Oh yea!

Almost forgot.

The kids are enthralled that Alison and I are together.   They are always trying to pair up the teachers with other teachers.   If a teacher is seen talking to a teacher of the opposite sex, they always jokingly ask if they are your girlfriend or boyfriend.  So when we tell them yes, they thought it was the weirdest thing at first, and they would just run off giggling.  But now they have started asking questions.  Even though Alison told one of her classes that she was "married"(we say married because they do not understand engaged) to Sam teacher, this class just didn't quite understand for the first two weeks, then it sunk in one day, and created a hilarious dialogue.

Student 1: So you love Sam?

Alison: Yes

Whole class: oohhhhhh

Student 1: And he loves you?

Alison: Yes.

Whole class: oohhhhhh

Student 2(male): I  love Sam.

Student 3: AHH Love triangle!

Another instance:  Our last classes of the day on MWF are right across the hall from eachother, so we wait for each other to walk downstairs to the office.  For some reason some kids from both of our classes seemed to be hanging around while we were getting our stuff together.  As we walk towards the stairs the kids follow us and the following ensues.

Student: Sam, you are so tall.

Sam: Yes, I am.

Student: But Alison is so small.

Alison was also asked one day after class: "You love him(points at me)?  

Alison says yes.  And the students responds "Why?" and Alison says "He is nice."

A Day In The Life Of Us

Sleep

We are still, yes still, attempting to get a regular sleep schedule down. What our bodies want us to do does not agree with what we would like to do. So right now, we are still waking up around noon or so, having something to eat, maybe going to the coffee shop to get on the internet, then making the 15 minute walk to school at 2:30. We usually get home from work between 10:15 and 11 depending on whether we get something to eat on the way home or not. And this is where the fun begins, we usually try to wind down by watching a movie or some Lost or The Office. Unfortunately we have trouble falling asleep before 3 or 4 some nights. Needless to say, it is a struggle.

Language

The Korean language is very easy to learn. The alphabet is much easier to read than the English alphabet. Every character has a distinct sound. For instance, the letter A in the English language can be pronounced like 4 or five different ways depending on what it is followed by. But in the Hangeul alphabet ㅏ is always uh, as in up. so it is nearly impossible to misprounounce words. We are learning the alphabet slowly but surely. The subways are in English and Korean, so that is a good learning tool for sounding out and matching up characters with their english counterparts.

Food

Another way we are learning to read is through the menus, which is what we read most often. I believe Alison is going to be posting some pictures, so I will let her tell you more about our meals later. I love the food here, there is a decent variety, although almost all korean restaurants serve the same things. But there are also japanese, chinese and vietnamese places everywhere as well. There are also Burger Kings, McDonalds, Bennigans, Subway, Quizno's, and TGI Friday's, along with some korean run Italian places. Korean food is by far the cheapest. For instance Alison and I had lunch yesterday at one of our local favorites, the total bill was 4500 won, which is less that $4.50 and it was plenty to eat.

The Korean People

Everywhere we go we get little looks and glances. Last week we had one of the funniest things happen yet. On our walk home from school every night we pass about half a dozen schools that are letting out kids. So we get lots of funny reactions from students who think that I am a real sight to be seen. This particular night we were come up to an intersection waiting to cross the street. I noticed three high school age boys look at me, and then murmur to themselves, nothing new. I just stand there talking to alison standing next to me. And I didn't see it for my self but Alison said she saw one of the boys come up and stand right behind me, and he was making some faces and trying to appear as tall as possible. She looked back to his friends and they were showing him with their hands how much taller I was than him. Almost all the smaller school children we see in the subway will say hello to us. Some of the braver ones will ask us questions, take pictures of us and try to have a conversation.

Transportation

Walking is our main mode of transportation. We can walk to our local corner store, to buy water(cant drink the tap water) and other small items. We can walk to any number of restaurants and of course school. Our other options are subway, bus, and taxi. We use the subway to go to E-mart, basically walmart, it is where we do our grocery shopping, and they also have any household items we need. It is two stops from us(about a 15 minute trip from street level to street level) The subway costs anywhere from 900 won to 1200 won(one way) depending on how far you go. We can take a bus to work if we choose, which costs 800 won base, and increases over distance traveled. The subways stop running around 12:30 am on weekdays, and 11:30 pm on weekends. So if we are out late, the taxis are the best and only choice besides walking. the base fare is like 2200 won and increases over distance. For example to take an taxi home form e-mart would cost 4400 won compared to 900 on the subway.

Back Street's Back... Sort Of

So , I know that you have all be waiting with baited breath to find out how the concert went. Well, it was definitely an experience, to say the least. And a fun bonding time with the ladies.

The whole thing actually started the night before as we made our homemade shirts (complete with glitter glue, because, as Kendra managed to say with a straight face "the glitter will catch the lights better when we get called on stage".) Here I am putting the finishing touches on my shirt. And yes, Allison, I did pick Brian just for you!

Here, Kendra makes me practice my "sexy cry" to be utilized if we do actually get called up on stage. It's designed to say both "I'm super hot" and "I'm a huge fan". I'm not quite sure I have it down just yet.

Saturday afternoon we hopped off the subway and found this sign as our direction to the concert. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This sign lets you know that The Boys will be playing in the Fencing Gymnasium in Olympic Park.

Our first sighting of The Boys! We're so excited! From the left are: Kendra, Myself, Sophie, Brittany, and Sheryl. Kendra and Sheryl are my coworkers and Brittany and Sophie are friends of Kendra. After an experience like the BSB concert, I feel I can count them as my own friends as well. Please note the hordes of other BSB fans... errrr...

Here is some of Brittany's excellent and illegal (they don't let you take pictures in concerts in Korea for some reason) (unless you're sneaky) photography of the actual concert. Several things to note here. First, though you can't see it, apparently the "Unbreakable" tour afforded neither a wardrobe stylist (case in point, AJ's shredded leather vest, shudder) nor a choreographer. We're pretty sure they just watched old video footage of previous concerts and tried to recreate it themselves. Pretty badly. Secondly, all of those red lights in the audience are glow sticks which the crowd pumps in time to the music through the entire show. Quite the arm work out! (Obviously, we purchased the glow sticks as well!)

Here we are after the concert. Though it was largely cheesy and we didn't exactly know the words to their new stuff, it was still an excellent time jamming to the old school songs we did know. And, admittedly, laughing at 4 men in their 30s trying just a bit too hard to recapture the boy band magic. It was also at this point that the Koreans noticed our shirts and went cr-azy over them. Girls asked to have their picture taken with us... people snapped shots of us from afar. The shirts were almost a bigger hit than The Boys.

Here, Sheryl attempts to get us access to The Backstreet Boys by talking up a roadie. This was after jumping up and down yelling "pah T-shirtuh" (which apparently means "green onion T-shirt... Sophie quickly corrected her). She then pushed her way to the front to talk to him and ask him (in her words "native English speaker to native English speaker") if The Boys had actually left the premises.

She then called us all over for backup which caused much squealing and cheering from the crowd once they realized we all had amazing homemade glitter-glued shirts (the technical name). Mr. Roadie then leaned in conspiratorially and said "Well, The Boys are staying in the same hotel as I am, and if you follow that van (points to sketchy white van) we're on our way there now." Sadly, following a van through the streets of Seoul on foot was not something we were up for. However, we decided not to let the fact that The Boys missed out on their most hardcore fans in Korea get us down and took our shirts for some pizza. (At Mr. Pizza you only get one cup and multiple straws, another Korean quirk)

There now, don't you just feel like you were there? You might notice that Sam opted out of this event and had male-bonding night instead. Interestingly, his night also involved pizza. But no glitter.

Taking Requests

I have been asked for a picture of my name in Korean, which will be up shortly.

Anything else any one wants to see or hear about. Just leave a question in the comment section.

That Place We Go Every Day

By popular demand....

Welcome to our school!

Because every school needs an elaborate (and completely fake) atrium.

The spiral staircase of doom. Now, imagine trying to fight your way through 250 students up to the 6th floor. In five minutes. The netting might look slightly flimsy, but we've been told it's been thoroughly tested... now, who volunteered for that job??

This is how you spell my name in Korean. In case you would want to do such a thing.

This is Sam at his desk. He was relegated to the smaller office.

They should come visit us in the big office more often!

Okay, so there you have it! There will probably be more pictures along the way of the children we teach and what not, but I haven't decided which ones are cute enough to make the

blog just yet.

Also, I feel it necessary to let you all know that tomorrow I will be going to the Backstreet Boys concert with some other women from the office. That experience will probably deserve its own post, but if you would like to pray that my eardrums remain intact I would appreciate it!

Alison Teacher's Classes

Okay, Sam gave you the basics, so I guess I'll fill you in on what my schedule looks like.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 4 classes. That means that on those days when we get to work at 2:45 I immediately start planning. Then, I start moving at 4:10 and don't have time to stop and catch my breath until after my last class is over at 9:25. We only have about 5 minutes between classes, which means there's basically enough time to get to your next classroom, or in my case, as 3 of my 4 classes are right next door to each other, to survey the chaos that is 250 kids and teachers attempting to use one tiny spiral staircase at once. It's a kind of intense schedule, but it makes the day fly by.

I have two levels those days: RB and RI. My RIs (3rd level from the bottom) are my favorites by far. For one, they are super cute. Second, they know just enough English to think I am hilarious. Love it. My RBs (2nd level from the bottom) are a little bit rougher. For some reason we have a lot of older students (12-13 years old) in the lower levels this semester and I have to teach them stories like "A Hot Day" and "Hungry and Thirsty Mouse". They are so not into it. So, they get really bored and don't listen. At all. So, another teacher and I are working on curriculum supplements to make the lessons more interesting. Yesterday I had them get in groups and write down all of the foods and drinks they could think of and then write their five favorites on the board and if no one else had those on their list they got a point. It went over very well. There was much cheering and genral rowdiness, which I always appreciate in the classroom.

Tuesdays and Thursdays my schedule is much easier. I only have 2 classes those days: another RB class and an EB (4th level from the bottom). I have 2 breaks in the middle of the day, which kind of makes things drag on. I plan on using some of that time to explore our neighborhood a bit, grade quizzes and essays, and plan for Mon/Wed/Fri.

So far, I really like teaching. I know that at some point the "newness" will probably wear off and it will seem like more of a chore, but I'll worry about that when I get there. I love the look in a kid's eye when something clicks for them, and I love the challenge of getting to that point. The schedule isn't bad either! I don't know how we'll ever go back to 9-5 work after this. Another thing to worry about when we get there, I suppose.

I am, however, already suffering from a common ailment of lower-level English teaching though: sometimes I can't stop over-enunciating and speaking slowly with lots of expression and hand-movements, even when I'm talking to a competant English speaker, like say, Sam.

So, there you have it. It's what we do every day, but so far it doesn't feel like an actual "job" to me for some reason. Love and miss you all!

Sam's Classes

I suppose Alison will post a similar blog in the next few days about her classes.  I am not familiar with her schedule, so I will let her fill you in.

Our new semester started yesterday. The semesters are approximately three months long. Here is how it works.  There are three ability levels, R, E, and W.  R being the lowest, and W being the highest.  In each of these three levels they are split up three times again,(B, for beginner, I, for intermediate, and A, for advanced) so all in all there are 9 levels of students, they dont really go by age, the students take assessment tests, and the grades on those tests determine what level they are.  So, the nine levels, starting with the lowest: RB, RI, RA, EB, EI, EA, WB, WE, WA.

I am teaching 2 RB classes, 2 RI classes, and 3 RA classes.

The students schedule works one of three ways, they either come Mon, Wed, Fri,  or Tues and Thurs, or they come Mon-Fri.

Classes are 75 minutes long and run from 4:10pm - 9:25 pm, with 5 minute breaks in between each of the four periods.

The students who are MWF and TR come for 155 minutes on their respective days.  This is split between a foreign teacher(thats us) and a Korean teacher.  So 75 minutes with each of us with a 5 minute break in between.

The students who come Mon-Fri are only there for 75 minutes each day.  I only have one of those classes, so I will see these students for 75 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday, and they will see their Korean teacher for 75 minutes on MWF.

We report to work at 2:45 and work on lesson prep, which usually doesn't take too long, unless we have essays or book reports to grade.  And then we can leave at 9:45, we usually take the remaining time from when the last class ends to enter grades into the online grade book.

So my schedule goes something like this, I have three classes(out of four) on MWF, and four classes on TR.

The R levels kids that I teach have decent skills, they can understand, speak and write simple sentences with mostly simple vocabulary.  Vocabulary is the funniest thing, especially in their writing, they use a translation dictionary to find mostly adjectives for their book reports or essays, some just don't translate well.  I will start posting funny phrases in later blogs.

I suppose that is enough for now, I am sure its a lot to digest and probably a little confusing for all the readers.

P.S.  It's snowing, and it's my birthday.....technically, after the time changes its not really my birthday for another couple hours, and the funniest thing is that when it is 10:47 am on March 4th in the Central Time Zone(where I was born), it will already be March 5th here.  Not planning on celebrating too much, rumor has it that work gets everybody a cake on their birthday though.  So yall can just go out and celebrate for me.