Ppali ppali!!

So I realize that it's been a full week and a day since my last post. Sorry about that - everything has been ppali ppali (hurry hurry!) lately. The weekend temple stay was good. I had more than a few problems with transportation, but it ended up going fine. Made it to Daegu, then we went to Haiensa for the actual temple stay. I have now complied quite an extensive list of why I will never be a Buddhist monk.


1. They wake up at 3am and go to sleep at 9pm EVERY DAY.
2. They always sit on the floor, usually in lotus position, for literally hours.
3. They bow 108 times (like on the floor prostrate bowing, not head/waist bowing) every morning before dawn.
4. They meditate for hours every day.
5. Each year they do a week long mediation. They meditate 14 hours per day for seven days straight. Not a joke or a mistranslation... my group questioned our monk extensively.
6. They keep the heat on waaaaaay too high.
7. It's a 40 minute hike up a mountain to their living quarters (I know, we hiked there).
8. They drink tons and tons of green tea every day.
9. They are silent during meals and while walking.
10. They wake up at 3am every day. This deserves two spots on my list.


So yes, on a temple stay, I did most of the forementioned things. Meditation, green tea, 3am wakeup call, silence during meals, walking in a single file line, 30 min meditation, 108 bows... the works. A temple stay is not for the casually interested or easily bored. It's especially not for the out of shape or inflexible. Seriously. But I did have a good time and it was a good experience.


This week has been business as usual pretty much. School is becoming more routine, which I think is good. I've been struggling with my Seokyang classes because they're so rowdy all the time. Finally on Monday I cracked down hard on my sixth grade. I learned my new favorite Korean word, "gamji." It means writing sentences for punishment. I made the sixth grade write "I will not talk in class" 120 times and assigned them the pages we were supposed to do in class for homework. I also put Google translate to good use on Tuesday... I put it up on the overhead screen and Mr. Kim also translated (I assume that's what he was doing). Now I think they know I'm serious. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades all got a stern Stephen Hawking lecture via typing. I'm glad because I didn't want to punish them without any warning, but I can't warn them because they wouldn't understand. Now they know that if they act up there will be consequences. I don't want to go punishment-crazy, but I have to do something. From what I understand from other teachers and things I've read, Korean kids are used to pretty strict authority figures, so they will expect the same out of their teachers.


The 3rd grade was really grinding my gears, so I warned them a few times then finally said they have to come in during recess and sit quietly for 10 minutes. Gotta love kids - when they filed in, two little girls came up and hugged me around the waist... "Teacherrrrrr, I looooooove you... 5 minutes? 5 minutes?" Sorry, your cuteness will not faze me.


Wednesday in the 3rd grade one of the little girls got socked in the face by her seatmate. Now, the kids are always hitting each other... they tackle, wrestle, and punch each other, but this one actually cut her lip on her teeth. Blood is kind of a problem. She started tearing up, so I made the boy go stand facing the corner. After a while I went to get him, and when I turned him around, his little face was streaked with tears and his eyes were red and he was sniffling. I felt like a complete and total monster. I made a third grade boy cry. Or hey maybe he was crying because he punched that girl and made her bleed. Either way I never, ever want to see one of my students cry like that again because I can't just hug him like I really, really wanted to. I just had him go sit down and gave him a tissue. I think he got over it though... I went around giving high fives for a good job on homework, and when he low fived me I let him push my hand onto the desk, pretending he was super strong and he laughed. Even now though, a few days later, picturing his little face makes me kind of sick.


Today I'm going with Joo to Nonsan to meet his family. I'm very excited to see what they're like. The kids here are SO CUTE. I've been teaching the kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade some kiddie songs, and the 3rd and 4th grade the hokey pokey. They LOVE the hokey pokey. It's actually starting to become a distraction because all they want to do is "hokey pokey Teacher, hokey pokeyhokeypokeyhokeypokey." NO! Learn how to say "This is my family." I started "The Eensy-Weensy Spider" with the kindergarten yesterday, and when I dropped by their classroom after lunch they all said hi and started waving, and one little boy started doing the eensy-weensy spider hand motions.


So you may remember reading about kimchi in my blog. Recently there has been a serious spike in the price of cabbage as documented in this online news article, and it's really screwing with everyday life and the Korean economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15kimchi.html?_r=3&hp


Koreans eat kimchi every day three times a day. They love their kimchi. We're still getting it at school, and since there's such problems with it lately I feel really bad if I waste any so I've been eating all of it every day. Hasn't been so bad really... I think I'm getting more used to Korean food. This is good because the other teachers keep giving me food.


The funny thing is, the Korean teachers are really nice, and I think they're expressing this niceness via food. The problem is, I find about 90% of the food they give me to be not exactly my style. To date I've received a bunch of grapes, about 30 mushrooms, pork cutlets, a persimmon, multiple rice cakes, countless sweet potatoes, and pumpkin porridge with beans. None of these foods really appeal to me, but I want to show my appreciation so I do my best to eat them.