Another Week Down

Well, I had a good day yesterday, too.  I think Thursdays are both of our favorites.  Today was good, too.  For me, at least.  My Friday students (on the whole) are less interested in class, but there are some good exceptions.

So, I talked to Michelle and Iris (the two teachers from Sinback) and we are going to the market tomorrow and then bowling.  I think they want to hang out occasionally and use the social time to teach us conversational Korean as they learn better conversational English from us.  I tried to get a picture of them today for the blog, but Michelle said I had to wait until tomorrow because Iris was "busy."  I had to laugh to myself because those girls spend the majority of their days surfing the internet.  Their students learn from audiotapes and language software.  I must have caught them during the 10% of the day in which they actually work.  I like all the people I work with, but I'm certain that Hagwon teaching is considered "women's work" in Korea.  Not very difficult and lots of social interaction (like a fifties housewife joining a city club, something to do with your time and "skill set").  It requires a university degree, but I've read some interesting things about Korean universities.  Apparently, college is a time for social and civic involvement rather than classroom learning.  I was surprised to learn that because we (Americans) have such a blanketed view of education in the East. There's not really anything wrong with that type of learning, but I think many US universities do a great job of balancing the two. 

So, it looks like this weekend's posts will be fun.  Saturday we'll learn how to navigate the street market and then learn the rules of nine-pin bowling.  Sunday is my birthday, so you'll hear all about the Korean version of the pizza-and-a-movie experience.

Random:  my outfit today was particularly professional.  I try to dress professionally everyday (I don't have many clothes here), but today's outfit is one of my favorites, so I took a picture.  Ian wears pretty much the same thing every day, so I didn't take a picture of him.  He wears a button-down, collared shirt (varies in color), slacks and chucks.  It's much easier to be a man and be stylish/ professional.

I do what I can.

Ian had a couple of interesting happenings in his classes today.  I let him tell the stories:

"My Basic 1 class was going just fine, but one of the kids began to draw in his book.  I didn't worry about it because he wasn't disturbing anyone, so I didn't care.  However, another student decided that it was wrong for him to draw and by wrong I mean WRONG!  He hit the pencil away from his hands and they began a minor bout back and forth. When I decided to actually do something the artist slammed his head down on the desk and began to cry.  This continued for the next twenty minutes.

The other class  was for more interesting.  A child decides that the basic functions of a human being are beneath him and he begins to crawl around under the desks and make various animal sounds.  I ask him to stop, which only gained me a growl.  So I move to step two, I grab his hand and pull him from under the desk.  He stands up and throws his arms in the air with some degree of frustration and runs, not from me, not from the class, but the entire school.  The principle sees him run out and I merely lift my hands in the air (in a gesture of "I dunno") and shut the door again.  Class was rather calm after that."

So, compared to that, my day was pretty dull.  I did have a 30 minute battle with the copy machine, however.  None of the machines function properly, but Sinback is definitely the worst.  It doesn't help that they turn the machine off between uses.  The poor machine never reaches any type of "printer homeostasis."  It's all or nothing.  Today, it decided it would take every fifth or sixth copy hostage.

It's ancient and in Korean!

When you open the beast up, this is what you are greeted with.  Luckily, it's not nearly as complicated as it looks.

Ian made a fabulous dinner tonight.  He made bean burgers using random things from our cupboard (including a can of not-so-great baked beans).  They turned out very well, but next time we're going to try to make them less calorie-laden.

The burgers cooking away on the stove.  They look burnt in this photo, but they weren't.

Delicious!  Except for the "wonder bread."  We couldn't find the wheat bread last time we went shopping.  :(

Frozen fries without an oven.  First, they must be microwaved.  Second, you must brown the outside of the fries in a pan.  They are varying levels of delicious depending on the exact circumstances.

Yay!  It's the weekend!