School Trip - Ulsan Park

We went to Ulsan park today as a school.  I had reservations about it before I went, since the previous one was something of a flop, at least fr me.  This time however I had been told a wek or so ahead of time instead of 5 minutes before and I was able to bring the correct sort of gear and also pack myself some food.

The park was pretty huge, so much so that you can eother hire a bicycle or take the in park bus to get from A to B.  At first I went off on my own and discovered some nice grasy areas and I considered doing some Kung Fu there, but I wanted to see how the day would play out first so I went back to the teachers and kids.  The older kids had decided to go off and walk to the animal petting zoo and butterfly house, but the younger kids were waiting for the bus.  It's a good thing too, else I may have lost them, although, it was because of their shouting that I was able to find them, so perhaps it would not have been so difficult.

At the other end of the park we went into the butterfly house and although it was small it was nice and we followed that with a insect house.  Not so much my cup of tea, but interesting none the less.  Next we made our way to the 'zoo', but on the way decided to make a pit stop for lunch.

I had come vastly prepared and I had sanwhiches, boiled eggs, fruit, crisps and a drink.  I had also made a batch of cookies, which throughout the day, I shared with the kids and the other teachers.  I was to eat with the other teachers, which I was rather dreading, making the asumption that it would be yet another meal where I would be ignored. But I think since there were no authority figures it was somewhat more relaxed and I felt more at ease, even if little conversation was directed my way.  The other teachers had brought an array of Kimbap and other very Korean dishes and invited me to dig in.  Then Sey Bom arrived with his fiancee and lots of delicious food, some of which was cooked chicken (still hot).  In short, the food was good.  Plus I liked his fiancee, she was able to talk to me, since her English is pretty amazing,

Next the animals.  There were a couple of macaques and some various birds, mainly pheasants and chickens, nothing too strange.  There were also some donkeys, which were good, I like donkeys for some reason.  probably because they are always portrayed as the hard working animal, not asking much of anyone.

It was funny though because the teachers and kids were trying to feed the Donkeys with chopsticks, it was a rather fruitless attempt becuase they kept dropping stuff and it rolling away from the donkeys.  So I told them how you should feed them open palm, as I had seen my sister do when she had a horse at one point.  Scared the teacher asked me to show her, I'd never done it before myself, so I was a little dubious, but I thought, meh, why not.  It was alright, although the donkey ended up licking my hand.

We walked back down to around the butterfly house and most of the kids went off to play in the big playground, made up of climbing stuff and trampolines.  While I, Sey Bom and his fiancee and a couple of kids hired out some bikes and cycled around for about an hour.  That was great, that's the first time I have ridden a bike while I have been in Korea.  I really enjoyed it.

And then we headed back to school.  Plus we were then allowed to go home early. What a great day!

Food and Toilets, weird right?

So let's start with food shall we.

I have become a little fed up with my food situation.  Unfortunately living in a small town there is only a limited supply of resources.  So that can be rather trying since I like to make food myself.  There are some more advanced meals which I like to make, but they take a while to prepare and the ingredients can be pricy.  So that means on a daily basis I am left with what I can buy from the local shops and the market should I catch it when it comes through town (which can be difficult since it seems to follow no actual schedule).  Occasionally I am able to gather other ingredients from the cities, but that is a rarity.  Of course I can grab a meal from one of the many resteraunts in town, but the problem there is that, although there are many resteraunts, there is still not a lot of choice. 

Of course if I were Korean having very little choice about food would not bother me as it seems Koreans do not get gastronomically bored.  This may be because of the way they ar ebrought up...who knows.  It turns out the kids in my school have rice, kimchi and soup for breakfast, rice, kimchi and soup for lunch and can you guess?  Yes that's right rice, kimchi and soup for dinner.  One of my co-teachers tried to explain to me that outside of school most people do not have rice for lunch, instead they probably have noodles.  Which of course is SO different!  Well it seems to work for them, but it does not do much for my mental stability, which is wavering as it is.

TOILETS!!!

Now I have discussed this subject before, the lack of toilet paper and the bizarre squats.  However today I look at the total lack of privacy.  Most restrooms/public toilets in Korea seem to lack basic privacy.  Yes there are doors on the cublices, which is good.  However there is not much priority put on blocking the rest of the toilets from view.  For instance in my school, although there are doors to block the view of toilets they are never used.  People just leave the doors wide open, which frequently means that the guys are using the urinals while putting themselves on public display.  Now while there are doors that are not used the ones closest to my room are glass doors, with only the bottom half frosted, so anyone even slightly tall can see over.  So even when I should make any attempt to provide myself some privacy it is easily foiled.  Sometimes I even retreat to the downstairs toilets because students do not use them.  But the problem there is that Koreans must have the windows open at all times so, on the ground level the toilet windows are open putting everyone inside in full display once more.  To make matters even worse over by the door the mirrors have been set up over the sinks so that people outside can basically see in through the reflections.

The lack of privacy on toilets is not simply for schools, but with all public toilets that I have come across.  Even to the extent that in a bar we often frequent in Tongdosa has a unisex toilet and often women will just walk past you at the urinal to use the one stall.  It is very strange and rather off putting.  I generally avoid a lot of discomfort, at least at school by ducking into the cubicals, simply to escape overly curious students.

I remain an adamant suporter of the western toilets and the privacy that comes with it, even though westerners treat their toilet facilities worse on whole.

Open class and social life

Okay, first, I had an open class in Friday.  Which to anyone who has not worked in korea, an open class is basically an evaluation.  I am not entirely sure how important the outcome would be had I wanted to stay working in Korea.  I had chosen to throw my entire self into this lesson.  I wanted to teach the best I could, but I try to do that with every lesson anyway.  But I had no intention to do a bullshit lesson, like I have seen often in Korea, where they practise the lesson with their kids several times before they do it for the evaluation.

So it turns out I was to be evaluated by three random teachers who work in the locxal area at different school, not sure what that proves.  Yes they could give me some helpful criticism, but they would all have their own way of doing things as each teacher does...not sure what that was all about.  Anyway I had to hang around waiting to teach because the observers were late.  Then when I started I was a little flustered and got things a little messed up in order.  I pulled it back together though and as far as I am concerned I taught a fairly good lesson.  The kids seemed to like it and from what my co-teacher said, she liked it too.

However my observers were a little more reserved about it.  They did not care for my game and felt that I was not teaching certain activities in the proper way.  I listened to their comments and took some of it in.  However some of what they said was just theoretical bullshit that I have cast aside myself because in practise I attempt to tailor my lessons for my students and teach them in methods which work for them.  But I just let them give ne their comments rather than argue about it.

They then turned on my co-teacher and went to rip him apart for not having participated.  But as far as I am  concerned the 6th grade teacher does not need to speak English.  He more or less cannont speak English, or so it would seem.  But I can make the students understand me and he keeps them in line.  It works for us.

Anyway, I am glad that is out of the way.  I will keep some things in mind of what was said.  But I am leaving soon and the outcome will have no bearing upon my job.



Socialisation or lack there of.


I have spoken of this before, that I do not really have a social life here.  However it has now reached a point that I am becoming a recluse.  I no longer try.  A friend of mine seems to be disappointed by my attitude, but I have become quite comfortable with a solitary life and I should be fine till the end of my contract.  Now I am not saying that I want to live like this forever, rather that there is little that interests me now, here.  Normally I will meet up with him at the weekend for a chat and a meal.  That's great for me.  Plus given where I live going out and getting home have to be done with strict time limits otherwise I must pay for a room or a taxi, neither of which I really want to do most of the time.

Yesterday he wanted me to go clubbing in Busan and basically just stay up all night and then take the first bus home.  When I was in uni, sure maybe.  But I HATE clubbing and I really didn't want to lose a whole day and fuck up my sleeping habits.  Yeah, I know, not adventurous.  But, well, I just don't care anymore.

I will wait to re-ignite my social spirit once I am in the US.  I don't think I really have the energy anymore for it here.  Well that's it, catch you later.

Evaluation or no evaluation?

So I was supposed to have an evaluation or 'open class' today.  But of course that did not happen, because that's just how things always go here.  I have become pretty acustomed to it now.  Sure it's still a pain in the ass, but it seems the only way to survive working in Korea is to have absolutely no expectations, so whether its good or bad it's still not much of a suprise.

Therefore in theory I should be having my evaluation this coming week instead...but well, we'll see if that really happens.

I decided to do a bit of dieting.

While I have been in Korea, I have been putting on some weight.  It is most likely due both to my making my own food and the fact that I lead a rather dull and socially devoid life style.  Also, while I get some exercise here and there I am generally quite lazy after work.  So, although I am not entirely sure how much I currently weigh I know it's more than when I turned up.

In response then, I have decided to do a bit of dieting.  I assume it is starting to work because I'm pretty damn hungry.  But I have taken measures to stop myself not binging when I get hungry, by having nothing but healthy food in the house.  But over all I would say it sucks...

More stuff!

Well I haven't written anything in a little while, I thought I would throw up some random stuff.

This week I spoted a praying mantis wandering down the road one day after school.  They're pretty big.  I tried to get a photo of it, but they turned out pretty naff.

I think a mantis may be the only insect that I have actually attempted to get closer to look at.  Strangely it brightened up the end of one of my days.

On my birthday I got some little presents from some of my sixth graders. I can't remember if I already wrote about this. They are nothing really, but they were good since I did not get much else for my birthday.  I was really happy with them.

The stuffed animals from the sixth graders.

The tiny Mp3 player something I got myself.

For about a week I had the stuffed animals out on my desk, but then one day, after a really busy day, I realised they were gone.  I asked around and had my co-teacher ask the other teachers.  A couple of days later they were returned to me.  They had been stolen by the secind grade.  Their response had been they thought I had given them to them.  This is something I seem to face on a daily basis, if I put anything on my desk the kids seem to automatically assume it's for them.  Even though I tell them over and over that it's not theirs and they cannot have them...either they just don't learn or they feign ignorance to get more stuff.  I no longer display these gifts, for fear of theft once more.


This week I had a run in with a couple of my students.  I had been teaching a lesson to the sixth grade on my own as is often the case, so I was left to fend for myself infront of about 20 kids.  It's normally not an issue, but on this day, after the lesson I discovered that some of the kids had taken to tearing the stuffing out of one of the chairs.  I knew straight away who it was. but the lesson was over and I could not get a hold of them again that day.  I informed their teacher and awaited some retribution, but it was not forthcoming, I at least wanted them to come clean up. But again no sign, so in the end my second graders just decided to do it for me. The next day it was sorted and they were punished.  But I was pretty pissed off that day.  I wanted to see them punished there and then, to reinforce the behaviour was wrong.  But instead as ever it took a while to filter through the system in Korea and by the time they were held accountable the damage had mainly been swept away.

Finally.  I have my evaluation this week. I have not over prepared for it.  I have no intention of doing a fake lesson or doing a practise run.  I am not returning to teach again in Korea, so for me I am just going through the motions.  I am of course going to teach at my best, but I do that every time I teach.  I had prepared the lesson as I always did, but this time I was forced to submit it to my co-teacher and she made changes and wanted me to do certain things, but I was not so happy with the changes.  Yet to make my life easier I have no choice but to bend to her will.  I am to be marked by my co-teacher and 3 other teachers.  For me I will just do what is required and get on with it.  But I assume that the other teachers in the school will dress up and pretend like they are doing very important things elsewhere, so as not to come under scrutiny.

Oh yes, and I am currently applying for teaching qualifications in the UK, but it is a long, borign and irritating process.  Gah it is a must needs thing, but I wish it were just a bit easier.

Right, I'm off now.