It has been REALLY cold here lately and each cold day reminds me of the winters at home. My co-teacher asked if Carm and I would go to a Traditional Korean Village with her on a Saturday. Now, at first I was really excited to go and get so more Korean Culture in my life until, I found out that we would be outside for most of the day. I felt really bad for considering to back out of a nice cold day of culture due to the fact that it was my co teachers birthday. So Carm and I bundled up and headed to Osan to meet my co teacher. The plan was that we would meet at 1pm in the subway station.
Carm and I hopped on the train and headed to the meeting place, we arrived a little early so we decided to do some shopping. We walked around the station and out to the shopping area near by. It turned out to be an unexpected but, great shopping day, always a plus :D. Sujin, my co teacher called, we met her and headed to the train. When I saw her I wished her HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Sujin then turned to me and said "oh Tasha today is not my birthday" I was so confused because I asked her 4 times in the past week and a half "Sujin, your birthday is Saturday right?" each time she confirmed and told me yeah it was! Now, this ticked me right on off because I sure would NOT be out here in this 7 degree weather going to a dang gone Korean Village if it was not her birthday! I asked her "Well Sujin why did you tell me your birthday was the 5th then?" she then proceeds to say "Oh I forgot it" Carm and I gave both gave her the dumb look. There was nothing I could do at that point so I just took a deep sigh and let it go.
Overall I was really happy I did make it to the Korean Village it was pretty cool. We saw a few shows, one of which a man did a routine on a rope while in the air, and another show was a horseback riding show. The horseback riding show was a little too dangerous for me, I was so worried someone was going to get seriously hurt, I understand that is their profession but it was still a bit nerve wracking to watch. In the village there was a really interesting museum that took us through time in Korea. We got to see traditional ceremonies, such as when it was the Emperor's birthday, to the celebration on ones birth, and Lunar New Year celebrations, it was really neat.
As we were walking to the museum, Sujin says "We have to cross this bridge" I looked at Carm and Carm looked at me and simultaneously we said "What bridge?". All we saw were a bunch of rocks, Sujins then says "This stone bridge" Now let me paint the picture before you see the actual picture. There is a body of water, and a waterfall on the other side of the "bridge". All I could think was "Please Lord, don't let me fall in this water" as we were walking across, some of the stones were shaking, it was all around just a bad idea! Sujin crossed the river like "Crouching Tiger Hided Dragon" and it took Carm and I about 20 minutes to cross the river. Needless to say it was a pretty interesting and adventurous day at the Korean Traditional Village.
From when 1st decided to come to Korea until now a lot of women ask me "What do you do with your hair?" or "Who does your hair?". I know its hard to believe but believe it Koreans do my hair. They have put twist in my hair, and they have washed and pressed it out for me.
I must admit my 1st trip to get my hair braided turned out to be terrible, I went to an African braiding shop and it was as my students say "it was NOT fun". I am not even sure where I should begin, I arrived at 7am to the shop. When I got there they were really rushing while doing my hair. They had a lot of appointments that day and they had a tight schedule to keep but that was not the issue. Issue number 1. when I go to get my hair braided I DO NOT want to work! This is what I am paying YOU for, don't ask me to separate the hair because 9 times out of 10 I will be doing it wrong. Furthermore how am I to enjoy a good book if you have my hands occupied??? Issue number 2. I am not African nor did I grow up in a French speaking country, so STOP TALKING TO ME IN FRENCH! I had to tell her 3 times I speak English! and Issue number 3. Why is my ponytail so scraggly? Why do I have a million braids but only have 3 strands of hair in my ponytail?
The 2nd time I got my hair braided I went to the Koreans and they did a GREAT job. I was so shocked, those who know me know I have really THICK hair and these Koreans got with it. The only complaint I had was I didn't think they gave me a good deep condition. Other than that they had me looking and feeling good feeling great AND I had a full ponytail :D.
Recently I decided to give my hair a break from braids as to insure the survival of my edges, because being with out edges is NOT cool. I mean who wants to be a bald headed scalawag not I said the cat lol! My hair is currently natural so I was a little nervous to say the least about what the final project was going to look like. I was told about a shop called Ms. Kims and that she does a great job. I made an appointment and once again the Koreans have surprised me. They really care about healthy hair and that's important to me too. They gave me a moisturizing treatment and pressed me out and I was bouncing and flowing when I left there. Like a Pantene Pro V commercial!
So recently I have been listening to a lot of Korean Pop songs better known as Kpop. I have no clue what they are sing about except for the random English words here and there. The story is the same every time, my students say "Teacher do you know?" and I say "No" and they say " We show you" lol it never fails. After they show me the latest Kpop songs, with the music video and what ever the dance that goes with it I find myself singing along. Do I know Korean you ask??? Of course not, but do I sing along YES, I make up sounds that I think can pass for Korean and gets to singing lol. Posted below are a few songs that have become my Kpop JAMS! Don't judge me just listen and get addicted like me :)
Thanksgiving day in Korea was super strange, I had to work, and it was just a regular day nothing too special really. In fact for dinner I ate waffles, self proclaimed gourmet 3 cheese eggs and bacon, it was tasty but not for Thanksgiving.
Please can someone tell me why people from home really think Koreans celebrate Thanksgiving, Korean Americans maybe, but Koreans born in Korea who have NEVER been to America, yeah NO THANKSGIVING! I had to tell mad people "Yes, I have to work its an American holiday", Koreans could careless about the pilgrims first meal with the Indians on November 26, 1621! My mom called me at 1:30am "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" all I could do is laugh, because when she called me it was Thanksgiving in America but Thanksgiving day was already over in Korea.
The team decided to cook on Saturday following Thanksgiving at a friends house because there was an oven there. Most Korean apartments do not have an oven so it would make it rather problematic to cook at one of our places. We had a friend who is in the military go to the grocery store on base, to get the essentials for a true Thanksgiving feast. With a list in hand he went to the store and got "everything on the list" and a feast is exactly what we had. We had Turkey (we named him Herb), curry chicken, greens, green beans, corn, mac n cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, corn beard, brownies and cakes. Everything turned out SO good, I really forgot I was in Korea because we do not have access to this kind of food on a regular basis. It was a good time with great people and great food. Still Seoul Searching...
So recently Korea has been a blast and I am enjoying every bit of it however it has been hard to if that makes sense. I think because I am on the down hill side of things I am getting excited to get home. I have less than 100 days left in Korea can you believe it?! Lately I must admit, I have become "so over" some Korean ways.
Today in class we where having a conversation about things we can purchase I say "Ok class what are some things we can buy?". A student raises his hand and says "You teacher, black people, you know slaves", my jaw dropped! The student is one of my better English students and speaks well and often translates to the class. The thing that mad me so mad was the fact that he knew exactly what he was saying and what he meant. I then proceeded to say to the student "SHUT your mouth before I slamm you for free 99, also you just bought 100 push ups, how you like your change?" in my mind I was thinking, I guess you are my slave now huh?
Korean can be so crazy, and you would think I would be used to it by now but somethings I just can not get used to. Often times, Koreans think its ok to say what ever they want at any time. Now, if I mentioned the treatment of Koreans during the Japense occupation that would be a HUGE problem. I understand I am in a new culture and some things are NOT going to be like home, and thats becasue it is not home, but come on! You know what they say when in Korea do as the Koreans...right????
So yes, its true I have been neglecting you and I am sorry. So let me catch you up on my life in Korea lol. We went to see Beyonce and it was GREAT! We had great seats and had an even better time. Now, normally when 12 women get together one may question whats going to happen. Well we had a BLAST! All I can say is Beyonce is a BAD chick, her show was just like her videos, with no breaks in between. Here are some pics of the concert.
So, I decided to dress down one day last week and I wore a pair of sneakers to school. I normally dress rather casually but I never wear sneakers to school. I guess I was being a rebel this day lol. It was not until my second period class when a student keeps looking at my sneakers.
I did not really pay that much attention to the student until he started making funny faces. He then proceeds to raise his hand, I call on him and this was our convo.
Me: Yes, do you have a question? Student: Yes, teacher your Nike air's are a FAKE! You get in Korea? Me: Ummmm no they aren't, I got them from America, from footlocker. Student: No, teacher let me see ( with his hand extended) Me: OK, here ( as I give him my shoe) Student: OK, teacher these are good, they are AHSA (awesome in Korean)!
So, I guess I was a bit flabbergasted more a fe reasons, 1 being IF i really did have some fake shoes on, did my student just try and blow up my spot???? and 2 how and WHY, does this little dude know how to tell if Nike's are real or fake??? I guess the world may never know lol Still Seoul Searching.....
SO I know it has been a while since I have blogged and I am VERY sorry about that. Things have just been so busy. However that is no excuse I WILL do better! Since my last post we went to see the Broadway musical RENT! To answer your question YES it was in English! It was GREAT, I have seen rent before and I have seen the movie, seeing it again it was even better. The show was PACKED, it did bring some questions to mind though.
The Koreans really seemed to enjoy the show, but it made me think about if they really understood how REAL RENT is for many people. Drug use is not an issue in Korea and AIDS is not an epidemic here, so it just seemed like pure entertainment to them. OK enough sad talk. The singing and acting and the people I went with really made for a GREAT Sunday afternoon.
So one of my good friends here in Korea was celebrating her 25th birthday. She had mention to us before that she never had a party in her adult life and she really wanted one. In Korea there is a local party planning team and I asked them if they could help us for Taray's birthday. Well they ended up throwing an all white party for her big day. Taray had a blast! It was so much fun check the pictures
So, I must say I am SERIOUSLY in need of an adrenaline rush, just something to get my heart pumping you know. There was a trip coming up, and I really wanted to go, I asked the ladies if they would be willing to go on the trip and what do you know everyone said yes. White water rafting and bungee jumping here we come. Now, everyone did not agree to bungee jump, but every one agreed to go rafting, what can I say you win some you lose some lol.
We had to be in the city to make the bus at 7:30am this meant we had to get up and catch the 5:50am bus (way too early). We got the rafting place and were placed in groups of ten. We rafted for about 2 hours and my arms are STILL sore! Rafting was a lot of run, we got to do a bit of swimming, and water sliding which was a nice unexpected twist. After we rafted for a while we then went to the bungee jumping location. Dun, Dun, DUNNNNNNNNNNN!
So we pull up to this huge bridge where we had 2 options as far as bungee jumping goes, we had the option to jump by our ankles OR by the waste. I remember thinking "Hey, I may never do this again so I should just go big, and go with the ankle jump" so that's what Carm, and I picked, and Marquita decided to jump by the waist. Once we made that decision we then had to sign a form (that was written ALL in Korean) I am pretty sure it said something to the effect if you die its your fault, then we got weighed. If you weighed a certain amount you could not jump. Then we walked up this HUGE stairwell to the stop of the bridge. We finally made it to the top and then we got strapped in to our harnesses. My harness was really really tight around my ankles, it kinda hurt but I just thought that it was supposed to be tight, I mean hey I didn't want to fall out or anything.
The most scary part was the fact that we were waiting for an hour plus waiting for our turn to jump. It was rather nerve racking standing up there, heart pounding a million times a minute just waiting for your turn to jump off of a bridge. So the time had finally come, we were on the platform and it was our turn to jump one by one. We asked the guide who spoke English if he had any suggestions, and he said "Don't look down, and jump far out". I personally was not too sure how far I was going to jump, or if I was going to look down or not, but I did know I didn't want to be standing on the ledge for long. I told my self when he says "1, 2, 3,Jump!" I would do exactly that, JUMP!
So here I am, on the ledge and he says "1, 2, 3, JUMP" and I took a Superman dive off the ledge, when doing so I heard the guy say "Whoa!". That was NOT a pleasant feeling, I was thinking WHOA?!?!? WHOA, what? Whoa, we didn't strap her in right? Whoa, she jumped too early, Whoa, she is gonna do a Trevor on the Fresh Prince of Bel air?? WHOA what sir! My next thoughts while flying through the air were more like what the heck was I thinking, why did I jump of a flipping bridge? Well, adrenaline rush is what I asked for and that is what I got, that's for sure! After I stopped swinging and I was hanging upside down waiting for the guy in the boat to unhook me from my harness. I was sitting in the boat as we were rowing to the land and I remember thinking, my leg really hurts. And no wonder it was hurting, I looked down and there was a huge patch of skin ripped off my shin, like a burn. When I say ripped I am not exaggerating, the white meat was showing, it sucked really bad. So over all bungee jumping and white water rafting were TONS of fun. I think sky diving is next! Until next time :) Still Seoul Searching...
Mudfest was a BLAST! Although the weather got a bit nasty we really had a good time. Mudfest I can honestly say is an "only in Korea" moment. I mean come on let us think about this, if someone said to me "Hey Tasha, let's go play in the mud, it will be fun" I would have given the serious side eye if we were in the states LOL!
We get to our room (I will not go as far as to call it a hotel) changed our clothes and went out to hit the mud! So we saw a huge kiddie pool like thing and thought what better way to shed us of our mud virginity? So hop in the pool and next thing you know, we were getting body slammed, pile drived and any other WWE moves one can think of. I was in shock! TIME OUT, TIME OUT I was not ready! We were getting mud slapped in our faces, and when we understood what was going on we joined in on the fun. We also went down a HUGE mudslide, which was a lot of fun.
Saturday Hanna and I took 26 of the students on a field trip. Now, this was the 1st field trip I would be going on, and I must admit I was a little worried about how the kids would behave. We had a 2 hour bus ride to the English Village, the bus driver put on a movie so the ride went pretty quick. We only had one student get car, well "bus" sick. During the ride I kept worrying about if the kids were going to show out!
We get to the English Village and the students are in 2 lines, I looked down the line and counted heads before we went to the "airport". That is when it hit me, I am the adult here, I am responsible for these little 26 lives for the day. I see my students everyday but I have never taken them outside of the school before. The kids then got their passports, and could now proceed to the "immigration" line at the airport, and then they started showing their little a$%es! There are about 50 other kids in the other 4 lines and I look over and 2 of my students Tom and Brian were running around flipping the bird! I was so mad! I pulled them aside and had to give the "please do NOT test me in public speech", after that the kids were pretty good.
We then separated into 2 groups, I lucked out because I had only 6 kids in my group and Hanna had 20 in hers lol. We went to a class called "World Discovery" and the kids learned about adaptation. I was so proud my kids were answering a lot of questions and really doing well in the game. Now, I know I should teach the kids good sportsmanship and such, but we were giving high fives, doing dances and all! I think I one point I said " YEAH, that's right Jangdang! GET SOME!" LOL. My kids won the game and got candy so they were really happy.
The school year is coming to an end soon and after school classes are ending early. The students came rushing in my class and Judy one of my 4th graders (who speaks really good English) says "Teacher, today is our last day of class" I really was unsure, part of teaching in Korea, there is a huge lack of communication or you are informed at the very last minute. I called the head English teacher to find out, I called her 3 times but she did not pick up. I started to feel really bad that it was our last meeting and I did not have anything special planned. So I rushed and called and ordered pizza and coke for the kids and had it delivered to the school. We joked around and just ate pizza and had a really fun day. After class Hanna calls me back and says "Oh the children told you a lies" I wanted to say first of all its told a lie not lies and second why didn't you tell me this ummmmmm 2 and a half hours ago when I called you! I can't believe those little ninjas! They gamed me up with goodbye letters and messages on the chalk board and all. So yes I got played for pizza! Still Seoul Searching ...
So after returning from orientation I was informed that I had to be one of the judges of the English speaking contest. Now this sounds all fun and dandy BUT it was 3 hours long! The students ranged from 1st grade to 6th grade. I felt bad for some of the kids because their parents were there and they wanted their babies to be the BEST! Ok, I am talking costume changes, music accompaniment, gifts for the judges and cheering sections. Korean parents do not play when it comes to their children in a contest. Which resulted in some of the kids running off stage crying, parents requesting the children be allowed to perform again because they were unhappy with what they did and all other types of foolishness.
Some of the children did REALLY well, and others...well they looked so cute! To be honest, some of them were rather painful to watch and listen to but, I clapped and put on my happy face. Sujin (my co teacher) said "I can not understand their English" I said "Me either" and we both cracked up. We were all thrilled when it was over, to say the least. Still Seoul Searching...
Ok, so first and foremost I want to apologize because I have defiantly been slacking on the blogging tip. Sadly my life has been rather uneventful these days lol. Just living for the weekends mostly, but over all, all is good. So after teaching here for four months I was sent to teachers orientation, which seemed a little backwards to me since I have already been working for a while, but hey it was 4 days away from school lol.
I must admit it was really strange seeing 270 foreigners all in the same space but it was comforting also. On my way while riding the subway I met some really cool people from South Africa that were headed to the training also. We ended up being in the same group for the training. One really cool aspect of training was they broke us up into groups based on our location, so everyone in your group live near each other.
My freshman year "My 1st dorm" feelings were returned because we had assigned rooms with assigned roommates that we did not know. All I kept saying was I hope she does not smell bad, and I hope she is not a thief. I really did not want to bring the "Pittsburgher" to Korea but.... lol. I arrived to a bit early so I got to the room first, YAY first pickings of beds and such. I got to my room and picked out a bed and did a little bit of video chatting , placed my stuff on my bed and then went to the 1st session.
After the 1st session we had a bit of extra time so I went back to my room in hopes of meeting my roomie for 4 days. She was not in the room however her stuff was in the room, and not only in the room but on MY bed. YES, you read correctly, she moved my stuff from my bed to the other bed. Now the other bed was cool BUT less appealing, it was not by the window where you could get the cool night breeze if needed, lacked the great view of the tv AND was not near the bathroom, perfect for the middle of the night have to go moments. I was a little bit hot, I can not lie, she came to the room about 10 minutes later and apologized and offered me the bed back. She ended up being a really sweet girl and we got along great for the 4 days we were there.
Over all orientation was helpful the sessions were a bit too long at times but over all pretty good. It would have been even better if I had training when I 1st got here but hey what can you do? They had sessions about conflict resolution as far as your school in concerned, Korea survival class, lesson planning and a history Korean education lesson. I did get a lot of cool ideas for class and how to keep the attention of the students so that was defiantly helpful. Still Seoul Searching...
Sujin (my co teacher) asked me to make her some "American" food, I asked her what she wanted and she said "I want fried chicken". So we went to E mart and got the everything we needed for dinner. I made fried chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and corn. Sujin said she really liked it and asked me to teach her how to cook fried chicken lol. Here are the pictures!
May 1st was a day that most elementary public schools here in South Korea held a sports day. This was a day at Jangdang Elementary school where the whole school is divided into 2 teams the white team and the blue team and they compete in a number of games and races all day. The 1st half of the day the children from kindergarten to 3rd grade competed, they were so cute and so serious! The parents are just as excited as the students! There was parent competition also, the parents split up into two teams, one team representing the white team the other team representing the blue team, and they ran races and played tug of war. The sports day got really real really fast lol. The parents were yelling at each other and all, it was too funny.
The second half of the day had the 4th grade to 6th grade students competing. I thought I was in store for another parent face off because I rather enjoyed the 1st one I saw but oh, I was in store for a rude awaking. It was time for the TEACHERS to face off! All the other teachers knew of this as they came dressed in there jogging suites and sweats ready to go, they were warming up well before I even knew what was going on. I had on jeans, sneakers, a scarf and a jacket, I was not dresses to be doing anything physical. Now, yes I did have on sneakers, but they were look cute not really running sneakers! We were divided into 2 teams with about 15 teachers per team , with the men on one side of the track and the women on the other side. We were running a 400 meter relay race, and my co workers were SO serious! So of course when it was time for me to run my leg of the race we where losing, when I finally got the baton my co worker was a good 8 seconds in front of me. I remember thinking "Lord please just don't let me get embarrassed out her in front of all my students" well the Lord was listening because my co worker was SUPER slow, I passed her. My students were so excited, one of my 5th grade kids said "Tasha! You are the fastest runner in the world" I was cracking up, like noooo I am not fast she was just really slow, but I cant lie I did feel special lol. Still Seoul Searching...
So the last week in April and the 1st few days of May have proved to be rather exciting at Jangdang Elementary School. It all started when Hanna asked me to host an English festival because a lot of the parents were upset that their children were not being taught by the "native" English teacher. Now, please keep in mind that I teach mostly 5th and 6th grade students. I have six 5th grade classes which have 25 students in each class and I teach six 6th grade classes that have the same amount of children in those classes. You do not have to be a math wiz to figure out that I see about 300 kids a week a there are 1500 children that attend Jangdang Elementary School. Silly me what was I thinking? I actually thought I was teaching a lot of students, the parents would say other wise I guess lol.
Some may ask, what exactly does an English festival consist of well apparently, it has games, songs, candy and 75 CHILDREN at once in class that is meant to hold 50 people max! Over all the English festival was a success, the parents were happy and children were thrilled. I started the festival out by teaching the children the song, "The Wheels on the Bus". Next we played a game called the "Golden Bell Game" where each child got a dry erase board, dry erase marker and an eraser. The students were asked question via a PowerPoint presentation and had to put the correct answer on the board, those with the incorrect answer where "out" of the game. Korean children are EXTREMELY competitive and do not, and I repeat DO NOT like to lose. Kids were crying and acting a fool because the winners got gift cards. After the game we made fake Easter eggs, the original plan was to have the children decorate Easter eggs, but one of the parents said that the dye would get into the egg because the shell of an egg is living and would poison the children! I did not have the patience to explain that the children would be fine so we just decorated paper eggs and gave the kids hard-boiled non decorated eggs. We decorated the eggs with sentences about Easter and spring in order to integrate writing into the festival. After the festival I was exhausted but over all it was a huge success! My bosses and more importantly the parents where impressed. Still Seoul Searching...
The last week or so have been weeks of randomness lol. I think it all started at the strawberry festival 2 weeks ago. So we were asked if we wanted to go to a strawberry festival with a friend here. I really did not want to go but, I didn't want her to go by herself. I mean I can find rather tasty strawberries right down the street, hell right across the street. I should have known it was going to a crazy day based upon our bus ride there. So, the 3 of us purchase bus tickets, walk to platform 16 as stated on our ticket and get in line to get on the bus. As the driver opens the door mad people start pushing to get on the bus, after we fight our way on we then make our way to find seats. So we get the LAST 3 seats on the bus and notice there are about 5 people who have to stand for the hour ride ( so happy that wasn't me). Carm and Marquita are seated in two seats in front of me and I am sitting in an aisle seat when this woman takes it upon herself to plop her butt down damn near on my lap! I mean she is sitting on my armrest with her back leaned against my shoulder! I was so HOT, lady you have 2.5 seconds to get out of my personal space, not to mention it was hot as hell on that bus!
So we are riding and get to the stop, but it is not where we were trying to go. The festival was in Nomsan and we were NOT in Nomsan. The bus driver starts yelling at us in Korean to get off the bus, we ask is this Nomsan and he picks up a sign on the bus and is pointing at it (which is also in Korean). I remember thinking sir I have NO CLUE what that damn sign says and you yelling and pointing is NOT going to help me suddenly be able to read Korean...sorry dude. Carm then calls her co worker who is able to translate, the bus driver then takes us to the ticket booth to get another ticket. We then proceed to get on another hot ass bus and finally make our way to Nomsan. By the time we make it to Nomsan we are so hungry lucky for us there was food everywhere. After eating we then start to walk around go to different booths and such. While walking around we came to a petting zoo, it was cute and the children really seem to enjoy it. I looking around at all the animals and then I stop dead in the tracks...This was an ONLY IN KOREA moment can someone please tell me why these mugs had a skunk in their petting zoo?!?!?!?! Yes you read correctly a skunk! Who in their right mind has a skunk at a petting zoo, and furthermore what parent would let their kid go and pet one?
So after the petting zoo we continue to walk around the festival when a man with a TV camera comes up to us. He is recording and then is homeboy comes and starts to take mad pictures of us. He then grabs my hand and tells us to come, he takes us to a booth were they are selling strawberries. There are around 3 or 4 photographers at this point and they are posing us and taking all kinds of pictures. After about 50 pictures or so we just had enough! It was like a cross of being a celebrity and a freak show. We start to walk away when they continue to follow us and take pictures, this then prompts the locals to request pictures with us, it was bananas. We start to walk away again, when we he yells STOP and hand us a bunch of strawberries, LOL yes we got paid in strawberries. He then asks us our names and then says "Africa" noooooooooo dude we are American! I think its safe to say it will be a while before I go to another strawberry festival! Still Seoul Searching...
These are some popular Korean songs. I have to admit I find my self singing them also especially Gee Gee and Nobody LOL enjoy! Even Lil Kim is in the Korean pop market.
I had officially been really sick for 2 whole weeks, and I was NOT happy about it. After going to the doctor twice he gave me a sinus treatment, which was wild but effective, I will spare you the details and just say it involved...tubes, a pump, fluids, a mini flashlight thing, tissue and my nose...you do the math lol. It worked WONDERS, I must admit! It feels so good to be able to breathe again...LIFE IS GOOD :)!
So I must say Easter in Korea was by far soooooo much different than Easter at home. It is the 1st Sunday in a VERY long time that I have not been in church on Easter Sunday. VERY strange. Not to mention NO Easter grub! They do not really use ovens in Korea so I could not even make my own feast! I had to make due with chicken and shrimp alfredo. It was good but not like the normal Easter meal. I am sure it is because its not really an option but I REALLY want some apple pie, corn bread, roasted chicken, mac and cheese, and what ever else you can BAKE! It's just not right I tell ya! lol
Surprisingly the kids have been pretty good these last couple of weeks. They have been really enjoyable and seem to be learning a lot. So today I was on my lunch break enjoying a rather tasty doughnut, when two students came into my classroom. Let me paint the picture of my doughnut, it was a glazed, extra soft melt in your mouth doughnut! "Hi teacher" they yelled, I said hello. They are not my students but being the only "native speaking teacher" some of the students are excited to speak. I am sitting at my desk when one of the students says "teacher give me food please" picks up my doughnut and takes a bite! Yes, I said it she took a bite of my doughnut! I was soooooooo HOT! I was mad for two reasons, a) I really wanted that doughnut and b) ewwwwwwwwwwwwww! Then her home girl goes on to say "teacher give me candy please" lucky for me the bell rang before I could answer. Dang...I really wanted the rest of that doughnut :( . In my after school class my 3rd graders always ask "teacher are we going to watch Jumanji?". For the life of me I don't know why they love this movie so much, I often want to ask them "You know this movie is older than you right?" but i just don't have the heart to crush their little hearts lol. Still Seoul Searching...
So the John Legend concert was GREAT! He was so good and he had the illest play list ever! He was playing all his slow jams and this couple got up and started slow dancing, I was swole lol the supreme hater like ahhhhhh eff yall, ( it was so cute). The concert was held at Olympic Hall which holds 3,000 people and there were only about 150 non Koreans there. The concert was sold out please tell me why the Koreans were IN there!?! lol it was priceless, they love him, they knew all the songs and were singing along, who knew he is so popular here I was shocked. There were only 2 downfalls, 1st of which was I was/am sicker than EVER, and 2nd it took us 3 hours to get home . I was sooo sick my head was pounding so I took my meds and drank a beer and what do you know, I was in pain no more. So after mixing meds with a beer I decided it was time to go to the hospital. The plan was to go after I got off work, I felt like crap but I was going to suck it up and went to work. I have not had an appetite for about 4 days now, so I was only eating so I could take my medicine I was eating toast or cereal. When I got to work I was told I looked "tired" which is translation for you look like poo, Sujin and Hannah were like "ohh nooo you look skinny also we go to the hospital now" I went to the hospital today and was told I have a serious sinus infection and a 102 temperature so fun times. They gave me a sinus treatment and some antibiotics, I have to go back in to days for another treatment so hopefully I will feel better by then, I have to take 5 pills, 3 times a day for 2 days. So I am sure I will be high for the next 2 days. Still Seoul Searching...
This week has been full of ups and downs. The children have been acting SUPER crazy this week, to say the least. Last Saturday Sujin came to my apartment and we had lunch and then she took me to get some medicine from the doctor. Thank God for that woman because she takes GREAT care of me. She also brought in a humidifier and lots and lots of tea. The funny thing about Sujin is she will always take me to eat somewhere I can get American food, even though she HATES it. She took me to Pizza Hut and I had to explain to her, "We can eat Korean food I don't mind". After lunch we went to the doctors when I was informed I am having bad allergies due to "yellow dust" which is just dirt that is blown over here from China, it last about 3 weeks. So the good news is I know whats wrong, the bad news is I still have 2 weeks to go :(. I got some medicine and a mask to where lol, which is extremely difficult to breath in, so we will see how thats works.
The children were so crazy this week! During one of my 5th grade classes this week one of my students was out of her seat. I asked her to sit down twice, then I walked over to her to walk her to her seat, can someone PLEASE tell me why this little girl swung on me?? I had to ask the Lord for guidance not to KILL this little girl! I grabbed her chin looked her sqaue in the eye and said " DON'T you EVER in your YOUNG LITTLE LIFE try and hit Tasha teacher again! Do you understand me?" I was soooooo mad! I could not believe her. The next day in another one of my 5th grade classes, one of my students says, (as he is pointing to his lap and back to another student) "teacher, she is a ummmmmmm a testicle" I was ROLLING! I tried to be the adult in situation, but that was too funny. Oh man, I am STILL laughing about that one. The kids were cutting up! The next day one of my 3rd grade students came up to me and said "Tasha teacher, I love you" I was so taken aback by that. It was so sweet! So that made up for all the crazy kids this week. Sujin and I had a pretty wild conversation today that I just HAD to share, this was our conversation:
Sujin: "Tasha, in America do white people only like white musicians and black people only like black musicians" Me: "Well, no it depends on the person really" Sujin: " Oh because I saw a Taylor Swift concert and she only had white people there" Me: " Yeah Taylor Swift is a country singer, so she does have a large white fan base, but I am sure she has some black fans too" Sujin: " Oh, so what kind of music to black people listen too?" Me: " Sujin that really depends on the person, a lot of black people like Jazz, R&B, rap, but some like country, rock and alternative music too" Sujin: " Ok, Tasha are you a rapper?" Me: "ummmmm no"
The fact that she even asked me if I was a rapper slayed me! I was cracking up, mostly because she is so innocent and doesn't know any better. Who knew Tasha the rapper BABY! On the ones and twos out here making hits from SOUTH KOREA!!!!!!!!!! I am super GEEKED about this weekend John Legend concert!!! I cant wait! That's all for now. Still Seoul Searching
So the weekend is here and I am extra sad because naturally I got SICK! I am not to sure if its allergies or a bad cold, or something I may have got from working with dirt balls better known as children. Apparently in Korea they go to the doctor for anything and my co teacher is taking me to the hospital in the morning. Earlier in the week the hospital faxed over my drug test results and I was informed they were "normal". I wondered if the immigration office would be cool with the document because it was a fax, but I was told by Hannah that it was ok. Sujin and I went to dinner at a really nice restaurant by a lake ( I forget the name of it). When we got there we had dinner and talked and she is hilarious. The conversation was great. She then informed me that she would pay for this meal and I would take her out to dinner the next day. I cracked up and said ok.
My appointment was on the 18th so Sujin and I went to Suwon immigration office to apply for my alien registration card. The subway was so PACKED and Koreans are so "bout it" when it comes to getting on the subway. The subway came and i was pushed so hard I look all around to see who was pushing me and what do you know..... why was it someones 65 year old Korean grandma? I just started laughing as one of my big sisters mentioned this week "hey, granny's have places to be too". So my appointment was at 5:10pm and I was told to go sit down until that time. I take all my documents to the desk at 5:10pm and was the informed I needed the original coy of my drug test, once again I was hot. I was then told I had 14 days to mail the original copy of my "normal" drug test. After leaving the immigration office I Sujin and I had dinner in the Suwon mall/subway station. That's all to report this week. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon. Here is a video of one of my crazy 5th grade classes before class started. Still Seoul Searching...
For the record I HAVE A PHONE AGAIN!!! I am so excited, I told my landlord I needed Internet in my apartment and he had it on the next day! :) So with that I was able to hook up my Vonage and use the phone, that by far was the highlight of the week.
On Thursdays and Fridays I teach the spawns of Satan better known as grade 6 and by the end of the day I am just spent!. So, it is official, I dislike my grade 6 classes strongly! For the life of me I am STILL trying to figure out why in the world are they so DAMN bad?!?! Maybe this is my fault because I was thinking "oh Korean kids should be well mannered in class, yeah for sure they will be" They are always talking during class, yelling and fighting each other... What is this some bad Jackie Chan KungFu flick???? You would truly think it was a 1st grade class and not a 6th grade class. Today I just had enough, it was time to put these little monsters in check, I refuse to have them showing there behinds in my class. Now, I know some of the teachers hit the kids but I just don't have the energy nor the time to give them BEAT DOWN they need or frankly they deserve. So I have decide to start using "other" methods of discipline. Grade 6 meet my new friend calisthetics Oh no worries the pleasure is all mine. Here is just a little list of what I have started having the kids do:
1. The "chair" (pretend you are sitting in a chair with you back against the wall) 2. Six inches 3. Hold a dictionary in each hand and hold your arms out and to the side 4. Hold your arms out and in front of you.
After asking a student to be quite for the 3 rd time, I kindly told him to get up, face the wall, hold each arm out to the side while holding a dictionary in each hand. The student then quickly said "Teacher, Teacher, Im sorry, I will be quite" Then I said with a smile "Ohhhhhh I bet you ARE sorry now, oh well you still have 3 more minutes hold those books higher please." After making an example out of a few students the class got the point and calmed down. Please people I am open for suggestions, please let me know how else I can effortlessly and effectively discipline these kids.
This week has went so fast but it has truly been a trying week and a half here. My school is great, but my contact here is not sure what I need to do in order to obtain my alien registration card. Apparently the process has changed since last year so every one here is clueless. First I have to go to 4 different hospitals to get all my testing done when I should have only have only had to go to one. After running around all day from hospital to hospital I sit down with my contact and ask about all the next steps and procedures I should follow and such. I was told we will go to the Suwon immigration office on Friday to turn in all my paper work in order to obtain an alien registration card. So I am think ok cool everything is coming together with an arc I will be able to open a bank account and get a cell phone and such life is good... or so I thought! Thursday comes and I ask "hey what time are we going to Suwon tomorrow?" I then get the dumb look. Hanna then tells me she didn't make the appointment and that i should make it my self. I was so HOT! Like, I understand people are busy and all but if I was told that from start I would have BEEN made these arrangements. So I made an appointment for next week (fingers crossed) I am SURE there will be a blog entry about that trip.
I am excited about this upcoming weekend because I am getting my hair braided and have a girls weekend, manis, pedis, fun girl stuff lol. We also got our tickets to the John Legend concert so I am super hype that should be a GREAT time. That's all for now...
Hi Guys! (this is a long one, Im sorry) So last Wednesday I get an email that says "Reed you will be moving into your apartment on Friday not Saturday". Carm and I were both a little bit shocked this meant I would be moving alone because I was requested to be in my city at 1pm Friday afternoon. Now, I have told our Korean recruiter a million times that Reed is my LAST name not my first name, but she refuses to call me by my first name. She addresses Carmen by her first name but not me I sure dont get that one at all, maybe she cant spell or say my name so she is just gonna call me Reed as long as I am here. Bummer we can not go together , but hey what can we do? My recruiter sent an email with the address ( in Korean and English ) and said it should cost around 20, 000 won ( about $14 usd) to get there from Carm's city ( Cheonan) to my city( Pyeongteak). So Carm and I lugged all my stuff and went to get a taxi. We walked about two blocks and found a taxi. The plan was Carm was going to meet me once she got off work in front of my school around 9pm ( that was the plan). I hopped in the taxi fingers crossed and praying I made it to my school. I called my contact Hanna before I left Cheonan with Carm's phone and she said she would look out for me. The taxi driver said in Korean ( I guess) it was gonna cost 30, 000 won having no choice and not being able to say any different I just said ok he then turned the meter off. Soooooooo why this man did not use his gps is STILL a mystery to me. We must have stopped 5 times for directions, and each time we stopped he said "sorru, sorru" I take that was to be sorry. I was just thinking no need to be sorry just get me there sometime ummm today lol. So after the 2nd time we stopped he turns around and looks at me and changes his hand sign for 3 to 4 i said 40, 000 won? He says yes!!!!!!!!! Ohhhh I wish I knew Korean because I sure would have told him about him self! So he ended up calling Hanna and then 2 mins later we were at my school, my HUGE school. I give the driver my 40, 000won and he turns to me shakes his head and changes his hand sign for 4 to 5!!!!! 50, 000 won for a taxi ride?!?!?!!?!? I was sooo salty! I gave him his money and slammed his door. Hanna came rushing outside and this was our convo:
Hanna: "Reed!!!! I am ao happy to see you"
Me: " Hi Hanna! My name is Tasha, Reed is my last name"
Hanna: " Ohhhhh Reed is your last name? Im sorry Jane said your name is Reed. Ok we will call you Tasha"
Me:" THANKS Hanna!"
Hanna:" Wow you are so pretty, even pretty nose and eyes"
Me:"Hahahah...ohhh thank you"
I have never been told I have a pretty nose before but hey, I will take it lol. Hanna and a co worker name Sugi helped me carry all my stuff to my apartment which was right around the corner, it was less then a 2 min walk. As I told you guys before I was soooo worried about what my apartment was gonna look like. We went up one flight of stairs and turned to the right and there it was. She unlocked the door and we went in. I was like a kid on Christmas, grinning from ear to ear! It was big! I had a TV, a desk, kitchen area separate from the living room and the best part....wait for it a FULL sized bed in my bedroom!!!! This may seem minor for the US but in Korea this is a HUGE deal. Most teachers get a dorm style apartment, or an efficiency for our hood rich people lol. Ok, cool everything is working out great! I then got a tour of my school and found out I was going to be teaching grades 5 and 6 not the little kiddies. My kids are 12 and 13 years old but in America they would be 10 and 11 however that works? I also found out I will only be teaching for 22 hours a week, the rest I just do what ever in the classroom but go to sleep pretty much. I work for 8:30am to 4:30pm. I don't have a phone here yet and there are no Pc labs around either... How was I going to get in touch with Carm? So Im in my apartment and turned on my computer hey I may get a wireless signal I hope! Hey what do you know, I did it was really weak and kept cutting off but it was enough to hook up with Carm and make plans for her to get here. After talking to her she said to meet her at 10:40pm in front of the school and if I was not there yet she would Skee Wee so I could hear her ( good plan right). So it was 10:30pm and I walked around the corner to meet Carm. So its 10:40pm. 11pm, still no Carm. I go back to my apartment to see if she had logged back on or what ever there was nothing, I asked my friend Taray ( via facebook chat) to call Carm, she said her phone is going right to voicemail. I go back outside looking for her. Its 11:30pm and I am getting scared because the subways stop running in Korea from 12am to 5am where is she... Im walking all around my neighborhood yelling Carm's name and Skee Weeing all over the place still no Carm. After looking for her for 2 hours I went back to my apartment, to see a Facebook message from her stating the taxi driver got lost and her phone has switched over to Vonage as well so she just went back home before the subways stopped running. THANK THE LORD she was safe is all I kept saying! I then sent Carm an email with directions to my apartment as well as Hanna's home and cell phone number. The next day I decided to go shopping for some necessities for my apartment, and when I was walking back up the street to my place I was thinking "hey there is another black girl" YAY it was Carm! I was sooooo excited lol. So Carm helped me get everything I needed and we went to dinner. So yes it was a crazy weekend, next weekend we are going to explore my city and see what going here. I am told this is lil America number 2 lol, I sure couldn't tell!
Monday was my 1st day of school/work. I got to school and took my shoes off and had my slippers on and was ready to go. In Korea you take your shoes off when entering a home, school and even some restaurants. No messing up yo granny carpet here lol. I went to my classroom, where I met my co teacher Sujiin and was told to take it easy today. So one of the 1st things I notice was how COLD it is in the school. I asked Sujiin how to turn the heat on in the classroom and she said "Ohhh heat no working", the kids have their coats on and all. So after doing nothing all morning it was lunch time. We went to a place "in the mountains" for lunch with some other teachers. After the deathly terrifying ride there on unlawfully narrow roads we made it up the mountain. My life flashed before my eyes at least 3 times. The road was just barely big enough for one car and it was a 2 way road I was so scared. And you guessed right the man driving was acting like it was the freeway up this mountain, we almost hit like 2 cars and three people. Everyone was in the car just chilling, like ohhh its cool we almost killed 6 people, no biggie, I had to just close my eyes and pretend it was a Kennywood ride. We get to the restaurant, take our shoes off, and go sit down. Now as you all know I am not a short woman, and in some restaurants here they sit on the floor Indian style with a mat. I just have one question for you all, when was the last time you sat Indian style anywhere???????? It takes a lot to get down there and even more to get up, I felt old! Then this was Sujiin and my convo before lunch.
Sujiin: " We are going to have dug for luncho"
Me: "What?!? We are gonna have dog for lunch?"
Sujiin: "Yes dug!"
Me: " Like woof woof dog?????"
Sujiin: "Oh no woof woof, quack quack dug"
Me:" Oh you mean Duck? Quack Quack duck"
Sujiin : " Yes quack, quack Ducku"
Me:" Oh good duck! Quack quack not woof woof right?"
Sujiin: "Yes"
Lunch was good I struggled with my chop sticks as usual, I sure hope I get the hang of those soon. Then we went back to the school. Before I go I have some more things I have noticed about Korea and Koreans:
1. They LOVE to line dance! Cha Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle ohhh they gets DOWN!
2. Nike makes big bucks here! They keep their Air Force ones so crispy! They LOVE Jorands too! They will take a wet napkin and clean their shoes in a heartbeat.
3. They drive so reckless, the speed limit for a school zone is 30mph! Watch out for the kiddies.
4.They LOVE to drink! and to get DRUNK!
5. They have Koreans teaching English that cant speak English lol PRICELESS
6. Teachers are encouraged to hit the kids if they are cutting up in class.
7. The students call you " Tasha Teacher"8. All the kids play pc games that have something to do with death, killing, or zombies, it normal here.
Hey! I am sooo mad that my phone is not working!!!!!!! I apologize if you tried to call or text and I did not reply, I think I know whats wrong which makes it worse! And if you did not try to contact me SHAME ON YOU!! lol just kidding. My Vonage is activated but because I can not get Internet or a phone until I get an alien registration card I will have to rely on email and/or facebook for now : ( . So Carm and I had our 1st weekend out in South Korea. We went into a part of Seoul that is called Little America, we met up with our friend Taray there. This was the 1st time Carm and I took the subway and such. We packed our bags and said a prayer and we were on our way. We met Taray at Starbucks where we met a Korean man who was hilarious! Why did he say Taray looked like Elvis Presley's daughter???? I was rolling because she looks NOTHING like her! So I guess God said "now Tasha you are laughing a bit too hard " because he then said then said to me and you, look like ummmm an Egyptian. After we told him we were from Pittsburgh he said ohhh William Penn Hotel, Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell, I guess he was showing off his English skills a bit. We went to a reggae bar ( can you believe it) and then to a club that all the military peeps hang out at. You know I was hype because when we got there they had a KFC, Starbucks, Outback, Burger King, and a Subway to name a few, YES hungry no more!!!!!!!!!! So after we had dinner we took a nap and got ready to go out. My question is why was it poppin???? We had soooo much fun, and it was good clean fun lol. They had 2 for 1 drink specials and all, good times. So we are out at the military club and there are all types of people there White, Black Asian, and even a few Mexicans in there, all foreigners alike. We are walking thru and why does this German dude roll up on me and this was our convo:
German dude: " Oh yes I like your belly"
Me: "What did you say?!?!?!!?"
German dude " Yes, Yes I like your belly"
Me: "Get away from me"
I was sooooooo MAD, like omg what is wrong with him?!?!? So, he goes over to Carm and says to her:
German dude:" I like your friend's belly, all the women here are not shapely, not womanly at all but her nooooo"
Carm:"Dont EVER say that to another American woman again in your life!"
German dude: " Ohhh was that bad? Im sorry"
So after being called fat I must admit I was a little salty to say the least but I still had a great time. The only thing that was sooooo strange is that you would think, oh ok there are not a lot of Americans here and not a lot of Black Americans so all the foreginers would be friendly for the most part, umm that was not the case at all! Talk about mean mugs?? I mean I know we are internationaly fly but geez lol no nasty looks needed, that was the only negative on the weekend. We then went to our hotel room (the subways stop running in Korea at midnight) and called it a night or an early morning shall I say.
So after being here for 1 whole week there are some things I have learned early about Korea and Koreans the list is below...enjoy lol.
1.Koreans will say WHATEVER comes to their brain! Ex: "Buy now and leave" That is what a man said to Carm in the store
3.Koreans also love Obama they will often start to chant when they see a balck person " O -BA-M A. O-BA-MA"
4. They give themselves "American names", like James, Julie, or Oliver now, you know your name is not no dang gone Oliver!
5. Koreans know how to say what they want to say! For example Carm and I went to dinner these 3 Korean men say " ummm English noooo good" We say ohhh our Korean is no good he then says "phone number??? boyfriendo?" I was rolling!
6.Koreans eat A LOT and will try and feed you until you bust!
Seoul Searching is a blog about my recent move to South Korea, and what life is like here as Black American as I teach English to the kiddies here, and travel.
