Movie Madness

Ahhh, and it's been *Movie Madness* around the Mags n' Me household... I've watched a few movies over the past couple of weeks, and I'm DL'ing a bunch more to watch l8r ...

I Hate Valentine's Day, I enjoyed this one, fluffy, fun, laughed quite a bit; Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding wrote it (!) and was in it (I think she's funny), I also like John Corbett, he always plays nice guys that are a bit lost, lol... Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, no dirty dancing, that's for sure, but it had some really good Cuban music in it (and geez I wish I could dance like that!!). 17 Again, not at all Freaky Friday (which was what I was expecting) but pretty cute, my little Chandler was all grown up there for awhile! Couples Retreat, very Vince Vaughn, funny as all get out, laughed and laughed and was happy I watched it - cheered me up when I was being a grump. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, not so bad, cute I guess really, happy nerds, daddy loves you and accepts you now because you saved the world and all that, cute despite the storyline.

Dear John, I was happy I went and saw this one, but when I saw Nicholas Sparks' name on the screen (The Notebook) I knew I'd be crying... true to that tears were shed, though that was made up for somewhat by the fact that Channing Tatum (pictures if you click on his name there) had his shirt off much of the time, haha... however, I did think the ending was pretty weak, I was disappointed with it. The Ugly Truth, I think I've seen it before, I thought so as I was watching it anyway, those little niggling thoughts of deja vu; but in any case I really liked it, Gerard Butler was so cute, I laughed out loud a lot in this one. State of Play, good movie, better than I thought actually, and nothink like I thought it was going to be... worth a download if you like Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, which I do! Invention of Lying, loved that movie, I'm still thinking about it, really really liked it! Observe and Report, possibly the worst spent hour and 10 minutes of my life - why didn't anyone tell me???!

Alice in Wonderland in 3D maybe Tuesday or Wednesday after work, I can't wait to see Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter - I don't know which day though, I'll have to go home and (ugh) check my schedule!

This is Why I Am a CAT Person

Because there is a little creature in my apartment that is apparently suffering from separation anxiety (ironic, considering the client in my latest case study is dealing with the same issues), I feel like I now have to build my entire life pretty much around her.

Since moving my pup just keeps getting wierder and more tightly wound, and now she's peeing in the house, whining a lot, and practically on top of my *all*the*time. Now she's cute, and looks like such a sweetie, so you might find yourself wondering, "how could something so cute and small and sweet be so much trouble?" I tell you, I find myself wondering the same thing every time I have to clean up a new puddle, or rewash the blanket that JUST came out of the washing machine.

SO, after getting some advice from friends (screw Ceasar, he's useless!), I have decided that maybe it's just that she needs some regularity to her days like she used to have, and that we need to have a schedule. I'm going to try it for a month, (a) to see if I can live with it, and (b) to see if it makes things any better for my poor pup.. If it does, great, we'll both adapt and carry on. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll be looking at alternate arrangements for her, as I'm actually starting to get worried about my little peanut's psyche!

So cross your fingers for me, and have a good laugh when you see how I'm structuring my comings and goings around my puppy... but, it'll really be worth it if she's happier and I can stop stressing about her!!

So for now I'm off to bed early, cuz we're back to RUNning in the morning! Hope you're having yourself an incredible weekend... S

Another Reason "I Heart Korea"

Well, Mags and I have a temporary treaty arranged... she will stop peeing on all of my things, and regardless, I will stop yelling at her when she does it, cuz afterall, she's just a pup, she's not trying to cheeze me off. I am also trying to make myself a bit of a more regular schedule since someone very doggy-smart told me that should make a big difference, and in all honestly it'll probably do us both some good!! We'll go back to running at the river in the mornings (I'll have to get some breakfast bars maybe) rather than the short pee-walks so that she's more tired out before I go to work, and I'll make more of an effort with her during my break times instead of another quick spin around the block - even if that's just playing fetch awhile down by the fountains!! I don't plan on making my weekend days so rigid, she'll just have to deal with it, but 5 days out of 7 is a start, right?? Seeing as how she's the pup and I'm the people, I'll do all the changing and she'll do a bunch more 'being happy' if all goes according to my new little plan. I have to say that I think I'M probably going to be the only one of the 2 of us that's exhausted at the end of the day, but surely that will make me sleep better too, right!!

When I woke up this morning it also started to feel like maybe the sinus infection is starting to lift. I have 2 more days of medication left, and I've already decided that if it comes back again by the end of the week (I'm not even sure the Dr gave me antibiotics, so it's possible!) I'm going into the International Clinic in Seoul to see a Western Dr and get it fixed right here - right now - no more messing around. Hopefully this will be the end of it though, that would make me very happy.

 So, now on to the new reason that I love Korea... It's 5 after 7 and I am waiting at the CGV theatre in JukJeon for "Dear John" to start at 7:30. I have my short vanilla latte from the Starbucks in the concession area, and I've been here about 20 minutes - if you want a ticket in Korea you have to come early, because shows sell out quick! quick! quick! especially the newer ones. Now this one has been playing here for some time now, but there's still a lack of tickets if you leave it until the last minute! In order for me to stay entertained, I'm standing here in the waiting room with a bunch of teens around me oohing and ahhing at my typing (over my shoulder breathing down my neck practically, it's quite funny). There's a whole bank of computers against one wall with a free internet connection for anyone to use, and I can pass the time by making myself (and you!) a note in the blog, because... well, because I can!! Internet connection complete with computer stations (not just free wifi) are available in all sorts of coffee shops in public areas, I think it's awesome - nobody messes with the connection or the computers either, which I don't think you could count on at home!!

Last weekend I went to Ori's theatre and watched "Percy Jackson," which was actually pretty good. Watching a movie on my own is an interesting experience, especially in this country, lol... while at home you might *think* that everyone is staring at you (if only because you're at the theatre on your own), here it's pretty much guaranteed that someone'll be staring, and it'll likely be nothing to do with the fact that you're by yourself... makes me laugh. Well, off to see the show (and grab some popcorn too of course!)... hope your weekend has been fantastic so far!!

Lists and plans and *A*n*Y*t*H*i*N*g* but homework!

So I got to thinking (I am supposed to be doing homework, so it was bound to happen!) about the different things I want to do while I'm in Korea. I had started thinking about this when plans were bantered around for a return last Spring, so here's where I'm at for now...

• Continue studying Korean (I have Rosetta Stone on my computer and am making a committment to do an hour of studying at least 3 times/week for the next 3 months - I hadn't been doing this but will start tomorrow, I'm hoping more will sink in since I'm surrounded by the language now!)
• Practice yoga (The gym downstairs offers yoga a few times a week, and I've scheduled a 'viewing session' with them on Tuesday next week after work - if it looks good I'll be starting Wednesday 3 days per week for the next 3 months, otherwise I'll look around, there are yoga places all over!)
• Spend my weekends outside of my apartment doing things, not sitting at home in front of the computer/TV (cuz let's face it, while it's easier to sit on my butt at home, that just sucks the life right outta me, so I've committed to going out and doing something new or meeting new people at least one day out of each weekend - I've been out every weekend so far!)
• Make Korean friends, and not just hang out in the foreign community (On Sunday I'm meeting KiJeong and her daughter Cathy (old kindy student and her mom from Suji) for shabu-shabu in Suji, it's a start at least! I've also thought about maybe going for coffee with a couple of the Korean helper-teachers because they're so nice, but my Korean is just so... ugh, sketchy!!)
• Reconnect with old friends that are still in Korea (I have gotten back in touch with most old friends that are kicking around here and even managed a visit here and there! I hope to stay in touch and hang out now and again, we'll see how that goes as none of us live in the same area)
• Join a hiking/climbing group and go out with them regularly (I've joined a hiking group in Seoul, but haven't gone out with them yet - I hope to in April! Had to cancel March plans due to school project deadlines, yuck)
• Let go of my attachment to converting Korean Won to Canadian Dollars everytime I want to make a purchase (I can honestly say that I haven't even thought about this once since I've been back. It was such a knot in my head the last 2 trips, I've managed to let it go though)
• See the English theatre shows that visit and Go to at least one international concert a year (So far I've seen signs for Phantom and Miss Saigon, but both shows are in Korean... I might go see Miss Saigon anyway, but I'll keep watching; Bob Dylan is coming next month, but he's not really my thing... another thing I'll stay tuned for)
• Keep in touch regularly with friends and family back at home by email and bloggin' (so far so good with this one too, yay!)

To add to the old list, I would also like to do a temple stay, do a bike tour of GyeongJu, go somewhere where the cherry blossoms are in bloom this spring for photos, take a vacation in Busan, get into a pattern of taking care of myself better (maybe regular relaxing massage and accupuncture sessions??), and perhaps if I get up the gumption (yep, getting old, I just brought out the gumption) I'll find somewhere they'll teach me how to dance... we'll see, I hope the list keeps growing as I find out more about what goes on around here!

Big Fat Long Sigh

Between the length of my week, being sick, snowy gray weather, and being woken up twice a night for the past 3 nights by the dog for seemingly no apparent reason I was looking forward to coming home and chilling out, getting some homework done, and dropping off in my cozy bed to sleep, with nothing more to stress about.

 

• You may recognize in this photo my new comforter - the one I just bought on Wednesday.
• You may also notice that it's soaking wet in the washing machine.
• I can tell you that once it's done in the washing machine, it will take up to 4 days to dry, because there are no dryers in the apartments here, everything hangs to dry.
• I still don't have my other blanket back from the cleaners after Maggie peed on it, because I just took it down on Wednesday when I got the new one.
• My old blanket will be ready at the cleaner's on Tuesday after school.

3 guesses for why this one's in the washer?

Talk about a time out in the 'zen zone,' I'm all but curled up in the floor in yoga's child position keeping my cool.

Something has to be done... I swear... At this point, I just wish I knew what it was.

Shopping!!!!

Okay, so right now I should be working on homework rather than typing on my blog, but I don’t feel like it – so here I am! It snowed here in the past couple of days, so that has made me moody, so I need to find somewhere to redirect my energy. I can say that it’s been harder for me to focus on school here than it was at home. I can’t attend the classes in real time and I have to watch recordings after the fact, which I'm not always highly motivated to do (due to the boredom factor), and of course nobody double-checks that I even do that - I'll be glad to be done (in the year 2078!). So, needless to say, when I have to do it I’ll do it, but as usual, it ain’t gonna happen before then!

 Anyway... went back to Home Plus again yesterday! It’s a terribly fantastic store and I easily killed 2 hours wandering around the aisles checking things out. I can get just about anything I need there, and they have nice produce (which is a real plus in a big store!). I picked up a few more things for the apartment, a small heap of things for the puppy, as well as some groceries so my fridge and cupboards are now nowhere near bare!!

I found a new comforter without any shades of fuchsia, along with a new pillow...

 

I got some new dishes to cook with and to eat off of...

   

And this is the first real meal I've eaten at home that didn't revolve around ramyeon soups...

I picked up a pretty humidifier (yes, I said 'a pretty humidifier', no need for plain-Jane in Korea!),

I got some new teas (jasmine and chamomille),

and I finally bought a bag of coffee... we’ll see how that works out when I brew some in my 4-cupper tomorrow!

And for the cherry on top, I also picked up a bottle of Jacob’s Creek greanache/shiraz (good old Aussie wines) which is very nice cold... ahhhhh.... 

 

That's it for the shopping until payday at the end of the month, when I might buy a mattress pad and a couple more things for the house (oh, and some plants!!!). Shopping is much fun, even when you have to lug it all home on the subway... there was a very nice man in the station walking up from the train who carried half of my bags to the entrance as I was walking up the stairs - I appreciated the small kindness!

Not So Much Just Allergies

In the past few days since getting medication I have not felt any better. The night before last I actually woke up in the middle of the night because of the sinus pain, and woke with an uneducated but stuffy medical opinion that it is not (only?) allergies making me ill, but indeed a tried and true good ole' sinus infection like I first thought. Soooo.... I went back to another doctor (same building as the last of course!) who turned out to be an ENT (just the guy for a sinus infection!).

I went to the appointment with a coworker, so when they finally called us in they called us in to the room together (of course assuming that if you're a foreign man and woman in public in Korea that we must be married). So we saw the doctor together, he for the green-tinged infection he was growing in his finger, and me for my overcrowded sinuses. The doctor looked at us in disbelief even after the 3rd time we told him we were not married, and continued asking one questions about the condition of the other. Eventually he veered off to an actual medical line of questioning and I was a bit less annoyed. So while Jerry sat in the chair about 3 feet from me after receiving a 2-day antibiotic prescription, the doctor moved me to the 'dentist' chair (same-same but different) and then proceeded to stick sharp instruments up my nose, including some strange suctioney thing (yes, that's a thing, look it up!) that he sucked all of the grossness out of my sinuses with: yuck and OW!

Following that he shook his head and then paused before confirming the diagnosis I had suspected. He scratched his head and asked, "how is it you came to know that you really had acute sinusitis?"... like I needed 10 years of medical school to tell me that!! So, after I convinced him to give me at least 5 days of medication (he suggested 2, like that would somehow fix the infection right up!) I came home with a large prepacked strip of pills. I have NO idea what any of them are, and so far they're doing me no good (but it's only really been a day).

After the appointment Jerry suggested Butterfingers for dinner since we were both starving, and I would never turn down the chance for french toast from this much talked about spot! Butterfingers is an all-day pancake and waffle house (which I never knew existed in Korea to this point), and I had an amazing pile of whipped cream and strawberry compote with a big thick slick of beautiful french toast on the side with vanilla butter (who else would think of putting vanilla in the butter for your pancakes?? these people are geniuses I tell you!), and OMG it was so good, my stomach is remembering it as I type...mmmmmmm! That, and I ordered a great big cafe mocha. Once I had taken care of most of the whipped cream and chocolate syrup piled on top (because I didn't get enough with my french toast!) I noticed a bit of writing on the inside of the cup... "Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. John 37:7-8." and I couldn't help but giggle. Somehow I don't think that's quite what they meant in the bible, but hey, this is Korea, everything is marketable!!

So another day came and went, and in the midst of it all I taught, I cooked, I ate, I giggled, and I shopped. More on the shopping later, can't wait to share my finds! Talk soon... S.

Music Video

For the computer-challenged that might be among you, if you want to look at the photos I post in my writing a bit bigger (sometimes I save them quite small), you can usually just click on the photo itself and it'll popup bigger. Alternatively, you can also check out my Flickr page (I'll get to naming and writing a bit about most of the photos later this week).

Enjoy the music... (I hope I caught toque-grandpa's dancing!)

My Sunday in Seoul

It was so nice to get out of the apartment on Sunday. The weather wasn't bad, and I didn't feel bad leaving pups behind since I'd had her out on Saturday. Grabbed a bus into the city, turned out to be the wrong one so I sardined subwayed myself to Insadong without much further ado.

One of the bestest yummiest snacks was waiting for me, delli-manjoo goodness... when they're fresh and hot they're a.ma.zing... a dab of hot vanilla pudding in the centre, yum-yum-yum!

I ate them all before I climbed my way out of the depths of the station. When I did reach the top I (of course) took the wrong exit and popped out in a street of stalls. 

There was a man making a traditional snack called Ddeok (sound kinda like doc), which is basically just smashed rice with a bit of salt rolled in soybean powder. I just wanted to take a couple pictures, but after a demonstration, several different samples and a 10-minute English explanation later (supervised by 3 grandpas over my shoulder) I bought a tray for a whole 2 dolla so they'd lemme go!

On the way to Insadong I passed Tapgol Park so I popped in to take a couple of pictures. There are (or will be!) more on my flickr page if you wanna see 'em!

From there I finally got to Insadong where I had been headed all along, and had a great time looking around and taking photos. There were people everywhere of course, and a couple of demonstrations. Same old things for sale, which is really what I love about the place. A few shops were changed (this is Korea after all) and Andy Warhol exhibit has finally hit the road :( , but overall the same vibe, it was really great. A couple of teens from a nearby church begged to take photos together, so of course I happily agreed while declining the invitation to church. Only minutes later a strange single Korean man what country you from?'d me, which lead to... I am single... I am lonely... I love children... I love you too... and I'll let you color in the rest of the blanks! I ducked into a shop shortly after the last part with a 'okay now, you have a good day there...' and didn't see him again. Yep, same old Korea!

When it got a bit chillier I wandered around Jongak area, checked out Bandi and Luni's bookstore in Samsung, and searched for my old favorite, angel kisses (candy-coated strawberries, OMG are they incredible!), I couldn't fine 'em though so I kept on walkin'.

A strange-but-true fact about me that you may not have known? Grandpas love me. I don't know what it is, but no matter where I go in any country I've ever visited, they just love chattin' me up. That's right, I'm a grandpa magnet!! I wandered by the Jongmyo area and stumbled into a whole lotta grandpas playing badduk in the park and discussing serious matters amongst the pigeons. One friendly grandpa (who I would've actually thought might have been in his early 60s) wandered over as I was taking pictures of the calligraphy. He asked why I was taking pictures, and why didn't I have a nice Korean boyfriend to show me around. He told me there are many beautiful men in Korea, and said, "oh, but not me, I'm a nice Korean guy but I'm 79 years old now, too old for you!" it was very cute. He said that he spent some time in Canada waaaay back when the Olympics were in Montreal, and of course ticked off the names of all the Canadian cities he could remember (Toront, Vancouver, Montreal). His friends were amazed with his English, and the longer we chatted the larger the group of grandpas around us grew. 

Alas, the time came to say our goodbyes, and since I was in the park, I ambled through the grounds of the Jongmyo Shrine. It was really quite peaceful inside, not a lot of people were visiting at the end of the day. I also stumbled on a group of grandpas playing various instruments just tucked into a side alley. 2 of them in particular (and another who was standing by) were quite charmed to be the centre of attention since I had hunkered down to take some pictures of them. I was the only foreigner who had snuck into the alley. They played and danced a bit; I love happening upon things like that, it was loud, but very fun.

Finally, when I walked by the Picadilly Thetre I noticed Alice was playing. I was gonna grab a ticket but decided to make my way back to my end of the world to see if it was showing there. About 75 minutes on the bus later (note: the 9000 bus is NOT the most efficient way home!) I snuck into Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief with a little popcorn just as the opening credits rolled. Really enjoyed the movie, it was the perfect end to a fabulous day!

The Verdict

Good news: Not sick, just allergies! While actually finding the doctor's office took me some time, I finally found La Clinique Bundang. I obviously didn't listen well to the directions from one of my co-teachers, and I'm not even sure I ended up in the right building, but by that time I didn't care!! I spent some time reading the building's info board trying to figure out where the heck they kept the plain old doctors. I saw ENTs, Gynos, Plastic Surgeons, Pediatricians and Dentists listed, but no plain old ooee-sahs... so, I decided it was time to guess! I caught the next empty elevator, got in, closed my eyes and pushed a button, lol. Turned out to be a good shot because when I landed on the 4th floor the doors opened the the Riche Clinic, and beauty of beauties they had an English-speaking plain-old-doctor!

There was much frowning and facemaking over my not having insurance or an alien card, so I was pretty worried what the cost was going to be, but I thought it'd be best to worry about later. I was sure I wasn't in the office the other teachers go to because these receptionists had never heard of my school, and they kept making tsk-tsk noises about the cost of the visit without insurance. Oh well, nothing to be done about it!

After waiting only 15 minutes I spent about half hour in the office with the doctor. He didn't do any kind of physical exam, like they would at home, I just sat in the chair across his desk (in his actual office, not in an exam room) and we chatted. First he asked me to type my English name into the computer (I'd given the desk girls both so they would know how to say it!), and then he asked me a few questions about being sick and typing my responses into their diagnostic system. His verdict: I am having a sinus reaction to the Korean pollution and the abrupt climate change since arriving, and I'm probably not sick with any kind of cold or flu because I have no other symptoms. With the usual talk of 'come back if this doesn't help so I can prescribe something different', and 'take it until the end and then see if the symptoms come back again' (e.g. make sure it's allergies before I give you more medication), Dr Guak prescribed me 'anti-allergy medication' of some kind, and then we just chatted.

His English was really good despite the fact that all of his diplomas, degrees and certificates were from Korean universities. Turns out Dr. Guak actually studied neurology and brain-mapping when he was in school, so we had quite a discussion about brains and neuroimaging and rehabilitation (it was actually really interesting!) based on my last job.

Then when I told him what I was studying he asked me about my opinion on ADHD, and we talked about that for awhile. His opinion was that it's a profit-grab from pharmaceutical companies, and that it just makes parents, doctors and teachers lazy so they don't have to do more to help difficult children. He said ADHD is becoming an increasingly popular diagnosis with Korean Psychiatrists and Pediatricians, and I can genuinely say I was really sad in that moment, as the diagnosis wasn't used here that I knew of in my last visit. I talked with him about a bunch of different ways you can help kids with attention problems, both at home and at school without relying on medication... also about things he could talk with parents about if they came to him for a referral for ADHD. He was very excited to hear that current best practices at home (at least in my program) don't push medication, but rely on other interventions first... I don't think he was surprised to hear that it is still a rampant diagnostic concern at home with doctors and psychiatrists. It was such an interesting Dr visit!!

So, with much trepidation I approached the reception desk for my bill and prescription, and held my breath... this was gonna be bad, I could see it on their pretty apologetic faces... "Ok, sorry, that will be $16.80 please." Were these girls serious?? Sure, $16 is much more than the $2 you pay if you have insurance, but... seriously - all that grief over $16??!  Phewph, I was so relieved, and much less concerned about going to the pharmacy. The clinic's pharmacy was way too busy so I went to the one across the street from my apartment building... only $12.70 for the meds! So the total cost of the doctor's visit (plus social call, haha) was less than $30 - that was nothin'!

Much better.. so now I have an idea of what's wrong (I hope that he's right, it does fit with what I think about me and Korean pollution), medication that should get rid of the symptoms, a new english-speaking doctor about 10 minute's walk from my apartment, and an english-speaking pharmacist across the street... whatta morning! I also stopped at the fruit truck and the market on the way home for some feel-good food to help me feel less sucky.

Christmas oranges, strawberries, and citron tea... yum!! So I'm going to spend some time overdosing myself on vitamin c and then I'm going to go into Seoul for awhile, just revisit the old haunts and such - sounds like much fun to me!! Hope you're having a beautiful weekend, talk to you again soon!

Ok, I'll Admit It...

I'm willing to admit it now that I'm sick enough to go to the doctor. Today my eyes hurt, I have a bit of a headache coming, and while I have no cough,  no fever or any of those other things, the tops of my cheeks and my eyes are starting to get sore, and it's going to be all downhill from there, I remember it well!!

So, if I've got it right, I can actually see the tower of the medical clinic out my window, and it's a measly 4 or 5 blocks from the apartment - easy peasy! I've taken a deep breath and I'm ready for the long strips of blue and white pills that will surely follow from the pharmacy (I'll show you when I get home!).

My school doesn't provide medical insurance like many others do. The cost of that is about $30 per month for both the teacher and the school, and most of us almost never go to the doctor, so that's more than $350 per year spent by and for each teacher for much of nothing. What my school does do though is FULLY reimburse us for ANY medical expenses we have, so going to the doctor or accupuncturist and all of those things doesn't cost us a cent in either prescriptions or insurance, yay! It's surely much cheaper for boss in the long run so he seems to be happy to do it that way. We'll see how that goes, lol... Our other teachers go to the same clinic because one doctor apparently speaks English well. Oh, just remembered I have to bring my passport! Ok, I'm going before this cold thing gets outta control...

Wish me luck!  :)

End of Week 1.....

Well, it's the end of the first week, and though I'm grateful I have 2 days off I had a really amazing week. While my smallest kids were crying and shy on Tuesday they were hugging me in the middle of lessons, dancing spontaneously during the ABC song and speak English about 2% of the time now - already progress!! I have made the deal with them that if they KNOW the English word they aren't allowed to say the Korean word, and it's working GREAT! Already most of the colours and numbers along with the words pencil, teacher, boy, girl, bookbag, big, small, lunch and friend are permanent residents in our classroom with my 10 little munchkins - I'm so proud of them already!! They listen to me so well (even with my barely-there froggy voice), and I already think they're miles ahead of some other classes, if only because I think they can do more independently than some of my partner teachers think their students can, and I make them... sometimes we learn because we 'do' and not because we're shown how, right?! They are really adorable, and while "teacher! uh-oh, teacher help me!" and "finished teacher" (no pinishee in my room!) are getting old, lol, they're in English!!

Monday and Friday at our school are long days where we teach from 3-7 in the afternoons, rather than only 3-5. Though the term has just begun I had until today had a very l....o....n....g 2 classes so far with the school's 'special' class that has been assigned to me for giving them the love of English, as my boss put it. They are the lowest level elementary kids we have, who, despite their time in English, are really struggling to learn. There is one student in particular (Jenny) that I have been having so much struggle with in the class... won't sit, all 'talk talk talk' when she should be reading or listening, and all 'ANYTHING BUT TALKING' when she should be speaking, playing with her (puppy) pencil case and REFUSING to give it to me when I made the mistake of giving her an ultimatum... let me just say that those were 2 looooong and a little bit disheartening blocks. Then I learned something new yesterday when I was talking with another teacher about the class...

Didn't anyone tell you that Jenny's in the wrong grade? She's actually too young for our school, but now she's enrolled and they don't want to tell her mom. Boss thought she was just finishing grade one in public school, but she's just starting it NOW. The other kids are 9 and 10 years old but she's only 7 and has never been in elementary school!

Wow. Can I just say, that this little piece of information saved me (and probably Jenny) so much strife? I thought Jenny had already been through 2 years of (very scary and discipline-heavy) Korean public school, and that she was developmentally 2 years older than she was. Being only 7 years old means that she's just 6 Canadian years old, starting school a year ahead of her Korean peers. I needed a waaaaaay different approach, almost like I use with my kindy kids, pretty much all love and patience and cuddles and (did I already mention patience?) to keep her involved in the lessons.

Today, even with my new information, Jenny and I were having a disagreement about her pencil case, and I gave her 2 choices of what she could do with it until class ended: 1. Put it on my chair (I usually stand and walk around when I teach) or 2. Go out and give it to Uncle (Boss), which is 'discipline' in our school. I tried to force her hand by giving her a good/bad choice scenario. Instead, she furiously shook her head 'no,' clutching the soft little puppy pencil case tightly to her chest like it was a real dog, and pointed that she wanted to put it in her backpack. Since I had given her an ultimatum in front of the rest of the students (dumb mistake of the week, I know better than that!) I didn't want to let her create option 3, so I took the case from her and brought her to tears in her chair (that felt just great, ugh...), putting it on my chair where she could see it. She did stop crying after a minute or 2, but I was not lovin' on my child management skills.

When I took a breath after straining to be heard/attended to by the remaining other kids, I noted that I was actually having quite a bit of trouble due to the seating arrangement (self-selected seating problems) with some of my older kids, so I had an idea... it was born from the suggestion that it's much easier to accommodate developmentally appropriate play and thinking, rather than forcing choices on kids...

There were 9 chairs around my table with 8 children who needed to sit. I drew a picture of my kidney-shaped table on the board with the 9 circles for chairs, and assigned each student a new chair (not beside their friends anymore, of course) for next week's class. Then, I assigned 'puppy' the empty chair next to Jenny, with the agreement (shook on it and everything!) that if puppy wasn't listening quietly to the lesson and studying (I gave puppy an extra book to sit on and a pen to take care of), she would have to live in Jenny's backpack until break time. One of my other students piped up, pointing to an empty 'baby chair' in the corner, on the other side of little Jenny's chair (in the corner, not right at our table): "Teacher! Teacher! That chair can be puppy's special chair, right? It's a good place!", and all of the rest of the kids clapped. I love children, they amaze me at every turn. My 10-year old tough boy who's too cool for English provided an even better solution to the problem than I had... this way puppy will actually be out of Jenny's reach, but can be observed by the whole class, and Jenny was *T*H*R*I*L*L*E*D* with the solution, all smiles for the remaining 95 minutes, reading, writing, speaking and everything.

I let her stand by her chair instead of sitting when she needed to be up and moving around (the other kids didn't seem distracted). I also spent quite a lot of the lesson teaching with her tucked close to me, under my arm, holding my hand, beside me at the table, all while still teaching to the other kids, AND getting her to focus on her lesson. Puppy remained in the special chair for the rest of class. It was magical I tell you. It probably sounds crazy, sounds crazy to me even as I just re-read it, lol, but it was frickin' great and I felt like a million bucks when my class of 8 kids (+puppy) who 'hate English class' danced out of my classrom after almost a FULL 2 hours of reading and grammar work loudly singing 'see you Monday teacher' at 7pm on a Friday... a million bucks...

THEN I went and picked up
Mags from the groomer's...

My poor puppy... I'm so sorry!

Photos are Uploaded!

I've uploaded and tagged some more photos in flickr, which you can see either by clicking on the photos on the right bar entitle "My Flickr Photostream" or going to this link. You can bookmarket by going to the page http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosbyshauna and adding to favorites if you want to check on photos once in awhile! "Korea 2010" is the current folder I'm adding to. Gotta run, I'm going to make myself late for work!! :) Have a great day... S.

Video - Shopping in SeoHyun

This is a test... This is only a test... Here is a video I took for you walking through SeoHyun... now that I know it works I'll take a couple around my neighbourhood and maybe at school so you can check it out! Let's see if this worked...

Shopping Shopping Shopping

Okay, so it should be called window shopping shopping shopping because I didn't buy much of anything, but nonetheless I have gotten out of my apartment to check out some of the places to spend my hard-earned money when the time comes! Yesterday I already mentioned AK Plaza over in SeoHyun, and today I went to Costco in YangJae. Costco was identical to home (other than the food court where shoppers leave their goods lined up neatly in carts unattended while they eat... nobody bothers their stuff; and I follwed behind a woman after dressing my hotdog, and she was carrying a plate loaded only with chopped onions (that I assumed must be for the hotdogs at her table)... the onions were piled high with a bit of ketchup and mustard on top... once she sat at the table next to us I saw that they weren't for hotdogs, they were just to mixy-mix and eat!! I was making the same face you were as I watched her, lol, and then I noticed it was almost at every table and had to wipe the look off my face, hehehe... So here are some photos of my shopping experiences!

First... AK Plaza inside and out...

AK Plaza and SeoHyeon Subway Station

More AK Plaza, Baskin Robbins and Burger King on the right of the stroll

Even More AK Plaza... Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts on the left of the stroll

Inside AK Plaza... many floors stuffed to the gills with name-brandy goodness... EVERYthing in this mall comes from Prada or Burberry or Gucci or... (you get the point I'm sure!)

AK Food Plaza

More Food Plaza; Each little area runs independently from the others, if you want something from the counter you pay at the same place

Puzzle for charity I think? Buy a piece, write what you'd like on it and add it to the wall...

More Puzzle Dedications, and of course short skirts and big boots!

Bedroom Wow, and check out that couch!

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

 And on to Costco... same same but different!

Pretty much like home

Not so busy Wed. night!

Books in Korean and English

Movators that lock the wheels of your cart going up and down, with a staff member to assist you pull it up/down at each end found in many department stores here

Hahaha, gel pens!!! You know I'm gonna buy 'em at some point...

If you go for food in the foodcourt you just park your cart full of purchased goods at the entrance until you're done eating, and nobody messes with your stuff - very nice

So that is shopping over the past couple of days... tomorrow I'm going to Home Plus in Ori to get a few groceries and maybe another quilt for my bed (blankets aren't heavy enough!!)... one that's not fuschia and peach maybe??   :)