cats and kimchi

it appears it’s trash burning day… after they went through all that trouble to dig up the grass and replace it with concrete there they are, burning the plastic bags full of trash in the grass… huh? the gardener type guy is doing it and mixing it around with a rake… it’s a pretty nice [...]

uhoh… my coteacher just said “wait here, i smoke and i carry you…” just another monday morning in korea… turns out he meant we would go together somewhere (kachi haja)… i don’t know what the assembly was about but the students were warned about their behaviour in englishtown… haha memories like goldfish… also the english [...]

i may or may not be going on what may or may not be a surprise camping trip this morning… i’ll know in about 25 minutes…

thursday was the “hopes and dreams” assembly… all 50ish kids (including the kindergardeners) presented… some wanted to be singers and dancers, some played violin or piano, some kicked a soccer ball around in their school soccer uniforms. one of the kindergarden kids wanted to be a yoga teacher, she showed some poses… another kindergardener wanted [...]

grade six kid tried to get me to teach him “america badtalking” and let me listen to his mp3 player… the song was in english and the chorus was “shutup boy! you don’t know me” etc… he knew shut up was badtalking but asked me what it meant… i said it meant “joyung” (be quiet)… [...]

what i forgot to mention is that it’s kaeul (autumn) and its presence was felt immediately after chuseok… it’s crispy and warm at the same time… i really enjoy transition seasons… i also forgot to mention yesterday that i received a squat toilet tutorial from two of the shyest grade threes… i told them no [...]

today began easily enough. was picked up at the bus stop by one of the cafeteria cooks and driven to school. she tried to ask me (i think) in korean why i left the house so early if the bus wasn’t there yet… i tried to answer in english (because that’s the language i know) [...]

been very busy… a good kind of busy. summer camp came and went and with it the expellation of various bodily fluids not my own… because of lack of time during “camp” i relied heavily on bingo for the afterafterschool program, thus solidifying their addiction to bingo and promised sugar winnings… like they need more [...]

just played a game with a kindergarden kid…. when i left lunch i walked through the gym and he was crying…. i walked over to him to see if he was alright and he looked afraid and ran away from me…. i went to english town and he just came to visit me… did a [...]

taught grade 4 a magic trick… the idea was to use numbers, colours, spelling and the phrase “is this your card”… went pretty well… after class they stuck around and played a game where they threw dice (large stuffed dice) at one student while he tried to dodge… if they hit him they put the [...]

is it wrong i made a lesson only so i could show “only in kenya”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAAASZlCmM

the grade five teacher just told me he got a “dangerous disease like chicken pox and needed absolute rest”… he is now sleeping in the tea ceremony room in english town… he said i won’t catch it… but… this weekend we rented english vhs tapes because we could not watch internet tv… nostalgic… i need [...]

talked about music with my viceprincipal… he sang the beatles song with my name to me… i told him what the french parts meant in english but iunno if he understood… then we had a tea party in the teachers room… outside is very dark and foggy… soon it will be the weekend… no computer…

it’s soooooo foggy… i was waiting at the bus stop and it was misty but not raining… a car pulled up and i was beckoned to get in… i recognized the driver as someone from my school (but i don’t know what he does)… he’s never spoken a word of english to me besides an [...]

yesterday, not taking the bus, but waiting to be picked up some person came up to me and asked if i was staying at the hotel… when i told her i live here and i’m a teacher she was pretty excited to tell me this was her province… she spoke very good english… she was [...]

feels like my head is going to explode!

they told me to take the bus so i took the bus… turns out they didn’t really mean it… the person who drives me is leaving the school wednesday… thursday i should take the bus… not today… whatevs… i took the bus… i will miss her though… not just for her car… somedays it seems [...]

they closed all the windows in the gym… then the announcements started… things got noisy… then the fire alarm… i went to the gym and someone told me it was just a drill… left the gym to see the grade 2s hiding with their teacher infront of the door… they were watching a kid being [...]

lunchteaparty… this time we talked about music… meligrove band… the beatles… impromptu norebang… tomorrow again…