Yet another adorable letter

"To Ann teacher
Hi? Anne teacher?
Fifth grade, two and a half,
I'm called Sim Young Su.
Birthday They said the day next Saturday.
Happy Birthday.
And I'm always fun, Thank you for teaching us.
Class read a story, and I really can not wait.
Anne teacher please tell
me the future more
interesting.
Birthday have a good~
Preety Anne teacher <3"

So cute. Reallllly not sure how to reply though. Does she like the stories I read, or does she want the future ones to be more interesting? Also  note in the upper right corner it says "This is hand made!" haha I don't think so...

I am surrounded by love!

I am not an overly positive person. I swear. In fact if I had a dollar for every time I was called sarcastic I would have a lot of dollars. So the fact that I am feeling so great really is cause things are awesome, not because I am some cock-eye optimist!

Today my wonderful co-teacher, suffering from a pretty rough cold, brought me a cheesecake for my birthday! She asked if I liked cheesecake.

UM. YES.

We ate it at break and everyone sang happy birthday for me :)

I was wished happy birthday by tons of kids, in English and Korean. One kid cracked me up when he wanted me to say "Happy Birthday" in Korean and told me "Listen and Repeat!" because that's what their book (and I) always say. Apparently it translates roughly to congratulations, which is why they all have been writing that on my cards. Anyways many many happy birthdays, more cards, more gifts, and to top it all off, my last class a little group of boys danced for me. Normally the love is showered onto me by the girls, so this was extra endearing. It was a pretty cool little dance too. It's just so awesome that I can be so far from home and be shown such kindness. 

Sadly my photos didn't turn out too well but I have a LOT of letters to reply to so you will have to deal with these shaky shots.

This is a pic of my birthday hoard. I didn't include all the letters because there's just too many! The gifts include that tin of goodies, winter socks, and a notebook. So amazingly lovely.

"Ann Teacher,
Hello! Teacher I'm 5-6 Lee Ye-song. Teacher, happy birthday to you. I like you. I give cookie and candy it is yummy have a nice day~!!"

"Hi?
I'm Clara. Happy Birthday! I give for little present ^^ Do you like notebook? ^^ I think you like this note book. Happy Birthday Teacher Anne! (drawing)<-- This is Cake!"

Cards don't have to include gifts or elaborate stationary to be sweet!
"Hello? My name is Won Ye Ryoung.
I'm fifth grade, and class 2.
I heard this Sunday is your birthday. Isn't it?
I want to happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you~! Happy birthday you!
You are so funny. And so pretty."

This kid sure knows the way to my heart!

LOVE. IT.

Another day

A couple amusing anecdotes.

Firstly, there is a sportswear store here called Kolon Sport. That in itself is pretty damn hilarious. Anyways, they wear sportswear here all the time as casual wear, so there are Kolon Sport's everywhere. Today I told the gym teacher what colon meant.. he has limited English so the only way I could explain was the inaccurate but close description of "poo hole." He then looked it up and laughed and I could hear his computer saying "colon" as he pushed the "listen to" button. Then I heard his computer saying "anus" and him repeating to practice. Then for the next while every time a teacher came into the teacher room I could hear him speaking in Korean and saying "colon" a lot and the other teacher would laugh haha. He even told the vice principle, who then said to me "Korean style! With a K!" It was amusing. This colon conversation ended with the gym teacher saying his colon was full and he needed toilet. Classy. Same guy said his name is "HIV (pronounced super weird I'm really not sure what he was saying. Hee Bee or something) the AIDS virus! Because mom said I looked like a virus" hahaha.

Secondly, I got a phone call (already amusing enough because I never expected the phone in the teacher room to be for me!) from my grade 5 coteacher asking me to come upstairs. When I went a student had a birthday present for me!! I will take a pic of all the cards/presents I get from the kids once I get them all. So far, it's been a good haul! Anyways, after I thanked her, another student pulled a stray hair off my blazer. Holding it and bouncing and speaking excitedly in Korean, she convinced her friends that they all wanted one. I then had a little pack of grade 5 girls picking as my shoulders looking for stray hairs. I felt like a monkey being groomed. Soon all but one had a hair of their own, but she looked sad so I ran my hands through my hair to find her one. She was so happy! My coteacher said that they were talking about how every detail of me was different. I feel way too special here. I've never felt like having thin hair was cool before!

I found this really cute. Why would I dislike
red? Also those symbols make the Korean
version of :'(

Moose sent by mommy being used in a class not taught by
me. They're so popular!

I laughed so much when I saw a student
wearing this coat. The kids all keep
asking me why I wanted a pic of it and I
really don't know how much detail I can get
into explaining. Anyways all I've said is
"illegal. go to jail" haha.

This is my first letter of the second wave.
This girl is actually so sweet. Last class when
I handed my replies they all grabbed theirs and
ran away before I could see which student
she was. I am determined to find out next
time! Also today I got five letters written
in Korean haha oops.

An unexpected difference...

My amazing parents recently sent me a birthday package filled to the brim with candy canes. I have shown my coteachers to magic of letting one dissolve into coffee/tea. It's almost like I have DavidsTea Santa's Secret out here :) Anyways, when I was brought out candy candes I mentioned that I loved Christmas. I was surprised by a teacher's confused response of "But you have no boyfriend?"

Um.. what?

Well it turns out that here Christmas for the non religious isn't about family and gift giving, but about going on a date with your lover on Christmas Eve. Just another little tidbit of Korea!

PS  I am depressed thinking about missing Christmas. Lotsa love in this blog post to those of you who I'll be missing! You better believe we'll be Skyping.

The perils of winter in Korea

Overall I have been having a very positive time in Korea. Great kids, great location, great coteachers, etc. I do have a major qualm, however, with Korea. I come from Montreal, where it gets COLD in the winter. I never liked the cold, but it was bearable due to fun snow times and cozy hot chocolate evenings. The winter here is so far lacking in both snow and indoor warmth! While the temperature is not as low here as it would get to back home, I am finding myself much colder due to the fact that they are  still opening the windows. Going to the bathroom is like an arctic survival mission. Seriously. Mix that in with the fact that toilet paper is kept outside of the stalls, and the fact that there is no dryer OR paper towels, AND the fact that the sink water is often ice cold (or scathingly boiling)... well let's just say I do not enjoy using the bathroom at school. After sitting in the cold all day by the time I get home I truly feel like the cold has seeped into the marrow of my bones.

Anyways, whining aside, I haven't really been doing as many fun things to blog about. The festivals are over due to the horrible weather, and I am not inclined to go on any scenic out door treks. Hopefully soon I'll get myself over to the Gyeongju Museum or something.

This weekend was American Thanksgiving, and some of my new friends were kind enough to invite me over for a potluck. It was astonishingly amazing. I made a side of squash, onion, spinach, herbs and (my new favourite vegetable) bacon. It was a hit, at least, I liked it. There was also a gigantic turkey reminiscent of Dr. Seuss' roast beast, cranberry sauce, and about 5 different types of potatoes. Oh and a glorious pumpkin soup. It was so amazing to taste so many homey flavours. I haven't been that full in a long time and while it was painful, it was a good pain.

Thanksgiving in Korea. Delicious!!!

Today a girl said to me "I hope class finishes soon" at
the beginning of class haha. Then she gave me this.
MIXED SIGNALS GIRL.

Adorable t-shirt letter

Me! I used to hate the girls who would suck
up to teachers by drawing them... buuuuut
let's just say my perspective has changed ;)
Love this.

How impressive is this? And he (or she I really can't tell by
the names or the handwritting) got a perfect test score too.
In Korea a circle means correct, not incorrect. Anyways
the last question on the test is "What are you going to
do tomorrow?" and s/he wrote "I'm going to draw pictures."
Good!! Because this is so amazing!

I will leave you today with some food for thought. Teaching English has made me realize that our language is insane. The mixture of germanic and latin has left us with just a total mishmash devoid of all logic. The future in English is absolutely insane. I am stating to think French verb tenses, the bane of my childhood, are easier. Why? Because the future tenses are always future tenses. Check this out:

What are you going to do this weekend?
What will you do this weekend?
What are you doing this weekend? --> SERIOUSLY THIS ISN'T FUTURE WHY IS THIS THE MOST NATURAL SOUNDING SENTENCE?

"I'm going to the store in an hour. I'm going to get some candy. It will be awesome." Seriously what is this?

Attack of the cuteness

Ok before we get to the uber cute, hello everyone. Quick update: I am down to my last block of gruyere but still just above the halfway mark for the giant block of cheddar. Here I was thinking I had bought too much...

Today I GAVE A TEST. I felt so mean. There was a written portion, which they completed in class, and a speaking portion with me out in the hallway (WHERE THE WINDOWS WERE OPEN).
It should have been easy but obviously they were scared. What does dumb Anne do? She tells a boy named Mi Nu that his name is kitty in french! (Minou.. pronounced exactly the same. How adorable?) The poor boy was SO CONFUSED and thought he was failing the test hahaha. ANyways I gave him easy oral questions and he did alright.. but then he bombed the written. It's pretty funny when they bomb cause I get to read funnilly filled in blanks like "We are having a shirt party. It's on could you come to. She is pool than him." Poor Minou.. I will always remember his name now though! Another incorrect answer that made me laugh was "How often do you clean your room? I'm sorry I can't. I have piano lesson." Haha it's almost like he's saying he can't clean his room because of piano. Sadly though I think he was answering "Would you like to come to my party" which was the previous question.

When I did the speaking test with pretty boy, he didn't quite answer eeverything correctly.. but then he said I LOVE YOU. A? I looooooooooooove you!
haha

ANYWAYS, that was for my grade 6. Grade 5's, the cutesies, have begun to write me letters!! OH MY GAWD the cuteness.

One letter says "I'm first!" on the outside. Inside it says
"Dear Anne Teacher!! Hello! My name is Seo Hee.
I'm very love you!
Do you have boyfriend?
I love you <3"

It is from a girl  surprisingly!


Another letter is from a little girl where she accidentally wrote "Anne Theater" instead of "Anne Teacher" the whole letter haha.

Another letter includes the following sentence that made me laugh out loud: "I am nervous before the class starts I like hamburger they are very delicious what do you like?"

Finally, this letter pretty much made me want to cry. I could not believe how sweet it was. It's a little long so I'll cut out a bit...

"Teacher's way of talking is very fun and your gesture is very good too. So I like you. Commencement, you look so pretty and funny. But now, I think you are so pretty, funny... popular and great!!! My english is poor but teacher was promote me, so I respect Anne teacher. Teacher was my first great teacher. Anne Teacher! I LOVE YOU. I respect you. Teacher~ HAHAHAHA"

Like seriously? That's one of the nicest things I will ever receive.

PS I have finally discovered why Koreans write ~'s everywhere. It's used to elongate the word. So whereas I would type Huurrrryyyyyyyy, they would type Hurry~!

Here are some pics of the grade 5 mailbox, and the first letters I received.

Note the adorable way in which they fold their letters
so no one else can read them. We were never that smart.

A blog about blogging

Ok one of my favourite things about blogging is that I can see how many people are reading my blog. Other things I can see: the country from which people are viewing my blog, the browser, the computer type, and the entry website. Normally the entry website is google, and I can see what search brought them here. The search is usually along the lines of "Anne in Korea blog" and I know that is someone I know who just forgot the URL. No worries friend who can't remember the easiest URL ever ;)

SOMETIMES however I get to read hilarious searches that lead people to my blog. Today's lineup is especially rich so I thought I'd share...

• Korean style pig feet (This person actually stayed on the blog a bit and read 3 pages woohoo)
• Blueberry Latte
• Freezing Pepero (for the record I believe this can be done. Cookies and chocolate freeze well!)
• Gyeongju World
• Happy pepero day (BOOM BLOG POST TITLE)
• jetlag ahu dhabi and korean (this one is so oddly specific. I hope they found an answer? )
• Korea anne (Hi friend!)
• korean drink that tastes like bacon (um, ew?)
• korean traditional drink and cake festival (this one actually is kind of common. I was kind of a big deal there)
• penicillin "butt cheek" (WHAT was this person looking for? WHAT?)

Mayonnaise options

At the grocery store you have 2 options for mayonnaise. Same price, same brand, but two labels: "Fresh Mayonnaise" or "Delicious Mayonnaise." I was unaware these two qualities were mutually exclusive!!

I was writing something the other day and my sweet grade 5 coteacher started complimenting me on being able to use my left hand. "It is amazing! You can write so well. The students noticed you can even draw with your left hand!" Haha try as I might to explain that it is not amazing and that I can't use my right hand, she insisted that I was very special. As usual, I'll take it.

Lastly, today a little girl came to look at what I was doing on my computer. They often come poking around at the end of school, ask for candy, call me pretty, chat if they have the skills to, and then lose interest and leave. This little girl however was completely entranced by my powerpoint editing and decided to sit on my chair with me and speak to me in Korean. It was adorable, yet so confusing. She was eventually able to communicate something along the lines of
"Teacher. Go. Shuttle bus. Book!"
I think she wanted me to come with her to a bookstore.. but alas, I told her I had to stay and work until 4 30. It was adorable, cute and so funny that student with such low English would enjoy my company so much!

PS Unrelated to anything, has anyone seen the movie Mary and Max? It's an Australian Claymation I just watched and it's very good. Very dark, but very good.

Mean Kids

I teach nine grade 6 classes, eight grade 5 classes, one grade 4 class and one grade 3. The grade 3’s are adorable, the grade 4’s are psycho but nice, the grade 5’s are the cutest things in the world, and the grade 6’s are lovely and sweet. Oh wait. Except for one class. One grade 6 class is just dreadful.

I am not writing this to complain – having 18/19 amazing classes makes me really lucky. I just want this blog to be accurate!
The class, 6-4, has no regard for me. Whereas every other class excitedly call out HELLO ANNE TEACHER the moment they see me, 6-4 really could not care less. They don’t listen, they’re never quiet, they don’t play games, they don’t repeat after me. I’m pretty sure they outright mock me in Korean and their co-teacher snickers.  LUCKILY I do remember being 12 and I do remember hating learning a language (although I’m realizing more and more my French immersion is really incomparable to this. Not only are French and English quite similar, I was surrounded by French in a way these kids never will be with English.) so I don’t take it personally. It’s just so exhausting. Their class was once cancelled 2 weeks in a row and when the homeroom teacher saw me rejoicing he asked if I hated him! Haha. A little over dramatic buddy – but I do hate teaching your kids! It’s a big shame too because the tiny few who want to learn can’t. I literally had one kid repeating after me. There is one boy in the class who is the obvious shit disturber and he’s about 6 feet tall and oh so apathetic. The girls in the class are absolutely silent. It’s a bad bad class. I can’t wait for them to leave in February.

So moral of this post is: while Korea has been amazing, there are some mean kids and bad classes. So it helps to be prepared!

On a happier note...

Robot mailbox for my grade 6's! We'll see if I get anything
cute or just turds from 6-4 haha

Me on TV! This is the school English Broadcast. It's funny.
I'm talking about how big dinosaur eggs are at that moment.
Guess who chooses the weekly topics ;)

Inside cover of the grade 5 textbook. Fish and chips and, yes,
POUTINE. Represent!!

Any weight I may have lost since arriving in Korea...

is instantly going to be gained back now that I have bread and cheese in my life again. Oh my god. Now when I come home my thoughts are no longer "what can I make that is palatable" but "what of the plethora of delicious options do I want to savour." Delicious. So delicious. Sandwiches have re-entered my life. Cheesey pasta. CHEESE EXPLOSIONS.

Moving on...

Today a few more kids brought in some Pepero presents. These gifts were even cuter because they were premeditated for me! Check it out:

From left to right they say

To: Anne
From: One of your student (This girl didn't have me today so when she say me outside of class she was so happy to be able to give it to me. Such a sweetheart. An older girl too, so not just like little kid giddy!)

To: (Student's name in Hangul) Seo Yeong Tik? Tik isn't a regular sounding name, but it's really hard for me to read handwritten hangul.
From: Ann

To: (English teacher written in Hangul)
From:  5 -5 Chui A Yeong

I LOVE THEM.

Cute interactions of today:

1. Student comes into class with an open box of pepero sticks. Comes up to me and says
"TEACHER. YOU EAT PEPERO! EAT PEPERO!"
I obviously complied.
He gave one to my coteacher and the other foreigner teacher who doesn't teach him.

2. At the end of the day another boy gave me a pepero from his open box, but I was wearing mittens (CAUSE IT'S SO COLD INSIDE) and I broke it. That wouldn't do, so he gave me another.

3.Student "Anne Teacher! What is your name!"
Anne: "Anne"
Student: "No, you're NAME!"
Anne: "Anne?"
Student: "Your REAL name!"
Anne: "Oooh, my full name?"
Student "Yesyesyesyes"
When I showed my full name, which I suppose I shouldn't put online on this public blog, the kids  had such a laugh. I even added my middle name for shock value. All the names here are the same length - one character for the last name (eg. Kim) and 2 for the first name (eg. Jong Il). A huge proportion of them have the same name. So my name was just ridiculously long to them.

They kept pronouncing my last name as Banana. I wrote it out for them in Hangul though and then they got  it.

Ok haha note how I wrote "last name" and "first name" but obviously I meant "family name" and "given name." Whoops! It's so confusing to me that it's reversed here.

Cute observation of today:

2 boys were staying in my English room after school was out. School ends for them at 2 30 and I stay till 4 30. Normally I get to hang out alone but occasionally kids will stay late. I had no idea what they were working on. They kept rough housing really intensely, like I swear one was strangling the other, but they were laughing and having fun. They kept calling each other "mango" and "frog"
"Teacher! His name is Mango!"
"Teacher! His name is Frog!"
Frog would then choke Mango for a while and when he released him ..
"Frog! Frog! You are frog!"

Haha anyways finally though they get back to business and what were these rambunctious crazy boys working on? Oh no big deal, only this BAD ASS ROBOT. These kids are in grade 6! I hope they were proud that I asked for a picture.

Our computer skills in grade 6 were playing Lemmings
and Boom! 

Student "diaries"

My grade 5 students are currently learning the past tense. The grade 5 English teacher had the excellent idea to make them write fictional diary entries. She gave them only ten minutes, and I think they're great! I had no idea the students could be this imaginative with the language! Anyways, she asked me to correct and comment on them, so I figured I'd show you guys a few of the funnier ones. I will transcribe the original texts for you in case it is difficult to read.


"Last Saturday I ate pizza with my friends. It was delicious and we ate fruits and ate desert. desert was chocolate cake, apple pie. And we played soccer. But I was tired. I don't want this soccer game."

"Today we went to the underground. We met devil and zombi. We fought devil Hong. We won and we ate devil hong. it was yummy. It was great day - The end - "

"Yesterday, I went space trip. I saw earth, moon and I saw many different stars. My friends was very excited and very fun. We ate rice cake made a famous rabbit. It was fantastic !!"

 What this one lacks in artwork it makes up for in hilarity.
"I went to the zoo. I saw elephants and rabbits. I was fighting with elephants. I won the fight but I broke my arms and lefs. It was very sick but it was fun."

 "I went to the moon. There are many angels in there. I was surprised. I ate angels apple. The angels said "You stole my apples" And I ran away, Rand after, but angel was catch me. I wake up. It was scared. I said "angel was bad" "
This story took such an unexpected turn!!

This next one was such a shock amongst all the other adorable ones haha. But hey - freedom of expression right? I'm going to guess they play too many video games!

"We went secreat door And we rode an airplane. We fight spider monster. We victory. But we are of bandit. Bandit was (Korean word A). (Korean word A) was shots gun. Then we ware die. (Korean word A) die. Becaus (Korean word B) was (Korean word A) kill."

Happy Pepero Day!

And Remembrance Day. Two holidays that really couldn't be more different!

I went to Ulsan this weekend to visit Adri but also to go to Cost Co. It was AMAZING. Just like back home. We all spent way too much money though. For dinner we made (ok Adri made.. the kitchens are too small for helpers) spaghetti  bolognese and it was one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten. 

This is my walk to school. Just
figured you might like a
visual.

Second block on way to school.
Note there are no sidewalks and
at rush hour I often think I
might be smushed.

School Friday morning.

 Fun story. Koreans like to open their windows. All the time. So while it is not very cold yet, it's been around 10-15C these days, I am FREEZING at school. Students and teachers all wear their coats indoors. Teachers have smuggled space heaters under their desks. It's brutal. When I asked why this was, a coteacher told me that students like it and they like seeing their hair blow around haha. I'm thikning something was lost in translation. Anyways, I've asked around to foreigners and apparently it is a habit from the days of gas heating when they didn't want to asphyxiate. The English room does get a lot of sun luckily so sometimes it manages to warm up. On the occasion that the room is regular indoor temperature, the students will complain that they are hot. I suggest that they remove their down winter parkas. They seem to find this a horrible inconvenience haha. Anyways, here is a picture from the textbook that I thought was funny because even the cartoon students wear their coats indoors!

Korean indoor coat wearing

The lunch ladies were on strike Friday so we ordered in.
Some teachers who don't normally sit with me got to
see the shocking fact that I am capable of using chopsticks.
I was literally the only person who ate veggies from that
veggie tray. They really love their protein, rice and
kimchi!

Pepero Day is awesome. Because it is today (Sunday)
students celebrated on Friday. All of this was given to me!!
The one at the top in the blue bag is HOME MADE!

Nude: Chocolate is contained tightly in the biscuit.

We switch to "indoor shoes" at school. I was curious about
this before coming so for anyone else who is curious
these are the standard female model. 

These are my awesome socks.

The gingkos are a gorgeous shade of yellow
these days.

Adorable grade 3 boy in his super pouffy
down jacket: "Teacher. Do you like Angry Birds?"
Anne: "Yes."
Adorable kid: "Here!"
It was too cute. I love it. 

How will I manage to follow this complex recipe without
an English translation!

Possible the most exciting moment of my life: finding
a packet of gruyere cheese at the Cost Co. It's the real deal.

Pretty boy

I don't remember if I have talked about 'pretty boy' here yet. He is a student in my grade 6 class. When I first started and was all petrified of the kids and all, the bigger ones scared me the most. I figured at least for the small kids, I would be physically intimidating. Plus bigger kids were likely going through puberty and that's just never a fun time. So anyways, this kid is quite a bit taller than me, and a little chubby so that he is in total quite a bit bigger than me. I pretty much instantly could tell those who were getting after school English lessons and he wasn't one of them. So I thought oh boy this big guy will hate English and me.

BUT I WAS SO WRONG.

He is the CUTEST THING EVER. He always tries, not matter what, even if the sounds coming from his mouth are not even close to English. For the first month whenever he saw me in the hall he would say "Teacher. Me. Pretty boy?" and when I would reply yes he would get SO excited and haul out his little friends so they could hear me confirm his beauty. He is always smiling and when he does his eyes disappear into his adorable chubby cheeks. Other teachers love him too, he is obviously a super sweet boy with a huge heart.

ANYWAYS - my coteacher once pointed out to me that his parents owned a rice cake shop down the street. I in turn told this to my friend. Because she hears me gushing about Pretty Boy all the time, she was able to recognize him the other day when she went into the shop. She told him she knew me. Apparently he looked incredibly shocked, but once she was able to express that she knew me and that I said he was a good boy, he beamed up at her proud as could be.

Today when I saw him, he skipped down the hall towards me a full speed. I hope you can imagine a husky 12 year old skipping at full speed. It's amazing. Anyways, here is our conversation.

"Teacher! (insert Korean sentences here). Your friend! Come see me! I so SCARED."
"Yes! She told me. Don't worry, she is not scary."
"She SO TALL. Pretty! OKBYE!"

And away he skipped.

PS  Pepero are cookies that  you may have heard by their Japanese name : "Pocky." Apparently Nov 11 is Pepero Day (feels almost wrong having a cookie day on Remembrance Day) and so tomorrow kiddies will be bringing me Peperos and asking for some in return. I am bringing my camera, maybe I'll get some hilarious shots!

Cuteness of today

• I played Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" for the comparative adjective lesson and kids asked me for the song title afterwards because it was so awesome. AKA I am so awesome.
• I forgot a CD in a gr. 5 classroom yesterday so at lunch I went to get it. I normally spend lunches on the grade 6 floor. It was probably the closest I will ever come to understand what fame is like. My students SWARMED ME like no other, just to say hi. I loved it.
• I told the adorable boy who wanted me to learn Korean my newest sentence which means "I am an English teacher." and then he replied "I am a student" in Korean. I felt so proud of myself.
• I told my coteacher about the mailbox idea and she loves it, so I'm going to make it this weekend. I'm sure many blog updates will be inspired by letters.
• For comparative adjective olympics, I had a "who is smarter at math" question. I wanted to see this famed math skill at work. First question was 335 / 67 = ? It took them less 5 seconds before 99% of the class had their hands raised. It. was. in. sane.

We filmed our first "Fun Fun English Broadcast." This is a 10 minute video where my coteacher and I host, showing clips and pictures and things. On the website she gave me of little clips I found a series that covers a whole bunch of nature topics, so obviously I am going to use them. The intro episode is about these two little ducks trying to figure out what kind of egg they found, so they look at all different kinds of animals laying eggs. SO I made the topic "Eggs." Here is another Egg video we used, for your viewing pleasure.

After this video I say "Cuuute" but in Korean. I think the kids will get a kick out of that. My coteacher kept laughing whenever I said it. NOT surprisingly, this video was actually originally made in Korean. I don' t know HOW I found it, but I did. My coteacher said it's because I'm a genius. I think I might have the world's biggest ego by the time I come back. I look forward to teaching all the kiddies about animals ! (PS for the record, I was among the many misinformed people who thought that evolution wasn't taught here. Turns out a few now disproved examples of evolution have been removed, such as archaeopteryx being an ancestor to modern day birds. So evolution is taught!) 

Fun fact

The "pig leg" that my coteachers have been sharing with me is, in fact, pig foot.

ew.

Waste not, right?

Still sick in Korea

Woke up feeling pretty sick again this morning. I really need to defeat Korean germs. I have a cold and a sore throat and am very tired. I did not rest nearly enough this weekend, and so I hope to spend the next one hiding in Ulsan with Adri. A bonus of knowing less people there means we can just hang out and do nothing. There's kind of a pressure I feel here that I always need to being doing something. It's quite exhausting!! Anyways, sorry for complaining. Sick Anne is cranky Anne.

On a happier note: On Friday walking to school I was greeted by one of my favourites and her friends (I finally found out her name. Su Min. Pronounced Soo Meen. Isn't that cute?). Here's our conversation as well as I remember:

SM: Teacher. [sun]Glasses.. Why?

Anne: Well it's sunny!

SM: No teacher. Cold.

Anne: Well it's sunny and cold!

SM: Today, in Seoul, SNOW.

Anne (legitimately shocked): NO! Really??

SM (surprised at my surprise): Teacher... you no watch news?

Anne: No.. it's in Korean...

SM(laughing): Teacher!!! Learn Korean!!!!

I had a chuckle. Today another group of kids told me I needed to learn Korean and that it was "very easy." They keep teaching me hello, but I know that one! I'm going to start greeting them with it just to throw them. 

Today as I was walking around the classroom, a girl picked a hair off of my blazer. She was so excited by this hair. "TeacheR!!" "yes?" "HAIR!" Yes that is a hair.. I told her she could keep it. I could see her bouncing it for the next 5 minutes. Even my body's refuse brings joy in Korea.

Another interaction today in class was a little boy looking at me with extreme urgency and asking "TEACHER. BATHROOM????" Being not-evil, I said yes but Bali Bali (hurry hurry!).
He was gone a while and I wondered if maybe he had faked the urgency and was off playing somewhere. However, when he returned, he tried in very broken English to explain his lateness.
"Teacher! My Poop. MY POOP. HOT. HARD. NO POOP."

Please imagine this with appropriate facial expressions, grunts, and body language hahha. It was hilarious and oh so odd. Thanks for the deets kiddo. 

Remember the country double D dong? Well it turns out
DDong means dung. So that explains the flag...

Went back to Gyeongju World this weekend. One time wasn't
enough! I love this mishmash of fairy tail happiness.

You think you are going to eat this food?

WELL YOU'RE NOT. IMMA SIT IN IT.