Fa La La La La

I know some people have cracked early and I don't blame them.  There really might not be anything better. 

However, I have been strong.  I have held out.  

But tonight, I broke. 

I dug out the stocking my mom sent me last year and hung it by the chimney door with care.

I have lights somewhere, but Cow has hit puberty and become quite the destructive monster so I think it's best not to electrocute my darling little fur ball and leave the lights down this year.

So other than that, I don't have a whole lot I can do to get ready for the holiday season.  Except download a few a holly jolly Christmas movies and begin counting down the days till the big guy arrives.  

Which in my case will be a bill from Chase credit card services, since the fat man is treating me to ticket to the Philippines!  

This holiday season is looking great indeed!

Updated:

I'm clean.  If you had any doubts.  Which you shouldn't!!   

My body and fluids were ran through the gauntlet today and all test came back winning!

No drugs.

No HIV.

Normal blood pressure.

Sharp eyes (should be!)

Height - tall

Chest - small (why they need this one is beyond me :-/)

It was all good.  Now I'm just sitting pretty until the 10th of December when I'll go in and make it all official.

3rd Times a Charm

The documents came for our contract renewal the other week.

But saying that is a bit of a lie.  We got an email, letting us know that the contracts would be coming and that "many changes" were in order.

Attachment:

Just over an hour after we had received that email, another one came…

Except we hadn't gotten our contract.  We had nothing to look over.  We just had word it was time to re-sign and a stack of items were due in one week.

One week isn't very much time to get all the needed paperwork together.  It especially isn't a lot of time when that week is cut down to 4 days due to delays getting the actual contract out! 

But as I have said many and many times before, Mrs. Jang is amazing and she pulled my paperwork together in no time and we got everything submitted by the deadline.*

Then it was just a waiting game.  Waiting to see who would "pass" stage 1 of the renewal process. 

Thankfully, the wait wasn't too long and I heard back today that I passed stage 1 and will be staying in Korea for another year!  But don't pop the champagne just yet.  I have two days, yes only two, to find time in my work schedule to have a medical done so that I can have the results back in time to submit for stage 2.  

How things get done around here with timeframes and deadlines like these I have no idea!  But I'm off first thing tomorrow morning to pee in a cup and do all that fun stuff. 

Once the medical is in hand, I'll make the trip to the head office (12/10) to turn in all the hard copies and sign on the line.

Contractually binding me to my third year in Korea.  

*Mrs. Jang filled out my paperwork so well that she earned our school a 1million won (just under $1,000) bonus!  She is soooo amazing!!

Teaching Teachers

Tonight wrapped up the end of another (two week long) teachers' English training course.

This was the 4th or 5th one I'd been lucky enough to be asked to do; but no matter how many times the Busan Education Training Institute (BETI) offers me these opportunities, I'm always nervous going into them.

They have been different each time I've done them to be fair.  

The first one I did was a "how-to" camp on teaching Content Based Instruction (CBI).  Since I had been doing that from the moment I got to Korea, it wasn't too much of a stretch for me.  I just took a lesson and "taught" it to the teachers.

The second time I was a lecturer it was just a conversation class.  So I was only responsible for coming up with little gimmick activities that would, as you can probably guess, get the teachers to talk.

The next one I presented at I also had to attend.  It was a bit strange, but Mrs. Jang was talking and she asked me to join her.  We spoke about "effective co-teaching" - which I'm very confident we do most successfully!

The one after that was a doozie!  (You may remember I had to prepare a twenty-some-odd page manuscript.)  I was one of 4 lecturers who was presenting on a set topic.  I was fortunate and unfortunate to get the topic of "Opinion".  Sounds easy, right?  We all have our opinions and most times we like to share them.  I just needed to create activities that would give us the groundwork to share our opinions.   For the most part it went well.  Until my second to last lesson, which had me wanting to run away crying.  But I didn't cry and soon it was over.

And that brings us to this one.  My 5th.

When the director asked us what topics we wanted, you can believe I emailed her immediately to let her know that it would be most desirable if I did NOT have opinion again.  She was nice to go along with my request and I was assigned "Real Life English".  However, this time I didn't have to prepare the materials.  Aoife did that - she works at BETI and was also going to be teaching this course/topic, but at another location - I just had to make the materials and ppts.

This course was a dream!

I was nervous at the start of it - unsure if I had done an adequate job preparing materials: activities, warmups, etc.  But despite being told I talk too fast (fail), it was the best one I've ever done.

The teachers in the course were amazing!  Some of them I had had before in previous courses!!  It was great to see them again and continue to help in their English development and passion.

They were so active and involved.  It was really wonderful to be a part of.

And they were some of the nicest people I've met!  

They gave me a Korean name.

We went out for dinner as a group.

And tonight, on our last night, we had a little goodbye party full of snacks, games and topped off by ending an hour early.

*

Truly the best teachers' training course I've ever done!!  And we're all going to meet up and hangout again!!  Cool group this one was! ^^

*the pictures are from a game activity we did.  Each person in the class provided a characteristic (for us: long hair, braces, big lips, thick eyebrows, hairy, looks smart, glamorous body) and then using those words, each person drew their own interpretation. 

Updated:

Yunjoo won!!  

She came up to my desk the other day and told me, "Meagan, I won!".

At first I had NO idea what she was talking about, but thankfully she then went on to mention the storytelling competition and I was back on track with our conversation.  

I was so excited!!  She won!!  That's fantastic!

My excitement was slightly decreased when she filled in the rest of the information and said she got 3rd place.  But I'm still so proud and happy for her!!  What an amazing accomplishment!  She really is fantastic!!

Double 0CD

What started as a simple conversation has turned into an overwhelming - in an I'm not sure if it's good or bad - obsession.

The conversation went a little something like this:

Me:  (as we were walking past the Nampo theatre) Michael let's see 'Skyfall' 

Michael:  I already saw it.

Me:  So.  Didn't you like it?  Don't you want to see it again?!

Michael:  Yes, but I just saw it.

Me:  Please!  I want to see it!

Michael:  I'll see it with you another day.

Me:  No. Now. Plleasseeee!!!  I want to see it!!

Michael:  (walks away.  Bastard.)

Me:  (pouting)

Michael:  You don't even know enough about Bond to really enjoy it.

Me:  I know Daniel Craig is hot.

Michael:  …Bond speak… Bond speak… Moneypenny… Bond speak…

Me:  Ok, I don't know enough.  

After that I went home and started downloading.  

But as Michael correctly pointed out, I didn't know a lot about Bond - and there are a lot of Bond movies.  So I started off trying just a sampling.  A little here and there, picking one randomly from every Bond there's ever been.  

That proved to be not so helpful.  Because as I came to learn they all not only build on each other, but they make little references to things that have happened in past movies and then I didn't get those lines and I had to watch more and still more... because like I said there are a lot!

So I gave up.  Not on Bond, but on the random sampling and have started again from - where all things probably should start - the top.

Here's how I'm getting along.

1. Dr. No (1962-Sean Connery)
2. From Russia With Love (1963-Sean Connery)
3. Goldfinger (1964-Sean Connery)
4. Thunderball (1965-Sean Connery)
5. You Only Live Twice (1967-Sean Connery)
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-George Lazenby)
7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971-Sean Connery)
8. Live and Let Die (1973-Roger Moore)
9. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974-Roger Moore)
10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977-Roger Moore)
11. Moonraker (1979-Roger Moore)
12. For Your Eyes Only (1981-Roger Moore)
13. Octopussy (1983-Roger Moore)
14. A View to a Kill (1985-Roger Moore)
15. The Living Daylights (1987-Timothy Dalton)
16. Licence to Kill (1989-Timothy Dalton)
17. GoldenEye (1995-Pierce Brosnan)
18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997-Pierce Brosnan)
19. The World is Not Enough (1999-Pierce Brosnan)
20. Die Another Day (2002-Pierce Brosnan)
21. Casino Royale (2006-Daniel Craig)
22. Quantum of Solace (2008-Daniel Craig)
23. Skyfall (2012-Daniel Craig)

I still have some work to do, but with an OCD habit like mine, Asia's disregard for downloading laws and a connection to the fastest internet in the world - I'm sure to have seen them all by Christmas.

Come on into the water!

Usually it's hard to get out of the wasted Saturday habit.

Not that I'm wasted on Saturdays, but more so that I just don't do anything on Saturdays.   However, that was not the case this past weekend.  Today we took it to a whole new level.


We took it to a level 15m deep filled with freezing water, hundreds of fish, large groupers and herds of sharks.

It was ridiculous.  

It was amazing!

Michael, Keith, Zac and I had planned to go diving with sharks back in April (around the boys birthdays), but my eyes were still healing from having lasers dance across them, so we had to delay the swim.  Things were delayed a bit longer than we planned, but the wait was worth it.

The dive was a truly great experience.  

I wish I could say that I was nervous about the sharks.  I think that would sound more rational, more normal.  Sharks are natural hunters and do on occasions bite, even eat, people; so it would have made sense to be worried about the 20+ predators that would be swimming around me.  But I wasn't.  As we've seen in the past with me (elephants, tigers, bungee jumping, tattoos)  I'm not too worried about the rational things.

I was, however, worried, afraid, nearly-about-to-back-out because of the scuba diving part.

Three problems were standing in the way of me and the fish tank.

First off, that shit is heavy.  I could barely stand up right with the tank and the extra weights.  I'm surprised I didn't fall over backwards.  My scuba failure could have been a youtube hit!  But somehow I managed to waddle to the training pool without becoming an overturned turtle.

And that's where the biggest problems came in - the training pool.

My second problem was that I hate, HATE, small spaces.  I become very uncomfortable with the idea that I could become trapped.  Not like I was going to get trapped in water - especially water that I could stand up in, but the feeling of unease set in nonetheless.

This then led to my third problem.  Because I felt trapped, I started feeling like I couldn't breathe.  I had my tank on, my regulator in; but my lungs felt empty.  I wasn't quite panicking, but I was starting to seriously worry I wouldn't be able to do the dive.

But I had to.  Not only because I paid the non-refundable amount, but I wanted to!  So I told my inner self to shut up! and I went on with the training.

And I made it through!!  But there was one more problem.  A problem that I wasn't expecting, but one that became very clear by the end of the training.

Wetsuits are not made for pear-shaped bodies.

The top of my wetsuit was like a loose bag around my arms and torso, which made it all too easy for the freezing water to get in next to my skin.  I was suffering, but I had just made it through the training - I wasn't going to stop because of hypothermia!  I took a quick break from the training pool, put on an extra wetsuit vest thing, grabbed a quick hot shower, and was back in the pool ready to face off with some sharks!

There were no face offs.  None of the sharks or groupers got too close to us.  The Korean onlookers were more of a threat than the animals, but it was a really fantastic time!   

Here's a little look at a video Zac took while we were down in the big tank.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=379110908841192

If you have a spare day and don't mind dropping some won, you should definitely come down to the Busan Aquarium and take a swim!  

Isn't that creative

It's a sad fact you learn when you teach in Korea, that Korean kids don't really get to be kids.

Life if full of pressures that no child should have to face until… well, I don't know when they should face them.  Probably never.   The amount of pressure that kids, teens, adults - everyone - faces here is something that surpasses my mind's ability to understand and that my compassion aches over.

When I ask my students what they do after school, 9 times out of 10 they will say they go to academy.

When I ask them if they have time to play, they simply say no.  

No time to play?!  

What?!

And although they are amazing students, they get amazing test results and usually best me in every activity we do together; they lack the imagination and creativity that playing gives children.

They don't have to think up fantasy lands and fight off villains, or rescue princesses from a cardboard fort, or jump from stone to stone because the grass is lava that could kill them instantly just by the smallest touch.

They don't do any of that, because when they do get a chance to play - they play in a 2D world that glues to them to the TV or computer and has their little hands clicking away and their cerebral function zoned in on Angry Birds and World of Warcraft.


So I'm always a bit leery when I come up with a creative activity for my students to do.  When I say "be creative" or "use your imagination", the best most of them do is to copy their neighbor.  Awesome work there guys.

However, that wasn't the case when my 5th graders did a drawing activity for our lesson about describing people.

I told them they could draw, color, create whatever they wanted!  

And thankfully, some of them did!! ^^

              

                      

         *           

*hahahaha I know, I know not the most imaginative drawing, but I love this little guy for some reason.  Looks like a young Mr. Rogers!

Updated:

I'm going to be closing things down over on my Posterous site.  It's exactly the same - content wise, although they do a better job (I think) of grouping pictures to make the post physically shorter -  but for whatever reason, probably my ever expanding obsession with blogs, I've outgrown the look of it and have finally become more settled here at Blogger.

The *dish will still be up over at Posterous, I won't be deleting it; but I also won't be continuing to add things here and there.

Thank you for following, reading, commenting there.  Please continue to do so at the *dish's new home on Blogger! ^^