The Kiddies

The other day my mom says to me, "Jac, can you blog more about the kids?!" I suppose she has a point. Where to begin. I should first say that the effect these kids have on me is pretty unbelievable. I am constantly amazed by them. There are days when I wake up in a poor mood to find myself smiling and laughing in my first kindy class. There's just something about them...
Maybe it's their innocence? Maybe it's their fearlessness? Perhaps it's the fact that some of them are 5 years old and they can speak both Korean and English?! Is it their relentlessness to learn? What about the fact that they crave affection--in that every time I am near them, checking their work, assisting them with something, they will gently hold my arm, my leg, my hand, just anything to be touching me. Is it the fact that I am 28 years old and they are as young as 5 and I often feel as though I communicate better with them than with any adult in a given day? (What that says about me...I am not quite sure) Maybe it's just the fact that they're so damn cute. I mean, look at these pics. You tell me.


Now, you must know, it is not always gravy. Of course not. In fact, there are days, like today, where I am completely discouraged by my classes. There are days when I feel like all I did for most of my 35 minute class was yell, "Denny, sit in your seat!" "Chris, stop picking your nose!!" "Cindy, stop whining!" And the most famous, "NO SPEAKING KOREAN!!" Sometimes, all the kids want to do is play. They don't want to learn. They don't want to listen to this silly American teacher telling them, "Listen and Repeat: VEGETABLE." They want to shoot each other with fake guns and make fun of the teacher in Korean. Actually, sometimes they just make fun of me in plain ol English. If it gets too out of hand, I'll call in the Korean homeroom teacher. You should see their change in attitude when a Korean teacher appears in class. It's like they all become angels. But as soon as she leaves, playtime resumes. It can be really frustrating, but overall, I think, if I can try and get at least ONE new concept/idea/grammar/vocab/lesson with each class (I have 8 classes on MWF and 7 on TTH) then I think I'm on the right path. We'll see!

Sunbathing in Korea?

So, it has been gorgeous here the past few days and for me, when summer's around the corner and it's the beginning of bathing suit season, I like to work on my tan. This is the opposite of what Koreans like to do. I have realized, that this is why many Koreans are often dressed in full clothing when outside--no matter what the temperature. When hiking on a 75 degree day, they will be dressed in black hiking pants, black hiking sweatshirt, full visor, handkerchief, and hiking boots. While I prefer, shorts and a tank--hence the many stares. When I go to the Clinique counter to get some "bronzing powder" they tell me, "I'm sorry ma'am, we only have whitening powder." Many Koreans wear whitening creams/lotions/makeup, to try and make their skin look lighter. To me, their skin is beautiful. I guess once again we always want what we don't have.
Anyway, to work on my tan, I have resorted to the closest possible option for sunlight: my rooftop. Do not be fooled, this is not some fancy rooftop deck with a pool, chairs, etc. Oh no. If you came to the top of my building you'd see my friend Matt, Mallory, and I laying out amongst the air conditioning fans and other maintenance objects that cover the top of the building. But when you have good company, good conversation and the sun, you can pretty much just pretend you're at the beach! (I'll save the pics for when my tan is in full effect.) ;)

Street Festivals, yes please.

Last Saturday Mal and I decide to go and do one of our tourist things and take a tour of this stream downtown. The subway drops us off at City Hall station. We step out into an "informational fair." We walk around, booth by booth, looking at the displays. This is a street fair, geared towards foreigners, to show us all of the different organizations that are here for our benefit while in Seoul! We get pamphlets, business cards, maps, even free gifts!! There were booths representing medical centers, Seoul history museum, dental & derm offices, English theater arts, etc etc. It is very nice to know that there is this entire network of people that are here, to help us if we need anything at all!

After collecting our fair share of freebees, we turn the corner and 'Voila'--an international food festival!! Uh-maz-ing! This reminds me of Taste of Chicago except that it is not uber hot, it's also really clean, (remember that somehow there is no garbage in Korea) and the food is not just from Chicago, rather it's from all over the world. We eat pad thai from Thailand, chicken satay from Indonesia, spinach cake from Greece, wine from Argentina (a Malbec of course,) and beer from Vietnam. Delish!!
We meander our way towards our original purpose--the stream, aka Cheonggyecheon. The stream is gorgeous, set between beautiful marble walls, with fancy decor along the way. Walking along the stream with our beers...(in Korea you can drink your beer anywhere you want!!) these two very nice Korean girls come up to us and ask us to take their picture. We do so, and then we start chatting. One of the girls speaks really good English--she lived in Canada for a year. They ask us if we'd like them to show us around the area and of course we say we are happy to walk around with them as we have no plan. We walk through Insadong where I buy two sun dresses from a street vendor, and we see a lot of the traditional food and art that is Korean. We finally sit down at a traditional Korean restaurant and eat Korean pizza and drink Makkoli--a rice wine alcohol that you drink out of a bowl, is ladled into your cup, and is semi creamy, yet has bubbles?? Sounds strange I know, but is quite good--and gives you that nice relaxed feeling one would expect from rice wine alcohol. :)

After dinner the girls take us to a "sticker" photo booth. These are very popular in Korea. You go with your friends to a venu that is filled with photo booths and people. There are many props to wear/dress up in. You take your photos, and when finished, you can edit your photos electronically by putting all of these silly decorations on it. And print--you've got yourself some funky photos. (See below.)

Then they take us to a Karaoke bar. First true Karaoke experience in Korea = SO MUCH FUN. You rent a room for about $15/hour. The room is awesome, clean with fancy couches, an entire sound system, a flat screen TV, and some mics. What more does one need? We sang, "Dancing Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and "Toxic" to name a few. Once again, GREAT day/evening in Seoul!!

Biking the Han--my first Korean holiday!!

So in Korea they have something I always thought we should've had in the states: Children's Day. I mean, we have mother's day, we have father's day, and both are important days honoring important peeps, but I mean, what about...the kids?!

Children's Day = holiday for everyone in Korea! Although I am selfishly happy as this effects me, it is truly for the kids. This is good, because the kids here go to school, ALL THE TIME. Everyone I have spoken to has said that the main one focus for their children is education and English English English. If you don't know English, supposedly you are doomed to be unsuccessful. These kids go to public school during the day, private English schools in the afternoon and night, and many of them go to school on Saturdays!! That's practically illegal as far as I'm concerned. I find that I am constantly reminded of this when I ask the kids on Monday, "So, how was your weekend!?" to find majority of them responding with, "Not good, I had school on Saturday." Oh yeah and also, they go to school YEAR AROUND. NO summer break!! What happened to a kid being a kid? I am almost certain that one of the most important things about growing up is having some good ol playtime and even some time to get in a bit of trouble...

But I digress. So Mal and I decide that on our holiday Wednesday, we are going to bike the Han River. We take the subway into the downtown area and are dropped off steps from the river. I have smelled many scents in Korea, however this Wednesday I experienced a new one. That was the smell of silk worms. Yes, eating boiled silk worms is a popular snack here in Korea. To be polite, I would say it smells just like you would think boiled worms would smell.

Anyway...we get in line and rent our beach cruiser bikes--basket and all!! And the trek begins. I have no idea how far we bike, I just know we bike for about 4 hours. Not bad. We take some very precarious routes as we decide to cross the river using some not so bike friendly bridges. At certain points, this involved carrying the beach cruiser up many flights of stairs, in flippy floppies. Ankles, feet, toes a bit banged up. However all in all, it was a great day!