Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. I guess the park was supposed to have lots of Cherry Blossoms. As it turns out, there are actually more of those trees in a park that is only a mile from my house. We took an hour and a half bus ride, packed in like sardines, standing up, the windows didn't open, and there was no air conditioner. At first I was a little frustrated that we had traveled for so long to get there, but it was such a beautiful day to be outside that the frustration soon melted into pure contentment of just being outside.

This was an extremely random photo op set up. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be advertising, but my friend Chloe sure makes a good angel! The funniest was when a little boy (maybe three years old) was standing there, but his head only went about 1/3 of the way up the wings.

You could also see the Blue House (first picture of me) from the park. This was the first time that I had ever seen the Blue House, which is where the president works. (I thought he lived there too, but as it turns out, I thought wrong.) The second picture of me is in front of a statue of King SaeJong. I guess he is the one who invented Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) 600 years ago.

After we walked through the park, we went for a stroll by the Han River. I had never been to this area before, and had also never seen an amphtheater that was built on a river. I thought it was interesting. We also saw a little boy who was playing right on the edge of the concrete. He was probably only 4 years old, and was playing and dancing within inches of the dropoff to the river. (Never mind that there aren't railins there in the first place, where the heck were his parents?) I was terrified that he was going to plop right into the water. When he sat down by himself, looking so cute, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the adorable scene. (And no, he never fell into the water.

This morning I ran a 5k with some friends of mine. It was their first time running a 5k, and they were pretty proud that they finished. I jogged with them, and encouraged them when they were exhausted. It would be fun to enter a race to actually be able to run for myself. Maybe I'll do that half marathon soon....

Radioactive Rain...

Not much exciting happening here this week.

On Thursday, we had rain that was supposedly going to be radioactive because of the nuclear plant in Japan. I was really confused at first, because in the spring we get our winds from China in the West. I guess what happened was the storm system looped around to the south, and came back up to China and over. We started being warned about it on Monday. By Wednesday, National Minestry of Meteorology (or some organization like that) was saying that there was no danger, and that if there was any radioactivity, the levels would be "ignorable." The principals of schools have the authority to cancel classes at their descression. As it turns out, they had so much pressure from parents that over 150 schools closed down in my province. From what I can tell, there wasn't really any danger, just a load of paranoia.

Yesterday, for the first time, my school had one of their bus drivers take the teachers on a trip to Costco. This was really appreciated, because the hardest part of going there is trying to lug your load of western-style groceries home on the bus. Many of the teachers who went were going for the first time. The most exciting products included cheese, ravioli, oatmeal, granola bars, and deli meat. None of these things are available at local grocery stores.

The funniet thing about going to costco in Korea is the food court. They are known for their cheap pizza, hotdogs.....and thier free onions. They have the shredded onion dispensers with the condiments to put on your hotdogs. However, many Koreans use this as a full meal. They fill a whole plate (seriously, a 10 inch plate piled at least 2 inches high in the center) with these onions, and smother them with mustard and ketsup. I'm not sure what this is all about, but I don't even want to know what it tastes like.

First Field Trip

This weeks my new students went on their first field trip ever. I was terrified. I had no idea how I was going to keep ten students who don't know any English under control in a completely uncontrolled environment. It turned out being okay. It was exciting for the students to get out of the school, but the actual museum was kind of boring for them. We went to the Green Energy Museum. There were a lot of interactive things for kids to run around and do, but we ended up being put with a guide who would let one or two students do each thing while everyone else watched. My poor 4 and 5 year olds ended up sitting most of the time.

The bus ride there should have been really short. In the past, we have gone places that were an hour to an hour and a half away. This museum was probably only about 10 miles, but most of it we ended up just sitting in traffic. The kids were antsy, and really loud. I started singing "The Wheels on the Bus" really quietly. All the students magically stopped talking. The bus was almost silent, but one student stuck her fingers in her ears and yelled "Be quiet Teacher!"

The student in the first picture is Alex, and the second picture is Mark. They probably my favorite students, just because they don't have a defiant, or violent side to them, and they don't completely space out during class. The picture of the boy and girl on the bus are Kevin and Alice. Kevin is really nice, but still has a lot of growing up to do. He has trouble concentrating long enought to write 1 letter on a paper. This is extremely frustrating because I don't have the time to sit and walk him through the work when I have to get the rest of the class to do it too. Alice is adorable most of the time. She is soooo smart, and knows a lot of English, but is really stubborn, and really mean to the other students. (Something I didn't know for a long time because I didn't understand when she was telling her classmates "I hate you" and "I don't want to play with you" in Korean.)

Okay, I won't bore you with telling you about each of my students. (At least until next time.)

The truth is, even if it is completely exhausting... and the parents are crazy... and I have students with violent streaks... I love each of my students. While I am looking forward to being done with my school in 3 months, I will miss my kids a lot.

They say cute things like "Home Time time" for the end of the day, or "Kenny bear" instead of

"teddy bear." One of the few words they know is "yummy," and they use it ALL the time. They say "Stacie Teacher yummy!" or "Teacher, lunch an-yummy" (an- is the korean prefix for "not," but it is only used with verbs)

So yesterday I finally went and got a haircut. I haven't done this in a year, and I'm not sure that I posted about it last time. It is SO scary to go in and let someone cut your hair without really being able to tell them much more than how long I want it. One thing that I forgot about was how they always thin out your hair. I guess Korean hair is thick, and everyone wants it to be thin. They have this scissors that they use to thin out the bottom half of it. I didn't notice what she was doing until after she already cut out a chunk. My hair is so thin already that I really didn't need someone coming and cutting half of it out. AAAAHHHHH!!!! So my hair is now shorter than I wanted, and REALLY REALLY fine. Oh well.... I guess it will always grow back...