Borrowed Outfits from the Ice Capades

The graduation ceremony was today. We had practiced it a couple of times before but without costumes, so nobody really knew what the costumes looked like. They ended up being hilarious. I think if they had shown the outfits to the kids beforehand, they probably wouldn't have shown up. 

Lori and Sean(they got to dress up fancy because they gave the opening address). They are two of the sweetest, cutest kids ever.

The 5 year olds insect costumes.

The kids costumes were so silly, they couldn't even help but laug

h! The little guy on the left, Thomas, lost his wig about 10 seconds into their performance of "Hey Mickey," and the kids just kind of kicked it around. (The outfits are for the gym routine dance they did at the end, the older kids had even more flashy, outrageous outfits. Unfortunately my camera battery died so I couldn't capture them)

That's Paul, he has the best smile and he's really silly.

The 7 year olds (the ones who are graduating) even got little caps and gowns. That's Colin from my class.

Graduation Rehearsal

Today we had another rehearsal for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. The kids were all adorable and some of their performances were hilarious. Here are some photos of the kids' performing. Those are their gym outfits, by the way. They won't be wearing them to graduation.

Five Little Monkeys

Hey Mickey

Summer Nights from "Grease"
Uptown Girl
Jennifer was so confused, she kept looking at Lori for direction.
Thomas, Jay, and Lori in the back

Old Korean Women and the Seoul Subway

This old tiny women, who had to have been around 4'7" and 60+ years old, came into my train car today with a cart full of gum. A lot of people sell stuff on the train, so I'm used to it; however, she did have some unique selling tactics. She didn't say a single word to anyone, she just starting chucking packets of gum into people's laps (she startled quite a few people). After a few minutes, if they didn't show some cash, she would go collect her gum. Luckily, I was standing so I didn't get gum thrown at me.

A lot of the subways have mirrors randomly placed throughout them. There was one on the other side of the tracks that I was waiting at, in front of some stairs. Most people who came down the stairs, while I was waiting, stopped and checked themselves out, but the best was this older women (almost-full-head-of-white-hair old). She got real close to the mirror, checked her teeth, fixed her hair, backed up to look at herself, got real close again and THEN she totally did the "how does my ass look in these pants" pose, which she did until her train came. It was really entertaining to watch her.

I Can't Escape the Carpenters

I had my first full week of work last week, so I was pretty busy. Plus, my kindergarten students are graduating this Thursday. They are performing a monster poem at graduation. I was busy making them masks and signs to hold. This week we are having rehearsals for the graduation. It's a pretty big deal. The parents pay a lot of money to send their kids to our school, so we have to give them a good show. I think the kids even have little caps and gowns to wear. I'll definitely be taking photos.

At some point during the ceremony, all the teachers and students have to sing a song together. They gave me a CD with the song on it last week. It's "Sing" by The Carpenters.

COEX Aquarium

I had the past three days off for Lunar New Year, so I did some touristy things. Yesterday I went to COEX mall, some of the stores were closed but the Aquarium was open! There were some neat exhibits and cool looking sea creatures inside. Here are some highlights:

The two headed turtle. The picture isn't so great cause I had to lean pretty far over the railing to get a shot and the turtle kept moving! Grr. But, you can see the two heads, right?

There was an entire exhibit of different/strange/unconventional fish tanks. That is a computer fish tank. It does have real fish swimming inside.

There were also a lot of neat looking fish. This one hung out by me for awhile. We bonded a little , so it gets to be a blog highlight.

I have a bunch more photos but it takes too long to upload them all here. I ended up putting all the photos I've taken on flickr, so you non-facebook users can have a look.

Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/nikkithomas.

Kindergarten students

These are my kindergarten students that I teach every morning. They are seven years old Korean age (6 or sometimes 5 in US). When you are born in Korea, you are already a year old and you age another year when the New Year passes. So if you are born a month before the new year, you will become two years old right away. That's why some students who are 7 here, would really be 5 in the states. 

Susie

    Colin

  

                                            Patricia

         

Jeanie

   

Greg

                                                              

They are really bright little kids and pretty well behaved. They can be silly and hyper sometimes, but they're kids so it's expected. They are graduating at the end of February, so I will get a new kindergarten class for March. 

In the afternoon, I have elementary school students. Some of these kids have crazy schedules. One girl goes to piano before school, math and science academy after school, comes to english classes at our school, and then goes home and has to do homework. Some of them don't even go to sleep till midnight and have to wake up early for before school activities. They also go to school two Saturdays out of the month. So they have two 6 day school weeks a month. I was waiting for a bus one night at 11 and I saw a school bus that was still dropping off kids at home. All the kids looked so exhausted and were half asleep. 

Love for the Seoul Subway, but not the Carpenters

The Seoul subway system is super extensive but amazingly efficient. Ninety percent of the time I don't have to wait more than 5 minutes for a train to come. When I've had to wait a little longer, its never more than 10 minutes and it's usually cause I just missed a train.

On the platform, there are little footprints and arrows to indicate where people should stand to get on the train. They're never wrong. If you are standing on the footprints, a door will open exactly in front of you.

One thing thats tricky is that a stop can have 15 different exits that take you to various street corners, or different sides of the street. Most of the time it doesn't matter cause they are close enough together that you won't end up too far from where you want to be, but it can get a little confusing. They do have maps that show you where all the exits will take you. Most of the exits are associated with a well known place/tourist attraction. 

The trains are also clean and huge inside. There's a lot of standing room and the ride is smooth enough that you can just stand and not hold onto anything. People even come on the train to sell various products. A vendor will wheel in a carriage, stand in the middle of the train, and demonstrate what her/his product can do. If no one is impressed, s/he moves on to the next cart. Today, some lady busted out a boom box and played the Carpenters. She was selling some original pop CDs. Unfortunately, there was no love for the Carpenters on the train. 

Then there's the wonderful T money card. It's a card with a barcode that you load with money at the train station or at convenience stores. You can use it for taxis, buses, the subway, and other things. It gives you a discounted price on fares and transfers. When you enter the subway station you scan your card and it deducts an initial amount (800 won). You then scan your card where you get off and it takes off the appropriate amount of money depending on how far you've traveled. If you are only going 2 stops, it doesn't take off anymore. 

Korean Barbeque

Last week, our boss took us out for Heidi's going away dinner (she's the teacher I replaced). We went to a traditional sit-on-the-floor Korean restaurant.

You can order different pieces of beef or pork. The pork is cheaper but really fatty. The server comes around once the meat is almost cooked and cuts it up with scissors. On the table there are plates of lettuce leaves and sesame leaves. You put your meat on the leaves and you can put different sauces (hot red pepper sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce) on the meat and/or onions, garlic, or whatever else they have on the table. Then you are supposed to fold it all up and eat it in one bite (that doesn't always happen with us foreigners).


They also always serve a bunch of little side dishes (banchan) at all Korean restaurants. One of the dishes is always kimchi. Other popular ones are radishes, little salads, glass noodles, steamed eggs, and fried tofu.

Here is an example of some side dishes from a different restaurant:Our boss also ordered a bunch of soju, which I think is super nasty. If you have an empty glass, it is customary for Koreans to keep filling it, otherwise it's seen as being a rude host. He just kept pouring us shots. So, I just left a little in my glass, so he wouldn't refill it next round. He made us soju cocktails (soju mixed with coke) when he realized that I didn't like drinking the soju straight. The cocktail was better but still not good.

My apartment

I moved into my apartment this past Tuesday. I'm only staying here till the end of April, and then moving into a smaller, but newer apartment.

So, here it is:

That's the living room and the guest bedroom (it looks like it was a kid's room, although it does have a Metallica poster on the wall).

The kitchen

That's my room

And the bathroom.

My apartment isn't that close to a subway station but there's a bus stop right in front that I take to work. It's just a 5-10 minute ride and only 600 won (60 cents). I also didn't need to buy anything cause the teacher that I replaced left a lot of things.

I haven't really gotten to explore my neighborhood yet, I've just been to a couple places that are really close. Here is what it looks like from my apartment:

The land of Spam lovers

I had heard a little bit about spam being popular here in Korea, but I didn't really realize to what extent until I saw these:

Yes, those are spam gift sets. They are everywhere. You can also go to the spam aisle (yes, one whole aisle dedicated to spam) to get individual cans, so you can make your own spam basket.

Koreans also like to put spam in random things, like the sandwich that I picked up at the market (I thought it was a ham sandwich, but I was sadly mistaken). This is what I discovered when I unwrapped it:

I'm not exactly sure about all the ingredients, but there was definitely pineapple, spam, fake crab, pickles, and cheese. I've also seen spam in kim bap, which is basically Korean sushi.

Oh and at the supermarket next to my place, instead of playing music over the speakers, they play farm animal noises. So, I'll be shopping and I hear pigs and chickens. It's really strange.

Seoul Address

I moved into my new apartment and haven't set up my internet yet. When I get connected, I will put up photos and better posts. For now, here is my address:

Nikki Thomas
c/o YBM ECC
711-12 Grace Tower - 6F
Sangye 6 - Dong, Nowon-Gu
Seoul, S. Korea 139-942

If anyone wants to send a postcard from Chicago, my kids would probably love that. They also love stickers :).