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Category — Korea

A Day at Work

by Kate

Chad and I are having a lesson planning day. We have finished our first week of plans which gives me the opportunity to share a few anecdotes from the last 30 minutes of my life which may shed light on the world Chad and I are living in.
After lunch we always head back to the teachers room where everyone has coffee or (REALLY SUGARY) vitamin juice. This little relaxation before our afternoon starts usually includes an informal English lesson for the teachers. Today we talked about the words “tomb, grave and waterfall.” As were were sitting and chatting the Principal walked in (everyone rise. . .at least sometimes. . .not sure on when. . just do it) and said “Chaed” and presented Chad with a huge bag of loaves of bread. He then presented me with a huge bag of rice (which looks like a huge bag of mozzarella cheese). Korean Thanksgiving gifts. So we now have enough carbs for the next month!
Yesterday when we were leaving school (when I say “we” I mean EVERYONE at school, together) everyone was crowded around the little garden near the parking lot. They were carrying on and giggling. The principal started beckoning at us (beckoning here is like the gesture for “shew” like swatting a fly). We confusedly approached and saw what all of the commotion was. One small watermelon in the school garden. We just ate it during the coffee break.
My final coffee break anecdote involves attire. Today I sucked it up and decided to not be scared to wear a knee length skirt (to the top of my knee). I was a little nervous this morning but I haven’t been given any real reason to be worried. During our coffee break the nurse said “Skirt beautiful” to me. Then she spoke in Korean to our main English contact about what she was trying to say. Teacher Jang looked at me and said “You should dress.” he was trying to reiterate that the Nurse liked my skirt. It just came out wrong and was particularly funny because of my paranoia. Teacher Jang is taking come throat meds so we are blaming that. :)

Finally, as I walked from break central back up to the English village a crew of first graders ran up to me yelling “Teacher, Teacher!” We are used commotion in the hallways when we walk through but these kids proceeded to drag me to the backdoor of the school. I was then presented with a box. As the top of the box was lifted open I was greeted by a dead bird. Okay, fine. Kids are kids. I went to get the first grade teacher to figure out how to dispose of this little guy. She came, spoke with the kids and left. I figured she was going to get a bag or something. i waited a few minuted and nothing happened. So, I peaked back around the corner to her desk and the First Grade teacher was back at her computer. I went back to the outside door of the school and saw the children had left with the box and were playing with the bird like a baby doll.

Like I said, 30 minutes of a day.
Now I need to go and cut out shapes for name tags.
Happy Friday!
K

September 11, 2008   2 Comments

Videos and Pictures…

by Chad

We have posted a video feed on Picasa. ( http://picasaweb.google.com/spicyfishy )
And a video feed on Viddler. ( http://www.viddler.com/spicyfishy )

There you can follow more photos and videos as they are posted. The pictures will eventually be more organized, but now almost all of our pictures are up there. (Same with the videos).

Enjoy..
and thanks for checking in. We really appreciate it :)
-Chad

September 10, 2008   1 Comment

Yang Yang!

by Chad

[NOTE - this post should come before Mountains, Gramaphones, and Carnivals, OH MY! but, so no one misses it, we have posted it here. Enjoy...]

Our time travel landed us about “2 hours” after we took off, and we basically lost a day of our life, either to the spinning or to the flight. After the slightly scary car ride we arrived in Yang Yang (3 and half hours from Seoul – right after the 14 hour flight :-) at our “Resortel”. We were greeted by some other students who are part of the “Talk” program – a new program similar to Epik for students still in college or recently graduated to teach afterschool classes around Gangwon-do (our province). They are mostly Korean-Americans or Canadian. Their energy and excitement was a sharp contrast to our confusion and exhaustion. In our dazed and confused state we settled into our large condo/room. The room was very large with only a bed and tv, a kitchen with a few dishes, and another completely empty room. We ate a snack then went to sleep after being up for most of a day and half. The Jet-lag (or the rock hard bed) kicked in at about 5:00am when both of us layed awake – waiting for the other to move. Once realized, we hopped up and went out to the beach for a stroll in the Sea of Japan Sunrise. It was cloudy, so we missed most of it, but the walk was nice and we got a better view of our temporary residence. The water was nice and the beach too – although littered with shells from fireworks and beer bottles. The picture above is an abandoned carnival ride outside our resortel. Yang Yang is a tourist destination in Korea – although it doesn’t seem to be thriving anymore :)
We walked for a bit and came back in before breakfast and a free day. We arrived earlier than most of the new teachers so we got a day to hang out with the other early-birds and explore the area. We walked up the hill at the end of the beach to an amazing centuries old buddhist temple. I knew when we came upon the first temple that this was going to be one of those years you never forget. At that point also it finally hit me that I was in the most foreign place I had ever experienced. Scary? – not really. I had a few people I barely knew but already liked and of course Kate to make it all feel comfortable. And of course the sweet old monks who spoke a few words of English and wanted our pictures :) Communication aside – people are people and I started to realize then how much that simple idea will help me adapt and feel at home here. I don’t know how to try to predict anything here.. and that’s amazing. Anyways.. We had a great time at the Temple and got some great pictures. We rented bikes at the hotel and walked around the beach a bit. All in all – a long but nice adapting day. We met many new people as they arrived from their various homes or most recent travels. People from all over the world – The US, Canada, Britain, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and even Thailand. The next few days were full of lectures and events aimed at helping us adapt to Korea and to teaching. As many of us have never taught before this was very valuable, and even for those who have, the general overview and structure of the Korean Classroom was very valuable. We learned fantastic bits of wisdom that have and will help us to be accepted in our schools and respected for our work. Oh and to make sure the kids actually learn something :) Every day felt like a week, and we were always exhausted in bed by 10 or 10:30 but it was a great way to ease into it all. I’ll post more information on exactly what our job is and whom we work for (EPIK) in a later post. This orientation was provided by EPIK for a week before we moved to our respective cities. It felt like summer camp with our friends most days – as we were sheltered from real Korean life for the most part :) I can’t say I was upset by that though. It was a great week… :)

-Chad

September 9, 2008   Comments Off

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