Winter has come to Cheongju

It's that time of year up here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means snow and the rest of the fun that winter brings here in South Korea. We had one light snow previously, but we had two days with a decent amount of snow later in the week. The snow late Wednesday meant no older elementary class, which was nice.

The snow also meant that we got to do something not in our job descriptions and that was helping clear out the snow on Thursday morning. We got a good 2 to 2 1/2 inches of snow, but the worst part was the icy layer underneath. We were summoned downstairs at 8am to help with the snow clearing and with the help of a few small students got things as clear as we could. It took about an hour and a half which put us right around time for class to start.

Sarah wanted to try sweeping, despite the broom being much taller than she is. 

Chris, Sarah, and Stella got in some play time too.

Most students had made it to school at that point so we went inside and were instructed that we would have class for about an hour and then at 11am we would go outside to play in the snow instead of having class. Class was not the most productive time as I did not have time to prepare, nor did Zach so we had a brief morning message and some story time and then let them do whatever for the hour or so that we were waiting. There were some picture shenanigans with the camera on my phone, which was fun, then we went out to play in the snow!

Sarah drew me, I guess? And she wanted me to write my name underneath. 

Sarah takes surprisingly good pictures, I'm shocked. Kids are so good with electronics now though.

After our attempted hour of class, we got ready and went downstairs to get ready to go play outside. This meant that Zach and I were back upstairs to get our coats and gloves and for me to grab my camera too. 

It was so beautiful!

After we all got inside from the snow we had lunch time. Chef teacher had the rice cooker on while we were out and lunch was a delicious chicken and rice porridge type thing. It was wonderful, especially with the spicy kimchi radishes. I was anticipating eating upstairs after lunch, but instead we ate in the open area downstairs that serves as a gym and party room. The floor was nice and warm with the ondol heating on and the sun shining in patches from the windows. 

A wonderful warm lunch after the snow with some spicy flavor added. 

Urban Decay and the modern Korean City

Over the weekend Amanda and I took a merry jaunt to Shinae the downtown area of Cheongju to grab some lunch and check out a Buddhist temple we had seen when on the bus going past the area before.  We grabbed a healthy and delicious lunch at McDonalds and then walked around for a little to get us ready because we had planned on walking out way home the 3 to 4 mile stretch.  Now like most cities the main stretches of cities in Korea are very glamorous with lots of flashing lights, loud music playing from shops, and tons of small markets to peruse, filled with life and very shiny.  Things are well maintained because frankly that is how to attract business and tourists and make those silly waygooks feel comfortable (not that the entire thing should revolve around foreigners).

Two blocks from the main strip

When you get off the main drag however a new story is painted by a modern city.  This is really the case in every city, but I thought it was interesting since we are in a very different region.  Abandoned buildings, decaying ruins of once prosperous spots just left to rot.  Lots that are sometimes completely filled with garbage and overgrown with weeds.  The actual decay of the buildings is interesting to me specifically, while these buildings are certainly not new, they can't be more than 10-20 years old.  I was told by a foreign teacher named Dylan that it is normal for buildings to be build and be torn down in a few years.  Much like the Korean lifestyle in general houses and other buildings live fast and die young, unless they are a historic landmark obviously.

For example there are apartments being built behind/in front/ right next to and all around our school.  They are being built frightfully fast, in a matter of two months a building has been torn down, and a four story apartment building has been thrown up.  Right now they are working on bricking the exterior of the building, if I am correct in my thinking it should be open by summer.  They are doing that with at least four buildings all around, and making amazing progress.  The building materials have been extremely sparse, only really a bit of wood, a lot of concrete, and a bunch of Styrofoam for insulation.

The windows on the second floor were all broken/missing

\It is just part of the modern city experience I guess, but what seems to shock me is that people actually live in these houses.  The places that look so rundown, and some that have broken/missing windows have people living inside them, even during the freezing winter.  There is a house across from our school which looked abandoned when we first came to Korea, but we noticed lights on in the evening and a well taken care of dog that was in the yard.

Now I can venture to guess that it is the older generation that lives in these houses, while the younger generation are all probably in apartments instead of family homes like these.  It still shocks me though that people would live in these dilapidated houses even if that is just my privileged American speaking I can't imagine it is comfortable living without windows. Although humans are used to living in harsher conditions than this, and I am sure there are people in rural areas probably worse off even here in Korea.  Still it was something that made me think on the quick weekend walk.

One cool thing is these businesses used small bridges to make a 2nd story shop

We're on the Map!

Oh hi! We're at that purple dot on the southern side of the map.

We're on this map anyway! I thought I'd give everyone back at home (and anyone else that's curious) a better idea of life around Cheongju-si, especially in relation to where we live/work. I took a few screenshots of Cheongju, zoomed in to give you a better idea with a few highlights.

Cheongju is a decently sized city. In the map above, we live in Juklim-dong which is approximately where that purple dot is on the southern side of the city. Why purple? Because I happen to like purple, its a nice color. I would consider Cheongju to be a pretty large city, though it's no Daejeon or Seoul by any means. The most recent population numbers I remember seeing on Wikipedia for Cheongju put it around 700k, so it's not what I would call small.

Some people that we've talked to have come to understand part of the difficulty of living "out in the boonies" if you will. We can hop on any number of buses at our bus stop down the road, but you also have to wait for the buses and that can be trying in the cold. We're actually one bus stop away from one of the bus end points/rest areas for the drivers. It's also quite hard to catch a taxi out here too. The bus takes approximately 15 minutes to get from our closest stop to the bus terminal and closer to 45 minutes to get from home to Shinae (Downtown) if things work in your favor.

Riding the bus is kind of an adventure though. Sometimes the bus drivers are crazy, you see interesting people filtering off and on, they drive all crazy sometimes, you just never know. There was the one time where there was a person in a car behind us with major crazy bass going on (we're talking rattling windows here) and all the ajummas (older women) freaked out and the bus driver stopped and gave everyone their money back because they thought it was a problem with the bus.

Here is my other handy dandy map, complete with numbered purple dots. After some consulting with Zach I think I got it all figured out. As I said before, we live in that area in the far south on the map in Juklim-dong (1).

The small square to the north that is not numbered is the approximate region of two small convenience stores we sometimes visit to stock up on snacks and food for the week. The prices are reasonable at these places and we've even become familiar faces to those that work there. 

North of the small square is our second dot, Homeplus (2). This is where we shop for all our needs. Homeplus has pretty much anything and we end up there somewhat frequently. It's also next to the chicken place we like to go to. There for a while we would just walk up the road toward Homeplus and walk on the sidewalk. Then we discovered that we could cut through by going between some apartments and a school and take a bridge above the road and it really saved us some time. This area has several blocks worth of restaurants, cafes, and small shops. There's also a street vendor with delicious waffles.

If you head toward dot number 3 you hit the bus terminal area (3) in Gagyeong-dong. If you take the time to walk to and from there to home down at (1) it's approximately 30 minutes. We've walked it many times and will probably walk it many more. There's a nice park that we started exploring when we first got here, but didn't get the opportunity to look much otherwise. The bus terminal area is also bustling. There's a Lotte Mart, DreamPlus, a bookstore, lots of restaurants, a local street market and many other things. We sometimes hit up this area and go to Pizza Hut for dates! Also near the bus terminal is a fantastic cultural store where I hope to buy gifts to send/bring home and a man who is almost always selling battery powered toy dogs that walk around.

Dot number 4 is up to the northeast. This is Shinae or Downtown (4), which we frequent somewhat often. The spot I marked is just the start of the downtown area as it's quite large. This is the home area of the cat cafe we visited. There are tons of restaurants ranging from KFC and McDonalds to Italian to traditional Korean and more. There are many street vendors here and it's always bustling. Teens, kids, ajummas, you name it you see it all. Near a small video game store we visit sometimes there are typically people out selling their crafts and they're very well done. We also ran into the talent contest thing the one time. And there was the time we saw a small parade of people dressed as clowns that were handing out some sort of flier that we couldn't read. 

Number 5 in the middle area on the map is BCM (5). This is where Zach teaches the adult classes and I've visited the place a few times too. Yet another area we've walked to and from several times before. Taking the bus from home is about 20 minutes and the stop is just after the stop for Chungbuk University (which is huge and we intend to explore soon) but before you hit the huge stadium off to the left. Chungbuk University is that big area just South of the dot. There is a strip near the school for blocks and blocks that is all outdoor wear and hiking gear because Koreans love hiking.

As we discover more I might make a more detailed map (or make the ones above more exciting). Since it's getting cold out I'm not anticipating a whole lot of traveling until springtime, but I'm sure we'll be doing some local exploring.

Halloween at the Hagwon

At this point Halloween has come and gone (and now we're past Thanksgiving), but there are always fun pictures floating around! Halloween isn't as big a deal here in Korea, but the schools like to highlight the holiday and apparently it's just another excuse for older Koreans to go drinking. That said, we had a good time at our hagwon's celebration.

The timing was quite interesting though as we were told that some of the parents would be coming in to observe class before our "party". So we each had a couple of parents who had come in to see how class works and we, of course, had to be on our best behavior and show off.

Zach had planned ahead (I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, or at least not how intentional) and had brought his horse head mask, as you can see above. This was a hit with the kids and our director. I, however, did not plan ahead, but before we left the States I did manage to snag a few silly things from Party City. Thus, I donned a silly moustache which everyone seemed to love. I also managed to remember the pirate hat that had been left by one of the teachers before us. A pirate with a moustache, it worked!

The kids dressed up and we were instructed twice during the day to hand out candy. The parents helped earlier in the day for the first round, the kids would knock on the door and come to all of us for treats. They knew to say trick or treat, but I used the time to advise them to also say thank you! The later round of trick or treating with the older kids was just 3 teachers each in a classroom and that was different in its own way.

Happy Thanksgiving from South Korea!

Happy Thanksgiving in the States to those of you who have been up for a while preparing for the big day or possibly just got up too. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a good time with your loved ones, be they family or friends or both. We are celebrating here with delicious chicken from a local place that we visit about once a week. It's close to turkey, right?

Today was pretty much a normal day for us, however, since Koreans celebrate Chuseok (which was in September this year) which is the closest holiday they have to our Thanksgiving. We worked in the morning and had lunch (today was rice, tofu, soup, radish kimchi, and a few other small things) and then Zach stayed here for the older kids while I went on a field trip with the boss lady to a milk factory in Cheonan. I will definitely be posting about that little adventure sometime soon. Tomorrow is also our monthly birthday party, so it's been an eventful end of the week!

We also found out some interesting news about Saturday, December 1st when there will be some sort of open house at our school and Zach and I will be having a faux class for potential kids and their parents. Should be an interesting day.

That said, I leave you with a final picture of our delicious meal. Have a wonderful day and have a little turkey and fixings for us over here. ;)  And if you also happen to go out on Black Friday, be safe and have a good time. Don't take it too seriously! I've already made my (probably one and only) online purchase for Black Friday which will be waiting at home for me in 9 months!

So, so delicious. A bit of crunchy, a bit of sweet, and a touch of spicy. 

The continuing path of becoming a teacher

From left to right Kate, Lily, Aiden, Carley, Susan

One of my lessons

So now that I have been in Korea close to 3 months it is time to talk about(after a long hiatus of not posting sorry about that) what my feeling are as a teacher and what turning into a teacher is like for me.  For a long time I actually dreamed about being a teacher and helping shape children into successful adults.  I was hoping there would be children who looked back upon my classes fondly, but due to being a terrible student (or at least having a bad first few semesters in college) my dreams of being a teacher were put aside.

So my topic today is how I feel about being a teacher and my continuing path to actually feel like I am a teacher.  When I first arrived in Korea I was overwhelmed at the idea that I would be in charge or (close to) 10 children all of whom I would have to take care of, teach, and furthermore discipline if they got out of hand.  The first two weeks didn't really help matters.  The former teachers Rob and Rachael warned us that the kids were going to be worse due to our presence, but it just heightened the overwhelming feeling.

Now that I have been teaching for three months I am finally starting to get my wings with the whole teaching thing.  While Monday and Tuesday are usually lost causes due to the kids being so riled up from the weekend.  Wednesday and Thursday I get some real teaching done, and then Friday both I and the kids are so exhausted from the week once again nothing gets done but that is OK because its FRIDAY!  While the kids still run wild due to being children I think I am getting better at discipline aspect of the job.  I have experimented with a few different formats of discipline, of which writing the offending child's name on the board seems most effective.  Of course this only really working for the Kindergarten class, since they are actually feel shame at being bad.  Contrast this with me Elementary class where the bad kids are the heroes of the class almost no discipline system actually works, other than literally forcing the kids to do what they need to do.

I think I can see my house from here!

Days like today are great, everyone gets along I am in a good mood and things actually get done.  Whats even better is that these sorts of days are increasing, and with it my comfort in teaching in general.  I'm three months through our ESL Honeymoon Adventures and I am looking forward to the next 9 months and of course to coming home to start a brand new domestic adventure afterward.

Culture or something else...

The girls with their beloved Doraemon --with special Halloween moustache.

If ever there was a face of enthusiasm, it was this. You can't tell from the oozing excitement in this picture just how happy these girls are to be at a hagwon after school. Alright, enough beating around the bush, they're a real challenge, at least when their friend is there. These two together are actually a lot of fun. This small class, however, is one of my biggest challenges.

There's a reason why I mention culture, aside from the obvious being that culture impacts everything, and I'm trying to figure out how much that cultural piece influences the attitudes of these girls. When I say that almost every day with these girls is a challenge, I really mean it. I know from personal experience that I do much better with younger children, which is why the kindy kids are the class I work best with. But why culture? Because the way Koreans are raised and the way by which they think plays a big role in my abilities and options with the class.

Culture this, culture that, yes. So what's the hitch? Well, it really seems as though using their imaginations is a bit of a challenge. From my experiences it seems like Koreans are more of a literal people as opposed to the more abstract. It's a good thing I don't have to explain analogies to anyone!

The specific issue I ran into today was with their everyday writing that I give them. The girls love music, K-pop of course, but they also like some international music too since I've been trying to expose them to language by way of a big interest of theirs (including, but not limited to Adele, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Ellie Goulding, Santana (with Rob Thomas, Michelle Branch, etc), One Direction, Carly Mae Jepson, etc.). I will play music videos in class and today they showed interest, but when it's the three of them they're always more interested in their stickers or chatting.

I figured I'd give them something fun, but I ran into the usual roadblock of culture, or is it laziness? It's kind of hard to distinguish the two. Despite explaining what I wanted them to write, they always take it in the most literal sense, instead of pretending and thinking outside the box. Today I wanted them to write about what they would have a music video be about, what and who would be in it, what special props would they use? The first response I received? "I don't want to make a music video" which goes hand in hand with a previous writing task I gave them where I got an initial response of "Halloween costume is expensive. I don't wear Halloween costume". I can sing their praises about telling me straight up what's going on, but it's really hard to develop writing skills and understand common mistakes when getting them to write is like twisting their arms.

I mention the laziness in an offhand manner, knowing that Korean kids have a lot of pressure to achieve exceptional academic success even from a young age. So while they don't want to work at their hagwon learning English after they get done with school, before they go home to their families, it's a necessary evil. If nothing else, they certainly make me value my time with my kindergartners. My kindy kids will finish their worksheets and draw on the back, or they'll fold them into boats or cups or hats, they will pretend they're characters from their favorite shows, and it's really nice to see. I know it will not continue as such as they get older due to the system, but it's nice to see them being kids while they can.