Cat Cafe

Disclaimer: Okay folks, I just proof-read this and I feel it may be necessary to explain that I am not now, nor have I ever been a cat lady. This post comes off slightly cat lady-ish, but let me assure you that I don't even own a cat. Just because I happen to love cat puns, doesn't mean I've gone over to crazy cat lady territory! Okaaay, disclaimer (rant?) over.

As you may or may not know, I love animals, especially cute furry ones. Months ago, when I was first researching Korea, I heard about cat cafes. "Cat cafes(?!)", you might be asking yourself "what is that?!" Well America, I once wondered the same thing. Get this -it's a cafe full of CATS! Who would have guessed? Basically you get a coffee -or in my case hot chocolate (because the only thing I love more than furry animals is chocolate)- and you sit around playing with dozens of cats!

Sounds amazing right? I know, my first thoughts were pretty much you have cat to be kitten me! Are you serious right meow? A cat cafe sounds like the purrfect way to spend my evening! As you may or may not know, the only thing I love more than furry animals and chocolate is cat puns.

So, of course, for my first weekend in Seoul I had to go to a cat cafe. Well folks, mission totally accomplished. And let me tell you, it was AWESOME! The hot chocolate was just okay, but let's be honest who the f cares about the hot chocolate at a CAT CAFE? That's like judging a strip club on its chicken wings.

But let's be even more honest, you guys, who the f cares what I have to say when there are pictures of cute cats to get to? No one right? That's why I'm going to make the rest of this post mostly pictures with a few sentences interspersed throughout. (Notice my use of the word interspersed.)



We got these very informative rules.





This was my favorite cat!



 

Creepin on a cat. Check meowt!

The cats all loved the heater. So we camped out here to maximize our cat to human ratio.

I'd say it was a purrdy good time. And it was much more hygenic than I'd thought it would be. There were cabinents to put all of your stuff in and lint rollers to use before you left. If you can get past the 2 stall co-ed bathroom (wtf, right) then it's totes worth a visit. I'll be back. It's not just for cat ladies!

Bukchon Hanok Village

Last weekend I visited the Bukchon hanok village in Seoul. It is located  in Samcheongdong. A hanok is a traditional  Korean home. Although they were popular  during the Joseon Dynasty, they are becoming pretty  hard to find. Bukchon village is one of the larger clusters of restored hanok villages.

The hanok homes were beautiful. They are spread throughout the neighborhood, so the area is nice for an afternoon walk. Some of the hanoks are available  for home stays so I may try to do that before I leave as well.

If you're ever in Korea I would say Bukchon is worth a visit, but I'd pair it with a visit to one of the nearby palaces as it doesn't take long to walk to village.

Shit Korean Kids (and adults) Say

And here is my second edition of a little update I like to call "Shit Korean kids say"!

Photo Key!

1. Racist comments in a graduation speech
2. The red writing is mine -I was suspicious that she copied from the book. Suspicions confirmed?
3. This is a sign at my school above the sinks. Good job English school!
4. Thank you note from the kinder moms. Who the hell is Samanda teacher?

Folk day at ILS

Hello again!

Don't worry, I'm still alive. I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately. It's been over two weeks since my last post. This is mainly due to two things. First, my computer is still out of commission and I hate updating from my phone. Second, I hadn't done anything particularly interesting. I had been pretty broke lately waiting for my first payday!

Boy have things changed since my last post. I'm a city gal now, you guys. I even have my own subway card to prove it! Also, I'm pretty much a legit Korean. Except for the fact that I can speak only about 10 Korean words. Details! Right? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me update you about the highlights.

Last week Korea celebrated Lunar New Years and I discovered one of the great perks of teaching -gifts! My kinder students gave me a fancy lotion/bath wash gift set and I got chocolates from one of my elementary kids. ILS gave all the teachers gifts as well -a Korean rice wine called makgeolli. We got four bottles each. Woo hoo!

We had a four day break from school for the holiday. I've always been kind of terrible at budgeting. Combine that with some unexpected expenses because of my flight mishap (thanks again Chicago) and I was depressingly low on funds the last week before payday. So I spent my break watching a lot of Law & Order SVU and eating ramen. See why I haven't updated much? I didn't think an update about what a hero Mariska Hargatay is was exactly news-worthy.

Anyway, I got paid on Wednesday. I'm officially a millionaire, you guys! It's so nice to eat real food again! And boy did I do it right. On Friday I went for samgyeopsal (Korean barbecued pork belly) with a couple of co-workers. It was probably the best meal I've had in Korea. So delicious!

Friday was also folk day at ILS. Everyone wore hanbuks (traditional Korean dress) and played games all day. They "surprised the foreign teachers with" (read: forced us into) hanbuks as well. It was kind of cool to experience though so I didn't mind. The game I was in charge of was "rubber shoes". Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've seen 4 year olds in full traditional dress (hats, vests, full skirts and all) try to kick a shoe into a cone.

There were other games as well. They had an arm wrestling competition. The only thing cuter than seeing all the kids in their hanbuks, was seeing them try to figure out arm wrestling. It was basically extreme hand holding.

On Saturday I made my way to Seoul for the first time. It was a day of firsts for sure. Among other things, I rode a train and the subway for the first time. It was a great day. I saw Changdeokgung Palace, a hanok village, ate great food, and even went to a cat cafe! The weather was pretty cold, but the big fluffy snow flakes that fell softly from the sky all day was magical. I will post all about it soon.

Until next time y'all! Picture Key 1. My fridge right before payday. All you need -wine and hot sauce 2. Yummy Korean BBQ 3-8. Hanbok fun 9. 1st time on the subway! 10. Changdeokgung Palace

The Kids!

*Writer's note: I am still posting from my phone and the awesome (read: shitty) blogger app only allows me to post all the pictures in one clump at the bottom. I'll do my best to explain them in the post.

In case you couldn't tell from the very creative title of this post, it is about the kids! You know, those adorable always (read- occasionally) well behaved students I spend most of my days teaching. As I write this I am in the teacher's room at school listening to the sounds of kids practicing their graduation performance: a Romeo and Juliet musical. Although I question the appropriateness of having 6 year olds perform a play about teenagers who commit suicide, I have to admit that they sound darling (even if I'm currently  listening to them sing about their hatred for the Capulets).

Anyway, here is how it works here:
In the morning we have kinder kids and we've got elementary schoolers in the afternoon. We all have about 3 main classes of students that are "ours". We teach those kids a few times everyday, but we also rotate between other classes for a few periods as well.

The kinder classes are all named after US cities. My main class is Houston. I've got 10 students -5 girls and 5 boys. Because some families vacation in January, I've only had all 10 kids in class once since I've started. I usually have 8, but that should change in February. They are all 7 in Korea, which means they're actually 5 or 6 years old.

I love my Houston class. They are adorable. My favorite thing about them is that they are very well behaved, especially compared to the other classes at ILS. They love to hug my legs and play with my hair and tell me they love me -adorable but tiring (in a good way).

I have two main elementary classes -super 3 and super 2. Super means they are super smart -the highest level classes at ILS. It starts at level 3 and ends at level 1. They speak English very well.

I really like my super 3 class. I think they're 9 in Korea, so 7 or 8 in the US. I've got 5 students in that class, but I've only had 4 of them come so far. They are well behaved and also seem to like me. My favorite thing about them is that they bring me treats all the time!

My last main class is super 2. They're okay. It just 2 girls -both 10 (8 or 9). They are very smart. Maybe too smart because they finish their work in about 10 minutes and then sit around for the rest of class critiquing all the English teachers. I mean sure, by the time they're my age I'm sure they'll be doctors or mathematicians, but at this point they still have to ask my permission to use the bathroom. I'm working on them. My goal is to get them from academic robots to occasionally social academic robots. Okay, that sounded harsh. I do like my super 2 girls, but I think I've been spoiled by my awesome Houston and super 3 kids.

In addition to main classes, we also have a subject that we teach. Before I came here, I told them I'd be most interested in science and least interested in math. Welp guess what, you guys! I'm the ILS math teacher! Ugh. It's not that horrible, but they are definitely times when I have no effing clue how to explain things. It's official, Korean kindergarteners are better at math than me.

It doesn't help that we're currently working on measurements in half the classes and my school doesn't have rulers or scales. Since I work at one of the most expensive schools in the city, you'd think we'd have stuff like that. Nope! Instead we have tricked out purple school buses and movie projectors and birthday feasts. My camp experience in "fake it until you make it" came in handy on this. For my first 2 weeks I gave the kids my shoes and/or nalgene to measure with. This week got tired of waiting on my supervisor to buy rulers so I photo-copied one of the other teacher's rulers 20 times. Tah-dah! Homemades rulers for everyone. (Insert Oprah voice here) You get a ruler! You get a ruler! And you get a ruler!

Anyway, gotta go teach two 9 year olds who've probably (read- definitely) already finished their classwork anyway.

Picture Key!
(its nearly impossible to get a good picture of eight 5 year olds)
1-Houston during The Big Birthday Celebration
2-Houston on Jaden's bday
3-Some Houston Kids and me on today's field trip
4- Maddox and Sue playing a math game

Shit Korean Kids Say

Welcome to a little post I'm going to call 'Shit Korean Kids Say'. I'm hoping to make this a semi-regular thing. Basically, I'll just post funny crap that my kids say. Think Ghetto Hikes (which I recommend you immediately google if you've never read) except less ghetto and more politically incorrect. Here we go!

Me: "The vocab word is handsome. Who can use handsome in a sentence?"
Student: "Obama President has become very handsome!"

After I explained the act of stacking hammocks when talking about the vocab word hammock:
Me: "The next word is avoid. Who can use avoid in a sentence?"
Student: "When you are in the bottom hammock you must avoid the farts of the person above you!"

Many of you have already seen this gem on Facebook:

RIP My Computer, and Other Tidbits from My Week

Hello again! I had planned to start this post off talking about I finally have internet in my apartment, but I can't. 

After trying to communicate to my school director, supervisor, and landlord that all I needed was an Ethernet cord for a week (and they could stop sending over "engineers") I gave up and went out and found one. So, technically as of Tuesday I did have internet. And it was great -for about 3 days- until I broke my computer! While giving my sister an apartment tour via Skype, the damn Ethernet cord got caught on the bathroom door and I dropped my computer. She just HAD to see the mysterious Korean shower! #koreaprobs. Now I'm back to no internet, and updating this from a cafe on my cell phone, so sorry I'm not sorry if its not edited. I'm still in mourning, y'all.

Anyway. I'm gonna keep this short because the formatting on my cell phone app sucks.

Besides the computer incident, the week went well at school. We had a big birthday celebration (more on this in a later post) on Monday. And I met my two kindergarteners that had been vacationing last week.

On Friday I went to downtown Cheonan and checked out the Shinsegae (Cheonan's big shopping mall). I even found a burger and fries! It was decent except for some strange sauce that was on it, but it was my first semi-American find over here so that was a win.

After checking out the Shinsegae, we walked around. It was pretty cool. Lights, signs, and street vendors everywhere. I even tried some street food -a fried sweet potato thing. It was okay.

The best part of the evening was finding a shop that sold hilarious socks and stationary. Who wants to be pen-pals?!

Until I get my computer screen fixed I'm going to try to post short, more frequent updates. Byeeee!