Teacher's Day Loot

Today (May 15th) is teacher's day here in Korea. Sadly, it's not celebrated by giving teachers a day off from work (although this year it's on a Sunday so we don't have to work anyway) but it IS celebrated by exorbitant gifts for teachers. Which I do not protest. This year I didn't expect to get much at all, since I only started 3.5 months ago, but I was surprised by what I did receive. Socks, chocolates, perfume, a flower card and a few little pieces of gum and candy from kids who felt bad that they had no gifts to give me. The presents aren't nearly as good as when I was a preschool teacher, but I can't complain.

Easter in Korea

This will now be my third Easter spent in Korea, and usually it passes silently without much acknowledgment.  Here it's seen as a religious holiday, and so many non-religious Koreans or non-Christian Koreans might not even realize that the day is passing. My mother always is astounded by the fact that I never know when Easter is here, and she always needs to inform me of it's passing. Some years, after the fact. But this year, Easter has been all around me.

In America, it's tradition for kids to get hard boiled white eggs and dye them or color them  and give the eggs as gifts to family and friends. I had never though much about this in Korea, but one big problem here is that it's impossible to get white eggs here, or at least white chicken eggs. They just don't seem to exist here.  And so, dying eggs lacks the same punch as it would at home.

So, when I attended my Korean class on Friday, which is run by a Catholic multicultural center, I couldn't help by take a picture of their solution to the brown egg problem. A plastic wrapper that proclaims "Jesus has been resurrected!" with a "Happy Easter!" on the other side. I couldn't help take a photo. Of course, as yesterday was Earth Day and we were coincidentally studying about environmental problems and reducing waste, I couldn't help think about the wastefulness of these little plastic wrappers that everyone ripped off immediately to eat their egg in class....

Then from Korean class I was off to work. We had planned an Easter egg hunt in the park outside our school for the students, but due to the rain yesterday we had to move it indoors to our little gym. Which meant not nearly as much fun. Of course, in Korea, I've never seen those little plastic eggs that open to fill with little treats, so we had to improvise. We made laminated eggs instead.

There were three variations of eggs, and each one was worth something different. One candy, one a snack, and one a storybook. The kids were only allowed to find two eggs, and they had to be different kinds of eggs. Oh, and they only had 30 seconds to do it. But, despite this, most kids found at least one, many two and they were quite happy with their gifts.

 Hunting for "eggs"

 Su Yeon with her egg and prize

 

Since the egg hunt was so short, I decided to give the kids a break today. We didn´t have a whole lot of work to do today, and rather than review for the test (which the kids never like to do anyway) I decided, why not have a fun day of doing some crafts. These kids study all the time, I think sometimes they just need a break to relax. So, I found a pattern online for a "heart sheep" and this is the fun that ensued.

I could show you about 20 more photos of my students and their sheep, but I don't want to bore you to death. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good Easter. I will probably spend mine in Chuncheon, the city of lakes and home of 닭갈비 so look forward to some photos next week!

Another Halloween at SLP

This year's Halloween was the most relaxing I've had in Korea yet. My old school would ask everyone to stay late the night before the party, and decorate. Then afternoon teachers would have to come in to help with the preschool Halloween party, then stay late to run the afternoon student's Halloween party. No one ever got breaks because everyone was assigned one room and there wear kids constantly coming in and out. 

At my new school, there's none of that foolishness. We only had 5 rooms for games and things. One Movie room, craft room, game room and spelling bee room. I actually had lots of breaks since there are way more than 5 teachers to cover 5 rooms. I was supposed to do a craft with the evening kids, but I couldn't imagine telling the 5th and 6 graders "OK guys, we're going to make a pumpkin with paper and tie it to a string!" I would have been booed out of the room. So, I put it to a vote. How many want to make a pumpkin? How many want to watch a movie? And obviously, the movie won. So, I put on The Nightmare Before Christmas for them. Without subtitles. As I was watching it I realized that even an English speaking elementary school student would have trouble understanding it. They use a lot of advanced vocabulary. Then put it in a musical form and it's like a recipe for disaster. But, the kids watched it peacefully enough, considering the fact that they were just staring at pictures essentially for an hour.

Anyway, on to the photos: 

First up is my costume. I've never had a really scary costume before. It was super fun to see kids expressions when they turned around and found me next to them. I am a 처녀귀신- cheonyeo gwishin  or essentially a virgin ghost. Everyone knows this ghost as it's quite famous in Korea. If you can't guess, it's the ghost of a girl who died before she was married.

My favorites. I teach them every day. They are hyperactive and wild, but they study hard and are super smart. I'm sad because it was the girl in the middle, Lucia's, last day.

The adorable and super smart Seo Woo. She is 7 years old, but she is super mature for her age. 

The cutest boy in the school, Yu Chan. He is in our 3rd year Kindergarten class. Meaning he's been studying English since he was Korean age 5. His English is amazing. Even if he has trouble sitting still for more than 2 minutes. 

 My Jennifer. She is in 3rd grade. She's another one with amazing English. She studied in an international school in Vietnam before coming to our school.

Jane is another sweetheart. This mask is the total opposite of her personality.  She is the quietest student I've ever seen, sometimes I have to stand next to her to hear what she is saying, and even then it's hard to hear. Which is why I particularly liked the fact that she was wearing a Scream mask....

And this is not from SLP, but I stumbled across this mask seller in Itaewon last night. I particularly liked the Obama mask, although they had a lot of other interesting masks as well.

My favorite video to show for Halloween

Michael Jackson's Thriller!


Michael Jackson - Thriller
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Chuseok gifts and hanboks...

Here is what my boyfriend received from his company as a Chuseok gift. Yes, that is 18 cans of tuna. It is 100x better than his Seollal gift though. While I'll never understand giving tuna or spam as a holiday gift, at least tuna is something I do eat on a fairly regular basis. It will take a few months, but this will get eaten.

Monday (our only day of work this week) was Chuseok day for preschool. I was given the lucky task of asking these 7 year olds to write a report about their day. While they have been at our school for over a year, their English skills (and especially writing skills) are far below their peers who have been studying for 6 months longer than them. Not sure why that is, but I got some pretty unhappy faces when I told them we were writing today. Usually, I'm the art teacher!

They all came in with their hanboks, but by the last class when I was teaching them, all the girls had taken off their hanboks and were back to their uniforms. So, I just took photos of the boys.

They're so cute in their hanboks! Its so deceiving to their actual personalities....

Another "Best Class" and another pizza

This month I had another "best class", my first in two months. They were pretty psyched for it.


This is a typical Korean pizza. If you're not in Korea, this could look rather strange to you. Koreans like to add strange sauces and vegetables that we wouldn't normally associate with pizza (like corn), but stragenly I've come to quite enjoy pizza in this Asian version...


And clearly, the kids to too...

Market Day at SLP

My school has an interesting way of motivating students that I really enjoy. Our students work hard to do homework, do well on quizzes and raise their hands in class in order to earn stamps. Once collecting 60 stamps the students can trade it in for an SLP "dollar" or "euro" (in the SLP system the exchange rate between the dollar and euro are even. A few smart students tried to get away with buying more with fewer euros because they know the real exchange rate is better. That didn't fly with me...)
Every few months we cancel classes and host "Market Day". Market day is a day of games, shopping and movies. Here they have an opportunity to spend the money they earned over the previous months. While the activities change from market day to market day, our market day last week consisted of 4 rooms. Movie (Night at the Museum 2), Market, Cafe and Golden Bell.


I was mostly working in the market this time. They had an interesting twist to the market this time as well. This time they asked students to bring in used toys and books to sell as well. When I first heard this I was worried they were trying to cheat the kids out of getting some cool (new) stationary, but what actually happened though was they got all the usual things, plus sold used things as well. It worked well. The kids loved getting "new" books and some of the used toys were cool enough (and cheap enough in SLP dollars) to entice kids to buy them.

This time they had a cafe which was separate from the market. They went all out and even got ddeokbokki (rice cakes in a spicy sauce) for the kids to purchase. The teachers also went wild for the ddeokbokki and we were all stopping by all day to pick up some more throughout the day.


I didn't watch the Golden Bell game, but I know it was based on a TV quiz show and they used English questions based on what the kids had been studying for the last few months.

Anyway, the kids all really liked it and it was a nice break from teaching for two days. Our next event will be Halloween!

"My Dream House"

This month we're studying houses in my Reach Out 4 class. I had some extra time on the review day, so I asked my boys to draw a picture of their dream house and describe it. Here's what I got:

Attack Bug House

"Under the Beach" House

I tried to tell him about 6 times that his house was under the water, not the beach, but he insisted that it was not under the water, that it was under the beach.

Kitchen Robot House?

Pay attention to the last two sentences or so here. I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to say, but whatever it is, it sounds awesome. Don't worry, I made more corrections after I took this picture.

the "Best" post

I have to say, Wednesday was a pretty good day at school. First thing when we came in, we were called to the gym for a surprise meeting where myself and 3 other teachers (2 elementary, 2 kindergarten) were given the "Best Teacher" award for the first quarter of the year. 50,000 won richer, I went back to my office to prepare for my classes.

Not only did they announce "Best Teacher" on Wednesday, but the "Best Class" for each class level was also announced and given a pizza party. This was a new incentive introduced a few months ago to encourage students to study hard for their tests. It seems to be working, at least for some classes. Test scores have gone up considerably for quite a few classes. Though, one of my worst classes asked me... "Teacher, we want a pizza party!" I told them, "You can have a pizza party... when you study hard and get the best score on your test.", to which they replied, "No, thanks."
The class pictured above is one of my favorites. They drive me nuts sometimes, but they are really great. They are an advanced 2nd grade class which studies from an American curriculum. They all attended English preschool for at least one year, most of them probably two years. They were so excited to get the pizza party. It was their first time.. they've brought up their scores a lot since I started teaching them. I don't know if it's the pizza party incentive or not, but they're doing something right.
This is another one of my classes, the second of two of my 7 classes to receive a pizza party this month. They are another advanced class that follows an American curriculum, most of them probably attended 1 year of English preschool. This is their second pizza party in 3 months. They all work pretty hard and love learning. These kids are great too. Very well behaved and really want to learn. Every class should be like them!

Finally, the "Most Improved Student" award was also given to one of my students. It seems like a terrible award to give, and most kids hate gettting it... since it means you were terrible, but now you're good. Anyway, this kid came in quite behind, but it was the lowest level for his grade we could put him in. We weren't sure if he was going to make it, he had a lot of trouble reading and his speaking and listening comprehension skills were far below the other kids. But, he's worked hard, and taken some extra classes, and he got a 90% on his last test! Good job Vincent!

Crazy Hair Day and Preschool Art Class

Here is Boston Class. All our classroom names are named after world cities. These are 7 year olds (5-6 international age) who have studied at our school since age 5. Therefore, they are starting their 3rd year of preschool with complete English immersion. Their English skills amaze me some days. I teach them once a week for their art class. I am one of the 7 year old art teachers. Just to give you an idea of their English skills, we had an art assignment that was to draw a construction site. I asked the kids to name some construction equipment. All of a sudden, all hands were in the air, shouting out answers like "bulldozer!" "dump truck!" "crane!" and most impressive of all was "CONCRETE MIXER!!!". My other classes were lucky to get "truck" and "block".

Art usually consists of a drawing/ coloring component and then some sort of project. The project usually being too complicated for most of the kids, meaning Teacher makes 10 projects for the students.

This particular week was draw "line up!" aka, lets think of where we line up in the community and at school and draw a picture. Kind of lame, but whatever. The project was much more fun, and totally do-able for the kids. Making Easter eggs. While the manual said to use hard boiled eggs... any preschool teacher is smart enough to see the dangers in letting ten 7 year olds loose with hard boiled eggs. So, fortunately, someone from corporate was wise enough to send all the schools some styrofoam eggs. The kids got to color these up with markers and decorate them with stickers. Then they put them into little cups with fake Easter grass.


I brought my camera to class this particular day because, not only was it Easter egg making day, but this day was also "Crazy Hair Day". All the kids wore their hair in interesting styles, and a lot of the girls dressed up too.

I'm not quite sure what this one has in her mouth. I guess that makes me a bad teacher...


Here's Jong Ho and Yu Chan. Jong Ho (the one with the pointy hair) has incredible English skills. He has no accent and the mistakes he makes sound more like the mistakes a preschooler in America would make, not a Korean preschooler's mistakes. Yu Chan also has excellent English skills. I'm guessing from hanging around Jong Ho so much.

Anyway, Art class can stress me out some days. dealing with 7-10 preschoolers at once can be trying on a good day. Not to mention, I've just never connected with this age group. And it's every day from 1:40-2:30. There's no days without it. Anyway, three of the 5 classes I teach are great kids. The other two... well... the teachers are trying to make them better classes... hopefully they'll get better, not worse as the year progresses....

Manditory Seminar

SLP headquarters is releasing a new book series for our teaching delight. It's meant to replace an antiquated book called Hi Kids! Which has almost nothing to teach from except some wordless pictures in a book and some photocopied vocabulary and key phrase sheets.

They decided to make a seminar to explain to us how to teach this book, New Hi Kids!, even though there is a very clear and wonderful teacher's guide that comes along with the book that breaks the lesson down minute by minute. Not only that but, they held the seminar at Sogang University, which is 30 minutes from my house and an hour from work.

While my friends at Seongdong got out of going to this boring, useless seminar, my school had to go. I guess being owned by Sogang University means you have to set some kind of precedent.

The seminar was amazing and uplifting and after coming out, I felt my life was forever changed in an indescribable way. Though I spent about 4 hours for this seminar, 1 hour in commute either way, plus two hours here at the seminar, all I got was a lousy sandwich. I guess I can't complain, though, since they didn't have to give me a sandwich.

In other news, I'm sick of my commute to work already, an hour commute is not my idea of a good time. We'll see where this job goes...

Training

Both jobs that I've now worked for in Seoul have both been very good about training. At my last job I had 6 or 7 days of training, and her I get 6 days of training. I am very grateful for this. But, I must say, I hate observation. Especially now, for my second job, also another SLP, I know how to teach a class. It's nice to see other people's teaching styles, but you can only take so much of sitting in the back of a classroom and watching someone else teach this mind numbing grammar or whatever before you start to go nuts. My papers have little drawings all over the margins. They look like my student's book's margins. I still have four more days of observation before I start teaching on Monday, and I may just go nuts.

They have no real work for me to do in the office. I wouldn't mind some lesson planning or homework list making, or writing syllabi right now because there's only so many times you can check facebook during break times before you start to feel unloved because nothing has changed since the last time you checked it, 5 minutes before.

I can't believe it's only Tuesday. Tuesday, before classes have even started, for that matter. This must be the longest week on record and it only just started.

Anyway, in other news. I finally found a dresser, and we bought a comforter set for the bed on Gmarket (Korean version of Amazon, or whatever online shopping site you use) last night. It wound up being about 70,000 won for the whole set (only duvet, not a blanket) which felt a little expensive, but it was one of the cheapest we could find. The other other cheap one had bad reviews. This one had generally very positive reviews.

So, the apartment is just about completely ready. Once I get the comforter set up, maybe I'll take some photos to put up here.

I'm having cell phone issues. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I lost my cell phone 2 days after getting it set up on a new prepaid plan. While I debated what to do next, my boyfriend found a phone from a friend of his. He won't charge me any money for his nice phone, but the deal was I had to pay his bill. Well, he hadn't used it for 4 months, but the bills had still been piling up, so there was a 78,000 won bill. After going all the way to the SHOW service center I got the bill all cleared so I could use the phone. But, the second problem is that I need a converter for the cell phone charger.

See, all cell phones in Korea need to be able to use a single, standard phone charger. Sounds genius, doesn't it? Except that most new phones nowadays are either too small to fit that charger, or are too cool to put that old school charger on their phone. So, their solution? Make a cell phone charm that adapts the charger socket to the old style socket. So, you're stuck with this ugly phone charger adapter as your cell phone charm when you could have something cool like a hamburger or chili peppers or something just as inane.

My problem is that my boyfriend's friend lost his. So. No charging my phone for me until I get that little adaptor. The SHOW service center didn't have it. I need to go to an Anycall (my phone brand) service center. I got directions by phone this morning from my boyfriend from looking at a map online, but unfortunately, the conditions on the ground were not quite what the map appeared and I wound up missing my turn and consequently didn't make it to the service center and was quite nearly late for work on my third day. No good.

So, anyway, I'm still unreachable for the most part. But at least I have a job, dresser and comforter in the mail.

So long til next time.

New Job

So yesterday I started at my new school, Songpa SLP. I was immediatly impressed by the big, clean, new building. Compared to my old school it was sparkling. I was ushered into a confrence room when I arrived and the head teacher came in to meet me. They ordered me some lunch (thank God) and started explaining my schedule for the next few days. Monday I have to go in at 9:40 and get my health exam. I'm a little peeved that they are making me pay for half of the exam, 40,000 won, even though it's a visa requirement. Oh well, what can you do.

My schedule seems ok, MWF five 40 minute classes. One class only has two, well behaved students, and another class only has three, slightly odd, boys. The other classes are moderatly sized and moderatly behaved. I think it looks alright. I still don't know about TTH classes yet, but the schedule sounds light.

The staff seems friendly enough. The morning teachers and afternoon teachers are separated by 5 floors, so I get the feeling it's going to be very hard to get to know the morning preschool teachers as my office is on the 5th floor. At least the afternoon staff seems friendly enough. There is one other guy starting with me this week. It's his first time in Korea. It's always interesteing to hear newbies speak about their first impressions. I'm reminded of things that I totally forgot about that are wierd and different.

Anyway, I hope things continue to go well at this new school. It seems like a good place to work for. I'm hoping my daily commute everyday does not become cumbersome. last night I didn't get home until after 10 o'clock. I don't think that will be normal, as I waited around in the office for some people to get things done, so we could walk together. Plus we were helping the new guy to find a grocery store. I expect that the whole commute took about 50 mins, including walking, waiting, and walking again. The train ride itself didn't feel that long... And when I have homework to do on the train, I bet it will go even faster. I hope.

I have a job! :-D

I have officially accepted a job at Songpa-gu SLP. I originally wanted to work for another kind of school instead of an SLP, not because I don't like SLP, but just to get a feel for different teaching techiniques. But, seeing the other crap jobs I was being offered, this seemed like the best choice, even though I'm actually taking a 100,000 won pay cut. Really, it's only 25,000 won/ week difference and it's not worth giving up a good job to stick up my nose at the pay. In this economy, I just need to be thankful I have a job at all.

This SLP is quite different from my old one. It's the only SLP (Sogang Language Program) that is actually owned by Sogang Universtiy. Thier housing options, to some, might sound miserable, but to me, it's great. They offer dormitories at Sogang Universtiy (which is very far from the school) or they give 450,000 won to find whatever housing you want.

My boyfriend found me a great place near my old home in Sindang (actually, probably not in Sindang-dong), which is two bedrooms, plus a decent looking bathroom (with some help from some shower curtains, it will be lovely, I'm planning already) and a kitchen which is separate. It's hard to tell from the photos, but my boyfriend really loved it. It's on the 3rd floor of a villa, and I hear there's even a patio/roof area. I swiped some stuff from my old apartment that I knew the new girl moving in didn't want and I'm hoping to buy some stuff like beds and wardrobes when I get there. I'm trying to plan out everything in my head, but it's hard going on some poorly taken photos and an skewed floorplan...

I have to be in Seoul before Jan. 22nd. I'm going to come as soon as I can, I just am having a hard time figureing out how long it's going to take to get my visa processed. I sent off my form for a criminal background check, but I don't know how long it takes to process. I also need to figure out a way to drive up to my old university in Vermont to get my transcripts and the copy of my diploma, and then get it all certified with the apostille at the secrertary of state in Vermont. That will be a day in itself.

Anyway, if you happen to be moving, or getting rid of things in mid/late January, please let me know. I will need:
Bed (larger than a twin)
Wardrobe or one of those light movable poles people use
Table and Chairs
Plates/Glasses etc
Desk/ desk chairs
nightstands
lamps?

Well, I'll know more of what I need when I move in. We're buying things like the fridge, gas range, vacuum and maybe some tables from the landlord so we don't need those things. Do you think you can buy a tension rod in Korea to put up a shower curtain, or do you think I need to bring that from home?? I know Korea is not big on shower curtains...

My Neighborhood 2#: A walk to work

About a month ago now, before I came back to the states, I decided to walk to work (because I've become a lazy slug and stopped walking many many months ago even though it's only about 20 minutes) and take some photos of what I see every day on my way to work. For those of you at home, it might give you some idea of what my life here is like, if you're curious. This goes more or less in order from my house to my work.


Here's a gas station. I took this photo about a month ago. The price of gas/ liter is 1638 won/liter. That's $1.42 per liter, or $5.37 per gallon... though I'm not sure which grade of gas that's for. I think my boyfriend generally pays about 100,000 won for every time he fills his tank of his little Kia.
Right across the street from my old building is a whole neighborhood (and I mean a WHOLE neighborhood) which has been set to be demolished, obviously making way for some ginormous apartment complex. I bet at least 1000 people must have been kicked out of this neighborhood... no, probably a lot more. Kind of sad. It's really creepy to walk through too. You would expect that many empty, gutted houses would be full of squatters, but... they really don't seem to be... it's just eerily quiet back there...
Near Sangwangsimni Station there are lots of machine shops... I don't know what they could possibly be doing, but they tend to make a lot of noise doing it... not to mention using their blow torches and hack saws (or whatever the thing that makes lots of sparks when you play with metal is) in the middle of the sidewalk. It seems dangerous to me, but what do I know?

Here's the Gynecologist I went to, right by Sangwangsimni. His English wasn't great, but he has been practicing for 30 years and seems to know what he's doing, even if he is a little rough...

Here's my old dance studio where I used to go back in the day. It was a lot of fun and good exercise, but I'm happy with my Korean class now. I can't really be taking two classes.... that's a little intense... though I am hoping to find a salsa class when I get back....

If you're not familiar with Korea, you might be happy (or unhappy to know) you can get all your favorite American food here, like McDonalds and Pizza Hut. McDonalds is mostly the same as home with some new additions like the bulgogi Burger and the Shanghai spicy chicken sandwiches (I generally avoid these places, but they are good... ).

On the other hand, you might find Pizza Hut to be quite different. Korean pizza is just a little strange... sweet potato filled crust, seafood and corn for toppings, but (save for the seafood) I have really grown to like Korean pizza. Though, not the price of Pizza Hut (try PizzaSchool instead... much more affordable).

Here is the Enter-6 Mall at Wangsimni Station. Wangsimni Station is going through some gentrification. It's the intersection of three subway lines, eventually it will be home to 4 lines, aka, a major hub. Therefore they are going through a process of modernization. Here at Enter-6, which opened about a month after I arrived last year, there is an E-Mart (there is always an E-Mart), "Renaissance Themed Mall", golf range (see the big half dome... its supposed to be huge), water park (yup, you heard me)/ jimjilbang, CGV cinema, not to mention all the big name Korean restaurants like VIPS, Marisco (is that really a big name?) and some others.


Here is the park across the street to my school. No grass really to speak of, but there is so much foot traffic through here, it would probably be decimated anyway. Down here we take our preschoolers out to play for gym.

In the upper part of the park all the old men gather to play their board games. On any day there might be 10 to 50 old men out here playing. Women don't seem to be invited. Soju usually is a normal part of the day for these men, so I try not to come too close (I took this photo with my zoom). Sometimes I get creeped out a little here because there are a lot of homeless men (really homeless) that live in this park... the number seems to have increased since I arrived and I dont know if that's an indicator of the economy or what. The homeless men here tend to be drunk/drinking whenever I pass. The lack of laws regarding public drunkenness in this country is probably my biggest complaint, I like almost every other aspect of living in Korea that I can think of...



Here you can see Lemon Plaza where I used to work. My school is SLP, and upstairs from us is Olympiad. They stole a lot of our older kids when they first opened, but since they don't have a preschool they weren't competition for us there. Those poor folks who work up there work until 10 or 11pm. I couldn't do that... not anymore at least...


Here is the new Lotte Super. It used to be called Lemon Mart (because this is called Lemon Plaza) but a few weeks ago it magically changed. It's really nice to have a supermarket in the building where you work, because you can just stop by on the way home from work. God I love this kind of life...

All the lovely places downstairs from my hagwon. First on your left is Paris Baguette. This is a coffee shop/pastry shop. Personally I hate almost everything here, except their chocolate chip muffins and their baguettes (since they are the only place I can get a baguette conveniently). Next is the 약국 or Pharmacy. The folks here are very nice, I like going here for my pharmaceutical needs. Next is the best Korean food restaurant on the face of the Earth. It kind of looks like a Kimbap Chonguk, but the food is 1000x better. I ate here every day at least once a day while I was an afternoon teacher (sometimes twice... shhhh).

Here's the Ear/Nose/Throat doctor I used to go to. I stopped going when I realized that she diagnosed everyone with tonsillitis... even in Korean when we brought translators. And it didn't matter what you went in for, you walked out with a prescription for 5 different drugs, one always being an antibiotic... for a cold... a cold people. Colds are from viruses, antibiotics are for bacteria. I'm not a doctor and I can tell you that. Haven't you ever heard of Antibiotic Resistances? How 'bout MRSA, does that ring a bell for you???

Anyway, long story short, I gave up going here and treated all my colds the old fationed way... doing nothing and waiting for it to pass. Now that I'm home I got a neti pot and it's been working wonders... definatly coming back with me to Korea.

Here is the church inside the same building as my old hagwon. Coming from a Catholic family, it seems really strange to have a "church" inside of another building, because my idea of "church" is some big stone building with a steeple and stained glass windows, but I guess there are plenty of small protestant churches in the US too that meet in the basement of other buildings.

I hope I don't come off too negative about my neighborhood. Yea, it's not Apgujeong or Gangnam, but I'm happy I lived here and I'm looking for apartments around here for when I return. It's a little less classy than other areas of Seoul, but it feels like real Korea to me, not some ultra-modern tinsel town. I think in 10 years, this is going to be a very different place though... we'll see.