Plant Man

In one of my classes the current storybook is called "Medical Miracles." The title speaks for itself, but this particular lesson told the story of a college football player who injured his spinal cord in a game. He should have been paralyzed, but the doctors performed a "miraculous" surgery which allowed him to walk and fully function again. Anyway, we were discussing the word paralyzed, what it means, the implications of being paralyzed, and so on. One of my students volunteered his own story that he had seen on TV. He began to describe a man who had broken his neck and then became a "plant man."
"Plant man? what?" I asked, and continued to repeat the phrase, making sure the student and I were saying the same words. All of the rest of his classmates joined in, agreeing with this term, plant man, as if it were an English phrase that I was just unaware of. "I'm sorry, I just don't know what you're saying, or talking about," an expression I use often. They were persistent about this one, though, arguing that a plant man is someone who breaks their neck or has some sort of severe injury and then cannot move, speak, eat, or really do anything on their own. It finally came to me: a vegetable.

Jinju

Last Saturday I took a bus down to a southern city called Jinju. It's a smaller city, of about 200-300,000 people. It was definitely a nice change from the 10+million Seoul. It was a beautiful day on Saturday, and even better on Sunday. Finally! Oh yeah, and then I get back to Incheon and it's raining and 40 degrees. I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. But that's a different story...

Here are some pictures of Jinju and some parks we walked around in





We walked through a bamboo forest as well:




The actual purpose of our trip was a friend's production of The Vagina Monologues in Jinju.I jumped at the opportunity because I had never seen the show, and as I said, it is always nice to venture into a new city. Not to mention transportation is dirt cheap in this country. Anyway, overall, the show was great; a nice combination of light-hearted comedy as well as some tragedy with an underlying empowering message. The highlight was the 50-year-old co-teacher of one of the actresses. The costume theme was black with red accessories, so many people wore red belts, shoes, scarves, etc. This older woman (referred to as an "Ajama" in Korean) decked herself out in full red gear, including a fire engine red wig.



She was one of the only Koreans, so I have to give her serious props for doing this. First of all, she had to memorize an entire monologue in a foreign language. Second, the content of her speech and the whole production would be quite taboo in many realms of Korean society. Her speech was called "The Flood," so, use your imagination.

Before we left on Sunday we went to eat Shabu Shabu, which I had not yet eaten in Korea. It is kind of a 3-course meal: You begin with a spicy soup, a plate of raw meat and vegetables, a bowl of noodles, and a bowl of rice with some herbs and a raw egg.




As the soup begins to boil, you start to add the vegetables. Then when the soup is hot enough, you dip the raw meat into the soup and allow it to cook the meat. The strips of beef are so thin that they actually cook in about 5 seconds. After you enjoy the meat and vegetables, the second step is adding the noodles, which kind of remind me of fettucini. I had never seen that type of noodle in Korea before, usually only ramen or udong. Once you have finished the last of the noodles and broth, the server comes to make you the fried rice. This fried rice was especially delicious because the pan allows it to be nice and crispy. Yummy. I should have taken more pictures, but I was too busy eating.

A Day in the Life

I think the title pretty much speaks for itself; this is what I deal with day to day. However, whenever I try to get my kids on video, they stop saying and doing hilarious things. It must be the presence of a camera that makes them get all shy and weird. This particular class is my Memory Giga class, which is kind of a mid-level English class. I have 6 boys, and they're all quite smart. They're intelligence doesn't stand out as much as their energy--to put it nicely. They're crazy. And they love to participate. They are my only class that I have to force to raise their hands because they are competing to respond. In every other class, I am practically begging them to say one word. With these boys, though, I ask a question and 6 hands shoot up immediately (sometimes before I even ask) and all I hear is the sound of many "Ooohh Oooh"s, as if the monkey call will lead me to choose them to receive the great honor of answering a question. I taped them during break. It captures some of their energy level, but not the true ridiculousness of their personalities. When I stopped taping I asked where one of the students, Martin, was, and my student Steve said "he's on the toilet poo-pooing something giant" (where he got 'poo-pooing' I do not know) and my other student, Kevin, said "he went to the hospital and died and now is in heaven." I kicked myself for turning the camera off prematurely



Steve 1 (I have two of them) is the one that's dancing and what not in the video. He got a little camera-happy I think. Steve 2, on the other hand, is covering his face the entire time. The hiding in sweatshirt hoodies occurs almost every time I try to take a picture of my kids.

A quick explanation: they called me Pikachu in the middle of it, in case if you picked up on that. My face gets red quite often for those of you who know me...sometimes because I'm embarrassed, nervous, mad, hot, sick, and many times for no reason at all. So when this occurs, my students call me Pikachu (the Pokemon character with the pink cheeks). This reference is used across the board with all my students. Face red....TEACHER, PIKACHU! without fail. This particular day I actually think I was just wearing blush, so they called me out on that.

This video made me realize just how much I say "alright" and "okay." I'm like a broken record.

P is for...Palace

On Saturday I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. It is one of Seoul's main tourist attractions because it is the largest palace built during the Chosun dynasty in the 1300's. If you already read my China post, this may come as a bit of a deja vu; Gyeongbokgung and the Forbidden City are quite similar looking. However, China was lacking in the performance arts aspect. In true Korean style, every 20 minutes the guards, dressed in full costume, put on a show representing the changing of the guards.






Unlike the Forbidden City, which is like the Energizer bunny and literally never ends, Gyeongbokgung was smaller, and had more architectural variety.






On the other hand, just LIKE China, the tourists are not allowed inside the palace but can only peek in through windows. Come on, I want to sit in the throne! Is that so much to ask?



Inside the palace grounds there was also a Korean folk museum. Loved this Korean farming outfit:



My friend pointed out, "Imagine getting stuck in the rain with that on." You would be a giant wet mop. We really wanted to go into the displays of traditional rooms and snuggle up in the tiny beds, but the glass seemed impenetrable, unfortunately.

Busan

This past weekend I took a trip to Busan, which is a Southern seaport in Korea. It's the second largest city in Korea, next to Seoul, and is known in Korea for it's beaches mostly. We took the KTX train, a speed train which cuts down a 5-6 hour ride to something just under 3 hours. We stayed in Haeundae, a popular area for tourists. We hit up the beach right after eating. It was nice, but the weather here is still quite cold, so I couldn't really feel the full beach effect. Apparently in the summer, this place is just packed with people. There are not many beaches in Korea, so much of the country flocks to a select few.





Our motel was about a 5 minute walk from the beach. It turned out that the sleeping area was not beds, but blankets on the floor. This seemed okay until someone accidentally turned the heat up to 90 degrees. Remember I mentioned that the floors were heated? Yea, it felt like I was sleeping on the plate of my straightening iron. We had lots of snoring going on as well. Needless to say, I was not the happiest camper at work on Monday. Big time case of the Mondays.




Our host, my friend's coworker who is from Busan, made us an amazing Korean meal for dinner. Then the next day, his parents took us out for a Korean BBQ meal. Everything was delightful.




Sunday we went to a Buddhist temple called Okransonwon (I think I butchered this spelling, I only know how to spell it in Korean 옥련선원).







Buddhas. Buddhas, rockin' everywhere.





We finished out the day by going to Nampodong and then a fish market. Nampodong is a market with tons of street food and knock-off designer stuff. I ate a lot. Walking up to the fish market, we watched as this woman ruthlessly skinned squirming eels. Yikes.






The trip went by extremely quickly, so I must return sometime soon to see more. Plus I wouldn't mind actually enjoying the beach with warm weather.

Where Am I?

Sunday I went shopping at Myeong-dong shopping district in Seoul. I went here for two reasons: Forever 21 and H&M. Myeong-dong is actually the only place in Korea that you can find these stores, so I was willing to make a bit of a trek. Although shopping in Korea is basically everywhere, from streets, to subway stations, I needed to get to a western store. First of all, most places--because they're basically just stands--you cannot try anything on. This is intertwined with my second problem, the sizing. Most things look like they will fit, but don't. I end up looking like an awkward pre-teen who just had a huge growth spurt without enough time to get some properly fitted clothing.
Myeong-dong ended up being kind of a strange place. There were--no surprise--loads of foreigners everywhere. Even if I hadn't seen all of them, I would have known they had been there. They left their stamp on the racks at Forever 21...all the large sizes were gone. More than the foreign presence, what was strange was the amount of English that was spoken. I heard virtually no Korean. I walked up to some information women to ask where Forever 21 was in broken Korean, expecting directions in Korean and hand gestures, and they responded with perfect English. The store employees: English. As I was walking into the dressing room, one of the Korean workers goes, "Ugh, it's too busy for me today!" I was wondering if I was delusional and constructed that encounter in my head. Forever 21 does always make me feel kinda light-headed...
In H&M two employees were speaking to each other...in ENGLISH. I was totally freaked. I was by myself and therefore looked around for someone that I could share this moment with. No-go. This is because most foreigners do not find it strange when people are speaking English, they expect it. Well, I think it is weird when I am in Korea, an employee says "how many" and I reply in Korean. What is wrong with this picture?
I snapped a few pictures in between the bouts of pouring rain.



There are times when I realize just how populated this country is. Like, for example, when I float on the subway, or am continuously bombarded by a sea of umbrellas on a rainy day, or when I have to stand in an amusement park-like line to get into H&M.



It was a rainy, crappy day, I got ripped off for an umbrella, and I came home with soggy shoes. However, I would say all in all, a successful trip.

I Lost My Mind

As I mentioned earlier, my classes this term are pretty awesome. It is so refreshing to have students who actually want to be there (or at least don't mind sitting through it). The best part of this term, though, is the amount of really intelligent kids I have. It's shocking when kids answer simple yes or no questions, so you can imagine my surprise when students are coming up with abstract questions of their own, and responding to complex queries. Here are some impressive examples:

We are talking about spies during the Civil War right now. This particular story was about a man named Timothy who was spying for the North, pretending to work as a spy for the South. In other words, Timothy was a "double agent." Anyway, in the end, Timothy is hanged for his treason in the South. During the execution, the knot in the noose becomes untied, and the man only falls to the ground, his life momentarily spared. Minutes later, the hanging is successful, and Timothy is killed. The students were instructed to come up with a suitable title for this particular passage of the story. In my Teacher's Guide, I had "Timothy's Hanging" and most of the students had similar answers such as "The Death of Timothy" etc. My one student David, though, titled the passage "Double Agent, Double Death." Isn't that clever?

In the same class the critical thinking project was about capital punishment, and whether you approve or disapprove, and why. The same student, David and his partner Kevin, presented me their three reasons for wanting to abolish capital punishment:
1. We need to defend human rights.
2. There is no real compensation to the families for killing a criminal.
3. Capital punishment does not decrease crime.
These kids are 7th graders, mind you. I think that those three are pretty damn good arguments considering that capital punishment is not even an issue of debate in this country. Probably the most shocking aspect of all was that their grammar was almost completely correct--a rarity in class. So what if they wrote "dicreese?" I was smitten to have such smarties--and liberal ones at that!

This last example is a student I had last term, that I had forgotten to post about. He was a 3rd grader in my EC2 class, which is the lowest level I have had yet, and the second lowest in the entire academy. Needless to say, expectations were very low. They had to work on a thinking project in which they described something they had lost in the past and answer questions like why are they looking for this thing? where would they look for it? what would they do? who would they ask to help them? and so on and so on.
My one student presented that he had lost his mind. This was a very bad thing because now he was crazy. He would look for it everywhere, because since he had lost his mind, he would not know where to look. He would go to the hospital to ask a doctor to help him and tell him that he was crazy. Maybe the doctor could perform a surgery and help him get his mind back.
I was astonished. There are so many implications about this student in this one project. First of all, he understands the phrase "losing your mind" perfectly. For a child that young to understand the concept of expressive language is very impressive, and this is in a foreign language! Second, he is obviously very sharp to turn such a mundane project into something creative and funny. As his fellow students would say, "GENIUS-UH!" (they love that word and they add an extra syllable to everything)

What's Up Doc

Sunday I went to the Doctor...fish.

I had seen a coffee shop near my house called Dr. Fish Coffee Shop and thought that it was just one of those store names that had been lost in translation. Turns out, these types of coffee houses actually feature little fish, referred to as "Doctor Fish." They are called this because they feed on the diseased and dead parts of your skin, leaving your healthy skin alone. Apparently they are frequently used for people with psoriasis and eczema. They also are found in spas, used as a natural pedicure. In Korea, though, they just stick the tanks in a coffee shop.

We had to order a drink when we got there, and then pay 2,000 won/person for the fish as well. The fee also included an all you can eat white bread buffet....sweet? We washed our feet off before putting them into a tank in the ground. Upon placing my feet in, the fish rushed over to nibble. I totally freaked. Not only did it of course feel and look extremely strange, but I was so ticklish! For the first few minutes I laughed and screamed a lot, but then I started to get used to the feeling. The doctor fish are basically like little minnows, so the feeling is not intense or anything like that. This is what they look like:



Not my photo, my batt was dead--what a shocker. We paid for 15 minutes in the tank, and I had pretty much had enough anyway. I don't know how much dead skin the little buggers really took off, but it was quite a sensation.

A Little Piece of Home

In my Memory Mega class (strange names for these classes, I know). I had two middle school boys sitting in the front row. I soon found out that these little glasses-wearing buggers were named...Michael and Eddie...just like my two wonderful brothers, except Asian. I passed on this information to the students, but they did not care. It's kind of like when people tell you, "you look just like my friend _______ (fill in the blank)." Meaningless.



Unfortunately Michael does not keep up with the times and does not have facebook. No pics of Mike, but look at this strapping young lad, EJK. Who would have thought I would be constantly reminded of my siblings in a class full of middle school Koreans?

Miss you guys.

A Whole New Term

It's hard to believe, but I have been here for over 3 months now. The time has flown by. At CDI, the students and teachers begin a new term every 3 months. The students either level-up to a higher class in the progression, or stay at the same level, depending on their test scores. The books, of course, change for those who do not level-up. This also means new classes for us teachers. We receive a new schedule, and a whole new lot of students. This term I have 5 different levels instead of 4, but the same amount of hours (last term I had a repeat of one class). The extra class is hardly extra work, though...maybe 20-25 minutes extra prep, if that.

I don't want to speak too soon and jinx myself, but so far, the term has gone off without a hitch. I am definitely feeling enthusiastic about the upcoming months. This is mostly because my students, overall, are awesome. My first class of the term was my lowest level that I will be teaching this particular term. Even though the younger kids are always more talkative, it is not wise to have high expectations on the first day. It usually takes a few weeks for the kids to warm up to us enough to feel comfortable to participate. Well, that was definitely not the case with this class. Almost immediately, the kids were shouting out answers, asking questions, finishing my sentences, even laughing and joking with me. That has thus far been the best of all 5, but the others I have been pleasantly surprised with as well. Not only do the kids have good personalities, many have really impressed me academically already. It's always nice having intelligent kids in class because first, obviously they make my job easier, but also because they understand my jokes and actually--god forbid--laugh with me.

My one student, Jooui, who I had for about half of last term also, gave me a box of chocolates from Japan today. She also mentioned that they were very expensive, which made me laugh and she did not understand why. I definitely don't think she was lying though, because wow, these chocolates are a delectable treat. Maybe that is what inspired me to write this post. It's possible my students aren't as good as I am making them out to be...
Only time will tell. Tomorrow I will probably be annoyed with them.

No Orange or General Tso's Chicken, Sorry

Ten pounds later, I somewhat regret my food experiences in China. Actually, I take that back. The delicious meals were well worth the excess chub. The Chinese love the banquet-style dining apparently, because that was pretty much all we came across while there. I thoroughly enjoyed the somewhat tacky, but communal setup.




The first night, we were taken to a restaurant by some westerners living in Beijing. No speaking for me, only eating:




Duck, pork, chicken, tofu, potatoes, an assortment of vegetables, it really doesn't get much better. I should also mention Baijo, the Chinese version of Soju...except 10x stronger. It tastes horrific and will do strange things to you. Oh, and costs like $0.50. Perfect for the new year.

The next day, when we were biking around Beijing, we went to a famous Peking duck restaurant. They cut the duck right in front of us:



It literally melted in my mouth. I'm salivating just thinking about this duck. They eat duck dishes similar to Korean bbq style; dip the duck in duck sauce, add some vegetables, and wrap everything in a thin rice pancake. Another opportunity to eat with my hands...yes.

That night we went to a restaurant where we were told we could get spicy dishes. The food in China is incredibly cheap, and the menus are endless, so it took us about 45 minutes to decide on what to get. In the end, we ordered 13 dishes (for 5 people mind you).




The above dish is actually a bull-frog stew. It was full of this strange seed-type substance that made your mouth really tingly and then almost go completely numb. It took a while to source what was actually making our mouths feel such a strange sensation, but once I ate the seed on it's own, it was like a shot of novocaine to my tongue.

Love the food in China, don't love the bathrooms. One upside is the fact that there are public bathrooms nearly every block, which is really convenient for someone with a bladder like my own. Although, considering the condition of the bathrooms, you may as well just go on the street. Toilet paper does not exist, not even in our hostel. Thankfully, some of the people I went with knew this little piece of information and brought some with. TP was definitely the least of my problems. Your typical Chinese bathroom:



This particular one was actually relatively clean. It's not hard to find a bathroom because you can smell one from 30 feet away. I think I mentioned earlier that it was freezing outside when I was there, and these are all outdoor. So the cold weather makes the experience that much more inviting. However, I cannot even imagine the stench in the summer...it's really a lose/lose situation.