Pictures from Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Pictures from Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Sunset heading back to Phi Phi

Cliff jumping! 10 meters

Cliff jumping, 8 meters

Preparing to scale the rock face!

Monkey Beach

The beach on Phi Phi

Snorkeling with Jasmine and Blake

Maya Beach, where they filmed that Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach

Maya Beach... yeah, Leonardo DiCaprio and I have swum in the same water. No big deal.

Maya Beach again. Most beautiful beach I've ever seen.

More Maya Beach. I took more pictures of this beach than of Phi Phi!

I'm holding a quarter of a pineapple that has the stem attached so you can eat it like an ice cream cone. Amazing.

Pictures from Bangkok, Thailand

Belated pictures from Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is called the Venice of the East because of its waterways.

Me and my friend Jasmine on our boat tour.

The Grand Palace

I can only assume this is how people spent time before they began wasting it on TV, the Internet, etc

Me at the Grand Palace. You can't wear shorts or have exposed shoulders, so you can rent these nifty skirts.

Wat Pho

Largest reclining Buddha in the world

Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Amusing things of everyday life

Often when I'm just out living my everyday life here, I think about how funny and random some things are. I also always think how I should make a list of them, but for some reason this never seems to materialize. Anyway, here's my attempt at a few things that might make you LOL, even if just a little.


1. Pedestrians never have the right of way. Walk at your own risk, and never expect drivers to stop for you. Instead, expect an irritated honk should you even look like you MIGHT step in front of them. My principal drove me home the other day and he honked at a middle school boy for daring to walk too slowly across the street.


2. Contrary to America, buses here aggressively use their size recklessly to pass or bully slow moving cars. Whereas cars in America dart around these lumbering giants, here cars scurry out of the way lest they be crushed.


3. Women's skirts here are worn jaw-droppingly short. I was actually shocked when I first arrived because I assumed Koreans were modest dressers. This is sort of true - it's not cool to expose your shoulders or arms, even in the summer, but for some reason skirts don't even need to be anywhere near fingertip length. The sickening part is that every Korean woman has the most perfect legs ever.


4. It's true when people say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. That is, I've learned several Korean words, especially those that relate to me. This means that I know when people around me are talking about me, however, I don't know what they're saying! They could be saying, "Wow, she's a really nice person." or "Isn't it cool that the foreigners like to eat at our restaurant?" Or they could be saying, "Ugh, it's those damn foreigners again!" "Why is Theresa always so awkwardly avoiding eating her seaweed soup?"


4a. Ways people refer to me:
Theresa
Theresa teacher
the foreigner
the foreign teacher
the native teacher
the English teacher
Sometimes I'm pretty sure they refer to me as "the baby" as well. I can't be 100% certain, but I do know one of my other native teacher friends has been nicknamed "the baby" at her school because she's the youngest teacher.


5. Elderly people (women especially) are the pushiest people I literally have ever encountered. They will physically push you out of the way; however, this does NOT mean that they will ever move out of your way if you're walking somewhere.


5a. Along the same lines, here's something you'll never hear in the subway, on a bus, on the train, or basically in any crowd: "Excuse me." Rather, you'll know to get out of the way when someone pushes you out of the way.


6. Elderly people are also the loudest people you will hear in public arenas. They all seem to know each other (in Buyeo, at least), and they think nothing of shouting conversations any and everywhere, such as buses, streets, trains, etc. This goes for face to face and phone conversations. However, as a foreigner, I will get stared at and/or shushed for quietly speaking English.


7. According to the other teachers, I have unparalled chopsticks skills.


8. Being told you have a "small face" is the highest compliment you can get in Korea.


9. "Personal space" is a joke compared to America. People here crowd you tremendously, especially in Seoul. Additionally, same-sex touching is a way of showing friendship. It's not uncommon to see men holding hands or women linking arms. My kids especially do this - I've seen my sixth grade boys actually sitting in class with their legs crossed over each other's. You know a Korean likes you when they start rubbing your shoulders or back or slapping your thighs/knees.


10. A popular fashion trend here is "couples clothes." Yes, you'll see a Korean couple walking around wearing the exact same outfit - a slightly more masculine version for the man, slightly more feminine for the woman. Couples' mannequins are hilarious.


11. Beer is a refreshing beverage completely appropriate to consume during sporting events. I don't mean while watching sports, I mean while playing them, particularly volleyball.

12. Drinking water isn't high on the average Korean's to do list. I have a water bottle at school I fill up periodically throughout the day, and I'm pretty sure people find this very strange. They don't really drink anything with meals either, unless it's beer or soju.

13. Koreans don't have hardly any body hair and are simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by foreigners' body hair. Therefore prepare to have your arms or legs petted, especially by children.

14. Kimchi is magic. Really. Apparently it's diet food, health food, cures SARS, and can be eaten with any food at any meal during the day. It probably cures cancer and heals the blind too, but I've yet to confirm this suspicion.

15. Vegetables are more expensive than alcohol or cigarettes.

16. Redlights are more like suggestions rather than rules of the road.

17. If you spend enough money somewhere, you can get Korean "service," aka free stuff. Sometimes you can get service just because, which is awesome.

18. No matter how awful or little Korean you speak, it's still "good."

19. Curly hair = perm. Naturally curly hair is impossible, so every time I scrunch my hair everyone assumes I've gotten a perm.

20. It's perfectly acceptable for children (boys included) as young as 9 to get perms.

21. At the first sign of illness, you must immediately go to the hospital and get medicine. No illness can be cured without medicine.

22. Dodging loogie landmines is an everyday hassle. Hawking loogies and spitting everywhere is totally okay, especially among older Korean men.

23. Be prepared for loud chomping, slurping, and excessive masticating when eating with Koreans.

24. Traveling by yourself in Korea apparently makes you very adventurous and brave.

25. Koreans are never "jealous" of anyone, they are always "envious." For some reason even Koreans who speak excellent English almost always say, "I envy you/him/her" rather than "I'm jealosu of you/him/her."

26. Korean pop (Kpop) is awesome.

27. Korean pop groups are incredibly corporate. They're apparently chosen by big labels, worked to death for very little pay, have extensive plastic surgery, and designed with a very critical eye. Being able to sing is not necessarily a requirement. There's usually one lead singer, some backup singers, a rapper, and the rest are eye candy/dancers. Girls' Generation, the most popular female group in Korea (I think) has a whopping nine members. Super Junior, a male group, has an astonishing 13 members.

28. Korean kids are obsessed with Kpop and most can do a lot of dances from music videos.

29. Koreans are highly nationalistic.

30. Koreans can be some of the nicest, most generous people I have met.

The calm before the storm

Right now the kids are on vacation again, and the new school year starts March 2nd. The Korean Independence Day is March 1st so I'll be off work! I've been using the past week to get a head start on lesson planning for first semester, and it's exhausting, but I think I'm making progress. I really want to start the new school year off right and have things in place right off the bat - last semester when I began teaching here there were so many things I didn't know, so I always felt a few steps behind. Of course, there's still tons of things I don't know or could do better, but I feel like I have a better handle on what's expected of me. I also know more what to expect from my students in terms of how long they've been studying English and what they might or might not know. Teaching the second grade during camp was very helpful too because they're now my third grade, so I know that this is the first year that their curriculum includes English, which means they won't really know any. I also want to include more fun, cultural things, especially holidays, so I've gone through the calendar and put in holidays such as St. Patrick's Day, Mothers' and Fathers' Days, the Fourth of July, and even Easter. I was hesitant about Easter because it's a religious holiday, and if I was teaching in America I would avoid religious holidays, but I decided Easter was okay because there's actually an entire chapter in the third grade textbook called, "Merry Christmas!" so religious holidays must not be too big of a deal. I'll run it by my coteacher first though to get her opinion.

I know Christmas is a much more secular holiday (as far as commercial appeal goes), but I thought that an Easter egg hunt could be a very fun activity for the kids, and it's unlikely that they've done something like that before. They'll learn new, basic, reusable words (egg, rabbit, bunny, hide, find, present etc.) as well as how to wish someone a happy holiday (i.e. Happy Easter! Happy ______!).

Anyway, this is the best part about teaching after-school classes. The kids learn proper English grammar, writing, expressions, etc. in their curriculum classes (the ones that my coteacher teaches and I assist), so I have a lot of freedom in designing my after-school classes because there's no textbook. Those classes are more for conversational English, and I think that learning about Western (okay, mostly American because I am American) culture can be really helpful when it comes to applying and contextualizing conversational English.

Yesterday we had a farewell dinner for the teachers who are leaving my school. After dinner we went to the 노래방 (noraebang), karaoke. The principal insisted I sing a song, so I made my Seokyang noraebang debut with the classic Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love." It was a good time.

While all this extra time at school is good for me as far as getting ahead on work, it's pretty dull. Although I find teaching to be tiring, I do prefer the busier schedule of kids coming in and out. It really makes the time go by faster.

You can always count on change in Korea

If I can't count on anything in Korea, I can always count on things to change, usually at the last minute and unexpectedly. I think a major problem is simply that I don't know anything that's being said around me, so if I could, then I probably would hear rumors of stuff so maybe everything wouldn't be such a surprise. Anyway, like I said, the semester/school year has ended. The new school year will begin March second. Let the changes begin...

So I've learned that public school teachers in Korea are required to change schools every four to five years. I don't know what teacher turnover is like in America, but I seem to remember getting new teachers/losing teachers being a big deal. At my second school, the sixth grade and kindergarten teachers are both leaving, and at my main school one of the kindergarten teachers is moving to my second school, and the vice principal is leaving to become the principal at a different school. However, most notable is that Mr. Kim, my main school coteacher, will also be leaving. He said that my new coteacher will "probably" be the current third grade teacher. Mr. Kim is moving to a school in Nonsan, about thirty minutes from Buyeo. I asked him if he will be an English teacher there and he didn't know. He said probably a homeroom teacher, but he doesn't know which grade. I find it a little crazy how Korean schools simply shuffle teachers around to different grades and subjects.

So I just took a short walk to the bank on my lunch break to pay some bills, and I ran into several of my students. Say what you like about all the last minute things in Korean schooling, but one thing is undeniable - these kids work ALL the time. They're officially on vacation, but instead of you know, playing with their friends, sleeping in, watching cartoons, etc. they're at their private academies every day. My fourth grade girls told me they're at an English/math academy, and my first graders are learning piano. They go every day.

Speaking of graduations, I graduated on Wednesday from Korean class. We all got certificates and everything. Our final thing was a role play we had to write and perform for the class. Everyone definitely failed on the memorization part and had to hold scripts. Our group of five people did ours based on "What will we do today? Let's go to the waterpark!" Here were my lines:
오래간마니에요! (Long time no see!)
오늘은 날씨가 더워요. (The weather is hot today.)
오늘 무엇을하세요? (What do we do today?)
같이 가요! (Come with me!)
어디? (Where?)

The Korean woman holding up the peace sign in the front is Kim Seoyoung, our teacher. The man on the far right is Supervisor Yoon, he arranged the lessons for us.

I had a bad morning on Wednesday. First, I missed my bus by mere seconds. A Korean woman who is sometimes at my stop works at a local high school, so we talk sometimes. We were talking and missed the walk sign, so I didn't cross the street and missed the bus. She reassured me there were lots of buses going to Shibjaga, the place I was headed. We crossed the street and had to run to catch the bus, so I couldn't read the front of the bus to see where it was going, but I figured surely she wouldn't let me get on the wrong bus. Yeah, I should have checked it myself because sure enough she got off, then the bus started heading in some random direction. Great. I couldn't believe I had successfully gotten the bus almost every day for nearly six months only to screw up now that I can actually read Korean. Unbelievable. Anyway, I got it taken care of and was only ten minutes late. I was happy because a few months ago this probably would have reduced me to teary-eyed frustration, but instead I was merely irritated that I hadn't bothered to check where the bus was going.

The second thing is going to cause me a lot more trouble. I've worn out my black dress flats! It snowed here the other day and I couldn't figure out why my feet were so cold - I assumed that it was because snow had gotten into my shoes. Turns out I was right, but it also turns out I've worn out the soles of my shoes! This is particularly troublesome because I have yet to find any shoes in Korea that fit me, and I wear these dress shoes all the time. Currently I'm thinking I could hot glue the soles back together. They're made of several layers, so I think it could work until I find a more permanent solution (i.e. new shoes).

Graduation and the end of semester

So we've finally reached the end of the semester. I still don't really understand the Korean school calendar. I tried researching it, and turns out Koreans go to school about 100 days more per year than Americans. However, I have found that some of these days appear to be both bizarre and utterly pointless. Take, for example, the past few days I've been back in school. The kids came back last Wednesday, Feb. 9th. However, the textbooks and final exams are all finished, so what did we do? Just random, busy work-type things. I went to my second school Thursday-Friday and taught about five classes (normally I have 12). Additionally, no one was able to tell me what the schedule was going to be like, so I was underprepared for one class and overprepared for another (i.e. they just didn't show and I had a lesson planned). I discussed this with my Korean teacher, and she said that they'll be changing this system next year because apparently no one knows why it's like this.



I went to both of my schools' graduations, Wednesday and Thursday. They were decently long (an hour and a half or so), and once we got past the accepting of diplomas I was kind of bored. It was cute to see them go up on stage to get their certificate because they had a picture of each kid with what they wanted to be when they grow up. Naturally it was in Korean, but during rehearsal the special ed teacher translated some for me. I now know that I had many future makeup artists, a soccer player, two comedians (boy and girl), a scientist, a doctor, and an interpreter in my class. There was also a slideshow of pictures going back to kindergarten or so, which was nice. But I lost interest during the (many) speeches that were made, seeing as how I could only pick out about three words per speech, and they were typically useless like, "and," "thank you," and "congratulations."



I made cards and stuffed the envelopes with candy for the kids. They were all in English, of course, and I don't imagine most of the kids would know the pre-written well wishes, but I wrote "Congratulations! Good luck next year!" on all of them, as well as a few more personal notes on the ones for the kids I knew better. My future interpreter, Sang-Deok, was my only student for two lessons every afternoon during my first winter camp, so I wrote him a note thanking him for all his hard work.



One of my girls at my second school gave me the rose she got for graduation. It was very sweet. I felt kind of bad taking it, but I don't want to reject stuff the kids give me because I don't want them to think I don't like it or whatever. I've noticed that the students are extremely giving when it comes to sharing things with their teachers. Anything they have, especially food, is almost always offered to me. I got several chocolate bars and some candy from my main school kids on Valentine's Day, as well as a Korean pancake with a fortune in it (Mr. Kim translated it as, "Take a sweet rest!" or something along those lines as Jinkyeong was only able to tell me, "Eat, eat! [the pancake]" and threw up her hands in frustration when she tried to read me the fortune).



I think the kids are becoming more comfortable with me. My second school fifth graders, my class with the biggest "personalities," are always trying to talk to me. I knew I was in trouble when I rocked up to school Thursday morning to find a crowd of fifth grade boys with snowballs in hand... I told them, "Don't even think about it!" But I definitely took a couple to the shoulder when I blocked my face. Then after graduation I was challenged to a few arm-wrestling competitions with two fifth grade boys and one girl... Yeah, I won. Decisively.