First Month in Seoul

Well I have almost survived my first month in Korea!!! Saturday will be my one month anniversary. I also survived two weeks of preschoolers!!! They are adorable, and I liked teaching them most of the time, but they were soooo draining!!! It was especially bad because I would teach an entire morning of preschool, and then have to start teaching afternoon classes. I normally just afternoon classes, so this week after I felt like I had worked a whole day, my day really hadn’t even started yet! I have been very tired, and am looking forward to Monday morning when I don’t have to be at work until 12:10!
One really exciting thing that happened this week, was that I bought a fish!!! It is a Japanese fighting fish, and his name is Mool Kawgee, but is pronounced Mool Golgi. The name means fish in Korea, but is literally translated to “water meat.” The picture I have of Mool Golgi aren't great, so this week I'll take some more.
Later in the week I also bought a little table to put my computer on next to my bed. I had been using my computer at the table in my room, but then I started using it in my bed, and when I wasn’t using it I was keeping it on the chair from my room. The table is much nicer!

Wednesday was Guy Fawkes day, and I’m still not sure who he is or what he did, but I believe he was from England and did something for Canada, because the kids from Canada were all about celebrating it! We went up to the roof top and set off fireworks. The fireworks ended up only being streamers/confetti, but it was still a lot of fun! Before we went to the roof, some of the girls went to a restaurant called Fish and Grill for some drinks. They brought over chips, salsa, peanuts, pickles, full cloves of garlic, and some kind of wilted green leaves. It was great. The beer there is only $2 each, and they are big mugs of beer.
These were all the snacks that the waiter brought over to us!

After the roof party we went back to Fish an Grill, but everyone from the roof party was there, so we took up almost all of the restaurant. We played cards until late. One of the girls I work with brought her Korean friend, who’s name is Hojin. It’s funny that his name is Hojin, because in our Reach Out books that we use with our older kids, one of the characters in the book (It’s a work book, but there are characters that are in different lessons..) is named Hojin, and he is in a lot of the activities that we do. So I soon as I was introduced I was thinking about all the stuff I have been teaching my kids, and when I was alone with the girl I work with, I said It’s Hojin, like from our books! And she said that was exactly what she told him when they first met! I know all about Hojin’s hobbies and about his family tree! So anyway, Hojin was making these shots, where he put a shot glass in a beer cup, filled it half way with Pepsi, then put another shot glass stacked on that one and filled it with Soju, which is the Korean version of vodka, and then he filled the rest of the cup with beer. I didn’t do one, because of my inability to take shots, but it looked like a lot of fun!!!
Tara taking the soju, pepsi, and beer shot!

Jenn, Amanda, Lindsey, and Janique on the roof for Guy Fawkes Day.

Tara, Amanda, Janique, and me on the roof on Guy Fawkes Day.

I also would like to mention that they don’t sell cases of beer, or even 12 packs or 6 packs. They only sell single cans, 20 oz. and 40 oz. bottles. I have gotten very used to it, but at first I thought it was strange walking around with a big huge bottle of beer. There are no liquor stores, and you can buy booze 24 hours a day at any Family Mart on any corner.
This week in preschool I had to teach my kids about the continents. In there book was a picture of the world, but it was missing Antarctica! Unless I missed something, Antarctica is definitely a continent! When I was in 3rd grade I had a great teacher, Mr. Parker, who taught me the continents by having us point to them on the huge pull down map in the class room, and say them in order until we memorized them. He also taught us to say Antarctica in a low, deep voice and hold our hands like we were holding up Antarctica. I don’t know why he did that, but it worked because to this day I have the continents memorized and I always say Antarctica in a booming voice and move my hands in the order that they are. So all this week, I have been drilling it into my kids. I have them all stand up at the board and play teacher one at a time, and say the names of the continents and have the class repeat after them. They loved going to the board and playing teacher, and I could tell who knew them and who needed practice. It’s hard to tell when one person is saying something wrong or not saying it at all when you have 9 other kids screaming. One little boy was saying “It is Arctica” instead of Antarctica. Another cute thing about the preschool kids is that they LOVE the teachers. In these two weeks, I heard how pretty and nice I am more than in my whole life! Sometimes they would just come up and hug me and tell me how much they like me. It was a definite self esteem booster! They also do strange things, like when I am standing behind them and pointing to something in their books, they will just start rubbing my arms like they have never seen an arm before. It’s the cutest thing. It can also be really annoying when I’m just walking in the hallway past a class lined up in the hall, and there are 10 kids clinging to me as I’m trying to walk.
This is one of the preschool classes that I taught the continents to. Annie, Aladdin, James, Sally, Audrey, Ricky, Rachael, Kevin, Tommy, and Michael.

Annie playing teacher and naming the continents. You can see my awesome drawing of the world on the white board....

I asked James to show my his best Antarctica face, and this is what I got...

Another lesson we did this week, was “Where are you from?” And they were asking where all the teachers were from, and the weird thing was, that the kids couldn’t tell who the Korean teachers were and who the foreign teachers were! They would say things like, ‘Cathy teacher from Canada?’ when Cathy is clearly Korean! I wanted to ask them if they noticed that the foreign teachers looked different, but I didn’t. The only reason I can think that they can’t tel the difference, is there is an American girl, Susie, who’s parents are Korean, so she looks Asian, but has lived in the US her whole life. Maybe that is what confuses the kids….
I started writing this blog before the weekend, but I have been very sick this weekend, and have been sleeping on and off. I have a wicked bad sore throat, and it hurts to swallow. I haven’t eaten anything since Friday, and I have only been drinking small sips of OJ throughout the day. If I don’t feel better by tomorrow I am going to have to go to the doctor because I am starting to get hungry!