Snow. Still.

The way I feel about snow is as follows: 

• November - exciting
• December - romantic
• January - expected
• February - tiring
• March - uncool.  

That's right.  I said it.  It's uncool to snow in March, especially after the 21st which is the first day of Spring (according to US folklore).  Today, I'll have you know, is the  22nd and therefore it is unacceptable that there be snow anywhere in sight.  

But since there is, I took a few pictures.  It is with utter disgrace that I show these to you.  Spring, you better come soon.  My patience is wearing thin.  

the view from my window

Looking down at the street

Dos Tacos

Today I had the pleasure of my first Mexican food in Korea.  It was delightful!  Now, you should know that I make my own Mexican food on a weekly basis (you can find most things you need for a burrito at Home Plus) but burritos in a restaurant seem to taste a million times better.  

Dos Tacos is located right off the main strip in Gangnam (Kangnam).  I have actually walked passed it dozens of times and never even knew it was there because it's discretely hidden behind the Apple store (which is called Frisbee).  

Even though we got to Dos Tacos at 2pm we still had to wait about 20 minutes before we could get a seat.  The restaurant is very small.  It has about 10 little tables.  

As always, I entertained myself with pictures. 

dos tacos this way

 

                              the inside of the restaurant.  

Finally it was time to eat.  I was so excited about my food that I took a few bites before I remembered that I was supposed to take a picture of my burrito.  Oops.  Now you have to see my half-eaten burrito.  

I got the vegetarian burrito which came

with rice, beans (actually this wasn't on the menu but I was pleased when they showed up on my burrito anyway), salsa/pica de gallo, cilantro, sour cream, and cheese.  I opted to add avocado for w2,000 and not have the onions and jalapenos because I'm a spice wuss.   

My burrito cost w6,500 + the avocado made it w8,500.  I also recommend the Horchata which is a bit pricey at w4,000 but surely delicious with just the right amount of cinnamon.     

Advanced Class

Friday was the first day of my Advanced English Club.  I decided to call it a club instead of a class in hopes to give it more of a relaxed vibe and a sense that this was supposed to be a fun activity rather than just another English class that they have to take.  

My other hope was that I could combine both 5th and 6th graders together in one class and really get the best and the brightest of them.  But when only 6th graders signed up for the class I inquired about why that was; after all, I was very clear that I wanted a mixed-grade classroom.  My co-teacher explained that although it is possible in the school, due to scheduling it could only be one grade and so she obviously picked 6th grade since they are the oldest (and therefore should be the most advanced as far as language studies go).  

12 people signed up for the club: 11 girls and 1 boy.  I felt so bad for the one boy, Kevin, who is a really sweet kid and I watched him sink inside himself as he realized that he'd be stuck with all these girls.  (When the class was over I tried to talk to him about being in this class but he didn't quite seem to understand what I was saying.  My co-teacher came over and said she'd try to get more boys to join for him.  Later, I heard that 1 more boy was interested in joining so that my club would now be 11 girls and 2 boys).  

I was actually really surprised at who wanted to be in the club.  I looked around and said to myself "Wait, these are the kids that electively picked to be in English Club?  I had no idea they liked the subject."  But later I found out that hardly any kids wanted to be in the club and that they rock-paper-scissored and the loser had to join the class.  When my co-teacher told me that I tried not to let it show, but I was crushed and humiliated.  

I think I designed a really good curriculum that everyone can enjoy.  We spend a month learning about all the natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, etc), music (classical, hip-hop, pop, and music videos), journalism (where we will make a newspaper, magazine, and then star in our own TV news stories) and so forth.  I tried really hard to make my curriculum fun and entertaining and not something that they get to do in normal English class or in their academies.  I want to use a project-based, student directed learning approach.  At the start of each month they will have the opportunity to suggest one activity for that month's theme.  We will discuss this and see how we can make it happen.  

But now that I know that my students didn't want to be in the class I don't have much hope for it anymore.  Two of the girls squealed with delight as I showed them the powerpoint of what we will be doing.  The others just sat there numbly.  My greatest hope for the class is that they have fun and enjoy themselves.  I want them to forget that it's English class and just see it as a class where they do exciting things like make volcanoes and do egg-drop contests, put on a TV news broadcast and learn through art. This is my love and I hope that they can see it too.  I don't love teaching English but I do love learning and exploring ideas.  My only goal is that the students leave my class with a smile on their face each week.  If they happen to learn more English as a byproduct of that (and they will) then to me that's just an added bonus. 

And now... Random Korea Pictures!!

Bikers are Hardcore in Seoul

Dogs are Hardcore in Suwon

 

New Start

This past Saturday I ventured out to New Start Restaurant with Nicole and her friend Maggie.  New Start is a well-established vegan & vegetarian restaurant that has supposedly been around for about 16 years now.  When we arrived at about 7pm that Saturday the doors were locked.  We were trying to decipher the sign on the door that said something about their hours when a lady opened the door and explained that they were closed for a private birthday party.  We stood there for a moment with dumbfounded and disappointed faces but before we could interject she said simply "Just wait ten minutes and then you can come in."  Uh, ok.  

So ten minutes passed and we were able to enter the restaurant.  She explained that actually they are never open on Saturdays but today was special because there was a birthday party and so they were open.  (Wait, what?  A restaurant that isn't open on Saturday??)    Other than the birthday party people  the restaurant was completely empty.  We felt a little awkward but we pressed onwards anyway.  

.the restaurant. 

The food was for the most part really delicious.  It was great to be eating a wholly vegetarian meal that was full of variety.  They had salad, tofu-meat in a stir fry, veggie dishes, sweet potatoes, potato wedges, pumpkin soup, cabbage rolls, kimbap, fresh fruit, bread with both fig and peanut butter spreads and so on.  I especially loved the yams with a sticky sweet glaze topped with sunflower seeds.  I also had some of the best soy milk I might have ever had: thick and creamy and delicious.      

 

.the buffet row. 

.potato wedges in the foreground & pumpkin soup in the background.

 .oh hai.  I'm in the reflection of the window.

Perhaps one of the other nicest things about this restaurant is that they sell vegan snacks and some of the food that they serve at the restaurant.  Maggie loved the fig jam so much that she bought a giant mason jar of it.  Personally, always a sucker for the sweet stuff was eyeing the ice cream in the freezer but with a w13,800 price-tag for a pint of ice cream there was just no way.  

.$12.20 for coconut milk ice cream!? Are you kidding me?.

The all you can eat buffet costs w12,000 ($10.61 according to today's exchange) and in my opinion was well worth it.  If I was in the area and craving some non-meat action, I'd definitely go back again.  

Directions: (taken from the Happy Cow site) 

Subway Line 2 (green line) or the Bundang (yellow) line get off at Seolleung Station, from Exit 2, walk 50m past BurgerKing to the top of a small hill where you will find an intersection, on the left is an office supply store, Link O, turn left and walk until you see Hollys Coffee on your left, the restaurant is across the street (4th building on the right from intersection) and is located on the 2nd floor.   

Tee-Ball Time

Yesterday I did my first volunteer activity with the Seoul Volunteer Center: playing tee-ball with children.  The event was near the Hwagok Station (Line 5) and started at 9:30am.  Living in Suwon can be a real pain in the ass sometimes because it takes so long to get to events and happenings in Seoul.  In this case I had to leave my house at 7:30am.  7:30!  But I suppose it was worth it.  

It was about 10:45 or so by the time we got to the community center where all the kids were.  Each adult volunteer was assigned a Korean kid to work with and there were also many Korean university students for additional support and translation.  

The first thing we did (after introductions) was make sandwiches.  We were given an assortment items including: cucumbers, tomatoes, red pepper, processed cheese, hard boiled eggs, ham, tuna, onions, and lettuce.  There was mayo, butter, and ketchup.  Some of the kids made pretty wild sandwiches but mine, without surprise, was tame and practical.  (And delicious).  

After we ate our sandwiches it was time to play some tee-ball.  My partner, fifth grader Yongmin, is on the left with his two buddies.  Thankfully it was a beautiful and warm sunny day-- we totally lucked out! 

  Let's play ball! 

It seemed like most of the people there (including the adult volunteers) had never played tee-ball/baseball before.  This was really surprising to me since I see kids playing baseball everyday after school at the playground, rain or shine.  And wasn't everyone enrolled in Little League at some point?  I guess not...  For all my years of softball though, I didn't do as well as I would have liked and had a nice solid hit to center field but was thrown out at first and then on my second at-bat had an unfortunate infield pop to the pitcher.  

 What a slugger.

In the end my team didn't win, though to be fair it was a close game 12-13.  

  

Though playing baseball certainly wasn't like most of the volunteer activities I have done in the past, it was a fun experience.  I hope that the kids got something out of it, though to be honest, I'm not sure what the "something" could have been.  

I look forward to volunteering more and hopefully this extensive link will provide me with some new opportunities.  

K-Pop love

Back in September I showed you two of my favorite videos at the time from Big Bang.  Since then my feelings about K-Pop have gone up and down in waves (much like my general experience in Korea).  Sometimes I love the bubblegum fun of the pop music, other times it makes my head spin and I want to vomit.  After all, I never listened to much pop in the US either, preferring indie rock or the adult contemporary radio channels.

But this one here is a song I can wrap my head around.  I started listening to it in December around Christmas time and I still love it.  And finally I know what it means because someone added the English lyrics!! 

Um, and I guess there is a Lollipop 2 now..?  Not as good as the original. 

This song plagued the country for months... 

And on another note, I have been in Korea for exactly 6 months now.  6 down and 6 to go ^o^   

Advanced Student Class

Yesterday I suggested that perhaps in one of my 3 additional teaching hours I could teach an "advanced English" course for students who wanted a harder English curriculum.  My school and surrounding Yeongtong area is pretty well-off and many of the students have traveled abroad, lived abroad, and/or regularly attend English academy or private English lessons.  Although this is certainly NOT the case for all students, many of my kids are constantly bored in class because the content is too easy.  I have been itching for ways to help those kids since I got here.  

One of the things it says in my contract is that if there are more than 30-something kids in the class, the class can be split into two groups.  (Actually, I have not referenced this point in quite some time now, but I swear I read this once.)  When I asked about doing this my co-teacher laughed and basically said "yeah right!" 

This school year there are two very amazing things: 

1.  Instead of the 38-40 kids per class that I had I now only have 32-36 kids per class.  Now, I know that it doesn't seem like a big difference, and really it's not, but when the class is as large as it is, every additional kid seems to make an impact.  Now, instead of using 7 tables, I only have to use 6.  That alone is huge.  

2.  I get to teach the advanced class!  And because I am the first one ever to teach such a thing, I am designing the curriculum.  My evaluations from Winter Camp came back and although some kids expressed some grief to me during the class, they basically all rated the experience as very positive.  They really liked doing the theme and doing all the projects.  

So now I'm designing a project-based learning method for these advanced learners.  We are going to have one month on each topic.  I can't remember them all right now, but there is an entire month dedicated to the environment and natural disasters, one month on journalism where we will do a role play TV news broadcast, one month for architecture (and eco-building because I gotta bring in my propaganda experience in somehow), and the month of march will be sports/olympics.  

I'll keep you all updated as it goes along, and if you have any wonderful project-based ESL ideas and theories for me,  please do send them along.  

PS: Yes, I will do a travel update; it's just harder to do that than sitting here and type type typing.  

First Day of School (again)

Although I am still finding it incomprehensible, today, Tuesday March 2nd, is the first day of the new school year.  Although I've always known that this is the way it works here in Korea, March just doesn't seem like a new school year to me.  But yet it is, and it was abundantly clear to me as I walked into my 5th grade teachers' lounge and found a whole slew of new teachers who quickly glanced in my direction and then continued on with their conversations.  I stood there awkwardly, stepped back away from the chatter and buzz, away from the teachers frantically making photocopies before the first bell rang.  My index finger instinctively reached for my one sharp tooth in my mouth, an old nervous habit I have never bothered to outgrow.  "Can I help you?" one teacher asked me.  I thought about it for a moment.  Why was she looking at me like I didn't belong here?  This is where I have always gone for months now.  "No, I guess not," I replied. 


Finally Sun-hee came into the lounge. (She was my 6th grade English teacher last year)  "Hello Sarah," she said to me and then continued to a computer in the corner of the room, talking in Korean to the other teachers.  After a little while I worked up the courage to ask her what I was supposed to be doing, and if she had a time-schedule for me.  She pointed to another computer and told me that there was a new English teacher and that I should just wait in the classroom for her.  Slowly, humbly, I slinked out of the teachers' lounge and back into my own classroom. 

A little while later Helen came into the classroom and sat down in Eunju's old desk.  "Are you my new co-teacher?" I asked eagerly.  When she said yes I was instantly a little relieved.  But then I remembered how Helen used to come to the my after-school Teachers' English Conversation Class but she stopped at some point along the way.  Her English was good, but certainly not fluent like Eunju's.  Helen is younger than Eunju.  She isn't married but is actively looking for a potential suitor.  She gets a lot of grief from her family about why she is still single.  Helen is going to be my main co-teacher and 6th grade teacher. 

After that I met my 5th grade teacher.  Her name is Park Ji-hay.  She seems nice but I don't know a lick about her yet.

As it turns out, today I have no classes.  That means that all day long today I can just sit and do nothing, plan lessons, continue my online TEFL course or whatever.  Tomorrow starts the first real classes.  I am so scared.  This week shouldn't be any different than it has been for the last several months, yet somehow it is. 

Incidentally, I am not teaching 4th grade this year.  I know that they were debating as to whether I would teach 2 extra classes (and get paid overtime) or not teach 4th grade at all.  Eunju assured me that there was a 90% probability that I'd teach extra classes and so I had mentally prepared for it.  But as it turns out, I am not.  Now, instead of teaching 22 classes like I had last year, I am now only teaching 19 classes.  With the exception of Thursday I teach periods 1-4 only, which means after my last class it is lunch time.  It means that I have 3.5 hours of free time every day.  On Thursday I do have a 5th period, but on Friday I don't have a 1st period.

Instead, they will try to have me do a Teacher's Class 3 times a week.  We'll see how that turns out considering that I could only get 1 "student" to come to my class each week before and now she has transferred to another school!  

So here goes nothing..