On Thursday, we had a talent show at school, and Friday was sports day. The talent show was very fun. Students sang and danced up on a stage that was constructed in front of the school. Some girls reenacted the video for that song my lip-gloss is "poppin," which was pretty impressive, and some boys did AMAZING break dancing.
Sports day was awesome too. I didn't know when stuff was starting, so my co-teacher and I were a little late to the beginning of the events, but I still got to see a lot of cool stuff. First off, all the classes had their own team uniforms: team batman shirt, team mario onesie, team kill bill, team pajamas, etc. Each class did a coordinated dance together in front of a team of judges and then went on to do a relay race, jump rope contests, and lots of other cool stuff.
NOTE: I have videos to go with this
My sports day is during the spring semester, so I didn't get to see any of this yet. I think it's really cool that they do talent shows and sports days to give the students a little bit of a break in such a high-stress environment. A bunch of our friends' schools did sports day/talent shows around the same time as Gianni's school did.
Talent Show at Gianni's School
School Festival and Mail!
For the last few days, students have been setting up their artwork all over the school. Today, there was a sort of festival where parents could come see the art. Let me tell you, these students are so talented! The artwork was beautiful, and I was really impressed. It was nice to have a bit of color to look at all over the school also, as opposed to the usual plain building. I wanted to share a few of the photos I took of the art. If you click the picture, you can see a larger version.Today was also really cool because the home economics class made hamburgers and all the teachers got one! They were actually really good. Kudos kids! Keep that food coming. Also, I was asked to edit the students' articles for the English school newspaper. They are interesting to say the least. Some part aren't that bad, but other parts you can tell that a student tried to use Google Translate. Oh well. Nothing too good to mention on that front yet. I'll keep you posted. I wrote an article about myself for the newspaper, so I'm excited to see the final product when it comes out.
Happy 23rd Birthday to Me!!!
Yesterday was my birthday! :)
I only had one class yesterday because I had to go observe someone's open class in the afternoon. It was nice to get a little break on my birthday. I spent some time during the day planning activities for the summer and winter camps that I will be teaching later on. Right after lunch, I headed out to the school I was observing at, and it turns out that it was Grace's new school. It was nice to see her again after we got coffee the other week. Sun Mee gave me very clear directions about how to get there, and it was no problem. It did take like 50 minutes on the bus though. Quite a hike! Chris, the teacher we were watching, uses the same book we use at my school, except he has a bit more freedom to teach the kids than I do. He has to teach the vocabulary from the chapter, but from there he can do activities that he wants to do. I have to stick with the boring activities in the textbook that my students and I all hate. Ugh! I'm trying to bend the rules a bit, but I've only been a teacher for a month, and I'm still getting adjusted. Hopefully, I can be more creative in lessons in the future. His was great though. The powerpoint was very clear and nice looking, and he played games that really helped the kids practice the language. They had to direct a blind-folded student from their group through a minefield. The activities in the book are okay for listening, but there are no real production activities to get the kids practicing on their own. It's all teacher-led stuff, which can get boring. Chris did a really good job giving the kids time to speak to reinforce the vocabulary, and I hope I can inject some of that into my classes--bending the rules, not breaking. After the class, we met with Chris and the DMOE representative and talked about how things went. Then I took the bus back with the Australian guy who was watching the class with me. He also lives near Sangin, and Chris and I will be going to his school next week. Both Chris and the other guy were supposed to be at my class last week, but Chris was on an overnight school trip and the other guy's school forgot to print the right paper to make sure he came to mine. Woops!
For my birthday dinner, I invited some of our orientation friends as well as some taekwondo friends. It was Niall, Sian, Maria, Matthew, Da Eun, Max, and Serena. I had a really great, but extra spicy dinner! We went to a place Niall suggested where you can have traditional Korean jjimdak, which is like a chicken stew, as well as curry. We ended up with those dishes and a salad pizza. The food was good, but even though Da Eun assured me she ordered the non-spicy version, it was REALLY spicy! Still, I enjoyed the flavors. My friends were good enough to pick up the tab for me, and splitting the three dishes, the price didn't turn out to be that bad per person. After dinner, Maria, Matthew, and Sian left, and the rest of us headed out to a place Da Eun suggested. It is mostly for drinking, but with the drinks you're supposed to get some food. This place is apparently famous for jeon (전)--assorted fried, savory foods. We had fried mushrooms, fried spam, and fried fish among many other things. Most of it was really tasty. Since I like fruity drinks, Da Eun suggested I try citrus makkoli (Korean rice wine). It was actually really tasty. We also got some plain makkoli, and Da Eun mixed it with cider (the name for soda that isn't coke, in this case it was something like 7 up), which was a really good combination.It was a really nice birthday dinner. I hope everyone else enjoyed it too. I tried to make sure I was talking to everyone, especially Da Eun because she can speak English, but definitely not when a bunch of native speakers are talking together. I served as a bit of a translator. Still, it was awesome to have her there, and she was really great to help with translating the waiters and ordering food.
When we got home, I had one more piece of cake before bed. It was a lovely 23rd birthday! Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes :)
Birthday Weekend
This past weekend was the weekend before my birthday, and we did all kinds of fun things!
On Saturday, we did some shopping downtown during the day. We went to a craft store someone had recommended to me called Esdot. There, we got some face paint for the Zombie Walk we are going to do in Daegu next weekend. Should be fantastic. We also went to my new favorite store, Hot Tracks. They sell a whole range of random things from stationary and cards to toys to accessories. It's a wonderful place. At the underground mall, I got a few shirts. One of them is gray with embroidered faces in all different colors. The faces have handle-bar mustaches and top hats. I also got a pink sweater with cat faces all over it and a stripped sweater with a cute cat face sewn on the pocket. At a boutique shop downtown, I got a plaid skirt that flows and is different lengths on the side than it is in the back and front. To go with it, I got a knit, wool, off-white sweater with brown, suede patches on the shoulders. It's an adorable outfit, and I wore it Monday just to show off. I needed to satisfy my urge to shop. There are so many cute clothes in Korea. I know my mom thinks I'm crazy for some of my recent purchases, but this is Korean fashion--I'm telling you!
That night, we scheduled a night hike of the mountain in the southern area of Daegu, Apsan. If you are driving on the highway, you can see an archway glowing on top of the mountain. Turns out that is a lookout point at the top of Apsan where you can see all of Daegu and the surrounding mountains. We planned to meet up with our friends at around 7pm. Gianni and I got there first because the train stop for the mountain is actually fairly close to our house as we live in south Daegu. You have to walk about 15 minutes to get to the entrance to the path up the mountain, and it feels like you're hiking just to get up there! When we arrived, Maria, Matthew, Jackie, and Stefanie were still waiting for a train from downtown, so we decided to go to a coffee shop to wait for them. There isn't much in the way of coffee shops up on the hill at the base of the mountain. Most places were restaurants. Also, the buildings around there were so weird! They were the least Korean buildings I've seen here. Some looked like they were Italian style architecture with red, clay roofs! They were also big places, normally spaced apart, and not very tall. It was crazy. I felt like I had been transported somewhere else! Gianni and I found kind of a shady coffee shop. It was upstairs, and we were directed to a private booth to have our coffee. We sat down and the host pulled down a shade so no one could see in. It was really bizarre. Sometimes you see this with restaurants, but is privacy really a concern with coffee? After sharing an iced coffee, we met up with 4 of our hiking group members. It then took us 40 more minutes to figure out where Sian and Marie were. They were the only two of the group to take the bus, so no one knew where they had gotten off. Turns out they got off at the wrong stop pretty far from the base of the mountain and had to walk a bit to get to us. While we waiting, we got to enjoy some nice outdoor music that some ajushis were playing at an outdoor seating area. The spectators were loving it--dancing and clapping. Eventually, we collected all the members of our group.
Then we had to find the actual trail to get up the mountain. It took a bit of doing, but we found it. It's about an hour long hike to the top of the mountain and was pretty steep almost the whole time. The first half of the trail is cemented and well-lit with street lights. There were people hiking along with us, so we weren't the only 8 people hiking at all. The half way marker is a Buddhist Temple built on the mountain. From there it got a little creepy because we had to pull out our flashlights and walk up an unlit, uneven stone staircase the rest of the time to get to the top. There were still some other people hiking, but it was a little strange at first. After a few stops and a good leg workout, we got to the top of the mountain where the glowing archway is. There were tons of people sitting up there, eating snacks and enjoying the view. It was an amazing site to behold! We could see all the lights of Daegu and all the mountains that surround it. You can see the mountains from the ground, but you can't fully appreciate that Daegu is actually in a valley until you see it from above. It was gorgeous. We could see Daegu Tower all lit up. I still really want to go there and check out E-World as well. Oh well. Plans for another time. We took some really nice photos and had a snack together before making the arduous trip down the mountain. Some of the group had bad knees, which made the walk down a bit hard. When we got down the mountain, we still had enough time to make it home on the subway before it closed.
On Sunday, I decided I wanted to go to Daegu Art Museum (DAM) where they were having a really cool exhibit. I'd seen some nice photos and wondered what the exhibit was about. We had to go kind of far to get there. You go to Grand Park Station, which is on the other subway line, and then get a shuttle from there to the museum itself. The museum is right next to a wedding convention hall, so at first we were worried that Koreans dressed up to go to museums. Then we realized that half the people on the shuttle were going to a wedding. Phew! It turns out that the DAM was only built in 2011, so it's new. It's a small museum that really only houses one or two exhibits at a time. We paid 5,000 won each to see the exhibit, which is a reasonable price. The exhibit we saw was called A Dream I Dreamed by Kusama Yayoi. She is a woman in her 80's who suffers from hallucinations and OCD, and her artwork definitely reflected that. Her work was incredible. There was a mixture of video, paintings, and sculptures. It was really interesting to be able to see the world as she does. Some rooms were an explosion of color and others were black and white. She also uses mirrors and light a lot to reflect and make space look larger than it is.
When you enter the exhibit, there is a huge open area with many different sized red blown-up plastic balls with white polka dots. Some of them are huge. Some were hanging from the ceilings and others were on the ground. One ball, you could look into. I believe there were mirrors and lights in there. Another ball, you could walk into. We went inside and it was made to look bigger than it was. Mirrors made 3 walls, and there was another smaller ball hanging inside the room.
There were a few rooms of paintings where Yayoi's OCD and hallucinations definitely came through. The patterns in her paintings were repeated over and over in such detail. In the middle of one room with all black and white pattern paintings was a case. You had to peak inside, and there were mirrors all over a box. Lights of different colors were being shown in to create different patterns inside, reflecting off the mirrors. It was really interesting--like a kaleidoscope.
There was another room set up to look like a normal living room in a home. It had polka dots of different colors projected on the walls and was in complete black lighting. Similarly, there was a white room with white, flower sculptures. The room was polka dotted in various colors as were the sculptures, so they kind of blended in with the walls.
One of the video art pieces was called "Addicted to Suicide." It was a video of the artist speaking (don't know what she was saying--not in English) projected on one wall. Behind her it was like a kaleidoscope again--different colors and patterns kept changing. The cool thing was that the video was on one wall, and the two walls next to the video wall were both mirrors, so it made it look like the video was tiled against a long wall and kept going on in either direction forever.
In the same room was a piece called "Stairway to Heaven." It was a ladder with lights on it that changed color. On the top and bottom of the ladder were mirrors so that if you looked up or down, it looked as though the ladder kept going on forever.
We then walked into a box completely covered in mirrors, even the ground had water on it, so that the lights would reflect. There were hanging colorful lights that changed colors all over the place in there, and they would reflect off the mirrors to make the box look bigger than it was. It was really beautiful.
Upstairs, she created a sculpture of 3 giant pumpkins with cool patterns on them. My favorite room was a completely white room made to look like a normal room of a house. Children could take a sticker and put it anywhere they wanted in the room, so by now, the room is completely covered in colorful, polka dots. |
| Infinity Net |
Her colorful paintings were also really interesting. She uses similar patterns as with the black and white ones, and they are very repetitive. She has a whole series called "Infinity Net." They are all two different colors in a netting pattern, and all of them seems to have a texture in the paint. They are very cool.
There was also a room filled with the same sized shiny, metal balls next to a room housing a penis boat. It was literally what it sounds like. It was a boat made of penises and a picture of the penis boat was tiled on the walls around the room. Boy was it interesting. Geez!The museum itself was really cool. I'm glad we got to see the exhibit. The DAM is located on a hill overlooking the city, so the views from the second and third floor of the building were stunning. You could see the mountains in the distance. It was a really nice way to end the weekend.
Quick Korean Lesson
Friday was the second day of Korean class for Gianni and I. I asked to be moved into his class because it was a higher level. The first level class is just learning how to read, which I already know how to do. The teacher made me read a few words to prove I could actually read, but I passed! I'm MUCH happier in this class. I'm really dedicated to learning the language, and I actually think it's fun to be able to read an alphabet that is made up of different letters than English.
The topic of the second Korean class was introductions. We learned to tell someone our names, where we are from, and what our job is. We also learned some grammar points in relation to saying these things. There were several cases where if a word ended in a vowel you would then write one thing versus if it ended in a consonant you would write something slightly different. It reminded me of how the French language modifies grammar rules to make words flow more easily together.
So here's the basics of what I know about Korean. Every word is made up of syllables. Syllables have to go consonant, vowel, consonant. Sometimes they go ㅇ vowel consonant. ㅇ at the start of a syllable is like a placeholder, but at the end of a syllable it's a consonant that sounds like -ng. Other times, syllables can go consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant.
Here are the basic consonants: ㅂ(makes a B noise), ㅈ(makes a J noise),ㄷ (makes a D noise), ㄱ(makes a G noise, or a K noise if it comes at the end of a syllable),ㅁ (makes an M noise), ㅅ (makes an S noise, a T noise at the end of a syllable),ㄴ(makes an N noise),ㄹ(makes an R noise, an L noise at the end of a syllable),ㅇ (nothing noise at the start but an -ng at the end of the syllable),ㅎ (makes an H noise),ㅊ (makes a CH noise),ㅋ (makes a K noise),ㅌ (makes a T noise),ㅍ (makes a P noise).
The basic vowels are: ㅏ(makes an A noise),ㅑ(makes an ya noise),ㅓ(makes an aww noise--spelled in English here that's "eo"),ㅕ(makes a yaww noise--"yeo"), ㅗ (makes an O noise), ㅛ (makes a yo noise), ㅜ (makes a U noise), ㅠ(makes a yu noise), ㅡ (makes an eu noise--like "ehhh that's gross"), ㅣ(makes an E noise),ㅐ(makes an AE noise--like ay), ㅒ(makes a yae noise--like yay),ㅔ(makes a eh noise--like the E in pen),ㅖ(makes a yeh noise).
There are 2 number systems in Korean. One is straight Korean, used for counting and some other stuff. The other is based on Chinese, and it is used for money and other stuff. Numbers: 1- hana (하 나)/il (일), 2- dul (둘)/i (이), 3- set (셋)/sam (삼), 4- net (넷)/sa (사), 5-daseot (다섯)/o (오), 6- yeoseot (여 넛)/yuk (육), 7- ilgob (일 곱)/chil (칠), 8- yeodeolb (여 덟)/pal (팔), 9- ahob (아 홉)/gu (구), 10-yeol (열)/chip (십).
I find it easier to correctly pronounce Korean words when I'm reading the actual Korean letters instead of the romanized, English version of the Korean words.
To introduce myself, I say "My name is Abbi": cheo nun Abbi ay yo or 처 논 아 비 예 요. 처 (sounds like chaw) is the word for I, and 눈 (sounds like nun) is the Korean topic marker. It tells you the sentence is about the person saying "I." 아 비 is my name in Korea--broken down it is A (which sounds more like ahh than A) BI. The ay yo or 예 요 is like a "to be" verb. Almost like the "is" in the sentence. If the syllable before it ends in a vowel, like this one does because my name ends with an I or 이, then you write 예 요 at the end of the sentence. If it ends in a consonant, you write 이 에 요. If I want to say where I am from, everything stays the same in the sentence except that instead of my name, I write mi gook saram or 미 국 사 람 in the middle. Mi gook (the first two syllables in the last sentence) means America or USA. The last syllable in the last sentence is saram, which means person. So that's how you say American. If I just said mi gook, I would be saying that I am America. Because saram ends with a consonant, I have to then write 이 에 요 at the end of the sentence for the to be verb. The process is the same if I want to say what my job is. The sentence stays the same except for I take out mi gook saram and add yeonga seon saeng nim or 영 아 선 생 님. The first two syllables mean English--yeonga. The last three syllables means teacher--seon saeng nim.
So that's most of what I know so far. I'm excited to learn more. Korean is really fun! Next week's topic is ordering food at restaurants, so maybe I'll finally not have to sound like a bumbling idiot, pointing at things when I was food. Hooray!
Things I've Noticed
It is finally getting to be fall in Daegu. The weather is colder, and I have to wear a jacket. It's nice not to feel like I'm melting every second of the day.
4. People do NOT sit in the seats reserved for the ajummas and ajushis--old men and old women--on the subway. These are strictly out of bounds for people.
4. The cars have small, blue, foamy things on the doors to prevent other people opening their car doors and banging their car with the door. I believe I posted a picture there.
5. Public restrooms don't always have toilet paper.
6. In a lot of clothing stores, especially the smaller places downtown that aren't chains, you can't try clothes on, or at least there are strict rules about trying things on. We went shopping the other day, and they told me I could try on a skirt but not a sweater. I was confused, but inside the dressing room (of which they only had one very small stall) was a sign that said you can't try on anything knit because you can stretch it. It makes buying clothes a little challenging.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll try to update this more later.
Open Class
Today, I had 5 classes of the 7 periods of the school day, culminating in my open class. All day, my co-teachers kept asking about my open class and how I was feeling. It was sweet and very encouraging. They all said "Don't be nervous. You will do great." So it came time to teach my superstition open class, and there must have been some sort of miscommunication because there were no other EPIK teacher there! I believe 2 male EPIK teachers were supposed to come watch, and I have no idea why they were there. The only person who came was a Korean English teacher from another school who the DMOE set as a supervisor. At least she was there. Niall watched my class as well.
Despite the confusion, I think it went really well. I managed my time perfectly. We finished all the activities and the bell rang right on time. I also think the activities were good and the students understood the objective. My co-teacher, and I worked well together also. The DMOE person said that it was clear I have a passion for teaching. She said I could work on giving the students more talking time and explaining directions to activities more clearly and using demonstration. Both of these critiques I definitely agree with and have noticed in myself. Some of the topics don't lend themselves to student activities and things like that, but I'll try my best. There was one boy in class who is typically kind of a jokester but also really bright and talkative. I asked for examples of superstitions and all I understood was "fire" and "pee." I had never heard of a superstition involving those two things, but we got there eventually. Apparently in Korea, if a child plays with fire or matches, they will wet the bed at night. Probably something parents made up to keep their children from hurting themselves. I had never heard this before, and I think it made the boy feel confident to explain it to me, even if it took me a bit to understand. It was a really nice teaching moment.
Overall, I think the outcome was great. Now, I just hope that they don't make me do it again because no one came to watch it! UGH!