Judging Children

Today was the first annual Happy Suwon English Village speech competition. For the last few weeks our school has been covered in promotional posters and even the school's website featured the above pop up ad (yes it says "elglish"). The buzz about the competition has been deafening. 20 previous students had the chance to give a speech about either the English Village or Hwaseong Fortress. Each student represented a different school and the winning students schools were also recognized for their english programs. Melodie, Jo, Aaron, Shaun, Sarah and I were the celebrity panel of judges, while Chris and Michelle were the MCs.

We were bussed to city hall, where the event was located. Note that our school has enough money to buy buses, but never has any damn scissors. There were protesters camping outside of city hall with a lot of Korean signage around, so we asked Michelle what they were protesting. She said "the mayor", who later made an appearance at the speech competition.

The esteemed panel of judges before the show. Unfortunately, unlike American Idol, there were no glasses of Coke provided. We had to wear ties.

Our MCs, Chris and Michelle. It was a good job for Chris, who enjoys trying to pronounce korean names in front of hundreds of koreans.

Kids came from the competing schools to cheer on their representative, some even brought signs. I'm pretty sure one of them said "Soul Patrol" in Hangul. We were told that this competition is really important to the students grades at school, and before we arrived some of the parents had gotten upset during rehersal because some kids had memorized their speeches and some hadn't. This is serious business!

Sarah's parents and Shaun's boyfriend were in town and had a chance to watch the show as well. We were there for about four hours, so I just applaud them for staying awake. I mean, I like hearing a child gush about us for hours on end, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The show started off when we all pledged allegiance to the Korean flag, hand over our hearts. Don't worry, I was really thinking about the maple leaf. Then the Mayor of Suwon and Minister of Education gave speeches, the only words I understood the whole time were: "Happy Suwon", "Speechee", and "Kamsa Hamnida" (thank you). Then the judges were introduced, and each of us had to do a korean-style bow to the audience. It was embarrassing- boys don't bow!

Like I mentioned earlier, there were 20 students competing. We've probably had a few thousand eligible students at the school since we opened and it was kind of random to see which ones made it to the stage. There were kids that could barely even introduce themselves in class or complete simple tasks that were suddenly giving speeches about "the English Village in this age of globalization". You could tell these kids had studied really hard, and although I'm not sure they all wrote their speeches themselves, they were all pretty impressive for 5th and 6th grade kids speaking a second language. Some kids won points for their truthiness: the little girl who said I was handsome and looked like a famous movie actor got 3rdplace. But in the end, the top two prizes went to the right children. I was pleased to see my personal favorite student of the last few months not only return, but also to take the second prize. His little bowtie stole the show.

The competition will be televised this week, and a photographer from the newspaper was there as well, so watch for us in your local Korean newspaper and on TV soon!

Congrats Jeremy and Marie

The first family portrait

Woo Hooo Hoo!! Congrats to Jeremy and Marie who are expecting their first baybee in November. Melodie will be an Aunt for the first time, and I will be a honorary, weird uncle kind-of guy.

Yayyyy!!! All betting is now officially open, but we're thinking it's going to be a boy. Good luck guys, we're glad we'll be home for this!

Thailand: Just the photos

Here are some more pictures we took of our vacation to Phuket. Enjoy!!

The jungle!!!

A view down the beach. The beach itself is actually quite small. I guess the draw for Phuket is that there are many, many individual beaches not one big long one.

Shawn and Mel on the beach.


The most popular way to get around the town? Hop onto the back of a pick-up truck. It was not uncommon to see 20 people piled onto a single truck, or even just one guy riding around on the roof of his buddy's truck.

A typical road in Patong Beach. You can't really tell from this picture, but the architecture in Phuket is very different from Korea. It looks like it has more of a European style than an Asian style, perhaps due in part to colonial influences. (I'm not completely sure) Still. it was surprising.

A school in Patong. I liked the girls hanging out in the window. After we took this picture, we were yelled at by the kids so we ran away.

Another view of the beach.

Cool roots in the jungle.

Mel in front of a painting at the school.

Buddha.

Shawn and his twin?

Yum!!! Corn sundae from KFC!

A popular way for merchants to carry their products around: one long stick. Looks heavy to me and she's a little overdressed, but perhaps she's selling corn sundaes?

Mel in front of the Simon Caberet (aka: Trannie Show)

Cokes around the world.

Where is the Canadian flag? I guess we're not too popular in Phuket. The vendors kept asking us if we were Australian and a few times we got England and Sweden. I vowed that I would stop and buy something from the person who guessed Canadian. Guess what, I saved my money!!!

We took great pleasure in this perspective of the palm trees from our pool.

In Thailand, everyone puts their hands together and bows when they say "Thank you". This is expertly displayed by our good friend, Ronald Macdonald. Oh McDonald's, you're so culturally sensitive.

Mel on the beach.

This is the view from our hotel door...lots of foilage, a nice contrast from the dead grass in Korea.

And that's Siam (aka: Thailand), folks!!!!

Thailand

Hello there, long time no post! We got back from our vacation yesterday and we're gradually getting back into the routine of things here in Suwon. Our 8 days away were fantastic, and definately an experience we'll always remember! Neither Mel or I had ever travelled outside of Canada/the US (besides Korea), and actually this was our first real 'adult' vacation without our parents lol. It would have been hard to believe a year ago that we could have gone on (or even afford) a trip like this, which made it that much more special. So without further ado, let me tell you about our trip...

We took our suitcases to work on Friday (the 9th) and ran to the nearest cab directly after class. I'm not kidding, we ran. With giddy smiles. We took the bus from Suwon to Incheon airport and caught our plane just in time. When we got to Bangkok it was 12am and we had a 6 hour stopover so we got some supper (immediately noticing that the menu in Thailand looked much more appetizing than your typical Korean menu) and tried to get some sleep.

We had a quick one hour flight to Phuket, and were met at the airport by a guy from our hotel who drove us the rest of the way. First impressions of Thailand: cows and chickens roaming freely, huts, mexican-style housing, coca-cola ads everywhere, palm trees, heat, and a lot of outdoor watering holes. We saw our room, took a walk around the nearby surroundings and then crashed in bed for a few hours. It was a long trip! We later went to the beach, where there were a lot of boobies and leathery Europeans. It was weird to be surrounded by so many caucasian people who didn't speak English.

We got really sunburned! We had hidden ourselves under an umbrella and applied lots of sunscreen, but we were still fried. We tried to stay away form the beach for a few days after that. What is there to do if you're not at the beach? Well, we had fun shopping! There was a Carrefour nearby, which is a Wal-Mart like store that sold all kinds of recognizable yummy food and goods we hadn't had access to in a long time. They had Lays chips! Lays!!! And there was also a Dairy Queen, which is not in Korea, and I enjoyed an awesome Moolate.

Besides shopping, we also had a chance to spend an evening at Simon Caberet, which is a "ladyboy" caberet show featuring Thailand's best transvestites singing and dancing. There were A LOT of trannies in Phuket... it got to the point that we would be sitting at a restaraunt and guessing the true genders of the people walking by. Enjoy not one, but 2 videos from the caberet. It was awesome! The lady in the second video gave a big kiss to the guy next to us.

Going out to eat or have drinks were our favorites things to do, not only because the food was delicious and really cheap (we're talking $2-3 for a main course) but also because most all of the restaraunts had no walls. This is possible because Phuket hardly gets any rain, especially during the main tourist season. And since the weather ranged between 30-35 degrees every day we were there, it was too nice to eat inside.

These vehicles are called Tuk Tuks, and they are pretty much the main method of transportation (besides motorbike). As you walk down the street you are constantly barraged by not only street vendors trying to sell you a hat, sunglasses or an Armani suit, but also these tuk tuk drivers trying to solicit business by yelling "tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk". All prices are negotiable too. It is just assumed that the first price any vendor quotes you is a joke. I bought a hat and asked how much, she said 550 baht ($19). I countered with 200 baht ($6), she agreed to 250 ($8). So it went from a $19 hat to an $8 hat just like that. The tuk tuk fares were also negotiable. We got pretty good at bargaining by the end of the week.

We also had the chance to take in an Elvis tribute show, starring a German guy with a thick accent. We particularly enjoyed "Wiwa Las Wegas". I like to attend an Elvis tribute show at least once a year.

We also went on a Safari tour about 3 1/2 hours away in Phangna. The only issue is that nobody mentioned that it was a 3 1/2 hour drive, so 7 hours round trip made for an exceptionally long day. We travelled with 2 other couples who were overtly pissed, though we tried to conceal our pissyness lol. When the tour got going it was really fun. We rode an elephant for about an hour through the jungle, which was really beautiful. The trees, caves and landscape were just like nothing we'd ever seen before. Our guide rode on the elephant's head bareback and we rested our bare feet on his prickly back. We named him Stampy, and Stampy kept stopping to eat trees, occasionally wandering into thick brush to eat the tree of his choosing. Stampy was awesome.

We also got to go canoeing, where the sights were even more awesome. We passed some amazng mountains and trees, saw locals fishing in the water, and some wild snakes and toads in the trees.

We spent the rest of our week enjoying ourselves at our hotel pool, reading a book at the beach, shopping and taking baths. Yes, we had access to a bathtub for the first time in 6 months!! Not that I take a lot of baths, but it was cool to shower with a shower curtain. I'd actually forgotten about shower curtains. We flew back overnight on Saturday with much heavier suitcases (full of Lays chips, good food, gifts and english magazines) and we were back in Suwon around 10am Sunday. We slept all freaking day and had rough sleeps last night. That being said, I should probably go to sleep! Judging from today's classes, we've got some smart kids at the school so it should be a smooth week. I plan on making a post of just photos from the trip, so watch for that one soon.

Later!

NOFX in Seoul

April 10th and we got tickets today! Woo Hoo!!

Need tickets? http://ticket.interpark.com/Tiki/Main/TiKiGoodsinfo.asp?MN=Y&GroupCode=07001049&GoodsCode=07001049 a friend that reads Korean will be required ;)

Off to Thailand!!!

It's 2:32pm (Friday) and in less than 3 hours Shawn and I will be on our way to Bangkok and then Phuket. Wish us luck!!!

Out and About in Suwon

We enjoyed some really nice weather this weekend, as the thermostat reached about 15 degrees yesterday and looks to do the same today. Mel and I spent our weekend eating, shopping and being generally lazy- which was all we wanted to do after working the last 10 days with only one day off. Our school gave us gift certificates for the New Core Department store for the Chinese New Year holiday, so we decided to go cash them in on Saturday. I picked up a new spring jacket (a slightly different black jacket than my other 3 black jackets) and Mel bought herself a new top. Above is a picture of Mel with our favorite statues on the way to New Core.

After shopping at the New Core we headed to Suwon station, which is where we catch the subway to and from Seoul. There are a lot of shops and businesses located around the station, so we finally decided to explore them. Down some of the side streets there are a lot of mom and pop food vendors, and lots of places to buy fresh food.

Some of the food is really fresh; check out the video.

And some of the food was less than fresh. Dried seafood seems to be very popular here... like you can buy a whole dried fish (complete with dried teeth- see above) or dried octopus tentacle just for a snack. You won't catch me walking down the street munching on dried tentacle, but I'm sure it's yummy like beef jerkey.

Here's a typical food vendor. Why go to the Home Plus when you can scoop your own seeds or kimchi right off the side of the road!

After picking up some new shoes we stopped to eat at Two Two Fried Chicken, a fried chicken restaraunt we'd never been to before. The menu was entirely in Hangul (imagine that in Korea lol) so we didn't have a clue what to order. The employees didn't speak a word of english other than "chicken", so we just mimed actions for 'you bring us chicken... we eat it' and it worked! We were served a plate of fried chicken and salad with kiwi dressing and ketchup. The chicken was tasty, but could have been plucked a little better! We ordered Cokes, and they came in funny bottles.

Here's Mel inside Suwon station at the end of the day.

And now, I'd like to take the time to spend a special shout-out to all of the Suyu English Village teachers that have no students and a free vacation for the next 2 weeks: "Screw You!!" We have more students than ever next week and are eternally jealous! It's not easy being green :P