Sorry for the lack of pictures in this blog entry. I promise there will be pictures next week!
Sunday, October 2
I had a lazy Sunday. I stayed in the apartment all day, did a few loads of laundry, finished season 5 of Dexter and watched a few movies. It was nice to have some down time. My stomach was upset all week and seems to be doing better now so I think the rest was exactly what I needed.
Monday, October 3
Monday was the National foundation Day of Korea. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but it’s a national holiday so I had a 3 day weekend. Jamie and I went to Shinsegae, the world’s largest department store. I guess it’s technically a department store, but it’s more like a mall. There are tons of stores within the department store, like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gap, Banana Republic, etc. I needed to go there because I had a few gifts I needed to pick up. On the way out, we stopped by the international foods area of the grocery section of the store and I picked up 2 cans of Hormel Turkey Chili and a box of 8 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars for 17,050 won (about $15!). Afterwards, we went to Seomyeon to get a burger at TGI Friday’s. We sat by the window… across the way we saw a bar called COOL and another one called OOPS.
Tuesday, October 4
My students are pretty funny. They notice everything… while I was walking down the hall, some students yelled, “Hi, Meagan! You’re so beautiful!” while running past me. Later on, two girls were amazed by the rings I wear (I usually get asked if they were given to me by my boyfriend). Finally, a 6th grade girl seemed very frustrated with English when she couldn’t think of how to tell me that she noticed I have my hair parted on the opposite side of my head as usual. She did a great job with hand gestures though!
After school I went back to the doctor. It was my first time in since Friday and it was also the longest I’ve gone between visits. I got great news from the Doc! He said that my ear is 70-80% healed and he doesn’t want to see me again until next week. Also, he took out all of the packing so now the only thing I have stuffed in my ear is a single cotton ball.
Wednesday, October 5
Wednesday was our school’s evaluation. Everyone was dressed up. I made sure to wear dress pants rather than just jeans. I tend to avoid wearing my dress pants because they’re all too big and way too long. My jeans are too, but they don’t look as silly when I roll them up.
The evaluation took place in the library, which is on the same floor as my English classroom. Instead of the kids coming to our classroom, we went to the students’ classroom for classes.
After school I went to the grocery store and stocked up on all things breakfasty. That night, I went home and cooked a breakfast casserole (eggs, onion, bacon and broccoli) so I wouldn’t have to go without breakfast anymore. Not only is it the most important meal of the day, but my school lunches have been pretty inedible lately so breakfast is more important now than ever.
Thursday, October 6
Thursday was an interesting day. Our schedule was slightly interrupted because there was a classical music concert during 2nd period that extended halfway through 3rd period. The concert was lovely. The students yelled en-core at the end so they played “O Christmas Tree.” My co-teacher said that in Korea the song is about a pine tree.
During 4th period, I had my best class. The were playing “Go Fish” with some vocabulary cards from the book. A few students finished the game before everyone else so I went over to talk to them. Somehow arm wrestling got brought up and I ended up arm wrestling 3 girls… left arm, right arm, and then one on each. They were some strong chicks! One of them beat me. I decided that I needed to at least teach them the English word for arm wrestle so that there was some educational purpose to it. They returned the favor and now I know that arm wrestling is 팔씨름 (pal-shil-um).
After class, the girls told the tale of our arm wrestling match to another boy. He was very interested in arm wrestling me. The girls warned me (in their own way) that he might be short, but he is very strong. They were right! As I was arm wrestling him, the girls told me that my face was getting pink. In my defense, so was his. I could see that he was getting tired so my strategy was to hold strong until he gave up. It eventually paid off. And that is my story of how I beat a bunch of 5th graders at arm wrestling.
Friday, October 7
Quotes of the day:
There is a 4th grade boy that has started yelling “What’s the meeting you here? What do you think so?” at me and then running off. Friday was the second time it happened so finally I made him come back so I could try to make sense of what he was saying. He said is slower then skipped off (yes, acutally skipping). I had to figure out a way to make sure this didn’t become a habit. I went back to the office, wrote down what I thought he might be trying to say (“It’s nice to see you. Don’t you think so?”) and took it to his classroom. We’ll see what happens next week.
6th grade boy: “Teacher, your ear have ouchy?” (because he saw the cotton ball in my ear)
My 6th grade lessons were about comparative adjectives. We did a survey to see who was stronger, luckier, taller, etc. We got to arm wrestle for an educational purpose (to see who’s stronger) and many of the students wanted to arm wrestle me. After beating one of the boys he said, “Teacher, you have man power!” So much for girl power…
Saturday, October 8
There is a Korean man named Charles that organizes cultural trips for foreigners in Busan. On Friday night I went on my first “Charles Trip.” I went with my friend Jamie and made a new friend named Nicole. We went to Jinju to the Lantern Festival. We met up at 8pm and didn’t actually leave Busan until close to 9pm. We took a bus to Jinju, walked around for the lantern festival and then headed back. The festival was gorgeous! I ended up getting home around 4am, but it was definitely worth it.
Life Outside of Texas 