A Day at the Zoo

I heard about our third field to the zoo about two weeks ago and got really excited. I love going to the zoo in Seattle with the kids I would nanny for and knew we were in store for a good time. Apparently in Seoul there is a sad zoo and happy zoo. There aren’t really any animal rights in Korea, so the zoos do not have to follow any rules. I kept asking which zoo we were going to and no one really knew for sure until the day before we left and I found out it was the happy zoo. Feeling better about our trip to the zoo, I was eager for the day to arrive.

The weather was great, a little warm, but not hot. We were having a picnic lunch at the zoo so the kids brought their own lunches. Of course Korean Moms being how they are over packed food and drinks for their kids. The kids were carrying around these heavy backpacks filled with at least two water bottles, juice boxes and more food to feed not only their child but at least a few other children. Liz even told the parents they would be carrying their own backpacks, so they shouldn’t put too much into them. Of course they didn’t listen because everything in Korea is based on appearances and looks and if the children didn’t have the best options for lunch, then they are seen as not as wealthy, or some crazy other thought. I could go off on this topic for a long time, but I will get back to the field trip and save that for another blog.

We arrived at the zoo around 10:45 and had about 40 minutes to wander around until the seal and dolphin show. Oak and Pine class always stay together on field trips because it makes it easier for Liz our Korean helper to take pictures of the children. I let Gordon lead since he has been to the zoo before and he led us to the monkeys first. Jayden, one of my boys, had brought a bag full of bananas to school and told me he was going to feed the monkeys. I tried to explain this probably wasn’t going to happen, but he had it in his head he was going to. I figured, well maybe you can in Korea, they have strange rules here, who knows. So we get to the monkeys and I told him again he couldn’t. Then he proceeded to ask Liz and then Gordon. After we all sad no, he had this very sad, defeated look on his face and I felt bad for him. He recovered quickly though and was on to his next crazy idea. Next we made our way to the seal and dolphin show. We had a good time at the seal and dolphin show and it reminded of the Sea World seal show. The children were funny to watch. Some got so into the show and would laugh and clap along, while others looked so serious and I am not sure they knew exactly what to make of it all. After the show we had our picnic lunch. Where, we had to throw out any leftover food because again, it’s all about appearances here and the children can’t go home looking like they didn’t eat all their food or share it with others. Some food that was unopened we saved and gave it to them after school or kept it in the teacher’s lounge for another day. After lunch we had another 40 minutes to explore the zoo some more. We only had one partner group fall down, which considering we had 19 students, we were pretty happy with the results. As we were helping the girls who feel down, I got pooped on by some birds. This incident did not surprise me at all. I can’t even count how many times this has happened to me over my lifetime!

By the end of the day the children were pretty tired. I was Brian’s partner and had to basically drag him along the last part of the trip. He was falling asleep as he was walking. If you look at the pictures of us in front of the sea otter, you can notice the boy in front of me, Brian, is slowly falling down in each picture. On the bus ride home three of my students fell asleep on me! Brian not being able to stay awake though doesn’t surprise me. He falls asleep in Gordon’s class after lunch quite often. He has even fallen asleep at lunch before too. Another annoyance in Korean culture is that they don’t make their child go to bed a certain time. The kids go to bed whenever they feel like it, causing many of our children to be exhausted at school. This is ironic because these same parents expect their child to read, write and be at an academic level that is beyond a 4 or 5 year old. Again, I have digressed, I will write another blog about all this someday. All in all though the zoo was a success and I can’t wait until the next field trip.

Buddha’s birthday equals a weekend at the beach

When I first heard about Buddha’s birthday, I thought, where should I go over the long weekend? What I was unaware of was this is the same belief the rest of South Korea had. After a few days of trying to find flights everywhere from Japan to Cambodia, I quickly realized this was a plan that was not going to happen. My friends and I gave up and decided to stay in Seoul and explore the city a little more. Two weeks ago I got the idea to look up train tickets to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. I heard they were selling out quickly, but I figured I might as well look into it. I found a 10 pm train and a hostel right away. I chatted over Skype with both Toriann and Casey and asked what they thought; they both gave me an overwhelming “Yes!” So I bought the tickets, booked the hostel and called our other friend Megan to convince her to come as well.

Our weekend at the beach, despite a few days of bad weather, was wonderful! First, I love taking trains, so that in itself was a great time. We did get asked to talk a little softer; I guess our laughing was too much for the Koreans around us. On Friday we spent the day at the beach and it was amazing. It was perfect beach weather. The four of us girls spent the afternoon laying out, playing card games, doing crossword puzzles, reading, and swimming in the sea. I don’t think I could have asked for a better afternoon than Friday. It was truly a day filled with genuine friendship and laughter, something I have been missing from my friends at home. We left the beach and headed back to our hostel to shower and change to go for the evening and find some dinner. When we got back to our hostel we met our two new roommates. Two guys who are here teaching English as well. They were with a lager a group and we ended up spending the evening with them. That evening when we were all going to sleep we stayed up for hours telling ridiculous stories and laughing. In all my hostel stays, I have never had more entertaining roommates. It all added to the perfect day we had been having.
Saturday’s weather did not cooperate like Friday and it rained ALL day. We ventured out a little before noon before the rain had really started with the hope it would stop raining and the sun would come out. Our plan was to go to a restaurant on the beach and wait out the rain. Again, we had the same idea as the rest of Busan. We spent hours eating lunch and playing card games. While we were playing games, we met a group of foreign teachers from England. We played some card games with them for awhile, before deciding the rain was never going to stop and headed home around 8 to shower and get warm and dry! Megan and Toriann were too tired to go out, but Casey and I wanted to meet up with some people we knew from Seoul. We showered and got dried off from the rain, only to experience the rain again. I think I am spoiled by Seattle rain. We rarely have more than a drizzle and it hardly storms quite as hard as it does here in South Korea. I think the summer monsoon season is going to be hard for me.
We headed back to Seoul on Sunday after a long brunch at a nearby restaurant to our hostel. Even though it rained two out of the three days we were there, I had a wonderful time. I realized I really miss simply being with my friends from home and enjoying our time together. This weekend I felt like I had that time and it was truly needed and appreciated.

Sadly, I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few.

Don’t worry, be happy!

Jayden, one of my students goes around saying, “don’t worry, be happy” all the time. I have decided to take this motto and put it into practice in reference to North Korea. I know people at home read the newspapers and watch the news and hear about the new turmoil between North and South Korea and worry, but here in Seoul no one is really concerned. At school a few of us foreign teachers were talking after school about this topic. Two of them have been in Seoul for a few years and said what I have heard before, that North Korea threatens Seoul every year. We then asked a few of our Korean teachers what they thought. Again, they reiterated what others have said, this happens all the time and no one is concerned. I could go into all the political reasons as to why North Korea will never actually act on these threats, but in truth the real reason I am not all that concerned has more to do with my personality. I have never been a person not to worry and stress about things that are out of my control, I always trust that I will be alright as long as I make reasonably safe choices. (I put the reasonable part because some may say coming to Korea at all was not that reasonable) I know there is a small chance something could happen while here, but the same is true of living in Seattle. To put some of your minds at ease back home, I did register with the U.S. Embassy, and I know the excavation route, it’s about an hour walk from my apartment. In the end I will take Jayden’s daily advice to me, “don’t’ worry, be happy.”

A Week of firsts

This week was full of firsts not only for me, but for my new student Brian. Brian’s first day was Monday and I quickly learned he was not as mature as the rest of my class. Within the first few minutes I learned he had never used scissors before. This fact alone is not that uncommon, all of Toriann’s class needed help too learning how to use scissors, again, a reason Brian should be in her class and not mine. Then came lunch time, where I learned his Mom would feed him! His first day at lunch I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t eating, but then I saw him try and hold his spoon and realized he didn’t know how to do. I sat by him and helped him, but he really had no interest in trying, he wanted someone to do it for him. This mentality translates to everything he has to do in class, he never wants to do anything from himself. On Tuesday when we had our ice cream party I figured it was the perfect motivation to get him to use a spoon. Instead he chose to sit there for about 45 minutes and only tried once to use his spoon to eat his ice cream. By Friday though he managed to use a fork to pick up his chicken and eat it. I have to keep reminding myself that it isn’t his fault he is this way, he has been babied his whole life and that he will eventually learn how to be independent. But, it is going to be a long process to get there! He actually threw a real temper tantrum in class on Thursday because his chicken was too spicy at lunch. I was shocked at first, and then afterward all I could do was laugh with my co-workers because the whole situation is too ridiculous. It will be an interesting time being the person to teach him everything, but at least he will finally learn how to eat by himself!

Next up is my first time being on Korean television and standing up for myself at work. I wrote about how I was upset about the camera crews coming on Monday. Well Monday morning came around and I arrived to work not really knowing what to expect. It turns out Julie was sick, so the camera crews were not coming anymore. Instead they came on Thursday. But, before school on Thursday one of the administrators came down to talk to me, the one I don’t really like very much. She doesn’t speak English, so she had the teacher down the hall translate. I guess Julie’s mom called that morning and explained that Julie had been crying in the morning more than she ever has before about not wanting to come to school. But, the camera crews were at her house too, and she doesn’t like them. The administrator told me all this and then asked “what can you do to make her not cry?” Well this just set me off because the whole reason I have all the new students is because of her. I told her; 1)Julie needs to come to school for a full week. 2)Don’t give me 4 new students in a month, one who shouldn’t even be in my class. 3) Don’t give into her when she is crying and then I ended with telling her she was crying when she was eating ice cream on Children’s Day. What child does that if not for attention? I was so annoyed with this, but proud of me for standing up for myself and not just taking what she said. This is something I would not have done After she left I asked Joanne, the teacher who was translating what she thought I should do about Julie, who everyone now calls the crying girl. Joanne had no ideas either, and said, really if a child cries when they eat ice cream, there is really nothing you can do! So, Julie comes on Thursday and I was mentally prepared for the worst. Turns out we had to change our schedule around to make it look more enjoyable for the camera crews to film. They wanted to film Gordon teaching drama class. Pine and Oak class went downstairs during second and third period to do an impromptu drama class and then free time on the play structure. I was also informed I had to do an interview with the camera crew. I really had no idea what I was going to say about this girl who cries and doesn’t even talk to me or anyone else. To top it off I was having a weird allergic reaction and my eye was all red and watery, and I randomly developed a large red zit by my lip. I was not very thrilled about this idea. Also, I am not too fond of being the center of attention when it comes to these types of things, making this whole incident even harder for me to handle. Toriann and Gordon gave me a little pep talk and we all headed down stairs for drama class. The kids were a little confused as to why we were having drama in the middle of the day and not at the end of day, or why we were doing it on Thursday not their normal day of Tuesday. But since the week had been so out of order anyway due to children’s day, they just went with it. I enjoyed being able to see what they do in drama class, and Toriann and I participated, which the kids thought was great! Afterwards they wanted us to play with the kids, so we did. Then they pulled Julie and I aside and asked me a few questions. While they were filming this, the rest of my class thought this was fun and came by and climbed all over me. I had to kind of makeup answers, since really I didn’t know Julie all that well; she has only been at school about 5 days total. I did a good job making everything sound great and then we continued to play. All in all, it ended up being just fine and Julie didn’t cry once! In fact she was great! On Friday she came to school and didn’t cry either. I found out that at her last school she would cry and the director would come down and give her lots of attention and presents. I had told Liz the day before to tell the administrators to stop coming down and giving Julie special attention because she was crying more just to get that attention. I think it helped because on Friday she was perfectly fine and she even talked to the other kids in class! At lunch Ray said to me “Miss Alison, Julie smiled and talked!” He was so proud of himself that he got her to smile and talk, it was really sweet. Julie even talked to me more; I think she is finally becoming comfortable in class and with me.


My last first for the week was yoga. I was really nervous because I have never done it before and I get anxious doing things I think I may not be good at. Turns out I did just fine and the teacher is amazing. I plan on going back on Tuesday and signing up. I figured no better time to learn yoga then here in Seoul. When I go back home I can finally try the yoga class at the gym I was always too scared to try.

Children’s Day

Growing up I always asked my parents why we had Mother’s Day and Father’s day and but never a Children’s day. My Dad would tell me it’s because every day is children’s day. So when I came to Korea and saw they have a holiday dedicated all to children I laughed to myself. However, after spending two months here I can see why Children’s Day is so important in Korean culture and I respect how the holiday brings families together. To appreciate this fully you have to know a little about Korean culture and how children grow up here. Korean parents micromanage every decision in their child’s life. Most children go to school all day long and even sometimes on the weekends. When the normal school day is over most students go to after school and then even to other activities after that. I teach after school classes to older elementary students, they come from a full day of school to my school for after school classes and stay until 5:30. Then they have other classes after that, either piano, violin, or some other academic class. Many do not get home until 10pm. This leaves very little family time and socializing time for them. That’s why having a whole day dedicated to children being allowed to be children is so important here.

At school we celebrated it on Tuesday by having a day filled with games, parties and random activities. Our day began with “Olympic games” where the 6 and 7 year olds competed in games led by the after school gym teacher. When we first walked into the gym all of us English teachers had our students sitting against the wall, but they were all talking to each other and not all sitting down properly. Once all the students came in the Korean gym teacher, who most these kids have never seen before, said two words in Korean and they were all quiet and sitting perfectly within a matter of seconds. We all looked at each other, and wondered at the same time why they would never do that for us! Regardless, it was great to see our students listening so well. The first relay race required the students to hold balloons within a ring and bring it down to the other side of the gym, then transfer the balloons to another ring and bring the balloons back to the start. It was funny to watch the student’s personality come out playing this game. One student, Katie, who we all called “independent” in her parent teacher conference, was so slow and careful bringing down the balloons. It made all us 6 year old teachers laugh because she takes her time whenever she feels like it. One of my boys, Ray, hates being the center of attention and looked completely miserable having everyone looking at him, although afterwards I asked him his favorite game and he said it was the balloon relay race. (check out the pictures below and you will see what I am talking about) The next game was a hopping relay race, which it turns out many of the student had a hard time doing. But, it was still fun to watch. Gordon and I were at each end helping the students get ready to jump, we ended up having to help a good amount of them hop all the way to the other side. The third game’s goal was to turn over the blue and red squares to whatever team color you were on, the object being to see which team had the most squares turned over at the end. Some of the students did not get this concept and just grabbed them and ran with them. My boy Tonghu seemed a little overwhelmed and simply decided to take a few and go back to the wall and sit with them. When one of the 7 year old boys game up to him to get them back so they could win the game he was not very willing to give them up. It was a funny altercation to witness and in the end the 7 year old boy gave up, showing again just how stubborn Tonhgu can be. After the games it was ice cream and face painting time. We had lunch and then a party packed with more sugar. We headed back down to the gym for a scavenger hunt. Again, the kids had a great time. It was great seeing them just being kids and not having to do work all day. It was also great that we didn’t have to plan anything and simple just help out with the games and activities.

We had Wednesday off for the official Children’s Day holiday and Toriann and I decided to go explore a new section of town. We like to find an area and simply wander with no real goal or destination. Other people don’t always enjoy this type of outing, so we choose to do it when other people don’t hang out with us. We set off to find the area we found by accident a month ago when we took the bus the wrong direction. We got off a few stops earlier this time and walked down by the stream. It was crowded and full of families spending the day together. I loved seeing children spending time with their families. The city had events all over the place just for the children. We passed numerous water foundation areas where kids were running through them. There were also many activities set up for children to participate in, such as painting tiles, going on a police motorcycle ride, and many more, all free. We stumbled across a tight rope walking show at a temple, which we stayed and watched for a while. We also found another temple that holds musicals outside of the temple. We are going to go sometime next week, when else when we will ever see a musical with a temple in the background. All in all Children’s day was wonderful!

A Perfect Saturday after a LONG week

After the field trip on Tuesday my week at school didn’t go as well as others have. I realized part of the problem is there has been a lot of change in my class and both the kids and I can feel it. We have had three new students in the past month, with one new one beginning on Monday. As an adult I have issues with change, so I can only imagine how having three new students in a class of 6 can feel on my students. The first new girl I had, Cindy, is doing amazing now. She had a rough start, but is fitting in just fine with the other students, and in fact was a HUGE help with my new girl Julie. The boy, Jayden is beginning to calm down a bit and he is slowly finding friends in the classroom. Julie though, is still having a hard time. She started last Thursday and came for Friday, but then was gone Monday-Wednesday of this past week. She has really only been here 4 days total. She is getting better, but still cries at any transition time. On Friday near the end of the day, I was informed by my Korean helper, Liz, that Julie’s mom is in some form of broadcasting and there would be a film crew coming on Monday to follow her around and make a documentary. I was thrown off by this and had about a million questions for Liz, none of which she could answer because no one had actually told her the whole story either. I was told to inform the rest of the teachers on my floor. I quickly found Gordon and relayed the message to him and he thought it was ridiculous too. I simply said, “she still cries! And Brain begins Monday.” Gordon agreed this was a bad idea and talked to our direct supervisor and told her what he thought. By the time we left 40 minutes later there was no change yet, so who knows what will happen on Monday morning.

I didn’t take this bit of news very well, in fact, I got really upset. Most of the other teachers at my school who are new have all had at least one moment where they have been anger, sad, frustrated and couldn’t quite deal with the culture differences here. I haven’t had one of the moments yet, Friday was my time to have that moment. I became really frustrated with Korean parents and the school and how they handle situations. Basically parents have full control of the school and what happens, regardless of what is best for the child and other students. I am the only one so far that has received new students. At first, I thought I was getting the new students because I was the smallest class, but now I have two more students than both Casey and Toriann’s class. I learned I am receiving the new students because the parent’s know that the classes are leveled; Gordon and I have group A and Toriann and Casey have group B. This leveling is simply based on how much English they know, not how smart the child is. However, parents hear there is a level and automatically want their child in the higher level. Cindy is a perfect example of this. She is a great child, but she is not at the same level as the rest of my class, and I always feel bad for her because I know she doesn’t get everything like the other students. Gordon told me Brian, my new student for Monday, is the same way. I wish the school would tell the parents no sometimes and consult us more often on these issues, but I realize this will never happen. I vented to my coworkers and didn’t really feel all that better. We even went out for a drink after work and Gordon offered that whatever time the camera crew shows up that we just change the schedule so they are in his class. I don’t really know what will happen tomorrow when I arrive to school, but I am sure it will be an interesting story!

Saturday was quite the contrast from Friday. It was one of the first truly sunny, warm days in Seoul. It is like in Seattle when spring finally comes and everyone is in a great mood. It was sunny, warm and I had no plans for the day. Toriann and I have been talking about walking around the city for awhile now, but it always seems like something was going on any day that was actually sunny. We decided to try and walk to a nearby mall that we knew how to get to from the subway, but couldn’t really figure out exactly where it was in relation to where we live. We studied the map and set out. It turned out to be about an hour walk, which was perfect. We decided it was too nice of a day to be inside the mall, so we quickly went in to get we wanted and then headed toward the river. As we walked toward the river we noticed how nice the neighborhood was and that we need to come back and explore more at a later date. We got to the water and realized we were across from the baseball stadium. We have heard that Koreans take their baseball quite serious, and were curious about attending a game. We figured we might as well walk across and at least see the stadium and maybe look into tickets for another day. We got across the river and realized a game was beginning in about 30 minutes. We both said at the same time that we should go to the game, it was sunny and warm out and what better way to enjoy the day! We were trying to find exactly where to buy the tickets and couldn’t find it, so we did what we always do when we are lost and asked the first foreigner to could find. We picked the right group of people! We ended up buying tickets with them and sitting with them. It was a group of about 15 teachers, who all live about an hour or so north of Seoul. They were a great group of people from all across the U.S., Canada, and England. The stadium itself was smaller than a baseball game from home, but it was crowded and the fans are equally, if not more, excited. The game was the Seoul Bears (who were told to root for ) against the other Seoul team (I forgot their name). Everyone buys foam bats and hits them together during the chants and in place of clapping. It was very exciting, and you easily get caught up in the excitement of it all. I wish I knew exactly what they were chanting, maybe the next game I will ask a Korean! We sadly forgot our camera, so we have no pictures, but next time we go.

A couple innings into the game we got hungry and went outside to find some food. As we were walking we ran into a group of guys we met about a month ago on our trip down south. We have seen them a few times since then as well. It was so random to run into them right outside the stadium. We ended up eating dinner with them and heading back into the stadium. They were in a different section of the stadium, but it was great to actually run into people we knew! As we were walking home, both Toriann and I agreed it was just the type of day we needed. I definitely feel refreshed and rejuvenated for Monday and the craziness that will probably occur!