Teaching was good today...Nothing too exciting. I've been teaching the same lesson for almost a week now since I'm introducing myself to every class before I start in on their class-specific material. I've literally taught the same class 14 times as of today and I have one more to go. A few funny questions... Today the girls wanted to know what American boys look for in a girl. I wanted to tell them that if I could answer that, I wouldn't be single. Instead, I explained that every boy is different and looks for different things in different girls. Sometimes I feel like I teach an American dating seminar. Another girl asked me to teach her my favorite song (so cute!) A bit of a misunderstanding: in a picture I show of me in my powerpoint presentation, I have red eyes from the camera flash. One girl asked if that was my real eye color. Without looking at the picture, I said yes. She looked at me weirdly, so I looked at the picture to see what the big deal was and I noticed my red eyes. I laughed and explained that my eyes had turned red because of the camera flash. Then she asked me what color my contacts make my eyes. I was wearing glasses. I explained that I rarely wear contacts anymore but when I do they are clear and do not change my eye color. She continued to look at me suspiciously. I don't think there is any winning her over. She thinks I'm a weirdo.
Today I was also asked to do a little extra work each week. Once a week (on Wednesday mornings in case you care...), I will be teaching some of the teachers "classroom" English. So, this kid gets paid 20,000 won (about $17) per class to teach teachers how to speak to their students using phrases like, "Do your homework!" "Pay attention!" "Very good!" etc. NICE.
Through this whole teaching a new class situation, I also found out another glorious bit of info. Korea's equivalent to Thanksgiving falls on a Wednesday this year. Traditionally, our school gives the days before and after off, thus giving us Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. Well, as they saw no point in going to school on Monday and Friday of a week, they gave us the whole week off. SCORE. I could not be more excited! This takes place in two weeks, so the week after my birthday, I have the WHOLE WEEK OFF! Happy Birthday, Me!
I took a couple of pictures of my school surroundings to share. It has rained almost every day since I've been here, so there haven't been many good opportunities to take many more pictures, but they will come soon! I pinkie-swear!
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| The entrance to the EB school |
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| My classroom (from the doorway) |
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| Another view of my classroom |
On a different note, tonight Emily and I went to E-Mart after school. But, first, we stopped and bought my first (of many, I'm sure!) kimbap which can basically be described at Korea's answer to sushi. It is imitation crab, ham (though not in mine!), cucumber, pickled radish and egg rolled (sushi-style) in rice and seaweed. It is served warm and was delightfully cheap (1,000 won, so like $0.75!) and quite tasty! The shop is probably a little too convenient though. It is right next to the convenience store under my apartment... Watch out kimbap woman! Also, Emily taught me how to order in Korean sans the ham. Nice!
Next, we went to the dry cleaner and a co-teacher at another school started talking to me, asking if we could get together and (I'm assuming) speak English. I thought...why not?! She asked me for my phone number and I told her I didn't have one yet. She was baffled. "Why not," she asked. I told her I had only been here for 10 days, so Emily gave the woman her phone number. She'll probably never call, but if she does, it should be a good time....
Next, we went to Emily's hairdresser friends' salon and chatted briefly. They were really nice and were watching a Korean drama. My girls constantly ask me if I have seen the Korean dramas and which one is my favorite. Korean dramas are more like American soap operas (but with a more defined time line) and less like Grey's Anatomy or Gilmore Girls. Maybe they could be likened to Beverly Hills 90210 (some crazy stuff went on on that show (Thank you, Soap Opera Network!)). At any rate, it was fun to watch the impending doom that was occurring on the show even though I had no idea what was going on...
Then, we went to E-Mart to go grocery shopping. I had planned to go last weekend, but was too lazy and thought more of lazing about than going shopping... On Friday afternoon I had done a little shopping at the store down the street (Home Mart). I picked up a few vegetables and some oil, planning to make fried rice for dinner. When I got home, I realized that what I had thought was rice was in fact a large bag of sea salt. So, ramen for dinner, again. Tonight at E-Mart, Emily showed me the rice section and I decided on some lovely brown rice. Delightful. Also, prior to shopping at E-Mar,t we ate dinner. For 4,000 won, we purchased and split an order of dukbokki (pronounced dok-book-key): four pieces of fried veggie/fish/whatever (we got a sweet potato (as in legit yellow sweet potato, NOT yam), pumpkin, squid and a veggie concoction) that was deep fried, tempura style. These pieces of food are then dipped into a very spicy (almost Tabasco flavored!) sauce that is also home to rice cake (a gelatinous rice compound) and fish cake (basically, the seafood answer to spam... made from the same fish that imitation crab is, but pounded thin and spiced -- the texture kind of weirds me out, but the flavor more than makes up for it). SO GOOD. For an after dinner beverage (in Korea, there is rarely a beverage taken simultaneously with eating), Emily got an Americano and I got a Kiwi smoothie. Can you guess my reaction? (SO GOOD!)
That's all for tonight... I need to start thinking about what I am going to teach these girls this week! EEK!
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