*This was supposed to be posted on Tuesday, I didn't realise that it didn't post when I thought it did!
For the past three or four weeks the twelve (now down to eleven) presidential hopefuls have been gearing up and campaigning with the hope of becoming the next president of South Korea.
The elections will take place tomorrow. Luckily for us the Koreans believe elections are important enough to give students and teachers (and who knows who else) the day off.
I'm looking forward to elections for the day off. Kelly and Sara, however, are looking forward to the elections so that the campaigning will stop. Let me give you a run down of how election campaigns work here.
*Every candidate is given a number. They do not campaign based on their name (ie. "Vote for Peter Petrelli") instead they campaign based on their assigned number (ie. "Vote for Number 6")
*Candidates use huge vans with video screens and music to encourage people to vote for them. Not only that, but they also have their supporters standing on the sidewalks bowing politely or dancing in support of their chosen candidate.
*These trucks BLAST music from early morning (8am in Sara and Kelly's neighbourhood) until late evening (9pm or later).
Here is a taste of the local campaigns. I danced with the Number Six supporters but unfortunately don't have any pictures of this.... I know others took pictures, I'll find them :)
~ Jen
I don't know about you, but I keep coming to this site, hoping that there is a new blog post that has magically appeared... unfortuantely the blog post isn't writing itself... welcome Jen!
I've been thinking about writing this post for the past 2 weeks, but I've been strangely busy at school marking millions of tests (okay, maybe not millions, but a lot of tests...) and planning/teaching my classes.
During the past few weeks here, the temperatures have dropped. We've turned on our heating system for at least an hour each night (don't want to break the bank with expensive heating bills!!!) to take the chill out of the air. I've been putting on my extra layers to stay warm both at school and at home. At home, it's do-able. It's not too cold. Our apartment is surrounded by other apartments which help to keep the heat in. At school, well, that's a whole 'nother story.
My co-teacher has not turned on the heat in our classroom since the temperature began to drop. It's been minus one, two, five... and no heat. Now, this would be okay - the kids' body heat helps to warm the room, we get a bit of sun every now and then, but, in addition to the not turning on the heat in the classroom, my co-teacher insists, yes INSISTS, on opening the windows every so often. Now, I'd like to call myself a Canadian (but I really am a wimp when it comes to the cold weather, Uganda killed any sense of a winter skin that I spent 23 years developing...) but I cannot teach in a classroom that is only 15 degrees (Celsius). My fingers get cold. My toes often freeze. I even found myself searching out sunbeams in my classroom when the kids were writing their tests last week. I discovered that at 10:07am the sunbeam first makes its way into the classroom (if I'm lucky and there are no clouds), so I too would make my way to the back of the classroom to soak up the sunbeam. I've been wearing three to four layers in my classroom, including, one day, my uber-warm wool scarf. But I'm still cold.
I'm sure some of you may be saying, "Stop complaining, you're Canadian, you can handle winter.." But I can't. I really can't. And the reason why my co-teacher refuses to turn on the heat? Well, because of the dust in the heater. She's so scared that the dust will end up everywhere. The one time she did turn on the heater was just before we went to lunch. She opened all the windows, every single window she could, turned on the heat full blast and left the room. Needless to say when we returned the room was warmer....
This dust phobia reminds me a lot of fan death. Koreans are afraid of death by fan. Like, they think that it's possible to die if you sleep with a fan on in your bedroom in the summer and all your doors closed. Something about the fan taking oxygen away from your mouth and causing you to suffocate. Either suffocation, or death from hypothermia. Apparently there are cases of it documented each summer in the newspapers. Doctors agree that Korean citizens should be afraid of fan death.... I even asked my educated, smart, co-teachers what they thought of this fan death, and they believe it.
Anyways, the end of the matter is that I'm cold. Send me sweaters, scarves, wool socks... whatever works. My co-teacher just asks the kids why they don't wear their coats to class when they complain of the cold... I silently ask, "Why can't we just turn on the heat?"
~Jen
You have to check out this website! So crazy, a cat that steals stuff...
Kelly and I were supposed to be knitting. Then Richard called... needless to say we were Noraebanging on a Sunday evening.
Lesson 9 of my Grade 5 curriculum uses the key phrase "Whose ____ is this?" By the end of the lesson the students should be able to ask "Whose ____ is this? Is this yours?" and respond "Yes, it is" or "No, it's not mine".
Today, at the end of one of my fifth grade lessons a bunch of students huddled in a group close to the door looking down at the floor. Wondering why they were not leaving, I approached them to find out what they were looking at. "What are you looking at?" I asked. "Tooth" they replied. I looked down, and low and behold, there was a tooth on the floor. How it got there, I don't know. How I didn't notice that one of my students lost a tooth, I'm not sure. When I asked "Whose tooth is this?" no one replied. I asked again, and one of the weaker students replied "No, it's not mine."
I had to laugh to myself as I picked up the lost tooth and put it in the garbage (the tooth fairy doesn't bring money for teeth that are not yours!) - well, at least something that I've been teaching over the past 2 months has sunk in!
~Jen
So today our school (Duksan) held a little flea market of sorts. Not sure for what purpose - maybe as a fund raiser. But anyway, it was pretty neat. I wish that I had brought my camera.
There was a lot of stuff being sold, for dirt cheap prices too! Lots of old clothes, books, stuffed animals, mostly, but there were also backpacks, marbles, hair clips, and much more. The students were pretty good salespeople and by pretty good, I guess I mean aggressive. As soon as I walked onto the playground, I had half a dozen students clamouring around me trying to get me to buy their goods, pushing each other out of the way and competing for my attention. It was hilarious.
The books were mostly old textbooks. I'm not sure what subjects they were, but I found it funny that the students were all still trying to sell them to me, even though I can't read (well, actually, I can read the alphabet, I just don't know what the words mean).
As for the clothes, well, there were plenty of tacky, brightly coloured garments available. The students were trying to sell me skirts and purses, often as a gift for Jen, but also sometimes for me!!! I even had one student try to sell me toddlers' shoes and shirts, and another attempting to get me to purchase 3 inch heels!
Most of the items were only about 50 cents or so, so it was a pretty good price. Each homeroom class had their own table / blanket on the ground and some of the classes seemed to be doing quite well - probably by virtue of their aggressive salespeople getting their friends to buy stuff!!!
All in all, it was kinda random, but a whole lot of fun. I'm glad that I had a chance to interact with the students outside of the classroom.
So, I'm at work, I have 20 minutes left before I can leave and I'm bored. I've marked about 100 tests this afternoon and my eyes are tired... We're heading off for Thai food tonight with some friends. I'm excited about the food, hopefully it will be good!
I'll give you some funny language stories while I wait.... Both my co-teachers speak great English, but there are still some words they are unfamiliar with.
1.) "Martinis are cheaper at the theatre." Yes, martinis.... however, she meant matinees.... I still kid her about this mistake....
2.) Co-teacher: "We're going to see a movie about Vee-tho-van.
Me: "Who? Luther Vandross?"
Co-teacher: "No, Vee-tho-van...." she pulled up the movie website, it's Copying Beethovan. Apparently I get to watch the film with the rest of the teachers next Tuesday at the World Cup Stadium (luckily for me it's in English with Korean subtitles!)
Random Thought of the Day....
By the way (hahaha.. that's the name of a convenience store here...) does anyone know how I can clean my ring of hard water stains? The gold and the diamond are less sparkley (apparently this isn't a word...) and I worry that perhaps my stone could fall out in the future from all the extra grit.
Okay, I'm out. I've obviously been sitting here for too long, this post is pretty random...
~of course it's Jen, not Jeff who posted....
Apparently my singing garbage truck is actually a doorbell... but I'm still not too sure about that... who rings the doorbell that early in the morning? And who would choose to have such an annoying doorbell?
A few more things I've noticed in Korea:
*All Korean teachers brush their teeth after lunch to get rid of the hot and spicy Kim Chi taste/smell that is left in their mouths. I've started doing the same thing.
*Koreans don't mind pushing. I'm really not used to this - at least not pushing without apologizing profusely! It will be a cultural adjustment that I'll have to make - hopefully I won't start pushing people like crazy when I get home.
*Korean teachers do not take their work home. We're still working on that one... it's a habit that's hard to break.
*There are random exercise machines around the city of Seoul that are free for people to use. Upon riding my bike to school I pass many of these exercise areas and am surprised to find that they are usually all full.
*Korean women only get 3 months maternity leave. We are lucky in Canada!
That's it for now. I'm heading home - hopefully by the end of the week we'll have the internet at our apartment.
Check out some pics I've posted at: www.dawseng.shutterfly.com
~Jen
Soo, Haewon and Jeong - Soo and Jeong are my co-teachers (we teach English together). Haewon used to be the Korean English teacher, but she is heading off to take some more courses at school. This was our first night in Seoul. We're at a restaurant just 2 minutes from our apartment. Yum!
Every morning since we've moved into our apartment I've woken up earlier than my alarm to the sound of Fur Elise. The electronic sounding version is coming from the garbage trucks which seem to pick up garbage or recycling or compost on a daily basis. I'm hoping that someday soon I'll learn to sleep through this early morning wake-up, but as of right now I'm awake at 6:15am listening to the single phrase of Fur Elise being repeated over and over again.
Other interesting things I've found:
*Public restrooms have toilet paper outside of the stalls. You must remember to take some toilet paper before you enter otherwise you're in trouble! This is to keep consumption down.
*The subway toilets are nicer than the toilets I use at school. I make a point to stop at the subway toilets before I head to school. That doesn't say much for the school toilets.
*I have not met a lot of people in Seoul who speak English. Unless we head to Itaewon (the foreigner hangout spot) we struggle to communicate with people. It can be VERY frustrating when we're searching through 6 floors of E-Mart (like Walmart) looking for tofu or salt.
*Eating out at Korean restaurants is very difficult for vegetarians.
*The students clean our school. In the morning, at lunch, and after school I see students on the stairs with hand brooms, mopping the hallways, and dusting my office. Quite strange
I think that's all I'll leave you with for now. I'm at school and I can't seem to think of anything else that strikes me as odd (and I should be working!!!) I'll try to download some pics onto my memory stick tonight and upload them tomorrow. There will be apartment pictures and other random pics too. So sorry for the delay. When we get internet at our apartment things will be much easier!
~Jen
Take two as I forgot to publish the last one before moving pages!
Today we decided to head into the largest close town (Yongin I believe) in order to pick up a few necessities - for me this meant sandals, for others in our group it meant beer. We took the number 26 bus into Yongin from where ever currently are, and explored a Korean city. I was shocked to find that we ended up in the swanky part of town, complete with Nike, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Armani and North Face shops. I was looking for a cheap (read $5) pair of sandals and we were surrounded by expensive items!
Before we made it into any shops we decided to stop and take a picture of the Korean street. So, I took a pic of the group, and then a Korean guy came up to me and asked if we would like him to take the picture. After taking the picture he asked us what we were doing in Korea. We replied "teaching English". He wished us good luck as most Korean kids are bastards. He said that he was allowed to call them that because he was once a bastard towards his teachers in school.
Here's hoping that our kids are not too crazy. I'm looking forward to the first day of school (though a bit nervous too...) to find out what kind of kids I'll have. Whatever happens, I'm sure that it will be an adventure!
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