Pictures Galore

Today is the last day in March. Spring is here...kind of. Some days it's warm-ish and other days it's freezing.
It's been a little while since I have updated. We had the PT competition a few weeks ago. The students did really well. I took some pictures, but they did not come out very well. I'll post some on here.
I've just started Korean classes a few weeks ago. So far things are good. I have an alphabet test this week. I also went to see a Buddhist temple last Friday. It was pretty cool. I kind of got my friend and I lost at first though. So we had to walk around for a while. We finally did find it and it just so happened that they were filming some sort of festival that day. We didn't take many pictures because we were afraid it would be disrespectful. My friend took a few, so when I get them from him I'll post them. This is the only one I took at the temple. It's a 500+ year old tree. If you look in the background you can see lanterns hanging. There were thousands of them and they were all over the place. It was really pretty.
After we left the temple we went to a restaurant to get some food. We ordered something...we weren't really sure what it was. When it arrived, it came in a huge pot. It was really delicious though. This is before we cooked it. You stir it all up. Alright well I'm going to make this short and let the pictures do the talking.
This is a cell phone decoration that my co-worker bought me.
Beware the yellow dust. They give these face masks out at Dunkin Donuts....
The weird street signs never get old.
Another weird thing in Seoul. Even the trees get IV's.

A White Day to Remember!

White Day (and for those of you not familiar with Asian culture...something similar to Valentines Day) for me was by far the most romantic day of my life.

Well, it didn't get romantic until I arrived home very very late Saturday night/Sunday morning after our Presentation Competition at school. I was feeling lethargic and ready for bed. I go upstairs and try to put in my door code so I can snuggle in my bed...and then all of the sudden something dreadful happens. The light that usually turns on when I hit the key pad on my door isn't shining. I pushed the button again, thinking there must have been some communication error between myself and the door. But still, no response. The door had officially declared it's resignation from functioning.

Sooo what do I do? I have no key...I go down to the lobby to attempt to communicate with the security guards that something is amiss. Well, what do you know when I reach B1 (the lobby) a security guard is walking in the elevator. I explain to him in impeccable charades exactly what is going on. Making a complete jerk out of myself using a combination of hand signals, strange noises, and broken Korean AND English (I often find myself talking like a retard utilizing half sentences and desultory words) I finally have explained the situation. However, the problem is still at large. He tries the door, I suppose thinking that he has some sort of Korean magic touch that will make the door open. I mean, yes, I do suppose the door and I don't speak the same language...and I really do mean that because "she", on a regular basis, whispers sweet nothings to me in Korean when I open and lock the door. I admit, I'm a bit bitter that the security guard has a certain relationship with my door, that I may never be able to obtain. Either way his attempt to speak to "her" was nothing but a ginormous failure.

He tells me he will tell the engineer about the door and he will fix it. I say thank you...thinking this will only take a little while I go to the PC house that is in my apartment. I wait about an hour and head back up to my room...I am now fully prepared to crawl into my bed. Well, what do you know, still no light. So, at this point I go back down to the main floor...and repeat the original explanation process adding a few more ambiguous sounds, just for good measure.

After finally resorting to the dictionary on my phone, communication is complete. They are going to put new batteries in my door. The security guard is quite eager to help me out...he grabs my hand and tells me how cold I am...then being the gentleman he is gets his space heater and points it at my feet. We wait for about 5 minutes while he makes some phone calls. Then, he takes me to this room by the garage where another guy is waiting. He asks me if I speak Korean...obviously I say no...IF I did, in fact, know Korean I probably would not be in this predicament at all.

Then, the security guard that brought me there asks me if I want something warm to drink...obviously using different terminology. I accept. He brings me some coffee while the other guy is busy photocopying my ARC card. He comes back with a cup. I take it from him, and then he notices that the machine they use for the hot coffee is actually out of coffee beans. Well, he was far more upset about it than I was because he started yelling at the other guy about how they need to refill the machine...I could understand because of his telling gestures. They got my name (or so I thought) and after I signed something...probably selling myself for prostitution or something...they told me they were going to buy me some batteries and fix my door.

We went back to the lobby and resumed our cozy conversation by the heater...and when I say conversation I mean he just smiles dumbfoundedly at me the whole time. 5 warm minutes go by and we head up to my apartment. We wait about 1 minute and the other guy shows up. They open my door and insert the new batteries. The guy then calls me Baker, which I guess he assumes is my first name...I correct him, and then thank them for all their help. Finally, I get some rest...well at least for a little while. The moral of the story is that the door and I have rekindled our bond and our White Day tiff is a thing of the past.
As an added bonus the security guard now tries to say my name when he greets me...
Happy White Day, my friends and family...I miss you dearly!!!

Maverick! English, please!!!!

This is the first weekend that I am spending all by myself organizing my life.
Although it might sound semi-antisocial it is much needed. It is imperative that I deep clean my apartment and get some "me" time. Sometimes, just sitting and getting things done that you need to do is tremendously important. I've been trying to read a book lately called, Freakanomics, it's really interesting, but I hardly have the time to actually delve into its actual content. The only chance I get to read it is on the subway to work. A grand total of probably...10 minutes a day. Pitiful.

Next weekend our school is having a PT Competition (Power Point Presentation). The competition takes place in another area right outside or Seoul with all the different Avalon Nok-Ji-Won campuses. Each of the foreign teachers was chosen by one of the students to be their mentor for their project. Erica chose me, and her presentation is whether genius is a product of nature or nurture. Her argument is that genius is made, not born. The other 2 students that are going from our campus are Sue and Ted. Sue is doing her presentation on Animal Cruelty and Ted is doing his on the Somali Pirates. They should be interesting. :)

With the new semester beginning this week I also got a whole new batch of students. It's kind of sad because I miss my old students, but I have some really fun new ones. For example, they give themselves English names, right? Well, sometimes they come up with some very original ones. I now have a Cropcop, Maverick, and Dumbledore. So in class now I get to say, "Dumbledore, can you read the first paragraph please?" One of my students also named herself Claudia, which is one of my best friends names; that made me smile!

I teach Writing, Newspapers in Education, and Converstation classes this semester. Writing and Newspaper class are both Nok-Ji-Won level, therefore, the students levels are really high (pretty much fluent speakers). The Conversation class, however, varies in level. They go from BA (which is the lowest in my part of the campus- they hardly talk to you) to NI (which is just one notch below Nok-Ji-Won). To put this in perpective in Newpaper class this week we talked about the morality and ethics of the death penalty and in Conversation we discussed how to answer the phone and take a message. What I find most challenging about this is switching gears between one class and another because sometimes I will literally have a NOK class and a BA class back-to-back. So, I'll go into my NOK class and talk to them like they're slow and they will look at me like I'm crazy.

Next week I should have some awesome pictures from the PT competition. I'll post them ASAP. Maybe I'll get a picture of Maverick this week, too. For now though, I'm going to go back to cleaning and reading. I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well.

Oh yeah, Mom and Dad, I forgot the one thing I was telling you about that you said I should write about. What was it?

Love,
Margaret

School Life and Kimchi

So, in the ROK, I have been teaching writing to young, impressionable Korean tweens. They appreciate me and my dry humor (we had student evaluations this week, by the way). I teach them helpful words for them to use on their TOEFL, such as: plethora, superfluous, and sententious; while, occasionally, writing essays about gambling on the white board. Most of my students are pretty intelligent. However, recently, I have been teaching some younger and, ahem, let's just say slightly less advanced students. I had them writing autobiographies last week...and one child wrote, "after 3 years, my parents procreated me..." hilarious and quite cute. These Korean students of mine have a certain eloquence that just proves the ingeniousness of American students. For example, when asked ''Why is Korea's youth population decreasing?'' a child wrote, "because Korean students are not getting laid". My students don't just prattle on about meaningless nonsense, no, my friend, they get right to the point (please, relish in the irony). They are zealous pursuers of the English language and I am but a mere vessel helping them reach the pinnacle of their success...the pinnacle probably being our next essay on the hedonistic qualities of kimchi. Speaking of kimchi...I told my students about the guy in Myeong-dong who tried to give me Kimchi to eat and they cracked up. Also, another thing about kimchi is that it seriously grows on you...I absolutly adore it now. I can eat a whole side dish of it and want more.