There's No Way.

Shawn: "Hello class, how was your day?"

Class: *silence*

Shawn: "Okay Friday we are going to be performing a play. Who knows what theater is?"

Class: *silence*

Shawn: "Who know's what an actor is? Or a play? A musical?"

Class: *sound of crickets, one kid gets up and runs laps around the gym*

It's me vs 11 nine-year olds that are not bad kids but do not have the english capacity to tell me their own names let alone put on a play. They are so little and we've never had kids with such low comprehension before. I tried some games with them, read them the book (Paper Bag Princess)... they don't get it. If someone tried to explain a game to me completely in Korean I wouldn't have a clue what was going on either so it's not their fault, they just don't have the skills.

They still don't know that they are putting on a play, actually. And that's what the whole class as about tonight.

Maybe I should learn Korean and explain everything to them in their own language? It's looking like a good option.

On the bright side this is my last week of Magic. I'm moving on to "Police Station" and "Physician's Office" next week. If the kids act up I can throw them in jail or sedate them. Woot!!!

One More Month

We were supposed to teach at the Suwon english village starting August 25. A week before our flight our recruiter told us the school wouldn't be opening until early October so he got us jobs at the Seoul english village site. We were supposed to work here for a few weeks and then move to Suwon- since both schools are identical it would be good experience. Well, weeks went by and when October approached we were told that the Suwon school would open around November 4th . So we figured this past weekend would be our last in Seoul and we were a little bummed about that. We rather like the school and our apartment, the job is cake, we've made friends with the other teachers and the city is cool. Most importantly, we know where everything is. If we need groceries, a night out, or a new hat- we know where to go.

This morning we found out we are here for at least another month! The school won't be opening until at least the end of November. But I'll believe it when I see it. We're happy! But since I know we're going to be here for a while I think I might ask to teach a different class soon. We're supposed to get new classes every month and I've had magic for 7 weeks. I guess it's a class that a lot of people don't want to teach. I'm crossing my fingers that I get assigned "hackeysack" class.

Tonight is the first night of the intensive Theatre class. I have my own class of ten students and by the end of the week they have to put on a 10 minute english play of 'The Paper Bag Princess". And I got the team with the very lowest english. Mel got the team with the second lowest and her class is performing "Mortimer". Sooooo wish us luck! I have no idea what I'm going to do with these kids for two hours tonight, but I guess I'll find out in a few hours! (I'm thinking a lot of hangman will be played...)

Roll up the rim!

Dunkin Donuts, our half-decent replacement for Tim Horton's coffee has a roll up the rim promotion going on now!!! Mel thinks this has been going on since October 1 but we never realized until I noticed a little 4-leaf clover on my cup pointing to the rim. And like any well trained Canadian I immediately thought of roll up the rim. Sure enough, there were some banners in the store advertising potential prizes. We were giddy with excitement and left for the subway with our cups in hand.

And after the coffees were drunk we threw our cups away. Stupid! We've been throwing them away for so long that we forgot! We won't even be able to read the words under the rim lol so we won't know if we've won a free car or if we've won nothing at all. Don't worry, I'll ask. Stay tuned for updates...

National Museum of Korea

It's not all about theme parks and shopping, friends. After a month and a half, Mel and I decided to do something semi-cultural (there's lots of time for that stuff, right?) and we visited the National Museum of Korea in Ichon. We had originally headed there to get a voltage transformer for our Nintendo, but when that only took five minutes we had some time to kill.


It's a pretty large complex, built over three floors. To the far left and far right of each floor are the exhibits. They represented a lot of Asian art and artifacts.

There was a whole room full of gongs.

Room-o-heads.

On this world map Newfoundland is still partially covered in ice lol. Did I mention that admission to the museum was free? It's usually only 2,000 won a piece anyway but we always seem to luck out with these freebie admissions and discounts. At Mr. Pizza a few weeks ago we each got a free electric toothbrush!

For supper we had Pho, which is Vietnamese noodles. Pho is freaking awesome! I had chicken and Mel had beef. It is basically meat, noodles and broth, but your table is filled with optional veggies to toss in the bowl as well. Of course, Mel did more tossing than I did but it was still delicious.

It was a little hard to eat what basically amounts to chicken noodle soup with a set of chopsticks, but it got a little easier after a few attempts.

Well, it is a pretty bright and sunny Sunday afternoon here and we are about to go check out the Halloween camp activities the school is putting on this weekend, and maybe even take a hike in one of the walking trails. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Shawnodie vs 25 Ju

At home there are probably countless farm markets and grocery stores selling bins full of giant orange pumpkins right now. However, in Korea Halloween isn't a practiced holiday. The kids don't go door to door saying 'trick or treat' for a little bag of kimchi or anything like that. So it was hard to find a pumpkin this year but we did notice a few for sale at the "25 Ju", a 7-Eleven type convenience store down the road from our school. So Mel and I walked in and proudly purchased our Halloween pumpkin Tuesday night for only 5,000 won. The selection was a bit sad... there were only 6 or 7 pumpkins and they were all flat and orange OR tall and green. We selected flat and orange. Not a very healthy looking orange, but it was the right colour at least and we figured it would do the trick.

Once word spread there were 4 teachers and 3 pumpkins at our apartment Thursday night carving pumpkins like children. All pumpkins supplied by the 25 Ju. Here's what happened when we opened the pumpkins to scoop out the gooey insides:

Two out of three of the pumpkins were rotten inside!!! Not just moldy... but wormy. They were maggot infested! We were so dissapointed, because the whole evening was to revolve around proudly putting our pumpkins on display, all lit-up on the balcony. So, we boldy attempted the unthinkable... an exchange. Not easy when you don't speak the language. It was clear that the flat/orange pumpkins were rotten and the tall/green ones were OK. So... we wrote down the Korean words for "maggots!" and "exchange?" (thanks to google translator) and marched off.

When we got to the store there was little confusion about what was wrong, although the shopkeeper still opened up the bags of rotten pumpkin and took a good look at the mess within. She wanted to know if we were planning on eating them (probably best that we weren't) so we drew a little Jack-O-Lantern to explain. We picked up our new pumpkins and headed home. Our first exchange in Korea was a great success!

And I am now pleased to introduce you to our Pumpkin...

We need to name him. Any suggestions?

Cupcakes and Painful High Fives

(Not actual image of SEV's cupcakes: Missing: spit, hair, soap, icing....)

This week at school has been very challenging for both Shawn and I. I blame the kids because there are twice as many this week than last, and they seem to have alot of behavioural problems. For example, I had a class of 13 year olds on Tuesday who were straight from hell. After much yelling and threats, I decided to not give them any cupcakes. That's right, I hold the power! Then I hear from almost every group of kids that the previous classes put something (ex: hair, soap, spit) in the next group's cupcakes. In Suwon, I want the class to actually cook something that they will be able to eat in class! Sooooo annoying!

Then today when I was walking to class, a boy was like "High Five" and slapped my hand so hard, it was seriously tingling. I was furious!!!! I yelled at him but I had to run to my class before the bell....so no time for finding someone in authority. But, a few minutes later, I saw another teacher (who is from New York) walk by and the same kid was bent over on the floor in pain...serves him right. He probably got "high fived" right back! Dont' mess with New York!

Shawn had a kid cry in every class he taught today, for various reasons. Next week, there is an "intensive week" of students where there is supposed to be 28 teams of kids. That's roughly 420 students. We're not sure what our role will be in "intensive" but apparently, it's always chaotic, disorganized and more work. Yee hah!!!!!

Thank God tomorrow's Friday, even though it means graduation for the students (aka: making kids cry so they will get their parents to send them back.

Please forgive the negative tone. Tonight we'll vent our frustrations with our fellow card-playin' teachers with cards, alcohol and pumpkin carving!!!! (stay tuned....)

Sunday : Lotte World

Oh man, where do I start? Lotte World was really, really, really awesome. It blew Everland away. It's way more similar to Disney in that it looked way more expensive, the rides were faster, and there were all the finishing touches that make a great theme park great. It was SO HARD to get up this morning after our late night in Hongdae, but trust me- it was worth it. Lotte World is open 365 days a year and is half-indoors/half-outdoors. The indoor section has 4 floors and a basement with a shooting range, pool, gym and skating rink. It was only 30,000 won for the day's admission which I thought was quite reasonable, and less than 3 sandwiches at Quiznos.

There were balloons you could ride in that travelled in a rail along the ceiling. You can kind of see them in the above picture. On the main floor there was a carousel, an IMAX, a rollercoaster with loops (the best kind!), a flume, two white water rafting rides, and a bunch of other rides. They had sporadic parades there and a laser show at night.

I took this picture on the main floor where the Lotte World Globe is. The ice rink below is actually in the basement, but the way the park is set up you can see from the top floor to the bottom in the center of the building. I really wanted to go skating but there wasn't enough time with all the rides we had to go on. Don't worry, we'll skate next time. Oh, and we saw a zamboni!

This Donkey was actually a chocolate vending machine. Take a guess as to how the chocolate is dispensed. Only 1000 won!!!

There were so many funny signs. Of course I have pictures of them all but can only post a few. This one posted outside of the flume ride was my favorite. Where did they find clean water in Korea??? And enough to run a flume? I don't believe it.

I got drenched in gloriously clean water on the Flume.



Everland mascots 'Lotty' and 'Lorry' inviting children to drink beers. It's funny, but Mickey and Minnie don't pull those tricks!



The entrance for 'Atlantis', one of the best rides I've even been on. It was a really fast roller coaster that went inside and outside, and along the water with a lot of quick turns and descents. It was the ride of the day!



They finally locked us up. Mom, I need bail, and I need you to send it through Western Union.



Mel and co. walk like an egyptian at the Pharaoh's Fury ride. Again- an awesome ride on a roller coaster shaped like a jeep as you escape from within a collapsing pyramid... it's a shame pictures taken on the actual rides never turn out!



We went into this Haunted House where we were sat down at a long dining table and were given headphones. The room went dark and a 3D movie played at your placesetting and there was some other animatronic stuff going on. There were gravel-voiced ghosts talking all spooky in Korean and we didn't have a clue what was going on and we were cracking up. It was really really awesomely funny.



We watched a 4D movie which meant it was in 3D but we also got sprayed with water and our seats moved. Before the movie started some locals tried to make conversation with us and assured us the movie was 'delicious' lol. Again. it was all in Korean but you could follow the story- it wasn't rocket science. The funny thing is that it starred Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future, that chick from Caroline in the City and featured a cameo from Weird Al Yankovic, all dubbed over in Korean. It WAS delicious!



Later in the evening it started to rain, which is random since this was the only time it's rained since we've been in Korea. Unfortunately the outdoor rides started to shut down but we were able to get on everything we really wanted to do except for the freefall ride (sort of like Disney's Tower of Terror). We even had fastpass tickets (you bypass the line) for it that we couldn't use. Yet another reason to go back. We plan on returning with Dayna next summer!! There's strangely still no sign of fall here with only a week to go until November. The leaves haven't changed and it's been over 20 degrees every day. The Korean teachers say that the weather is unusual for this time of year, so it's not a typical occurance but I'm not complaining.

Now for some much needed sleep before we start another week of work tomorrow. Last week we only had 250 or so kids so we had light schedules but this week we have over 400 :( I have to teach 4 Magic classes in a row tomorrow, last week I never had more than two a day. I've got to learn a disappearing trick and then use it on myself ;)

Have a good week, I'll leave you with a video of one of the bands playing at Lotte World. This song was always a favorite in my circle of friends and it's still stuck in my head!

Saturday: International Pet Expo and Hongdae

Saturday afternoon we woke up after a wildly late Friday night of Pizza and cards to discover that there was a Pet Expo going on across town. So, since neither of us have pet a cat in a month and a half we decided to check it out. It has now reached the point that I will take the subway for an hour to pet a cat through a cage.

The cats were all purebred and they looked really interesting. An observation: most had flat faces. They were the kinds of cats you usually only see in magazines. There had been a cat show earlier in the day and so a lot of the cat's cages had 1st, 2nd, 3rd place ribbons and I must say that Bella and Rufus would have cleaned up at the cat show, based on the competition.

There were lots of dogs at the expo, including these guys. They were soft and we got to hold their leashes. There were also a lot of fish (Korea loves fish) and one ferret. But the best BEST part about the trip was that we stumbled back to the Quiznos that we found last month. The last time we went it was closed but this time...

It was open. Mel and I used to live 5 minutes from a Quiznos in Fredericton so we'd go there all the time and I was craving a Honey Bacon Club something awful. And for only 13,000 won I had one with a bag of chips and pop.

Also, outside of the Quiznos there were free hugs being given away. Do you love the crazy guys in the McDonald's billboard in the background? They're everywhere and I find them quite amusing.

After we got home we went out to Hongdae with some other teachers. Hongdae is 25 minutes away on the subway. It has a University and a lot of cool looking bars. We passed by a drum bar where, I'm told, each person gets their own bongo. We're definately going back there! We went to a breakbeat club which was filled with foreigners (that means 'white people') and thumping vibrating music. Oh, and more free shots! The subways were closed down by the time we left so we took a cab home. Cabbies in Seoul are only useful if they are driving you a short distance because the traffic is complicated and they usually only know 'their' area very well. But our driver did get us home with some help from his cell phone and yelling out the window to other cars. And just in the nick of time too, because I really had to use the washroom.

***Lotte***

Lotte is like the Korean Wal-Mart.

Everywhere you go there is Lotte merchandise. There are Lotte department stores all over the city. I am eating Lotte cookies right n-o-w. We have Lotte dishsoap, gummi worms, and ice cream. Even the Cheetos here are branded 'Lotte'. And I'm pretty sure that I'm sitting on a Lotte-brand computer chair.

This Sunday Mel and I are going to Lotte World.

Yes, LOTTE WORLD- consists of a large indoor theme park, an outdoor amusement park on an island linked by monorail, shopping malls (probably includes a Lotte store), a hotel (sleep on Lotte brand sheets!), a Korean folk museum, sports facilities and movie theatres in one area. The Lotte World indoor theme park is the largest indoor amusement park in the world, and ranked seventh worldwide in attendance.

Lotte, Lotte, Lotte. Updates to follow.

PS: This guy is one of the mascots LOLOLOL I want my picture taken with him!

http://www.lotteworld.com/Global_eng/

Score!

The best place to find furniture around here is on the side of the road. Tonight we nabbed this handy-dandy TV stand for free. It's perfect aside from one missing nob and we have like, no furniture. The tag on the back said 129,000 Won.

So yeah, we're like those people that dig through the landfill for treasure. Meh, I love treasure.

To Avoid Any Confusion

It's not hard to find a restaraunt in Seoul. Walk up the road for a block and you'll likely pass two dozen little restaraunts. The meals here are heavy on the vegetables, and light on meat (wahhhh!!!) so often each restaraunt will only sell one type of meat to compliment it's dishes. What Mel and I have found funny is that an example animal is usually used on the restaraunt's sign to show you what type of meat they serve. And the animal isn't a cartoon representation, it's a picture of a real cow, a field of pigs, fish swimming, etc.

In Canada we don't want to know what we're eating! If a restaraunt back home put up a giant picture of some real cows in their window, the vegetarian community would automatically stay away. There are no vegans here so that isn't a problem. We took these pictures on a walk down one single street today. If you're feeling like dog, the sign tells you where to go...

mmmm beef ***MOO!!!***

Awww the piggies are kissing!

Mother hen with her chicks... coming to a plate near you

A little fishy for my tastes.

There's a better chance of this guy eating me than me eating him.

And last, but not least, we found a place with boiling pots full of ram, turtle and..... DOG. Yes, we finally found a place that sells dog. The puppy looks so cute too. Suspiciously, there was a dog that looked exactly like this one that used to live right across from the school. We haven't seen him lately...

See, we really do work!

There has been some questions raised as to whether or not Mel and I are on an extended shopping trip in Asia or if we really do some work during the week. Well, yeah we do (a little). So finally, after a month in Korea I finally took some pictures when school was in session! Mel and I work the night shift this month, which is 1:30-8:40. During that time there is a supper break from 5:15-7:00 (I have never had a nearly TWO HOUR supper break at any job before but I like it!) and plus in the afternoon you may only teach two or three 45 minute classes. So, even though we are scheduled from 1:30-8:40 you spend most of that time back in your room eating ice creams and reading about North Korea on CNN.com.

This is me doing my amazing card trick in Magic class! These kids were really bad lol!!!

One of my classes. We only have each class for 45 minutes a week, so you don't really get to know the kids very well. But there are ones you remember and they see you around campus so they definately get attached and remember you. In "Post Office" class the students pick a teacher and write to them, so yesterday Mel and I checked our mail and we had a bunch of letters. They were really cute but I had no idea who the kids were that wrote to me...

This is one of the letters. My favorite line is "I want drink soju, beer and water"

Melodie's cooking class. The kids make chocolate cupcakes so it's basically their favorite class. It's tricky though, because there's not actually enough time to make and cook cupcakes with 10 year olds in 45 minutes so they wind up eating the cupcakes the previous class baked. This usually works fine until they figure it out. Wednesday one of the classes put dishsoap in their batter because they knew the next class would have to eat them...

Last night we had 'graduation'. Every Friday night all of the kids go to the auditorium and the teachers each get up and say goodbye and make them promise to come back. Also they watch a slideshow of their week here, we turn down the lights and play sad music, tell them to say goodbye and make them cry. We don't like graduation night because it's a little manipulative. At the end of the night the kids get the teacher's autographs and e-mails and you are basically mobbed by hundreds of kids. I am usually surrounded and it gets soooo hot! But the kids have fun watching the slideshow, they exchange e-mails and they dance. They play 'Mambo No. 5', 'the Twist' and... YMCA (of course!) Now I don't like to dance and last night I had the perfect excuse... I was taking a video! Enjoy... the video below captures nicely the chaos that is graduation night!

Myeongdong Market

This is Mel and I walking down one of the streets at the Myeongdong shopping market. I love this place. It's just a maze of shopping and vendors. If you walk 10 feet you've walked past 50 stores because each building has a different store on each story. There are over 20,000 stores here. A lot of the best shopping is underground too. The rule of thumb is that if you've bought it in a building you've paid too much! The best shopping is on the street. Well, like I said this is only one street... there are many many many. Check out all the people! We'll have a good post about work... the actual work we do (!) tomorrow :P

Mel's Birthday

Today Melodie and I got massaged by Koreans. I really liked it, although I was so lubed up I could have slipped right off the table. I'd never had a massage before but yeah, it was cool. We also went back to Yongsan for some black market DVDs.



We are now the proud owners of the 20th anniversary Oprah box set. After that we went out for supper. I got ribs and potato wedges and Mel got a chicken pasta dish.



Unfortunately, Mel's dish came with a few extra friends (and their eggs) that were staring back at her. She got some supplemental KFC on the way home.



And finally there was cake. Now we have to go eat it and watch some Ope. Back to work tomorrow :( Boooooo!