Open Class, Rain and Failed Fireworks.......Week 10

Open Class

The Principal and vice principal came to watch my lesson with the 3rd Graders......
There was extra pressure because the next day people from outside the school would come to judge my co teachers lesson for a competition that she entered.
We made extra posters to decorate the classroom and went over classroom rules with the students....and we were ready to go.

I have been really lucky in the fact that my coteachers are really good teachers, they have the discipline in place....which makes it easier for me to then follow their lead. I also think that we work well together as a team!

The principals seemed to be really happy about how well we worked together.
One of the vice prinicipals thought my dress was too short to be riding on a broom....(haha yes, that's what I do in lessons......).....so I choose a longer one for the Competition class......I didn't want to make her lose any points for having a slutty native teacher haha!

Competition Class

So Open Class went well....even if the day got off to a bad start!! I was all ready to go!! Until...... my phone died....so my alarm didn't go off.
FML. Not again.

I woke up at 8.30......I start school at 8.20....lessons start at 8.50.
I called my coteacher whilst getting dressed and brushing my teeth and ran to school as fast as I could without dying.

I arrived at school at 8.52......made my apologies and started teaching...the competition lesson wasn't until Period 3 so it wasn't the ennnnd of the world. But it's still not cool.
Luckily the lesson went really really well and our awesomeness makes my lateness not seem as bad......my coteacher even wants to take us all out for food for helping her this week.

Staff Dinner

Wednesday we got to leave school early to watch and support the teachers volleyball tournament. We chanted some English cheers and it helped our team get to the semi finals...I think :/ haha

I saw a few familiar faces....Camesha, Cindy, Rozanne and Alica :)

Then we went out with the whole school to eat...... Blow Fish....... it was yummy!!

Fried fish and onion rings

And the courses kept on coming....of course I carried on eating....so good!

Spicy noodle dish

Rice and eggs

YMCA

Thursday - PAYDAY - WOOOO! I can finally buy some clothes that keep me warm!!

I had to meet at the YMCA by 6.30 to meet the mum of the children that I would be volunteering to help with their English so I didn't have time to do a full shop....but I managed to buy three jumpers and a tuna sandwich!

I met the mum, she drove me to her house (this is when it hits me how bad my Korean is, my 'useful phrases' didn't seem so useful anymore......but we managed to mention Psy - and she played Gangnam style to break the silence)...and I met the kids. A 10 year old boy, seven year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The three year old just looked at me and started crying. Not a fan of my face. Standard!

It was basically just a meet with the kids and I tried to check how high their English level was....they seem really cool and the mum took a photo of me with the kids <3

Ignore how ridiculous I look here....this was before buying clothes and all I cared about was keeping warm haha.

Next week I will take some actual study materials as I think the mum wants it to be like an actual lesson - the children seem pretty confident and willing to learn - so I think it will work well!

Friday

My coteacher bought us all some chicken and pizza to say thank you for helping with the open class <3

Shopping after school (more warm clothes!)

A meal in Chilgok (the best Korean BBQ that I have had yet! So good!)

After the meal we had deserts in 'A twosome place' - Cheesecake Mmmmm!

Then Makoli in the taxi on the way downtown.

Cocktails in a bag....and and another night sharing a pillow with Cat.
And I started to lose my voice!

Saturday

We woke up still pretty drunk...and decided that we should wear Zombie makeup to Busan again.
(Catching the KTX isn't as fun without all the stares...right)...It was more rushed....so it wasn't as cool as the previous week and I glued a lot of my hair to the mask (which made it super painful taking it off this time...ouchhhh)

Might as well dress as a Zombie whilst you still can!

We were super excited to watch the fireworks......... oh but the rain had other ideas.
We kept hearing how the fireworks still went on last year in the rain....but with how bad the weather was...it wouldn't have been fun to watch fireworks.
So yeah, the fireworks were postponed until Sunday night.

My shoes were ruined from the rain.........I bought some cheap wellies and life was good again....I could jump in puddles and sing in the rain! Woooo! (Thinking about it, this probably didn't help my sore throat/ lost voice issue)

With no fireworks there was only one thing to do......Let's drink!!

So we eneded up at an 'All you can drink' for 15k (£7.50) ........and well we all know how responsible I am at an open bar!!

So yeah after 'one or two' rum and cranberries we made our way to Blue Money....we were in the Uni area this time.....and wahhh the bars were so much cooler than Daegu's.
Blue Monkey was my personal fave - blasting out 'Pussycat Dolls - Buttons' and 'Akon - I just had sex' - I was in my element!!

Of course, it's me, there was rum involved - after the big up - usually comes a big down  - and well I might as well stay true to form! So my throat started hurting - I decided it would be best to go home. We got lost in the tax.Our phones died. Then we saw our buddies - and they helped us get home (I had started pulling my face off at this time, and it was hurting reallll bad....and I just wanted to go home.....so sulky Laura maybeeee came out at this point!.....Soz guys.

Sunday

Breakfast in the hostel made me feel a bit more human.

We went outside and the weather was awesome - my jeans and jumper outfit suddenly seemed like a bad idea.....soooo I maybe wore the previous nights outfit!

We had lunch in the cutest cafe!

BUS TOUR....you know how much I love bus tours

Shopping in the worlds largest department store.......in the sales obvs!

Cat decided to stay and watch the fireworks....but I had shizzle to do...so I made my way home (catching the subway and train...alone....and I made it!!! Go me!!) - for some reason everyime I go to Busan - something happens (Failed film fest, failed fireworks........ but try as you like Busan....I am super dooper in love with you <3 <3 )

Korea has the cheesiest quotes ever........Obvs I love them <3

BBC's website also appears to agree with me.....as they featured an article on Busan on their homepage today.... Click here

Talent Show, Cats Birthday and a Halloween Booze Cruise.....Week 9

Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon I got to help judge our schools English Talent show where students either said a speech or sang a song.
Looks like if I was a judge I would probably be most like Louis Walsh - and let the cute ones win..... but I tried to stay strong!
One of the boys did - in my opinion - an awesome version of Payphone - so much that I actually burst out laughing when he started swearing - he's in my class - and is normally really quiet - and it seemed strange to hear him rapping 'Fuck that shit!'
But yeah...lol!

One girl sang 'You are my Sunshine' - which brought back memories of my Swiss kids - Solene would sing that song to me - but replaced the word sunshine with 'Laura' - 'You are my Lauraaa, my only Laura, you make me happy when skies are grey' - god these kids make me too soppy!!

So I decided it was time to send  the Swiss family my second update email. They sent me some pictures of their trip to Vienna - with a message saying

Not one day passes by without someone mentioning you :-))

which I thought was super cute.

I then also messaged the family that I tutored to give them an update and received a funny reply...... one day when I was going round...it was the jubilee...and I was going to a Jubilee party - so I was wearing a union jack tshirt and sunglasses - had baked Victoria Sponge cakes etc. The little girl asked me why I was dressed like that etc - she seemed to understand as I explained about the Queen etc.

Then next thing I know - she then runs up to her mum all excited - and she thinks that I am a Princess from England. Her mum thinks that this is a great idea to help her want to learn English so she tells her that it's true. I am in fact a Princess!

I showed pictures to Alice, saying guess who ? She answers : Oh yes ! It is the English princess !!!

Haha perfect - I have one person convinced.....now just the rest of the world!

We had a role play this week - which involved a girl - the boys decided to get reallllly into this and wear girls hairbands in order to look the part. SO FREAKING ADORABLE!

The story behind the Role play is pretty 'interesting' to me. This is what I understood from the story line.Let's see what you think -

• Man saves deer from being shot
• The deer asks how he can repay him
• The man asks for a wife
• The deer tells him to go to the pond where the woman are skinny dipping and to steal her dress
• The man gets a wife - they have kids
• The wife asks for her dress back
• The man remembers what the deer whispered to him - and says no
• The wife says please
• He says ok. (He was easily convinced)
• She then flys away with the kids
• The man is sad
• The deer then puts the man in a bucket and sends him into the sky to be with his wife.

Cat's Birthday Weekend 

Friday

Pizza hut.  Melted cheese to dip the pizza in (heaven).

 Birthday Cake <3

Tequila. Tequila. And then more tequila.
 

 Toilets that included graffiti walls for you to write on.

Basically - what started off as a nightmare of a night (I was around  2 hours late, got cake on my jeans, had a backpack and was just a bit grrrrrr) - turned out to be a good drunken mess of a night.

Saturday

Let's get ready to Booze Cruise.

So....wearing this much glue and paint on my face made it quite difficult to move my mouth - so laughing at all the stares we got was quite difficult.

I used a straw for my alcohol - so there so no major issues.

Drinking on the boat reminded me of my trip to Amsterdam... 'I'm not drunk, it's just the boat' - I get off the boat - I still feel like I'm moving. Meh.

We befriend a Korean child in a bar and search for scary pics online (cos we're cool like that)

I get sleepy drunk and suddenly catching the first train home seems like a bad idea. We sneak into the boys hostel and crash.

All I seem to have done this weekend is eat (after my big push on exercising all week. FAIL).

Must try harder next week or this will be me.

Temple trip, A Sunday Stroll and...... PSY - Week 8

 So.....Week 8?! Wow, that has come round fast!! Half of me feels like I have lived in Korea forever....Orientation seems so long ago......but then the other half of me feels like I have only lived here for a week! Where have 8 weeks gone?!

This seems so long ago.... Class 3....Level 1.....woo!!

I think that the two month mark has been pretty hard on some people - as this is when the excitement can start to wear off and just start to realise that you are missing friends / the way things are at home and realise that you still have a routine over here etc.

Now I'm going to try and say this with as much love for my friends/family at home (whether that be Doncaster, Newcastle or Switzerland) as I can and I will try and not sound cold hearted. But I haven't felt it yet......

It hit me real hard around this time in Switzerland - I have never experienced anything like it.....I remember my first month honeymoon period - where I was loving life there - then month two hit and I just missed everyone so bad....and well, yeah it was a pretty tough time. But then time went on, and the feeling passed - As tough as month 2- maybe month 4/5 were in Switzerland - I then came through the other side. I was more settled in Switzerland - and the feeling didn't feel as bad anymore. I still have my friends and family at home - they are still there. I've had to accept that maybe our friendships now work in a different way to the way they used to - but they still work.
 

So maybe this is the reason that I haven't hit the down just yet (don't get me wrong....I've had a few....awww I miss this person/that person/that place - but nowhere near as bad as last year)......maybe I will be lucky and not get it....or maybe it's just delayed and next month you will hear me ranting about how much I 'hate' everything :p

So to everyone who is having a rough time at the minute...just remember ....it gets better! 

Monday

First day back teaching after nine days off....so I got myself all mentally prepared to teach again.....then I get to school and all my lessons were cancelled. So that's free time from 8.20 - 4.20.

As I had prepared my games for the lessons ahead....I decided not to waste my day on facebook and junk websites (iwastesomuchtime.com / unfriendable.com / lamebook.com / failbook.com / reddit / tumblr .....the list could go on) but to actually try and do something productive.

So I blasted out a few 'Talk to Me in Korean' lessons and then won tickets to see PSY on Thursday - GANGNAM STYLE WOOOO.

Talk about productive!!!

Tuesday

After school I went to dinner with Camesha and Rozanne. I stopped at homeplus before to collect life's essentials (nutella and quality street) and then we went for Shabu Shabu.

Quality Street and Peanut butter...Boom.

Yep this was all for us (and the rice an noodles are hiding under the table)

So you start by adding your vegetables

Then you add your meat and sauce....then you wrap :) :)
Then after you have cooked all the meat and seafood you cook your noodles in the broth - so they are super yummy!!

Wednesday

 - All my lessons were cancelled, Wednesday is special lunch day and we went on an afternoon trip to a temple. Wednesday was good.

Thursday

The day of the 93rd National Sports Festival at Daegu Stadium - which of course included the performance by Psy!! After a two hour bus journey from the traffic - I get there, have my face painted - take some pics of the scenery and then me and Cat watch the performance.
Seeing that many people do the 'Gangnam style' dance all together was just awesome. The whole opening ceremony was really cool - such a good atmosphere!!

Everyone get your phones out :)

Psy <3 haha

Friday

We left school early on Friday to watch an open class - then me and Matt went to EMart traders with our coteacher (basically a Costco version of Emart - but no membership needed) - and we picked up some goodies. I decided to stay in this weekend - as I overspent on my budget last week - so this would bring me back upon track!

Tea, fried fish and Ketchup....... way to embrace Korean Culture Laura!!

Saturday

I went to the YMCA at 11 to have a meeting with the people who organised the volunteering opportunity. I then met Laura, Sam, Ryan and Roger and we went for lunch and went shopping! The bus ride back was a bit of a nightmare as there is a festival in Daegu this weekend (can't forget the saw/violin playing tree man - I wish I had a video to show but I was laughing too much) but I made it home :) :)
I watched Mean Girls and Hocus Pocus and had a really chill night. I realised that this was the first weekend where I have slept at home, just me, for the entire weekend. It felt pretty good!! But I will also be happy to have company next week in Busan....woo!

Sunday

Woke up - did '30 Day Shred' - we had then planned to climb Mt Aspen - but sommmme people didn't wake up til late....so instead I found somewhere in Chilgok to walk. Me and April planned on having a stroll which then turned into a bit of a hike. We were greeted with friendly faces whilst hiking - a woman gave us some apples and lots of people said hello to us....which I always find super cute.
Finished it off with a strawberry smoothie and then I will skype my family later....when they decide they have time for me....haha!

So this is within walking distance from my house....nice!

And they provide free hula hoops at the top.....Perfect

And there's a gym at the bottom.......who needs a gym membership?

Just doing some weights.......

Individual Karaoke Booths......