Life In Korean Elementary Schools P1; Etc

There are some interesting facets of Korean schools (elementary at least) which I have neglected to mention, and since I have had more time than usual this week (because of becoming sick due to my jam-packed last week so I stayed home Monday from Korean lessons and yesterday from practice to rest and sleep...booo) I have had more time to organize my thoughts and jot things down. I'm actually not even sure if I have mentioned any of these before but I will say them again just incase.

One interesting aspect in which Korean schools differ from American schools is that they don't have bells. Instead of bells to begin and end school and classes, they play music...it is very interesting. It was weird to me at first and took me a little time to get used to it, but now I really enjoy it. I especially enjoy the music which is played at the end of school at Allak, which is the instrumental of "Moon River"...it is SO relaxing, and is a great way to end the day :) At Dong Sang, they play a lot of classical music. I can't remember exactly which but I know I have heard a few Beethoven songs upon entering the schoolyard. I love it! (I should get them to play the Kreutzer Sonata..although the mood of that song may not be appropriate...a little too exciting...) Also, another very interesting thing that happens at Korean elementary schools is that after classes, the kids clean the school. They also bring all of the lunch...stuff...to the classrooms for lunchtime (the kids eat in classrooms - so some teachers eat in the classrooms with the kids, and the others, like myself, eat in the teachers' lunch room). But after school, a few kids come into each class and sweep and sometimes mop. Some kids sweep/mop the hall...I haven't intensely speculated the exact details of the cleaning so I'm not sure what else they do...but I think this is great too. And the kids don't seem to mind (they have been doing it all along though so it doesn't seem strange to them).

Now I'll mention a few things about Korean culture that I think I have neglected to mention that you may find interesting. First - this is something to which I still haven't completely adapted - hand gestures used to get people's attention/call them over are not the same here as they are in America. Not only that, but the gesture that we use is actually offensive when used here. Say you and a friend are in a store and you want to show them something but they are too far to see. In the States, we would probably say 'hey, come look at this!' and wave our hand in the following way: with an extended arm, palm facing up, and fingers curling upwards towards our body. In Korea, you might say the same thing, but that gesture is never used, because here, that gesture is only used for calling dogs. ... (Sometimes I still do that in class by mistake but by now at least I can correct myself quickly...although I am obviously trying to phase it out...). The gesture used here is extending your arm, and with your palm facing down, curling your fingers down towards your body. Very similar in description - only one difference - but in practice, it feels much different and is difficult to alter. I just thought that was very interesting. :)

Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before - but for many services that we would tip in the States, we do not tip for in Korea. For example, we do not tip taxi drivers - even though when I take a 10 minute taxi ride it ends up being less than 3,000 won...(around $3.00...or it used to be before the exchange rate decided to ruin our chances of saving half of what we earn...now that taxi ride in the US would be less than $2.50..) but my point is, instead of paying probably at least $7 without tip for a 10 minute cab ride (at least in New Haven), I pay a third of that without the added tip here. So that's pretty sweet. Also, we don't tip in restaurants...so our 4,000 to 7,000 (7,000 won is considered expensive) dinners (on Saturdays we often get lunch for 1,500-2,000 won at this great noodle place..haha) end up being anywhere from $3.30 to $5.40. Yup. Sweetness. Although, some of the places are more expensive. We went to get salbi and Sangupsal (sp?) last week with my three tutors :) and that ended up costing 37,000 won - but we got sangupsal (pig), rice, drinks (maybe soju I'm not sure but certainly at least water, which I am not sure if they charge you for), and with sangupsal comes lots and lots of vegetables (and they refill your vegetables for free) and rice (usually rice comes with the meal but I don't remember if rice came with this...ack, I forget)...but then we got galbi afterwards so that was like a whole other dinner. So basically we got 2 dinners each and beverages for the 'expensive' price of about $30.70 - for 4 people...and galbi is ridiculously delicious. Ahh Korea :)

Hm. Ok. Something brief that I forgot to mention about last weekend. So the toilets here - I think I may have mentioned before that many of them are the squatters - which, I am all for (although many of them don't have toilet paper - so most people carry that around with them - but probably about half of them do have toilet paper so often I don't have any with me when I need it...yay...) - but last weekend I had an experience which left me a bit...jaded (maybe jaded is too strong a word...). So I was at Haeundae Beach, we had just finished our swim, and we were preparing for our run. I went to the bathroom to change, and I went into one of the stalls with a squatter. (WARNING: this is about to get a bit graphic so avert you feel so inclined.) Let it be known that while often these stalls are relatively clean, sometimes there is...pee...all over the floor. You know - people miss - no one is perfect...but sometimes its like you just walk into a stall where everyone decided to ignore the fact that there was a place to aim...ANYWAY. This stall wasn't necessarily like that, although the floor wasn't completely clean. And the stall did not smell wonderful either, because...(graphic)...the engineering of the toilet is such that - say it is about 3 feet in length - about 2 1/2-3/4 feet is completely horizontal, and then the last 1/2 - 1/4 of a foot is a hole where everything is flushed. But the water pressure is very very low, and sometimes things...get...stuck...yea. So that was my stall. ANYWAY. I am changing...trying to ignore all of this (which I was doing relatively well) - changing out of my bathing suit and into my running clothes...and I take out my socks - apparently a little too carelessly - because...they dropped right into the toilet. Now, my previoulsy clean, white socks are multi-colored (more tri-colored than bi-colored...), the opposite of clean, and 100% NOT minty-fresh. Since I don't have a plethora of socks here, I actually contemplated (for at least a minute) taking the socks out and putting them in a quarantined part of my bag (hoping such a place existed - I do have many pockets but most of them are already occupied...). But after retrieving them and realizing their actual state, I instinctively hurled them into the trash. Sad. And kind of disgusting. But interersting! Haha.

On a completely unrelated note (actually not completely...) I saw a boy a few days ago running down the hall after lunch with a HUGE (like tennis ball size) red stain in his crotch - it looked like a quality spaggheti stain (maybe it was kimchi...?)...it was FANTASTIC. And he looked so happy and ignorant (I don't mean that in a bad way at all, I mean it in a great way). Hahaha. I think that was the day too that I dropped something of the sort on my tan pants (his were tan too) and I tried to wash it out and left myself with a large wet crotch-area - which is worse - and I didn't even get the stain out...I should have taken his roll-with-the-punches approach (or 'hey - I'm a kid and don't give a crap about being dirty even if it looks like...haha like I don't even know what - approach). Anyways. That was fun. I was laughing for a few minutes about that. I felt kind of bad because I am a teacher and I shouldn't be laughing at that stuff, at least in public. But I am too immature... oh well. There are worse things you can do in life than laugh at an 8-year-old's stained pants... :)

Life's pretty sweet. :)

Fantastic Exercise Week; First Teacher's Class; Team Over for Dinner

Ok so starting back up with Tuesday...

Oh but first, I have to mention that I bought a printer on Sunday...just because it is awesome. It is a copier and a scanner too, and it also prints pictures on glossy paper...it is amazing. And it was really inexpensive. Korea is awesome.

So Tuesday. After school I took the bus to PNU as usual (actually the going to PNU part was usual, but taking the bus is a new revelation. I used to go back to my apartment (which took 15 minutes), dump some stuff and pick up the things that I forgot to bring to school for practice, and then walk to the bus stop that is closest to my house, take that to the subway, and take the subway to PNU. But I evolved and now I take a bus directly to PNU - so I take all of my stuff to school in my huge backpack that looks like it contains a small child (everyone comments on how big it is..haha), then jump on the bus. The buses are more difficult to take because unlike the subway, they don't announce the stops in English, and there is no guide for where the bus stops in English either. So you have to know where you are going. The first time I took the bus I actually got off like 5 stops too early because I was afraid that I was going to (or had already) miss(ed) my stop, and ended up having to walk an additional 20 minutes...I'm glad the street signs (for driving) are well marked because if not I wouldn't have been able to find my way to PNU..haha.

Anyway, I met Coach (late) and today another boy joined us, which was really fun. He doesn't speak much English at all, which is really cool. So I will be forced to use my Korean with him! He will be running with us only on Tuesdays (most Tuesdays). That day we did a long run - one hour. That doesn't sound very long, but normally when I have done hour runs in the past I have at least stopped to stretch or grab a drink or something. This day we did not stop at all. I was soo proud of myself :) My knees definitely hurt a bit towards the end, but we are working up the time/mileage slowly (usually we do 40-45 minutes and one day last week I think we did 50min for the long run) so I am slowly building the muscle required to sustain for longer periods of time. I just need to make sure I continue/start strength training... but that day was awesome. Tuesday I also learned how to say "me too/I agree" - 나도 만찬가지 에요 (nado machan-gaji yeyo) - that was a really fun dinner. Coach was saying things and having me say (Nado...) in response. And when he was talking to the other boy with whom we trained that day sometimes I would say it even when I didn't understand what was going on...it doesn't sound funny but it actually was quite. :)

Wednesday. Hard track workout. I won't go into the details because most people reading this probably don't care much..haha..but ..basically we were supposed to run for 40 minutes, starting at a certain pace and every two laps decrease the lap time by 5 seconds. Of course we went out too fast so that didn't help either...but for the last few laps we were running a 6:35-6:40mile pace, and I was DYING. Thank goodness S stopped after 37 minutes (he didn't have a watch and he thought that we were on our last lap) because I don't know if I could have sustained that pace for even one more lap. But it was amazing. But I also felt kind of pathetic being that tired after only a 6:40mile pace...I try to console myself by thinking that I was tiring myself out with accelerations and all..haha.

After practice on Wednesday we went out to eat. We had bibimbap (One of my favorite things to eat here -it is soooo good) and coach gave me and S gifts from Japan. It was in a beautiful package (which I saved) and it was a cake-type thing (no frosting or anything) -it was sooo delicious!!!. Aw. He is so sweet :) Then we also talked about studying together once a week...me studying Korean and them studying English...and we decided that after practice and dinner on Wednesdays, we will all go to the library and study...!! We are going to do "circuits" for studying - we will spend a certain amount of time in the library studying, then come outside to practice talking, then go back in and do quiet study, etc. I'm so excited!! So now I will have Korean twice a week...so I should start to improve a lot :) :)

This week was particularly busy because I have taken on a lot of extra work (as compared to previous weeks). I have volunteered to do more for my classes - .e.g. for Dong Sang, I volunteered to make a powerpoint presentation. Chapter Twelve for 5th Grade is called "This is a Bedroom" and the students are learning about all of the rooms in the house, so I had my mom and dad take pictures of the rooms in my house and sent them to me so I can share a little bit of my life with my students while also teaching them about the rooms in the house. You might not think that making a PP presentation of the rooms in your house would take a long time, but it probably took me about 90 minutes, if not longer (to be fair I haven't made a powerpoint presentation in years, and I have never made one on my laptop, so I had to learn about the program as well). But yea, so I actually forewent swimming on Saturday (as in two days ago) to prepare for that, because I haven't been getting a lot of sleep and I would rather miss a workout than get sick from not sleeping. Although that was a difficult decision...

Another thing that has made this week busier is that I had my first Teachers' Class on Thursday. This is a class that I am having at Allak, and a bunch of teachers come after school and I teach them English. This past week I spent a LOT of time on the lesson plan, especially since it was the first class and I didn't really know what to expect so I spent extra time trying to prepare alternative ideas and more material than I would probably have time to teach, just incase. The class went well - I prepared an 8 page lesson plan... and we went through most of it...I even prepared a diagram of the head/mouth and translated key phrases into Korean like 'alveolar' and 'hard palate' and 'tongue' so as to help them with pronunciation in a more effective way...I don't think they were nearly as excited about that as I was (although they do want to learn pronunciation but someone made a comment that it was too academic for them...I felt bad, but I really think that even just having a diagram helps even if you don't understand the words because then I can point, instead of sticking my finger down my throat trying to show people where to put your tongue...haha. anyway). But the lesson was on "Quantities" (I did this lesson before buying a book from where I will take/base most of my future lesson plans), so I had different sections for different quantitative expressions, e.g. "How much" and "How many" and "How often" - I gave examples of in which situations you would use these phrases and what information people want to know when they ask you these questions. I had probably about 8 or 10 different expressions. I think it was very useful (the content at least). But I didn't think about the layout of the class as much as I should have because I went over all of my examples and explained everything and then I had conversation at the end, and I had people pair up to talk and ask each other certain questions. They questions were good I think, but afterwards when I told people to voice their opinions about the class, they told my co teacher that it would be more helpful if we talked more, and if we had conversation with the group instead of in pairs...so that everyone can learn from their mistakes. I felt so bad! I should have thought to have people practice after introducing something new...and I definitely should have thought that I should hear everyone talk because if two people are talking together and they both don't know English very well then they can't necessarily correct each other...aww :( I don't want to disappoint people...and I don't want them to think I am a bad teacher or that I am not trying (I don't think they think the latter, but I also don't want them to think 'is this how she is teaching the kids? I hope not...because it is not very effective..' But teaching teachers is much different than teaching kids. Anyways. For the first class I think it went decently well. And now I have a lot of criticisms to work off of so the next lesson can be much better and more useful :)

Friday. There was a chance that I was going to be tutoring my teammates in English so I didn't make any other solid plans, but it turns out that that Friday wasn't going to work. So I chillaxed at my apartment and worked on some school things (e.g. powerpoint and some other worksheets that I volunteered to prepare). Also I was very tired so it worked out well that I didn't go to tutor (although I definitely would have given up sleep to help them... :) ) Anyway. My friend came over instead and we studied and chatted for a while. Friday also I finally went to the bike shop to get some much needed tires, tubes, and water bottles. I really needed a tire because I have been riding my trainer so much that the back tire is very worn, so if I were to use it on the road there is a much greater chance that I will get a flat. I asked my coach if I would be able to get a tire in the morning, because I hadn't had time to get a tire before and I wasn't sure if I would have time Friday, and he basically said that he could get me an extra wheel to use Saturday if I needed it. I didn't want him to go through all of that (he said the bike shops weren't open early enough in the morning for us to go get a tire before riding), so I forced myself to suck it up and go into the bike shop, even though my Korean is not advanced enough to make a complete transaction in a bike shop yet. (You might think it would be easier for me to get by in a bike shop than in a clothing shop, but to the contrary - I have many more needs in a bike shop, and would have more specific questions rather than asking if they have a certain size or color). So I brought my bike book incase I needed to use pictures to show what I needed (which I did actually use)...the man in the shop actually spoke a little English which was good, but I still felt bad not using Korean - some sentences that I would say, I knew part of the Korean but not all, and I wanted to use the Korean words that I knew so he would know I am trying, but then my sentences would be half English and half Korean and might be even harder to understand...so I would very meekly say things in English. Anyway. The point is, I succeeded in buying the things I needed. I ended up getting flaming orange tires because those were the only ones he had of the size I needed - I was actually lucky that he had my size because this shop was relatively small and it looked like it was more of a repair shop that carried a few extraneous things...(although not extraneous at all...I meant it in more of a 'scattered' sense) and it seemed that they would order things that people needed as the situation arose...so I am lucky to have bright orange tires with a red seat and a navy frame (and silver handle bar tape...that is actually turning colors because of how old it is...) as my coach said, my bike is 'art', Haha.

So after buying what I needed for my bike, I went home. My friend came over, like I said, we studied, chatted, and the time came when I wanted to change my tire so that I wouldn't have to wake up in the morning and rush to get it done (I think I also wanted to show off my bike mechanic (if you can call changing a tire a mechanic-type job..haha) skills...I'm so lame..haha). So I went to release my back wheel from the trainer, but I couldn't get it out!! I texted my coach, and my friend and I tried for a while and couldn't get it out...I was getting kind of nervous...but after about a half hour I succeeded. Luckily! If it didn't come out I could have had my Coach look at it on Sunday when they came over to my apartment for dinner, but still - I wanted to ride on Saturday and there was no way I was riding outside with my back wheel stuck in the trainer...haha - so Coach called me when he got my text and asked me what happened. I explained it to him and he said that had never happened to him before...he suggested that maybe I was just riding so much and so hard that it got stuck...haha. I came to find out on Sunday that there was an additional adjustment lever that I did not realize existed and I had set that lever MUCH too tight...good to know...haha.

Saturday - I won't go into it much, but we went for a 4 hour bike ride - Coach had to leave early because he and his family had to go to their friend's wedding, so S and I rode with them for about a half hour and then we went off on our own. It was SUCH a BEAUTIFUL day. It was a such a beautiful day that I finally learned that word for beautiful - 아름답다, or 아름다와요 (I think that is how the latter is spelled). One weird thing though - when we got to a certain area - it was off of the main road but still it didn't seem like a particularly strange place - we ran into a herd of dragonflies. It was actually kind of scary. The only reason I was able to maintain my composure and not ride away (because we were basically riding head on into more dragonflies - I'm talking like at least two of them directly surrounding me at any point in time) was the fact that S didn't seem phased at all. He told me that in the fall there are twice as many as any other season...and he didn't seem to flinch much at all when they came swarming around his head. Also, there were a few people walking around not seeming to mind much. So I thought, ok, either dragonflies don't sting/whatever they do, or they don't sting people often in Korea, because clearly they are not very afraid. So I just sucked it up...(although I still felt the need to dodge some that were flying directly into my path) and tried to pretend that I was cool with it. But it seriously reminded me of something out of those Mummy films with Brendan Fraser...you know what I mean? Anyway. But yea. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery...ahh. Awesome day. Even though I had to skip out on the swimming, my day was still amazing.

I went home early Saturday hoping to get my powerpoint done as well as a good amount of Korean, but that definitely did not happen. Note on transporting the bike through the subway - haha - very interesting. So I have it in this big black bike bag, and it seems like every week it gets heavier and heavier because I put more and more things in the bag (like full water bottles) which doesn't make it easier to carry...and I take it on the bus. That's fine. If the bus is crowded then it can be a little uncomfortable but I've learned certain positions that minimize space and still keep everything relatively intact so I've pretty much got the bus down. The subway is a little more difficult, because I need to get in and out of the subway through one of those revolving...spindle-like things - do you know what I mean? Clearly not enough space for a bike. The first day it was kind of hard, and luckily someone who worked there came and let me in through the gate. But after that I decided I would have to get creative instead of depend on someone being there. So what I do is, pick up my bike, turn it horizontal, balance it on my head with one hand holding it for extra balance and support, and with my other hand I swipe my subway card so I can get through. It's awesome. I think everyone is looking at me when I do it...and if so that is pretty legitimate...but I feel very proud/accomplished being able to get that through the subway spindle things by myself. I know that sounds weird...haha...the strange things that happen in my life...So. I got home, got the powerpoint done, had a headache and pretty much went to bed...at 9p. I slept for 10.5 hours, and strangely, I woke up feeling worse than when I went to bed! With a sore throat, congestion, all that good stuff. :( But I got up and ready to do some ocean swimming and running :).

After our workout, I went right home without lunching - tonight was the night that I was going to have my team over for dinner for 집들이 (jipteuri), which is like a housewarming occasion that most people have when they move into a new place. My Coach had told me about this a few weeks ago but I wasn't yet prepared to have a bunch of people to my apartment due to lack of appropriate food or sufficient amount of dishes etc, and the weekend before Coach's family went to Japan, so we decided to have it this weekend. I was very nervous about having them all over - it ended up being 8 people total, including me. You know me - I always put my best effort into what I am doing and I hate not being good at things especially since I do put in my best effort, and cooking Korean food is just a recipe for disaster for me because I...have no idea how to cook it. My friend Chol, however, had come over a few weeks ago and showed me how to cook Kimchi soup, and I took notes on how he made it...but I lost them...I had told my team that I would cook some Korean food as well as some Italian food - I didn't know if all of them like Italian food so I wanted to give them the option of their native food. But I also told them to prepare for the Korean food being horrific. And I'm glad I did...

My Coach and his wife and son got there first...thankfully..haha. So I was still cooking - I had finished the Kimchi soup (or I had put in the maximum amount of effort that I would have been able to do alone because I didn't know how to proceed from the predicament I was in)...and I told my Coach that I had the soup cooked but I wasn't sure if it tasted good. So I asked him to try it and to give me his honest opinion. I love Koreans. They are honest (at least from what I have experienced). :) He tasted it, and grimaced...hahaha. It was amazing. His wife tasted it - she didn't grimace but you could tell she was thinking - probably trying to think how to make it better, because she is so sweet. But they did just that. They asked me which ingredients I had at my house, and used a bit of what I had...and then a few minutes later my Coach says, 'oh! I know how to make this delicious!' and rushed out of the house. A few minutes later he comes in with ____ (I won't write it here because he said it was "our secret" - haha - and adds it to the soup. Miracle. Hahaha. I just thought that was amazing. And I actually thought it did taste delicious after that!

So I continue to make the gnocchi - that is the Italian food I decided to make - I had started making it at 3pm and now it was 6pm and I had just started rolling the dough. I had made gnocchi twice in Korean before with other friends, but this time I was cooking twice as much and it ended up taking about three times as long as the first and second times...so I am rolling the dough and still working on proper consistency by continuing to add flour...and the rest of the team comes within the next 10 minutes. They had all brought house-warming gifts - juice, fruit, curry (Coach's wife brought me Japanese and Korean food - :) ) toilet paper ( :) I love Korean customs :) ) and I am trying to bust my butt to get things finished so they can start eating. an hour and a bit later, the gnocchi was finally ready...ah! 7:30! I felt bad, because I had said 6p...but I brought over the pot onto the newspaper-covered floor (yes, we are on top of newspaper laid out on the ground because my table wasn't big enough to house 8 people - although we would have sat on the ground anyway because the table I have is one such that you have to sit on the ground - I prefer those kinds :) ) and we ate. They all seemed to enjoy it! It went pretty fast (and apparently one of my favorite people really likes Italian food, so I am really hoping he enjoyed it). I hope the wait was worth it!

So we sat, ate, talked a little about Ironman (Ironman Hawaii - World Championships - were that day - actually October 11 but for about 12 hours the 11th in Hawaii is also the 12th in Korea because of the time difference so we could still celebrate appropriately), had some Cass (Korean beer), had some fruit for desert, and then most people left. Coach's wife helped me so much with cleaning and preparing the gnocchi - after most everyone else had left she helped me clean up until everything was done :) :) Have I mentioned today how thankful I am to have met these people?!

It was such a great day - very tiring, but great (although not tiring at the time because I like to be busy, it usually keeps my energy level up - it's usually when the busy-ness (would that still be spelled 'business'? I didn't want to confuse people..) stops that I get tired). And an amazing week!! Unfortunately I still feel a little sick, so I am going to forego my Korean lesson tonight so I can sleep, hopefully get the sick out of my system, and catch up on my Korean work (that may sound illogical but there are many different aspects of learning a language as you know, and I need to do do more of the alone-studying before I can really benefit from group studying). So after school today, for once in a long time, I will retire to my apartment and ride my trainer, study, and rest :)