I recently had my first experience at open class, it seems to be something that every English teacher does at one point or another.

For everyone not teaching in Korea, open class is when teachers from close by schools, including your principal and faculty, are invited to attend your special class (eeek). In this particular instance, it was one of my co-techer’s, Mr B's turn to teach and I was asked to assist with the class as I am the NET for our school (Native English Teacher).

Although Mr B is one of the youngest teachers on our staff, he is highly respected by the boys. He seems to have struck a perfect balance between terrified and loved all at the same time. When the boys misbehave, I simply suggest that I will send them down to his office and they instantly keep dead quite. In fact one boy got down on his knees and said "no no teacher sorry". It seems half the female teachers came along purely to see the good-looking Mr B, and a lot less for the actual class.

The classroom all set up - ready for open class

The lesson itself was the furthest thing from a typical English class. All the boys were groomed and silent, unrecognizable from the normal tyrants I teach everyday. I had previously spoken to some of the attending foreigner teachers about how badly behaved some of the boys could be, yet I felt completely let down by their angelic behavior during the open class.  Their manners were exemplary and almost sickly sweet.
Nobody smacked or hit each other. The ENTIRE lesson.
I was like a gob smacked parent- what was going on? We should have guests more often! 
In fact the whole thing was getting quite serious, until a boy got up and started rapping about the Japanese occupation. (huh?)

Generally, I think the class went well. The strangest part for me was that I was actually co-teaching for a change. Which despite what a lot of EPIK information may suggest, does not actually happen in my school. I caught myself in a strange moment when I realized I had never actually seen Mr B teach until that moment. Essentially, like all the teachers in the audience, I was seeing his class for the first time. Strictly speaking we are supposed to teach together every day.

During the open class

After the class, all the teachers were asked to fill in a feedback form and took turns giving us advice on where we had excelled and more to the point where we should improve. It was quite a nerve wrecking experience and I was not even for my own class. I honestly must admit that I'm not sure if they enjoyed the class or not as 90 % of it was in Korean. It was all about bowing, nodding and hoping for the best. If my co teacher was pleased then so was I!  

I had to take a moment to admire the Korean education system. I cannot imagine an open class back home in South Africa where a facilitated discussion on improvement was regularly suggested and celebrated among the surrounding schools. This was especially apparent when all the teachers were invited out for dinner afterwards. There seems to be an atmosphere of striving for improvement that I have not seen at home. I suppose this is why it is considered one of the best education systems in the world.

As scary as it was, I really enjoyed the experience!

These are indoor shoes - students in Korea have different shoes for inside the classroom and for the rest of the day.

Winter seems to have finally hit Yeongju. Woke up to a text from Norah this morning that said "Have you looked outside?"
Being the mature 23 year old that I am... I flew out of bed, ran down the stairs to the bottom floor of our apartment block with no shoes on and smiled in awe at  the first falling snow I have ever seen in my life. I caught myself mid clap and realized I must look completely ridiculous trying to catch snow with my bare fingers in a super girl nightie and pink sleeping shorts. 
Thank god I didn't see anyone else who lives in our block.

It continued to snow off and on throughout the day.. and I have enjoyed every slushy, cold second of it. Although I have quickly come to realize that the ugg boots are not going to cut it in the snow. They are currently drying on the heater before I have to put them back on again and head home.

In the third period, one of the boys came up and asked me if he could borrow the dustpan. I naively assumed it might be to sweep something up.
I should really know better by now.
5 minutes later I saw the same boy come tearing back in through the door, pull back his friends hoodie and drop a pile of snow down the back of his neck.
The poor unexpectant friend jumped up and let out a high pitched squeel of disbelief.
He sounded like a girl in kindergarten.
The whole class, admittedly including the English teacher, howled with laughter as boy tore off his hoodie desperately trying to get warm and regain some composure. I later noticed that the dustpan hadn't been returned. I am certain that revenge is coming haha.

As there are only 5 female teachers in the school, the female bathroom is located in a totally different building to the one I teach in. Ultimately, to conserve warmth, I am just going to stop drinking coffee during the day altogether. I feel a bit like Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother because I have to "SUIT UP" every time I need to visit the bathroom. This morning I left for school with 5 layers on. I swear its like adjusting to a new world coming from South Africa.

 In warmer news, It looks like Tamrin and I ( and possibly others as well) will be heading to Thailand at the end of January. It seems we may not see the sun again until then, so looking forward to it. Very excited for impending cocktails.

Cocktails and summer dresses to follow in January

The annual Yeongju Halloween party was a roaring success!
I have never really paid a whole lot of interest  to Halloween until the giant party we had on the 2nd of November.  I ended up going dressed as a fairy, while a friend, Tamrin went as a rag doll - we decided to shelf 2 broke girls until next year.

The girls singing Spice Girls

I cannot in all confidence say that I clearly remember the entire party. Oops.
I remember being at the party and singing my heart out at the Norebang (a karaoke room)  till 4 in the morning. However,  I honestly cannot remember getting from one place to the other. The general consensus  around town is that no one can truly claim to have been particularly sober that evening. Once again I felt very lucky to be a part of the Yeongju foreigner community, every one came, had a fabulous time and dressed the part.

Decorations

The party had many prizes, ranging from the best dressed to the best lip syncer. I couldn't decided who to vote for, so in my inebriated state, voted multiple times when people weren't looking (hehe).  Here are some of the winners (all of the beautiful photography  taken by the lovely Lindsay Monk - as Claire was too busy partying)

*Special mention for her fantastic photography*

Best couple:
Kali and Edmond - Frida Kahlo's

Best home-made outfit:

Norah - a blow up man thingie. She made it out of a kids crawling ring!

Best overall costume:

Mel - Edward Scissor hands (with Lindsay dressed as minion from Despicable Me)

Laziest dress:

Simon (nice wig) Good solid effort (Leith as Kim Jong Il the North Korean president)

Best Lip sync

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
 

Tamrin (who spent 4 hours traveling down just for the party) and I were so hungover the next day, we only went in search of food at about 2pm. We ended up sitting at an all you can eat Korean BBQ place, trying to sort ourselves out in time to teach the next day. My hangover subsided mid Tuesday afternoon. 

Great party! Next Yeongju event - the Movemeber party. Should be fun!

I never thought I would be scared of little old ladies. But Korean little old ladies play on a totally different level to your sweet old nana at home. My concept of old people has been limited to crocheting and Mint Imperials. Not these women! They are capable of retaining the fear of many. Frankly, I am much more scared of the lady who sits outside the GS24 (convenience store), than I am of my principal.

For everyone who doesn't know, an Ajumma loosely refers to an older lady in Korea.

It seems to be a generational thing. Although I would like to clearly say, that I have also come across some lovely ladies. However, as a stereotype some women from this error seem to be pushy, aggressive and just plain angry.
And I have no idea why.
Maybe they've just reached the age where they no longer care what people think of them. I suppose at 85, maybe I'll feel like I deserve to be first in line as well. This being my experience at Homeplus, when an ajumma positively growled at me to get in front. Hey I suppose a good 60 years of paying tax in a country should entitle you to something right?

While shopping in Itaewon a few days ago Tamrin and I witnessed a crowd of people crossing the street. Clearly the three ajummas in the car (like a trio of aggressive power puff girls), had no intention of waiting for everyone to cross the street. The ajumma in the driving seat loudly revved the engine, warning any innocent passersby that she meant business. Suddenly there was a mass panicked scattering of the crowd. A teenage girl gave a little squeal as she moved out of the way and the victorious grannies roared on by. I suppose I should just hope I'm like that when I'm older.
"stuff the crowd.. I want to drive now mwhahaha".

On a lighter note... two of the foreigners Natalie and Marais said they are thinking of going as Ajumma's to the Halloween party. I think its a brilliant idea! I hope they win:

Natalie and Marais- I'm sorry... I couldn't help it!! :)

In general can't complain. Had a relaxing weekend at home! Missing everyone from South Africa. I am incredibly jealous of everyone tanning and swimming in the sea. It was about 5 degrees Celsius early this morning... and this is only the beginning!

This weekend, I went up to the Seoul area for the Ilsan pub crawl.
What a magnificent venture.
It is a crawl along all the bars in Ilsan to raise money for charity. Tamrin and I, being very charitable people.. had no choice but to take part. It was a huge night. We went home at 6am on the first train. I do remember a patch of time where Tamrin, Janet and I thought it would be a good idea to have a nap under one of the bar tables. We even went as far as to make up a drinking song and solemnly promised each other we would add other verses to it next time we were drunk. We pinkie-promised each other before downing a shot of soju to seal the deal. I felt like throwing up most of the bus ride home back to Yeongju on Sunday. Not my proudest moment haha.

On the way to Seoul. Yeongju Bridge.

Out in Ilsan (Tamrin's picture)

The lights of Ilsan!

Drinking with the girls in Ilsan

Teaching this week has been a little challenging.  I have a particularly difficult class on Monday afternoons. In this weeks' lesson there were two boys who managed to rub me up the wrong way over the course of an hour. Eventually I threw one of them out of class, only to have him come back in again and argue with me in Korean. He was hugely disruptive and slammed the door on the way out, all while shouting racist remarks at the trick or treating little girls displayed on the screen.

Dealing with teenagers is hard.
Dealing with teenage boys, who don't speak English is even harder.
One of the most difficult aspects is the fact that, as hard as I try, it is difficult to be authoritative and intimidating when everyone in your class towers above you. Its much easier to shout down to a child, then to shout up at one. My schools policy to give the kids a smack around when they misbehave. I am trying very hard to avoid this because I don't really think it's right. But Jeez, do they make it difficult for me to resist this.
It was one of those days where you go home, have a glass of wine, watch trashy television and hope tomorrow is better. In general though, most of the other classes are really great and easy to deal with.  My classes on Tuesday are wonderful. They continue to interest and intrigue me.

The renegade class!!!

I had another Bizarre-o experience last Wednesday when a boy called me over to his table and handed me his cellphone. On the screen was a picture of myself... shopping at Home plus in the crisps isle two days before. "Teacher you shop Home Plus".
What a creepy 16 year old.
I felt like saying... "Yes teacher does have a life like everyone else"
Whats concerning, is that he felt the need to hide behind another isle and take a picture of me.

On a lighter note a lot of the Yeongju-ians are getting ready for the annual Halloween party. Which should be great. There are serious planning committees and everything. I'm on the decorating one. For someone who doesn't normally care about Halloween at all, I've dived in! All the foreigners in my town get together and throw it every year. It Should be really fun. Once again I am so grateful to be part of a foreigner community that is so active. Hey who knows... maybe we'll add a few verses to our drinking song on the night. I'm torn whether to go as a fairy or team up with Tamrin to be 2 Broke Girls.

Yes or no?

Suggestions?

 I got my bill for electricity for the month yesterday. I had prepared myself for a high bill.. after all I had been running the air conditioning on and off during the hot days. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my bill came to measly R100 ($10 approx). I was so surprised I even double checked it with my co teacher. Previously, at university my roommates and I were putting in about R200 ($20) a week each. And even then, we didn't dare turn on the air conditioning or heating. Utilities are cheap here!

I don't understand it... but hey its cheap.. so no complaints.

Korea seems to have a whole bunch of public holidays clumped together in one month.. So September and October has been comprised of 3 or 4 day weeks. I have gotten quite used to a nice day off in the middle of the week.. adjusting to teaching everyday is going to be quite a challenge. Wednesdays have become nap day.

The high school boys, as usual, always keep me entertained. This week I have been playing a game where they are given a topic in teams and have to guess 5 words that go along with that topic. Most of them scream, shout and publicly slate each other, so that their team will win and get candy. One boy stood at the front of the class trying to write the word 'banana'. He had the word perfectly correct, when a boy from another team stood up and starting manipulating him into believing it was laughably incorrect.

" Double 'n' crazy boy. It bad.. you  lose point. Changie it. I promisie. It will be much better" (He even had me a little convinced at one point)

One of my higher level classes.

Last weekend I went to Daegu with a bunch of girls that I met at orientation. Daegu is the third biggest city after Seoul and Busan and it is huge. It was really nice to catch up with everyone after a month of heading off on our own. Even though we went through the same orientation, we have all ended up in such different and unique situations across the country. Weirdly enough everyone seems relatively happy. Poor Philippa got ribbed constantly throughout the weekend for admitting that she walked dogs for Kensington Palace as her odd job in between university.

"So nice to be in the presence of Kate Middies bestie"
"You want the more expensive drink? Well I do suppose you run in those circles now"
"Pippa, I bet you had a totally different name before the royal wedding"
Everyone hash tagged (#) Princess when mentioning Philippa's name.

Philippa :) hahah

We spent most of the weekend in the downtown area where we stayed. I would recommend Danim backpackers to anyone who wants cheap and convenient accommodation option in Bangwaldong (the downtown area). It was only R200 a night ($20) and is just off the subway line. Everyone was incredibly friendly, even giving us advice on where to watch the SA vs NZ rugby match.  I dealt with Sukie over text message when booking (things are that relaxed). When we arrived, they pointed to a drying wrack and said, "Those are your sheets but they are still drying, grab them when they're done."

http://daeguhostel.com/

Our 6 man dorm.

A picture of all the girls. Sorry Saree- pinched your photo till I get home to my camera.

One of the coolest things I did in Daegu was visit a the Catdog cafe. Basically, it is a cafe where you sit, drink some coffee and play with the animals. It is a trend that I have never heard of outside of Korea.There are two levels, one for the cats and a higher level dedicated to the dogs. The shopkeeper explained, that most Koreans do not have space for pets and so they come to cafes to enjoy a little animal interaction. It may just be a personal preference but I found the cats a little boring. Sitting and watching felines sleep is not quite as thrilling as I'd imagined it might be. But the dogs... now they were cool! In fact the cafe gives you long gypsy style skirts to wear, so the dogs have something to chew on and rip apart.

Here are couple of foodie pics from my long weekend.

Over the public holiday, we had dakgalbi. This is basically a dish cooked in the middle of a table, with chicken, rice and cabbage (its much nicer than it sounds). Lindsay, Faridha and I... starving.

Cooking the chicken in the pot frying pan type thing.

All cooked and ready to eat.

One Friday, Tamrin and I went one town over to the Andong Mask Festival and ended up having a different kind of Samguypsal. It was was basically slow roasted pork belly on a rotisserie. It was different but surprisingly great.

making a mask at the festival.

All in all, a good couple of days. Bring on the weekend!!!

This weekend I went up to Seoul to visit Everland. It is one of Korea's theme parks (a bit like Disney land)

The entrance to Everland. Behind this is what feels like a big castle.

 

Not a thing is  out of place.. The real flowers are immaculate, all over the park.

 (For those who want to visit- its really easy to take a shuttle \ 6000 a way. It leaves from Seoul city hall, just off the subway. It makes getting to Everland about an hours journey)

Everland was awesome! Although I had to que for nearly an hour and a half, the wooden rollercoster - The T express, was by far the best. It is technically the second highest wooden roller coaster in the world. Good god, did it feel high. In fact it was about the same height as the small mountain next to it. Most of all, it is the anticipation of climbing steadily to the top, before plummeting, almost at a 90 degree angle, to the ground. It is not for the faint hearted. It was still an exhilarating rush and I would definitely ride it again.

The entrance to the T-Express rollercoaster

Another stand out moment was the Horror Maze. I can without a doubt say that I was scared shitless. There are no two ways about it.
 I had been through horror mazes before and expected it to be a couple of wondering zombies, or maybe a dressed up nurse operating on a fake patient. All I can say is that Asians scare on a totally different level. I said f**** a fair bit.  People physical chase and grab you along the way, there was even a point where they locked you in separate cages. I had my head buried in the person in front of me for a good 80 % of the time, but I swear I heard growling. I took photos, but had to delete them because I was shaking and they were completely blurred. Either way, when we all emerged.. half the group had to go for a nice long cigarette.

 What amazes me is that the women seem to come to Everland exquisitely dressed. Many of them walk around in 5 inch heels for kilometers. I figured there would be water rides and so I wore hoddie and jeans. At one point, Tamrin and I went to the bathroom, only see a group of women re- straightening their hair. Roller coasters can be so taxing on ones hair-do. There were also a couple of cosmetics stores inside the theme park itself just in case you run out of lip gloss?

The Halloween parade!

The girls taking a rest between rides.

For the evening we went to a Mexican restaurant, called "On the Boarder" - It was pretty great to just sit down and have a mojito after a long day of walking. The rest of the evening was spent clubbing in Hongdae- a foreigner friendly area.Tamrin and I met a New Zealander that we dragged around with us for most of the evening.

School is pretty relaxed this week, I get to go home at 12 o'clock because the students are writing exams. Last weeks' theme was all about advertising. I taught them a bunch of key words before getting them to create their own logos and products. Some of them were interesting and inventive like a face-moulder and a water bottle that refilled itself. However, the picture below was just plain concerning. A boy decided to advertise the devil (??). The picture was of the devil posing with a peace sign on the beach. Oh well. All I keep thinking is, glad its not my child.

The devil ?

The second graders planning their products.

The past two weekends I have gone up to Seoul. Being a newbie, I was incredibly proud of myself for making it to the correct terminal in Seoul all by myself. Although I must admit that my ever faithful co-teacher gave me pages of translations so that I wouldn't get lost, as well as calling me a taxi directly from school so that I would arrive at the bus stop in time. Admittedly, I got a bit lost at the terminal, trying to figure out which was the correct platform. Finally a young Korean guy came up to me and said in a pitying voice, " You look lost, I speak English". I could have hugged him!

On the subway with Tamrin!

Who did I meet up with when I finally arrived at Dong Seoul terminal? Tamrin!! Who I haven't seen since graduation. It was like meeting up with a long lost family member. And of course, we did not stop speaking until I got on the bus on Sunday afternoon. It was so great to see her. She took me for my first subway ride back to Munsan (just outside of Seoul) where she lives and teaches at a little elementary school. Her flat is pretty similar to mine, except that it has the weirdest wall paper I have ever come across. Basically the wall is covered with these scenic little country houses accompanied with inspiring quotes about living to your potential. Its bizarre, but hey, its Korea. I laugh every time I see it.

The next morning we met up with another foreigner who has being living in Tamrin's area for sometime. She showed us around everywhere, it was like employing a free built in tour guide. Thanx Cindy! She took us to Gyeongbokgang palace. Palaces here are quite different from the European version and was first constructed in 1395. There are no high towers or ball rooms. But there is definitely a sense of intricacy and wealth. One of the most interesting things that I found was the three separate leveled paths that run along the palace. The highest being for the King, the second being for his clergy/nobles and the third almost dirty path being for the servants.Tamrin, being a fantastic friend, insisted I walk along the lowest path.

The changing of the guard

Very pretty!

I spent the rest of the day in Hongdae and Insadong, which are both pretty foreigner friendly areas. For once, possible since I have arrived, I didn't stick out like a sore thumb. I was just one of the many westerners wondering the streets. What is alarming is that  I seem to have become one with the Koreans. Every time I see someone who isn't from the country, I instantly stare in surprise... "What are they doing here?"  As if I'm not odd at all.
 

Lunch in Hongdae. Sashimi and noodles, dumplings (called Mandu in Korea). As well as kimchi and pickled radish. The Sashimi was kind of underwhelming, like chewing raw chicken.

Silk worm Larvae anyone? At the Insadong street market. Gave it a skip though.

One of the highlights of Hongdae was the Trick Eye museum. In a nutshell, the museum takes a number of well know paintings and distorts them so that it appears you are a part of it. Here are two good ones.

A newer part of the museum is the ice section. I wasnt sure what was on the other side of the doors and was a bit concerned when someone handed me a fleece blanket. To my surprise, a room with igloos, frozen polar bears and snowmen opened  up as well as an apartment reconstructed purely from ice. Apparently the apartment was incomplete without a frozen dump in the ice toilet.

Sliding down the big ice slide

One the second weekend I had dinner at Braai republic which is a South African restaurant in Itaewon. I figured that seeing as I will be missing Braai day at home I might as well enjoy it here. Hey, I may have spent R60 on a Hunters Dry... but it was totally worth it!

My cheap-o Hunters Dry. Savored every sip lol

Last but not least I ended my weekend having lunch with Tamrin. It was our first Solo Korean eating trip and we were mighty proud of ourselves. We had Samgyeopsal. This is basically a type of cured pork rasher that you fry and cook for yourself. Often you wrap it up in sesame lettuce leaf along with a couple of sauce options and eat it. Pretty delicious. The lady who owned the restaurant was out in the back when we arrived. She nearly fell over backwards when two little South African girls were sitting waiting for her in the corner of her empty restaurant.

This weekend I will be off to Everland- a Korean theme park. Cannot wait!