Damyang

Finally. After two weeks of wanting to go but first being deterred by poor weather and then me getting sick, we made it to Damyang.

The town is famous for bamboo, and a huge tourist destination is its bamboo forest.

It's only 13 miles north of Gwangju, but the bus ride takes about 40 minutes. They've finally turned on the air conditioning on most public transportation now, so it felt good to sit under a cold breeze. 

We walked through the forest, ate some street food, and hung out with the pandas. 

However, the best part of the entire day was the cab ride home from the bus terminal. The cab driver and his car reeked of body odor, he ran people off the road and flew through red lights screeching his horn, and blared this song and two others by the same music group. Priceless. 

Korean Medicine

After two weeks of a nasty cough and terribly runny nose, my face erupted into intense pain Thursday morning. After a quick check on WebMD, I diagnosed myself as having a sinus infection. When I woke up Friday morning in even more pain, I decided to go to the doctor.

Two of my friends had been sick when I arrived, and so told me to go to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor they went to. They told me he spoke English and gave me the directions. I followed the directions they gave me, and did end up at a doctor, but it was a pediatrician. And SHE spoke at intermediate level English.

Anyway, after the nurses tried for a good 5 minutes to figure out what my first, middle, and last name were from my registration card, I went to see the doctor. Once I was out, I paid, went downstairs to the pharmacy, got a prescription for 3 days, paid for my meds, and left. All said and done, it took 30 minutes for about $25 for the visit and the medication. If I turn in my receipts, I will get reimbursed for most of it. I love Korea.

Childhood

In class, one of my brightest students grabbed my hand and was admiring my painted nails. She then said "My mother says painting your nails is..." and she said the rest in Korean, which made them all laugh. When I asked her to explain, the gist that I got was that her mother doesn't think a child should waste their time with trifling activities. If they have the time to paint their nails, they should spend it studying.

This girl is only 11, and though I find it somewhat sad that she has spent her 11 little years working really hard studying, it's sure paid off for her.

In Korea, the kids have adult-level pressures on them to constantly learn and succeed. In America, I don't think children have nearly enough. Maybe both countries should find a happy medium.

Tequilaz

It's been three months since my last burrito and margarita. So when I found out a Mexican Cantina opened in Gwangju in February, I rallied the troops to go find this holy grail.

It's about a 10,000 won cab ride away from us. If you live in Gwangju, tell the cab driver "Chundehumoon" and he'll know what you mean. Take a right at the Dunkin' Donuts and it's in the second alley to the right.

The food wasn't bad, nor were the margaritas.

However, when you want to make Mexican food in Korea, you do the best with what you got. Thus, the food had a homemade taste to it. I got a strawberry and a cherry margarita throughout the night, and neither tasted like it's flavor. But they were pretty smooth and filled the void in my Korean life. 

Speaking of Korean life, this is drawn on the wall of the Speakeasy, the foreigner's bar downtown. I thought you might enjoy it :-)

Teacher's Day

Teacher's Day in Korea is this Saturday. Yesterday, I was going through a marathon of classes covering for another foreign teacher's vacation. I had 8 classes all in a row with barely a break, so at the end of the 7th, as I'm about to crash or leap out of a window, one of my students brings me a letter:

It reads: 

Dear Cayce Teacher

Hello, I'm Judy. After some days, it is 'Teacher's Day.' I am thank you for teaching me. My Listening and presentation developed by you. And, I got 'Level up!' I think one of the reason that I can level up, it's listening! I wrote little of key words, and I got a good score of listening. Thanks for teaching me. <3

And, you know, I got a compete of Speaking. You fixed my writing and make my pronounciation better. And Heojung teacher said to me, "Good pronounce.' I was very happy!

I hope GI teacher is you. Because your class is very fun and you are very good teacher. With you, the class will be fun. 

Cayce, Thank you for teaching me. Have a nice day!

2010.5.13

Hoping to be your favorite student, 

Judy*

I <3 AVALON! I <3 AVALON! I <3 AVALON!

I love being a teacher sometimes :)

Korean Birthday

My birthday was a week ago now, and it was the best birthday ever!

My friends, co-workers, and students were extremely thoughtful and caring. One little girl, whom I posted a picture of previously, gave me a gift bag with pens, sticky notes, and a pretty little card. I also got numerous "Happy Birthday" signs from my kids and friends.

The Monday before my birthday, my school threw a party for me, Cicero (a foreign teacher with the same birthday) and Ran, whose birthday was that day. It was by far the most interesting and DIY cake I have ever received. It was a stack of moonpies on the box, with unwrapped moonpies on top stuck with candles. Then, a cup of yogurt was dumped on top and we blew out the candles and devoured the moonpies.

So thank you to everyone who made my day so excellent :)

Adorable little devils

Some days you wake up and everything goes wrong, and yesterday was definitely one of those days.

As I'm walking to work, lost in my own head and begrudging the day, the elementary school next to Avalon was letting out. While I was crossing the pedestrian bridge, one of my youngest and earliest level students, Wendy, (and the most adorable human being in the world-- if you know of good ways to smuggle a child into your pocket, I would love to know) came running up to me with her arms outstretched. She held my hand and looked up at me with her little white glasses and when I asked her how she was, she said "I'm happy," and I knew in that moment that even though teaching children wasn't the real reason I wanted to come here, they are the reason I want to stay here.

Teaching kids of a different language can be really stressful sometimes, but it can be so rewarding. It's not often that you see proof that you are making a difference in one of their lives, but when you do get that proof, it's an incredible feeling.

I have two intermediate level classes of elementary kids. One is amazing, but with a boy named Mike who will never speak or participate and will shut down if I approach him or speak to him. In the other one, it's full of boys and it's mostly like herding cattle in class. There was one girl, Alice, who sat in the front and never spoke and looked on the verge of tears all class. The homeroom teacher of these classes decided to move Alice into Mike's class to give her a chance. So when she opened up with a smiling, happy face, I wanted to hug her. The same day, Mike also opened up and played a game with us, and I wanted to hug him, too. When I told the homeroom teacher, I got really emotional and had to turn away so I wouldn't cry.

So in conclusion, if you're having a bad day, chances are that teaching an adorable little Korean child will make your heart shine a little brighter.