Recent Observations

1. My host grandmother ate dinner with us the past two nights. My host father also ate dinner with us. I can't remember the last time he had eaten dinner with us two consecutive nights. I'm wondering if it's a coincidence...

2. My first year students are too cute. I might be the first foreigner they've ever met. One kid today maybe wins for best first impression of a student in a class. He was very loud but not interruptive, said that he loved me several times, asked for my phone number because he "loves me," and acted like he was rapping into a microphone a few times, complete with hand gestures and the "oh yeah's!" After class my co-teacher said that student will be an entertainer because he sings and dances. I believe it, and I'm excited to see him on stage already.

3. Sometimes I think the students take on the tone of their regular English teacher. If the class is not energetic (or too afraid to be too energetic) I look at the teacher and their attitude makes sense.

4. Apple and CBS are offering "condensed versions" of the March Madness games on iTunes. I don't know what condensed versions means, and the resolution of the video won't be great, but I will probably buy it. All 63 games for $20? In Korea, I think it's either that or nothing. I have Duke, Gonzaga, BC, and UConn in the final four, with UConn beating Duke in the championship.

What's better than a white Christmas?

A white White Day! It snowed last night in my town. Today is White Day, the day a month after Valentine's day on which boys give girls candy. Or just another excuse to promote cuteness and couples in Korea.

I went to Daegu last weekend and didn't do much

I went to Daegu last weekend and met up with Jes and Beth. It was fun and had a lot of those "oh, Korea" moments.

1. It took us a long time to find a motel. "In Korea??" you're thinking. I know! The first motel we found was closed. The second wouldn't allow us to stay there because we were three people of different sexes. Two women would have been fine. Three men would have been fine. One man and one woman would have been fine. But one man and two women? Take your business elsewhere?

2. Sunday we tried to go to a mountain so we could take a cable car up the mountain. When the bus came, the driver wouldn't let us get on it. We found out later there was a fire on the mountain.

3. I saw two foreign films "2046" (Chinese) and "Let's go to Seoul" (Korean) that just didn't make sense.

4. The temperature dropped 20 degrees between Saturday and Sunday. Today, it is now snowing.

Also today, I taught some of the new 1st year middle school students for the first time. They're so cute and so excited to meet the foreigner.

My brother's birthday

My little brother Brad's birthday is on Saturday. He's going to be 15, and is a freshman in high school. I miss being there for these sorts of things, and because I went to college far away from home and now am in Korea I don't really get to see him grow up.

He's also trying to get a job at the grocery store where I started working. I had started working there in the fall of freshman year of high school, and I remember it was just as educating as parts of high school. Which got me thinking about how different it is to be a 15 year old high school boy in America and Korea. I would not want to be a Korean high school kid. Whenever I hear the about endless mindless studying, I kind of feel sad and remember the Mark Twain quote, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." In Korea, schooling is all education is. So I'm sad and happy my brother isn't here - I can't see him, but he isn't a Korean high school student. He has a chance to learn outside of the classroom... now if I could only give my students the same chance...

Sweet new air jordan commercial

Read about it on ESPN, and then watch it

Opening Ceremony

A new school year has begun. This semester arriving at school I feel like a veteran. The chaos, wildness, lack of information, and the amount of English my students' have forgotten is thrilling. All the teachers are changing desks, getting new schedules, meeting new teachers, etc. I'm not alone. I have a new coteacher even though my old teacher is still teaching at the school. And my new coteacher is the one I would have picked. It's amazing.

Of course our opening ceremony was outside, and it was lightly snowing. The students had to be out there for more than an hour, while the teachers were out there for probably 15 - 20 minutes. I don't know exactly, I was daydreaming as usual.

I have moved to a new desk on the first floor in the main teachers' office. Right next to the vice principal! I have cleaned the desk and moved all my stuff from my old desk, but I'm not setting up shop yet. According to the Korean law of averages, I will probably have to move to a different desk later today, and then move once more next week. Why? I don't know. It's just the way things work.

Around 10am a new English teacher asked me if I was ready to teach.
"When?" I asked.
"mmmm... maybe 5 minutes later. Do you have a lesson plan for introductions?"
Smiling, I said "I do."
"So can you teach them? Maybe the class will only be 20 minutes today."
Laughing, "I'm sure I can think of something."

In class there was a new student who lived in America for two years. He can speak English well. After he said something the rest of the class cheered, and then proceeded to take 5 minutes to think about how to answer "What did you do during vacation?"

It's lunch time and it's time to be a rock star in the hallways once again.

New semester new attitude

I just got back to my homestay Monday night. I have to start teaching tomorrow. I'm feeling kind of indifferent to start teaching again. My coteacher is sometimes hard to get along with, and because I feel like most of us are in a teaching situation where we can't be very effective. I spent February in Seoul, and I loved it. Mainly because it's not like Gyeryong. Seoul is big, and has people my age. It would be great to keep living in Seoul studying Korean... but unfortunately that's not what I'm here to do.

After talking with Annie though, we decided this semester is going to be much better than last semester. We know what to expect - not knowing what goes on at school, being ready for last minute changes that could easily have been explained to us in advance, and not being understood by many students. I'm going to try to change my lesson plans so that each class has a routine and hopefully interests the students more by continuing a story of my college roommate Gammby every week. The weather will get warmer as the semester goes on instead of colder. I'm eagerly awaiting cherry blossoms, playing basketball outside, tracksuit day, and not being kind of stuck in my homestay during the week.

This time around, we know the framework in which we're here... so basically we have 120 days left to rock and roll Korean style.