All Work and No Play

Well, June is wrapping up quickly, but not easily. For the months of June and July, our boss informed us that we would have to work weekends; YES, Saturdays AND Sundays! I don't like that at all. So far, I worked one Sunday at home for three hours, but this past weekend I worked seven hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

There is reason as to why we have to work so many hours. When it's my teachers' and mine summer vacation, our students will participate in a summer camp in Seoul, where they compete by performing skits and reading speeches. The only problem is is that US teachers have to write the scripts and skits. LAME. So the students came in this past weekend to practice and we are there to help with pronunciation. It's hard work, and I do like it, but not on the weekends.

Another reason we are not too happy right now is because the dates for our summer vacation have not been decided. We were to find out in April, and when April finished she said May. And when May finished, she said June. Now that June is almost done, we gave up on asking her. She said originally that it would be the first two weeks in August, so that's what I'm planning. Of course, I can't book any flights yet, because that would turn into a huge mess. BUT, I can tell you I am planning about five days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the rest of my vacation in Bali, Indonesia. Our boss said we would get between 11 and 14 days. I hope it's 14.

We have been teaching phonics since May, so that is getting old too. It's hard to think of new activities to keep the kids entertained. They do pretty well though. We covered all the letters, A-Z, did all the vowels and both the long vowel and short vowel sound and now I am working on -th, -sh and -ch. Those sounds are pretty hard for them so I will have to come up with something.

It's been raining for about eight days now; apparently South Korea has a monsoon season and I am stuck in the middle of it. It's not too bad yet, but I guess the rain comes down harder in the late summer. I hope I don't have to learn how to use a canoe. I live close to the river, so I could take my canoe in to work instead of walking. That could be interesting.

Well, that's all for now. I am surviving, and hopefully I will have my dates for summer vacation soon, so that will give me something to look forward to!

I'm the Only One with Blonde Hair

Last night was another one of my many Korean adventures: getting my haircut. Even something as simple as that in Inje can be a challenge. The place I go the hairdresser doesn't speak English. I have been to him three or four times, so he knows how to cut my hair.

The first couple times, he cut my hair like a 13-year old Korean kid, but this one looks better. I hope my features don't resemble a 13-year old Korean kid. He also doesn't speak English, so I have to communicate to him like I do my 9-year old students: hand motions, noises & sounds and the few Korean words I know. Then later, I thought I could just bring in a picture of myself with the haircut I like, but that would be too easy.

I think another reason why I always go to this guy is because he looks like a Korean John Lennon. I'm not kidding. He is one of the few Koreans that has facial hair; just a small goatee, nothing fancy. But he also has these round glasses that are slightly tinted. His hair is longer and touches his shoulders. It's unreal.

AND, the best part...the haircut is under 10,000 won (just over $9). I don't think you can find that anywhere in The States anymore.

So going back to the title of this blog post, after getting my haircut, I look on the floor and I truly have blonde hair..especially in Korea.

Lame, but simple story.

대전에있는 주말 - Daejeon, South Korea

This past Monday was Korea's Memorial Day, so we had a three-day weekend. It was awesome and a much needed break. Things have been going great at school, but repeating phonic sound all day long is not the most rewarding thing. I feel like I felt when I took my first Spanish class; a foreigner yelling at me in a different language..I get it.



But since we had a long weekend, a friend of mine from Inje was going to visit his friend in Daejeon (Day-djan, -dj like the /J/ sound in the word 'judge') a five-and-a-half hour long bus ride. Not the best bus ride, but Daejeon was fun. I don't like to quote Wikipedia often, but according to them, Daejeon is the fifth largest city in Korea with a population of almost 1.5 million. It has it's own metro system.



The second we boarded the bus in Inje, my friends says to me, "oh, I don't have a phone, so I don't know how to get hold of my friend was we get there." I thought, 'oh great, I know exactly how this trip is going to end." But we ran into little things like that the whole time, and that's what makes traveling exciting.



So we had to call another one of our friends from Inje, because she had this guy's phone number in Daejeon. So once I got his phone number, I saved it in my phone. No problem. So once we arrived, we met up with the guy from Daejeon and we boarded the subway, but my friend from Inje had trouble getting through; his card wasn't scanning. So we called someone over to help. Then my friend looked down and noticed that his name was on it. Usually those cards don't have your name on it, so he finally realized that he was trying to use his bank card to get through the metro. Needless to say, I laughed really hard. Then we went to a popular shopping part of Daejeon and looked around a little. We also got something to eat.



After that, we went to our friend's apartment. It was very nice. Most of the foreigner apartments are nice, so that's a good thing. After getting settled for a while, we went out for the night. We went to one bar and played pool. Daejeon was a fun city with lots of buildings and lights to look at at night, but the streets are really dirty.



The next morning, we woke up and walked around the city. We were gone most of the afternoon. We walked and saw some tall buildings (which you don't find in Inje), we went to Expo Park and to a soccer game. First, Expo Park is an area where there is a huge science museum, art gallery and a theme park. In 1993, Daejeon was home to Expo '93. They had a science theme, and ever since then, they have added more things to this park, including the art gallery and the theme park. There were many things to do there, but we were running out of time, so we were in a hurry.



After that, we went home to eat and shower quick (the humidity was terrible down there), then after that, we went to a soccer game at the FIFA World Cup Stadium. Daejeon hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2002, and Daejeon's professional soccer team was playing a game against Japan. They guy who we stayed with got free tickets from his school, so that was quite an experience. I have never been to a soccer game before, and although Daejeon lost (I think 2-1) at least I got to see three goals being scored. The crowd went crazy. Even on the close goals. Plus, the two South Africans I was with are really into soccer, so they knew more about it than me. I enjoyed my time though.



Then, we went back to our friend's apartment and ate some more. Then we were going to go out again, but I feel asleep at 11 o'clock and didn't wake up until the next morning. Needless to say, I was tired. I still got to see everything I wanted, so that was awesome. Then we had to make our way to the inter-city bus terminal and make the five-hour trek back home. Not fun, but I tried to sleep as much as possible because we caught the 4:30 bus, so add 5.5 hours and that takes us to ten o'clock. I think we arrived home at 9:30, but we were pooped. Great trip though. Better than staying in Inje. It's nice to escape for a while.



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