Korean Pancakes

Yesterday, I made my first Korean food ever. I made hoddeok. Hoddeok is a sweet, stuffed pancake. It's really good. Before you get excited, I should mention that I used a mix. However, the mix I used had instructions entirely in Korean. So, I had to use my awesome Hangul reading skills, a dictionary, and have a middle school girl translate the list of ingredients for me. (I found the girl shopping in the grocery store.)

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of my finished product so, I am using pics stolen from Google Images.

Enjoy!

Picture of the Box and the Pancakes.


The Steps to Make a Stuffed Pancake (I didn't do it nearly this neatly.)


Close Up of the Yummy, Gooey Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Filling

Our Apartment - The Photo Tour

The Living Room
These pictures were taken when we first moved in. We now have a couch, a tv, etc.

That is an air conditioner in the corner.

The View from the Living Room


The Kitchen

We have two Kimchi Coolers and a UV Sterilizer

Looks like a cabinet...

but it's a condiment refrigerator!


Our Bedroom

View from Our Bedroom

Light Switch with Clock and Hot Water/Heat Control Panel in the Bedroom
(We have to turn on and off the hot water heater as we need hot water.)


The Guest Room
(It has two doors)




Hall Bathroom



Master Bathroom
It has a super high tech toilet.

This shower is really small and not enclosed (Koreans just let the shower drain into drains in the bathroom floor) so, we don't use it. It now has a clothes drying rack in it. Korean dryers take hours to dry anything. So, drying racks are very common.

One of two panic buttons in the apartment. The other one is in the living room.


I'll post more pics another time. There are some interesting things in this apartment that I've never really seen before.

Muju Trip

On Jan. 30 and Jan. 30, the school took us on a weekend trip. We went to the Muju Ski Resort on Saturday and then stayed at a nearby hotel. It was an interesting weekend.

On the Bus


Near the Hotel




At the Ski Resort


Skiers (I did not ski.)




Sledding (I tried sledding.)


Mountain Scenery

Adventures in Teaching: 4th Grade Wino

I have one student, Samuel, that always gets to class really early. Class starts at 4:30pm and he is almost always there before 4pm. Often, he is there at 3:45pm. Since it's usually just him and I for about 20 minutes, Samuel and I chat and I have learned a little about him. He'll tell me about school, what he did over the weekend, etc.

Today started out the same as usual. Samuel and I spoke for a few minutes and then he took out a thermos with some purple liquid and drank a little of it. He started to smile at me. Then, he held out the thermos to me and said "Teacher, I have wine in here." I was a little taken aback but, I didn't think much of it. The kids often try to shock me with stories of outlandish food because I am a foreigner. I just smiled back and said "Oh, really?" Then Samuel said "It's really wine, Teacher. Smell it." So, I did.

I was in shock! It really was wine. My fourth grade student just handed me a thermos with wine it. Wine that he had just drank. I didn't know what to do. So, I asked him if his parents knew that he had the wine. Samuel said they didn't know. I then asked why he was drinking wine. He smiled at me and said "Because it's good!" I just looked at him and said "Samuel, you know I have to go and tell the Korean staff about this." (The Korean staff handles more serious discipline problems because they can call parents and the English teachers can't.) Samuel looked confused but, didn't say anything.

So, I went and told the Faculty Manager because I found him before I could find my assigned Korean staff member. He then sent a Korean staff member to go and speak to Samuel. He did this because Samuel is a lower level student and may get too flustered to speak coherent English. The staff member agreed that it was wine, confiscated the thermos, and called Samuel's mother. Samuel was allowed to return to class.

Later, the Faculty Manager came and spoke to me. He told me that Samuel claimed that I said that bringing wine to class was ok. I wasn't in trouble or anything, it was just a weird statement.

It also bothered me that a fourth grade was drinking. Samuel goes to five different academies: English, math, science, music and Chinese calligraphy. In addition to this, he goes to school (including two Saturday a month). I hope this isn't his way of coping with the incredible pressure that he is under.


(We finally got our own internet so that I can update regularly again.)

Adventures in Teaching: Making Children Cry

So, yesterday, I made a 9 year old cry. Really cry. This kid sobbed for a good 15 minutes; maybe more. Class ended and he was still crying on his way out the door. Oh well. He shouldn't have misbehaved.

The incident started towards the end of class. I was teaching Memory English, level 2. This class focuses on reading comprehension and is a fairly low level class. Kids usually take it somewhere around fourth to sixth grade. The kids in it are somewhat conversational. They aren't fluent but, they can read simple stories and can have a slow, age appropriate conversation. It's usually a cute class. The kids are adorable and their lack of vocabulary makes them say really funny things.

During the last 40 minutes of each class (each class is 3 hours long), the kids work on their Critical Thinking Projects (CTP). Each day is a different project. The CTP is designed to teach the kids to work in groups and gives them a chance to apply the vocabulary and facts they learned during the class onto a project that they present to the class.

Yesterday, we read a story about a baseball team that had ugly uniforms. The CTP was for the kids to make up a team and design a uniform for it. They also had to pick a mascot and a symbol for the team. It seemed like it would be a fun project. I put the kids into groups and we started the project.

While the groups are working, I go from group to group. This helps to keep them on track and for me to answer any questions that come up during the project.

When I visited group 3, I noticed that one kid, Ryan (pronounced Ree-anne for some unknown reason), had his workbook closed and was staring at the desk. So, I asked him what was wrong. He told me that his group was stupid and he wouldn't work with them. Ryan also told me that his group was making stupid choices for the project and that he would get a F. I assured him that their choices were fine and that they wouldn't get an F b/c their team had a weird name. We then discussed getting along with others and how just b/c he didn't come up with an idea, it wasn't automatically stupid. I told him that he just got out voted this time and maybe his idea would be the one used in his next group project. I thought I handled it ok.

The next time I look over, Ryan had turned around and wouldn't even look at his group. I went back and Ryan then announced to me that not only was his group stupid and he wouldn't work with them but, the entire project was stupid and he wouldn't do it. I told Ryan that he had to work with his group on the project to get a good grade. Ryan told me he didn't care, give him a F. He said he wasn't going to do anything at all that was related to the stupid project. He was quite adamant about this and confident with his choice.

I reminded Ryan that he was going to get a F and he would be punished and then I gave him 1 minute to think and give me his final decision. After the minute, Ryan said he was not going to do anything at all. At this point, the entire class was staring at us.

I told Ryan that he had made his choice and he would be getting a F. Also, he was being a disruption and he would have to leave the class and go sit with the Korean staff in their office. At that point, he became belligerent. He refused to leave the class. He said "Teacher, you can give me a F but, I will not leave this class." I repeated myself a few more times and he kept refusing to leave. So, I left the class to get one of the Korean staff members to remove him from the class.

I should probably mention that the kids are terrified of the Korean staff members. I don't know why. It is suspected that either the Korean staff hits the kids or, tells on the kids to their parents and the parents hit the kids. I'm not really sure which it is but, the kids are afraid of the Korean staff.

I went out of the class and ran into one of the Head Instructors, Richard. The Head Instructors are above a teacher. So, I asked Richard for help and he came to my class.

Ryan saw Richard and completely flipped out. He started sobbing and screaming. Richard is American but, of Asian descent. So, I think Ryan thought I brought a Korean staff member to remove him. I actually would have brought a Korean staff member but, I found Richard first.

Richard removed a sobbing, hysterical Ryan from my class. Richard was actually really nice and kind to Ryan but, Ryan didn't seem to agree. Ryan continued to cry and scream until it was time to leave.

What a way to end the week!

Seoul Pics 3 - Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty

When we were in Seoul, I decided to go jogging. So, I went to a park that was near the hotel. I just thought it was a park, like TY Park. It turns out that it was a collection of very old, royal tombs. Unfortunately, I lost the brochure that the ticket lady gave to me so, I have no idea which members of the royal family are buried there. All I remember was a king and a queen from the 11th century were buried there.

A building in the park.


A second building


A third building (I really wish I knew the names of these buildings)


One of the tomb areas. There were three in the park and they all looked the same.


A statue in the tomb area


A second statue


More statues. It's funny how these hundreds of years old statutes are next to apartment buildings and high rises.


For my fellow Floridians: A picture of fall.

Seoul Pics - Part 2

As I said in the previous post, training was very intense. Since the school is a nationwide chain, they want to ensure that the curriculum and teaching methods are consistent at every location. Plus, their goal is that when a child goes through all of the levels (it takes years), that child will have a near native fluency in English. This is done through a variety of methods. Most schools emphasis rote memorization so, this is a different approach.

Anyway, one really strange thing about training was the obsession with Swine Flu. Specifically, if we have it, what will happen when we get it, and how to prevent us from spreading it to others. I tried to explain that I was vaccinated against both the seasonal flu and against the Swine Flu but, no one cared.

So, there were four big precautions taken against Swine Flu:

1. We were all scatted amongst several hotels. This was done to create ready made quarantine groups, just in case someone came down with Swine Flu.

2. Our temperatures were taken daily.

3. We had to sign a form daily stating that we did not have any symptoms of Swine Flu and that we had not had any direct contact with someone who did have the symptoms.

4. This was the most annoying precaution. While in the training building, we had to wear a surgical mask. They really would have preferred that we always wore the masks but, they couldn't actually require that.

Here are some pictures of Luiz and I in our lovely masks. The masks made me feel like an extra on Grey's Anatomy.