*I added hyperlinks in my blog and when you click on them it will take you to those links.
*Lots of photos further down.
Before I start, I would just like to give my condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in the sinking of the ferry last week. If you haven't heard about the terrible accident, read here and then here. It happened in between Jindo and Mokpo, where I went a couple of weeks ago for the sea parting festival. My school cancelled the upcoming hike with the teachers and the sports day. Most of the upcoming festivals in Korea has been cancelled due to the mourning of the nation.
Another week has passed. I cannot believe how fast time in Korea is flying, every time I blink my eyes another week has flown by. I am currently in my 8th week of teaching in Busan. I have been in Korea for two months now, but it is still early days and I think too early to say if I like it or not. I love working with the children.
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| Batman in my third grade class! |
They are getting used to me now and are beginning to hang around after the lessons to ask me questions with their limited English. Some days they sing to me from the movie frozen “Elsa, do you wana build a snow man...” Click here if you are unfamiliar with the song. I made the mistake to associate my name with the main character in Frozen as I thought it would be easier for them. Little did I know how big the Frozen obsession was and that the connotation would stick – for life it seems.
One girl asked me today if I like Exo (a K-pop band) or if I like PSY (another K-pop band) See the link here. They seem to love their K-pop hits! K-pop is pop music, but with a Korean twist and is quite comical sometimes. A teacher asked me this week if I will pop with her. Like Abba she said. Haha… I do recommend that you do a search on youtube: click here => Korean K-pop. I am sure we are all familiar with the song Gangnam Style <=click here by PSY. But I never knew that it was a Korean band nor that Gangnam is a place in Korea. How ignorant of me...
Some kids are getting used to me and others well, they are terrified of me. One day last week, I was early for school and as I walked into my school, there was a friendly neighbourhood cat. I gave it some attention and moved along. As I was almost at the entrance of the school I turned around to see if the cat was still following me. I saw that one of my shy 4th graders has stopped in the middle of the path. She was looking at the cat in a frozen position, not knowing what to do. I could see that she was terrified of the cat. I approached her and wanted to say don’t worry it will be ok. I intended to help her get passed the cat, but when she looked up and saw that I was approaching her she ran almost over the cat just to get away from me. She is more terrified of me than the cat. It was quite funny in the moment, but I do feel very sorry for her. Even in class she almost crawls under the desk every time I come near her to help her with her work and she sits right in the front row, as her English is not that great and the weaker students sits in the front next to a stronger student to help them. I find that this works really well. I have a reward system, if I see a stronger student helping a weaker student, the stronger student will get a sticker and a reward after ten stickers. They will also get a sticker if I see that they really are trying to speak English.
A Video clip of the class clowns - grade 5.
I sat with a bunch of 5th graders the other day and they can’t speak English. It was so nice to see that they tried their very best to communicate with me. They started to play a game with me while using the key phrases which I taught them. It was quite rewarding as I could see that they understood what we did in class. One lesson is taught over 4 or 5 periods of 40 minutes each and in a lesson they would practise and learn 2 or 3 key expressions which are stretched out over 4 or 5 periods. There are plenty of opportunities to give them enough practice. I try to encourage them to speak and will help them with their pronunciation.
I heard about the dog and cat cafes in Korea. It is a coffee shop that has dogs for the public to cuddle. I asked Min-Jung, my co-teacher, if there is one in Jangsan (the area I live in) and she looked it up. And there is one. She has never been to this one and she couldn’t tell me what kind of cafe this was. So I thought option 1: It could be a cafe where you drink coffee and play with the dogs. Option 2: Go there to take your own dogs for some doggy interaction time (almost like a park) or option 3 which is a very likely possibility - a cafe where you can order different kinds of dog dishes. I was a bit sceptical, knowing that option 3 could very well be a reality. Min-Jung took me there after school and I loved it!
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| Having coffee with three dogs on my lap. |
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| A bedlington terrier |
It turned out to be option 1. There were all kinds of dogs from sausage dogs, poodles to bedlington terriers. They were so cuddly and friendly. This is definitely where I will go to get my doggy fix! Back home, I used to sleep with at least 3 sausage dogs (which I call my "wurms" or worms) in my bed every night. I do miss my cuddles, but at least I have more space for myself now, even though technically my bed is smaller here than back home. I’m strange I know... :)
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| Jinhae Cherryblossom Festival |
A couple of weekends ago, I went to the cherryblossom Festival in Jinhae! It was spectacular! My friend, Caroline and I decided to go very early on Saturday morning to avoid the crowds. Because this is such a famous festival I knew it would get very busy! So we decided to leave home at 6 am to be there at 8 am. We arrived there, but neither of us did our research for where to go once we were there. When we arrived we started our adventurous exploring and eventually stumbled upon a beautiful walkway with a stream in the middle.
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| They call this bridge the romance bridge. |
The blossoms were breathtakingly beautiful. I was so sad that we had a windy storm the day before and most of the petals blew off. But even so it was still worth going. I am thankful that we left earlier as we managed to get photos without too many people crowding the photo!
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| The beautiful reflection of the blossoms in the water. |
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The white in the distance is Cherryblossoms...
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I am totally in love with Korea’s spring time! We had lunch at the festival which was very interesting as I noticed that in many Korean dishes they would mix beef, chicken or pork with seafood in the same dish. It is quite weird, but you do get use to it.
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| Caroline and I shared a meal of homemade noodles, beef and seafood.. |
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Yummy octopus!
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I also went to a beautiful field in Busan. The field was covered in a yellow blanket of tiny flowers that had a sweet scent! It was so beautiful!
This past weekend, I went to visit one of my south african friends here in Busan. Susie lives just over an hour from me in Hadan. I stayed over at her place on Friday night and we decided to explore on Saturday. We used the trip advisor app to see what sights are close to her place. We saw that Gamcheon Cultural village are only 4 km from her. So we decided to go there and we took the bus. The village is breathtakingly beautiful!
When we arrived at the village, we bought a map for only 2000 won (R20) and you have to collect 9 stamps from different sights in the village. It was so much fun!! We collected all 9 stamps and got 2 postcards for free.
Gamcheon village started as a refugee camp in the 1950's just after the Korean/Japanese war.
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| Gamcheon village today. |
There has been several art projects in the village as a community development project.
There are still families living there. I highly recommend a visit to Gamcheon cultural village! We got very nice coffee and pancakes with nutalla and strawberries there for 3000 (R30).
I loved every moment!
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