The Han River and Yellow Dust

By the time Friday rolls around I'm usually pretty frustrated with work or about living in such a big city. That's why I love the Han River so much. The Han and the Yangjae Rivers have these amazing bike paths along them. the past two weekends have been beautiful so I've been able to get out and ride my bike.


I don't even think I can adequately explain how much better I feel after these bike rides. The Han has a bunch of parks and pools and tennis courts that run along it. It's so amazing to be out in the warmness and to see people out with their families and having a good time. Last weekend there was the Korean touch rugby championship which basically translates to a bunch of Westerners running around and giving each other hugs. Though last week I was, in fact, on a mission to find a route from my house to the Korean War Memorial at Samgakji because that's where Arirang taekwondo trains. After a random morning of spinning around i finally made it.
I was thrilled and rushed into the building to find TM talking to a new member. On the way home I was a little more serious about actually timing myself to see how much time I would need to get there. I went kind of fast on the way home because I was chasing someone but at a normal pace it should probably take about an hour and 15 minutes. Not bad considering it takes me an hour door-to-door on the subway. I poked around the war memorial for a little bit and it's surprisingly upbeat. There's a wedding hall that usually has something going on every weekend and the outdoor yard is full of old planes and tanks and stuff. It's pretty neat and I'd like to spend a Saturday poking around with a little more ardently. Maybe climb around on some of the airplanes.



That Sunday some other teachers and I went out for brunch at the Big Rock Brewery in Gangnam. It was great. There was even an omelet bar. This is a little ketchup and egg man that Holly accidentally had a conversation with for a few minutes.



In other news, apparently I need to watch out for the giant yellow dust cloud. This is serious. As it has been explained to me the yellow dust is sand from the Gobi desert that has been picked up by the wind and carried here. My friend told me that it has been this way for the past 10 years or so and is exacerbated by dsertification. The USO has a website that tells you the warning level and whether or not you should spend time outdoors. Way to go, China!!

The New Kindergarten

I now have a new kindergarten class. I won't lie, I really miss my old kids but these ones are nice too. This is another 3rd year 7-year-old class. I find myself constantly comparing them to my former class which is pretty unfair considering I started teaching the other class six months into their 3rd year. We have a lot of work to do but I'm hopeful it will all work out. Independent of that they're all kind of hilarious.

Angela, Helen, Matthew, Eric, Daniel, Lee

Now for a quick run down:

back: Matthew, Lee, Mike, Eric, Daniel, Nathan
front: Patty, Diane, Helen, Angela, Julie

The above picture is the class as a whole. You can't really read it but there is a message on the white board that says something like "Hello Julie teacher's class. This is the man in the wall." Another one of the teachers snuck into my room and wrote it on the board. The entire class is convinced that there is a man who lives in the wall between my classroom and Joel's. I prove this to them by pounding on my wall and then having Joel pound back. They eventually caught on and started to suspect Joel. That's when I sent Joel into my room while I went inot his room and did the pounding. I suggested to them that they write letters to the man in the wall. Some of the better ones include: "Man in the wall, I want to fight you! Lee" and "Man in the wall, I like to ride a bicycle. I love you. Helen"

Exhibit A. The first two kids are Lee and Matthew. Lee is awesome and he is a teeny tiny human being. I like to pick him up and walk around. He's also fun because I teach his older brother in a later class. They look remarkably similar and I often find myself calling his brother, Dave, "Lee". Oops.

The second guy is Matthew. He told me a few days in that he was Daniel S.'s cousin. I am not surprised by this as Matthew is also a bit of a space cadet. But he's a bit smilier and dancier.

Exhibit B. This is Helen. She's new to the class. She's a pretty good speaker and reader and yet she starts to cry during phonics almost every day. I'm not really sure why as she doesn't struggle with the subject at all. You know when she's going to cry because her eyes double in size and then begin to flood with water, just like in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. It's amazing.

Next to Helen is Mike. If you can't tell from the picture he doesn't really like to talk to me in the afternoon. Normally I would be upset by this but Mike is a really good studnet so if he doesn't want to talk for 30 minutes out of the day then that's fine with me. I like him because he makes jokes that go over the other students' heads.

Case and point:

I had been making up rhyming names for students in the class. For example, Lee the Flea, Mike the Bike and Helen Megellan.

Eric (another student): Teacher, what is meric?
Me: What? Merk?
Eric: No, meric.
Me: I don't know what you're saying. Spell it.
Eric: M-R-I-C
Me: What? Are you making up words?
Eric: No, teacher. Mike called me Meric.

As soon as Eric realized that Mike was making fun of him he got a little angry.






In other news...

A mom in one of the other 3rd year 7 Kinders didn't think her child was learning enough during the 5 hours he was in kindergarten every day. So she asked the Korean staff to give them a 40 word review test on all the spelling words the 3rd years learn in a month. Now, all of the 3rd year classes have to give this torturous spelling test. what is the matter with people?

Great new things in life

There are some really great things a-foot. First, Lauren and I went to Technomart and bought an oven. It was only 85,000 won. The even better part is that we split it with 4 other teachers so it only cost ~14,000 won. BUT the best part is that I bought a small food processor so I can make my own peanut butter and hummus. AAAAAND it's pink so you know I'm a girl.

Here I am victorious hoisting the new oven over my head.

Other sweet crafty things that have been going on is that I have started to embroidery. Although I don't know the korean word for embroidery hoop. In fact, I don't even know if that's what it's called in English.


This is what I have so far and it has taken me approximately a million hours to do and is a little shoddy in a few places. If you can't tell it's burning buildings but I haven't sewn in the flames yet. Or the big giant dinosaur that is the cause of the flames.