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| Clay tourist at the Boseong Tea Field Museum |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields |
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| Minbab we stayed at in Yolpo |
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| Yolpo Beach |
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| Juny and I at Yolpo Beach |
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| Minbab in Yolpo |
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| Minbab in Yolpo |
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| Julie in "Yolpo" |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
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| Walking around the traditional market |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
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| Chilling on the beach in Yolpo |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
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| Boseong Green Tea Fields with Young Woong |
Although the talent show is over,
the students are still keeping me entertained and running me ragged around the
classroom. Afterschool is not getting any easier but I have a tried some new
things with the first graders which basically includes dances. Luckily they
really like the dances so we have two; one for days of the week and one for the
months, both of which are very similar to the Macarena. After lunch one day,
fourth grade Jasmine came to my classroom and together we did the Macarena with
the months. Not sure if she will remember it in the future but she remembered
the months for at least a week. This was the same girl who at lunch one day ran
over to me and told me to hold up my finger as she measured string around it.
Then after lunch she ran back over and gives me a ring she made. AWESOME! Now I
can add a ring to my collection which also includes a bracelet by a kid. A
couple of weeks ago the fourth grade was studying finances and markets and they
actually had a little market in their classroom. The kids were such amazing
salespeople and I ended up buying popcorn and a bracelet which I thought was
made by the kids but turned out to be made from a parent, haha.
Luckily with after school, the
games and activities have been pretty well received! Score. The first and
second graders have been such terrors that the 1st grade teacher
started coming and sits in the back to help me with discipline and control. It’s
not 100% perfect but it sure is better than when there was no one.
There have been a bunch of cute,
funny moments over the past couple of weeks so I will just put some of them in this
post, sorry if I repeat myself.
--There is this one little girl in
fourth grade named Hyo Jung, English name is Emily, who is just the cutest
little thing. Her and her brother in fifth grade are both pupuchas and way
shorter than the rest of the kids. When they sit in their chairs, their feet
aren’t even close to the ground and just dangle. Well, Juny and I have decided
that Emily is just a little puppy. She has a huge attitude and walks around
with such swag but she is so cute and loveable that you can’t help but love
her. And she gives the best hugs in the world. But her English is terrible as
she never tries or does her homework. She only knows a couple of phrases which
she always says at the wrong time. One of my favorites of hers is “No thanks, I’m
full” but with her Korean accent comes out “No tanks, I’m pool” and not only is
her accent there but she always says it for no reason. Me: “Emily-How was
lunch?” Emily-“No tanks, I’m pool.” Just one example. Her other favorite thing
to say is “Teacher-What do you want?” which she also uses at the wrong time.
Me-“Emily, let’s go. Time for after school” Emily: “Teacher-what do you want?”
HILARIOUS! The two phrases she does use correctly are “Teacher-Bye, Bye” and “I
don’t know.” I just think she is the cutest, most adorable little thing.
-Speaking of accents, some of their
accents turn ordinarily uninteresting English words into curse words! For
example, I was teaching the third graders how to say “Fork” and well, “r” is
very hard for them so it becomes “F**ck.” So here I am with all these little
kids and they are supposed to be repeating after me and instead of “Forks” I
hear a continuous chorus of “F*ck, F*ck” and I can’t hold it together and burst
out laughing. This wasn’t the only time I could hold it in either. We were
teaching the sixth graders to say “sit down.” Well there really isn’t an “s”
sound and it is more of a “sh” sound so again just a chorus of “shit downs” are
being reverberated around the English room. It was so so funny. I was surprised
that they didn’t understand why I was laughing. I thought they would have heard
the word by now but instead they were just so confused as to what I was
laughing about.
-Along with my first and second
graders as being tough during after school, my 3rd and 4th
graders for sure give the little kids a run for their money. However, I had a
couple of cute moments with them lately. We mainly play powerpoint games in
afterschool and it seems like every time we play boys vs girls the boys, in
fourth grade!, yell out their team name as “Sexy Boys.” I didn’t even know they
knew what the word “boy” meant but every time we play it is “sexy boys”!! Along
with ppt games, one day I was playing Uno with the third graders, who love that
game. Except we were playing English after school way in which students have to
say an English sentence in order to put down a card. The third graders only
know pretty basic sentences like “I like/I don’t like” etc. It started with “I
like fish, I like dogs, I like cats” but then we started using names and this
one little cute kid with glasses, 3rd grade Ryan, goes “I don’t like
Julie teacher.” At first, I was taken back but then I saw the little glare in
his eye and knew he was joking. Well months after we played that game he would
still see me and say “I don’t like Julie teacher” laughing the entire way. It
actually made me feel loved that he runs up to me and says he doesn’t like me.
Score for teacher Julie. Also in that afternoon class, there is this really
boisterous but sweet kid, English name is Antonio, who is awesome at English.
He is really small with this really little kid voice, bright blue glasses who
loves to look like a little angel (he cups his face with his hands and blinks at
me all the time). Anyways, in the classroom there is a little stage and he runs
up to the board to write something, he gets it right and then he starts a victory
dance. However, as he is doing his victory dance which is taking forever he
starts going to sits down and falls off the stage! It was the funniest thing.
Luckily he wasn’t hurt and was laughing too but it was one of the moments where
I forgot I was the teacher and just laughed at the kid who fell off the stage! The
last great, hilarious moment of this group for this post comes from little
fourth grade Emily again. We played a game where you need to win at
rock-paper-scissors in order to advance and she wanted to play against me. Fine
by me. What I didn’t realize was that I would be playing with a first grader.
Every time she lost at Rock-Paper-Scissors she would say “no teacher, one more
time” or that one didn’t count or two
out of three. She had an excuse every time. I didn’t care that I was losing but
the excuses just kept coming. It was like playing with a kindergartener.
Finally onto the fifth and sixth
graders. The sixth graders and I don’t really have a lot of funny stories
because I only see the sixth graders during regular class instead of after
school and instead have a core group of fifth grade boys who come to
afterschool who are awesome!!! They are obsessed with anime and cell phone
games and their team names are always “Naruto, Minato or YD (Yeon Dong
Elementary School)” and one of the ring leaders, Adrian, his new favorite word
is “yeah” and is obsessed with saying “yeah, yeah” all the time. I find it
kinda funny but Juny gets really annoyed by it. These boys though are so great
because they are so competitive and get so into the games we play. Even if they
are dumb ppt games they are so excited about them and want to play all the
time. Jayden even comes in the room yelling “play the game!” One day we were
playing Jeopardy and a picture of Alex Trebek was in the corner of the TV the
entire game. Halfway through after school they start pointing and saying “Obama!”
They literally thought that Alex Trebek was Barack Obama!! He’s white and he’s
Canadian!!!!!
One of the boys from after school,
Thomas, was so cute and ran up to me one day in class and gave me a gold bar of
“Godiva” chocolate! He goes American chocolate and when he saw it he thought of
me so brought it to school for me. What a sweetie?? I ended up not eating the
chocolate and later in the week I went to a Wine and Crafts party at my friend
Maggie’s house. I played volleyball so I got there late but it was a really
nice evening where a lot of the female teachers got together and all brought
our different crafts as we chatted and sipped on wine. Some people knitted,
others designed ugly Christmas sweaters, one was drawing and I was doing my
cross stitch. Nice, relaxing night.
So these are my kids stories and now
for a little bit more of my story.
This upcoming weekend I would head
to Boseong with Juny and her son, Young Woong, to see the famous green tea
fields. I had no idea what to expect but Juny told me that it was a beautiful place
that she loved to visit and that she would take me so of course I said yes. And
thank goodness I did. She picked me up early Saturday morning and the three of
us headed to Boseong in the south western part of Korea. Along the way we
rocked out to countless kpop music including a whole bunch of Teen Top and stopped
at a beautiful rest stop to munch on some fish cake and stock up on barley tea.
This rest stop was nice because they had a little patio outside with a koi pond
that overlooked some mountains.
We were about an hour away when
Young Woong spotted a sign for a traditional market so we pulled over and headed
out to walk up and down the huge market. (a traditional market is basically just a
farmers market). There are traditional markets all over Korea but most have one
or two days a month where more and more vendors show up and offer a whole bunch
more goods. It was awesome going with Juny because she was able to ask people
what things were when I didn’t know and tell me what a lot of the stuff was. As
soon as we got out of the car there was this little booth giving away free bags
of Green Tea face wash. I joined in pushing with the rest, stretched my hands
out and when the vendor saw my hands, did a double take, stopped, looked at me
and said “waygook, ahh” meaning foreigner, ahh. I also got to try a whole bunch
of different candies, we bought some twisty donuts, peanuts, ginseng candy and
more. We even had lunch at the market that I have never tried before because they
are usually little stalls with no menu and you just walk in and need to know the
different foods. The one we went to was small with only two tables and just a
sink and gas burner where the woman was cooking everything. It was pretty dirty
so Juny didn’t let us drink from the glasses or bottles and spent a good amount
of time cleaning all the silverware, etc. Juny ordered Sundae which is
basically blood sausage. They take sausage casing and fill it with cellophane tube
noodles that have been filled with blood. It was actually really delicious!!
Then on the side we had gopchang which is basically pig intestines that have
been fried up. I really liked all of it!!
After lunch and exploring the
market a little more we got back in the car and made our way to the Boseong Green
Tea Museum. The museum was all in Korean and showed different types of tea from
around the world and different manners for brewing tea. I enjoyed the pictures
and diagrams, lol. Then we finally made our way to the famous Boseong Green Tea
Fields. Basically they are green tea fields that are built into the side of a
mountain and wind their way back and forth. Even though it was cold and cloudy
out, the fields were bright green and really well manicured making them look so
beautiful and pristine. We climbed all the way to the top of the mountain where
you were supposed to be able to see the ocean, but it was too cloudy and
honestly, the view from the bottom of the hill was better. After taking in the sights,
we stopped by the gift shop were I bought too many green tea flavored things
and munched on green tea ice cream!
Since it was getting late and the
drive was pretty far we decided to stay the night in the town of Yolpo which is
right on the beach. We arrived in the town within 10 minutes or so and went
straight to the beach where Young Woong played around in the mud turning his
orange shoes into brown trainers. It was cool because right before the beach
starts there is a public pool so in the summer people can come to the beach and
enjoy the beach but swim in a pool to avoid the waves (I didn’t really see any
big waves though). In fact there were hardly any waves and instead there was a
lot of beach. There were actually people clamming along the tidal shore.
It took us a little while to find a
place to stay but eventually we made our way to a minbab which is kind of like
a bed and breakfast, but no breakfast. It’s usually a person’s house who has
rooms in the back that they rent out. This one was really nice where the room
had a private bathroom and kitchen area. It was really quite lovely. After
settling in we decided to head back into town for samgyupsal dinner (BBQ pork).
But these was a little different as the pork and beef of this particular
restaurant is said to be fed green tea leaves making their meat taste a little
different. I didn’t taste anything
different about it but it sure was delicious. I also tried green tea nokcha suejaebi
for the first time which is a type of chewy noodle soup. I LOVED IT!! The rest
of the night was relatively peaceful as we just headed back to the minbab and
watched Korean TV.
Sunday we had a leisurely morning
and had very traditional Korean food for breakfast: Ramyun aka Ramon (think Cup
of Noodles). In Korea you can buy your cup of ramyun at the 7-11 and eat it
there as they have hot water and a microwave. That is exactly what we did. Each
family makes their ramyun a little differently but Juny always throws in a hard
boiled egg in hers. It was a great, salty, unhealthy breakfast. Along the way
back we wanted to stop for green tea but all the places we went were closed. Oh
well!
The way back was relatively
uneventful, still rocked out to Teen Top and enjoyed each others company. We
got back to the Daejeon area and went out for an awesome smoked duck lunch (ori
in Korean). This place was really well known amongst Koreans and for a green
reason. It was awesome. It’s very similar to Korean BBQ where there is a grill in
the middle of the table and you grill it yourself except that instead of pork
it is duck. Koreans can do food so well!
We were just about 10 minutes from
Juny’s parents new house so we wandered over there so she could see the new
apartment and I could meet her parents. Her parents were very welcoming and at
the time, Juny’s brother and sister in law were there so I met them and Juny’s nephew
as well. Juny’s sister in law speaks some English so I had someone to talk to
for a bit. Although it was just a short visit I really enjoyed meeting Juny’s
parents and appreciated them letting me in their house.
Overall it was an awesome,
fantastic weekend! I got to see the green tea fields that are pretty hard to
get to without a car and spend some time with Juny and Young Woong outside of
school. THANKS EONNI (Korean for older sister/female friend who is older than
you and you are close with).
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