Korean barbeque and more school news!

Anneong everyone! Annonghashimnikka?????? How are you? Not much new from this side - just little bits and pieces! The new teacher, David, started teaching on Monday and he seems to be coping ok, which is great..but he has been given Cornell (Richs old class-the worst in the school!), so we'll see what happens! But whats great is that we now have less classes to teach..we used to work an average of about 110 teaching hours a month each ..and now its only 93 hours (pay is still the same though!)! So we r really happy about that! So the new schedule now means that sometimes we have 2 or 3 hr breaks between lessons..but thats ok, cos we always have something to do like report cards or worksheets etc. But most days rich and i only start at 10:50am and we finish latest 5:25..so thats awesome! There were a few problems with organising the schedule though - it was really difficult to try and make everyone happy- like Rich has now been spread over 3 other classes - meaning new kids, new lessons etc - but its all sorted out now. The school has now introduced 'snack time' and 'song and discipline' in the first lesson in the morning. So all the kids get together in the wonderland hall at 9:30..and Kim sings songs with them about how they must behave! And then they gets snacks afterwards! (Sounds like a kind of bribe to me though(!)- to make the kids forget they just had an hour of diciplining - so they dont tell their parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). But we know behaving is the last thing these kids are capable of, so I dont know why Kim is even bothering! Well, we had a relaxing weekend..I managed to master a few more letters of the korean alphabet(note i only said..A FEW!), and Rich managed to find a world bird list on the internet (over 31000 birds!)..so that was his entertainment for the wknd! He decided the one day that he was bored though, so he took a subway ride to the National Park..Bukhansan..just outside Seoul. But he came back within 2 hours cos he just walked and walked and walked..but he couldnt do a stitch of birding cos of the MASSES of people! Apparently 5 million people visit the park each year..and the majority of the time on the wknds...so thats like 60000 people per wknd! He said walking on the trails was like walking along a sidewalk in peak time, and there were people walking with music blaring out of their backpacks! He did say it was really beautiful there though..so we must try and get there during the week somehow--when it is quieter! He did manage to get a new mammal though - a squirrel!! And he said to get there, u have to walk through this market area where there are like tons of outdoors shops - Columbia, Northface etc. So we're gonna go there sometime to get his Merrels, and we're also looking for a new backpack. We finally got some rain yesterday!!! It was really heavy - so we decided to take a taxi home..thinking we r a 20 minute walk from our apartment..it cant take that long! But 6 o' clock is like peak time, so it ended up taking us like 20 mins by car anyway! The robot system here is really weird..u stand for AGES waiting to cross the road..like instead of the turning lane going at the same time as the cars going straight..they get their own 'separate' turn! It is SOOO frustrating! So David went to Yongsan (the huge electronics market) on Sunday and bought a wireless router - so now Micheal, Rich and I, and David are all feeding off one internet connection without any cables! So instead of paying like R100 a month for internet..we're now paying like R65! Yayy! Yesterday was test day for the kindergarten kids - what an experience..a bad experience i mean! We had to ask them each 20 questions for their speaking test and then give them a 20 question written phonics test..MIT (7 yr olds) went ok, except for Jason and Naomi who basically sat in the chair and stared at me with their mouths closed for the entire speaking test! But UCLA (6 yr olds!)was CHAOS! I basically gave them all the answers for their written test, otherwise all of them would have handed in a blank page! They just didnt have the ability to sit still for 10 minutes! I could have punched a hole in the wall! But thank goodness that day is over - so now we just have the evaluations to do..more essays..over 20 each to be exact! I had a horrible experience with this one kid in my UCLA class (the horror class) called Ron. He's usually behaved well, but the one day he decided to draw a picture of roads instead of the kite that i had told everyone to draw - so i crossed it out and i drew a kite for him. He got SOO mad with me that he crumpled his paper up and threw it at me!!!!!!!!! I have NEVER been so mad! I yanked him off his chair and he started kicking and screaming like i was murdering him! So i let him go, in case a parent was watching on the cameras. And he just stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, crying his eyes out. So i pulled him by the arm to take him to Kim - and he decided to kick his chair over with all his force! At that moment the bell rang for lunch, so i made him sit and eat lunch on the chair that was still lying on the ground!!! He wasnt impressed and threw another temper tantrum, until eventually Sue (another Korean teacher), arrived to begin her lesson with them! Korean kids are just the worst! Ok, well today is wednesday..yesterday we decided to take David out to eat some Korean food..we went to a restaurant about 1 block from our apartment..its a Korean barbeque restaurant i.e there is like a gas 'stove' in the middle of the table with a grid over it, and u order your meat - we had beef and shrimp. Then a 'chef' comes out and starts cooking your meat in front of you..and u just take your meat off the grid whenever you want it. They also bring you a WHOLE lot of side dishes to eat with it. They bring u a tray of different types of lettuce, and u r supposed to use the lettuce to wrap your meat in (along with some of the side dishes too). The side dishes consisted of a kind of seaweed soup (not bad! - the one we eat at school often), Ginseng Kimchee (pickled ginseng), normal Kimchee (pickled cabbage), pasta salad, bits of vegetable omelette, a delicious onion and cabbage kind of salad with like a spicy mustard dressing, this brown gelatin stuff which is really bland, and some kind of spinach. I really enjoyed it, but obviously there wasnt much for Rich to eat besides the meat, so he was a little hungry afterwards! For the 4 of us, it cost us around $30..so thats about R50 each. So 2moro is the dreaded day..we r taking the kids to 'Everland' the WHOLE day! Its an amusement park in Seoul with rides etc. And Rich and I are the only 2 foreign teachers going - Micheal and David r getting the morning off ! We leave 9:30am, come back 7pm.. H E L P. Will let u know how it goes if we r still alive! Oh, and its election time here now - we think (!)- so there are trucks driving around playing music etc with huge photos of people on the side. Some of the trucks even have a place for a guy to stand at the back and while the truck drives slowly - he gives a speech. GREAT NEWS - Mrs Lee (the director) has just decided that only one foreign teacher is going to Everland 2moro! and she has chosen Michael! YAYYYY (sorry Mike!)! So we get 2moro morning off, but we have to go and get our alien registration cards, so at least that'll get done! Mike says he's buying loads of beer so that he can drink 2moro night and forget all the chaos that was!! He's going to need it! Ok well, i'll send this off now..i'll let u know all about Everland next time! Hope u r all well! PS Mark S. and Sal - ur websites are great-We really enjoy them! Keep the news coming everyone! Thanx for visiting our website! Lots of love, us!

Everland