The 2nd installment of today's "Friday Reflection."
Yesterday I got to join my school's field trip to the popular Korean amusement park Lotte World. I was pretty excited to keep the "not teaching" theme going this week and blow off some steam in Seoul for the day. And that was exactly the extent of my expectations. I had heard it was kinda janky so my hopes certainly were not Snoop Dogg-high.
I came to school early on Thurs morning to catch a ride with the Mr. Lee (The IT guy I play ping-pong with regularly! I finally learned his name!), Junyoung, and Junhyuk. We took off from Young Sung Middle at 8:30am and headed to Lotte World. After watching Mr. Lee's favorite Korean TV show on his GPS (yes you read that correctly), singing along to some k-pop over the dinging drone of the "wear-your-seatbelt" alert (Mr. Lee hates wearing seatbelts apparently...), running red lights and swerving in-and-out of traffic, we got to Lotte World at 9am.
The initial feel of the place was of a giant mall more so than an amusement park. We walked in and saw the hordes of Young Sung kids. Homeroom teachers were taking attendance, and the students were sitting and waiting for the gates to open. It was really interesting to see my students wearing normal street clothes rather than the uniformed middle school garb. In general, they were all dressed very nicely. Many looked appropriately dressed for a night out at the clubs. Lots of puffy vests, expensive looking dress shirts, and fancy sneakers.
The park itself was a cross between Six Flags, Mall of America, and Disneyworld. Half was indoors and half was outdoors. The elaborate shopping and enormous dome over our heads felt like MoA. The thrill-ride laden outer portion felt like Six Flags. And as much as I hate to say it (...Sigrid...), it kind of had the Disney "it" factor. Whether it was the identical park maps to Disney, the "Cinderella castle", or the Mickey and Minney wannabes, it kind of, KIND OF (Sigrid) felt like a smaller, cheaper version of WDW. It didn't have the same resort scene that WDW has going on, and there's only 1 park, but it was fun nonetheless.
For lunch, the teachers ate at a fancy-ish Korean restaurant that was perfectly outfitted for large groups. My 2 new fave Korean foods are now bossam, or grilled pork belly, and pajeon, a green onion and seafood pancake-like pizza. Oh and, like always, there was a healthy dose of booze on the table waiting for us. Yesterday's poison? Makgeoli, a rice wine that doesn't not taste like medicine. A little weird, but it's growing on me.
The rest of the day I spent walking around with Mr. Lee, Junyoung (a coworker my age), and Junhyuk (a Young Sung 1st grader - our 5/6th grade). We hit many of the rides with little to no wait and fraternized with the kids. Mr. Lee told me summer weekends typically see a 3-4 hour wait per main attraction. Loco. As for the kids, one thing to note was the teacher-student dynamic outside of school. Kids see their teachers as more than just an authoritative figure. They are role models too. They have parental characteristics in the classroom and almost become an older sibling outside the classroom. Hierarchy is also huge here. For example, Mr. Lee and I would cut almost every line simply by finding a willing and honored student. Part of me felt guilty but it seemed very normal for everyone else. He would grab kids' water/food, take a swig/bite, and then offer it to me. And sometimes they would gladly offer food. Mr. Lee even gave some kids money to spend on arcades and ice cream. Overall, a very interesting and notable relationship between teacher and student.
I'm probably missing some details but I just want to finish this post. I'll let the video do the rest of the talking. More on the videos though. I probably have a few hours of raw video to edit yet, and I'm going to make them in order. So, it's gonna be Gangnam video first. School festival second. And Lotte World third. Hopefully it doesn't take me TOO long.
In other news, I JUST bought myself a Nikon D3100 off the Korean version of Amazon (thanks Junyoung). So expect pictures I actually took. So. Damn. Excited.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
School Festival - Soccer, Sundae, and Lady Gaga
Today is Friday so it's time to reflect on the week that was. It's weeks like these, by the way, that make me stop and realize just how nice we have it here. The only days I taught this week were Monday and Tuesday, which isn't too shabby.
Flash digression! - days taught the last 5 weeks or so.
-This week (Oct 18-22) - taught 2 days
-Last week (Oct 11-15) - taught 4 days, Friday's classes got cancelled day of
-Midterms (Oct 4-8) - taught Monday, desk-warmed rest of week
-Orientation (Sept 27-Oct 1) - taught Mon and Tues, went to GEPIK Orientation in Anseong rest of week(soooo much to talk about that lil gem of an event ie the other "interesting" English teachers in Korea)
-Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving (Sept 20-24) - desk-warmed on Monday, went to Busan rest of week, see 'Busan videos'
-For those keeping score, I haven't taught a Friday class since mid-September. Which is sweet because Fri is my worst day of classes. 5 total. Mostly middle school 3rd graders (8th graders in USA). Mostly painful.
Ok! Back to the mission at hand. All week, the kids and teachers alike have been preparing for Wednesday's school festival. Hours of after-school sweaty dance rehearsals. Endless practice free kicks. Band practice. The whole 9 yards. The brisk Wednesday morning started with a trip down from the teacher lounge to the soccer field. The entire student population was on the field doing warmup-stretches in unison not unlike something you see Communist armies doing. On the sidelines, in the meanwhile, a group of mothers was setting up a Korean concession stand with all the usual suspects: dokbokki (my go-to), udon soup, instant coffee, cold seafood corndogs (ironically called "hot bars"), cow/pork? liver, and my new fave, sundae! (pronounced soon-day) which is a pig intestine casing stuffed with cellophane noodles and congealed pork blood. Sounds gross I'll admit, but once you realize you're eating noodles and some mystery organ, it's pretty tasty. It was a sight to see to say the least. Lucky for me I brought an appetite and my [Mom's] Flip cam (vids coming!!!).
The rest of the morning entailed all of the kids on the sidelines and in the stands watching the soccer tournament pan out. Teams were based on homerooms and as to be expected, no matter where in the world you are, the boys went nuts for it.
After jamming on sundae and cheering for some kids I recognized, I ate lunch and headed upstairs to the gym to watch the performances-aspect of the school festival. I walked in to a hot, stuffy gym packed with enough middle school boys to make Michael Ja......mm nevermind. Apparently the MC for the event (oh yes there was a hired MC) was some popular TV personality and the kids went crazy for him. Didn't catch a name. Remember the Lady Gaga kid from last post? No? You didn't read last post? Mmkay well forget you then. I got there just in time to see him and his 2 cohorts breaking it down to "Telephone" while wearing head-to-toe animal costumes. You gotta see it to believe it (remember vids coming soon). Also, a local high-school-girls dance team made a special guest appearance and broke it down to a few k-pop jams including Miss A's "Bad Girl, Good Girl". From what I've heard from other English teachers, it's the go-to song for these school festival dance performances. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it. Kinda catchy. Yeah I said it. You'll also most likely hear it on the school festival vid I make. The best of there dance was seeing the boys at an all-boys middle school go absolutely bananas over these high school girls. It's similar to what would happen if David Hasselhoff walked into a German Mary Kay party. Boys were freaking out at the sight of 5 girls with not-so-conservative dance moves. So funny. The rest of the afternoon was filled with other dance teams and wannabe boy bands.
Overall, the day was too much fun to put into words. I'm really excited to get this video online. Ccub.
Flash digression! - days taught the last 5 weeks or so.
-This week (Oct 18-22) - taught 2 days
-Last week (Oct 11-15) - taught 4 days, Friday's classes got cancelled day of
-Midterms (Oct 4-8) - taught Monday, desk-warmed rest of week
-Orientation (Sept 27-Oct 1) - taught Mon and Tues, went to GEPIK Orientation in Anseong rest of week(soooo much to talk about that lil gem of an event ie the other "interesting" English teachers in Korea)
-Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving (Sept 20-24) - desk-warmed on Monday, went to Busan rest of week, see 'Busan videos'
-For those keeping score, I haven't taught a Friday class since mid-September. Which is sweet because Fri is my worst day of classes. 5 total. Mostly middle school 3rd graders (8th graders in USA). Mostly painful.
Ok! Back to the mission at hand. All week, the kids and teachers alike have been preparing for Wednesday's school festival. Hours of after-school sweaty dance rehearsals. Endless practice free kicks. Band practice. The whole 9 yards. The brisk Wednesday morning started with a trip down from the teacher lounge to the soccer field. The entire student population was on the field doing warmup-stretches in unison not unlike something you see Communist armies doing. On the sidelines, in the meanwhile, a group of mothers was setting up a Korean concession stand with all the usual suspects: dokbokki (my go-to), udon soup, instant coffee, cold seafood corndogs (ironically called "hot bars"), cow/pork? liver, and my new fave, sundae! (pronounced soon-day) which is a pig intestine casing stuffed with cellophane noodles and congealed pork blood. Sounds gross I'll admit, but once you realize you're eating noodles and some mystery organ, it's pretty tasty. It was a sight to see to say the least. Lucky for me I brought an appetite and my [Mom's] Flip cam (vids coming!!!).
The rest of the morning entailed all of the kids on the sidelines and in the stands watching the soccer tournament pan out. Teams were based on homerooms and as to be expected, no matter where in the world you are, the boys went nuts for it.
After jamming on sundae and cheering for some kids I recognized, I ate lunch and headed upstairs to the gym to watch the performances-aspect of the school festival. I walked in to a hot, stuffy gym packed with enough middle school boys to make Michael Ja......mm nevermind. Apparently the MC for the event (oh yes there was a hired MC) was some popular TV personality and the kids went crazy for him. Didn't catch a name. Remember the Lady Gaga kid from last post? No? You didn't read last post? Mmkay well forget you then. I got there just in time to see him and his 2 cohorts breaking it down to "Telephone" while wearing head-to-toe animal costumes. You gotta see it to believe it (remember vids coming soon). Also, a local high-school-girls dance team made a special guest appearance and broke it down to a few k-pop jams including Miss A's "Bad Girl, Good Girl". From what I've heard from other English teachers, it's the go-to song for these school festival dance performances. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it. Kinda catchy. Yeah I said it. You'll also most likely hear it on the school festival vid I make. The best of there dance was seeing the boys at an all-boys middle school go absolutely bananas over these high school girls. It's similar to what would happen if David Hasselhoff walked into a German Mary Kay party. Boys were freaking out at the sight of 5 girls with not-so-conservative dance moves. So funny. The rest of the afternoon was filled with other dance teams and wannabe boy bands.
Overall, the day was too much fun to put into words. I'm really excited to get this video online. Ccub.
Friday, October 15, 2010
When I say 'ping' you say 'pong'....'ping'....'ping'
I'm gonna try something new here and give you a quick update on my life. Today is Friday and I just got done with "work." I say "work" because I got paid to sit around all day. There were graduation photos and a guest speaker so 4 out of my 5 classes got canceled. Yet somehow I didn't have time to blog. Thanks facebook / gchat / blackoutkorea.blogspot.com. But here I am finally getting around to it in the wee hours before a bunch of Badgers arrive in Seongnam. Yesterday was the birthday of one of my friends Zoe and tonight we're heading to Gangnam to celebrate. Julie and I are housing a bunch of our friends tonight so it should be fun playing host. Street meat isn't going to eat itself after all!
So anyways I've had quite the week and need to share it before I forget it all. This week I started teaching my after-school English program called "Sports English." I play sports with kids, teach them some English, and get paid extra. It's a pretty sweet gig. On Monday we played basketball. I showed them some Michael Jordan clips, taught them some b-ball vocab, and headed to the gym to play some 3-on-3. Besides a loose ball almost hitting some adults practicing group drumming and ruining the party for everyone, it was lots of fun.And on Wednesday we played ping pong. I set up a little round robin with the kids and went undefeated (no big deal). During one of the games an older female teacher grabbed the paddle from one of the boys and, very intensely, ordered me to serve. She wanted to brawl! Ping pong-style. Even though I had a commanding lead, I let the game slip out of my hands. There will be revenge lady, there will be revenge.
The other highlights of the week include:
-speaking of ping pong, today after I lunch I played ping pong with the IT guy (lost), the school disciplinarian (barely lost, still bitter), and the school's #1 ranked player (won!). And yes, the students have ping pong rankings at Young Sung.
-being asked to join and resign from the teacher dance team for next week's school festival. Better luck next year I guess...
-a kid asking me what I think of Lady Gaga to which I replied "ohhh very sexy!" (for the record I do not think LG is that attractive). During Wed.'s edition of "Sports English" I witnessed him and 2 friends performing a rendition of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" complete with song AND dance. They are also gearing up for next week's school festival, which will definitely be videotaped.
-inadvertently joining the young(ish) dude teacher lunch table clique. It's the Art teacher, who serenaded an ABBA song to me right before lunch today (I can't make this up people!), the IT guy, who I regularly play ping pong with (and who gave me a paddle today), and the gym teacher, who asked me to help transcribe an "orgasmic birth" youtube video a few weeks back (I think he thought it was appropriate for sex ed. It wasn't.) rocking a table all by ourselves every day. No girls allowed!
-was told that next week's schedule includes the school festival on Wednesday, Lotte World field trip on Thursday (soooo excited), and the school anniversary on Friday (which means no school). So next week I will only be teaching Monday and Tuesday. I honestly don't think I've taught the Friday kids for at least a month. Not complaining though.
Okay well I think that was a pretty accurate rundown of the week. I'll get back to y'all as soon as I can. I still have lots to say, so stay tuned. Good news, I'll be purchasing a Nikon D3100 with my hard-earned dollars in the next couple of days so I'll finally be posting photos that I actually took. And HD video. Sooooo pumped. And I'm pumped to head into the Seoul's "Beverly Hills" to club with a bunch of Badgers tonight. AND I'm also super pumped for the Ohio State - Badger game this weekend, which we will be watching on Sunday morning at a foreigner bar! My first Badger game of the year! Let's Go Red.
Oh and here's a little preview of what I think my halloween costume will be looking like...
So anyways I've had quite the week and need to share it before I forget it all. This week I started teaching my after-school English program called "Sports English." I play sports with kids, teach them some English, and get paid extra. It's a pretty sweet gig. On Monday we played basketball. I showed them some Michael Jordan clips, taught them some b-ball vocab, and headed to the gym to play some 3-on-3. Besides a loose ball almost hitting some adults practicing group drumming and ruining the party for everyone, it was lots of fun.And on Wednesday we played ping pong. I set up a little round robin with the kids and went undefeated (no big deal). During one of the games an older female teacher grabbed the paddle from one of the boys and, very intensely, ordered me to serve. She wanted to brawl! Ping pong-style. Even though I had a commanding lead, I let the game slip out of my hands. There will be revenge lady, there will be revenge.
The other highlights of the week include:
-speaking of ping pong, today after I lunch I played ping pong with the IT guy (lost), the school disciplinarian (barely lost, still bitter), and the school's #1 ranked player (won!). And yes, the students have ping pong rankings at Young Sung.
-being asked to join and resign from the teacher dance team for next week's school festival. Better luck next year I guess...
-a kid asking me what I think of Lady Gaga to which I replied "ohhh very sexy!" (for the record I do not think LG is that attractive). During Wed.'s edition of "Sports English" I witnessed him and 2 friends performing a rendition of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" complete with song AND dance. They are also gearing up for next week's school festival, which will definitely be videotaped.
-inadvertently joining the young(ish) dude teacher lunch table clique. It's the Art teacher, who serenaded an ABBA song to me right before lunch today (I can't make this up people!), the IT guy, who I regularly play ping pong with (and who gave me a paddle today), and the gym teacher, who asked me to help transcribe an "orgasmic birth" youtube video a few weeks back (I think he thought it was appropriate for sex ed. It wasn't.) rocking a table all by ourselves every day. No girls allowed!
-was told that next week's schedule includes the school festival on Wednesday, Lotte World field trip on Thursday (soooo excited), and the school anniversary on Friday (which means no school). So next week I will only be teaching Monday and Tuesday. I honestly don't think I've taught the Friday kids for at least a month. Not complaining though.
Okay well I think that was a pretty accurate rundown of the week. I'll get back to y'all as soon as I can. I still have lots to say, so stay tuned. Good news, I'll be purchasing a Nikon D3100 with my hard-earned dollars in the next couple of days so I'll finally be posting photos that I actually took. And HD video. Sooooo pumped. And I'm pumped to head into the Seoul's "Beverly Hills" to club with a bunch of Badgers tonight. AND I'm also super pumped for the Ohio State - Badger game this weekend, which we will be watching on Sunday morning at a foreigner bar! My first Badger game of the year! Let's Go Red.
Oh and here's a little preview of what I think my halloween costume will be looking like...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Nanta at the Hi Seoul Festival
Last Monday night, Julie and I didn't feel like twiddling our thumbs at home all night, so we headed into Seoul to catch a little bit of what the Hi Seoul Festival had to offer. The selling point for us was we heard there was a free showing of the popular Nanta happening that night. For those keeping score at home, Nanta is Korea's most famous theater show. It is basically a kitchen-flavored love child of Stomp and Blue Man Group. The premise of the hour-long show is three cooks, a nasty restaurant manager, and an apprentice trying to make a meal for a wedding or something. The non-verbal show is high-octane fun for all ages and loaded with percussion, rhythm, dance, and comedy. Whoa I sound like an advertisement. Considering the tickets usually go for like $40 or something, we couldn't pass up the chance to see it while saving some serious won (we work at public schools ok?! not those cushy, high-paying hagwon jobs. no, im not bitter about the pay difference, why do you ask?! no, really!!).
Phew where was I? Ah yes that's right. So the word 'Nanta' literally translates to "hit repeatedly" or "strike relentlessly" (thank you Internet) and that pretty much sums up the theme of the show. Nonstop entertainment, my kind of jam. The venue was pretty small so there wasn't really a bad seat in the house. It was essentially an over-sized pavilion that held a few hundred people. The show itself included dramatic drum segments with knives and drumsticks alike, lots of audience participation, and cool light shows. Mom and Dad, when you guys come visit (I said when not if) we should probably check this out. That goes for you too Bryce, Marit, Adam, Tonya (yes you Tonya!) and Seegz. Here are some pics I definitely didn't take:
And since I'm still riding this whole making videos thing, I decided to compile all the clips I illegally took (they said no video, whoops) into a short and quickly-edited video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTcoQJTwEc
The 2:00 mark is the start of the encore. It gets a little dark and difficult to see, but what's happening is a traditional Korean dance where a long ribbon is attached to the top of hat. The dancers twirls their heads and, correspondingly, so too does the ribbon. Nanta's version included black lights. Ok enjoy!
Phew where was I? Ah yes that's right. So the word 'Nanta' literally translates to "hit repeatedly" or "strike relentlessly" (thank you Internet) and that pretty much sums up the theme of the show. Nonstop entertainment, my kind of jam. The venue was pretty small so there wasn't really a bad seat in the house. It was essentially an over-sized pavilion that held a few hundred people. The show itself included dramatic drum segments with knives and drumsticks alike, lots of audience participation, and cool light shows. Mom and Dad, when you guys come visit (I said when not if) we should probably check this out. That goes for you too Bryce, Marit, Adam, Tonya (yes you Tonya!) and Seegz. Here are some pics I definitely didn't take:
And since I'm still riding this whole making videos thing, I decided to compile all the clips I illegally took (they said no video, whoops) into a short and quickly-edited video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTcoQJTwEc
The 2:00 mark is the start of the encore. It gets a little dark and difficult to see, but what's happening is a traditional Korean dance where a long ribbon is attached to the top of hat. The dancers twirls their heads and, correspondingly, so too does the ribbon. Nanta's version included black lights. Ok enjoy!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Gettin' our Busan
Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, but I have been using every ounce of my free time making lesson plans (nah not really) and editing the raw videos from Busan. I didn't want to post about the stuff that's happened post-Busan until I got these vids up-n-running. I had to split them up into 2 separate entities because, I don't know about you, but a 9 minute video would bore me to death. And I'm still a little raw when it comes to editing (and after eating 2 helpings of dukbokki but more on that later). I probably could've made some of these shots a bit more concise but whatevs. Alright! So without any further adieuuu, I present to youuu, Busan! (You have to click the Youtube link. I know I know, kinda anti-climactic)
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeuLgBEOpQg
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8H1XETM2JY
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeuLgBEOpQg
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8H1XETM2JY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)