October craziness...
Ok so I'm miserably bad at updating. Things have just been really busy here. We had 3 extra days off the first week of October for one of Korea's biggest holidays. It was really nice to have a break from school. I really didn't much that weekend...mostly relaxed. We did go to an amusement park one day which was a lot of fun. Drinking beer at a theme park is kind of a weird experience...it just wouldn't be normal in the US. I took a bunch of pictures but I haven't had time to post them. We went on some crazy rides. One was a 70m vertical drop at 100km/hour...so terrifying. I can't believe I did it. We did another one that was similar only it was shorter and went up and down a couple of times. The big one only raised you up and dropped you once. I don't think I could have handled more than one drop of 70m.
On the 15th of October we had sports day with the kindergarteners which was fun but it was a very long and tiring day. We had to be at the school at 9am on a Sunday and we didn't finish until 4:30. Fortunately they cancelled Kindergarten on Monday so we didn't have to go to work until 2pm which was really nice. I needed the sleep.
The past two weeks have been really crazy at school...lesson plans, report cards, tests. Its been exhausting. I was here until 10:30 last night doing a lesson plan for a new class that starts next week. Plus my kindergarteners are stressing me out a bit. I remember now why I didn't like teaching little kids. Its too stressful for me when they can't do something and they all want my help at once. Fortunately days like that don't happen too often and otherwise they're really adorable so it makes up some for the bad days.
We're having activity days on Monday and Tuesday for Halloween so we've been doing a lot of prep for that too which takes up a lot of time. We just finished decorating our classrooms (which is why I'm still at school at 9:30 on a Friday evening). The classroom that me and my two co-teachers decorated looks great. We hung bats from the ceiling and covered the lights with black garbage bags and red cellophane so its really dark and spooky in there. I just hope it doesn't scare my kids so bad they cry...I hate it when my kids cry. We have been trying to scare the kindergarteners a little in anticipation of Halloween though. In the box of Halloween stuff at the school we found a creepy green mask (I think its supposed to be Frankenstein) and a long black curtain that works as a cloak. Yesterday Jed put on the costume and ran down the hallways of the school during lunchtime and made the kindergarteners scream. Today we forgot to do it during lunch so right before the kindergarteners were going home I took the costume and went up to the 7th floor and came downstairs (we're on the 6th floor) in the elevator and popped out when the door opened in front of all the kindergarteners waiting in the lobby. It scared the crap out of some of them (and a couple of the Korean teachers who weren't in on the joke). It would have been better had I not tripped on the cloak (it was too long for me) and fallen in front of all the kids...they just laughed at me. It was still fun though. On Monday and Tuesday we're going to do a bunch of halloween themed activites with the kids and we're even taking the kindergarteners trick or treating. We're taking them to some of the apartment buildings where they live and their moms will have candy for them. They don't really celebrate Halloween here so it'll be really fun for the kids. They're all really excited.
Tomorrow I have to get up at an ungodly early hour to go to the DMZ. We're taking a tour with the USO which means everything happens on a military type schedule. The tour leaves Seoul at 7:30am so we have to leave here around 5am...way too early for me but it'll be worth it. The USO tour is the best tour you can take because its the only one that goes to the Peace Village inside the DMZ. Korean's aren't allowed to visit the Peace Village so any tours that Korean's are allowed on can't go to the Peace Village. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Apparently they encourage you to take pictures of the North Korean soldiers because they hate it but can't do anything about it. It shoudl be intersting. I'll try to post the pictures ASAP.
On the 15th of October we had sports day with the kindergarteners which was fun but it was a very long and tiring day. We had to be at the school at 9am on a Sunday and we didn't finish until 4:30. Fortunately they cancelled Kindergarten on Monday so we didn't have to go to work until 2pm which was really nice. I needed the sleep.
The past two weeks have been really crazy at school...lesson plans, report cards, tests. Its been exhausting. I was here until 10:30 last night doing a lesson plan for a new class that starts next week. Plus my kindergarteners are stressing me out a bit. I remember now why I didn't like teaching little kids. Its too stressful for me when they can't do something and they all want my help at once. Fortunately days like that don't happen too often and otherwise they're really adorable so it makes up some for the bad days.
We're having activity days on Monday and Tuesday for Halloween so we've been doing a lot of prep for that too which takes up a lot of time. We just finished decorating our classrooms (which is why I'm still at school at 9:30 on a Friday evening). The classroom that me and my two co-teachers decorated looks great. We hung bats from the ceiling and covered the lights with black garbage bags and red cellophane so its really dark and spooky in there. I just hope it doesn't scare my kids so bad they cry...I hate it when my kids cry. We have been trying to scare the kindergarteners a little in anticipation of Halloween though. In the box of Halloween stuff at the school we found a creepy green mask (I think its supposed to be Frankenstein) and a long black curtain that works as a cloak. Yesterday Jed put on the costume and ran down the hallways of the school during lunchtime and made the kindergarteners scream. Today we forgot to do it during lunch so right before the kindergarteners were going home I took the costume and went up to the 7th floor and came downstairs (we're on the 6th floor) in the elevator and popped out when the door opened in front of all the kindergarteners waiting in the lobby. It scared the crap out of some of them (and a couple of the Korean teachers who weren't in on the joke). It would have been better had I not tripped on the cloak (it was too long for me) and fallen in front of all the kids...they just laughed at me. It was still fun though. On Monday and Tuesday we're going to do a bunch of halloween themed activites with the kids and we're even taking the kindergarteners trick or treating. We're taking them to some of the apartment buildings where they live and their moms will have candy for them. They don't really celebrate Halloween here so it'll be really fun for the kids. They're all really excited.
Tomorrow I have to get up at an ungodly early hour to go to the DMZ. We're taking a tour with the USO which means everything happens on a military type schedule. The tour leaves Seoul at 7:30am so we have to leave here around 5am...way too early for me but it'll be worth it. The USO tour is the best tour you can take because its the only one that goes to the Peace Village inside the DMZ. Korean's aren't allowed to visit the Peace Village so any tours that Korean's are allowed on can't go to the Peace Village. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Apparently they encourage you to take pictures of the North Korean soldiers because they hate it but can't do anything about it. It shoudl be intersting. I'll try to post the pictures ASAP.