First School Fieldtrip to the Strawberry Farm

So when I was thinking strawberry farm, I thought, "Oh neat, we are going to see what a farm in Korea looks like." Wrong. So it the drive was about an hour to get there. There were rows and rows of greenhouses surrounded by a dusty lot. Inside the greenhouses were long mounded rows of trashbag-like material with strawberry plants shooting up out of them. Not at all what I would call a farm. The entire presentation was in Korean, so neither Chris nor I or any of the foreign teachers for that matter understood what was being said to the children. Each child was given a plastic carton to fill. After some time, the ladies at the farm told us to stop and give the containers to them. From there we went to another greenhouse with picnic tables inside and had to sit around them. They brought out bowls of already cleaned and cut up strawberries that the children squeezed and smashed by hand. Once each class had their strawberries mushed enough they were all poured into big pots. Each of the children got a chance to use the big spoons and stir the jam. We had lunch afterwards and all of the children had about an hour to play in some open area before getting back on the buses. Every child got to take home a container of strawberries and a jar of jam! None of the teachers were allowed any of the strawberries, but we did get to sample one or two before they were cleaned. They tasted funny, so we weren't too disappointed.

What I've learned in Korea

I will be writing different things that I have learned in Korea in different segments.  There is so much to cover and it seems like everyone's experiences that we have talked to are different as well when coming to this country.

First topic: Korean People helpfulness?

What I've seen is that Korean people are very nice and are willing to help whenever they can.  When we tell this to other Korean's or even foreign teachers they are very shocked.  I don't know what other people have experienced, but we are very forgiving for some things just because this isn't our culture.  One of the things that is not considered rude is bumping into each other.  When a Korean walks into someone, they will not turn around or say sorry, they will just continue to walk along like nothing has happened.  This is pretty understandable because there are so many people in different areas that it almost impossible to not bump into anyone. The basic moto is walk to where you need to go at your own pace, and if that means pushing people away that's fine.  I think the other problem people have is older men and women.  They feel like they should be treated better because they are older.  In all reality, Korea still has a lot of Confucius ideas in their society, and respecting your elders in a gracious way is one of them.  I don't mind it because I should be more respectful to them, but I usually am not.  Most of the time older Korean men and women are very curious about foreigners so they will try to communicate with us.  Some will try to practice English while others will babble in Korean and I just shake my head and try to use hand signs.  It's usually the younger Koreans who can speak a lot more English and can help us out more if we need help.  Overall we have enjoyed our experiences with other Koreans and love interacting with them more.

Lotte World

 So we had been to this mall that has an amusement park inside it. Actually it is said to be the largest indoor amusement park! We walked past it and the logo to the park is almost an exact replica of Disney. So we figured this has to be good if it looks similar to Disney. So we decided to check it out. It feels like a mock off of Disney. It's a really cool place and has some things that seem very Disney-like. The park is an indoor and outdoor park on the top floor of a mall. There are a lot of little kid rides and some rides that seemed too adult for being on the main floor. The admission cost us about 32,000 won a piece this was with a 10% discount that we heard is for foreigners! Also, it is cheaper to go on the weekdays (which we'll keep in mind if we go back later this year). There is a ride that goes all over the park (similar to the monorail) and stops on both sides of the park. There is a hot air balloon ride that goes all around the ceiling of the indoor part, but we didn't get a chance to ride it because of the lines. One interesting thing that we found at the park is that there are all kinds of cute headbands with ears and bows on them. The strangest part about it was that there were really no children wearing them. The adults are the ones who sport the cute animal look around the park...and of course we had to fit in and buy some as well.

Cherry Blossoms in Korea

         This past weekend we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. We rode the subway to Dangsan station and had to walk about 15 minutes to get there. On our way, we came upon a Boat Show that was going on. We checked it out, but turned around quickly because it seemed really boring. We started walking toward the beautiful trees and there was a young Korean man that approached Chris (we think he was asking directions or wanted to practice his English.) We were traveling with a new teacher on our staff. She just arrived last week from Australia and will begin teaching one of the Pre-K classes next month. Anyway, when the Korean man noticed Natalie and I standing there he seemed very uncomfortable, basically stopped talking and walked away. The street was blocked off for the festival and was absolutely gorgeous! Every tree filled with beautiful pink and white blossoms. There were other trees along with some potted floral arrangements. The other flowers included: azaleas, yellow daisies, tulips, pansies, and many other flowers. We had street vendor food for lunch and found an event for the Korean Red Cross that was going on in another part of the stop that had basketball tournaments and a magic show. It has been so beautiful outside lately, but it doesn't seem like our typical springtime back home. In a lot of ways to Chris and I, it feels like early Fall weather. Cool, moist mornings, hot afternoon and somewhat cold evenings. It's starting to warm up more in the evenings now too. The sad news that we have heard is that the cherry blossoms only last around three weeks, so we better enjoy it while we can.

Arctic Foxes and Pandas

We have been teaching our classes now for almost three weeks. We each have a co-teacher to work with us and plan out each day.
Danelle's class:
Danelle has eleven children in her class. Up until today, I had 10 children, so it was the first day for my newest student. As I said before I am teaching (American age) 2 1/2 to 3 year old children. The first few days of school every class has to decide on the name of their class for the year. I decided to give my kids a choice and show them 6 pictures of animals to choose from. We had hedgehogs, camels, tigers, monkeys, sloths, and pandas. It took a while for the children to answer our questions but it came to a tie and the teachers decided between the two choices. We've been working on the first two letters of the alphabet, a few numbers, and starting some phonics. The kids love to sing the daily songs and enjoy art time.

I have a well rounded group of kids. We are starting to go from the crying stage into actual daily schedules. This past week and this week we actually have done a few lessons. I have a good range of children when it comes to learning. Some of my kids are already tracing numbers and letters, while others are not interested in any of the group work and try to play constantly.

Chris's class:
Chris has 16 kids in his classroom. Its been 3 weeks since the beginning of school and I'm loving my class.  I'm teaching kindergarten-2 which is Korean age 7 and U.S. age 6.  In a lot of ways they would be in 1st grade in U.S terms.  They are very cute and know English very well.  Each of them have their own levels ranging from very high to somewhat low.  This mix of age groups is not very different from back home.  The lucky thing for me is that I have only 16 students. The down side is I have very little space.  One of the big things at EtonHouse in Korea is creating a class name.  The students picked out the name Arctic Fox after a little convincing from the teacher, wink wink.  All I have to do is say how awesome my idea was compaired to the others.

More to come)...

Random, Training, and Prep

Random occurrence today:

Danelle and I were standing at a stop light waiting to cross the street to get some food, when a old Korean man started talking to me. 

Old Man: "Hello, where are you from?"
Me: "O, Hi! I'm from Chicago, um USA"
Old Man "Welcome to Korea"
Me: "Thanks" smiling
Old Man:  "I once went to school in a USA class"
Me: thinking it was college "where did you go?"
Old Man: "USA school in Libya. One time I fell into a swimming pool and I drowned"
Me:  "O No! what happened?"
Old Man: "My friend's, girlfriend saved me.  Let me give you some advice.  If you have children, don't let them drown."
Me:  "Thank you"
Old Man:  "Bye"  while he shakes my hand
Me: "Bye" as we went our separate ways Danelle and I started cracking up laughing from the conversation.  We were very pleased that the man was so happy to practice his English with us and he was very nice.  But it was a very odd story.  Shortly after we saw a bus driver run through 8 lanes of traffic with a median that is 5 ft. tall to get to his bus.  Luckily he made it after weaving in and out of some traffic. 

We are sorry that we haven't updated in a while.  We have stuff to tell, but it can't be fit into one post.  We will be backlogged for a while, till we get into a routine.  We started training for school 2 weeks ago, and it has been a storm of information and activities that kept us very busy.  We hit the time where a lot of former teachers were leaving and having farewell parties. After school we were getting different items from there rooms and then going out to dinner or something else that would be going on. 

    Last week we got the opportunity to watch the graduation ceremony for the preschool.  All of the children gave speeches about themselves and what they would miss about EtonHouse and their friends. They looked adorable in their graduation caps and gowns and some of the parents greeted us and asked which classes we would be teaching this year. Starting Wednesday afternoon, we began setting up our classrooms.  Friday we went to the new EtonHouse school for its opening ceremony where we met the founder of EtonHouse preschools. Which leads us up to today, Danelle met all but two of her students for about an hour this morning for parent orientation. Chris didn't have any new students, so he was able to do some extra planning for the coming week.

Happy Red Day

So to most of you, February 14th is considered Valentine's Day. Don't get me wrong, they celebrate Valentine's Day here in Korea as well, but they do it a lot more elaborate than we do back home. There are three days devoted to Valentine-like days in Korea- Red Day, White Day and Black Day.

Red Day is specifically for the men. Men!?!? Yes, women go and buy gifts for the men on February 14 and get no gift in return on this specific day. I have heard that the main gift is chocolates, but just like in the US, you can also include a more personal gift along with the sweets.

Exactly a month after on March 14, White Day is celebrated. The roles are switched and the guy gets all the gifts for the girl. Aww, his and her Valentine's Day! We will talk more about this then I'm sure.

Also to go with the pattern, what is Black day you may ask. Well, Black Day is for the singles and from what I have heard, they eat black spaghetti noodles as a symbol of their loneliness (how depressing!).

Anyway, back to Red Day since that is today. We decided to celebrate Korean style. I bought a bunch of things which I mentioned in the Girls Night post. His main gift was painting supplies because he enjoys doing pixel art, which he was not able to bring to Korea with him from home. I took him out to dinner and we went for coffee to just sit and visit for a while. It was very nice. The whole night was his to choose what we did.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!