Ninja Class

So I somehow made it out alive! The past 2 weeks have been extremely busy with birthdays, festivals and goodbyes but I now have time for some R&R until I leave for Japan May 21st.

I guess I should begin with my 23rd Birthday! I decided to take the day off and spend it with my friend Katie who was leaving to go back to South Africa this past Sunday. We had a great day drinking wine, eating burgers and smoking hukah. When I got back to my apartment to get ready for the evening, I noticed a huge bouqet of flowers left in my enclosure! Somehow, my parents had gotten in touch with my co worker Ryan, and with his help, they were able to surprise me with beautiful flowers on my birthday!! It was soo sweet!! Thanks again!!

So that night I met my friends out for dinner at a delicious Korean BBQ restaurant and then headed out to a local bar/club. I had a great time (from what I remember) and it made me think about how close I have gotten with my friends here. It's strange to think that 5 months earlier I didn't even know these people existed and now I am spending my 23rd birthday with all of them! It was amazing though and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

The next night was Katie's goodbye party and my co worker Joanna and her band (Feed the Boats) played a show dedicated to her. Sooo many people showed up and naturally it ended up being a tear fest, but we all had a great time! I wasn't sure what to get her for a going away present so I decided to just buy a basic white tee-shirt and got all her friends to sign it (I even attempted to draw a Korean flag on the front of it... which, if I do say so myself, didn't turn out THAT bad).

Side note: my students always die of laughter when I draw pictures on the blackboard. I suppose it's because I still draw stick people and my dogs look sort of like disabled guiny pigs! haha. Oh well, who am I trying to impress, seriously?!

Katies home-made shirt with my beautiful drawing of a Korean flag!

Katies shirt with all the signatures


After 4 attempts we were able to make a human pyramid sunday night before escorting Katie to the bus terminal


Feed the Boats playing Friday night

Anyways Katie loved the shirt and wore it for the remainder of the night (and into the early morning). I wasn't banking on getting much sleep that night since I knew that I could easily pass out on the 4 hour bus ride to Seoul. So the next morning my friend Emily and I left Gwangju around 11am and arrived in Seoul at 3pm for the World DJ Festival. This was the first music festival I have ever been too so I didn't really have any expectations. I was just picturing a lot of Korean-hippies wearing tie-dye and dancing long into the night. Well I wasn't far off... at all! I would say there was about 50,000 people there (maybe 60% Korean, 40% foriegners) and everyone was there to enjoy the music and have a good time. The DJ Fest was probably the highlight of my time in Korea thus far... it was SUCH an amazing experience and I couldn't have imagined a better time!


This is where the bus from Gwangju to Seoul stopped for a 15 minute break, which is why I dont mind the bus rides... the scenery is so beautiful!


Getting painted for the festival!


The crowd!



Eating ramien noodles at 6am! mmm

So running on maybe 7 hours of sleep in 48 hours, we left the festival around 7am and arrived in Gwangju Sunday afternoon, which also happened to be Parent's day. I found it sort of interesting that Korea doesn't have Mothers or Father's day but instead they celebrate one day for both. I guess that's because the divorce rate is so high in America, "Parents day" would kind of be a bust! I'm not exactly sure what the divorce rate in Korea is, but it's probably not even in the double digits. This doesn't mean that there are more happy families living in Korea, they just have a different way of doing things. I remember one day I was eating lunch at work with my Korean co teacher who was telling me a story about her recently divorced Korean friend who met a foriegner and fell in love. When she told me they had decided to get married, she sort of paused, waiting for a reaction from me. When I smiled and said, "thats nice" (pretty much sounded like any other everyday love story) she repeated, "but she was divorced!" She couldn't believe that a foriegner would want to marry someone who had already been married before. It was unfathomable to her! I explained that this is pretty much the norm at home and that being divorced wouldn't impede someone from loving them. This all goes back to Korea's sick obsession with image. Just like how Korean couples wear matching clothes (from head to toe) to prove to the public that they are an item, married couples on the break of divorce just move into separate homes and live a divorced life, without the title. In other words, it seems like there is a fine line here between divorce and polygamy... but hey, im not one to judge!

Now that we are on the topic of image, I must say that the way in which some students come dressed to school would not only be unheard of at home, but they would probably be shunned by the community or singled out as the one who will grow up with social issues! Today I had a student walk into class wearing a long black ninja robe and holding..................a legitamite SWORD!! Like a long metal sword that was as tall as he was!!!!! Now the sword did have a sword cover over it... but I couldn't understand why he wasn't able to go home after Karate/Ninja class/whatever the hell he was doing, and put his sword back in his sword holder and then come to school!? I mean, what if he started acting up in class... the worst threat I can throw at him is, "Peter, give me 10 stickers!!" The worst he can throw back is, "Teacha, I have a sword!"

This is basically the sword my student brought into class...

My co teacher Leigh told me one of her students came into class holding a bag of water with a fish swimming inside. I'm sure the fish was dead by the end of class but could you imagine bringing swords and fish into your classroom back in the day?! It just wouldn't happen!

I was recently talking to my grade 6 class about pets that they have and one girl told me she bought a new pet but didnt know the name of it in English so she wanted to show me a picture on her camera phone that she had taken of it the night before. When she showed me the picture I thought forsure she was joking... until I saw another picture of her beside her pet.....porcupine!!!!!!! NO JOKE! Apparently porcupines are house pets here and at least all my grade 6's think they are adorable... me... not so much! A dog, a cat, a hamster or even a disabled guiny pig is enough of a pet for me!

Miss you all!

Write more soon...

Signing off,

Gillian teacha xx

SMILE! If you are a foreigner in Korea!

My grade 3 student- Howard

Another grade 3 class watching a short movie and writing 20 words they hear longer than 4 letters.

My grade 1 class

Another grade 1 class... Tai (my student named after my dog) is the one with the monkey ears! Sara is to his left, Sean is behind her and Alice and White are in the back.

Lisa- she is adorable and is missing all her front teeth!

Tai again... classic example of why he is named after my dog- always running around the classroom and me yelling, "Tai SIT!!" "BE QUIET!!"

He loves the camera

HAPPY MAY! I can't believe May has already arrived and my birthday is just around the corner! The weather has been exceptionally hot this past week. My sweaters are packed away, balcony's and patios are open and I already purchased my first slushy... summer weather has finally come! It almost feels like we skipped spring and moved from winter to summer (since we had our final snowfall the third week in APRIL)! But I am most definitely NOT complaining! I'm just happy to experience Korea in a much different and desired temperature.

I decided I should probably update you all tonight because the next 5 days are going to be busy ones! Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and with the opening of a new Mexican restaurant in Gwangju, they have decided to host a Mexican buffet party to celebrate! Also, Wednesday is a holiday in Korea known as Children's Day so everyone has the day off! I know you are probably thinking..."Children's Day? Reallllllly?" but these kids damn well deserve their own day! They work and study soooo hard so Children's Day is basically one day off out of the entire year where they don't need to study (unless they have a test the next day which knowing Korean culture... is more likely than not). Poor kids.

Wednesday there is a baseball game (Gwangju's team is the Kia Tigers) and apparently they are a great time! Then of course Thursday is my birthday and I'm planning on being "sick" that day...either that or telling my Principal I got hit by a taxi walking to work (I seriously think that would be more probable) but anyhow, I'm taking the day off and then meeting some friends for a Korean BBQ. Friday night Feed the Boats (my co workers band) is playing a show downtown Gwangju for our friend Katie's goodbye party and then Saturday I am catching an early bus to Seoul for the International DJ festival! So like I said before, I have a busy week coming up and I'm somewhat worried if I/my liver will make it...

This past weekend Suzy came to visit and we, along with 7 other native teachers took a bus to Damyang for the Bamboo festival. Damyang is a small town in the country that is known for its Bamboo forest. The forest was covered with bamboo trees (go figure) and the feeling you get walking through it is complete zen. I have heard that walking through this forest can actually cure a bad hangover! It was a perfect day for a festival so after walking around the forest and watching the parade, we decided to set up camp on a field by the water and get some sun. Well, after about 3 minutes of us relaxing on the grass, we had a Korean family come up to us and in broken English, ask if they could take a picture of us...with their 3 year old son. We agreed and sort of laughed about it.....that was until we looked to the right and saw a LINE UP of Korean families and friends waiting to take their picture with US!!!!!! It was literally as if we were a circus attraction at the zoo! I could not believe how these people thought it was normal to want to take pictures with us (and sometimes just by ourselves) ONLY because we are foreigners!! Absolutely ridiculous! At one point we wanted to start charging $5 per picture which would make it a win win situation for us (we either get some cash, or they leave us the hell alone)!! All in all, it ended up being quite a strange afternoon- I even got harassed by a Korean transvestite who would NOT let me go until I purchased a box of his/her tofu he/she was selling. It was definitely a unique and aggressive selling strategy and also my first (and hopefully last) experience with a Korean tranny! So bizarre!

The transvestite with Suzy... just before he/she took me camptive!!

Suzy and I in the bamboo forest

Our crew trying to relax on the grass... little did we know we were in for a photo op!

The parade

More of the parade...

Some kids trying to catch fish in wooden nets at the festival

Something random I noticed about this country while being at the festival is the absence of garbage cans but the small amount of litter present on the streets. I'm not really sure the name of this particular job title but I have noticed ajamas (elderly people) walking around the city with old brooms (sort of like a witches broom) sweeping the garbage away. What makes me laugh though, is that unlike home, where littered garbage would consist of Tim Horton's cups and gum wrappers, the garbage left on the sidewalks here are comprised of chopsticks, napkins, dried ramien and metal rice holders. Very Korean-esq!

While we are on comparisons, I must explain to you all about Korean police officers! Not so much the cops themselves, but more their vehicles. Firstly, Korean police officers (or at least the ones I have observed are the LEAST intimidating cops EVER! They walk around the city in groups (of 4 or 5) sometimes eating ramien noodles (their noodles are like American cops donuts) and other times peacefully napping in their car! Now I am sure they work long hours like everyone else in this country, but it doesn't really give them the best reputation. To be honest I'm not even sure what a cops job here really entails since red lights are only suggestions and the speed limit is simply a meaningless number. On my walk to work the other day I had my earphones in listening in content to Lady Gaga, when I heard a very strange sound. It sounded seemingly familiar...almost like a barking dog, however it was too mechanical to be a real dog so I paused my iPod trying to determine what this unknown sound could be. It was now coming closer and it wasn't until I actually turned around to look behind me that I figured out what it was... the "dog barking sound" was the cop cars honk!! Seriously?!?!?! Like I said before, LEAST INTIMIDATING COPS EVER!

Write more soon...

Signing off,

Gillian teacha xx