Physical Punishment in Korean Schools

I just saw one of my 2nd grade students, who is a difficult student to deal with, getting beat in the main teachers' office. I know my students get beat, and sometimes I have used physical punishment on them myself, but I have never actually seen it done to this extent. The student came into the office towards the end of the lunch period, greeted the teacher, the teacher went to brush her teeth and asked the student to go retrieve 2 large wooden beating sticks (from the discipline office?), and then she started the beating. She had the student bend over in the yoga position "downward dog" and then beat him on the butt 30 times with a 1.5" diameter wooden stick. Then she had the student kneel on a chair and she beat the bottoms of his feet with the same stick 20 times. Then the teacher said "thank you" to the student, he took the beating sticks, and left.

One of the things that most amazed me was the amount of respect the student gave the teacher. Whenever I have to discipline my students, they get very very pissed off. My most common punishment is making the trouble-makers stand with their nose in the back corner as a sort of time out. They hate this. They swear at me in Korean under their breath, they scowl, they slap the top of their desk, etc. If I asked them to come to my desk during lunch so I could beat them, there is no way they would show up. It has been very frustrating not being taken seriously as a teacher here. How am I supposed to teach if the students don't think I have any authority over them? Yes, I would like to be seen as their friend, but only after they accept that I am their teacher and I do have authority.

It is sad that a country as developed (at least economically, if not socially) as Korea still so prevalently uses a system of physical punishment.

A few briefs...

Today during cleaning time, one of the students cleaning the main teachers' office suddenly yelled "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" and then threw a rock at his friend! ^^

4 students came to have free talk with me during lunch today. SO CUTE! :-D I will miss them all!!! And then one of them, Hans (who is one of my fav students), gave me a very sweet letter that made me melt! This whole year was worth it, if for nothing but that letter. <3

Korea has been having a lot of rain this week... monsoon season is here! Yesterday on the way to school, one of the entrance ramps we usually take to get onto a highway was closed. It was open again today, and I could see that there had been 3 or 4 mudslides along the hill of the entrance ramp. YIKES! I know there has been a lot of flooding in some parts of the country, and I have seen that the rivers are very swollen these days.

Today after school I went to the surprise (at least for me -- no one ever tells me anything!) teachers' gathering. There was a volleyball game, but I didn't play (and thankfully I wasn't the only one this time). I helped some of the women teachers make jeon, which is a Korean style pancake. Except, it is not sweet. Instead, it has veggies, kimchi, and even squid inside. (It really is delicious! And I hope to make it for some of you when I return!) They were all soooo impressed that I could make the jeon, which involved putting oil into a pan, scooping 2 scoops of the mix into the pan, spreading the mix out, and cooking it and flipping it several times. Mrs. Song, my co-teacher last semester told me "Wow, this must be a very memorable day for you!" because I could make the jeon. How funny! They don't realize that I cook a lot in the US!

Also, I realized one thing I am looking forward to about leaving Korea is that I won't always be the center of attention (and usually being the center of attention is definitely not a good thing for me). For example, whenever a teacher talks to me at school, it always has to be a BIGGG deal. Either they are speaking basic Korean and everyone FREAKS OUT when I understand, or vice versa. They speak very broken English and then I am supposed to freak out with everyone else that they could speak English! And whenever my name comes up, everyone laughs -- they aren't laughing at me necessarily, but still it is annoying and having it happen time and again really wears on me. I know these are not mean people and they do not have bad intentions, but it does get old after a year of experiencing it.

Anyway, my host dad's mother and brother just showed up... I guess I should be a little sociable with them? Who knows... how awkward.

TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got back from a week-long vacation in Taiwan, while my students were taking their final exams. It was a much-needed break before my last 12 days in Korea. I think it will be very hard to say goodbye -- goodbyes like these are always so surreal.

Anyway, about my trip to Taiwan:

Wednesday I made an early journey up to the airport in Incheon and met up with Matt and Tim, my travel buddies for the first half of the week. We also saw Emily there, and saw her off to America!! (a little jealous....) The plane ride was an uneventful 2 hours (although we did take off 45 minutes late) and then we had an hour bus ride into the city. Taiwan's money is called the "New Taiwan Dollar" and the exchange rate is about 32NRT = 1USD. Once we got to downtown Taiwpei, our journey still wasn't over. We were actually heading down to the southern part of the island! So we grabbed a bite to eat, then hopped on a super fast train which took us to the other end of the island in only 90 minutes! It was a really nice train and I enjoyed seeing the country side. The mountains in Taiwan are much bigger than Korea's. I also saw a couple pig barns and chicken coups, and noticed that there seemed to be fewer rice paddies in Taiwan and more barley and other crops I didn't recognize. After we arrived at the train station in Kaoshiung, we STILL weren't done with our travels. We planned on taking a bus down to Kenting, but met up with a nice Taiwanese woman who spoke English (named Lilian) who had made a reservation in a van. We rode along with her because it was faster and AC'd and only a little more expensive than the bus. The van ride was quite an experience -- the driver was playing English music on the radio, so we started to sing along, and then it turns out he had karaoke equipment in the van. So, they wanted us to do karaoke! But all of the songs were in Chinese (except we found Happy Birthday and We Will Rock You). The van driver asked if he could take pictures of us and use it as promotional material. We said sure, what the hay. We arrived in Kenting after 9pm, so it had been a long day of travel. Lilian recommended some youth camp for us to stay in, and we went there and they were full (and swarming with middle schoolers). Luckily they gave us a recommendation for a "cheaper hotel". It turned out to be in the back of a t-shirt shop! But it was perfect!! It had 2 double beds and a single bed pushed together into one wall-to-wall bed, and a private bathroom, and an AC! (The AC was key -- Taiwan was HOT and HUMID!) We were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the hotel, so we showered and hit the sack.

Thursday we woke up and got some breakfast across the street -- ham and egg toast sandwich and orange juice! Then we were off to the beach. We ended up walking about 3 miles to find the beach we were looking for (and the last little bit was across sharp and jagged lava rocks -- our own fault!) and spend a nice relaxing late morning/early afternoon on the beach. The water was a beautiful blue color, but the wind was really strong and when it picked up the sand it was quite painful on our skin! It also seemed like the purpose of the beach was for jet ski's and tubing -- no hotties like we were hoping for! We had read that we could cliff jump near this beach, but found out that the wind was too strong to do it that day. So I did a baby jump (5 feet) and we did a little snorkeling sans the snorkel (but still saw pretty fish!!!) We wanted to find some delicious Taiwanese food for lunch, but most of the restaurants that we found were selling foreign food. So, we ate at a pasta place. I got "garlic with chili" spaghetti, and was hoping for a meaty chilly topping. Instead, it meant garlic with chili peppers! It was QUITE intense and I felt like I could breath fire (and keep away ghosts). After lunch we caught a bus back to Kenting and headed to a beach on the other side of the city. There were no jet skis or tubers, so it was really nice. We all went in the water together and were riding the waves. I also got stung on my hip by something, and the boys wouldn't believe me. Then whatever it was stung me on my wrist! Then the boys finally believed me. Luckily it wasn't anything serious, and it stopped stinging after an hour or so. We went back to the hotel and cleaned up and then headed out to the night market that spanned the length of the main street through Kenting. It turned out to not be a very good market, but was still interesting. There were lots of carnival games, and lots of food. I tried bubble tea for the first time, and basically fell in love with it! (Bubble tea is tea with giant balls of tea flavored tapioca in it!)

Wulai

Bullet train back up to Taipei

Friday we ate breakfast at the same place and then set off to find scooters. We planned to drive around the whole tip of the island that day. Well, it turned out we needed an international driver's license to get them, so that was a no-go. :-( Instead we decided to get bicycles! Tim and I got a 2-seater and Matt got his own. We biked down to the tip (maybe 6 miles or so) and it was pretty interesting on our two-seater, since it had no gears and the road was quite hilly. Also, we think the back seat of the bike was made for a child, because I kept hitting my knees on the handle bars, but oh well! :-P When we got to the tip, there was a light house and a park we could walk around in. So, we just walked through the jungle in this park and saw some beautiful views off the coast. We couldn't go in the lighthouse, though. It started to look like rain, so we turned back towards Kenting. We stopped halfway and got some Taiwanese food. The menu was all in Chinese, and the owner spoke no English (this was actually quite common in Kenting. There was HARDLY anyone who spoke English, and they all seemed surprised that we couldn't speak any Chinese!) so we just pointed to a few random things on the menu and ordered them. They all turned out to be ok! We biked the rest of the way to Kenting and returned the bikes and headed to a Starbucks to check our emails. Right after we got there it started POURING! We were pretty worried about our 10 min walk back to the hotel because none of us had umbrellas. Luckily it let up a bit and we made it back to the hotel completely dry. Then we had quite an ordeal trying to get back to the train station in Kenting. We had made a reservation for 5pm with the same van company that brought us down, or so we had thought. (We had our hotel call) Well, at 4:45 we saw the van down the block and so went down to talk to the driver. It turns out that he was taking an earlier group, and he said our driver would be there at 5. So, we waited. At a little before 5 some taxi drivers came over and tried to get us to go with them, but we had already made a van reservation. Then a taxi driver came back and said that the van company called him and he was supposed to take us. Well, we obviously didn't believe this. So he said "wait 10 minutes" and left. Well, by 5:15 we were wondering what was going on! So we went back to our hotel, and the one man who could speak a little English was there, so he called our driver again. I guess the driver had never said he would come get us, so our hotel guy was just like "sorry." So we go back to standing on the street, hoping another taxi will come by. Then some random guy with an unmarked van pulls over and offers to take us. We say, what the heck! And all got in. It turned out he was a legit driver, because picked up another 5 people (including one from some sort of prison-type place with barbed wire?!) and then drove in the rain up to Kaoshiung. we planned on spending the night near the train station and taking a train up to Taipei in the morning, but it turned out there were no hotels nearby. So, we grabbed some food and hopped on a late train up to Taipei. (All our plans for this day had failed, hah!) We got in to Taipei quite late, but decided to try to stay at the hostel I had booked for the following evening. We showed up there and it turned out to be a TOTAL DUMP and the lady tried to get us to stay on her couch for a discounted price, but the couch was full of creepy guys, and then she magically had 2 beds and a cot for us. For some stupid reason we went ahead and paid. Then we thought "we really don't want to stay here" so we went out and found a nearby hotel, which was 4x the price, but SOOO nice! Luckily we ended up getting our money back from the hostel and instead stayed at this very nice hotel. It was FABULOUS and we slept pretty well that night!

Saturday morning we slept in in our cushy hotel and then ate the hotel breakfast buffet. We were supposed to meet Anne at the train station at 12:30, so we had some time to kill in the morning. We decided to walk around a bit and ended up in Peace Park downtown. It is a memorial park to the uprisings against the Japanese colonials that started on February 28, 1947. We also went to the 2-28 memorial museum. None of us had heard anything about these events before, so it was interesting. The park itself was beautiful!! After the museum we stopped by good 'ol McD's for an ice cream cone. We got to the train station a little early, maybe around 12:15, to meet with Anne. We waited.... and waited... and waited. around 1:00 or so I think we sat down and started playing word games with each other. Every now and then someone would take a walk around the station to make sure she wasn't waiting for us somewhere else. Well, on his 1:30 walk, Matt found Anne! It turned out she had been waiting for us since 12:45 but on a different side of the terminal. Oops on all our parts, but its good that we found her. That station is huge and confusing and we got lost in it many times over the next few days! We took Anne and her bag back to the hotel, then set off to go to a museum about Aboriginal culture in Taiwan. It was pretty interesting to learn about all the different communities and their cultures. I especially liked their textile styles. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit and THEN we headed out again, this time to a night street market. We were supposed to meet up with one of Matt's friends from college who lives in Taiwan, but she was really late. Eventually she came, and she took us to try some Taiwanese street food. We had dumplings, Chinese pepper sausage, stinky tofu (fermented tofu -- a typical Taiwanese food I think), chicken anus, noodles, and bubble tea. Overall, I didn't think the market itself was very good. There were no crafts or souvenirs, it was all just cheap clothing and carnival games. But, I'm glad we went for the experience. I think Saturday nights must be the busiest time for the market, because it was jam-packed with people everywhere!! After the market, we were all feeling a little sleepy and quite full, but our night was just beginning. We headed back to our hotel and got cleaned up because the boys wanted to go to a gay bar that night! Let me just say we had a little too much fun pre-gaming in the hotel and I don't remember much about the gay bar except that Anne and I were basically ignored by all the other guys who were super focused on the other men, hah! It was a good night, though!

2-28 Peace Park.
Night market in Taipei. (above: me holding bubble tea)

Sunday was a rough day for all of us! Matt had to catch a flight home, and Tim didn't get home until the morning hours. Anne and I got up for the hotel breakfast, then I went back to sleep until 11am. I woke up feeling not-so-hot again, so we went and got lunch at McDonald's and, MAN OH MAN, it was the best chicken nuggets, french fries, and oreo mcflurry of my LIFE! :-P After lunch we headed to a handcraft store that had all sorts of Taiwanese pottery and other crafts. I ended up buying quite a bit (surprise surprise!) -- 2 hand painted rice bowls for my host family, a large vase for myself, a small vase for my mom, and 2 tea cups for my mom. After our brief shopping expedition, we headed back to the hotel to rest, but it started pouring on us when we were just a couple blocks away. We got completely soaked!! The rain was a good excuse to lay down and waste the rest of our day though! :-) Later that afternoon we set off to find Taipei 101, which is the tallest (completed) building in the world. I guess they are building something in Dubai that will be taller once it is finished. We took the fastest elevator in the world up to the 89th floor, taking only 37 seconds! And we could also go up to an outdoor observatory on the 92nd floor. We had really pretty views of the whole city. Inside there is a giant "wind damper" ball, that I guess helps stabilize the building during strong winds, earthquakes, etc. Taipei 101 is mainly an office building, but the first 5 floors or so are a shopping mall. We decided to get Thai food in the food court, but then also saw Auntie Anne's pretzels and HAD to get some pretzels!! ^^ Taipei 101 is located in a really nice and modern district of Taipei, near the City Hall subway stop. We walked around the area for a bit, then headed back to the hotel. We finished the night by taking a walk around the neighborhood.
Walking to Taipei 101 -- the tallest completed building in the world.

Monday was our last full day in Taiwan. After eating breakfast, we set out on our journey to Wulai, a small town about 15 miles south of the city that is also a national park. Our adventure involved taking the subway to the end of the line, then trying to find a bus, which we found with the help of some nice people, and then standing on this bus that was on a VERY windy road for about an hour. The bus took us out into the country which was very lush and jungle-like. Then we got dropped off on the side of the road and had to walk about a mile down towards the river and then back towards a stream. We found it eventually, thanks to my Lonely Planet guidebook! We only saw a few other people near the trail leading to the river, but once we walked a little up the stream we saw no one! It was gorgeous and we had it all to ourselves. We went to Wulai to do "river trekking" which is basically hiking/walking in a river. My guidebook recommended buying some special shoes to help us walk in the river without slipping. The shoes have felt on the bottom and they really helped! (That doesn't mean that we didn't fall at all though! ;-) ) Further up the stream we came to a deeper part of the river and took some time to just swim around. We also had a little too much fun jumping off a rock and taking ridiculous pictures! A little later on we heard one clap of thunder and got pretty nervous. A rain storm would make the river swell and much more dangerous. We turned around right away, but it never did rain. On the way back Tim and I decided to jump off a large man-made dam/waterfall and it was really scary but also really awesome! There were some Taiwanese guys there who told us the best part to jump off of, etc. We really had a great time and this was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. We headed back to the city and to our hotel quite exhausted. That night we got dinner at a chinese restaurant and we had some delicious sweet and sour pork, egg with mixed vegetables, and fried rice! YUMMY! We ended our trip by heading back to the area near Taipei 101 to go see the movie "The Hangover" which was really funny!!

River hiking in Wulai!
Jumping off a man-made waterfall!

Tuesday was basically a solid day of travel for me. We left the hotel around 8:30, had a half hour walk to the bus terminal, an hour ride to the airport, 2 hours waiting at the airport, a 2.5 hour flight up to Seoul, and then 4.5 and 1.5 hour bus rides, and then a taxi, and then I was finally home around 10:15pm. YUCK!! It felt good to be back with my host family!! ^^

A few general notes we had:
1. we were not stared at like we ALWAYS are in Korea. Why is it that Koreans are so surprised to see foreigners, after more than half a century of having westerners here?
2. The Taiwanese wait in line for the subway! On the floor they have little waiting line areas to get on, and open spaces to let people get off. People actually stay in their designated space, unlike Korea where everyone just rushes to the door!!

Here are the links to the pictures from my trip, choose one:
**This one has fewer photos, lower quality, but has captions:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024583&id=62600128&l=73230f94c4
**This one has more photos, higher quality, but no captions:
http://s378.photobucket.com/albums/oo228/bvitteto/Taiwan%20July%202009/

The beginning of the end

It's been awhile again... sorry about that. I've been pretty busy with school wrapping up, thinking about my upcoming travels, and graduate school next year. Not to mention, trying to bring myself to realize that yes, I am leaving Korea soon. Soon I will be back in the US. I have been looking forward to going home, and of course I will be VERY excited to be back in my normal lifestyle and seeing my friends and family. However, I am also trying to deal with saying goodbye to Korea. Despite what you might think from my rantings in my blog, I will miss some of my students, and I will miss my host family (my youngest host brother has been giving me daily hugs {hugs aren't common here in Korea} --sometimes even hugs by the minute -- he's going to be so sad when I leave!!) . I will miss other things about Korea too -- the culture, the food, the mountains (!!!), and yes, even some things about the Korean mind-set. I'm also trying to prepare myself for the culture shock of coming back to America. Yes, I expect culture shock even from my home country. It will be weird physically (adjusting to American food, and the time change) and emotionally (being near my family, going away to graduate school, and many other things). I am also wondering how I will process my year in Korea. I have done, seen, experienced, and survived a LOT this year. Those of you who are faithful readers have had a little insight into my experience. But I really believe only people who have spent a long time here in Korea can truly understand what I have gone through. I think that is one of the strongest points of the Fulbright ETA program in Korea -- that we have ~80 other ETAs here that we can talk with, rant to, and share experiences with. And they will understand us on a deeper level than those at home (even with the best intentions) are able to. At the farewell dinner this weekend in Seoul, some of us chatted about how we will answer the "So how was Korea?" question. How can I possibly sum up my year here in Korea in a "short" answer? I don't even know what I truly think of my time here. Obviously there were many good experiences, and many difficult experiences. But overall, what do I think? I know that some people will only be looking for a "It was really great" kind of answer with a smile and nod. I suppose I can give them that. Or, a "It was interesting, but it's always good to come home." Yeah, good ol' US of A patriotism. Three of the current ETAs gave brief speeches at the dinner, all reflecting back on the year. The common thread was that this year has had an impact on us. Maybe right now as we spend some time reflecting, we can get a glimpse of that impact. However, I think our year in Korea will continue to impact us throughout our lives, both consciously and subconsciously. I'm interested to see how it impacts me in my future!! I really hope I can stay in touch with those ETAs I became close to while here in Korea. America is a big place, but I hope to visit some of them and that some of them will visit me in Iowa or Madison!!! (Side note: I will miss being able to travel to a new place almost every weekend!) It is really quite strange when you think about our relationships: We came from all walks of life -- different interests and beliefs; we met in Korea and have gone through this experience together, becoming closer with some than others; and now we leave again, and are scattered across the globe -- grad schools, jobs, and other adventures. I love how diverse our group was, and hope that I can keep up with everyone's lives after this year. (Facebook should help, hah!) Anyway, that is a bit of what I am trying to get a grip on these days.

Besides that, I have been busy seeing the last few places in Korea on my "short" list. I went to stay with my friend Matt in Gyeongju, as his school has already gotten him his apartment for next year (he is staying in Korea). It was great to see him and his cute mini apartment. On Saturday, we met up with another ETA, Laura, in Pohang. We did a waterfall hike that I had been wanting to do for quite some time now. Too bad it was raining -- pouring at times --, but it was still worth the hike and we had a good time getting soaked to the bone. We followed it up with Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins -- yum! Sunday morning before I headed home, Matt and I rented some bikes for a couple hours and biked around Gyeongju. I really miss riding a bike, and wish I had bought one here in Korea for the year. I can't wait to get a new bike and bike all to campus each day (weather-permitting) in Madison!


Pictures from our awesome, but wet, hike in Pohang!

One of the students I helped prepare for an English contest received a bronze medal (3rd level price). I was sooo proud of him, because I was told that no student from Gwangyang HS has ever won a medal before! So I bought him a cake from a bakery near my apartment, and we enjoyed it (aka it disappeared in seconds, no joke!) with his homeroom class during lunch. He said some really sweet things, and I know he was bullshitting me, but I don't care! :-P He told me that as soon as he heard he won the prize, he thought of me!! awwww! ㅠ.ㅠ

This last weekend, as I briefly mentioned above, was the farewell dinner in Seoul. I met up with Anne Friday night and we went out for Mexican food AND Subway for dinner. Yummy yummy! Then we crashed in our hotel room in the AC (Seoul was HOT this weekend) and watched Grey's Anatomy before trying to go to bed. (They screwed up our hotel reservation and put us in a dorm room with rickety bunk beds and REALLY loud people and lights out in the hall -- we didn't sleep well at all.) Saturday I did some shopping along Insadong, the best place to find Korean crafts. I bought about 15 pounds worth of the cardboard frames/structures to build hanji projects once I return to the US. (And today my arm muscles are sore from lugging it around all weekend) Anne and I headed to Myeongdong for some clothes shopping, bokkumbap (fried rice), and gelato, before again enjoying the AC in our hotel room and taking a short nap. Then we got all dolled up for the final dinner, which was held on the US Military base. It was surreal to say goodbye to all the other ETAs realizing that some I will never see again, and many I won't see for a very, very long time. (Again, thank goodness for facebook!) After the dinner Saturday night, I went out with some girls for Sangria and luxury noraebang (karaoke). Sunday I participated in a final study for the linguistics study I participated in last summer during orientation, then met up with Matt, Jen, and Anne after Anne finished taking her LSATs exam (Woo!!) for some amazing Italian food. I got a mushroom calzone and a glass of red wine. And then caught an afternoon bus home.
Drinking sangria with Shelby.

Now I just see all my classes 1 or 2 more times before I am done teaching for the year. 3 weeks from yesterday is when I fly to Japan to see Ike. And on Wednesday I fly to Taiwan for a week during my break for my students' final exams. I am going with Matt, Anne, and Tim. Should be a good time -- beaches, shopping, hiking, cliff jumping (<--- hopefully!) (don't worry, Mom!). I'm sure I'll have some gorgeous pictures to post from the trip (if it doesn't rain on us the whole time!).

All my best to you all!

I'm surviving!

Last weekend I had a great time visiting my friend Olga in Jeonju, where we did a bit of hiking and walked around her cute city. It is a traditional city because it was a capital city for one of the old Korean dynasties. I bought some wedding ducks for Ike and I (not sure the tradition behind these, but I do know that all Korean couples get them when they are married) and some hanji paper, since Jeonju is the hanji capital! Sunday I had my apartment to myself most of the day Sunday, so that was nice and relaxing.

This week I have been finishing up speaking tests with my classes, as well as having a discussion with most of them about Respect -- what does it mean? and that I think some of them don't respect me. They seem to be genuinely apologetic for not behaving well in my classes lately (at least most of them), so that's good. I don't want to finish on a negative note with my students. The teachers, that's another story (and a lost cause at this point, I think).

Wednesday, thankfully, I had the day off. Tuesday night I went to stay with Anne, and then Wed morning we went back to Wolchulsan to do some hiking. We made it to the bridge we wanted to see since orientation! It was a very hot and humid day, but a good hike nonetheless. Before coming back to Suncheon, I went to Gwangju's "art street" and bought about $80 worth of hanji paper. I should be all stocked up now for my projects I want to do at home!! ^^

Wolchulsan, in all its rocky glory.
The bridge!!
Hanji paper galore!! (I'll admit, I had a little too much fun laying it all out!^^)

Just this morning I got an email from my graduate department about orientation this summer. It starts August 20th, which means I'll move in the 19th probably. It is starting to feel so real! There are 13 people in my incoming class, including me. So I expect we will all grow pretty close this next year.

A month from Wednesday was my last day of school, and a month from today I will be flying to Japan to see Ike!! It's going to fly by from here on out, especially since I'll be in Taiwan from July 1-7!

Anyway, try to stay cool. Korea is heating up for real now!

It's been awhile...

So, I haven't blogged lately, and it's probably for the best. I have been having a rough couple of weeks here lately. Ever since midterm exams (when Ike was here) my students have been pretty hellatious. And I'm sick of dealing with it. And my co-teachers don't do what I want them to do. And my students have no sense of responsibility.

Basically, I am over it. I'm ready to get out of here and move on to the next stage of my life, where hopefully I will feel like I am actually accomplishing something, compared to here where I am swimming against the current.

Last weekend (I live for weeknds these days), I went to Chuncheon, where I lived for the 6 week orientation. It was really great to go back there and see the first city that I called home in Korea. It was fun to look at it from a different point of view also. Things that seemed so far away or so much like an adventure, we realized were really close and we giggled at how nervous/scared/sheltered we had been during those 6 weeks. We hardly explored off the campus area, even being there for 6 weeks!!!

And, of course, we ate lots of Patbingsu, that delicious fruit and ice cream concoction I talked about so much last summer. We had it late Friday night immediately after getting off the bus, Saturday after dinner, and EVEN Sunday for breakfast before catching our 11am bus home. Saturday morning Anne and I also ventured out to Soyang Dam where I did my first hike in Korea last July. It's a tough climb up, and I can't believe I did it my first weekend here!! Last year it had chains you have to basically use to climb up the mountain (its almost vertical rock at some points), and this year they had been replaced with ropes. This year I was smart enough to bring gloves with me, so my hands were much happier. Also, Anne and I made it up and back in about 1/2 the time it took us last year. We didn't know how to hike last year. Saturday night, the 5 of us girls went out for Fruit Soju, which turned out to be the worst I have ever tried here in Korea. It was basically jelly-rancher juice we decided. (It is supposed to be blended ice, fresh fruit, and soju alcohol) I guess Korea can't have ALL the delicious food in Korea!

Hiking near Soyang Dam (note the very necessary gloves this time around!)
Hiking near Soyang Dam -- I'm going to jump!
Shelby and I enjoying Chuncheon's famous dish: Dakgalbi
Oooooh, Ice Cool! So tacky, yet so delicious!
The worst fruit soju I've tasted.... uck.

Yesterday afternoon I was a judge for a middle school English contest in Gwangyang. Contests here in Korea are such a joke in general. Here are some examples of why I think they are pointless:

1. The english competitions have a list of "suggested" books for the students participating in the contest to read. Then there will be questions about these books in the contest. Well, the list includes 10 books (too many), and the books are far too difficult (Pride and Prejudice was on the list for the HS competition). So what happens is the students' teachers try to cram the summaries into the students. They just read the summaries, not the books. Therefore, it defeats the purpose.

2. Schools pay teachers extra money to prep the students (I met with the 2 students from my school 9 times during lunch). What do they expect to improve in 2 weeks? Either you are good at English or you aren't -- it won't change in 2 weeks.

3. There were 100 points for the interview section (which I helped with). But the "boss" said he wanted all student scores somewhere between 60-100. So, even if the student didn't talk at all, he still got 60/100 on the interview! What a joke! They said some BS about it being more fair that way, because each teacher had about 30 points to judge because we split up the categories (pronunciation, fluency, content, response time). So I had to limit my points between 20-30 for my section. I tried to explain how it would be fair to use the whole point scale because each judge was judging the same category for each student, so it would be consistent scores. They didn't get it.

4. They set up the room in the most intimidating way possible, with the 4 judges behind a big official desk and the student just siting in a small chair facing all of us. Also, the stupid Educational Office guys kept walking in and out of the room, which was very disturbing to both the students and the judges. And then they'd just stand there, or do something completely pointless. Um..... interruptions much?

5. My question that I chose from the list was "How do you improve your English skills outside of school?" and my co-teacher thought it was too difficult. The other 2 questions were: "What do you want to be in the future? Why?" and "If you could go to any foreign country, where would you go and why?" I don't really think my question is any more difficult than the other 2, except for the fact that the other 2 were very VERY predictable, and I'm sure all the students had been coached in answers to those questions. Mine, on the other hand, caught most students by surprise. Most of the students could still answer my question, but a few couldn't even answer it at all. I was shocked by their inability to answer a question they likely hadn't been coached about.

6. There were 4 teachers who were judges for the speaking part of the contest, myself included. Each of us put in 4.5 hours of work for this contest. I was expecting to get paid about 100,000 won ($80?), because I typically am paid about 25,000 won/hour when I do extra things here. Instead, after the contest we found out that the foreign teachers would each get 30,000 won and the Korean teachers would each get 20,000 won. A total of 100k for all 4 of us! That is such a joke. I wouldn't have done the contest if I had known that the pay would be so shitty. My coteacher told the boss that wasn't enough money, but I doubt it will get changed. She was pissed about it too.

I am doing speaking tests this week, and of course about half the students haven't even attempted to do it. (They are supposed to tell me a story about their partner's picture) So, those who don't try are all getting 0's. Last year I curved the students' scores pretty heavily. This year I have decided to give raw percentages -- serves them right for being the buttheads that they have been lately. Today one of my classes was especially horrible. For my speaking tests, I am in a classroom attached to the back of my classroom, and I show a movie in my normal classroom. This worked quite well last semester. Well, for some reason my co-teachers have decided that they should skip my class even more often then they have been lately. So basically they aren't showing up, which means that the students are left unsupervised in the other classroom and are just going wild. Well, today one class was over the line, so I stormed in, paused the movie, and told them to shut up and watch the movie, that it was a privilege, etc. Well, right after I left they started up again so I stormed back in. Shut off the movie and gave them homework. They had to copy 100 times: "I will not talk during the movie." in their notebooks. Well, one student refused to start, so I started marking on his arm with my pen. He slapped my hand away. So I slapped him on the back. (Physical punishment is the MAIN kind of punishment they use here. I disagree with it, but the way the system is, the students don't respond to anything BUT physical punishment. Which means that I have had to use it more often than I would like.) He still refused. So I pinched his ear and again he slapped my hand away. So I slapped his back again and said "YOU DON'T HIT ME. I AM THE TEACHER. YOU LISTEN TO ME." Then I made him stand with his nose to the chalkboard in front of the class and sent the class leader to go get the co-teacher and made the co-teacher punish him. I also made the whole class stay for the first 10 minutes of lunch as punishment. To top it off, the co-teacher who was SUPPOSED to be in my classroom, apoogized to me by saying that he was at a restaurant. WTF? Another WTF co-teacher moment: today one of the co-teachers walked in to class (5 mins late as usual), so I was back giving a speaking test and she walked back and asked what I was doing. "Ohhh, today is test?!?!?!" YES, OF COURSE IT IS. I have been talking about the tests for the last 3 weeks to my students, and she didn't know it was tests today? How are the students supposed to do their work if the co-teachers don't even listen. It is so frustrating.

I made a pineapple upside down cake yesterday and I brought some to school today to share with my co-teachers during the English workshop. Well, they have been making me so angry, that I decided not to share. Too bad for them. More cake for me!!!

Oh, a big highlight of my week last week was Jun-eun, my younger host brother, BOOTY DANCING on me while we were studying together. It was pretty random/hilarious. :-)

Anyway, as you can tell, I'm sick of dealing with this twisted, messed up system. I'm ready for summer and moving onto the next stage of my life, even if grad school WILL kick my butt! :-P

Double-Wammy Hiking Weekend

Scenes from a visit to the memorial set up in Suncheon for former President Roh. This was the scene around 10:15pm on a Thur night.


Friday after classes I headed home and relaxed for a bit, did some studying, watched I Am Legend, and just chillaxed all night. It was really nice. :-)

Saturday afternoon I met up with one of my co-teachers, Mr. Im, after he was finished with school and we went hiking on Baekun Mountain, about 15 minutes outside of Gwangyang. He has been asking me to go hiking with him all year, and I have always been busy, so finally I made time. I was dreading our hike, to be honest, because I figured he would try to force awkward conversation the whole time (and he told me the hike takes him 2.5 hours, so he expected it to take me 3....bwaha -- it took us 2 hours and 10 mins. I showed him!). Anyway, the weather was beautiful, a little on the hot side, but still a nice day. Mr. Im and I had some good conversation, but he didn't force it, so most of the time we were actually hiking we weren't talking (good thing too, because I was panting :-P ).
Pics of Baekunsan:


After the hike I caught a bus to Gwangju where I met up with Anne and Jenn for MR. PIZZA!!! Yum! (Where they couldn't give us the pepperoni pizza without the pepperoni, and they didn't make cheese pizza anymore. Oh, Asia....) And Patbingsu! (Although not nearly as good as Chuncheon's, of course). Anne and I had an early night to bed, because Saturday we got up at 5:40am to go hiking at Wolchulsan. Wolchulsan is a provincial park that Anne and I decided we wanted to go hike, ever since we saw a picture in my guidebook of a suspended bridge that crosses a perilous drop off of steep rocks -- SICK! Anyway, we hoped on the bus for about 1.5 hours and then took a taxi to the mountain. Well, Jenn had been here before and taken a bus most of the way up the mountain to another bridge (but she thought it was the one in my guidebook). Anyway, the driver told us it was a 6 hour hike up and down to the top from there. We said, no, we wanted to go to the other place.... so after much confusing discussion, he took us to "the other place" which ended up not being right either. But, it turned out ok. We started off on what looked like just a trail through the woods, with not much elevation, but soon the trail really started inclining. It took about 1.5 hours to reach the peak, which was through a field of "Eulalia" -- we kept trying to guess what Eulalia was (that was the English translation on the signs), and it turned out to be some kind of flower. Anyway, we again had a gorgeous view from this peak, even though we were nowhere near the bridge we had intended to visit. Wolchulsan is a very rocky mountain so it looked pretty beautiful. After taking it all in for a minute, we headed back down the mountain and got on the bus back to Gwangju. Next stop was the 2nd Annual International Festival, held by the University where Jenn and Anne take Korean classes. They had quite the spread of international foods -- Sri Lanken, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Vietnamese, Phillipinio, etc. My favorite was the booth marked "Western Countries" that was servign chili and tortillas.....hahaha. I ended up getting some delicious Sri Lanken noodles, a delicious Chinese dumpling, and a fried banana that I thought was a spring roll, but was delicious nonetheless. We finished up the afternoon by trying out the new Cold Stone that just opened up in the bus terminal before I caught the bus back to Suncheon.

Pics of the Wolchulsan hike:

What do you think of the last rule?

I really like this picture. :-)
My pathetic attempt at an extension, WAAAH! I need ballet class so bad! So outta shape.

This week at school I am doing "speaking test practice" with my students. The next 2 weeks I will be giving them speaking tests. The subject of their presentation is that everyone brings a picture, and partners up, and then this week they are supposed to explain the picture to their partner and then next week they will present to me about their partner's picture, answering the 5 basic questions. Well, I told some of the classes 2 weeks ago, and all of the classes last week, that they NEED NEED NEED their picture this week so they can practice with their partner. Well, of course less than half the students had pictures this week. I AM SO FRUSTRATED AT THE KOREAN ED SYSTEM FOR TAKING AWAY ALL RESPONSIBILITY FROM THE STUDENTS!!!!!! They literally don't know how to do homework. Anyway, all those students are basically going to fail their speaking tests, and I don't give a damn. I will be giving raw percentage grades this year instead of curving the grades like I did last year. Serves them right.

So I was a little frustrated at school today....

After school I had planned on going to the Hanji Shop to work on some projects, but the teacher never showed up, and I waited on her for a half hour. So I don't know what the deal was with that.... but I got myself an ice cream cone for the bus ride home to make up for it. This afternoon I watched some news and did quite a bit of studying. I've been studying almost everyday for about 1-2 hours to review math and econ for next year. At first it was pretty hard to get my brain to focus after taking such a long hiatus. But every day it gets easier to focus on the material and easier to study for a longer period of time. And it's making me excited for grad school.... I must be SM or something, because I know it's going to kick my ass! :-P

On a random note....
Jun-ho has started wearing his school uniform to middle school and I can tell it has really gone to his head. I have noticed the gradual transformation all year that I've lived here, but Jun-ho has been changing into the "I'm-a-cool-middle-school-student and you're just a stupid-elementary-school-student" attitude towards his younger brother Jun-eun. Unfortunately (in my opinion), Jun-ho is acting more and more like his father everyday. He is treating his mother like a servant, and he calls Jun-eun "idiot" every 5 seconds (why wouldn't he do this when he hears his father do it all the time) and speaks very rudely to Jun-eun. He also gets home late with no regard to dinner time (and of course his mom doesn't scold him because she has no backbone). I just find it sad that Jun-ho is becoming the typical rude male Korean. I still have hope for Jun-eun turning out to be a nice, sweet guy who pursues his own interests instead of wanting to become a doctor/dentist/other-high-paying-job like all Korean male students aspire to. It is sad, though, watching Jun-ho digress to being so rude towards his mother and younger brother, especially since it is all because he is imitating his father's (bad) example.