Time is racing past at a ridiculous speed. We have already been here for two months which seems crazy- it feels like we only boarded the flight to get here a couple of days ago. Seconds really do seem to tick faster in Asia; each day seems to pass quicker than the time it takes to squat a mosquito (which, by the way, have been feasting on us incessantly.) Monday seems to appear out of nowhere and then by the time you've blinked it's Friday and unfortunately the weekends race by too.
Another two weeks have gone since we last updated the blog. Things are becoming more routine and 'normal' here so I'm afraid we don't have a million quirky and interesting stories to report to you! I guess the unfamiliar is starting to become familiar to us now which is not a bad thing.
Saturday 13th was a friend's leaving party so we headed to Busan during the day for a barbeque on the beach which was good fun. We met a whole host of new people and stuck around until the sun went down and things got very chilly. We then took a taxi into Haeundae and spent the night in a fairly swanky love motel which was equipped with a much needed bath (we were freezing cold and covered in sand.) The next day we headed to Nampo-Dong for a bit of window shopping and headed back to Gimhae early evening.
Last week at work went very quickly. Our school has bought and renovated a whole new building adjacent to the one that we are currently in. In this building is a library, kitchen, piano, facilities for dance and drama classes, a movie room and a computer room. The building is designed to aid us in 'creative teaching' so basically the main director wants us to use as little textbook teaching as possible and be much more fun and practical in our style of teaching. It's a good idea but means that we have to do a lot more preparation for our lessons which is, of course, unpaid. At the moment there are only a couple of lessons a week that take place in the new building but this is likely to be increased. Lee is teaching games and outdoor activities and I am teaching dance and drama which is really good fun for both myself and the children and I'm glad to be able to finally put my knowledge of the subjects to some use! Last lesson we did some aerobic warm-ups and confidence building games followed by me teaching the kids a quick and simple dance routine. Next lesson I intend to choreograph something a little more complicated for them to get their heads around!
The most recent weekend was fairly lazy as I had been ill on Friday with a kidney infection. I actually thought it might have been quite serious judging by the way I felt on Friday but after some acupuncture, two vitamin drips and a colossal amount of pills later I felt as right as rain! So we went to the tasty Vietnamese restaurant on Saturday evening and on Sunday we climbed a small mountain and made use of some Korean exercise equipment (see photos) with Sarah and Jake. In the evening we went round to theirs for a roast chicken dinner with cheesy mash. Amazing.
Generally everything is going really well still. The weather has been very hot but the monsoon season has just started so it should rain everyday for about a month now. This morning we were woken up by incredibly loud crashes of thunder and rain so heavy it sounded like a percussion band were performing on our roof top. Teaching is still challenging at times but we are learning successful strategies to engage the children and discipline them where necessary. This week is 'session test' week so we are devising oral examinations for the children and then testing them. We have been told that we are not allowed to mark the children lower than a 'C' in case they get too disheartened and their parents take them out of school. I guess that's the annoying thing about working for a profit making business rather than a state school that puts education before money. The directors can be pretty challenging too- they go about things in a very different way to what we are used to and sometimes I wish they would just think about things a bit more. They always go on about how they want to make their staff happy but they never ever dish out praise and are more than willing to pick you up on insignificant things that you might be doing wrong even though you weren't told how to do it right in the first place! But hey, some things are bound to be different here. Sometimes I find it hard to bite my tongue but I have to remember that they're not big fans of 'strong women' out here. But then I do have to ask myself how many of my beliefs should I be willing to sacrifice to please the local people? They seem so willing to take on some aspects of the Western World, so surely they can cope with a bit
of feminism every now and again....?!
Another two weeks have gone since we last updated the blog. Things are becoming more routine and 'normal' here so I'm afraid we don't have a million quirky and interesting stories to report to you! I guess the unfamiliar is starting to become familiar to us now which is not a bad thing.
Saturday 13th was a friend's leaving party so we headed to Busan during the day for a barbeque on the beach which was good fun. We met a whole host of new people and stuck around until the sun went down and things got very chilly. We then took a taxi into Haeundae and spent the night in a fairly swanky love motel which was equipped with a much needed bath (we were freezing cold and covered in sand.) The next day we headed to Nampo-Dong for a bit of window shopping and headed back to Gimhae early evening.
Last week at work went very quickly. Our school has bought and renovated a whole new building adjacent to the one that we are currently in. In this building is a library, kitchen, piano, facilities for dance and drama classes, a movie room and a computer room. The building is designed to aid us in 'creative teaching' so basically the main director wants us to use as little textbook teaching as possible and be much more fun and practical in our style of teaching. It's a good idea but means that we have to do a lot more preparation for our lessons which is, of course, unpaid. At the moment there are only a couple of lessons a week that take place in the new building but this is likely to be increased. Lee is teaching games and outdoor activities and I am teaching dance and drama which is really good fun for both myself and the children and I'm glad to be able to finally put my knowledge of the subjects to some use! Last lesson we did some aerobic warm-ups and confidence building games followed by me teaching the kids a quick and simple dance routine. Next lesson I intend to choreograph something a little more complicated for them to get their heads around!
The most recent weekend was fairly lazy as I had been ill on Friday with a kidney infection. I actually thought it might have been quite serious judging by the way I felt on Friday but after some acupuncture, two vitamin drips and a colossal amount of pills later I felt as right as rain! So we went to the tasty Vietnamese restaurant on Saturday evening and on Sunday we climbed a small mountain and made use of some Korean exercise equipment (see photos) with Sarah and Jake. In the evening we went round to theirs for a roast chicken dinner with cheesy mash. Amazing.
Generally everything is going really well still. The weather has been very hot but the monsoon season has just started so it should rain everyday for about a month now. This morning we were woken up by incredibly loud crashes of thunder and rain so heavy it sounded like a percussion band were performing on our roof top. Teaching is still challenging at times but we are learning successful strategies to engage the children and discipline them where necessary. This week is 'session test' week so we are devising oral examinations for the children and then testing them. We have been told that we are not allowed to mark the children lower than a 'C' in case they get too disheartened and their parents take them out of school. I guess that's the annoying thing about working for a profit making business rather than a state school that puts education before money. The directors can be pretty challenging too- they go about things in a very different way to what we are used to and sometimes I wish they would just think about things a bit more. They always go on about how they want to make their staff happy but they never ever dish out praise and are more than willing to pick you up on insignificant things that you might be doing wrong even though you weren't told how to do it right in the first place! But hey, some things are bound to be different here. Sometimes I find it hard to bite my tongue but I have to remember that they're not big fans of 'strong women' out here. But then I do have to ask myself how many of my beliefs should I be willing to sacrifice to please the local people? They seem so willing to take on some aspects of the Western World, so surely they can cope with a bit
of feminism every now and again....?!
