Teacher's Second Worst Nightmare

What is your worst nightmare as a teacher?

  Mine would be something dangerous and life threatening happening to one of my students. My SECOND worst nightmare is the class losing their minds and me having no control whatsoever and achieving nothing. It happened today with all but my last class... There was something dodgy in their milk this morning I swear. 

Grade 4

  First up this morning was grade 4. I go into the room at the normal time and set everything up and wait for Co. And wait. And wait. In the meantime the kids have arrived and are asking me where he is, and I am just saying I have no idea. So they start slowly working up to a volume similar to that of a Metallica concert. I have no way to calm them down, I have tried yelling and everything but nothing is working so I quickly scan YouTube and put a Pixar Short on (these save my bacon, i'm fucked when I run out of Pixar Shorts). They are quiet for long enough to get their attention to the text and to start the lesson. The peace lasts approx 5 minutes before they are wild again. I am over it and I sit down at the desk. They all just fool around for a bit then I snap. I do my best "YA" and they all freak out and stop - and I start pulling boys up the front of the class and making them sit and face the wall. It works, we finish the lesson in relative quiet.

  The next grade 4 class comes in. Still no Co, but at least I am prepared this time. They all ask where he is, and the noise level starts to increase as they all catch on that I am teaching along. But I am ready. I stand in front of them all and say "GAME" at the top of my lungs. They all cheer! And then get quiet while I try and explain what to do. They all line up as asked, but are so feral that it takes nearly 5 minutes for the boys and girls to form separate lines. And I am asking them in Korean and they still aren't doing it. I crack it for the second time today.

"YA" 

They all stop. I say:

"You ruined the game, everyone sit"

And as they sit, chaos ensures. They start swearing in both English and Korean. I start pulling kids up the front again, even a girl this time. They are reasonably quiet while we do some "Listen and Repeat" before one of the boys at the front is poking the kid next to him. I send him outside the classroom, and the rest of the class is cheering - I don't know if they cheer for me or for him. And this is what happens for the rest of the lesson. At the end of the class there are 4 boys outside fooling around and 6 kids sitting up the front. This strategy is no longer feasible... But that's the last grade 4 class for the day. Grade 3 will be better, right?

Grade 3

  When they came in my throat was already aw from freaking grade 4, and I had resigned myself to the fact that Co wasn't coming. I was certainly wondering why he didn't tell me he wasn't coming in but had no time to worry. I played some retarded "Days of the Week" song and they all sang which was nice. Then got into the lesson just fine, and then it got to the game time... The text book games are always lame but this one could have been fun... could have been fun...

  They just wouldn't line up properly. My little helper (a girl with decent English - her mother is Russian) tried to help but she also got frustrated. She cried. Another gild was upset becuase her pencil case broke and her pencils went everywhere. There was no control. Quick - put on the Pixar Short (for everyone who is interested, today's saving video was Partly Cloudy) and the lesson was over.

  The next class was worse. I witnessed the worst bullying I have seen since arriving in Korea. This little girl is a bit strange, she clearly has autism or something, and it forever grinning to herself and making a ruccous. My Co says its ADHD, but I think its def a form of Autism. 

Side note - 

Many teachers in Korea throw ADHD around a lot - any kid with a behavior problem is said to have ADD. My Co is not one of these people... He thinks that most kids these days simply need a good smack on the head or the back of the leg - and I think in some cases he might be right (I DO NOT condone hitting kids... What I mean is that dicipline starts in the home and parents need to spend a bit more time with their kids). Anyway, for him to say that a kid has ADD then I would be inclined to agree with him. Not in this girls case.

  Anyway, the other kids were awful to her. They wouldn't let her be in any of their teams, and pushed her around. They punched her, and one boy spat on her. By this stage I was beside myself... In the end I had her come and sit on the floor in front of me, mainly to keep the other kids off her. They were like a wild mob - of 3rd grade kids. It was so awful. I had another bout of screaming at them all in English, so they had no idea what I was saying but they knew I was mad. And they knew I was seriously unimpressed with how they were treating the little girl, but they didn't understand why. 

"But she is crazy, Bonnie" one other girl told me. 

"That is no reason to hit her" I replied, but they had no idea what I was saying. 

And the boy who spat? I will admit it. I grabbed him by the arm and led him out the classroom. He stayed outside. That silenced everyone pretty damn quickly. I was furious but I had lost control of the class and they were all just being ultra rowdy  So back came the video... I was angry at myself too, because its like I have rewarded them for their bad behavior  Thank God the bell went and they went to lunch and I was left to lick my wounds. 

  After lunch I had the final grade 3 class. I was ready. Co was not there, so I was not going to teach the book. They needed something a bit different  I had found a cute video called Getting Round, and had decided that we would do shapes and colours. I didn't give a shit if they already knew it - it could be a revision lesson.

They sang their normal annoying song and then we watched the video. We talked briefly about shapes and colours then watched it again. Then we all drew our own "shape worlds" and added a "problem" to it (for example, in the square world, the wheels on the car were also square - it was a "problem"). We compared each others pictures and laughed at the "problems". At the end I showed them the same movie all the others had seen, but this time it was a reward not a distraction. And at the end of the class they all got up nicely and thanked me and left. It was perfect.

So what is the moral of this story???

  To be prepared for your classes. I was practically assaulted by kids today - they completely owned me all morning, and I already know now it is gonna be difficult for me to get the control back. They took advantage of the fact that I don't speak Korean and that Co was not there. I was simply not prepared for class. I knew what lessons they were up to, but knowing my own limitations I should have had back up activities ready just in case things went pear shaped. They had too much energy and not enough to do. 

  From this I have learnt that I need to prepare better. I can't always rely on Co to show up - this is the downside of him trusting me to teach. He simply doesn't turn up. I never know if he will be there or not. So, I need to prepare different random lessons for different grades on the off chance that he isnt there. I need to have spare worksheets to fill time at the end of classes. I need to find more funny/interesting/cure shorts for them to watch. And I need to be more assertive from the start. I am their teacher, so they should listen even if they have no idea what I am saying. I WILL DO BETTER NEXT TIME!

In other news...

  I have uploaded another video to YouTube, please check it out if you have a minute. I know I really need to spend a bit more time on the channel, and I really enjoy working on it so stay tuned for more in the future. 

  I was at Rach and Changsu's wedding on Sunday and it was awesome. The bride looked amazing and the groom very handsome. The food was good and the best part - it was in Pyeongtaek. So hardly any travel! I actually really love Korean weddings, I think I might just have to marry a Korean guy myself so I can have a cool cheesy wedding (and lovely hybrid babies) . 

  I never found my stuff. I mean, I never actually went back to Hongdae to look for it but I am convinced its gone. Now I just need to get to immigration and get a new ARC... SO ANNOYING. I totally learnt that lesson too...

It has clearly been a big few weeks for personal growth.

  Sissy arrives in less than a month so excited!!! And, in case you haven't noticed, I have not talked about North Korea. It's because there is nothing to talk about. We are all fine here (still) so again, please do not be concerned. Stop buying the newspapers and stop watching the news... Every time a new story comes out all it does is scare people living OVERSEAS (not us here) and fuels Mr. Kim's ego. So stahp plz ppl!

Till later or, whatever

xoxoxox

 

Weekly wrap up

Weekly wrap up - 

So here we are again on Sunday. I always like to do a weekly summary, and share some deep insight with you, fellow citizens, but this week nothing really comes to mind. I mean, OBVIOUSLY things happened (you know when you haven't seen someone in ages, and you ask them "so, what have you been up to?" and they reply, "oh, nothing much." and its obviously a lie - as if they haven't done anything in MONTHS) but I can't decide whether or not they are worthy of a blog entry.

For example, I made myself pancakes for breakfast this morning. I am getting way better at pancakes actually, so maybe this is worthy of writing about.

Ooo, another worth event - it was Cheng's birthday on Wednesday and we went out for a bite to eat at a Chinese restaruent in Pyeongtaek. The food was really good, it was a nice change from Korean food. And the company was fantastic as always. Then on Saturday night we trekked into Gangnam for Cheng's birthday celebration 2.0, having dinner at an Italian place and then to a club.
The restaurant was called California Pizza Kitchen, and it is located in Gangnam right near Sinnonhyeon Station exit 6. The food was great, I forgot my camera and my phone ran out of juice so I don't have any pics to post unfortunately. But I had the walnut carbonara and it was lovely and creamy. Actually it was the richest thing I have eaten since coming to Korea so I was feeling a little gross after I ate but I swear it was so good I had to keep eating! And what I didn't eat lovely Mathilda finished off for me :) It was a little more pricy than the foods at home (by home I mean Songtan), I think it was 13,900 won for my meal.
Then we went after to a club down the road called Eden. It was super fun, and regrettably I went home early but I wish I had stayed. We got in for free thanks to the beautiful Catarina who got us all on a guest list, but once in the drinks were SUPER expensive - I paid 12,000 for a vodka and soda. The shots were something like 9,000... Very pricy. But, the music was really good, it was all house music when I was there and apparently it stayed good all night. The best part? They were songs from home!!! And the DJ was a chick (which is probably why the music was so good). I mean, some of the stuff was a little older, and maybe it wasn't good at all and I was just excited to hear familiar tunes. Whatever. And... They boys were WAY hotter here than at home. I mean, super good looking. So now I know where all the hot Korean boys have been hiding. If you are looking for one, they all live in Gangnam, which actually makes sense.
I ended up cathing the last bus to Osan home with Heejin and Dave, but I think Heejin actually would have rather stayed and partied. Next time we will!

For anyone wondering, the last bus from Gangnam to Osan leaves from near exit 7 at Gangnam Station at around 1am. It was a little late, I think it arrived at about 1:10, but it got us back to Osan by 2ish. And then the cab ride to my place was about 7,000 which was great. So there is some new info for the masses! Don't all thank me at once.

Umm... I don't think I did anything else of note...

I am in the midst of a disagreement with Co. Its over winter camp of course, not the first disagreement we have had over it either. This time, I suggested that we make the camp shorter and have all the students in together. He is convinced that i am lazy and trying to get off doing work. And so it goes on. He called my recruiter at Korvia for some reason, to say that I didn't understand my contract. I have since emailed my GEPIK co-ordinator to double check that I am right (which I am pretty sure I am...) anyway watch this space.
God I hope I get a new co-teacher next year.
I have said it before and I will say it again. I am sure he is a nice enough guy. I just don't want to work with him. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not, but his idea of dicipline leaves a lot to be desired, and he is a control freak. I need a more positive and imaginitive person to work with. or I just need to come to terms with the fact that I have a long time to go working with this bloke so I need to suck it up.
End rant.

In other news...

It hasn't snowed this week but it has gotten warmer. As in around 2-5 degrees C so practically balmy. And I fell over on ice on Monday or Tuesday and made a dick of myself in front of a heap of people. It was awesome (not).

Thank god it is payday tomorrow, because I am broke... And I need to get some Christmas gifts for people. Anyone at home reading this be warned - you will probably not recieve a gift. Its not because I hate you, actually I love you all more that you know, but I just can't afford it at the moment. So I will just save up gifts and send them over when I have some spare cash. Or you can have something fun from me when I get home. 

We are doing some cool xmas things with the people here, I am going to Mia's for Christmas Day, and doing a pot luck Christmas party with another friend before Christmas. So we have that holiday covered... And then SISSY arrives! So pumped for that, we are down to 11 days to go :D

Milky is doing really well, even though I didn't go back to the vet on Saturday. I couldn't afford to get the booster vaccinations, so he will have to wait until next weekend. I am hoping it is no biggie, they even sent me a text to remind me. Oops. But we had to eat! And drink... and party... Ok, so maybe my priorities are a little bit out. But trust me, Milky is fine and happy as a pig in shit. He is currently snoozing in front of the fridge, one of his fave places. 

Plans for this week? Well, hump day has been moved to Tuesday because we all (well, most) have a day off on Wednesday. WOOOHOOO!!! 

"Why, Bonnie?"

Well, because of the elections! We may have a race that stops a nation, but in Korea the elections stop the nation. I don't know too much about it to be honest, but I think I want Number 2 to be elected. The old guy, for those playing at home. But because if the day off, it will be a HUGE night on Tuesday night I am fairly certain we will be getting pissed in Suwon and being hungover all day Wednesday. If not hungover I plan on going to the Tim Burton Exhibition which is on in Seoul atm, and then maybe iceskating in the city. Romantic huh!?!

And then friday is the last day of term, and I have 2 weeks off! So excited, I really need a break. 

No pics to show you this week, I haven't really taken any. Sorry, my bad. But I haven't been anywhere!!! I promise I will have more to show next Sunday.

Till later, then.

xoxo

Gangnam Style!

Teacher, you know Psy? 

Yes, student, I sure do... In fact, I think just about everyone in the world now knows Psy. And if you don't, then let me tell you a little bit about this guy and how the Korean's have reacted to him...

Psy

The guy isn't young, he is mid 30's which for Korean rappers and stars that is basically a dinosaur. He also doesn't have the standard look, as in he looks like a middle aged guy (albeit with a nicely puffed out face and very smooth skin) rather than the super skinny girly looking guys that usually grace the K-Pop charts.

nb

At somepoint I will do a blog about K-Pop here, it needs its own blog because it is such a huge thing here. More like a strange cult or religion to be honest...

Anyway, Psy is considrered a rapper, which surprised many of my Australia friends when I told them. He has a heap of songs and is a judge on one of those singing talent shows, like X-Factor. The guy is super famous, but it used to be that older Korean people didn't like him much. He is a little bit vulgar for them, and some of his songs are considered offensive. But since he released Gangnam Style they have come round, and pretty much the whole country has gone nuts for him. 

He has an interesting back story, in terms of his personal life which effected his professional life. Now, don't quote me on this because it was a story told to me by one of my co-workers and things may have been lost in translation, but Psy has done 2 separate stints in the military. He served first as a technical of some sort, but did not fill certain requirement. He would have gotten away with it if he wasn't famous, but when people realised that he has skipped out a little bit, his fans were really mad. So he deliberately re-inrolled himself and went back and did another 2 years or something with the Army. So now his fans love him because he is super patriotic. This is a big deal here by the way, if you don't love RoK then you suck and no one likes you.

He is a rich guy and always has been, he grew up in Gangnam and his father was a big shot company man, I think maybe for Hyundai or something...

Anyway, he is signed with YG Entertainment which is one of the 2 biggest music studios in Korea. Others who are with this company are 2NE1 and BIGBANG. There are a heap of other really big names signed with YG.

Gangnam

Gangnam is a very affluent district to the south of the Han River in Seoul. It is the 'Beverly Hills' of Seoul with a lot of 'new money' in the district. All the kids are spoilt and rich, and go to private schools.  It has upmarket clubs and bars and heaps of plastic surgery clinics. I haven't been to Gangnam yet but when I do i will post photos :)

Gangnam is also where many celebrities live and work - the big music studios/produces are here as well as film and t.v. studios. 

The Song

So here is the deal with the song...

Psy is basically poking fun at all the beautiful people who live in this super trendy area. He is saying yes they are rich and beautiful, but they are just like everyone else. Read the song lyrics here

The clip went viral. I was totally shocked when Georgia told me it was something like no. 30 on the I Tunes countdown about a week after I came to Korea. So i was blown away when i heard it was number 1 in Australia, and also in America. WTF! This is K-Pop! And people absolutely love it!!! Psy has been everywhere, all over t.v. in different countries. The video has had millions of views. He is now signed with Justin Beiber's manager in the U.S or something... And I hear he might be performing at Future Music Festival in Australia!

The guy is amazing! And he is super funny too, and is very humble in interviews.

Something that I read on the internet made me laugh... I have been trying to keep up with news from home, and read on some tabloid sight about American's only liking this song because they were mocking it and the poor Korean's don't realise they are being made fun of. For starters, the song is meant to be tongue in cheek anyway, so it is already mocking itself. And Psy meant for it to be funny! The Koreans also know it is a stupid song! Thats why they love it. And as far as whether or not the Korean people know they are being mocked, well, I don't think they would care anyway. If you see knew how badly they tease other countries including America then you would also find this comment funny. 

The upshot?

The upshot is Gangnam Style is a funny song. It still hasn't gotten old here, it is played in every shop, on every radio station, out of every car that drives past and on every commercial. Psy pony dances to mobile phone ads, refrigerator ads and many others. Everyone knows the dance (myself included) and its not weird to dance to it in the street if you hear it come on. Apparently in Melbourne, clubs are playing the song. My sister was out on the weekend and she said it was played twice at Baroq House in the CBD. I asked her if everyone did the 'pony dance' she said no! This would not be tolerated here. You MUST dance to Psy!

My kids danced to it at their sports day (which I still haven't uploaded the video of I am sorry!!!) and it was one of the first things they asked me when I started teaching. 

And I have now seem him live! Well, I was too far away to actually see him but I have been to a Psy concert! Here are some pics from my awesome night last night:

Looking very Korean 

They were taking photos of me so I took photos of them :)

It was funny too, I dunno if it was because of the pink flashing bow I was wearing, or my crazy dancing or my blonde hair but heaps of people came up after and wanted their photo with me. So I might be all over the internet today lol. I got filmed while I was dancing away too.

Gotta love a free concert with one of the biggest starts n Korea performing! 

We all went out after and got messy on soju and beer. It was a super fun night over all... I have had such a good week hanging out with my new friends, learning Korean and just enjoying life. Now all I need is to be paid so I can do the whole thing again for another month! 

I have officially passed my 1 month point (actually I am way over it now but I forgot to blog about it) and I am just hoping that the rest of my time here goes as well as this. Still loving Korea.

xoxoxo 

The Slipping Mask

As I have started writing this tonight, this post is unnamed. Looks like this is going to be one of those rambling posts... Apologies in advance, Citizens.

I constantly fluctuate from surprise to disgust to awe to amazement to gratitude to so many other emotions at the different things we humans do. What we do to each other, ourselves, nature, animals, etc etc. the list is eternal.

I have just come back from a 3 day conference held by GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program In Korea) which is the government body in charge of the English Program in my province. The Gyeonggi-do province in South Korea is the largest province in the country, has the most schools and the most students. And consequently the most native teachers. So they put together this program for the new teachers to attend in order to better equip them for teaching in ROK. Did it work? Not really, I don't think I feel any better prepared than before. Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did actually. But for different reasons.

I am a known people watcher (polite term for stalker maybe?) and I really like to see how people interact. And I always lol at myself after these things, because I notice the change that happens to myself when I am around people I either don't know or am not comfortable with. I am always a slightly different person.
Are all these other people the same? Are they being themselves? How long do you need to know someone before you actually know someone???
An analogy I have used before is my Mask Theory. I think everyone wears a Mask pretty much all the time. Every person we come in contact with sees a slightly different version of ourselves. is this a good thing or a bad thing? Neither, I think. Its just how it is. The thing is, though, is that eventually the mask will slip, and the real 'you' will start poking through. I know for myself, I always pretend to be cooler than I really am. In truth, I am a big nerd who is bad at sports and likes reading, anime and Game of Thrones. But as far as new friends are concerned, I am a super cool person who loves to drink and party and all that. Or maybe thats not how I come across? I have no idea, but thats certainly the image I want them to get. I want to seem fun and exciting... Because fun people make friends, not boring people. Right???

While on the conference I could see certain groups forming. It indadvertedly happens, people gravitate towards certain people. Now, we were all adults who attended this event. Yet, when people get together childish events still occur. There was someone who was picked on (without his knowledge), someone who skipped out on class, a group of boys making noise, a group of girls talking about everyone else... it just goes to show you can never escape high school.
I had made it my goal to try and talk to everyone. I wanted to meet lots of people and hopefully make new friend. I think I did ok, I got a few new FB friends out of it, and was able to build on current work in progress friendships. But I do wonder what other people got out of the even. And I wonder what people thought of me... Will I ever be able to shake my insecurities about making friends? Probably not. And its storage that I feel this way - its not like I had a hard time at school... People may even say I had it easy at high school compared to others, I had a heap of friends and never really got picked on. But I made a huge effort. I picked my friends carefully and stuck by them.

So whats the go here in Korea? How do you make friends and keep friends? How do I know if my mask is slipping? Will people still want to be friends when they see my nerdy loser side???
Yes, i think so. Because most people have a nerdy side, I think. I hope anyway...

You can't hide who you are forever (Maddie - remember when we tried to be cool in New Zealand???) so my new goal for this year is to try and be more myself. Stop trying to be cool, and stop labelling! Just be myself and if people don't like me then thats fine. They wouldn't have been a real friend anyway. So then, i will know I have true friends here on the other side of the world.

I didn't think this post was going to be about me, but there you go.

In other news...

Please, PLEASE get into the K-drama "To the Beautiful You". I am going mental for it, especially now I know what's going on (shout out to Jeong from school for explaining it to me haha). 

In brief - 

The series centers on Goo Jae-hee (Sulli), a Korean girl who lives in the United States. One day, she sees a track and field competition on TV, and becomes inspired by a gold medalist high jump competitor, Kang Tae-joon (Minho). She begins to idolize the young athlete but Tae Joon suffers an accident that could potentially end his career. Therefore, to see Tae-joon jump again, Jae-hee disguises herself as a boy and attends the same school as Tae-joon. 

(Thanks Wikipedia!) 

But of course there is a love triangle - Kang Tae-joon knows she is a chick, and they both like each other but can't admit it because she doesn't know that he knows, and he doesn't want her to get into trouble. 

Then there is Cha Eun-gyeol who thinks she is a guy, but has admitted his feelings for 'him' and is totally confused about his sexuality. 

The whole thing is ridiculous but i'm hooked. It also starts a heap of K-pop stars, so go celebrity spotting :)

MUM IS NEARLY HERE! She is coming to visit for Chuseok (traditional Autumn festival here in Korea) and we are visiting Busan and Seoul. I haven't been to either of those places yet so stay tuned for some pics and some interesting information! I will try and remember everything so I can tell you about it. I am super excited to see some of the country, and also to have such a great travelling partner. my mum is super good to travel with, she is up for anything and loves travel. She is open to other customs and likes to see sights. Except temples... She gets sick of temples pretty quickly. 

I have also recently found out a certain family member is a full on jerk. Just because someone is 'family' doesn't mean they have to be your friend. 

Anyhoo, i will leave you with some pics of the KSA Centre where the GEPIK conference was held. It was a nice area, kinda farmland kinda mountainous. And it wasn't really far from home - still in Pyeongtaek! 

 Our room - I was lucky enough to be roomies with Shanda :D

Till next time!

xoxoxo

In sickness and health

You can't take me anywhere...

Its a well known fact around town that i get sick anytime I go overseas for a holiday. And apparently moving overseas is no exception. I have been here for less than 3 weeks and I am already sick. Luckily it has nothing to do with my bowel and guts (random comment? Not really, I have Crohn's Disease for those who have only just joined us), rather I appear to have the beginnings of a chest infection. I don't actually think it is that bad, I think its more the constant dry coughing is driving Co mad at work. So today, he came inside and said;

"Bonnie, I feel you need to go to the hospital"

My reaction was something like this:

"..."

"Bonnie, I am concerned about your chest. I think you are getting much worser and need to get a shot".

A shot? You mean needle? Surely not! I have had many a cough in Melbourne, and as much as it used to drive my sister mental at night it never warranted a trip to the hospital. I tried to explain to him that I just didn't think it was serious enough for the hospital but he wouldn't hear of it. 

"But teacher," I said to him, "I can't go to the hospital, my ARC card isn't ready yet and I don't have medical insurance set up".

Not to worry! Out Vice-Principal has very good connections apparently, and they will sort it all out so it won't cost much.

So off we go to the hospital around 4pm.

Hospital visit

I get that it was supposed to be a hospital, but to me it looked like more of a big, old clinic. If Co hadn't been with me I would not have gone in, mainly because from the outs it didn't look like a hospital (in fact the inside wasn't much better). The floors had huge cracks in them, which I think will be due to the heating and cooling in winter, but still it looked messy and un-hospital-like. The admin girls didn't speak English so it was lucky Co was there with me. He desalt with all the paperwork and the hospital director came out to say hello. Turns out the Vice-Principal DOES know people... Anyway then they took my temperature and blood pressure and then I went in and saw the doctor. He spoke ok English, asked me if I had any diseases and if I was allergic to anything. That was all. He looked in my throat, asked me what my symptoms were then prescribed a heap of stuff and then sent me out. I paid something like 22,000won and got 3 different pills to take for 3 days, a heap of 'tonic' (coughing syrup) and a shot. Needle. I was like "huh?" 

I didn't even feel that bad! Why do I need a needle?

Now, I don't really have issues with needles, I have a heap of tattoos so it would be stupid if I was a needle freaker. But, this is South Korea, and I just wasn't sure about this needle business. Especially when I was asked to follow the nurse into the back room. She told me, well, mimed at me, to drop my pants. 

WTF?

So there's me, leaning over a bed with my pants down while this nurse gives me a needle in the fleshy part of my butt. She slapped it a few times, and kept slapping while administering the injection. She then got an alcohol swap and mopped the area and then gave it a good rub. She mimed at me to keep rubbing my butt for a while. I walked back out feeling a little weird, and Co said to me that I should keep rubbing the area or I will get a big bruise. 

I then got on the bus and came straight home to lick my wounds (in a non literal sense obviously). 

Needless to say I am not going out tonight, which I am a bit disappointed about as it was a newbies night in Suwon. But I will try and pay the area a visit on Friday night instead. 

My syrup and pills

School this week

Has been stupid. There has been absolutely nothing to do, which is ok but it does make the time go slowly. 

Monday

This was Typhoon Day. My first typhoon and it was a complete letdown. Very dull. It rained and was super windy so the classes were cancelled and the kids all got to go home after lunch. I however, had to go to immigration with Co. It was in Suwon, but in an area that was way far out and I had never been anywhere near there before. It took at least an hour to get there and then we had to wait for over 2 hours for my number to be called. By the time it was my turn I had started shivering and coughing. im thinking this is why I am sick... Getting wet and all that in the typhoon... Anyway, Getting the form filled out only took 5 minutes and cost 10,000won. So not expensive at all really. The catch is that I have to go back on the 12th October to pick up my ARC (alien registration card) and until then I can't open a bank account or get a phone. I am totally pissed off about this, because I am running out of money and I hate not having a phone that works. I am trying really hard to make friends, and I can't even call the ones i've got to make plans. And its all Co's fault for not taking me to immigration right away. Still, its done now and there isn't really anything I can do about it. 

By the time I got home Monday it was dark and I was cold and coughing. 

Tuesday

I honestly don't really know what happened yesterday, except that the kids had no classes after lunch again, but this time it was because they were practicing for the Sports Day. I swear, these kids are never in class...

I took the grade 4 class by myself for the first period which was ok, I like the grade 4 kids they are still cute. And they were pretty well behaved, i wanted to play a game with them but they didn't understand what I was trying to get them to do. So we just went back to the workbook. 

Today (Wednesday)

I swear I did NOTHING. All classes were cancelled for the kids to practice for Sports Day but no one told me, so i was sitting around wondering what the hell was going on. I put something on FB along the lines of "Where are my students?" and Jeong, my teacher friend, saw it and told me what was going on. She then came to see me in my classroom and we hung out all morning. I gave her some tongue twisters to work on - she has plenty of English vocal but trouble with conversation and pronunciation. So hopefully they will help. e went over a few so i think she got the gist. The we worked on my Korean. I am so fucking bad at it. I can't make certain sounds properly, so i sound like the biggest idiot trying to make the words work. but, i a trying really hard so I think once I have some basics I will be better. For example, Jeong and I were talking about where I was from, and how to say 'I like...' or whatever. Then, when I was in the hospital I recognised when the hospital director asked Co where I was from. And I understood when he said I came from Australia. I couldn't tell you what they said, but I knew what they were talking about. So its a start!

Tomorrow is the Sports Day and I asked Co if there was anything he wanted me to do... He said yes, that if I had a video camera would it be ok if I filmed the students. Hell yes! I was planning on doing it anyway, but was worried I would come off as a creep - filming kids. A big no no at home lol.

So i will take some pics and put a video up on Youtube in the next few days. 

Now, it's 6:30pm and I am ready for bed. I think the pills have made me sleepy so hopefully that means they will work. Because I want to go out for dins tomorrow with some Pyeongtaek people and then I want to go out drinking on Friday with Suwon people. So I need to get better soon!!!

I'll leave you with an adorable pic of the kindy kids practicing their flag waving for tomorrow. They were supposed to be doing some sort of synchronised flag waving and dancing, but they were just flailing them around like tiny crazy people. So cute ^_^

Anyway, peace out!

xoxo

God Bless America

Having never really met any American's,

I realise now I have been seriously generalising. 

Which isn't entirely my fault, all I know about America is from what I see on t.v, and by t.v I mainly mean C.S.I or Criminal Minds rather than the news. So I naturally assume that everywhere in America has a heap of crime, and that everyone is either obese or super skinny. 

I also assumed that they all love God, or follow some sort of religion (not that I have anything against God, I am a Catholic myself albeit not a very good one) and watch the Superbowl. I assume that people from the South don't have all their teeth and have names like Cletus and Mary-Sue. And that people from California are blonde and tanned. I also didn't think they seemed like friendly people, rather, that they would be obnoxious and rude.

What I have discovered is something else entirely.

The American's I have met are warm and friendly, welcoming and helpful. The other teachers I have spoken with are outgoing and happy, and have come to Korea to shake their lives up and do something exciting. They are super fun. 

The military guys are proving to be both what I expected, and also not what I expected. They are rowdy and flirty (I went out to Songtan drinking with one of my AWESOME new girlfriends and we didn't need to buy a thing) and have weird drinking chants that involve guns and ammo or something like that. If they had started shouting "USA! USA!" it would't have surprised me. But they are also really polite. Well, the guys we met were polite anyway...

 

So I have learnt something about myself since coming here.

I am a serial generaliser.

It doesn't matter what it is, I will make an unfounded blanket statement about it. I used to joke around with one of the guys at my old work, we would play the 'Generalising Game' in which we made terrible statements like "Well he has an Indian sounding name, he must smell like curry" and other inappropriate things. It was a fun game... 

But it is a good example of what I am like. I don't ever generalise to discriminate, I am not that sort of person (even though I see I am coming across that way) it's more I don't know enough about something or someone so I make an educated guess. I had done it already about Korea too. In this case though my assumptions and generalisations have been pretty accurate. But that's for another blog...

Its an easy thing to do (generalise, I mean) but its also the lazy thing as well. So my new 'thing' will be to try and understand more about something before I jump ahead and call a spade a spade. Because it might be a shovel. 

In other news...

I am slowly starting to make some friends. I have met some really cool people from Pyeongtaek. I won't name names, cos i'm not sure how ok people are with that here, but I went out for dins with a group on Wednesday night and it was super fun. We ate Shabu Shabu (I think thats what it was called??) which is soup that is full of veggies and all that, then you throw meat in it and the meat cooks in the soup. Then once you have eaten all the meat the lady brings out noodles and puts them in the soup, so you wait for the noodles to cook then you eat the noodles. THEN she brings over rice and cooks it in the soup pot. It was souper tasty (see my play on soup? HAHA i'm hilarious ey?). Then a couple of the girls went but 4 of us went back into Pyeongtaek to meet up with another girl and her bf for Honey Bread. I capitalise this because of how awesome it was... To me, it tasted kinda like fresh toast without the egg and waaayyyy sweeter. It was the most fatty and delicious thing I have eaten since coming to Korea. 

 Every meal you get here comes with side dishes included.

 Honey Bread

Approx. 3 minutes later...

And last night was an awesome night! Shanda and I (I hope she doesn't mind I have named her - apologies if you are not cool with it I will update the blog ASAP) went out for dinner first here in Songtan then went boozing around the strip. We played beer pong, bar hopped and danced the night away. I bought our first drinks, but soon realised I really didn't need to bother. Everyone wanted to buy us a drink. Being in Songtan on a Friday night is an experience in itself, the military boys are out in force and getting wasted, the boy/girl ratio is about 20:1 and they just wanna party. And they were good fun for the most part. They fully acknowledge that they buy all the drinks, one guy even said something along the lines of "it must be nice to not have to buy any drinks when you go out". Shanda said she wants to take me with her all the time, i'm a "military magnet". I think its just they haven't seen a blond chick in a while. 

I was totally drunk, and ended up refusing drinks cos my belly literally couldn't take anymore. And then they boys bought us water instead :) so that was nice of them too. 

By 12:30 the party wraps up, they need to be back on base or they get into trouble. So we stayed for another song, and stumbled back to my little room and tried to sleep off the grape soju. It was a really fun night with a new friend :) So shout-out to Shanda!

Tonight hopefully it will be back to Suwon to go out with Mia for a party, its a friend of hers birthday and 15000won for all you can drink cocktails. Thats about $15 for the people playing at home. So probably another messy night.

Right now I am sitting here waiting for my washing to finish washing so I can put it out, i'm gonna have a shower and then go to E-Mart cos I can. And then come home, maybe have a nap and then head out again I guess. 

Oooo, and there is apparently a big typhoon coming on Monday, so hopefully it will be huge and I can have a day off school! I will keep you informed about the typhoon... I have never been in a huge storm so I am actually pretty excited. 

Thats really it for now...

xoxoxo

Where to start?

Having been in South Korea for 4 nights now, 

you would think I would have some idea about what to say... But I don't know where to start!

So, backtracking to Thursday (gonna skip over the teary goodbyes at the airport - lets just say it involved a lot of crying. Quick shout out to everyone who came to see me off and a BIG thank you to Anne and Jo for looking after me in customs and the international lounge).

The Flight

I flew with China Souther Air, and it actually wasn't that bad. I paid $725 for the flight so I wasn't expecting red carpet, but it was better than Jetstar thats for sure. The meals were Asian food so I wasn't that keen but all in all not bad. I got a little bit of sleep but I never sleep well on planes. I think its more the sitting upright.

There was a stop over in Guangzhou (?) in China, which was decidedly uneventful. I got changed into something less homeless looking as I knew I was being met in Incheon. We boarded the next flight and took off to Korea. The weather in China was HOT and the air con in the airport was shit house so I was looking a bit worse for wear when I got to Korea. 

Somewhere between China and Korea the clouds had rolled in, so when we landed it was still super muggy but raining pretty heavily. I was picked up by a cute little old Korean man who didn't really speak English at all but he tried. My bag felt like I had packed lead cannonballs but he offered to wheel it anyway. We got into his lovely van thing and headed off to Pyeongtaek.

NB

People drive on the wrong side of the road in Korea!!! No one told me that! The poor little man thought I wanted to drive lol

South Korea

The drive from the airport to Songtan took nearly 2 hours, mainly because of the traffic in shitty weather. The rain kept getting heavier so it was a downpour by the time we arrived at the school. The drive over was different to what I expected - the highways here are waaayyyy better than ours, and there were nice small mountains on either side so there was a lot of greenery. And there are these long ass bridges linking the airport island to the rest of the country - side note here is that the eastern side of South Korea has a heap of large islands. The airport appears to be on one of these...

I was so tired by the time I arrived at the school, but put on my bestest happy face and greeted my co-teacher, Jean (haha I know, that was my recruiters name too). I don't think thats how you spell it, but whatever.

He throughout I was arriving earlier, so all we really did was meet the principal and then got back in the car for him to take me to my little house/room/cave. I didn't get a good look at the school, but it looked pretty big. The plan was to go back the next day and have a proper look around.

My studio apartment

I know most of you will have already seen these pics on FB, but in case you haven't here are a few:

So its a bit hard to see, but I can get from one side to the other in 2 big steps. Its adorable and I love it! I am 3 minutes from the supermarket (Highwaymart), 5 minutes from the station and 10 minutes from my school. Walking, not driving. 

It also turns out I am in Songtan, not Pyeongtaek as I thought... This suits me just fine, as I am that little bit closer to Suwon, and there are a lot of people who speak English here because the Air Force Base in 15 minutes away (walking). It also means I am not stared at too much because the Koreans here are used to looking at Americans... I need to get a tee that says 'Australia' so they know the difference.

Anyway, I am dead tired tonight. It was my first day at school today, but there is so much to blog about for my first weekend that I don't want to launch into it. But now that my internet is working, and I have a plug adaptor there is no reason for me to hold anything back! So I will probe add a blog a day for a while so everyone can catch up on my news. 

I feel like I have done so much in such a short space of time. Its the weirdest thing, I don't feel scared or lonely or anything like that here. I wouldn't say I feel at home, because I don't, but it just doesn't feel that foreign. Maybe because I have spent so much time in Box Hill, or maybe because I have made my little cave into a warm fuzzy retreat with pics of home. Either way, Korea feels friendly, and I like it here. 

I think i'll stick around...

xoxo

Mission Accepted

I have finally accepted a teaching position in South Korea

I know, after all my whining and moaning, I have finally chosen a job. I will tell you all as much as possible about it, and then when I get there and tell the REAL story we can see how they compare :)

I am really excited about the move, but nervous at the same time. Either way, its gonna be a huge adventure, and I hope everyone at home will email/fb/comment/skype often so we can all stay connected. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself...

Songsin Elementary School, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

This is where I will be for the year. The school is a public elementary school, and I will be teaching English to grades 4 - 6. I had the interview on Wednesday arvo last week with my co-teacher Mr. Park, who has been to Melbourne a few years ago on a teacher exchange. He visited Frankston (God knows why :s) so already feels like we have heaps to talk about. 

It was a crazy few days, because I hadn't heard back from the school about if they wanted me or not, and in the meantime another one of my awesome recruiters (I actually mean this - Dan from Teach ESL Korea is a great guy) had found me some other really great positions. So it came down to my choice - did I want to take a great, highly recommended position in a Hagwon in Gwangju, or take this public position in Pyeongtaek?  The choice was really hard. And, strangely enough, many would think I made the wrong choice. 

In Gwangju, I would have a huge network of foreign teachers and made a heap of friends. The place is beautiful, with really nice mountains and all that near by. 

In Pyeongtaek, the foreign community does not seem as big. The place seems kinda ugly (judgement call here based on Google Images - I may be really wrong) and doesn't seem to have any real drawcard. Its only claim to fame is an American Airforce Base... 

So why did I pick Pyeongtaek?

As I told Dan, I wanted to be a bit closer to Seoul. Gwangju is like, 4 hours away by bus... A bit far, especially when I have people in Seoul and surrounding areas that i want to meet up with and hang out with. Another reason is that I really wanted to teach kids. I will be honest, it is pretty daunting the idea of teaching kids who speak no English, in a class size of 30+ with a co-teacher I don't know, but for some strange reason the challenge appealed to me. 

We all know I tend to do things the hard way. Its a strange knack i have...

And there is another reason, but I can't put my finger on what it is... I just feel like this is the place for me. 

I may be totally wrong, and this might be the worst year of my life. I might hate it, and have no friends. But, as one good friend says, there is no such thing as a bad decision. You make the best choice you can with the given information, and then you make the best of your choice. Simple as that. If YOU have decided it, then its right.

Anyway, here is the Wiki for the area - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyeongtaek

The white area in the middle is the are around Seoul. 

Pyeongtaek is about 20 mins further south of Suwon. If I find a better map I will pop it up.

Here is a link to the schools website (its in Korean, I have no idea what it says. Someone tell me if it means Death School or something ok?) - http://www.songshin.es.kr/

Some basic information about Pyeongtaek - 

Area size - 453km2

Population approx - 412, 757

The contract includes the standard return airfare, severance pay, 50/50 medical insurance and accommodation. I also get 300,000 won to get myself settled in. The accommodation is not yet picked for me, so I am a bit nervous about what it will be like :s

Like I said, the co-teacher sounded really nice, he has already pre warned me that the kids speak basically no English so at lease I know in advance. The start date on the contract is September 1st, which is actually a Saturday, so I don't know yet when i will be flying out. I suppose it is all still dependent on the visa and documents.

Document update

I have received an email from the AFP, saying that my CRC is complete and that they are posting it out with the next available Australia Post service. So I am assuming that I will get it sometime Monday or Tuesday. Prob Tuesday. So, as soon as I have it in my hand I will go make a copy and get both the CRC and my degree copy notarised. There is a guy in Box Hill who can do it after hours so i can go that night if I need to. And then the very next day I can drop the documents down to get the Apostille, and then thats pretty much it! I have my reference letters, and my passport sized photos. I need to make colour copies of my passport info page, but as soon as I get some more ink for the printer at home I can get that done too. So, if all goes to plan, all my documents will be ready by the end of the week, and be en route to Korea!

Recruiters

I feel that I should put a special area in about this. The recruiters have been a big part of my job selection. A word to anyone thinking about embarking on this same journey - choose your recruiter wisely! There are so many out there... In the end I ditched a heap who were either not legit enough for me, or who were not really helping me find suitable jobs. The position I have taken was found for me by Jean from Korvia recruiting. They are are big recruitment company, and only find positions for the GEPIK schools (GEPIK - Gyeonggi English Program in Korea) which are all public. They are well reviewed on the internet, and heaps of people I have spoken with or read posts from online have used Korvia.

GEPIK - http://gepik-tek.weebly.com/index.html
Have a look at this site - tells more about GEPIK and the education system in South Korea :)

This is not to say that others are bad. I just got a good vibe from Jean, she was really honest with me the whole time. And she is handling all my documents and getting all my visa stuff sorted. I guess she is speaking with the school, means I don't have to do it. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow up communication from her once I get to Korea. 

As I mentioned earlier, Teach ESL Korea have been super fantastic too. Although I have not accepted one of their positions, I am still on their FB page, and Dan has still extended the hand of friendship for any help I might need. He was pretty devo that I didn't take the position he offered, but I emailed him some of my reasons and I hope he is cool about it. It totally get that they worked to find me a good spot, and I do feel bad. But like I said, this place called to me for some unknown reason.

In a nutshell...

I have no idea why I actually went with this school. It just felt right. I don't really trust my gut instincts, I am usually way off, so i anticipate me finding that I should have chosen otherwise. But for now I feel good about the decision. 

I am pretty nervous, I am worried that I won't make friends, or that i will be bad at teaching. These feelings are normal I guess. 

Pyeongtaek appears to be one of the most boring places in Korea. There isn't anything there that would draw tourists. But I am not a tourist, I am there to work so hopefully it won't matter. I have joined the FB group for the area so with a bit of luck I can do some networking before I get there. And, at least if the North attack, I am near a US Airbase so I should be able to escape pretty quickly :) Better make friends with some army blokes haha. Don't worry mum, just friends.

This is all I can really think of at the moment, I guess the blog is gonna change gears a bit now, from the decision now to the prep. Its not real until I get on the plane, but it is a step closer... Once I know when I fly out I can plan everything a bit better. 

NB - 

South Korea have decided to not go a' whaling! I was so excited to hear this, they must have read my blog haha

xox