Humbug!

Well, Christmas is rushing towards its end here, while those of you who live in the western hemisphere have yet to really begin your day. 

Unable to find a slick way to insert this into the conversation, I will begin with what is perhaps one of the most annoying yet catchy ads Korea has yet produced:  




You know you're in Korea when you see ads like this, but loan and insurance companies are evil everywhere!


For me, it hasn't really felt like Christmas, and today is just another day--pleasantly, a weekday off. 
Since we last "spoke" the Talk scholars have gone to Busan.  It was basically the same Busan trip as last year, but we ran late, so we were rushed from place to place.  Still, I got better pictures this year: 

Apparently, the guy in the statue is this guy's grandfather, who won some naval victory against the Japanese back in the day. 

The traditional Korean food was OK, but my legs cannot fold.  I limped away early. 

The robot that was so spry last year has been sheleved and forgotten.  That's exactly what they do to you in this world. 

SUBISU

Happy Independence Day Korea!!

And all hail Mashimaro!

August 15th is the official independence day of Korea. On this day in 1945, Japan surrendured to the allied forces, ending 35 years of Japanese colonial rule. If only that were the happy end to the story!!

Seobiseuh

Christmas @ Chez Adrienne!

Have a cookie.

Merry Christmas to one and all! Welcome to this virtual tour of my Korean home.

This is where the magic for this blog all happens. Yes, the atmosphere is thick with genius.

Workstation to try and hide the ugly.

Tools of the devil!



Front door, gas range, and ever-present tea kettle.

Cards for mee!!

Praise the Lord, Mickey D's delivers!

My futon, rolled up for the day, and wall of pretty boys. They're for an art project, honest!

"Wall of Pretty Boys Part Deux"

The seat of power.

Choirs of angels!

Pretty short tour, I know, but hey, it's a small apartment. The west wing is still being built. Still, it's been a good day, if for nothing else than the novelty of not being bothered on a Thursday. But alas, this day is over for me much too soon. Christ was not born in December, and this date has more to do with the pagan celebrations during Winter Solstice than anything else. Still it is a good thing to take time out to remember the birth of Christ and its significance, and the irony of his having been born with little earthly fanfare, in such a dark time, in such a dark place. I hope I'm not too blind to recognize the hand of God in my life.

On that deep note, I must bid you adieu. I've got class tomorrow.

visual confirmation!!

Love,

SEOBISEUH

Why Jeon-he Can't Read (English)

No matter where I go, they always find mee!!


Define "meaning."

Hi babes! It has been a long time. How are you? Have you been well? How's the missus? My fingernails are digging into the remainder of my precious weekend. Thursday is Christmas, but like Ebeneezer Scrooge's unfortunate employee Bob Cratchit, it appears I only have Christmas day off, and must return to work "all the earlier the next morning."

S0, little Jeon-he can't read because he can't sound out his letters. As such, I'm going to try to teach "him" phonics. We'll see how that goes. But actually I don't think Jeon-he wants to learn English, and Jeon-he is too young to know what he wants, and Jeon-he has too many classmates too. Can't do anything about it. But my first Tuesday and Thursday classes can really be abysmal though, and all we've been seemingly been able to do thus is muddle through in a vaguely academic manner. What I want for Christmas is for half those kids to drop out. They may as well be playing outside or something.

For some reason, My heart has softened towards children since I was last in Korea; for I love even my obnoxious kiddies, and have become too lazy to be angry with them, apparently.

So, things are just going along, and I am in comparatively good spirits this holiday season, even if in all likelyhood I shall be spending it alone--which actually doesn't bother me. Perhaps I'm coming one step further in my apparent goal to become a hobo/old maid/crazy person who constantly talks to herself (all of the above), but I find Iusually prefer the peace of solitude, and become all weird and unappealing when I'm around others anyway.

Sure, you love me *now*, but I am so much better in print than in person. Plus you can pay attention to this blog, or press your other tab and watch the Victoria's Secret holiday fashion show on youtube, or perhaps something more hardcore...

Whatever you like.

As much as I'd like to regail you with adventures in Busan last week, the trip itself was kind of a snore:

hid-ee-yuss.

I mean yea, a bunch of world leaders come here...and solve nothing; but look cool while doing so. And there's a robot that takes photos and sends e-mails! Which apparently, I gave him the incorrect e-mail, because his photo of me is not in my inbox. Sorry Scott.

Here's a memorial dedicated to Korean War medics,

And we get prehistoric.

The discription of the trip said that we would be going to a "traditional market", so I was interested in that--but it turned out to just be a regular market, although one could definately argue that knockoff Louis Vitton handbags and bootleg DVD's are traditional.

One upside of that portion of the trip is that I got the last Christmas present I needed to send home, and got a code-free DVD player (two actually!). If anyone wants to buy a new, code-free DVD player, I've got the lowest prices this side of the DMZ.

Anyway, This entry must end abrputly. It's mad late, and some of us can't afford to lose their beauty sleep. See you Christmas!

SEOBISEUH

하 루 하 루 / Day by Day

The buck...slows down significantly here.  

As you can read from the post below, yeah, today is a national holiday, a fact of which I was vaguely aware, but didn't fully sink in until finding the school locked and deserted this afternoon.  

So,  I came back home (this little rectangle of sovereign American territory) to blog to yoo!   

"I have often walked down this street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before."

"Everyone Loves" studio apartments

My children are very cute and I am concerned for their future.  I wish I had some more candid photos of some of my classes.  For that, we need an extra pair of hands.  

My first class (1:10-1:50) is 1st and 2nd graders.  --Really, too young to be in my class, and there are too many of them too boot (34-37?).  It's more a battle of containing and directing their behavior towards something vaguely educational and organized.  Even songs, chants, and games don't completely quell the chaos.   Don't think it's worth My and my co-teacher's effort, really, unless perhaps you're talking about pay---in which case, we aren't being paid enough!

My second class (2:10-2:50) are 3-4th graders.  They're all right.  It's hard to think of activities for them sometimes, because they are neither here nor there.  They're not babies who are enthusiastic about cute little actions songs like the 1-2 graders, yet, they aren't advanced enough to do the somewhat more interesting activities and subject matter of the 5th and 6th graders.  I like them, though.   

My third class (3:10-3:50) are the 5th and 6th graders.  They're cool, because you can relate to them a little more.  They can comprehend quite a bit of what they read--but with them you get all the adolescent insecurities, so they're really shy about speaking.  Poor babies.   

My fourth class (4:00ish--4:45) is my Youngo sarang bang class which means  "English Love Room".   Sounds kinda sexy.   These are the best English students in the school--and their parents are proud of them and think they're hot stuff.   Actually, few of them are as good at English as their parents seem to think, but it's a fun class of 13 or so students with whom I can do fun things with.   This week, the theme was food, so I made some restaurant related dialogue skits for the kids to act out, complete with "menus" for the fake restaurant I dubbed "Chez Anglais".   

So that is my usual day of teaching--, if you want to call it that.  But I'm not even going to worry to hard about whether they know this or that.  I have to keep in mind that I'm a sort of "Ambassador of English", or ambassador of America, or even an ambassador of African-Americans.   I never had any aspirations to be a "teacher" in the professional sense of the word, and never will.  The relationships and social interaction--the opportunities to speak with a naitive speaker, and have fun are the main things---which is actually perhaps the harder thing--me being woefully undersocialised and a private person by nature.   ---Not to mention the language barrier.   

     Even when the kids act up or aren't cooperating, or a plan falls apart, or whatever, I find I can't stay upset about it for long.  Often I find...after hours of anxious lesson-planning, that these precious plans have little bearing on what will really take place or how the week will go in general anyway.  

So my kiddies (who I will probably never learn most of the names of)  will hopefully be left with a positive impression of me and a good attitude about English.  If we can say that at the end of the year, I'll be satisfied. 

SUBISU