November Tunes

These are a few of the many artists I'm listening to now...

Rock on.

Open Class day at Primus Kids

Today was the day that I had been dreading for forever. I haven't felt this much pressure in my whole life. I can't even begin to explain how stressed out I've been the last few weeks. Mostly because Kelly, my boss, has this ridiculous ability to piss me off and make me so stressed out at the same time.

Open class is when parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings come to the school, sit in the classroom and judge me. Parent complain SO much in Korea, its unbelievable. Every little thing they complain about. I couldn't even begin to list the stupid things that they complain about.

Kelly has been all over me for the past 2 weeks (more this week than the other). She wants to "make sure I'm a good teacher". She sugarcoats her insults by pretending they are there to help me. That she can help. She has never been a teacher in her life. She always talks about how she's a 'business woman'. It isn't the same thing as a teacher. We have been constantly fighting for the past week... daily. I tell her off... she tries to defend her degrading actions. Etc Etc.

So today was a very nerve wracking day. I got to work at the same time but I didn't have to do anything until 10. There were parents everywhere.

I got into my classroom and I expected 30 parents (which is how many they listed as attending). In reality only about 15 showed up. Which was great. There was plenty of room in the classroom for them and my kids and a little bit of air flow. The kids were amazing. They did so great. I was worried that they would freeze up and not be able to talk. Turns out they weren't nervous at all. They yelled out the answers just like I wanted.

Then I went to Bambi class (Michelle's class) like I always do. She only has 2 kids in her class Alice and Daniel so it definitely has a different feel to it than my class. None of the parents were in the classroom which was really odd. I started teaching and then Kelly came in and talked to Daniel and Alice in Korean. I asked her where the parents were and she said 'they are very disappointed in the class and are unsure if they want to continue...' I couldn't believe it. Michelle is a great teacher. And of all of us at the school... she's actually a Kindergarten teacher in the states. So ridiculous. Kelly pleaded with me to "save things". I'm not sure what she expected me to do. From what I understand she didn't have much confidence in my abilities.

So I pumped up the 'overly cheerful teacher' up a notch.

The parents seemed pretty excited. Daniel and Alice who are usually very quiet were yelling out the answers and jumping up and down to answer the questions I was asking. I couldn't have asked for them to do any better. I was very pleased.

Who knows how the parents feel. As far as I can tell... nothing pleases them.

After we finished up, Christine, Michelle, Mike, Erik and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant near Beomgye station. It was delicious. Apparently we were supposed to eat with the parents. None of us were feeling that idea, so we snuck out. They can't make us eat anywhere they choose. No thanks.

Kelly then told me that one of my students parents was complaining because their child didn't have as many stickers on his paper as the rest of the kids. I told Kelly that parents need to stop being so immature. The reason Max had less was because he had already filled up a paper and this paper was NEW.

I told Kelly that I didn't care what the parents said, I thought the day went great and that was how I was going to think of it. She told me "we will talk about it Monday".

Then 3 hours later I went to leave and she stopped me in the elevator and says "i just wanted to tell you that you DID do a great job today, your kids parents liked you a lot.... so don't worry."




Duh. I'm a very smart individual. ;)

Language Fail

Erik has a Korean friend who is studying to learn english. While flipping through his textbook, a certain saying jumped off the page.

In his ENGLISH LANGAUGE TEXTBOOK, it instructed the Korean man to say "Whats up my Nigga" to his friends.

Where I come from you'd get your ass kicked for saying that.... especially if you are an asian.

Oh Korea... You make me laugh

Photo Update!!

Since I take pictures most everyday, I have to really be choosy which ones I add to my blog.

My kids have such crazy personalities.... that I cannot help but want to take pictures of them constantly.


Me and Alice


Me and Alice again... she doesn't take many normal pictures


Me and Any (pronounced Annie)


Me and Yuna


Wendy likes to walk down the hall with water and her eyes closed...


Me on the day it snowed... I tried to eat the snow.


Mike is IN the video!


Gabinna likes to put tape on her mouth and color it red...


Gabinna and I switched shoes


Helen wrote this in her diary... and Henry isn't funny either... so I'm not too worried


AMY!! (CRIME SCENE!!) haha. Flour in the classroom is dangerous.


Lydia and Rodney show off their tape injuries


Gabinna.


Gabinna sits in trash cans


Kristen and I at Gyeongbokgung Palace


Me at Gyeongbokgung Palace


Me with the worlds smallest dog


Me on the water slide at Tiger World. This bowl just dumps you out into the middle. Its very disorienting


Warm pool at Tiger World


Hot springs at Tiger World


First ride we rode at Everland


Me and Erik were very excited about the leaves changing... WOOO (at Everland)


Climb aboard!! (At Everland)


Snacks at Everland (fried SQUID and hotGODs... awesome)


The guy in front of me could speak english. We found this after Kristen and I discussed how gross it would be if someone threw up on the ride because we would catch it in our faces since we were in the back. The guy then says "Watch out then I have an uneasy stomach". We laughed so hard about that.


The guy next to Erik is SO excited. I love this picture


Yet another awesome attempt at English sweatshirts....


All this time I thought it was MICKEY


The ball on the top of my head amused me for a long time


I was jammin' to "I believe I can Fly" in my head and eating pizza. Good day


I'm not going to buy clothes from a place that is named after an English INSULT!!


At E-Mart there are lockers to put backpacks and stuff in... someone obviously wanted their beer to be safe.



And their dumbbells....


Since they already stare... I like to give Koreans something to stare at...

Why Korea is Messed Up.

Korea is becoming more obviously a very screwed up place... Everyday I see something or experience something that makes it more apparent that Korea has everything backwards.

I may just keep this post alive and periodically update it...

FIRST
I had to get a bank account here for my paychecks to go into. I made it very clear that I wanted to get online banking. So they set it up. They failed to mention that in order to access online banking, I have to have a specific security clearance. And this security clearance has to be set up on my HOME COMPUTER and then the file is to be saved onto a disk or a flash drive. I have to bring this disk or flash drive with me if I want to access my online banking at another location.... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??? ISN'T THE POINT OF ONLINE BANKING TO MAKE THINGS EASIER?? AND WHY DO I NEED A USERNAME AND PASSWORD AT ALL IF THIS SECURITY CLEARANCE IS GOING TO BE MY PASSCODE INTO MY ACCOUNT??? God Korea... you really don't know how to do things the right way. Everything has to be overly complicated.

SECOND:
Today, Michelle and I went to E-Mart which is kinda like a super walmart (grocery store and clothes, shoes, appliances, etc) to get food. Michelle only wanted 2 potatoes. She didn't want a whole bag because DUH... we both live on our own... we don't have people to cook for. They had the potatoes laying out in a pile like they do at home, which would make you assume that you can pick however many you want. Not the case. We got to the register and the woman started yelling at her in Korean. Something about how you can't buy just two potatoes. Then the woman throws the potatoes behind the register. Michelle and I were standing there staring at the woman like "what in the world did you just do???"

In what world do they not allow you to buy 2 potatoes. Despite what the sign says, some people don't want 8-10. They want 2. In the U.S. you can buy however many of anything that you want. You have that choice. In Korea it is either the number they say... or NOT AT ALL. I wanted to start yelling at her in mixed English and Korean. Use all the swear words that Mike taught me as well as a lot of english she wouldn't understand. See how she feels having someone shout at you in a language you don't know. Not necessary!! Michelle wasn't stealing! She was just trying to buy 2 potatoes.

Screw you Korea. You have it all wrong.

THIRD
Cab drivers.
The rumor is that in NYC and other places where cabs are prevalent, that the drivers can be rude. They can try to take you on a ride (if they think you're from out of town).
In Korea, not only do they try to take you on a ride if you manage to flag them down... but most of the time they just won't stop for you. I've had a couple opportunities where cabs slow down and as soon as they see that it is a foreigner, they speed up and drive away.
Apparently my Korean WON isn't as good as a Korean's.
Whatever.

FOURTH:
North Korea apparently wants to turn South Korea into rubble..... Go ahead North Korea. Just warn the foreigners first and we can head out to Incheon airport and go home.
I don't need to be involved in a war.
Oh. and I live right next to the Korean army base. haha. I don't know if that's good or bad.
Probably bad.

"My butt is stuck in the trash can"

Gabinna never goes a day without amusing me and Michelle.

On MWF we have classes next door to one another. I get the pleasure of teaching Gabinna while Michelle has a horror class where the only person worth teaching in her class is Lydia. The rest disrespect foreigners left and right.

I find that despite the hardships and the issues some kids bring to the table... when you get kids like Gabinna and Lydia... its all worth it.

In class today, Gabinna wanted me to sit in the trash can which is about as big around as my head. Not a big trash can. I told her no, but she could sit on it. So she did... for the entire 50 minute period. She would get up to get a drink and carry the trash can with her, attached to her butt.

Then she moved over to sit next to me, bringing her trash can. She was sitting there writing and then she turns to me and says "MY BUTT IS STUCK IN THE TRASH CAN". I couldn't stop laughing. It made it all the more funny because she had the hiccups. Every time she finished a sentence she would hiccup... as if for emphasis.

When I asked her (as part of the lesson), where she would like to go on vacation she started to sing "under the sea" (as seen on the Little Mermaid).





Gabinna is the most hilarious kid I've ever met. She wants to be a singer someday, but her ability to be overly dramatic constantly would make her a great actor. She will definitely go on to be an amazing adult.


"MY BUTT IS STUCK IN THE TRASH CAN"

Finger Mustache Mafia

I introduced the infamous "finger mustache' to my kids a couple weeks ago. They immediately latched onto the idea. Its hilarious. They come into class with mustaches already written on their fingers and now they are branching out to different types of mustaches.

They make me laugh so hard.

yesterday Michelle came into my class with about 4 different mustaches on her fingers. Apparently the amusements of 8 and 9 year olds doesn't escape the adults either.

We had a few laughs, took some pictures:







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At first I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy teaching elementary because the classes are TINY and the kids have the opportunity to be brats.... but I've found that the majority of my elementary kids are amazing. I just love them.

Michelle and I "taught" them one day by sitting in the hall with our class of 5 (3 in mine, 2 in hers) and we made videos between reading out of the text book.

One such video.

Sitting to my left is Lydia... to my right... Gabinna and across from me is Amy.





Apparently when you give kids the opportunity to express themselves on video... they tend to be violent. I guess thats the society in which we live. All kids grow up in a world where violence is not frowned upon as much as before. It's in their video games, movies, comics, etc. Anyway, this video was the first we made. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but it was hilarious at the same time.

Oh... and the boy in the video, Rodney.... his Korean name sounds like "How've you been?". Michelle and I like to say that to him a lot... so thats why I'm saying "How've you beeeen????"

First snow

It started snowing today around 1pm.

I was so thrilled. Michelle and I got all bundled up to go out in the snow and play, then the little kids came and joined. They were as excited as we to see the snow. Completely adorable.





I love to see the snow blowing by our window.

We have the greatest view from our office.

These are terrible pictures because of the glare. For whatever reason you can always see back into the office regardless of flash. Oh well... You can see Mike chillin' at his computer trying to ignore me taking pictures....






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The kids are supposed to write in a diary when they are older so that we can read it and help them with their english. Its a good idea in theory, until you get a diary entry like this......



It's definitely honest

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Erik and I have this stupid inside joke about German people. We nicknamed ourselves Hans and Helga and we talk in loud German accents to one another and laugh like jolly beer maidens. Its really dumb, but we find it incredibly amusing.

I went into my classroom one day and saw this on my board.

thanks Erik



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My elementary students are hilarious. They make me laugh constantly. I have a few classes where the kids know really great english and they use it to make me and Michelle laugh constantly.

I taught them the "finger mustache" thing and they latched onto it. They LOVED it.

Lydia:



Gabinna (She later was reading a story and would use her finger mustache to accentuate the guy voices)



Another thing they love to do is put tape over their mouths and blow out. They found out one day that this makes me laugh every time because it looks so funny.

Amy



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Today, in Kristen's class they were making a volcano and since the Koreans that work at our school are so thoughtless... they decided to have a meeting in MY CLASSROOM. So my kids and I had nowhere to go. We decided to join Kristen's class of 3 with my class of 2 and just hang out and make a volcano.

The flour was a big hit with Lydia and Amy



Lydia is the one who likes to jump on me on the streets when she sees me.



They also like to take the camera and turn it on me. Then Rodney (Korean name sounds like "How've you been?) jumped into the picture.








Michelle and I told Christine that we would be perfectly happy if the school decided they should fire us and send us home. I wouldn't argue with it.

I miss home :(