Hey all, we have new videos up (http://www.youtube.com/blkfaephoenix) including playing with the kids at school, watching traditional games during Chuseok in Seoul, choreographed dancing on stationary bikes, children playing in what looks like a hamster ball at the Incheon festival, and creepy robotic teddy bears pulling carts.
We also uploaded new photos from the past couple weeks: Our day at the Suwon Fortress with Young-min, yesterday at the Incheon Festival with Grace, a couple recent photos of Jay's class, and the newest addition to our family: Esther the Dragon Slayer. Enjoy!
18 October 2009
04 October 2009
Photos from South Korea are up to date
Hello! Just a short note to let you know that we have now uploaded all the photos from South Korea up to our most recent trip (yesterday) into Seoul for Chuseok with Lino. Additionally, we've uploaded photos from our hike in Chuncheon, the school's most recent field trip, our kids dressed up for Chuseok, random photos from work, walks along the Tancheon and around Bundang, Moran traditional market, my mom's visit, and a trip to Gyeongbokgung (the palace) with Cynthia.
Albums are listed in reverse-chronological order at http://scerenity.smugmug.com/. We've been having lots of fun and are happy to see fall replace muggy summer. We're looking forward to more outings with co-workers and friends, bike rides in the pleasant weather, and general fall glory.
Be well!
-J&J
27 September 2009
Photos online and quick update
Hello all! It's been a while since we got settled here and lots of things have happened. We're loving our classes, co-teachers, and apartment. We've reconnected with old friends, gotten to know new friends, explored around Bundang, and pretty much gotten re-adjusted to Korea.
In the time since we last posted, we've taught, re-organized our apartment, re-visited a palace in Seoul with Cynthia (our other foreign co-worker), seen a traditional market, read a ridiculous amount of books, gone hiking, shown my mom around Seoul (she visited for a long weekend in September - wonderful but way too short), taken our students on a field trip to a farm and recreation area in Yongin, and travelled to nearby Chuncheon. We took taekwondo classes for a few months, but since the schedule doesn't work out too well, we're probably replacing that time with running and biking (we found wonderful bikes on Craigslist)... Other than that, things are pretty normal. Of course, in Korea that means hectic, busy, and crazy but in a good way for the most part.
I'm currently working on getting all our photos from our Latin America trip online (Facebook and SmugMug). Currently, all photos from Argentina, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico are up, as well as the photos from Steph and Mike's wedding. Click on the link to "Photos" at the top of this webpage to view all the albums. Photos from Panama, Peru, and recent photos from South Korea are in the works. Thank you for your patience, there are a lot of photos to sort through :-)
In the meantime, don't worry - all is well. Have a wonderful Sunday!
-J&J
In the time since we last posted, we've taught, re-organized our apartment, re-visited a palace in Seoul with Cynthia (our other foreign co-worker), seen a traditional market, read a ridiculous amount of books, gone hiking, shown my mom around Seoul (she visited for a long weekend in September - wonderful but way too short), taken our students on a field trip to a farm and recreation area in Yongin, and travelled to nearby Chuncheon. We took taekwondo classes for a few months, but since the schedule doesn't work out too well, we're probably replacing that time with running and biking (we found wonderful bikes on Craigslist)... Other than that, things are pretty normal. Of course, in Korea that means hectic, busy, and crazy but in a good way for the most part.
I'm currently working on getting all our photos from our Latin America trip online (Facebook and SmugMug). Currently, all photos from Argentina, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico are up, as well as the photos from Steph and Mike's wedding. Click on the link to "Photos" at the top of this webpage to view all the albums. Photos from Panama, Peru, and recent photos from South Korea are in the works. Thank you for your patience, there are a lot of photos to sort through :-)
In the meantime, don't worry - all is well. Have a wonderful Sunday!
-J&J
12 July 2009
Nearly a month in, and it feels like a year. In a good way. Mostly.
Time flies, doesn't it? Apparently we've been here for nearly a month, though it doesn't seem like that much time has passed. And yet we've done so much and we feel so comfortable here, it's like we're nearing the end of the year.
(Clearly I've had enough time to do the new layout for this site though... Or was that just a form of procrastination? Most likely. I hope you like the new layout. It should make it easier to access photos and videos.)
As for our jobs, we've settled into our classes and schedules now, though they tend to change without a lot of notice. Summer session means random new classes that tend to come out of nowhere. We're definitely tired by the end of the day and exhausted by the end of the week, but our kids and co-teachers are amazing, so we are really enjoying it here. And of course, there's so much to do that we don't tend to use the weekends for down-time.
At the end of our second week, we went out with our co-workers to Lotte World, a huge indoor-outdoor theme park in Seoul. It was really fun, and a welcome change to the responsibilities we're supposed to have in class. Five "adults" running around a theme park like little kids? Yup, sounds like a good Friday night.
Photos: Lotte World
Video: The carousel
Video: A preview of the Bungee Jump ride
Video: Jessie, Cynthia, and Ms. Lee on the Bungee Jump
Video: The view of Lotte World from the balloons
We've also had some other adventures: we ventured to Yongsan and (despite Korea's affinity for shiny new things) successfully found Cynthia a Super Nintendo (now called Blanche), had a wonderful day with the wonderful Lino in Bundang, played video games with co-workers, had an amazing lunch that Young made for Cynthia's birthday, went running a few times, made kimchi, and returned to the Coex aquarium and mall in Seoul. As I said; less than a month, but it feels like much more :-)
Here are some more photos and videos from the past few weeks:
Photos: Around Bundang
Photos: At school (updated): Gym time and Clara's birthday
Video: Potato sack races at gym time
Video: Tug of war at gym time
Photos: Making Kimchi
Photos: More E-mart
Photos: Coex mall and aquarium
Video: Beaver spinning in the water at Coex Aquarium
Video: The water tunnel (and sharks) at Coex Aquarium
Additionally, because of the summer rain, the river overflowed. It flooded the paths at the sides and nearly reached the roads!
Photos: Tancheon (new images: overflowing river)
That's it for now - it's time for bed and tomorrow is another Monday morning :-)
Be well!
-J&J
(Clearly I've had enough time to do the new layout for this site though... Or was that just a form of procrastination? Most likely. I hope you like the new layout. It should make it easier to access photos and videos.)
As for our jobs, we've settled into our classes and schedules now, though they tend to change without a lot of notice. Summer session means random new classes that tend to come out of nowhere. We're definitely tired by the end of the day and exhausted by the end of the week, but our kids and co-teachers are amazing, so we are really enjoying it here. And of course, there's so much to do that we don't tend to use the weekends for down-time.
At the end of our second week, we went out with our co-workers to Lotte World, a huge indoor-outdoor theme park in Seoul. It was really fun, and a welcome change to the responsibilities we're supposed to have in class. Five "adults" running around a theme park like little kids? Yup, sounds like a good Friday night.
Photos: Lotte World
Video: The carousel
Video: A preview of the Bungee Jump ride
Video: Jessie, Cynthia, and Ms. Lee on the Bungee Jump
Video: The view of Lotte World from the balloons
We've also had some other adventures: we ventured to Yongsan and (despite Korea's affinity for shiny new things) successfully found Cynthia a Super Nintendo (now called Blanche), had a wonderful day with the wonderful Lino in Bundang, played video games with co-workers, had an amazing lunch that Young made for Cynthia's birthday, went running a few times, made kimchi, and returned to the Coex aquarium and mall in Seoul. As I said; less than a month, but it feels like much more :-)
Here are some more photos and videos from the past few weeks:
Photos: Around Bundang
Photos: At school (updated): Gym time and Clara's birthday
Video: Potato sack races at gym time
Video: Tug of war at gym time
Photos: Making Kimchi
Photos: More E-mart
Photos: Coex mall and aquarium
Video: Beaver spinning in the water at Coex Aquarium
Video: The water tunnel (and sharks) at Coex Aquarium
Additionally, because of the summer rain, the river overflowed. It flooded the paths at the sides and nearly reached the roads!
Photos: Tancheon (new images: overflowing river)
That's it for now - it's time for bed and tomorrow is another Monday morning :-)
Be well!
-J&J
24 June 2009
Our first week in Bundang
Our trip got off to a good start when the nice United representative at SFO kindly overlooked the fact that all our bags were about a pound or two over the maximum 50 lbs. Then, since United has a horrible policy of assigning seats in the order that they're booked, we were stuck with the middle two seats of the middle 5 seats in the second-to-last row on the plane... But when we asked if there were any other available seats, we were upgraded to United Plus for free (yay legroom) and had seats across from each other, next to the aisle. Good start!
The flight took about 12 hours and we arrived early in Seoul, breezed through customs (have any other Americans noticed how much easier it is to leave the country than to come home to the States?), and collected our luggage. This year (maybe it's a second-timer-bonus), instead of being driven to our school, our "driver" collected us, walked us to the appropriate bus, and told us the station that we should get off at (Jeongja). Hmmm. We napped for about an hour, then arrived at our new home at roughly 7pm, greeted by Helena (our school's director) and her brother, Mr. Na. They showed us our apartment, gave us food (Dunkin Donuts and fried chicken), and said that Mr. Na would come pick us up the next day at 9:00. Would we be observing classes? Oh no, they said. Teaching. ...Great.
Fortunately, we were way too tired to be nervous, so we made a pitiful attempt at unpacking and crashed for the night. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast (Jay went shopping to find kimchi), and met Mr. Na at 9:00. He walked us to the school across the street from our apartment, explained the daily schedule, and gave us a vague idea of what we were going to do.
If for some strange reason you're interested, our schedules look a little something like this: (if you're not interested, skip this part)
| Time\Day | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
| 9:30-9:50 | Prep for classes (the kids play and dance) | ||||
| 9:50-10:50 | Kindergarten class | ||||
| 10:50-11:00 | Break | ||||
| 11:00-11:50 | Kindergarten class | ||||
| 11:50-1:00 | Lunch (we normally leave for lunch, though there is a cook who cooks for the kids and the teachers) | ||||
| 1:00-1:30 | Kindergarten class | Yoga | |||
| 1:30-1:50 | Break | ||||
| 1:50-2:20 | Kindergarten class | ||||
| 2:20-2:30 | Break | ||||
| 2:30-3:20 | After-school class 1 | ||||
| 3:20-3:30 | Break | ||||
| 3:30-4:20 | After-school class 2 | ||||
| 4:20-4:30 | Break | ||||
| 4:30-5:20 | After-school class 3 | ||||
| 5:20-5:30 | Break | ||||
| 5:30-6:00 | After-school class 4 | ||||
Cynthia (the 3rd full-time foreign teacher) teaches the six 7-year-olds (6 outside of Korea, since Koreans consider their children to be 1 year old at birth), I teach four amazing 6-year olds (really only 5), and Jay has four 5-year-olds (4). His kids just started taking classes a few weeks ago, so their level is very basic, but the older kids can communicate quite well. We teach the same group all day, and the classes include phonics, reading, singing, science, math, and games. We have a huge amount of freedom over the curriculum (the only requisite book is the phonics book, which Jay's kids don't even have yet).
Our after-school classes are all different: Jay has a group of 4 young elementary school students (maybe 1st or 2nd grade). He teaches them social studies, science, and reading and has them for the first two afternoon classes every day. He then has a break during the 3rd class and (just for July) will then teach my older students for half an hour at the end of the day (maybe a conversation class).
I have two 7-year olds (at a very basic level) Monday and Wednesday for the first class. On Friday I lead the 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds in a conversation class, and Tuesdays and Thursdays (starting tomorrow), a conversation course for Jay's 5-year-olds. They can't speak, so I'm not sure how that one is going to work... I then teach a great (practically fluent) group of 2nd-graders for 2 hours on MWF (reading) and 1 hour on TTH (science) and that's it.
We have a Korean co-teacher in the class with us for all of our kindergarten classes and most of our afternoon classes.
In total, we have very few students, a good amount of break time, and a lot of freedom in planning our lessons. This can be stressful as well as nice, but we're enjoying the change from last year so far.
Additionally, our second day at work (Wednesday) was a field trip! We went to Seoul Forest with our kindergarten students (well, 12 of them - Jay and Cynthia were each missing a student).
Here are some videos and photos from the trip:
Other than that, there's not much to report. Our apartment was pretty bare when we got here (no closet/sofa/shelf space), but since the community's so wealthy here, people in our apartment complex dump out perfectly good furniture. We picked up a sofa, mirror, shelf, and closet on our first weekend (with the help of the building's security guard, who pointed out the mirror once we expressed interest in the couch). That weekend, plus a couple trips to E-mart (a Korean department store) and now our apartment's looking pretty good. We're on the 3rd floor, overlooking the 탄천 (Tancheon), a stream that leads into the Han River in Seoul. It has biking and walking/running paths, so we've been running there every other day. Here are some photos and videos to give you an idea of our new home:
That's about it. We're doing well and keeping busy, so I'm sure more updates will come in the future.
From Korea, with love,
-J&J
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