12 days straight

So right now is a little hectic at the Village. Since we are approaching our 1 year anniversary (dec 7) the school is going through a lot of renovations and a couple of facelifts. This would be all good... except that the construction crew has no concept of time and work until the wee hours of the morning... stop for a couple of hours... and then start again at 6am... not exactly condusive to a great nights sleep. Oh well... hopefully they will be done soon enough.
We are still short a lot of teachers. We need 8 teachers right now... and so a lot of us are pulling overtime to help out. So today I finished the weekend shift... then start my normal night shift tomorrow. All in all it went atright... just a few hiccups... but the kids were great and I was teaching a reallty good class. I taught the Dream Edu room. This is a new room that is being sponsored by Dream Education. The whole concept of the room is to start the children thinking about what jobs they would like to do in the future... and encourage them to reach for any dream... no matter how unrealistic it may be. Then... we show then 15 minute videos on famous people (inventors, scientists, artists and magicians) that were able to dream big and succeed. The concept of the room is really good... and for the English teacher teaching it... it is a real hoot. Not only are you impressed with the ambitions of your students... but then you get to watch a 15 minute Konglish video about someone famous.
For those of you that aren't aware... Konglish is a mixture of Korean and English... and though it is not gramatically correct... you will find that after several months of living and working in Korea you too will be saying things like "I am more sadder than yesterday" or "This is a lot funner than I thought".
The videos in the Dream Edu class do have some Konglish in them... so it is funny towatch them. That being said... the videos are really well done (animation wise) and I actually end up leaving the class learning a lot about historical figures (such as Dr. Livingstone and Helen Keller).
I seem to be catching every strain possible of the Korean flu while I am here. I had my flu shot when I left Canada... but Korean flu strains seem to be different and hit with more of a vengence. Other than my stash of Canadian Buckleys... no other North American over the counter drug seems to help. Oh well.. pay day is on Wednesday.. so I am thinking that I will venture to the Ansan Clinic. The doctor's there speak English and it is only 5 minutes away by Taxi.
Anyhoo... I am using my roommates comp.. so I should get off... she has a Mac... and I must say that it is pretty sweet.. though me.. being a PC girl... seems to continuously mess stuff up because the shortcuts that I know (ie. Control C for copy) do not exist with a mac... meh.
Cheers!

Karaoke

So last week was a little bit hectic. I moved into my new room with my good friend and now suitmate, Paula... went through teacher training... met a few new teachers... and started my new rotation. I am now working the night shift here at SEV (1pm-9pm)... and though I had my heart set on HipHop... am now instructing the Hospital class 2 times a day... and Kareoke at night. Mom always wanted a doctor in the family.... so it is fun to dress up in the whole doctor's outfit and play ER with the kids for a bit. The Nore Bang (Kareoke rooms) in the Village are gorgeous... and I get to spend 2 hours or so a night with 24 Korean Kids singing and dancing. I am not sure if I can last the whole month in that situation (right now I am only scheduled for 2 weeks)... but it is a blast right now. It is also great way to practice my Korean... since I allow the kids to sing one song in Korean (provided that they have sung a song in English first).
My new room is shapuing up nicely... I am going to get a microwave next week so that I can start eating some meals in my room... since the food here is sometimes greasy and lacks a few nutrients. I almost managed to burn down my apartment last week though. We had inherited a hot plate (my roommate and I) from a person leaving the village and I wanted to make macaroni and cheese. I had forgotten that I had placed the hot plate plastic cover on... and started to make my mac and cheese... and well you get the picture. I caught the damage in time though.. just a lot of smoke and a ruined hot plate. Needless to say I wont be getting another one of those. But my roommate purchased a toaster over... so at least we can make toast in the morning.
OOO... I also bought 3 turtles. Actually I have had them for about a month now. Ike, Tandi and Mushu. They are really cute and have their own little personalities. The filter in the tank helps me sleep... so there is a bonus there. Also... unlike a puppy or rabbit.. I don't have to play with them at all if I don't want to ... so they basically stay in their tank and amuse themselves.
Things here are pretty good now. Since a new term at the Village has now commenced... the teachers that were ready to go have now left... and mostly all the teachers remaining are in good spirits... though there may always be a few that are complainers... I am refusing to let myself be brought down in all of that... since I am having a good time here and want to continue to enjoy myself.
Anyways... I know that the updates have been a little scarce this month... but not much has happened to report on.
Wishing all of you good health and happiness.
Cheers!

Halloween at the Village

Here are some of the photos taken during our Halloween festivities at the Village. Since most Korean children do not celebrate this holiday, many of them were a tad uncertain about our dress. Once they learnt about and tried trick or treating... well... let's just say they warmed up to the idea.

Moving again!

So this week is the last week of contracts for all the teachers that started the program.. so the school is rearranging a lot of the rooms and come Saturday I will be in another bedroom. I am actually pretty excited since I am going to be sharing my room with a really good friend here named Paula. She is from Australia... and come September (our 2 week vacation) I am going to take her back to Canada with me. Then the following vacation I am heading down under to see her country.
I can't say it enough... how happy I am here and how glad that I decided to leave the drama that was BCM... though there is still a little office politics here... this place is really great and I reccommend it highl to any teachers interested.
In other news... I have finally decided to put word verification on my blog. I am tired of the spam that I keep getting. No worries to those that comment... it will still let you leave one... it will just ask that you retype the letters that you see so as to prove that you are a human and not someone's advertisement.
Anyhoo... I am going to post the pics I took at Halloween at the Village... it was loads of fun and everyone looked great!