10/13: Events in October

Restaurant in Daejeon where they give you gloves to mix your salad

Toilet Paper Prize I got for playing volleyball

Lindsey and I at Sponge Bar in Daejeon

Some weird bar I saw at Daejeon with a robotic hostess

Planting a plant at my elementary school's booth at the exhibition

Chicks from my school

Making traditional sweets at the schools' exhibition

There were no more scheduled holidays until Christmas which meant basically working two and a half months straight! This is going to be a long two and a half months! Luckily there are a lot of different events coming up so that should keep me busy and occupied. 

                The Sejong City Office of Education loves to hold events and competitions so one Wednesday afternoon they had a school showcase type of event for students that was being held very close to my house. Juny was going and my vice principal said I was free to tag along since I didn’t have any afternoon classes. It was great too! Basically each elementary and middle school had a booth and a project that the students could participate in. Well, me being the native teacher who is treated like a student a lot of the time anyways, was allowed to participate in these events. My school is known for agriculture so at our booth we had our baby chickens and rabbits on display and had a plant planting section where students could make a plant to bring home so I walked home with a plant. At another booth they were making traditional candies so I got to make traditional candies too! These reminded me of the Chinese crackers you get for Chinese soup—really flaky and crispy! They were great! It was a really nice event and I was so happy that I got to act like a student and do the activities at these booths.

                Another event that the Sejong City Office of Education was holding was an English competition which I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Both Juny and myself were working very hard with the students to prepare them for the event. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the event but Juny went with the kids. I was left to stay at school and teach all the morning classes by myself. Well as soon as my students saw that Juny was gone they realized it was a free day. I tried maintaining control of the class and we played some games and followed the textbook but it was so much harder without her. It made me realize how much she is the head teacher and I am the assistant. The kids know it and know that without Juny, I have no power. All in all, it sucked having to teach them without someone there to control their behavior.

                What else? Oh yeah, we had another VIP English Festival. This one was held at Chamsan Elementary School in Sejong City. As mentioned I live in a small town called Jochiwon within the Sejong City province. Within the proving there is a new city called Sejong that will be the new government headquarters. They basically realized they need a government headquarters so decided to build a completely new city. Chamsan Elementary is right in the middle of the new Sejong and it was the first time that I was in the city. I loved it. It was really clean and, obviously, very new. I heard one of the architects modeled it off Western cities and therefore it looks very Western and modern. Plus it is supposed to be a “green, eco-friendly” city so there are a lot of green spaces around, solar panels, etc. The only weir part is that it’s pretty empty. There aren’t that many people around and a lot of the office buildings have no one in them. The government complex building is huge and runs throughout the city but a large part of it is unoccupied and still being built and therefore there are cranes and construction tape all over the city. The elementary school was beautiful with bright colors and really modern systems like smartboards and heated toilets, lol. The festival itself went really well. I was the Master of Ceremonies again and organized the quiz section. I thought it went as well as the last one. Plus the directors of VIP took us out for shabu-shabu afterwards which is Japanese hotpot. DELICIOUS!!!

                Since VIP was on Saturday, on Sunday I went to Daejeon to meet up with one of my friends I met at orientation. She and I got along really well at orientation and since I am having a hard time making friends I decided to see if she wanted to meet up for the day. It ended up being a great day as we got to have Indian food for lunch, which was fantastic, did some shopping and just wandered around Daejeon. Neither one of us had been there before so we had no idea what to expect. We did end up in an apartment complex by accident. The day ended with some chatting over an awesome Green Tea Latte!

It turns out I would go to that exact same area the following week to go dancing at some bar my friend learned out. It had been a while since I had gone out (seeing as how I hate going out this isn't very surprising) but my friend told me about this bar she liked and together we went on a Friday night to Daejeon. The night started out by going to some restaurant with no English menu and only pictures. We thought we ordered a plate of meat but it turns out we ordered a salad with some slices of duck on top. It was so weird because the waiter brought out the dish and then handed me some gloves and gestured that I put the gloves on and mix the salad-so weird. After dinner we got lost for like an hour before finally finding the bar. The night was pretty fun filled with some dancing and talking before heading back on the 2:30 am train to Jochiwon.

                Hmm? Every Tuesday I am taking Korean lessons with my tutor and feel that I am progressing. I am learning how to construct sentences as well as increasing my vocabulary. It is still very hard for me to understand what people are saying as they speak so quickly and don’t slow down for me but I can write some sentences and begin to decipher what words are verbs, subject, object, etc.

                I am also playing volleyball every Monday and Thursday with the female teachers of Sejong City. It’s gotten better as more and more teachers become more comfortable with me and I with them allowing for me to joke a little more with them. Plus they speak more English every week which has been nice. AND there is another American teacher who began playing with us, Stacy. This is probably the best thing about it because now I have someone there I can talk to really easily and who is just as confused about what is going on as I am. In fact, we had a tournament one of the last weekends of October.  I wasn’t sure at all what to expect except that Han Sookhee (the teacher at my school who drives me to practice and speaks some English) asked if I could play in a game on Sunday. I said sure and so Sunday morning, 9:30am she picked Stacy and I up and took us to the school. It turned out to be a much bigger deal than I realized. There were four competing teams, one court and each team had their own area of the gym to have a picnic on. Han SookHee is on two teams so she was playing with her other team today yet she still told us to come sit with her other team who said hello and offered us food, good food too! Our team arrived a little later and they offered us food too: kimbap, sweet potatoes, mandarins, etc. I couldn’t believe people were eating this much before a game, oh and of course, they had a can of beer opened at 10am and were drinking. Crazy!

                Throughout the day we ended up playing about 4 games and I think we only won one game. It didn’t matter to me. I had fun and played well. During the last game, I was hitting and had some people even cheering me on using my name. In Korea they play 9 v 9 with a shorter net which really benefits me since I am so slow and can’t jump high. With so many players I don’t have to cover a lot of ground and with the short net I become a really good hitter. I loved it. Not to mention, they had a fantastic lunch. All the teams take a break and go outside to the parking lot where they had catered Korean lunch: soup, meat, rice, etc. I ate so much throughout the day and I had the chance to speak with some more of my teammates. Some of them speak English so this young teacher (English name is Sarah) took the time to help Stacy and I practice the Korean alphabet. I was supposed to go to Costco later in the afternoon with Juny but of course that never happened as the tournament took so long. But I didn’t mind. I had a fantastic time and it’s just another example of how sports make life so much better. Plus at practice the following week they told me I got a prize and it ended up being 30 rolls of toilet paper. I have no idea why they sell and give toilet paper in bulk sizes here.  It doesn't even it in my apartment! I have toilet paper coming out from all over the place. At least I won't need to buy toilet paper while in Korea.