Good news

I am no longer petrified in the mornings. I am looking forward to class instead of being terrified the children will revolt against me. Hurray :)

It's getting hard to think of titles

Random thoughts and occurrence of today:

I don't know the rule of when to use "I will " vs "I am going to". I am unable to explain it. I refuse to say "it sounds better" like oh so many French teachers have told me. Instead I taught the kiddies to recognize that spoken "gonna" = "going to". They seemed skeptical.

Meeting so many people, there are bound to be ones who have very different world views than I. It is always a shock after we move on from "nice to meet you" pleasantries to discovering we are completely and utterly not alike. Turns out that lots of people don't care about the environment or women's right. Oops.

I was given a piece of gum today from a student. It made me so happy. THEN IT WAS GONE FROM MY DESK. Made me very sad. Gum theft if alive in Korea.

I had a success with my cranky class! I am SO HAPPY. Waygook.org, a website with lesson plan ideas specifically for EFL in Korea, has been a LIFESAVER.

I may or may not have recently heard some gossip. Apparently the person I am replacing did not get along well with her coteacher (ie my coteacher??) and was told she led boring classes. I think she probably did, because if a total rookie like me is getting positive feedback, something must have been up.

I am going to eat Russian food for dinner. In Korea. I do not know what to expect.

Because next week there are only 2 days of classes, I will be teaching the kiddies about Thanksgiving! Perfect timing. I am going to miss my mom's cooking so immensely that weekend I think I will have physical pain.

For Thanksgiving class, I am going to have the kiddies make
comics of things they are thankful for. Here is my example
comic. Afternoon well spent. (on the computer I can up the
contract and make it look better)

This is me at a tomb! Beautiful day downtown after
my first meal at McDonalds since they served pizza.

This is the tomb again. Gorgeous. I look forward to the
trees turning eerie in the fall.

Some crazy person in front of the Art
Centre where we saw the Dance Competition.

Hallyu Dream Festival

This weekend I attended the Hallyu Dream Festival - a festival that aims to spread Korean culture to foreigners but also is just a lot of fun.

Saturday night we went to the KPOP dance competition. This involved various teams from all over the world competing at dancing to KPOP songs. I hadn't realized that all the teams (except for the weird american couple) were teenagers, so they were all adorable and passionate. The winners were from Thailand, Japan and Nigeria. We were all a little sad though that the extremely intense Filipino group didn't win. 

Tonight, Sunday, was the actual Hallyu Dream Concert. I got to see pretty much every current KPOP band perform, which was awesome. It was freezing and I didn't have the greatest angled seats, but it was FREE and hilarious. The men are androgyny defined, and the woman didn't wear pants. All groups lip sync, some rather poorly haha. However, they were awesome and so so so beautiful. There were screaming girls everywhere. 

I also saw a few students! First I saw some girls who waved, later I saw some other girls who bowed (makes me feel so special) and walking home afterwards I heard "Teacher! teacher!" and when I turned some of my boys were smiling and waving. Our conversation went something like this: "Did you go to Korean Concert?" "Yes! It was great!" "GOOD GOOD!! Who do you love? BEAST??" "Yeah they were great!" "GOOD!!!" haha they were so happy that I had gone. They made the fact that tomorrow is Monday so much more bearable. I do feel pretty bad that I don't know their names, or even their grades, because I just have so many kids. Hopefully they'll be the ones to bring it up this week and I can be like YA it was great to see you!

UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention this part of my weekend which was totally funny and should be mentioned. At the Dance Competition there were many cameras filming and photographing the contestants and the audience. The house lights were never dimmed so they could easily see us. As my group of friends and I were given the absolute best seat (center halfway up, perfect view) we were right behind all the cameras. They apparently wanted shots of foreigners because we were filmed SO MUCH. It was hilarious and we felt so awkward. If we reacted strongly to something, the filmer would tell the photographers and they would all turn and shoot us. So apparently I will be on Korean TV or something. Pretty famous. 

Anyways here are some piccies. Not very good ones of the concert, sorry.

Ok also here are small mandu
from my beloved dumpling lady.
The red ones have kimchi in them.

No pants

Hilarious pants.

This is Infinite singing the song from the video I posted!
So exciting. 

Amusing suits

Ambiance photo 

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

I had a lovely week out here in Gyeongju - no classes Monday, let home early on Wednesday, and today I got to watch the students practicing for Sports Day for a period. Sports Day will be a bunch of competitions both individual and teams. I watched a relay race and it didn't take long for my heart to be in my throat. So exciting!! I can't wait for the actual Sports Day.

At lunch today we had deep fried fish in like a sweet sauce, kimchi, green things that I think are seaweed, a really good tofu soup with a darker broth than usual, veggies and something in a red sauce, and of course rice. While I still can't finish that much plain rice, the head teacher said it was good to see me eat everything. I am awesome.

The kids are too cute. I told them I would be going to the KPop concert this weekend and I would see them there, which caused them to squirm and hide behind their hands while saying "noooo". The two girls who spoke to me about Gizmo last week came back to my room at lunch and started telling me about all the handsome boy bands. I have posted a video of their (and most of the other girls too) favourite band: Infinite.

My camp themed grade 4 class went really well today, and those kids are just ridiculously cute. I played some loon calls for them, which was neat. They were surprised that a "duck" made such scary sounds.

Walking home I passed a bunch of students. Their reactions ranged from bashful bows, to awkward waves, and finally to a little voice excitedly calling "ANNE TEACHER!" from across the street.

Those of you who know me know that I never really loved children, but it turns out that these children are awesome. Except my cranky grade 6 class, but what can you do.

I went out for dinner last night without any Korean speakers for the first time since the hagfish debacle and had much more success. My friend and I sat down and could not for the life of us make sense of the menu. My Translator App was being incredibly unhelpful, my phrasebook was useless, we were panicking. The waiter, most likely frustrated with us, sent out his wife who saved the day by pointing to an item and saying "Korean Pizza - Pajeon." I have been looking for Pajeon since that first night! We said yes and thank you about a hundred times, and were given a glorious feast of pajeon (savory green onion and octopus pancake), marinated tofu, kimchi, sprouts, seaweed, and a like deep fried tofu/potato cake that pretty much was a giant latke. The octopus was definitely fresh as there was a tankful outside! We gave them a tip, which isn't customary and confused them, but when we insisted the man smiled ear to ear and wouldn't stop bowing. 

This morning I decided to bring a batch of munchkins in for my teachers (sadly there are no Timbits to be found) and they were a big success. I hope they like meeee!

Picture time! My super amazing beautiful glorious Samsung phone is so handy for taking random shots.

Oligosaccharide I found in my cupboard...?

I don't only eat octopus! This is a delicious
Italian dinner: fettucini with cream sauce,
pumpkin and sweet potato. Yumm indeed.

Anne in Korea - the photo.

Feast! The tofu/potato thing hadn't arrived yet.

Close up to ensure you all see the tentacles.

Not the best photo, but this amused me a lot.

Dunkin Donuts Coffee. Amused me because of
all the Korean city names on it.

Waiting for me at my desk after my last class. Second lunch
anybody?

And as promised, here is the music video of Infinite, whom I will be seeing this weekend LIVE. The girls kept asking me which was handsome, and they didn't understand why I kept saying "beautiful" and "pretty" instead haha.

Typhoon Sanba

Woohoo!

 I just got sent home from school! There is a typhoon heading in today, so classes were all cancelled. Teachers and staff still had to go in, but then I was told I could go since I don't really have admin tasks. As I am developing a cold I am pretty excited to spend the day at home! Plus I love storms and feeling snug as a bug in a rug while they rage on outside. I even bought some veggies, including gorgeous king oyster mushrooms that are cheap here, to cook a little. 

A lot of people here are anxious about the weather/surprised that umbrellas actually turn inside out. I explained to everyone that back in Canada (Halifax for those who know Canadian geography) we got September hurricanes every year. While the weather is definitely intense, this is just a nice little reminder of home :)

This weekend was a lot of fun: Adri came to visit me in my town this time. While our hiking plans were cut short due to pre-typhoon rain, we did manage to not eat hagfish. I also showed her my new favourite pub which looks like a gnome hut down the street. 

Next weekend we have tickets to the Hallyu Dream Festival and I am SO EXCITED.  It is just by chance that this festival is happening right here in Gyeongju, and luckily I was told to sign up for a free ticket raffle for foreigners. Guess who won two tickets? So I have two tickets to a KPop Cover band competition on Saturday, which will be awesome. They have been competing for months and this will be the finale. Then a friend of mine won tickets to the concert on Sunday, which involves huge K-Pop celebrities and she will be taking me. My students will be SO jealouS! Hopefully both my cold and this weather will all be gone by then.

Anyways, I look forward to my snuggly day at home. Here are some pictures:

Amazing mandu, or dumpling, that comes from down the
street. The woman who sells these recognizes me now and
knows my order : 1 kimchi mandu. Oh baby it's good.

Moosehead represent!!

The coffee shop across the street makes such gorgeous
lattes. I had a  crazy coloured blueberry one that
tasted like a muffin,probably should have
taken a photo. Here is a regular
ol coffee flavoured latte and a happy spoon.

Rainy view from school 

I am always prepared for rainy weather.

Shops with their windows taped up for the typhoon. 

Today was GOOD

Firstly I realized that the class that didn't go well last week was totally not my fault.. it's just the class. I did the exact same lesson for them and 2 other classes today and it was like night and day. I'm determined to get these kids a little more participant, but at least now I know it's them and not me.

All my other classes went great! I played a game that (except for the cranky class) had every student say at least one English word, which is exciting seeing as some normally just cower in terror.

Then at lunch, two little girls came up to me with a bunch of questions :What is  your name? Are you from England? Is Canada beautiful? What is your cat's name? (Funny that they remembered I have a cat but not my name, or that I am Canadian haha) They then told me that my nose was pointy. I wasn't sure how to take this, but they said it's a good thing. Now that I've had my nose complimented upon, I pretty much can die happy.

Anyways, I offered to show them my photo album (thanks Gaby!) and they loved Gizmo. "Gize-mo is cute! So cute!" I told them she sleeps with me and they were squealing with jealously.  Gizemo is world renown!

Gizmo is gorgeous.

Difficult

Trying to get a 12 year old boy to stop pestering a 12 year old girl by telling him that boys like to pester girls when they like them.

Difficult.. but so amusing.

Visiting Ulsan

So this weekend was my first journey outside of Gyeongju. I went to Ulsan to visit Adri! There were many options on how to get there, luckily someone sent me a super informative website in English. I discovered that the "slow train" (slow as in not the KTX, so regular speed) was both faster and cheaper than the bus. It cost 2600W and took 45 minutes, which is pretty amazing. In Montreal a bus ride would be more expensive and could be longer depending on where I was going.

Ulsan is a LOT bigger than Gyeongju. I could tell instantly, as there were the neon lights and tall buildings I had imagined were abundant in Korea. There was a weird vibe, however, and no foreigners would talk to us or even smile back. It was strange. Very "I'm doing so well here in Korea I don't even need your kindness".

We went out for dinner Friday night. We went into a market and to my amazemeent, we were surrounded by tanks of hagfish. After studying these ancestral chordates, it was very neat to finally see them up close. However, I told Adri that this was one Korean item I NEVER EVER wanted to eat.

Guess what we ate?

It's amazing how much we don't realize we can't communicate. I suppose all my foreign travels have been in places where I was able to say a sprinkling of words and get by. Only when we sat down did we realize we couldn't say a single word. So we did our usual just point at a random item and smile.

Yeah. Guess what our random item was?

Hagfish. It was hands down the most revolting thing I have ever ever eaten. In fact, part of it was still moving when placed on our table. I kid you not. 

After being such difficult patrons due to our lack of language, we felt obliged to eat as much as possible. Luckily, the flavour wasn't actually bad (it didn't really taste like anything) but the texture and smell were so horrendous we had to leave most of it on the plate. Emergency trip to McDonald's ensued.

The next day we spent shopping around. First we went to a giant Home Plus near Adri. This store has everything useful, including a food court with plastic models of the food and a number ordering system. This system is literally heaven. We got a nice meal of seafood soup, bulgogi beef, and this glorious looking fried spam:

We did not eat this.

Next we decided to go see a movie. We asked for a ticket of a movie in English. The next movie was in 40 minutes and it was The Expendables 2. Do not see this movie. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. If you saw this movie and enjoyed it, I'm afraid you are incredibly stupid. This made the Jersey Shore seem intelligent. It was atrocious. And yet... we could not look away. Hilariously bad. We weren't sure if the jokes were as bad in Korean because no one else was hiding their faces in shame (yes the jokes really were THAT bad)

When we finally made it back to Adri's, we essentially walked into the flames of hell. I had somehow managed to turn on her heating and the floor was being pumped with 40 degrees water. Oh dear.
We proceeded to sweat for the remainder of my visit.

Pretty much: we couldn't catch a break. Luckily, we still managed to have an amazing weekend. I look forward to her visiting me :)

Adorable Gyeongju mascots: Shilla King and Queen

Super high tech viewing of student elections

Random snapshot of Korea: golden tires

End of week 2

Happy Friday everyone!

I have no major news, so I will just ramble on about random living in Korea tidbits. All in all, teaching is going well, my teachers are all fabulous, I am eating tons at lunch and have been cooking yummy meals at home. I really wish I could send a picture of the soup I ate today. It pretty much was the ocean. I've never eaten a shrimp in a shell before and didn't know how to do it (let alone with chopsticks) so I left those alone. Was a weird moment when I realized I was happiest with spoonfuls that contained tentacles. 

Today I had a new class: a grade 4 English Club class. This is a much smaller class with no set curriculum. I broke out my handy introduction powerpoint.
This powerpoint, which I have used in all my classes, includes a few pictures of me. One is of my mom and me in a kayak, and I only tell them it is me after a few seconds. For some reason, they always get a kick out of this. However, this also makes them suspicious that I am in all the photos, so when I next show pictures of Habs hockey players, they all think it is me! Pretty funny. When I say no, they ask if it is my boyfriend.

ANyways, like I said, this club will have no curriculum. I asked the teacher what to do next week, and he said to teach them about Canadian Culture. Now these grade 4's were INSANELY hyper so I will need to find some fun activities, but I am so happy about this class. I think it will be a lot of fun. Canada is so huge I have so many options for different classes. I am definitely thinking "The Hockey Sweater" story time. And possibly a few games of Stella ella olla - quintessential Canadian Culture I think.

I have read poutine described as "french fries in a sauce made of meat or cheese" so I think my expertise is needed here.

I wrapped up their class, as I have done with all my introduction classes, with a simplified rendition of camp song "There was a great big moose."

 Oh. My. Goodness. 

I cannot explain how funny the kids thought this was. It's a silly song with some actions that I sing in different ways - sad, angry, slow, fast, and underwater. These kids absolutely LOVED when I was angry. One kid fell out of his chair laughing. They made me do it twice in class. Afterwards, as I walked down the hall, a group ran after me screaming "Anne teacher! Sing again! Angry! Angry! It is good!" Who could say no to that?

This weekend I am going to Ulsan to visit my very favourite redhead. I am pretty excited, although very confused on how to get there. Luckily, some of my new friends went earlier today so I will pester them until I get full disclosure.

I took money out of the bank all by myself! My flight has been reimbursed and I got my settlement allowance, so I feel pretty rich right now.

Here is a sandwich wrapper from a sandwich parents brought to us teachers. Enjoy!

So glad this sandwich was hygienic. 

Final thought: It is too cute when I ask "Team 1, are you ready?" and the super excite little boy answers "YesSE!"

Paying my utilities

I just paid my utilities.  I got the bill placed on my door late at night and was actually worried a stray cat was attempting entry. My coteacher told me I just had to go upstairs to pay. Needless to say, I did not look forward to the inevitably awkward interaction.

Awkward INDEED.

An older man opened the door (please bear in mind I still am not 100% sure this is my land lord) and I show him the utility bill. His wife then takes over. A little girl, around 4, is gaping at me and can't stop smiling. What can I say, I'm pretty fun to look at. The woman keeps asking me something and making a telephone gesture, so I asked if I should go get my phone.. Of course she understands me about as well as I understand her. I use the universal language and show her the money I am using to pay for the bill. Success. Her husband gets me the change and I am now able to use 1/5 Korean phrase I know and say thank you. While saying this, however, she starts saying something and patting me on the back. I think "Is there something stuck on my back?" She then turns me around and starts pointing down the stairs. She is smiling, so I didn't get the feeling she was angry, I think she legitimately thought I did not know that to return to my apartment, I had to go down. 

Let's just say I am glad that's over with!

Teaching is going pretty well! I had a really cute class today. The grade 5's are my favourite. I am so happy I got elementary. The few grade 6's who are going through puberty scare me so much. Not actually, but you know what I mean. I like the size difference to be a little more pronounced! Anyway, the coteachers I worked with today were extremely nice and supportive. One said I was very good and funny, and was like an actress. It was very sweet. One class had two students with the English name "Ann" and one with the English name "Charles"! It was very exciting. 

Also one students drew and EXCELLENT drawing of a beetle. The teacher asked if I knew what the name was in English. I had to smile at her reaction to "rhinoceros beetle." They stuck with just beetle.

I went on my first jog in about a month on Sunday and was encouraged by an adorable old man. He gave me a thumbs up as I took a much needed heat break. The people here are so incredibly kind to me. I also explored downtown, which is much nicer than where I wandered to the other day. Hurray :) It is a bustling maze of alleys, shops, and food. Will be fun to get to know it better. We stopped in a coffee shop after window shopping and the barista loved that I was from Canada. We are so popular.

PS Mom and Dad you'll be happy to know I just bought a full load of groceries full of veggies and even some fruit. 

Pretty view, and an interesting mix of eras

Oh yeah. I eat this now.

For obvious reasons, this amused me greatly. So. Creepy.

This is a sesame leaf! Delicious!!
So they don't only make seeds!