Bonnie's Pawprints: friends

Vacation is so close I can taste it...

I have come to the conclusion I am one of the worst ESL teachers going around. Half of it is my fault the other half I blame my co teacher, but I just have no idea how to effectivly plan a lesson. especially a 3 hour lesson. And that is what camp is basically, from 9 - 12 the kids come in and are supposed to do English activities and learn something. My take on it is to do as many crafts and fun things as possible. They are getting English simply by listening to me and following instructions so its not a complete loss. Needless to say that they aren't doing much new learning.

The word of the week was most definitely "slime, which we did on Thursday and was asked to repeat today. It killed some time so I was like hell, why not? So we made more slime and play doh. They say "no Teacher we don't like to do this" and instead of me saying stfu kids you WILL do this, I am all like "oh, ok. What do you wanna do?"

"SLIME"

Whatever. They don't wanna be here any more than I do. The schools offer the English Camps for free over the school holidays as a way to get the kids out of their parents hair. I read on a fb group page that some people hate the whole catchphrase of "paid babysitting" for what we do at camp, but unfortunately for me it is pretty accurate. I don't give a shit what the parents think, if they hated me that much they would find a way to get me out of the school. And if that tragedy did happen I have back up schools.

It seemed to me that they enjoyed most of the activities. The fave for them was the "egg parachute" followed by "slime". I got videos of them doing the egg drop but only play doh and not slime. It got messy and I didn't want my camera getting grubby.

Another highlight for me personally was watching the kids put every condiment on their egg and cucumber sandwiches. Again, I have videos of this - I am planning on putting it together later tonight or tomorrow and popping it on youtube.

Pastels and candy

Eating popcorn and watching Flubber

KiMin and his play-doh face

There are some things that I would change for the camp, but mostly I liked the craft and I will do it again next year, depending on the students. Other things I would change include not getting shit-faced on a Tuesday night and then having Wednesday as egg sandwich day (it made me wanna vomit), preparing stuff in the afternoons rather than freaking out in the morning (keeping in mind I have a good 4 hours in the afternoon to prepare - instead I snooze and watch tv shows), and also have more back up ideas. In my defence, I was told by my co that the camp would be 2 hours in the morning, but the kids all stayed until 12 every day. So my plans were never going to be good enough.

I am glad its over, because now it's time for vacation. And you all know what that means - Japan.

Japan

I am soooo excited to see Jess and Nay, they are flying all the way from Australia to meet up in Japan for 8 days in the Land of the Rising Sun. I will put my Korean-induced prejudice aside and make the most of the time. Things I am most excited to see are mainly in Kyoto I think (I really wanna see this bamboo forest Amy recommended to me!) and I am super keen to try the food. But the big draw card is my friends. Honestly, they could have said "Hey Bon, lets sit in your room all week and play xbox" and I would have been down for it. I am really looking forward to some girly time with people from home.

I love all my friends here, and we have the best time and the best gossip sessions etc, BUT there is something about having a yarn with someone from your own country, especially when you know its gonna be 2 of your oldest friends. Us 3 girls have been planning on this trip to Jap since we were about 16, and I can't believe here we are, more than 10 years later, actually doing it. How many other people out there can say that they have done this??? I am also really looking forward to introducing them to Korea and the crazy people and culture.

I am heading off with basically no money, which has turned into the story of my life since coming to this place. Korea has robbed me of my ability to save and budget, 2 things that I had trained myself to do really well at home. Now I live from pay to pay, and freak out in between. I have a constant counter on my phone which counts down to every pay day. So I am going to be doing this trip on the cheap which I didn't want to do but I am sure it is possible. Or I will do my usual and borrow money. There is a great bank here called Megan, who is an amazing friend who doesn't charge interest :)

I am also getting sich which is typical for me. My throat is killing me and my head has been pounding since yesterday afternoon. I think I just need more sleep but there is too much to do. Painkillers to the rescue and we are good. It will NOT stop me from enjoying this time!

Somebody wants to be packed in the suitcase!

In other news...

My sister is in Europe with her bf. I am so jelly, I think the place I most want to visit on that side of the world is Italy (where she is now). It sounds amazing and I am obsessed with food. So massive diet and save up and then go. Maybe one day I can get married and have my honeymoon there :)

Its coming up to goodbye time for some of my favourite people here. I hate thinking about it, but such is life I guess. I know we will stay in contact because everybody likes free accommodation all over the world!

I don't think I have anything else right now... My head os pounding and I really want to go home and snooze. I won't though, I will go home and try and colour more of my hair. I am trying to get it pink but it keeps going orange. FAIL.

xoxoxoxo

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!