The first Christmas spent away from friends and family has officially passed. Missed all of you over here but it was still a fun time. I have never been away from home for Christmas so this was definitely different. Although it didn't feel like Christmas...well not entirely at least. I did miss some of the traditions from being back home, like the cookies and the baking and the tiramisus and the food and being around the family and seeing friends, but hey, what can you. I made a trip to Boseong to visit a friend Ellen who is from Picton, Ont. Plan was to have a complete Christmas. Suddenly Christmas started to sink in with the smell of cinnamon and baking when I walked into her apartment, ahh it was nice. Within hours of arriving in Boseong we are at a noraebang, which is now coming as absolutely no shock. At first I thought noraebang only happens every once in a while so I was amped to get my fill while in the bigger cities. Nah. Every weekend. I can only think of two weekends so far that I haven't gone. Luckily it's a blast!
Christmas Eve Ellen was planning a party so we prepped for that, then sat down to catch some Frosty the Snowman. It felt like I was back home, such a nice feeling. Then time for the party which was a success. I met one of Ellen's good friend's sister that night. Her and her boyfriend actually lived in Gurye 5 years ago and she actually worked at my school. Good thing is that she said the same things as me about the school and the students. Sometimes I think this is a unique experience to all of us, but really we're all going through the exact same things. It's surprising sometimes. Then on the cusp of Christmas Day it starts snowing. Definitely a great way to bring in Christmas, it wasn't quite white but it was getting there! Once the party dwindled down to a small group of us we naturally went out to noraebang. This time with two Koreans so we got some K-pop in the mix of all our English music. Great way to bring in the holidays. So as much as I missed being around family and friends and easily being able to talk to all of you, the holiday was well spent and I hope it was the same for all of you!
Since my classes have basically given up, this week (well Monday and Tuesday) was filled with Simpsons episodes. Got pretty tired of watching the same two episodes but ah well. Had a bit of a panic attack when they just didn't work in the classroom, but luckily one of the students fixed the problem in no time. Solid Monday with plenty of planning time for the Film Camp. It's definitely shaping up, video camera and supplies in check, should make for a good couple weeks. But now I've found out that I have another 3-week camp to plan for, not sure when that will get made. Probably just fall back on travelling and just show vids and postcards, get them to design a country of their own or something like that. We'll see.
But since Mondays are usually death in a handbag it followed suit this week. Usually they start terribly and end smoothly, this week the opposite. After feeling slightly off for a couple weeks sickness has finally sunk. Then the water in my apartment just decides to stop. So no water and sinuses kicking my ass. Turns out the pipes in my building were frozen. Then I hear about the pipes in schools started freezing. It's only about -5 over here, so it's really not that bad. But honestly the Korean ways of heating buildings is ridiuclous, it's no shock that the pipes freeze so easily. They have a habit of only heating some rooms. In school they only heat classrooms (and only sometimes, I was given only limited access to heat and electricity last week in my classroom) and leave the windows and doors open everywhere else. So even though you're inside you have to wear a coat. My co-teacher asked me to wear my coat while teaching so that my heat could be turned off. And then they complain they're cold all the time...I don't get it. I think that is one thing I will never get. Korea is ace in so many areas, but honestly something like heat...come on. So that is definitely something I miss about being back home. I miss when buildings are fully heated.
Last day of school for the semester. I actually got a slight kick when at the school assembly even the principal had a hard time controlling the grade 2s and had to remove the entire 90+ class from the assembly to go on. At least I'm not alone.
Water is back on in the apartment, came a lot quicker than anybody was expecting. But still sick as a dog. Bed and soup for this guy. Great way to kick off vacation #1. But on the plus, productive day because Cambodia is officially booked. Come on January 2012!
2011년 12월 28일 수요일
2011년 12월 22일 목요일
A Return to Gwangju and the Redeeming Monday From Hell
Well another week went by and some more hit or miss classes. Filled the time with Christmas lessons. One thing for any classroom: Pin the Nose on Rudolph. Students loved it and it's hilarious to watch them try to orient themselves after spinning them around blindfolded. So that was a success. Tried some flip cup in the classroom, but with 30 students it was a fail. Changed that up for some Secret Santa and it went a lot better. Overall, a success. Think I watched Shrek the Halls enough to memorize it. Don't think that's a good thing, but it ate up 20 minutes in the afterschool classes. And last week was the last time I could meet with the Grade 3 classes, just got here but already saying goodbye to my first group of students. And I ended up teaching my first full day of classes completely on my own and it worked out way better than I could have thought. It was a great Friday for sure. For my last day of grade 3 afterschool we talked for about an hour, then a couple of the students took me out for Chinese food. It was awesome. Got to try some Korean style Jajangmyeon and definitely dig it. It was a little awkward being out with the students, I mean it would be weird if a teacher went out with a few students for lunch back home so I was kinda sketched out, but it isn't like that here. Mostly they just want to be able to speak a little bit of English and learn about a different culture so it's nice. I'm going to have one student come and see me over winter vacation so it'll likely be a one on one over lunch. Since high school is so tough here they are constantly trying to find ways to keep up their education, even on their vacations. It's kinda crazy.
The weekend destination was Gwangju. Spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating a birthday. Heard a lot about the restaurant First Nepal in downtown Gwangju and finally got to check it out. Not only is the owner unbelievably friendly, but goes so far out of his way to make you have a good time. Great guy and great place. It was an Indian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. Been craving it ever since. Plus got some Christmas shopping in and found a place that actually sold Christmas cards. Found a few funny ones so I picked them up. And found a hat and mitt combo that was hilarious. There's a pic on the FB of it. Didn't think anybody would actually wear it, but as soon as we walked out of the place saw someone wearing it, so that put me in my place. Spent the night belting out tunes until late into the night. Did have a dream that I flew back to Canada for the weekend though. Then when I went to leave for Korea again I forgot to take into account the time difference and actually missed a whole day of work and missed a different flight. Then I woke up. Then finished the weekend at a Western-style buffet, and go figure that the buffet actually offered all you can drink wine. Oh Korea. I was stoked for the actually half-decent pizza and pasta so I loaded up on that. And then back to Gurye.
Got into the apartment and it was naturally freezing so threw on my fan which didn't do much, so it was a cold attempt to get to sleep. Then woke up to a clunking sound and realized that my heater broke so the night only got colder. Then my shower sketched out in the morning and would not heat up so that was even more cold. Then, since it's Monday, the Grade 2s were little shits and a half. Clearly it's the end of the semester and they reallllllyyy don't care. Even punishment just brushes them by. Three strike rule so I made them do more squats in the class. Nothing worked. Ended up kicking out my first student. Terrible class, but admittedly it was a terrible plan. Wouldv'e worked for a different class, but not this ADD bunch of students. It was easily the worst Monday I've had since being here.
But everything has its upside. My main co-teacher approached me with a gift. The other week she played photographer in my classes and made a photo album of me teaching in a few of those classes. And she bought a frame for my desk. That was so nice and it definitely perked up my day completely. And as an added bonus, my male co-teacher tells me the Grade 3s have entrance testing to the high schools on Wednesday so classes are cancelled. Then my main co-teacher tells me that there will be no workshop, so no classes on Thursdays and my country school is having a festival so no classes on Friday. Ahhh, so Monday was not lost. And replaced my heater after leaving early from school, works sooooooo much better, and it's quieter than the other one. The day was definitely redeemed. And the week shaped up. Tuesday was a success, then Wednesday busted my way through a mandatory course. I don't think I paid attention during the entire thing (I just planned lessons for my Winter Camp) and found ways to get around actually doing it (like leaving the timer on while running to the bank). Luckily the tests were easy breezy so I passed with flying colours. Now to make my Film Winter Camp finalized. Have the structure and it should be fun, just need to tweek it to make it more beginner-oriented. I'm actually getting excited for that. And looks like Cambodia will be a go after that, and found out that my vacation starts the day after a holiday so I have added time on my vacation...almost a week. So once my winter camp is done, boom, vacation number 2 of the year. Cannnottt wait.
I was excited for next weeks end of semester classes and school trip too. We were planning on going to Yeosu for a day trip to take pictures and see some of the sights, but since the death of Kim Jong Il, all trips are officially cancelled. While no one is panicking or anything, the nation is under a silent watch until North Korea gets settled again. With Kim Jong Il's son taking over, no one really knows what to expect and based on their history, they're a little on edge. I don't really hear too many people talking about it (at least not that I can understand) but from what I get there is a general sense of unease right now since no one knows what to expect. Hopefully nothing comes of it and the nations maintain their state of peace, not just for my safety but for how far the two countries have come since the 50s. We've been getting updates and memos on this situation the last couple days, and while there is not a high level of concern, it's the same message, just be careful.
Well that is that. Off to Boseong to celebrate Christmas. Going to have a classic President's Choice Mac 'n Cheese dinner and watch Frosty while unwrapping stockings. Be like I never left Canada. then two days of class, then vacation. Time is flying by. But it's all bittersweet too since I will be losing my main co-teacher after next week. So we'll see how that goes.
Merry Christmas to all you back home! Hope the weekend is great and it won't be the same without you!
The weekend destination was Gwangju. Spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating a birthday. Heard a lot about the restaurant First Nepal in downtown Gwangju and finally got to check it out. Not only is the owner unbelievably friendly, but goes so far out of his way to make you have a good time. Great guy and great place. It was an Indian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. Been craving it ever since. Plus got some Christmas shopping in and found a place that actually sold Christmas cards. Found a few funny ones so I picked them up. And found a hat and mitt combo that was hilarious. There's a pic on the FB of it. Didn't think anybody would actually wear it, but as soon as we walked out of the place saw someone wearing it, so that put me in my place. Spent the night belting out tunes until late into the night. Did have a dream that I flew back to Canada for the weekend though. Then when I went to leave for Korea again I forgot to take into account the time difference and actually missed a whole day of work and missed a different flight. Then I woke up. Then finished the weekend at a Western-style buffet, and go figure that the buffet actually offered all you can drink wine. Oh Korea. I was stoked for the actually half-decent pizza and pasta so I loaded up on that. And then back to Gurye.
Got into the apartment and it was naturally freezing so threw on my fan which didn't do much, so it was a cold attempt to get to sleep. Then woke up to a clunking sound and realized that my heater broke so the night only got colder. Then my shower sketched out in the morning and would not heat up so that was even more cold. Then, since it's Monday, the Grade 2s were little shits and a half. Clearly it's the end of the semester and they reallllllyyy don't care. Even punishment just brushes them by. Three strike rule so I made them do more squats in the class. Nothing worked. Ended up kicking out my first student. Terrible class, but admittedly it was a terrible plan. Wouldv'e worked for a different class, but not this ADD bunch of students. It was easily the worst Monday I've had since being here.
But everything has its upside. My main co-teacher approached me with a gift. The other week she played photographer in my classes and made a photo album of me teaching in a few of those classes. And she bought a frame for my desk. That was so nice and it definitely perked up my day completely. And as an added bonus, my male co-teacher tells me the Grade 3s have entrance testing to the high schools on Wednesday so classes are cancelled. Then my main co-teacher tells me that there will be no workshop, so no classes on Thursdays and my country school is having a festival so no classes on Friday. Ahhh, so Monday was not lost. And replaced my heater after leaving early from school, works sooooooo much better, and it's quieter than the other one. The day was definitely redeemed. And the week shaped up. Tuesday was a success, then Wednesday busted my way through a mandatory course. I don't think I paid attention during the entire thing (I just planned lessons for my Winter Camp) and found ways to get around actually doing it (like leaving the timer on while running to the bank). Luckily the tests were easy breezy so I passed with flying colours. Now to make my Film Winter Camp finalized. Have the structure and it should be fun, just need to tweek it to make it more beginner-oriented. I'm actually getting excited for that. And looks like Cambodia will be a go after that, and found out that my vacation starts the day after a holiday so I have added time on my vacation...almost a week. So once my winter camp is done, boom, vacation number 2 of the year. Cannnottt wait.
I was excited for next weeks end of semester classes and school trip too. We were planning on going to Yeosu for a day trip to take pictures and see some of the sights, but since the death of Kim Jong Il, all trips are officially cancelled. While no one is panicking or anything, the nation is under a silent watch until North Korea gets settled again. With Kim Jong Il's son taking over, no one really knows what to expect and based on their history, they're a little on edge. I don't really hear too many people talking about it (at least not that I can understand) but from what I get there is a general sense of unease right now since no one knows what to expect. Hopefully nothing comes of it and the nations maintain their state of peace, not just for my safety but for how far the two countries have come since the 50s. We've been getting updates and memos on this situation the last couple days, and while there is not a high level of concern, it's the same message, just be careful.
Well that is that. Off to Boseong to celebrate Christmas. Going to have a classic President's Choice Mac 'n Cheese dinner and watch Frosty while unwrapping stockings. Be like I never left Canada. then two days of class, then vacation. Time is flying by. But it's all bittersweet too since I will be losing my main co-teacher after next week. So we'll see how that goes.
Merry Christmas to all you back home! Hope the weekend is great and it won't be the same without you!
2011년 12월 11일 일요일
Redemption and Sleepless Nights
It's almost the middle of December...how is time going by this fast? I still feel like I should be settling into this place, but I've been living in Gurye for over a month already. Way too fast. But excited for the new semester, a fresh start right from the beginning will set a nice pace for the rest of the semester, hopefully.
The week got off to a rough start. Actually, so rough I started to lose my voice. Grade 2s will honestly be the death of me. I have never yelled that much in my life, and I actually wish I was exaggerating. These kids will push you to the absolute brink. Should have been fun, we were playing hockey in class, how could it not be fun? Well clearly they don't like it over here. Half of the class just didn't stop talking, so adopted a little punishment of making them do squats while holding a marker straight in front of them as a "penalty" for 2 up to 5 minutes. They did not like that, death stares across the board. They had it coming. So that put a bit of a damper on the week already. Plus it was just one of those days and nights. I ended up sleeping through all 4 of my alarms in the morning and woke to the sound of my co-teacher banging on my window. Felt like an idiot, but it happens. Then the night was just one of those nights where I would have killed for a bit of familiarity.Ah well.
Sports lesson reviews continued and luckily they liked tennis way more than hockey. It became like dodgeball with a tennis ball, so it was fun, plus they were ace with the review. Both the grade 1 and 2 classes had exams so the review was to prep them, hopefully it did. Apparently I used review questions that were actually identical to the exam questions so it should have helped for shiz. Then Wednesday was hit and miss, brought in an idea for a bucket list since they are all moving onto high school and kind of wanted to get them to think about the future. Didn't really work out. Their creative minds aren't exactly heightened over here, so unless it's written in the text book most of them couldn't really answer, but it was still fun. Then met the rest of the foreigners and the school board for a conference and dinner. It was fun, but it was still feeling like one of those weeks so I just wasn't feeling it too much, so I left a little early to catch up on some sleep. I think these weekend excursions are slowly starting to kill my weeks. Luckily for me Thursday brought me no classes, and no teacher workshop except for my co-teacher and I talking for 2 hours about life. That was a solid afternoon/recuperation day to bring me back up a bit.
But, rest doesn't last long as I was quickly off to Suncheon for dinner. Coordinating with the buses can be a bit of a pain in the butt. But I was off to pick up a Christmas tree and meet some people. Fitting, too, since it was the first snow and I had my Christmas tree in hand. So that was just good timing. A solid rest of the night was spent watching Frosty the Snowman and decorating the tree. Definitely a good time, brought me back home for a bit. Then Friday my classes were mostly cancelled, so my morning was free. A much needed call home was made and that helped make up for the crappy beginning of the week. Luckily, too, is that the bucket list idea worked better for my only class. A few tweaks made it a lot better. Then a so-so lesson on hip hop music, wasn't really feeling it too much, mostly because I prepared crap for it. Definitely showed. But they still enjoyed it enough to get by.
A quiet Friday movie night was followed by a random Friday. After some cleaning and tidying around the house a last minute decision to jump out into Gwangyang was made and I guess that's where I was going to spend the night. It's a small city-ish place, way bigger than Gurye and has way more, but still felt very small-townish, but we were staying in the slower part of the city. Basically an invite at 2pm led to a bus at 330 for dinner in Gwangyang by 530 then Suncheon by 11. Random and unexpected but definitely fun. Maybe a little too much fun. Solid though, showed them Koreans how to play some foosball and represent. But in typical Korean fashion we left the bar around 230 to head out of the city, back in around 3-ish, but no sleep til past 5ish, then up again in the morning for some city exploration. First Korean bowling experience. No grip shoes suck, but it was fun, no 5-pin though, which I was looking forward to, but oh well.
May have planned for a quiet weekend at home, but it was anything but. Which also means no rest for the wicked until the new year. Gwangju next weekend, Boseong for Christmas, Seoul for New Years then I guess it's vacation but can't relax on my vacation so I'm hoping to travel some more, it's split in two so hoping to go somewhere for one half, then tour the country for the second part, then in between is a mini-winter camp, and following the second part is a legit winter camp, so time off will be coming...March-ish? Coffee is definitely becoming a huge savior.
Oh! And I think I'm getting the hang of Korean food. I've been trying my luck at different foods here and have been trying to cook with them, and on Friday I made a bibimbap of sorts and I will say it has actually become one of my favourite meals in Korea. Or just sheer luck. We'll see when I jump on that a second time, and test it in front of some Koreans. Ah well, I'll jump that bridge when the time comes. Hopefully this week filled with Christmas lessons will be way easier and way more fun. Rudolph, Shrek, paper snowflakes and brownies, how can it not? Actually, I take that question back.
The week got off to a rough start. Actually, so rough I started to lose my voice. Grade 2s will honestly be the death of me. I have never yelled that much in my life, and I actually wish I was exaggerating. These kids will push you to the absolute brink. Should have been fun, we were playing hockey in class, how could it not be fun? Well clearly they don't like it over here. Half of the class just didn't stop talking, so adopted a little punishment of making them do squats while holding a marker straight in front of them as a "penalty" for 2 up to 5 minutes. They did not like that, death stares across the board. They had it coming. So that put a bit of a damper on the week already. Plus it was just one of those days and nights. I ended up sleeping through all 4 of my alarms in the morning and woke to the sound of my co-teacher banging on my window. Felt like an idiot, but it happens. Then the night was just one of those nights where I would have killed for a bit of familiarity.Ah well.
Sports lesson reviews continued and luckily they liked tennis way more than hockey. It became like dodgeball with a tennis ball, so it was fun, plus they were ace with the review. Both the grade 1 and 2 classes had exams so the review was to prep them, hopefully it did. Apparently I used review questions that were actually identical to the exam questions so it should have helped for shiz. Then Wednesday was hit and miss, brought in an idea for a bucket list since they are all moving onto high school and kind of wanted to get them to think about the future. Didn't really work out. Their creative minds aren't exactly heightened over here, so unless it's written in the text book most of them couldn't really answer, but it was still fun. Then met the rest of the foreigners and the school board for a conference and dinner. It was fun, but it was still feeling like one of those weeks so I just wasn't feeling it too much, so I left a little early to catch up on some sleep. I think these weekend excursions are slowly starting to kill my weeks. Luckily for me Thursday brought me no classes, and no teacher workshop except for my co-teacher and I talking for 2 hours about life. That was a solid afternoon/recuperation day to bring me back up a bit.
But, rest doesn't last long as I was quickly off to Suncheon for dinner. Coordinating with the buses can be a bit of a pain in the butt. But I was off to pick up a Christmas tree and meet some people. Fitting, too, since it was the first snow and I had my Christmas tree in hand. So that was just good timing. A solid rest of the night was spent watching Frosty the Snowman and decorating the tree. Definitely a good time, brought me back home for a bit. Then Friday my classes were mostly cancelled, so my morning was free. A much needed call home was made and that helped make up for the crappy beginning of the week. Luckily, too, is that the bucket list idea worked better for my only class. A few tweaks made it a lot better. Then a so-so lesson on hip hop music, wasn't really feeling it too much, mostly because I prepared crap for it. Definitely showed. But they still enjoyed it enough to get by.
A quiet Friday movie night was followed by a random Friday. After some cleaning and tidying around the house a last minute decision to jump out into Gwangyang was made and I guess that's where I was going to spend the night. It's a small city-ish place, way bigger than Gurye and has way more, but still felt very small-townish, but we were staying in the slower part of the city. Basically an invite at 2pm led to a bus at 330 for dinner in Gwangyang by 530 then Suncheon by 11. Random and unexpected but definitely fun. Maybe a little too much fun. Solid though, showed them Koreans how to play some foosball and represent. But in typical Korean fashion we left the bar around 230 to head out of the city, back in around 3-ish, but no sleep til past 5ish, then up again in the morning for some city exploration. First Korean bowling experience. No grip shoes suck, but it was fun, no 5-pin though, which I was looking forward to, but oh well.
May have planned for a quiet weekend at home, but it was anything but. Which also means no rest for the wicked until the new year. Gwangju next weekend, Boseong for Christmas, Seoul for New Years then I guess it's vacation but can't relax on my vacation so I'm hoping to travel some more, it's split in two so hoping to go somewhere for one half, then tour the country for the second part, then in between is a mini-winter camp, and following the second part is a legit winter camp, so time off will be coming...March-ish? Coffee is definitely becoming a huge savior.
Oh! And I think I'm getting the hang of Korean food. I've been trying my luck at different foods here and have been trying to cook with them, and on Friday I made a bibimbap of sorts and I will say it has actually become one of my favourite meals in Korea. Or just sheer luck. We'll see when I jump on that a second time, and test it in front of some Koreans. Ah well, I'll jump that bridge when the time comes. Hopefully this week filled with Christmas lessons will be way easier and way more fun. Rudolph, Shrek, paper snowflakes and brownies, how can it not? Actually, I take that question back.
2011년 12월 4일 일요일
Let's & Joy Cafe aSoul
Thought I'd start it off with a little Konglish I've found in the last couple days. Lets & Joy is on a bottle of Banana Milk, actually the bottle has a whole blurb in English that is absolutely hilarious. It makes no sense, but that's Konglish for you. Cafe aSoul is a place I found in Suncheon this weekend, got a solid laugh out of it. Great name for a cafe.
The week was all ups and downs. Monday was a writeoff. It might have been the exhaustion from Seoul, but probably a combination of that plus the grade 2 shmucks. Mind you it was also my bad, my lesson was dry and not exciting and I lost their interest almost immediately. Longest day of life saved by my afterschool grade 3s. Solid easy class. Without them I'd be lost.
Thought I was going to have to put on my first teacher workshop. At least that's what I was under the impression of, but instead we went out to lunch. But it was good to talk to the teachers and just meet some new faces. We had this snail soup thing, I can't remember what it was called. Imagine walking onto Wasaga Beach and taking in the smell of the detritus and tasting that smell a little bit. Sounds worse than it actually was, but the spices covered it nicely. Afterwards went to my country school. On Friday we had an open class with the grade 2s. I thought it was supposed to be in front of parents, but it ended up being in front of other teachers and the vice principal and principal. So my nervous level went from nothing to 70%. Plus, when I saw that they were actually grading the class, really got me jumping a little bit. After that it was lunch and at lunch the vice p leans in and says that she wants to speak to me alone in the teacher's room. Definitely worried thinking about what she was going to say about the class. She just wanted to talk haha, it was a while since we were able to have a conversation so she wanted to catch up. So nice. Then everyone congratulated me on a good lesson, so that was definitely a relief. Definitely a good experience though.
Oh, back track to Tuesday. Ran into guy named Tom from orientation in the streets on my way to the bus terminal. First time since being in Gurye that I ran into him. Caught up a little bit, but then guy named Jin who is a foreign teacher came up to us and started talking, first time meeting him. Then ran into a third foreign speaker named James. All did Korean bbq and got to know each other. Go all this time not seeing any foreigners outside of the teacher lunches and in a span of 10 minutes I'm having lunch with two other random foreigners. So nice. Now there's only one guy I haven't met but I'm sure I'll see him around somewhere sometime.
Made the first roadie to Suncheon. Thought it was a lot further than what it actually is and I can make it in a solid half hour, with a bus ticket of $3. Brilliance. It's the closest city to me, plus huge foreigner population and so many people from orientation are in that city so it's great to catch up. Organized a month-in reunion and about fifteen of us were able to get together. It was definitely a blast. They lucked out in the city. All of the apartments in Sidae, the area the foreigners mostly live in, are side by side and the majority of people actually live in the same building so that's nice. Makes it so easy to get together with people.
First night found us in an international bar that just stocked up with international beers, so many. The booths are in the shape of Berry-go-Rounds, so that was pretty sweet. It's also a hookah bar so we all got in on that. Was just a chill intro to the city and get to catch up with people I haven't seen in a month. Called it a night round mid and that was that. Caught an episode of Idiot Abroad, if you haven't heard of that, check it out. Funny show.
Next day hit the streets to explore. Checked out a HomePlus, which is basically like the Korean Sears. Will definitely need to get back there again in a couple days. They have Christmas trees so I'll be grabbing one of those to set up for sure. Plus, dirt cheap things for the house, for the most part. Want to buy an oven. Missing the oven baked goods. Only so much frying and boiling before it all rolls into one. I need a little something something else. Plus jumping into the city means dinner with peeps from the area, so double plus. Luckily the buses run every half so that makes it so easy to jump back into Gurye.
After met up with the other foreigners and hit the streets of Sinae which is the shopping alleyways. It all looked like a mini Gwangju, but it was nice. Need to get back there as well, cheap shops. Found some killer jackets for about 60k. Tried on a few but they were alll wayy too small, need to get into the rest. Plus, dirt cheap shoes. Converse for 28k, so definitely jumped in that. It's about $25, how can I turn that down. Good to know there's some place so close for cheap shopping. Plus, bartering is big, so I can probably knock those prices down a bit.
Night outing in Suncheon. Start the night off with bbq (it's slowly becoming my favourite meal choice, not just the food, but the experience of it all). Then hit the foreigner bar which was chill, but definitely foreinger. Then, naturally follow-up with noraebang. Here's how nice Koreans are: We jump into one noraebang place, but it was all filled up, so one of the guys who worked there ended up walking us to the nearest noraebang and took us exactly where we needed to be. So nice. Next three hours were well spent in there. Out by 1am=food. Kimbap and fried chicken is phenomenal at 1am. By this point it was only about 8 or 9 of us. Only 2 of us wanted to keep going after food so me and this girl Ellen hit the town again. We were both new to the city (both rolled in at the same time on Friday) so we just went back to the foreign bar. Experienced my first last call. It happened at 4am, but I was starting to think it didn't happen in Korea. We still stayed there until 4:30-ish, when the owner basically yelled get out and we slowly made our way out. By the time we rolled up to the apartment we were staying in it was 6-ish, still stayed up for a while. 7am night outings are becoming more frequent than I would have imagined. I think this is the 4th or 5th since being in Korea. It's a totally different night culture out here. By 2am back home all the drunks are stumbling out of the bars and clumsily making their way back home, but here 2am means nothing and hardly anyone is stumbling through the streets. It's great to be in that kind of environment. So refreshing. We lucked out with the place we were staying in. It was our friends Soy and Alex's place, and they just gave us the spare key, which definitely helped for the 7am bedtime. Good weekend for sure.
Now back in Gurye, probably should have spent this time lesson planning as I don't really have anything, but ohhh well. I don't really feel like it. Ps, skype is offishall up and running, so if anyone wants to skype just give a shout over, be good to catch up with all of you!
The week was all ups and downs. Monday was a writeoff. It might have been the exhaustion from Seoul, but probably a combination of that plus the grade 2 shmucks. Mind you it was also my bad, my lesson was dry and not exciting and I lost their interest almost immediately. Longest day of life saved by my afterschool grade 3s. Solid easy class. Without them I'd be lost.
Thought I was going to have to put on my first teacher workshop. At least that's what I was under the impression of, but instead we went out to lunch. But it was good to talk to the teachers and just meet some new faces. We had this snail soup thing, I can't remember what it was called. Imagine walking onto Wasaga Beach and taking in the smell of the detritus and tasting that smell a little bit. Sounds worse than it actually was, but the spices covered it nicely. Afterwards went to my country school. On Friday we had an open class with the grade 2s. I thought it was supposed to be in front of parents, but it ended up being in front of other teachers and the vice principal and principal. So my nervous level went from nothing to 70%. Plus, when I saw that they were actually grading the class, really got me jumping a little bit. After that it was lunch and at lunch the vice p leans in and says that she wants to speak to me alone in the teacher's room. Definitely worried thinking about what she was going to say about the class. She just wanted to talk haha, it was a while since we were able to have a conversation so she wanted to catch up. So nice. Then everyone congratulated me on a good lesson, so that was definitely a relief. Definitely a good experience though.
Oh, back track to Tuesday. Ran into guy named Tom from orientation in the streets on my way to the bus terminal. First time since being in Gurye that I ran into him. Caught up a little bit, but then guy named Jin who is a foreign teacher came up to us and started talking, first time meeting him. Then ran into a third foreign speaker named James. All did Korean bbq and got to know each other. Go all this time not seeing any foreigners outside of the teacher lunches and in a span of 10 minutes I'm having lunch with two other random foreigners. So nice. Now there's only one guy I haven't met but I'm sure I'll see him around somewhere sometime.
Made the first roadie to Suncheon. Thought it was a lot further than what it actually is and I can make it in a solid half hour, with a bus ticket of $3. Brilliance. It's the closest city to me, plus huge foreigner population and so many people from orientation are in that city so it's great to catch up. Organized a month-in reunion and about fifteen of us were able to get together. It was definitely a blast. They lucked out in the city. All of the apartments in Sidae, the area the foreigners mostly live in, are side by side and the majority of people actually live in the same building so that's nice. Makes it so easy to get together with people.
First night found us in an international bar that just stocked up with international beers, so many. The booths are in the shape of Berry-go-Rounds, so that was pretty sweet. It's also a hookah bar so we all got in on that. Was just a chill intro to the city and get to catch up with people I haven't seen in a month. Called it a night round mid and that was that. Caught an episode of Idiot Abroad, if you haven't heard of that, check it out. Funny show.
Next day hit the streets to explore. Checked out a HomePlus, which is basically like the Korean Sears. Will definitely need to get back there again in a couple days. They have Christmas trees so I'll be grabbing one of those to set up for sure. Plus, dirt cheap things for the house, for the most part. Want to buy an oven. Missing the oven baked goods. Only so much frying and boiling before it all rolls into one. I need a little something something else. Plus jumping into the city means dinner with peeps from the area, so double plus. Luckily the buses run every half so that makes it so easy to jump back into Gurye.
After met up with the other foreigners and hit the streets of Sinae which is the shopping alleyways. It all looked like a mini Gwangju, but it was nice. Need to get back there as well, cheap shops. Found some killer jackets for about 60k. Tried on a few but they were alll wayy too small, need to get into the rest. Plus, dirt cheap shoes. Converse for 28k, so definitely jumped in that. It's about $25, how can I turn that down. Good to know there's some place so close for cheap shopping. Plus, bartering is big, so I can probably knock those prices down a bit.
Night outing in Suncheon. Start the night off with bbq (it's slowly becoming my favourite meal choice, not just the food, but the experience of it all). Then hit the foreigner bar which was chill, but definitely foreinger. Then, naturally follow-up with noraebang. Here's how nice Koreans are: We jump into one noraebang place, but it was all filled up, so one of the guys who worked there ended up walking us to the nearest noraebang and took us exactly where we needed to be. So nice. Next three hours were well spent in there. Out by 1am=food. Kimbap and fried chicken is phenomenal at 1am. By this point it was only about 8 or 9 of us. Only 2 of us wanted to keep going after food so me and this girl Ellen hit the town again. We were both new to the city (both rolled in at the same time on Friday) so we just went back to the foreign bar. Experienced my first last call. It happened at 4am, but I was starting to think it didn't happen in Korea. We still stayed there until 4:30-ish, when the owner basically yelled get out and we slowly made our way out. By the time we rolled up to the apartment we were staying in it was 6-ish, still stayed up for a while. 7am night outings are becoming more frequent than I would have imagined. I think this is the 4th or 5th since being in Korea. It's a totally different night culture out here. By 2am back home all the drunks are stumbling out of the bars and clumsily making their way back home, but here 2am means nothing and hardly anyone is stumbling through the streets. It's great to be in that kind of environment. So refreshing. We lucked out with the place we were staying in. It was our friends Soy and Alex's place, and they just gave us the spare key, which definitely helped for the 7am bedtime. Good weekend for sure.
Now back in Gurye, probably should have spent this time lesson planning as I don't really have anything, but ohhh well. I don't really feel like it. Ps, skype is offishall up and running, so if anyone wants to skype just give a shout over, be good to catch up with all of you!
피드 구독하기:
글 (Atom)