Happy Festivus

Today will prove to be the longest Festivus of my life. In a few hours I will board a plane for JFK in NY. Fourteen hours later I will arrive on the east coast and the time will be the same as when I took off. Then a quick flight up to Portland, ME and I will be at my grandfather's house before the day is out. Not too shabby considering I've already taught a class today and went to a traditional Korean meal for lunch. In any case, I will be in the states for the next 5 days and am definitley ooking forward to it.

Badminton Tournament

The year is winding down at Dong Mak Elementary and today was the semester-end tournament of the teacher's badminton club. Only six teachers came so we played with three teams. To add a a little balance the men played left-handed. After two rounds every team had won two games and lost two and we decided to award the prizes through a game of chance. I brought home two packages of shuttlecocks; though I was hoping for the badminton socks. Here are a few pictures my co-teacher took. I think they are a little blurry because of how fast I move on the court.

Korean Countryside

I only took three pictures this weekend. This is one of them. It is the view from Petit France (see previous post).

Teacher's Trip

This past Friday, I went on an overnight trip with all of the teachers at my school. Immediately after classes ended for the week we all boarded a bus. I had no idea where we were going or what was in store. An hour and a half later we arrived at a resort hotel and all went to dinner. The meal was Korean barbecue and as soon as we began eating the Soju began to flow freely. After the meal, most of us remained in the dining room for a while.

Later in the night, all of the teachers wound up sitting on the floor of the principal's room drinking and eating more food. Eventually, some of the teachers began filtering off to their own rooms. Some time after midnight I joined the principal and about half a dozen other teacher's at a karaoke room where we all took turns singing songs.

The next morning I woke up on the floor of my room (everyone slept on the floor since the hotel didn't have any beds), to one of the other teachers saying, "time to go to breakfast." So I stood up, tucked in my shirt and headed out the door. Breakfast consisted of a spicy bean curd soup. Later in the day we visited a place called Petit France which is a tourist destination devoted to French culture and the popular children's story, The Little Prince. All in all, it was a pretty good trip.

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

Today was one of my last days with my 3rd and 4th grade advanced class. I asked them each to write a short speech about what they wanted to be when they grew up. They wrote for the first half of class and each presented their speeches for the second half. What I enjoyed most about these presentations was the different goals of each student:

President

Entertainer

Teacher

Pianist/Singer/Dancer

Zookeeper

Scientist

Fashion Designer

Diplomat

Singer or Artist

Inventor/Basketball Player

Pilot

Lawyer

High School Teacher

Designer

I wish that I could tell people that I wanted to be an Inventor and Basketball Player.

Haircut

Having been here for nearly two months, it was high time that I got a haircut. Given the language barrier, I was understandably nervous. How could I ever explain what I wanted to someone who speaks no English? There are some things that hand gestures just can't adequately describe. So this past Friday, my co-teacher agreed to take me to a barber and explain what I wanted. On our way, she asked me, "Andrew, can you describe your hair style?" I was beginning to get nervous. She then convinced me that I should go to a "hair shop" if I wanted a good haircut. I trusted her. The end result has a very long, fancy haircut that required a lot of translation between myself and the woman who was cutting my hair. After she finished she shampooed my head and I was done. I expected the whole thing to be rather expensive, but they only charged me 10,000 Won (about 7 or 8 dollars). And since there is no tipping in Korea, that's exactly what I paid. Here is the end result:

Winter Camp Suggestions?

It's December, and Dong Mak Elementary has entered the final few weeks of it's school year. The Korean school calendar is very different from that of the United States, so the end of the school year on December 23rd will be followed by a more than month long break. Given this time of year, all of the teachers at my school - myself included - are very busy. Evidence of the increased work load can be found in the dwindling number of attendees at my bi-weekly teacher's class. When I began teaching more than a month ago, about ten teachers showed up to each class. Today I only had two, and one showed up 20 minutes late.

As for me, I have been busy planning a two week Winter English Camp that I will operate during January. I have been given almost total control of the camp and need to develop a plan in the near future. At the moment, I am designing the first week as a "Science in English" camp for about fifteen 3rd and 4th grade students. Some activities that I have thought of are building a model of the solar system and creating a papier-mache volcano and staging an "eruption." And here is the real point of this post: Does anyone have any suggestions for fun activities that I could do with the students? Maybe experiments that you remember doing as a kid (or that your kids have done and enjoyed, if you are a parent)? Also, any recommendations for my second week? I may do the same science camp for 5th and 6th graders, but I can also choose to do something completely different. All suggestions are appreciated.