I've had a lot go on in the past few weeks. Here's what stands out the most.
* I don't work for JM English School anymore. :) I won't go into the details, but they let me go with positive recommendations and we parted amicably. I'm glad I don't work there anymore and have consequently lined up a new place of employment, Wall Street Institute. http://www.wallstreetinstitute.com/aboutWSI/overview.aspx
I'll be teaching adults come May, which I think I'll enjoy quite a bit more.
* Last week, Anja and Sasha visited me for about a week. We did a lot of touristy stuff, doing a city bus tour, memorials, museums, quirky neighborhoods, etc. I was very happy to see them and spend some time with my siblings. I think they also did. Before Seoul, they spent a few days in Tokyo, which sounded amazing and sounded like Sasha really got a kick out of. I think I've now come to terms that my little brother is a grown person, which took a little getting used to. He also got into all the universities he applied to and I have no doubt he will do well in whichever one he chooses to go to.
* In light of the fact that I don't have a job for the month of April, I'm taking a backpacking adventure through the beautiful countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and maybe a stop in Vietnam. The itinerary includes Angkor Wat, the largest religious site in the world and where Tomb Raider was filmed, the wild jungles of Laos, and Ko Tao, arguably the mecca of scuba diving in the world. I leave tomorrow morning with my Canadian friend Jon. We will be meeting up with some other friends along the way and I can't wait to see what South East Asia has to offer.
For some reason, blogger.com won't allow me to upload pictures. Hopefully my sister will soon. Otherwise, I'll have to do it in May.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Pijja
Koreans have a hard time pronouncing some of our sounds, like the letter z. Instead of Jesus, it's more like "Jejush". Pizza is more like "pija". My name comes out "Bitari" instead of Vitaliy. I understand though. For the longest time, I couldn't get it why my parents couldn't say things in English the way my siblings and I could. It was so easy for us! Now, when I try to say things in Korean, Koreans often have to ask a few times because I, apparently, can't say it properly and the way they say it. Making sure you're going to the right part of the city is especially crucial when in a cab because there are so many neighborhoods that can be mispronounced.
Another thing I understand now is that learning a language was sooooo much easier when I was younger. It just came to me. Learning to speak Korean is going to be harder than I thought.
I loved pizza the moment I bit into a slice and the same remains true today. Fortunately, Papa Johns expanded to Korea and they taste pretty much the same here. Koreans do make a few weird tweaks to their pizza that are just wrong. For example, there is a pizza franchise here called Pizza School that is really cheap, starting at 5000 won for a pizza, which is roughly $4.50USD. They have something called a Deousche pizza with sausages (there are lots of spelling mistakes here, it's supposed to be Deutsche guys), sweet potato, pizza with chicken wings on it as the topping, and another one with I don't even know what as the topping but mayonnaise as the sauce. Almost every pizza has corn on it too. Fortunately, there are some pizzas at Pizza School that taste pretty good. My favorite is bulgogi, which is Korean for beef.
This picture is of a Papa Johns delivery man with a portable credit card reader.
A delivery bike for Sta Sera, an Italian restaurant in Gangnam.
Below we have Mandoo. It's kind of like Ukrainian pelmeni, stuffed with a mix of beef and seafood or kimchi. Really cheap too at only 3000 won. Which reminds me of something else the rest of America should really pick up on. When paying for things, the tax is included in the advertised price. No one likes messing around with change, so Koreans keep it simple. If something says 3000 won, you pay 3000 won. Not 3000 plus tax. Makes life a little less complicated.
Another thing I understand now is that learning a language was sooooo much easier when I was younger. It just came to me. Learning to speak Korean is going to be harder than I thought.
I loved pizza the moment I bit into a slice and the same remains true today. Fortunately, Papa Johns expanded to Korea and they taste pretty much the same here. Koreans do make a few weird tweaks to their pizza that are just wrong. For example, there is a pizza franchise here called Pizza School that is really cheap, starting at 5000 won for a pizza, which is roughly $4.50USD. They have something called a Deousche pizza with sausages (there are lots of spelling mistakes here, it's supposed to be Deutsche guys), sweet potato, pizza with chicken wings on it as the topping, and another one with I don't even know what as the topping but mayonnaise as the sauce. Almost every pizza has corn on it too. Fortunately, there are some pizzas at Pizza School that taste pretty good. My favorite is bulgogi, which is Korean for beef.
This picture is of a Papa Johns delivery man with a portable credit card reader.
A delivery bike for Sta Sera, an Italian restaurant in Gangnam.
Below we have Mandoo. It's kind of like Ukrainian pelmeni, stuffed with a mix of beef and seafood or kimchi. Really cheap too at only 3000 won. Which reminds me of something else the rest of America should really pick up on. When paying for things, the tax is included in the advertised price. No one likes messing around with change, so Koreans keep it simple. If something says 3000 won, you pay 3000 won. Not 3000 plus tax. Makes life a little less complicated.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
So much to do, so little time!
My blog has become a bit quiet. Sorry about that. Perhaps I'm not a writer, or perhaps I've been preoccupied with other things. Perhaps a bit of both.
The past two months have been going well, albeit very, very cold. It's finally getting warmer and I couldn't be happier. I did go snowboarding twice, which was great. Coming to Korea, I basically gave up on the idea of hitting the slopes but turns out Koreans love racing down the mountain almost as much as I do. I went to Yongpyong Ski Resort, which is the largest resort in the country. I also went to Vivaldi Ski park on Lunar New Year weekend, which was cool but the park was the smallest one I've been to in my life.
I'm not an expert snowboarder by any means but compared to most Koreans, I'm Shaun White (he won gold for us in halfpipe). The mountains they have here are nothing compared to what we have back home. I'm attaching a few pics for your viewing pleasure.
Right before I left for the Philippines, I was Santa for all the kindergarten students at my school. They loved it! I wore shades so that they wouldn't be able to tell who I was.
What else. I'm playing ball hockey now with a bunch of waygooks (Korean for foreigners). I've never played hockey before, so I've got a lot of learning to do. It's pretty fun, a great work out, and so far I love it. Below is a video from the rookie only game. This was all the first timers playing, with the captains of each team scouting us out to later draft the players they want. Check out cbhk.org for info on the league.
One of my best friends has decided to move to Korea and become a teacher, which is great news for me. I lived with Joe for three years while in college and having a good friend here will only make living in Korea better. Here's another video he took of us eating galbi. I eat at this restaurant at least once a week. We call it Chuck's Beef Strips. The owner's name is difficult to pronounce for us, so I asked him if I could give him an English name. He was all for it and after some careful thought, I gave him the name Chuck because he reminds me of Chuck Norris. He's well built, stocky, and can probably kick some butt, just like Chuck Norris. The name caught on and everyone I know that goes here calls him Chuck.
There's plenty of other things to write about but I have to go. 'Til next time!
The past two months have been going well, albeit very, very cold. It's finally getting warmer and I couldn't be happier. I did go snowboarding twice, which was great. Coming to Korea, I basically gave up on the idea of hitting the slopes but turns out Koreans love racing down the mountain almost as much as I do. I went to Yongpyong Ski Resort, which is the largest resort in the country. I also went to Vivaldi Ski park on Lunar New Year weekend, which was cool but the park was the smallest one I've been to in my life.
I'm not an expert snowboarder by any means but compared to most Koreans, I'm Shaun White (he won gold for us in halfpipe). The mountains they have here are nothing compared to what we have back home. I'm attaching a few pics for your viewing pleasure.
Right before I left for the Philippines, I was Santa for all the kindergarten students at my school. They loved it! I wore shades so that they wouldn't be able to tell who I was.
What else. I'm playing ball hockey now with a bunch of waygooks (Korean for foreigners). I've never played hockey before, so I've got a lot of learning to do. It's pretty fun, a great work out, and so far I love it. Below is a video from the rookie only game. This was all the first timers playing, with the captains of each team scouting us out to later draft the players they want. Check out cbhk.org for info on the league.
One of my best friends has decided to move to Korea and become a teacher, which is great news for me. I lived with Joe for three years while in college and having a good friend here will only make living in Korea better. Here's another video he took of us eating galbi. I eat at this restaurant at least once a week. We call it Chuck's Beef Strips. The owner's name is difficult to pronounce for us, so I asked him if I could give him an English name. He was all for it and after some careful thought, I gave him the name Chuck because he reminds me of Chuck Norris. He's well built, stocky, and can probably kick some butt, just like Chuck Norris. The name caught on and everyone I know that goes here calls him Chuck.
There's plenty of other things to write about but I have to go. 'Til next time!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Philippines!
Happy New Year to everyone! This year, I had the opportunity to spend Christmas and ring in the new year on the tropical island of Boracay. The island, one of over 7,000 in the Philippines, was voted one of the most beautiful in the world by Yahoo travel and I can attest to its ranking being so high. This place was great.
I left Seoul with 8 other friends on Christmas eve and landed in Manila an hour before the 25th. I booked a hostel near the airports for us, which cost $5.70 for the night per person. We spent the night there and flew out of the domestic airport for the town of Kalibo, which was about an hour's flight from Manila. After landing, we took an hour and a half bus ride to the port of Caticlan. Caticlan actually has a little landing strip, but its been closed down due to a landing accident a few weeks ago. This is according to the Filipino man I was sitting next too. Apparently, domestic flights don't have the same safety measures as international flights. Not the most reassuring thing to hear, but whatever, when have I ever been afraid of something like a little airplane flight.
Once we got to the ferry terminal, we were directed away from the port to the "luxury private" ferry boat. There was nothing luxurious about this thing. Basically, if you want to get to Boracay, you have to take a little ferry, which is half built from bamboo poles, for a 15 minute ride. Boracay isn't very far from the main island (I wasn't able to figure out what constitutes a main island) but there are no bridges going here. Transportation is very water based. After hitting the beach in our ferry boat, we had to jump into the water, with our luggage over our heads, and wade on over to the beach. There, we hired a van/truck/vehicle thing. I felt like a sardine sitting in the back of this windowless, bumpy, third world truck. The van dropped me, Jon, and Kevin off at our hostel, Trafalgar Cottages. The girls decided to get a hostel with AC. Being the rugged men that we are, we thought an $8/night room would be just fine. Anyway, the hostel owner was a really nice British lady (Trafalgar...can you make the connection?) who met her Filipino husband while volunteering for the UN in Africa. After unloading our stuff in our room, we met up with the rest of our group and had a predictably fantastic seafood themed dinner. Unpredictably, we had this at a Mexican restaurant, which was recommended by the girls' hostel owner, who was from New Zealand.
Boracay is a pretty small island, about 9 km in length and only about 1 km across. White beach is the main beach, which stretches for almost the entire length of the island on the side that is protected from the ocean winds. The sand is absolutely wonderful and doesn't get hot in the sun at all. The water, a perfectly cool, clear, and refreshing temperature, could not have been better. Wading around on the beach knee deep, I could see tropical fish swimming around me.
A few things that really struck me over the course of this 8 day adventure was how nice Filipinos were. No one would bump into me, jump in front of me while waiting in line for something, or rush me like people often do in fast-paced Seoul. In addition to speaking Tagalog, Filipinos also speak English, which was convenient and a nice change from the charades I've grown accustomed to in Korea when trying to get my point across. The people are much poorer though, compared to Korea or the US. I got to see where the locals live, and a lot of these homes seemed like places I could build with my own two hands. Definitely a different world.
Another thing that was surprising but really cool was how diverse all of the vacationers were. There were people from all over the world. I met people from Norway, France, Russia, UK, Korea, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Poland and overheard Indians, Africans, South Americans. The majority of people vacationing on the island were non-Filipinos.
One of the days, we went to a beach called Bulabog Beach, which apparently is one of the most famous beaches in the world for kite surfing. The sport, which I had never seen before, consists of a snowboard like board strapped to a persons feet and a parachute pulling the body across the water. Bulabog beach is on the opposite side of white beach and has strong winds, which is perfect for the sport. There were literally hundreds of kite boarders surfin' up a storm. We just stood in awe watching the action for over an hour before finally moving on, it was that cool. I was told the sport is very difficult and believe it, based on the couple of brave souls clearly still attempting to control the free-willing parachutes doing what they please.
One side note: Korean tourists were the easiest to spot on the island. Boracay is a popular destination for Koreans, especially for newlyweds. I've learned that once in a relationship, Korean women pretty much dress their men from head to toe. Vacation gear entails wearing matching outfits, which was pretty funny to us. Peace signs are ubiquitous when taking pictures. I also saw a Korean girl driving an ATV crash into a parked moped. Hilarity ensued.
I took an island hopping tour one of the days with my group of friends and a couple other teachers we ran into that were mutual friends. The tour consisted of going to an island that had some caves to explore, a nice beach, snorkeling, another island with an all you can eat seafood buffet, some more snorkeling, and then back to White Beach. While coming to our second snorkeling spot, we asked our guides if it was deep enough to dive. We were told that of course its deep enough, dive right in. Turned out it wasn't, as I got a nice cut on my foot from the coral reef right below the boat. Apparently, corals grow under a persons skin so I had to clean out my wound that night, which turned out to be a bit of nuisance. Be careful where you dive! (my foot is fine now)
There is only one road on Boracay, that runs the length of the island, which is full of tuk-tuks running around. These things were great. A tuk-tuk is simply a moped with a side car attached that will fit as many people as are willing to get on. Safety didn't really seem like a priority, which Jon experienced first hand when he fell off of one them. I had never been on one of these before but I can't wait to get on one again!
I don't know if I'll ever be able to beat the new years I had. There were fireworks along the entire stretch of White Beach that lasted for about half an hour. Very memorable.
We left Boracay at the horrible hour of 4am on January 2nd. This time, we were able to use the official port and didn't have to go into the water...getting onto the ferry boat. Getting off was a different story. I don't know what happened, but the ferry couldn't get close enough to the shore for whatever reason and we were about 25 meters away from dry land. Jon and I were the last two to get off the boat and when I stepped out of the enclosed passenger area, I had to rub my eyes because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Everyone that had been on the boat was being carried by little Filipino men on their shoulders. Since we were still kind of far out, there were skinny and what looked like malnourished men in their 50's hoisting people, which held their luggage above their heads, onto their shoulders and walking them to shore. I couldn't help but laugh. A kind looking man tugged on my arm, directing me to jump onto his shoulders. I looked at him in disbelief and said "thank you, but I don't want to break your back". He tugged on my arm harder but I just went ahead and jumped into the water. The man was probably 5'2" and 130 pounds! A little water never hurt anyone, so Jon and I were the only ones that waded to the shore on our own two feet. This last ferry experience was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.
The travel back to Korea went without hiccups, and before I knew it, I was back in Korea. Cold, snowy, freezing, Korea. The weather went from 33 degrees Celsius to -15. This January has seen the largest snow fall since Korea started recording weather. And it is soooooo cold here. It hit -20 Celsius a couple of times. It feels like someone punches you in the lungs when stepping outside.
On another note, a friend of mine from Seattle visited. We both worked on a final GIS project in Geography my senior year and have since become pretty good acquaintances. He now works for a Korean bank in Seattle and came here for business but crashed at my place. He is actually Korean-American, having emigrated with his family to Washington when he was 5 years old.
Below are some pictures from my trip.
The people I went with at the airport on Christmas day. 4 Americans, 5 Canadians.
This is the "luxury" ferry boat we took to Boracay.
The crew on the way to the island.
Boracay sand castle
Seafood!
Paradise
Tuk-tuks
Bulabog beach
Snorkeling
Ice cream man coming out to our snorkeling boat
Filipino kids dancing on the boat and singing a Korean pop song!
A cave on one of the islands
Island hoping
Pretty nice
The view from a ferry boat
The sunsets were unreal
White beach
My buddy Yo (that's his name) visiting from Seattle
I left Seoul with 8 other friends on Christmas eve and landed in Manila an hour before the 25th. I booked a hostel near the airports for us, which cost $5.70 for the night per person. We spent the night there and flew out of the domestic airport for the town of Kalibo, which was about an hour's flight from Manila. After landing, we took an hour and a half bus ride to the port of Caticlan. Caticlan actually has a little landing strip, but its been closed down due to a landing accident a few weeks ago. This is according to the Filipino man I was sitting next too. Apparently, domestic flights don't have the same safety measures as international flights. Not the most reassuring thing to hear, but whatever, when have I ever been afraid of something like a little airplane flight.
Once we got to the ferry terminal, we were directed away from the port to the "luxury private" ferry boat. There was nothing luxurious about this thing. Basically, if you want to get to Boracay, you have to take a little ferry, which is half built from bamboo poles, for a 15 minute ride. Boracay isn't very far from the main island (I wasn't able to figure out what constitutes a main island) but there are no bridges going here. Transportation is very water based. After hitting the beach in our ferry boat, we had to jump into the water, with our luggage over our heads, and wade on over to the beach. There, we hired a van/truck/vehicle thing. I felt like a sardine sitting in the back of this windowless, bumpy, third world truck. The van dropped me, Jon, and Kevin off at our hostel, Trafalgar Cottages. The girls decided to get a hostel with AC. Being the rugged men that we are, we thought an $8/night room would be just fine. Anyway, the hostel owner was a really nice British lady (Trafalgar...can you make the connection?) who met her Filipino husband while volunteering for the UN in Africa. After unloading our stuff in our room, we met up with the rest of our group and had a predictably fantastic seafood themed dinner. Unpredictably, we had this at a Mexican restaurant, which was recommended by the girls' hostel owner, who was from New Zealand.
Boracay is a pretty small island, about 9 km in length and only about 1 km across. White beach is the main beach, which stretches for almost the entire length of the island on the side that is protected from the ocean winds. The sand is absolutely wonderful and doesn't get hot in the sun at all. The water, a perfectly cool, clear, and refreshing temperature, could not have been better. Wading around on the beach knee deep, I could see tropical fish swimming around me.
A few things that really struck me over the course of this 8 day adventure was how nice Filipinos were. No one would bump into me, jump in front of me while waiting in line for something, or rush me like people often do in fast-paced Seoul. In addition to speaking Tagalog, Filipinos also speak English, which was convenient and a nice change from the charades I've grown accustomed to in Korea when trying to get my point across. The people are much poorer though, compared to Korea or the US. I got to see where the locals live, and a lot of these homes seemed like places I could build with my own two hands. Definitely a different world.
Another thing that was surprising but really cool was how diverse all of the vacationers were. There were people from all over the world. I met people from Norway, France, Russia, UK, Korea, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Poland and overheard Indians, Africans, South Americans. The majority of people vacationing on the island were non-Filipinos.
One of the days, we went to a beach called Bulabog Beach, which apparently is one of the most famous beaches in the world for kite surfing. The sport, which I had never seen before, consists of a snowboard like board strapped to a persons feet and a parachute pulling the body across the water. Bulabog beach is on the opposite side of white beach and has strong winds, which is perfect for the sport. There were literally hundreds of kite boarders surfin' up a storm. We just stood in awe watching the action for over an hour before finally moving on, it was that cool. I was told the sport is very difficult and believe it, based on the couple of brave souls clearly still attempting to control the free-willing parachutes doing what they please.
One side note: Korean tourists were the easiest to spot on the island. Boracay is a popular destination for Koreans, especially for newlyweds. I've learned that once in a relationship, Korean women pretty much dress their men from head to toe. Vacation gear entails wearing matching outfits, which was pretty funny to us. Peace signs are ubiquitous when taking pictures. I also saw a Korean girl driving an ATV crash into a parked moped. Hilarity ensued.
I took an island hopping tour one of the days with my group of friends and a couple other teachers we ran into that were mutual friends. The tour consisted of going to an island that had some caves to explore, a nice beach, snorkeling, another island with an all you can eat seafood buffet, some more snorkeling, and then back to White Beach. While coming to our second snorkeling spot, we asked our guides if it was deep enough to dive. We were told that of course its deep enough, dive right in. Turned out it wasn't, as I got a nice cut on my foot from the coral reef right below the boat. Apparently, corals grow under a persons skin so I had to clean out my wound that night, which turned out to be a bit of nuisance. Be careful where you dive! (my foot is fine now)
There is only one road on Boracay, that runs the length of the island, which is full of tuk-tuks running around. These things were great. A tuk-tuk is simply a moped with a side car attached that will fit as many people as are willing to get on. Safety didn't really seem like a priority, which Jon experienced first hand when he fell off of one them. I had never been on one of these before but I can't wait to get on one again!
I don't know if I'll ever be able to beat the new years I had. There were fireworks along the entire stretch of White Beach that lasted for about half an hour. Very memorable.
We left Boracay at the horrible hour of 4am on January 2nd. This time, we were able to use the official port and didn't have to go into the water...getting onto the ferry boat. Getting off was a different story. I don't know what happened, but the ferry couldn't get close enough to the shore for whatever reason and we were about 25 meters away from dry land. Jon and I were the last two to get off the boat and when I stepped out of the enclosed passenger area, I had to rub my eyes because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Everyone that had been on the boat was being carried by little Filipino men on their shoulders. Since we were still kind of far out, there were skinny and what looked like malnourished men in their 50's hoisting people, which held their luggage above their heads, onto their shoulders and walking them to shore. I couldn't help but laugh. A kind looking man tugged on my arm, directing me to jump onto his shoulders. I looked at him in disbelief and said "thank you, but I don't want to break your back". He tugged on my arm harder but I just went ahead and jumped into the water. The man was probably 5'2" and 130 pounds! A little water never hurt anyone, so Jon and I were the only ones that waded to the shore on our own two feet. This last ferry experience was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.
The travel back to Korea went without hiccups, and before I knew it, I was back in Korea. Cold, snowy, freezing, Korea. The weather went from 33 degrees Celsius to -15. This January has seen the largest snow fall since Korea started recording weather. And it is soooooo cold here. It hit -20 Celsius a couple of times. It feels like someone punches you in the lungs when stepping outside.
On another note, a friend of mine from Seattle visited. We both worked on a final GIS project in Geography my senior year and have since become pretty good acquaintances. He now works for a Korean bank in Seattle and came here for business but crashed at my place. He is actually Korean-American, having emigrated with his family to Washington when he was 5 years old.
Below are some pictures from my trip.
The people I went with at the airport on Christmas day. 4 Americans, 5 Canadians.
This is the "luxury" ferry boat we took to Boracay.
The crew on the way to the island.
Boracay sand castle
Seafood!
Paradise
Tuk-tuks
Bulabog beach
Snorkeling
Ice cream man coming out to our snorkeling boat
Filipino kids dancing on the boat and singing a Korean pop song!
A cave on one of the islands
Island hoping
Pretty nice
The view from a ferry boat
The sunsets were unreal
White beach
My buddy Yo (that's his name) visiting from Seattle
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Ho-ho-ho, I'm a Gorilla?
Christmas time is near and the festive spirit can be felt in the air in Seoul, but no where near what its like in America. At school the other day, I joked to my second grade class that if they didn't do all of their homework, I would call Santa Claus and rat 'em out. No cool Christmas presents this year kids! The moment they heard this threat, a reaction occurred that I really did not expect. These kids are 8 year olds, and they still believe in a Santa! They wanted to know how I knew him, what he was like, does he really speak Korean, was I lying (I reassured them I met him personally in Finland), if he could please bring them a Nintendo DS/some Pokemon toy/a new cell phone (most of the toys were heavily technology based. Each kid here has a cell phone), and other questions I can't remember. I then asked them, how does he get into your apartments on Christmas Eve? One of the girls exclaimed "through the chimney!", but before I could help direct my question another kid blurted out "but we don't have chimneys here! Does he know our apartment codes?" After some discussion amongst my little pupils, the consensus was that Old Saint Nick does in fact know their apartment codes.
The next day, I had one of other teachers call me on my cell phone because I had told the second graders that I have Santa's cell phone number. When they saw it was "Santa Claus" on the caller ID, they had to talk to him. "Santa" reminded them that not completing their English homework would result in last year's Samsung or LG toy instead of this years cool, new one. Needless to say, the students are looking forward to Christmas. One thing to note is that my third graders did not fall for my knowing Santa. I guess that's about the age where they realize Santa is in the same boat as Spiderman, Superman, and King Kong; they don't exist.
Which leads me to another thing. I've been called a lot of things by my students in my short tenure as a teacher. Here they are, in no particular order (all of these are typically screamed by kids):
* Supermaaaaan! (A fellow teacher told a group of Kindergartners that's what I actually am. They're 5 year olds. haha)
* Chinaman! Chinaman! (why? I have no idea)
* Koreaman! Koreaman! (I told a few of them I can speak Korean. When 'proved' it by saying a few phrases, I had them convinced I'm actually a Korean in disguise)
* Gorillaman! or Monkeyman! (I have a slight beard right now, and this is a big deal since I'm told its harder for Korean men to grow facial hair. The kids are terrified of touching my facial hair. On the other hand, they love to come and 'pet' my arm hair. For some odd reason, they can't get enough of this. When it was still warm and I wore shorts, they loved pulling on my leg hair.)
* Ajashi! Ajashi! (In Korean, Ajashi is a term for a married man. Now, why they call me this? No clue. I think it might be the facial hair.)
* Pom-Pom (A Cat's name from a book we read in a Kindergarten class)
* Oookraeeen! (Ukraine. Two of my kindergartner's are moving to Ukraine in January because of their father's work. I'm not sure what he does, but these are not poor kids, so I imagine they'll be doing well in Ukraine. Also, talk about coincidence)
These are but a few of the nicknames I've heard. I'm sure there will be more.
We are taking pictures will all of our students to send to their parents as Christmas cards. Here are two pics with two of my favorite Kindergarten students.
Dorothy
Edward
BTW, my fourth graders are NOT as cute as these little people. :)
The next day, I had one of other teachers call me on my cell phone because I had told the second graders that I have Santa's cell phone number. When they saw it was "Santa Claus" on the caller ID, they had to talk to him. "Santa" reminded them that not completing their English homework would result in last year's Samsung or LG toy instead of this years cool, new one. Needless to say, the students are looking forward to Christmas. One thing to note is that my third graders did not fall for my knowing Santa. I guess that's about the age where they realize Santa is in the same boat as Spiderman, Superman, and King Kong; they don't exist.
Which leads me to another thing. I've been called a lot of things by my students in my short tenure as a teacher. Here they are, in no particular order (all of these are typically screamed by kids):
* Supermaaaaan! (A fellow teacher told a group of Kindergartners that's what I actually am. They're 5 year olds. haha)
* Chinaman! Chinaman! (why? I have no idea)
* Koreaman! Koreaman! (I told a few of them I can speak Korean. When 'proved' it by saying a few phrases, I had them convinced I'm actually a Korean in disguise)
* Gorillaman! or Monkeyman! (I have a slight beard right now, and this is a big deal since I'm told its harder for Korean men to grow facial hair. The kids are terrified of touching my facial hair. On the other hand, they love to come and 'pet' my arm hair. For some odd reason, they can't get enough of this. When it was still warm and I wore shorts, they loved pulling on my leg hair.)
* Ajashi! Ajashi! (In Korean, Ajashi is a term for a married man. Now, why they call me this? No clue. I think it might be the facial hair.)
* Pom-Pom (A Cat's name from a book we read in a Kindergarten class)
* Oookraeeen! (Ukraine. Two of my kindergartner's are moving to Ukraine in January because of their father's work. I'm not sure what he does, but these are not poor kids, so I imagine they'll be doing well in Ukraine. Also, talk about coincidence)
These are but a few of the nicknames I've heard. I'm sure there will be more.
We are taking pictures will all of our students to send to their parents as Christmas cards. Here are two pics with two of my favorite Kindergarten students.
Dorothy
Edward
BTW, my fourth graders are NOT as cute as these little people. :)
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Being thankful
I've past the three month mark of living in Korea. This is the longest I've been out of the United States in my life (besides Ukraine, of course). A few things I want to update the blog about, including Thanksgiving.
Seeing how this is my first Thanksgiving away from home, the other teachers and I got together to celebrate Turkey day. In preparation for the day, each person was to prepare a dish for this potluck dinner of ours. The week before, I went to one of the six Costco stores in Korea. Inside, the place was nearly identical to the Costcos in America. The main differences were that there were two levels and half of the food being sold was food no one would be interested in at home. Frozen octopus tentacles sold in bulk probably wouldn't sell like hot cakes.
We decided Chicken would have to be the Turkey substitute because a frozen Turkey costs about $70 here, and a ready-to-go chicken is less than $7. We got three and a pumpkin pie. For the dinner, I decided to make the Ukrainian version of potato salad, Olivye. We also had mashed potatoes, Ceasar salad, glazed carrots, stuffing, fruit salad, deviled eggs, bruschetta bread, steamed broccoli, and lots of chicken. For not having any ovens to work with, the dinner turned out fantastic.
This is the "family" away from home.
Last weekend, I went to a Korean co-worker's wedding. The wedding was held at a building specifically for weddings and was incredibly nice. Chloe, who is about 30 years old, met her husband while studying English in California. The reception was very short, lasting only about 25 minutes, but that was fine since everything was in Korean. We were able to take a picture with the bride, although as you can see I stick out like a giant compared to Ellie, another co-worker of mine.
The ceremony was an "American" style event that really didn't seem much different from anything back home. The most notable difference was the mothers and grandmothers wearing traditional Korean dresses. Other than that, the most notable difference was that it was all in Korean.
Natalie, Becky, and I were the three that went to the wedding.
The reception was held in the same building and was surprising in its elegance and level of sophistication. The catered, seven course meal consisted of raw tuna, shrimp, mashed potatoes, steak, salad, and desert. There were people that came out and spoke about the couple, sang songs, and said their wishes. All in all, I was honored to be there.
Seeing how this is my first Thanksgiving away from home, the other teachers and I got together to celebrate Turkey day. In preparation for the day, each person was to prepare a dish for this potluck dinner of ours. The week before, I went to one of the six Costco stores in Korea. Inside, the place was nearly identical to the Costcos in America. The main differences were that there were two levels and half of the food being sold was food no one would be interested in at home. Frozen octopus tentacles sold in bulk probably wouldn't sell like hot cakes.
We decided Chicken would have to be the Turkey substitute because a frozen Turkey costs about $70 here, and a ready-to-go chicken is less than $7. We got three and a pumpkin pie. For the dinner, I decided to make the Ukrainian version of potato salad, Olivye. We also had mashed potatoes, Ceasar salad, glazed carrots, stuffing, fruit salad, deviled eggs, bruschetta bread, steamed broccoli, and lots of chicken. For not having any ovens to work with, the dinner turned out fantastic.
This is the "family" away from home.
Last weekend, I went to a Korean co-worker's wedding. The wedding was held at a building specifically for weddings and was incredibly nice. Chloe, who is about 30 years old, met her husband while studying English in California. The reception was very short, lasting only about 25 minutes, but that was fine since everything was in Korean. We were able to take a picture with the bride, although as you can see I stick out like a giant compared to Ellie, another co-worker of mine.
The ceremony was an "American" style event that really didn't seem much different from anything back home. The most notable difference was the mothers and grandmothers wearing traditional Korean dresses. Other than that, the most notable difference was that it was all in Korean.
Natalie, Becky, and I were the three that went to the wedding.
The reception was held in the same building and was surprising in its elegance and level of sophistication. The catered, seven course meal consisted of raw tuna, shrimp, mashed potatoes, steak, salad, and desert. There were people that came out and spoke about the couple, sang songs, and said their wishes. All in all, I was honored to be there.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A nine year old's essay
The following are short essays some of my nine year old students wrote for a weekly test. The instructions are to summarize the story "Montigue of the High Seas", a story we covered the week before.
"In big hole the mole is live. Mole name is montigue. One day montigue's home is flood. So montigue is flow to sea. And He is went ship. Then He find a new home. It is good home."
"On day montigue's house is swept. So He hide a bootle and He start adventure He met a mice and made a ship and. They are start adventure. On day they see a ground and live together."
"The main Character is Montigue. Montigue is mog, Montigue live in hole. Montige's home is at afternoon it's cool, and at evening, it's warm. One day, ..."
These are pretty average essays. Some kids have better writing skills while others are worse, so this is to give you a taste of the level of English I'm working with. There is still work to be done.
"In big hole the mole is live. Mole name is montigue. One day montigue's home is flood. So montigue is flow to sea. And He is went ship. Then He find a new home. It is good home."
"On day montigue's house is swept. So He hide a bootle and He start adventure He met a mice and made a ship and. They are start adventure. On day they see a ground and live together."
"The main Character is Montigue. Montigue is mog, Montigue live in hole. Montige's home is at afternoon it's cool, and at evening, it's warm. One day, ..."
These are pretty average essays. Some kids have better writing skills while others are worse, so this is to give you a taste of the level of English I'm working with. There is still work to be done.
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