Is Peter There?

Today was so exciting! I just finished one of the coolest lessons ever with the kids, and everything went so well. The grade 5's are studying phone conversations right now, so I thought it would be a cool idea to get them talking on skype to some family/friends at home.

For the first part of class we came up with some good questions to ask, and then we called Dani, my mom, and Jen. Some of the best questions the kids asked:

• (To my mom): "is Jenna teacher's brother handsome?" (I showed them a picture of Myles after the class was over, and indeed, their high-pitched shreiks confirmed that yes, they think he is handsome!)
• "do you think korea is lovely?"
• "what do you think of jenna teacher?"
• (To Jen): "who is your boyfriend?" (...and when they found out he was Korean, the look of shock/excitement on their faces was priceless!)

Here is a picture of Dani talking to the kids. (Right after the lesson ended I realized I totally forgot to take a picture when Jen was skyping with the kids, probably because the class talking to Jen was much crazier than the one talking to Dani. Anyway, I'm pretty sure one of the boys is in love with Jen and wouldn't stop goofing around in front of the camera. He's always been one of my favourite students but always such a handful!)

Thanks again mom, Dani and Jen for all your help! It was soo much fun and I know the kids really enjoyed it.

What's Happening North Korea??

Don't fret everyone! Despite what you may have heard on the news recently, we are completely fine and really not too worried about the whole N.Korea situation. We've already received multiple updates from our Canadian Connection Contact in Korea, who has assured us that all is well. Also, Em and I have both registered as Canadians living overseas so will be accounted for IF something does happen, which I'm sure it won't. Weirdly enough, I really haven't heard any mention of the situation from any of my co-teachers or anyone at my school.


On another note, every day I ask each of my classes "How are you?" as part of a series of small talk questions to start the class. Recently I started banning the answer "I'm fine" because it seemed like that's all the students would say. Today, I heard one of the cutest/funniest responses from on of my grade 5's:
"How are you?"
"I'm fantastic and so-so" 
...not sure if the whole concept of "so-so" is clicking in these guys' brains. 

My First (Korean) Birthday!

Hi all! We're back from another great weekend in Seoul, this time to celebrate my 22nd birthday! A group of about 15 girls met on Friday night for a weekend filled with birthday celebration! It was so nice to spend my 5th consecutive birthday with Em, and she really made it feel special even far away from home. This birthday had potential to stir up some feelings of homesickness, but Em really helped me feel the love on this side of the world. On Saturday we spent the day at MyungDong market (just like last time in Seoul) and then went to Itaewon. For those of you who don't know, Itaewon is the foreign district in Seoul and is full of places we have really started to miss in the 3 months we've been here - Subway, Mexican restuarants, Cold Stone creamery, etc, etc!! (Picture a kind of "China Town" for foreigners in Korea?). After heading back to the hostel, I was surprised with a lovely birthday cake from our favourite cafe, "Paris Baguette". It was the perfect way to start a great night on the "town", or, in this case, the 2nd biggest city in the world!! 

Birthday surprises! Party hat included!

The girls outside our hostel, the Yellow Submarine

I think I speak for both Emilie and I when I say we cannot believe it's been more than 3 months since we came to Korea. Since we've been here it seems like we always have some new, exciting adventure to look forward to. Next on the list (besides Harry Potter of course... which comes out a MONTH late in Korea!) is our winter vacation. More to come on those plans soon!


Jenna xo

The little things will surprise you...

Today, being Monday, I woke up dreading the day ahead of me. Not because its the first day of the week, but because I face the infamously unbearable Grade 6s on Mondays. I have no doubt explained to many at home how the four Grade 6 classes I teach at Namsam Elementary quickly became the bane of my existence: they do not pay attention, they physically fight in class, and they have a collective, infuriating "I'm (literally) too cool for school" attitude. My coteacher has confided in me that she regularly has nightmares about this group. Because of all this, I commonly dread Mondays as I feel like I can never please them, whatever imaginative lesson plan I might be able to come up with.

Today was different, however. It is American Thanksgiving this week, and so the theme of the lesson "Would you like to come to my house?" is this classic holiday. Hoping to fill up some of the time with a writing activity, I handed out to each student a worksheet with "I am thankful for..." written at the top. The kids had to write three sentences beginning with "I am thankful for..." I admit, I expected most of the students to laugh at this activity and refuse to participate at all. I was shocked, then, when the first class of the day got really into the worksheet. By the end of the fourth class, I was not only over the moon at how each class had gone almost flawlessly, but also touched by the answers that some of my normally bratty students came up with. I thought I would share my favourite answers with everyone at home... it just goes to show you can't always think you have someone (or 120 Korean preteens) completely figured out.
(I have copied these answers exactly as they were written, so you will note the differences in English proficiency between some of the students)

- I'm thankful for the health of my family
- I'm thankful for being alive and life
- I'm thankful for home happy
- I'm thankful for family because some people do not have family
- I'm thankful for my seeing and listening (meaning 'sight' and 'hearing')
- I'm thankful for being born because I is happy
- I'm thankful for parents because give me money and meal and bought computer and cellphone
- I'm thankful for together my family which is 나 잉 방 in Korean
- I'm thankful for my brain
- I'm thankful for Jesus (this one had the cutest anime Jesus drawn beside it)
- I'm thankful for my mommy because she gave birth to me
- I'm thankful for President Lee because our country protection
- I'm thankful for water because it helps us, ex. we can drink it, we can wash our face
- I'm thankful for earth because it makes me life
- I'm thankful for my family, because they love me
- I'm thankful for peace because we have no war
- I'm thankful for *me*


and, last but not least...
- I'm thankful for Kimchi


...maybe I will miss these kids when they head off to middle school, after all =)
xoxo
Em

The Adventures of a Korean Car Accident:

On Monday I got into a small car accident with 2 co-workers on our way home from school. While waiting for a red light, some guy who was paying more attention to his cell phone/TV than to actually driving rear-ended us.

I assumed we'd have to talk to the police and maybe get a few x-rays as a precaution, but no. I was told it was "standard Korean process" for every person who's in a car accident to spend at least one night in the hospital. Really? All for a small fender-bender? Ok. So, me and my 2 co-workers headed to the hospital where we got not only X-rays, but also CT scans, an IV, multiple injections, and monitored with an EKG. A little over-kill if you ask me.


We have been warned that Korea is the land of unnecessary bureaucracy and huge amounts of useless paperwork. Indeed, I discovered this first hand when trying up the loose ends before being released. I guess you could say the frustration paid off, however, because I was informed that I would  receive 800,000Kwon (about $750) from the insurance company. Sweet!!

This picture is a little ridiculous but I wanted to capture the craziness of the whole experience. So here I am, neck-brace and all, completely and 100% fine but being kept in the hospital to be extra, extra, extra safe.

Bye for now, and remember, safety first!!

Suncheon Marathon!

Hello everyone! We're back from a day full of running!! Unfortunately Emilie's bronchitis did not clear up in time for her to be able to participate, but it was definitely a good decision on her part not to run as for the last few weeks she's been doing nothing but popping Korean pills and hacking up her right AND left lungs. While I crossed the finish line you can bet Emilie was my number one cheerleader! 


The route itself was pretty typical with a few hills, but mostly flat. Everyone seemed to be excited that there were some foreigners were participating, and along the way I got lots of encouragement from spectators as well as those running alongside me. I heard the Korean equivalent of our "good job!" which sounds like "highting!!!" about 1 million times during the run. My time was 1:05, about the same as it was for the Times Colonist run last April. The coolest part about the race was the time chips they used - on the back of our number that we pinned to our shirts was a little black rod, about the size of a que-tip. Apparently the rod recorded our time when we crossed both the start and finish line. AND to top it off, as soon as I crossed the finish line I received a text on my cell phone telling me my time! So cool!! I wonder when that technology will come to Canada??

some korean dancers lead us in some group stretches. 

fini!!

The Wonderous Korean Bath

As the weather gets progressively chillier, we are learning more and more about the various ways to warm up in Korea. This is especially important as the schools are downright freezing. All windows and doors are left open to allow for "air changee," or fresh air, which is of course important, but means that I keep my jacket on for most of the day. Plus a scarf, sweater, and turtleneck.

Ondol, or floor heating, is the way we heat our apartments and is really quite lovely. We turn on the hot water, and it runs through pipes in the floor to make the apartment nice and toasty. Its not cheap, but it also only needs to be on for a few hours a day to keep the place warm.

Today, after choosing to try out the gym by our apartments, I decided to also give the bath there a whirl. We had been told that these places were godsends when the weather cools off. Firstly, do not let the term "bath" fool you. This is not a public bath in the form of a big pool with a bunch of naked bathers crowded together. Picture instead a luxurious water spa, with various pools of varying temperatures to try out, as well as little pools with massaging jets and rain-like showers. There are also several sauna rooms and steam rooms, and even little nooks with bamboo beds on which to nap. What else could you ask for at the end of a long, cold day?

The spa-bath at this particular gym is an entire floor, and is separated by gender, of course. That is the one catch about these places -- no bathing suit option! Everyone is naked, naked, naked. It feels a little weird at first, especially because the "stare at the foreigner" rule is not spared at the public bath. Before long, however, I was the happiest bather in the place, trying out all the cool options of jets and showers and hot and cool tubs. The steam rooms and saunas were especially soothing to my phlegm-filled chest, and will have surely helped in the laborious battle I have been having with this cough.

The mercury is going to drop further, and I sense that more frequent visits to this wonderful, warm place will be a large part of our Korean future!

Halloween in Korea

Well our first Halloween in Korea has come and gone, and although it was up to the foreigner population in Korea to keep the spookiness alive amongst a people who don't celebrate the ghoul-ish holiday, we all felt the halloween spirit nonetheless. The Suncheon crew headed to Mokpo, and us girls dressed up as "liquors" (see pictures below!) Emilie was Crown Royal, Catherine was a White Russian, Liz was a Jaggerbomb, and I was Fireball whiskey. 

 Fireball, Jaggerbomb, White Russian, and Crown Royal

...we had to get pretty inventive with our liquor bottles..

Halloween also meant we got to teach our classes a little bit about the holiday. Most of the kids had heard about Halloween, but really didn't know anything about it. Em and I both showed our kids the "This is Halloween" song on youtube from the Nightmare Before Christmas, and played Halloween-themed games. While I'm not sure how much they took from the lesson, I still have kids coming up to me and saying, "Teacher, candy? Trick or treat!" They don't quite understand it's a one-day only kind of thing.


After the festivities of last weekend we hope to have a semi-quiet weekend here in Suncheon, although we may head to 광 양 시 (Gwangyang) to watch some of our friends play in the annual rugby tournament. And yes, as you may have guessed our Korean classes are going swimmingly! We are now fully able to read and write the Korean "alphabet" Hanguel, and are onto learning key words/phrases and some grammar rules. I can definitely appreciate how hard it is for our students to learn english... it's hard enough for us to learn Korean, and Korean is a language that's actually logical in the way it follows grammar rules with few or no exceptions! English, however, is another story...



Next weekend is our 10k run for the Suncheon Marathon, and the weekend after that is my birthday weekend and our 2nd trip to Seoul!! A little nervous for the run as my vice principal has announced he will be there cheering me on... haha, Korea is so weird.


On a somewhat sentimental note, Emilie and I realized we've had matching halloween costumes 5 years in a row now! I wonder where we'll both be next year, and whether we'll keep the tradition alive...?!

Bye for now!! Lots of love,
Jenna & Emilie