Science Class

I teach a class of young students who are about 9 years old or so. They are a very rowdy but fun class. I teach them four times a week and on Tuesdays we do "science class". These science "experiments" are usually more like art class but they are supposed to encourage learning English. Unfortunately, my kids are very much beginners and usually don't understand the name of the experiment, much less how to do it. We have a lot of fun though and they enjoy trying to figure it out. I, on the other hand run around like a crazy person, essentially trying to do all 12 projects before we run out of time.

Today our "experiment" was to make 3-D glasses. Each kid was given a paper glasses cut-out and a transparent red and a transparent blue square. Their task was to cut out the eye shapes and glue them onto the glasses. Much to the disappointment of the students the glasses had no ear hooks only a mini one on one side so the students had to hold them up with one hand. Don't get me wrong though, the students tried valiantly to get them to stay on with only one mini ear hook. :) Class was winding down and I was trying to help the kids who had cut their eye pieces too small and so the red and blue pieces were falling right through the eye holes.

I have one student named Star (pictured in the blue and yellow sweatshirt on the right), who frequently gets "creative" with the experiments. Sometimes his creativeness destroys the experiment but occasionally it just makes it different. Today, as I was frantically trying to help the other kids, I noticed he was just finishing gluing his glasses together and they were looking great. The next thing I know, I turn around and Star has his glasses on. He doesn't seem to be holding them with either hand though. I take a closer look and realize he has glued all around the glasses and stuck them on his face. He has effectively glued the glasses to his face! He just stared at me with a HUGE proud smile on his face and I couldn't help but laugh. These are the moments that make my time teaching super fun!

Kyla has a birthday

So this weekend I had a birthday and we did lots to celebrate! On Saturday Jordan surprised me with some delicious Toasted Coconut Hawaiian coffee....and it was AWESOME! Then we went out on the town and hung out at a park by the river. Then we spoiled ourselves with lunch at Tony Romas.....yum yum! After that we met some friends at World Cup Stadium and watched a professional soccer game. It was Seoul vs. Pohang(the west coast). And to top it off we got seats 4 rows back from the benches! Jordan said "That's the first time at a pro sporting event I've had to turn my head to see where the ball is." :) We polished off the day with some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. What a good day!

Ball Hockey

As promised, here's the ball hockey post. Jordan joined the Canadian Ball Hockey League here in Seoul. There's about 120 expats split into 8 teams. Jordan's team is called the Mounties and he's number 17, so you can pick him out in some of the pictures. It's been pretty fun to get out of the house and meet some new people. Jordan has also enjoyed playing a team sport just for the fun of it. Hopefully he comes through the season injury free. So far he's only had some minor welts and bruises.....and we'd like to keep it that way. Some of these guys play pretty rough, one guy even got his teeth knocked out! Thankfully it prompted Jord to invest in a mouth guard. :)
Here are some pictures for your enjoyment...
www.cbhk.org

Everyday Life

When living in another country you can often be awoken by strange new sounds. Sometimes it's a man on a truck with a GIANT loudspeaker, hollering down the street about the new sale going on at his shop (sounding strangely like the Muslim call to prayer). Sometimes it's a lady banging on our door and hollering in Korean for us to open up (we rarely do). Other times it's an announcement from the loudspeakers connected to all the apartments in our buildings. Sometimes it's a siren that sounds too much like an air-raid siren. These things happened fairly often when we first arrived and only occasionally now. This morning was one of those occasions.

We were blissfully asleep in our bed when all of a sudden we hear a very loud electronic version of Beethoven's 9th coming from the general direction of our front door. At first, we groggily think it's our doorbell, then we thought, it can't be that we've never heard that sound before. Then I think there's only one electronic thing out there that we have never heard make a sound. It is a little white phone attached to the wall, that has no dial tone, nor ever makes noise. We ignored the sound the first two times, then finally got up. The third time we heard it we answered and realized it was our security guard downstairs. Apparently this phone is a direct line to his office. Thankfully he speaks a little English as he informed us that in 10min. the water and electricity was about to be shut off to the entire building for 3 hours.

We quickly filled some bottles with water so we'd have some to drink and hoped the water/electricity would be back on in time for us to take showers before work. This happens on occasion that our water is shut off....we don't really know why but we've come to accept it as an occasional fact of life. Luckily our security guard usually catches us in time to give us a little warning....which is more than most foreigners get. :) To pass the time, we decided to go down to a local coffee shop and read for a couple of hours before work. Unfortunately, no electricity means the elevators didn't work, so we trucked down 15 flights of stairs and prayed the elevators would be working when we came back. Thankfully, a couple of hours later, everything was working perfectly....as though it was never turned off in the first place.

March Snowfall

So I was planning to write this blog post all about the newness of Spring and whatnot....but all of a sudden we got 4 1/2 inches of snow dumped on us last night! And it sent us right right back to Winter. So even though, it's freezing cold and there's slushy snow outside, I guess technically we are moving into Spring and new things are happening.

We've just started a new school term and this being our first week are just getting to know our new classes. Our schedules are pretty light these day, only teaching 4-5 hours a day! We think this is great, especially because it probably won't last for too long. :)

Also, Jordan just joined a Canadian Ball Hockey league, made up of mostly expats. This is nice because it gets us out of the house a bit more. He's slowly adjusting to the stares he gets while walking around with is hockey stick on the subway. I'll leave it at that because ball hockey's going to get it's own post later...

We've also recently met some new friends. As many of you know, when moving to a new place, it's always challenging to meet new people and make new friends. Since we are in somewhat of a transitional position, the people we meet don't always stay around for too long. Jordan has been trading xbox360 games online with some people and one of the guys happened to live just down the street from us. We've gotten together with him and his wife a few times and found that we have much in common. This is been a real blessing for us, to have some new faces to hang out with!
See? good things can come from the xbox......

Korean BBQ 삼겹살 (three-layered-meat)

Korean BBQ(pronounced "samgyeopsal") is a traditional kind of meat that the Korean people eat. Jordan and I have come to love it! There are many restaurants around that specialize in Korean BBQ and some even marinate the meat in a special, delicious sauce called "galbi". We are lucky enough to have a good restaurant right next door to our school so we go there usually once a week.
When you go out for Korean BBQ, you get a table that has a hole in the middle and a "fan" pipe hanging above the table.

When you sit down you order the meat you want and then they bring you a heaping bucket of coals to fill the hole in your table (some places use gas to heat a stone in the center of the table). Then they bring the raw meat to your table and you cook it yourself. They also bring MANY side dishes such as, bean sprouts, tofu, kimchi, garlic, rice and red paste. Then when your meat is cooked you mix it all together in a lettuce leaf and eat it.....it's SO TASTY! It is definitely one of the things we will miss when we leave Korea. As an added bonus, Jordan and I can eat there for about $16 for both of us (as it is not expected, nor really acceptable, to tip in Korea). We love our 삼겹살!