All in a day's work

Trip Start Nov 18, 2011

Trip End Mar 02, 2013

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Flag of Korea Rep. Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Rep.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Long hours, lesson prep, dealing with student's bad behaviour, marking homework, writing notes home to parents, finishing monthly report cards, kissing boo boos... Honestly, I really do like my job. There are moments when I wonder why I am doing this, but for the most part I look forward to teaching every day when I wake up. My classes are all on the beginner side of learning English, so suffice it to say that my classes can be trying at times since many of the students are very young and don't know how to express themselves in English. My morning class is a bunch of monkeys, some of whom do physically resemble primates, followed by my 6 and 7 year old "special" classes in the afternoon who are adorable but lacking in their English communication skills since they attend Korean kindergarten. Finally, I have my two afternoon elementary age classes which are the most advanced out of all my day's classes. That may seem like it is saying something for communication abilities, but it's really not

he's supposed to be eating his favourite fruit

. Since it had been raining all day, I never really fully woke up until this afternoon's last class of the day. The first wakeup came when Tidus presented me with his homework. I took one look at the picture he drew and had to have him try to explain how the drawing fit the assigned homework. I was planning on putting examples of the students' work on the wall for parent-teacher conferences, but I don't think I can put this on the wall.

The second incident was when I was in the middle of class running though the day's vocabulary lesson when Krystal jumped up and started yelling that her chair was wet. I went over to check, dreading that she had had an accident and I would be stuck with cleaning it up, but found that it was just milk leaking from her backpack. I pulled out her textbooks and started to mop up the mess when the overpowering stench of spoiled milk started filling the room. I asked Krystal how long the milk had been in her bag but she didn't know. The rest of the class started complaining about the smell and had to leave the room while Krystal and I cleaned up the mess. The lesson for everyone today wasn't academic in nature, but one of those things everyone will remember for a long time: don't stuff your unfinished milk away in your backpack for three days.... At least my classes are memorable for the entertainment value they offer!

When it's rainy, Koreans like to eat kimchi pancakes and drink makkoli. I guess it is supposed to make them feel happier. Sounds like a good deal to me. These are savory pancakes and not a sweet breakfast food. You can have seafood and veggie pancakes, but green onion and kimchi are my favourite. As we were sitting around this rainy afternoon having lunch, we got to talking about kimchi pancakes and how we needed to find a good, local restaurant that served them. So this rainy evening, Grace, Jen, Necia and I headed out in search of kimchi pajeon and dongdongju. I couldn't have imagined a better place: the pancake was delicious and the makkoli just as tasty as when Grace and I first tried it in Insadong back in November. Next to hoddeok, this is my favourite Korean food and one recipe I will have to take with me when I leave Korea.

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