Korea Life Blog - Chuseok Gift Set


One of the downsides of having this Friday off (the school is taking the kids on a field trip) is that I didn't get any Chuseok gift sets this year. Not that I would have gotten any for sure, but I have in years past from the parents. Julie had to work today, but she only got one gift and it was from her boss.



Click the photo for a full size pic. I'm running out of space again on my blog so I've resorted to using Photobucket again. I guess I'll put the full size pics there for now until I get a bandwidth warning from them. In the meantime I may go through and delete any digital-cam videos that I have on the blog. That should free up a lot of space.


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written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Songnae


Here are some photos of Songnae, where we live. I compressed the quality but left the sizes large. Click on the pics to see them in all their glory. Sorry dial-up users. If you can't see them all, try refreshing your browser a few times.



We almost moved into this office-tel, but we realized it would be pretty noisy next to the subway/bus/taxi station here.




Another shot in front of Songnae subway station. The public transportation system is utterly amazing. The trains come every 3-5 minutes and the busses literally come every 2 minutes. As soon as I jump off the train, I jump right on the bus.



Another shot. Notice the World Cup flower pots still around. There's the 7-1 bus that takes me to my place.



It was a nice day and the threatening clouds were all bark and no bite. Beautiful sky. Notice the omipresent apartment complexes that run into the distance.




This is Hyundai Department store (yes Hyundai, the car maker, also makes department stores here as well as apartment complexes, ships, heavy machinery, and on and on). I'm not sure if there are still departments stores in this style in America, but this building reminds me of one of the old Macy's in Albany, New York from when I was a kid. I like the style.



This is a strip of buildings next to our place. You can see on top of the one to the left the giant crabs and lobsters. Those belong to the restaurant that I posted about here. I'll just mention a few of the other businesses in this strip: a pool hall, several hagwons (private schools), a few banks, some small, specialty hospitals, several restaurants, a convenience store (of course), a huge Samsung Electronics store, a Health Club, and lots more...



One of the many food stands around the area. This one specializes in kyae ran bbang which is some kind of fried bread and egg. I've actually never had it for some reason, but it looks and smells pretty good.



This is the crosswalk on the main road in front of our place. Who says Asian men don't lose their hair...



This road is massive. There's Walmart Korea, and in the backround are three more brand new office-tel buildings. This area is sprouting these places like concrete weeds.




Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, is next week. Walmart is stocked full of gift sets. Other bloggers have posted some pictures of some of the funny sets like Spam, but there are also very nice ones like these. There's a small store near our place that carries unique, traditional gifts.




Two halmoni (grandmothers) carrying Chuseok gift sets walk into the sunset.




At last, home. Here's another shot outside our window of the sun going down beyond the mountains.



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written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Soju in the City


Rather than continue to post his "brain dumps" on my site, I convinced John to take a couple of minutes and whip up a new blog. Here it is:


Soju in the City


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written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - At the School


I resized and uploaded all these pics last night, which took forever due to malfunctioning software, and then I decided not to do the update, saving it for today. Now I realize that I really don't have a lot to say about these pictures as I already talked about my job a bit and there just shots of the kids. I wish I held off on taking the photos because my assistant and the woman from "the agency" who are both in the pics, stayed after the classes yesterday I left and totally redecorated the classroom. It looks really nice and I have a lot more things to do now with the kids with all the things they put up on the walls. I even got a new green board with a hundred or more velcro objects on it. Today I spent 30 minutes of each class having each kid "give me the (whatever object)," and they went ape.



I really don't like birthday parties. I guess I have to do this once a month, too. It wasn't that bad, just a little silly and basically I had to just kill time until the last 20 minutes when the party would start. This is my first class. Why is it that the little girls are always so cute and innocent and well behaved at this age in Korea. I love those two girls. Some of these boys are a real handful.



Kids blowing out candles with me standing behind them. Later I had to put on that birthday hat while "Bonnie," from the agency, took class pictures. She had her own camera and she took this photo with mine. I changed her English name to protect her secret identity.



And this one. Not the best shot of me, but there never really is a good shot of me, now that I think about it. I'm hoping she'll send me the class pictures on e-mail.



This one is kind of funny. Julie said I should delete it, but I think it is a true representation of the nature of that wicked little boy to the front left.



This is my second class and my favorite. These kids are smart, quiet angels -- almost all of them. This is probably because the class is mostly made up of girls. I think there are about 12 girls and 4 boys. There's an extra boy in the picture because he had to leave early so came for this class instead of the third. They do that a lot and it's kind of annoying, since all of the classes use different books.



Here's Bonnie from the agency. She has to do this birthday party routine with every class at seven schools every month. The cake was pretty good for being made in Korea.



One more shot of the second class. Happy birthday September babies. You might not be able to tell from looking at this, but there is a range of ages from 9-13 years old among the kids. Unlike at most hagwons where they group all the kids together based mostly on age, here they did a level test and stuck to the results when placing them. With a few exceptions (some parents insisted their child was smarter than in reality), it has worked out well.



Here's Cathy, my assistant. She was very busy cutting and serving the cake today. Bonnie told me to relax and kept giving me pieces of cake to eat. Poor Cathy has to do all the dirty work.



I copied this idea from a hagwon I worked at. When students do something exceptional, we give them a small sticker. They would then have to go get their folder and put the stickers on a sheet on the inside cover (if they get 30 stickers, they get a prize). Bonnie had the nice idea to have the kids put the stickers on display on the wall. A very logical idea. Therefore she made Cathy make one of these sticker-boards for each class. They never ask me to do anything except teach.



This isn't a great picture, but this girl is so cute and sweet. Her English name is Sarah. A total doll and very smart. I want to kidnap her.



Bonnie asked me to take this picture, I guess for evidence that the kids ate everything.



The third class. These are the smartest kids. There are only 10 kids in this class. Once again, very good children, at least in my opinion. I thought they were great today and we had a really good class. Maybe I've become lenient after working in hagwons where half the kids are out of control, because even when the students here misbehave a little, it doesn't bother me at all. Cathy, on the other hand, a graduate student of education, gets really upset when the kids make even a little noise or a small mess. I was startled today when, after class was over, she held them for 10 minutes, scolding them in Korean, and making them do things like sit down and stand up over and over and over again. I just snuck out and went home. After all, I didn't know what she was saying. Outside, some parents who were waiting asked me where the kids were. I'll have to tell Cathy to relax a little.




Here's my extra room. The kids play in here while waiting for class to begin. I can also read stories to them or play games in here if I want.



These pictures are not in any real order, I see. This is the door to the playroom.



And finally, in dramatic conclusion, here is the amazing door to my classroom.


At the end of the day I found out I have Friday off as well as all of next week for Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, except next Friday. Not that I'm complaining, but does it make any sense to have this Friday off and all of next week except Friday. Only in Korea.

That's it. Come back tomorrow for an update a lot of pics from around my area.


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written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - John's Update 2


Yeturday shawn and i went to visit his friend in Gwanghwamun. Its about 30 mins outside Seoul on the subway and is home to the Blue House the Korean White House. Its a very rich are carved into the side of a mountain. It'a very beautiful and everybody has a Lexus a BMW and a Mercedes. Its lots of very twisting and turning roads that carve their way in and out of beautiful abstract and modern homes that cost millions of dollars. there are also many budhist temples where you can stop for a break. At one temple we stopped and got some fresh spring water and observed a monk ring the enormous bell. The temple was small but beautiful and also had a garage with a hyundia in it? Guru, Shawn's British friend has 2 Daelim scooters that we zipped around on for hours in the mountains up and down hills some with an almost immpassible grade nearing 40 degrees. After our fun on the hills we headed back to Guru's house. His girlfriend served us salami, and olives anice imported treat that Guru had brought home on his last trip out of the country. We sat on his second floor patio and enjoyed the sun and spectacualr scenery of the mountains and shear rock peaks surrounding his beautiful home. It is so close to Seoul but so far from the city. It is truly a scerene and beautiful place. Worthy of retirement. Soon after we enjoyed some fresh Sangria and a pizza from Costco that was pretty darn good I might add for a frozen pizza. Pizza is really hit or miss here. Sometimes it has canned tuna and corn on it, other times its made with ketchup. Go figure. At about 9pm Shawn and i decide we should head back since its about an hour journey with all the connections. We got back to Yeokgok had a beer then shawn went on his way back home. Today i really didn't do much, i went into maximum oversleep last night and awoke at 2:30 this afternoon. I went to the pc bang, applied for some jobs, ate a pig on a stick, and met shawn for dinner and a beer. More kimbap and some kimchi stew. After we had a beer and i went home to study my korean a little more. I have an interview with a recruiter in Kangnam tommorow so we'll see what he may have for me. other than that i'm gonna have a little soju and call it a night.


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written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Change of Seasons


The weather has turned cold here today. I rushed out for work with a short sleeve button-up shirt and realized I should have taken a jacket. Rainy and cool, almost cold. I was practically shivering tonight on the way home.

The weather couldn't have been any nicer on Sunday. John wanted to relax and stay in his cave-gwan and rest, but I coaxed him to go with me to Jongnoguru's home in Pyung Chang Dong where we ate salami and olives, frozen pizza (yes, Jongnoguru even has an oven that he's been toting around for 4-5 years), and drove around in the hills on scooters for over an hour, then relaxed on the patio and chatted over some ice cold Sangria Wine. As usual, everyone had a really nice time. Jognoguru and his girlfriend are wonderful hosts. I guess most Korean and British people are, and I guess Swiss James would be, too - if he didn't live in a motel. But he tries his best. Last time I went to his room, he picked up some nice $5 vodka and orange juice at a Family Mart, and everyone drank Screwdrivers while he stood on his head and juggled his collection of limited edition MC Hammer B-side CDs.

Back to today. Nothing too much to say about the job. It's going very well and despite having a larger number of students than in a hagwon, the kids are well behaved for the most part (of course there are always a few little twerps you want to throw out the window). Having a lot of teaching experience, I know it's important to establish myself in the beginning. I put up a short list of simple rules on the wall and made them repeat them over and over. I also have been teaching them classroom language everyday (come here, sit down, pay attention, clean up, and so on). The classes are running smoothly and my assistant hasn't had to do much besides make coffee and copies and call the parents when a kid is absent.

The biggest difference, though, has been starting the year together with these students, unlike working in a hagwon in which you are hired at a random time in the year and kids are constantly coming and going anyway. Also, I teach these kids everyday. That really helps. In a hagwon you may only see the kids once, twice or three times a week. I suppose another important factor is that I'm teaching them in a public school and not a hagwon. This must give me a little more legitimacy as a teacher in their eyes. I'm not sitting there in a goofy kiddie hagwon wearing shorts, sandals and a rock T-shirt with kids names after WWF wrestlers. Not that I did that before, either, but I've seen others dress like that. I don't wear a suit and tie every day, but I at least dress decently.

One of these days I'll take my camera with me. Maybe I'll put it in my bag now. OK, done. The agency is coming in tomorrow to throw a monthly birthday party for the kids. That will make a good excuse to take photos.


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written by shawn matthews    -|link