How can you sleep at a time like this?

So, I've been looking at options for my next move after Korea. Here are the options I've come across and are considering:

1. Renewing my contract with English World. This means staying in Korea a second year. Although I love my kids and my coworkers and my boss, and am saving real money for the first time in ages, I don't think I can teach ABCs for a second year. I do not believe that this job is intellectually stimulating enough for me, and I believe that I am worth more, and that I'd like to put my training to better use.

2. Teaching English in Australia or New Zealand. Preferably Australia. A friend of mine here is doing this in December. The perks of teaching in either country are phenomenal. In Australia, a lot of jobs are for casual or relief teachers, and the contracts go by 3 month intervals. So hypothetically, I could teach English in an Australian high school for 3 months, and if I love it, continue to teach there for 6 months, 9 months, or 1 year.

3. Teach ESL in Prague. I don't know what is drawing me to the Czech Republic, but it's there and I don't know why and I can't really deny it. Maybe that it was founded in the 8th century. Or maybe that it has the Prague castle and that secretly I want to feel like I'm living in a modern day kingdom where I can meet a man (prince) who drives a black Mustang. We can drink champagne on his stone terrace and chat about political matters that I will pretend to understand. Always an option.

This week, these are my top choices. Although the order would be Australia, Prague, then Korea. I could also teach in South America. I've narrowed the countries to Peru, Chile, or Venezuela. Or I could teach the Aborigines in Australia. Or I could teach in Thailand, Greece, Botswana, or the Cayman Islands. The more countries I research, the more overwhelmed I become. The only thing I can say conclusively and without any hesitation, is that having a degree in education, or at least a teaching certificate, is something that can literally take you around the world. I don't believe I could have picked a better career to pursue. The international demand for English teachers is high and it is everywhere.

My dad's new favorite line is "Rosie, these are problems, but they're good problems". As in, you have all of these options, the world at your fingertips, so you should enjoy the "next move" process. At least that's my interpretation. So with that in mind, I will take the night off from thinking about my next move, and leave you with pictures from yesterday/last night in Busan-- my new favorite city in Korea.

Jewelry overload

Looks like Daegu


At a charity event/reggae concert. Di, Nina, and I.

Annyeoung!

How are you today, _____?

Logan: "I am hot and not so good."

Diana: "I am great!"

Julie: "I am so-so and excellent."

Luis (yellow): "I am kray-gee!"
Daniel (red): "I am good! And bad! And kray-gee! And beautiful!"

This pretty much sums up the first half of each day. Yes, they are cute, but don't let those tiny Korean faces fool you. Although these are some of my best students, some of them make me want to make a fast escape out the window, down the ladder, into the not-so-bustling town below. I have, however, gotten into the groove of teaching all 68 of my students. If you know me (and I'm assuming most of you do, otherwise you would not follow this blog), then you know I majored in secondary education. Come to think of it, I've had already exposed this inner dialogue before. Regardless, let it be known, once again, that I did not choose elementary education for a reason. I would much rather have a real conversation with my students as opposed to having to wipe away their ever so frequent tears, explain the differences between "on", "in", and "under", and break up their fights-- although their arguments can be extremely amusing. If I felt I could accurately recreate one such fight, I would try. But you really need to be there to witness the fickleness that is so apparent in these children.

Issues are often solved with a simple "rock, paper, scissors" game. Or in Korean, "Gah-lee, gah-lee, GOH!" Even my older students who have been friends and classmates at English World for years will get into a verbal confrontation, and then quickly resort to rock, paper, scissors to ultimately decide who is right, and who is rocked. It is not uncommon to see grown men in the streets participating in the same act.

What is even more amusing is the game where students will hold one of their legs in a perpendicular fashion to the ground, bounce around on one foot, and try to knock each other over. Wonder where this kind of resolution comes from? You need not look any further.

Commentator #1: "Holy rice cakes, Byeoung! That pitcher just nailed #51 in the arm! Looks like there's gunna be a fight... oh.. he's going for it... ASSA! The entire team is in a foot-tastic frenzy!"
Commentator #2: (laughing) "Let's hope their children aren't watching!"

As I always say, better foot fights than Taekwondo. Haha! For realsies though. Isn't it always the adults?

Intrinsic Motivation...

There is none. One of the biggest challenges I have found from what minimal teaching experience I have had as an intern, is that it is borderline impossible to get students to do something because they really want to. It is always for a prize. Do the work, get the grades. It is completely extrinsic.

What is even more difficult and frustrating is that when teaching students ESL, the entire system is based off of reward. Because there is such an impeding language barrier, the reward system has to be broken down to the most elementary level. If you are my student and your performance is excellent for that one class period in which I have you, I will give you 5 stamps ("lemons") in your stamp book, and whenever you decide to, you can cash in that stamp book for a prize. A CD, a coloring book, or, for the ones with the most self control, a portable DVD/TV/Internet device. If your behavior is bad or if you act out in my class, I am supposed to give you anywhere between 0-4 stamps for the day. So how am I supposed to teach my students to care about something when they get points based on good behavior? I know this system is implemented in thousands of schools internationally, but it's so defeating when you know that they're only doing it so that at the end of the day, they can take home some free music. And what about the kids who don't even care about the stamps? It's not like I can call their parents and tell them that their child needs to put more effort into their English education. I am consistently reminded of my lack of control as an ESL teacher. The most I can do is send a student out in the hall if they don't do their homework, so that they can then copy their homework from a friend whilst sitting in the office, undoubtedly enjoying their time more outside of class than they would inside of it anyway.

I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to have the ability to motivate my students to want to learn. Simple enough. I can do that with students whose first language is English. I have not been able to strike a chord or ignite any sort of affinity for education doing what I am doing now. There is a reason I spent my time getting a degree in secondary education rather than elementary education. As cute as my kids are, I want to be able to hold a real conversation with them rather than spend half of my class singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes. I want to be able to relate to them and joke with them and get them to love knowledge and the pursuit of having an active mind.

Le sigh. Some day.

Boys and Girls

E1-B-- 1st graders. Unfortunately, they were shy with the "oh my god". Still super cute though.





This game consists of them having to say one line of the memorized chant and pass around the pouch that holds a ticking timer They were supposed to do the hand motions (biting an imaginary apple) with the chant, but after a few kids got out they were too concerned with the time to care about doing the motions.

"See the apple.
The apple on the alligator.
See the book.
The book on the bed.
See the cat.
The cat on the cap."

* * *

E2-A-- first graders. We've got the twins, Julie and Sally, who I still can't tell apart as you will see in the video. Then there's Thomas who I have twice in a row, then Gary who's brand new and doesn't know any English (named him after my dad), and Tommy who, although can be cute, is essentially a consistent irritation.



Sally is so, so, SO cute.


This is another chant they had to memorize. Most of the students have a really hard time with "this is" and "it is", as well as differentiating between "a" and "an". But Thomas is a pro. He also has me for two classes back to back so he has an advantage.

"This is a dog. It is my dog. It is on the desk.
This is an an egg. It is my egg. It is on the elephant.
This is a frog. It is my frog. It is on the flag."

* * *
K-A-- Kindergartners.

Shoot me.



* * *

E3-D-- 5th graders? I have no idea how old these kids are. In Korea they might say 11-13, but really that means they're 9-11. They tack on two years. I have yet to find out why.



I'm trying to talk to the kids about their plans for the weekend. I speak to Alan for a minute about his friends birthday, Sue tells me about computer games, etcetera.

* * *

E4-B-- 3rd graders. I think...? They're really cute though and really sweet. Always eager to learn.




* * *
E3-C-- 6th graders, perhaps. They're extremely smart. Sarah, Ray, and Kelly are excellent conversationalists as you will see when Sarah turns the camera on me. She asks me how I'm doing and then apologizes for taking the camera. They all really love fast reading, which I didn't record because it's impossible to understand. They are reading a story called "Igloos, Houses of Ice" and whenever I'm looking for a time filler I just take out my phone and time them to see how long it takes for them to finish. The second video is of Sarah reading the Igloo story at a normal pace.




* * *

E-4 C-- same as E-3D, I believe they are 5th graders or so.


This is Sunny. Every day I ask him how he's doing, and he said "I am... SURPRISED!"

Holy hell. That was a lot of uploading. Who knew blogging could be so exhausting? :)

Medicinal Charades, Perma Cramps, and Kidlets

As some of you may know, for the past month or month and a half I have had a perma cramp in my left leg. I have concluded that this could have only been caused by running at the Y back at home and not stretching properly before or after the treadmill. I have been paying for this lack of basic athleticism rule number one, and today I told Cate about my leg pain.

She immediately took me to a physical therapist about two blocks from the school. When we went in, she gave my name and birthday to the receptionist, and I saw a doctor right away. He spoke to Cate for a few minutes as she described my situation, and I was then taken to the therapist upstairs. I wish I had my camera, because what he did to me was, I feel, authentically Korean.

First he asked me where it hurts (and by asked, I mean gestured). I showed him and he told me to lay down on this table. So I'm laying on my back as he instructs me to straighten my legs out. This is painful for me to do, so with some serious mind over matter-ness I obliged. He then strapped these astronomical looking moon boots/thigh high pants on me, plugged some things into a machine that were connected to my legs, and hit the start button. You know how it feels when you go to a doctor and they take your blood pressure? That's how it felt, but much harder and from my feet to my upper thighs. It felt strange at first, but after a while it started to feel like a really good massage; a lot of pressure that carried on for about 40 minutes.

After the medicinal moon pants were taken off me (by the way, on a normal Korean the moon pants would reach all the way up their leg), the doctor led me into another room where I had to lay on my stomach as he connected these cyclical suction cups to my leg. He told me I have a strained ham string. He then turned a machine on, and it felt like a million toothbrush bristles pushing into the places on my leg where it hurts the most. I can only assume that this means he was doing exactly the right thing, and it lasted for about 20 minutes or so. After it was all said and done, it cost (with medicine) $16,200W, which is about $15.00 American. Very cheap, and mind you this is without health insurance, which I will get once I go get a physical this week with Cate. I am supposed to see the physical therapist 3-5 times a week for the next 3-4 weeks, and Cate and I are trading off payment (she paid this time, I pay next time, etc.). I can't tell if my leg feels better yet, but it is only day one of physical therapy and I have confidence that the Korean doctors will un-strain my pained hamstring.

This entire week I have to be at school at 10 a.m. so that Cate can help me with my lesson plans, and to get familiarized with the curriculum. It is nothing like what I have done with student teaching. Obviously my students are much younger, and so I have to be energetic and jumping around a lot so that they can blow off some steam in my class. I teach two kindergarten classes (or is it three?), a couple first grade classes, a couple second and third grade classes, and two middle school classes. With the little ones, I am doing a lot of ABCs and number counting. They have to repeat after me, sing the alphabet song, recognize that A is apple (flashcards), etcetera. They wear me out, but the end of the day is when I get to relax a little more.

The middle school classes are my favorite because I get to read Time Magazine for Kids with them (one article a week), and this week the article is West Asia. I've been teaching them about the Western Wall, the Taj Mahal, and Dubai. It is a lot of fun for me because I don't have to explain to them as much what certain words mean. It is definitely more advanced than the younger classes. Starting next week I won't have to be at school until 2:30, which I am greatly looking forward to.

As for the rest of my week, it has filled up more quickly than I anticipated. Tonight I am going to poker night at a bar in Sunddong gong with some foreigners (a weekly ordeal), tomorrow night Diane organized a welcome dinner for Simon and I (Simon arrived here yesterday; Cambodian Canadian), Friday is movie night with more foreigners, Saturday my coworker Matt is taking me hiking, and Sunday I was invited to a basketball game (courtside) with Lena from Clarkston and her friend. I am so looking forward to meeting all these people. Michelle and I also decided we are going to join the Gyeongju Football Club so we can get our soccer skills on. It will be a true testament to how out of shape I am, I am sure.

So that's it for now. I am still trying to figure out how to upload videos, and Dan said I need to try uploading them to YouTube. When I get more time I will figure it out. Til then! :)

Quick Update

My internet has to be validated in my apartment, so I am using the computer at work as well as Diane's computer at her apartment. Even though I don't have internet, I can still Skype, so if you get a phone call from "unavailable", that may be me. :)

I wrote some entries and saved them on Word back at home, and the moment my internet is up and running (hopefully tomorrow, cross your fingers!) I will put them up.

Today is my first day of teaching, I start in about 2 hours. From 2:30-8:00 I am teaching eleven 25 minute classes. Holy eff. Hopefully they don't wear me out! Whatev though, if I can handle high schoolers, I don't think the Korean kidlets will be able to take me down. Unless they attack me in high numbers, which they may.

Lastly, I know you all had a time change, so I am now 13 hours ahead of you, instead of 14. So it's 12:35 p.m. here, making it 11:35 p.m. there. Catching on yet? ;)

I will post again ASAP! Promise. :)

"RAURA TEACHER!"

Currently, it is 6:11 a.m. here in Gyeongju, and I can't seem to sleep in. From what I've heard that's normal and to be expected until I get adjusted to the time difference, but I'm annoyed that I woke up feeling like it should be 10 a.m. when really it's a quarter to six. Boooooo.

Yesterday was my first day observing Stephanie at English World. My school schedule is 2:30-7:30 Monday through Friday (9 classes per day) and I will be teaching kindergartners through 14 year olds. The kindergartners and first graders are hilarious-- they are my first two classes of the day. Not only are they hilarious, they are SUPER rambunctious. At first some of them seemed a little intimidated by me. Little did they know, I was terrified of them because they come in such large numbers.

Although they are not this young, they would sound just like him if they were to sing a Beatles song, too.

Back to the large numbers. When I say this, I'm over exaggerating because the maximum class size that I have is 12. The classes are 25 minutes lessons with 5 minutes in between each lesson. However, in the time between classes the kids come to the office and sit on your lap or talk to you excitedly in English, and when they all consolidate like that in a tiny room there seem to be many, many more than there actually are. If there was ever to be a battle of teachers vs. students, the students would undoubtedly win. The students are super cute though. A couple of them took to me really quickly and whenever Stephanie would introduce me, it would go something like this:

Stephanie: Everyone, this is Laura Teacher! She is your new teacher. Tomorrow Stephanie Teacher goes "bye, bye" back to the USA and Monday you will have Laura Teacher.

Me: Hi everyone!

Kids: Hi Raura! Raura Teacher!

Although that was a poor rendition, that pretty much sums it up. When I would go in the hall after my first couple classes the students would either ask what my name was or stare at me. In fact, Cate told me to wear my hair up for the first couple of days because she thought that the kids might be afraid of me! I literally LOLed to myself when she said that. Me + my height + my curly hair = scary American. Clearly! They were sweet though-- really excited about telling me their names. "My name is Gina", "My name is Lily", "My name is Trevor", etc. They practice their names a lot when they are at a younger age and I think they were trying to show off a little. Very cutesies.

I went out to a Vietnamese restaurant last night with Stephanie and a few of her friends. There are Diane and Michelle, who are from South Africa and have thick accents-- Michelle especially. I really had to listen to understand what she was saying. They apparently don't think much of Americans, with the exception of Stephanie, Bo and now myself. Bo is from Texas and he has been dating Diane for about 6 months. Hearing about their relationship is adorable-- he met her parents in Hong Kong, she will be meeting his parents in a week or so in Seoul, blah blah blah, all cute, but pulled at my heart quite a bit. Made me miss Brett a ton.

The restaurant was great, though. We got to make our own spring rolls-- definitely a novel expierence! They had these rice patties that looked like thin paper and you would dip them in hot water, at which point they would soften. Then, with your chopsticks (I am having quite the time trying to get good with them), you take it out of the steaming hot water, and then you fill it with vegetables and meats of your choice. So on mine, I had chicken, pineapple, celery, onion, some kind of thin mushroom, and peanut sauce. It reminded me a little of eating at Mongolian Barbeque except much healthier, and without actually watching your food getting cooked. I drank green tea with my little Vietnamese spring roll concoction, and then was served a huge bowl of noodle soup. The soup was good, except that I don't really have an apetite yet. Again, I've heard this is completely normal. Stephanie said she didn't really have an apetite until after her first week.

Once I returned from dinner, Cate and Mark offered to buy beer. So we sat in their living room (although almost no furniture, I'm not sure what else to call it) and drank a 6 pack. I showed them a photo album Shayna gave me back at home, as well as some going away party/Megan's birthday party pictures on my camera. Cate thinks that Jeff (Goldsmith) looks "like a character from the fairy tales", that my brothers are handsome but look nothing like me, and she kept confusing Brett with Jeff (Rosenberg). It was nice that her and Mark were so interested, though. I got to explain to them about the parties and my friends and family. At one point, Cate said "All pictures, same friends!" And she seemed happy for me. We had a nice conversation, with Cate acting as the translator. Mark said I need to go out and do everything I can while I'm here in Korea, and that if anything ever broke or needed repair at my apartment to please tell him so he can fix it-- it's like having a free landlord. Amazing!

Today, Stephanie was also kind enough to offer to meet me at 10 to show me around Gyeongju. She's going to show me the post office, grocery stores, I expect some restaurants that she likes, et al. I move into my apartment once she moves out tomorrow morning, and will officially be set up around 3:00 p.m. She said setting up my laptop will be really easy, and she was also kind enough to leave behind her Korean cell phone which I will be able to use to call Michelle and Diane. I'm a little nervous about meeting people on my own, but I know I will. Everyone's been telling me there are plenty of foreigners in Gyeongju, and once a new one moves in, everyone wants to meet that person. So I should be good to go, and Michelle and Diane said to call them as soon as I get the chance to.

To answer some questions, I will not be able to actually call anyone while I'm here. International calling rates are expensive, and I just plan on using Skype/AIM video chat/e-mail with everyone. I will get pictures up as soon as I get my own computer working, which should be tomorrow. The outlets here are different, hence why I can't just plug in my own laptop yet-- there is a convertor at my apartment.

I know you're all really interested in my hygiene, so guess what? I have yet to shower (sick!) since I've been here, and it's Friday, meaning I haven't showered since I left Tuesday (which was really Wednesday here) morning. I meant to shower yesterday before lunch (which I forgot to mention, was pork cutlets that Cate bought me), but I fell asleep an hour before I got picked up to go to the school and didn't have the time to. So I am off to the shower with no walls, the drain in the middle of the bathroom, and hopefully some breakfast soon. And who knows, I might even venture out before I go to meet Stephanie at the school. We will see how courageous I am feeling.

Til then. :)