Colds in Korea are not fun.

Hello!
I apologize for not posting in a while.  I somehow got a terrible cold last week and have not been able to do much of anything, besides knit and watch movies.  I made a trip to the doctor on Saturday, and plan to go again this afternoon.  This whole business has just taken up way too much of my time and my productivity levels are dropping drastically.  


On one hand, it is kind of the teachers and vice-principal to worry about me.  But on the other, it is so strange when someone tells me that I should go to the doctor for a cold.  Then I tell them that yes, I did.  They insist that I should go again, to get an IV.  I have never in my life needed an IV, so I can only imagine how that will actually help me.  But I will try I guess.  


In my 3rd grade classes this week the topic is "Our Foreign Neighbors".  So, I talked about foreigners in Korea, foreign marriages and reasons that Koreans might marry a foreigner.  I learned that marriage between a Korean and a foreigner is by far more acceptable than simply being gay.  I mostly threw that in there to make sure that they were paying attention, because any time you mention anything about being gay, there is an uproar in the classes.  Sometimes they try to accuse their friends of being gay, and other times they just say "oooh, no teacher" and laugh uncomfortably.  


Coming from Minneapolis, which has the 2nd largest gay population in the US (after SanFrancisco) it is amusing to me.  I should be more specific.  Their reaction is amusing to me.  I am no expert, nor am I politically minded, but to see that Korea is still in complete denial about homosexual relationships makes me yearn for the grace with which homosexuality is embraced in Minneapolis.  That being said, I know even in MN that there are many obstacles left to fight in the quest for equality, but we have come a long way.   (I hope that this has not offended anyone, it is meant to be more of a comment on views of homosexuality in Korea, such as I've seen.)


We also talked about foreigners in Korea, and what sort of sights in Busan the students would recommend to foreigners.  Many of them take pride in their city and offered great places, Haeundae Beach, Dadaepo Beach, Nampo, Seomyeon, etc.  Several students made a joke out of it and put Keonkuk Middle School, which is our middle school.  One of the groups yesterday chose Keonkuk Middle School, and wrote
 "We go to school every day.  We are very hard."  
Now, I struggled with what to say to the group because I try to encourage them to use English and I try not to correct them in front of other students; I want them to be comfortable speaking in my class.  Because this was a written exercise, and that particular phrase is... not quite acceptable in a classroom setting, I decided to shift them another way.  I asked them if they meant that they worked very hard, or studied very hard.  No.  They were talking about how hard it is to walk up the hill that the school is on.  Okay, that's a direction that I can work with.  I think they changed it to "We go to school every day.  It is difficult to climb the hill."  


Oh the joys of teaching.  

The sun going down over the river.  

One of the teachers arm wrestling with the students.

 
On Friday there was some arm wrestling in the teacher's office.  :)  It was great to watch.

Hee Jung enjoying her steamed milk. 

After work I went to Starbucks with Hee Jung and Ji Hyun.  Hee Jung was very tired and very much enjoyed her steamed milk!  

Later at Georgina's house, we had a wonderful girls' night.  We had intended to have wine and watch a movie, but we completely forgot to watch the movie.  We finally called it a night at about 2:30am.

 On Saturday I woke up bright and squirrely and went running.  Which was a great beginning to the weekend!  I did some catching up with family and friends from home before getting ready for the day.

 I met with some friends and we went to a teahouse in the mountains.  It was beautiful.  They make tea sets and tea pots in the traditional style.  They serve tea to visitors and teach about the traditions involved.   In Korean.  We didn't understand any of it.

 

 

A mini bulgogi snack.  Delicious.  

 
In the evening I met up with a different group of friends for dinner and then to head to a birthday party. We decided on a Turkish restaurant for dinner, but when we couldn't find it we ended up at our second choice, an indian restaurant.  It turned out to be fantastic!  I shared Chicken Tikka with Georgina and it was so delicious.  ( I forgot to take a picture though! I'll just have to go back soon and take pictures then.  :)

We met up with the birthday party after dinner.   There ended up being tons of people there to celebrate, and it was a great night!

On the left Hee Jung, and on the right Ji Hyun.  In the taxi on our way to sports day.

Preparing for sports day.

Jumping on the trampoline!

 

Poor Hee Jung was so hungover!

Sweet & Sour Pork

An end to a lazy week...

It's a beautiful Friday here in Busan!  

What a wonderful week, my students all had midterm exams this week so I had a chance to 'deskwarm' and work ahead two chapters.  As far as I can tell, I have only one more chapter to prepare, as we only study about three chapters per term.  

To be honest, I was hard at work most of the time, but also catching up on some tv and movies while I worked, which helped pass the time much more quickly.  

The students finished their exams yesterday, so today we ventured across the river to have sports day.  This consists of most students participating in soccer... and I'm not sure what else.  We wandered off to find a bathroom.   Imagine that, girls needing the bathroom?  (I joke because most people make fun of me for needing the bathroom at inopportune moments.)  But, it wasn't me, it was Hee Jung who needed it, I swear!  And thank goodness because the bathroom looked sketch.  

On the way back to the soccer fields we came across 퐁퐁 (pong pong)  trampolines!  We immediately set about finding out who to pay to make this a possibility and in no time were behaving like children hopping about on the trampolines.  So much fun, I forgot how much fun they are!  

We came back to Saha-gu (my neighborhood) to have lunch.  It was delicious!  I have tasted the dish that I had several times, but it is very spicy so today was the first time I ordered it as my meal.  It was just as delicious as I remembered.  The girls must have been momentarily crazy though, because they ordered each of us a dish and then a huge platter of sweet & sour pork for the table.  All of it tasted wonderful, but we certainly didn't finish all of our food.  It was way too much!

After lunch I wandered around outside, exploring areas that I haven't yet explored in my neighborhood and then wandering along the river until I figured I still had time for a nap.  :)  

I do have pictures from today, but they are currently trapped in my camera while the battery is charging for tonight and tomorrow.  Keep an eye out for these in the coming days!