So I had my birthday yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised when my gang of friends showed up at my front door caroling with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." As great as their singing was, they had arrived to celebrate my birthday, having conspired with Jen to surprise me for dinner. And a great job they did. I had absolutely no clue what was going on and I was definitely surprised. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was exactly how I would have wanted to celebrate - spending good times with my closest friends and enjoying good food. Shout out to Sara and Kelly for finding pecan tarts here!! And to Vanessa for bringing a freshly baked strawberry bread too!! Thanks guys, you're the best!
Last weekend, we also went to Lotte World (like Disney World) for a joint celebration for myself and Richard, who had his birthday on the Sunday. So here are a few pictures from the past few days.
Vanessa, Becky, Sara, and Laina outside Lotte World. How can you not be excited for Lotte World with expressions like these? Becky's enjoying her ice cream and Sara is showing off her ticket to fun!
Note the logo in the background. Does it look familiar at all? Hmmmm...
This picture pretty much speaks for itself. Yep, that's my wife...
Richard has a very concerned look on his face. We're next in line for the Gyro Drop. I think he's scared.
Looks a lot like Disney huh?
My peeps here in Seoul. Kelly, Richard, Jen, Sara, Vanessa, and Becky. We're enjoying a very yummy meal prepared by Kelly and Jen. We had bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and feta in a pesto sauce over spaghetti, followed by homemade strawberry bread, pecan tarts, and vanilla ice cream. Awesome! I couldn't ask for better friends. These guys are the main reason that Jen and I are having such an amazing time here in Seoul.
I think he's become even more of a goof since I married him! But I love him anyways.
P.S. He's 29 in Korean years.. really he's only 28 if you count by Canadian years, Koreans start counting your age as soon as you're born, you're born and you're declared a year old!
~Jen
Us exploring the night life in Seoul. Just a short video of what some of the streets look like at night.
Enjoy!
~Jen
I promise that the next time we post it will be Jeff's writings not mine!
On to the content. (Please note... boring photo right now, will be replaced at the end of the week with a MUCH better one... But Richard is wearing the Nanta hat....)
This past Saturday we went to see Nanta. Nanta is Korea's longest running performance show - it is a non-verbal performance, this means that we didn't need to worry about not understanding what was happening. It was started in 1997 and has been quite successful both in Korea and in 135 cities worldwide. The Tour2Korea website describes the show:
NANTA storms into a huge kitchen where four capricious cooks are preparing a wedding banquet. While cooking, they turn all kinds of kitchen items - pots, pans, dishes, knives, chopping boards, water bottles, brooms and even each other- into percussion instruments.
I was quite excited to see this show as I love percussion shows, the drum beats pulse in my body - I wish I could drum - but I digress.... Richard, Kelly, Sara, Vanessa, Dan, Becky, Jeff, and I headed to the Nanta theatre for a Saturday matinee show. The theatre was small (but cosy) and the audience was quite mixed - both Koreans and foreigners. At two points during the show the chefs required audience members to join them on stage. Lucky for us both Dan and Richard made their way to the stage to be made fools of - but it was all good fun!
Although I enjoyed Nanta I was a bit disappointed. I saw the Blue Man Group when I was in Boston a couple of years ago. I LOVED the Blue Man Group and was expecting Nanta to be of similar quality. I wanted more percussion, more drumming... it was just too tame for me.
Today I went to see B-Boy Korea with my school. I wasn't supposed to go, but I asked, and it turned out we could go (for free) as chaperones for my grade 6s. The grade 6s thought it was quite funny to see me outside of school with them on a trip. When I walked down to my seat some of them reached out an touched me like I was a rock star or something... quite odd!
B-Boy Korea is another non-verbal performance, but this time there was break dancing instead of cooking. The show (had a lame) plot - essentially two rival groups battle it out in a dance-off. I was really looking forward to this show too. Up until the last half hour the show was kind of slow. The drumming was awesome (I want to find a place to take lessons...) but the dancing was kind of.. well, not great - amature. During the last half hour (or less?) the boys (there were about 8 of them) pulled out all the stops and really danced, but up until then they were not wonderful. I must say that perhaps they were saving their energy until last bit of the show but I was a bit disappointed....
Jeff just asked if I was writing a novel... so I'll sign off here. All in all, the performances were interesting, but I guess I'm a bit of a snob. I like lots of energy all the way through the shows I see. We're thinking of seeing The Importance of Being Ernest (Oscar Wilde) next, we'll see how that goes.
K, I'm off.
~Jen
P.S. The other 3 teachers all had their "v"s up then bailed at the last moment so I'm the one looking like a dork... geeze!
Dear Bike Thieves,
It was not very nice of you to try and steal my bike. I had it locked up at the bottom of the stairs for a reason. It's heavy to carry up the stairs to my apartment... it was easier to leave it downstairs!
I'm glad that you were unsuccessful in stealing my bike, but unfortunately you made a mess of the lock. My husband had to work very hard to untangle the lock after you tried to use my seat as leverage to break the lock. If you had been smart you would have gone to E-Mart and purchased a $5 pair of pliers to cut the lock like we did.
Before we could do that though, we had to try and communicate with our landlord. You and I both know that I don't speak Korean and she doesn't speak English. This means that any conversation we have will be lengthly and difficult. Next time please take this into consideration and steal someone else's bike.
My dear bike thieves, it was not fun going to E-Mart at 8:30pm last night. I was tired and sick and did not want to try and find bolt cutters. Again, not speaking Korean it was difficult to find the bolt cutters. Luckily we were able to find the bolt cutters beside the locks.
Next time please leave my bike alone. I have already had 2 bikes stolen, I've given up my fair share of bikes to the bike gods. Enough is enough.
Thank you kindly,
Jen Dawson
P.S. Your actions also affected my husband as he attempted to eat the lock. This is not good for his health!
Kelly and I were supposed to be knitting. Then Richard called... needless to say we were Noraebanging on a Sunday evening.
There are some classes that I teach that kick my butt. I come away from the lesson feeling frustrated and drained. My class yesterday did that to me. There are, however, other classes that remind me why I went into the teaching profession. My class today did that for me. I was going to blog about this one boy in my class on Wednesday, but didn't have time. He was in my class again today, so I figured I'd share a bit about him with you.
This boy is one of the boys who doesn't always listen, he doesn't speak any English, and I don't think that he understands much either. He rarely comes to class with a pencil, let alone his textbook. He usually sits at the back of the room picking at a scab or doing something destructive to his body. I worry about him. I wonder what his home life is like and how his parents treat him. I wonder if he gets fed every morning. I wonder if he gets told that he is loved...
I'm afraid that I tend to give him some extra attention. I'll wander over to his seat and try to encourage him to do some work, and try to give him some positive attention. There have been a few days when he has actually participated in the lesson. He actually works on the activity; this makes me so excited.
Today we gave our kids a Halloween word search at the end of the class. This gives them the chance to practice spelling words (you say the letters over and over in your head as you search for them on the paper). Well, this boy, started to work on the word search. With 2 of his friends they sat, very focused, and found all of the words. In fact, they were so focused, that when the bell rang, and the rest of the class left, and my co-teacher left, the three boys were still sitting in the class, trying to finish the word search. This moment gave me hope for this boy. I gave him a high five as he brought his completed word search up to show me before he left. He even told me the password ("I must do my homework") that the students have to say before they leave class.
These are the moments, the little connections I make with my students, that make the teaching worthwhile. I don't love standing at the front of the class teaching, I love the relationships that are created between student and teacher - this is when the true learning begins.
~Jen
Tuesdays are frustrating. They usually are. Well, to be clear, the whole day usually isn't bad. It's just one class. And that class will be the death of me.
I don't what it is, but the entire class is horribly chatty. But that's not all, they don't listen to anything. I ask them to quiet down so that I can hear the other students talking. They don't listen. I ask them to stop talking so that I don't have to speak over everyone. They don't listen. I ask them to keep it down and keep on task. They don't listen.
It's so frustrating and disheartening how little respect they show for each other and for both myself and my co-teacher. I've even yelled at them to be quiet, to show some respect. It works for about 2 minutes, then they are back at it. I am truly at a loss at what to do with this class. And it totally deflates me.
Luckily, the class right after this one is full of saints (well, maybe not quite saints, but by comparison, they are pertty close) and it's nice that I don't have to end my day off on such a tiring note.
Anyway, if you're ever wondering how I'm doing here in Seoul, well, if it's a Tuesday, you'll always know that I'm pulling my hair out in exasperation! I know, I know... welcome to the teaching profession!
As promised, I've delivered a couple of pictures for your enjoyment - just don't laugh too hard! So, without further delay.
Jen and Sarah belting out the tunes and really getting into the spirit of things. Richard is keeping the beat with his trusty tamborine.
Here's our grand finale - Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. A true classic that got everyone up and singing, even the random Irish dude we met at the bar that night joined in. I think his name is Shamus.
So last night I had my first Noraebang (literally, singing room... norae - singing, bang - room) experience. This is the way karaoke was meant to be done! We've got loads of pics and a video too I think, so don't worry, we will be posting some incriminating and embarassing evidence shortly. Truly though, having your own room so you can blast out the tunes with your friends by your side, without the heckling masses booing you off stage, or having to wait 4 hours for your turn is what singing is all about. In one hour, we got to sing maybe 15, 20 songs instead of sitting at a bar all night to get one song.
I was actually quite impressed with the selection of English songs that were available too. We'll definitely be returning soon. Just like PC bangs (internet cafes), these things are everywhere and so you don't have to travel far if you and your pals suddenly decide that you need to stretch the vocal cords.
Stayed tuned, we'll post pics soon!
Who knew that Sundays could be so much fun?
-jeff
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