Category: Teaching ESL

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Get your laughs in now!

I guess this is as official as it gets, aside from standing in front of and telling kids to shut up. I think this photo might be even more horrendous than my first drivers license when I was 17. This is how the 6th graders will remember me for all eternity. With frizzed hair and fat face.

That’s Danielle Teacher to you.

Jin to my right, and Leni the row in front of me on my right. And Mr. Principal next to my Vice Principal that I accidentally cut off. I think he looks like Mr. Miyamoto, my 5th grade teacher.

 

Ho Ho Ho-ing It Up

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I know, I know, it’s been a year and a day since I wrote to you world.  My deepest apologies. But, I’ve just been so f’ing busy trying to plan a Hollywood themed Winter English camp that I start teaching the day after I stumble off the plane in Incheon on New Years Day, after a, what I’m assuming will be, ridiculous trip and a 6am flight that is giving me anxiety already.  Pardon that run-on, but it warranted it.  So yea, let me try and give a quick catch up on the recent happs, because the next thing I write about will be after Thailand. AHH!  It snuck up on me so fast!!  BOO! Ahhh!

In the past 2 weeks it has snowed two times (but according to Mirandawg from 6,000 miles away, it doesn’t classify as snow. Dirty Jersey snob!) But I don’t care what she says, there was white frosty stuff falling from the sky on 2 occasions, my building has icicles hanging off the edges, and my fingers and toes want to fall off from numbness.  On top of the snow, the frigid cold is numbing, and my classroom is so huge that it fails miserably to heat up.  I’ve been wearing thick ass tights under my jeans and 1-2 pairs of socks on top of them PLUS boots and my toes still want to die. I’ve even resorted to using a kid’s puffy vest that they left in class as a blanket for my feet under my desk. Oh well.  It’s my foot warmer now.  And now it’s time to invest in a heating blanket and/or heater for under my desk.

Itaewon 3am snow dribbles & a kebab.

I finally went ice skating in Seoul! I have been wanting to go so bad and finally went.  Helllloooo winter!  I went last week with a British lad whom I like to call Leonidas King of Sparta. He lives right by Lotte World, which is an amusement park, and there is an indoor ice skating rink there! There are several other rinks also throughout the city, some inside and some outside. I was expecting it to be super cold (given my prior ice skating rink experience) and almost brought my brand new super warm and fat coat, but thank God I didn’t because I was schvitzing hardcore the entire time!   Compared to the show-off speed skaters spinning circles around the center of the rink (some face planting and eating shit), Sparta and I were skating at quite the slow pace, mostly because he was clenching every muscle in his body (and my arm) to not fall over.  Great success because he didn’t fall, nor did he bring me down with him. Thank god for that because I was wearing a skirt and that wouldn’t have been lady like.  He will hate me, but such is life.  Here’s some comic relief for you.  The one time I took my camera out to videotape, I got him plowing into a precious hand-holding Korean couple. Pardon my potty mouth and Blair Witch Project video skills.

Smart lil Koreans they are, misspelling when they spend all them won on us Englishee speakers!

Ice rink at Lotte World! Doesn’t it look magical?

Strugglin to stand still.  It’s slippery out there!

The holiday season/best time of the year has officially begun and I must say it feels nice to be in a different city this year to celebrate! There have been a couple excuses to go out, drink a bottle of makkoli and don a Santa hat in the past couple weekends, which has been lovely. 2 weekends ago was Santacon, which basically entailed a crapload of people gathering dressed up like Santa.  Like a good Jew I participated, if only because the Santi hat made my head feel rather warm.

Lots o’ Santas for Santacon in Hongdae!

Aren’t they gorgeous?

2 great Seoul loves. Santa Collina and Benji Boo Boo Pippylongstocking Bear…and random Korean Santi Claus.

My one true Seoul love. The KOKmaster.

Friday night was pretty mellow but I hung out with some new friends and it just felt nice to meet some new people and go and just HANG OUT in a different part of town besides Zen/Hongdae for a change.  Saturday I impressed myself with my productivity.  I hardcore planned winter camp at Cafe Bene during the day, and then that night rewarded myself with a delicious Mexican feast cooked by one Miz Professor Heyduck, with a side of some saucy, much needed girl time before we all scamper off to different parts of the world for the holidays.  Video below (though I might get my head chopped off for posting it. Oh well). Afterwards, the 4 of us met up with our pallios in Itaewon for some more Santi hat wearing and imbibing.  I saw pretty much everyone I wanted to see that night, and was just happy happy happy ;).  Not to mention, put over the moon at the most ghetto club in all of Itaewon (The Loft, or as I like to call it, the UNclub). Collin and I shared an EPIK few moments of dance party madness.  The Macarena, Spice Girls and Footloose.  Back to back.  Made my life. It was a great weekend to say the least.  I’d say one of my favorite weekends so far in Korea…not sure why, just was 🙂

I look aZn. Yea?

This week has been almost non-existent at school since the vacation ceremony is tomorrow and technically we get to leave school at noon after a staff meeting.  The kids have also been done after lunch everyday.  Super sweet and gives me time to get my shit done! I left today with pretty much nothing left to do before I leave except tie up a few loose ends and tweak some things.  Feels good, one less thing to worry about when my 6am New Years day flight is clouding my brain. Livin’ some part of my life on the edge.  Yea-yuh.

I will conclude this posty post with an adorable picture and video of my 3rd & 4th grade babies making chocolate pudding during our final afterschool class. Thanks to Mama Schaeff for sending the pudding to me and helping make some little kiddos very happy while making, eating and watching (and FINALLY finishing) Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (after about 15x of start and stop).

Those punims!!!!

Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas and a very Happy Kwanzaa to all.  Until next year……. mwah!

PS. I’m fine in terms of the DICKtator’s death. Mom, you can stop sending me 3 emails every hour telling me to come home. LOVE YOU!

Thanksgiving Bluesy Blues

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Thanksgiving was yesterday in Korea and today back home, and let me tell ya, I’ve got an eency weency case of the Thanksgiving blues. To fill the void of a Thanksgivingless year, I decided to teach about the very first feast between those freezing Pilgrims and the almighty Indians and that great big Mayflower ship.  With my afterschool kids, I taught them a very brief dumbed down history, told them that we eat turkey (many have never even eaten turkey before!) and that we also eat this amazingly delicious thing for dessert called pumpkin pie, or to one of my adorable 1st graders, “pumpkin cake.”  Oh they just keep melting my heart. Over and over….again.

I had to teach these classes for an extended amount of time on both days because of make up classes, so I had to fill my time with projects to minimize me having to entertain.  I found a really cute “Thankful 4” project online and spent much of my day on Friday and Monday (since classes got cancelled!) cutting out multi-colored number 4s, tying yarn thru a hole on each, and writing “I’m thankful” on them. I then had each student write and draw however many things they could think of that they are thankful “4” on their’s.  Most were thankful for the same things as me, you know, their family, friends, FOOD….with the addition of Angry Birds, computer games, and dog…but in a whole different way I’m sure for some. I also had the kiddies make those paper turkeys where they traced their hands for the feathers and then wrote what they are thankful for on the phalange feathers.  Peep the Thankful 4’s and my 3rd/4th graders Thankful Turkey tree.  Some nice little additions to my classroom if I might say so myself 🙂

In other news, a group of us have been trying to organize some sort of feast for this weekend, but that seems to have fallen thru, so we are trying to concoct a makeshift potluck for tomorrow.  We’ll see how that goes.  I hope it happens because seeing everyone’s pictures of turkeys from back home is making me sad!

In happier news, I was awoken by a text from my beloved MayMay wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving! Princess Priya also texted me stuffed and ready for a nap from her Texas Turkey Day. That started my day off right fo sho.  All of my classes except for one were cancelled today, so I got to Skype with the fam.  They were pretty stuffed from the Tofurky and whatever else they had, so they were pretty untalkative (shocker), with the exception of Papa Schaeff making sure I’m “not ashamed to go to the doctor as much as possible until that cough of your’s is gone” and Mama Schaeff telling me “you better buy a hat. Are you crazy for not wearing a hat? You’re going to get a head cold!” and “Do you want to buy a jacket from Victoria’s Secret online? They can probably ship it to you. You probably can’t find a jacket over there, can you?” Some things never change :). I was ready to walk out of the room or hang up Skype from 5,956 miles away. It was also beautious to see the precious lil pups who looked quite tryptophaned out for their own good. I of course took some Skype snapshots to document the lovely conversation.  My favorite is the standard downward dog shot of Mama Schaeff.  I don’t think a Skype sesh passes without a Yoga pose.

Cori and I also Skype planned the shit (kinda) out of our Thailand adventure today. Even though my mind was racing and I felt like an anxious piece of crapola, it made me really excited to have a little bit of home up in these parts.  So I can’t wait to see my sista from anotha mista. Twill be quite the adventure for us…if we can ever figure out a way to get away from the lady boys in Phuket to Ko Samui and then back from Ko Phangang on New Years to make a flight at the butt ass crack of dawn.  FMLxInfinity.

So yea, nothing too exciting, but I felt that my first Thanksgivingless Thanksgiving abroad ought to be documented.  Back I go to sippin this awful bottle of Makkoli and eating this piece of awkward tasting pumpkin candy that I purchased, and watching some Glee.

Gobble gobble and love to all ❤

 

 

 

3 Month Anniversary and the Firsts Just Keep Comin!

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It’s November 17th, 2011 which means I have been living in freakin Seoul for exactly 3 months today.  I remember that day quite vividly.  On the 16th I was a damn waterworks show while saying bye to the Schaeffs at LAX, and all that I could think was “WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?!” In the end, I grew a pair and whimpered my way through the security line like a little bitch. Here are the last known (and sexiest) photos of Rudolph and the fam before peacing out.

The sexiest photo of me on the planet.

I landed at around 6:30pm in Seoul, and as soon as I walked off the plane and into the airport I was SHVITZING…and I hadn’t even stepped outside Incheon Airport yet. My plane buddy named Kevin (wow, I remembered that) was a skinny little Korean boy who helped me hoist my life-of-luggage onto my cart and we were on our way to exchange some dolla dolla bills for some wonios.  I then meandered around the airport by myself for a bit trying to get oriented and figure out where the hell I was supposed to go to meet the EPIK/Korvia peeps.  I found them after walking in a few circles.  My internal compass needs some work, clearly. I met my plane buddy Casey in the flesh and met Henry Oh from Korvia who gave me my cell phone.  I also thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I thought “WOW. He’s cute.”  Casey and I ended up talking talking talking and missed the memo to get on our bus to head to Kyung Hee University, AKA our orientation site. We got briskly shuffled out to the bus and I plopped on down next to little Miss Veny.  Who I l.o.v.e. LOVE. The rest is 3 months of history.

Fast forward to now, 3 months in, and yesterday I took my first sick day.  I never fully kicked my last round of sickness so I was bound to get sick again. I signed up for my first Yoga membership in Seoul after school on Tuesday with my co-teachers.  For 12 classes/month it’s only 80,000won, which averages out to about $6/class!! What a steal!  Tuesday’s class ended up being Pilates and it felt so good.  It was really funny though because I was wearing the least amount of clothing, but I was dressed how we dress for Yoga in the states.  Yoga pants, sports bra and tank top.  I felt a wee bit out of place when everyone was in baggy pants over their tights, longer sleeved shirts and no cleavage whatsoever.  Oh well!  I have the gift of sweat and could not do that!  Not to mention, the teacher paid extra attention to me.  I think this is because I was the lone big-bootied Waygook standing out in a sea of skinny Koreans in the class.  Needless to say, I felt amazing after, but as soon as I got home I started feeling shitty. I ended up going to bed super early (for me) that night, around 10:45pm, and when I awoke in a congested haze I was not about to get my ass out of bed and stand all day. I always take myself down that road and therefore I never get better.  So I stayed home and slept literally all day, and caught up on some guilty pleasure television between naps.  I also received my beautiful purple warm comforter, which coupled with the warmness of my Ondol (heating in my apartment that heats the floors!) made for an even better day of slumber.

I am officially the only Waygook who belongs to Lime Yoga!

Another first happened last week.  I shlepped my ass down to Hongdae on Wednesday for my first tap class in Seoul.  Well, that class was a rude and brutal awakening to my complete and utter rustiness.  I SUCKED ASS.  There were 4 of us in the class plus the teacher.  My friend Woo Sik, who is the guy I originally met, was in the class, his brother and then one other guy. I can’t stress how awful I was.  First, I haven’t tapped in probably 3 years or so, and even then it was like once a week since I began working, and second, they are legit Rhythm tappers which is a grittier style of tap than I am used to.  The class was fun, but I was super frustrated and nervous, and my feet and head were NOT working together.  On top of that, I was stressed about planning for my first Winter camp.  I told the guys I would definitely like to continue classes and they thought it would be best to take them on Weds and Fri (which I was kind of bitter about committing to on a Friday). I told them I would, but then last night decided since I’m gonna be traveling it’s probably not the best idea to buy a whole month’s package (100,000won/8 lessons) when I will probably be missing a bunch of classes coming up.  So, that’s out, but perhaps I’ll go take one off classes here and there when I feel like being made a fool of 🙂

On Tuesday was yet another first, and this was quite an interesting one.  You know how at home we have fire drills to practice what to do if there’s a fire?  Well, I found out in Monday’s meeting that in S. Korea they have War drills for if N. Korea and S. Korea ever go to war.  Yep.  Sorry mom.  So yea, during my Tuesday after school class with my 1st and 2nd graders we had the drill.  The principal said we didn’t need to go out of the classroom, but to just stay in the room and keep quiet.  Everyone else had to go downstairs and underground.  I’ve heard that not all schools have underground areas, but they go out on the field.  How that would protect you, I don’t know, but my school has an underground.  So, if anything happens I will be saved :). During this drill there was a radio announcement that was broadcast for 20 minutes in Korean, from 2:-2:20pm.  It really felt like we were back in WWII or something.  It wasn’t scary or anything, but just the foreign language and the way it sounded over the broadcast sounded very old fashioned.  While the broadcast was going I gave the kids a worksheet to do, then when they finished they just went and read in the playroom to keep quiet.  That gave Leni and I a chance to go over necessities for Winter camp.  So yea, Bomb Drills.  New and different thing to add to the ever-growing list!

Next week is Thanksgiving!  This will be my first Thanksgiving away from home and it’s so weird! A group of us are planning a feast for this weekend so I can’t wait to eat lots of nomz!  I’m also going to be teaching about Thanksgiving in my after school classes next week, so that is the perfect excuse to have kids make paper turkeys and bring in pumpkin pie for us all to eat. NOM NOM NOM.

In other FIRSTs news, I have officially booked my first flight out of the country for just before Christmas to New Years!  After much harassing from my favorite morning wake up call, Cori and I are almost set to go.  We’ve got our RT flights and hotel in Bangkok, just need to book the domestic flights, and we have an itinerary planned.  I am SO excited!  It’s gonna be so much fun.  It’ll also be nice to get out of the snow that will be covering Seoul.  Bret is also planning to come visit me end of January for my birthday, so I’m just waiting to see if he got the dates approved.  Then hopefully we can start planning!

That’s about it for now.  Sorry for no new pictures, but here’s a cute lil one of one of my munchkins and some creeptastic mannequins.  Enjoy!

Precious lil Gabriel

Creepiest mannequins of life. Why would anyone want to buy pj’s from this store?

 

Heart Exploding All Over The Damn Place <3

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I’ve been here for almost 3 months now, I honestly can’t believe it. Where the heck has the time gone? I know in the grand scheme of things 3 months is nothing, but this is the longest I have legitimately been AWAY from my family and close friends.  Having always lived within an hour of the Schaeffs, it’s kind of crazy to think that it’s been so long since I’ve seen them.  I spent my first Halloween abroad which ended up being my most elaborate, and now the holidays, my birthday and both Mama and Papa Schaeff’s birthdays are fast approaching.  It’s nutty to think I will have to ship presents to them. Regardless, the past almost 3 months have been the most amazing I’ve ever had.  I’ve talked to a few peeps back at home in the past week, and they all keep telling me that it looks like I’m having the best time.  And all I can respond with is “YEP, best decision I’ve ever made :).”  It was a bit hard for me to actually tell my mom I was already considering a 2nd year here.  A couple days later, I got this adorbz pic of me from when I was 3 with my first Korean friend/neighbor, Hana Ko, from when we lived in North Hollywood.  When I would sing the Hannukah song like a good Jewish child she thought I was singing about her.  Or so Mama Schaeff says. Keepin the azns close by from the get go I reckon!

“Oh Hana Ko, oh Hana Ko, come light the menorah…”

In other news, I thought I’d take a post to just talk about some of the things I’m loving about being in Seoul.  First, that would be my lovely girlfriends here. I really love them. Katie, Abby, Steph and I had a wonderful girls night out on Saturday filled with martinis, tequila sunrises, some amazing jazz and most importantly, some much needed GIRL TALK.  We went to Jazz Story which is in Hyehwa, the area I’ve decided I really want to live in.  I think I wrote about it before, but I went on one of my favorite dates ever there and I needed to go back. Abby had been saying she wanted to go see some jazz, so twas perfect.  Originally, I had only intended on going out to Jazz Story and then making it an early night because old lady over here has not been wanting to booze it up like a young buck these days. What is becoming of me? I guess I’m becoming more matour.  Anyways, that went to shit after a couple “dirty” martinis, a good buzz, a bottle of soju and the need to make up for a shitty Friday night. We ended up going to yet another ghetto ass club in Hongdae, which was awesome good fun.  I didn’t get home til about 5am, after which I proceeded to sleep/Skype/sleep the rest of the next day away.  All in all, I am in love with my girlfriends here.  They are simply amazing and make me happy.  I really needed a good group of girls, especially after leaving so many lil gems back state-side 🙂 YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.  Anyways, here is a video of Billie Jean (how approps 😦 ) and some pictorals!

Written in the menu ❤

From classy to trashy. Enter Club Naked.

I know I literally talk about my students like they are my children or food that I love so much that I just want to eat UP, but there were a couple things that made me even more obsessed today. First, one of my favorite 6th graders, Billy, is entered in an English speaking/writing competition.  He asked me if I could proofread his speech for him, and of course I was so excited about it. He wrote about challenges that we all face in life and compared it to his favorite show called Challenger.  It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Kids are so freakin smart and it becomes even more apparent everyday. Here he is in 6th grade and I was truly impressed by how he not only could write a 2 page speech in English, but it also made sense.  I was talking to my co-teacher Leni about how good it was while on our way to lunch today, and she told me he is one student who truly cares about learning the context as he wants to become a writer one day.  I knew I loved him for a reason.  But now I’m sad I came half way through and only get him and all the other 6th graders for 1/2 a semester 😦

Second, last night Katie and I had a coffee date, and afterwards we were walking around Suraksan, which is where she lives and where both our schools are in North Korea. I ran into so many of my students!! It was actually really nice to run into them and talk to them outside of school.  1 of the girls was Sally.  She sits right in front of me in one of my 6th grade classes and she is always so cute and sweet and shy.  She doesn’t ever raise her hand but I can tell she’s smart and she’s one of my faves.  I was talking to her last night and was so impressed with her English.  Katie and I kept telling her how great she spoke, and then today she comes to my class and raised her hand 3 times, giving 3 correct answers.  Truly impressed and it made me happy to think maybe just that little “you speak so well!” had an impact. Another one of the girls I ran into was Sara.  She’s in 5th grade and apparently has problems at home.  She’s super tough, pretty obnoxious and is always punching the boys.  But I still really like her.  I think she’s really smart and just needs someone to actually tell her that because I don’t think she gets it at home. I was telling her how I always call on her because I KNOW she’s smart, and that she always gives correct answers, and when I look at her work it’s usually almost always perfect. I also told her she was pretty and she just kinda hid inside herself and kept saying “No I’m not. No I’m not teachaaaa.”  While I’m sitting at lunch today, I told both Jin and Leni how I ran into her last night, and Jin tells me “YES! Sara came to me today to tell me how you told her she was cute and smart! She was very happy.”  Ah, the freakin little things just keep getting me 🙂

Last thing about my students then I’ll stop.  Today I learned that Sesame Street is PURE GOLD.  I taught my 1st and 2nd grade afterschool babies about feelings and emotions this week.  Whenever we start the class and I ask how they are today, they give me blank stares, so it seemed only suiting to teach them something so vital.  Anyways, we started the class today with a Cookie Monster and Ernie video about being happy and sad over a cookie. THE KIDS WENT NUTS. I honestly didn’t expect it.  I ended up playing the video 3 times for them because they couldn’t get enough, and frankly neither could I.  Something about hearing cute little babes laugh.  I also had them draw feelings on monkeys, and originally asked for one student from each table to come up and tell the class what emotion their monkey had.  No no. Every single student shot their hand up to come to the front of the class, show their monkey and speak complete English sentences.  It was one of those “OMG I’m actually doing something right” moments.  They’re having fun and learning 🙂  So great.  Now here’s a video of them watching Ernie and Cookie Monster, because I couldn’t handle it and needed to bottle it up.  Let your heart explode NOW.

In completely unrelated news, not only will I be ringing in the New Year with my sista from anotha mista, my favorite bossy pants, Cori, BUT it also looks like Bret is going to be able to come out here and we will travel to some exotic land together over my birthday!!! BEST NEWS EVER!!! Now to get the fam out here soon! 🙂

That’s all! Goodnight moon 🙂

My Little Hoishis!!!

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So another week has come and gone, and I’ve passed my 1 month mark living in South Korea. Holy crap! Homesickness hasn’t really kicked in yet because I seem to talk to sista and mama Schaeff on the phone or by email daily, same with most of you other hoodrats.  I blame YOU for wanting to fall asleep standing up while I’m teaching sometimes. Bad combo of me being a night owl social butterfly and needing to stay up to speed on the happs with my lovers back state side.  The only time I’ve really gotten homesick is whenever I get a picture or video of the puppies. I almost cried watching a video of Cilla just jump around and lick Jacquie’s hand the other day. I probably watched it 50 times.  I’m also sad I missed sista’s big 25 😦

In other news, teaching is going amazingly well. I already have my favorites and I just want to squeeze them and steal them and not tell their parents I have stolen them. But I won’t do that because I’m a nice person.  Before coming here, I totally thought my favorites would be the girls and the littlest ones, but that is not true.  While I do love my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders, my absolute favorites are my 6th graders followed, almost tied, with my 5th graders right behind. I’ve noticed that while they are on the brink of their teenage bratty years, they are also starting to form their personalities and I freakin LOVE it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not all sunny and sweet 24/7, because there are definitely the little shits, for lack of a better description.  I have one girl who punches the boy who sits in front of her, but I saw her after school once and told her I think she has a crush on that boy.  She instantly started giggling and yelling “NO TEACHA! NO!!!!!” There is also one boy who likes to mimick every stupid silly sound I make (and you know I make a lot of those).  I actually think he’s funny, but he’s such a little brat! He also makes silly faces back at me while he mimicks my voice. Then there are the select few who just don’t give a shit and sit there with their head down until you call on them and they give you a blank stare. CAUGHT YA. It’s funny being in the teacher’s seat, because I remember quite vividly falling asleep in Mrs. Bitch Goldstein’s 8th grade Social Studies class, only to be awoken by her awful voice calling on me to no available answer from my noggin. That was the only time I fell asleep in class because I was such a good student. HA!

I also found out that I will be getting the vacation time off that I want so that Cori and I can go gallavant around Thailand and make some interesting decisions and see a few sights along the way.  When I get back from Thailand I’ll begin teaching 3 weeks of winter camps beginning January 2nd.  I brought up teaching tap to the students and my co-teacher Leni flipped for it, so I will be leading English Tap classes come this winter! AH!  I have also made friends with the music teacher at my school who is so sweet.  We had a wonderful conversation yesterday and got to know each other, and then every Thursday going forward we will be reading Mary Poppins.  She loves the movies and would like to learn the book 🙂  She also wants to take me hiking and teach me how to make kimchi.  I told her I’d show her the way of the Jew and teach her how to make latkes and matzah ball soup 🙂 I might need someone to ship me some matzah meal in the near future.

And now time for the cute shit.  Let your heart melt with these cute little Korean Hoishis (thanks Papa Schaeff for that).

These 3 boys are my favorite 5th grade little peaches.  From left to right, there’s Jinho, Arthur (!!) and Max.

This is Konan and he is pint sized. I want to stuff him in my pocket. He’s also so smart and only in 3rd grade.

These are my 1st and 2nd after school kids.  Ariel is a DOLL, I forget the one in the middle’s name, and then Daniel is adorbz.  We were playing cats cradle 🙂

Lando, Lando, Lando. He is in 3rd grade and practically fluent.  Everything I teach him is too easy and he lets me and the whole class know. I still love the little pudge anyways.

This is my 6th grader Zidane.  He was reading about his Chuseok vacation.  He is also the boy who likes to tell out “TEACHA! I LOVE YOU! TEACHA’S SISTA JACQUIE IS BEAUTIFUL!”  Heartbreaker this one.

I will now conclude this post about the little Korean babes that I have come to love with a piece of art work.  Eat your heart out.  Or don’t. I know I won’t.

Nom?

A Real Teacher! Jnet&Carmen! And the Aquarium!

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I have completed more than half a week of officially being an English teacher…and it’s three things….fun, repetitive, and EXHAUSTING! I honestly always underestimated what it takes to be a teacher, because after teaching 5 regular classes and 1 after school class to 1st and 2nd graders, I was as pooped as they come, and my feet were throbbing from standing in slippers all day! This whole week has been about me introducing myself (over and over again) to each class of students.  I made a powerpoint with lots of pictures of me and my life back home, which the kids really seemed to love.  Their favorite is this picture of me eating a fried twinkie at the rodeo in Texas, but I just tell them it’s a hot dog, it’s easier to explain haha.

I also feel like a celebrity walking the halls which has pretty much been my dream since I could talk. You know this if you know me. Attention whore. Well, South Korea is giving me the attention I desire.  Little 5th grade boys yell out in class “I LOVE YOU TEACHER!” and stop in their tracks and stare at me.  I showed them a picture of sista too and she’s a mini celeb as well. “Teacher’s sister Ja-kwee is BEAUTIFUL!”  They don’t get how to say her name (Jacquie). They also now refer to my brother as Michael Jackson since his name is Michael 🙂

I must say these kids are damn cute, and their English names are so freakin hilarious.  On Monday I had 3rd graders who were named King Kong, Vanilla, Boss, Money, Albert Einstein and a little boy named Rainbow. I also had some other kids named Good, Nice, Percy Jackson and Obama. How creative these youngins are. I often find it hard to keep a straight face when calling on some of them (you know me!) I also received my first penpal letter from my student normal-named student, Olivia. If my memory serves me, she’s in one of my 4th grade classes.  Here is a letter she wrote me 🙂

As far as classes go, all of my classes are taught with one of my two co-teachers, Leni and Jin.  During my normal school hour classes we do a lot of stuff out of the book and CD-ROMs that go with them.  I’m assuming as I get more well-versed in teaching I’ll help get more creative with them.  I also have 3 after school classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Mondays and Tuesdays are 40 minutes each and with the baby 1st and 2nd graders who don’t speak a lick of English. I want to squeeze them and put them in my pocket. Instead of being a creep, I pat their backs and let them give me big hugs, and then I let the little girls pretend they are putting my earrings on as they press them again their cute little faces lol. I also started teaching them the ABCs. I was pretty nervous for these after school classes because they’re entirely open and up to me.  I started playing them songs, did some matching games and had them create name tags with their English names which was fun. With the 3rd and 4th graders, it’s an 80 minute class once a week.  I told them about my summer vacation and what I did, and then had them all write or draw me postcards of what they did.  They then had to get up and tell me about their trip.  I’m going to take some pictures of the really good ones tomorrow so I’ll post for you! I’ve got some budding artists on my hands! All in all, the first half of my first week has gone amazingly well which I’m so relieved about.  Maybe I am a good teacher after all 🙂

Aside from the work ish, Jnettybear and Carmennnn came to visit me in Seoul this past weekend! It was AMAZING and I’m so excited that some of my friends from home got to see my new life and meet my new friends and fall in love just like I have 🙂 I love when new friends meet old friends and begin a love affair. It was also so nice having them here because it gave me an excuse (other than living here) to go out and explore my neighborhood of Danggogae (Dontgogay), which I like to refer to as North Korea since I’m so far North in Seoul.  We met a precious little Korean woman who served us noodles (Jnet, picture please!) a couple doggies who we have fallen in love with, especially Mr. Kim Chi, and we dined out at a lovely establishment across from me called “Chicken The +”  with Cricket Mr. Name Awesome.  We also found some cute boutiques which could prove to be danger on the dance floor.  As far as the nightlife goes, we ended up staying out later than I have ever stayed out in a ridiculously long time because I’m old and get tired by 2am. We partied like we were Katie’s age (aka in college again. Love you).  We stayed out til 5am both Friday and Saturday night and I honestly can’t believe it.  They also had to book it by 7am on Sunday morning.  Apparently Jnet had a fun trip to the airport.

Sunday a group of us made like kiddies and went on a field trip to the COEX Aquarium which is south of the Han River.  It took about an hour for me to get there for NorKo. It was a really nice aquarium and some of the things really made me laugh. For example, they had some sort of rodent there running in a wheel as part of an exhibit, weird, and some of the fish tanks had Korean style temples in their tanks so we knew they were Korean fish, and the foreign fish from Holland got to swim thru windmills.  How thoughtful to make the fishies feel right at home.  The coolest part I thought was the shark tank, obviously. There was a moving sidewalk that went alongside and under the whole shark tank. Bomb diggity.  Check out some pictorals below!

Here is a photo of a cute Korean baby to meet my creep quota for the day.  Enjoy!

An I’m So Happy I’m In Korea Moment

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There have been a couple times so far since arriving in Korea where I had an “I’m so happy I’m in Korea moment.” The first was during orientation when we were at the folk village.  We were watching dancers do a native dance where they had these crazy streamers on their heads and it was like they were dancing with their heads, but they were also jumping and playing drums. It was just so cool.

Last night I had another one of these totally feel-good-about-my-decision moments.  It was my Vice Principal’s last day at my school and all the teachers went out to a Korean BBQ dinner at a super fancy restaurant close to school. My 2 co-teachers felt awful because I don’t eat pork and that’s what we were eating, so they ordered me this cold noodle dish in a super spicy red sauce. I completely forget what it’s called, but I thought it was bomb.  And their version of spicy is not comparable to mine.  I want more spicy!  We also ate probably the 100th different type of kimchi I’ve tried since coming to Korea, salad, raw onions in this soyish type of sauce, and some other dish which I have no idea what it was and neither do they.  It seemed sushi-ish and was tasty, but I’m clueless. For dessert we had this rice cake type cake that none of them liked, but I thought it tasted like bread so I enjoyed it haha.  The dinner was awesome because I got to actually hang out with my co-teachers and meet some of the other younger teachers.  Many of them don’t really like to speak English because they are nervous about the language, but they were speaking with me, so I felt quite happy about making them feel comfortable enough to talk to me. The night went on, we ate, talked, and drank. And drank. And drank. At one point I looked over and saw my Principal downing shot after shot of soju with some of the other teachers.  I think he kind of looks like my 5th grade teacher Mr. Miyamoto. Only I never saw Mr. Miyamoto taking shots.

Here are some pictures of the food and of my 2 co-teachers and some of the others. Leni is the girl on the left making a peace sign, and then Jin is the one in the picture with me 🙂

THEN the fun continued.  To those of you who don’t know what a Norebang is, it’s karaoke, but in your own private room.  The Koreans are nuts about this shit!  SO, you have about 15 happy drunk Koreans and lil ol’ American Danielle piled into a room, tambourines are handed out, water and more drinks are brought in on a tray, and the book of songs is opened for people to pick their song. I never karaoke.  As many of you know, you probably don’t want to hear me sing because I am that god awful. But no, I was forced to sing. And I was forced to sing a duet, in English, to a song I’ve never in my life heard before…with my Principal (who doesn’t speak a lick of English, but knew this random song).  He was dancing like a little Asian man and I was dancing and singing and laughing the entire time. OMG it was fun. Everyone has to sing, and Mr. Principal was not letting me get off the hook by only singing with him.  I had to sing again.  This time I sang with my adorable co-teacher Leni.  OMG she is so cute and loves to sing, and she’s super teeny so she was super drunk! We sang a song by Lenka that she chose because I didn’t feel comfortable enough yet to whip out some Bieber Fever.  In due time it shall come.

This brings me to the moment I had that “I’m so happy I’m here” feeling.  After everyone sang, we all stood in a circle in this little tiny room filled with tambourines and disco lights and held hands.  Principal sang a song in Korean which I had no idea what he was saying, but I could just feel it was a happy/sad song.  The Vice Principal then went around the circle and gave everyone hugs and cried a bit.  I only met her a few times but she was so sweet.  It was amazing how I didn’t even know the words, or really her for that matter but I really did feel overwhelmed, but maybe just because I was so happy in that moment to be there.  The teachers are all so kind and sweet to me, and I love watching them bow whenever they say hello or goodbye.  I used to think it was a little weird and awkward, well, I still kind of do, but it just comes off as so respectful and you can just tell they’re all such nice people. Anyways, I had my moment and it was awesome.

I’m sure I’m going to have many “get me the hell out of here” moments too (like when the little 3rd grader with severe ADHD came and took over my classroom yesterday), but it’s nice to know that these ones just pop up out of no where 🙂

Now I shall leave you with a video of my amazing duet with my beautiful co-teacher Leni.  Enjoy the norebang (before my memory card space ran out) and my super sexy singing voice!

My First Real Week in Korea

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Since my last post I have successfully ridden the bus to and from school and got off and on at my correct stops and transfers, I’ve figured out the heating system so I have taken many a hot shower in my smelly bathroom, I figured out how to open my washing machine after washing one load twice because I can’t read the Korean on the machine, I’ve gone grocery shopping for some necessities, and even cooked myself dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Looks like I’m settling in.  Here are some pix of my new digs and my new friend Marky Mark as the model.

ANYWAYS, here I am, sitting at my desk, doing what they like to call “desk warming.”  Basically, this whole first week I’m doing nothing.  My 2 co-teachers teach their classes English lessons for the week while I kinda grab my bearings, though I must admit, I’m still completely lost about where to begin.  I haven’t observed any classes, but I’ve perused the teacher’s manual from a couple years ago because it’s all in English, but I haven’t really seen a class book or anything.  However, it wouldn’t make a difference because their English books are in Korean.  It’s weird, but I guess it works for them?  Thankfully the previous English teacher left tons of powerpoints and lesson plans to go off of.  Thank you Shana!

Now let me recap the past week or so since I’ve lagged hardcore on the updation (yes I made that word up) of this here bloggy blog. This past weekend was my first official weekend out on my own in this big city. Luckily some of my friends live within a few subway stops from me, so we all met up at Nowon Station (2 subway stops from most of us) and then headed out to Hongdae on Friday night.  It took us a little under an hour to get there.  We started with dinner, where I got mad at Jason (my Aussie friend) because I really wanted Korean bbq, but he just hopped up, pointed at the concoction on the next table over’s table and said “We’ll have THAT!”  Turns out it’s soldier’s soup and it has something like cut up hot dogs, Spam and ramen noodles and it’s in a spicy broth. I did not eat this because I don’t do the pork sitch.  We did however also order some bbq so that satisfied my craving.  Between 5 of us, we downed 4 bottles of soju and went on our merry way to the bar Zen. This was a fun night for all, and an interesting night for some boys who cry in alley ways. It ended up being a 35,000 won cab ride back to North Korea (aka Danggogae aka my apartment), and luckily I had a homeless friend to split it with me.  We couldn’t take the subway because it doesn’t open til 4am and we were pooped.

The next day my new friend Mark, who might be one of my new favorite people, played tour guide.  He was here 2 years ago, so he knows a thing or two about a thing or two. We went to see the huge golden statue of King Sejong which lies in front of Gyeong Buk Do Palace. It was so breathtaking to see, because I really have always looked at Asian palaces in textbooks and could only imagine the magnitude and intricacies of the structures, but now I was standing in it. Pretty sweet. Here are some shots of me and some of my new seoul sistas in front of the statue and then in this gorgeous and serene (and humid) palace.

Later that day we went to a Canadian bar in Itaewon, and turns out my new friend Liz had a friend who was going to the same party as my friend-thru-the-Dicecca’s, Andrew.  I don’t know if she met her friend because we were literally there for maybe an hour, but I finally met Andrew in person for like 5 minutes and then we were off.  Hopefully I’ll get to hang out with him more before he leaves (he’s been here for 3 years!) We ended up meeting up with a bunch of other people from orientation, went to some Korean BBQ and then went out to the most ghetto bar ever. It was super weird and had quite the poopoo platter of people. Itaewon at night kind of reminds me of Hollywood Blvd.  Super dirty and kinda grimy.  But it was awesome during the day!  But I was in a funk that night and my feet felt like I had rocks in them and I just wanted to bounce.  So after some super spicy schwarma we bounced on back to North Korea.

Now for the reason I am living here!!  My school! I have such an amazing classroom that these pictures don’t even do it justice.  One of my co-teachers told me that my English room is the best in Bukbu.  So much for the name “Nowon” because apparently they spent Lotsowon on this room.  Check it out!

I have 2 co-teachers and their names are Chan Young (or Leni) and Jin.  Leni is 27 and Jin is 29 and they are both single and both super sweet pretty girls. I’m so excited to get to work with them! In the classroom the students are supposed to call us Miss Danielle, Miss Leni and Miss Jin.  This is different because everyone else tells me that the students say your name and then teacher, so Danielle teacher.  I think that’s more fun, but whatevz.  Since I haven’t been teaching, the students are still super curious about me.  During their breaks they poke their heads in my room and yell “HELLO TEACHER! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”  Some ask how old I am, most stand and giggle and stare, some come in and run around the room and play tag, and one little boy already told me he loves me. Aw shucks.

I took a break from Facebooking for the day on Monday when Leni and Jin took me on the long haul down to the Immigration office to get my Alien Registration Card (ARC).  I don’t know how I would have done it without them since I don’t think the people there speak English.  I also probably would have gotten stuck making the trek back 2 weeks later, but Leni told me to pay 4,000 won so I will get it mailed to the school within the week!  Then I can get a cell phone and open a bank account. AHH!!  Aside from me getting to be a real person in Korea, it was a great trip because we had lots of girl-talk, figured out that Jin and I are both obsessed with Dexter, and even talked about our blood types.  In Korea, asking someone “what is your blood type?” is like asking someone “what is your sign” in America.  Blood type tells a lot about you apparently.  I’m O+ which according to Korean culture is very desirable and means I’m outgoing, trustworthy, loved by all, and will never get passed over because apparently I stand out very much.  Well, blood type, thanks for the ego boost!

Now it’s Wednesday, I’m still sitting at my desk keeping it warm and attempting to figure out how to put together a lesson plan.  I think I know what to do but I feel like I don’t have a jumping off point.  I’ve also been working on my About Me power point for when I officially start teaching next Monday.  Tonight I’ll be going to dinner with the other teachers since it’s my Vice Principal’s last day. I’m sad because she has been so sweet to me in just the few times we’ve met. My co-teacher even told me I didn’t need to come tonight because they will be eating pork and they know I don’t eat that (proving to be quite difficult!). I told them I don’t want that to be a reason I don’t come to things and she was so excited and told me I’m awesome 🙂 So, I will be eating rice and kimchi for dinner. Tomorrow I will also be broadcast to the entire school and introduce myself to them. The school has a fancy broadcast room and I sit at a big chair behind a huge desk.  I feel like I look like FDR having a fireside chat or something.  I will be doing this every 2nd 4th and 5th Monday of the month.  I guess I’m supposed to tell 5 minute stories and play true/false games to get the kids excited about learning English.  Wish me luck!

Well, I’m off to go try and do some work.  Hopefully the next post will be sooner and not as long.  Sorry, I’ve just been running around like a mad woman. Oh, and Jeanette is coming to visit me this weekend! AHHHHH!!!

Ok, PEACE!

I have arrived and am getting ORIENTed.

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After a waterworks show on the way to the airport, at the airport, and on the plane, I have arrived in the hot box sauna that is S. Korea. I am not over exaggerating when I say it feels like living in a sauna 24/7. It is so humid and muggy!!! My hair is definitely going to love it here. Anyways, I got here safe and sound and am staying at Kyung Hee University until August 24th for orientation.  I wanna say my flight was under 12 hours.  I also highly recommend Asiana Airlines if you come visit me because it was so great.  The flight attendants are so attentive and walked by like every 5 minutes with drinks for you, and then the coach seats are SO ridiculously roomy.  The food wasn’t too shabby either.  I passed the time quite quickly by catching up on lots of movies.  I started my journey with a 23 minute bio/interview short about Justin Timberlake.  I really needed something to bring me out of my waterworks funk, and his face sure did it. I then proceeded to watch Water for Elephants (yay), Soul Surfer (Kevin Sorbo/Hercules is in that. So weird that I ran into him at the Apple store a week or so ago), and Date Night (I think Steve Carell and Tina Fey should date after seeing this…). End of story, it was a lovely flight and I made a cute little Korean guy friend wearing skinny jeans on the flight who helped me with my heaping amounts of luggage. I have never traveled so heavy in my life, and I must say it’s really annoying.

Here’s a little recap about orientation so far. After wandering through the airport aimlessly, I was picked up along with a bunch of others from Incheon Airport by EPIK and drove for about 1-1.5 hours to our orientation site at Kyung Hee University in Suwon. We got here and found out that the boys are in dorms in a separate building than the girls. I don’t even think it was that segregated when I went to Washington DC in 8th grade. We also have a curfew of midnight during orientation and no alcohol is allowed in the dorms. I should just throw away my ID right now. Ahhhhh. ANYWAYS, we shlep our luggage off the bus at our designated buildings and then all shuffle into the Multimedia building where we found out our groups and got our name tags, keys to our rooms and met our roommates (mine is named Tracy), get a sweet orientation textbook that is huge, a few towels with the EPIK logo, an EPIK pen and alarm clock, 2 rolls of toilet paper, an adapter, a bar of soap, an EPIK t-shirt and a bottle of water which we are then told we cannot drink because we have medical checks in the morning so we can’t eat or drink. AWESOME! We then proceeded to shlep our bags up to our rooms where we are finally obliged with a shower, which was magnificent. The shower, as you can see in the pic below is the entire bathroom and I think it’s so fun!! You can shower and clean your bathroom at the same time, but don’t leave your shit out or it’ll all get wet!  The beds are also hard as a rock, and we were provided two comforters, one to sleep on and one to cover.  Of course there isn’t a fitted sheet, and if you know me, you know I then wake up on a bare mattress because I sleep like a tornado. Here are some pics of the dorm room to tickle your eyes. Don’t mind the mess.

The next day I had to be at my medical check at 9am.  Of course we were all starving because most of us hadn’t eaten since about 5:30pm or so the day before on our flights. The medical check consisted of a urine sample, which many had trouble with seeing as we couldn’t even drink water before, measurements of height and weight, an eye exam which I think I failed, getting 4 freakin vials of blood drawn (I still have a little bruise), a “q&a” about your health with the dr. and finally a chest x-ray, where all the girls had to change into a sexy pinkish frock which was awful in the heat. It took about 2 hours or so to complete, and then we were finally rewarded with a box of orange drink (yes, drink) and this delicious french pastry/peanut buttery/scone thing. Nomz.

After the exam we got to head on over to lunch, which was meh.  Meals here typically consist of iceberg salad with some sort of trying-to-be-Americanized dressing which is usually pretty good, some sort of gross pork dish which I stay away from, maybe an egg dish, maybe some fried chicken or bulgogi, some type of noodle, I think vermicelli usually which are pretty good, rice, french fries (!!!), some sort of soup which is usually in a fishy broth (ick), always kimchi, and watered down coffee in the tiniest cups ever.  I can’t wait to get out into the real world here and eat food!!  Here’s a picture of some food, I think this was our first lunch meal.  Meet some of my friends, Jason and Katie.  He hasn’t eaten his food because he talks too much.

After eating we had our EPIK/SMOE welcome ceremony and overview where we went over basics of the program, contract, vacation days, etc. and we watched these high schools boys play a traditional drum song, the name of which is slipping my mind.  It was actually really cool, and those kids got SO into it, and their bowl cuts were whacking like crazy!

The rest of the day was pretty open for us to hang and do whatever.  We had dinner and then a group of us ventured out of this university bubble that we have been cooped up in.  We went out into the city of Suwon and the lights are SO BRIGHT!!!

We walked all the way to HomePlus, which Canadians were comparing to Walmart, but I didn’t see any of “those people” wandering the halls.  This place is so awesome and bustling still at 9pm.  It’s like 3 floors of awesomeness.  Restaurants on the 1st floor, grocery store/department type store on the 2nd floor and then electronics and clothes on the 3rd floor.  It was pretty awesome and we bought bottles of soju for 910 won, which is under $1! It’s also legal to walk around and drink outside in public, so we sat outside of HomePlus for a little bit and tried our soju, which tastes pretty much like a watered down vodka.  We then ventured to FamilyMart, which is sort of like a 7-11 and they have tables and chairs outside for you to sit, talk and imbibe.  It was really cool, but I was so exhausted and I swear I had the eyes-are-closing-jolt a few times. Hello jetlag! Anyways, here are some pictorals of things I thought were cool on our journey through Suwon and HomePlus.


Today was a jam packed exhausting day.  We had lots of classes about how to teach secondary levels (middle school/high school), how to create lesson plans, how to make English more comprehensible by Korean students, which was super interesting, and then Korean class tonight. I was so tired by the time we got to Korean class.  All the other classes were almost 2 hours, and Korean class was about an hour. Maybe I’ll Skype with someone soon and practice my Korean – an-nyung-ha-se-yo (that means hello). I also found out that I will be teaching Elementary school!  Yay for little kids!! Now I’m back at the dorm and ready to konk out at 10:30pm. There is a full day of classes tomorrow in true Korean fashion, so I will leave you with this happy t-shirt from HomePlus modeled by my new Canadian friend Matt.