Long (overdue) tour of my school!

I am a teacher at Yangjung Elementary school, which is fortunately just a 5 minute walk from my apartment.  It was built in the 70's but has a brand new gym, cafeteria and "English Zone" where I teach!  Really those are the only 3 areas of the school I have any interest in, so I am set! 

I have several pictures and videos of my school, classroom, co-teachers and students.  As most posts, I could show a hundred pictures and tell dozens of stories, but I will keep this post as concise as possible (and it will still be very long!) 

Also the chronology of these photos are pretty cool because I took them as I got to school one day, so you can actually see what I see every morning.

Here is a panorama of a portion of the school building and the playground.  To the far left is the old school building, and connected to it is the new gym and cafeteria (starting with the yellow).  There are bleachers and a large cinder field with soccer goals, and playground equipment on the far side (out of sight here).

On the right is the bleachers from the last picture, and more of the old school building.  (behind the school are tall apartment buildings, which are EVERYWHERE due to the large population and small flat land area)

The school wraps around a courtyard that has a little pond, lots of shrubbery, and several animals.  The animals are BY FAR my favorite part of the courtyard.  Here.. is a giraffe!

Right across from the giraffe, is the main school entrance, which is near the principle's office, administrative office, and the teachers room.

Everyone must take their shoes off when they enter the school and put on their 'slippers.'  I personally call them 'sandals,' but either way this is my little slipper box.

This is a hallway that is on the back end of the school (like the bottom of the 'U' that the school makes).  The library is on this hallway, but I never go in there.. can't read their books very well, haha.

At the end of the hallway I take a right and head towards the "English Zone" where I spend most of my time.  This is a picture of the court yard from the second floor.  I do teach five 6th grade classes across the way, all the way to the left on the 3rd floor with Eunji (co-teacher).  Those five classes are in the minority since I teach a total of 20 classes.

Here is the English Zone which is brand new!  There are two classrooms here, the first on the left is my main classroom with Jack (AKA Mr. Park).  The second is where I teach with Mr. Chung.  At the end of the hallway is the entrance to the gymnasium.  [that's Eunji down the hall talking on the phone lol]

Entrance to my main classroom.

My desk, and Jack at his desk on the left.  This is where I teach 3rd grade (twice a week) and 5th grade (once a week like most of my classes).

At the beginning of this video you can hear the little chime that plays at the beginning and end of every class session.  The classes are 40 minutes long and there are 10 minutes in between classes.  As you can see some of my students are very shy, and some LOVE attention!

 Students!!

Mr. Chung in the second classroom.  I teach 4th grade with him here.  That is a very nice screen for the computer but it is not a touch screen like in Jack's room.

Panorama shot of the cafeteria lunch line.  To the right is where the students and the teachers get their trays, spoons and chopsticks.  The students go through the line to get served.  The teachers walk over to that station on the left and serve themselves.. so basically we get to cut! :D

Mr. Park, another teacher (name escapes me right now) and myself eating lunch.

My school lunch which consists (clockwise) of soup, baked fish, a sort of salad, kimchi and rice.  I honestly really enjoy the school lunches.  Some are better than others (this one was 'ok').  I can also honestly say that some foreigners would NOT like the school lunches too much, but I'm easy to please!

Hiking to the peak of my mountain!

Korea's geography consists of 70-80% mountains (I've heard and read both).  So it's no surprise that there is a mountain to hike very close by to my apartment, but it is very fortunate!  I love to get exercise and to explore nature, so I go on frequent hikes, and over Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) I hiked to the peak.  It was fairly steep, and it was a real workout because I jogged whenever it was flat (to get exercise and to make it back before sundown). 

I headed out a little after 5 P.M. and the sun  goes down at 7 P.M.  That is the main reason I decided to jog a lot of the hike.  The view the whole way up was beautiful as sunset approached.

I actually thought I was near the top at this point.. not even close!

I thought this was the top, but it was just a random marker!

Like I said, very beautiful.

Still heading up!

This was about the top.  I did go to the actual peak a little bit higher, but this is where the view was.

Timed picture from a bench.. next time maybe I'll bring a friend along for this picture, haha.

Me cooking (or trying to cook) Korean!

I definitely like to cook, so I have been looking forward to cooking Korean style.  I have been making progress over the last couple of weeks, with each attempt I make.  It's not that there are difficult techniques involved in the basic Korean dish, it's understanding that there is one main dish, and a number of side dishes in each meal.  My first attempt was essentially a stir-fry..fail.

(Of course a rice cooker is necessary!)

My main problem was a lack of supplies, but once I bought the hot pepper paste, the kim-chi, the appropriate produce, I had a better chance at succeeding.

 Here is a much better attempt at a Korean meal, which has kimchi, raw pepper and garlic on the first plate, sauteed mushrooms, onions and high quality beef on the second, and rice in the bowl to the far right.  I also have red pepper paste and tea nearby :)

There is also a common food called 'kim-bop.' It looks like sushi as we know it in the states, but it's more comparable to a 'California Roll,' without the raw fish. I enjoy sushi, but it is a Japanese dish and... well I'll have to post about Korean-Japanese relations soon.. Anyways kim-bop is delicious, and I had a pretty good run at that this past week :D

Here is a seaweed wrap, and then clockwise from above it: hot pepper tuna, kimchi, hot red peppers, mushrooms and (hard to see) garlic.

Kim-bop has to have the seaweed wrap and rice.  The rest is up to you!

This morning I decided to make a bomblet (a bomb omelet) Korean style.  I sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic and that high grade beef (I basically call it steak, I paid WAY too much for it, but it is delicious!).  I put that in my egg fold, along with kimchi, cheddar cheese and tomatoes. 

Beautiful.

And of course topped it with some mozzarella cheese.  It was amazing!

I still have a long way to go since I have never cooked fish or Octopus, but at least I'm not stuck making grilled cheese/tuna melts and PB&J's like I was for a short while!

Volleyball and Dinner with Faculty

Every Wednesday the faculty plays volleyball after school, then goes out for dinner (and drinks). This past Wednesday was the first time I have participated in the festivities, and it was really fun! It does turn out though that I was under the impression that I was pretty good at volleyball from high school PE and intramural teams in college.. WRONG. These teachers are SO serious about their volleyball, and whether I could hit the ball over the net or not, apparently my form is laughable, haha. I have some practicing to do, but it was still fun (the principle rooted me on at least!) 

After the volleyball game we all went out to dinner, and I was a little worried.  I knew that the principle 'loves to drink,' and I was warned at lunch that they were going to 'test' me that night.  They wanted to see how many bottles of Soju (similar to our vodka) I could drink.  They were bragging like: Jack can only drink 1 bottle, Chung can drink 2, maybe you can drink 5 haha.  Needless to say I was worried, but it wasn't bad at all.  They backed up their volleyball talk, but now their drinking talk, thank goodness!  I did not want to be a mess around my new co-workers and administrators, in fact I don't ever want to be that much of a mess (5 bottles??)

We had a nice dinner, had just a couple drinks, then went to a pool hall for 'round 2.'  Eunji and I played a few games of western style pool while everyone else played the Korean 4 ball pool.  I have not yet tried the Korean version, but it seems interesting.  We were there for nearly 2 hours and I was exhausted by the time we left.  I didn't want to be rude though so I went along for 'round 3' to a nearby restaurant.  We had some snacks and a couple more drinks, but left after about 30 minutes.  Me and Eunji shared a cab home (since we live in the same building) , and I was relieved to make it home in one piece!

On the far left is a teacher at our school that is very good at volleyball, but I'm not sure his name (often when I meet people they do not tell me their name.. but it would be hard to remember a lot of Korean names even if I was told them).  Shooting pool is our principle.  In the plaid shirt is Mr. Chung, who is one of my English co-teachers.  In the white shirt on the right is the vice-principle who is very nice and speaks pretty good English.

There's Eunji again!

In the orange is the volleyball coach.  He may be the only person in my school that I don't get along with, haha.  He is passively offensive often, but everyone else is nice!

Sort of blocking my peer colleague.

This guy is really nice.  Again, wish I knew names!

First Week of Teaching!

This past Monday was my first actual day of teaching.  Thursday September 1st all of the students stayed with their homeroom teachers, aside from a whole school assembly (which I spoke at!)  Remember this is elementary school, so each class has their primary homeroom teacher, and then occasionally goes to elective type classes like PE, Music, English, etc.  So on Thursday I mostly just lesson planned, but in the morning I was expected to introduce myself at a faculty meeting in Korean, and then at the school assembly!  I'll write my speech here, but I don't remember it entirely.  Also it was slightly different for the students -vs- the faculty.

Anyung-haseyo! (Hello!)  Ryan inmida.  (My name is Ryan)  Mi-Gook eso waseyo.  (I am from America)  [I told the faculty I look forward to working with you, and the students I look forward to teaching you, but can't remember how that goes in Korean]  Gahm-se-ham-nida!  (Thank you!)

That was the gist of it, but I think I had an extra sentence or two in there.  I am learning more and more Korean every day, but I had my little speech written down, so I don't remember it all.  So that was the first day, the second day was at the Daegu World Championships, then Monday was my first day of teaching. 

I have 20 regular classes to teach, from grades 3-6, and two after school classes that will start in October.  Most are just once a week, except I see three 3rd grade classes on Monday, and again on Wednesday.  With that in mind I had one introductory lesson that I taught to all classes the first week, except for third grade, who I taught an actual lesson to on Wednesday. 

My introductory lesson went very well with all of my classes.  I tried my hardest to be friendly, but more strict than anything while explaining my rules, expectations, procedures and consequences.  Then we played a bingo game that used key words about myself, like 'history,' 'guitar,' 'University of Toledo,' etc.  Then I showed a power point about myself which the students really enjoyed (if you would like to see it feel free to email me at ryan.manary@rockets.utoledo.edu and I'd be happy to share!).  I then played a song on guitar (3 Little Birds by Bob Marley) and then did an interactive sing-a-long called "What's Your Name."  It went great!

I know this post was wordy, but I hope it gives you an idea of how I am getting along in my school!  I absolutely love my school and I'm told how handsome I am 6 times a day (by males, females, students, teachers, administration haha) so there is nothing not to like!  A lot of my friends get the same treatment, but it is very flattering :]

"Somewhere"

I love to play guitar and sing, and I had heard that there was a bar that hosts an 'open mic' every week somewhere in Ulsan.  I performed at an open mic this past summer, so I really wanted to find this place.  I completely stumbled upon it the Friday night after the Daegu track and field championships.  A co-teacher and friend of mine, Eunji went out to meet some of my friends at a foreigner bar called Bench Warmers.  Every big city in Korea has some foreigner bars, which makes it a lot easier to have a social life here.  We had trouble finding Bench Warmers, and spotted a couple on the street (who were obviously foreigners like myself), so we asked them if they knew where it was.  They pointed us in the right direction, but then caught up with us to show us how to get there and to join us.  We got there and it was closed, on a Friday night!  I couldn't believe it, but I guess Friday night isn't a notoriously big 'out' night here.  The couple (Carl and Becky) told us there was another foreigner bar nearby called "Somewhere," so we headed that way.

We got there and they had Nore-bang (karaoke) going on and a nice small/local feel to it. My friend Justin met up with us and then someone pointed over at a drum set and said, 'they had people going up and playing last night, I guess they do it every Thursday.' I was like: "WHAT!?! This is that 'somewhere' that hosts open mic!?" It was crazy how I found it! So that night we didn't stay out too late, but we sung a couple Nore-bang songs and played some (free) pool. It was really great! I planned on going there to sing the following Thursday, but Eunji, Justin and myself were really tired and had big days on Friday, so we skipped it. I plan on going every Thursday from now on though!

Eunji and I at 'Somewhere!'

Me shooting pool.

Eunji.

I didn't get any real good pictures of Carl and Becky, but that's Carl on the left and Becky in the green.  Also this picture reminds me that you can smoke indoors here, which is very bazaar to me!

These Australian mates were very cool, and sure loved singing. haha

IAFF World Championships in Daegu

I don't know who all paid attention to them, but the IAFF World Championships were recently held in Daegu, South Korea, just an hour and a half from Ulsan.  I used to be a track and field athlete, so when I heard about this I thought it would be awesome to go watch some of it, but it was during my first week of school so I didn't anticipate going.  My first day in school was Monday, August 29th, and the students' first day in school was Thursday, September 1st.  That Thursday I learned that the students were going to the World Championship races on Friday, the second day of school, and that I might be able to go.  I found out at the end of the day that I was able to go which was awesome!!

I went in early to help move some boxes (a bit of a 'thank you' gesture) then the whole school left in about 10 buses.  We were at the races for about 3 hours I think, then we went to lunch at a pretty nice restaurant and then headed back to the school.  It was an amazing field trip, on the first week of school!  I feel very lucky :D

The stadium!

Jack and some of our kids where they take your tickets.  The tickets were 30,000 Won a piece ($30) which is super expensive if you're taking a whole school!  I guess what happened is Hyundai bought and donated thousands of tickets to schools around Korea.  I believe they paid for the whole trip as well, transportation and food included, pretty cool!

A view from my seat.  I actually wanted to walk around and explore the stadium, but I was a chaperon so I felt like that may have been a poor judgement call.  Good seats though, we were close and had a television right in front of us.

Walter Dix of the USA in his blocks for the 200 Meter semi-final.

Walter is the 3rd from the front here.

And he won his heat!  He ended up taking the silver medal behind Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who holds world records in the 100, 200 and 4X100 with his teammates.

Jack.

Another teacher and some of our kids!