New School

As most of you know I started a new school two weeks ago. It is different from my old school in a couple of ways. First, it's not an English school like my old school. It is a regular Korean preschool and the students just take an English class. So during school the kids are allowed to speak in Korean (not in their English classes...) and most of their classes are taught in Korean. Also the age group is different. I went from have kids between 6yrs (4-5 American age) to 12 (10-11 American). Now I have from 4yrs (2-3 American) to 7yrs (5-6 American). They are unbelievably cute! Also, I used to work with 8 other foreign teachers and countless Koreans. Now I work with 1 other foreigner and maybe 15 Koreans. Are school also finishes earlier. Since at my last school we had older kids our school stayed open longer. But now that we have younger kids my school "closes" at 4. I have to stay and plan but I finish teaching by 4 everyday, which is really nice.

These are the 4 yr olds. Sooooo small and cute!These are the 6yr olds, the classes I spend the most time in.These are the 7yr olds. The other foreign teacher spends most of her time with them. They are a handful!Another difference about this school and the last one is that we don't have to teach on Friday! Every Friday we have a different event like birthday party or field trips that take up the majority of the day. This Friday was a Fairy Tale theme so the kids spent all day do crafts and games that were centered around that theme.
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The Last Days

Recently I finished my contract at the first school I started working at in Korea. I looved working there and after 2 years I really feel that I have made some life long friends and memories. But it is still time to move on. I need a change and need to see where else I can go. So I'm picking up and starting over. Here are some shots that were taken on my last days at SLP. I have been teaching some of these students for two years...

The party with all the co-workers.

Office seriousness...

I'm slacking

So no recent resolution finishes this week. I have been out and about doing a lot though. I have been seeing my friends and findinf new bars and clubs everywhere. Really exciting stuff. I did eat some really delicious dukbokki but I'm told its not the spiciest so I am off questing again. Here are some pics of my recent "stuffs."

Melisa is a coworker that is leaving us soon. We have been trying (key word trying) to squeeze in all her favorite stuff before she leaves.My babies have graduated. They will enter public elementary school this year. I will still get to see them everyday, but I just can't believed they are growing up so fast. I have been these students teacher since I got here 1 year and 8 months ago. (I know, I can't believe I've been gone that long either)My boss took me and another coworker out for lunch on our day off. We were treated to dog meat. It was awesome. I just can't tell you how much I love this stuff. I found my family in Seoul!!!Cool right?

Lunar New Year!!!

So I just wanted to write and let everyone know that I'm not slacking. I actually did do something this week. I didn't finish anything else on my list but I did something fun! A couple of my friends and I went to Everland, an amusement park in Korea. I've been there before but they were having a holiday festival and therefore were allowing foreigners in for $20. It was a ton of fun!We went to Everland on Monday because we had the day off for the Korean Lunar New Year. It was awesome.
Also, today we bought tickets for China. I will be going there in September for the Korean version of Thanksgiving.

Kimchi and goodbyes

So we made some kimchi this week. It was fun, but also a little messy. Here are the pics:

I would tell you more about how to make kimchi, but I still don't really know. Basically you grind up ginger, garlic, peppers, onions and small shrimp and make a paste, don't forget the red pepper paste! Then you cover heads of cabbage. Then you have a vegetable that will be edible all year. This is sort of a fermentation process so it is okay if it gets old. In fact there is a famous restaurant (that I have yet to visit) that is known for their 3 year old kimchi.

After work we all headed down to the local barbecue joint and said farewell to our boss and Graeme. It was a good time.

Stuff

So as an effect of not having to teach all day for the last two weeks I got super lazy and used all my extra time to sleep or study.

I started taking Korean class a month ago and then I got upgraded into a new, much harder class. Most of the class is taught in Korean and I have to concentrate a TON! But I do love the class, it is nice to learn something that I can put into practice immediatly.

Last Wednesday I finally went to a local market that is really well known. I have been meaning to go to it since I heard about it. That was maybe a year ago...Anyway the market is full of all kinds of things. This is also the market that you would go to to buy a dog to eat. I saw them, too sad. Doesn't make me not want to eat dog, just is sad. I bought a "fruit" there. It looked strange so I thought I don't care what it is I will just buy it. Turns out this "fruit" is used like an airfreshner. You don't eat it, you just put it in your house or car and it makes it smell good. After it dries up you can make a sweet tea from it. I might as well try it, right?

Thursday was our birthday party, nothing new with that, picture anyway.

Friday was Halloween, well when we celebrated Halloween. Many of the teachers bought costumes online this year so many of us were some sort of animal. I was a skeleton with a couple of the other girls. I really wanted to scare my kids and make them cry but it didn't work...

We were going to carve a pumpkin but ours was really old and filled with maggots so I decided not to carve it...

Yeah, that's pretty much it. I need to go out and take pictures of the beautiful leaves before they all fall down. It is just starting to get cold here.

Updates

So I'm sorry but I haven't posted in a while.

Right now Swine Flu has taken over. We didn't have morning classes last week and this week we don't have afternoon classes so I have been working half time for 2 weeks now!

Plus this week we have a day of birthday parties and preschool missed their Halloween Party so we will have it this week too.

I have no excuse for not being around, actually the problem is that with too much time on my hands I get lazy... I will try to post something interesting soon...

Have a good week but guaranteed it won't be as good as mine!

Updates: Late Style

I am so bad. I have a couple of updates to let you in on that I have been to busy to share lately.

First starting October 10th I finally started going to Korean classes. Right now I am the smartest one in my class. We are learning the alphabet and all kinds of easy stuff, basically starting at square one. I can do almost everything in the book that we are using. But it is also good for me because I was self teaching myself before and now I am getting a better explaination of everything.Next I finally got my black belt in Taekwondo, this also happened on October 10th. I was waiting because Erica (American Style) has the video of me fighting (a boy) on her camera and I wanted to put that up to...I guess you will wait.

Then last Thursday (the 15th) we went sweet potato farming

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On Friday (the 16th) we went to the TanCheon. The TanCheon is a smallish river next to the school. It is man made so there is a nice sized bank that they built playgrounds and swimming pools in all along the river. Anyway, right now there is a sculpture display and I thought it would be nice to take my students to.

Thats cool and all, but the really awesome part is that I will be on TV for a short while. They (someone, I don't know) were filming an English show and asked me to be in it. Of course I said "Yes." I will put up a link later so you can all watch!