#39 back to reaLity

an awesome and relaxing first grade class... they were all sitting quitly listening to korean music that i was playing while doing their wordsearch... even my co teacher daniel is sitting at the back doing the worksheet.

dominoes pizza... very good but sooo expensive

this bear costs $990!!!

weird korean advertising... only in korea

its monday and its back to work.. honestly im glad to be back and see the students faces... they were very happy to see me which was good. im tired alot though cos i had a massive week along with a massive weekend.

after school hector moises and i decided to meet up for dinner... we just went to uijeongbu and had dinner.. then walked around.. i've got nothing else to blog abt because im so tired right now.. last week and the weekend killed me hardd.

안녕~

xo m

#38 yOngsan & hongdae

yongsan camera level
video game filming

moises handing over his 800,000 for his new phone

club boom... where u pay $10 and all the drinks on that list are freeeeeee

greg and jin bumping into some friends

moises and hector outside

on saturday we decided to go to yongsan to buy some gadgets... yongsan is sooooo awesomeeee its like gadget heaven there.... it was an 8 floor building with everything u can think of that has to do with electronics... floors of cameras, computers, laptops, games, hardrives, aircon, those funny electric toilets... like literally... EVERYTHING, i think my guy friends in australia and my mum and dad would look and die cos i was in shock when i entered.

at the top of the building they had this room.. we saw many ppl entering it but didnt know why.. we went and looked anyways and realised it was where they filmed the video game channel! over here they have a few tv channels that just shows ppl playing video games... i always thought to myself who the hell watches this? but many of the guys i've spoken to do.. its basically like warcraft or watever and they just compete.. on tv it shows the actual computer screen on whats going on... i find it funny. anyways so after that we ended up exploring the whole building... moises finally found his phone and bought it for like $800 ... i bought a new hardrive cos my old one is fked.. hector bought a wireless router and elezabeth bought a new camera... at the end of the day we all got what we wnated so that was good =)

after a long day of shopping we decided to stay in the city and party afterwards.. we called a few ppl but we only just saw them the day b4 so not many ppl wanted to come out.. plus we already planend a very big weekend next sat so we decided to keep it small.. grag came out and he brought his friend jin.. jin was korean so he knew where to go. our first place was this club called boom... this place was awesomeee.. u pay $10 at the door and all the drinks are freeeee... yesss its true its all FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE and u can drink as much as u want... that means we all got wasted on $10! after that we headed off to another club cos moises wanted to check out korean girls... we went to this club called tin pan.. it was very packed with heaps of foreigners.. it was an ok club but we all got split up... hector left with some guy that bitch... moises was passed out in the corner.. it was only me greg and jin that were left.

we didnt stay long and left abt 330 ish .. wandered the streets and kinda just sat outside buy the way (convenient store) eating and waiting til 5am for the trains to start so we could go home.. we got home at 730 and crashed... then it was sunday and it was time to do lesson plans and start school on monday -_-

안녕~

xo m

#37 GEPIK orientatiOn day 4

the bus that took us there

the dorms

the oval and obstacle course

morning lectures on how to control students and activity ideas

auditorium

the free internet cafe

our dinners

one of the many bins full of beer cans that we drank every night

today is our final day.. i woke up again really late with another hangover... chris and i chatted til like 330 until we went to bed so i am so tired today. This morning my roomate Flavia and i woke up super late... we had to be in the auditorium by 9am for the teaching contest but i wasnt up til like 845... i felt so crappy haha

i made it on time anyways... our final day included a teaching contest.. the ppl who were doing it in my group were simone and james.. they made up a song because their topic was music... to make them feel better the whole of A1 decided to come up on stage with them... the winning group would win 100,000 each ($100aud) and our group won! i think everyone just enjoyed it because it was different.

after that we just packed our bags to leave. we were given tuna/ham sandwiches, a bottle of water and sent on our buses. it was sad saying farewell to everyone... we made plans to meet up the following weekend though so i guess its not too bad.

the bus ride was quick ... we were dropped off at uijeongbu and then all went our own way. Moises Hector and I decided to go shopping cos moises needed to buy a phone. we went to every single store trying to find this one phone that he wants a HTC diamond.. it wasnt available anywhere so we gave up and decided to go yongsan the following day.

we decided to go eat ... this was the biggest part of our day.. we were walking around looking for a samgyeopsal place.. thats like pork and lettuce etc.. we walked past a store and saw pictures of 2 pigs holding up frying tongs and they were wearing glasses... they looked cool so we decided to try it out. We went in and saw the menu which was tiny so we decided lets order the set... thinking it would come with strips of pork and lettuce and all the side... 10 mins later the man bought us a big pan with food already cooked.. we were like.. ok this isnt right but all well we'll just eat anyways cos we we're hungry. Started digging into it and realised where is the meat? we searched and searched and all we saw was sundae (this black sausage thing.. i dont know how to explain it) some pig skin and jabchae and cabbages.. we were like wtf is this? we kept eating not knowing what it was and was still confused to why there were cool looking pigs outside but not the dort of food we were looking for. After eating about 1/4 of that (i only ate the noodles and cabbages) we took and break and kept laughing at where we were... we looked into the kitchen and saw them cutting up long strips of intestines.. we were like what did we get ouselves into... we're like in an intestine house or something. We then looked outside at the huge sign and decided to use my phone to translate what it said.. it said 급창타온 (gupchang town) which meant .... intestine town... from that day til now we will never forget this word and will never enter any restaurant with that word ever again hahaha

안녕

xo m

#36 GEPIK orientatiOn day 3

moises and ron

group dances... basically making fools out of ourselves

some weird game

the americans on stage doing something.. i think they were singing

greg - i cant remember where he's from ... somewhere in america

my hidden soju =P

greg and dan

chit chatting over beers

seth - from virginia i think?

moises - from san francisco

ron - from hawaii

chris - from pennsylvania (however u spell it)

my buddy hector - from canada

today i woke up again hung over... my friends in australia are not gonna be very happy with me... cos in australia i never drink =/ sorry guys i will get drunk with u every single day for 2 weeks next time im back to make up for it =) i woke up heaps late so i missed breakfast and just ran to the lecture room... its good we have lectures early in the morning cos it means i just have to sit there and listen.. dont have to talk or do any work hahaha.. after drinking alot of water and eating some biscuits i felt better and was ready to do some work... today we got told off abt having soju the previous night.. apparently we're not allowed to drink it on the premise... i dont know why since they sell like fridges full of beer.. they're prob just trying to make money so we can buy all their beers.. its so stupid.. i still had a bottle of soju left in my room so we just drank that on our final night..

it was a little sad that it was our last night.. i wasnt ready to go home.. i dont think anyone was.. we were having so much fun and it was such a good break from seeing screaming students all the time. gepik held a party for us .. it wasnt really a 'party' it was basically just fun and games.. we had to like make fools out of ourselves in front of everyone .. it was hilarious. after that it was another party outside... it was our last night so everyone went harder than usual. we knew we had no lectures the following morning so we drank til like 3-4 am. ppl were like heading into the store buying like 6-10 cans of beer just in case the store closed.. i spent most of the night just chatting to ppl.. met some more new friends on my final night.. it was a good night to end the orientation =)

안녕

xo m

#35 GEPIK orientatiOn day 2

conflict issues skit

today i woke up too early -_- got up at 730 for breakfast which so so shit.. like i couldnt eat anything... after that i headed to the lecture at 9.. first up was simon and martina.. they were soooo awesome... they gave us really good tips on how to motivate the students and how to keep them entertained so they dont get bored easily... after that we had a nother lecture... i dont remember who it was from cos i didnt pay much attention after.. i was too sleepy after that hahaha..

after 2 long leactures we had lunch.. lunch there is so awesome ... they give u so much food and whole big variety as well.. most ppl who know me know that i loveeeeee to eat... i basically ate everything and so much of it as well... we went and played badmington after that.. it was a very hot and sweaty afternoon.. in the afternoon we had group sessions... its bascially get into your groups (about 20-15 ppl) and discuss your issues.. like teaching issue or culture shock stuff... after that we had to come up with an issue and then act it out and then a solution.. that was fun..

we had some free time so me and some ppl snuck out and went and bought soju at the local store.. after that it was dinner so we ate.. went and watched the korean movie and then started drinking... we played drinking games and once again we all got really trashed.. i found something on the web once.. GEPIK stands for Gyeonggi English Program In Korea however we have now decided to change it to Getting Extremely Pissed in Korea hahaha

wed night was a late night.. i think everyone crashed at like 2-3 in the morning, it was a fun night~

안녕

xo m

#34 GEPIK orientatiOn day 1

our opening act.. they were called luna or something.. a bunch of girls prancing around on stage.. im sure the guys loved it haha

Simon, Moises, Me, Martina

This week i have orientation so i dont have to teach.. on monday i had to go to school even though i had no classes... i didnt really do anything, just sat and did lessons for the following week.

Tuesday i got up early to finish packing and headed off to Uijeongbu, i waited and met other foreigners in my area.. it was good to finally be able to speak english fluently and not act like a clown or speak so slowly that it doesnt even make sense. The bus trip there took abt 2 hours.. moises sat next to me.. he was filo and from san francisco.. we had a good chat abt life and teaching.. hahaha

we got there at 11 am.. met up with our roomates and checked into our rooms... going to this is like the same as college (in america) u sleep in dorms... have roomates... parties/drunkeness at night time.. eat lunch in the cafeteria ... and lectures in the morning. My roomate was flavia.. she edlives near me so it was good.. we were all grouped into where we live so everyone in my group A1 lives near me.

tuesday was spent just listening and learning abt gepik and also making new friends.. it was nothing interesting... tuesday night was however spent drunk.. cos it was the first night there everyone went hardd.. we drank so much we cleared out all the beers in the shop before 11am... i went to bed like at 12 on tues cos there was really nothing left to do .. plus breakfast started at 730 the next morning so i crashed early.

also.. i met simon and martina!!!!!! i was so excited i even screamed... for those of you that dont know simon and martina are like internet celebrities. they're just normal foreign teachers like me who also live in seoul.. they have a blog - eatyourkimchi.com, this blog basically tells u almost everything u wanna know abt korea.. transport.. food.. karaoke.. students.. gym.. kpop.. weird things abt korea. most ppl know abt them when doing research before moving here.. they're so awesome.. it was a very exciting first night!

안녕

xo m

#33 thuys viSit

2 of my favourite students... they follow me everywhere and make me remember their names everytime i see them.. here we have han minwoo on the left and kim uihyun on the right

very awesome dalkgalbi... chicken stirfried with cabbages, cheese, sweet potato, rice cakes and some other vegies.

the peircing shop

before

after

last weekend thuy visited me.. on friday we went and had dinner in my area... we had dalgalbi which was sooooo awesome... it was the best thing ever. After that we just went to my house and rested for a big day the next day. the following day we were off to uijeongbu for shopping.. we spent a total of 8 hours there! i was all shopped out by the end.. i dont remember what i bought but i spent quite a bit of money.. also.. i got another peircing! this will be the final and last peircing i will get.. no more after this.. i think i have too many now.. sat night we had pizza.. it was ok not too bad.

nothing else happened this weekend.. just hung out and did nothing since id idnt have to teach the following week.. il be going on the GEPIK orientation next week! a whole week break! i cant wait.

안녕~

xo m

#32 students cLeaning

over here all the students have to clean the school everyday.. every morning and every afternoon, students are assigned to an area... some have to clean their homerooms, some the library, yard, teachers room, mop the hallways, wipe the stairs and windows etc.. its pretty good cos it saves them on hiring cleaners! their classrooms get messy eevry single day.. they rip up their workbooks and notebooks and theres always paper and dirt/dust everywhere! most of the time they dont actually clean.. when i walk around i just see them standing there with a mop killing time until they're allowed to go home.. hahaha they're funny.

Anyways moving along.. teaching has been ok lately.. im getting the hang of it and getting to know most of the students well .. i know their levels so i know who to help and what kind of work to give them... they have the attention span of an ant so you always have to find things that can motivate them to do work... elementary u can sing songs and dance with them .. but can u imagine my yr 9s singing and dancing? i dont think so.. they think they're too 'cool' for that. hahaha

most ppl say that the first 2 months were like hell cos they were put into a school with no teaching experience and are just expected to know what to do ... i went through the same but its not as bad as everyone said.. if the first 2 months are meant to be bad then i guess im doing very well cos im not having much trouble lately with them.. they seem to enjoy my class and they're well behaved. Some teachers warn me that this class and that class are very noisy and naughty but i dont see it so i guess im doing a good job =)

안녕~

xo m