Flurry

Having a vacation is wonderful. But staying inside all day during your vacation can lead one towards cabin fever.

So today I went out for a little walk and then stopped over at Emart for a few things. (Needed a winter blanket)

On my way home there was a flurry of snow coming down. It was rather light and not that heavy. But as I approached my building a shaft light was shining through and the snow flurry captured the light in a very enchanting way.
Today was spent by putting together a small desk I bought so to do my artwork on. As an artist you need motivation to get going on your work. So now I should not have the excuse "I don't want to set up and clean up.."

I will show pictures of my new set up later when I can take pictures with the daylight in the room.

Overseas planning:
Also I have been busy trying to book a package deal to Thailand for my vacation. The problem I am running into is that as a single person you have to pay extra and also some packages are only available to groups.

The travel sites are mostly in Korean and so BK has been helping me. In fact he helped me book a package last night, but it turned out they only accept groups of 8! Bah!

I think today he tried to spend time looking for something new, but of course he was at work so it was difficult.

In the meantime I did some digging around the Internet and found an English version travel website for foreigners in Korea. Looking around their site it appears packages to Thailand are booked but there was one for Bali.

I will end up spending a chunk of the money I have saved up so far, but I feel these are the times to spend it~!

Hopefully I will get something soon, for I want to go next week on the 20th.

If any of you know of more travel booking sites (in English) please share.

English in the Mountains Part III

All right, we made it for the final installation of my time at Gunpo English Winter Camp. Here in part 3 I am going to highlight the students, activities and classwork.


Teaching:
My subject was World Discovery. The first thoughts that came to my mind was geography and cultures. Certainly we did some exploring of these topics, but was more of a hodgepodge of topics.

• Continent and Country Unit (you could imagine the excitement)
• Egypt Unit (played a game of mummy wrapping with toilet paper...the kids liked it)
• Rainforest Unit (Got the powerpoint running and at the end there was a PPT quiz game)
• Solar System (used the PPT and the kids assembled a solar system mobile)

I spiced up the classes with random games of Simon Says and Heads Up 7 Up. But in general by the second day I was well organized and ready for the classes. Therefore it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would have been.


After Class / Extracurricular Activities:


Not surprisingly the kids had brought their cell phones with them, and so occupied themselves with games in between the classes. By the end of the week not many students had working phones left.
At one point during the middle of the week the supervisors brought in this cooking equipment. It was a device meant to cook a Korean treat called:Bungeo-ppang ("goldfish-bread")

The students were given a scavenger hunt game to play, and the reward was tickets to get some bungeo-ppang. Afterwards they lined up to receive their reward.


Other activities included sports.
And making snowflakes.


Noraebang Night:

They saved the best for last because on the final night they put all the kids into the gym and had a noraebang (Korea's version of karaoke). It wasn't all fun in games, but a competition between all the 5 groups. Class 1 (the highest level of English skill and had the cutest girls in it) won the competition.
Don't take my word for it! Instead just watch this video, which includes the singing:


Goodbye:
Before we left camp it was goodbye time. The kids gathered in the gym to stand near each other for one last final picture of everyone.


I was sad to go home because the place was so comfortable and there were English speaking people to talk to. I guess I also felt like I would miss the kids. But life has to go on and so we all got on the bus. On the way I spotted this factory near the shore. Ah...lovely~

English in the Mountains Part II

Here we are for the second part of my recap of Gunpo Winter Camp in Chengyang. It was rather cold outside, but not as cold as it is getting these days. Korean winter weather comes in a cyclic pattern. You get about 5 days of freezing cold then 5 days of not so freezing cold. Which one do you think I prefer?

Anyways, part 2 of this series is going to highlight the places and scenery at camp. I will finish this long blog post in part 3 with details about the teaching and children.

So please come with me as we look around camp. :)

This was the teaching building. Inside was a gymnasium and classrooms.

Here is the area where the entrance was to the building. It was kind of an impromptu meeting ground for all us teachers. We would gather here and grumble about the day then head on down for a meal.

Detail shot of drinks inside the vending machine:

In the hallway was a display case with plastic traditional Korean food and apparently a stuffed rooster and some soju.
My classroom. It was a good room and I was allowed to run the heater all day long.

Let's go outside. Here is a view from the teaching building roof. As you can see the school was atop a valley. Believe it or not, the kids did go outside and play sports on that field.

All the meals were had in a dining room which was inside this building. To get there you had to walk downhill from the teaching building. The food was Korean style for all the meals. Except that for breakfast they had set aside cereal, milk, OJ, bread and jam, and yogurt for us foreigners. Sometimes the kids would look over at our table with that "give me" sort of stare.

Near the cafeteria was a chained up dog. She was still a puppy and very nice dog. Sad thing though was that she was chained up all day and night. The kids would play with her, but sometimes the boys were too rough.

Also near the cafeteria and alongside the camp was a creek. This part must be where the water accumulates. But being as it is winter, it was partially frozen over. I think it will be a pleasant site in the summer time.

One of the signs on camp.

A platform in the woods. Again, something which will be more welcoming in the summer.
And so we come to the end of our look around the camp. As you can see the place wasn't too vast, but closely put together.

One of the best sites I saw was the mountain scene around us. The view reminded me of Korean landscape ink paintings.

Kumgangsan by cheongseon

Do you see how in the ink painting, the mountain spires are like triangles placed one upon the other? Well looking at the mountain it takes on this imagery. Another distinct characteristic is in how the tops of the mountain look darker than the rest. You can see this in the ink painting, where there is like a ring of trees crowning the peaks of the mountains.

Anyways, I guess my point is that it was thrilling to see this and make the connection.

That leaves us with the scenery around camp. In Part 3 I will end this series with points about my classes and the kids.

English in the Mountains Part I

What do you get when you combine children, adults, cabins and mountains? You get camp!!

My experience at Gunpo Winter Camp was more like going on a mountain retreat. At the camp I found myself in a cozy cabin and amongst a relaxed atmosphere. So here I am to share it all with you. Please come with me through my journey at Winter Camp here in Korea.

This adventure started with a bus ride. Children and adults rode together. Boys and girls got their own bus. The foreign teachers all rode on the girl's bus in the back.

At 8:10 in the morning I boarded the bus and saw in the back a few foreigners and joined them. More kids and teachers got on the bus and it was time to go.

Meeting other Teachers:
When other foreigners meet each other for the first time there is typically a list of questions we all ask each other.

• Where are you from?
• How long have you been in Korea?
• What level are you teaching? (elementary, middle, high school)
• What did you study in college?
• Is this your first time in Korea?

So as the bus rolled along we all talked about these subjects and exchanged our experiences. Venting about the bad moments at school and sharing the better pieces.

It turned out I was the only girl amongst all the foreigners. The other girl teacher was sick and stayed home. I accepted this and thought about how Korea mostly hires male teachers. I also think I felt some pride too.

The other teachers seemed nice and friendly. Some having longer experience abroad, and one was fresh like me.

Pit Stop:
The bus ride was to take about 2.5 hrs, and so half way through we made a pit stop.

In America when you drive on a major freeway or highway, along the way you can find pit stops. I especially remember the ones in Florida. As you know, Florida is a one long flat state, so driving from South to North is a tedious job. The pit stops in Florida were like a fast-food haven, housing Burger King, McD's and the rest all under one roof! Indeed, the first cheeseburger I ever ate was at a pit stop in Florida at Burger King.

Anyways, Korean pit stops seem to grasp the same "all-under-one-roof" concept. There is one large parking lot and then a building with a cafeteria and restrooms. Everything was clearly labeled in Korean and English. Outside there were some little canopy shops selling Korean souvenir trinkets.
Arrival and Settling In:
The bus ride was wobbly and riding in the back didn't help avoid car sickness so getting off the bus was a relief. It was about 11AM when we got there. The schedule was that we were to eat lunch and then teach for a few hours.

First, they allowed us settle in to our cabins. Actually the moment I got off the bus and took in the surroundings I felt really pleased to be there. If you live in any metropolitan place, especially in Korea, you are surrounded by tall gray buildings, neon signs, cement, lack of lawns, lack of green space. This lack of greenery can put fatigue on the soul. Seeing the mountains and trees I felt like I had come to a retreat.

The children seemed excited too, and gleefully ran over to their respected cabins to put in their luggage.

This was the building in which my little room was in. The smaller structure on the left was my room.

Looking at the interior I feel a sense of longing to go back to this cozy place. I got my own cabin, because boys slept in theirs and as you know the other gal was out sick. Having my own place made this place more of a haven.

Sleeping on the floor wasn't as bad as expected. It took awhile to figure out the right blanket layering underneath. Also the ondol in this place was really warm and it felt like I slept in a cozy warm nest all night. During my breaks I would come back to my cabin and try to space out (relax).

The view from my cabin:

Before classes started they had an opening ceremony, which included saluting the Korean flag.


Ready to Teach:
But camp wasn't all about resting in a cozy cabin. For our task there was to teach an English program. I was tired and bus-sick but had to somehow teach for a few hours on the first day. Each teacher was assigned a particular subject. Everyone got the same material book, including the kids.

Subjects included:

• Winter Activity (winter themed games)
• Journalism
• Poetry
• Cooking
• Art
• Sports
• World Records
• World Discovery (mine)

On the bus ride we all asked each other what we had been assigned and it seemed no one wanted what they were given so we did some trading.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make was that we didn't have much time to prepare alongside that we were tired from our traveling. But this kind of management is typical for English teaching work here, so I wasn't too shocked. Instead, within the short time we had before teaching I looked over the material and came up with a plan for that day. Later I would go through each lesson and figure it out.

The first day went well and at the end I took a rest in my cabin.

In Part II I will share pictures and video from camp and explain what we did and the good times that were had. So stay tuned!

Back!!

I'm back from the glorious camp! It was a blast.

I am a little bus sick and tired, so I will slowly work on a blog about it all.

It was certainly a good time and very relaxing! All the details coming soon!

*Thanks for voting on my poll!

:)

Ready, Set, Go

Ah the wonders of packing. So I have been preparing for my trip to the Gunpo Winter Camp in Chungyang. Actually I don't really know where this place is, oh the excitement! (meaning I am unsure whether I really located it through Google.) haha

Packing is easy of course because I will only be gone 4 nights and 5 days.

But I need to get a few more things before I head off tomorrow.

So today I went to Emart and bought some snacks to take with me for the bus ride.

Silver thing in the back is a bag of cereal. In front and to the left are breadstick snacks, in the middle are grape fruit snacks, mandarins next to that and behind them are some Dr. You wheat choco-cakes. All of it yummy and diverse. ;)

After Emart I went home and counted the number of sweaters I had to see if they would last 5 days at camp. I don't really know what the weather will be like there. Also I had to take into consideration that they may make us do "sports"...which means being outdoors. So I need to bring with me my warmest sweaters. I have been slowly building up my sweater collection to survive the winter here. But I noticed I needed about 1 more warm sweater.

That is why I headed out to go to my favorite sweater shop here in town. But they only take cash so I went to the bank first:
The Best Sweater Shop in all of Korea!:

This tiny place packs one heck of a punch of finding real sweaters here in Korea. Sure you can find sweaters at other shops and department stores here, but usually they aren't very thick or they are very pricey. For a while there I lost hope that I would ever find a "normal"sweater. For example, you typically find sweaters here that have the arms cut off, or are too thin to provide actual warmth.

So one day I saw this store and said to myself "what the heck?!, Let's go in." And boy was I blown away! Sweaters that are thick and long at prices like 16,000 to 24,000 Won (about $18-$26 USD). Of course I wasn't buying brand name stuff here. They also have a lot of the teenage cute wear, for example hoodies with little bear ears on top.

These are the items I bought today, all under 40,000 Won!

I really like the long sweaters here, because they warm up my bum and gives a good look, I think.

This one I won't really count as a sweater because it is not woven. I will use it as an undershirt for one of my more thin sweaters.

Well everything is packed into 2 tiny suitcases and nearly ready to go. I am sure this camp thing will be fun and probably a refreshing change of pace. However I have to get on the bus tomorrow at 8:10 Am. Hmph to early starts! Luckily the meeting point is in my neighborhood. ;)

Ok well have a fun week everyone till I get back!