New Light Bulbs in Plain English

Friday Night

We went into the city for dinner at our favorite pork restaurant. It was one of many farewell dinners planned. The meat was especially good but they ran out of salad.Afterwards we went to Studio 80s for some non-stop 80s music and dancing. It was a great decade for music.What's your favorite 80s tune?

Shopping for YT

It is Yoon Teacher's birthday next week and we wanted to do something nice. We all made plans to have dinner together and then go shopping to find her a birthday present.

It was actually a nice evening because rarely all six of us go out together. We went to a New Zealand BBQ joint here in Gimpo and then walked to HomePlus. We found a basket to hold all the goodies and then loaded it up...wine, cheese, CDs, DVDs, candles, chocolates, gum, cookies and some other assorted treats. We'll present it tomorrow. I'm sure she'll like it.
Whose birthday is next on your list?

Dictionary of Jack: The Ism Song

Slippery Devils

Today was my first day with the four year olds. I think it would be fun to approach life with the mentality and attitude of a four year old. These are the invaluable lessons I learned today.

1. Making forts is completely cool and anything on hand is good building material.

2. Chaos and disorder are the symphony of life.

3. Exercise consists of squirming away from adults trying to keep you in your chair.

4. It is possible and natural to go from a fit of tears to a fit of laughter .4 seconds.

5. Every day should involve tickling.

6. When a shoe comes off it might be a national emergency until properly restored to the foot.

7. If it is closed, open it and vice versa.

8. If off, turn it on and vice versa.

9. If it is on the table, it is meant to be on the floor; vice versa.

10. The nearest adult should be jumped upon and tackled to the ground....just because.

What lessons have four year olds taught you?

Burn the Bird

The running trail just outside of our apartments has been under construction for the last week. They put a nice soft surface down on another kilometer of its length.

I've been trying to run two or three times a week. Korea is definitely the place to loose weight. The diet and the lifestyle lends itself nicely to shedding extra pounds. I am just trying to keep my running up so my brother doesn't beat me too badly on our Thanksgiving Day run. We are going to do the Burn the Bird run which is a fundraiser for the River's Edge Trail in Great Falls. I'm looking forward to it. To be perfectly honest I've never walked the trail and I've always wanted to. It should be cool. Then I won't feel so bad when I come home and gorge myself on turkey and all the fixings.Have you ever walked the River's Edge Trail?

Lazy Sunday

Sleeping in never felt so good. I am resting up for what will undoubtedly be an exhausting week. Mrs. Lee has decided to expand the school and take on a Korean four year old class. (That's two and three years old by American counting.) At some point you have to draw the line. That is just too young to be seriously trying to learn anything other than walking, talking, and using toilets rather than your underpants let alone a foreign language.

Each of us will spend one class period a day with the new class to try and break them in. I look at it as taking away a prep period to baby sit. If nothing else the kids will be cute. When they're that age, it's hard not to be.

The school has been steadily growing the past several months. We've been getting more and more new students in the older grade levels and they are talking about creating a new kindergarten class (in addition to the new four year old class). Apparently our academy has a really good reputation right now. Other schools down the street from us has been suffering with staff turn over, bad teaching, and poor management and so many of the parents are pulling their kids out and transferring them to KC.

Hopefully they'll get a new teacher to help handle the influx of students. Doubtful, but here's wishing. At least I only get to be a part of it for another two weeks.

What's your place of business' reputation like?

Korean Fashion

I've been wanting to get some new suits. My new job will be professional dress. I have never had a suit or dress shirts that actually fit. To get shirts or suits with the right arm length, the body of the suit/shirt had to fit a much larger man.

Three weekends ago I went to Itaewon to go suit shopping. Pictures in hand, I picked out two fabrics for two different suits. I also choose five fabrics for some custom shirts. I was measured then and told to come back for a fitting. My first fitting was last week and I saw the almost-finished suit today. It looks good and fits really well. The tailor was able to adjust it a little bit more to remove some wrinkles and increase the taper.I was able to take the shirts and I'll pick up the suits next weekend. I'm really excited to have some clothes made specifically for me. I don't know if I got the best deal but I felt comfortable paying for what I was getting. I know I could have paid a lot more.

Have you ever had a custom suit?

TGIF

I've been trying to prep things at school so I won't be overwhelmed my last week. I actually finished writing my lesson plans. I still have student evaluations and a December curriculum book to make.

The week flew by. We had been planning to go to the magic bar again and tonight is the night. We started in the Hongdae with dinner at the TikiTi.

We had a private three act show at the magic bar and then finished the night at Macando.

All Saint's Day

I forgot my camera at school so my Halloween post is a day late. But, I had pictures too cute not to share. Koreans don't celebrate Halloween so it is kinda hard to find costumes. Dedicated parents pulled through and dressed the kids up right. I had three Spidermans....

one vampire,

Darth Vader,

one witch,

Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White.

From Saturn class came the cutest Peter Pan ever!!

And of course Clark Kent/Superman had to save the day. Yours truly!

We paraded the kids around two streets taking them to local businesses where the business owners handed out candy. It was supposed to showcase the student's English ability. The Korean staff kept urging us to have them sings songs in English. The kids were completely distracted and were having none of it. I had some major flashbacks from my own childhood: My parents urging me toward a door prompting me with 'What do you say?' and 'Don't forget to say thank you.' Conclusion: Halloween is overwhelming for children of all ages.

What is your favorite Halloween costume/activity?

As Promised

As promised, here are some after shots of the school. They haven't completely finished yet and the result isn't as dramatic as I thought it would be.

They used the same color paint on the walls and ceiling but changed the trim to gold rather than green. The school smells of fresh paint which means we have to freeze as we air the place out. October is getting to be a little nippy.What renovations have you done lately?

Jack O' Lantern

Today we got to carve pumpkins with our kindergarten class. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. Korean pumpkins aren't the same as American ones but it still worked.
I didn't let them use the knife but they used the child proof saw that came in the kit and then got to dig out the guts.What's your favorite part of carving pumpkins?

School Picture Day

The last two weeks there has been a photographer roaming the school. They are trying to capture great teaching moments on film to be used for fliers, brochures, and someone said great big wallpaper for the school's promotion. All of our classes have been disrupted (teaching isn't really that important). They pull us and the kids out in the middle of very riveting lessons on conjunctions to pose a picture. Most of them are realistic but one of the classes had to pose with violins. Since when do we teach the violin at an English academy?!?

My own class was posed with phonics flip cards and insect posters. The kids were really good about it and did their best to ensure their perma-smiles while the photographer snapped away. They also did an all school picture with all the kindergarten classes and teachers. It was hilarious. Mrs. Lee stood up on a stool doing some sort of impersonation that was a cross of the Joker's laugh, Santa's chuckle and a witch's cackle. The kids were in fits and were to the point of laughing on cue. Here is the result.They're cute though, aren't they?

Burned

Saturday night Gimpo saw a little excitement when a building across the street from our school caught on fire. The entire second floor was destroyed but the rest of the building appears to be sound with only smoke and heat damage elsewhere.

On numerous occasions I have questioned the lack of fire safety protocol. This is the result. Fortunately it wasn't our building.

What fire safety precautions do you think are necessary?

Seoul Land

Stupid Tourist Saturday!

We've been talking about going to an amusement park for awhile and it finally happened. It was the perfect day too. The fall colors were beautiful and people were dressed up in costume to get a jump start on the Halloween festivities.
While still in the city, Seoul Grand Park feels completely removed. There are close mountains on all sides that cuts the park off from the rest of the city. The area holds a zoo, an amusement park, a contemporary art museum and a host of other smaller attractions.
Our first order of business was to take the chair lift over the lake to Seoul Land. The whole area is really neat in set up and lay out.
The park is a little Disneyesque with a gigantic ball curiously similar to the main icon of Epcot. Of course it was appropriately designed for Halloween.
The lines were long so we didn't get to do that many rides but we did have a bumper car battle, we climbed to the top of an ice mountain, we zipped around the entire park on a three minute roller coaster and rode the viking hammer. YT and I also had our caricature done. I don't think the artist had had a lot of practice with American faces because he acted a little perplexed when he was drawing me.
You be the judge. I don't see the resembelence.