I am officially on vacation until October 9th! Next week is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the most important holidays. I'm going on a backpacking trip with some other expats across a mountain ridge in the southern part of the country. I'm really excited, especially since I've never been that far south in Korea. On Tuesday, we're going rafting, something I've never done before, and Wednesday through Friday, we're hiking along the mountain ridge and staying overnight at national park shelters. I expect to have lots to say and lots of photos to share when I return next weekend.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
A Lot of Peppers
These are hot peppers laying out in the sun to dry in the yard in front of the monks' quarters at a Buddhist temple in Seoul.
I am officially on vacation until October 9th! Next week is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the most important holidays. I'm going on a backpacking trip with some other expats across a mountain ridge in the southern part of the country. I'm really excited, especially since I've never been that far south in Korea. On Tuesday, we're going rafting, something I've never done before, and Wednesday through Friday, we're hiking along the mountain ridge and staying overnight at national park shelters. I expect to have lots to say and lots of photos to share when I return next weekend.
I am officially on vacation until October 9th! Next week is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the most important holidays. I'm going on a backpacking trip with some other expats across a mountain ridge in the southern part of the country. I'm really excited, especially since I've never been that far south in Korea. On Tuesday, we're going rafting, something I've never done before, and Wednesday through Friday, we're hiking along the mountain ridge and staying overnight at national park shelters. I expect to have lots to say and lots of photos to share when I return next weekend.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Field Trips!
Yesterday and today were field trip days for the kindergarten and first grade classes. We went to a very nice woodland park at the base of the mountain nearby. The weather was beautiful for playing games, singing songs, and generally just enjoying ourselves outdoors.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Long Overdue Update, Mea Culpa
I've been fighting off a cold for the past few weeks. It triggered my asthma just enough to be annoying. I haven't been able to keep up my regular hiking/jogging routine, so I'm a little nervous about my big hiking trip across one of Korea's national parks in a couple weeks. Until this cold set in, I would head out for a hike/walk/jog for a couple hours everyday. I'm still getting out and walking around, just nothing strenuous. I'm planning to take it easy this weekend and am hoping to be back on the trails on Monday. We'll see if my lungs agree.
My classes are going well for the most part. I have my princesses on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two kindergarten class, one preschool class, and one advanced elementary class (2nd graders). I teach a mothers' class for two hours every Thursday morning, and I tutor a very proficient elementary school student (5th grader) on Wednesday evenings. Next week, I'll start teaching another preschool class on Friday evenings. I'm staying pretty busy, but I like it that way.
This past Tuesday, my lesson in kindergarten was "big, bigger, the biggest." One of my very sharp little girls, who is also a little sassy and bossy, made the astute observation that she is bigger than Christina. The she went on to say that "Ellen-teacher is the biggest."
"Yes, you're right," I said, but I wasn't going to pursue it since I don't like the idea of comparing people's bodies.
Even without encouragement, that led a little boy in the class to come up with "Ellen-teacher is fat." And then the first little girl added "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig." That resulted in explosions of laughter from the rest of the class, and then everyone was chanting "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig."
I tried to reestablish order, but it was futile, so I called the school director to handle the situation. He chewed them out in English while the school's receptionist translated and added her own chewing out in Korean. By the end of the day, I had received phone calls from three mortified and apologetic mothers. Today each student said "I'm sorry" to me on the way into the classroom, and the little boy who came up with "Ellen-teacher is fat" handed me a note: "Allan i'm soli. Allan teacher. Pig is talking and laughing is i'm soli."
That whole class was exceptionally good today. I think we're friends again. I made a point to tell their mothers at the end of class how good they were. The mothers all laughed. I wonder what exactly they threatened/bribed the kids with this afternoon. Whatever it was, it worked. I was never upset about the incident. I knew I couldn't just let it go, but I actually thought it was kind of funny. I was even a little impressed. At least they had good subject-verb agreement, put the adjective in the right place, and pronounced everything correctly.
Here are three of my students showing off their artwork. These kids are from the "fat pig" class. Two of them are the instigators. They've been angels ever since that incident, by the way.
My princesses have been standing on their chairs lately. I've tried all sorts of things to get them to stop, including taking away the chairs entirely. Most of them have stopped now, but on Wednesday, I had to mention something to the mother of one of the repeat offenders. The mother pulled the little princess aside before class and had a very calm conversation with her about acceptable classroom behavior. Said princess was so mad at me for ratting her out to her mom that she refused to come into the classroom and spent the afternoon pouting in the hallway on her own accord. Okay, kiddo, suit yourself. I thought that was pretty funny, but I hope she's over it before class tomorrow.
People don’t drink the tap water here. Most people either buy bottled water or fill up bottles at artesian wells along the mountains. For the past several weeks, I've been filling up a couple bottles when I'm out hiking. The city governments maintain the wells and test the water quality regularly, so it's safe.
Last week, I was filling up my bottles when this old man with a cane walked over to me. He stood about 2 meters away and just started yelling and shaking his finger at me. He kept pointing at my feet. I think he was upset because my foot was just a hair over the grate and drain, not that that would make any real difference anyway, since the water that drains off does not reenter the clean water source. "I don't understand," I told him in Korean. He kept yelling, shaking his finger, and pointing at my feet. "I don't speak Korean," I said in Korean. More yelling. So I stood up and told him "thank you" and "good-bye" in Korean and walked away. As I left, I realized I missed a great opportunity to use my three different phrases that mean "Be quiet!"
I went back to the well this week, and the same man was sitting there on a bench. I bowed, said "hello" in Korean, and proceeded to fill up my water bottles. He just sat there and glared. I need to go back tomorrow. I wonder if he'll be there.
My classes are going well for the most part. I have my princesses on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two kindergarten class, one preschool class, and one advanced elementary class (2nd graders). I teach a mothers' class for two hours every Thursday morning, and I tutor a very proficient elementary school student (5th grader) on Wednesday evenings. Next week, I'll start teaching another preschool class on Friday evenings. I'm staying pretty busy, but I like it that way.
This past Tuesday, my lesson in kindergarten was "big, bigger, the biggest." One of my very sharp little girls, who is also a little sassy and bossy, made the astute observation that she is bigger than Christina. The she went on to say that "Ellen-teacher is the biggest."
"Yes, you're right," I said, but I wasn't going to pursue it since I don't like the idea of comparing people's bodies.
Even without encouragement, that led a little boy in the class to come up with "Ellen-teacher is fat." And then the first little girl added "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig." That resulted in explosions of laughter from the rest of the class, and then everyone was chanting "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig."
I tried to reestablish order, but it was futile, so I called the school director to handle the situation. He chewed them out in English while the school's receptionist translated and added her own chewing out in Korean. By the end of the day, I had received phone calls from three mortified and apologetic mothers. Today each student said "I'm sorry" to me on the way into the classroom, and the little boy who came up with "Ellen-teacher is fat" handed me a note: "Allan i'm soli. Allan teacher. Pig is talking and laughing is i'm soli."
That whole class was exceptionally good today. I think we're friends again. I made a point to tell their mothers at the end of class how good they were. The mothers all laughed. I wonder what exactly they threatened/bribed the kids with this afternoon. Whatever it was, it worked. I was never upset about the incident. I knew I couldn't just let it go, but I actually thought it was kind of funny. I was even a little impressed. At least they had good subject-verb agreement, put the adjective in the right place, and pronounced everything correctly.
Here are three of my students showing off their artwork. These kids are from the "fat pig" class. Two of them are the instigators. They've been angels ever since that incident, by the way.
My princesses have been standing on their chairs lately. I've tried all sorts of things to get them to stop, including taking away the chairs entirely. Most of them have stopped now, but on Wednesday, I had to mention something to the mother of one of the repeat offenders. The mother pulled the little princess aside before class and had a very calm conversation with her about acceptable classroom behavior. Said princess was so mad at me for ratting her out to her mom that she refused to come into the classroom and spent the afternoon pouting in the hallway on her own accord. Okay, kiddo, suit yourself. I thought that was pretty funny, but I hope she's over it before class tomorrow.People don’t drink the tap water here. Most people either buy bottled water or fill up bottles at artesian wells along the mountains. For the past several weeks, I've been filling up a couple bottles when I'm out hiking. The city governments maintain the wells and test the water quality regularly, so it's safe.
Last week, I was filling up my bottles when this old man with a cane walked over to me. He stood about 2 meters away and just started yelling and shaking his finger at me. He kept pointing at my feet. I think he was upset because my foot was just a hair over the grate and drain, not that that would make any real difference anyway, since the water that drains off does not reenter the clean water source. "I don't understand," I told him in Korean. He kept yelling, shaking his finger, and pointing at my feet. "I don't speak Korean," I said in Korean. More yelling. So I stood up and told him "thank you" and "good-bye" in Korean and walked away. As I left, I realized I missed a great opportunity to use my three different phrases that mean "Be quiet!"I went back to the well this week, and the same man was sitting there on a bench. I bowed, said "hello" in Korean, and proceeded to fill up my water bottles. He just sat there and glared. I need to go back tomorrow. I wonder if he'll be there.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Presenting . . . the Princesses!
I’ve decided to name one of the princesses Nancy. The other little girl I was supposed to name decided that she wanted to be called "Aurora" since that's Sleeping Beauty's real name. It lasted about three days. Now she prefers her Korean name, which is just fine with me. It is my honor to introduce the world to . . . the Princesses!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Sunday School
Here are my Sunday School kids. A couple of them got out the door before I took the picture this morning. You can click on the picture to make it larger.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Way to Go, September!
Sunrise, as seen from my 11th floor apartment, 6:13 AM.
Click on the photo to make it larger. Wow, September!
Click on the photo to make it larger. Wow, September!
Friday, September 01, 2006
A Visit from a Cousin and Observations on Public Transportation
Well, September, you've really outdone yourself. Just keep up this beautiful weather for the next 29 days, and I'll be one very happy English teacher. Wait a second, I am one very happy English teacher! Well, just continue it anyway.
Tonight I had dinner with my cousin (I guess that's what's he is) Ian Gillies who has been here in Korea for the past two weeks training with the Army Reserves. I met him near the big army post in Seoul, and we went out for "bulgogi," a type of Korean barbecue. Excellent food, and it was fun to visit with him. I think the only other time I met him was at my grandfather's funeral about a year ago. We have plenty of family members in common to talk about, though. I wonder if any ears were ringing.
Someone told me that bus drivers in Korea are paid according to the number of circuits they make during their shift. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it does explain why they drive as fast as they can until the last possible second before stopping for the shortest possible amount of time before taking off at rocket speed once again. Sometimes the buses don't stop at all the stops. If someone isn't flagging the bus down at the bus stop and if someone inside the bus didn't push the button to signal the driver, the bus just keeps going, so you have to pay attention or you'll miss your bus or your stop. If you're one of the last people on the bus at a stop, you can bet that the bus will be at least to the next block before you've had a chance to find something to hold onto, let alone actually find a seat.
I was riding the bus earlier this week and thinking about this. There were so seats available, so I stood toward the front, holding onto a pole for dear life, while the driver went as fast as he could for a block and a half, then slammed on the breaks at the bus stop, and then repeated the pattern. At one point, I looked at the dashboard and realized that through all this speeding and stopping, speeding and stopping, the speedometer held at a constant 30 km/hr.
The next day I was standing at a crosswalk. When the light turned green, I hesitated for a second. Just then a bus barreled through the red light. Had I been in the crosswalk, I'm quite certain that all my theological questions would have been answered that day. I can hear Dad's voice saying "Look both ways before crossing the street" echoing in my head. I'm not going to need another reminder about that one.
The rest of the week went pretty well. I had a new girl join the princess class, and I started a new kindergarten class with three little boys. My advanced elementary class is a lot of fun. There are two 8-year-old students who are quite proficient, so there's a lot I can do with them. It's a big change from colors, numbers, and ABCs in kindergarten! I also sat in on a mothers' class which I'll start teaching next week. I’m still thinking about names for the two little girls.
I received a postcard from Uncle Dick Gillies from the Panama Canal. We now have Halifax (Canada) and the Panama Canal marked on our postcard map at school. The kids love it. We’re going to start a pen pal project soon, too.
No big outings this weekend. I really need to spend some time on my lesson plans, so I'm just going to stick around home tomorrow and get together with a friend for lunch. Then I'll have the usual church responsibilities on Sunday and probably come home and finish my lesson plans after that. Not every weekend can be an adventure, right?
Tonight I had dinner with my cousin (I guess that's what's he is) Ian Gillies who has been here in Korea for the past two weeks training with the Army Reserves. I met him near the big army post in Seoul, and we went out for "bulgogi," a type of Korean barbecue. Excellent food, and it was fun to visit with him. I think the only other time I met him was at my grandfather's funeral about a year ago. We have plenty of family members in common to talk about, though. I wonder if any ears were ringing.
Someone told me that bus drivers in Korea are paid according to the number of circuits they make during their shift. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it does explain why they drive as fast as they can until the last possible second before stopping for the shortest possible amount of time before taking off at rocket speed once again. Sometimes the buses don't stop at all the stops. If someone isn't flagging the bus down at the bus stop and if someone inside the bus didn't push the button to signal the driver, the bus just keeps going, so you have to pay attention or you'll miss your bus or your stop. If you're one of the last people on the bus at a stop, you can bet that the bus will be at least to the next block before you've had a chance to find something to hold onto, let alone actually find a seat.
I was riding the bus earlier this week and thinking about this. There were so seats available, so I stood toward the front, holding onto a pole for dear life, while the driver went as fast as he could for a block and a half, then slammed on the breaks at the bus stop, and then repeated the pattern. At one point, I looked at the dashboard and realized that through all this speeding and stopping, speeding and stopping, the speedometer held at a constant 30 km/hr.
The next day I was standing at a crosswalk. When the light turned green, I hesitated for a second. Just then a bus barreled through the red light. Had I been in the crosswalk, I'm quite certain that all my theological questions would have been answered that day. I can hear Dad's voice saying "Look both ways before crossing the street" echoing in my head. I'm not going to need another reminder about that one.
The rest of the week went pretty well. I had a new girl join the princess class, and I started a new kindergarten class with three little boys. My advanced elementary class is a lot of fun. There are two 8-year-old students who are quite proficient, so there's a lot I can do with them. It's a big change from colors, numbers, and ABCs in kindergarten! I also sat in on a mothers' class which I'll start teaching next week. I’m still thinking about names for the two little girls.
I received a postcard from Uncle Dick Gillies from the Panama Canal. We now have Halifax (Canada) and the Panama Canal marked on our postcard map at school. The kids love it. We’re going to start a pen pal project soon, too.
No big outings this weekend. I really need to spend some time on my lesson plans, so I'm just going to stick around home tomorrow and get together with a friend for lunch. Then I'll have the usual church responsibilities on Sunday and probably come home and finish my lesson plans after that. Not every weekend can be an adventure, right?
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