Korean Class and MK

Fridays I will only have 4 classes to teach; all are 5th grade, but it will be split with two different COTs (Sophie and Chloe). The first class was a bit on the rowdier side. They were quite talkative (to each other, in Korean). We played a game and I noticed a group of 3 girls at one table just talking amongst themselves not paying any attention. The next class Sophie told me not to come to orientation so I had a little break. The last two classes were with Chloe; the first one was an orientation class and the second was their first lesson which I prepared. Partway through class, the screen went out (yes, the TV screen is STILL broken, but there is no real way to fix it anymore; the principal says they've spent so much money on it there is no more budget for it, so it is what it is now.... However, sometimes the screen will go out, but come back on a little bit later) so that made it a bit challenging. I also noticed there was going to be a lot of time left, so I quick threw in an extra activity to fill some time. In the afternoon, I had another surprise. The social worker was supposed to be getting a used desk put in her office (the one adjoining ours), but it was too big to fit through the door, so instead....she was to get my desk and I would get the new, used one. So, I had to take everything out of my desk put it on the ground and wait for the new desk to arrive. Then, I had to set up my desk again. Later, I did some lesson planning down in the vice principals' office so I could use the internet and I got a lot done. When Sophie and I were walking home she told me that she is really glad that we are working together. I was happy to hear that. :)

I came home to drop off my computer and then headed out to downtown. I did a bit of shopping and got kimbap for dinner. I took it to the building where my class is and ate there. Class went alright. They announced that we will have to take a test when this level is over (2 more weeks). I think they are doing it because there is a long waiting list for new people to come in and might try and be weeding the current students out if they aren't studying enough.

After class I hopped on a bus and went to meet Min Kyung in her neighborhood. She will be moving to Inchon on the 16th. What is it with my friends moving away?! Inchon is definitely not as far as New Zealand, but I think it will be much harder to meet her now. She is also thinking eventually (soon) she will quit her job in Seoul and get a job closer to her -new-home.

Fries and Taco Salad

First Day of Class

Today was the first day of the new school year! I had three 4th grade classes and one 5th grade class. The 4th graders are quite cute and still fairly small, though some of them are almost as tall as me too. I saw one of my students from Winter Camp and she was happy to see me. My COT (Chloe) and I introduced ourselves and explained our rules and expectations for the students. My 5th grade COT (Sophie) told me I didn't have to go to the orientation for the one 5th grade class, so I only had 3 classes. I will do a brief introduction of myself when I see them for their next class.

After school Sophie and I went to get a few things for our office. I brought them home because the items weren't a big enough cost to get delivery to the school. Then I met Jacob in Hapjeong on the subway to go to Itaewon for a date night. We were going to go to a place we had seen called Chi Chi's, but again, Jacob had read reviews and it had not received very good write ups. Instead we went to a place called Pizza Peel for, yes, pizza. It was so good! We ordered a chicken pesto and the "Canadian" which had bacon, mushroom and pepperoni on it. The pizza sauce was just like pizza sauce in the US. Unfortunately since it is Lent, we weren't able to get any dessert after dinner. We walked around Itaewon a little bit before heading back to the subway. On our way we ran into a friend, Raphael, who was our photographer for the Mentor MT in November.

Jacob with our delicious pizzas!

Ash Wednesday

Today was kind of a stressful day. It was a lot of preparing and trying to coordinate with my 3 COTs and discussing the schedule/lessons for our upcoming year. It is additionally difficult because my 5th grade COT also teaches one 6th grade class and my 4th grade COT teaches two 5th grade classes. That means for each grade, I basically need to coordinate with 2 COTs at the same to plan accordingly or I might end up needing to create 3-5 lessons for each unit (there are 6 in one unit) However, each COT has a different idea of my role and her role so it is really important to compromise and work together with everyone. Like I mentioned before, it is also hard to plan because we're starting in the middle of the week. One COT read my mind and suggested throwing in a "free" class for one of the classes that met an extra time at the end of the week so that all the classes would start the same with me on Monday. I thanked her profusely.

After school I stopped home to drop off my computer (I brought it to work to do some lesson planning since I STILL don't have a computer or internet in my office) and put on some warmer clothes. Then, I headed to Itaewon to get dinner. There was a restaurant I had seen that had hummus and other Mediterranean food so I thought that would be a good place to go on a no meat day. I found it, Hummus Kitchen and was going to order the hummus plate, but instead tried a puff pastry filled with cheese, spinach and pine nuts. It was served as 4 small pastries on a stone board. It was pretty good, but I kind of wished I had tried their hummus.

I went in search of the International Catholic Church. It didn't take long to walk there and was pretty easy since it was on a main street and I had been there before (bu coming from a different direction). It was good to find it coming from the way I did because in the summer I might have to start going there for mass in the mornings since soccer will be moved back to the 6-8pm time slot and I won't be able to go to Sogang in the evenings. Anyway, I arrived a bit early and the mass before me coming out was a Spanish speaking mass. Everyone was speaking Spanish in the entrance and it made me think of my friend Liduvina ad I missed her and her family. The small chapel filled up quite a bit and it was a crowded mass. I liked the homily the French priest gave. After mass, I came home and related to prepare for the first day of teaching tomorrow!

Dinner

Harley Davidson--made me think of Aunt Ruth and Grandpa

Cooking Class

I had a relatively uneventful day at work. I briefly met with my 6^th and 4^th grade teachers to talk tentative plans. Right now it seems very confusing and difficult because we are starting English class in the middle of the week and it throws the schedule/timing off a bit for the following weeks.

After work, Jacob and I were supposed to meet Ji so I could get a fan he's getting rid of and just to hang out with him before he leaves Seoul on Friday. (He will either live with his parents in Gimahe or in Suncheon with Yeojin's family to prepare for the wedding.) He was quite busy with Yeojin's Mom and wasn't able to meet us. We had a back up plan because we figured he probably would end up not being able to hang out. We went to a GOA'L cooking event at Hoya Cooks. Class wasn't until 7, so we met at Mecentapolis Center and had snacks--first Auntie Anne's pretzels and then Mr. and Miss Potato for French fries. We walked to Hoya's for the class. This week we made dwenjangjjigae (soybean paste stew) with nengi, a spring vegetable (greens) and ddeok galbi (a meat patty with rice cake and nengi). It turned out okay, but I'm not sure I would make it again. It was a lot of work to clean the nengi and it didn't have much of a taste.

Chef Jacob

John, taking pictures of the event

Our soup and meat patties

Back to School

The first day of the new year! Fortunately I didn’t have to teach at all (I don’t teach until Thursday). First thing back, I was asked to move my stuff to my new office space. I took about 4 loads down to the new office, but the desks weren’t set up and another teacher was using the space as storage for mass school handouts. I was surprised at how much I have accumulated at my desk in the 6 months I’ve been working. Most are things I’ve inherited (from the previous teacher and my friend Ginger). Anyway, I spent the next few hours getting to know my new COT. Her Korean name is Sangji and her English name is Sophie. She is one year older than me and is a “special” English teacher. She doesn’t have a teaching degree, so she can only teach English. She and I will share our small office space together and teach 5^th grade and one 6^th grade class. For lunch, we went with the other subject teachers to a restaurant quite close to my home. I didn’t want to go back to school! Lunch was fish as a main dish and then a stew was served with it as well. I had side dishes and some of the kimchi stew. We all walked back to school and Sophie and I just chatted and set up our office some more.

 

After work, Jacob and I met near Sangsu Station. He was studying in a café and I joined him there before we went to Greek Joy for dinner. It was delicious—I dove right into everything so I didn’t get to take a picture of our salad, soup, bread or chicken gyros. After dinner we went to Schneeballen for our last cronut and schneeballen before Lent begins. This time we got a “Milky Bee Cronut” which just meant there was a heap of ice cream put in the hole of the cronut. Amazing. Best dessert ever!

Milky Bee Cronut!

Brunch and Soccer

Jacob came over a little bit before lunch and we made breakfast burritos with onion, bacon, bell peppers, egg and cheese. They were delicious! We hung out before heading out to soccer early. Jacob had a friend coming back to Korea bring new soccer cleats for him so he was eager to try out his new shoes. We passed the ball around and waited as people trickled in. We had a pretty big turnout, I think we ended with 12; 6 on 6. There were a few new people that came, but John (our captain) asked that our Thursday leaguers were all on the same team so we could practice. Well. That went poorly for the first good chunk of time. We got scored on so many times and we played really poorly. As time went on we found our niche and someone else arrived from our team too. Then we started clicking a bit more.

After soccer we headed to church. While we were waiting I got a call from my Australian friend Seon. It was good to hear from him, though he made fun of my American accent. Church went really long. It was difficult to understand the Mexican priest. Jacob and I were going to have dinner at Subway, but they were closed after church. Instead we parted ways without getting dinner.

 

Breakfast burrito!

Samilwol Holiday

Today is a National Holiday called, “Samilwol” which means March 1^st. It is the first day Koreans showed public rebellion against the Japanese during the occupation. I can’t believe it is already March! Spring can show up any day now!

I met Krystle in Hongdae for lunch. I had seen a restaurant that had falafel and hummus (it was the place I went a few weeks ago and was closed on Mondays); knowing Krystle is a vegetarian I thought it would be the perfect place for us to go together. I ordered the falafel wrap and she got a sandwich (2 mini patties on buns). We also ordered a side of hummus. It wasn’t served with anything so we thought maybe we should get some chips to eat with it. I ran to a convenience store and came back, but the owner told me we couldn’t bring in other food. Boo. The hummus was pretty good, but again, it wasn’t as good as my mom’s! The sandwich was also quite good, but a little messy as it kind of fell apart as I was eating it. Krystle and I walked around Hongdae a little and ran into a kind of “event” going on. We were corralled over and made to spin a wheel. Krystle one some kind of small door prize and I got face paint. I went to the table and picked a design and had the woman paint it on my hand. Krystle and I split and I met up with Jacob to go to Itaewon.

We arrived in Itaewon a little bit early for dinner and decided we’d go to a café to hang out before going to the Greek restaurant we’d heard about and seen. While we were waiting, Jacob decided he’d look up reviews of the restaurant on the internet. We’re so lucky he did. The reviews were awful. On the way we stopped to look at the menu and saw the prices, which were quite high. I’m so glad we were able to read the reviews and save a lot of money by not eating there. Instead we tried a place called Chili King. I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak (thought they brought me the burger form instead of the sandwich) and Jacob got a spicy chicken sandwich. They were both pretty good. After dinner, we came back to my place and watched The Office before Jacob went home.

Krystle and my lunch!

Tea and Coffee in Itaewon

My Philly Cheesesteak burger