Discos, Graves and Goldfish...
Hello there.
It is very noisy in the PC bang today- the computer games are woofing out of the speakers and there are three people playing guitar by the counter. Nevertheless I will try my best to concentrate as the guy next to me blasts his opponents into the next galaxy.
So it is Saturday and end of my fourth week here- only another 48 weeks to go. Not bad. Certainly having a good time so far. the kids are still fine- there are a couple of classes that I still have to sort out properly but we are getting there I think. Had a good lesson this week using some stuff that my friend, Heather, sent about London Zoo and the Tower of London so if anyone else has any flyers to send this way the kids of Hanlim Academy will be most grateful. It makes a change from using the books all the time too which is no bad thing. The books aren't bad mind. I use one called New Parade with the smaller kids which has lots of songs and colouring in , Let's Go is for the slightly bigger kids- deeper songs and no colouring in, and Fifty fifty for the teens and adults. Fifty fifty lessons follow a structure of talking tasks, lessoning tasks and reading tasks. Not a bad book but the kids really don't get the full benefit of how weird some of the tapes can be. There was one with a kid talking to his dad about how much better his mom was at doing everything, another had a woman in a car showroom looking at the cars and then stealing one and yesterday there was one about a man and a women comparing cars and how the woman has two so there is one for outings with the dogs. Some of them make me laugh and the kids don't know why at all!
So I went to Pusan last weekend as I probably mentioned but I forgot to say about the mounds on the hills. Everywhere I looked there were little mounds up on any available hill. I asked Tim about this and he said that they were graves, Most people already know where they are going to be buried. I find that odd. I don't know where I am going to be next week, let alone for all eternity. And if people don't stop dying soon they are going to run out of hills!
But at least there are plenty of people here to look after our immortal souls. Take for example a guy we met last week. He is a Seventh Day Adventist and over here teaching English. We took him onto the party we were having. He is a bit of a rebel as he had sneaked out of his host parents' home earlier to watch 'Lord of the Rings'- something the Seven Day Dentists are against. He politely refused all alcohol and but joined in the games- I really don't think that he realised that when you play cards and use money at the same time it is gambling! And he told us outrageous stories of wild parties that he had been to back home where there was both girls AND dancing! Bless his innocence! No-one appeared to have warned him about the lack of deodorant over here either judging on his aura. Not sure that he will ever ring again!
But I cracked the other day and bought two goldfish on the way home- Fluff and Nip. they are very sweet and I have put them next to the TV as they seem to speak marginally more English that it does. The tank is a little bare right now- I put in a coffee cup but you try miming 'gravel' and 'No Fishing sign- it was not likely to happen really. And now the other teachers have started asking where they came from and I sense a bit of a trend starting! And I have already found a brave volunteer for the flushing in case of disaster.
I am now truly Korean too. My cell phone has an ornament on it! Hooray- its nakedness was getting a touch embarrassing- so at least now it looks pretty even if it rarely rings. And when it does ring it causes chaos across the hall as the walls in our place are very thin and Tim's phone has the same ring. Cue him diving across the room this morning when Eric rang me to take me to the Buddha shop. Hee hee! And I went to the Buddha shop and bought a lovely wooden turtle key ring to give to Trish who gave me the turtle that now hangs from my phone. The woman in the shop liked us all so much that she gave us all little Buddhas on springs to put on the dashboard of our cars- I think that mine will live by the fish tank for a while- at least until I learn to drive and get a car! Though the fish will be long gone before that happens I am sure! people often give me stuff when I go into shops- I bought some notebooks the other day and she threw in a pen and before that I was doing my grocery shopping and woman at the checkout threw in an extra sausage. It is raining hard today and some guy walked me down the street under his umbrella. It is all very nice!
It is a good job that I now have the turtle though as yesterday was Tim's birthday and did he ever rake in the pressies- he must have about 10 things hanging from his phone- did I tell you that the phones have special hooks just so you can hang cute items from them? After school the director took us out for Tim's birthday. He invited me to his country home for the Solar holiday at the beginning of Feb which was very sweet but I think I am going to Seoul. he asked me if I liked drinking and how much I could drink. I tried to be all coy about it but Tim dobbed me right in and Mr Kim insisted that it was Korean tradition to scull your welcome to Korea drinks- it was the start of a very long night! There was a big party in the bar that brings us dried squid as a bar snack. And afterwards I got my first experience of Korean nightclubs.
But first I have to tell you about Korean ladies' foot wear. The shoes have big heels and they are so pointy that I can't even begin to tell you properly. Thin heels and big pointy toes which must go on for several inches after the foot has stopped. So the girls in the club were sporting their pointy finest which made it impossible for them to dance at all. When they did venture onto the floor it was to just stand and sway slightly. I am sure that our Western style moshing frightened the bejesus out of them. But the boys are something else. First off the DJ was in middle of the stage like some kind of a god in his suit and gold earrings. But the floor was where the real action was at. The guy giving it most was dressed in a not untypical outfit. He had on a crisp white shirt. this was covered by a baby blue v-neck cardigan which he had done the buttons up on. And the jeans had the most outrageous turn-ups you ever did see. And he was wearing the man's version of the pointy shoe which is a long slip on affair. we got quite a bit of attention ourselves- imagine being in your local backwater disco and a bunch of Koreans coming in and totally taking over the dance floor- that is us over here!
And I have finally worked out the toilet etiquette (though not the control panel). Every time I went into a cubicle someone would come and knock on the door and I would shout hello- last night I learnt that you are just supposed to knock back. I was too intrigued at the notice in the jacks proclaiming a sexy dancing festival to notice at first but I soon got clued in and was knocking away like the best of them.
It is very noisy in the PC bang today- the computer games are woofing out of the speakers and there are three people playing guitar by the counter. Nevertheless I will try my best to concentrate as the guy next to me blasts his opponents into the next galaxy.
So it is Saturday and end of my fourth week here- only another 48 weeks to go. Not bad. Certainly having a good time so far. the kids are still fine- there are a couple of classes that I still have to sort out properly but we are getting there I think. Had a good lesson this week using some stuff that my friend, Heather, sent about London Zoo and the Tower of London so if anyone else has any flyers to send this way the kids of Hanlim Academy will be most grateful. It makes a change from using the books all the time too which is no bad thing. The books aren't bad mind. I use one called New Parade with the smaller kids which has lots of songs and colouring in , Let's Go is for the slightly bigger kids- deeper songs and no colouring in, and Fifty fifty for the teens and adults. Fifty fifty lessons follow a structure of talking tasks, lessoning tasks and reading tasks. Not a bad book but the kids really don't get the full benefit of how weird some of the tapes can be. There was one with a kid talking to his dad about how much better his mom was at doing everything, another had a woman in a car showroom looking at the cars and then stealing one and yesterday there was one about a man and a women comparing cars and how the woman has two so there is one for outings with the dogs. Some of them make me laugh and the kids don't know why at all!
So I went to Pusan last weekend as I probably mentioned but I forgot to say about the mounds on the hills. Everywhere I looked there were little mounds up on any available hill. I asked Tim about this and he said that they were graves, Most people already know where they are going to be buried. I find that odd. I don't know where I am going to be next week, let alone for all eternity. And if people don't stop dying soon they are going to run out of hills!
But at least there are plenty of people here to look after our immortal souls. Take for example a guy we met last week. He is a Seventh Day Adventist and over here teaching English. We took him onto the party we were having. He is a bit of a rebel as he had sneaked out of his host parents' home earlier to watch 'Lord of the Rings'- something the Seven Day Dentists are against. He politely refused all alcohol and but joined in the games- I really don't think that he realised that when you play cards and use money at the same time it is gambling! And he told us outrageous stories of wild parties that he had been to back home where there was both girls AND dancing! Bless his innocence! No-one appeared to have warned him about the lack of deodorant over here either judging on his aura. Not sure that he will ever ring again!
But I cracked the other day and bought two goldfish on the way home- Fluff and Nip. they are very sweet and I have put them next to the TV as they seem to speak marginally more English that it does. The tank is a little bare right now- I put in a coffee cup but you try miming 'gravel' and 'No Fishing sign- it was not likely to happen really. And now the other teachers have started asking where they came from and I sense a bit of a trend starting! And I have already found a brave volunteer for the flushing in case of disaster.
I am now truly Korean too. My cell phone has an ornament on it! Hooray- its nakedness was getting a touch embarrassing- so at least now it looks pretty even if it rarely rings. And when it does ring it causes chaos across the hall as the walls in our place are very thin and Tim's phone has the same ring. Cue him diving across the room this morning when Eric rang me to take me to the Buddha shop. Hee hee! And I went to the Buddha shop and bought a lovely wooden turtle key ring to give to Trish who gave me the turtle that now hangs from my phone. The woman in the shop liked us all so much that she gave us all little Buddhas on springs to put on the dashboard of our cars- I think that mine will live by the fish tank for a while- at least until I learn to drive and get a car! Though the fish will be long gone before that happens I am sure! people often give me stuff when I go into shops- I bought some notebooks the other day and she threw in a pen and before that I was doing my grocery shopping and woman at the checkout threw in an extra sausage. It is raining hard today and some guy walked me down the street under his umbrella. It is all very nice!
It is a good job that I now have the turtle though as yesterday was Tim's birthday and did he ever rake in the pressies- he must have about 10 things hanging from his phone- did I tell you that the phones have special hooks just so you can hang cute items from them? After school the director took us out for Tim's birthday. He invited me to his country home for the Solar holiday at the beginning of Feb which was very sweet but I think I am going to Seoul. he asked me if I liked drinking and how much I could drink. I tried to be all coy about it but Tim dobbed me right in and Mr Kim insisted that it was Korean tradition to scull your welcome to Korea drinks- it was the start of a very long night! There was a big party in the bar that brings us dried squid as a bar snack. And afterwards I got my first experience of Korean nightclubs.
But first I have to tell you about Korean ladies' foot wear. The shoes have big heels and they are so pointy that I can't even begin to tell you properly. Thin heels and big pointy toes which must go on for several inches after the foot has stopped. So the girls in the club were sporting their pointy finest which made it impossible for them to dance at all. When they did venture onto the floor it was to just stand and sway slightly. I am sure that our Western style moshing frightened the bejesus out of them. But the boys are something else. First off the DJ was in middle of the stage like some kind of a god in his suit and gold earrings. But the floor was where the real action was at. The guy giving it most was dressed in a not untypical outfit. He had on a crisp white shirt. this was covered by a baby blue v-neck cardigan which he had done the buttons up on. And the jeans had the most outrageous turn-ups you ever did see. And he was wearing the man's version of the pointy shoe which is a long slip on affair. we got quite a bit of attention ourselves- imagine being in your local backwater disco and a bunch of Koreans coming in and totally taking over the dance floor- that is us over here!
And I have finally worked out the toilet etiquette (though not the control panel). Every time I went into a cubicle someone would come and knock on the door and I would shout hello- last night I learnt that you are just supposed to knock back. I was too intrigued at the notice in the jacks proclaiming a sexy dancing festival to notice at first but I soon got clued in and was knocking away like the best of them.
posted by Helen @ 11:53 PM
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