Saturday November 28
Sunday November 29
This weekend the travel and culture group was having a Thanksgiving dinner and overnight stay in a pension meetup. We each paid 45,000 won (about $45). Our organizer rented 3 units for us. The pension(log cabin) was called "The Jazz Pension". Each unit had a musical name. We rented "The Saxophone" (36 people), "The Piano" (15 people) and "the violin" (9 people). There were 60 of us on the RSVP list. Mostly expats and a few Koreans. The owner of the pension was a musician for 30years. He played saxophone. Then he started running the pension.
I didn't take any pictures at the event.
There was a cooking team who cooked all the food. We had all sorts of things. We got turkey and ham and some side dishes from the army base. We had turkey, ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, 7 layer salad, mac and cheese, green been casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, etc.
We arrived at the pension at various times. Getting to the pension was an adventure especially when trying to coordinate times and meet someone who isn't familiar with the subway line! (This is why I do most of my travel alone! I am very familiar with subway lines and have my routes all planned out) She called me the day before and we decided to meet at 2:20 pm at a station where line 6 and line 1 meet. Then we were going to ride together for the last hour of the journey and catch the bus to the pension. The bus was leaving at 3:40. I got to the station early about 2:10. She called me right after I got there and told me she had just left her station. She got to our meetup place at 3pm. Then I hopped on the train. She told me she got lost getting to her station. I told her we weren't going to make the bus time. We had 3 stops to get to another transfer. When we got to the transfer it was very confusing. Line 1 is the most confusing line to transfer from. It took us a while to figure out where we needed to be. We finally found the right side. The line we got on was a slower route. We rode about 6 stops and then I heard the message "this is the last stop". So we had to get out and transfer to another train going in the same direction. silly. We finally made it around 4:15 pm. When we got to the station we met another foreigner who was going to the meetup. She called the organizer and he came to pick us up.
We ate dinner around 6pm I'd say. The food was great! Big portions. Everyone was stuffing their face.haha. There was a lot of food and a lot of leftovers. People would go back to the food for snacks later on in the day.
There were a lot of things going on. There was a piano in our unit so there was a guy playing piano. He was really good and played a ton of songs. Sometimes there would be a group sitting around the piano singing. There was also a guy with a guitar. There were people making smores outside. I chose to stay inside where it was warm. People were playing board games and card games. Someone had an ipod hooked up to speakers providing all sorts of music.
The owner played a few songs for us on his saxophone. Everyone enjoyed that.
One of the men brought along his son. I'd say maybe 2-3 years old. Everyone thought the kid was so adorable. He was so cute. He was our entertainment at times. He was counting in Korean at one time then all of a sudden he says "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" in English. Everyone clapped for him. We were surprised to hear a child so little speaking in English.
We found out that there was a noraebang in our unit. (a karaoke room). A few people went over there. I didn't sing, but I listened to everyone else. We stayed in there till around midnight till they kicked us out.
People started to go to bed around different times. I stayed up with the night owls till around 3:15am. There were about 10 of us awake at that time. Then we all finally called it a night. I stayed in the small unit with girls. There were 8 of us in there. OMG it was as hot as an oven. I could barely sleep. It felt like an oven. We had all 3 windows in the room open and that didn't help one bit. I started out sleeping on the floor. There was room for about 3 people on the floor and 2 people in the bed. There was one girl on the bed but she got up during the night. I couldnt sleep so I decided to get on the bed because I thought it would be cooler because the windows above the bed were open. nope windows did not help. So it was hot and I was sleeping on the bed which wasn't too much better than sleeping on the floor. There were 2 girls on the floor. I didn't hardly get any sleep. I can't sleep if its too hot. I kept tossing and turning. I finally got out of bed around 9:45 and got dressed and met up with everyone else.
A lot of people were eating leftovers for breakfast but I didnt get anything. Some people got cabs and left around 10 am. The rest of us stayed for the 12:30pm bus. I had a good time. It was good to celebrate with others.
Then we all headed home. We met another group of foreigners at the subway station who were at our same pension. One of the girls was completly hammered. We were all being entertained by her.
I had to take a nap at home. I probably slept for about 2 hours. I'd set my alarm for 30 mins, then 10, then 10, then 20, then 10. haha.
One of my dreams was totally out of character. I was looking at this map thing that had places of interest. It spun around like a globe. While I was looking at it some people came up behind me and looked too. I was finished with that side so I turned it and they wouldnt let me turn it and they were mad. I was yelling at them and telling them I had to do a school project and I needed to look at it. They still wouldn't let me look at it. So I stormed off and as I was leaving I yelled "I hope you burn in Hell" OMG!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Day 345
Friday November 27
Today was one of my easy days. Only 3 classes. 12 students in all.
My first class was pretty good. It was our computer lab class. Almost everyone was doing their work. 3 of the girls didn't get finished because they were more interested in talking to one another during class. They just stop working and talk to each other. I had to keep telling them to do their work. I didn't give them a sticker. 2 students actually finished their work.
One of our articles was about a Korean woman who finally passed her written driver's license test after trying 950 times. She's 68 years old. She made a 60 on the test when she finally passed. Goodness. How hard is Korea's written test? Could she be that dumb? She's been trying since 2005 and has spent over 5 million won on application fees.(over 4,000 dollars). Now she has to pass the driver's test. Wonder how long that will take? 950 more times?
My 2nd class was good. I had 2 students and they were both doing their work.
My 3rd class always tries my patience. They are the cause of 90% of my stress. 3 of the 5 students didn't have their book. why why why? I had to keep begging the kids to tell me the answers. I wasn't going to just give them the answers. I would ask over and over for them to tell me the answers. Then only a few people were answering. The boys weren't really participating. All the kids were playing on their cellphones. I kept telling them to close it but they don't listen. They just laugh because I'm yelling at them. They think its hilarious when I get angry. Sometimes I wish I had a stick in this class! They are so disrespectful. We got 4 pages done in class. I assigned one page for homework but I doubt they will do it.
Everything is finally open in Emart. I went up to the 8th floor. When you get up to the 7th floor the escalors are crazy. Normally when you are going from floor to floor there is a normal progression. Get off one and go straight to the other one. When you get to the 7th floor you have to get off and walk through the sports dept and then get on the other escalator. Seems silly to me. They have a new food court which is now on the 8th floor. It used to be on the 6th. I like how they have samples of the food in a glass case so you can see what each dish should look like. (not real samples, plastic sample dishes).I saw a few dishes on the food court menu that I'll try out sometime. There's a bulgogi dish and a dongas plate with a rice omelette. I love rice omlettes! Some of the Koreans were so rude. I was standing at the glass case looking at the choices and they just come up and stand right in front of me like I wasn't even there.
Saturday is meetup #3. I'm going to a Thanksgiving dinner and staying overnight in a pension. Should be fun. I'll get to meet a lot of new people. there are 60 people on the RSVP list. I'm meeting the girl I met last Saturday and we are going to travel together for half of the journey.
I'm going to the DMZ in 2 weeks with the meetup group.
I have a fun outing next weekend also. Its with my recruiter. We are going to LotteWorld which is an amusement park.
Today was one of my easy days. Only 3 classes. 12 students in all.
My first class was pretty good. It was our computer lab class. Almost everyone was doing their work. 3 of the girls didn't get finished because they were more interested in talking to one another during class. They just stop working and talk to each other. I had to keep telling them to do their work. I didn't give them a sticker. 2 students actually finished their work.
One of our articles was about a Korean woman who finally passed her written driver's license test after trying 950 times. She's 68 years old. She made a 60 on the test when she finally passed. Goodness. How hard is Korea's written test? Could she be that dumb? She's been trying since 2005 and has spent over 5 million won on application fees.(over 4,000 dollars). Now she has to pass the driver's test. Wonder how long that will take? 950 more times?
My 2nd class was good. I had 2 students and they were both doing their work.
My 3rd class always tries my patience. They are the cause of 90% of my stress. 3 of the 5 students didn't have their book. why why why? I had to keep begging the kids to tell me the answers. I wasn't going to just give them the answers. I would ask over and over for them to tell me the answers. Then only a few people were answering. The boys weren't really participating. All the kids were playing on their cellphones. I kept telling them to close it but they don't listen. They just laugh because I'm yelling at them. They think its hilarious when I get angry. Sometimes I wish I had a stick in this class! They are so disrespectful. We got 4 pages done in class. I assigned one page for homework but I doubt they will do it.
Everything is finally open in Emart. I went up to the 8th floor. When you get up to the 7th floor the escalors are crazy. Normally when you are going from floor to floor there is a normal progression. Get off one and go straight to the other one. When you get to the 7th floor you have to get off and walk through the sports dept and then get on the other escalator. Seems silly to me. They have a new food court which is now on the 8th floor. It used to be on the 6th. I like how they have samples of the food in a glass case so you can see what each dish should look like. (not real samples, plastic sample dishes).I saw a few dishes on the food court menu that I'll try out sometime. There's a bulgogi dish and a dongas plate with a rice omelette. I love rice omlettes! Some of the Koreans were so rude. I was standing at the glass case looking at the choices and they just come up and stand right in front of me like I wasn't even there.
Saturday is meetup #3. I'm going to a Thanksgiving dinner and staying overnight in a pension. Should be fun. I'll get to meet a lot of new people. there are 60 people on the RSVP list. I'm meeting the girl I met last Saturday and we are going to travel together for half of the journey.
I'm going to the DMZ in 2 weeks with the meetup group.
I have a fun outing next weekend also. Its with my recruiter. We are going to LotteWorld which is an amusement park.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Day 344
Thursday November 26....
it was Thanksgiving but I didn't celebrate. I had to work. Thanksgiving is not a Korean holiday. It was just a normal day here.
I so did not want to get up early this morning. Those women wanted to meet me at noon so I got up at 11am. I thought about standing them up, but I'm not that kind of person. In hindsight, I wish I had!
Why am I targeted by religious fanatics? If that makes me sound bad then oh well. I just hate it when people won't take no for an answer. I totally understand why people hate Christians. Some of them are too pushy. At least when I told the LDS guy that I wasn't interested he accepted it and just talked to me on a purely social level and with no hidden agenda of hopefully converting me or showing me why what I know is wrong.
My worst fears were true. They were from that crazy church:World Mission Society Church of God. The Christian council of Korea has declared them as heresy.(Beware: If you ever get stopped by someone who is highly stressing the importance of keeping the passover or talking about 'god the mother' RUN. RUN FAST AND DONT LOOK BACK!. )They took me to their church office. They showed me an English video about Passover. They are referring to Jesus' last supper as the Passover. So by partaking in communion you are keeping the passover. They don't call it communion-they call it the passover and you can only partake once a year because there is a verse that says the passover is the 14th day of the first month. She was asking me if I keep the passover. I told her that my church has communion once a month. Then she proceeded to tell me that its wrong to have it once a month because the bible says it can only be on the 14th day of the first month. Then she showed me a verse-"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27 By taking communion more than once a year we are doing it in an unworthy manner. CRAZY! They asked me if I wanted to participate in passover and I declined. They also asked if I wanted to study the bible with them more. I also declined. I can't take any more of them pushing their beliefs on me. While I was there they were having lunch also. They had a lot of korean food. I didn't want any of it so I just had rice. They also cooked an egg for me. Then I took a taxi to my school. We didn't set up any more meetings and I didn't give them any of my contact information.
My first class was okay. 2 of the students didn't bring their book. Why are they constantly forgetting their books? Then they are always begging me to have a short class so they can have free time. We aren't there to have free time. One of the students said if you let us have free time we wont ask next time. yeah right. We did 3 pages out of the book and they begged to have the 4th page as homework. I bet they won't do it. I'm so tired of them begging for free time all the time. We are suppose to be studying. When we do study they are constantly talking to each other.
My 2nd class was pretty good. There wasn't anything listed on my lesson plan for today. I didn't want to get ahead in the writing book since we are already doing so little anyway. I looked at my lesson plan and next week was planned as a writing test on the lesson plan, but I gave the test early so I don't have anything to do on that day either. I still have my writing book from last semester so I printed out a lesson from another book to supplement. THey did pretty good on the writing lesson and it was actually enough to last all class. Not some short 2 page 5 questions thats finished in 5 minutes. I think the lesson we did today was actually more beneficial than the crap I teach everyday. I HATE OUR BOOKS! They were doing their work, but constantly talking and laughing in between exercises.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. When I came into the class they were all looking at other websites. I made them go to the newspaper site. They all did their work. I had to stand over them to make sure they actually do it and don't go to other websites.
My conversation class was unproductive as always. Its a waste of my time. Today our topic was talking about future plans. The 4 boys don't pay attention. They were all playing with their phones. I spend a lot of time telling them to close their phones. They were recording me talking and playing it back in class, also. These boys make me angry! TODAY WAS MY LAST CLASS!!!!!!!!!!PTL!!!! The trouble makers won't practice the conversations the right way. I spend a lot of time typing up the examples and they won't even do it correctly. Only 2 people actually did it the right way because I was their partner. I had to be 2 people's partners because they refused to be partners with each other.
My last class was good. I only had one student. We were doing a writing unit on strong and interesting words,personal narrative and choosing a topic that interests you. He was very good in class and seemed to grasp the material without much help. I gave him a quiz on the online newspaper we did on Tuesday. His method was guessing on each one like einy miney moe. He only got 2 out of 10 questions right. It's a good thing it doesnt count for a grade. He guessed on all of them. He actually enjoyed one part of the writing lesson. He had to use the word bank to add interesting words to a sentence. One of his revised sentences was "The smiling dog chased the trash." He was also having fun with the read and repeat. I'd say a line and he'd say the next. Some times he would end it right before the end and I had to say one word. Example: (him) I went to the...(me)park. He enjoyed that. I played right along with him.
Apparently we aren't having a level test and I'll be using the same books for 3 more months. OH NO! please level up and get new books! If we keep using these books I'm going to have to prepare a lot more material for class. I may teach them some vocabulary or Idioms. I think idioms would be fun.
it was Thanksgiving but I didn't celebrate. I had to work. Thanksgiving is not a Korean holiday. It was just a normal day here.
I so did not want to get up early this morning. Those women wanted to meet me at noon so I got up at 11am. I thought about standing them up, but I'm not that kind of person. In hindsight, I wish I had!
Why am I targeted by religious fanatics? If that makes me sound bad then oh well. I just hate it when people won't take no for an answer. I totally understand why people hate Christians. Some of them are too pushy. At least when I told the LDS guy that I wasn't interested he accepted it and just talked to me on a purely social level and with no hidden agenda of hopefully converting me or showing me why what I know is wrong.
My worst fears were true. They were from that crazy church:World Mission Society Church of God. The Christian council of Korea has declared them as heresy.(Beware: If you ever get stopped by someone who is highly stressing the importance of keeping the passover or talking about 'god the mother' RUN. RUN FAST AND DONT LOOK BACK!. )They took me to their church office. They showed me an English video about Passover. They are referring to Jesus' last supper as the Passover. So by partaking in communion you are keeping the passover. They don't call it communion-they call it the passover and you can only partake once a year because there is a verse that says the passover is the 14th day of the first month. She was asking me if I keep the passover. I told her that my church has communion once a month. Then she proceeded to tell me that its wrong to have it once a month because the bible says it can only be on the 14th day of the first month. Then she showed me a verse-"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27 By taking communion more than once a year we are doing it in an unworthy manner. CRAZY! They asked me if I wanted to participate in passover and I declined. They also asked if I wanted to study the bible with them more. I also declined. I can't take any more of them pushing their beliefs on me. While I was there they were having lunch also. They had a lot of korean food. I didn't want any of it so I just had rice. They also cooked an egg for me. Then I took a taxi to my school. We didn't set up any more meetings and I didn't give them any of my contact information.
My first class was okay. 2 of the students didn't bring their book. Why are they constantly forgetting their books? Then they are always begging me to have a short class so they can have free time. We aren't there to have free time. One of the students said if you let us have free time we wont ask next time. yeah right. We did 3 pages out of the book and they begged to have the 4th page as homework. I bet they won't do it. I'm so tired of them begging for free time all the time. We are suppose to be studying. When we do study they are constantly talking to each other.
My 2nd class was pretty good. There wasn't anything listed on my lesson plan for today. I didn't want to get ahead in the writing book since we are already doing so little anyway. I looked at my lesson plan and next week was planned as a writing test on the lesson plan, but I gave the test early so I don't have anything to do on that day either. I still have my writing book from last semester so I printed out a lesson from another book to supplement. THey did pretty good on the writing lesson and it was actually enough to last all class. Not some short 2 page 5 questions thats finished in 5 minutes. I think the lesson we did today was actually more beneficial than the crap I teach everyday. I HATE OUR BOOKS! They were doing their work, but constantly talking and laughing in between exercises.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. When I came into the class they were all looking at other websites. I made them go to the newspaper site. They all did their work. I had to stand over them to make sure they actually do it and don't go to other websites.
My conversation class was unproductive as always. Its a waste of my time. Today our topic was talking about future plans. The 4 boys don't pay attention. They were all playing with their phones. I spend a lot of time telling them to close their phones. They were recording me talking and playing it back in class, also. These boys make me angry! TODAY WAS MY LAST CLASS!!!!!!!!!!PTL!!!! The trouble makers won't practice the conversations the right way. I spend a lot of time typing up the examples and they won't even do it correctly. Only 2 people actually did it the right way because I was their partner. I had to be 2 people's partners because they refused to be partners with each other.
My last class was good. I only had one student. We were doing a writing unit on strong and interesting words,personal narrative and choosing a topic that interests you. He was very good in class and seemed to grasp the material without much help. I gave him a quiz on the online newspaper we did on Tuesday. His method was guessing on each one like einy miney moe. He only got 2 out of 10 questions right. It's a good thing it doesnt count for a grade. He guessed on all of them. He actually enjoyed one part of the writing lesson. He had to use the word bank to add interesting words to a sentence. One of his revised sentences was "The smiling dog chased the trash." He was also having fun with the read and repeat. I'd say a line and he'd say the next. Some times he would end it right before the end and I had to say one word. Example: (him) I went to the...(me)park. He enjoyed that. I played right along with him.
Apparently we aren't having a level test and I'll be using the same books for 3 more months. OH NO! please level up and get new books! If we keep using these books I'm going to have to prepare a lot more material for class. I may teach them some vocabulary or Idioms. I think idioms would be fun.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Day 343
Wednesday November 25
I had a pretty decent day.
So I was meeting that woman again today at 1:30pm.She brought her friend with her today. She wanted to meet me today so I could meet her friend. Her friend is also a housewife (a common occupation in South Korea) and will be moving to Oklahoma soon with her husband.They didn't order anything. They had already eaten so they just watched me eat. I had cheese dongas. yum. The woman that I met yesterday gave me 2 persimmons. They started talking about their church. They were asking me if I keep the passover. um no. And they were saying that H1N1 was prophesied in the bible. They wanted to show me some kind of dvd but I didn't have time. I think their purpose of meeting me is to try to convert me to their church. yikes.I just hate when people are trying to convert me. Trying to get me to believe what they believe. I have my own beliefs and there's nothing wrong with what I believe!! I know the truth! They want to meet tomorrow to show me their church and have lunch and show me some dvd. They want to meet at noon. oh my. that means I have to get up early!! OH NO! I'll meet them, but they can't make me change my mind.
My first class was good. We had our writing test. When I give them the test they pretend like they don't know what everything means. Its what we went over in class. If they would study they would know! So I had to explain what things mean. After the test they wanted free time, but I give them too much free time so I decided we were going to do a lesson. I gave them a lesson about Thanksgiving. I had them each read a paragraph and then fill in a worksheet.
My 2nd class was also good. We had a speaking test and a writing test. After the test we also did the same Thanksgiving lesson and filled in the worksheet.
My 3rd class was decent. It was my conversation class. Today I chose a lesson on active and passive voice and past passive voice. It was more of a grammar lesson than a speaking lesson. The 2 boys at the back didn't pay attention most of the time. They goof off as always. No one wanted to practice conversation. At least most of them do their work. Oh well. It was my last class with this group!!
My 3rd class was good. Frustrating at times because they didn't do what I said, but still okay. Last class I told the girls that I would bring them an eraser because they asked for one. They were so excited to get the eraser. I gave one to the other kids also. Today we were working in the computer lab. They were behaving good because I told them if they studied hard I'd let them play a game. They thought it meant they could play a computer game. I told them no. there is a sign in the lab that says no computer games. I gave them directions as to what I wanted them to do. Listen, fill out their worksheet, then the online test. Some of them wouldn't listen. Some of them were doing things out of order. I had to keep reminding them to do it in the order I told them to. I specifically put those questions on the worksheet so they could do good on the online test. They all finished their worksheet and I let them play a game. they had a nice big area to be able to move around. They enjoyed the game time.
I tried one of the persimmons at home. I'd never seen a persimmon before. If you aren't familiar with it-it sorta looks like an orange tomato. I didn't really like it. She said it was sweet, but it didn't really have a taste to me. Very bland.
Persimmons
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America....and I have to work...boo hoo....
I'm celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend with a meetup group...we are having a big dinner and staying overnight in a pension-log cabin in the mountains...
94 days....
I had a pretty decent day.
So I was meeting that woman again today at 1:30pm.She brought her friend with her today. She wanted to meet me today so I could meet her friend. Her friend is also a housewife (a common occupation in South Korea) and will be moving to Oklahoma soon with her husband.They didn't order anything. They had already eaten so they just watched me eat. I had cheese dongas. yum. The woman that I met yesterday gave me 2 persimmons. They started talking about their church. They were asking me if I keep the passover. um no. And they were saying that H1N1 was prophesied in the bible. They wanted to show me some kind of dvd but I didn't have time. I think their purpose of meeting me is to try to convert me to their church. yikes.I just hate when people are trying to convert me. Trying to get me to believe what they believe. I have my own beliefs and there's nothing wrong with what I believe!! I know the truth! They want to meet tomorrow to show me their church and have lunch and show me some dvd. They want to meet at noon. oh my. that means I have to get up early!! OH NO! I'll meet them, but they can't make me change my mind.
My first class was good. We had our writing test. When I give them the test they pretend like they don't know what everything means. Its what we went over in class. If they would study they would know! So I had to explain what things mean. After the test they wanted free time, but I give them too much free time so I decided we were going to do a lesson. I gave them a lesson about Thanksgiving. I had them each read a paragraph and then fill in a worksheet.
My 2nd class was also good. We had a speaking test and a writing test. After the test we also did the same Thanksgiving lesson and filled in the worksheet.
My 3rd class was decent. It was my conversation class. Today I chose a lesson on active and passive voice and past passive voice. It was more of a grammar lesson than a speaking lesson. The 2 boys at the back didn't pay attention most of the time. They goof off as always. No one wanted to practice conversation. At least most of them do their work. Oh well. It was my last class with this group!!
My 3rd class was good. Frustrating at times because they didn't do what I said, but still okay. Last class I told the girls that I would bring them an eraser because they asked for one. They were so excited to get the eraser. I gave one to the other kids also. Today we were working in the computer lab. They were behaving good because I told them if they studied hard I'd let them play a game. They thought it meant they could play a computer game. I told them no. there is a sign in the lab that says no computer games. I gave them directions as to what I wanted them to do. Listen, fill out their worksheet, then the online test. Some of them wouldn't listen. Some of them were doing things out of order. I had to keep reminding them to do it in the order I told them to. I specifically put those questions on the worksheet so they could do good on the online test. They all finished their worksheet and I let them play a game. they had a nice big area to be able to move around. They enjoyed the game time.
I tried one of the persimmons at home. I'd never seen a persimmon before. If you aren't familiar with it-it sorta looks like an orange tomato. I didn't really like it. She said it was sweet, but it didn't really have a taste to me. Very bland.
Persimmons
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America....and I have to work...boo hoo....
I'm celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend with a meetup group...we are having a big dinner and staying overnight in a pension-log cabin in the mountains...
94 days....
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
H1N1 deaths up to 104 in South Korea...
22 More Die From New Flu
Twenty-two more people have died in South Korea from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, raising the country's total death toll from the new flu to 104, health authorities said Wednesday.
The infection rate and number of fatalities from the pandemic were waning in the second week of November after the death toll peaked at the end of last month, when 24 people died between Oct. 25-31, the central disaster relief headquarters said.
Out of the 104 who died from the new flu, 89 patients were classified as high-risk and 15 others were not, officials said.
The number of people given prescriptions for the anti-viral drug Tamiflu stood at 48,182 in the third week of this month, down from 100,322 in the first week and 87,613 the second week, they said.
Over 400 schools nationwide enforced temporary closures in the first week of November due to the flu outbreak. Most of the schools have resumed classes, but 17 still remained shut as of Monday, according to the relief center.
Some 2.8 million students have been inoculated so far under a government plan to administer the H1N1 vaccine to 7.5 million students by early December, according to the health authority.
Twenty-two more people have died in South Korea from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, raising the country's total death toll from the new flu to 104, health authorities said Wednesday.
The infection rate and number of fatalities from the pandemic were waning in the second week of November after the death toll peaked at the end of last month, when 24 people died between Oct. 25-31, the central disaster relief headquarters said.
Out of the 104 who died from the new flu, 89 patients were classified as high-risk and 15 others were not, officials said.
The number of people given prescriptions for the anti-viral drug Tamiflu stood at 48,182 in the third week of this month, down from 100,322 in the first week and 87,613 the second week, they said.
Over 400 schools nationwide enforced temporary closures in the first week of November due to the flu outbreak. Most of the schools have resumed classes, but 17 still remained shut as of Monday, according to the relief center.
Some 2.8 million students have been inoculated so far under a government plan to administer the H1N1 vaccine to 7.5 million students by early December, according to the health authority.
Day 342
Tuesday November 25
It was finally warmer today! It was up to 53 degrees at 3pm!
I went out for lunch at kimbap heaven. I ordered bibimbap. They put a lot of the hot chile pepper paste in it! I scooped out as much as I could! It wasnt too bad, but kinda spicy. I need to learn how to say "not much chile pepper paste!" While I was there a woman started talking to me. She is a housewife and she had her baby on her back. Very small baby. She was asking me all sort of questions. She said she lived in Canada for 1 year. Her English skills were pretty good. She was asking me if I ever tried persimmons. I haven't. She said someone gave her a lot and she would give me some. She wanted to meet tomorrow for lunch and she said she would give me some persimmons and some information. I wonder what kind of information she wants to give me. We are meeting at that same restaurant before I go to work.
My first class was okay. I had to give 2 tests. I didn't make one student take either test. She only came for one class. I didn't make the boy take the writing test. The other students wanted to know why. He missed a lot of classes. The writing test came from examples in the book. They said it was too hard, but I didn't put anything on there that we didn't do in class. They just don't study. At first one of the girls wasn't even going to take it seriously. She was joking that she was just going to pick random answers. She didn't do good on test. She made a 59 and the other girl made a 76. They did okay on their speaking test. Its always a struggle to get them to speak in complete sentences. I have to keep reminding them.
My second class was okay. The students were sitting in the room during break. Then when I came in they told me they had to go to the bathroom. They didn't go to the bathroom. They went to Home Plus and came to class 10 minutes late. Then I gave them their writing test. They were talking during the test. I kept telling them to quit talking. After the test they just had free time. The boys were talking to each other and one of the boys was laughing hysterically really loud. The teacher's assistant came to the door and told him to be quiet. Then he was still laughing loud and the boss came and peeked in the door.
My 3rd class was in the lab. This class is a waste of my time and I just wish I could walk out! At first I had 2 students. They weren't doing their work. They were just eating. I kept begging them to do their work. They wanted to take a math test during my class. I told them no. They cant be doing other work in my class.THe other boy came in at 6:20. 20 mins after class started. then I had to beg him to do his work. He's always messing around with the desktop and changing settings on the computer. He never gets anything accomplished. The other 2 boys didn't even get halfway done. I just don't know what to do. If we are having this class next semester I should suggest letting me do it in the classroom. Just read the articles and give a quiz. We dont get anything accomplished in the computer lab. They just want to play around. Its so frustrating!
My last class was good. I only had one student. This is the same student who will not do a thing in the computer class. When he's in the speaking/writing class he is like an angel. Its night and day. He's good when he is by himself. I gave him his writing test and his speaking test. We were done with both of those within 15 minutes. I prepared a Thanksgiving lesson as a backup for my classes if tests were too short. I used the lesson for him. We went over it and he filled in the answers to a worksheet I gave him. He did a good job. Then he wanted to play a game. He wanted to play bingo with x and o. I think it was like tic tac toe on a bigger scale. I didn't know what the point of the game was. I showed him tic tac toe and neither one of us won. Then we played the game where you start a word with the last letter of the previous word. That went very well.
I can't find the episode of "Ugly Betty" that was shown on Friday night. Why? I'm caught up on all my other shows.
95 days.......
It was finally warmer today! It was up to 53 degrees at 3pm!
I went out for lunch at kimbap heaven. I ordered bibimbap. They put a lot of the hot chile pepper paste in it! I scooped out as much as I could! It wasnt too bad, but kinda spicy. I need to learn how to say "not much chile pepper paste!" While I was there a woman started talking to me. She is a housewife and she had her baby on her back. Very small baby. She was asking me all sort of questions. She said she lived in Canada for 1 year. Her English skills were pretty good. She was asking me if I ever tried persimmons. I haven't. She said someone gave her a lot and she would give me some. She wanted to meet tomorrow for lunch and she said she would give me some persimmons and some information. I wonder what kind of information she wants to give me. We are meeting at that same restaurant before I go to work.
My first class was okay. I had to give 2 tests. I didn't make one student take either test. She only came for one class. I didn't make the boy take the writing test. The other students wanted to know why. He missed a lot of classes. The writing test came from examples in the book. They said it was too hard, but I didn't put anything on there that we didn't do in class. They just don't study. At first one of the girls wasn't even going to take it seriously. She was joking that she was just going to pick random answers. She didn't do good on test. She made a 59 and the other girl made a 76. They did okay on their speaking test. Its always a struggle to get them to speak in complete sentences. I have to keep reminding them.
My second class was okay. The students were sitting in the room during break. Then when I came in they told me they had to go to the bathroom. They didn't go to the bathroom. They went to Home Plus and came to class 10 minutes late. Then I gave them their writing test. They were talking during the test. I kept telling them to quit talking. After the test they just had free time. The boys were talking to each other and one of the boys was laughing hysterically really loud. The teacher's assistant came to the door and told him to be quiet. Then he was still laughing loud and the boss came and peeked in the door.
My 3rd class was in the lab. This class is a waste of my time and I just wish I could walk out! At first I had 2 students. They weren't doing their work. They were just eating. I kept begging them to do their work. They wanted to take a math test during my class. I told them no. They cant be doing other work in my class.THe other boy came in at 6:20. 20 mins after class started. then I had to beg him to do his work. He's always messing around with the desktop and changing settings on the computer. He never gets anything accomplished. The other 2 boys didn't even get halfway done. I just don't know what to do. If we are having this class next semester I should suggest letting me do it in the classroom. Just read the articles and give a quiz. We dont get anything accomplished in the computer lab. They just want to play around. Its so frustrating!
My last class was good. I only had one student. This is the same student who will not do a thing in the computer class. When he's in the speaking/writing class he is like an angel. Its night and day. He's good when he is by himself. I gave him his writing test and his speaking test. We were done with both of those within 15 minutes. I prepared a Thanksgiving lesson as a backup for my classes if tests were too short. I used the lesson for him. We went over it and he filled in the answers to a worksheet I gave him. He did a good job. Then he wanted to play a game. He wanted to play bingo with x and o. I think it was like tic tac toe on a bigger scale. I didn't know what the point of the game was. I showed him tic tac toe and neither one of us won. Then we played the game where you start a word with the last letter of the previous word. That went very well.
I can't find the episode of "Ugly Betty" that was shown on Friday night. Why? I'm caught up on all my other shows.
95 days.......
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Day 341
Monday November 23
I had an extremely easy day today. Only 2 classes!!
My first class was good. I gave them their online newspaper quiz and well most of them cheated. Oh well. Its not for a grade anyway. I just want to see if they were paying attention during that class. Then I gave them their speaking test. The boy asked to be first. Then he picked the order that everyone else would go in. They all did really well on their speaking test. I gave one girl a 100. She did an execellent job. She used correct grammar and complete sentences. The lowest grade was only a 93 so they all did fantastic. All we did in class was the speaking test.
No one showed up for my 2nd class so I didn't have to teach. I used that time to make one of my writing tests for tomorrow. I also made the online newspaper class work for tomorrow. I could have been more productive, but I just didn't want to.
I also didn't have to go to my next class. The pre middle school students were having their monthly tests.
My last class was pretty good. First, I gave them a spelling test. They were constantly trying to cheat and calling out the spellings to the words but still no one got over a 56. One student had his book open to the words and his book was laying on the floor. I saw him look down after the first word and I put his book on another desk. The highest average in the class for the month was a 56. Thats pathetic. I wish they did better but I can't force them to study. I've done all that I can do. They had good behavior in class today. I didn't let them play a game because we played games twice last week. We only covered one page in class. I just don't know where time goes. They go to HomePlus before class so some students are 5 mins late. I lose 5 mins there. Then I give them time to study so I lose more time. Then they are doing their work too slow. oh well. I told them if they are good and study hard on Wednesday I'll let them play a game. They love saying "Son of a bitch" even though they have no idea what it means besides "dog baby".haha. They wanted me to speak more curse words but I wasn't going to. One boy is always asking me how to spell shut up. I finally just told him how to spell it. Its easy enough he could have figured it out on his own. I wrote it on the board and he took a picture of it with his cell phone. He has a nice touch screen phone. Its funny. 12 year old boys have nicer phones than me!
I've still got to make 3 more writing tests. I hate making tests!!
I had an extremely easy day today. Only 2 classes!!
My first class was good. I gave them their online newspaper quiz and well most of them cheated. Oh well. Its not for a grade anyway. I just want to see if they were paying attention during that class. Then I gave them their speaking test. The boy asked to be first. Then he picked the order that everyone else would go in. They all did really well on their speaking test. I gave one girl a 100. She did an execellent job. She used correct grammar and complete sentences. The lowest grade was only a 93 so they all did fantastic. All we did in class was the speaking test.
No one showed up for my 2nd class so I didn't have to teach. I used that time to make one of my writing tests for tomorrow. I also made the online newspaper class work for tomorrow. I could have been more productive, but I just didn't want to.
I also didn't have to go to my next class. The pre middle school students were having their monthly tests.
My last class was pretty good. First, I gave them a spelling test. They were constantly trying to cheat and calling out the spellings to the words but still no one got over a 56. One student had his book open to the words and his book was laying on the floor. I saw him look down after the first word and I put his book on another desk. The highest average in the class for the month was a 56. Thats pathetic. I wish they did better but I can't force them to study. I've done all that I can do. They had good behavior in class today. I didn't let them play a game because we played games twice last week. We only covered one page in class. I just don't know where time goes. They go to HomePlus before class so some students are 5 mins late. I lose 5 mins there. Then I give them time to study so I lose more time. Then they are doing their work too slow. oh well. I told them if they are good and study hard on Wednesday I'll let them play a game. They love saying "Son of a bitch" even though they have no idea what it means besides "dog baby".haha. They wanted me to speak more curse words but I wasn't going to. One boy is always asking me how to spell shut up. I finally just told him how to spell it. Its easy enough he could have figured it out on his own. I wrote it on the board and he took a picture of it with his cell phone. He has a nice touch screen phone. Its funny. 12 year old boys have nicer phones than me!
I've still got to make 3 more writing tests. I hate making tests!!
Monday, November 23, 2009
I miss singing....
I heard that the show "Glee" was really good. I downloaded it and now I'm hooked. I've watched all 10 episodes that have aired so far (in the past 3 days!).
The story is about a glee club at a high school.
I was in a show choir in high school, but mine wasn't nearly as fun as this show. I enjoyed choir in high school. We never did anything highly modern or had any great choreography. We never even had competitions to attend. Choir was my life and it helped me develop the biggest passion in my life: music.
I miss it now. I miss being able to have a group to sing with. Show choir is over after high school. Not that I want to be in show choir anymore, but I want somewhere to use my talents. I know I used them in church choir, but I want to use them more at the professional level and on an international level. I don't want to just be a voice lost somewhere among 100 other singers.
I want to be a professional singer. I want to be sharing my love for singing with the world. I want to open for big acts. I want to be on Ellen, Tyra, and Oprah before she goes off the air.
Music isn't an easy field to get into though. You have to know the right people. You have to make a demo and make sure it gets into someone's hands that will actually listen. Record companies probably get thousands of demos everyday and most of them probably get thrown in the trash. I need more voice lessons. I want to train with the best, but training with the best costs lots of money. Money that I don't have.
How do I get my big break?
I'd love to sing in a band. I could have a solo career but I think I'd like having others to sing with. I think 2 guys and 2 girls would be ideal. Plus electric guitar, drums, keyboard, and maybe something interesting like a violin. I'd love to sing pop and easy listening. Something along the lines of Celine Dion. If I had a solo career I'd love to be as successful as her. I'd love to sing a duet with Josh Groban.
How do I get to that point? I feel like I need this giant voice, but I don't have it. I can sing, but no where near as good as my "idols." How do I get people to like me and buy my albums? I don't write songs so where would I get my material to sing? I'd love to have a song written by Diane Warren or a ton of songs. Every song she writes becomes a hit.
It all seems so unattainable. I don't think anyone believes that I can actually do it. I want to believe that I can be a successful singer, but I don't know how to go about it.
I just want to sing!! I don't want some job that I'm going to complain about all my life and barely pay the bills.
The story is about a glee club at a high school.
I was in a show choir in high school, but mine wasn't nearly as fun as this show. I enjoyed choir in high school. We never did anything highly modern or had any great choreography. We never even had competitions to attend. Choir was my life and it helped me develop the biggest passion in my life: music.
I miss it now. I miss being able to have a group to sing with. Show choir is over after high school. Not that I want to be in show choir anymore, but I want somewhere to use my talents. I know I used them in church choir, but I want to use them more at the professional level and on an international level. I don't want to just be a voice lost somewhere among 100 other singers.
I want to be a professional singer. I want to be sharing my love for singing with the world. I want to open for big acts. I want to be on Ellen, Tyra, and Oprah before she goes off the air.
Music isn't an easy field to get into though. You have to know the right people. You have to make a demo and make sure it gets into someone's hands that will actually listen. Record companies probably get thousands of demos everyday and most of them probably get thrown in the trash. I need more voice lessons. I want to train with the best, but training with the best costs lots of money. Money that I don't have.
How do I get my big break?
I'd love to sing in a band. I could have a solo career but I think I'd like having others to sing with. I think 2 guys and 2 girls would be ideal. Plus electric guitar, drums, keyboard, and maybe something interesting like a violin. I'd love to sing pop and easy listening. Something along the lines of Celine Dion. If I had a solo career I'd love to be as successful as her. I'd love to sing a duet with Josh Groban.
How do I get to that point? I feel like I need this giant voice, but I don't have it. I can sing, but no where near as good as my "idols." How do I get people to like me and buy my albums? I don't write songs so where would I get my material to sing? I'd love to have a song written by Diane Warren or a ton of songs. Every song she writes becomes a hit.
It all seems so unattainable. I don't think anyone believes that I can actually do it. I want to believe that I can be a successful singer, but I don't know how to go about it.
I just want to sing!! I don't want some job that I'm going to complain about all my life and barely pay the bills.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Day 340....Seoul Racecourse Park
Sunday November 22
Well I was planning on going to the science museum this morning. They were meeting at 9:30am. I got up at 7:30am and decided I needed more sleep so I logged into meetup and changed my RSVP to 'no' 2 hrs before the event.ha. I was still going to my 2nd meetup of the day.
**If you ever live in South Korea I recommend joining the Travel and Culture group on meetup.com. Here's the web address: http://travel.meetup.com/715/
Its free to join. The group just hit 1000 members this week. The organizer is a cool guy. He's a Korean who grew up in the USA so he's fluent in English. He plans a lot of meetups. I just started going to meetups after being here for 11 months. I wish I would have joined sooner!! Its a great way to see Korea and meet tons of cool new people.***
I woke up at 11am. I went to the meetup at the seoul racecourse at 1pm. There were 6 of us there at first. I met a guy from Jacksonville, Florida who had actually heard of Jefferson. haha. I know people in SC who have never heard of it!! I also met a girl from Asheville, NC. I got to meet new people since the organizer was the only person I knew. More people started showing up later. I think we had about 20-30 in the end. Mostly Americans. There were 3 Koreans who came-2 of them were Korean Americans. I'm not sure about the other one.
We got to sit in the foreigners lounge inside of "Luckyville".haha. Wow. I didn't know that horse racing was such a popular sport in South Korea. That place was packed! It was hard to get around because there were so many people. Its mostly middle aged Korean men. They really get into it. They are all standing around reading the stats and the odds and there are tons of betting machines where you can place your bet. Some of the people in our group said they saw Koreans betting 100,000 won (about $90) on one horse! wow. I wonder how many people there have serious gambling problems!
Our group was making small bets anywhere from 100 won to 10,000 won. They were reading the stats and the odds to see which one they should bet on. Most people were losing. One girl won 28,000 won (about $25).
We sat in the lounge for most of the races. We went down to the track to watch one race. We went down the paddock to see them show off the horses before the race. They just walk the horses around a circle to let everyone see them.
There are a lot of races during the day. I think we watched about 6 races. They only race once around the track anywhere from 1100 meters to 1900 meters. There is a 30-1hr break between the races. Thats when everyone is watching the stats and making their bets.
We ate in between races where there was a big gap before the next race. We went down to a Korean restaurant. I finally tried bimbimbap (비빔밥). I scooped out the gochujang(chili pepper paste). It was actually pretty good.
The word literally means "mixed rice." Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating.It can be served either cold or hot
Most of the group left around 5:30. I decided to stay to watch the last race at 5:55pm. I should have gotten out before the major rush!! I actually made a bet on the last race. I chose the horse with the best record to win and just a random horse to place. I only bet 2000 won (about $1.50). My horses lost! There were 8 horses and mine didn't even place in the top 5. oh well. I just didn't bet because I don't like throwing money away and I don't have any strategy to pick the best horse.
The races were over at 6pm. It was really crowded trying to get out. There were so many people. When we got down the subway station entrance it was chaos. Everyone was packed like sardines and we were being pushed along by the crowd. Then the subway was crowded too. Barely enough room to move!
I had a good time and it was an interesting thing to experience. Will I do it again? Probably not.
_____________________________________
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| Seoul Racecourse |
Well I was planning on going to the science museum this morning. They were meeting at 9:30am. I got up at 7:30am and decided I needed more sleep so I logged into meetup and changed my RSVP to 'no' 2 hrs before the event.ha. I was still going to my 2nd meetup of the day.
**If you ever live in South Korea I recommend joining the Travel and Culture group on meetup.com. Here's the web address: http://travel.meetup.com/715/
Its free to join. The group just hit 1000 members this week. The organizer is a cool guy. He's a Korean who grew up in the USA so he's fluent in English. He plans a lot of meetups. I just started going to meetups after being here for 11 months. I wish I would have joined sooner!! Its a great way to see Korea and meet tons of cool new people.***
I woke up at 11am. I went to the meetup at the seoul racecourse at 1pm. There were 6 of us there at first. I met a guy from Jacksonville, Florida who had actually heard of Jefferson. haha. I know people in SC who have never heard of it!! I also met a girl from Asheville, NC. I got to meet new people since the organizer was the only person I knew. More people started showing up later. I think we had about 20-30 in the end. Mostly Americans. There were 3 Koreans who came-2 of them were Korean Americans. I'm not sure about the other one.
We got to sit in the foreigners lounge inside of "Luckyville".haha. Wow. I didn't know that horse racing was such a popular sport in South Korea. That place was packed! It was hard to get around because there were so many people. Its mostly middle aged Korean men. They really get into it. They are all standing around reading the stats and the odds and there are tons of betting machines where you can place your bet. Some of the people in our group said they saw Koreans betting 100,000 won (about $90) on one horse! wow. I wonder how many people there have serious gambling problems!
Our group was making small bets anywhere from 100 won to 10,000 won. They were reading the stats and the odds to see which one they should bet on. Most people were losing. One girl won 28,000 won (about $25).
We sat in the lounge for most of the races. We went down to the track to watch one race. We went down the paddock to see them show off the horses before the race. They just walk the horses around a circle to let everyone see them.
There are a lot of races during the day. I think we watched about 6 races. They only race once around the track anywhere from 1100 meters to 1900 meters. There is a 30-1hr break between the races. Thats when everyone is watching the stats and making their bets.
We ate in between races where there was a big gap before the next race. We went down to a Korean restaurant. I finally tried bimbimbap (비빔밥). I scooped out the gochujang(chili pepper paste). It was actually pretty good.
The word literally means "mixed rice." Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating.It can be served either cold or hot
Most of the group left around 5:30. I decided to stay to watch the last race at 5:55pm. I should have gotten out before the major rush!! I actually made a bet on the last race. I chose the horse with the best record to win and just a random horse to place. I only bet 2000 won (about $1.50). My horses lost! There were 8 horses and mine didn't even place in the top 5. oh well. I just didn't bet because I don't like throwing money away and I don't have any strategy to pick the best horse.
The races were over at 6pm. It was really crowded trying to get out. There were so many people. When we got down the subway station entrance it was chaos. Everyone was packed like sardines and we were being pushed along by the crowd. Then the subway was crowded too. Barely enough room to move!
I had a good time and it was an interesting thing to experience. Will I do it again? Probably not.
_____________________________________
How to get there: Line 4 Seoul Racecourse park Exit 2
Entrance Fee: 800 won (less than $1.00..very cheap!)
Notes: There is a “Foreigner’s Lounge” on the fourth floor of Luckyville which provides a great view over the entire course and has an information desk with English language race-cards and guides on how to bet as well as extremely friendly and helpful staff.
No alcohol or smoking allowed inside.
Entrance Fee: 800 won (less than $1.00..very cheap!)
Notes: There is a “Foreigner’s Lounge” on the fourth floor of Luckyville which provides a great view over the entire course and has an information desk with English language race-cards and guides on how to bet as well as extremely friendly and helpful staff.
No alcohol or smoking allowed inside.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Day 339
Saturday November 21
Pictures (click on the album to view)...a few of them are videos...
A girl from the meetup group wanted to meet me today so we met and went to Insadong. We were going to meet at 2pm but she called me at 1pm and said she was already at the station that we were going to meet at. It was her first subway trip so she wasn't familiar with how long it would take so she left super early. I was already ready so I got on the subway and it took me 30 mins to get there. We just walked around and did some eyeshopping. We also stopped at a cafe called "Hue" and had a little snack. She's a nice girl. She wants to hangout so I'll have someone to hangout with some time. She's only been in SK for 3 months so she hasn't seen much. Today was her first time going to Insadong. We hungout maybe 2 hours.
She wanted to get back to her place before dark. I wasn't ready to go home yet. I went with her to the subway and helped her with finding ticket machines and making sure she got on the train going in the right direction. Then I headed back out because I was going to take the bus home.
I went down to the stream and took some more pictures. They extended the lantern festival so I got some more pictures. I was going to get the bus to lotte department store but I found it while I was walking around. I took pictures and videos of all the extravangant decorations. They had lights that covered the whole store. There were also lights all over the trees and bushes. It was nice.
Then I decided to go inside Lotte Dept store looking for the food court. I rode the escalator up to the 12th floor. While I was there I picked up a map and found out that the food court was on B1 so I took the elevator to the 1st floor and then the escalator to B1. It was very crowded today. I like their food court. You can walk around to each station that sells various kinds of food to see what they offer. Each station has a number and each dish has a number. I chose station 7 and dish number 2 which was a pork cutlet and a rice omlette for 6,500 won ($5.50). Then you go to the cashier and tell them what you want to order and pay. Then you wait for your number to show up on the monitor then you can go to that station and pick up your food. THe food court was packed. I finally found a seat. My meal was delicious! I really like the rice omlette. Its only a 30 minute ride on the bus to get there so I may go more often to the food court and try other things. Then I caught the bus home.
Pictures (click on the album to view)...a few of them are videos...
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| Seoul Lantern Festival 2 |
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| Christmas decorations in Seoul |
A girl from the meetup group wanted to meet me today so we met and went to Insadong. We were going to meet at 2pm but she called me at 1pm and said she was already at the station that we were going to meet at. It was her first subway trip so she wasn't familiar with how long it would take so she left super early. I was already ready so I got on the subway and it took me 30 mins to get there. We just walked around and did some eyeshopping. We also stopped at a cafe called "Hue" and had a little snack. She's a nice girl. She wants to hangout so I'll have someone to hangout with some time. She's only been in SK for 3 months so she hasn't seen much. Today was her first time going to Insadong. We hungout maybe 2 hours.
She wanted to get back to her place before dark. I wasn't ready to go home yet. I went with her to the subway and helped her with finding ticket machines and making sure she got on the train going in the right direction. Then I headed back out because I was going to take the bus home.
I went down to the stream and took some more pictures. They extended the lantern festival so I got some more pictures. I was going to get the bus to lotte department store but I found it while I was walking around. I took pictures and videos of all the extravangant decorations. They had lights that covered the whole store. There were also lights all over the trees and bushes. It was nice.
Then I decided to go inside Lotte Dept store looking for the food court. I rode the escalator up to the 12th floor. While I was there I picked up a map and found out that the food court was on B1 so I took the elevator to the 1st floor and then the escalator to B1. It was very crowded today. I like their food court. You can walk around to each station that sells various kinds of food to see what they offer. Each station has a number and each dish has a number. I chose station 7 and dish number 2 which was a pork cutlet and a rice omlette for 6,500 won ($5.50). Then you go to the cashier and tell them what you want to order and pay. Then you wait for your number to show up on the monitor then you can go to that station and pick up your food. THe food court was packed. I finally found a seat. My meal was delicious! I really like the rice omlette. Its only a 30 minute ride on the bus to get there so I may go more often to the food court and try other things. Then I caught the bus home.
Day 338.....100 days to go
Friday November 20
I'm down to 100 days....double digits are heading my way!
My neighbor moved out of his office today. They were clearing out the room when I was heading out. He was a middle aged soccer coach and his office was the room next to mine. Wonder when I'll get a new neighbor. Hopefully its a good neighbor. My floor is super quiet. I barely even see my neighbors. There was an office to the left and to the right of me. The rest of my neighbors are quiet and I know there are 2 young children who live on this floor. I'm surprised they don't run around in the hall.
Well today was a very easy day. I had too much free time. Is that possible?
Hmm so when did I have free time today? 2-4pm, 5-7pm, 8-9 pm. I only taught 2 50 minute classes. One was just a computer class so I didn't really teach in there.
I'm all for free time, but I just didn't know what to do to fill that time. I was looking at websites, playing games and I watched last night's episode of "The Office". I could have been making tests for next week, but I didn't really feel like doing "real" work. I did get one of them done. I have 3 more to make.
You know, its going to be hard to go back to America and get a 'real' job where I don't have massive amounts of free time where I can do as I please. I sit at my computer and surf the internet and nobody cares. I come and go as I please. I leave school to go out to lunch and supper some days.
My first class was good. I had 6 students in the computer lab. They all did their work and paced themselves where they didn't finish too early. It was actually a good class.
I usually have another class after that in the computer lab, but no students showed up so I had free time.
My last class was pretty good. They were being good in class today. They were participating and trying to get the right answers. 3 of them did really well on their newspaper test. I gave them all 2 stickers for being good. I let them play a game today. We got to a stopping point and they were begging for a game so they played a game for a few minutes. They were getting a little loud at times. I told them if they want more game time they have to be quieter.
______________________________________________
I heard that Oprah is ending her show. Her last show will be in 2011. That's crazy. I'll never get my chance to be on the Oprah show. Once you are on Oprah your career skyrockets. My career will just have to get going without her help!
I need to make a demo. At least now I'd have the money to be able to do one, but what are the chances that someone would actually listen to it?
I heard people saying that a show called "Glee" was good. It premiered while I was in South Korea so I hadn't seen it. I downloaded episodes. I'll have to say I am hooked. In the past 2 days I have watched the first 5 episodes and I can't wait to download more.
I use a program called Graboid and its worth the $30 a month for 500GB of bandwidth. Its awesome! Its more bandwidth than I need, but I can basically download as much as I want. I'm catching up on everything that I'm missing. I've watched tons of TV shows and movies. I'm caught up on all of my TV shows and I can't stand waiting a week to see the next episode!
I'm down to 100 days....double digits are heading my way!
My neighbor moved out of his office today. They were clearing out the room when I was heading out. He was a middle aged soccer coach and his office was the room next to mine. Wonder when I'll get a new neighbor. Hopefully its a good neighbor. My floor is super quiet. I barely even see my neighbors. There was an office to the left and to the right of me. The rest of my neighbors are quiet and I know there are 2 young children who live on this floor. I'm surprised they don't run around in the hall.
Well today was a very easy day. I had too much free time. Is that possible?
Hmm so when did I have free time today? 2-4pm, 5-7pm, 8-9 pm. I only taught 2 50 minute classes. One was just a computer class so I didn't really teach in there.
I'm all for free time, but I just didn't know what to do to fill that time. I was looking at websites, playing games and I watched last night's episode of "The Office". I could have been making tests for next week, but I didn't really feel like doing "real" work. I did get one of them done. I have 3 more to make.
You know, its going to be hard to go back to America and get a 'real' job where I don't have massive amounts of free time where I can do as I please. I sit at my computer and surf the internet and nobody cares. I come and go as I please. I leave school to go out to lunch and supper some days.
My first class was good. I had 6 students in the computer lab. They all did their work and paced themselves where they didn't finish too early. It was actually a good class.
I usually have another class after that in the computer lab, but no students showed up so I had free time.
My last class was pretty good. They were being good in class today. They were participating and trying to get the right answers. 3 of them did really well on their newspaper test. I gave them all 2 stickers for being good. I let them play a game today. We got to a stopping point and they were begging for a game so they played a game for a few minutes. They were getting a little loud at times. I told them if they want more game time they have to be quieter.
______________________________________________
I heard that Oprah is ending her show. Her last show will be in 2011. That's crazy. I'll never get my chance to be on the Oprah show. Once you are on Oprah your career skyrockets. My career will just have to get going without her help!
I need to make a demo. At least now I'd have the money to be able to do one, but what are the chances that someone would actually listen to it?
I heard people saying that a show called "Glee" was good. It premiered while I was in South Korea so I hadn't seen it. I downloaded episodes. I'll have to say I am hooked. In the past 2 days I have watched the first 5 episodes and I can't wait to download more.
I use a program called Graboid and its worth the $30 a month for 500GB of bandwidth. Its awesome! Its more bandwidth than I need, but I can basically download as much as I want. I'm catching up on everything that I'm missing. I've watched tons of TV shows and movies. I'm caught up on all of my TV shows and I can't stand waiting a week to see the next episode!
Friday, November 20, 2009
more Korean pop....I love Korean Pop!
Music that I like at the moment (names are under the video):
Big Bang "let me hear your voice"
Big Bang "Hallelujah"
2PM "heartbeat"
SS501 "Love Like This"
SS501 "The One". I love the pink coat and white pants. I think its a great look. Why should men be afraid of pink? Korean guys wear it all the time!
Super Junior "It's You" (I really like super junior..I just bought their new album on ebay!)
Big Bang "let me hear your voice"
Big Bang "Hallelujah"
2PM "heartbeat"
SS501 "Love Like This"
SS501 "The One". I love the pink coat and white pants. I think its a great look. Why should men be afraid of pink? Korean guys wear it all the time!
Super Junior "It's You" (I really like super junior..I just bought their new album on ebay!)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Day 337
Thursday November 19
Weather: cold..currently 33 degrees at 10:28 PM.....it was in the low 40's around 2pm and overnight its usually in the high 20's...
I always end up getting my room too hot. I turn on my ondol (the heat comes from the floor) for a few hours and let it get toasty and then I turn it off. Most of the time it gets so hot that I have to turn the AC on to cool it down enough where I can go to sleep. I don't even need anything running overnight. The ondol is a really efficent way to heat the room and it doesn't take long to warm up.
Exchange Rate: 1166 krw = $1 USD
I was all dressed up today. They asked me to look nice since they were having parent meeting. I wore a red velvety dress and I wore my hair down.
I didn't actually see any of the parents. I guess I was dressed up in case they happened to see me. I was in class all day. Thursdays are busy. 5 classes.
My first class was pretty good. One student who has been absent for 2 1/2 weeks finally came back. She didn't bring her book so I had to make her a copy. They liked to interrupt me today with unimportant things. We were in the middle of the lesson and they tell me that I look like a cherry and I look like a character from a game called Maple Story. The character is a cute chubby cat. haha. These kids are funny. Then when I asked them to read and repeat after me they were sticking their tongues out as they read and you couldn't understand what they were saying. I accidentally called one girl by her old name. Her name now is Olivia but last semester she was Jessica.haha. Today we talked about how to paragraphs and main idea.
My 2nd class was good. We went over homophones, thank you letters, and using shape, color and size words. After we finished they were asking for free time, but I spent the time reviewing for the test on Tuesday. They did good on the review. I expect them to do well on the writing test.
The lab class was okay. One of the students left right as class began. He said his mom told him to come home. So then I had 3 girls in the class. They were doing their work and when I sat down and turned my back they started trying to go to different websites so I had to start watching them again. You try to give them your trust but they don't earn it. Soon as you arent looking they are doing what they know they shouldn't be doing.
My class on Thursday is the worst conversation class. I basically talk for the sake of hearing myself talk I think. Only 1 or 2 people actually pay attention. One of my brightest students is in that class and he was so good last semester but when you put him with his friends he wants to goof off. I have 4 unruly boys who don't pay attention. They are constantly playing with their cell phones. Today they were playing games and taking photos and videos. I constanly tell them to put away their phones but they wont. They recorded me talking on their phone and they were replaying in it class. They think its funny when I tell them to pay attention and be quiet. They mock me all the time. Then one of the girls is always reading a comic book under her desk. Most of the class practiced their conversation with a partner. the boys rushed through it. The only one that I know did it exactly right was my partner. I have to be someone's partner because the numbers are uneven. I have to suffer through one more class!
I only had one student in my last class. The boy was absent because he's sick. We actually got a lot done today. When there is only one student I can get a lot accomplished. We covered 11 pages. I'm never able to cover that much in my other classes just because you have to wait for those who don't understand and explain it more. This student actually did pretty good understanding everything.
I finally found out why there are dates missing from my lesson plans. I have to give some sort of foreign test next week. Maybe its a level test. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing. Maybe they'll tell me in advance. I doubt it. I'll probably learn what I'm actually doing on the day of. Whatever.
Tomorrow will be an easy day. I have 2 classes in the lab and my spelling class.
Weather: cold..currently 33 degrees at 10:28 PM.....it was in the low 40's around 2pm and overnight its usually in the high 20's...
I always end up getting my room too hot. I turn on my ondol (the heat comes from the floor) for a few hours and let it get toasty and then I turn it off. Most of the time it gets so hot that I have to turn the AC on to cool it down enough where I can go to sleep. I don't even need anything running overnight. The ondol is a really efficent way to heat the room and it doesn't take long to warm up.
Exchange Rate: 1166 krw = $1 USD
I was all dressed up today. They asked me to look nice since they were having parent meeting. I wore a red velvety dress and I wore my hair down.
I didn't actually see any of the parents. I guess I was dressed up in case they happened to see me. I was in class all day. Thursdays are busy. 5 classes.
My first class was pretty good. One student who has been absent for 2 1/2 weeks finally came back. She didn't bring her book so I had to make her a copy. They liked to interrupt me today with unimportant things. We were in the middle of the lesson and they tell me that I look like a cherry and I look like a character from a game called Maple Story. The character is a cute chubby cat. haha. These kids are funny. Then when I asked them to read and repeat after me they were sticking their tongues out as they read and you couldn't understand what they were saying. I accidentally called one girl by her old name. Her name now is Olivia but last semester she was Jessica.haha. Today we talked about how to paragraphs and main idea.
My 2nd class was good. We went over homophones, thank you letters, and using shape, color and size words. After we finished they were asking for free time, but I spent the time reviewing for the test on Tuesday. They did good on the review. I expect them to do well on the writing test.
The lab class was okay. One of the students left right as class began. He said his mom told him to come home. So then I had 3 girls in the class. They were doing their work and when I sat down and turned my back they started trying to go to different websites so I had to start watching them again. You try to give them your trust but they don't earn it. Soon as you arent looking they are doing what they know they shouldn't be doing.
My class on Thursday is the worst conversation class. I basically talk for the sake of hearing myself talk I think. Only 1 or 2 people actually pay attention. One of my brightest students is in that class and he was so good last semester but when you put him with his friends he wants to goof off. I have 4 unruly boys who don't pay attention. They are constantly playing with their cell phones. Today they were playing games and taking photos and videos. I constanly tell them to put away their phones but they wont. They recorded me talking on their phone and they were replaying in it class. They think its funny when I tell them to pay attention and be quiet. They mock me all the time. Then one of the girls is always reading a comic book under her desk. Most of the class practiced their conversation with a partner. the boys rushed through it. The only one that I know did it exactly right was my partner. I have to be someone's partner because the numbers are uneven. I have to suffer through one more class!
I only had one student in my last class. The boy was absent because he's sick. We actually got a lot done today. When there is only one student I can get a lot accomplished. We covered 11 pages. I'm never able to cover that much in my other classes just because you have to wait for those who don't understand and explain it more. This student actually did pretty good understanding everything.
I finally found out why there are dates missing from my lesson plans. I have to give some sort of foreign test next week. Maybe its a level test. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing. Maybe they'll tell me in advance. I doubt it. I'll probably learn what I'm actually doing on the day of. Whatever.
Tomorrow will be an easy day. I have 2 classes in the lab and my spelling class.
H1N1 death total up to 82 in South Korea
18 More People Die From New Flu
Eighteen more people have died in South Korea from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, raising the country's total death toll from the new flu to 82, according to health authorities Wednesday.
An 11-year-old girl and a 42-year-old man died after being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, officials from the central disaster relief headquarters said. Both of them were not classified as being in the high-risk category and were given anti-viral medication.
Sixteen others, including a 34-year-old man who had a previous illness, were classified as high-risk patients.
Out of the 82 who died from new flu, 69 patients were classified as high-risk and 13 others were not.
Nevertheless, flu infections and deaths have been on a decrease.
The number of flu deaths hit a climax with 24 in the Oct. 25-31 week but the figure fell to 19 in the Nov. 1-7 week, 16 in the Nov. 8-14 week. There was none since Nov. 15.
Eighteen more people have died in South Korea from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, raising the country's total death toll from the new flu to 82, according to health authorities Wednesday.
An 11-year-old girl and a 42-year-old man died after being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, officials from the central disaster relief headquarters said. Both of them were not classified as being in the high-risk category and were given anti-viral medication.
Sixteen others, including a 34-year-old man who had a previous illness, were classified as high-risk patients.
Out of the 82 who died from new flu, 69 patients were classified as high-risk and 13 others were not.
Nevertheless, flu infections and deaths have been on a decrease.
The number of flu deaths hit a climax with 24 in the Oct. 25-31 week but the figure fell to 19 in the Nov. 1-7 week, 16 in the Nov. 8-14 week. There was none since Nov. 15.
Day 336
Wednesday November 18
I've been here 48 weeks today. 4 more and it will be a year! I only have 102 days left! Its getting down to less than 100! 3 1/2 months!
Well today was pretty good
My first class was good. I had 5 students. We went over a writing unit on exact words and sentence types. The sentence types was easy and they caught on quick. Using exact words was a little harder so I basically just gave them the answers to that.
My 2nd class was too short. I'm following the lesson plan which is so stupid. How can I make 2 pages last 50 minutes? Today I only had to do one short lesson. I only had one student today. We finished very quickly since the material was so easy. Today we were talking about titles (Mr. Dr. Ms.) and Interviews. When we got finished with the lesson he wanted to do a puzzle. He wanted to go home early. I'm afraid to let the students go home early. What will they think if I come and sit at my desk a long time before class is suppose to be over. They will think I'm not doing my job. I asked the student if he wanted to play a game or review for the test but he didnt want to. I didn't know what to do. How do I entertain a 12 year old boy? Basically he was just wasting time doing nothing. I should have started reviewing after the lesson. I let him leave 5 minutes early.
My conversation class was pretty decent. I had one new student today. Our lesson today was "Could you help me?" I chose a lesson that I thought would be beneficial on how to ask for help. The boys like to goof off during class. They talk and play around. One of the boys was putting paper in his mouth and spitting it at another boy and he got up and moved. One of the boys was making me laugh when I was trying to get the students to repeat after me. We were reading the conversation and he'd read everything, even the period and the comma. like "yes comma I'd love to period" He's always been the class clown in every class I've had him in. The girls were being good. They are really quiet and they participate. The boys don't like to practice conversation. One of the boys wanted to change his name again. I told him it better not be anything bad. He changed it to superman. I always think its funny when the guys forget what they chose as their name. One guy changed his name to "13" so i called him 13 and it took him a while to respond. I told him that he wrote 13 on my name sheet. At least this conversation class is better than the other 2. 80% of this class actually tries to understand the material.
Oh my. I finally had a good class with my lowest level in the computer lab. I had to bribe them. I told them that if they were really good I'd give them 2 stickers. It worked. They were doing their work and not trying to look at other sites. They were actually searching for the answers to their worksheet and got all the answers right. It was a great day! I didn't have to beg or yell. I gave them all 2 stickers. They even got finished early. Most of the time they mess around and don't get finished. Maybe if I keep bribing them with stickers they will finally learn to behave. You gotta do what works!
I've been here 48 weeks today. 4 more and it will be a year! I only have 102 days left! Its getting down to less than 100! 3 1/2 months!
Well today was pretty good
My first class was good. I had 5 students. We went over a writing unit on exact words and sentence types. The sentence types was easy and they caught on quick. Using exact words was a little harder so I basically just gave them the answers to that.
My 2nd class was too short. I'm following the lesson plan which is so stupid. How can I make 2 pages last 50 minutes? Today I only had to do one short lesson. I only had one student today. We finished very quickly since the material was so easy. Today we were talking about titles (Mr. Dr. Ms.) and Interviews. When we got finished with the lesson he wanted to do a puzzle. He wanted to go home early. I'm afraid to let the students go home early. What will they think if I come and sit at my desk a long time before class is suppose to be over. They will think I'm not doing my job. I asked the student if he wanted to play a game or review for the test but he didnt want to. I didn't know what to do. How do I entertain a 12 year old boy? Basically he was just wasting time doing nothing. I should have started reviewing after the lesson. I let him leave 5 minutes early.
My conversation class was pretty decent. I had one new student today. Our lesson today was "Could you help me?" I chose a lesson that I thought would be beneficial on how to ask for help. The boys like to goof off during class. They talk and play around. One of the boys was putting paper in his mouth and spitting it at another boy and he got up and moved. One of the boys was making me laugh when I was trying to get the students to repeat after me. We were reading the conversation and he'd read everything, even the period and the comma. like "yes comma I'd love to period" He's always been the class clown in every class I've had him in. The girls were being good. They are really quiet and they participate. The boys don't like to practice conversation. One of the boys wanted to change his name again. I told him it better not be anything bad. He changed it to superman. I always think its funny when the guys forget what they chose as their name. One guy changed his name to "13" so i called him 13 and it took him a while to respond. I told him that he wrote 13 on my name sheet. At least this conversation class is better than the other 2. 80% of this class actually tries to understand the material.
Oh my. I finally had a good class with my lowest level in the computer lab. I had to bribe them. I told them that if they were really good I'd give them 2 stickers. It worked. They were doing their work and not trying to look at other sites. They were actually searching for the answers to their worksheet and got all the answers right. It was a great day! I didn't have to beg or yell. I gave them all 2 stickers. They even got finished early. Most of the time they mess around and don't get finished. Maybe if I keep bribing them with stickers they will finally learn to behave. You gotta do what works!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Day 335
Tuesday November 17
I'm down to 104 days. Its getting closer and closer. Which brings up a mixture of feelings. I'm ready to go to America to see all the things I've missed: friends, family, fmcog, taco bell, chick fila, walmart, jack in the box, chilis, applebees. I could go on forever. Part of me is sad because I'll be leaving all the friends I've made here. Plus I'm going back to a stagnent econonmy. Thats going to be rough. I'm living the life of luxury here. My housing is provided. I send half of my salary home and I still spend a lot without even making a budget. I'm going to go home in March and go back to being dirt poor and probably settling for a minimum wage job so I can barely pay back the student loans for a degree thats pretty much useless. I'm going to be living with my parents and driving a 1997 car for the rest of my life. Oh and I'll probably be single forever. That's my fear.
My first class was good. I had 2 students. We covered 2 lessons on "what does it mean" and "idioms". We had a good class. Very short. It didn't take long to cover those 2 lessons. They I helped them with their homework and they had free time. They worked on homework for the Korean teacher's class.
My 2nd class was good. Both of my students were present. Today I had to give them a speaking test. I gave them time to study first. They were talking most of the time, but I didn't really mind since all we had to accomplish was the test. They did pretty good on the test. Some of their answers are silly and they don't speak in complete sentences. They made a 90 and 83. All we did for the whole class was taking a speaking test. What a waste of time!
My 3rd class was okay, but not good. We have the class in the computer lab. The boys like to talk a lot and try to look at other websites. They didn't even get halfway done. One of the boys is always a trouble maker. He won't ever do his work. Today he was playing around with something on the desktop. I kept telling him to do his work and he kept telling me to wait. Whatever they didn't finish in class they have to do for homework. I doubt they will do it. Oh well. I'm going to start counting the classwork as part of their grade, not that they care anyway. The girl was doing her work so she was the only person who got a sticker. I hate this class!! I may suggest that we don't do this class in the lab for next session. wonder how that would go if I asked.
In my 4th class I only had one student. One of the students went home because his brother had swine flu. I don't know if that was his decision to go home or if the school made him go home. The class was extremly short because I only had one student. We went over 3 lessons and still had a lot of time left over. She did a good job on the questions. We talked about "how to" and the zoo and traffic laws. Then I just let her draw on the board for a few minutes. I hate that my lessons are so short. I hope we are getting new books for the next 3 month session. We've gotten books every 3 months. And please let them be better than the crappy ones I have now!!
I'm down to 104 days. Its getting closer and closer. Which brings up a mixture of feelings. I'm ready to go to America to see all the things I've missed: friends, family, fmcog, taco bell, chick fila, walmart, jack in the box, chilis, applebees. I could go on forever. Part of me is sad because I'll be leaving all the friends I've made here. Plus I'm going back to a stagnent econonmy. Thats going to be rough. I'm living the life of luxury here. My housing is provided. I send half of my salary home and I still spend a lot without even making a budget. I'm going to go home in March and go back to being dirt poor and probably settling for a minimum wage job so I can barely pay back the student loans for a degree thats pretty much useless. I'm going to be living with my parents and driving a 1997 car for the rest of my life. Oh and I'll probably be single forever. That's my fear.
My first class was good. I had 2 students. We covered 2 lessons on "what does it mean" and "idioms". We had a good class. Very short. It didn't take long to cover those 2 lessons. They I helped them with their homework and they had free time. They worked on homework for the Korean teacher's class.
My 2nd class was good. Both of my students were present. Today I had to give them a speaking test. I gave them time to study first. They were talking most of the time, but I didn't really mind since all we had to accomplish was the test. They did pretty good on the test. Some of their answers are silly and they don't speak in complete sentences. They made a 90 and 83. All we did for the whole class was taking a speaking test. What a waste of time!
My 3rd class was okay, but not good. We have the class in the computer lab. The boys like to talk a lot and try to look at other websites. They didn't even get halfway done. One of the boys is always a trouble maker. He won't ever do his work. Today he was playing around with something on the desktop. I kept telling him to do his work and he kept telling me to wait. Whatever they didn't finish in class they have to do for homework. I doubt they will do it. Oh well. I'm going to start counting the classwork as part of their grade, not that they care anyway. The girl was doing her work so she was the only person who got a sticker. I hate this class!! I may suggest that we don't do this class in the lab for next session. wonder how that would go if I asked.
In my 4th class I only had one student. One of the students went home because his brother had swine flu. I don't know if that was his decision to go home or if the school made him go home. The class was extremly short because I only had one student. We went over 3 lessons and still had a lot of time left over. She did a good job on the questions. We talked about "how to" and the zoo and traffic laws. Then I just let her draw on the board for a few minutes. I hate that my lessons are so short. I hope we are getting new books for the next 3 month session. We've gotten books every 3 months. And please let them be better than the crappy ones I have now!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Day 334
Monday November 16
I finally changed my profile picture on facebook. Recently I'd been using old pictures because I never took a photo of myself that I liked. I took one today and I liked it.
I had a decent day today.
The Korean teacher told me that someone was coming to take photos of the kids today. I think she said its something for the parents.When it was time for the 1st class all the students were in one classroom. The photographer wanted to get them in some natural looking shots so the Korean teacher told me to start teaching the class so he could take pictures. I had to get copies for the 2 students who were in a different level. Then I started teaching and the photographer took a few pictures. Mostly of the kids, but a few of me. I wasn't looking at the camera. Then we took a group photo in front of the chalkboard. Then they wanted to go to the computer lab so we could take more pictures. We all went to the lab. They all sat down at the computers and he took a few pictures. He asked me to pretend like I was showing them something. So I pointed to the screen like I was showing the student to click on that link. Then that student needed help with the headphones so he took a pic of me putting headphones on the student. Then there was a shot of me and the girl looking at each other like she was asking me a question. Then there was a shot of a girl raising her hand to ask a question. THen we took a group photo in the middle of the lab. 2 of the students were beside me and i had my arms around their shoulders.
Then we went back to the classroom. Today in my first class we were talking about the zoo. They had some good answers and some silly ones. One question was "Do you think animals are happy at the zoo? why or why not?" A few students said that the animals are happy because they have free time, they don't have homework, and they get to eat and play. One student said they weren't happy because they were trapped in the zoo. I was going to cover 2 lessons today but with all the picture taking I didn't have time. I let the students have a few minutes of free time.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I only had 2 students today. We covered 2 lessons about "how" and "Why" questions. They begged not to study 2 lessons, but I'm trying to follow the lesson plan so we did it anyway.
My conversation class was hectic as usual. I was heading to my class and I looked in the classroom and saw all these students I didn't know. There was a note on the door saying to go to room 215. I had another new student today. I got him to write down his name. He wrote it in Korean and kinda sloppy so I couldn't read it. I asked him if he could spell out his name and he wouldnt. He doesnt have an English name. The boy beside him said his name was "Eric" so thats what I wrote down. I called him that name in class and he didn't know I was talking to him. Now I have a total of 16 students and they were all present. I only made 14 copies so I had to go make one more. (one student has a book) Today our topic was "What did you do yesterday" We were learning about past tense verbs. One student kept complaining about having a stomachache so he didn't really do anything in class. One student took a picture of me on her cell phone when I wasn't looking. She showed it to me at the end of class and said I was a model. haha. 3 girls in the back didn't pay attention in class. They were constantly playing on their cell phones and not doing their work. Then the girl who never does her work, didn't do her work either. So the 4 girls in the back didn't do their work. Not many people would practice speaking with their partners. Near the end of class they thought it would be funny to say the past tense of the verb when I said the present tense. They were suppose to be repeating after me from the book. They actually made me laugh doing that. I'd said write and they'd say wrote. Then I'd say wrote and they'd say write. There were a few people who were asking to go to the bathroom and drink water. I didn't let them go. If one person goes then everyone decides all of a sudden they need to go so I told them to wait. Only one more class with this group!!
My last class was actually good today. They are usually my worst class. We took a test and they got really good grades today. I let them study for a while. One of them made a 98. The other 2 students made 84 and 56. They asked for a game today. I told them if they had good behavior and studied hard that I would let them play a game. I told them what page I wanted to finish. Then they were ready to start studying and they participated in class. Its funny that they think part of being good includes giving me snacks. One student gave me a handful of snacks then another student gave me some. We covered the 3 pages and I gave them a sticker and thanked them for studying hard today. I let them play a game for 10 mins. They were actually pretty quiet during the game.
I've got some fun activities coming up in November and December:
Nov
I'm going to get out this weekend and take some photos of the Christmas decorations. There are some pretty elaborate ones. Yesterday while I was on the bus I saw 2 huge department stores covered in lights.
22nd--I'm going to the racecourse with a meetup group. I've never been to a horse race before.
28th--Thanksgiving dinner and staying over night in a cabin with the meetup group.
Dec
5th--LotteWorld (outdoor/indoor amusement park) with my recruiter and people she recruited to come to South Korea. She can get a discount for going with a group. Only 20,000 won. (Less than 20 dollars)
12th--DMZ with meetup group
19th--Handal's "Messiah" performed by foreigners...I may go to this to listen.
25th--maybe going somewhere down south...Busan, Jeju? with the meetup group for a week long trip to celebrate Christmas/New Years (I have to make sure I can get this time for my vacation)
I finally changed my profile picture on facebook. Recently I'd been using old pictures because I never took a photo of myself that I liked. I took one today and I liked it.
I had a decent day today.
The Korean teacher told me that someone was coming to take photos of the kids today. I think she said its something for the parents.When it was time for the 1st class all the students were in one classroom. The photographer wanted to get them in some natural looking shots so the Korean teacher told me to start teaching the class so he could take pictures. I had to get copies for the 2 students who were in a different level. Then I started teaching and the photographer took a few pictures. Mostly of the kids, but a few of me. I wasn't looking at the camera. Then we took a group photo in front of the chalkboard. Then they wanted to go to the computer lab so we could take more pictures. We all went to the lab. They all sat down at the computers and he took a few pictures. He asked me to pretend like I was showing them something. So I pointed to the screen like I was showing the student to click on that link. Then that student needed help with the headphones so he took a pic of me putting headphones on the student. Then there was a shot of me and the girl looking at each other like she was asking me a question. Then there was a shot of a girl raising her hand to ask a question. THen we took a group photo in the middle of the lab. 2 of the students were beside me and i had my arms around their shoulders.
Then we went back to the classroom. Today in my first class we were talking about the zoo. They had some good answers and some silly ones. One question was "Do you think animals are happy at the zoo? why or why not?" A few students said that the animals are happy because they have free time, they don't have homework, and they get to eat and play. One student said they weren't happy because they were trapped in the zoo. I was going to cover 2 lessons today but with all the picture taking I didn't have time. I let the students have a few minutes of free time.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I only had 2 students today. We covered 2 lessons about "how" and "Why" questions. They begged not to study 2 lessons, but I'm trying to follow the lesson plan so we did it anyway.
My conversation class was hectic as usual. I was heading to my class and I looked in the classroom and saw all these students I didn't know. There was a note on the door saying to go to room 215. I had another new student today. I got him to write down his name. He wrote it in Korean and kinda sloppy so I couldn't read it. I asked him if he could spell out his name and he wouldnt. He doesnt have an English name. The boy beside him said his name was "Eric" so thats what I wrote down. I called him that name in class and he didn't know I was talking to him. Now I have a total of 16 students and they were all present. I only made 14 copies so I had to go make one more. (one student has a book) Today our topic was "What did you do yesterday" We were learning about past tense verbs. One student kept complaining about having a stomachache so he didn't really do anything in class. One student took a picture of me on her cell phone when I wasn't looking. She showed it to me at the end of class and said I was a model. haha. 3 girls in the back didn't pay attention in class. They were constantly playing on their cell phones and not doing their work. Then the girl who never does her work, didn't do her work either. So the 4 girls in the back didn't do their work. Not many people would practice speaking with their partners. Near the end of class they thought it would be funny to say the past tense of the verb when I said the present tense. They were suppose to be repeating after me from the book. They actually made me laugh doing that. I'd said write and they'd say wrote. Then I'd say wrote and they'd say write. There were a few people who were asking to go to the bathroom and drink water. I didn't let them go. If one person goes then everyone decides all of a sudden they need to go so I told them to wait. Only one more class with this group!!
My last class was actually good today. They are usually my worst class. We took a test and they got really good grades today. I let them study for a while. One of them made a 98. The other 2 students made 84 and 56. They asked for a game today. I told them if they had good behavior and studied hard that I would let them play a game. I told them what page I wanted to finish. Then they were ready to start studying and they participated in class. Its funny that they think part of being good includes giving me snacks. One student gave me a handful of snacks then another student gave me some. We covered the 3 pages and I gave them a sticker and thanked them for studying hard today. I let them play a game for 10 mins. They were actually pretty quiet during the game.
I've got some fun activities coming up in November and December:
Nov
I'm going to get out this weekend and take some photos of the Christmas decorations. There are some pretty elaborate ones. Yesterday while I was on the bus I saw 2 huge department stores covered in lights.
22nd--I'm going to the racecourse with a meetup group. I've never been to a horse race before.
28th--Thanksgiving dinner and staying over night in a cabin with the meetup group.
Dec
5th--LotteWorld (outdoor/indoor amusement park) with my recruiter and people she recruited to come to South Korea. She can get a discount for going with a group. Only 20,000 won. (Less than 20 dollars)
12th--DMZ with meetup group
19th--Handal's "Messiah" performed by foreigners...I may go to this to listen.
25th--maybe going somewhere down south...Busan, Jeju? with the meetup group for a week long trip to celebrate Christmas/New Years (I have to make sure I can get this time for my vacation)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Day 333....Seoul Lantern Festival 2009
Sunday November 15
I love 24 hour restaurants. I went to Kimbap Heaven at 3:15 AM.At first I was the only person in there. Then in the 30 mins that I was there 5 more people came in. I ordered 돈까스. It costed 4,000 won which is less than $4. Where can you go in America and get a decent portion for $4??
Today the KRW to USD really took a giant leap-by 10,000 won. Right now my desktop gadget says that $1 USD = 11,627 KRW. Recently its been in the 1160 range. Whoever put in the information made a mistake-all the other sites are in the 1156 range. Today my salary is equivalant to $180. The lower the exchange rate the higher my salary is. I'd love to see it hit 1,000 right at the time I'm going to leave cause I'll be making a big transfer home.
At night I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival. It was held at Cheonggyecheon. It's a lovely stream in the heart of Seoul. I took a bus instead of the subway. It took about 30 mins to get there. Same amount of time it would have taken on the subway except I didn't have to transfer. There were tons of people there. It was very crowded and you had to push your way through all the people stopped to take photographs and you have to try to find a spot to fit in to take your photo. I took a lot of photos. I hate that my camera battery was getting low after taking a few photos. I think its time to buy a new battery. I charged it fully last night but it was running out of juice shortly after taking on a few pictures. The battery is suppose to be able to take 400 photos on one charge. It was so cold! I think it was in the low 30's, but that didn't stop the crowds.
click on album to view:
The lighting festival started on Nov. 11, Wednesday and will run through Nov. 15. The lanterns embellish a 1 km stretch of the watercourse from Cheonggye Square at the top of the stream to the Samilgyo bridge. The event has its origins in Gwandeungnori, a lighting festival that was celebrated throughout the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The festival aims to tell a story about the past, the present and the future of Seoul through the thematic lantern exhibition.
2010 2012 Visit Korea Year
The three years from 2010 to 2012 have been called "Visit Korea Year." As the first stage of the events, the Seoul government prepared the Seoul Lantern Festival as an inaugural event under the theme of "2010 2012 Visit Korea Year - Come with Seoul," to enjoy the upcoming years in the heart of Seoul.
The opening ceremony was attended by over 2,000 people and government dignitaries including the Seoul city mayor, the chairman of the Visit Korea Committee, the minister of culture, sports and tourism, lawmakers, foreign ambassadors to Korea, people involved in the domestic tourism industry, and local city residents. The first part consisted of a percussion performance, an opening address, a congratulatory message, and the lantern lighting event of Seoul Lantern Festival. The second part will feature performances by famous hallyu stars and a "hanbok" fashion show which will show new designs of Korea's traditional dress.
I love 24 hour restaurants. I went to Kimbap Heaven at 3:15 AM.At first I was the only person in there. Then in the 30 mins that I was there 5 more people came in. I ordered 돈까스. It costed 4,000 won which is less than $4. Where can you go in America and get a decent portion for $4??
Today the KRW to USD really took a giant leap-by 10,000 won. Right now my desktop gadget says that $1 USD = 11,627 KRW. Recently its been in the 1160 range. Whoever put in the information made a mistake-all the other sites are in the 1156 range. Today my salary is equivalant to $180. The lower the exchange rate the higher my salary is. I'd love to see it hit 1,000 right at the time I'm going to leave cause I'll be making a big transfer home.
At night I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival. It was held at Cheonggyecheon. It's a lovely stream in the heart of Seoul. I took a bus instead of the subway. It took about 30 mins to get there. Same amount of time it would have taken on the subway except I didn't have to transfer. There were tons of people there. It was very crowded and you had to push your way through all the people stopped to take photographs and you have to try to find a spot to fit in to take your photo. I took a lot of photos. I hate that my camera battery was getting low after taking a few photos. I think its time to buy a new battery. I charged it fully last night but it was running out of juice shortly after taking on a few pictures. The battery is suppose to be able to take 400 photos on one charge. It was so cold! I think it was in the low 30's, but that didn't stop the crowds.
click on album to view:
 |
| Seoul Lantern Festival 2009 |
The lighting festival started on Nov. 11, Wednesday and will run through Nov. 15. The lanterns embellish a 1 km stretch of the watercourse from Cheonggye Square at the top of the stream to the Samilgyo bridge. The event has its origins in Gwandeungnori, a lighting festival that was celebrated throughout the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The festival aims to tell a story about the past, the present and the future of Seoul through the thematic lantern exhibition.
2010 2012 Visit Korea Year
The three years from 2010 to 2012 have been called "Visit Korea Year." As the first stage of the events, the Seoul government prepared the Seoul Lantern Festival as an inaugural event under the theme of "2010 2012 Visit Korea Year - Come with Seoul," to enjoy the upcoming years in the heart of Seoul.
The opening ceremony was attended by over 2,000 people and government dignitaries including the Seoul city mayor, the chairman of the Visit Korea Committee, the minister of culture, sports and tourism, lawmakers, foreign ambassadors to Korea, people involved in the domestic tourism industry, and local city residents. The first part consisted of a percussion performance, an opening address, a congratulatory message, and the lantern lighting event of Seoul Lantern Festival. The second part will feature performances by famous hallyu stars and a "hanbok" fashion show which will show new designs of Korea's traditional dress.
Day 332
Saturday November 14
Nothing to report today. Just a lazy Saturday. What's new?
I stayed up really late and I slept 9 hours.
I watched a movie on youtube. A Korean movie with English subtitles. The whole movie was on Youtube. It was divided into 12 parts. The name was "200 pound beauty." I'd give it 3.5 stars. Its about this big girl who has plastic surgery on her whole body so people will like her.
I think tomorrow I'm going to go see the Seoul Lantern Festival. There are lanterns floating in the stream. I'll take lots of pictures and post here.
Nothing to report today. Just a lazy Saturday. What's new?
I stayed up really late and I slept 9 hours.
I watched a movie on youtube. A Korean movie with English subtitles. The whole movie was on Youtube. It was divided into 12 parts. The name was "200 pound beauty." I'd give it 3.5 stars. Its about this big girl who has plastic surgery on her whole body so people will like her.
I think tomorrow I'm going to go see the Seoul Lantern Festival. There are lanterns floating in the stream. I'll take lots of pictures and post here.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Day 331
Friday November 13
Yes it was Friday the 13th. Some of my students asked me if I was scared. I said no. They wanted to know why. I don't have a reason. Friday the 13th is just a superstition.
The death toll for Swine flu in South Korea is now up to 64.
I had a decent day. I only had 3 classes. 2 good classes and one bad class.
My first class was good. I had 6 students in my computer class. They all did their work. Some of them finished too fast and I made them do comprehension questions. They said the questions were too hard, but they aren't. The answers are in the paragraph. You just have to do some searching and really read it to find the answers. They just dont want to do the work.
I only had 1 student in my 2nd class. She was great. She did all of her work on her own. She got done early but since she was doing what I told her to I let her choose between reading kinder times or doing comprehension questions. She chose to read kinder times. While she was doing her work I was on another computer looking at various news websites.
My 3rd class was my bad class. 2 of them didn't do their homework so I gave them a zero. They didn't do so well on their kinder times test. Today we had a spelling test also. I was going to be nice and give them time to study but they kept talking to each other so I told them to shut their books and we took the test then. If they arent going to use the study time then I'm not going to give it to them. One of the boys was cheating on his test and the girls told on him so I took his paper and gave him a zero. They all did bad on the test as usual. In class the students weren't paying attention most of the time. I'm up there talking and asking them to tell me the answers and they are talking to each other and not paying attention to me. I gave them some of the answers because they wouldnt tell me what the answer was. We had a funny moment later in class. The words are in cursive in the book which they call 'the new alphabet' so I have to write it out in regular print on the board. One of the students thought I was giving answers to the activity so he copied down all the words into his book in the exercise section. Then we all laughed when I told him that I just wrote how to spell each word so he had to erase all of the answers.The girls in the class told me that one of the boys said he didn't like my face. I guess he thinks I'm ugly. Hmm. I don't care.
Yes it was Friday the 13th. Some of my students asked me if I was scared. I said no. They wanted to know why. I don't have a reason. Friday the 13th is just a superstition.
The death toll for Swine flu in South Korea is now up to 64.
I had a decent day. I only had 3 classes. 2 good classes and one bad class.
My first class was good. I had 6 students in my computer class. They all did their work. Some of them finished too fast and I made them do comprehension questions. They said the questions were too hard, but they aren't. The answers are in the paragraph. You just have to do some searching and really read it to find the answers. They just dont want to do the work.
I only had 1 student in my 2nd class. She was great. She did all of her work on her own. She got done early but since she was doing what I told her to I let her choose between reading kinder times or doing comprehension questions. She chose to read kinder times. While she was doing her work I was on another computer looking at various news websites.
My 3rd class was my bad class. 2 of them didn't do their homework so I gave them a zero. They didn't do so well on their kinder times test. Today we had a spelling test also. I was going to be nice and give them time to study but they kept talking to each other so I told them to shut their books and we took the test then. If they arent going to use the study time then I'm not going to give it to them. One of the boys was cheating on his test and the girls told on him so I took his paper and gave him a zero. They all did bad on the test as usual. In class the students weren't paying attention most of the time. I'm up there talking and asking them to tell me the answers and they are talking to each other and not paying attention to me. I gave them some of the answers because they wouldnt tell me what the answer was. We had a funny moment later in class. The words are in cursive in the book which they call 'the new alphabet' so I have to write it out in regular print on the board. One of the students thought I was giving answers to the activity so he copied down all the words into his book in the exercise section. Then we all laughed when I told him that I just wrote how to spell each word so he had to erase all of the answers.The girls in the class told me that one of the boys said he didn't like my face. I guess he thinks I'm ugly. Hmm. I don't care.
North Korea makes new threat as Obama arrives in Asia
Full article: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSEO102814
North Korea's military warned the South that it was ready for battle over a disputed sea border, issuing a new threat on Friday that raised tension as U.S. President Barack Obama started a major tour of Asia
The North's military said in a message carried by the state's KCNA news agency that it did not regard as valid the naval border set unilaterally by U.S.-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by a cease fire.
Its military pledged "to take merciless military measures to defend" what it saw as the correct line
North Korea's military warned the South that it was ready for battle over a disputed sea border, issuing a new threat on Friday that raised tension as U.S. President Barack Obama started a major tour of Asia
The North's military said in a message carried by the state's KCNA news agency that it did not regard as valid the naval border set unilaterally by U.S.-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by a cease fire.
Its military pledged "to take merciless military measures to defend" what it saw as the correct line
Friday, November 13, 2009
North Korea warns South it will pay for clash
Wow..yet another article where North Korea threatens South Korea..
-------------------------------------------
Full article is here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091112/wl_nm/us_korea_north
=============================
North Korea said the South will pay "an expensive price" for firing at Pyongyang's retreating patrol boat on Tuesday, keeping up its saber rattling two days after a naval gunfight raised tension between the rivals.
The navies from the two sides exchanged gunfire on Tuesday for the first time in seven years.
"The armed clash on the West (Yellow) Sea was not an accident but was a premeditated act of aggression by the South's military seeking intensifying of tensions on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea has often used military action to force its way onto the agenda of major diplomatic events, and recently caused alarm by announcing more production of arms-grade plutonium.
North Korea in the past year has threatened to attack the South's ships if they come near the Northern Limit Line, a Yellow Sea border set unilaterally by U.S-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War which the North sees as invalid.
-------------------------------------------
Full article is here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091112/wl_nm/us_korea_north
=============================
North Korea said the South will pay "an expensive price" for firing at Pyongyang's retreating patrol boat on Tuesday, keeping up its saber rattling two days after a naval gunfight raised tension between the rivals.
The navies from the two sides exchanged gunfire on Tuesday for the first time in seven years.
"The armed clash on the West (Yellow) Sea was not an accident but was a premeditated act of aggression by the South's military seeking intensifying of tensions on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea has often used military action to force its way onto the agenda of major diplomatic events, and recently caused alarm by announcing more production of arms-grade plutonium.
North Korea in the past year has threatened to attack the South's ships if they come near the Northern Limit Line, a Yellow Sea border set unilaterally by U.S-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War which the North sees as invalid.
Day 330
Thursday November 12
wow...I've been here 47 weeks. 15 weeks in Korea. 14 of those will be teaching weeks. If I were motivated enough I'd count down the actual school days, but I'm not that motivated yet. I'm just counting days till my contract is over which is 108.
I had a good day today.
My first class was good. We were doing a writing unit on varying sentence lengths, simple and compound sentences. For homework they have to write a how to paragraph to tell me how to do or make something. They all did good on the new material. We finished a few pages and I gave them a few mins of free time.
My 2nd class was also pretty good. We did a writing lesson on possessive nouns and writing a friendly letter. I hate that the lesson is so short. Why are we using the same book for 6 months? That means I have to go through it super slow. Level 2 and level 3 arent a problem. I doubt I'll finish those books. The lesson is so easy that I don't know what else to do when Im done. I don't want to give them a hundred examples on things like his, hers, your, my, etc. They understood the material.They just have a lot of free time. I feel bad about giving them so much free time, but I'm just working with what they give me to work with. I don't know how to entertain 2 12 year old boys. One of the boys had more magic stuff. He has a different magic trick almost every class.
My 3rd class was great. I had 3 students in my computer lab class. They all did their work and I didn't have to stand over them and beg. Since they were being so good I left them alone and sat down at one of the other computers and read the articles that they were reading. I also read the articles that the lowest level will be doing next week. I wrote down the questions that I'm going to use for class work. I'm going to use the same questions that are on the tests that they always rush through randomly choosing answers. I wish all my classes would be that well behaved in the computer class!!
Conversation is always the low point of the day. Today's topic was asking someone to borrow something and requesting help when something is wrong. I have 5 boys and 2 girls in the class (6th graders). 4 of the boys are always disrupting class and not paying attention. 1 boy actually pays attention. He's the new student. It just upsets me that these are some of my brightest students with good English potential but they just don't care. All of these conversation classes are a waste of my time. Its just a class to take up time. No one is actually paying attention. They would be really beneficial if the students would make the effort. I really like the conversation textbooks. I put forth my part of the effort to give them lots of examples. If they can't speak in these situations then its their own fault. Today's class was interesting. One girl just kept laughing out loud everytime we'd read an example. why? I dont know. The other girl was reading a comic book hidden under her desk. One boy was holding up his book to conceal the fact that he was playing a game on his cell phone. One of the boys had a blade and was cutting out people's heads in the textbook. Then he took his battery out of his phone. He touched the metal part of the battery with 2 pencils and made smoke come from the battery. He thought was the coolest thing. Then 2 more boys wanted to take out their batteries and do it too. Only 3 students were actually doing the practice conversations. I had to be one person's partner because of uneven numbers.Then at the end of class I'm up there talking to myself because no one is paying attention and they are even talking over me. I only have 2 more weeks of this class!!
My last class of the day was good. The boy never has his books for speaking or writing. I asked him why he never has his books. He said his writing book ran away and his speaking book died. So he lost both books. I had to make a copy. Today we did a writing lesson on stories and sentence types. They did a good job with the material.
wow...I've been here 47 weeks. 15 weeks in Korea. 14 of those will be teaching weeks. If I were motivated enough I'd count down the actual school days, but I'm not that motivated yet. I'm just counting days till my contract is over which is 108.
I had a good day today.
My first class was good. We were doing a writing unit on varying sentence lengths, simple and compound sentences. For homework they have to write a how to paragraph to tell me how to do or make something. They all did good on the new material. We finished a few pages and I gave them a few mins of free time.
My 2nd class was also pretty good. We did a writing lesson on possessive nouns and writing a friendly letter. I hate that the lesson is so short. Why are we using the same book for 6 months? That means I have to go through it super slow. Level 2 and level 3 arent a problem. I doubt I'll finish those books. The lesson is so easy that I don't know what else to do when Im done. I don't want to give them a hundred examples on things like his, hers, your, my, etc. They understood the material.They just have a lot of free time. I feel bad about giving them so much free time, but I'm just working with what they give me to work with. I don't know how to entertain 2 12 year old boys. One of the boys had more magic stuff. He has a different magic trick almost every class.
My 3rd class was great. I had 3 students in my computer lab class. They all did their work and I didn't have to stand over them and beg. Since they were being so good I left them alone and sat down at one of the other computers and read the articles that they were reading. I also read the articles that the lowest level will be doing next week. I wrote down the questions that I'm going to use for class work. I'm going to use the same questions that are on the tests that they always rush through randomly choosing answers. I wish all my classes would be that well behaved in the computer class!!
Conversation is always the low point of the day. Today's topic was asking someone to borrow something and requesting help when something is wrong. I have 5 boys and 2 girls in the class (6th graders). 4 of the boys are always disrupting class and not paying attention. 1 boy actually pays attention. He's the new student. It just upsets me that these are some of my brightest students with good English potential but they just don't care. All of these conversation classes are a waste of my time. Its just a class to take up time. No one is actually paying attention. They would be really beneficial if the students would make the effort. I really like the conversation textbooks. I put forth my part of the effort to give them lots of examples. If they can't speak in these situations then its their own fault. Today's class was interesting. One girl just kept laughing out loud everytime we'd read an example. why? I dont know. The other girl was reading a comic book hidden under her desk. One boy was holding up his book to conceal the fact that he was playing a game on his cell phone. One of the boys had a blade and was cutting out people's heads in the textbook. Then he took his battery out of his phone. He touched the metal part of the battery with 2 pencils and made smoke come from the battery. He thought was the coolest thing. Then 2 more boys wanted to take out their batteries and do it too. Only 3 students were actually doing the practice conversations. I had to be one person's partner because of uneven numbers.Then at the end of class I'm up there talking to myself because no one is paying attention and they are even talking over me. I only have 2 more weeks of this class!!
My last class of the day was good. The boy never has his books for speaking or writing. I asked him why he never has his books. He said his writing book ran away and his speaking book died. So he lost both books. I had to make a copy. Today we did a writing lesson on stories and sentence types. They did a good job with the material.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Day 329
Wednesday November 11
Today was Pepero day. I got a few treats from my students. 2 students gave me the big pieces of pepero and one student gave me a box. A few other students gave me small pieces of pepero.
My first class was good. At the beginning of class the students were asking for free time since it was pepero day. They wanted to have free time starting at 4:30 which was only 20 mins after class started. I told them no. I told them 4:45. Then another student tried to negotiate to 4:43 so I gave in for those extra 2 minutes. Today we did a writing lesson on using exact words and directions. They did a good job. During free time they wrote on the board. One student drew spongebob sticking up his middle finger. oh my.
We had a good class in my 2nd class. We only had to do one lesson today. We talked about one and more than one and dialogue. They had fun with the dialouge part. I'd have one student say something and the other student would write it down. Kay said, "I am hungry." One of the students thought it would be funny to call one of her friends and have me answer the phone. So she called her friend and I kept saying hello in English and her friend didn't really say anything. Then the guy wanted to call one of the classmates who was absent and have me answer the phone. The classmate didn't answer the phone. His dad answered. ha. Then they were doing math problems on the board and I couldn't do the problems! I can't remember all the rules about fractions. I stumped them by putting an algebra and squaring a number on the board. ha.
My conversation class was somewhat productive. I had one new student today. I have a total of 10 pre-middle school students in that class. One of the boys wanted to change his name so he changed it to mi chim nim and the other boys told on him and said that was a bad word. He changed it again and they said that was a bad word. They asked for free time since it was pepero day. I told them I'd give them 10 mins of free time. The boys like to play around in class. They talk and hit each other all the time. They like to tell on each other when one person says bad words in Korean. One of them said that one of the boys said "son of a bitch" in Korean.The girls do their work. Most of the people practice most of the time. I had to be one girl's partner because there were an uneven number of people in class today. Today we talked about When you meet your friends what do you usually do. We were talking about infinitives. Example: She is going to the mall to shop.
After class I looked up the meaning of one of the names the boy wanted to have. It meant 'crazy guy'.
My last class was no so good. I had to have my lowest level class in the computer lab. One of the students wanted his friend to sit in our class. He sat in our class and played on his Nintendo DS. One student gave me a box of pepero. The girls gave me a stick of pepero. One student couldn't get her ID and password to work. I don't know whats wrong with it. So I just gave her the general ID that I use to login so she could do the work.I have to constantly beg the students to do their work. They have plenty of time to finish but they play around so much that they dont finish. I'm going to start giving them a grade on the classwork. not that they care about their grade anyway. Its really simple, but they don't want to take the time to find the answers. Its always a struggle in that class. I'm seriously thinking of asking the Korean teacher if I can just print out the articles and have that class in the classroom. I'm tired of putting up with their crap. One of my students said I was a devil this semester. He said I was mean because I never let them play a game. I tried to explain that if you dont behave you won't get a game. I told them today not to even ask for a game on Friday because their behavior was bad in my class. I ask them why they are so mean to me and all they do is just laugh because I'm getting angry at them. Bad behavior=no game. They need to understand that! I think these parents need to teach their kids about respect. They don't respect me. I beg them to behave but they won't. If I don't like kids when I get to the USA its because of my students who drove me crazy!
After I left school a middle aged Korean guy started talking to me on the subway. He spoke pretty good English. He is a social studies teacher. He was asking me to recommend some books for him to read. The only one I could think of off the top of my head was "Freakonomics." I enjoyed that book. He actually had that book in his shopping bag!haha. He bought "Freakonomics" on CD so he could listen to it. He was asking for my opinion on the book but its been so long that I can't remember specifics. We talked until I got to Bulgwang.
After school I went to the gym. Tonight was my last night at the gym so me and Lesley went together one last time. I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I told the people that I normally talk to that it was my last day. They all wanted to know why. I told them I was leaving korea soon. They all gave me hugs. I'm going to miss all of them. I didn't get to say a formal goodbye to my dear friend at the front desk. He had already left by the time I got there. I should have told him bye yesterday, but I thought maybe I'd see him tonight. I left him a note just thanking him for being a good friend and telling him to be confident in his English. Almost everytime we'd talk he'd apologize for 'not being good at English'. Goodbyes are hard! I think I'll go back and say a final goodbye during my last week in Korea. We got a little gift at the gym. The gym is celebrating its 1 year anniversary. We got a gatorade drink in a can and a rice cake. eww. I'm not eating the rice cake!
I saw something funny on the way home from the gym. People in Korea sleep on the subway. I saw a man sleeping standing up. He was leaning against the metal pieces beside the door. I would have taken a picture but I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself.
Today was Pepero day. I got a few treats from my students. 2 students gave me the big pieces of pepero and one student gave me a box. A few other students gave me small pieces of pepero.
My first class was good. At the beginning of class the students were asking for free time since it was pepero day. They wanted to have free time starting at 4:30 which was only 20 mins after class started. I told them no. I told them 4:45. Then another student tried to negotiate to 4:43 so I gave in for those extra 2 minutes. Today we did a writing lesson on using exact words and directions. They did a good job. During free time they wrote on the board. One student drew spongebob sticking up his middle finger. oh my.
We had a good class in my 2nd class. We only had to do one lesson today. We talked about one and more than one and dialogue. They had fun with the dialouge part. I'd have one student say something and the other student would write it down. Kay said, "I am hungry." One of the students thought it would be funny to call one of her friends and have me answer the phone. So she called her friend and I kept saying hello in English and her friend didn't really say anything. Then the guy wanted to call one of the classmates who was absent and have me answer the phone. The classmate didn't answer the phone. His dad answered. ha. Then they were doing math problems on the board and I couldn't do the problems! I can't remember all the rules about fractions. I stumped them by putting an algebra and squaring a number on the board. ha.
My conversation class was somewhat productive. I had one new student today. I have a total of 10 pre-middle school students in that class. One of the boys wanted to change his name so he changed it to mi chim nim and the other boys told on him and said that was a bad word. He changed it again and they said that was a bad word. They asked for free time since it was pepero day. I told them I'd give them 10 mins of free time. The boys like to play around in class. They talk and hit each other all the time. They like to tell on each other when one person says bad words in Korean. One of them said that one of the boys said "son of a bitch" in Korean.The girls do their work. Most of the people practice most of the time. I had to be one girl's partner because there were an uneven number of people in class today. Today we talked about When you meet your friends what do you usually do. We were talking about infinitives. Example: She is going to the mall to shop.
After class I looked up the meaning of one of the names the boy wanted to have. It meant 'crazy guy'.
My last class was no so good. I had to have my lowest level class in the computer lab. One of the students wanted his friend to sit in our class. He sat in our class and played on his Nintendo DS. One student gave me a box of pepero. The girls gave me a stick of pepero. One student couldn't get her ID and password to work. I don't know whats wrong with it. So I just gave her the general ID that I use to login so she could do the work.I have to constantly beg the students to do their work. They have plenty of time to finish but they play around so much that they dont finish. I'm going to start giving them a grade on the classwork. not that they care about their grade anyway. Its really simple, but they don't want to take the time to find the answers. Its always a struggle in that class. I'm seriously thinking of asking the Korean teacher if I can just print out the articles and have that class in the classroom. I'm tired of putting up with their crap. One of my students said I was a devil this semester. He said I was mean because I never let them play a game. I tried to explain that if you dont behave you won't get a game. I told them today not to even ask for a game on Friday because their behavior was bad in my class. I ask them why they are so mean to me and all they do is just laugh because I'm getting angry at them. Bad behavior=no game. They need to understand that! I think these parents need to teach their kids about respect. They don't respect me. I beg them to behave but they won't. If I don't like kids when I get to the USA its because of my students who drove me crazy!
After I left school a middle aged Korean guy started talking to me on the subway. He spoke pretty good English. He is a social studies teacher. He was asking me to recommend some books for him to read. The only one I could think of off the top of my head was "Freakonomics." I enjoyed that book. He actually had that book in his shopping bag!haha. He bought "Freakonomics" on CD so he could listen to it. He was asking for my opinion on the book but its been so long that I can't remember specifics. We talked until I got to Bulgwang.
After school I went to the gym. Tonight was my last night at the gym so me and Lesley went together one last time. I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I told the people that I normally talk to that it was my last day. They all wanted to know why. I told them I was leaving korea soon. They all gave me hugs. I'm going to miss all of them. I didn't get to say a formal goodbye to my dear friend at the front desk. He had already left by the time I got there. I should have told him bye yesterday, but I thought maybe I'd see him tonight. I left him a note just thanking him for being a good friend and telling him to be confident in his English. Almost everytime we'd talk he'd apologize for 'not being good at English'. Goodbyes are hard! I think I'll go back and say a final goodbye during my last week in Korea. We got a little gift at the gym. The gym is celebrating its 1 year anniversary. We got a gatorade drink in a can and a rice cake. eww. I'm not eating the rice cake!
I saw something funny on the way home from the gym. People in Korea sleep on the subway. I saw a man sleeping standing up. He was leaning against the metal pieces beside the door. I would have taken a picture but I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Day 328
Tuesday November 10
Yesterday there was a funny incident on the subway. There was this man who kept making the door open. The door would start closing and he would stick his foot between the door and it would open. He did that about 4 or 5 times and then the guard came and pulled him off the subway and you could hear them arguing before we took off. It was funny. The Koreans on the train were talking and laughing about it.
My 1st class was good. I still had 2 absent students. Those 2 students have missed 4 classes so far this month. One of them still hasn't taken her October tests. Giving tests at the end of the month is going to be a nightmare! I have a lot of students who have missed a lot of classes!! When I was preparing to start class one of the students told me she saw 2 Americans on the crosswalk. They get excited when they see foreigners. Today we did 1 lesson. We did "What is it?" questions. They did a good job.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I don't think this class is really going to benefit these 2 boys. They spend all class laughing and calling each other names in Korean. Half of their answers don't make sense and are silly. They can't speak in complete sentences without me giving them prompts like "I sleep ____ hours a night." At least I get to laugh a lot. This is my first class this week where all the students were present.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. We have more headphones! Now we have 5 sets of headphones. There is still one computer without headphones. I think they finally fixed the slow computers also. They were a lot faster today and we didn't have any problems. 2 of my students were absent and 1 boy was late. I had to keep begging 2 of the boys to do their work. I basically have to stand there and watch them to make sure they are doing it. The girl was doing her work the right way. She was the only person I gave a sticker to. The boys mess around all class and they didn't even get halfway through. They are too busy trying to sneak to another website when I'm not watching. One boy kept pulling up 'minesweeper' the game and I kept catching him doing that and made him close it. I told them they had to finish what they didnt complete for homework and we were having a quiz on Thursday. I bet they won't do it and they will end up making a 20 or 30 on the quiz.
My 4th class was good. It always surprises me how the boy who always acts up in the computer class is so good in the speaking class. He usually doesn't bring his book so i let him make a copy from my book. He takes it out to the teacher's assistants. 2 of the girls were absent today. The've missed 4 classes this month. Today we did 2 lessons-"Did you ever" and "Do you like" questions. They did a good job and spoke in complete sentences. We finished early and I let them play a game. They were playing 20 questions at first. Then they'd play 5 questions and they'd draw a hint after every question.
I went to the gym tonight. I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes. When I first came in the gym I saw my friend. I waved and him and talked to him briefly. When I asked him how he was he said he had a big problem. They were having problems with the showers at the gym. He was telling me that we couldn't use the shower. He always apologizes, but I don't even use the shower at the gym! I don't know what happened to the showers. I saw the cleaning lady scooping up water from the floor in the bathroom and pouring it in the toilet. There were girls who worked at the gym who were walking barefoot in the shower room then later when I left the gym they were washing their feet in the sinks in the hall bathroom. It was funny. There are 3 sinks in the main bathroom on the 7th floor. 3 girls had one foot up in the sink using handsoap to wash it.
After I left the gym I was sitting on a bench outside the first floor. There were these middle aged men who were attempting to talk to me. They barely spoke English. I just kept laughing at them. One of them kept pointing to his cheeks and then putting his thumb up. Maybe he meant good smile? It was cool outside and I wasn't wearing a coat. It was maybe low 50's? I wasnt cold. The man had a coat on and he kept pointing to his coat and then touching my arm. He did it numerous times.Later he wanted to touch my face and the man he was with told him "no touch-e" (if anything ends with an h you will always hear an e sound at the end!)
Yesterday there was a funny incident on the subway. There was this man who kept making the door open. The door would start closing and he would stick his foot between the door and it would open. He did that about 4 or 5 times and then the guard came and pulled him off the subway and you could hear them arguing before we took off. It was funny. The Koreans on the train were talking and laughing about it.
My 1st class was good. I still had 2 absent students. Those 2 students have missed 4 classes so far this month. One of them still hasn't taken her October tests. Giving tests at the end of the month is going to be a nightmare! I have a lot of students who have missed a lot of classes!! When I was preparing to start class one of the students told me she saw 2 Americans on the crosswalk. They get excited when they see foreigners. Today we did 1 lesson. We did "What is it?" questions. They did a good job.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I don't think this class is really going to benefit these 2 boys. They spend all class laughing and calling each other names in Korean. Half of their answers don't make sense and are silly. They can't speak in complete sentences without me giving them prompts like "I sleep ____ hours a night." At least I get to laugh a lot. This is my first class this week where all the students were present.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. We have more headphones! Now we have 5 sets of headphones. There is still one computer without headphones. I think they finally fixed the slow computers also. They were a lot faster today and we didn't have any problems. 2 of my students were absent and 1 boy was late. I had to keep begging 2 of the boys to do their work. I basically have to stand there and watch them to make sure they are doing it. The girl was doing her work the right way. She was the only person I gave a sticker to. The boys mess around all class and they didn't even get halfway through. They are too busy trying to sneak to another website when I'm not watching. One boy kept pulling up 'minesweeper' the game and I kept catching him doing that and made him close it. I told them they had to finish what they didnt complete for homework and we were having a quiz on Thursday. I bet they won't do it and they will end up making a 20 or 30 on the quiz.
My 4th class was good. It always surprises me how the boy who always acts up in the computer class is so good in the speaking class. He usually doesn't bring his book so i let him make a copy from my book. He takes it out to the teacher's assistants. 2 of the girls were absent today. The've missed 4 classes this month. Today we did 2 lessons-"Did you ever" and "Do you like" questions. They did a good job and spoke in complete sentences. We finished early and I let them play a game. They were playing 20 questions at first. Then they'd play 5 questions and they'd draw a hint after every question.
I went to the gym tonight. I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes. When I first came in the gym I saw my friend. I waved and him and talked to him briefly. When I asked him how he was he said he had a big problem. They were having problems with the showers at the gym. He was telling me that we couldn't use the shower. He always apologizes, but I don't even use the shower at the gym! I don't know what happened to the showers. I saw the cleaning lady scooping up water from the floor in the bathroom and pouring it in the toilet. There were girls who worked at the gym who were walking barefoot in the shower room then later when I left the gym they were washing their feet in the sinks in the hall bathroom. It was funny. There are 3 sinks in the main bathroom on the 7th floor. 3 girls had one foot up in the sink using handsoap to wash it.
After I left the gym I was sitting on a bench outside the first floor. There were these middle aged men who were attempting to talk to me. They barely spoke English. I just kept laughing at them. One of them kept pointing to his cheeks and then putting his thumb up. Maybe he meant good smile? It was cool outside and I wasn't wearing a coat. It was maybe low 50's? I wasnt cold. The man had a coat on and he kept pointing to his coat and then touching my arm. He did it numerous times.Later he wanted to touch my face and the man he was with told him "no touch-e" (if anything ends with an h you will always hear an e sound at the end!)
South Korean Holiday: November 11-Pepero Day
I love Pepero! My favorite is dipped in chocolate with almonds.
Pepero (빼빼로) is a cookie stick, dipped in chocolate syrup, manufactured by Lotte in South Korea since 1983.
Pepero Day is an unofficial holiday in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero.The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions.Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity.
According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".
Navies of 2 Koreas Clash on Border
This article is really really long so I'll just post some highlights...
http://news.aol.com/article/north-korean-navy-ship-and-south-korean/760157
The first naval clash in seven years broke out just a week before President Barack Obama is due to visit Seoul, raising suspicions the North's communist regime is trying to rachet up tensions to gain a negotiating advantage
The exchange of fire occurred as U.S. officials said Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons program
He also said the North was sending a message to Obama that it wants to replace the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953 with a permanent peace treaty while keeping its nuclear weapons.
Washington has consistently said that Pyongyang must abandon its nuclear arsenal for any peace treaty to be concluded
The Koreas regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories. South Korea's military said that North Korean ships have already violated the sea border 22 times this year.
==============================================
Why can't they just get along? I think they are the only divided country. The border between the two countries is the most heavily guarded border in the world. North and South Korea are constantly making threats to each other.
http://news.aol.com/article/north-korean-navy-ship-and-south-korean/760157
The first naval clash in seven years broke out just a week before President Barack Obama is due to visit Seoul, raising suspicions the North's communist regime is trying to rachet up tensions to gain a negotiating advantage
The exchange of fire occurred as U.S. officials said Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons program
He also said the North was sending a message to Obama that it wants to replace the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953 with a permanent peace treaty while keeping its nuclear weapons.
Washington has consistently said that Pyongyang must abandon its nuclear arsenal for any peace treaty to be concluded
The Koreas regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories. South Korea's military said that North Korean ships have already violated the sea border 22 times this year.
==============================================
Why can't they just get along? I think they are the only divided country. The border between the two countries is the most heavily guarded border in the world. North and South Korea are constantly making threats to each other.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Day 327 polar bear eating an orange
Monday November 9
This is what goes on in Korea: http://blackoutkorea.blogspot.com/
check out that link. Its funny!
My first class was good. I still had 3 absent students. We went over 2 lessons using "Did you ever" and "how to" questions. One answer from a student was odd, but I wrote it on the board. The question was "Explain how to become famous". Her answer was A) go to a dentist b) help people fix their teeth c) make a lot of money.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I had 2 absent students. We only had to do one lesson today and it was very short. We did "what" questions. One student had a rubber ball and kept bouncing it around the classroom. Later they were writing on the board and they put a phrase up there for me to say. I asked them if it was bad and they said no. The girl told me it was about a polar bear eating an orange, but I doubt thats what it was! Then they had me to say it over and over and one of the students recorded me saying it on his phone in my slow badly pronounced Korean. Not knowing Korean could get me in trouble!!
My 3rd class was somewhat better than normal. It was my conversation class. I had a new student today. The first thing he asked me was "can you speak korean?". I said I could speak a little. Now I have a total of 15 students. Later one of the students was speaking to me in Korean and I was looking at him like "what?" and then another student said "you don't speak Korean?" I explained to them that I only speak a tiny bit. I had 2 absent students today. There was an uneven number so I made one of the students practice with me. One of my students is never on the right page and won't ever do her work. Today most of the students were participating, but a few wouldn't. One of the boys doesn't even try. He just says "i don't know." Today we were talking about "I can do it". So the questions were things like "can you cook?", "can you drive a car?", "can you make friends easily". and he would pretend like he didn't know how to answer those questions. One of the students keeps telling me he has a headache. Thats the same thing he said last week. Then another student was telling me she was tired. Some of the students are doing other classwork during my class. I'm glad I only have 2 more weeks with this class. I think I won't even bother with giving them another test. No one ever asked me for the grades. I think I'll just teach them 2 more lessons.
My 4th class is usually one of the worst classes, but today they were actually well behaved. I couldn't get them to study for their test and their grades showed that. They were behaving good so I only made them write their new words 3 times each instead of 5 or 10 if they are really bad. Everyone was participating in class. They asked for a game and I told them we had to do one more page and then we'd have a game. I rewarded them today by giving them a sticker and a game. They were actually pretty quiet during the game. I'm glad I finally had a good class.
I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 30 mins. The front desk guy hasn't been there when I come in lately.(I think he has already left by the time I get there. I can't get there any earlier bc of work) Last week I saw him on the 1st floor and he waved at me. I might not get to see him before I leave the gym. Wednesday is my last day at the gym. I'll miss talking to him.
After the gym I went to E-mart to pick up a few things. I got some snacks and a metal mixing bowl. I checked out how things had changed. I kept riding the escalator up all the way to the 6th floor so I can see how things were moved around. Most of the stuff was moved up a floor. There is a sign that says Mcdonalds 8F, but the 8th floor isn't open yet. The escalator stops at the 6th floor and there is something blocking the escalator where you can't go any further up.
When I attempted the Korean pancake once again. This time I used pancake mix, spring onions, one egg, and one can of tuna. It turned out great! It was delicious. Now I have something good to make instead of eating big macs. This isn't the most healthy thing, but its way less fattening than the big mac. I have plenty of the ingredients so I can make more during the week!!
This is what goes on in Korea: http://blackoutkorea.blogspot.com/
check out that link. Its funny!
My first class was good. I still had 3 absent students. We went over 2 lessons using "Did you ever" and "how to" questions. One answer from a student was odd, but I wrote it on the board. The question was "Explain how to become famous". Her answer was A) go to a dentist b) help people fix their teeth c) make a lot of money.
My 2nd class was pretty good. I had 2 absent students. We only had to do one lesson today and it was very short. We did "what" questions. One student had a rubber ball and kept bouncing it around the classroom. Later they were writing on the board and they put a phrase up there for me to say. I asked them if it was bad and they said no. The girl told me it was about a polar bear eating an orange, but I doubt thats what it was! Then they had me to say it over and over and one of the students recorded me saying it on his phone in my slow badly pronounced Korean. Not knowing Korean could get me in trouble!!
My 3rd class was somewhat better than normal. It was my conversation class. I had a new student today. The first thing he asked me was "can you speak korean?". I said I could speak a little. Now I have a total of 15 students. Later one of the students was speaking to me in Korean and I was looking at him like "what?" and then another student said "you don't speak Korean?" I explained to them that I only speak a tiny bit. I had 2 absent students today. There was an uneven number so I made one of the students practice with me. One of my students is never on the right page and won't ever do her work. Today most of the students were participating, but a few wouldn't. One of the boys doesn't even try. He just says "i don't know." Today we were talking about "I can do it". So the questions were things like "can you cook?", "can you drive a car?", "can you make friends easily". and he would pretend like he didn't know how to answer those questions. One of the students keeps telling me he has a headache. Thats the same thing he said last week. Then another student was telling me she was tired. Some of the students are doing other classwork during my class. I'm glad I only have 2 more weeks with this class. I think I won't even bother with giving them another test. No one ever asked me for the grades. I think I'll just teach them 2 more lessons.
My 4th class is usually one of the worst classes, but today they were actually well behaved. I couldn't get them to study for their test and their grades showed that. They were behaving good so I only made them write their new words 3 times each instead of 5 or 10 if they are really bad. Everyone was participating in class. They asked for a game and I told them we had to do one more page and then we'd have a game. I rewarded them today by giving them a sticker and a game. They were actually pretty quiet during the game. I'm glad I finally had a good class.
I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 30 mins. The front desk guy hasn't been there when I come in lately.(I think he has already left by the time I get there. I can't get there any earlier bc of work) Last week I saw him on the 1st floor and he waved at me. I might not get to see him before I leave the gym. Wednesday is my last day at the gym. I'll miss talking to him.
After the gym I went to E-mart to pick up a few things. I got some snacks and a metal mixing bowl. I checked out how things had changed. I kept riding the escalator up all the way to the 6th floor so I can see how things were moved around. Most of the stuff was moved up a floor. There is a sign that says Mcdonalds 8F, but the 8th floor isn't open yet. The escalator stops at the 6th floor and there is something blocking the escalator where you can't go any further up.
When I attempted the Korean pancake once again. This time I used pancake mix, spring onions, one egg, and one can of tuna. It turned out great! It was delicious. Now I have something good to make instead of eating big macs. This isn't the most healthy thing, but its way less fattening than the big mac. I have plenty of the ingredients so I can make more during the week!!
Korean Pancake: try # 2
My pancake last night was a little undercooked. (When I say pancake I don't mean breakfast pancakes!)I left some of it in the fridge and it actually tasted pretty good when it was cold!
Today I tried again to perfect my craft. Today I used pancake mix, spring onions, a can of tuna and one egg. It turned out beautifully! and it tastes great!! Now I have a better option than eating big macs every day!
I used a mix similar to this one:
![]()
PIctures:
final product:
bottom side:
top side before turning over:
My family and others from the USA thinks this looks disgusting...but it was delicious! It might not look like a masterpiece, but it was good!!!!!!!!!!
Today I tried again to perfect my craft. Today I used pancake mix, spring onions, a can of tuna and one egg. It turned out beautifully! and it tastes great!! Now I have a better option than eating big macs every day!
I used a mix similar to this one:
PIctures:
final product:
bottom side:
top side before turning over:
My family and others from the USA thinks this looks disgusting...but it was delicious! It might not look like a masterpiece, but it was good!!!!!!!!!!
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