everland

There's a swine-flu outbreak here in Korea. Classes have been cancelled for 10 days. It's been amazing! This week I'll return to teach for 2 1/2 weeks before I head off for my summer of travel :) So while we're supposed to be taking it easy and avoiding mass-public contact, Leslie and I used our better judgment and went to Everland!

Welcome to Everland!


Shopping for necessary accessories.


Taking apparantly "necessary" photos. Because that's the most amazing background ever right?!


I kind of want to wear these ears all the time!


AHHHHHH!!!!!!!


I thought I'd take you with me on the wild T-Express. Pretty awesome coaster!



There were all sorts of people and things to see at Everland.


Dad: "Do I look like an attraction?!"
Mom: "Hold on Dear, somewhere in this bag I will find your elephant ears. I know they're in here!:


Woman: " I wanted to wear the tiger ears! He always gets to wear the tiger ears. I'm so, *sigh* uninteresting..."


Haha, Okay, someone write a caption comment about this one. "________________"


Girls: "So really, we're tripping... but you can't tell can you?"



They had animals with attitude in the zoo!



And our favorite exhibit of the day..... You should have seen them. They were screaming, throwing diapers, pulling hair... Wow!

noraebang and some k-pop

This week we enjoyed a pretty wild night at the Noraebang (Karaoke). I thought I'd post some pictures for you. Unfortunately, I'm the girl with the camera so there aren't any pictures of me. Not so disappointing I suppose...

Ready to rock the night away...


Some random guy insisted on being in the picture :-)


Excitement is stirring!


Kevin singing "Beautiful" by Christina Aquilera.


Some wild song...


Frank Sinatra's "My Way". Well done.


And honestly, perhaps the best rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that I've EVER heard.







...amazing!



WHILE ON THE SUBJECT OF MUSIC

I realized that I've deprived you all of the fantastic K-Pop that fills my every day. Here are two songs that are top hits these days. The first song is one that my students like to sing to me when they fail their tests. "Sorry sorry sorry sorry..." This is a band called Super Junior.




Girls Generation singing their ever so popular "Gee".


K-Pop. There's nothing like it! :-)

time away from work

While out walking the other day, I met this little kitty. I giggled and giggled at his grooming job. Reading his face, I don't think he thought it was funny. But I just loved his little boots!


I spent a few hours sitting alone on this balcony writing letters. Surrounded by fresh flowers, a divine iced mocha, and processing my thoughts on paper...it was a lovely afternoon.


I've spent quite a lot of time along the Han River this week. Though this river is considered to be dirty and dingy, the city is putting forth a lot of effort to spark it up, planting gardens and making parks. I've enjoyed walking along the paths in the breeze of these summer nights.


And here's the Banpo Bridge. Really, it's there. You just have to look closely...

the helmet

(CH in front of her break-time artwork.)

This is my student Christine.

I've been lucky enough to teach her for the majority of the year.
She is by far one of the most unique human beings I have ever known.
She is a tomboy, so much that the girls can't stand her and the boys think of her as a chum. When I yell "Boys!" Christine answers, "Yes?".
She adamantly insists that I call her "CH" (her initials) and she signs her name as "Black" on her test papers.
She NEVER does her homework, never passes her tests, sleeps during class, and when she's awake, she's drawing fine-detailed pictures of lizards and dragons and snakes.
She has a deep dry voice and a witty sense of humor and somehow I loathe her and adore her both at the same time.

Well, when I said she NEVER does her homework. I'm seriously not exaggerating. Week after week I scratch X's across her paper and write "F" by her name. She giggles.

Last week as the bell rang, I walked into class and there was CH sitting sharply at her desk wearing her bicycle helmet. I laughed at her.
During homework check, she proudly displayed before me her fully completed homework. I was stunned! She even got all the answers correct!
After praising her in front of the entire class, she impressed me even more by scoring an A+ on her review test.
I looked at her in shock and asked "What is going on???"
She said calmly, "Teacher, it's the helmet. It keeps my smarts in."

So I said "Fine. You need to wear that helmet every week."
She wore her lucky helmet through the entire 3 hour class. I've never seen her work so hard. She took incredible notes. She scored high on her in-class quiz. It was incredible! Every once in a while she'd taunt me and say "Teacher...I'm gonna take it off..." and she'd pull it off her head and I'd scream "NO!!!! Save your brain!!!" and she'd laugh.

Okay. So if that alone isn't a great story, it gets better.
CH walked into class today, once again wearing her helmet. The principal told her "Take off your helmet" and CH said seriously "No, my teacher told me I had to wear it."

Haha. So she did. All 3 hours. And again, she scored an A on her test.

It's a miracle helmet!

Teaching EHGLISH in Korea?