English Winter Camp – Week 3

This is the final week of winter camp. The third week has finally arrived.

Monday:
A brand new week and that means, new vocabulary words, and sentences for each of those 20 words. The students kept themselves very busy with activities using vocabulary words. This week's theme was "white theme" so words such as dove, eggs, teeth, swan, tissue, White House, etc. They wanted to do so well on their spelling test, which is on Wednesday, so they were concentrated on getting 20/20. The students were showing me that they genuinely wanted to learn the English language because they kept asking questions about what each of the words meant or examples. Either way, the week started off very well.

Tuesday:
The students were focusing on their reading abilities on this particular day. They had to choose a book and read it quietly to themselves. If they had any trouble pronouncing a word, they would ask for help. At the end, they had to read to me one-on-one for their reading and speaking mark. The students were working diligently and were focused on their task. There were other activities too but this was the main focus on Tuesday.

Wednesday:
The students had Ramyeon for lunch and they knew today was the last day of formal learning. We did plenty of academic related work such as learning how to bowl, vocabulary words for bowling and even a dialogue. There were plenty of games today too because it was the last day to earn stickers towards their score sheet.

Thursday:
Today, we went bowling! We had so much fun. Some of the students never bowling before and they were really excited about this field trip event. The first game I didn't want to try too hard or show off so I didn't get a great score. I realized that I finished 2nd last (out of 8 bowlers). Then again, these students were new so they had the "side bumpers" elevated to help everyone out. The first game I didn't even bother using it because I felt it was too cheap. After finishing 7th, I said to myself there is no point in losing. The 2nd game, I finished tied for 1st place with many spares and couple of strikes. I was doing trick shots off the side bumpers, I used curves and wanted to show that I can bowl. Basically, I was being competitive but at the end of the day, everyone had fun.

Friday:
The last day of camp. We created collages using the pictures we took during the three weeks of camp. We had a pizza party, and just played games. At the end, I gave out certificates, report cards, and many prizes to the students. According to the survey they did, they really enjoyed the camp. A positive feedback! I was happy with how the camp turned out, even though the schedule changed numerous times but at the end it all came together for a successful ending.

I am finally done with camp and now I can enjoy my winter vacation! Off to Palawan, Philippines!

Daegu Adventure

On Saturday, January 14th, 2012 I decided to make a visit to Daegu city. Daegu is the 3rd largest city in South Korea, just behind Seoul and Busan. I went with my friend Jay who is also a fellow Canadian. She and I were excited about this trip for a week. I haven't left Busan since my K-Pop concert adventure in Seoul in early December. Anyways, here's what we did. We got on the KTX around 10:36am from Busan and arrived at Daegu around 11:22am. We immediately went to the information desk to seek for maps and tourist attractions. We got on a bus tour for 5,000 won per person. We saw the EXCO building (basically an exhibition place)and an opera house before we decided to get off at the 'Herbal Medicine Street'. We walked around for bit, took pictures of random things that we found interesting. We visited a herbal medicine museum for an hour or so. Of course ginseng was the most prominent herbal medicine that was featured over and over again. However, there were others that I never knew about. Anyways, we got back on the tour bus because we still had the ticket and it arrives every 2 hours. This time we got off at Woobang Tower and E-World. We weren't particularly interested in the theme park so we skipped E-World. We walked up the hill to Woobang Tower. We got in for free. Not sure how we managed to do that but neither of us worried about it. We took plenty of pictures and even aerial view of the theme park. It was pretty cool to see the entire Daegu city from above. The urban life form is surrounded and cornered by mountains. You can see it in the far background. It really was a nice feature and great protection against any invaders in the future. We got down to the 2nd floor of the tower and we both saw a mural of an old Italian landscape. We took a photo with it and then we realized there was a trick art museum at the tower! Immediately we paid 10,000 won each and entered the Euroseum Trick Art Museum. It was a lot of fun and great jokes. We took plenty of pictures. However, I decided to turn the pictures into collages so that I can reduce the amount of pictures I need to upload to Facebook and to my blog here. Well, enjoy!
Finally, we got down from the Woobang Tower around 6pm, got on a taxi because we were too tired, lazy, and cheap to afford the tickets to get down by the SkyLine (cable carts). We headed to Seomun Market. It's similar to Busan's Nampo-dong without the massive amount of people. Although, it was still crowded. I had a Daegu's version of hodduk, which looked like a roti (a Tamil/South Indian/Sri Lankan version of naan) but it did not taste better than Busan's hodduk. Jay bought few things from the market while I got some fuzzy socks for my friends back home. It was around 7pm so we decided to head back to Daegu station. There we had dinner. I had shrimp bimbimbap with two fried eggs. I gave away my seaweed soup, kimchi and this other side dish to Jay. I was really happy with what I had because I was really full. Finally, we got on the KTX around 8pm and we got back into Busan around 8:45pm. Busan to Daegu is only 45 minutes away by KTX! I can now cross Daegu from my places to visit in South Korea. I am planning to visit either Andong or Namhae in February or March. In other news, my friend Victoria who left Korea awhile back is going to come back February 26th! She got another contract to teach in Busan again. I guess she couldn't live the Toronto lifestyle after experiencing the Korean way of life. Either way, I am excited because she likes to do adventurous things like I do. One more week of winter camp left and I am super excited!

English Winter Camp – Week 2

Week 2 of the English camp went by pretty quickly.

Monday:
I did 3D snowflakes with the students. They really enjoyed it but it was a learning process for them because they were surprised about how easy it was but took a lot of effort. We also made shrimp curry! They were truly impressed about how tasty it was and how easy it was to make. I made a PowerPoint for them to show before we actually made the curry. Of course new week so they had a new vocabulary theme. This week it was all about birds.

Tuesday:
We started the day off with a picture game. Basically pictionary. We also did a dance competition. They had to dance to a K-Pop or an English song for 1 minute in partners or solo. They were really good considering they only had 30 minutes to practice. Stickers were awarded to the best group and even a small prize too. After that we had snacks and watched the Little Mermaid 2. I knew they were tired after all that dancing.

Wednesday:
The students learned what cryptograms are and then worked on three of them. They really liked it a lot and they wanted to keep going. I only made three so I promised that next Wednesday I would make more for them. We also learned about how to skate, vocabulary words for skating and even a dialogue. There were plenty of writing work today.

Thursday:
We went skating! This was my first time skating in almost 12 years! Surprisingly, I was doing okay. I did not fall once! I caught myself many times when I was about to go off balance. We rented skates for 7,000 won per person (less than $7) and we skated for 2 hours. We could have kept going if we wanted to but the students were really tired. I showed them how to skate, made sure they didn't fall and I kept encouraging them to keep trying even if they are falling. After skating we had McDonald's. Not the best of Overall, it was a fun day.

Friday:
It was poetry day, today. We did "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" reading race, we made 3D greetings card and played a game called "Where is Ruban Teacher?" The game was a success. The 3D greetings card was a bit difficult so we had to do it two times.

Overall, week 2 went by so quick and I am looking forward to my Daegu Saturday adventure!

Farewell, Oh Mango

This weekend was Amanda's farewell party. I met her the first few weeks Nav and I came to Korea. She even invited us to her birthday party, even though she hardly knew us! She's a great person with tons of experience and knowledge of living in Busan. I will miss her wittiness and her jokes. Her farewell party was on Saturday. We had a Korean dinner. Unfortunately, it was all beef and pork but I had cold noodles which was something new! Another person going back home and all three have been Canadian! First Chris, then Victoria and now Amanda! In a month or so, it'll be Veanna's turn. She's also a Canadian and a fellow Torontoian too. I was able to finally take a picture together with Amanda! On Sunday it was my Mango Galore event! This is the second time I have hosted an event! First event was all about chickens and this event was all about mangoes! Mangoes can be a challenging fruit to add to any dish but it was a lot of fun. Everyone did a fabulous job of being creative! We had cupcakes, spring rolls, curries, tortilla wraps, chicken wings and more with mangoes in it! The people who showed up are Andrew, Erin, Dharma, Steven, Jeongeun, Candice Myburgh and the other Candice as well! Yana and Veanna couldn't make it because they didn't prepare a dish and they felt really bad that they couldn't budget properly (they will be going back to Australia and Canada respectively soon). Ann and John couldn't make it because John is sick. Brian couldn't make it because he was feeling a bit sick and had nothing prepared (both reasons combined). It was a lot of fun either way, and it was shorter than the previous event because it's on a Sunday rather than on a Saturday. Anyways enjoy the picture! The next possible event hosted by me will be in March most likely. I need some creative themes in the next few months.

English Winter Camp – Week 1

I am excited about this English camp because I have planned so many fun activities and I know these 7 students a lot more than when I did my summer camp in August. For the first week, I took it a bit easy on day 1 and 2 but and ended Friday with a movie!

Monday:
I did introductions, greetings, and discussed about what each of us like to do. I have a total of 7 students and one of them was from my summer camp as well. She finished 2nd overall in the score sheet from that camp and I have a feeling she's going to win this camp easily. Anyways, we did self-portraits, learned new vocabulary words (Winter Theme), and we also did a word search and sentences using those words. We also played a quick trivia game at the end too.
Tuesday:
This was purely an art day! The students first made Reindeer masks using their hands as antlers. I bought crafts from a stationery store and they turned out really nicely. The students also made a winter scene artwork using paint or pastel. I decided to make one as well while the students were being busy. The last assignment was a Geography English Project (which was 75% art related too). The students had to a choose a country and create a little poster showing the audience certain things such as population, flag, and fun facts. One student event chose Canada! I was happy about that.
Wednesday:
The students finished off their Geography English project because many of them needed more time to use the Internet for resources. When they finished, they presented it to the entire class. They were really nervous but their posters turned out really good. Next, they had to write a short story using at least 7 of their vocabulary words and be related to winter. Another catch is that it has to have 3 characters (one boy, one girl, and one wildcard). After they did their rough drafts, we went and did a Superhero activity and game. They really enjoyed the game! I included some of my favourite superheros too (example: Gambit from X-Men).
Thursday:
The students did their final copy of their short story. They presented it to the class and did another geography activity. This time, they had to fill in the blanks. I gave them a blank map of Asia, and told them to find 20 different countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand... etc). They did a small comic strip, created their own superhero (part 2 of the Superhero activity) and finally they did their spelling test! In the extra time, they finished whatever they didn't finish or use the computer quietly until 12:30pm when the camp day ends. So the last 10 minutes was useful for the students and for me. I got to see what kind of activities these students like and feel comfortable with.
Friday:
We met at 10:20am at Seomyeon Lotte Cinema because it was our field trip day! We watched, "The Darkest Hour" and ate caramel popcorn! It was a lot of fun but personally the movie was not good. Horrible acting, a really weird plot, and the actors weren't that impressive. Lion King was playing in 3D but it was more expensive. Oh well, the students enjoyed it so that's all it matters to me.

After the movie, I was able to leave earlier than the usual 4:30pm. So, I decided to go to the bank and exchange my won to pesos for my Palawan, Philippines trip. Also, I was able to meet up with May (who owns a store that customized shirts). I decided to make 4 customized shirts! I hope it turns out good because I really wanted to do this for a very long time. The weekend is coming up and it's going to be really hectic!

Happy New Year

2011 has come and gone. My new year’s resolution is the same as every year: do not eat beef, pork or any meat besides chicken, turkey and duck. Just kidding, I can’t eat that type of meat because of allergies. Honestly, I did not make any new year’s resolution because it’s meant to be broken. Just like records are meant to be broken in sports, resolutions are also meant to be broken. This is just my opinion. That is why I make a lifetime goal such as not drinking alcohol. It is quite difficult and sometimes even pressured in the least likely of places. A recent experience will be discussed later on in the blog.
Anyways, on Friday was the last day of classes so there was a school assembly and a schools staff lunch at BEXCO Buffet. The food was amazing and the restaurant was quite elegant too. I loved the dessert table because they had rambutan! I could have kept eating but I didn’t feel too comfortable of my surroundings after the second plate of food. Apparently there is a Korean culture of drinking “Soju” or “Makali” with your meals. Makali is an alcoholic beverage native to Korea. It is made from rice, and is usually referred to as Makali rice wine. It is a milky white colour, and said to taste very sweet. Soju’s taste is comparable to vodka, though often slightly sweeter due to sugars added in the manufacturing process. I got this information from Wikipedia.

Remember this is a lunch buffet around 12:30pm. If this was dinner, I would be a bit more understanding. However, this meal wasn’t. I wasn’t overly impressed about this Korean tradition because the principal of the school offered me alcoholic beverage. I immediately refused but he said it was their tradition and that I should drink with him. I was really nervous and I didn’t want to offend him but at the same time I don’t drink any alcoholic beverages so I said no to him very politely. He seemed irritated and kept on persisting that I should but thankfully the head English teacher (Christine), who told me to call her the Korean mother few months ago, came to the rescue. She said, “Ruban, you don’t have to drink it.” So, I immediately placed it down. Then she said something to the principal in Korean and he left me alone for few minutes. Then he came back and placed a shot glass in front of me again. This time he pointed to the shot glass and motioned for me to pour some Soju for him. I somehow understand this, so I poured it for him and he drank it right away. I thought I was the only one peer pressured like this but there were other Korean teachers who did not want to take part in this so called drinking tradition. Coincidently, it was most of the younger teachers at the school who refused or hid away from the principal when he came around offering Soju shots or asking the teachers to pour for him.

This is probably the only time I have ever felt my hand shake in Korea. I am usually not scared or peer pressured by any of the bosses I have ever worked with but this was something totally unique. Yes, I do understand it is a tradition but I honestly do not want to take part in a tradition like this. Many of the foreign teachers have also experienced similar situations like this in Korea, some just refuse and others love it! Those who love it have their own reasons such as being able to get free alcohol, able to drink in front of their superiors, or needing alcohol to be social. That’s their choice, that’s fine, but this is my choice, to live life without the consumption of alcohol.

Anyways, after the buffet, I immediately went to Seomyeon to meet up with Steven, Andrew and Erin. We hung out for awhile, talked and discussed about our work life. Then Steven and I headed to Nampo to watch Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol! Wow, the movie was superb! I loved it a lot! The sceneries from all five countries were stunning. There was Sawyer from Lost (TV Show), Anil Kapoor from the Bollywood industry and of course, the crazy old Tom Cruise doing dangerous stunts as usual. I recommend this movie to everyone!

On New Year’s Eve (Saturday), I went to KSU area to have dinner with Nav, Matt, Jeongeun, Ann, and John. First time I had dinner with Nav in the longest time but it was nice to see him again in a normal surrounding. We toasted for our 6 months anniversary in Korea and for New Years! After couple of hours of chowing down on delicious chicken, Nav and Matt wanted to head to Seomyeon because they wanted to do their usual business of partying. As we were about to leave Warren showed up! So, Warren and I hung out at KSU for an hour with Paul and his friend. Jay and Elizabeth mentioned that they were going to come and join us too. This is the first time I met Jay since September! Such a long time! We went to a cozy restaurant with books and hot beverages to mingle and catch up. We did the whole New Years countdown and toasted. Later, Jay met her friend Jennifer who had a custom made game of Apples to Apples. I love that game but I haven’t played it in a year. So we joined in on the fun and we played until 2:30am. I felt so tired and sleepy so I headed home. I arrived home around 3am and went straight to bed. The next day (which is New Years Day – Sunday), I woke up at 11am. Went on Facebook, Yahoo Sports, and Hotmail, then I watched a movie. Ate a late lunch, watched couple of YouTube stand up comedy shows, and then took a nap. Only to wake up few hours later because I was hungry and I didn’t want to sleep all the way through until Monday morning because I had to wake up at 7am for winter camp! Basically, Sunday was a relaxing day of catching up on sleep.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may all of your dreams and goals come true. 2011 was a success for me. Graduated with my second degree (B.Ed in Primary/Junior with President’s Honour Roll), moved to Busan, South Korea to teach English in an all girls’ middle school, flew on the airplane for the first time (yes, I did fly to Canada from India but I was only 5 years old then so I didn’t remember anything), and finally I enjoyed my first ever vacation (Jeju)! Hopefully 2012 is fun, adventurous, and a learning experience.