Spring has Sprung and Happy Birthday Pop!!!

Hello!

First off, happy (belated) 95th birthday to my grandpa Pop, my most dedicated and avid reader!!!!!!!

Also, hats off to my Bubby for working really hard at therapy and getting better every day!!!!! ^^

So, it's already 11:30 pm... So I probably can't write much, but I've been meaning to write an update.

I feel like I'm always in the middle of tests! And here I am, yet again, studying and getting ready for my midterm interview exam on this wednesday.  I took our two written exams last week on Monday and Tuesday.  I got back my writing and reading tests; my scores were fine. Pretty on par with what I thought they'd be. I'll get my speaking scores back on Wednesday, after my interview.

It's called an interview, but really, its memorizing dialogues... My partner and I had to write 10 dialogues and now I'm trying to memorize them.  When we take our test, there will be 10 cards, and we will draw 5 of them.  From those 5 we pick 3, and do the dialogues that correspond with the grammar points.

My interview partner, Chika is from Japan, and is an AMAZING cook!!!! We met on Saturday to practice and she made the most amazing lunch (and she thought it wasn't very good!!). What?! It was awesome.

 salad and bosam (thick bacon aka pork belly)

 (I don't know the name, but the white stuff is made from potatoes)

 PASTA!!!

me and Chika

After studying, I met up with Nik and we went to the Vagina Monologues (click on the link for a description of what the Vagina Monologues is all about).  I've been meaning to see this show for quite some time, and was pretty impressed with the production.  

According the the Vday website:

V-Day is a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sex slavery. [...]

In 2010, over 5,400 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

So, there are Vagina Monologue productions held all over the world and I think 100% of the proceeds are supposed to go to help an organization/beneficiary.   The beneficiary of our show was KUMFA, Korean Unwed Mothers & Families Association.   

We saw a bilingual production, so some of the monologues were in Korean with English subtitles behind, some were in English with Korean subtitles on the screen behind, and a few were done by two actors in both English and Korean.  

To put it simply, there was definitely a Korean twist to the show, which I both appreciated and found very intriguing.  

Some of the pieces were very moving, especially the one about Haiti and the one about the comfort women, and some were just hilarious.  They chose a good mix of monologues.  

There were a number of Fulbright people who went as well.  Afterwards, we headed to Hongdae for chicken and beer.  

Nik and Sung

Anyhow, last week, I went to Nik's house and made parmesan chicken.  Honestly, I was kind of impressed it turned out, considering  I winged it and made the whole thing up.  Not too hard though, if you think about it. Bread the chicken.  Saute it.  I also made baked broccoli! I was so happy to be able to cook!!! There is a serious lack of ovens in this country.  

note the MN map!!!

We definitely watched "Big Bird Goes To Japan" on youtube (6 parts!) because we are awesome. My question is, why is there no Big Bird Goes to Korea!?

 See how changoos (the drum) can be used in so many ways if one is resourceful! 

Also, last week I met up with Steve Wunrow, Bill Drucker and Mary Lee Vance, (all associated with Korean Quarterly) who all came to Korea.  

Nik and I went to PAN, Kim Duk Soo's samulnori show with them and then out to lunch in Insadong. 

The show was pretty awesome!!!  We ate at this weird vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  There was definitely a HUGE portrait of the Supreme Master watching us eat the entire time. haha!

I also met up with Steve and Bill one more time to go to this North Korean fashion show, My Fashionshow, put on by Dirk Fleischmann, a German fashion designer. It was... interesting?.. He was showcasing clothes made in Kaesong, North Korea.  

It started out with a magician. I haven't seen a magic show in forever, so that was pretty fun!  The lead into the "fashion show" was the magician pulling a North Korean made shirt out of his hat. 

 magician, complete with purple hair

 the shirt that was pulled out of the hat

 model

Perhaps I missed the main point of the show... That could very well be. But my take on it, was this guy went to N. Korea, toured the factories. Got a bunch of black and white cotton shirts.  Sewed his label inside them and is now selling them at astronomical prices...  I feel like I must have missed something because that doesn't seem right... 

 shirts for sale... like $200!!!

people who read nonstop through the entire performances (1000 articles) about Kaesong and its clothing factories

after the article was read, it was discarded on the ground - performance art.

 North Korean beer for sale

 making SoMek (Soju and beer) with N. Korean beer and N. Korean 인삼주 Gingsang liquor

 Steve and Bill

Anyhow, after the show, we went to Kraze Burger, which has the best hamburgers in the world!!! Yum.

Well, I should go to bed because its nearly 12:30 am now... More later!!!

Til next time!

-Lia 

teaching English, studying Korean etc.

Hi~

This past week has been busy! Since I last wrote, I moved from Marks to the Holt guest house.  I will move again (soon) to my home stay, which is apparently in Hongdae.

So, on Monday, Brownie, Sarang's former English student came and picked me up with his car and helped me move my things from Mark's place in Sinchon to Holt which is in Hapjeong.
Afterwards, we went to the World Cup stadium for lunch and then he took me to my work place.  It was my first day!!!! but we were a bit early, so we just hung around and explored the area a bit.  He let me drive his car which was fun! I never thought I'd drive in Korea, but the after school program where I teach (I actually have three different sites, but they are all near each other) is kind of a suburb of Korea, so it's much less crowded.

My first day of teaching was okay... Not the best, but not terrible.  It was just really chaotic... The center is only one room, literally called a study room (공부방) so while I was trying to teach there were other kids and teachers doing other things. Plus, there was a large disparity between kids' English levels.  Also age.  I am supposed to teach the elementary kids first for an hour and then the middle school kids second. But some of the middle schoolers decided to join in the first hour and were rather disruptive until one boy actually made another boy cry and they were removed.
I had a lesson plan, but wasn't sure of their levels...
I didn't really have any resources/materials either.  So, after I finished I went to Nik's (thanks Nik!) and he printed out phonics flash cards I had made last year. Whew. I spent a long while cutting and gluing but had them ready in time for class the next day.

My experience the next day was much better, partly because I had the flash cards etc. and also it was more of a classroom setting with just me and the kids I was teaching.  There was some sort of national exam for all middle school students, so I only taught the elementary kids and then we took them out to play at the park for an hour~ nice.

I met up with Nik and Bill Drucker, a writer for KQ who is visiting Korea and we had dinner and ice cream together.

Yesterday, wednesday, is my "day off" when I don't teach.  Class hadn't started yet, so I went to the immigration office and picked up my foreigner's registration card and passport.  Yay! I finally have it.
Afterwards I met Bill at 11:30 and we went to go see the comfort women's demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy.  This demonstration is held every Wednesday and if I understood correctly, I think the weekly demonstration has been going on for 20 years!  The woman along with their supporters are there protesting the Japanese governments denial of what happened.  They want recognition, an apology, and compensation.  And they come rain or shine.

women lined up with supporters behind them~

guards standing across the street in front of the Japanese embassy

I had wanted to go during study abroad, but always had class at that time, so when Bill said he was going, I jumped at the opportunity.  It was definitely a memorable experience.  The former comfort woman were lined up in chairs hold a banner and behind them stood supporters.  There were also speakers who took turns leading cheers or giving small speeches.
Unfortunately, my Korean is not good enough to catch everything, but it was very powerful.

Later, I met YunJeong unni at Ewha Univ. and she helped me reactivate my phone. Finally!!! yay!

Then, for dinner I met up with Nik's friend Nathan and his friend HyunJeong.  Unfortunately, Nik was busy and couldn't come. Nathan is a deaf korean adoptee from the states (They met at a GOAL event) working in Korea for google!  It was really fun to practice my ASL and his friend, HyunJeong, is a KSL interpreter, so I learned a bit of Korean sign language as well, which was really fun, but is completely different from ASL.

Today was my first day of Korean class. I think it will be good, but pretty intense.  I was really surprised that my speaking and reading/listening teachers are male! I have never had a male teacher in Korea and I've heard its pretty uncommon.  I definitely need to get into the habit of studying everyday again... Our speaking teacher seems a bit strict, but also really nice. He said if we speak even one word of English during class, he'll make us buy everyone coffee. Funny, but he means it. He also said we are not allowed to use our dictionaries in class! The entire class gasped, including myself... haha! and this one girl's mouth dropped open and stayed that way for a good 30 seconds or so. It was really funny.

Anyhow, I'm off to go teach English.  This is my first day at the third site, so after today, I will have taught at all of my sites once.
Til later~