to make a wretch his treasure...

for the visual learners...

[photos from this weekend...take a look! i got a new editing program and it keeps the photos at much higher quality (although facebook still doesn't do them justice...)]

such a fast week! only three days, and four of my classes had tests. right now, my hardest struggle is teaching the subject without knowing how much english each individual student can comprehend. the most difficult part is that, when asked to participate, the students who speak up in class are the ones who are understanding. the ones who don't won't get any better without practicing speaking, but they are afraid to be embarrassed. it's a never-ending cycle. after looking at the test results, however, we need to do a lot of work with vocabulary! even though many students understood during the review, they had a hard time with test questions that i thought would be fairly easy...it's all part of the adventure and the learning process.

i asked my geography kids to give class evaluations, in order to learn how to make the class better. a good indication of how that went was when someone asked me what "dislike" meant, when i had them write what they disliked about the class. apparently, most students enjoy the class, but the language barrier makes the material hard for them to learn and memorize.

today is chuseok! i hope all my students are enjoying their holiday! i made sure of that by not giving any homework.

thursday was teacher's day...foreign teachers were at school with no children. it was nice because i got to wear PANTS (have i mentioned that i am required to wear a skirt six days of the week??) and it was a good chance to get to know a lot of my co-workers, for better or for worse, all crowded into that room for a whole day. i didn't get a lot of school stuff done because we had to decorate our homeroom classes, which i haven't finished either. but we have another teacher's day monday!

thursday night! we went to Wolmido, a part of Incheon. it was a perfectly lovely night, warm and clear, but most importantly clean. my lungs were very grateful. being on the water, there was a nice boardwalk complete with seafood restaurants and fish in tanks everywhere and arcades, games, and fireworks. it felt a bit like summer vacation on that first day of october! we ate at a chinese restaurant (although it was korean-style chinese food) and then wandered around, playing games and even riding some amusement park rides (see my photo link above - there is plenty of visual information!).

the most fascinating thing for me was this crazy disco ride that spins in a circle, bumps, plays music, and has a commentator sitting above them making comments about the people on the ride, while a huge crowd sits, stands and watches, laughing for hours at the people on this ride.

on this particular occasion, there was a guy standing in the middle, doing flips whenever the ride gave him a bump. it was insane.


needless to say, the bright lights and interesting people and events of the evening kept me quite busy with my camera. it was a fun night to spend with some fellow teachers. i have to admit though that i really miss hanging out with college students, people my own age. i really respect my teachers and i do have fun with them, but there are definite generation gaps at times that leave me wishing for some good friends to fellowship with, where i can be completely myself.

friday morning we took a long subway ride into seoul to the korean folk village. it was fun to see traditional houses and crafts, and it was a beautiful, sunny day downtown. we ate cold and hot noodles and mandu, a sort of dumpling was quite reminiscent of chinese jiaozi and baozi, but in a slightly different shape. we then hit up a "traditional" market at insa-dong, which was more appropriately termed a tourist market by mary smith; there were more white people there (in the two hours we explored) then i've seen in all of korea thusfar. a lot of expensive, similar looking items.


at the insa-dong market - a man making rice cakes ---------------->




another favorite food that we've discovered is a waffle fish - waffle batter filled with red bean in the shape of a fish. i have no idea what they're called, but they're incredibly cheap and deliciously filling.

still on the topic of food, it is 1 pm and i'm really hungry. i will shortly emerge on this chuseok day and see how deserted (or not) bucheon is!

happy chuseok, everybody!