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Korea - Teaching Days 2-3
13 years ago
Okay! So there's quite a bit of material to cover here, so let me go through it all step by step.
Day 1 (Evening) - After being given a really quick view of the last class of the day, I'm taken to Lisa's apartment. There, her and Stephanie - my friend's sister, who has been a HUGE help - made me and their friend (I think his name is Ki Jeung "key-jewng") a delicious meal. One plate was vegetarian, and keeping to my vow of "trying everything once" over here, I had a taste, and it was actually quite good. The potatoes even sorta kinda had a meat consistency! It was a spicy dish of just a buttload of vegetables. They called it "Buddha Chicken" even though there's no chicken, and hopefully no Buddha, in there. Apparently the story behind it is from them mis-hearing a Korean term for "preparing a dish out of odds and ends you have lying around", and the name stuck.
The other bit of food was sausage bread... just a big roll of bread, lots of cheese, and chunks of sausage, made by Lisa. Very delicious! But I was dropping like a rock, having travelled for 42 hours with very little sleep - most of it literally on the floor of San Fran airport - so I went to bed after only eating a bit. But! Plenty of leftovers~!
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Day 2 (Teaching) - Lisa made me some French toast with some tasty pumpkin bread, and then we went to school together. I got introduced to the teachers (I'm TERRIBLE with names and faces, even with my own ethnicity, so I still have trouble getting their names right), and accompany Lisa to all over her classes. It breaks down roughly like this:
9 AM - 2 PM: Kindergarten: I fucking love this class. I spend more time with these kids than any other class, so I guess that's to be expected. Classes are divided into 40-minute periods, and I teach 3 of them, so I get a fair amount of breaks thrown in there. And then noon is lunch time. There's this one kid, Bill, who's a year younger than the other kids, and has a hard time getting motivated to eat. If he's acting up for whatever reason, we call him "Baby Bill", and he shakes his head, then we ask "Taekwondo Bill?" and he nods then usually does what you ask of him. Absolutely adorable. And this other kid, Sam, is a bit of a tattletale and a sook, but I have a soft spot for him. He's really honest and has these glasses that make his eyes all big, so cute!
2 PM - 6 PM: Elementary - This... is a bloody marathon. I got a little flustered during this time, because there are EIGHT classes crammed together in half-hour periods, with no breaks between, so you have to rush back to the office to get the books for next class, then run back in and TRY to get everyone to listen. It's really stressful, and to make matters worse, there are audio Cds to accompany most books, so you also need to make sure you have the right Cd, which sometimes simply isn't there, or the book references the wrong track. It's frankly pretty poorly managed, but I figure it's something I'd get used to. It seems very typical "bustling" Korean, though.
Day 2 (Evening) - After class, I think I was still feeling jet lagged, because I just hit a wall at around 5:30. So unfortunately, I decided to come back and just crash. It's too bad, because I missed foreigner's night. I need to make a point to be ready for it next week!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 3 (Teaching) - Woke up, made some more French toast with leftover batter. I also trotted to one of the many nearby convenience stores and grabbed a random box of ramen noodles. Of course, I didn't notice until after the unsettlingly happy-looking squid on the box, but I decided to try it anyway, following my promise to myself. It actually wasn't too bad; I'd never had squid before, it really just tastes like chewy fish. The noodles themselves were pretty spicy too, so it overpowered any unpleasant taste that might have been there with... pain XD
Another whirlwind day of classes, and getting a few more concepts in my head. I also participated a bit more in the actual teaching.
Day 3 (Evening) - After class, I had a bit of time to relax with some tanks and general computerness for the first time since coming here. A bit comforting to come back to something I was familiar with, but I didn't tarry too long; Stephanie picked me up to go to nure-bon (probably not spelling it right) - Korean karaoke. I inwardly grimaced, not enjoying what I know karaoke is like back him, but I kept my vows in mind and readily agreed. First of all, Stephanie and I went to Pyongtaek, a nearby city which, from what I hear of conversations, is the go-to place besides Seoul. We strolled around looking for an Indian food restaurant that they love, and decided to get side-tracked by a pair of street markets. The first one was... actually really dirty, I'm sorry to say :S It had a very third-wordly feeling to it that I didn't like much at all. However, the next street over was much livelier and cleaner. We strolled down, looking at things... pigs heads (entire, cleanly-severed heads), buckets of live crab (small ones, not the big things we see back home), and tubs of wormy-looking things that reminded me of some Star Trek-y type food. It was all very interesting. Stephanie bought me - despite my protests - a Korean donut (very similar to ours, except instead of jelly in the middle, it's red bean paste), and some rice balls. I also bought myself sandals, because the shoes I wore here, frankly, stink... and I'm gonna be in close proximity to kids all day every day, so I decided to nip that problem in the bud.
We got to the Indian food place. It was very nice, and the menus were in Korean and English, and the waitress spoke both as well, so it was really comfortable. I ordered garlic ban (large, thin bread-type stuff), a type of chicken (I forget the name offhand...) and some chicken curry (I'd never tried it before, never really liked the thought of what was in it, but... TRY EVERYTHING ONCE). it was all pretty good. the chicken curry's curry taste was pretty overpowering, so I barely finished half of it, and the ban wasn't as garlicy as I was hoping, but it certainly wasn't BAD. The other chicken I had, though, tasted almost exactly like buffalo wings, so anyone who knows me at all doesn't even have to ask if I gobbled that down instantly.
Then it was off to nure-bon! As we walked the streets of Pyongtaek, everything was lit up! It was very neon-y, and vibrant. I'm sure there are places like that in larger cities in the States and some in Canada, but certainly not back home. Also, Spider-man is apparently a sexy cookie who sells lingerie (picture to follow). The karaoke wasn't what I expected at all though! Instead of a large room filled with the smell of alcohol and sweat and loud, slurring singing, we went down this hallway with several closed rooms - actually, that in itself was creepy. Anyone ever been to Furcadia? The Slave Pens? That's the shit I'm talking about - but inside was a huge LCD TV, 3 mics, a computer, and two huge Bible-looking books with listings for thousands of songs. Now, I suck at singing, but I was eager to try a bit of fun, so as soon as I saw Rasputin by Boney M, I put it right in.
Korea is apparently pretty weird about gay stuff - it's not illegal, but the topic kind of makes them uncomfortable - so the community is pretty underground. So I had some fun picking songs like Material Girl and YMCA, to make Ki Jeung and his other Korean friend (Peter) crack up laughing. They don't understand English, but they can read and speak it really well apparently, and they sang duets and stuff to some English songs. They're part of an actual singing group, so as you might expect, they blew everyone away with some hardcore licks.
And after that, it was home! Safe to say, I conked out almost immediately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 4 (Teaching) - ... More on this later. This is a huge enough journal, and I still have more to do tonight! So until then, see ya! :D
Day 1 (Evening) - After being given a really quick view of the last class of the day, I'm taken to Lisa's apartment. There, her and Stephanie - my friend's sister, who has been a HUGE help - made me and their friend (I think his name is Ki Jeung "key-jewng") a delicious meal. One plate was vegetarian, and keeping to my vow of "trying everything once" over here, I had a taste, and it was actually quite good. The potatoes even sorta kinda had a meat consistency! It was a spicy dish of just a buttload of vegetables. They called it "Buddha Chicken" even though there's no chicken, and hopefully no Buddha, in there. Apparently the story behind it is from them mis-hearing a Korean term for "preparing a dish out of odds and ends you have lying around", and the name stuck.
The other bit of food was sausage bread... just a big roll of bread, lots of cheese, and chunks of sausage, made by Lisa. Very delicious! But I was dropping like a rock, having travelled for 42 hours with very little sleep - most of it literally on the floor of San Fran airport - so I went to bed after only eating a bit. But! Plenty of leftovers~!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 2 (Teaching) - Lisa made me some French toast with some tasty pumpkin bread, and then we went to school together. I got introduced to the teachers (I'm TERRIBLE with names and faces, even with my own ethnicity, so I still have trouble getting their names right), and accompany Lisa to all over her classes. It breaks down roughly like this:
9 AM - 2 PM: Kindergarten: I fucking love this class. I spend more time with these kids than any other class, so I guess that's to be expected. Classes are divided into 40-minute periods, and I teach 3 of them, so I get a fair amount of breaks thrown in there. And then noon is lunch time. There's this one kid, Bill, who's a year younger than the other kids, and has a hard time getting motivated to eat. If he's acting up for whatever reason, we call him "Baby Bill", and he shakes his head, then we ask "Taekwondo Bill?" and he nods then usually does what you ask of him. Absolutely adorable. And this other kid, Sam, is a bit of a tattletale and a sook, but I have a soft spot for him. He's really honest and has these glasses that make his eyes all big, so cute!
2 PM - 6 PM: Elementary - This... is a bloody marathon. I got a little flustered during this time, because there are EIGHT classes crammed together in half-hour periods, with no breaks between, so you have to rush back to the office to get the books for next class, then run back in and TRY to get everyone to listen. It's really stressful, and to make matters worse, there are audio Cds to accompany most books, so you also need to make sure you have the right Cd, which sometimes simply isn't there, or the book references the wrong track. It's frankly pretty poorly managed, but I figure it's something I'd get used to. It seems very typical "bustling" Korean, though.
Day 2 (Evening) - After class, I think I was still feeling jet lagged, because I just hit a wall at around 5:30. So unfortunately, I decided to come back and just crash. It's too bad, because I missed foreigner's night. I need to make a point to be ready for it next week!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 3 (Teaching) - Woke up, made some more French toast with leftover batter. I also trotted to one of the many nearby convenience stores and grabbed a random box of ramen noodles. Of course, I didn't notice until after the unsettlingly happy-looking squid on the box, but I decided to try it anyway, following my promise to myself. It actually wasn't too bad; I'd never had squid before, it really just tastes like chewy fish. The noodles themselves were pretty spicy too, so it overpowered any unpleasant taste that might have been there with... pain XD
Another whirlwind day of classes, and getting a few more concepts in my head. I also participated a bit more in the actual teaching.
Day 3 (Evening) - After class, I had a bit of time to relax with some tanks and general computerness for the first time since coming here. A bit comforting to come back to something I was familiar with, but I didn't tarry too long; Stephanie picked me up to go to nure-bon (probably not spelling it right) - Korean karaoke. I inwardly grimaced, not enjoying what I know karaoke is like back him, but I kept my vows in mind and readily agreed. First of all, Stephanie and I went to Pyongtaek, a nearby city which, from what I hear of conversations, is the go-to place besides Seoul. We strolled around looking for an Indian food restaurant that they love, and decided to get side-tracked by a pair of street markets. The first one was... actually really dirty, I'm sorry to say :S It had a very third-wordly feeling to it that I didn't like much at all. However, the next street over was much livelier and cleaner. We strolled down, looking at things... pigs heads (entire, cleanly-severed heads), buckets of live crab (small ones, not the big things we see back home), and tubs of wormy-looking things that reminded me of some Star Trek-y type food. It was all very interesting. Stephanie bought me - despite my protests - a Korean donut (very similar to ours, except instead of jelly in the middle, it's red bean paste), and some rice balls. I also bought myself sandals, because the shoes I wore here, frankly, stink... and I'm gonna be in close proximity to kids all day every day, so I decided to nip that problem in the bud.
We got to the Indian food place. It was very nice, and the menus were in Korean and English, and the waitress spoke both as well, so it was really comfortable. I ordered garlic ban (large, thin bread-type stuff), a type of chicken (I forget the name offhand...) and some chicken curry (I'd never tried it before, never really liked the thought of what was in it, but... TRY EVERYTHING ONCE). it was all pretty good. the chicken curry's curry taste was pretty overpowering, so I barely finished half of it, and the ban wasn't as garlicy as I was hoping, but it certainly wasn't BAD. The other chicken I had, though, tasted almost exactly like buffalo wings, so anyone who knows me at all doesn't even have to ask if I gobbled that down instantly.
Then it was off to nure-bon! As we walked the streets of Pyongtaek, everything was lit up! It was very neon-y, and vibrant. I'm sure there are places like that in larger cities in the States and some in Canada, but certainly not back home. Also, Spider-man is apparently a sexy cookie who sells lingerie (picture to follow). The karaoke wasn't what I expected at all though! Instead of a large room filled with the smell of alcohol and sweat and loud, slurring singing, we went down this hallway with several closed rooms - actually, that in itself was creepy. Anyone ever been to Furcadia? The Slave Pens? That's the shit I'm talking about - but inside was a huge LCD TV, 3 mics, a computer, and two huge Bible-looking books with listings for thousands of songs. Now, I suck at singing, but I was eager to try a bit of fun, so as soon as I saw Rasputin by Boney M, I put it right in.
Korea is apparently pretty weird about gay stuff - it's not illegal, but the topic kind of makes them uncomfortable - so the community is pretty underground. So I had some fun picking songs like Material Girl and YMCA, to make Ki Jeung and his other Korean friend (Peter) crack up laughing. They don't understand English, but they can read and speak it really well apparently, and they sang duets and stuff to some English songs. They're part of an actual singing group, so as you might expect, they blew everyone away with some hardcore licks.
And after that, it was home! Safe to say, I conked out almost immediately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 4 (Teaching) - ... More on this later. This is a huge enough journal, and I still have more to do tonight! So until then, see ya! :D
You are all over the place, and then suddenly this! I am just astonished. l3
This is amazing and so are you. ;3 I hope you have the time of your life. l3