridden, attempt to eat better.

4) A nice old Korean guy on a bike gave me a big smile today.

5) A new pet store/ dog grooming place has just opened along the main road. Every time I walk past there's a dog having it's hair cut, and it looks hilarious.

Now, I'm off to eat chicken and listen to my new CD.

Five on Friday

The new school term started today. I didn't know what to expect, but it's pretty much been a normal day. I had to go and get introduced to the school (along with all the other teachers) via a video link that went to all the classes this morning. Why it was done by video and not just in an assembly, I don't know. Anyway, I just had to smile and bow when the vice principal said my name. Nothing very major. I've also been in four classes today. Yeah, been in them, not taught them. And so it begins. Four 45 minute classes of me sitting there and trying not to look like I'm falling asleep while my co-teacher talks to the class non-stop in Korean. Bummer.

I also got a bunch more students who wanted me to correct their writing. I spent my free time today working on a corrections code and chart so that I can just put a symbol by the thing that's wrong and *they* have to fix it. Because what I've been doing is just re-writing their work - not a very good learning/teaching strategy. Most of the work I got given today was really good though. I'll put pictures up here so you can see what some of them wrote. I didn't get pictures of the ones so confused and messed up I had to send them back, unmarked. We're talking sentences with one gap for every three words, and sentences that looked like : "My of lovely, father. And cakes. I love of the My father." Yeah.... what?

Work has been a nice distraction today. School lunch was especially welcome. Dumplings, a juicy beef thing, rice, and soup. I've taken to skipping the kimchi. I don't like it any more.

Ok, today's five things:

1) School lunch is baaaack! Yummy, warm, filling, and served by sweet lunch ladies. What more could you ask for in the middle of your work day?

2) The new 1st graders started today. They were so little and cute (must be about 10 or 11 years old). Some of them were even brave enough to try talking to me. One kid, at lunch, ran around yelling and then tried to play peek-a-boo with me. He was thoroughly delighted when I told him he was crazy :)

3) I'm going out for dinner tonight. I am 100% not in the mood at all - I'm tired, tense, and pretty much just want to curl up in bed with my hot water bottle, a crappy romance novel, and a chocolate bar. There's time for that tomorrow though... I better get my ass out there.

4) I'm very excited about starting my running program tomorrow. I've been getting a little scared these last few days that I might get depressed. You know, it has only happened once, and it was mild enough that I could get better without anything major or medical, but I am constantly on the alert for it now! Any slightly prolonged feelings of down-ness and I'm like "Oh crap! Panic! Don't let it happen again!". Exercise is certainly a well recommended method, and it's what worked last time. So, I am excited to get going. However, I realised last night, I had spiffy new shoes, but no clothes to run in! I can go in jeans :) So, a quick trip to E-Mart this afternoon should solve that. I'll probably have to buy some men's shorts, but that's ok. So, tomorrow, after my Korean class - I'm going running!

5) Hmmm... five is eluding me again. Oh, I know! I was pretty happy to see most of the kids today. For the most part they're a happy, friendly bunch, and I generally enjoy them a lot. They seemed pleased to see me too, so that felt really nice.

Oh, a bonus! 6) one of the lady teachers started talking to me on the way to class! Of her own accord! She was complaining how she was tired and having a bad day, but I'll take whatever I can get :)

Ok, that's all, time to go home.

Day in Seoul Thursday

Today is Korean independence day - they day they seceded (it's my new word) from Japan. Everywhere is flying Korean flags - and because it's a public holiday, I think everyone was shopping in Seoul! My first stop was Itaewon, where I have spent precisely no time at all since coming to Korea. I thought that because it was a massive foreigner centre, they'd have running shoes that'd fit me. I was wrong :( But more on that in a sec. I was there for lunch, where I found a Taco Bell. I love Taco Bell!! Mmmm... I had a crunchy grilled beef wrap thingie. Very yummy! Then I browsed the English bookstore for a while, before heading to Myeongdong.

Myeongdong was insanely busy! I only spent about half and hour there, as there were too many people in every single store. You could hardly move, let alone browse. So, back on the subway and down to the Co-Ex shopping mall. I had a salty caramel ice cream from Basking Robbins, and then AGAIN got lost in the mall. I had a map and everything. I get lost every time!! Anyway, I found the bookstore and had a really good browse of their ESL textbooks. They had a huge range of both Adult and Kids ESL books, and I'm going to ask my co-teacher if the English class budget at school might buy me a couple of new ones. I only have really baby-ish, Koreanised books to use at the moment. We will see :)

Having done a few trips into Seoul now, I've realised there's not really much point in going there to browse. It's a long trip, and there is pretty much exactly the same stores with the same selection here in Osan. With the exception of a few speciality places, the trip's not really worth it.

And now I'm home. So, today's five things:

1) Because they had no women's running shoes to fit me - I got mens! I ended up with a very nice pair of New Balance running shoes, which I have christened "the purple pavement eaters". Why? Because they are entirely purple. Like, really, really purple.

This isn't exactly the shoes I got, but it's pretty close. Mine just look more 'sporty'.

2) Salty caramel ice cream. Need I say more?

3) Taco Bell for lunch. I wish they had one in Osan!

My lunch. Damn, now I want another one!

4) It was so warm today that I spent a large portion of my time outside with only a light cardigan. I'm very excited for the warmth!

5) Hmmm, number five is really stumping me. Well, I was so distracted by being out and about, and not being run over by a hoard of Korean people that I didn't feel crappy or sick all day. Sadly, now I'm home it's creeping back in. I really hope running will help. I'm going to start on Saturday.