chiyan

Day 21 Tuesday
We went to the festival again... just to have lunch there, as I found out. We had Chinese, which is quite different from the Chinese food I know from home. First, it was a black sauce, that looked quite scary. Second, it was rather sweet than hot. The Chinese food I know has a lot of vegetables, but this one had onion and mushroom and some kind of (very little) meat. And the always favorited noodles.
Moksanim always asks me whether I know something or not. So he asked whether I had ever eaten Chinese before and if I knew the noodles. He has also asked me whether I knew a navigation system, an mp3-player and cucumber before. But he thought it was normal that I could use chopsticks (a little). I'm always trying to explain how the world looks in Europe, but he smiles, nods, and gets nothing, I guess. I don't know how he imagines it.. I usually think the country will basically be the same. I've already known a great deal about Asia before I came here, so there aren't many big surprises waiting for me (sleeping and sitting on the floor, sea food, no foreigners...).
Did I ever mention that toilet paper is called „roll tissue“ here? I don't know if this is because they don't realize it's usual usage, or if the name has it's origin in emberassement. They have toilet paper everywhere here, on the table while eating, even in restaurants. A tissue.
授業
Tried to teach the alphabet to the ES. Quite annoying. They kept on screaming „We know! We know!“ but couldn't write „house“ or read „blue“ even though they could say the words. After I wrote blue I wrote another word and they were screaming color names. So they don't read at all, I suppose.
Gave the second text to the MS- I guess this one is a little too hard. We didn't get it through (but on the other hand Seon Gap talked a lot so we lost a lot of time. It was kind of annoying me a little. He might be motivated, but except for explaining, there shouldn't be so much Korean during English class) and will continue with it next time (thursday?).

Day 22 Wednesday
Nothing special today. Went downstairs for lunch and was picked up by Seon Gap, who said „oh, we're going out for lunch today. I was just going over.“
Why doesn't anyone bother to tell me anything?! Anyway, it was tasty. I keep on overeating here.... very, very bad.
授業
Were collecting vocabs relating to illnesses at the middle school today (injection, recipe, surgeon, sneeze..) and I think it was ok. I'm really getting out my acting skills and pantomime everything- even the English teacher, who was sitting in the back again, smiled. How emberrassing.

Day 23 Thursday
We're leaving for Mokp'o at around 7, because we're going to Taejon for the mid-workcamp meeting. Which is not really mid for us. More like less than ¼. Whatever. It will last until saturday, and then Seon Gap wants to visit a friend who lives in that city. He wants to stay until sunday. But Moksanim wants to bring students on sunday, which means we're going to start real early on sunday, so that we'll be able to teach them at around 1 pm. Uargh.
I'm also most likely going to sleep with Seon Gap and his friend in his friend's tiny apartement. Not so much fun.. but hey, I'm never going to see that guy again, right? I really don't want to spoil that for him.
授業
help

Day 27 Monday
The KTX took pretty long, but it was rather comfortable. Seon Gap and Moksanim were sleeping most of the time (Moksanim went on to Seoul). I lost one of my favorite earrings in the train, I guess. We were really early. I think we arrived between 10 and 11, but were supposed to meet the others at 2 pm. So I told Seon Gap „let's walk around“ and he ended up calling his friend (first he talked about him as though it was someone else, but I later learned that this was the one he had wanted to visit) who was studying at the time, because there was a really important exam on sunday. So we walked to the university and waited there, everyone staring at us. Then we met up with his friend, who lived in London as a child. He was really nice. And he invited us for lunch.
Then we went back to the train station and met the other volunteers, who were all really nice and great people. We took a bus and went to the Hill House, where we stayed until saturday. There were people from Canada, USA, England, Belgium, France, Germany (3), Finland, Czech Republic and Ukraine(2). I really think it was a kind of culture shock for Seon Gap, who had only seen 2 foreigner so far (me and Stephanie). He talked too much and too wrong.. and got drunk from one can of beer. We played paperball and talked a lot, and in the evening we had western style dinner, which was very Korean. But we got ice cream as dessert! And it was good nonetheless. Afterwards the IWO staff wanted us to discuss teaching, but since most of the other volunteers didn't have to do real teaching, that kind of failed. We just sat outside at night, which was really really cold, and talked. At night, the 15 of us slept in the house... and the ondol was broken, so we were being fried in our sleeps. Luckily I slept under the window, which I opened. From time to time there would be a breeze.
The next day there was cereal! And they brought some French rolls, which were pretty weird and very Korean. But it was good anyways. We went out for lunch and then went to have a „small picknick“ at the mountain.. I later learned, Seon Gap never knew what a picknick was. So he took it as „climbing a mountain“. I had to explain that to him.. because we just climbed the mountain and there was no picknick whatsoever and everyone made jokes about this. Then we had some pizza, which also was very Korean.. Seon Gap told me later that pizza is pretty expensive here („expansible“). It was chicken pizza (very hot), pork pizza (sweet-sour) and another one, and they gave us eingelegte cucumber with it as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
Then there was a small barbecue at night and the people drank a lot of alcohol. Well, actually not so much. I only tried a Korean beer on the first night, and a sip of Soju on the second. Both were.. not extraordinary. One of the Sergejs was juggling, and I tried it too. It's a lot of fun, and tonight I want to make some balls for me too. Maybe I'll learn it?
The night was slightly better. The next day was kind of sad, because we all grew together so much in the short time. Some stayed in Taejon at a host family, most went back, and Seon Gap and me went to the other side of the city. Like I had thought, he only called his friend that morning to tell him we'd stay with him for the night. But he was taking his exam, so naturally, he couldn't answer the phone. So we sat around in the heat with our backpacks and Seon Gap with his guitar. I asked him why we didn't go to his friend's place first to leave our stuff there and he was very surprised and said that this was a good idea, but we were already at the other end of the city because that's where the shuttle bus to the military festival started. His friend was done for after the exam (I thought so..) so we went there alone. It was really hot and the bus took 50 minutes. There were lots of people and lots of soldiers, oh my god. I got a mousepad, which is pretty practical for me. After ~2 hours we wanted to leave, but the bus was half an hour late and then we were told the next would leave at 9 o'clock and this one was full. After some talking, we were allowed to enter it.. but it was no normal bus, so we sat on the ground, which was very uncomfortable, for 40 minutes until some people exited.
Then we met his friend again, who again brought some other friend with him, who also studies medicine. We went to Taejon szene quarter, had some dinner, and then they treated us to beer. All the time I tried not to think about that I was dressed for climbing a mountain and had spent the day in heat .. and all the people around us were dressed up for the evening. Anyway, we slept at the friend's apartment, which was actually very nice. He had to go to a wedding the next day, so we left early and had to wait 2 hours until our train. After we arrived in Mokpo, we had to take a bus to the train station and then one to Usuyeong.. all in all it cost me 20000won, which I actually don't have...
When we arrived here, I was so so tired and fed up with the world, because Seon Gap was also being his dull self. It was 12:58 when we arrived, and then immediatly I had to entertain 3 kids from Mokpo and teach them some English. At 1 pm. Actually, Seon Gap was supposed to be there also, but he just left. I was pretty angry. Then Moksanim sat there and the kids demanded ice cream (at the end of the lesson, but they had complained about no snacks the whole time) and when Una brought some, I got one too (thank you!). I told him that this was my lunch, and he laughed it off like a small funny joke. I know he simply didn't understand the simple sentence, but I was really angry about it. I spent the rest of the day trying to calm down and relax, which mostly failed. I counted the minutes until dinner. Then it was postponed until 7 pm. Seon Gap made some stupid comments and I was ready to kill him.. I had prepared the lessons for MS here at the center and I've got some notes for the lesson at the school.
This morning I asked him if he had prepared something and he said yes. We were sitting at the breakfast table and Moksanim and Samonim were listening. Then, a while later, (I was happy he had done something) I asked what exactly he had prepared. He said (in a low voice) „nothing“. At that time, Moksanim and Samonim weren't listening. I feel angry again.
I mean, I'm even sharing the money with him, shouldn't he do the same work as me?
授業
help

Day 28 Tuesday
Made 3 balls for juggling, Seon Gap too... well, YuJin made them for him. She's pretty good at sewing and doing such precise things. Samonim treated us to Koguma again, which was nice, but I would have preferred an apple...
I miss to be able to eat whatever I want whenever I want. :/
授業
Did the rest of the text about suicide with the MS. Played with the ES by throwing a ball, and everyone had to shout out the number (1,2,3..). We got until 118.
I gave the MS the homework to look up an article in Wikipedia (they didn't know the page) and then switch to English and try to read it again. There is a Korean Wikipedia, but it is rather new, and has few entries, and since the page is built for them to use, I thought this would introduce it nicely. I use the switching option a lot, because sometimes one can get more info in another language. Haha. Go me, who can read 2 languages almost fluently... maybe? At least one. I hope.

Day 29 Wednesday
Nothing special.. in the evening we had „Kimpap“, which is hot sushi. The 6th graders made it, as I learned. It was pretty good.. there were only few people today, I asked why and was told everyone went home early. Dunno if there was any special reason, maybe just one wanted to leave and two friends accompanied him, and then two others went along and so on.. we were maybe 9? Usually there's around 30-40 people? Seon Gap, Haeim, Jibsanim and me. I talked to Jibsanim again- it's pretty good exercise. I understand her (and also Samonim) way better than Seon Gaps (or Moksanims) Korean. Why? I don't know. Maybe they're actually trying to use simple words.
授業
Middle school: showed them a short movie clip (food court musical) and made them tell us everything they understood, explained some vocabs and made a dialogue at a restaurant together. Then they prepared a dialogue with a partner and we listened to it. The English teacher was sitting in class, and he told us later that we did really good today. I was really happy because actually, we hadn't prepared anything. x)

Day 30 Thursday
This morning was pretty fun. A former student of Moksanim came by, he's really shy, but I talked 'at' him. Haha. Then Haeim came and brought some Kam, which we ate- very delicious. I love them. The student fled before she came. Samonim bought some Thermotherapy© cushions and we heated up 2. Then Moksanim and Seon Gap started to take apart a small shed that was standing around innocently and widely ignored until now. Samonim and Haeim exchanged some gossip (about some teacher..?) and then Jibsanim arrived. The also ate some Kam (and made me eat one of the older ones, like the ones we get in Europe) and I gave her the second warm cushion. Haeim and I tried to talk a little again (she understands half of what I say, and I understand half of what she says, but at least there's something that overlaps) and I asked her how to spell Shikhye (say: Shi-ke), which is 식혜 and explains why I didn't find it on Wikipedia before. Then she used a really cute expression and said „수정과 [Sujong-gwa] is a friend of 식혜.“ So I looked it up as well. ^^ There even was a page in German! So now it's past 11 and almost lunch time again... recently we often spend the mornings as leisurely as that. I wonder why we have to get up so early to be lazy? But anyway, yesterday the best friend of Samonim's first son (names...) showed me what he learned from me so far: the word 'anyway'. Haha. Well, at least it's something. I'm happy if in my time here, I can teach a handful of new vocabs and especially how to use them (e.g. not saying „nice to meet you“ randomly..). And maybe introduce some new useful things (like the webpage Wikipedia).
I also keep on catching tiny ants in my room, even thought I've cleaned it thoroughly a few times now. Grr.
It also seems to be normal in Korea to draw a lot on the board. I always thought O-Sonsêngnim just had her own style, but everyone seems to do it here. Drawing random lines, only one quotation mark, no points at the end of a sentence, points at the end of a single word...
授業
We taught the ES the weekdays today, and made them draw a „plan“, with a picture next to the day's English name. It worked surprisingly well, and they were all quiet all the time!
It took the whole lesson. I guess we'll have them draw more often?
The MS learned how to use a dictionary today. I think they needed it...