Parent observation

Last week my co-teacher informed me that the students parents would be watching my classes today. Of course she didn't tell me until it was time to go. She has a tendency to do that. It is not a quality I like in her. Most of the time when she tells me about something, it is right before it is time to go. I've been sitting around in the office, all day with nothing to do. I finish at 12:20 and sit here until 4:30. It doesn't take me all that long to plan for my classes the next day. I usually do that on Mondays anyway. She was stressing out. She called me several times during the week to ask me questions.

I wrote her up a lesson plan and told her to do whatever she liked for it. Take things she liked and get rid of stuff she didn't. That seemed to satisfy her. That is until 4:30 yesterday. Apparently she ran through the lesson with the class and they thought it was to difficult. I was done for work for the day and really did not want to write up another plan. I sent out a quick email to her explaining my new idea. She then proceeded to call me and text me throughout the night. I guess she didnt' really understand what I was trying to do. The kids had a firm grip on the topic. They have been studying the same thing for the past 3 weeks trying to look good for their parents. It was a bit of overkill if you ask me. I would have prefered to teach something new and not rehash the same ole thing just to look good in front of their parents.

But it was all good. I killed that lesson. I rocked the house. I am a god. No, I'm that good. People worship me. I know what I am doing and I am good at it. She got her wish that the parents liked the lesson. The principle was happy. Everyone was happy. My next lesson was also watched. I don't know why that one was. The parents for the 5th grade seemed to enjoy that lesson as well and that one had minimal prep. I would have to say almost no prep. I didn't even know what they were learning until I stepped into the classroom. Which is fine at this school They seem to be a bit behind my other school, so I have covered and planned for these classes already.

Jeju delicacy

Friday I got a call from my co-teacher asking me if it was ok to stay late. There was a PTA meeting that they wanted me to attend. I was fine with it. It meant free food and drinks. Though it was a bit pointless for me to go, as I am only teaching here for another week. Or so I think. I haven't been well informed on the subject.
It was less of a meeting and more of a dinner party. I guess the parents take the teachers out to eat to get to know them before the real PTA stuff starts. We went to this nice restaurant overlooking the ocean. Beautiful really. I was then informed about the night's fare. Black Pig

Black Pig is a delicacy on Jeju. It might be a delicacy in all of Korea. The Black Pig lives a life, no other animal would like to live. At least that is my thought. Traditionally the black pig is put into outhouses. It lives it's life eating the waste, we poop out and piss out. Then on special occasions, it is hauled up and killed and eaten. Though now thanks to plumbing, it no longer fulfills that duty. I am sure in parts of the countryside it still wallows in the deeps of the outhouse.

It tastes like pork, as it is pork. But there was something else to the flavor. There was a uniqueness to it. I don't know what it is fed now. They could still be feeding it shit. I would have to say that I enjoyed it.

Frisbee and the like

A couple of weeks ago, I joined an Ultimate Frisbee league. We practice every Saturday, rain or shine. We are preparing for an international tournament that is coming here at the end of April. We have 3 teams from the island that will be competing. We are just out to have fun. Last Saturday it was raining, and we had the largest turnout so far. By the end of the 2 hour practice, I was covered in mud. I was wearing street shoes and was sliding all over the place. When I play sports, I get into it. Plus I am not the most agile person, so I fall a lot. I ended up injuring myself almost at the beginning of practice though. I slid and pulled my groin. I kept on playing until it hurt too much. My team was tired by that point and most of us left. I now have cleats. I am hoping that they help. I missed practice yesterday. There was an extra one, due to the rain. I just couldn't walk well.

The only thing I did yesterday was lay in bed, cook and watch movies. I did have to run Emart to get something to cook. The 5 minute walk took heaps longer. I was walking so slow. On top of the pulled groin muscle, I have a bruised hip. There was an 80's themed party on Saturday as well. At the end of the night, I went back to the bar with Anne-Marie. She forgot her phone and we went back to pick it up. It was still raining. It rained all weekend. Anyway I was coming down the stairs in my wet shoes on wet marble stairs and slid. Hitting my hip on the edge of the stairs. So now I have an nice softball sized bruise on my hip, as well as a bruised elbow, knee, and a skinned ankle.


In other news, Korea has been over taken. There are people dancing in the street, they are bowing to passing cars and big tv's on back of trucks are everywhere. People are walking around with sashes, with numbers on them. There is probably other things on them as well, I just can't read them. At first I had no idea what was going on. Then I found out that next Wednesday, I have the day off of work. It is election time. So the candidates have their posses out doing crazy shit. Could you imagine Obama and Clinton having people dancing in the streets.

First week of Teaching

Well I just finished my first week of teaching. For the most part it has been rather enjoyable. Some classes were better than others. The school I work at on Tuesday and Thursday is quite a bit bigger than my Wednesday Thursday school. The class sizes are around 25 students per class on Tuesdays and Fridays. The class sizes are from 7-14 students in my other school. It is so much easier to teach in small groups.

Today I had a hell class. I moved several kids around the class. The homeroom teacher had no control over them. They just did not listen to her. She was a quiet one though. When I have class with her again on Tuesday, I will attempt to remedy the situation before class. This Wed, Fri, school has an English Language classroom. She lets them sit where ever they like. That shit just isn't going to play. They don't listen and just talk to each other. So Tuesday they will be moved into a seating arrangement where I can control them.

I would have to say that my favorite classes are my younger groups. I teach a mixed class of kindergarten and first graders. They are so cute and so much fun. It is a high energy class and thus I am constantly having to do run around trying to get these kids to speak or do the songs that I am teaching. I taught them head shoulders knees and toes. Then I followed that up with a drawing segment of the class. I needed to check their understanding. So we drew monsters. I told them what to draw and how many. Most of the kids understood.

So this is what I gathered from my one week of teaching. There aren't English Language teachers. The homeroom teacher is in charge of teaching everything. Sort of like it was like, when I was in elementary school. I think they should have teachers, who just teach English though. Both of my counterparts, speak really really well. One has done a fair amount of travel and the other hasn't been out of the country. Both are attractive. It is fun to teach with them. Just hard to concentrate. My mind kind of wonders. Some of my teachers can hardly speak any English. Some can speak fairly well.

Koreans are of a different breed. In my smaller school, I have a teacher, who is rather young. Really friendly and all, but when I went into her classroom, I just laughed. She got up and she had a smile on her face. I could see why she was so happy. There was a buzzing sound coming from her chair, and 2 glowing knobs. I just can't see someone doing that while at work. On that note, I'm outie

Work

Well I finally figured out where I will be working for the next three weeks. Both my co-teachers called my yesterday. I was wondering if they were going to get in contact with me at all. I was supposed to meet them last week, and they never showed. Then they were supposed to call me on the weekend. Yeah that didn't happen. At 4:30 yesterday they both called. I am working at 2 schools. I don't know my schedule. All I know is that I am working at one of the schools on Wednesday and Thursday. That much one of my co-teachers informed me of. That and that her mother is going to pick me up to drop me off at the bus stop. I could walk. I would prefer to walk. That is just going to be a whole lot of awkward.
Today I was picked up at 7:30. I haven't been up at 7:30 since I have been here. That was rough. Especially rough given the fact that my main center had a party yesterday. Lots of free food and drinks. You can't say no to that. That and Koreans forcing you to drink. So first day of work and I am hungover. Not fun times, kids. Good thing I can whip up a class with little or no warning. I didnt' have time to lesson plan. I wasn't even sure I would be teaching today. I found that out when I got to work. Introductory lesson here I come. I will have to talk about myself for 45 minutes several different times today. That and getting to know my students. Students that i will only have for 3 weeks. Maybe once a week.
Well I have finished with work for the day. My first class was cancelled. The 3rd grade teacher had a tickle in his/her throat and didn't come in. My second class went swimmingly. The teacher used the time for me to talk about myself. It took up most of the time. I didn't know I was so interesting.
The third class was a bit off. The teacher didn't know how to use me and I ended up taking over his class. He wasn't a very good speaker and thus it hurt his English language classes. The kids just didn't listen to him and they were doodling and talking with eachother instead of paying attention. So I stepped in and layed the smack down. There was no introductions in that class. I didn't even get his name until the end of class. I forgot it already. I really need to start writing these things down.
My last class of the day was fun. The teacher, who also didn't introduce himself, gave me the book and said "this is what you are teaching" I've never seen the book. I've seen him in the halls once or twice today. It would have been nice to have had some time to prepare. But I am a god and did quite well on the fly. I got all the kids moving and interested.
Other than that, pretty good day overall. I have retained my rockstar status. Kids coming up to me and sniffing me, pettting my beard and looking at my ear piercing. They like to talk to me and I have no idea what they are saying. Let the good times roll.

Mongols

Before work I was out walking about. In reality I had to go to the bank and get a new bank book. I haven't even used it yet and I already destroyed it. I put it through the wash machine. This happened after I washed my passport. I really need to start checking my pockets before I wash. My passport is a little beat up as well. The cover is starting to pull off the picture page. I need to take a picture of it and ask the Embassy if I need to get a new one.
But anyway I was walking down to the bus stop after going to the bank. And I see for guys who are not Korean. Plus the fact that they were wearing track suits with the Mongolian flag on it, kinda gave it away. So I yelled at them and shocked them with my mad Mongol skills. They are in town for the Asia Games. They are wrestlers. One of them was from Sukhbaatar, that is the area where I used to live. It made my day. I could finally communicate with someone. They needed to go and my bus was coming so, it was a short conversation. But fantastic to talk to them

Random things

Ok. Here we go. 2 weekends ago, I went to see Jeju United play down in Sogwipo I doubt if I spelt that even remotely close. It was a fun experience. There was a bus that picked us up on my part of the island and we had a full bus. It was free. The tickets were free. I love free. The bus arrived at the stadium and we went and got some beers and sat down to watch the match. Wasn't much of a game. Both teams were a little lacking in the skills department. During halftime another EPIK worker and myself went on a quest to find a scarf or a jersey. Walking around and asking where we can buy one, yeah, they don't sell them at the stadium. Well that didn't deter me. I saw people with them. I wanted one. So I was walking around and I saw this VIP area. I want over and start talking to the guard. Where can I get a scarf. I see a guy with one. "Like that one!" They are not for sale. He looks around, gives me the shoosh. How many do you need? 3. He goes and gets them. I ask him how much, nothing!!! I rock! Persistence and charm, what can I say!



Last weekend was St. Patty's day celebrations. There was an open mike night at a bar called Led Zeppelin. It was good. Way too many whitie in there. Smaller venue, and there were probably 75 foreigners in there. Pain in the ass trying to get a beer. They ran out of mug, and it took something like 15 minutes just to get to the bar. It seemed like the whole bar needed to shift when people moved. I really don't like bars that crowded. From there, moved on to a bar called Angel Sin. Yeah, I know, they have interesting names for bars here. Took me a minute to realize that I have been in this place before. I went there my first night on the island. I have pictures, but not with me. I'll post them later.

Alright weekends are caught up with. Yesterday, my boss came in right before we were about to leave and told us that we would be working in Sogwipo, for the next month. Today, I guess we are meeting with the co-teachers. I'm not even sure they know about this yet. All I know about it is that there are 3 schools. One of us will be working at 2 the other at 1, and it will be 4 days a week. Mondays I will stay in town, and Tuesday-Friday we will travel. They might have been told this morning. The thing I am not too keen on is travel. It is on the bottom of the island. I live on the top. There is a mountain in between. When I travel to my permanent placement it is coastline driving and rather flat. I was asking about being reimbursed for bus fare or gas and they kind of gave me the run around. I will have to talk with the co-teachers about it. Otherwise, work travel is going to seriously cut into my budget. I will write more about this new teaching situation when I find it out.

Quick note. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes for me to walk back to my place from where I am working now.

I am also buying a bike. I was planning on buying a scooter, but as my travel is great and I will need something a bit bigger. I got a call last night, that knows a guy who is leaving next week. He is selling his 125 cc bike for about $400. It is cheaper than I would by a scooter for, so there you go.