This experience has been quite rocky for me. When I first arrived, I wasn't sure that I could handle it all, and now I don't know what I would do without those kids...SERIOUSLY! Now if any of you know me at all, you know that I don't really love kids, but I am naturally good with them (don't ask me how that happened).
The kids have really started opening up to me and letting me into their lives lately. The little ones give me big hugs and kisses every morning and like to hold hands whenever possible. The older ones have adjusted nicely and now know my routine. Each class is ready with their homework out when I walk in their room. They know this is the first thing that we do. I have the same schedule every M,W, F and the same for T, Th with different kids both days and each class has different kids. For the better speaking classes, we do 'Weekend Stories' on Monday and Tuesday (thank you Mr. Taylor!!).
When I got here, I thought I was only going to be teaching English. It turns out that I am not only teaching English, but for the younger kids, I am also teaching Science, Song and Dance, Math, and Arts and Crafts. For the older kids, I teach Math and Science in English plus my other English classes. Here are a few pictures of life cycles that I made my upper level students draw on the board. For the record, they love being like the teacher and getting to draw or write on the board.
I thought these were great! The dog cracks me up! Apparently an exclamation point over the dog makes it pregnant. LOL! I have never heard of that, but hey, I love it!!
At my apartment things are mostly the same. One thing that I have forgotten to mention is that out my window is an open storage area for a small grocery-like store. Every morning, like clockwork, a truck backs in and either loads or unloads things with a VERY noisy forklift. At the moment I don't have air conditioning (getting it on Tuesday) so I leave the window open all the time. I am not sure what the heck they take in and out of there but it drives me CRAZY!! Here are a couple of pictures of the view out my window. Don't get excited; it's nothing special!
During the month that I have been here I have learned so much and done so many new things. There is a saying here for the foreigners, "Welcome to Korea!" We say this when anything out of the ordinary occurs, which happens to be ALL of the time!! Now I want to share with you a list of very odd things that I have noticed since I have been here, about Korea and it's people. For those of you who are Blue Collar Comedy Tour fans, you might get a kick out of saying, Welcome to Korea," after each of these, kind of like the 'Here's your sign' and the 'You might be a redneck' jokes.
1. Korea hates my Mac! It takes so long for videos to load. I can't even watch a short, 6 minute, music video without it having to stop every couple of minutes to reload. BLAH!
2. Samsung, the electronics company, makes washing machines here. They play music for you when you turn them on and when your laundry is finished. Makes me think of an episode of "Friends," it is season one; Ross and Rachel are doing laundry and Ross makes up a laundry song (for Rachel's benefit) when it's finished. I guess you have to know your "Friends" to appreciate it.
3. Koreans generally don't drink anything with their meals. They drink before or after. I think that I would die if I followed this custom!
4. In a studio, the shower, laundry room, and bathroom are one in the same. The laundry room IS the shower, the shower IS the bathroom. There are no dividers. If you ever have a house guest, make sure you use the bathroom before they shower. Otherwise you might have to hold it for a while!
5. Before you shower or wash dishes, you have to physically turn on the hot water. When you are finished using the hot water, you have to turn it off. There is a little box control on the wall outside of the bathroom. See my previous posts for pictures of this.
6. Every house has what I call 'shower shoes' that are left in the bathroom, at all times, for anyone who enters the bathroom to use. If they are not used, your feet will most definitely get wet if anyone has taken a shower within the last 5 hours or so of you stepping in there.
7. Toilet paper has multiple uses here. They use it as napkins when eating, paper towels to clean up messes, and actual toilet uses. You can only buy toilet paper in a 24 pack or larger unless you go to a specialty store. The toilet paper is scented and has colorful designs on it for your viewing pleasure.
8. Cell phone charms are a necessity, even for men!
9. The heating system, in most homes, heats from the floor up! I can't wait until winter time seeing as how my feet will always be warm!
10. People here drive motorcycles, vespers, and any other motorized or non-motorized bike on the sidewalk if the traffic on the street gets too heavy. Sometimes, they do it even if the traffic is light. They almost always run red lights and they park on the sidewalks as well. Police here are not very concerned about writing tickets or enforcing traffic laws.
11. There is not really a designated trash day. People put their trash bags on the sidewalk when they are full and a trash truck comes and picks them up. If the truck doesn't run that day, then they sit there until the truck does come. Food, however does have a certain day and doesn't go out with the rest of the trash.
12. Punch cards are a way of life around here. I thought the USA was bad about having them...you know, buy 10, get the 11th free. I already have 5 different punch cards for different locations and services. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the doctor gave out punch cards...buy 3 visits, get your 4th free!! HAHA!
13. Koreans eat very loudly. They slurp their soup, drinks, and noodles, they talk with their mouths full and over flowing, and they don't close their mouths when they chew. It is somewhat disrespectful if you DON'T make noise when you eat because it means you are not really enjoying the food! So, pay your compliments to the chef by chomping away as noisily as you want!
14. Lastly (for now anyway), they use scissors in the kitchen. They rarely use knives and generally use scissors. They cut everything from meat and fish, to noodles and lettuce with scissors. The first time I saw this I thought it was a joke!!!
I hope that you enjoyed this little list that I have come up with. I am sure that there will be many more things that I can add very soon!! Until next time...
First of all, if you are teaching English, we need to work on your spelling--LOL! Did you see the men's world cup triathlon across the Han River from where you live? saw it here in rural New York State on sat TV. Next, in the human life cycle, there was no picture of morning sickness--LMAO! Heating of all buildings is by hot water in pipes beneath the floor. Follows an ancient practice in which wood was burned, allowing hot air to circulate beneath the floor.
ReplyDelete