Melissa lives to blog another day

I guess it's my turn to blog now; Aaron has been harassing me about it for days. I don't have much to talk about so I will post some new pictures and talk about those.

The first few pics are of my school. I am loathe to take more pictures there because of my aforementioned aversion to looking like a tourist taking pictures of random things. These pictures were taken at the end of the day yesterday when most of the students had already gone home. Actually if I brought the camera in to class, I think most of the kids would be up for getting their picture taken (minus the shy girls) but I haven't done so yet.

My school is quite different from Aaron's school. Besides the obvious elementary vs. high school difference, mine is actually a vocational high school. This is the kind of high school for students who most likely won't go to college. In fact, 3rd years in my school get specific job training (we actually have a hair-styling career path; I've seen the "beauty room" but my school is mostly famous for the computer training) so it is a matter of pride when the kids actually go on to university. In order to get into high school in Korea, you must take an exam your last year of middle school. Your score on this exam qualifies you for certain high schools. Basically my students are the unmotivated kids, and they are mostly from poor families. About a third of them are on some kind of government program that pays for their schooling and uniforms and lunches and so forth. So you can imagine their attitude toward English and learning it. Very apathetic. There's always one or two in each class that make an effort but getting the attention of the entire class is something I have never been able to do. There are always a number of students (usually boys) who sleep. And girls who just sit and talk with their friends regardless of my pleas for them to stop talking. It's an uphill battle. That said, I still have some good days when most of my classes seem to go well. Those days make me enjoy my job. I figure, even if they don't learn anything, at least they have fun and take a break from the routine of their normal classes, which are all pretty much lecture-style and fact memorization.

I've already posted pictures of my classroom. It's not as cool as Aaron's, but my school doesn't want to spend a lot of money on the English classroom. Presumably because, as I said, most of the kids don't care about learning English and it's not important to them.

Here is a photo of the first floor hallway. There's about 6 classrooms on a floor; the second half of the building holds the rest of each grade. For example, this hall has rooms 1-1 through 1-7 and the other side of the school has 1-8 and 1-9 and some other rooms. My classroom is in the hall connecting the two sides. The teachers have their own room up on the second and third floors; each teacher gets his or her own desk but they have to share the room with all the other teachers. Although I am completely isolated from everyone else in my little room out in the boonies, I don't have to worry about being quiet or anything like that.

This is the view into the courtyard between the two sections of the school. This is right outside my room; in fact, that wall on the right is the other side of one of my room's walls. There is a drink vending machine here that the kids like to hang out near during breaks between classes. There are glass doors leading inside but the kids ALWAYS leave them open. It annoyed me to no end whenever it was cold because they don't heat the hallways here; just the rooms. So when the kids leave the doors open, of course it is freezing!! I would avoid going anywhere (even to the bathroom) at that point because leaving my room would require a coat. The glass doors here are just outside the door to my room and I am forever getting out of my seat to close them.

Here is one of the walkways leading to the front doors of my school. It's landscaped pretty nicely here; there are tons of these flowering trees all over. I think they are magnolia trees? Regardless, they smell amazing when you step outside. There are also some other kinds of flowering trees, including the infamous cherry blossoms and this kind:

I don't know; some kind of pink/purple flower. Very pretty though.

More shots of the (magnolia?) trees. I had to shoot from the hip so not to look dumb taking pictures of every thing. Sorry for the poor quality! Plus these trees have been blooming for about a week and now everything is dying. They were much prettier 2 days earlier but Aaron usually steals the camera and takes it to school. This was the first day I was able to use it. :)

So that is my school! By the way, I don't think I mentioned this before, but I walk about 2.5 miles to school each morning and afternoon. That's 5 miles a day of walking for me. (I used my pedometer to measure the distance one day, so I am not exaggerating!!) While usually it is nice to get the exercise, on really cold mornings it is rather miserable. Happily, it is getting warmer (in the 70s this week!) but when it gets up into the 80s and super humid, I am probably going to be miserable again. And no, I can't take the bus to school because I'd have to walk halfway there already to get on the most convenient bus. And I figure at that point, it's not worth it anymore.

I've worn a skirt to school a couple of times; it is really nice when the weather is warm but walking so far, I wear my tennis shoes with my skirt and put on my dress shoes once I get to school. Sometimes I feel silly for this. Korean women seem to go nowhere without their high heels and dress clothes. Most women I see are very meticulously dressed and ALWAYS wearing heels. So even though I am not stupid enough to walk 5 miles in heels, I still feel a little scruffy walking around in nice clothes and tennis shoes. I foolishly did not bring a pair of flats with me (which I would much prefer to wear at school) so I need to buy some soon. I just need to find shoes in my size. I'm not sure if I can find size 8 shoes here. Most women have tiny feet. Plus their shoe sizes are different than ours and I'm not sure what = my size. Aaron and I are still working on that; everything is sized differently. Socks, boxers, nylons, shoes...probably even clothes though we haven't started shopping for those yet.

We made breakfast for dinner Thursday night. THOSE are chocolate chocolate chip pancakes. They had a mix pre-made at the store; all you have to do is add milk and eggs. We also made bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. It was yummy but I dislike making these kinds of meals because in order to have everything be hot and done at the same time, you have to run around and flip this and stir that and everything and it's just too stressful. Regardless of my stress in making it, it was pretty yummy.

We still do not have an oven. That is on our priority list, but we would rather buy a used one than a brand new one. So that means we have to find a store with used items. I know they are around...we just can't read Korean yet. But I am getting better at it. I figured out the "milk and eggs" to add to the pancake mix! I have some flash cards I am studying but the words are not always useful. Words like "math" and "bear". Yes, I know the Korean word for bear. Rawr!!

Anyway, we want an oven so we can actually cook things. Frozen pizza, my dear and sorely-missed hot crash potatoes (though rosemary is probably not available here) and Melissa fries. Aaron has taken to calling the homemade french fries I make "Melissa fries". We can make them now in a frying pan, but they are not the same.

And botana. We are really REALLY desperate for botana. Ashley generously sent us some cans of refried beans but we are saving them for botana. In fact I suggested using a can when we made fajitas earlier this week and Aaron almost killed me for suggesting I waste his precious beans on something so mundane.

We had hot dogs and fries again for dinner tonight. Melissa fries, in a pan. Aaron actually cooked!! So I guess they were Aaron fries. Though I had to supervise the process. Last time he tried to make these fries, they were not so awesome. Tonight though, they were super delicious. My influence, I'm sure.


Sorry for the bad picture. This is to illustrate our frustration with the hot dogs. As we mentioned before, they are individually wrapped. This time around, we knew this fact and proceeded accordingly. Meaning, we unwrapped them before cooking. They were much tastier this way.

As you know from previous posts...not all Korean food is awesome. In fact, I have recently eaten something more horrifying than those bugs a few posts back.

Pig intestines. Yes. Stuffed with noodles. Insert sad face here.

I am seriously thinking about rescinding my "try everything at least once" motto.

There, now I have blogged. I hope you are happy. It is about 9 pm and we are heading out soon. We went to our favorite bar last night, Time to Time (the Bart Simpson bar) and discovered the Baskin Robbins was still open when we left. So we had delicious ice cream for the walk home. I hope that happens tonight!! 31 flavors of awesome. I keep getting the chocolate flavors but Aaron's choices always taste better than mine. Perhaps tonight I can be the cool one. :(

*Mel says that if she gets no comments, she will never blog again! COMMENT! LOTS! Otherwise you have to listen to me babble on and on endlessly!*