I changed the name of my blog. I wasn't too thrilled with the original one, but seeing as how my default user-name had been used by myself about 6 years ago for a class project, I opted for the next best thing. I have changed the name to my name in Hangul (it says "beh-ri-ahn-nah).
I've also been compiling a 'list' of sorts for a while. There's quite a few things I see here on a day-to-day basis that just don't seem either blog-worthy or have become so common-place now that once I've seen them I promptly forget about them. This list is still in draft mode, as I know there are about 20 things I've forgot to put on there, but as soon as I have been reminded of them, the post will show up.
On a school note, we had our monthly birthday party today. The requisite massive amount of pictures and pizza with fried chicken and noodle soup were all present. Afterwards someone had the bright idea to take the kids on a walk by the river, seeing as how it's a lovely bright and sunny day (it's been raining, or had the threat of rain for the past two months almost every day). Imagine taking about 50 kids, ice cream in a bag in one hand and their partner's hand in the other, on a walk down by a river full of insects, flowers, joggers, bikers, ajumas, and other fascinating things for a 6 year old. My class of 7 was mostly well behaved, which is more than can be said for some of the other classes. Part of it I'm sure is that my class is the oldest and has been with EWAS the longest. The other part is they know better with me - I don't let them misbehave, I don't care how old they are. The kids were hot and tired when we got back to the class, and Fiona teacher took all 50 of them into the Fun House, so the rest of the teachers have a relatively easy day today.
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Birthday Shennanigans
I got to celebrate my birthday twice this year. At school, we have a montly birthday party for all the kids with birthdays that month. This month's happened to fall on my actuall birthday, so I was 'forced' to participate.
Cherita, James and I went to Dr. Fish after work and I enjoyed their company with tea and little fish. And then Friday night, I went out with them again and met up with some of James' friends to celebrate three birthdays - mine, James', and a friend of his. We spent the whole night out in Handae. Most places here stay open until 4am or later because the metro doesn't start running again after midnight until 5:30 am. I especially enjoyed two places we went to. The first one was Oi, which had some very cool architecture:
Cherita, James and I went to Dr. Fish after work and I enjoyed their company with tea and little fish. And then Friday night, I went out with them again and met up with some of James' friends to celebrate three birthdays - mine, James', and a friend of his. We spent the whole night out in Handae. Most places here stay open until 4am or later because the metro doesn't start running again after midnight until 5:30 am. I especially enjoyed two places we went to. The first one was Oi, which had some very cool architecture:
The second place was Studio 80's which played American 80's music until 4:30am. So I danced to Depeche Mode, Madonna, INXS, the Pointer Sisters, Men At Work, and dozens of others until the wee hours of the morning. I caught the first metro home, and crashed around 8am and slept all day. All in all a wonderful birthday weekend.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Birthday Day
So today was a Birthday Day. There were five kids that have birthdays this month, so they all celebrate them on the same day. Birthdays are a big deal here, so we spent quite a bit of time on this. I had three kids in my classes that were celebrating- Irene, Lewis, and Lyna. At 11:30, we all went into the fun room, where they had a pizza, some rainbow rice cakes, and what looked like funions on a table. The birthday kids stood in front of it while they had their pictures taken. Apparently it's not common for people to smile in pictures here, most of the kids either had a straight face or a weird attempt at a half smile.
The cake was being delivered, and was running late, so they had the kids standing at the front of the room for about ten minutes without doing anything. Finally they decided that the kids were all going to perform their songs again, and they started with my Lemon class, who did "Little Bear Lake" again. The cake came after about 4 classes had done a song, so they took more pictures of the kids with the cake, and then lit candles, and gave each kid a chance to blow them out (while taking more pictures). Then it was pictures with each kid by themselves, each kid with their class, each kid with their class and teachers, and each kid with the others that had given them presents.
Then we ate lunch, which was pizza and noodle soup, with funions and cake for dessert. Some of the kids opted for cake, but most wanted the funions. When the kids eat lunch, or snack, they have to say a prayer first. They close their eyes, put their hands together, and say (to the tune of Are You Sleeping, Brother John)
Thank you father,
thank you father,
for the food,
for the food,
any other blessings,
any other blessings,
amen,
amen,
Thank you for the lunch,
enjoy your lunch
When they're done eating, they say "finished", then bring their plates and utensils to the kitchen. They then get their toothbrush, which is hanging next to the sink, and come and say to me "toothpaste please", at which point I put the toothpaste on for them. They then have to say "thank you", and go brush their teeth. When they're done brushing, they can go play until the next class.
And this was my dinner last night from Home Plus (HP):
The cake was being delivered, and was running late, so they had the kids standing at the front of the room for about ten minutes without doing anything. Finally they decided that the kids were all going to perform their songs again, and they started with my Lemon class, who did "Little Bear Lake" again. The cake came after about 4 classes had done a song, so they took more pictures of the kids with the cake, and then lit candles, and gave each kid a chance to blow them out (while taking more pictures). Then it was pictures with each kid by themselves, each kid with their class, each kid with their class and teachers, and each kid with the others that had given them presents.
Then we ate lunch, which was pizza and noodle soup, with funions and cake for dessert. Some of the kids opted for cake, but most wanted the funions. When the kids eat lunch, or snack, they have to say a prayer first. They close their eyes, put their hands together, and say (to the tune of Are You Sleeping, Brother John)
Thank you father,
thank you father,
for the food,
for the food,
any other blessings,
any other blessings,
amen,
amen,
Thank you for the lunch,
enjoy your lunch
When they're done eating, they say "finished", then bring their plates and utensils to the kitchen. They then get their toothbrush, which is hanging next to the sink, and come and say to me "toothpaste please", at which point I put the toothpaste on for them. They then have to say "thank you", and go brush their teeth. When they're done brushing, they can go play until the next class.
And this was my dinner last night from Home Plus (HP):
Thursday, June 5, 2008
A trip to the hospital
I only had to teach three classes today, since I went to the hospital to get my physical so I can apply for my alien card. My first class, lemon, was from 9:45-10:30. They usually have snack then, so Julie Teacher took over for me while I went to the hospital (I'm Breanna Teacher to the kids, only they usually pronounce it teachah). Lee, Julie's husband, drove me there, and took care of all the paperwork. It was a lot of running around between floors 1, 3, 6, and 8. Some of the elevators only went to even floors and some went to odd floors and some went to all of them. Only some of them were labeled.
The first thing they did was the obligatory pee test, then 4 blood samples. There was a very long conversation between two nurses and Lee before they took my blood, and the only thing I caught was HIV, which they would be testing for. Lee couldn't translate any of it, partially because his English is basic at best, and I don't know that anyone but a fluent speaker in both languages could translate medical terminology. Then we went downstairs where I thought they would do a physical, but their version of it was asking me "Do you have health ok?". Then we went back upstairs, since apparently the first set of nurses had to go to lunch and didn't have time to do the rest of it while we were up there. We got another form, went back downstairs, where they checked my teeth (no cavities, no missing teeth). Then back upstairs they checked height, weight, blood pressure, hearing, sight (all of which are fine), and did an x-ray of my chest. And then we left.
By the time we got back, it was almost the end of lunch. So I had lunch in the kitchen with Lee and one of the kids. Everyday there's soup, kimchi, rice, and then two sides. I can't eat the kimchi - it's way too spicy. Lee told me there's something called pakimchi, which is similar only made without pepper, so it's milder. But most, if not all, restaurants only serve kimchi. I do, however, love dried seaweed and rice. It's my new favorite snack. I had some sort of little silver fish that had been cooked, had it's head and tail cut off, and covered/stuffed with some sort of vegetable sauce thing. It was a bit spicy, but pretty good. Lee also showed me how to correctly hold my chopsticks, which seemed to work for the first time. It still amazes me that the kids eat such spicy food, and not only don't mind it, but they love it (the teachers eat the same thing as the kids, just bigger portions).
Julie teacher even taught my class after lunch, so I only had my two apple classes to do, which are pretty easy because one class has three kids and one class has nine, and they all speak English fairly fluently. Even though my last class is over at 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm not supposed to leave before 6pm (which isn't bad, considering my day starts at 9:45 and I get an hour break after lunch). So I spent the rest of the day working on my lesson plans for lemon and cherry for next week, and making sure I had all the materials I needed for the activities. They're pretty straight-forward, and everything is pretty much scripted for you from the teacher's book. They have songs that go along with storybooks, and activity books, and homework books, all relating to whatever story they're reading. I've learned such riveting songs as "Little Bear Lake", "Let's Go Camping", and "Hello, Ranger Joe". And tomorrow is Memorial Day, so Cherita, James and I are going out to downtown Uijeongbu (pronounced weejongboo) tonight since there's no school tomorrow. I did find out from Julie teacher that my birthday, which is the Korean Independance Day, is no longer a holiday off from school - apparently Korea has too many holidays and they changed it last year to a normal school day. :(
There's lots of little things here that I find facinating. Things like when you order pizza, they always tie it with a red ribbon to keep the box closed. Or how the cars have the right of way, not the pedestrians, and they can make a u-turn in the middle of the street, as long as there's no traffic going the other way. There doesn't seem to be any laws about where to park either, as people park in the street all the time with no permits. In their registers, they keep their money vertical, instead of laying down horizontal, and most bathrooms don't have toilet paper - you're supposed to bring your own.
The first thing they did was the obligatory pee test, then 4 blood samples. There was a very long conversation between two nurses and Lee before they took my blood, and the only thing I caught was HIV, which they would be testing for. Lee couldn't translate any of it, partially because his English is basic at best, and I don't know that anyone but a fluent speaker in both languages could translate medical terminology. Then we went downstairs where I thought they would do a physical, but their version of it was asking me "Do you have health ok?". Then we went back upstairs, since apparently the first set of nurses had to go to lunch and didn't have time to do the rest of it while we were up there. We got another form, went back downstairs, where they checked my teeth (no cavities, no missing teeth). Then back upstairs they checked height, weight, blood pressure, hearing, sight (all of which are fine), and did an x-ray of my chest. And then we left.
By the time we got back, it was almost the end of lunch. So I had lunch in the kitchen with Lee and one of the kids. Everyday there's soup, kimchi, rice, and then two sides. I can't eat the kimchi - it's way too spicy. Lee told me there's something called pakimchi, which is similar only made without pepper, so it's milder. But most, if not all, restaurants only serve kimchi. I do, however, love dried seaweed and rice. It's my new favorite snack. I had some sort of little silver fish that had been cooked, had it's head and tail cut off, and covered/stuffed with some sort of vegetable sauce thing. It was a bit spicy, but pretty good. Lee also showed me how to correctly hold my chopsticks, which seemed to work for the first time. It still amazes me that the kids eat such spicy food, and not only don't mind it, but they love it (the teachers eat the same thing as the kids, just bigger portions).
Julie teacher even taught my class after lunch, so I only had my two apple classes to do, which are pretty easy because one class has three kids and one class has nine, and they all speak English fairly fluently. Even though my last class is over at 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm not supposed to leave before 6pm (which isn't bad, considering my day starts at 9:45 and I get an hour break after lunch). So I spent the rest of the day working on my lesson plans for lemon and cherry for next week, and making sure I had all the materials I needed for the activities. They're pretty straight-forward, and everything is pretty much scripted for you from the teacher's book. They have songs that go along with storybooks, and activity books, and homework books, all relating to whatever story they're reading. I've learned such riveting songs as "Little Bear Lake", "Let's Go Camping", and "Hello, Ranger Joe". And tomorrow is Memorial Day, so Cherita, James and I are going out to downtown Uijeongbu (pronounced weejongboo) tonight since there's no school tomorrow. I did find out from Julie teacher that my birthday, which is the Korean Independance Day, is no longer a holiday off from school - apparently Korea has too many holidays and they changed it last year to a normal school day. :(
There's lots of little things here that I find facinating. Things like when you order pizza, they always tie it with a red ribbon to keep the box closed. Or how the cars have the right of way, not the pedestrians, and they can make a u-turn in the middle of the street, as long as there's no traffic going the other way. There doesn't seem to be any laws about where to park either, as people park in the street all the time with no permits. In their registers, they keep their money vertical, instead of laying down horizontal, and most bathrooms don't have toilet paper - you're supposed to bring your own.
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