Two-thirds...

Can you believe it? I'm two-thirds of the way through my contract. Only four months left. I'm very excited that February is almost over. It went quickly, yes... but certainly not TOO quickly ;) Thankfully, this past week the weather has been much milder than it had been. It's good to save money on oil and such. I'm still quite ready for things to turn green, though. Probably not for another few weeks at least... Today was the first English service I'd been to in three weeks (one week I was in Seoul, and Benjamin was home in Kenya for the other two, so services were cancelled). It was good to see everyone again and sing our songs :) I feel bad for Pastor Moon. There have been so many changes and so many things to be organized since the new pastor came, that he has been quite busy! I had the chance to talk to one of the new pastors today- a Pastor Kim (imagine that ;) ). He's in charge of the young adults service, and apparently will be playing a role in organizing our English activities. He's really nice, but shy about using his English even though he's quite good. I think it's just getting used to talking to an American. He said I spoke very quickly! If I were explaining something to you, you'd probably ask me to speed up and not talk to you like a child! ;) He seemed to get more comfortable as I talked to him more, though. This weekend has been filled with lots of roommate activities. Friday night we went out with our co-workers for some coffee and smoothies to get to know our new teacher, Ji-young. Then us way-guks rented a few movies and watched the Legend of Zorro. Yesterday Tracy and I went out for a bit with Yoo-jin, Mi-ran and their baby boy, In-hyuk. It's funny to see how much he looks like a combination of those two. I hadn't seen him since December, so I was surprised at how big he was! Tracy and Yoo-jin even got a few smiles out of him :). After that, Tracy and I went shopping. Mostly "eye-shopping" as we've come to call it (a Konglish phrase for window shopping or browsing :) ). Looked at a lot of stores that we haven't gone in since it's been so cold. It really felt like spring :). Then watched School of Rock, then went out for dinner. After dinner we stopped at the grocery store before coming ,home to watch another movie. This time we watched a Korean one.... it was really dumb. There's just a different sense of storyline here. What we would consider the climax comes WAY before the end of the movie in most movies, it seems. This one was particularly painful. We couldn't wait for it to end. Then, after I got home from church, we went to Yofruito (a frozen yogurt/coffee/pastry place) and played Rummikub. Then we returned some videos, did some shopping, ate at a kimbop place, went to a different coffee shop and played cards, and slowly made our way home (with some stops on the way). Quite the weekend, now time for our 4 day week (we have Wednesday off, ASSSSAH!!).

A Pretty Picture

A Valentine's rose for Tracy- It's opened beautifully! :) Other happenings lately.... um... well, I was sick over the weekend. Now all three of us roommates are recovering from sore throats. But I'm definitely much better. There's just a week and a half left of our current term, and our classes are getting all switched up next term (up to this point we've had the same classes since I started here). That means I'll have a bunch of new students with all new books and all new dynamics. Should make things interesting for awhile :) Next week we have a holiday as well- Wednesday off. Not very convenient for travelling or anything, so I'm thinking we'll probably just take it easy around here. Although a little trip to the sea might be nice.... We'll see. 

"We Are the Champions"

This is my first attempt at posting a video.... we'll see if it works! For your enjoyment, a drunken Korean version of "We Are the Champions" from Noraebang last weekend :) 

Phrasebook Fun

Have you ever picked up a phrasebook of another language and started reading off strange phrases just for kicks? Phrasebooks always seem to have a collection of amusing phrases in addition to the useful ones. Well, imagine being on the other end of it. Imagine being a speaker of the foreign language listening to the weirdos with the strange phrases. One of my 6th grade hooligans had an English phrasebook in class on Friday. Most of the kids were just trying to learn the profanities in the book. But, he had fun finding strange things and asking me about my job, etc. My favorite quotes of the class were... "You look stunning in it!" "I'm disgusted with this way of life" "I'm tickled pink!" My middle schoolers have also become quite imaginative. One boy always asks me if he's handsome, and asserts that he's very smart and rich and such. Then, when a new boy joined the class, they both started saying how rich they are (one of them owns Jupiter and lives there!). So, I proceded to ask them for money, and they told me they'd bring me a huge diamond on Friday. When I asked for it on Friday, one boy went to his bag like it was there, and then acted horrified because it had supposedly been stolen! And who stole it? Another boy in the class who wasn't there on Friday. The same boy they had tricked me about the day before. They told me he was in a bad car accident and had broken his leg and spine and stuff, and then they said it was funny. After I was all concerned they told me it was a joke. Anyway, now the story became that he stole the diamond and when he was driving quickly away he got into a car accident. What crazy kids!

Valentine's Day

Korea has really embraced Valentine's Day. Similar to the States, it's a very commercial holiday. Tons of chocolate being sold at different places, along with hideous gaudy gift baskets. What makes it really different, though, is who's doing the giving and receiving. Mostly, girls are supposed to give their boyfriends chocolate! Girls don't get flowers or anything! Kids and girls will give each other chocolate as well, though. But, girlfriends aren't left out forever. Next month, March 14th, is "White Day"- another commercial holiday where guys are supposed to give girls candy. And from my understanding, it's supposed to be something other than chocolate... however that works. In my opinion there should definitely be flowers involved as well ;) And then, for all the singles out there, April 14th is black day. Singles go out for "Ja-Jang-Myeon" (chinese noodles with black sauce) on that day. All a little strange.... but whatever :) Today involved eating A LOT of sweets, since I have a lot of students who love me (and fed me chocolate), and I brought treats for the adult class. I also had fun making Valentine cards with the kids (although, I had more than the number of people to give them to, so now I have a bunch of random Valentines...). And tomorrow, back to same ol', same ol'. This week I feel really tired of teaching. It'd better pass soon! I have several months left! (more than 4) Well, in three weeks we start a new term, so that'll add some refreshment to the daily grind :)

Crazy Kids...

I have many amusing students. And it's amazing how many of them remember Jason and bring him up all the time. Many times its just the usual, asking if I talked to him on the phone or something. But some kids are a bit more creative... A while ago, "Gollom" said that he had eaten Jason, and Jason was living in his stomach. So, I asked if there was also a PC room in his stomach that was allowing Jason to email me. Yes, there was. And then, another kid from that class, "Johny," said that HE had eaten Jason. I was confused. How could he be in both boys' stomachs? Then it came out that they had each eaten half of him. So, day after day something would come up about what Jason was doing. Johny, even offered to puke him up so I could see him. But he never delivered on that promise. One day, Jason was having a Christmas party in Johny's stomach. So, I asked if he would eat me, too, so I could go to the party. But, Johny said I'd have to go bake myself first before he'd eat me. Oh, and Johny even took the joke out of the classroom! Tracy has a private lesson with him, and they were doing a Mad Lib where Jason was a "famous Hollywood pencil," because the blank was supposed to be someone in the room, and Johny didn't want to use his own name. There's a kid in a different class, "Jacke," that also comes up with amusing Jason stories. Usually he's drinking beer and getting into fights with people (he's been doing that for months). Somewhat more recently he started have tons and tons of girlfriends that he wasn't telling me about. Well, I'll always disagree with Jacke about those things. Then, over the Lunar New Year holiday, Jacke saw Jason next door to his grandma with his other girlfriends, to prove me wrong ;). Oh, and now he has a spider for a girlfriend and a beetle for a girlfriend, and Tracy has been his girlfriend, too. And, Jacke has eaten him for breakfast, and he's fallen off a cliff, and he's been eaten by sharks, and I don't remember what else. Anyway, it's hilarious. I think Jason should feel special that the kids think about him so often. He must've really left an impression! :) Other amusing things come from students as well. Often it's a result of the English incorporated into their television programs and computer games. When my second graders who don't know any English didn't know how to tell me they were finished with their assignment, one boy came up with, "Teacher! Game over!" (and speaking of that class, it's been confirmed that they believe I understand Korean since I've used a certain amount of it in class. Yikes!) I have a couple of real characters in my middle school class,too. One boy likes to say, "You really upset me," and "Don't try this at home," at random times. Oh, and my horrible 6th grade class (which seems to know more American cuss words than grammar!) finds it hilarious to say, "Teacher, XYZ!" and see if I'll check my zipper. I'll wrap this up with a couple cute quotes from "Jenny." Jenny is a super sweet (almost) 9th grader who I have a private lesson with. She spent 10 days in the States and has had private lessons since she was young, so her conversation level is very high. Our lessons are almost entirely just talking... about anything! Lots of girl stuff, differences in our cultures, future plans, shopping, and so on. We have SO much fun. Really, I think I laugh harder with her than with anyone else here in Korea (Tracy and I laugh pretty hard, too, though... ). On Wednesday she made a slipup and said "fancakes" instead of pancakes (there's no f sound in Korean, so it's an easier mistake than you might think). Then, today she was amused at the movement of some Jello we had and said, "She's dancing." :) Very cute.

Korean Superstitions

A while back I was talking with my 5th graders about superstitions. They tried explaining to me a few of the ones Koreans have. Really, compared to the variety of superstitions in the US it's not that many. Because of the language barrier I don't know all the details to these, but here's what I understood... -If your name is written in red, it means you're going to die. This explains why my kids got all upset when their name was written on the board the day I happened to be using a red marker... now I understand... -The word for the number four sounds like the word for death. Thus, many buildings don't have a floor labeled as "4," but rather have the letter F. (side note- we live on the the 4th floor, and my gym is on the 4th floor... :) ) -When your tooth falls out as a child, you're supposed to throw it out of your window, and a bird will bring you a new one. I've asked kids about this when they lose a tooth, and most of them do it. -If you whistle at night, you'll attract snakes. -If you leave your chair pulled out from your desk when you go to sleep at night (a desk in your house, that is), a ghost will come and sit there. The same is true if you have an extra pillow on your bed lying next to you. A ghost will come and lay next to you. There are probably more, but those are the ones they told me about.

Another weekend come and gone

Saturday "Brian"'s family treated us (English Bible Study members) to an amazing lunch. It was nice to just hang out with people and such. Sunday Tracy, Sue and I headed to Seoul for the day. Just to do some Seoul stuff. We met up with a friend of Sue's who lives there, went to a palace, drank coffee, shopped a bit, went up Namsan (biggest hill in Seoul- every town/city has a Namsan), drank more coffee and ate cheesecake, rode the subway, and took lots of pictures. Well, I took lots of pictures, anyway :) Check them out along in the February folder at my pictures page. And in the continuing saga of strange t-shirts we see, there's a girls t-shirt displayed in a window with a big heart on it that says "I love my hooker." Strange, strange...

Tracy and I. I call this a "Timmy face" :) 

Seoul tower and the moon.