blurb about school today

Two things, but I usually stray from my original intentions and wander into completely new and unrelated ramblings. 
1. I saw one of my 6th grade students cry today. I'm assuming it was because of my co-teacher. The student lost his papers for today's activity- something about it disappearing in his back. This kid is always goofy/whiny/laughing. My co-teacher sent him to the gym to walk laps. Then my co-teacher left the room for a minute. He returned with the student and left again. And the student was in tears. So either just having to do laps is connected to severe punishment, or my co-teacher reamed him for not having the papers. And me being useless and unable to really communicate in Korean could only pat his back a bit and hand him tissues. I think whatever went on was unnecessary if it brought him to tears- it's just paper. Make him go get new copies or something and call it even. 
2. I wanted to shake my 5th grader. He's probably bored with learning the alphabet, so I need some new activities. He's mostly mastered the upper case letters, and now he has to learn the lower case. Buh. I don't want to do it, I know he doesn't. Today was the first time I had issues with him following directions, so I had to take away all potential distractions from him. He seemed bored when I gave him a break, but rushed to finish anything I gave him. Maybe he was playing around- it's hard to tell, but this was a moment when I really wished we spoke the same language because it would've been much easier to manage. As in, I could've snuffed it out immediately. 

Sintanjin Cherry Blossom Festival (totally absent)

I was dreaming of rows of trees in full bloom- white cherry blossoms spread over a wide field- or  a forest if I was lucky. I mean, seriously, I was kind of fantasizing about this coming day; a trip to the outskirts of Daejeon with... someone... (at that point, I didn't know who I'd actually go with), on a great sunny day, in a nice spring-y dress, my "fashion" sunglasses, taking awesome photos...  I had built this image in my head all last week: an overload of sunshine, greenGREEN grass, blooming trees, and a giant mad happy crowd. 


I was completely delusional. 

Friday was promising; it was warm, sunny, a little breezy. The trees by the river had bloomed, and they turned out to be a more impressive show than what was at the actual festival. Come Saturday, it was a little on the cool side, dangerously cloudy, and the trees were looking mighty bare. I was most definitely in jeans and a hoodie, forgot my sunglasses (which was okay in the end because the sky was threatening rain most of the day), and rocked out my chucks to make a good example of the college emo/wannabe hipster look, or Korean middle school fashion statement. The festival was far from crowded- a good thing ultimately, but also it made the festival feel a bit underwhelming. There were some tents with traditional Korean games, some crafts, samples of tea, free bottles of water (heck yes!)... but the bare trees! (insert sad megan here) 


It was a good day- no, I mean it was a great day! Even without the sun, it was warm for most of the day, about 20 people I knew showed up, and I got to sit on grass for the first time in 7 months+... albeit brown, dead, and leaveawetstainonyourjeans grass, but GRASS! We played some carnival-esque games: BB gun target- the prize was a bottle of plum wine which I found someone to give it away to later, air guns- a friend knocked down and won 2 yo-yos. We were robbed 6,000w at a pig roast. 2 little plates of meat, 11 people, 6,000w a person. That broad made 66,000w and only lost 2 tiny plates of pig. Unfrigginbelievable. Next year, if I'm still here, I'm definitely just going to walk by the river to see the cherry blossom trees. They're far more impressive right now and closer to get to. Sintanjin, if I left from my apartment, would take 2 hours to get to. No thanks. It was cool to see though, the area looked older than the middle of Daejeon- older style buildings I mean. There weren't as many new buildings like the mixture you see in my neighborhood. Sintanjin didn't look or feel like Daejeon, so it was like a day out of town!


see the rest of the cherry blossom festival pictures

Friday rundown

It's beautiful outside and Friday, so today's been rough with actually doing productive work with my students. This semester, my co-teacher has changed the structure of a lot of the classes I have with him. He's done a great thing by grouping students by what level their at, so in 1 class there are 3 different things going on. This puts me in charge of some students, and he'll often come in and instruct when needed- there's a pretty good unspoken balance happening now. I have to prepare 2 students for a speech contest sometime next month. One is terrified, and the other definitely just isn't interested- at least until I got him to a topic where he could talk about food. 

My co-teacher added 2 periods onto my schedule- a 5th class with the student who lived in America for a number of years. I got him hooked on Anthony Bourdain during vacation, so I've turned the extra class into a Bourdain hour with him. He needs a break from 4 days of doing whatever it is I make him do in class. And really, I need a break, too.  Besides, he talks through most of the show, so he's still getting good conversation practice. The other extra class is with 2 students for some review of whatever I want to do. Today was the first time I met with them, and I wanted to review body parts. And it was semi- genius, if I may inflate my ego for a minute. I started with having them draw a person with whatever number of heads or arms or whatever I asked. When they got the hang of what I was doing with them, I had them choose how many of the other limbs. Listening and application rolled into one. Then I pulled out the candy, and modeled, and explained, and modeled again until they finally understood what we were going to do with it- make candy people! Now if I can only keep this class entertaining for the rest of the year... I'm glad to have it though, because I get to do things I did a lot at home and haven't really had chances to do here yet. 


I ended up sharing the rest of the candy in the teacher's office after sending as much as I could with the students. Who knew adults would really be interested in marshmallows? The Korean ones smell like a bathroom- no offense. 

run devil run

not the river...

Monday night, I made John go down to the river with me to scope out the safety of the jogger's path. 9 pm, a path full of old people and a sprinkle of younger people walking in their walking gear. Everyone was just exercising. How awesome is that? So tonight I went out alone to test out my jogging endurance (absolutely shot), and I felt completely safe. That's just not something you get very often at home. I've really never not felt safe wandering around Korea at night, or ever. It's just not really an issue. You see elementary kids running around the city without their parents; sometimes it still surprises me, but man, it must be nice growing up in a place that is generally safe enough to not worry about whether or not you'll make it home. Not that I was always in fear back at home, but really now. Mom, would you have let me out downtown alone when I was in 5th grade?

i'd rather vomit: raging against lunch

I am irrationally, but completely pissed at today's lunch. It was just utterly foul. Sundae with rice cakes stupidly shaped as hearts and clubs or clovers or something, trying to cheer up the fact that the mess it was associating with consists of animal parts... and oh shit, did I seriously consume pig blood? motherfucker. The sauce is nasty in a subtle way that just tells me something is off. Maybe that's the offending ingredient. 


The other things on my tray: fish. Curried fish to be more fair, so the first bite tasted pretty okay. Unfortunately, the last bite tasted like an aquarium.
Soup. Orange soup, that I think was made with the fermented bean paste that makes its way into the soup most days. It was okay... and then I unearthed something with a tentacle. And that's when I peaced out on the soup.

well just blow my mind then

You know how I was griping about people not getting that I can be of Korean ethnicity, but not know the language? How they just about fall over, or have their heads explode? Well, thanks to last night, now I know how I make a lot of people feel. My friend and I walked into a coffee bar to study Korean, and while fumbling to get a table, the server just kind of blinked and asked, "Do you want smoking or non smoking?" in perfect, fluent English, accent and all. We totally flipped out gracelessly, embarrassing her in front of her co-workers. So sorry to the server about that, but I mean seriously? I bet she secretly loves doing that to foreigners. 

Kpop sampling 2, Ke$ha interrupting

Just trying to eat up the last 10 minutes of work. 

I saw this on someone's Facebook page: Run Devil Run, performed by Ke$ha. I honestly don't know anything about this artist, is she popular right now? According to wikipedia, she recorded a "guide version" back in 2008, with SNSD(Girls Generation) recently releasing is officially. 

The rest of the post is cut because these videos take up too much space, and it's ugly. So, click the link below if you want to explore some Kpop!

"I'm... happy!" (on a coffee shop and bars)

When I go home, and we're hanging out- if you tell me that you're tired and I say, "take a rest!"- you can pinch me. Actually, I'd rather you hit me; I hate pinches. So hit me when I say it. Because I will. And a "I'm happy!" might slip out, or a "finish-e", or "cute-i/ cute-tu"... All these Kanglish, as Koreans call odd smashups of Korean-ized English words and phrases, that we said at first to poke fun at the strangeness have seemingly become part of our normal everyday language. "Take a rest" is disturbingly familiar to me these days, and I barely remember the fact that I didn't really know what that meant the first time my co-teacher said it to me. Also, if I ever tell you that I'm "so-so", it means I'm okay. And then punch me. :) We still think we're teasing when we say these things... but really, we're just trying to be cute like the Koreans, but that's a complete failure because we're most definitely not Korean. Though if I can get away without saying much, I certainly pass for it! ha.

The past week was a good one for discovering some new places to go. As I've mentioned, a friend and I are meeting during the week to study Korean. Wednesday, we went to a coffee shop I'd been looking at for a long time, but was never that interested in visiting. Man oh man, do I wish I've been sooner! I don't have pictures now, but I will definitely take some the next time I go. It's so cozy, and there are couches EVERYWHERE. We ended up in a little nook of the coffee shop, each with our own couch big enough to seat 3 people. It was mellow, comfy, and as a lot of cafes offer, it had free snacks (toast, potato soup, some common bar snacks, and coffee). Coffee, a coffee shop had a coffee pot where you could have coffee for free. 

Yellow Taxi sits on the 4th floor
of Garten Bier in Dunsan Dong

Friday and Saturday, I ended up at 2 bars I haven't been to before. Yellow Taxi only opened a week ago. I was with a small group, and only 2 of us seemed interested in returning, which is a shame because the owner plans to have live music every Saturday. He's a nice guy, and he speaks some English. I had the camera I recently bought from a friend, and he asked me to try to take some photos. Yellow Taxi has a large amount of space, a long bar, free pool, and an outdoor swing indoors- the kind I haven't seen since leaving the states. It was awesome. The downside is the menu pricing. Cocktails tend to run around 7,000 won ($7), with a few bars in Daejeon offering them for 5,000 and up. Yellow Taxi unfortunately does is not one of those kind few. I really wanted to give the owner some business, so I went to buy a drink, but it turned out they were offering the first drink for free- and I wasn't up to drinking another, so I left only having the one. The decor is modern-hip with its mismatched chairs, and there's a giant booth that'll sit a large party. I would definitely like to go back, especially to check out the "western rock band" that'll be playing this weekend. I'm hoping this guy can get his bar off the ground, I like him.

Gupoom is above Franco in Dunsan Dong

The other bar is called Gupoom, and from what my friends believe, it's sponsored by Heineken. It certainly looks like it is with the green decor, and Heineken bottles everywhere. It probably makes more sense when the bar is more full, but the tables on the floor seemed too spread out. Granted, there were only about 3 different groups in the entire bar, but the half we were on felt awkwardly empty to me. Gupoom is separated by a rain of lights. Tables sit on the main floor, and the window side is lined with booth-type seating for something a little more private. The bar as a whole is arranged in a design much more open than a lot of Korean bars I've been to. There aren't the nooks and little corners in this bar that you'll find elsewhere. Alcohol prices are pretty typical for Korea- 9 of us went though about 4-5 pitchers of beer and maybe 6 bottles of soju for roughly 6,000 a person. Granted, these numbers could be way off. 

a Friday's work

Omg, when I watched these, I thought all these people were so much older than me!



This was one of my favorite shows, and I never knew it was so short lived- 2 seasons. 
I watched it for YEARS.

The effing clown STILL terrifies me, I didn't watch because I knew it was coming- 
but I loved this show!

Who loves orange soda!

fatherly advice

From my middle school 3rd grade student. He tells me that maybe I should sleep all weekend because I'm tired, so I can be well rested. I say that I hope to enjoy the nice weekend weather and he goes on to insist that I really ought to just stay in bed. And then later, we're in another classroom for an extra class my co-teacher wants me to have with him and I'm about to go get my computer. I mentioned that it's a big school, and as I get ready to go he says, "Wait, will you know how to get back here?" Ha. It turns out that he was the one who needed help finding his way back because he'd never been to the third floor. That punk. :) 


I think people who have no affiliation can come into the school to use the bathrooms... I've run into numerous old women in hiking gear, and I've never seen them before. Plus they have that cranky expression stuck on their faces that makes them look scary, and the last one I saw didn't lock the stall door... awkward.