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Couple of emails from the inbox: "Staf, where are you mate? Are you OK? Are you still in Korea?" Well I’m here, I’m OK and yes I’m still in Korea.
How to cover the last two weeks in a single post? A difficult task at the best of times. (especially since I’ve done nothing of note) But stuff it - it’s December 4 and it snowed last night!!!! As someone who usually lives in more balmy, antipodean climes being outside when snow begins to fall always brings a giant grin to my face.
So by chance I happened to be awake at half past one this morning as the snow began to fall so I ran outside and mucked about in the snow for 20 minutes before coming back to the apartment and sneaking off to a warm bed.As I write it has begun to snow again and I find myself just staring out the window at it. - I can’t even look at the TV for more than a minute without loosing concentration.
In other news: The 2005 Jung Chul speech contest is underway. It could arguably be the most important and influential event that Sophia has come up with in terms of a) the kids learning English and b) upping the profile of the school as a whole with parents. Students have to write a speech on one of a series of topics developed for their level. First in Korean. Then they have to translate, The Korean staff will then correct and edit, and finally I will record each speech for the kids to listen to and memorise before delivering the speech near the end of December.
Over all I think it is a very good idea, and a little more fun for the kids than the usual listen -repeat-memorise routine that they go through. The fact that I will have to read and record upward of thirty speeches varying in length from 1 to 4 minutes in length is mitigated by the fact that the majority of kids are forgoing tapes and requesting their recording in mp3 format meaning I don’t have to piss about with a tape recorder etc and can do it fully digital. It reflects where Korea is going - I think you’d be hard pressed to find kids in NZ wanting mp3’s let alone having mp3 players.
Speaking of school there was a bit of a brewhaa at school concerning speaking assesment for the Fantasy class (i.e. the little, LITTLE kids). Personally I don’t think there is much use in grading these kids. I think at this stage the whole purpose is to get them interested in English rather than freaking them out with tests. Thats why all I do is let them run around singing songs and get them to colour in their books etc. But after all, I am only the over-paid, under-worked foreign teacher so I do as I am told. Now for the gossip: Apparently Sophia asked Clair to make up an evaluation form and she turned around and bit her head off and Sophia was all like crying and stuff!!! Anyway that night Sophia and I went out for a drink and she told me all the gossip so I came up with a form and did the testing on the little ones myself. The results of which were pleasantly suprising - the kids ARE able to string together at least a basic sentence. (They must have a good english teacher aye.)
The big drama at the end of last week was I thought I had lost my NZ mobile number as I had forgotten to get mum to top it up with some credit. A few furtive emails back and forth between Vodafone New Zealand, Mum and myself and all was sorted. I now have $30 credit that won’t expire until November next year.
End of the month, Payday came and went. A large portion of which (2/3) ended up going to New Zealand, so I am again pretty proud of myself for not spending it. Thursday did present an opportunity to go shopping. Call it what you want but Nonsan is at least a large enough city to warrent a Nike store and so I bought a new jacket, finally. More out of necessity, as the snow has proved, than anything else. And Nike was having a 30% off sale. I picked up a particularly nice jacket that is particularly warm. I was going to go for the Manchester United one but anything vaguly related to the team is sold at a premium now in Korea after the recent inclusion of former PSV Eindhoven player J S Park into the Manchester line up. So I settled for an Arsenal jacket instead. "Go the Gunners!" And it cost me less than the Asics jacket I bought last year and subsequently destroyed recently.
The first of the month also has brought about a change of habit in terms of what I eat. Ladies and Gentlemen I have gone on a diet which, apart from one lapse on Saturday night (Can you say chocolate chip?) I am doing relativly well in. Salads, lots of water and limiting my carbs intake. Did you know that Diet coke (Or Coke lite as it is refered to here) provides absolutly no nutritional sustenance what so ever?! Giving up food is like giving up crack! All I want to do is sit down and eat 8 blocks of chocolate. But fuck me if I won’t. I need to look a little thinner for March. So stay tuned for (not so) regular reports on how the diet thing is going. It’s gonna be hard - especially since I promised I would buy my 6pm class tomorrow pizza.
And finally, I’ve got a date tonight. hahaha
