And that was camp

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

Kids say the darnedest things...

Conversations and observations

  Taking into consideration language/age/experience barriers, you would think that the conversations I have with many of my students would be, well, stupid. And for the most part they kinda are... At the same time though they crack me up, whether it be what they are saying or what they are trying to say. I love how the kids often want to include me in their conversations and tell me about what they are doing. Often they just wander over and tell me their stories in Korean, knowing I might only understand a tiny portion of what they are going on about (in my head I am like "ok, I think he is talking about his mum...").

  I have a perfect example from today. 

"Teacher, this boy is fat"

  One of my grade 5 girls is reasonably high level (by comparison to all the others) and sits next to this little boy who is a little chubby. They help each other out with their work, and get along pretty well. I walked up and was standing off to the side of the boy when I saw him rubbing is tummy. I asked him if he was sick.

"No, Bonnie. Not sick. Hungry."

I giggled and told him he should have had breakfast... At this point his neighbor chimed in.

"Bonnie, he had breakfast. He had 2 breakfast... He is a pig and he is very fat." 

I told her she shouldn't call him fat, and that he is still getting taller. She shook her head sadly and looked at the boy and gave him the most pitying look I have seen a child give another.

"Bonnie, he will always be fat, even if he is tall. His face is fat, and he loves food too much. His weight is 57, and my mother is weight 45... He is much much fatter and still hungry." 

The boy is watching her, trying to piece what she is saying. She writes something on his book (the weight of him and her mum) and then he nods and starts agreeing with her. He tells me that yes, he is fat, and he loves food. He looked so sad as he was saying it... He grabbed hold of his tummy and started shaking it. He stopped, both the kids looked at each other and the boy started pissing himself laughing, all the while saying "Nooooo so fat!"

It was the funniest conversation I have had in a while. The 3 of us were giggling like crazy, trying to be quiet during class. 

HE DID IT

I have never know a bigger group of "dobbers" in my life. These kids rat on each other relentlessly, and then just get over it. 

2 boys were up the back with their books propped up. I wandered over to see and lo, they were playing with their phones. So obvious. I just told them to put them away and left it... They put their phones in their pencil cases and that was it. But they left their books up... I don't know what they were doing but it wasn't phones. The next thing you know one of the girls from the front of the room has her hand up and is telling Co that they are playing with phones. He naturally goes ballistic and kicks them out of the class and takes their phones. 

Whenever there is some giggling or screwing around in class Co will stop teaching and demand to know who the culprits are. In Australia, all the students would be dead silent. They would rather die a painful death than give their class mates away. Not so here. All fingers are pointed (literally) and names are called out until the students responsible for the disruption are standing up and shamed out of the classroom. Its totally bizarre. 

Compliments???

I know I have mentioned some compliments I have received in the past, but this week they have been cuter than usual...

"Teacher, your hair is like a doll"

"Bonnie I like your nail colours"

"You are wearing nice blouse"

"No lense? Good colour!"

In Other news...

  I am blown away by what is happening in Australia at the moment. I don't wanna get all political on everyone, but Kevin Rudd is the PM again??? What the hell happened? I know Julia wasn't popular, but Labour Party please - YOU GOT RID OF HIM LAST TIME. And all of this just happens...

  To be honest, the Kevin 07 campaign sold me. I voted for the guy - I DID NOT vote for Gillard. So I was pretty mad when they ditched Rudd as the leader of the Labour Party and the counrty. I did not vote for Labour in the next election, mainly because the party proved they could not be trusted. They strike me as a bunch of back stabbing morons that do not follow through with party promises. Anyway now it seems yet again the Labour Government are playing with Australian voters. It's stupid. Sooooo not gonna vote this time. Fine me is you want...

  Some democracy - its illegal NOT TO VOTE in Australia. Ugh.

  Tickets are purchased for my flight to Japan in August!!! I am meeting Jess and Nay (Melbourne friends) in Osaka and we are touring around from there. I am super excited waaaahajdkfofknsabdflkjocaidhnfav...

  I will be flying with Asiana Air I think (shout out to Heejin for booking my ticket) so I will do a write up on them at some point... And I am planning on taking my camera AND camcorder to get some nice memories of Japan. So I am on a super tight budget here now preparing for the trip. 

  I had to say more goodbyes this week - Big goodbye to Heather and Michelle. Heather is from the UK and Michelle from Ireland... They are great people and amazing friends. 

Heather stayed at mine before she jetted off (she is headed to Australia the lucky bitch) and I love her so much... I feel like I have known her my whole life not just a year. So I spent the morning crying about that... This is the hardest part of doing this teaching abroad thing... You leave friends from home, come here, make new friends, then they leave you! I don't want to even think about what I will be like when I leave.

I am in the process of signing a new contract to stay here at the school in Korea for another year. I love this place too much, I can't leave yet.

Anyway, extra class time! Better go educate some kids.

xoxoxox