Category — Korea

Often times our school days change unexpectedly. Classes are canceled, teachers forget we have camps, we are told unexpectedly to pack up because we’re going home early. It’s all part of the Korean system. So today we were not surprised at all when during our morning tea time Teacher Chang tells us there will be a puppet show for grades 1-4 at 11am. Not a big deal really, and it meant we didn’t have to teach an hour of our 1st grade camp (which is always a thrill!). Those little guys are cute but they’re a big pain in the butt… (just imagine 14- 8 year old boys and 2 girls…. now imagine you don’t speak their language….. now imagine trying to explain the seasons to them.) In other words we’re more than happy to hand over the little hoodlums to a friendly troupe of puppeteers.
Their play – I’m assuming from the yelling father characters – had something to do with domestic abuse. This could be way off, but last week we were visited by two people from a domestic abuse center – so I can only imagine it was to set up today’s performance. A series of vignettes about 4 childrens’ home life… eye opening really – well it might have been, if I could have understood any of it.

In the afternoon only a handful of kids showed up for our 5-6 grade phonics class (a common occurrence). So we decided to make them put together the Christmas tree we had the school buy Aren’t we clever! They were only allowed to speak in English, NO KOREAN! Luckily the tree turned out pretty well..
But Joon Kyu let his Korean heritage shine through and was dealt the classic punishment!

Next I’ll write about the joys of Korean Meetings. And sometime soon we’ll answer the question: What does a dog say? – The answer may surprise you!

A few Fridays ago (why always Friday?) we took part in the Samcheok Lifelong Learning Fair. Thursday evening we set the booth up (about 30 people were put on that task). On Friday we showed up to be the token English teachers!

The Guendoek Booth

This booth was packed with things the students have done. It is also peppered with English Village themed things like a poster of the English teachers! Guendoek is one of the few school that has an English Village so it puts a lot into showing off the facilities.

Above is our good friend Mark in his booth. Definitely the coolest booth! It was all Halloween themed and there were even costumes to try on!

Blue Bobo

Spicy Mexican

This is a complicated tug of war game. I don’t really know much about it. I know that the tug of war rope looks like a pretzel and that the game is very old and a big tradition.

Apparently the pretzel knot is a great place for relaxation after a drum performance.

Chad, Kate, Principle (Kyo Chang Songsamniem), Vice Principal (Kyo Kom Songsamniem), Kumo (A secratary?), and the Special Ed (Slash Art?) Teacher.

This picture was taken right after all of the Education Big Fish came through in their suits. We kind of think that they are the biggest reason that this Fair happened. To show the Big Guys (And Gals) what the schools are doing. It seemed like a lot of money to pour into 10 seconds of bowing and handshakes per school. At least there were fun things for the kids to do at the fair like making soap and mini-books and little creatures made of bark and twigs.

There was also this,

Chad will have to correct me but I think this is like a harness for para-sailing? It was fun and we got some funny pictures of Chad. A newspaper even took pictures and interviewed him about his experience. According to Teacher Kim they wanted to talk to Chad about his experience in this contraption because he looks happy and Koreans don’t show emotion. Yes, that is what she said.

After Chad and I had checked out all of the booths Teacher Kim arrived at the Fair and had us go around with her. It was fun and we actually did some of the activities with her.

A stop back by at Mark’s booth.

An obligatory cute Korean child picture.

Well, that all the new on Lake Woebegon. More to come. As usual I am behind with posting. We have been preoccupied with planning our winter vacation. All of our computer time has been sucked into that. We do have our tickets booked now, so thats exciting!

I just made muffins. The muffin tin was too big for our petite oven so I had to double up the paper cups and bake the muffins on a cookie sheet. We’ll see how they turn out. Oh, that reminds me. . .

Last Sunday Chad made peanut butter cookies. They were fabulous, I just polished the last one off yesterday. We brought a large portion of the cookies to school thinking we would share them with the teachers during our 10:40 snack time/teachers meeting. We put them out on the communal table and they were gone before school started at 9:20. Amazing. I love the teachers we work with.

Have a great week!

K

Chad – “Hey, Kate, pose in front of that light.”
Kate – “Okay!”

Again,
Again,

Together! You get the picture.

Chad’s turn!




Crazy Mountain Man!

Rocky on rockies.

Chad’s internal dialog – “Should I do it?”

Chad’s external answer. . . .

CAVE MONSTER!!

Lean on me!
1. . .
2. . .
3. . . .
4. . . .
Failed pose but fun trying!

Chad left but I stayed behind to pretend to be a ballerina-cave dancer.

Monster emerging from the midst.

BlAHHH!!!! Getting closer!! This is like getting Big Foot on camera! Luckily we got away in the nick of time! Phew.

We had fun.