Being sick and PK11

1. I am sick

It's a mega-bummer. I've had an achy throat since the day after I arrived in Seoul. I just chalked that up to the pollution. But this past week I have felt awful...completely drained. So I did the most logical thing I could do which was buy orange juice. But all orange juices are not created equally. So I went to the local GS 25 and bought the 2L bottle that said "100" on the label (fig. 1). Tonight I'm going to go to the grocery store and then go to bed. The last thing I need is a sinus infection.

Figure 1. Orange Juice

2. PK11

Front: Sang Bum, Ally, Ruth, Junhee Back: Yoo Seop, Wendy

This is my PK11 class. They're the most advanced kids I teach and they're pretty amazing. Junhee and Yoo Seop have both lived in the US and, as I found out the other day, Sang Bum will be moving to Canada in a few months.

We had some extra time after class on Friday (I'm sure I forgot to do something) so we talked about snow and things you do in the snow because apparently you don't eat the snow in Seoul. Also, I told them that i was sick and asked them what I should eat. They said "juk". But apparently I need to go to a special restaurant and then they gave me some crazy directions. But honestly, how good can a 9 year old's directions be?


3. Bikes

I finally figured out my bike dilemma. Well, mostly, anyway. After emailing a lot of people about where to go I got some great directions to a bike store in Gangnam, near Apgujeong. Surprisingly, I was able to find it and there is a guy who works there who speaks pretty good English. So basically I'm just waiting to get paid (on Thursday)!

A couple quick things about the bikes. The Long Haul Trucker is meant to carry HEAVY loads and still handle well. The thing is that it has 26" tires. The cross-check seems to be a really versatile bike but it has ony a double chain ring. I can get someone to make it into a triple, right? I'm also worried about toe overlap (big wheels on a smaller frame, I'd probably get the 46cm). Anyway, please advise.

The Surly Cross Check or the Surly Long Haul Trucker??!!?! I can't decide!!

In other news, my class room is getting new wallpaper this weekend. This is good because the other wallpaper was really gross.

Lessons

My Kinder class (Front [l to r]: Claire, Ginger, Vicky, Yuna, Julie, Mary. Back [l to r]: George, Gus, Eric, Daniel Y., Robin)

Lesson #1: It's not a school it's a business
These kids work so hard. It's unreal. Everything at this hagwon is very structured which in some sense is nice because some days you can just go in there and "pound it out" y'know? But it's already annoying because sometimes you want to talk to the kids about different things. I brought a lot of pictures from home and frankly, there is no time to look at them.


Lesson #2: Nights out are fun!
Yep, you sure can have fun at clubs with ridiculous names like Monkey Beach. At said bar there is a nightly fire show. Oh Seoul, you're so wacky. There's another bar called Woodstock that lets you request music. I made sure I line up an 80s hit parade right before we left.






Lesson #3: Shopping can be wacky
I couldn't believe it when I found the following jacket at Dongdaemun Market




Other Things:
Some times our little kids get to have fun. The kinder kids had a picnic this past Friday. Great fun ensued. But we didn't get to play that many games because the professional photographer kept taking pictures of our little kids hiding behind trees and stuff.


Pros and cons:
Koreans work unbelievably hard. It's one of those things that you always hear about but then you start talking to people and you think, "holy shit!" My kinder class is 7 years old and they have all been studying English for 3 years already. Some of them are very good, others...um... but they'll get better. It's funny that now I am a part of this crazy educational system. I'm not really going to wax on about it hear because I'm sure most of you have heard about it and if not you can look it up. I would just like to point out that these Kinders go to school at the hagwon from 10-2:20pm and then they go to Korean school (I'm not sure for how long). Times are good right now. I just started teaching on Friday. It was a little bumpy but today (Monday) went much better. My older kids are really good and you can carry on a normal conversation with most of the kids in my highest class (9 years old).

Other personal tradegies include: having a hard time finding shoes (big feet) and having to wait until Monday to read Postsecret (time difference).

Arrival

So here I am in Korea. I'll be in a hotel for the first few days because there's a big holiday this weekend. I'm going to the school today to meet the people I'll be working with. I've slept for a grand total of 4 hours so today's goal is not to break down and cry in front of anyone.

In other news there is a bike shop half a block from my school. I'm hoping someone can tell me something about biking around here. How great!

No pictures yet.

the plane rides highs and lows

high: Watching Leatherheads
low: watching Speed Racer and also not realizing that it would have been a good decision to sleep the first half of the plane ride when the rest of Korea was sleeping.