Short and Sweet (like me!!)

Hello all!


I didn't really do much adventuring this week, since most of us still had camp and Tina had to study for her TOPIK (test of proficiency in Korean) that she took earlier today (and I'm sure she passed and did fine TINA FIGHTIIIIIIIIING!!!!) and whatnot.



Camp is fun, but it's exhausting. My first class is mostly third graders, and they are still at that age where they listen to what I say and desperately try to get me to like them by participating, which is awesome. My second group is a lot of older (4th and 5th) who kind of don't care about camp. Sometimes I feel more like I'm a babysitter than a teacher.


Most things went well this week, with some hiccups. One of my students has some special needs, and he doesn't really speak English like at all. So he tries to say things to me in Korean or ask me for help or I have no idea what, and he gets rather upset when I don't understand or don't know what he's asking, or I don't do what he wants me to do. It's frustrating for me to have a bunch of kids talking in Korean and then one of them says something that upsets him and I can't do anything about it. Thankfully my temporary coteacher was awesome and really patient and helpful with it.

Things escalated on sports day. We had an "Olympics" where I had them do various games. We had a race, a figure skating/gymnastics flexibility contest, "curling" (I had them slide erasers towards me and whoever was closest won), a javelin throw, and a chopsticks skills contest. After my one special student won a round in curling, one of the other kids said something to him and all of the sudden when I turned around they were like trying to claw each other's faces off. I ran over, yelling, to stop them, and my co ran over and we were able to separate them, but it's really hard to come back from that and everyone was like whaaaaaat for the next game. It's exhausting to be in charge of something like this and have the language barrier. My co had to take them both out for a while so I was left with my class trying to explain a game in English to mostly 3rd graders. Thankfully my fifth grade girls are angels and helped me translate to the ones who couldn't keep up.

It's really annoying to have the language barrier and have 15 kids who clearly have better things to do than be at camp. I would explain something and then if necessary it would be translated, but then 2 seconds in someone would be like "I don't know what we're doing" then the other kids would scold them since I just explained, demonstrated, translated, and demonstrated again. I think they're getting tired and I am too. One of my kids started crying because I needed even groups and she lost rock paper scissors and had to move seats for one game. Sigh.


Anyway, Friday was craft day, and we made panda candles!

http://item2.gmarket.co.kr/English/detailview/item.aspx?goodscode=434517925


This is my attempt at the candle.

Shut up it's adorable. 

Here are some of my angel babies making the panda candle.

My Co had to try to convince my second class to make the god damn panda not make other things, but in the end we gave up and let them make what they wanted.

The girls were much more game for making the cute panda.

Small Korean Harry Potter decided to make Slenderman out of his candle instead of a panda, and I have no idea what goes on in his head or why he likes Slenderman so much. Sigh. He's one of my best English speakers though, and I do love to hear his take on things.

Anyway, for most of the week I just chilled.

I had a really bad start to my week Monday and Tuesday, but got cheered up Tuesday evening by going to Korean class, which most of you know is one of my main sources of anxiety and grief because I think I should be better than I am at Korean. I got an 89 on our test on the first 16 units, and an 82 on the listening test (I did not understand like the entire last section, and neither did anyone else, so I thought I had failed) so I was pretty pleased. Annoyed at some easy mistakes (using the wrong number system, forgetting some particles), but pleased. I'm starting to learn actual useful phrases now and I am starting to recognize some phrases in the kdramas I'm watching, so it's starting to actually feel useful.


I kept the good mood even through the rest of camp, and on Friday we went to celebrate since most people's camps ended. Mine's the only one this week, but I still went for tacos and drinks. It was really fun, and exactly what I needed to sustain my mood.

I hung out and watched TV at Tina's on Saturday while she studied for her test. I'm becoming more aware of how much I need my alone time but also how much positive human contact is necessary in my life. Monday and Tuesday I only saw my students and my substitute coteacher, and it wasn't enough for me. I think that didn't help my mood. So when I got to Tuesday and saw Tina, Lauren, and my classmates and had fun being idiots in Korean class, it lifted me up and I was able to carry it on for the week. So even if I plan on watching TV all weekend, I feel better if someone is with me.

On Sunday after Tina's test we did the same thing. I'm almost done with I Hear Your Voice, the kdrama I'm watching with Lee Jong Sook:

Ugh he's so adorable

I also just finished, Pinocchio, also with Lee Jong Suk and one of the actresses I like, Park Shin Hye:

Also adorable.

Instead of doing normal adult things and going to bed early, I stayed up late watching Korean variety shows, which are hilarious and awesome.

I'm obsessed with Beast lately, so I was watching a lot with them. This one features Gi Kwang from Beast (fighting to be my bias with literally every other member of Beast because they literally assembled 6 of the most attractive humans to be this group) and Lee Joon from MBLAQ (my bias... sigh) in a strange danceoff. The best is that Gi Kwang pulls out all the stops and the producers of the show have to stop Lee Joon from trying to do a backflip. It's worth a watch.

In other obsessions with Beast, I have officially, according to my itunes, listened to this song 1000 times, so I think you can spare one listen.

Beautiful Night by Beast.

This other song has been stuck in my head for like ever, so here's another.

Good Luck by Beast

And one more for good measure, even though I might be repeating songs:

12:30 by Beast

I get on kicks where I only listen to like 3 songs on repeat, so there ya go.


It's my last week of camp yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! So Jung comes back to teach with me tomorrow too yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

I'll be in Japan in a month yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Do you hear me, Kurt Vonnegut? I'm noticing when I'm happy. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is,

Let's hope I can keep up this mood.

I leave you with this:

Again in the adventures of Small Korean Harry Potter, I asked them to make an animal and he made some kind of dragon man thing that is scary but people can't look at his face because it's too bright and appears to have no face. He has one eagle wing and one made out of bones I think. Seen here, he is walking/flying down the street against the people who cannot see him clearly but are scared. I was impressed with his creativity.


Peace!