But Antartica's not a continent!

I recently taught my students about Antarctica for 2 days.  Our book said things like, "Antarctica is technically a desert, since it only snows 2 inches a year."

On the second day, I  noticed in one of my students homework books that they had written, "There are 6 continents on Earth." I made sure to remember that, so that when we got to the sentence in the book, "It's the 7th continent," I asked, "Do they teach in Korea that there are only 6 continents?" They said, "Yes, there are only 6 continents!" I had to explain, that for the purpose of the lesson, that in America they teach that there are 7 continents and Antarctica is a continent. They were a bit confused about why Antarctica was a continent, but the Arctic was not a continent. Luckily, the book explained that it's because the Arctic is just floating ice, but Antarctica is land.

They do teach that Pluto is not a planet.

Sometimes, the book doesn't quite explain and I don't have enough background knowledge in science to explain something, such was the case with the lesson I taught on wormholes. A student asked, "How would you come back through the wormhole?" I blundered through saying I wasn't sure if you could, but really had no idea if I was right.

Also, I just realized I've been spelling Antarctica wrong for years. Oops.

In the same class I taught about Antarctica, I taught a class on vomiting, where we learned words like "vomit," "nauseous" "vomit up quite a mess," and "chunky."

At the end of class, one of my students announced, "Ugh I feel queasy!" And I felt like I'd done my job properly. We all felt like we were going to vomit by the end.

Also, this happened in class, which was pretty funny.

Me: What does 'transparent' mean?
Student: A transformer's parent!

Living in Korea Part 2

A few months ago, I wrote a blog, linking to this wonderful website: http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/. Also mentioned in blog immediately before this one.

Here's the blog I wrote in case you missed it.

It is such a genius blog, that I thought I'd do an update with most recent posts.

1. Winter in Korea. I'm sure I wrote about it a lot, but winter is COLD! Last year in early November, it was a very reasonable, non-freezing temperature. This year, it is already drastically colder than it was in early November, which is forcing me to remember feeling like this:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34737650076/when-i-need-to-use-the-bathroom-at-school-in-the

The hallways and bathrooms at my school are not heated. Only the classrooms, so then we die a little bit in the hallways. Or have to put on jackets to get to the breakroom and bathroom.

I am bracing myself for the extreme cold to come, that is predicted to be worse than last year. Yikes. Good thing I have all those long-johns.

2. Even after studying Korean, this is still how I feel when people speak to me.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34471180585/standing-next-to-my-co-teachers-having-a-conversation

It's really annoying.

Actually, my comprehension has gotten a lot better recently. While hiking, I understood completely when a woman said, "I think that's the trail we went on in the past." And then, her husband responded, "I think so, but I can't remember."

However, some people are not able to simplify their speaking to my level. I think as an English teacher, I'm used to speaking to foreigners in a way that's easier for them to understand. In Japan, we talked to a woman who knew almost immediately (after thinking Ben and I were British) that we were English teachers because we spoke to her carefully and clearly. But, some people are not used to speaking in Korean to non-native speakers and I think they don't know what to do.

As an example, I went to order some kimbap to go, since I was going hiking with Ben and we wanted something to eat at the top of the mountain. The woman asked me if I wanted it to go, but she did not know the word that I know as "to go." or the one I use every time I order something to go. When I asked for clarification, rather than rephrasing her sentence, she got annoyed and just yelled it at me louder and faster than she said it the first time. I did not understand until she used her hands and motioned to the door. It was extremely unhelpful.

Also, when I speak in Korean, this is how must people react:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/33203435642/when-i-try-and-speak-korean-in-front-of-my

3. Once again, taking the bus in Korea is extremely dangerous. They have the right of way and drive around like crazy people. I am still shocked I haven't been in an accident yet.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34329421681/when-i-take-the-bus-in-korea

I have fallen a couple times on the bus. A couple months ago, Ben and I were on the bus and the bus driver had to stop so quickly the entire bus of people standing flew forward and slammed into each other. Luckily, I didn't break my neck. Or dislocate my shoulder like an acquaintance I know did when she didn't let go of the handles fast enough.

4. Fan Death. Most Koreans believe that if you leave a fan on in your room too long, with your windows closed, that you will die. From what I've read, they believe that you get hypothermia, or if that's not the case, it sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

Here's a news report: http://news.donga.com/3//20080801/8610427/1. I believe it's in Korean and my Google Chrome browser automatically translates it.

And the ever reliable wikipedia explaining it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Recently, I told some of my very high level (most lived abroad) students that only people in Korea believe in fan death and they were absolutely shocked that it wasn't true. They kept saying, "But it's on the news!" One of them said, "Oh my goodness this changes everything!" But once I said they probably died of pre-existing conditions, they realized that was probably true.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34261070142/when-my-korean-friends-talk-to-me-about-fan-death

One of my friend's students was going to test the theory on her dog.

5. This is how I felt when one of my students, after another said, "You have a boyfriend I know it!" yelled "Where is your evidence!?!!!"

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34199905453/when-i-hear-my-students-using-english-that-i-taught

Well, it's happened other times as well. One of my students said the other day, "What a shock!" which I say as a joke, usually to students who did their homework and never do it otherwise.

6. Getting sick in Korea. I have lost my voice more times in the last 18 months than I have in the last 10 years. I think that might be due to the fact that I work with snotty children who sneeze all over their papers. Or, like happened last week, on the pencils that I lent them. Then, when I've lost my voice, they tell me they prefer my husky voice. Even though I get sick a lot, and spent most of the month of October on my deathbed from possible pneumonia, we can't call in sick unless you are in the hospital or have a doctors note saying we can't go. So you must do this.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/33737956254/being-sick

Also, I took about 50 pills in 3 days for whatever I had and had absolutely no idea what they were. But I took them anyway and got better. Just like this:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/33129490354/taking-prescrption-pills-in-korea

7. I am pretty sure I have done this exact motion and said this exact sentence.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/33048937702/when-my-students-start-punching-each-other-in-the

Students are a bit more physical in Korea. The boys poke, tickle and punch each other a lot, so there are a lot of time. Well, not anymore. I've gotten my student management down pat. At least for Korean students.

Also, I've had a couple awkward, silent middle school classes, where I've felt exactly like this:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/33678283890/what-teaching-that-one-awkward-silent-class-feels-like

Then, those awkward, silent classes turned into loud, swearing classes and this is how I felt:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/31833874501/trying-to-control-my-highschool-students

This sentence has probably come out of my mouth as well:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30623312882/most-common-thing-i-say-to-my-students-in-english

8. They have these trucks that drive around, yelling into a megaphone trying to get you to buy things, such as fruit, vegetables, computers, notebooks, pens, paper, nuts, you name it. They tend to drive by around 8 AM yelling at you to come outside. This is how I feel when that happens:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32708239624/when-the-promo-trucks-drive-around-my-neighboorhood

9. Food. Luckily I'm very adventurous in eating, but every once in a while, this is how I feel trying a new food.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32640721300/trying-new-types-of-food

10. I still have no idea what I will do when I return home from Korea.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32367908839/when-people-ask-me-what-my-plan-is-after-korea

11. Showering. I don't have a separate shower. My shower head is directly above my sink and gets the entire bathroom wet when I shower.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32236124161/first-time-i-walked-in-to-my-bathroom-and-realized

This is 100% my reaction when I saw my shower. Now, I'm used to it. But the first time I saw it, I was horrified and thought, "I will never survive Korea!"

Also, as previously mentioned in my blog, towels dry like shark skin. When I went home in December, I took a shower and thought, "This towel feels strange." I realized later it felt strange because it was soft.

12. Exacto-Knives. The first time I saw a student with one (she was sharpening her pencil with it) this is how I reacted.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/31768596684/first-time-i-saw-a-student-pull-out-an-x-acto-knife-to

I asked another student recently why they ALL have knives in their pencil cases, and she said they are required for their art classes and they get in trouble if they DON'T bring knives with them to school. I'm pretty sure children would be arrested and/or expelled in America if they whipped those out of their bags.

13. As I've complained about before, summer is extremely hot. Opposite of the approaching winter.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30842091551/getting-off-of-work-during-summer

Also, August is miserable. 110 degrees with 100% humidity. And it's monsoon season. So, this is how it feels.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30139821274/august

14. Luckily in Seoul, the typhoon was non-existent. But this is pretty funny anyway.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30425004058/talking-to-my-parents-back-home-during-the-typhoon

15. At training, squatting toilets were the only toilets available in the building. I walked 2 blocks to the nearest cafe, so I wouldn't have to use them. I've used one once. It was awkward and I never plan on using them again.

 http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30209494236/trying-to-use-the-squatter-toilets

16. Last one for now, though there are definitely more genius posts I could write about.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/29448443236/walking-at-night-alone

Korea is ridiculously safe. I'm pretty sure nothing happens here. So, I just walk around not worried about being robbed, which I should probably stop doing. I spend a lot of time walking through dark alleys on my way home. Since, my walk home is a dark alley.

Gangnam Style...Now

Approximately two months ago, I posted this blog about Gangnam Style.

This link now is very relevant to how I feel about the song. It is still constantly playing everywhere.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/34872235122/hearing-gangnam-style

Also, to update. My Korean class has finished. After massive amounts of studying with Sun Jin, I managed to pass with an 80% and am on to the next level! Last time I took level 2, I got a 40% and obviously had to repeat it. So I am making progress slowly. Unfortunately, the next level doesn't start until March, so I have to wait a bit. I plan on studying level 3 on my own until then, so I at least have some background knowledge before starting and getting lost. I also hope the class isn't at 9AM, because finishing work at 10PM every day meant that I was late almost every single day for class.

And by almost every day, I mean every day.

Kumamoto, or where I attempted to create a battle.

After a good night's sleep, Elaine had to go to work and Ben and I headed to Kumamoto Castle. It was built between 1467 and 1610, though a lot of it is a reconstruction. It's one of the most famous castles in Japan.

We got there pretty early and wandered around the grounds. The weather was beautiful. A little chilly in the morning, but quite warm by the afternoon.

We headed inside the castle. There were a lot of very low entrances to rooms.

The floors were very creaky and covered with cones, marking places where people had stepped through the floor. The cones were very reassuring.






Needless to say, I spent much of my time worrying I was going to fall through the floor.


We looked outside and watched the construction. We realized immediately that all the construction workers were woman, which was unusual.

Here's the view from the first battlement that we entered.

Here I am in the castle.

Yes, that is a bag with my shoes inside them. I wore my converses for comfort, not thinking I'd have to take off my shoes in every building we entered. I tied my shows about 12 times that day. I attempted to just tuck my shoelaces into my shoe, but my shoelaces are a bit short, since Minerva ate my other ones. Thus, the excessive tying of the shoes continued.

The stairs were extremely steep. The time not spent worrying I'd fall through the floor was spent trying not to fall down the stairs.

This is Buddhist art. I know this because it is only black and white.


And because Ben told me.

Ben and I sitting on the tiny seats. The time not spent worrying about falling through the floor or down the stairs, I spent worrying I'd break the tiny chairs.

We then wandered through a tunnel.

Took some pictures in front of the castle.

Went to the museum in the castle. Most of the museum we couldn't take pictures, but I took a few of the Japanese writing.

Then we took some pictures in here, naturally.

These rooms were very beautiful.

We headed down to the gardens. We briefly forgot it was October because the weather was so great, and expected there to be flowers in the flower garden, but there were not, obviously.

The walls were extremely tall, as you can see by my ant-sized self.

And Ben's ant-sized self. Proof that I'm not just extremely short.

We then headed to the Kumamoto museum, just outside the castle grounds.

Here is a giant, unstable tree on the walk to the museum.

Around here we saw a sign that said "Kumamoto Museum-500 meters."

Here's a tree in the middle of the sidewalk.

The path was very beautiful.

A short time later, we realized we were walking the wrong way.

We realized that because we saw a sign that said, "Kumamoto Museum 750 meters" and we had walked a long distance and were farther away from the museum.

After walking by a baseball stadium and down a hill, we arrived at the museum. It was closed because it was Monday. So we headed to lunch. at least we tried.

This was a great, above ground root system.

Elaine recommended curry for lunch. Apparently, we did not go to the correct curry place. She informed us later that, no, the curry place she recommended did not have a machine where you chose your order, paid then gave your receipt to the cook.

But, the curry was still delicious, so it was ok to go to the wrong location.

We saw Kumamoto the Bear.


We then headed to the Japanese Zen Garden.

We got off the tram late, walked back, then discovered we'd actually gotten off the tram early and took the tram a few stops further down the street and made it to the gardens.

We did some souvenir shopping outside of the gardens, then headed inside

The gardens were very beautiful. They were very peaceful and uncrowded, which was great.

This series of pictures is Ben trying to teach me how to pose for pictures.

It didn't work, obviously.

Ben had an underwater camera and took pictures of the fish in the lake, which caused a mass congregation of fish, who seemed to think he was feeding them.

Notice the ripples in the water-those are the fish coming to see what is going on and why there's a hand in the water.




Ben got bit by a fish.



No, that didn't happen, I just thought it would.

We drank some water. I don't know if that is taboo or not. Ben got camera happy while I was drinking the water.

Now, I know not to give him my camera for safety.

Some bamboo.

We walked around the gardens chatting and enjoying the scenery.

We bought some bread from an old woman to feed the fish.

The fish and the ducks were fighting over the bread.

Notice the fish and the ducks together.

Ben accused me of trying to choke the fish with giant chunks of bread. I still maintain that they were easily swallowing the bread with their giant mouths.

He also accused me of trying to get them to fight with the ducks over the food, just to get a good picture.

I whole-heatedly deny that accusation.







Just kidding. I completely admit that.

The fish followed us for a while, thinking we had more bread.

We then wandered out of the gardens, to a house across the street, which was pretty cool looking but definitely a private house.

See said house.

After wandering a bit, we headed back to Elaine's apartment to meet her and head out to dinner. Also, we played Bananagrams, otherwise known as speed scrabble, but instead of saying "Take Two" you say "peel" which led to me saying "take-PEEL!" a lot.

Sunset view from Elaine's apartment.

Before heading to dinner, we walked around the area near her apartment, which including prime flooding areas in monsoon season, completely with sandbags and a Buddhist Temple.

This was a cool building.

The temple.

We then headed to a restaurant, where we ate Yakisoba and something that looks like pancakes, but isn't. And I can't remember the name of them. I documented the entire experience, which was great.

Elaine was very embarrassed by my documentation, saying, "I have to return here!"

First, we oiled the grill, which was on our table.

Then we mixed all the ingredients together.

Added the mandu/dumplings to the grill.

Put the pancakes on.

And the yakisoba.

Here we are making the food.

Well, Ben making the food.

At the end, you add sauce. I saw another table adding their sauce and exclaimed, "They are currently brushing the sauce onto their pancake!"

I was needlessly made fun of for that comment. Apparently I sounded very urgent. I was just stating facts.

At least I know the making fun of me is done in loving jest. Just as certain people comparing my speaking to Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey (cough**Blossom, Craig, Ben, Allison, Adrienne, J, Mother***cough).

Oh wait, maybe it's true...


We then went shopping a little bit more.

I found this gem. It's stomach medicine. The before picture.

And the after, "Yay I'm better!" picture.

We walked around the castle grounds once more, since it's very beautiful at night.

We then headed back to Elaine's apartment, bought some amazing milk tea in a bottle, and played bananagrams.

We had to head to the airport the next morning. We took the bus, got to the airport in plenty of time and got on the plane. We landed at 1:10 PM, ran to customs, got on the train back home, showered and were at work by 3:30.