First Korean Test; Mountain Climbing; The Joys of Teaching Children Part 1

On Monday after class, my co teacher and I went to another elementary school to watch another foreign teacher's class. These classes are called 'open classes' (I have my first open class in a week and a half and I'm not gonna lie, I'm not looking forward to it with the utmost enthusiasm...). So we watched this foreign teacher teach with her co teacher, and the class was actually amazing. It made me think 'wow, I stink at teaching...' Not that I think I am a horrible teacher, but compared to this class my classes are not up to snuff. Even though at my schools we follow the lesson plans given with the textbooks, I still now feel responsible to come up with more interesting and engaging things to do. So I will be working on that in the following months.

After the class, we went to an analysis of the class which lasted about 75 minutes...if that happens to me, I just hope everyone speaks in Korean so I can't understand... so that was pretty intense. And when that was done, my co teacher and I went to a coffee shop for my Korean lesson. Normally we go to Seomyeon and meet my tutor(s) there, but my main tutor could not make it that day because he was given school duty of some sort at the last minute. But today I was scheduled to have my first test anyway, so my co teacher printed it out and we went to a place near our homes in Allak Dong. The test was 3 pages long...I was sooo happy!! Oh man. I LOVE tests!!! Although...I didn't know that it was going to be as comprehensive as it was (I had asked my tutor what would be on the test and he just gave me the main parts and not the smaller sections - which is fine, because for next time I will just know everything) - so I got most of the adjective section wrong...haha. But for the grammar and verb tenses etc I did pretty well! My co teacher gave me a 90%, which, I thought, she was being a little generous - but still!! I was sooo happy! The first thing I thought was, 'I can't wait to show my coach!' :)

Wednesday was an interesting day. I came to realize that one of the reasons that 6th graders are more difficult than other grades (in general) is because of the 'death stare.' That's what they do. They look at you like they want to kill you. Not all of them, but if you get the death stare from two or three kids in one class it is enough to phase you a little bit, and reduce the excitement that I usually build up before teaching each class. But hey. It happens. Also, I've been hearing some brave comments lately from the 5th and 6th graders. So usually, every lesson we show a dialogue on the CD ROM and then ask questions about it. One of the characters (there are probably maybe 15 or 20, and some appear more often than others), Peter, is black. So when I asked 'who do you see in this dialogue?' a kid in one of the classes said, 'Africa!' My mouth dropped open and I looked at him and said, 'what did you say?' I didn't know the appropriate way to react in a class of 5th/6th graders so I added a little bit of a smile with the reaction...but I'm thinking, ok, I know they are youngins, but still - do I encourage racism just because they are young and cute? And when I asked the kids in the next period class, one kid said, "Obama!" !!!! Geez! The reason that I was more phased by this than I normally might be though is because they have seen Peter's character before, so they know who he is. And even if they can't remember, they know it is not 'Africa' or 'Obama' (of course they know it is not Obama if they know who that is). But anyway, that was an interesting day.

After teaching at Dong Sang on Wednesday, I went over to Allak at about 1:30p. The Principal and Vice Principal at Allak had asked the Vice Principal at Dong Sang if I could go mountain climbing with the Allak teachers. I actually felt really weird about this, because the Dong Sang teachers went mountain climbing in the afternoon last week and I couldn't go because I didn't know far enough in advance to change around my schedule. So even though Allak gave me plenty of notice, I still felt bad leaving Dong Sang in the middle of the day to go hiking with Allak...so I was not super excited about that at first (especially since I was still getting over a cold). But once we got out there...oh man. It was fantastic. We went to Beomeosa, a temple-mountain area somewhat near PNU. I actually have some pictures of the base of Beomeosa in a previous post...I had gone there with a teacher from Dong Sang last month. Anyway. So this time we hiked to the top...it took about 75-85 minutes to get to the top, and it was somewhat intense! Especially at the top...there were ropes attached to the big boulder-ish rocks that are too big to climb over without the help of ropes. Oh MAN. It was great!!! Although...I had a track workout after the hike, and while I was aware of that and knew that I shouldn't over exhert myself on the climb, once we started getting to the more intense areas I started to do some running up the trail and four-handed climbing and jump-and-roll momentum maneuvers to get myself over the big rocks without taking the easy way up. It was really really fun, but I definitely felt the climb during the track workout...ugh. My times were significantly slower. I'm glad I told my coach before hand, ha. When I told him I had gone hiking, and that they made me go (they actually pretty much made me go - I ended up having a great time but I kind of didn't want to go because I didn't want to create a bad relationship with the teachers at Dong Sang and also I didn't want to compromise my interval track workout), he said (somewhat jokingly), 'next time, tell them that your coach says you can't go mountain climbing before a track workout.' Haha. Yess.

After practice I received the worst news that I've gotten since I've been in Korea, and it has been sucking the enthusiasm out of me ever since, in all capacities. I'm trying not to think about it but I feel like my heart is slowly turning to stone. Thank goodness I am working with children, because on my way to school I was feeling extremely apathetic and lacking enthusiasm, thinking it was going to be a long day today. But when I got into the schoolyard and the kids looked at my and said, 'Oh, hi teacher! Teacher Catie! Hello!" so enthusiastically, a huge smile always instantly appears on my face as I greet them in return. While elementary school kids can be tough sometimes, overall, I am so thankful to have a job where I can see happy, smiling faces - kids happy and cheerful without the burdens that age tends to impose (not to say that it is easy being a kid, because I know it isn't). But sometimes it really makes you think about life in a different way, in a more simple and innate way - the way maybe life should be, or perhaps how it is at its best. In any case, working with children helps me see life from many angles, and it also can take me away from my perhaps petty problems and zone in on the fact that today I could make a small difference in a kid's life if I just teach them one new thing or even just give them motivation to learn. Of course, you always get those occasional if not frequent priceless sayings that children so often utter, especially when they are trying to speak in a different language and there is a language barrier. Although the one that one the cake today I don't think was due to a translation error. We were drawing houses in 5th grade today to reinforce the rooms in the house, and the kids were about to present their houses to the class. I was walking around, and would comment on houses into which the kids had put particularly impressive effort. So to one group, I said, 'Wow! Very good!' And they all smiled. Then the boy (whose essay on fire safety, which was ultimately for an English speech contest, I had just finished reading and enjoying) pointed to the toilet and said, 'this is where you poop' - so matter-of-fact-ly. Hahaha. It was AMAZING. I was laughing for a minute, minimum. Oh man. FANTASTIC.

Ok time to head to the pool. Looking forward to more good times ahead, I hope... :)

Halloween; I-Can't-Believe-I'm-Actually-Training-To-Qualify-For-Kona Bike Ride; Becoming One With the Ocean

Friday was my first Halloween in a foreign country, and let me tell you, it was a very interesting experience. I actually can't make any big comparisons to Halloween in the States because I never was much of a party animal and thus haven't experienced any of the crazy shenanigans that probably go on. But basically if you are dressed up in a costume in Korea on Halloween, people look at you similar to the way one might look at someone in the States if that person is walking around on the streets in the winter wearing a bathing suit, goggles, and a swim cap. So that in itself was an interesting experience. I didn't attract THAT much attention because I was dressed up as a carrot, so I was just wearing orange clothes and a green hat. However, my jacket was orange enough to attract attention, especially since all of my other clothes were orange and they pretty much did not match (that was intentional). However, I was somewhat oblivious to the reactions of others because prior to going out, I had drunk just about an entire bottle of soju, so I was in my own little hilarious world not caring about anything...it was amazing.

So we all (a group of EPIK people) met at a friend's house near Pusan National Univeristy. We drank there and played games for a bit and then went out to a bar. There were lots of foreigners there, all dressed up in costumes. It was crazy! Outside of the bars was pretty much a normal friday night, but once you hit those foreigner bars it was like Halloween in any other major city (I'm assuming). Lots of costumes, lots of alcohol, lots of fun. The streets also started to get a little infested with us after we started to disperse to other bars. I can't actually remember if there were many Koreans on the streets gaping at us or not, I just remember there being a lot of people wearing very interesting things... I left around 1:30am, because I still had practice in the morning. Usually I wake up at 8:00 to eat breakfast and then leave around 8:30 for practice, but since I went to bed at 2:30a I knew that wasn't happening. So I made a decision to take a cab in the morning so I could save at least an hour of travel time and gain an extra hour of sleep. I think I might have still been drunk in the morning, actually, because I was laughing at things that were not really funny for most of the morning and even into the afternoon...but you can never tell with me because sometimes I just break out into laughter for no reason every day...anyway. I am glad I got that extra hour of sleep, because our bike ride today ended up being one of the hardest rides I have ever been on, one that actually made me think "I can't believe I am actually training to qualify for Kona, this is craziness!" But to be fair, it was really windy, and the people I was riding with were really fast. At least compared to me. So we rode 71km, about 44miles, not too far. But, crapper. Coach was staying back with me when I was getting dropped, which made me feel bad. But when I told him he didn't have to stay back with me, he was like, 'no, my pace too!' Haha. That was great to hear.

Anyways. So after that, I was pretty sore, and tired. We went to a restaurant - me, Coach, S, and the two other men who joined us today (both Ironmen triathletes) - to eat "old men's food" - apparently because it helps control cholesterol...and I was told that most other people are not a huge fan of the food, but I liked it - thought it was great. It was just soup and fish (I think blowfish?) and lots of vegetables. We put vinegar in the soup to give it some flavor. Had some rice on the side. It was delicious.

Now I'm starting to get sore. We depart from the two men who joined us on the ride, and Coach, S and I went to Nurimaru to walk around before swimming. Swimming was really hard today too, go figure! (Although my times were faster than they had ever been before so that was probably a big reason why it was hard...but that is a great reason :) ) And after that, as if I hadn't sufficiently exhausted myself, I decided to go out with my friends again on Saturday night. Go me (aka stupid me...) - but it was definitely fun.

I met up with a Korean friend and his friend, and we then met up with a few of my American/Canadian friends. We went to a restaurant to drink some beer and then hit up a Makali bar, makali being a rice-wine type of alcohol. It was actually really good - especially compared to the makali that I had tried out of a bottle in the stores - the stuff in the bar tasted like a different drink. If you are ever in Korea and want to try some makali, do not buy it in the stores. Hit up a makali bar - it is worth it! And the scenery at the place we went was pretty sweet too - a quaint little straw hut. Fantastic.

So I left pretty early, around...oh actually, maybe 1:30am? So not early for me...and late enough for me to decide to sleep an extra hour and a half in the morning and take another taxi before practice...haha. And the ocean on Sunday was a bit of a challenge, probably partly because there was a yacht race (do you call it a race?) and I'm thinking that made the water a little choppy - but even if that wasn't the case, the waves were still pretty big and I definitely had some trouble breathing. However, after my first 1.5ish km lap, I started to feel out the ocean a bit, and started to learn its rhythms. By the beginning of the second lap, I felt like I was becoming one with the ocean! I could feel when a wave was coming, and was doing a pretty good job to time my strokes so that I would breathe on the top of a wave, even if it meant staggering my arm stroke, although I tried to avoid that and keep my rhythm. Also I started to adopt a rolling-over-the-wave technique, where if my next breath was to be away from the wave (towards the shore), I would speed up the stroke a bit before the breath and slightly exaggerate the turning of my body on its side so that the wave's momentum would not throw off my my momentum which was going in a somewhat-perpendicular direction. But anyway. That was a great experience :)

Monday was incredibly exciting because it was my first Korean test, but I will write about that later because I am still sweaty and smelly from practice today (Wednesday). I thought you would all like to know that :)