Korea: October 2009

So if you don't know, Chuseok is one of Korea's major holidays. It's like Korea's Thanksgiving.

Yup holidays are always good. Celebrating some old traditions, getting together with family, eating lots of food, and of course best of all...NO WORK! These awesome-days, I like to call them, work like this: wherever October 3rd falls on the calendar, you get the day before and the day after off. And rumor has it that if you're lucky enough that October 3rd happens to fall on a Wednesday, some schools go as far as giving you the whole week off! MUHAHAHAHA AND GUESS WHEN OCTOBER 3rd FELL ON THIS YEAR! YUP, THAT'S RIGHT...on a frickin crappy stupid Friday...So actually, I got jipped one off day. I was so mad that I wanted to punch my desk calendar square in the face, so I did.

After punching my calendar in what I assumed was the face, my mind was clear of rage and so I started planning. It turned out I didn't need to plan much because my dad's side of the family planned it all out for me...without any of my input. But yes, this is my Chuseok weekend, the weekend I obtained the magnificent and glorious FOB glasses haha. So we start off with a picture of Seoul East Bus Terminal...

My oldest uncle (my dad's oldest brother) and my cousin (his son) came to pick me up. Fun fact, my dad is the youngest male of 6 brothers, and then he has 2 younger sisters. And because he's the youngest of the males, my oldest uncle is nearing 90 I believe, and therefore my cousin is around 45, the younger cousin haha.

I went shopping for Chuseok gifts for my uncles and aunts.

One of my cousins car. Normally I'm not that in to cars. Actually I'm not into cars at all, but I knew my cousin having this Infinity GX5400ㅠ2 in Korea meant that he was a baller haha Seriously all I see are KIA, HyunDai, and everyone's favorite Daewoo cars here.

On the left is my oldest uncle and on the right is his oldest son. They said we usually have Chuseok at my uncles house, but he's getting to old so now it's passed onto my oldest cousin.

On the far right is my nephew. He's the oldest of my oldest cousin, so one day Chuseok will be at his house haha.

And so my uncle made me this nifty family tree. He took out this book with the whole Kim line. He starting saying things I couldn't understand, partly because he was mumbling and mainly because his vocabulary was at a level much too high for me. And I thought he made it just so that I can have it, but I was wrong. Every time one of my relatives came he called me over, told me to take out the paper, and he'd point out which one they were. It was nice of him...I guess haha. Besides my oldest uncle's immediate family, my relatives didn't feel like family. I had some nephews that were older than me too. And it wouldn't have been too bad if my uncle didn't insist that they call their newly acquainted younger relative, uncle.

And this is me on my way to Incheon where my 작은고모 lives. The family I'm most close with.

We went to one of my uncles grave to pay respect. This uncle took care of my dad a lot back in the old days, so they were happy I was visiting his grave in place of my dad.

One of my 큰엄마s.

That's my 고모부. He and my dad were best friends, running the streets of a small shigol town, causing a ruckus haha. I guess it's kind of cool how he married my dad's sister. They kind of look a like too haha.

My cousin and 잔은고모.

And lastly, these are some of the gifts I got for Chuseok. Haha actually all the gifts I got for Chuseok.

I got these cookies from the principal from Chilsung. They weren't half crappy.

The box of 김 on the right I got from one of my teachers at MokDo. The box to the left I got from the principal of MokDo. It's socks...

Well until next time!

So I teach at 3 different middle schools in the 괴산 (Goesan) area. These lovely schools are in 감물 (Gammul), 칠성 (Chilsung) and 목도 (Mokdo). This is another photo packed post. Hope you all enjoy.
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The first school 감물, is the first school of the week for me. I go to this school every Monday and Monday being the crappiest day of the week, it's only fitting that it's the crappiest school of the three. Haha I sound negative, let's just say it's my "least favorite" school

I am a novice, therefore I do not know how to rotate the above picture.
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So first is the school itself. The building, school yard, sport fields, etc.

There are many mountains in Korea.

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And now the kids. There's a total of 22 kids in the whole school. 8 first graders, 5 second graders, and 9 3rd graders. And if you didn't know, Korea's middle school first graders are 7th graders in the U.S. I couldn't take pictures of each grade because at this school I teach for the whole class time unlike the other 2 schools. So this is the whole school during conversation class.

The kid on the far right, behind the computer get me so....He's always daydreaming, whenever I call on him, he looks at me with a blank stare. And I know he probably doesn't pay attention because he's not too good at English, but sometimes the way he stare with that blank expressionless face, it just feels like he know better English than me and is just doing that to get on my last nerves...but I'm sure he's not haha.

So that was 감물 middle school. Although this is one of my favorite schools because we go home at 4:30pm haha. =D

Next up, 칠성 middle school. This school I go to every Tuesday and Friday. This is my main school, which means absolutely nothing to you, and actually means absolutely nothing to me too haha. My co-teacher teaches at this school, Mrs. Jung and there are about 50 kids in this school.

More mountains on my way to school.

So again, the school itself first.

This is my office/classroom I teach at. They didn't have a desk for me in the teacher's room.

Now the students. This school I teach for half of the class time. I teach the first half with activities, games, special lessons, and such and the other teacher, Mrs. Jung teaches for the other half. That is when I take pictures. Also they separate the grades by the level of their English.

The first graders. The upper level students.

The lower level 1st graders.

That's Young Ho. He gets picked on a lot.

Second graders. Upper level students.

Now these next boys are "Big Three." That's what I call them. They are the lower level second graders but they are also the biggest trouble makers in the school. As you can see, there's only 2 of them. The third one decline to take pictures.

The scenario is, I ask them if I can take a picture of them. They said no. I said please. The one in the red said okay, the other said no. I said please again. The one in the red says to his friend "let's just take it." The other boy says no. They wrestle for a picture.

Haha it was actually an interesting fight. As you can see, the kid in the red, 민규, is dominating the fight against 수민. But all of a sudden, out of nowhere...

BAM! He gets the upper hand. haha.

Third graders lower level. I couldn't take any pictures of the upper level third graders.

Now some of the teachers.

That is Mrs. Jung my co-teacher. She's nice.

That's Jack. He's another English teacher and he's so helpful. And if you're thinking I look uncomfortable in that picture, you're right haha. I took this picture during the first times I met him and he forced me to put my arms around him soooo yeah. But all in all, he's a really great guy. He also revealed to me that when I speak in Korean, I sound like a girl. But yeah, just a great guy!

This is Hoonie teacher. She's the only teacher at all 3 schools that's closest to me, age wise. All the other teachers are like in their 40s. And again, if I'm looking uncomfortable, that's because Jack was taking the picture and said he wouldn't take the picture until I put my arms around her haha.
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And finally, my last school 목도 middle school. This is actually a middle/high school but I only teach the middle schoolers. I teach here every Wednesday and Thursday. So again, the school first and there are about 50 kids in this school too.

More mountains.

I was really bored this day and took pictures left and right.

The first graders. Both levels.

This handsome, good looking, sharp dressing, fine young fella is 동민. All the kids say I look like him. Apart from all the good looking traits, I don't see it. Maybe the skin color.