SNOW in Seochang!

Well hello all. Sorry I haven't written much lately. I wasn't sure what to write since the last few days have been pretty normal. Wake up in the morning, Skype with friends, go to work, and then come home and catch up on some of my American TV shows, and then go to bed. I have a few new things to report now.
FIRST... I just wanted to say that I recieved my ID card...YAY!!! I officially exist as a resident in Korea. Besides my name, I am not sure what else it says but that's me! lol
SECOND, I just wanted to mention that today, it SNOWED! :) I don't know why this makes me excited... probably cause Italy was the only place I lived where it snowed a little bit. I woke up this morning and my kitchen windows were completely fogged up. When I went to look out (it was kinda loud in my kitchen), it was HAILING outside (the photo on the right is outside my window... the hail all bunched up). Now I've been in hail a few times, whether it's been in LA, or in the mountains, but it is still fun everytime :) Of course when I tried to take pictures, they came out like nothing, but I it WAS hailing... I swear! (picture on the left was my attempt at taking a picture of the hail). Later on it started to snow just a little bit. That was fun to watch :) I was a bit nervous about taking the bus to school... more because I didn't have the right kind of shoes for this weather! Time to go shopping I guess :) I've been trying to get boots for weeks!
THIRD As I was relaxing in my warm apartment, watching Private Practice, drinking tea, this morning, my ceiling light (aka main light of my house) started flickering on/off. I thought it was just going to go out... but no... kept flickering and then SMOKING! I could smell the smoke and see it very visibly. I turned off the light (now provided it's snowing out, my apt was VERY Dark). Since it was only 11am and I didn't hve to be at work till 2, I called my school director who called the owner of my apartment. The owners live in Busan City and they were at my house in 45 minutes. They were the sweetest Korean couple. Surprisingly they both had very good english (I know the woman used to be a flight attendant for Korean airlines). The husband fixed my light, fixed my shower drain, and gave me a night light above my bed. They were so nice and so sweet and informative and gave me their phone number for any problems. I definitely feel like I could call them. They said they have 'empty nest' syndrom so they want to help in anyway they can. The wife has some english teacher friends in the Pusan National University area so she offered to introduce me to them :) Their 2 sons are grown and living away (one is in the Korean military). So way too much information, bottom line, I don't understand people who think the Koreans are mean. I've met nothing but nice friendly people! They were so nice, they even drove me to school (which solved my walking to the bus/shoe problem). And I am excited to be able to turn on a light and know my apartment won't blow up :)
As I write this, I am at school on one of my breaks. It started to snow just a little bit harder! Not super hard but hard enough for the kids and other teachers to make a big deal about it. The picture on the right is me with Christine (my co-worker). She took her class out to see the snow so some of the students are with us. I followed her example and took 2 of my classes out into the snow later as well. The picture on the left is my class playing in the little section of snow that gathered on the driveway. And naturally I wanted my own photo in the snow :) Again, not a lot of snow but enough to get excited about... snow in Seochang is very rare so they are all very excited (think snow in LA... it is rare but it has happened before). Just a few days ago it was beautiful out in the high 50's. Now it's gray and cold and snowing. As much as I am enjoying this, I do hope it only lasts today and maybe tomorrow. This weekend is Lunar New Year. I originally thought it was a 3 day weekend but was jut informed it is a 4-day weekend...even better! My plans are pretty flexible. Going day by day to see what happens . But hoping to see more of the South African girls (there is talk of dinner and movie nights!), a visit to Ulsan with some new friends, and then a day trip to Gyeongju with Sonny, one of the Korean teachers at my school. All the teachers are VERY nice and sweet and I get along with them well. Some are married, some have kids, etc. Sonny said most of her friends have families so it will be nice to go do something with a friend who is single lol (her parents worry cause she is 28... in American years... and still single. She seems very happy that way)....p.s. I found out I am 27 in Korean years :) It's a very complicated system they have between birthdays and new years. I'll explain more later lol.
So as far as classes go, things are going well. I've officially just about caught on to everything. The kids know me and there is only about 7 kids whose name I still don't know or I confuse with someone else. Most of my classes are very good and fun. The most common question I get asked is, 'if you don't speak Korean, how do you teach or communicate with them?" Well most of my classes (i say most cause i have 1 class that is the exception) speak/understand pretty good english. If they dont understand charades pretty well :) Here is how the day works, each class has 2 teachers, a homeroom teacher (one of the korean teachers), and a foreigner teacher (me and Christine... Christine is Korean but lived in New Zealand so has a very good in english... she leaves at the end of the month when the S.African girl comes in). The Korean teachers teach the kids grammar, what is what, give tests, and do most of the 'teaching.' I, as the 'foreign teacher' (or Way-gook-in sunsang-nim) practice more of the speaking, reading, and writing. They practice with me what they learn with the homeroom teacher. So it really isn't that hard. I have 1 class of middle school students who are KILLIN ME! Some know absolutely NO english at all, others just don't talk. It's so hard to get with them. Their book is a little too advanced for them I think. When I ask them to read, they do that well, but when I ask them to fill in the blanks, half the kids won't do it, and when I ask some of the kids who did do it, their answers, they look at me blankly like they have no idea what I'm saying. But when I look at their book, their answers are correct... so I don't get it. The other day we talked about 'preferring' something. "Julie, what do you prefer to eat in/or eat out (or if that's too complicated...) do you prefer dinner at home or dinner at restaurant?" I ask each student the same question and 1. no one listens to anyone else so after I get to the 5th person who asks 'what? sports?' trying to guess the answer cause he has no idea what I"m talking about, it just gets me mad. 2. Some still don't understand the question. I'm thinking to myself 'just say what the person before you said, even if you don't understand. 12 people went before you saying the exact same thing..." It gets very frusterating and I dread having that class. I feel like i'm just wasting my time. The teacher before me, whom I've been in contact with, said it was his hardest class as well and sometimes you just have to go through the book, whether they understand it or not. Many of them are there because they have to be and don't care and don't wanna learn, etc.
The book they use has a lot of the same exercises over and over so they know what to do. I try to repeat the same greeting everyday, if I switch up a greeting, I"ll use it for awhile till they understand. Words like 'repeat' I do not think they knew but understand now when I say it and wave my arms, it means to 'say after me together.' The other kids are good kids and are curious to learn. However, the phrase 'teacher, no book, games today,' never gets old. Everyday,they want games lol. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for coming up with the games I have. Games like Connect4, I've turned into an english game, and sentence race games. Even some of the quiet/shy kids come alive when we play a good game. What is funny, is that most of my kids are at the age where boys and girls hate each other. I could have a class of 2 boys and 6 girls, and I'd try to make even teams for a game and I'd get, "No, teacher! Boys and Girls. Girls no." lol. So funny. And everything is 'die.' "Teacher, let's play, die." my response is "I kill you?" his response, "no teacher, I kill Rickie." hmmm maybe later. In one class, I we created a story where every person added a little part of the story. Seems easy, but they didn't quite get it. The story went "Homer (one of the boys in class) and Girl are together. Homer eats Girls cup. Girls is mad at Homer. Homer kills Girl" lol.
Every once in awhile, I catch one of the kids swearing in english. It's so hard not to laugh. Sometimes I wonder if they know what it means and how bad it can be. But then again, I don't know if I should give them an english lecture on swear words. I think they just say things because they, can but don't really know how to use it or what it means. One of the other Korean teachers was asking me how bad certain words were. She was confused why certain words were on TV but others were not. So I explained that some were worse than others and how they're used, etc.
So now, I'm gonna Skype with my mom for a bit before school. Hope everyone is well:)