Times Square

This week at school was basically the same as last week so I'll skip over that.

Saturday, I went to Seoul with my Canadian friends, Chris and Joanne.  We went to Times Square Malll. I was looking for English reading material, Chris needed the new Shinee CD, and Joanne was shopping for souvenirs. There was a bookstore that, Chris assured us, had everything we were were looking for.

Before we went shopping, we all agreed lunch was a priority. We ate a Chinese restaurant in the mall that had delicious food and a roomy feel since it looked out over the mall and if you looked up you could see the trees on the rooftop terrace. The mall in general is really futuristic with huge glass windows and glass bridges crossing over the second and third floors.

On the first floor of the mall, we saw a group of people sitting cross-legged in front of a small stage. We weren't sure what or who they were waiting to see, but we figured we'd find out soon enough.

We went down to that level, not because of our excitement to watch an unknown performance, but because there were women dressed in Hanbok giving out free instant rice dishes and packs of walnuts. Kind of random as giveaways go, but none of us turned it down.

There was still no sign of anything starting on the stage, so we started our shopping. We looked around at a few different places, but mostly we spent our time and money in the bookstore, which was kind of like an even bigger version of Chapters or Indigo, with even more random sections that have little or nothing to do with books. There's stationery, toys, music, jewellery, electronics, and even a bulk-candy area.

After about four hours of shopping, we were getting ready to head home, when we saw that announcers had finally come out on the stage. We joined the crowds of people who were pushed up against the balcony on every level of the mall in order to catch a glimpse of whoever it was that was expected to appear on stage.

The announcers went on for a few minutes, getting all the teenagers in the audience to whoop and cheer. Then they brought out a young Korean guy and he played acoustic guitar. My friends and I looked at each other in disbelief. People had sat on the floor for at least four hours, waiting for that? I guess he's a celebrity and we just don't appreciate his star-factor.

In the subway station, Joanne asked if I'd ever tried takoyaki. It's a kind of Japanese food made with dough and octopus. I admitted I had never tried it, even though it's readily available as street food in Korea. So we bought a dish of it and I tried some. I liked the fried doughy part, but I'm still not a huge fan of octopus. I eat it a lot at school, but I still haven't got used to it.

Anyway, altogether it was a really fun day. It made up for a really sloooooow week.

Today Corey and I also went for a nice long walk around Subong Park. (I didn't take a camera) The snow has mostly melted and the paths are starting to smell earthy and Spring-like. This makes me hopeful that winter is almost over. There are signs around the paths with pictures of different kinds of wildflowers, which I'm also looking forward to seeing sprout and bloom in the spring. I hope everyone else is staying hopeful through the dullness of February. One more week.

February Air

It's Sunday night and I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for the week ahead. There are no students this week, but I'll be at the school office every day from 8:30-4:30 anyway, as my contract stipulates. I can't really complain because I get paid just for showing up.

The third grade students had their graduation a week ago. I got to watch the ceremony. It was really nice to see how many of the students' parents attended. They brought flowers and chocolates for the graduates. Afterwards, the students left with their parents, and the teachers had a celebratory feast in the cafeteria. There were even strawberries for dessert!

Graduation Ceremony

Now, most of the teachers are on vacation. The Vice Principal comes to school every day along with a handful of teachers who have prep work to do. I do a bit of lesson planning, but unfortunately I did a ton of prep during my office hours in January and now I don't have much to plan. I've created differentiated lesson plans for my high and low level classes in each grade and compiled a bunch of games from past camp experience and waygook.org. I may never get to use these lessons anyway. First, the textbook must be "covered". So I've done a bit of work here and there, but now I mostly watch TV shows on my laptop.

Some of my co-teachers and me in the school yearbook

I know I should be trying harder to learn Korean, but even with all this free time I can't focus on it for longer than about an hour a day before I start mixing stuff up and forgetting anything new I try to take in. (I guess I sort of know how my students feel when I present them with 45min. of non-stop immersion English)

The co-teachers in the office are always nice to me. They invite me to join them for lunch most days. Sometimes we order in, but usually we go to a local Korean restaurant where the school has a tab. I always order dubugook (soybean curd soup) because it's the least spicy thing on the menu. I feel badly that when we get back to the office, the other teachers all get to work, and I go back to watching How I Met Your Mother.

Yesterday, I went to the library to try and get a card so I could sign out books to read at school, but when I went to the information counter, the librarian shook his head and walked away. Later in the day, I read online about getting a library card in Korea and found out that most libraries do not issue cards to foreigners, though there are a few libraries in Seoul that will. Anyway, I stayed at the library and read for a few hours in the children's section (where there is a small section of English books). If anyone wants to send me books, newspapers, information pamphlets, pretty much any reading material in English, I will be more than happy to read it cover to cover! I also read articles and stuff online, but staring at a screen all day has started giving me headaches (which I never got before coming to Korea).

Corey spent the day at a jimjilbang which is a kind of Korean spa. I was a little nervous about going since I didn't really know the protocol and I just got over a cold, so I thought it'd be best if I wait before going into tight spaces with big crowds. Corey did some research though and bravely explored the four floors of the jimjilbang, which he tells me included a floor that had separate saunas for men and women, plus a co-ed sauna floor, a swimming pool, arcade area, eating area, and more. You pay an admission fee to go into the jimjilbang and then you get a bracelet that you can swipe to charge various items and activities to your tab. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to go with him.

Not the actual jimjilbang Corey was at, but he says this sauna looks similar to the ones he went in

For now, I'm keeping a low profile and eating lots of chocolate. Corey's mom sent us a big Valentine's Day package and Corey got me an additional box of "KicKers" chocolate (kind of like a kitkat)

Valentine Treats from Corey's mom

KicKer!

The tone of this blog post is obviously less optimistic than my previous ones. I just can't seem to shake these February blues. I'm really looking forward to my students returning in March! Plus, they will be joined by the new grade 1 students who will be starting middle school!

Winter Warm Up

Corey and I are back at school and teaching this week. The students have one random week of classes before they graduate. They know their grades are already decided so they aren't very motivated to learn new material. I've been playing games like 20 Questions, Hex and Hot Seat with all my classes.

The nice thing about being back at school is we get mail sometimes. We got a winter warm-up package from Corey's mom with many delicious and warming things inside.

Corey used the gravy to top off some homemade chicken stir fry. Yum!

Our Thursday night was spent with the board games in Bupyeong group. We took over a few tables at the local cafe, Coffeesmith, and set up a variety of boardgames. Corey and I played Red November with some other foreign teachers. It was a bit of a sad ending when our drunken gnomes died before they could save their submarine.

Bupyeong is a magical place. Besides being the meet up spot for many events, it's also a huge labyrinth of a shopping mall. Corey stopped to pose beside a mannequin wearing a lovely SMILE sweater. It has many English words that don't make sense when read together which is typical for clothing items found around Korea.