So, I figured this is the perfect time to let you guys know what I have been up to lately...I finished my summer camp and it was a huge success! It was only 5 days, but with zero experience, zero training and absolutely zero help from anyone around here, I was a little nervous about it. Add to this the fact that our summer camp funding was cut from roughly $3,000 to exactly $0, and their instructions of "make it fun and exciting and make sure they learn lots" was starting to look like a pretty tall order.
Thankfully, it went off without a problem, and the kids had a blast. I decided to ditch much of the "educational" parts of it (they wanted us to teach normal classroom-type classes..."but make sure they have a lot of fun"....right) and concentrated on teaching through games and fun activities. We did a bunch of word games they loved, we chatted a lot (more than anything, I think, these kids need to just practice TALKING...about anything...), we did a treasure hunt (they loved it), a show and tell day, etc...and on the last day...we watched Tom and Jerry. It blew me away that 70 years after the cartoons were made halfway around the world, it's still the one they ask for...I was only too happy to oblige :) (my small summer camp class...the other class had about twice as many kids)
In other news...I FINALLY HAVE GLASSES!!! My friends back home are probably jumping up and down and cheering right now. Let's just say that when I go back, the streets of Victoria (especially at night) will be much, much safer...I've been needing glasses for 15 years, but I've always been too poor or too lazy or a combination of both to get them. Well, the other day I had some time to kill (thanks to Dawni being 9 hours late), and I walked into the glasses shop and vowed to not walk out without my very own pair! The eye exam, frames and coated lenses cost me (after a wee bit of haggling...hey, this is me, after all!) the equivalent of about $45!!!
Check it!
Interestingly enough, since I've been wearing them, I've caught more Korean girls checking me out...seriously...and yes, in hindsight (pun intended) I wish I had gotten them a long time ago haha.
The other day I (and everyone else within about 75 km of here) woke up to a massive thunder and lightning show. My initial reaction was to jump out of bed, salute and yell "YES, DEAR LEADER." Apparently North Korean invasion jokes are no laughing matter around here...
More random stuff: There is a leak somewhere in my apartment building, and it's apparently dripping water off the ceiling of the unit below mine. They've been trying to figure out where it's coming from on and off for months. A few days ago I heard what sounded like the end of the world coming from the unit beside me...these fools were air hammer/air chiselling the floor next to my unit. The whole building (floors/walls/etc) is concrete...they were actually hammering through the floor to try and find the pipe...amazing. After turning the unit into a pile of rubble and failing to find the leak, they knocked on my door.
More random stuff: There is a leak somewhere in my apartment building, and it's apparently dripping water off the ceiling of the unit below mine. They've been trying to figure out where it's coming from on and off for months. A few days ago I heard what sounded like the end of the world coming from the unit beside me...these fools were air hammer/air chiselling the floor next to my unit. The whole building (floors/walls/etc) is concrete...they were actually hammering through the floor to try and find the pipe...amazing. After turning the unit into a pile of rubble and failing to find the leak, they knocked on my door.
I couldn't make this stuff up. Then they started on my unit....out came the hammers and chisels and up in dust went my floor. Neat. Best of all, after making a hole big enough to fit a child through in my floor, they re-concreted my floor and admitted defeat. They hadn't found the leak.
Two days later they announced that they need to get into my room so some plumber with a fiberoptic camera can come and inspect the pipes. This made me laugh. I love that they somehow found it reasonable to dig up two units before calling in the guy with the camera...Korean logic at its finest! :)
Here's another bit of Korean lack of logic for you. They quote all prices in multiples of 10,000 won (roughly 10 bucks). It's absolutely maddening. Imagine if you were at home and if you asked someone how much a bike was and they said "twenty three", but really meant "two hundred and thirty". That's how it happens here, I'm starting to get used to it, but it was maddening at first. If you ask someone how much a motorbike they're selling, for example, is...they'll say forty (or four-ten). which means this: four-ten times ten thousand haha. Getting into the millions (ie: over a thousand bucks) gets even more tricky haha. This is the reason I was excited about the 500,000 won bike which turned out to be the 5,000,000 won bike.
Speaking of money...the other day I was at the bank to transfer some money back home...and in the less than an hour I was there I saw a ton of crazy big cash transactions. I saw one woman stuff about 12 stacks of 10s in her purse (each stack worth around a grand), but that was nothing compared to the guy who had two 10 inch stacks of 10s and a roughly 6 inch stack of 50s. Doing the math quickly, I'm guessing he had about $50,000 in cash there. The ladies at the bank realized that that's not something you put in your back pocket, so they went into the back room, got a paperbag and stuffed it full of the cash, and he walked out, casually carrying the bag like he had a litre of milk and a loaf of bread in there. All in all, in the less than an hour I was there, I saw 6 or 7 people walk out the door with over $5,000 cash. Apparently you don't have to worry about getting mugged as soon as you get to your car.
Random...saw this on my way to work the other day...woman washing clothes on the side of the river...she has a little stone shelf made up for this purpose...never thought I'd see something like this in the middle of a developed country in 2011
More random junk...Koreans LOOOOVE shirts with English stuff on them. It doesn't matter what it is. I swear I could make a fortune selling shirts that say "I'm stupid and ugly. Please kick me."
I found this gem yesterday...the Gay and Lesbian Surfing Association. Motto: "Come on our...the water's fine"...had to stop the guy and take a picture of him:
And the last oddity. Koreans have their own way of telling how old someone is. I, for example, am 29 years old, but in Korea I'm 31. (Needless to say, I prefer the western method). Many people believe that this has something to do with the lunar calendar (which is still in unofficial use in Korea). It doesn't.
I finally had this explained to me (interestingly enough, my translator, another English teacher at my school, didn't know the reason either, even though he has been using "Korean age" all his life).
So...here is how they calculate age. Your age is counted from the moment of conception. But, subtracting nine months would require way too much in the way of math, so they just lop off an entire year. And then they forget about silly things like days and months and just count the years. So...I was born in September, 1981. Minus a year for being in the womb, brings us to September, 1980. Ditch the month and you're at 1980. It's 2011 now...minus 1980 --- BAM! 31 years old. As far as I can understand, when using Korean age (and that's ALL they use here), everyone will simultaneously turn a year older on January 1.
Okay, that's it for me...hope all y'all is havin' a great time...
T
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