Miscellaneous Update

I received the notice from the Foreign Service. As expected I did not pass, but I have already faxed the company that administers the test so I can receive details on how I did on each section. I should be prepared next year.

I leave for Jeju Island this weekend. I am very excited to get to the beach. I heard it is very beautiful. This will be only my second time taking a trip outside of the Seoul metro area for more than a few hours. And in about 2.5 weeks I have my summer vacation in Taiwan! I found out a former high school classmate just moved there, so now I have someone to at least hang out with for even just a bit. I am much more at ease now. And yesterday I bought tickets to the Philippines for my vacation in September for the Chuseok holiday. It was amazing that I even was able to find the tickets at the price I found them; I swear that every Korean and their grandmother is leaving Korea for the holiday. Koreans get so few actual vacation days, and they always work long hours, that when they get the chance to not go to work they take full advantage. Even European packages were sold out for that holiday. However, cheaper plane tickets came at a price: I am arriving to Manila 2 days into my vacation. I will only have about 4 days in the Philippines. However, upon my research I will probably fly from Manila to the Filipino island of Palawan as soon as I arrive due to there being many things to see on Palawan (especially in the nature department). I think I'll make my last day in the Philippines in Manila for some shopping and site seeing.

There is something else I want to talk about; I know that I said in my very first entry on the site that I wasn't going to make this blog personal; rather, this was meant to be an insight into the different cultures and countries I would be in. With that said, there is something I want to share that may be a bit personal, but I think it serves as something to be learned from, not just for myself but for anyone traveling. This is especially important, as I am going to be talking about dating.

As I mentioned a couple of months ago I went on a date with an Iranian. For a while it went well, but things took a turn when he told me he had to make a last-minute trip to Iran to sort out family business. After a week of supposedly being in Iran he completely stopped contacting me. We had been dating roughly a month by this point. I was taking things slow (especially in the emotional department), but at the same time I care about people I get to know, so naturally I was worried. About a month and a half later I went clubbing with Yelena and we ran into some of his friends. After noticing some suspicious chatter and body language I found out that what I thought I knew of the Iranian turned out to not be so true. Without going into details all I will divulge is that I was lied to on multiple levels. As this information was being given to me, it is also important for me to note that many of his friends did not hesitate to hit on me, and one even proclaimed his love for me that very night. After I discussed the matter with some other friends who are more knowledgeable in the ways of Persians, I think perhaps the men of that culture clash with me. As one of my friends said, "Look at their literature. Many themes are centered on deception."

That is not to say that every Iranian is deceitful or a bad person. Indeed, what I went through could have happened with any man from any culture. I do not judge someone based solely on their background/ethnicity/heritage. That was why I dated the Iranian in the first place, despite the hysteria of my own conservative mother. However, to any person reading this, I just want you to be wary of dating someone from a completely different culture, especially if you're a woman and you're anything like me as far as being independent and having big ambitions: that is, the likeliness of it working out is slim. Don't hesitate to try it because it's a good experience, and in the end a good life lesson, but be wary and be cautious; you never know if the person you want to have a relationship with ends up playing you.

-AALA

Argentina vs Korea

So it seems I had nothing to worry about. Argentina thoroughly clobbered South Korea 4-1 (although one of Argentina's goals was an accidental self-goal by one of the Korean players). I went to a place called Batman Bar to watch the game with co-workers. Just as a side note, the bar is not in any way associated with anyone or any company that owns "Batman." Korea doesn't really have copyright laws (and if they do, they're not enforced), so you end up with things like Batman Bar, and tons of knock-off clothes with brands like "Pink" (from Victoria's Secret, although most of the time in Korea it's not actually the VS brand).

I really hyped up the game to my kindergartners, and their parents were eager for it. I had written in my weekly reports last week to the parents of my kindergartners about the "bet" I made with their children, presenting it in a way that it could be taken as a joke (in case the parents didn't want to actually take part in it). Well, more than one parent decided to take me up on it, a few of them writing in their responses to me on the reports things such as:

"Fighting Korea [and a Korean flag drawn next to it]. You will buy a pizza :) "
"...Katie was talking about the bet. :) It sure sounds fun! If Argentina wins we will bring pizza on Friday okay!!... I hope Korea wins..."
"...Argentina soccer team is very strong. Team manager Maradona is a very famous player, as "Hand of God." It's a joke!... Thank you for your pizza!"
"You and our children's week seemed like to be happy and beneficial."
"...For your hope, Korea wons over Greece! Tony also was very excited. I look forward to "bet" about soccer..."

Whatever grammatical mistakes you read was not an error of my typing, but what the parents actually wrote. Also, I want to also highlight that some of the things that have been marketed for the team and the World Cup to Korea have been the slogans "Fighting Korea" and "Shouting Korea." There is one commercial in particular where you see Korean players on the field with another team (there is no logo on their jersey, but they are conspicuously wearing the unique Argentine design of white and sky blue vertical stripes), and those other players can't concentrate because of all the Koreans shouting, thus allowing the Korean team to score. I did not like this commercial, mostly because of their use of stand-in Argentine players. I have seen 3 such commercials with these un-named players wearing the Argentine colors and design.

Anyway, the parents seemed a bit hyped up about the bet, too. I decided to make it as fun as possible by sometimes antagonizing my kids so that they would start shouting "Korea! Korea!" I also taped some written reminders to their folders on Wednesday reminding them to wear the colors of their favorite team. Despite two of my kids voicing an interest in cheering for Argentina, I knew that their parents would have the final say on what they wore (these kids are, after all, only 6 years old). Sure enough they ALL wore red; all 10 of them (at first it was only 9 of them because one of my children, Sara, forgot about it and clearly her mom didn't care, but once Sara came to school and saw that everyone in class was wearing red except for her, she had her mom take her out and change her into a red shirt, and then she came back to school).

They were the only class to all wear red. It was sooo adorable!!! During lunch, when all the classes were sitting in single file lines in the big gym, I knew my class just from a glance because they were the only all-red line. I received many comments from other teachers about it. Here is picture of myself as the lone Argentine wearing my national pride in my class of ultra-Koreans:




I would also like to point out that all of the American teachers at my school wore Korean/red shirts, and all of the Korean supervisors (with one exception) also wore red. I was literally the lone Argentine. All of the other children in the other classes kept pointing at me when they saw me in the halls, and they would ask their respective teachers, "Carla Teacher, Argentina?" with somewhat disbelief. One of my supervisors pointed out, "Carla, you realize how alone you are right now, right? We're all wearing red..." I said, "I know, I noticed. This will make victory all the sweeter." And it did!

I was bit nervous about the game and the bet due to Korea's performance against Greece last week, as well as Argentina's. I felt Korea was going to be a formidable opponent, and I was panicking briefly due to my immense pride. But thankfully Yelena convinced me to watch the game with friends, and to just enjoy things. Things turned out well.

On Friday we had a pizza party per the terms of the bet.

The parents brought the pizza, cups, juice and plates. Here I set everything up while the kids were doing their lunchtime activities.

They all enjoyed a slice of delicious victorious pizza.

Korean pizza is interesting in that they tend to combine things you wouldn't normally combine in a pizza, like here we had potatoes, ham, mushroom, onion and some sort of ricotta cheese or something of that nature.

A good day, indeed.

-AALA

Accomodation, the Foreign Service exam, and the World Cup

I have reserved my spot in a hostel in Taiwan. I went online and after reading some reviews and checking out prices I settled on the Eight Elephants hostel. I have also downloaded maybe 10 free iPod Touch apps that had anything to do with speaking Mandarin. My hope is one of them at some point can help me.

I took the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) on Friday. I felt pretty good about it until the essay portion. I can't go into details, but I was very much not prepared for the essay. Apparently if one doesn't get a passing score on the essay then the rest of the test is not graded. Well, I don't expect to pass then. I wouldn't have given myself a passing score, that's for sure. It was an abysmal essay. Ah well, I was prepared for this anyway. I now know better for next year. I did fairly well with the Job Knowledge (where you are asked questions on geography, history, etc) and the English Expressions (where you are tested in your knowledge of the written English language) portions, but the Biography Questionnaire didn't go as well as I would have wanted, and I've already mentioned the essay.

World Cup South Africa 2010 is now in full swing. I have caught most of the games so far, but this is because most of the games has had someone I was interested in seeing. The first game was on Friday and it was Mexico vs. South Africa. It ended in a draw, with both teams scoring 1 goal. I am a fan of Mexico. Then later that night came Uruguay and France. I don't care for either team, although I was rooting more so for Uruguay as I'm not a fan of France. That ended in a draw with neither team scoring.

Yesterday was a big day. The night started out with Korea playing Greece. The Greek team was really not that good and Korea won 2-0. It was funny hearing the Koreans around me shouting and screaming, although I don't think Korean fans have anything of the loudness and spirit of Latin American fans, such as Argentines and Mexicans. Half an hour after that match was finished came Argentina vs. Nigeria. In a spirited game Argentina was able to win 1-0, but it made me uneasy for next week's match against Korea. Korea pretty much dominated Greece, however (as I've said) Greece was really not that good. And the reason why Argentina was not able to win by more against Nigeria was because their goalkeeper really put everything of himself to stop another goal, even when the Argentine offense easily broke through the Nigerian defense many times. Korea and Argentina easily lead their group. Thursday's match will prove interesting when these two meet. Korea beating Argentina would certainly be an upset because of the powerhouse that is La Seleccion, but I am uneasy. I made a bet with a few of my classes that if Argentina won my students would have to bring me food, but if Korea won I'd have to bring them food. I'm not as assured as I was when I made that bet...

Then, at 3:30am Korea time, came the highly anticipated game between USA and England. I wanted to beat England badly not so much because I'm a fan of the US, but because I have a huge dislike for the English team and for English fans. The game ended in a draw with each team scoring 1 goal (although English fans, and even some American fans, call it lucky that the American goal slipped through the English goalkeeper's hands in a fatal blunder). The goal in question I think is well deserved. The US was playing superbly against a team that, quite frankly, was a bore despite all the hype of its players and talent. On forums I kept seeing "Wayne ROONEY!!!! Rooney will win this," blah blah blah. Rooney was barely a player. He is supposed to be one of the best players in the world and I saw none of it during last night's match. It is clear to me that England very much underestimated the US, and I am happy with the way the team played against another supposed powerhouse. I would rather have a draw than England winning, that's for sure.

Tonight Slovenia plays against Algeria, then Serbia vs. Ghana, and finally Germany vs. Australia. Slovenia and Algeria are in the same group as USA and England, so this is definitely a game I (and my fellow Americans) should be keeping an eye on.

VIVA ARGENTINA!
VAMOS MEXICO!
GO USA!

-AALA

Taiwan-Bound!

Today I bought my airplane tickets to Taipei. I am so excited! Also slightly terrified because I am going by myself, and I know nothing about Taiwan; I don't even know how to say "Hi" in Mandarin and/or Taiwanese (both are spoken in Taiwan). Guess I will have to learn. It's also a bit scary because it's not like I am staying with a friend. I have traveled a lot, but I usually had a friend/family member I was always with, or I was staying with a friend who could give me suggestions and their house served as my home base, etc. This time I have nothing of the sort. The good thing is that a high school friend from back home used to live in Taiwan and she still has friends there. She is going to give me their contact information so that in case I ever need help or anything happens I have someone to contact. I am grateful for this. I also have a college friend who goes to medical school in Singapore, and his girlfriend is Taiwanese, so he's been helping me out, too.

This Friday I will be taking the Foreign Service exam. I received permission from work to leave at noon to take the test in Seoul (I have to be there by 1:30pm, and it will take me roughly an hour to arrive to the site. I would like to have time for a quick lunch in Seoul before such a long and arduous test). It is estimated about 80% of people do not pass their first time. I do not expect to pass, but I see this as a way to see what my strengths and weaknesses are so that when I take the test again next year I am prepared. I joined a Yahoo study group and it is funny how much people are stressing, and want to know every minute detail about the test. It reminds me of college: these are the major overachievers. But not overachievers in a good way; they are the annoying ones. It gets a little irritating when my inbox is inundated with "I just took the test. This section went smoothly, but the other one I should have answered this way..." or "I'm sure I did well. I know I'm going to go on to the next step" blah blah blah; as in they give no useful information, and actually think we all care how they did. Not to sound mean, but I don't know these people, and I could care less whether they think they passed or not. It is me I am most concerned about. This test and this career are super competitive. Thankfully, I have my job in Korea to fall back on for a while should it take me a while to pass the test.

Alright, time to get back to work. There is so much to be done before the weekend!

-AALA

Golgul Temple stay and Busan

On the weekend of May 21st I got a 3-day weekend due to Friday being Buddha's birthday. Friday morning I left Seoul to go to the town of Gyeongju where I'm told the best Buddhist temples are. I went there to partake in something called a temple stay. I was there for less than 24 hours but it was interesting nonetheless. We got to Golgulsa (Golgul Temple) late on Friday night, and nothing of note really happened until Saturday. We had to dress up in these vests and pants for the duration of our stay. Not flattering at all. Take a look:

Yeah so I'm still working out on how to move some pictures around on my Macbook and fix them when I am browsing for them. Bear with me. Anyway, this is a famous Buddhist temple built into the rock that is in Golgulsa.

Getting ready for Sunmudo training. Info on it can be found here

Here you can see the actual temple in the daylight. Again, sorry for it not being upright

All my meals consisted of vegetables, kimchi, tofu and rice. The banana was my dessert. I had forgotten to take a picture of my meal BEFORE eating it (this was my last one at the temple), so instead you'll have to settle for my almost-finished last meal at Golgulsa

On Saturday morning I got up at 4am (the time when all the other monks wake up), then went to the Sumudo school (the part of the Buddhist temple where they train their martial art called Sumudo) and we went there to bow and do morning prayers, as well as have some meditation time. Afterwards we had breakfast and I was given the pleasure of taking part in a traditional monk meal. It was very interesting, but definitely not something to be done by the prudish. This event was also filmed because there's some sort of documentary being made, so that was interesting.Everyone is sitting down on the floor with their legs crossed, and then one receives a big bowl with a lid. This bowl has another 3 bowls stacked inside it. On top of the lid there were 2 square pieces of cloth, one gray and one white, as well as a set of wooden chopsticks and a spoon inside a cloth pouch. Everyone is lined up around the room and you have to put your bowl and everything at the tip of your right leg. The bowls have to be all in line with each other. At the "head" of the room sit the top monks.

Once you are allowed to you take the gray piece of cloth, unfold it, and then set it down. The cloth is folded in a way to make 4 squares from the folds. On the lower left hand side goes the big bowl, which is the rice bowl. On the lower right hand side goes the bowl that is the second biggest, which is the soup bowl. At the top left corner goes the smallest bowl of all, the vegetable bowl. And then on the top right hand side goes the second smallest bowl, which is the "clean water" bowl. You put your chopsticks and spoon in this bowl to start off.

All of this is done in silence. You have to be as quiet as possible in everything, and there is no talking allowed.

Once this is done a monk comes to pour clean water into your rice bowl. You swish the water around the rice bowl for a bit, and then you pour that water into your soup bowl, swish it around some more, than you transfer the water into the vegetable bowl, then more swishing, then finally put it in the clean water bowl where your chopsticks and spoon are. This water is meant to stay clean. The importance of that will be explained later.

Then another monk comes to serve you rice. It is important to note that in Buddhist tradition nothing is wasted. You have to eat everything in your bowls. This is also important for later.

Then another monk comes around and serves you soup. A tray with vegetables comes around and you serve yourself vegetables, including kimchi. It is important to take at least one piece of kimchi, even if you don't like it. Once it's time to start eating you take the one piece of kimchi and put it in your soup. You "wash" out the spices in the soup and then put the kimchi piece in your rice bowl to the side to be used for later.

For eating you have to bring your bowl up to your mouth. Once you have food in your mouth you have to put the bowl down and whatever utensil you're using down. You chew in silence. This is meant to just kind of reflect and become aware of everything. In fact, the whole meal is one big exercise in reflection and awareness.

Once everything has been eaten (with the exception of the one piece of kimchi left in the rice bowl) a monk comes to give you more water. This water is meant to do the preliminary cleaning of the bowls. This water is poured into the rice bowl where you use your chopstick and kimchi to clean the bowl of any particles. Once free of food particles you pour the water and kimchi into the soup bowl and do the same process. This is repeated again for the vegetable bowl. However, once you've cleaned the vegetable bowl you eat the kimchi and drink the water. I know this sounds gross, but a monk brought up an excellent point: it's not any different from everything else you've just consumed.

Now here is the importance of the clean water in the last bowl. Once you've cleaned the bowls the first time, this clean water is now used to just rinse. You again start with the rice bowl. This time you use your hands to thoroughly get whatever grease is left. Grease is essentially the only thing allowed in your clean water. Once you do so you pour the water into the soup bowl, do the same thing, rinse your chopsticks and spoon with this water, and then pour the water into the vegetable bowl and finish the process. A monk then comes to collect this water. Now, if you did the cleaning right from the first rinsing there should ONLY be grease in the clean water. However, if one fails to do this properly and there are food particles in the clean water, and this water is then poured into the bucket the monk comes around with to collect the water from everyone, then EVERYONE has to drink this water. It is quite an incentive to do it right the first time. You pour most of the water into the bucket, but the monk had us keep a very small portion of the water in the bowl that we had to then drink. Then we dried the bowls, stacked them all up, folded the cloths, and then put everything back to the way it was in the beginning.

And in case some of you think we ate from bowls previously cleaned in this way, and therefore we've been eating out of not properly cleaned bowl, fear not. We took everything back to the kitchen where the younger monks properly cleaned everything with soap and water. However, the job is not a lot easier and less messy since the bowls are free from food. The entire thing was very cool, and I certainly became a lot more aware of things; even something as mundane as the steam rising from my soup. A female monk mentioned to us that the nice thing about having a meal in this way is that not a single grain of rice is wasted. She lives in Europe and she said she gets very frustrated with Europeans throwing things away instead of controlling their portion sizes. It definitely made me think. Today at lunch and dinner I did not leave a single grain of rice uneaten on my plate.

After this we had some free time. I took a nap and then we were given a brief Sumudo lesson. We stretched out and did some kicking and stuff. Nothing effective by any means, but it was fun. Then came the bowing portion of the trip.

Buddhists bow a lot. And I don't meant curtsies or these gentlemen bows done in movies... I mean full-body bows where you go from the standing position down to being on your knees with your arms on the floor and your head down. And on Saturday there was the tradition of the 108 Bows. Each bow is meant to represent something to be thankful for. We were given a list. Every time I bowed I read the listing to the appropriate number so that in my mind I could say what I was thankful for. Don't worry, we had nice cushions for the floor, but 108 bows are not for the lazy. I saw at least 3 girls either stay in the bowing position, just flat out sit and not bow, or stay in the standing position and skip a bow or two. Seeing this motivated me even more to do all 108 bows. I'm happy to say I did, although my thighs, legs and butt are not entirely happy with me for doing so.

After lunch our group headed to Busan, a city in Korea famous for its beaches. We were unfortunate enough, however, to not be able to partake in some sun, sand and fun; it rained all weekend. And I don't mean light rain. Oh no. It poured. Mother Nature was not on my side. On Saturday night I went out with a bunch of people in my group to a bar where a lot of Westerners go. I really hate these types of places. I despise being around a lot of foreigners, especially Americans. This is mostly because I'm not the type to really party a lot or drink myself to a stupor every weekend. It's not who I am and it's not my scene. But I had nothing else to do so I went to this bar. It got more than annoying when I was playing pool with some people in my group and then some drunk idiots got on the pool table to dance:

The epitome of stupidity

The felt of the pool table was totally destroyed. These morons stayed on the table for quite a while just dancing with some girls. I was so embarrassed because of how poorly this reflected on not only me but on America as a whole. Stuff like this makes me hate going to places full of Westerners.

Sunday morning saw more pouring rain.

Rain on Saturday night. There's the "downtown" area of Busan

The beach on Sunday morning

I don't know if you can see, but there were definitely some people swimming at the beach despite the rain

Here is a slightly better picture. Can you see those dots in the water? That's people

I decided to go to the aquarium.

This is upside down jellyfish

That thing is huge! It's a spider crab

Am I the only one who thinks this looks like the alien crab evil demon spawn that attaches to people's faces from the movie "Alien?" No? Just me? OK

This octopus was shy

Yep. Moray eel. Creepy as hell.

One of those deep-water fish. That little tassel it has for a nose is a lure

Shark. Don't ask me which one, I don't remember

SHARK!

Not a great picture, but meh. You can get a better idea of its size with this picture, I think

OK NOW you can get a better idea of its size. It could eat those children. Easy!

For some reason the aquarium had at the end of the actual aquatic stuff some African animals to bring awareness to African habitats

At the end of everything they had a Hyundai filled with water as a "fish bowl car" of some sort. Very strange.



Afterwards I went across the street to eat at a Chinese bistro. I think the people liked me there. I ordered some fried rice with crab and they just kept giving me more soup and vegetables in special sauce as I tried to finish my rice. They also gave me coffee. I was not charged more.

Then I went to the train station and headed back to Seoul. Back to teaching. Back to the stress.

This past I also had "open class." The parents of my kindergartners came in to watch me teach their children for about an hour. I use the term "teach" very loosely here. I haven't been able to actually teach my kids for over a week now as I've been drilling them to remember things to impress their parents. I have looked forward to this week since now I can go back to doing coursework and actual teaching and learning with my kids, not memorization. My director was happy with the parents' comment, and apparently I made 9 out of 10 parents happy. I was not looking forward to the parents' comments on the weekly reports I send out every weekend to every kindergartner as I thought I would receive a ton of criticism (as other teachers have had happen to them), but to my surprise this morning after reading the reports I got back whatever mention was made the parents seemed very satisfied, even the one who apparently complained the day of the open class. I was very happy.

I'm currently shopping around for destinations for my summer vacation. The front runners are: the Philippines, Taiwain, Hong Kong and Guam. I'll hopefully be getting my tickets within the next couple of weeks. I am VERY excited!

OK, I am going to try my hardest to update this more frequently, but it's been so hard. I've been going through somewhat rough times lately. Add to that my chronic exhaustion from teaching, and I'm afraid this blog falls by the wayside. But hopefully I'll be better about it.

T-minus 12 days until Mexico vs. South Africa in the FIFA World Cup, thereby officially kicking off the tournament for me! I should probably have my Korean supervisor call to get cable TV installed for this...

-AALA

Some advice

So first off, I PROMISE a LOOOOONG entry awaits this weekend about my trip this past weekend. I have the majority of it already typed up, I just need to insert pictures.

I was done with work today (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm done about an hour and a half earlier than the other teachers), but I stayed to do some work. It's May and a LOT of stuff has been taking place this week. All the elementary classes have these placements tests, and the teachers have to not only grade them, but also we also have to write up a separate evaluation grading them on a scale of how good/bad each student is on different levels such as speaking fluency, reading comprehension, and even class presentations, overall attitude in class and homework (as in, how often do they actually do it and how much effort do they put into it). So yeah, I had a fair amount to do. Anyway, during my last class I had to switch my teaching material. I share this class with another teacher (as in the first 45 minutes I teach certain materials and then the next hour and a half this teacher teaches other materials). The placement test they were supposed to take had been blocked for the time I was supposed to teach them, meaning I wasn't going to teach today but rather administer and oversee the test. The other teacher and I both agreed that the test should be administered during her teaching block because she has them for a longer amount of time. Our Korean supervisor agreed, and I was given some of the teaching materials (the phonics portion) of the other teacher to teach during my time block so that the other teacher could use that same amount of time during her block to administer the test. You following me so far?

Anyway, from what I was told these kids have a hard time paying attention, staying focused, constantly fight, etc, especially during the phonics lesson which they all think is very boring. When I was first told this I was surprised because the same kids in general do not misbehave with me. They do something every once in a while (as to be expected), but that's about it. From what I was hearing this was constant for the other teacher. So I was very interested to see how the children would behave with me now that I was teaching material they considered very boring.

The children behaved exactly the same way they always do with me. Focused, staying in their seats, not talking out of turn, etc. They were even trying to one-up each other with answers. At one point there was indeed a lull and I apologized to the kids, telling them I knew the material was boring (I do need to note that the book is terrible, and there are CONSTANT errors). But they unanimously said "No boring, teacher. Carla Teacher is funny," which I'm guessing meant, "We're not bored, teacher. You make it funny." So that warmed my grinch heart.

Speaking of my grinch heart, this is a good time to report something that happened just BEFORE I was about to teach the aforementioned class. My Korean supervisor came up to me to just give me a few notes on what I was going to teach the kids (remember that I wasn't teaching my original materials), and my supervisor said, "Julia [one of the girls in the class] didn't do her phonics homework. Be nice to her, OK?" I was like, "OK... why are you telling me this?" My supervisor told me that Julia would be very upset if I yelled at her for it because she's scared of me. I laughed so hard. Just some background: my kids get a yelling if they don't do their homework. I've also started giving them reward points if they do their homework, and they get more points if it shows they put effort into their homework (this is definitely the least motivated group I teach). This, so far, has actually been paying off. Anyway, I asked my supervisor how the other kids reacted to knowing I was going to be teaching them some of the stuff that is supposed to be from the other teacher. My supervisor said they didn't know. I was obviously confused as to how Julia could comment that she was scared of me if she didn't know I was teaching the material. My supervisor said, "Oh, her mother had called me at one point to tell me that she's afraid of you."

Is it bad that I take joy in knowing my kids fear me? Because I honestly do. It's not the first time a supervisor has told me a kid fears me, and I know it won't be the last. (One such other instance: my friend, Yelena, who is also a teacher at my school, has a girl who is an "attention whore" with an attitude. I came into her classroom once to give her something and Yelena told me after I left this girl said, "I don't like Carla Teacher." When asked why she responds with, "She's scary." Yelena was happy to know her little diva had a fear of someone).

But then something hit me. My kids fear me, but they have fun with me. All of them. From my kindergartners to my 5th graders. And I realized how I was able to bring this about: I am serious and expect them to be little adults, but at the same time I don't take myself too seriously as a teacher. I constantly joke with my kids, whether they're 6 years old or 10 years old. I'm very animated. I make faces, gestures, little comments, etc. I cover my mistakes (and I do make quite a few mistakes) with humor. And my kids love it. But at the end of the day when Carla Teacher puts her bitch face on they know I mean business (by the way, Yelena has told me I have a VERY good bitch face).

So I guess if you're reading this and thinking about being a teacher, or are teaching but still struggling on how to do things, I'd say: be strict, expect the best, but let your kids know you're still human underneath it all.

-AALA

Korean Demilitarized Zone

I have been MIA lately, which I apologize for. A lot has happened in the past month, so I've been taking a break from updating this. I hope this entry is sufficiently long enough to make up for it.

On May 1st, Yelena (a teacher at my school that I'm becoming good friends with) and I went on a trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. We went to an area along the DMZ called Cheorwon (although knowing how Korean pronunciation is done depending on where a certain symbol lies in the syllable box, I'm pretty sure it should be Romanized to spell Cheolwon). We went to a section of the Han Tan river that is used to get boats and rafts ready to go down the river. There was a big rock there, too, that was kind of cool.

There's a waterfall here you can't really see

We then went to an observation deck that had an insane hill to climb. There was a tram that could have taken one to the top, but Yelena and I are cheap like that, so we walked the hill. That was the tip of that iceberg. We got to the top and one can see the area that is the Demarcation Line (the official "line" that separates North from South Korea, and into North Korean territory).

On one of the hills to the left there a small North Korean post. On the hill at the very right there's a South Korean post


Here's a closer look at the South Korean post

Can you spot the North Korean post on this hill?

Me with South Korean and North Korean land behind me. Can you tell it was super windy?
Me with a Korean soldier

Afterwards we visited one of the tunnels. Back in the day during peace talks North Korea was secretly building these tunnels they could use to invade South Korea. Well, South Korea found these, and they are not a tourist attraction. We went into Tunnel #2. Unfortunately, I have no pictures because you're not supposed to take pictures there, so I left my camera on the bus. There was a TON of stair climbing in that one. My glutes got a workout, that's for sure. I was very sore from this trip the next day.

I also bought North Korean beer. I have yet to try it, as I haven't been in a beer mood, but I'm told it tastes better than South Korean beer. We shall see.

I hope this entry makes up for not updating for so long. I shouldn't go too long without another entry as this coming weekend I will be going to a Russian restaurant, a Korean baseball game, and salsa dancing, and the following weekend I have a Temple stay trip at a Buddhist temple in southern Korea, as well as a trip to the beach that same 3-day weekend. I'm excited for this as today I bought a swimsuit here in Korea, which impresses the hell out of me that I even found a swimsuit that fit as I'm not a stick and I have boobs. Yay!

-AALA