Finished my letter replies!!

So exciting. These letters were amazingly cute, but I definitely felt a little swamped. Luckily, they were very understanding of waiting two weeks for their replies. Here are a few more notably awesome ones. Note that for everyone one I post there are about 10 equally adorable ones.

"Dear Anne teacher
Hi Anne teacher! I'm your student. On friday, you are not coming and I'm sad :( have a nice trip. teacher is very very very small! Eat delicious food teacher and next time come~ please! & bye bye!"

I chose this one mainly because she calls me very very very small and it amused me a lot. 

This one is long and hard to read, but she says

"I am healthy ^^. You are left handed. I'm right handed. Left handed is smart so you are smart."

she also says

"I go to the English academy but Anne teacher's lesson is funny more~" 

Ooooh yeah!! Purely posted to brag.

"Dear Anne teacher,

My name is Na nuym. Hello Anne teacher She is from Korea I have a new cap I have bedroom I have sofa. me socar very very bap. Anne teacher bey."

It's signed Anne teacher too. If you haven't guessed, those are all topic sentences from various chapters!. Someone was definitely forced into writing this. The last sentence is not actually a topic sentence and is a complete mystery to me. Socar might mean soccer.. bap is rice in Korean.. Still no idea. Love it.

"Dear Anne teacher

teacher Hello Dicnit

BYe"

Your guess is as good as mine!

Aaah I almost cried reading this one. A few weeks ago, this little girl suddenly was crying. I only noticed because the other kids were saying "Teacher! She sad!" I had no idea what to do so I rubbed her shoulder a bit and looked at my co-teacher imploringly. She then came and dealt with the situation as the real teacher. Apparently someone had teased her about her height? Anyways I had felt absolutely useless in that situation.. but here she wrote the following:

"Lasty class I'm cry. You care for me. Then I'm so thank Anne teacher is very kind and funny." I translated the little Korean bit and it said something like "help to soothe" or "heal".

 I literally can do no wrong with these kids! (ok actually my Monday morning class has been getting my worst classes recently and I think they're getting a little frustrated with me. Sorry guys!) She's this adorable little girl who said hello so much I taught her Howdy just to have some variety. Now she says howdy non stop. It's pretty amazingly cute.

I posted this final letter because holy cow it was gorgeous. I'm not sure if you can see, but it's a total art project. Also all her i's are dotted with hearts. Also her English name is Annie, which is me, and her Korean name is Minki which is adorable.

In conclusion of these bajillion letters, my favourite remains the ode to pizza and cheese. Teacher hello Dicnit is a pretty close runner up. I can't believe how cute kids are when they have a limited ability to express themselves!

Also here is a beautiful red Thai curry I made that I was incredibly proud of and now much be shared with you all.

Check out that garnish. I am a top chef.

All my friends are so sick of hearing about these letters. Last post for a while, I promise!

Another cute letter and the Ulsan Whale Festival

"Dear Anne Teacher
Hello teacher Your go to school trip I'm not having fun at friday english I miss you Do you want to math? I want math and english I think english is fun because Anne teacher is teach me teacher How do you feel in school trip Are you miss me Do you want to go to school and teach me What's your favorite subject my favorite subject is english english is fun and easy I want to go to Canada Because is teachers from I miss you very much I want you go school early"

Also this weekend I went to Ulsan for the whale festival. A few people I know signed up to participate in the boat race at it. I was judging a speech contest in the morning, so I just went in the afternoon. It was fun, but the weather sadly turned cold and grey so we didn't stay too long. We saw whale meat! That was one of the most rancid smelling food items ever to grace my nose. I was unable to bring myself to try it not out of moral attachment to cetaceans, but out of extreme revulsion. Sadly I forgot my camera so my photos aren't great.

This guy was banging on wood with a nail and
creating very cool art.

Apparently, later in the evening, this whale
gets "whaled" in traditional
Korean hunting.

Such cute little knick knacks!

Whale meat for your tasting and smelling pleasure!

My friend said it was 40$ for one of those blobs.

Back in Gyeongju, the city is starting
to decorate for Buddha's birthday,
an upcoming holiday.

Finally, here is a car. It was illegally parked and knew it would get it's photo taken, so the owner just covered up their license plate!

Naughty.

I can't stop posting these..

"Anne teacher's lesson is very funny. But today you to go to the school trip so it isn't funny. You must stay here. And you teaches us."

"Hello Anne teacher. Anne teacher is very pretty I Friday funny because Anne teacher together Let's study so Anne teacher is funny Anne teacher English study teach Thank you~ goodbye"

Sausage and egg

"Teacher!! I am sick!!"

"What's the matter?"

"My.. my.. MY SAUSAGEE AND EGG! Friend HIT!!! Ahhhh"

I had a pretty good laugh at THAT. When I told my Korean coteacher, she said "What a genius to think of Sausage and Egg!" I think so too! Pretty impressive to think of such accurate euphemisms in your second language.

Also I typed out today's winning letter. The letter itself was extremely difficult to read due to chicken scratch handwriting, so I didn't think a picture was necessary. The gold is in the content. I'm pretty sure this kid and I would make excellent friends.

"Dear Anne Teather,
Hello? It's little cloudy today, right? I'm the student who in your class and I heard you went picnic with sixth grade students. so our class missed your class but 'm glad that I could write a letter for you.
What's your favorite food? I like pizza and my sister too. But I'm not sure what do my parents like though. My sister and I like pizza because I love cheese and several others in pizza. I like cheese and ham the most, but I don't like ham pizza. I like sweet potato pizza the most because it's sweet and very soft. It's not even spicy. I like spicy foods, but not like spicy ham. If spicy ham stuck in throid that hurts a lot! and every time I try to pull it out that hurts more than ever!!! Whatever. I love pizza and cheese any way. and I even like to melt cheese and just eat it. that's very good. And goodbye. See you on next fiday.
2013 year Aprill nineteenth"

Annie's mailbox EXPLODES

Normally on Friday's I teach grade 5. My coteacher was kind enough to let me miss classes last week to go on my trip. She asked that she do a letter writing class, and of course I said yes.

So my mailbox is EXPLODING with letters. It's a ridiculous ego boost, as many of them talk about how much they miss me and normally look forward to Friday's just to see me.
Of course, this is also the first time I am getting letters that aren't pure ego boosts, and they are quite funny as well.

For example:

"I don't like English. Sorry. Goodbye Aeen teacher."

Or

"My father like computer. Mom like sleep and I like money and sister like trap. My friend Jihyeon. Jihyeon is best friend but he is dangerous."  

I am finding I want to quote every single letter, they are so funny!! But alas, I cannot. I will bring them home when I eventually return, so those of you truly curious will have to ask to see my awesome collection some time!

Seoul Museums and Everland!!

Warning: Long post ahead!!

This week I had the awesome chance to join the grade 6 kids and teachers on their graduation trip. We went to Seoul for an overnight stay at Korea's biggest amusement park, Everland. It was absolutely amazing and I can't believe I was paid to go. My coteacher was unable to attend, so I was a little nervous to be a burden on the Korean teachers. I went into study mode and finally learnt all their names. I was put under the care of the young science teacher and her friend who was a homeroom, and unsurprisingly everyone was super sweet and always looking out for me. The two ladies, Su hyeon and Kyeong hui (Romanization rules make those names look harder than they are. Anne romanization would be Soo hyun and Kyoung Hee) are both my age and were so nice and fun. I think that despite our language barrier, we definitely formed a friendship.

The first stop on the trip was to the Seoul Science Museum. I totally geeked out and had a lot of fun with the Natural History section. There was also a "traditional Korean Science" part that was really neat. 

Traditional Korean pottery.

Oriental style rowing...

And western rowing! I had a chuckle at these
cartoons.

I was super happy to see my anecdotal
observation of Korean size changing
with generations was scientifically known!

Newton looking good.

Our next stop was Everland. This is the big amusement park, and they had the ingenious idea of also making it a resort. Travelling with about 250 students, this was the only way i can see a trip like this working out. We got to Everland around 4, we set our bags in our rooms, and then the students were basically set free. They were allowed to roam the park until 9pm! They had dinner vouchers to go find their own food, and the teachers got to have dinner and coffee together. It was lovely. We then all met up, counted the kids, and then it was bedtime.

Sharing a room with three other young Korean ladies was interesting. I felt very much like the dirty European from ancient times, back when all Europeans just put on wigs and perfumes instead of showering. Compared to these ladies, my hygiene routine was seriously lacking! I had showered in the morning and figured I could go one evening without showering in the awkward looking showers and just shower upon my return the next day. This baffled them. I also was the only one to use deodorant  ie powder/perfumes. They brush their teeth three times a day and for SO long. I think they think I skipped because I would go do it so quickly comparatively. They also had so many creams and ointments for their skin and hands. My current makeup routine is applying mascara which is insanely fast compared to theirs. Pretty much, we woke up at 6 30 and they were ready to go at 8! Ironically, I am the only who uses soap after the using the bathroom to wash my hands.

Luckily, one of the women who had taken me under her wing was the only Korean interested in riding the roller coasters! We started by riding the T Express, the world's steepest wooden roller coaster! It was super fun, as I love roller coasters. We also rode the "biking" which initially confused me until I saw the ship and realized it was the Viking!

Students were out of their minds excited and were all so happy. They were totally shocked to see me come along for the trip. We were staying in beautiful cabins surrounded by blossoms (Seoul's colder climate means they're still peaking) where the students were extra confused by my presence. Word that I had gone on the T Express traveled very fast, and some boys asked me to ride with them the following day. I was happy to oblige  Adorably, many students formed "couples" on the trip, due to the romantic nature of the park ;)

At night we got to watch a light and fireworks show. The plot involved some colourful people being attacked by some demon guy and his dragon, and then defeating him with the help of a phoenix. Seemed like a good time. Fireworks are always a fun way to end a night ! There was an animal section I didn't take full advantage of sadly, because I didn't want to be totally antisocial and run away from the other teachers, but I did get to play with some budgies! 

Our overnight room.

Korean style beds

Tons of the kids (and some teachers) bought new
shoes for the occasion.

Eating a potato chip with chopsticks.
When in Rome...

I died watching this band perform. Very funny.

Jaeweon's blazer always makes
me laugh.

In Korea, everything is cute. Even neck pillows!

Check out that steepness!

The biking

A huge line of strollers were bike-locked to the fence.
I laughed.

The ladies I was with asked if I would like to get animal ears with them. These headbands are extremely popular at amusement parks. I obviously agreed. My students absolutely freaked out when they saw me in the ears. They said I was very cute and very beautiful. Cat ears will have that effect! In the following picture I am eating my very first churro (odd place to finally try one I admit!) and am  also carrying a tiger shaped popcorn case while feeding some budgies. My coteachers were absolutely terrified of the budgies, and I had to hold one's hand out quite firmly to prevent her from running away to let the budgies eat her seeds.

I am CROUCHING I am taller than these children.
Note the adorableness of the ears!

Ok the FINAL leg of our journey (and this long blog post) was the Korean Independence Museum. It was mainly a photo-op to get a nice picture of all the students. We walked around a bit, but everyone was pretty beat by this point.

That weird flower name is the hibiscus. 

Here are all the grade 6 kids. I teach one other full grade,
and half of a third grade. Stop asking me if I know
all my kids names yet because it's not going
to happen :( !

In conclusion: I have the very best school and such an amazing job that this fun trip would be a part of!!