Teachers Day!!!

Hot on the heels of Children's Day (which was the best day at school ever!), is Teacher's Day!
Yes, in your face teachers in other countries! In Korea, they have an official day for teachers! Its not a national holiday, but teachers could get free cinema tickets on the day! And loads of places were giving free coffee to teachers and free cakes and stuff like that. At my school, all the morning classes were cancelled, and we had an assembly that turned into a weird popularity contest. All the teachers were on the stage, and after the Principal and the owner said a bunch of stuff in Korean (presumably about how awesome we all are), the kids came up on to the stage, a class at a time, and got to hug their favourite teacher. All the classes have four main teachers; their regular (Korean) teacher, their assistant (Korean) teacher, then two English teachers; a bilingual (Korean) English teacher, and a foreign (i.e. me) English teacher. So we were keeping score. And more importantly, keeping track of the kids that didn't rush to hug you.
"Right you little sh*t, I'm giving you extra homework next time!" 

We also got loads of presents and cards from the kids. Apparently its tradition to give a carnation here, so I got some real and some paper carnations, some cards, and one of my kids made me a penguin, because I'd told them it was my favourite animal;

Happy Teacher's Day!

You may also be aware that last week was Buddha's birthday. He was 2576! That's a lot of candles. It also meant we got Friday off work, so I went down to Busan for the long weekend. Korea's second city is on the south coast, and is a major tourist destination. I bagged a hattrick of temples, including one on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and one carved into the rock up a mountain, which was pretty cool;

Koreans are very much an 'all the gear, no idea' kind of people. Now I climbed this mountain, and like a few other westerners that were there, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt, and trainers. It wasn't a massive climb, I saw one American dude in sandals. But all the Koreans are out in force, with full on mountaineering equipment; poles, gloves, super stretchy keep warm fabric, with hundreds of pockets, flashlight, compass, all this stuff hooked or strapped on to them somewhere. They look like a North Face store has vomited on them. For a gentle stroll in the woods on a sunny day. Its madness!

I also went to see the world's largest musical fountain! Its in a department store, and it was pretty cool. On the hour, every hour, they have a 10 minute show of lights, music, and water, and it was really something. This is indoor, with water falling from the 4th floor down to the ground, and shooting up. And the water sometimes spells out words and stuff like that. Check out a small sample here;

"here" 

Also, a note of caution. Learning English is obviously a really big thing in Korea, and there are lots of schools, and clubs and places you can go to learn English. But you do have to be careful. You should not, under any circumstances, send your kids here for example;

Lastly, the adventures of Tyrion the turtle!

This week, I put a mouse into his terrarium. He ripped it to shreds in seconds! Beware boys and girls. Turtles may look cute, but they are one of nature's most vicious predators.
You have been warned . . . .


  

Children's Day!

I don't know where you come from, but when I grew up, there was no such thing as 'Children's Day.' And every year, when Mother's Day or Father's Day came round, and us kids would say to our parents' "This isn't fair! Why is there no Children's Day?" every year our parents would reply "EVERY day is Children's Day!!!" Well not in Korea!

Last Friday was Children's Day, and it was brilliant! Easily my favourite day since I've been here, it was sooooo much fun! All lessons were cancelled, all the kids had brought in toys from home, there was loads of party food, and all the kids were allowed to wear whatever they wanted. Which was great, as it meant a load of girls dressed as Disney princesses, lots of boys dressed as ninjas, a Batman, and my absolute favourite, one class with three Spidermen! In full muscle suits and masks and everything! They looked awesome!
In the morning, us teachers performed a play called 'The Mouse Wedding' where I played the King Mouse, and it was great fun, the kids loved it! Later, all the teachers went from classroom to classroom, eating party food, playing with the kids and their toys, and posing for loads of photographs with the kids. Here's one of my older kids (see if you can spot the failed attention seeker);

Being a foreign teacher in Korea is the biggest ego boost out there, you walk into a room and all the kids scream your name and rush to hug your leg or hold your hand, and I've never given so many high-fives in all my life! It is great fun, and it is not like working at all!

Though sometimes, you have to get tough, and this week, I gave my first kid lines (oooooooooooh!). This kid has been messing around in my class for a while, and while I've made him cry twice, I decided to go down the route of lines this time. So he had to write out ten times 'I will not mess around' as homework. He will also get in big trouble at home, as the reports went out last week, and his said, he needs to stop messing around in class. Two days later, he gets lines for messing around in class. Bad timing! 


Away from school, its been an epic weekend of sporting triumphs! Twitter users may have noticed that '#undefeated' was trending on twitter as my baseball team recorded another crushing victory, 16-3, to make it 3 wins from 3 this season (and in my entire baseball career!), and while I'm still yet to actually contribute anything positive on the field, I like to think I bring other things to the team, like style, class, and a bit of cultural diversity.

The mighty Sheffield Wednesday wrapped up their season with a win, which I celebrated twice, once for the win, and once later in the evening, when in a random Korean bar, my mate tapped me on the shoulder, pointed over the bar, and said "Isn't that where you're from?"

Glory Glory Sheffield Wednesday!

The mighty Suwon Bluewings put on another great show, beating those airport lovers from Incheon 1-0, and after the game, a few of us went for galbi, a kind of Korean BBQ. While humming the catchy Bluewings songs (because I don't actually know the words) in the restaurant, the Korean guy at the next table leaned over and said "Suwon Bluewings?" and then joined in the singing!


And finally the new segment called 'The Adventures of Tyrion The Turtle'

The little fella went on quite a journey this week! While cleaning out his tank, I put him in a holder in the shape of half an egg, the kind of thing you'd get a big easter egg in. With the smooth sides, and being a teeny tiny little thing, he can't climb out. So I was cleaning the tank out in the sink, and when I went back to the table, there was the egg. The empty egg. And there was no turtle. I looked on the floor, but couldn't see him, so I pulled out the table. And heard a clunk. I looked under the table and could see little Tyrion, on the floor. Not moving. He had fallen a good 1.5 metres off the table! Thankfully he was fine, but I now know he has gotten big enough to climb out of the egg, cos when I put him back in the egg, he climbed straight out. He is getting bigger! He'll be hunting gazelle in no time!