General Update

Not much new to report.  School chugs on as always.  I'm still enjoying teaching, despite the mischievous children.  Most kids are good and even the ones who are harder to control are after all, just kids.  There are a few who just don't seem to take us foreign teachers seriously and that's where the problems start.  Nothing too terrible, but a lot of time taken away from the lesson to repeatedly discipline these kids.  I've heard stories from other teachers about kids who throw temper tantrums every day at other schools, so I thankful I don't have to deal with that.  Another issue about children here is that Korean culture doesn't like to confront learning disabilities.  Many children might have special needs or shouldn't be placed at the level they are in, but as teachers we can't really approach the situation with the parents.  First, because we don't speak Korean well enough to talk with the parents.  Talking to parents is handled by the Korean teachers.  But mainly it would just be terribly rude and disrespectful in this culture.  There is one boy in one of my preschool classes, Henry, who a few foreign teachers are convinced has some kind of autism.  I'm no psychiatrist but I looked up information about Asperger syndrome and many of the pieces seem to fit together.  Granted, he's only about 6, but that's when some of the first signs become noticeable.  He's very intelligent when it comes to retaining information, but he has almost zero social skills.  During break times he won't talk to or interact with other kids at all.  Instead he will seek out teachers and just repeat information that he's learned in class or tell me about his favorite things in Lego Star Wars (a video game).  But the format is usually as follows:  "Evan Teacher, comparative is -er, superlative is -est!"  It's great that he's learning it and he retains it better than most of the other students, but we worry about his lack of social interaction.  So if we try to bring this up, it will most likely taken as rude or be ignored because he's just a "different" kid.  Our job is just to teach, so we do, but we can try to accommodate students like Henry as best we can. 

My Korean studies are continuing.  It's fun studying and learning all these new things.  It really makes me miss Spanish and that I had kept it up.  Seeing all these people around me (most of them kids!) that are bilingual or trilingual gives me inspiration.  I mostly study on my own or with my friend/co-worker Max, but on Thursdays we go to a private lesson with some other friends.  In the class we focus more on pronunciation and speaking, which is good because I don't practice that enough otherwise.

This weekend I'll be traveling to Seoul for the first time.  One of my Australian friends, Woosung, is Korean and he's stopping through for a few days on his way to America.  So we'll meet up and have some adventures up in Seoul.  One of my other friends, Ashley, is living and teaching in Incheon, near Seoul.  I met her when we were both studying abroad in Australia.  So I'll be meeting up with her as well.  An Australian reunion of sorts!  Looking forward to exploring a new place.  Though I don't think one or two days in Seoul is really enough.  After all, there are more than 10 million people living there.  I'll post again chronicling my adventures there.

Happy New Year!

Well, the new year is upon us.  Well, here in Korea at least.  I think the folks in Washington have a little less than an hour! 

Kodi arrived a week ago just fine.  I went to pick her up at two in the morning from the bus station.  Found her waiting there with a Korean guy from Michigan who had helped her get from Seoul to Daegu on the bus.  Thanks Daniel!

Christmas Eve we had school so I went in around 12:30 for our Christmas party.  The preschoolers had gone out for a play that morning and we didn't have to teach.  One of my co-workers, Jeremy, had agreed to dress up as Santa and give out presents to the kids.  Kind of ironic because he's Jewish, but he put on a great show and we all had a great laugh!  That night I took Kodi out for some Korean bbq and then downtown to wander around and see the sights.  All the neon!  Wandered around for a bit and then came back home and opened presents.  I got some new shirts, a pair of shoes and a Nintendo DS!  What a lovely girlfriend, thanks Kodi!

Christmas day we headed over to Costco with Max to get some food for the Christmas dinner we were going to.  Got some nice wine, a few baguettes and a cheese/olive oil concoction.  We went for a wonderful Christmas potluck dinner at our friends' really nice apartment.  Really puts our place to shame.  We ate our fill and hung out for a bit before heading home.

On Saturday we went over to Apsan Mountain to check out the view.  It was a gorgeous sunny day but it was very windy and extremely cold.

Sunday we left for our trip to Jeju Island, a hotspot for tourists.  There are tons of things to do and see on the island.  Our plan was to rent a car, but I hadn't made a reservation because I'd read that the only time you really need to is during peak season in the summer.  Well, that weekend was super busy because of the Christmas holiday and there were no rental cars left at the airport.  I called 1330 (tourist help in English) and managed to find one car left.  We decided to get it for the next day and just hang out in Jeju-si (the main city) that night.  Found a hotel and wandered around for a bit.  The weather was pretty dismal.  Cold, rainy, and windy.  We found a nice underground shopping mall to escape the cold.  Ate some dinner and walked around a bit more.  We found a nice little coffee shop and ordered up a waffle (they're pretty popular here as sweet snacks).  We finished our waffle and then the lady gave us some free coffee.  How nice!

The next morning we got to the rental car place and we got the car just fine.  To rent a car you need to have one year of driving experience.  I do, but since I got a Korean driver's license, they took away my American one.  My Korean license was only issued a few weeks ago so I had to prove I had been driving for 6 years.  Luckily I had some copies of my American license which worked out.  We also got a navigation system which, unfortunately, was only in Korean and they didn't have any that were in English.  Luckily I knew enough Korean to figure it out and it definitely helped us out.  I won't list all the places that we visited because there were a lot, but here are a few:

• One of the world's longest lava tubes that we were able to walk through part of.
• A fortress at the foot of an extinct volcano.
• Loveland, a collection of erotic sculptures and displays.
• A traditional folk village where all the houses are made out of stone and have thatched roofs.   
• A huge four story Buddhist temple.
• The largest botanical garden in Asia with different areas for different climates of plants.
• A trick art museum
• A waterfall that poured directly into the ocean.
• A teddy bear museum with teddies dressed up in all sorts of clothing (kind of creepy).
• The Museum of Sex and Health, which was interesting and would have been very informative except that everything was in Korean.
  
• The Chocolate Museum which wasn't that great, but we picked up some nice handmade chocolates.

There were tons of other places to check out but we still had a great time.  The last morning of our trip we woke up to snow all over the place!  We were a little worried at first but it started melting and there were no problems with driving or our flight.  We got home last night and we were a bit tired so we opted for the lame route and just stayed at home to ring in the new year.  Turned on the telly around midnight and watched the countdown.

No new year's resolutions yet, but maybe I'll think of some in the next few days.  Here are just a few pictures of Kodi's visit so far.  Happy New Year to all!

Christmas Day potluck.

Starry Night at the Trick Art Museum.

Me on the wall (or is it?) at the Trick Art Museum.

A dolharubang, one of the traditional stone sculptures all over Jeju.

Kodi's giant leaf.

The Lotte Hotel.  We had a great time staying here.  Just kidding.

We actually stayed at nice little place and the owner left us this gift while we were out!  It says: "Welcome Evan Richards and friend.  Thank you for visiting Greensung (Green Castle).  Please recommend Green Castle in US.  Have a nice trip in Jeju!"

The world's most expensive Teddy Bear, designed by Louis Vuitton.  Valued at about $130,000!