bowels of the beast

deery-lou.
previously on the e-list…

viagra, plastic surgery, & porn—just some of the subjects my students brought up in class. as many of you know by now, i have returned to the land of the working. while i continue my search for that "perfect" design job, i've secured a part-time gig teaching esl. it's not quite the same as when i taught in korea, but i'm enjoying it. gone are the days of nose pickers and art projects. most of the students are in their early twenties and are either college students or young professionals. it's quite a different experience to actually be able to elicit conversations from them. these guys love to ask questions. oddly enough the majority of my students hail from korea. japanese, thai, and one swiss girl make up the rest. it's great to see so many students coming to the u.s. to study the language. personally, i feel its the best way to learn since they are immersed into the culture. plus i'm able to give them advice as to where to go.

i've only been there two weeks and i'm already getting attached to them. i've gotten so use to teaching younger students that i often have to tell myself that they are adults. especially when they start talking about strip bars, porn, & viagra. topics like that never came up during my days at ils. what worries me most is their naivety. many of them act as if they are in their own country. i try to advise them that they should be conscious of their surroundings. you hope that they won't get taken advantage of while being here. unfortunately, that's not always the case. last week one of the students was mugged. they actually threatened to kill him. if that had been me, i would have been on the next plane out of here. not this student, he decided to stick it out. then there's a girl in my class who wrote that her host mother only fed her bread. what the fuck! i actually had to read the entry twice to make sure i was reading it correctly. she was smart enough to leave her host mother and found a new place to live. of course not every one's experiences are bad. for the most part they all seem to be enjoying their time in the city.



last friday i took a group of them to the golden gate bridge. what i thought was only 15 students going turned out to be 26. half of them i knew since they were in my class. the other half were fresh faces. it got to the point where i had to ask if they were from our school. hehe from downtown we had to take two buses to get to the bridge. trying to get 26 students onto a bus turned out to be a nightmare. i literally watched as one bus took off with ten students who had no idea where they were going. my first instinct was to chase it down but i couldn't leave the others behind. i could hope that someone had one of their cell numbers. on the second bus i could only get a handful of students on. i told them exactly where to get off and to wait for us there. i also made sure the bus driver knew to tell them when to get off. i managed to get on the third bus with the rest of the students. i was still pretty freaked out about how i was going to contact the first group of students. no one seemed to have anyone's number. before entering the stockton tunnel, the students from the first bus were waiting at the bus stop. they had been smart enough to get off and look for us. lucky for me, i didn't have to make that call to school saying i lost some students.

i was pretty excited about going to the bridge. sure, i've crossed it several time via car but i've never actually walked it. when i told them that they were pretty surprised. they seemed to have enjoyed themselves. they basically took pictures of anything and everything. we had a mini photo shoot at the half way mark. it got to the point where i was getting tired of smiling. we all know how much i like to do that. we didn't walk the whole bridge. it was far too cold and windy. before heading back i gave them some time to explore the park area and take yet more pictures. the next time i have to do an outing i'm going prep them beforehand with vital information. that way if we get separated at least they'll have some idea of where they are going.

pics from the field trip are here

stay gold & be well…

joshua

andy, the map reader

deery-lou.
this was quite a week for me to say the least. a lot has been going which i'm not quite ready to discuss here yet. hence my week long absence from posting. at school we had three days of sex education videos. one about where babies come from, another about it being ok to be yourself, and the last one about sex crimes. going into this i felt the children were too young for such films. however, the korean teachers said that its usually taught at this age so who am i to disagree. the films were in korean with english subtitles which made for some interesting translations. the animation was pretty good. there were a couple of times i tried not to laugh. not really sure the children completely understood the messages but they all seemed to love the anime. they were watching it again for a second time on friday for fun. the films were far different than the jimmy cricket film i saw about puberty in 5th grade.

on thursday we went to seoul land zoo. it was hot! the children were broken up into age groups [7 years old and 5-6 years old]. i was with the 7 years old. we weren't even at the zoo 10 minutes when some of them starting complaining. it was definitely going to be a long day. i was partnered up with andy. he is quite hard to control at times. although he was actually pretty good that day. i made him in charge of the map and that seemed to make him happy. until he kept asking me where the bus was over and over again. he wanted to go home but i told him we couldn't go home until after the dolphin show. during snack time i watched alice literally stuff chip after chip into her mouth. almost as if she was afraid she wouldn't get enough. kids sure are cute that way.

the dolphin show

fountain fun

snack time

as for zoos go it was pretty standard. nothing really unique about it. by far the best zoo i've seen has been in singapore. my favorite of the day were the otters. they are so peaceful. i could spend hours just watching them play around in the water. i want to come back as an otter. that way i can swim, play, and sleep all day long. although every time i see otters it makes be think of this sad movie we saw in grade school. what's up with all these movies from my past haunting me? its another hot and beautiful weekend here. i should really try to do something besides going out to get my haircut. hehe.

my otter video


zoo pictures here

stay gold & be well…

rock bottom

deery-lou.
yesterday the kindergarten school took a field trip to a farm to plant sweet potatoes and to pick plums. now when one says "farm" back home we think of tractors, animals, barns, etc. farms in korea aren't quite the same. there were no tractors, no animals, and no barns to speak of. instead there was a small house sort of like a mobile home, a small field, some dogs in cages, and it was right off the main road. i'm not sure i'd say it was one of the better field trips but the children did seem to enjoy themselves. then again children can have fun almost anywhere. the drive to the farm took almost two hours due to traffic. and let's just say it was anything but uneventful. we had two girls with stomach aches, 3 girls who peed on the bus in a plastic bag, and one girl who threw up. the fun never stops. at the farm the children planted sweet potato stalks, picked some sort of plum they use to made wine and other stuff with, and learned about different kinds of crops. i spent most of my time lifting children up to pick the plums off the high branches. thankfully the trip back only took an hour.

today is a holiday. not sure how i'm gonna spend my day. perhaps a little reading and relaxing is what the doctor ordered. it's amazing how exhausting the field trips can be. the weather has been getting warmer and warmer. it feels like its going to be another hot summer here. i hope everyone is doing well. take care.

check out the farm pictures here

stay gold & be well…

23

deery-lou.
on thursday we took a trip to the pool with the kindergarten class. this place was huge. it had a sauna floor, pool area, exercise room, and a driving range. the day started off with the kids learning how to golf at the indoor driving range. clubs were swinging erratically and balls were flying everywhere. they had a blast. then it was to the gym for the kids to unwind. they ran around like wild animals. andy kept calling me "ethan monster" the whole time. next the kids set off to learn a jazz routine. it was so funny watching them. a few just stood there not able to follow the moves. the best was skye who was totally getting into it. she was bumping and grinding with the best of them. a future star in the making. once the jazz class was finished we headed outside to the park for some lunch. after lunch it was pool time. this is were the madness set in. marc and i were in search of getting the boys ready. it was definitely a chore. we had to undress them, give them their bathing suits, and then pack of their old clothes. we tried doing it in groups of two. andy kept trying to take off his clothes before it was his time. i guess he was a bit anxious to get to the pool. it felt like it took hours. once they were dressed and ready to go we heading down to the pool area to await the girls arrival. we spent the next two hours swimming. there was one pool with slides that the kids loved. there was also a current pool where you went around in a circle and a few other pools. there was also a hot tube which was lovely. after swimming we had to take the boys back to the showers and wash their hair. this was chaos. the boys were running around like wild men. they also decided to have water fights with the shower nozzles. they were shooting water over to the area where people were having massages. it was definitely a workout keeping them in line. overall i think we did a good job managing them. hopefully next time marc and i will have our routine done with the dressing and washing. i found out that it only cost $10 for the aquatic package which includes the pool, men's hot tub room, and co-ed sauna. i know where i'll be spending my free time this summer.

here's a video from jazz class


check out the photos i took here

stay gold & be well…

dashboard

deery-lou.
we filed out of the building in pairs of two like the animals did for noah. instead of boarding an ark we shuffled onto a light purple bus. one that i'm sure would belong to the joker if he drove a bus. the loud print of the curtains would keep anyone from sleeping. the plastic flowers toward the front added that special touch. i quickly grabbed a solo seat. on the television pinocchio was playing in korean. i opted to drown out all the noise by listening to my ipod. the day's selection we were dead before the ship even sank by modest mouse. an album i'm thoroughly enjoying. although the lyrics are often dark, his voice rather husky and deep, the music fills me with a feeling i can't quite explain. and in a good way. every once in a while a child would tap my arm trying to get my attention. you could sense their excitement. we were on our way. the destination…mulhyanggi arboretum.

it was a rather short jaunt to the arboretum. a little shy of an hour. this was our first field trip of many to come. that's the one benefit to teaching kindergarten—the field trips. it reminded me of when i was in school. field trips were always fun. whether it was to the colonial village, john young's planetarium, or saint augustine the best part was always the frozen soda my mom packed in my lunch. a field trip as a teacher is a new experience. it was a blast to watch the children enjoy themselves. although i realized that we could have taken them to a giant dirt mound and they would be just as happy. it the whole notion of being able to run around outside that they like. the arboretum itself was all right. it was bit too early for a visit. the trees, plants, and flowers were still in their winter state so it was mostly bare trees. the hues consisted of browns and greens. there were a few flowers in bloom but overall not much to keep your attention. especially for an adult. like i said, it didn't matter to the children. i'm sure its beautiful in the height of spring. we stayed for a few hours walking the grounds. before heading back we had lunch by the lake. missing were the sandwiches, chips, and soda. instead they had variations of kimbop, grapes, water, and juice.

caleb

andy

davis & me

future angels [esther & irene]

ladies by the lake

joanna

and then there was this sigh by the bridge…


now i know the cars here are small but they aren't small enough to fit on a foot bridge.

for more pix of the trip to mulhyanggi arboretum go here.

the cherry blossoms are in bloom. walking around town you can see them everywhere. there's something about cherry blossoms. they make the bleakest, coldest rainy day more beautiful. you can't help but feel enchanted by them. they have a mystical quality about them. i often find myself lost in their power. i could wonder around under their protection for hours. and during that time all is good.

i had dinner with my taekwondo class on wednesday. i kept teasing my kwanjangnim about having a pizza party. he finally took me up on the offer. although we had pork instead of pizza. i always myself hanging out with him and sahbomnim. i tried to get sahbomnim to speak more english but it was useless.

lately i've been somewhat in a funk. its been over a week since daniel has been back and i haven't seen him yet. some family stuff came up which kept us from meeting last saturday. i finally got to speak to him on friday. the conversation didn't go as well as i hope. his going through some stuff and needs time to think things over. so currently we are on a break. although i completely understand and respect that he needs this time its hard. we spent so much time together before he left that i feel there's now a void. so for now i'm giving him his space and hopefully next weekend when i return from my office retreat we'll be able to get together and sort things out. i'm not quite ready to give up yet.

stay gold & be well…