Another week done...crazy busy

Wow, if you want to lose weight move to Korea. I'm down about 7 pounds in 2 weeks! I'm not eating great here right now. I'm still trying to find Korean food I crave, but all the veggies are pickled and it's pointless to eat them. So I'm buying a bit of food, it's better that way but more expensive.

It was a busy week here. Classes are always busy, my kids are always a handful, but sooo much fun.
My kindergarden class is my main class then I have two classes that teaches children who are already in school as an afterschool english lesson. These kids are just beat by the time they get to class so i'm still trying to figure out a way to make more games and have more fun with them. Me reading to my class.

Us doing our morning 'yoga'. Sally's very tactile and likes to be close. haha

Nathens birthday, I love this kid.

On Friday, I had my first field trip with Maple Bear and it was a hoot. We went to the fire station and the kids got to fire water at a little fake fire then got to sit on the fire trucks and then we went up stairs to the 'theatre' and watched with really sexist anime type movie on how women and children start fires..haha

On our way to the busses.

Which one's the child?

Bruno trying on the oxygen mask, he's fearless.

The kids trying out some water. It was everywhere.


This past weekend I went into Seoul and got myself a brandnew professional lens, trying to build my lens library slowly ;). While I was in Seoul on Saturday I met up with my friend Allison and we found a cool little 'folk' village in the middle of Chungmoro (the camera district...heaven..). So we got to see some little old ladies sing and dance. It was a nice sight to see and Allison was able to snap a few shots of me photographing!
The women with bowls

I loved this lady



Me photographing those women

Some roofs of the village






..yeah..i dont know either






So the next day we planned on going hiking...what a day! Lauren and Nicole got up at 5:30 with me to go hiking, props to them! Only a few people have ever gone on a hike that early with me. Unfortunately it took us abotu 2 hours worth of public transportation to make it to Bukhansan National Park. The trip was worth it though. We followed other hikers to figure out where we were going and we met up with a cool woman from Singapore named Maggie. She decided to come along with us and we started up. Oh but along the way we passed like 40 outdoor stores where I bought a great trekking pole for $5! Nicole made fun of me all day becuase I thought it was a such a bargain. So we climbed and climbed till we met a little lady named Sylvia who took it upon herself to be our guide. She was great to have there she showed us alot of cool places. And gave us alot more infromation we all needed haha.











Then we came to this beautiful Buddhist temple in the middle of the mountain. We stopped there for a while to refeul, to eat and to drink tea. It was sooo nice.






By the time we finished it took another 2 hours to make it back home, but sooo worth it.

sunset over lake park

Week number one!

Well, I've completed my first week here. What a week! I got in last Thursday morning and arrived at my tiny apartment at 5am, Korean time. I tried to sleep for a bit then I was taken to my new school at Maple Bear (30 min walk from my door) and it's a nice walk too. Yeah, I have a bike now, that needs fixing. Things here are thrown out soo easily. I got my couch, desk chair, bike and night table all for free...just had to do a little scavenging!





























When I arrived at the school I saw a sea of children in little red and blue uniforms and met my fellow teachers, Catherine, Nicole, David and Lauren. My Director, Asim, showed me around and introduced me to everyone and I have to say I've been lucky, everyone there is great. They all helped out so much in the first week and I feel pretty comfortable there already.



I teach three classes now, KG7 (kindergarten, where I have 5 students (more coming) 3 dominant boys, one quiet one and a little girl named Sally. Oh yeah, one of the boys' name is Dino (short for dinosaur) that's actually his name..how cool is that?? Why couldn't you name me Dinosaur mom? Then I have two after elementary school programs with children just trying to learn some English (with my bosses daughter in the class, no pressure eh?). But they're all good, you just have to remember that they're only children who have already been to school all day. So we go over a few words and play a few games. Good times. Some are really sweet, and some are...well...you know.






The little girls are fascinated by my curly hair and the boys are the same way with my 'clicking nose'. I've accomplished what I set out to do, I wanted to be a 'strict but silly' teaching and according to my director that's what I am. Being strict here is a good thing at first, they know I can be serious when I have to be, and now I can lighten up as we go along.

My kids, from left to right Sally, Bruno (beside her), Justin (upfront) then Dino and Nathen (my Korean version of little Luke)










(Sally and Dino playing with my nose, he has a goood grip)










This is a puppet show teaching 4 year olds about sexual harrassment, nuts eh?

I spent some time getting used to Ilsan. It has a great park just blocks from my apartment. It's a great forested park with birds, mammals and insects, then it opens up into a public space. Then on the opposite side of town (5 mins away) is Lake Park. A beautiful man made lake with plenty of space for acitivities around the Lake. So far I've seen hundreds of kites being flown, kids playing in fountains, a great Korean drumming show and a singer.

Lake Park Scenes











Asim and I made it into Seoul for my first time yesterday and I wasn't a huge fan of it. So big! I still had a great time there yesterday, Asim's a photographer as well so we have plenty to talk about.


A roof in Seoul on a very rainy day











I have to say, I'm pretty lucky here. Ilsan is quite clean, great air and it's a litttle removed from the rest of Korea (not a big deal). My coworkers and my Teaching Partner (Sarah) have all been great. Lauren, Nicole and Catherine got me to join the gym downstairs in my apartment building and now I'm taking yoga classes...which are kicking my ass but you feel soo good afterwards. Makes sleeping alot easier. And the food's great!






















So that's it for this week. Hopefully I'll do more soon!

Nicole, Cat, Lauren and myself when we all matched!