Skip a week, you forget what happened!

Time for a blog update! Actually, I'm way overdue. But I've been busy, as usual.

Let me think of what I've been doing! I honestly can't remember anything that happened the week of the 8th. I'm sure I did stuff, but I don't know what.

I went on a field trip with the other teachers at school on the 13th. We went to Jeollanamdo, the province to the very southwest of Korea (where Miok is from), and visited three temples. It was a fun time. My vice principal is crazy! He came up to me on the bus at 8:20am and said "Kayla, soju." I told him it was wayyyy too early for drinking and his response was "Come on, baby!" I think I turned bright red. I have no idea where he is getting his English from. He got drunk at dinner that evening and started saying "Thank you thank thank thank you very much!" because I agreed to tell someone we both know to call him. He said "Oh, you great great friend! So good!" He also told me to not show up to school on Monday because I didn't take the soju he gave me in one shot. He said "No! Monday. Monday? Monday! I don't want to see you!"

Me with Miyoung, my mentor teacher

Some of the staff waiting

The maples were SO beautiful! This is what I was looking for last fall.

Last week I only taught three days. Thursday was another school field trip (gosh, I love those!) so we went to Taean, a city by the west coast. We went to a garden where the kids had to listen to a woman talk about the trees and take notes. Then we went to the beach! It was so much fun hanging out with the kids there.

Listening to the tour guide talk about how the island looks like a turtle. Looks like Judo in Wando to me.

Kids being kids.

Oh goodness! These 5th grade boys are so hard to handle! They do what they want, when they want! ToT

So cute! These two are some of my favorite students, mostly because they're picked on a LOT! The other kids say they smell bad, but I've never noticed anything. John isn't the cleanest kid ever, but he's a kid. He's just as dirty as Joseph, and Joseph isn't picked on. As for Lisa...I think she has extra tutoring, so the other kids have labeled her as an outcast.

Friday, I had to go to Cheonan for a TaLK training event. It was really boring and a waste of time. We didn't even get trained. It was just other TaLK scholars talking about what they're doing at school. We're all doing the same thing, so why did we need to hear it all? After the training finished (late), groups of us went to a Pho (Vietnamese noodles) restaurant. I say groups because I was in a group of four, and after a while, two other groups of TaLK scholars came to the same restaurant! Tammy was taking stalker pictures of another group and at one point, people started using chopsticks as wands. We were all pretty crazy from having been stuck in the same room all day. After dinner, I bought Krispy Kreme donuts, and came home.

Tammy taking stalker shots!

Posing with an awesome display for MAC make-up. They had Disney villains and it said something like "Venomous Villains"

Super tired Charlotte eating Pho

Saturday, I did nothing but homework. I didn't leave my room at all. I made posts, I did my drop box assignment, and I studied for my test. I took the test on Sunday after church and got a B. Good, but I was hoping for an A. I currently have a 89% in the class. I thought my grade would be a lot lower than that with all the stress I was feeling in the beginning.

Three weeks of pictures!

2010.11.08

2010.11.15

2010.11.22 - Looks nearly identical to the week before. I had to check to make sure I wasn't posting the same picture twice.

I'm so lost

I honestly don't know what all has happened since my last post. Just a lot of busy and stressful stuff. I'll try to remember everything, but my brain is fried.

Andong
The weekend of Oct. 23rd, I went to Andong, a pretty historic city. I went alone and I was planning on spending the entire weekend there. However, after just one day of sightseeing on my own, I was done. I learned that as much as I hate having people ruin my trips by doing things they want to do, it's much better than going somewhere new all alone. Miok called a Hanji Factory I was planning on going earlier in the week and they said that was fine. But when I arrived, they were having some sort of company event that was closed to the public, so I wasn't supposed to be there. I was able to do my factory tour only because everyone was too afraid to speak to me. Then, a bus driver said I could pick up a bus from a certain spot, but I waited and waited but no bus came. Eventually, a farm truck pulled up next to me with two college boys. They spoke very good English and asked where I was going. I told them I wanted to go to Hahoe Village, so they offered to take me. They were very nice, but made me feel lonely, because they asked "If you have Korean friends, why are you traveling alone?" After the traditional village, I was able to ride the bus back to Andong city, and when I got back around 4pm, I was just done. I didn't want to go to any more museums. I didn't want to spend the night in a jimjilbang again. I didn't want to be alone! So I bought a bus ticket back, and was home by 8pm that evening in time to have dinner with Kristen and Leigh, two other TaLK scholars in Gongju.

Online class starting
My online class started the week before going to Andong, so part of my stress was also related to worrying about my class. So far, I feel I can safely say, I do not like online courses. It's just so hard for me to focus on the work when I don't have a class to attend. I don't know how anyone is able to finish a degree online while also working. I don't even have a full-time job, but it feels like it! I have a lot of time that isn't available for anything. My hour-commute to school is pretty useless, and while at school, I can't get my coursework done because the computers don't allow the program required. So of course, by the time I get home from a day at school of discipling my children (who have gotten much rowdier lately), and working on lesson plans, I just don't feel like reading about American Social Policy.

CJ dying
Another HUGE block for a blog update was my brother-in-law passing away. He died Oct. 24th and I found out Oct. 26th. I was going to make a blog update that evening, but I found out in the morning, and I pretty much couldn't do anything all day. I went to school because I thought I would be okay, but when one of my students asked me how I was feeling, I just started crying. My mentor teacher told me to go home. So that was frustrating. It takes one hour to get to school, but then I had to wait at school for one more hour for the bus going the other direction. Add on another hour to get back home, and you have the most excruciating bus ride I have ever been on. I couldn't stop crying, which is really awkward. Of course the people on the bus look at me and some stare no matter what I'm doing. So when I'm upset, everyone on the bus knows about it, but they're all too scared to try and communicate with me to see what is wrong. It's extremely isolating.

Halloween in Seoul
Miok and I, as well as some other friends, had been planning on going to Seoul for Halloween for a few weeks, so even though I was still pretty upset about CJ dying, I still went out. Honestly, it was a really good time. I participated in a zombie walk (as a zombie killer, air-soft gun included) and then went to a club (read: tiny basement bar) and saw some of the same bands perform who were at the Daejeon rock festival. We were able to see SkaSucks again (REALLY nice band), and Hero. Some guy was sort of flirting with me. He kept telling me I was really cute and that he hoped he would be able to see me again. It was awkward. After the club/bar shut down for the night, a group of us wandered around. After it dwindled down to just four of us, we went to a DVD room and rented Shutter Island. This was around 4am, so everyone was very tired. I was the only person to stay awake and watch the movie. Everyone else (Miok, Charlotte, and Tammy) slept. We left around 7, and we were home by 9:45. I slept ALL day Sunday.

Me being all First-Person Shooter (FPS) on Zombie Charlotte!

We took the zombie walk onto the subway. That pissed off some Korean guy. He followed us when we got off, and then called the police. One police officer came down and basically told the guy we weren't doing anything wrong.

After the zombie walk, I changed from a zombie killer to a 'lion'. I still had fun waving my fake gun around the rest of the night though. One of the bands, Attacking Forces, wears camouflage , so the singer took my gun out of my hand and mimed shooting it around before shooting himself. @_@
Jinsuk, the lead singer of SkaSucks. The whole band was dressed up as zombies, so I really enjoyed shooting them randomly through-out the night. They're all nice guys who don't mind crazy foreign girls.

Homesick
Other than all that stuff, I've been feeling pretty homesick lately. I love Korea, but that's the one thing I can't stand. Things are going great, and you're having a great time, and then suddenly, you get homesick. I literally came home one night after a really great day, sat down in my computer chair and just started crying. I had no idea why, it was just overwhelming. I missed my boyfriend, I missed my family, I missed my cat, I missed playing xbox, I just missed everything. I think part of my homesickness is that I ate a ton of Halloween candy in one week. After I ran out, the sugar high wore off and I felt HORRIBLE.

Extra
On another note, I turned in my application for extension today. I don't have to make a decision until I am offered an extension, but it's better to ask for one and turn it down than to not be given a choice later and want to stay. I'm still unsure. Honestly, I do want to stay longer. I love my school, and I love Gongju. But I feel like I'm hiding from the future here in Korea. I just feel I'm trying to put my life on hold until I figure out what I want to do, but that's not how things work. Life is still moving on in America, and I think I'm just now realizing it. SO, I don't know if I will accept. I'm pretty sure I will, but not positive. We'll see how I'm feeling in December when extension results are posted.

2010.10.25 - Not much difference between this picture and the previous week. The big ginkgo tree has a few more yellow/orange leaves than previously, but other than that, not a huge difference.

2010.11.01 - WOW! What a big difference one week makes. The leaves are all gone from the big ginkgo, and they're quickly falling from the cherry trees around the playground. It's fun to watch the students throw leaves at each other after school. It's interesting to compare the change in shadow the tree in the foreground makes. Last week, it was quite solid. This week, it's empty!

BIG UPDATE

A lot has happened since my last post. I'll try and remember everything important!

I went to Seoul last weekend alone for some shopping. I ended up spending way more money than I was expecting (about $150) but I bought a new winter coat, two new skirts, and two shirts. I also was able to visit the Quilt Museum and Namsan Park. It was a nice day.

I thought this quit was pretty cool, just for the crazy pattern, and the metallic fabric in the bottom left corner.

The view of Myungdong from Namsan Park. That's a traditional village down there.

My new clothes! I really love my coat, and the flared skirt.

I saw Letters to Juliet twice last weekend, once on Friday with Miok, and then again on Sunday afternoon with people from church. I really liked the movie! Super sweet. I went to the Baekjae festival (again) with Miok some day last week, I can't remember what day.

My students are fantastic. I absolutely love going to school every day, even if I don't have a lesson plan just yet. My students just make me happy. And I've finally caved and started using the TaLK workbook, so it has lesson plans already down, I just have to figure out what I'm going to be using that day, and then improvise a bit. I took my 3rd graders on to the playground one day to practice prepositions, saying things like "sit on the jungle gym" and "stand next to the slide" and "sit in the merri-go-round". I also showed my students the video Suzie gave me, and they were all pretty amazed. They kept asking "When?! Suzie in America? When Suzie make it? How? Teacher? How you get it?" It was pretty funny. But when I asked them if they ever wanted to record anything for Suzie, just let me know, they didn't seem very interested. Later though, the 4th grade girls recorded a dance (I wanted to upload it here, but kept encountering an error. I think it might be too long. I was having troubles getting it onto my computer), and today, The 5/6 grade girls, excluding Jenny (T_T) are going to do the dance to Miss A's song "Bad Girl Good Girl". I am so conflicted with that. While I think the dance is fun, I don't know how I feel about my students dancing to it, regardless of the fact that they are young teens (12-13). Oh, and today, Meena, one of my best students, said she wants to write a letter to Suzie, so she's going to work on that. In class today, she was giving all of the answers, and the 5th grade teacher kind of yelled at the rest of class and asked them "Why is JeeWon giving all of the answers? Why aren't you trying?" I felt kind of bad. I know some the students aren't that great, but a lot of them just don't try. The 6th grade John who never does any work did his work today, though. The 5th grade teacher sat right next to him and made him do it. Usually, I just don't have time to baby-sit him. The other students are always calling me, and some of them try but need help. John won't even try, even if I tell him what to write, or give him the words to say. It's like pulling teeth every day when I take attendance and he is supposed to say a word (reviewing the vocabulary).

Other stuff going on related to school? My principal asked me if I thought Dokdo was Korean land or not. I said "Yes, of course. Korean land." and he started clapping. It was strange to me, but I felt like I had passed some sort of loyalty test. Although, last night I had a nightmare that he called me into his office and yelled at me for not properly brushing my teeth and rinsing out my toothbrush. He was saying "No! You brush your teeth too fast! Watch the P.E. teacher! He does it right! And your toothbrush has food in it! You have to comb it out afterwards! Don't you use a toothbrush comb?!" It was weird. I guess I worry that I'm not brushing my teeth well enough?

This weekend, I went to Daejeon for a Rock Festival. There were a lot of TaLK scholars there, and I got to make some new friends. I had a lot of fun! The concert was scheduled to last until 5am, so Miok and I were going to stay the whole night and just go home on the first bus. BUT, the police came and shut us down around 11:30 because of noise complaints. I was REALLY angry! But a group of us went to the night life district to find the bar where everyone was moving to. We couldn't find it, so we went somewhere else. Hung out there for maybe an hour, and then tried to find where the festival people had moved. We found it, thanks to some kind Korean boys who wanted to help foreigners. But when we arrived there, they told us they had just been shut down again by the police, so they were done performing for the night. This was at 2am, so we still had a long time to go. So we hung out at the bar with everyone there, and when that bar closed, we went on the search for another bar. All the ones people knew about were closed. One guy actually went into a convenience store and bought some beer and paper cups. But by that time we had found a bar that was open. So we sat around while they drank the beer until they were finished. Our group was a strange one by this time. There were only two TaLK scholars (myself and a 4th gen. named Arthur), an EPiK teacher, Miok, and then some girls from Poland, a guy from Eastern Europe, a Vietnamese girl, some other Western foreigners, and a few Korean guys. Miok and I talked with one of the Korean guys, who was in one of the bands scheduled to perform. He was only there to look after his friend who had a little too much to drink. He was really nice though. He invited Miok and I to a party he is having in November, so I hope we go. I'm not really into punk rock, but if every punk rocker was like Young Woong (his name means "hero" in Korean), I would probably be into punk rock.

Charlotte and Ben eating pizza and being awesome!

Some of our TaLK group at the festival. Charlotte, Ahra, Ben, and David.

"Hero" He was so tired at 4am. But he was such a sweet guy for taking care of his drunk friend.

The remains of the party.

Next weekend, I'm planning on going to Andong by myself. I'm a little scared, but everyone has plans, and I don't want to wait any longer. I'm planning on going to a hanji (Korean paper) factory, the traditional village, Hahoe, and maybe to a temple in the mountains if I have time or money left in my budget.

And now, you get two weeks of pictures from my school, 10.11 and 10.18.

2010.10.11 The leaves were falling from the cherry tree (tree in the foreground) but you can't really tell. It sounds pretty though.

2010.10.18 It wasn't as cold and rainy today. You can sort of see that the leaves are turning, but not fast enough for me.

What have I been doing other than slacking off in the blog updates?

Let's see..I went to the Baekjae festival in Buyeo with my school last week Friday. It was fun, but the festival there wasn't as exciting as the one in Gongju. The museum on the other hand was way more fun than the previous time I went (last year). Since going last year, they have built a HUGE reconstruction of Sabi Palace, where the royal family lived when the Baekjae capital was in Buyeo. It was a lot of fun to walk around through it with the kids and take fun pictures. John, the student with a crush on me, finally sneaked in a kiss, as we were walking through a rather crowded doorway. He was holding my hand and pulled it in front of his face and kissed it. No one could see it because it was so crowded, but I saw and felt it. It was sweet, but awkward. Sweet because that's how I always think of parents kissing their kids (I really like the book The Kissing Hand, read it if you haven't). It was awkward because he's my student, not my child. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that these are not my children, and that they're just my students.

The students all lined up at Sabi Palace

The students really like feeding me at lunchtime.

This past weekend...I did nothing. Andrea, a South African woman from church, had a pasta dinner for the younger girls at church. It was good food. Then she asked me to share my testimony. That was pretty terrifying. On Sunday...I went to see Eat, Pray, Love with Andrea and Ms. Kim. It was an alright movie. Not really my style, but okay. It made me miss Max.



This past week at school, I've felt pretty crazy. I feel like school and teaching have been a lot of work lately but I couldn't figure out why. Until yesterday, when my mentor teacher asked me to e-mail my lesson plans and daily plans to her. I realized that I didn't have any! And that's why my days have seemed so hard. Making it up as you go takes a lot of effort and classes usually feel like they're lacking something. So I'm trying to get back ahead of myself. I have next week planned out already, but I want to get the week after that also planned out. I'd like to always stay at least two weeks ahead of schedule.



All this past week, the other teachers have all been really busy, so my mentor teacher couldn't take me home. Instead, the vice-principal has been driving me home. He's really funny. He can't speak English, so in the car, we just listen to music and don't say a word, unless there is a bug in the car, in which case, he rolls down the windows and talks like mad. I don't quite know what he's saying, but I understand that he's trying to get the bug out of the car, so I try and hurry it out.
At school today, I was helping to clean up my classroom because there is some sort of event going on in there tomorrow. In the classroom, it's me, Jaehwa, and my mentor teacher. Suddenly, the vice-principal shows up and says to me "Kayla! You like chi-can? Chi-Kan?" I say "Chicken? Yes, I like chicken." He then cracks me up by saying "OKay! You like chi-can! Chop chop!" and grabs my arm and starts pulling me out of the classroom. I was so confused, but I followed him. Turns out, someone bought a lot of fried chicken in the office, so they wanted to share it with me. I had a good time eating a few pieces. They kept asking me what one part of the chicken was, but I had no idea what it was. I THINK it might have been a chicken testicle? Do they even have them? I don't know, but they kept laughing, saying bathroom, and saying in English "say-back pocket". They tried getting me to eat one, but I didn't want to try it. Then they tried getting me to eat a chicken foot. They kept picking it up, and scratching it on their hand. The vice-principal thought it was funny that it was called a chicken foot.

One day this past week, I recorded my 3/4 grade class singing the Hello Song to send to Suzie, the TaLK scholar before me. She's really nice, and I'm super glad I talked with her. I know she misses the kids, and so I'm trying to keep her updated and included in what is going on. The students are really shocked that I 'know' Suzie. They keep asking me "You know Suzie teacher? You are friends?" Suzie wants to make a video for the kids and have me show it to them. I'm really excited about that idea, and I can't wait for her to make it. BUT, she's in school right now, so she's pretty busy and hasn't had a chance to make a video. I haven't told my kids about it yet, but I'm dying to tell them.





About this weeks picture....It was a rainy Monday. The weather was pretty cold, and I can tell it's Autumn, even though the leaves haven't changed yet. The mornings are freezing, and the days are warm.

Baekjae Festival in Gongju

Yesterday was a REALLY good day! It started out horribly because I was tired, and then there must have been a communication error and the vice-principal didn't pick me up!
But I had a good time at school. I didn't have to play in the volleyball tournament, but I helped out with setting up the food and taking down. Everyone was really impressed with me because I continued serving the whole time, and then when it was time to take everything down, I just
kept working, lifting tables and chairs. The principal of the Yugu middle school was really impressed with me and talked with my principal about what a good English teacher I am. And then the principal and vice-principal kept saying thank you, and telling me "Good woman! Sweet woman!"

The students were so helpful with setting up! Too bad they had already gone home by the time we needed to take everything down.

All the female teachers were trying to help out! We ended up eating a lot of the food beforehand. ^^

Waiting outside to carry more food to the table.

All of the visiting teachers eating after playing volleyball. The person in the front is Misun, the 2nd grade teacher. She really likes to joke with me.

Our food after we finished everything!

WOW! That's all I can say for the musical I saw on Tuesday night. It was SO good! Even though I couldn't understand a lot of the words, I understood the meaning. It was so cool. They had a lot of fireworks and water fountains worked into the dancing. And there was a really amazing 3-D dragon that appeared in the water spray! The story was about King Muryeong, one of the most important of the 5 Baekjae kings. I don't know WHY he was important though.

Fight scene between the Baekjae kindgom and I think the Goguryeo kingdom.

Close to the end of the musical.

Today, I went to the festival with my entire school. It was a lot of fun, but I'm worn-out. One of my 4th grade students has a huge crush on me. He was constantly holding my hand, and he got mad when any other kids tried holding my hand. He even tried kissing my hand. That was awkward. It's such a common habit for me to do to people I love that I didn't even think about it as weird until another kid saw it and yelled "GROSS!" He's a sweet kid, and he really likes English class, but he's not good at English. So I guess he likes it because he gets to see me?

There were a lot of other schools at the festival today so I had so many children saying "Hello, English teacher!" I heard one student say "Yankee, go home" but I just turned and walked away. I really don't think the kid knew what he was saying. At least, I HOPE he didn't understand.

AND I saved the day! At least for just a little bit. After lunch, everyone was going back to the bus, but the 1st graders didn't move. I noticed they were all standing together, and the teacher wasn't there, so I stayed with them. They said their teacher went to the bathroom, so I said we should go to the bus, but they just said "Teacher, STOP!" So we waited. And waited. Eventually, I called my mentor teacher and said I was with the 1st graders, but the teacher wasn't there. She had gone to the bathroom, but assumed her kids went to the bus, so she went there. They were all frantically looking for the 1st graders, so they were SO happy that I had stayed behind with them.

2nd grade class. Only 5 students.

6th grade class. Only 6 students.

Students all getting snack food before lunch.

Most of the school is in this picture, eating lunch.
(Remember, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version)

Chuseok Week

It's been a long time since I posted! I'm going to make this post quickly and then go to bed for reasons I'll explain later.

Chuseok was really nice! I spent the week at Miok's parents house in Wando. Miok was sick for about half of the vacation, so I watched tv. I think I watched about 10 movies while I was there!
The last half of the vacation, Miok was better, so we walked around and saw a lot of really cool places. I posted all of my pictures on facebook, so look there if you want to see.

Today, I was invited to my very first 회식, hwesik, or teacher's dinner party. It was very nice! We had so many courses, and the principal had a drink with everyone. I think he drank quite a bit. In the middle of the last toast he made, he said "I love you" in English. A few other teachers responded with "Me, too." It was really funny.

Waiting for other teachers to arrive.

Course one!

Courses two and three!
Patbingsu for dessert

This week is going to be crazy for me. I'll only teach two days. I taught today, and I will teach on Thursday. Tomorrow, other teachers are coming to my school, and there is going to be a big volleyball tournament, so I was told I should participate. I hope I'm not terrible. They play every Wednesday, but so far, I haven't had a chance to play with them. Then, tomorrow evening, I'm going to a musical at the river for the Baekjae festival (세계대백제전) with Mr. Lennon and maybe some other people from church. A few friends from the TaLK program are also coming into town that night, so I might go out for some drinks with them after the show.
On Wednesday, the entire school is going to the Baekjae festival in Gongju (공주), and on Friday, we're all going to the Baekjae festival in Buyeo (부여). I'm really excited about the Baekjae festival. I went one day last year, and had a ton of fun. This year, the festival is SO much bigger! Last year was kind of small because they were very worried about Swine Flu.

AND I'm going to start a project with this blog! I got the idea from my advisor at Columbia College, Mr. Perkins. I'm going to take a picture of my school at the same spot and time each week, and post the pictures here. It will be nice to see the small changes, and it will force me to update semi-regularly. I'm going to be taking the pictures on Monday at 11:30am when I arrive at school. Here is the picture from today, Monday, Sept. 27th.



For now, I'm going to bed. Why am I going to bed at 8:30pm? One, I have to meet the vice-principal at the bus terminal at 8:10am tomorrow to ride to school, and two, I have a cavity that is KILLING me! It's fine in the morning, but by the end of the day, if I don't have dental floss on me, it absolutely hurts! But on a bright note, I should have received my paycheck today, so I should be able to go to a dentist soon.