I've rediscovered Saves the Day. That's what my vacation has become.
I went to E-Mart and bought the fixings for meat sauce spaghetti (with 한우!!!) as well as mac and cheese. That should keep me fed for a couple days.
I bought cakes for 부's family. I need to come up with a good English nickname for him. Anyways, I'm going to his grandmother's house on Thursday. I'm only moderately terrified, which is an improvement from utterly terrified which is how I felt when he initially asked me. You see, this is a big step, and I don't want to fuck it up by saying the wrong thing to his parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles and cousins while I'm there. They will all be judging me and not only do I have no idea what I'm going to say or do, I also have no idea what to wear, and no idea what they will think of me.
It's pouring outside. I'm listening to the Through Being Cool album. FML.
On the bright side, I found the oven I want to buy at E-Mart. It's bigger than all the others I've seen (but still maybe 1/4 the size of a regular american oven), and it's about 300 dollars. And I may have found the perfect first baked good on the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog:
Chocolate Chip cookie dough cupcakes with cookie dough inside and a cookie on top. HOLY HELL I MUST EAT THESE ASAP.
So today might be one of my best days ever. Okay, so that's probably an exaggeration, but still, it's been a really really great day. Yesterday and today and tomorrow have all been great. Really really really great. Seriously.
This week I've been teaching at an English summer camp for the Nambu district of Incheon. It's maybe 15 schools or so, and the camp combines some of the highest level English students from each of the schools to attend an English camp led mostly by foreign English teachers such as myself. All classes have 12 students, 6 boys and 6 girls. This is probably the first time boys and girls have been in the same class since they started middle school, so that was strange. In my class, the boys and the girls will totally separate. They didn't talk to each other, they didn't work with each other unless we literally forced them to. It was awful.
But beside my classes stark gender segregation, everything in the camp was great. My students were all awesome, if a little shy at first. But, by Thursday, the boys especially, they could hardly be corralled into orderly groups. On Thursday we had a field trip to the Incheon Science Hall and Incheon International Airport. The boys basically ran wild in the museum and we (my korean co-teacher and I) had to go searching for them on more than one occasion. We also played faux-basketball at the station that had a fan underneath a ball that pushed the ball through a hoop. You know, that exhibit that every single science museum ever has. Well, we took the ball and played basketball. I hit the first shot I took, you know, since I'm a baller and all.
Then at the airport, I was in charge of the boys group and they were absolutely terrified to speak to any foreigners. I had to literally drag them to people in order to get them to start talking. Then trying to keep them away from the dunkin donuts and family marts was next to impossible. Luckily after that activity was over, they were seated for the rest of the time. That day, the boys also snooping and reading my text messages as I wrote them and discovered that I can speak some korean. They saw me write 영화가 재미없었어 and were like omg omg you speak korean, and then proceeded to speak a ton of korean to me. It was annoying, but funny because I wouldn't speak to them in Korean.
Then today was our last day of camp which was kind of sad because we had bonded over the week, but mostly I was just thrilled because camp was exhausting for me. It ruined my sleeping patterns completely as I had to take naps just to stay up past 9 p.m. But today, my students all said goodbye and my girls were sad (and my boys didn't care, obvi). But I gave my cyworld address to my students so hopefully they will add me on cyworld or whatever. So far one student already has. Weeney (that's her English name which she chose. It gets me every time).
Plus tonight I finally get to see my boo after a whole week.
Plus plus plus the best bit of news ever: I GET TO MEET SE7EN TOMORROW! OMG OMG OMG OMG. Yes, I mean the Se7en that I have been fawning over the last few blog posts. Same Seven. I got picked to attend a fan signing. Only 150 people will be there and my friend Coleen also got picked. OMG, I can't even express how effing thrilled I am to get to meet him. And he's gonna sign my new digital bounce cd. And I'm gonna write him a letter and hopefully he'll read it and show it to Taeyang and then Taeyang will fall in love with me via the letter. Ok, obviously this is just wishful thinking, but still. ^_____^ Tomorrow at 6:30 I will be in a line of people to talk to and (possibly) HUG Seven. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I screamed when I got the text message from Hottracks, the music store at Kyobo that said I was picked.
Friday, July 23, 2010
I don't think there is that much going on here these days.
I've been busy this week with my first week of summer camp. I made it really active for my girls because they're grade 1 and if it isn't engaging their totally zoned out. So on day one, we did music listening challenges. Then on day two, we had a cooking class. We went down to the home ec room (가사실) and made banana and peanut butter pancakes. The students really liked them. Some even took pictures with their phones and set their pancake pictures as the backgrounds on their phones. Then on Wednesday, we wrote movie plots. They had to chose a genre and a main character and describe the characters and then write and outline of the story. I gave them a sample story that involved a second Korean war, YoungBae falling in love with me, and me being a prisoner of war. Basically, it was epic. Thursday we made movie posters for our movies. Students had all class to make their posters and some students presented, but not many. The pics of the movie posters are below. Horror movie was the genre of choice.
(My picture)
This weekend, I have another date, and on Sunday I'll play frisbee. Then, Monday-Thursday I'll be on vacation. No solid plans yet. A visit from the boy. Maybe Bekah and I will go to Busan or Gwangju, but it doesn't look good in the planning department.
I have to read James and the Giant Peach with my students for my other camp. I have never read it before (this may seem like blasphemy to childrens lit fans, but I was never into Roald Dahl. In fact, I don't know if I've read any of his books). I discovered that the book uses the word 'ass' twice (well, so far... I'm almost done) which seems moderately inappropriate for 7th graders. But maybe not. I just feel like I shouldn't be teaching students English swear words.
Also, yesterday and today I went to the immigration office. I went yesterday to get my Visa and Alien Registration Card extended so I could stay another year in Korea and teach at my wonderful school. My primary co-teacher, Kim Hyo-Jin went with me to the office, which is a 15-20 minute walk from my house/school. Then, today I went back to the immigration office because they didn't extend my visa, only my arc which is annoying because my co-teacher specifically asked, is this for both things or just one? Gah. 짜증나~ Plus I went with a different co-teacher that I don't really like as much because she makes me crazy with her methods of doing things. I had to go wither her because the others had left for trips to Singapore and Cambodia (omg so effing jealous).
My resolutions for the next year in Korea:
1. visit Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia
2. improve my teaching efficiency
3. pay off all my student loans
4. help sar-bear plan her wedding from afar
5. Actually keep in contact with more people.
Those are in no particular order.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that you can add nearly 600,000 won to my frivolous spending account as I bought a new Coach bag and Coach wallet. Seriously, they were so worth every won. I freaking love them. Unfortunately I can't use the purse often because it rains so much here and I don't want it to get soaked or messed up.
I will also leave you with Se7en's comeback song music video. I think he is hella fine, but his tattoo is ugly. But, Se7en in a total legend as far as k-pop goes. He's been around forever and he's finally making a comeback. I wasn't into him until recently, but listening to his older shit makes me really dig him.
Today really was awesome. I don't know how else to explain it.
Actually, my whole weekend has been awesome.
Friday I went to Hooter's for Miranda's birthday. I got my ears pierced. I sang the shit out of Taeyang's I need a girl (90점 on an all korean song the first time I sang it? hell yes). Saturday, woke up, went on a date. Snuck into a building. Lost everything and got it back. Played 20+ games of go-stop. Ate really really good spaghetti (even by American standards, it was good, and that's saying something here in Korea).
Today, I went to Seoul with four of my students. They are four of my best students at my school. Seriously, they love English, they love speaking English, they love practicing English, and it is students like them that make me want to teach forever. We went to 신촌 and ate lunch at a 고기부페 (meat buffet). We ate 삼겹살 (really thick bacon meat basically) and other meat and lots of soda and it was funny because you can't leave leftovers, but we took too many sides, and 재연, one of my students, put a bunch of the food back in the bowls, which you totally can't do and probably isn't very sanitary, but buffets generally aren't that sanitary anyways, so eff that. Then we went to red mango and had awesome yogurt and got the toppings for free, because 유진 had a coupon. Then we went looking for a sticker picture place and while looking stumbled across a HELLO KITTY CAFE. There is one in Hongdae, but in my opinion the Sinchon one is better. It's less pink, but has way better kitty accessories. It's more demure, I think. We took a detour there for coffee and more sweets (choco bread). Then, we found a sticker picture place and hurriedly took sticker pictures. They weren't the best pictures ever (Christi, Miranda and I got the best ever, hands down) but they turned out cute. The sticker picture place wasn't that good (the one at bupyeong has 반짝반짝 film, or bling bling film to coat the pictures) but it sufficed.
Then we went to 서대문 which is a historic site. It used to be a prison during the Japanese opression. They put political prisoners there and tortured/executed them. It was pretty depressing. The girls had to go there for summer homework and it was kind of near Sinchon (closer than, say, Incheon is) so I went with them. I think their parents were grateful because they didn't have to take them there. Then, we took the subway back.
I'm pretty exhausted now, but I'd definitely say it was well worth the time and exhaustion. The students were wonderful, the date was great in spite of the rain, I had a wonderful time singing and eating and playing with my friends.
The only downside is due to the rain on Friday/Saturday, I fell TWICE. Once going downstairs to Hooters (minor), and once when I was at home taking off my soaked shoes on Saturday (major fall). The fall on Saturday caused some minor hip/leg/ankle/wrist pain, but it's not so bad now, minus the bruise on my thigh). I'm so clumsy.
Today marked my first day of summer vacation. How did I ring it in? Well, by going to school and working of course.
I know that sounds strange but here's the reasoning.
My last day of school was yesterday. Today, there is one teacher at my school, one office worker and the vice-principal. Oh, and me. Because I am a special kind of teacher, I work through the holidays and am only given 20 days of paid vacation a year. It's the downside to not being a certified Korean teacher here. Granted, my job the other 200 or so days both me and the Korean teachers work is much easier for me than them, so I'm willing to take the trade-off.
I am pretty happy I got to come in today because it meant several things.
1. Free lunch. The other teacher bought my lunch, which was 떡만두국 Or rice cake and dumpling soup. It was really really good and I was happy upon eating it.
2. I was able to finish (mostly) the planning for my summer camps and submit the last bit of paperwork for the camp.
3. I got to watch 전우치, a Korean movie starring the super famous Korean actor 강동원 (Kang Dong Won), who is a total babe. This is the first Korean movie I've watched, which is pretty pathetic given that I've been here for neigh onto a year now. I just don't really like movies. But this one was fucking awesome. If you can find it stateside, and don't mind subtitles, it's hella awesome. Seriously. There are goblins and archgods and taoism and fighting and a beautiful widow and a dog/horse/man/woman. You can't go wrong with that combination.
The bad news is that waiting for me back at home is a pile of laundry, a terribly dirty apartment, and a shower drain that's so clogged, there is standing water in it from my shower yesterday morning. Luckily, I bought some drain-o which will hopefully clear up that problem, and then I'm going to Hooters tonight to celebrate Miranda's birthday and maybe I'll get a new ear piercing? Things are all kinds of crazy for me these days, what with me designing another tattoo, and getting piercings, and watching movies and cleaning my apartment. Who am I and what have I done with wally?
Anyways, time to pack up and head home through the rain. >.<
So it's crazy that my semester is finally almost over. I have four more days of classes, which consist of my students and I watching the first 40 minutes of either Princess Diaries 2 or Monsters, Inc. a total of 11 times (this doesn't include the 7 times I've already watched it yesterday and today).
After school I saw an archery competition and some boys from a different school freaked out when they saw me.
Yesterday at school I got a package from home. In it was some clothing I ordered from the gap (cropped khakis and a navy slub dress), the newest Rooney cd (which was signed since I pre-ordered it!), plus some other goodies from the parents such as a hello kitty washcloth and Florida Kitty magnet.
Tomorrow I'm going to see Shrek Forever with three students. I'm really excited. We were gonna see it in 4D, but it was sold out, so we're just gonna watch it in regular old 3D. This is good though because 4D is only in Seoul and it's 5000 won more.
Also, I sort of maybe kind of have a date tomorrow. eep.
Oh, and I'm updating www.reallykpop.weebly.com as we speak. New 2PM lyrics up by Sunday evening! Plus, I'm probably registering my own domain later this weekend. I got a coupon from weebly for 33% off domain registration, I figure that's as good a deal as any. ^_^ So yeah, that's that.
Today, I had Korean class. I was about 15 minutes early to class (I try to leave early because I never know when the bus will get to the bus stop, and because I can get some extra studying in at TalkHouse, wear I take classes beforehand). My teacher was there, but none of the rest of the students were there, and she started talking to me about my neighborhood and my experiences before coming to Korea. She is from the same area I live in now (she graduated from the middle school I currently teach at), and so she knows how boring it is out here. haha. Also, she asked me what I studied at university, and when I told her English and Spanish she said, "ah, yes, I can tell you have a talent for languages." YAY! I think I am starting to get Korean, and I'm moving along at a pretty healthy rate, especially now. We are moving really really fast, and the verbs are mind-numbingly difficult to learn, because we are learning present, future, past and conditional tenses simultaneously, and that has been a REAL challenge. It is very Korean to present a tremendous amount of information and basically just say, "learn it," so I'm doing the best I can to succesfully learn things. Honestly, I'm beginning to be able to pick out words and phrases in other people's conversations, which is really AWESOME.
Also, after leaving Korean classes, I went to my usual kimbab place for a light dinner of cheese ddeokbokki (a rather boring recipe video here, but it provides a recipe nonetheless. If you live in Gainesville, go to the Korean market on Archer & 34th. TRY THIS DISH, IT IS SO DELICIOUS), and the ladies were very nice to me (as usual), and my ddeokbokki was delish (as usual). After finishing and paying for my meal (2500 won, or about 2 dollars), I went outside to the bus stop. As it so happened, I left the kimbab place the very moment three high school boys were walking by. They all looked at me, mouths agape, and said, "oooooh, HELLO!" I said hello back, of course, as I always do. Then one turned around and said, "oh! So beautiful!" I said thank you, as I always do. The a different one asked me "aaaah, ki, ki, (ki is height in Korean) how tall?" And I said, 186 cms, indicating also with my hands 1-8-6. They, as people always do, stopped in their tracks and said, "ooooooooooooohhhhh, woooow!" and then proceeded to giggle like 6 year-old girls as they walked by me, gasping out a "goodbye" as they passed. It was hilarious and adorable and it kills me everytime.
Also, tomorrow is Peppero day, another wonderful reason to love Korea, but more on that after the holiday has officially been celebrated by yours truly.
