Safety in Korea as told to me by Grade 2 Students

When I was researching about South Korea and talking to Justin about the level of safety and possible dangers in the city, he had mentioned that it was very quiet and peaceful--nearly crime-free. He later quickly mentioned that we lived near a prison...uh huh.

But yeah, to the point of all this.

I got to talking to the kids in Grade 2 today and randomly, Joey mentioned that he moved because someone had broken into his house and robbed him of this toys and things. When this was brought up, another kid wanted to up his story and I was told by Ray that his friend's dog was murdered during a home robbery. Another story by a third student told me that his friend's mother was killed due to a home invasion.

Then there was Amy who shared that recently, a "crazy man" had murdered and dismembered four local children. (The students didn't know how to say or find words for dismemberment, so they used their hands and pretended to cut their bodies...that part was hilarious.) They must have seen the horror on my face because she quickly added that he was already in sentenced and in jail. When I asked them why he committed the crime, they mentioned something about him getting drunk and "just feeling like killing someone"...

It was amazing to hear them speak English, but at the same time, I was thinking...how must you feel about this?? But considering they were able to talk about it with ease let me know that their parents had thoroughly explained all the details etc. I remembered talking to 4A about the earthquake in China...explaining the earthquake to them was troubling because the more they knew...the more anxious they seemed to get over the chances of earthquakes occuring in Canada...which I kept telling them did not happen...til the last weeks of school.

But yeah, when kids are missing here in South Korea...it's HUGE deal. An entire community will plan, go out and search after the missing child. My students were saying that they volunteered to go search because their mothers were part of search teams.

At the end of all this, I realized two things about this particular class. First, Korea is not as safe as I had thought...just like many other things. And second, my grade 2 can adequately converse in English...little did they know, I was assessing them on their speaking skills...

More about Poly School

As the last week of August is almost over, I've been thinking about what would be happening if I was still in Canada. Of course, I'd be in the room setting up and photocopying and stuff and it made me a little anxious to NOT be doing any of those things. I told Hannah and she said that I was crazy haha...It's just funny how all the stress of setting up and starting a year can be forgotten within the span of two months. It must be so exciting though...I was looking at some of my pictures from last September and it made me really miss the school...*sigh*

Here are some memories from 4A:

I miss the Canadian classrooms...the big windows and wide floor space...

I do not miss the hectic planning and crazy work schedules...just think: I actually go out on the weekends!

Regardless, the grass always seems to be greener on the other side of the world...

Unfortunately, these are only some pictures because my laptop broke down and I lost all of my 4A photos towards the end of the year. Remember that slideshow that I spent days making? IT'S LOST! If you get a hold of any of the kids from 4A, please let them know I would LOVE to have it back on my new laptop this instant. I promise to send them the music file that is owed to them as soon as possible.

So yeah...

...keeping an updated blog is much harder than I thought...The only thing I will say about the tardy entries is that in Korea, I am spending more time living and socializing than I did in Toronto, which is quite nice. I am learning to be more balanced in work and play and learning to be less of a workaholic.

Anyhoo.


Since my last entry, there have been many new ventures to new part of Seoul. I should really post them right now because if I put it off any longer, it will not make it.

I don't have the pictures from my birthday party...so I will upload those later...but here are some photos from the best part of my day. To my surprise, they are with the preschoolers!

My new kids (from back to front): Shina, Alfred (with the bowl cut), Daniel, Louie (in his favourite referee shirt), Sunny and Thomas with the peace signs around his eyes

Daniel and Louie

SUNNY: you know how kids run up to you with their arms wide open?
Sunny does this while calling, "HEIDIII TEEEEACHAAAA!!!" and jumps into my arms.
You can't help but love love love him.

Another reason why I love Sunny is because he remembered my birthday...
We did the date routine and he had said, "Your birthday is in four days!"
I was thoroughly impressed by his memory and number sense.

I lobe you, Sunny!

When I first saw this birthday party setup, the first thing that ran through my mind was that I ALSO HAD THIS IN HONG KONG!!!
The only thing that was different was that I did not recall getting a candy necklace to put around my neck.

Olivia, Emily and Jason blow out their candles.
I now understand why mums are so obsessed with their children's birthday photos.

Our class sang three songs--one for each birthday girl/boy.
We sang, "Oobie Oobie, Follow Me and ride ride the bus"

Heidi Teacher with her Penguins

My birthday girls!
I was very proud of Emily...she wore high heels with dignity and did not complain once

Jason: He is one of the smartest boys in the Penguins class.
He is also one of the nicest as he let Emily have the red necklace. I told him that the green matched the green polo design on his otherwise orange shirt...he is a sweetie pie.

Alfred and Sunny ignores me as they watch the birthday party video online.
They love Tom and Jerry...

Daniel: He says, "Fire extinguisher" like a pro.

Louie and Shina enjoy their birthday party snacks.
Louie has a stack of Pringles in his left hand and tried to grab more with the other...all preschoolers love to hog. It doesn't matter where you go haha

More photos of my weekend to Mokpo and Jindo will be posted soon. My camera ran out of batteries and our photos are on different cameras...gotta track down people and post soon.

More comments on my work/school schedule shall follow...stay tuned :)

The Dark Knight...

...was awesomer than The Mummy the Tomb whatever blah blah blah...Heath Ledger was so great as The Joker and he played it with such consistency...it was amazing just to watch him do that thing with his face.

Two-Face's face was also AWESOME!!! I did not expect it to be so gross because the animated series people downplayed the darkness of these characters by keeping the faces simple and less-gross detailed driven (if that did not make sure, whateverrrr).

There's nothing else to this entry other than the fact that I saw the movie and it was much better that my last movie experience...

A friend at work also introduced us to congee near the kinex. It had small clams in it. I love everything with the clams in it...it's very delicious. It was such a large meal, I had it for breakfast this morning and for tomorrow...hmmmmm gukkkkk or congeeeee...


OH! This next weekend is a long weekend! It's Independence Day...we will celebrate Korea's independence by going to the beach, I think. If Angela has her way and everything works out as planned, we will travel to Jeju Island...woooooooohoooo

The Mummy III

We saw this on Thursday...Let's just say it's a rental, if that at all...my advice is to wait for it to come on television and watch it then.

There were several things that I disliked about the movie but the most transparent and superficial one is that this new Evelyn sucks. It's not that I don't like Maria Bello, she was awesome on ER or whatever but Rachel Weiss IS EVELYN!!! I can't believe they did the movie without her. That was stupid. Other things that bothered me included the amount of English spoken by Chinese people...I don't understand how that makes historical sense. I am just going to pretend they never made a third one and watch the first and second Mummy online...

I did not intend for this entry to be a movie review but that movie just hit a nerve...it sucked and I'll never get those two hours of my life back!

Other than the movie sucking...the whole movie watching experience is quite different. You have to line up to line up to buy a ticket!? That was new. I couldn't get over the fact that we had to line up to line up...that's just ludicrous...

In terms of the price, the cost of one ticket was 4,000 wons so it's relatively cheaper. Dean ordered this dried squid snack that's baked with peanut butter...it was quite good but all the peanut butter taste evaporated.



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NEWS: Work begins again on Monday, which means traveling will be restricted to weekends