Our Weekend

This weekend was the first since we've been here that the weather was enjoyable! :) On Saturday the sun came out, the wind died down and it was the perfect day to walk around the enjoy Pangyo. Hiking is VERY popular in Korea and many people were hiking around the neighborhood and enjoying the parks. We stopped at a little market to get some delicious strawberries, got some juices and walked around a park about two blocks from our house. I have a feeling we will be spending LOTS of time there as the weather continues to get nicer! The above picture is a Korean school (elementary, I think) that is about one block from our house.

Just about every tree we see in Seoul has these supports on it!

Josh in the park. He has an important flight coming up so we were relaxing, studying and soaking up the sun rays!

The strawberries were DELCIOUS! Before moving here I was hesitant about buying fruits and vegetables off the economy, but they are so tasty and fresh! We can buy these at the commissary (grocery store on post) but by the time they travel here from the states they are less than fresh and usually go bad very quickly. So, as time has passed we find ourselves buying more things from the markets up the road from our house. The man who owns the market was so sweet and searched through all the baskets of berries before finding us one that "didn't have even one bad one." Very sweet.

SUNDAY

If you know Josh well then you know how much he loves to BBQ! When we moved from Alabama to Korea we weren't allowed to ship our BBQ here, so it is sitting in a storage unit collecting dust. We've gone this long without getting a new one, but we had one day of good weather and realized summer isn't summer without BBQ's!! So, we got a new one this weekend and made a delicious dinner on it that night.

Josh putting together the BBQ

All done!!

This picture turned out pretty dark, but it is of our DELICIOUS dinner. Steaks, fresh strawberries, salad and bread (the best thing you've ever had!) We watched The Social Network and Secretariat (both of which I'd recommend) and had an awesome end to the weekend!

The kindergarteners have been learning about families in social class this month. Homework over the weekend was to write about "3 things you can do to show your family that you care." This was on my desk first thing this morning (Monday) and it was a beautiful start to my week.

1. I hug mom

2. I kiss mom

3. I love mom.

Adorable!

Josh's Birthday

As many of you know Josh was gone for about three weeks for work. So, we were happy to have the day together to celebrate his birthday! We had a nice dinner out, walked around Itaewon and then went to Dongdaemun for the first time. What an adventure!

Josh on his birthday

If you know us well you know that we LOVE "The Office" TV show. For Josh's birthday I got him The Office Board game. It's a DVD game and it's hilarious!

Angela and Dwight, our game pieces :)

Itaewon was our first stop on Josh's birthday. It is a very popular place for military, as it is right outside of Yongsan post. (It's about one hour from our house, and this is where we go for the grocery store, doctor etc.) Itaewon has lots of yummy restaurants (and tons of bars!) and the majority of shop owners speak English, which is always a plus. After Dongdaemun we headed back to Itaewon on the subway and had a DELICIOUS surf and turf dinner at a little pub called Scrooge Pub. I have those pictures on my camera and will upload them later. :)

Itaewon

There are SO many vendors on the streets of Itawon selling socks, purses, scarves, knockoff wallets and purses, jackets etc.

"Welcome to Korea" arch in Itaewon

Dongdaeumn is a shopping area comprised of five large buildings. The South Korea tourism website said there are an estimtaed 5,000 in this area selling things like fabrics, accessories, clothing, and wedding accessories (although we didn't seen anything for weddings.)

Carts selling socks are everywhere!

The shopping in Dongdaemun was set up much differently than shopping in the states. We went into numerous buildings that were each about 5 or 6 stories high. There are various tables and "stores" set up that all blend into each other. The majority of vendors are selling the same things, with each floor being divided as womens clothing, men's clothing, accessories etc. We were mainly looking for clothes for Josh, which is hard here because of his height. Also, Korean men have a very unique style and it is very "feminine" if you ask Josh. Thank goodness for online shopping! :)

Here is a fairly good example of men's dress in Korea. Lots of suits, blazers, skinny jeans and tight shirts. AKA-Not things Josh would wear :)

"Lady Burger"

Korea is full of crazy and random things. Sometimes I feel like I could write for days about the bizarre things we see on a daily basis. We have Korean TV and some channels occasionally play a movie in English with Korean subtitles. But, what I do love is watching Korean commercials. They are hilarious. This one might be my favorite. Lotteria is a Korean fast food chain and they recently came out with a "lady burger" that is advertised as just for women. In this commerical the men are crying because they can't have a lady burger- haha!

I think that now I may need to try one of these lady burgers...I'l let you know how it is :)

We Speak No Americano

We have been searching for this song for months. Every time Josh or I go anywhere we seem to hear this song. It is played in the markets, on the subway or in any bar or club. So, we have been on the "hunt" for this song and finally found it. It's called "We Speak No Americano" and the sound is pretty typical of other Korean pop music. Enjoy! LOL!

Arts and Crap

I teach two classes of arts and crafts every Thursday for the kindergarteners. As many of you know the kids LOVE art, but with their accents it sounds like they say, "arts and crap." So, here are some pictures from arts and crap this week. We used marbling paint to make postcards and they turned out really neat!! Afterwards we had some extra time so we built a pizzaria with blocks and served delicious pizza to the five year old masses. :)

Neat, huh?

All the students work

The art that I made today

Brian is my little cleaner. He is always picking up paper or cleaning something. Today after art he was cleaning the tables for lunchtime! :)

Brian cleaning some more

The beginning stages of the pizzaria. The boys on the ground are building the big oven.

More working

You can see how they are pushing one block through the box. That is the piece of pizza being pushed through the pizza oven! :) Best part- the yellow block is cheese pizza and the red blocks are "red cheese" pizza!

I learn better with my eyes closed

This week has been pretty normal at BIS. We are working on getting the new students used to the way we do things and rules and all things are running pretty smoothly. Of course, I could just write an entire blog about the random and hilarious things that these kids say, but this was my favorite of the week.
Annie was reading a Junie B. Jones book and came across the word romantic.
Annie: "Ms Leah, what does romantic mean?"
Jamie: "Romantic is when daddy says I love you muah muah muah. Will you marry me? And mommy says, OK I guess!"
Annie: "Oh, ok!"

Here are some random photos I have taken this week:

"Ms Leah, why do people in America love Las Vegas so much?"
Stella: "All I know is what stays in Vegas happened there too..." HAHA

Love that when they mention their friends all the teachers are on the list :)

Every month the students study and memorize a short book. At the end of the month each kindergarten class stands in front of the school and gives a speech of their entire book. I make them close their eyes, or they cheat and look at the book. I'm starting to think this was a mistake on my part, because now Daniel is convinved he will learn better if his eyes are closed the ENTIRE class!

Iris is so funny when memorizing too. She keeps her eyes closed the entire time, but holds her book up like she is reading. She also turns the pages at the right times too, even though her eyes are closed. :) She is too cute.

Leave it to kids to be brutally honest. "My family is nice. My mom is small. My dad is lazy. My mom is cooking. My grandmother is old." LOL

Asians and the peace sign is just as real as you'd assume it was. Even when the kids draw themselves they add the peace sign!!

Kindergarten Orientation/First day of first grade

The school that I work at is a hagwon, a private academy in Korea that teaches students various subjects in English. I thought I'd share some more information with you about hagwons in Korea:

Hagwon  is the Korean-language word for a for-profit private academy or institute prevalent in South Korea. The term is also sometimes used to describe similar institutions operated by Korean Americans in the United States. The industry faces criticism because it is seen as creating an unequal footing for the poor and rich in Korea, while some see hagwons as filling a need not being adequately met by the public school system. Children of all ages often attend hagwons, even those in the pre-school age bracket. It is not uncommon for students to be enrolled in several hagwon of different subject areas at once in addition to their normal school attendance. Hagwons may specialize in subjects like math, foreign language, science, art, music, or English. Some in Korean society view hagwons and hagwon owners negatively because of their perception that these schools have caused economic issues for many families or been a factor in the disparity between the education levels of different social classes. In 2008 it was reported that there were over 70,000 hagwons in South Korea with 47% of them being geared towards high school enrollment.

Many residents feel their children need to be associated with these schools in order to reach the upper levels of business and success. As more parents try to move to the area to allow their children to attend these schools it has caused the prices of real estate in the area to rise to 300 percent of similar areas in Seoul. In 2003 the government had planned to develop a hagwon center in Pangyo (where we live!!) to relieve some of the pressure on Gangnam, yet after heavy criticism for only shifting the problem around and not solving it, the government canceled the plan only a couple weeks later.

Interesting stuff, right? We see lots of the real estate issues here at our hagwon. Parents who have students in KINDERGARTEN moved so they could be closer to the hagwon!

Here are some photos from Kindergarten Orientation yesterday. Kindergarten here is two years so some of the kiddos are new and some were here last year also, so they may look familiar from other photos.

Angela has the biggest personality. She's hilarious.

"She's romantic stylist would rather fan club freguent?" WHAT?!?!? LOL!

The kiddos made pizza as part of their orientation. This is Sean.

Erin and Jamie being silly

Hair accessories are really popular in Korea. This is Jenith and her hair pin was about half the size of her entire head! :)

Brian was pretty unsure about eating his pizza. He wouldn't take a bite until another teacher helped him! Haha! These kids are so funny.

This is Jenith. She is so sweet and really smart. She is always telling the other kids "Ms Leah will tell you to be quiet" "Ms Leah will tell you to not speak in Korean" etc. She's a litte teacher in the making.

Working hard on their pizza!

Sean!

Later in the day it was the first day of first grade. The majority of the students were in kindergarten here and were SO excited to come for first grade. It was so sweet to see. Some kids were running around excited and yelling "I'm in first grade, Ms Leah. This is first grade!!" and other kids were just way too cool for school now that they are "big kids." Overall it was a fun day, but exhausting too. Here are some pictures:

Fun craft project. Some of the kids have a hard time saying "arts and crafts" and it comes out "arts and crap." So hard to not laugh when they say, "Ms Leah I'm so excited for arts and CRAP!" :)

This is Claire. She's the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. She is always writing the teachers the cutest little notes. The one above my desk says, "You are the best teacher. At BIS you are the prettiest. I love you very much. Will you be my pal?"

This is Annie all dressed up for the first day of first grade.

One of the first grade classes. This is Clarion, Claire, Annie, Grant and Jamie.

Here is another first grade class. The first two boys on the left, Alex and Sam, are twins. Then there is Kevin, Ben, Joshua and Judy.