This One Is For Courtney

So here in Korea, there is a lot of advertising. People pass out flyers on the streets, give away free gifts, stick advertising in with purchases, and on doorways of apartment buildings. They are mostly magnetized menus for take out or business cards taped on for things like moving services.

However, last week I got a very special advertisement that hit me right in my nostalgia bone.

Apparently Christians in South Korea also use the informational pamphlet to win converts. Because this one was stuck in the crack in my door. Looking through all the pages that I couldn't read, it brought me back home to where I would get stopped on the street or by customers I was helping who would absolutely love to see me at their church service, or all the booklets left in the Spiritual/Occult, Mystery, and Self-help/Relationship sections.

I think this one is my favorite page because it reminds me of ones I would always find around the bookstore with big bold letters saying "ARE YOU GOING TO HELL?"

They seem really well made especially compared to the ones back home. 

Viking

Saturday - June 6
I had my first outdoorsy adventure. One great way for people to meet other people with similar interests that is really great here is on meetup.com

On Saturday I went to a meetup for vegetarian hikers (shortened to vikers). I am now pretty confident on the subway after having to find my way to Migeum where we were meeting up which was about an hour and a half and 4 line changes away.

We hiked up two mountains and went through a lovely little park. I think the area was called Bulgok and the mountains we hiked were Youngjang and Yuldong. Yuldong was after lunch and I think Yuldong was also the name of the park.

It was really beautiful and probably the most striking thing was how naturey it was in the middle of the Seoul metropolis. It was incredible to be hiking through the mountain trails and all the sudden catch a glimpse of the intense urban sprawl through the trees. Something that I've noticed about Korea so far is that there does seem to be an extreme juxtaposition of urban and rural. It makes me wonder if suburbs exist here. That transitional section doesn't really seem to be necessary here, which was something I also noticed during my plane trip.

There were lots of ducks. I thought this one was really pretty. There was also the largest goose I have ever seen and some monstrous koi.

Not to mention the absolutely killer playground. I mean look at it. It's hard to make a playground with more innate coolness.

South Korean Apartment Tour

I've only been in it a little while but I am really starting to love my little apartment. In South Korea, most office buildings are officially termed Officetels. This means that some of the space, usually the bottom 2-3 floors, can be or is used for small businesses. The rest of the building is separated in a more traditional apartment style. In the bottom floors of my building are at least two restaurants, a convenience store, a laundromat, a senior center, and I think a dog grooming place.

As someone who prefers stairs to the elevator, I have noticed that either they were made quickly or the building is old and has settled oddly because the steps are all different heights which threw me off a little bit and first and still gives me a little jolt at the end of a particularly long day when I expect the next step to be a bit taller.

Another really cool thing about the staircase is that at every landing, the handrails have brail. I would assume saying the same thing as the sign on the wall stating which floor you've gotten to.

I have now learned to change my door code, which reminds me a lot of the ever changing door codes at my old bookstore job. As far as I'm aware it's a pretty standard feature of doors here to not require a physical key. Which is nice if you can remember keycodes, because you will never be locked out. I will admit that it takes getting used to being able to leave the apartment with nothing in hand or pocket if I want to. 

My apartment is a little odd because the bedroom isn't lofted but I don't really mind. I have plenty of space, definitely the biggest mattress that has ever been mine and mine alone, and finally a refrigerator and cupboards! As nice as the hotel was, it was very frustrating not being able to go to the cupboard and make something when I needed to eat. Of course, now comes the problem of stocking up the fridge and cupboards; that's happening slowly but surely. 

At first I was a little nervous, because I couldn't get my gas stove to work however, I have since learned the trick. Gas burners in Korea will have a small gas line close by to turn the gas on. Just turn the knob so that it's parallel to the gas line. 

If, like in my apartment, the gas still doesn't come on, check outside the door. There should be a (probably red) lever. If it is sideways, that means the gas is not on in your apartment and you need to turn it vertical. If there is a lock on it, it means your gas has been shut off because of unpaid bills. 

I love how bright my living area is with it's cheerfully colored wall paper and big huge windows, and I'm really liking having my bedroom tucked away and kind of dark because it gives it a cosy feeling.

I'm starting to get used to the constant noise of the city, although throughout the day there seems to be random trucks whose purpose is to drive around slowly while tons of speakers blare some sort of repetitive message. I think I remember hearing or reading somewhere that they are for elections, but I'm not sure. Those ones are annoying. I haven't noticed any at night yet thankfully. 

I am going to have to start looking into a way to shade the windows though because my apartment will bake this summer if I don't figure something out.

Mini-Olympics and Speech Day

Friday, May 22 we had a mini-Olympics day for the kindergarten classes. We took buses with our classes to the park behind City Hall. There we had a banner, a microphone, and all sorts of goodies lugged from the buses. We split up the ecp 5, 6, and 7 homeroom classes into the blue team and red team. Each homeroom had their own animal, which was incorporated into the cheering aspect. My homeroom were blue team and dogs, so we had animal ears that were supposed to look like a dog but actually looked like cat ears.

We started with a cheer/dance and "torch" lighting - it was made out of felt.

Our first event was a race to where two teachers stood with a stick that had onion rings on dangling clips. They had to spin 5 times, then run to the onion rings and had to eat one without using their hands. The best part was that after they finished they would mostly run back to their team at the starting line instead of taking two steps forward to get their hand stamped as the winner.

Another event was an obstacle course where the kids jumped over a hurdle road on a wheelie horse, did a roll, had to crawl through a tube, then run to the end and eat a gummy worm out of a plate of powdered sugar. This was super fun because at least a quarter of the kids didn't want to do it and had to be carried through.

They also had one where they had to flip as many tiles as they could to their teams' color.

We had a tug-of-war: one for students and one for the teachers. The teachers also ended up having a jump rope contest. I'm pretty proud of the fact that the blue team teachers got to 16 jumps altogether. Especially considering how long ago I jumped rope and how I was always more of a solo jumper than a group jumper.

It was a lot of fun but it made for a long day, especially since in the afternoon we had the preliminary speech contest to see who was going to compete in the contest coming up in the end of June.

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language, South Korea

Now that I've been here for a few weeks, I feel far more equipped to explain the chaos that is hagwon (private school). I work at an English academy that has a kindergarten first and then after the public schools get out for the day, elementary students come in for extra English and Language Arts classes.

There are three years of kindergarten classes for age 5, 6 and 7. (This is Korean age though so take the age with a grain of salt.) I am teaching the 6 year olds so as far as I can tell they are mostly 4.5-5 years old the way I would think of their age.

All the classrooms are named after famous authors. I have one homeroom class with 8 students that I am in charge of as well as another class of 8 that I go into to teach. We teach them a lot of different classes and each class is taught a specific number of times a week. Each class has a break in between for teachers to go back to their desk and prepare for the next lesson as well as take a usually much necessary breather.

The classes that I teach are as follows:

-Action Time: This class is our only everyday class and it seems to be the most "schooly" of the lot. Each week we have a theme that comes with vocabulary on picture flashcards and activities and games to do that are usually relevant. This week we are doing Things around the House for the second week and focusing a lot on time. Each week ends with a "science experiment" day that usually has to do with observation or is more hands on like an art project.

-Hands On Play: This also follows a book. Each week we have a concept that we are learning. We do practice pages in the book and then play a game that uses that skill. The skills so far have been things like matching colors, shapes, and numbers, adding and subtracting, patterns...

-Writing: They have a book that we complete pages in where they have a space to trace the letters or words and then practice writing them themselves.

-Immersion: This class I am still trying to figure out. It is another workbook with exercises, but it's supposed to come along with stories and songs to listen to, which I haven't been able to figure out yet. I have tried something new and I'm hopeful.

-Interactive Play: Essentially P.E. Both of my classes come together and I lead the kids with the other homeroom teacher.

-Creative Expression: It's mostly art projects but the activities are mostly prepared and brought to the kids by the Korean teachers and my job is mostly to supervise and make sure everyone is doing it right.

After that the kids go home.
And on to elementary. The kids are separated by grade (1-7), as well as if they went to this school's kindergarten, if they didn't, and kids who lived/went to an English speaking country.
The elementary lessons are separated Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday, Thursday.

On MWF:
I have two different 2nd grade classes that I teach Language Arts to - it's a combination of Reading, writing, vocabulary - pretty much your standard ELA class. Other classes have the subjects separated into a reading class and a phonics class and grammar etc. I don't really know why some are separated and some aren't.
Then I teach a special group of kindergarteners who only come in in the afternoon for three classes, one of which is Action Time with me.

On TR I teach a group of 1st graders (I think) who are really just starting their English education (again I think). We have phonics and vocabulary. Then I teach a 4th grade class of students that have lived in/gone to an English speaking country. The thing is, there is only one 4th grader to whom this label applies so I have one student in this class. I really like teaching her though. We have a lot of fun even if she would rather be boxing or playing minecraft. Finally I have a group of 6th graders who are in debate class.

The days are long and definitely keep me hopping, but ultimately I'm glad to be here!

Seoul 5/16/2015 - Lotus Lantern Festival

My first Saturday in South Korea, still fighting jet lag,  I took my first trip into Seoul with one of my foreign co-teachers. I got my t-money card, which is the card you use to get on and off the subways, busses, and taxis. I found out it can also be used in various other places like the laundromat.

Our first stop in the afternoon was the Cheonggyecheon River. It is a river that has been depressed and has a cute walkway on either side as well as frequent stepping stones across. It was all decorated for the lantern festival with lanterns, floats, flowers...

After walking down the river for a bit we went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. There were some places where the signs were also translated into English but mostly we just looked around, took pictures, and guessed what everything was and was used for. One of the things I really loved was the intricate ceiling paintings, and another feature I enjoyed was the presence of "guardian beast" (my term for lack of another) statues especially the Haetae (***Edit apparently also or actually called Haechi... I'm not really sure)- who looks a little like a big dopey dog.

We wandered around for the afternoon until it was time to find a spot to watch the parade.

***Edit: I just found this website about art and architecture in Korean history and heritage. There is a whole section on the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The lantern festival is about celebrating Buddha's birthday even though this festival was actually the weekend before the official Buddha's Birthday Holiday on the calendar (Monday, May 25th).

The parade went from 6-9pm. It was really long. It was full of really cool costumes/traditional clothing, Buddhist monks, charity groups, awareness groups, and just regular people in street cloths. The beginning was odd because it was still fully light out so the lanterns just looked pretty however, by the end it was incredible with floats and pyrotechnics in the dark.

Because I have way too many pictures to include I will just add a few more, and here (I hope is a link that can be used to see all the photos of the day:

SNAPFISH

Also vying for a spot were the pointy elbows of a camera crew that was trying to film in the middle of the parade crowd directly behind us. I didn't actually get to see what they were filming but my friend said she saw some male Hallyu Idol type (tall, thin, slightly androgynous, and very trendily dressed) and some extras. So maybe it was for some new drama, but who knows.

At the end of the day we walked back down the river which looked even prettier with all the lanterns now lit, down to the East Wall which is a gate and section of the original city wall that is still standing.