Ahhhh, slurpees from Weyburn. Till we meet again...
We've been back in Taebaek, South Korea for about a week and a half now. Both Rob and I have started back at work. I have two new co-teachers which might be a good thing. I only have three co-teachers in total (down from 6 last year) . So far things are looking pretty good, but I am not sure yet, we'll see how things work out. One major lesson I've learned here is to expect the unexpected.
I have a nice new classroom to teach in as well. There wasn't really anything wrong with the old one, except for the stinky kerosene heater. Apparently, the Gangwon-do Board of Edumacation is shelling out millions of dollars for schools to invest in an "English Zone". My co-teacher did quite well and created a pretty nice classroom for us. He did get crazy things like a computer that controls everything in the room and cordless microphones, but at least he did good on my request for pencils, erasers and notebooks. :-) I remember last October when he was showing me the magazines for ordering all this fancy equipment. He asked me what I thought we needed for the English classroom. I told him, "pencils, pens, erasers and some notebooks." He was like, "Okay we can do that, but do we need this 'insert fancy computerized thingamajig here'?". Sure Mr. Cho, that's awesome.
I'll let Rob tell you about his fabulous 40,000 dollar classroom full of all the bells and whistles. Speaking of other useless things, the board of education also sent about 200 EPIK text books. All of which are useless in my opinion, I will never ever use them AND there is serious Engrish on the front cover! "Throungh English Dreams Come True", good job guys, good job. All in all I see a giant waste of funds that could be better used for... EPIK teacher training, perhaps?
Sigh...
Below is a picture of the frozen river on Taebaek-san.
Last weekend we climbed the treacherous slopes of Taebaek-san. It was great fun. We climbed with fellow EPIK teacher Rebecca and had a picnic on the top of the mountain. A random old man came and sat with us and shared our food and beverages. He brought along his own beverage, which I'm pretty sure was home brew. It was red, delicious and slightly gritty. I do enjoy grit in my drinks. I gave him some dill pickle sun flower seeds, which he ate shells and all. Yum. After some broken English/Korean conversations we parted on friendly terms. After sliding/falling our way down the icy mountain we quickly arrived at the bottom where we saw the rain drum. Taebaek is currently experiencing a drought and we are on water rations (a few hours in the morning, and a few hours at night). I'm not sure if this is a traditional ceremony, as it was sponsered by New Castle Night Club. I can't really say it's a bad thing though. Who doesn't enjoy a giant drum in the back of a truck?
The only words I can read on this (and understand) are "pi ga" (rain come), "mahni" (much) and "balli" (quickly). So, basically it says hurry up and rain, dammit! I Agree!
p.s. Yes, the Korean word for rain is "pee". You can giggle if you want, I sure did!
And, just for fun! Here is a picture of a dried fish left in a Yew tree as an offering.
It is a really nice Yew tree though.
Wait, haven't I seen that fish somewhere before?
SUPPLIES!
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