Wild Things

Perhaps the best children's book ever written has become the centerfold of the reading week for my summer English Camp.

And just what is the best children's book ever written?  

I'm sure there are a lot of guesses.  I'm sure each person has their own memories surrounding their personal favorite.  Just as I do.  And to me, what will forever be the earmarked book of my childhood is Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

There isn't a lot to actually read in the book.  The verbal content is quite small.  But this allows for amazing creativity to come into play.

The crafts I came up with (sometimes with a little help from the internet) have been really enjoyable and super engaging for my students.  And while the vocabulary is a bit unusual (I don't know when my 3rd and 4th graders are ever going to use 'gnashed' or 'snarled', but at any rate - they now know what it means) it still allows for focused educational activities.

But really it's all about the crafts!  And we've been busy making art!  

We've colored pictures and the black and white pages of their photocopied books....

We've painted monsters using toliet paper rolls...

We've made monster masks using paper plates and colored paper...

And tomorrow we'll finsih the week off by seeing Max sail safely back to his room where his supper sits waiting.

Summertime

This past week, the weather in Busan has been both parts wonderful (beautiful clear skies) and hell (hot hot temperatures). 

And the coming week will be no different.

With this good weather the Great Migration of Busan has commenced!  

In flocks we travel to the beaches: to the water, to the sand, but not the sun!  Or at least not for the Koreans.*

I'd been trying to think of how to describe it.  How to put to words this plight of telling you about the beaches in Korea.  But none were coming.  It is so different, it is so confusing; so unlike the beach behavior that is regarded as normal in the West.

And then today as I was the only Western body laying out on the beach - letting the sun soak into every inch of me - it hit me.  I wasn't at the beach.  It's not the beach I've been going to every chance I get this summer.

It's a water park!  

There may not be rides or long twisting slides, but the beaches of Busan, are without a doubt, a water park.  Tubes are rented to families by the dozens, the shallow and deep ends are separated by a buoyed rope, and shaded areas of the preferred locations for families to gather.  

The sand is almost impossible to see due to the dense collection of parasols that blanket the shore.  The sun is an enemy that is avoid with great care.  Long pants and sleeves are worn in and out of the water.  

And chicken and beer are the dish of the day!  Beer I get and happily drink.  But chicken?  Fried chicken?

A stream of vendors pass by every five minutes to ask if you'd like fried chicken.  Never in the many, many, many endless years, that my family has been bumming it on the beaches of the East Coast have I ever once seen a chicken hawker.

Chicken?  On the beach?  

But at a water park, where picnic areas are available, chicken makes sense.  And so it does in Busan.

I haven't had the chicken yet, but I've gotten a great tan and a little reprive from the relentless heat.  

Maybe this coming week I'll try the chicken.

*Not all Koreans avoid the sun, but a great number of them do.  It's an Asian thing - paleness is better. 

** Pictures taken at Sondgo Beach

SuperYou

While the 3rd and 4th graders kept on swimming through 'Finding Nemo', my 5th and 6th graders got a movie a little bit more suited to their age.  Of course it was still a Disney movie - I might not have made the camp, but I got to pick the movies!!  So for them, I picked 'The Incredibles'.

After seeing which students were enrolled in my camp, I was a little nervous if this particular group of mini-humans would like/accept/gripe/rebel against my movie choice.  Thankfully, they loved it!

And since they are older, they did not get many arts and craft projects; they got vocabulary quizzes instead.  But even those weren't bad.  Especially because each quiz had the possible outcome of a candy prize!  Yup, they're that easy to win over!!

We did do one art/writing project.  

"Make yourself into a superhero!"

I thought they'd love it, I thought they'd be really creative, I thought their imaginations would go wild.

I was half-wrong, wrong, super-wrong.

If one student asked how to spell a word, the rest of the class would also use that word.  What should have been one superhero with the power to never die, turned into ten superheroes with the matching power!!  And so on for every power asked.

But I guess that's what you get from a group of boys who are at the age of noticing boobs and girls.  Superheroes just don't seem as appealing anymore.

Here are some of the superheroes that they created.

Fishery

Summer English Camp has started and at the suggestion of my co-teacher, Seoyeon, our first week is a movie camp.

It makes the work, planning, and follow through for me rather easy, but it is also a bit brain numbing at times too.  Especially when I didn't have to create the worksheets to correspond with the movie.  The BMOE did that and a right job that did!  OMG kill me!  They are terrible!

So to add a bit more to class than just watching 'Finding Nemo' for 80min; I've come up with art and craft projects that would allow the students to get involved, moving, and thinking - because trust me the BMOE movie sheets aren't stimulating much of anything.

Yesterday (7/24) my 3rd and 4th graders learned that a group of fish was called a school and were given fish coloring sheets to design and color.  We practiced design words (pattern, zigzag, wavy lines, etc) and talked about how their fish should "be creative".  Most of the fish came out looking exactly like Marlin, Dory and Nemo - but points for trying.

Today (7/25) I tried another craft project with them.  Origami.  It was meant to only last the first 20mins before we moved on to the movie, but what was called a "not very difficult" origami fish turned into the hardest folding paper project I've ever done!!  Instead of taking a mere 20mins, it took the entire 80mins of camp!!  And most of the fish didn't turn out looking right!

On Monday (7/23), one of the girls in my English camp made me an origami rose!!  A freaking rose!!  Yet even she was stumped by the flopping fish!

It was not my best-laid plan.  But now I know for next time that if I want to do an origami project - I should watch BOTH set of instructional videos!

Here's the youtube videos I used for my "20min art project".  

Give it a try and see how well you do!

Hopefully you do better than I did!

Going to the Chapel

Haejin got married!!

I have to admit, I was doubly excited: firstly excited for her and secondly excited for me.  I know!  It wasn't my wedding, but I was getting to see a Korean wedding!!  Cross that off my Bucket List!

Everyone had been telling me a Korean wedding was a sight to see.  That it'd be a fantastic, whirlwind, fast paced, chaotic, slur of an event.  And Haejin's wedding proved to be just that (7/21).

It was all those things, but yet it was a mastered science that any wedding planner would hope for and also cry about.

To the foreign onlooker it was an interpreted production of strobe lights flashing, cell phone cameras going off, as the wardrobe assistant kept running in every minute to make sure each fold of material was aligned just right, while a group of friends in the back wing had a reunion and only occasionally sneaked a few glances at the bride and groom.

But it was a beautiful event!  

Haejin looked amazing!  

And in the looks her groom stole of her, you could tell that he truly loved her.  

Bows are made, vows are read, and in Haejin's case (which I was told was not common in Korean Weddings) the father's of both bride and groom gave speeches that reduced even the camera crew to tears!  Curses for not knowing Korean!! I love a good cry at weddings!  Then they sealed it all with a kiss.

And it was done.  

Oh, ok well there was a little bit more in there.  The bride and groom blew out the candles their mothers had lit and lit their own together and then they used a sword to cut the top tier of a wedding cake.  

But that was it.  

No 1 Corinthians, no exchange of rings, no bridal party.  Just clean, quick and simple (minus all the fussing of the wardrobe assistant).  

All the was left to do was eat!* 

Congratulations Haejin and Eunho!  I wish you all the best in love and life!

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 

*While the guest ate, Haejin and her husband along with their parents performed another, private, traditional Korean wedding ceremony.

Teachers' Outing

At the end of each term, schools all over Korea* take the teachers on a little outing.

Daepyung is no exception. 

Last year, at the end of first term, my school took a trip to Ulsan for a lunch of top quality beef and had a wander around a coastal park and took a look its lighthouse.  At the end of second term we stayed local and walked over to Jagalchi Fish Market.

This year, to mark the end of first term (7/20), the entire staff got back on the bus for another trip.  This time to Sancheong - two and some hours to the northwest of Busan.

We had beef again for lunch.

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Then after the meal was done, we took a tour around some of the sights in the area.

Our first stop was the historical location of the first place cotton was cultivated in Korea.  Back in 1363, Mr. Moon hid a few cotton seeds in his pen and brought the plant to the Jirisan mountain region.  Presently, there’s no cotton at this site, but a little museum marks the spot and tells visitors how the plant grows and how it was collected and processed into fabric back in the day.

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Next we took a stroll around Namsa Yedam Village.  Nobles used to live there and… it has a pretty wall.  I’m not really sure.  Everything was in Korean, and what was translated for me was only a sentence every now and then and most times it didn’t make too much sense.  I offered some “Ohhh”s and “Cool”s to show that I was listening.  Listening, yes.  Understanding, no.  So some nobles lived there and it has a wall that’s nice to look at.  Good to know!  

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Our final stop was the Sancheong Herbal Medicine Museum.  I know nothing of Eastern medicine, the use of herb or the like, so I walked around the building looking at dried plants and wood bits.  I’ll have to do some reading on Wikipedia to catch up.  It smelled nice though.

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Once that was all done and looked out, we loaded onto the bus again to head back home and call an end to our Teachers’ Outing.  

 

*I don't know if all of Korean schools go on a teachers' outing.  I do know that most of Busan does.

Khanun

[wpvideo GJMW0tAO]

The rainy season has opened her legs here in Korea and has been pissing down on us whenever she pleases.  

But why stop short with just rain?!  If you really want to spice things up throw in a typhoon for fun!  Typhoon Khanun*.  

The American Embassy in Seoul issued this warming regarding the "problems" that could be expected.

Soaking wet.  All the way up to my waist!  Freaking sideways rain!!  It's crazy!  My dress was clinging to my legs and even my undergarments were soggy!!  It was not nice.   

Thankfully Khanun is only a temporary visitor, but the rainy season will stay with us for a few more weeks.  Leaving us to enjoy all the splendor of Mother Nature's curious ways.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2ihL_FrFPs?wmode=transparent]

 

*In 2011 the Pacific region had 21 recorded storms and 8 typhoons.  So far for 2012, there have been 7 storms and 2 typhoons.

Incarcerated

Deskwarming definitely feels like being locked up.  

Last year deskwarming didn't seem to bother me as much.  Or at least I don't remember this crushing feeling that I am getting this year.  Last year it used to be a sigh of relief, a break from the - I'm not really sure what it was a break from, because in all honestly this job really isn't too hard, there are moments of stress to be sure, but on the whole life is good working here - deskwarming was just a nice way to have your day uninterrupted, mulling over facebook, watching a movie or two and just passing the working hours in your own company.

But this year?!  Eeee gads!!  It's rough!!  Perhaps that's because I've had very few days of deskwarming.  Yes, I deskwarmed every Thursday, but the build up to Thursday and even Friday following is full of classes that kept me working till well after lunch (which sounds silly to say, but most NETs finish before lunch).  

It's been a busy, full year!  But now the race has ended and instead of doing my cool down I just sort of sat down. 

Sat down to face 56 hours* of deskwarming laid out in front of me.  That, without any exaggeration, is a prison sentence!  Literally, I am forced to endure the limited confines of my desk and classroom longer than Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton AND Nicole Richie combined faced behind bars. There is no justice in Hollywood nor is there at Daepyung Elementary School.

Ok, ok the last part is a bit of an exaggeration.  There is justice at Daepyung.  I am allowed some freedoms.  

I can spend hours on the computer - going through Facebook, looking at various sites, browsing online stores, watching what movies I can find on Youtube...

I can read my Kindle...

But what if the 4 walls of my classroom get to be too much and I want to step outside?!  I can.  I just have to stretch the full length of my chain out and drag the weight of its restrictions as far as the front steps of my building.  Freedom!!  

I tried to sit outside last week when my 56 hour marathon started.  My Vice Principal found me and asked, in a tone that seemed as if he were concerned for my sanity, "What are you doing?".  My Principal saw me and asked, "Are you sun tanning?".  So you don't want me out here?  Back to my desk.

Following that failed attempt, I tried to get involved in other ways.  Ways that didn't take me past the threshold or leave me by my lonesome.

I heard singing one day - a sweet melody drifting up from the floor below - and followed it.  I found my favorite 4th grade class singing 'Puff the Magic Dragon'!  It was so sweet!!  Their little voices were so precious, I just wanted to stay and listen.  But I was shooed away.  Told to go to the 4th floor and listen to the other 4th grade classes try to break glass with their plastic recorders.  No thanks.  Back to my desk.

 

I have now finished 32 hours of my incarceration.  Here's hoping the next 24 go well enough to leave me with some functioning brain cells to pull off my summer camps next week!

 

*My 56 hour deskwarming marathon started Thursday, 7/12, and continues till this coming Friday, 7/20.

Been Away

Did you miss me this weekend?  I hope not too badly! ^^  

I missed you... and blogging.  But since I was away from my computer and the Posterous app decided it would "fail to load post" (repeatedly), my hand was forced to press play on the remote and grab a glass of wine instead.

We did watch a fair amount of movies and one bottle of wine was had (shared between two people), but lots more than that took place this past weekend (7/13-15).  

 

Here's a little (instagram) look at our weekend.

I went to Daegu early on Friday evening (7/13) to hang out with my friend Zac...  

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We grabbed mondu and noodle soup for dinner before finishing the meal off with dessert... 

Two tubes of ice cream ready to be destroyed, we went back to Zac's, watched a movie and called it a night (Zac had to teach the next morning).

Saturday (7/14), I made the long trek downtown to meet up with Mallory and head over to the university area of Daegu for a stop by Pirate's Ink...

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Note: the above is Mallory.  Not Meagan.  Mallory.  Not Meagan.  I still only have one tiger...

After the tattoo, we were all pretty drained so we went back to our friend Dan's apartment and watched a movie.  Afterwards, Mal and I got dinner at an amazing sushi-go-round place...

Still too tired from the day, we put on another movie to watch.  

Mallory went to bed half way through, but I wasn't left alone for long - Brian and Dan returned from the bars, each in their own stages of wastedness!  Hahahaa it's great being the sober one sometimes! :-P

Sunday (7/15) Mal and I did a little shopping - ok, a lot...

Before going back to Dan's and watching yet another movie!

And since it was Sunday and we were in Daegu, we had to abide by the laws of the land and participate in 'Sunday "Recreational" Day'...

There might be no better way to ride the KTX than enjoying the happiness of a wine buzz.  Sadly it caused horribly unsteady pictures to be taken, and as a result none are suitable for sharing.  Which is probably for the better. ;)

 

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend like we did!