The Reason I Am Here

It is time I devote a blog to the hagwan that I am really happy I have become a part of. I have heard many horror stories of other schools, so I truly do feel very lucky to have been placed in one that is clean and has some really great staff and kids. The interior designer inside me also appreciates the decor and color scheme.

The view from the hallway. We are located on the 4th floor.
Color Scheme: green, blue, yellow, red/orange

We have 13 classrooms, each decorated in one of the 4 colors from the color scheme.

Our largest classroom size is about 14 students.

I enjoy teaching in the yellow and green rooms the best. I get sleepy in the blue rooms, and the orange room is too orange. Luckily, I don't have a class in the orange room...knock on wood.

The teacher's room: it looks a little crazy, but it is actually really fun
to talk to all the teachers. As anyone who ever tried to study with me in
college knows, I would rather socialize than work.



My personal work space...luckily I am on the end,
so I have some breathing room.

That is it in a nutshell. I like all the colors and overall it is a great work environment.

Sunae

I am quickly learning my way around my little neighborhood of Sunae and/or Bundang. I see many interesting things on my little travels, and I have come to the conclusion that Sunae must have more playgrounds per capita than any other town in the world. All the playgrounds appear to be in great condition, and each offers different features for different interests. I have only seen one playground that restless teens have detroyed with their many cans of spray paint.

I don't know who did this, but I am glad they like Daft Punk.

One important feature of Sunae is the department store called the Lotte. This is about 4 or 5 stories of shopping greatness. It is also the subway station for my neighborhood. The basement is my gateway to many places.


Something that has been bothering me: the majority of the ads use white models.

Top: Buildings to the Right of the Lotte.
Bottom: Buildings to the Left of the Lotte.

There are many high rise apartment buildings in South Korea. Where Koreans lack any efficiency or rationale in many areas, I have to give them credit that they may have found something with the way they move. Are those pesky stairs and small elevators making your move difficult?


Never fear, the ginormous outdoor furniture elevator is here!

Just pack your boxes, open your window, and shove them out onto the giant platform waiting outside. No hassles, no gimmicks, no staircases, no elevators.


Once your belongings are loaded on the platform, the operator will push the down button, quickly and efficiently delivering your items to the moving truck on the ground below. I think this could be a good lesson for any of us who live in high rise apartments, which, at the moment I cannot think of anyone I know that does.

The Movie-Going Experience

One of my all time favorite things to do in this world is to see movies. I was apprehensive how this pastime and South Korea would work together. Well my friends, I am excited to say that it will work out just fine. I now know where the movie theater is and how the process works, and will hopefully be able to see some good movies while I am here. This is the Korean movie-going experience:

1. In Korea, you arrive early to buy your seats, not to save your seats...to buy them. The seats are all assigned seating, like in a live theater. So when you pay for your ticket, you look at the screen of available seats and pick the ones that will provide you with the most comfortable and enjoyable movie watching experience. No more arriving early, waiting in line, and running into the theater to save seats for you and your friends who are habitually late, with your coats, hats, arms, scarves, and purses.

2. After you have purchased your ticket with an assigned seat printed on it, feel free to have a leisurely dinner, a nice stroll, heck, get your hair did. You have all the time in the world before the movie starts, and seat with your name on it.

3. Once you meander back to the theater, have a seat in the lobby. Enjoy the salty smells of freshly popped popcorn and take in all the people watching greatness that a movie theater lobby can offer. No need to wonder when you will be allowed to enter your theater, there is a screen that will tell you when your theater is ready to be seated.

4. Once you are in the seat you hand picked, sit back and enjoy the 20 minutes worth of strange Korean commericals and jingles and ask yourself "What the hell was that?" after each one. If you're lucky, they may play the same commerical two times in a row, so that you can be just as confused as you were the first time. And when the movie finally starts, rejoice that you can finally understand what is going on, and most of the others around you are forced to read subtitles, while simulataneously trying to watch the action packed movie. It was an incredibly pleasant experience and I cannot wait to do it again.

A Tale of Two Cheaters

After a month and a half of teaching, I have officially caught my first cheater. I felt emotions I never expected to feel when I realized what was happening. It has got to be one of the most blatant attempts at cheating, ever, in the history of cheating. It went a little something like this:

I was giving a science vocab quiz at the beginning of class. Every day, without fail, a group of 4 boys sit in the back of the classroom, 2 in front of the other 2. As I was patrolling the classroom to prevent any attempts at cheating, I noticed something on the back of one of the boys' coats. I came closer to inspect, when I realized that it was the entire science vocabulary packet (yes it was more than one page) taped to the back of this students' coat. This gave the two boys that sit behind him a full view of every answer to the quiz. I am sure I turned bright red as I ripped the packet from the jacket while simultaneously asking "Are you cheating?"...and a little bit louder now..."ARE YOU CHEATING?" I grabbed the tests from them and walked to the front of the room, plotting the students demise. When I got to the front of the classroom I said calmly yet firmly "Jim [not his real name], you are coming with me after class." I proceeded to teach class as if nothing had happened, and I hope that boy sat there ruminating in true fear. I hope he was so scared that he couldn't even read the words on the page of our current novel, Mary Poppins.

Needless to say, I took him to the science teacher and explained what happened. I was so furious, and have not felt that amount of adrenaline in a long time. I was shaking I was so mad. Cheating is so disrespectful and the way in which he cheated shows what he really thinks of me. As for the boy who was taped up, what did he get out of it? Surely he must have known. It could not have been a surprise to him to have a science vocabulary packet ripped from his back. So I ask you, what did he get out of it? Absolutely nothing. He actually had to study for the quiz and know the answers. As for now, I am not sure of the punishment, but I do know the boys are not allowed to sit together again, and they have lost what little trust I had in them. They are going to have to work over time to see if they can get it back. Right now, it is not looking too good for them.

A South Korean Thanksgiving

Riddle me this: What can you make with a small toaster oven, a microwave, and 4 stove top burners?

Answer: An entire Thanksgiving Meal! Substitute the turkey with chicken breasts in a white wine sauce with mixed herbs, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, and courtesy of Costco, a pumpkin pie!

All thanks to my amazing friend Erin, with ambition and determination and a little bit of luck, we pulled off an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, complete with hand turkey decorations and western tableware.

Those are the hands of our students.

This was the only package we could find
knives in. Only shortly before dinner we
discovered that the knife was about as useful
as a candle with no matches.

Our meal also included a bottle of Sonoma Valley wine my new co-worker Josh brought with him. He was gracious enough to share it with us on this fine occasion.

For dessert, we had the most delicious pumpkin pie. What is good pumpkin pie without a little whip cream? It was almost plenty good when we discovered that the can of ReadyWhip cost 15,000 won which is roughly $15. But then you would be underestimating our ingenuity. Erin purchased a few cartons of whipping cream, to which you add your own sugar, and whip for as long as your forearm holds out. [insert dirty joke here] The result is the same taste, with a somewhat different consistency.

All in all, it was a fabulous evening and a nice reminder of home, with some new friends. One of our Korean teachers, Christine, came over for the celebration. She was a good sport and tried all of our American food. Unless she was lying to us, I believe she enjoyed most of it.

L to R: Erin, Christine, Amanda, Josh

It's Official, I'm an Alien and No Matter How Old I Get I Will Always Love "The Magic School Bus"

On December 1, 2010 I became an alien resident of South Korea. I had to go through an intense fast and rigourous health examination to gain this privelege. Apparently I was the only person that was told not to smile for my picture, and that produced this little gem...

No, I am not angry.
Yes, this is the picture on my alien card.

Now a few classroom stories:

1. The textbooks for a few of my reading classes are those textbooks that we used in elementary school with several short stories and discussion questions. One of the stories we got to read was a script from "The Magic School Bus" tv show. I assigned parts to each of the kids, and we read it like a play. Some of them are actually really good actors. I might start a side business as a child talent agent and work on exploiting the South Korean market. Needless to say, I highly enjoyed reliving an educational cartoon from my past with the new generation. Thank you Ms. Frizzle for always coordinating your dresses with the lesson of the day...I think my favorite ensemble was the outerspace dress. The moral of the story? Disguise education within the confines of a zany cartoon and children might actually learn something from tv.

2. We read a mystery story in another reading class and finished reading with a few moments to spare. I told the students to use the remaining time to write a mystery story of their own. This one was too priceless not to share. It is from a student named Alex, who laughs at the most random things, but failed to understand my joke when I told him that he is easily amused. I guess we have that in common.

"Help, Help
Who has stoled my 100 million dollar said amanda. The CIS team leader Christine [Christine is a Korean teacher] came. And amanda explain about story that she was sleep and the robber come and stoled a bag that has 100 million dollar.
That is all my property!!! she cried.

Don't cried, she [Christine] said. How was the robber's silhouette?

He was tall and bald hair and I think he is a best of best robber, and she [Me] keep crying.

Christine listen and see the CIS homepage and see the best robber. She thinks that Nick [Nick is one of my co-workers and he is tall with a shaved head] and Steve might have done it, but Steve haven't the time, he eat dinner with family. So Nick is the culprit.

Then 3 days ago he do self-surrender. He stole because he is punished by his parents."

3. I bet you had no idea, that The Simpsons is so popular over here, but it is. There are pencil bags and face covers with Lisa's face plastered all over them. One boy drew the entire family on the back of his test. I just found it interesting that when we were discussing The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, the kids couldn't contain themselves and continued to mutter Simpson while they snickered. Felt like I was teaching back in the States.

Lastly, I "stumbled upon" this amazing picture, and I LOVE it.