johnnie jackson day

i'm trying to get as many different people to talk to my students as possible. i think exposing them to various cultures and various types of people would be a great experience. which is why i invited my buddy johnnie jackson to come out. johnnie teaches at the university of education in jinju and since his students are on strike, he really hasn't had much to do recently. when he said he'd come i already knew it would be a great day. but i had no idea how amazing it would be.. it was literally one of the funniest days i've ever had at school.

me and johnnie on that crazy ass day.

first, i get to school in the morning. my schedule was just changed so i now have to teach at 9:30am. It's like 9:25 when my co-teacher comes running into my office, frantic, and starts shouting in korean to the other teachers. before i continue i should mention that swine flu has officially reached jinju. my bro's school has like 11 cases. and one of my students just got it this weekend. which is ridiculous considering we are in jinju and my school is in the middle of nowhere. anyway... everyone with swine flu has to stay at the hospital, so the student's not here anymore. my co-teacher was trying to figure out whether i had class or not, which accounts for all the yelling. i ended up not having class because they had to sterilize the classrooms. hahaha. i really shouldn't laugh.. this is serious...

anyway, so without class, i head out early to meet up johnnie jackson, cause i gotta give him a ride to school. right as we start heading back to school, my co-teacher calls to tell me that my next class has also been cancelled and that we can just go out to lunch. at this point, the entire school has been evacuated, including the principle, and everyone's just out in the parking lot/field area. i'm thinking to myself, how fun! my kids never get any free time. they have self-study at 7am. and are pretty much occupied throughout the day until lights out at 12:30. they get maybe 3 hours of break time, which includes mealtimes. i've only played basketball with my kids once because after that their homeroom teacher banned them from it, until they finished testing/applying for colleges. it's ridiculous.

so we roll into school and the first thing we see is all the girls huddled into a circle standing in the middle of the parking lot. so like the excellent/nice/loving teacher that i am, i proceed to run them over. haha. they scattered and after i got through they all ran back together. so funny.

oh, korean girls...

after introducing mr. jackson to my principal and some other teachers, we head over to the throng of teenaged girls. of course their first reaction is to start giggling and clapping and exclaiming, "you are so handsome!" and then running away saying "shy, shy." haha! i love my girls. eventually they get up the courage to start talking though. and as if a volcano had erupted, start shouting for johnnie to dance! it was hilarious. and then they just started calling out random teachers. eventually they start talking exclusively in korean, but would look at us every once in awhile. it seemed pretty clear they were plotting something. at one point they even encircled us. but anyway, it was taking too long, so we bounced.

hit up the courts next. where we were promptly challenged to a game. we go change. and it was on! the kids are so funny. every shot we make impresses them so much. they ooh and ahh and clap. they're so cute.

good defense! it's like he saw me and just turned around and ran away! lol

i think this is when i dropped the no look pass. the kid should be somewhere behind johnnie.

we worked uhm

after lunch, it's finally class time. unfortunately the classes have all been switched so i have no idea where i'm supposed to go. we start wandering. and i go to the class i think i'm supposed to be in, but they say no. i start trying to piece the puzzle together. eventually i settle on a class. 5 minutes into johnnie's presentation, their real teacher comes by. it turns out my class was the first one i went to. those dummies. but every time we walked into a class, the students got all excited and started clapping and cheering. and whenever we left, they became depressed. at the end of the day johnnie goes, "do your students always clap for you?" haha. sometimes. when they haven't seen me in awhile. or if my lesson was good. some kids always do though. whenever they see me they go, "WOW!" i'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means..

one of the kids asks johnnie if he can tell asian people apart because most foreigners can't. to which i ask the class, what do you think i look like? one of the kids goes, "handsome!" and starts giving me the sexy-time eyebrows.. the other students answer korean, japanese and american. but no one says chinese. so asian people can't tell asian people apart either. unless i'm just weird. which i won't rule out i guess..

it seemed like johnnie had a great time. i know i had a blast. it was hilarious. plus, because of the whole sterilizing thing, the atmosphere was so relaxed. i mean, this was only the 2nd time i've balled with my kids. i was a little bit worried about how they would respond to him. my kids are super shy too. but everyone was so excited about meeting him. so it was a great time. johnnie was saying that my kids actually talk more than his college students.

there was one kid in particular that johnnie loved. this kid was just exceptionally funny that day. the next time i saw him, he goes, "WHERE IS MR JOHNNIE JACKON?!"

so if anyone out there wants to come visit my school too, just let me know! my kids will love you!

national bullfighting competition

is coming to jinju!

saturday, november 7.

opening ceremonies at 2.

pre-ceremony concert at 1:30.

bullfighting at 2:30.

there will also be a raffle with such prizes as a washing machine, a TV, rice, and a baby bull (no lie, i wouldn't be able to make this stuff up on my own).

http://www.jinjubulls.com/

free the lanterns!

the wondrous jinju fortress/castle/palace/wall

the lanterns! out on the river! they were all ready to go for the lantern festival. stupid swine flu!

the day before chuseok, these women came out to the fortress all dressed up and ready to perform some traditional dance or whatever. too bad their performance was supposed to be on chuseok. they were not too happy when they figured this out. haha

some thing inside the fortress

like i showed earlier, the lanterns were already made! here's bumblebee

speaking of fortresses/palaces/castles, here is the gyeongbok palace. i swear to you it's there.

for real. just look harder.

nearby the palace is this sweet neighborhood, supposedly one of the richest in seoul, that has this european feel to it. amazing amazing place. there's us, sitting at the best seat in the house.

my friends knew the workers at this restaurant so we got hooked up!

at haeundae in pusan. some korean kid (walking away on the right) decided he would try and attack eric (on the left) who was in the water at the time. this made for pretty much the funniest minute ever. it was a travesty that none of us were able to capture that moment on camera. the korean dude ran into the water, fell down, got back up, only to be picked up by eric and thrown back down.

here is crazy korean kid for the second time. if i was him i would've gone after the girls to begin with..

check out that ridiculously looking sky

jennifer kim. it's pretty crazy how so many people from throughout my life are here in korea now... that's us after copping some sweet banc t's (see the yellow baggies)

the 63 building. people kept talking about this like it was a big deal. when i was in taiwan 4 years ago, the new year's celebration took place at the 101. so i'm like, 63? is that a joke? 3 of the 63 floors are underground too... they do supposedly have the world's highest art gallery though. it was a pretty good time.

my boy, jack kim. it took 7 years. damn.

a few hilarious stories before i end:

i'm gonna be playing in a vball tournament this weekend, so i decided that i needed to practice. i hit up the pe teacher, who i'm now pretty tight with, and he says that he can help me practice during one of his classes. and he did. he put me through an intense 40 min of nonstop hitting/blocking. i was drained by the end of it. it was so great though. he made the students "play defense." what this really amounted to was 9 or so kids standing upright on the court trying to dodge the ball as i hit at them. haha. soo great. but now i'm soo sore. i figure i can go hard for a couple of days, then rest for a few, and hopefully be ready for this weekend. shoot, i need all the practice i can. i suck now. i can't even jump anymore. it's just awkward.

one of my students is an only child so another student asks him, "Why are you alone?" His response, "My father's strength is not much."

i love my kids.

lastly, i just started my superheroes unit. when coming up with lesson plans this was the one that i was the most excited about (even more so then the prom one). and i've literally been counting down the weeks before i could do it. be on the lookout, it is going to be amazing!

my kids are so funny

sleeping in class might seem like a good idea, until you get me as your teacher...

after "taking a rest" for 11-days, i finally had to go back to school again this week. my 2nd grade classes have been converted into interview classes to help my students prepare for their KAIST interviews in a month. instead of teaching those 4 1-hour classes, i now have 2 2-hour classes with 5 students in one and 6 students in the other. (the ratio of boys to girls is not representative however as i have 10 boys to 1 girl, when it should be 2). of course, this week one of those 2-hour classes got cancelled, so i taught a grand-total of 6 hours..

anyway, to make you laugh:

(In class) Is everybody ready?

"Teacher, 5 more minutes..."

Okay, 2 more minutes.

"5!"

2 minutes and 5 seconds.

"Okay! Thank you!"

How are you doing?

"Not so good, I failed my midterm last week so i am feeling under the weather."

How are you doing?

"Now so good, I didn't get much money in chuseok"

Why?

"I think my relatives hate children."

last week i came home late at night to find my host-father hunched over clutching his back. apparently he had wandered around some mountain for 4-hours searching for mushroom. the funniest part, he found none. i'm so glad i wasn't home so he couldn't take me with him. can you imagine that? i would have cried if i was searching for shrooms for 4 hours. i hate mushroom!

in the last couple of weeks i've been meeting a bunch of people in jinju, both koreans and foreigners. as i'm about to go out one night, my bro says to me: "You are like a playboy. After i finish the sunin* exam, i will follow you!"

*the big test that essentially determines which university he will be attending

i did a little pronunciation practice in my classes this week. koreans have a lot of trouble with R/L and F/P. here's how they would pronounce these words:

"lice"

"amellica"

"megan pox!"

"wapple"

"golp"

"poker"

apparently my name is also extremely difficult for them to pronounce. the two most common pronunciations are "Cho-shu-a" (조슈아) and "Cho-shi-a" (조시아). because they pronounce it "cho" they think my family name is Jo (조). sometimes people will try and call me Mr. Jo. as close as that is to Lo, no!

i also just discovered that my chinese ancestors came to korea! Lo is the same as Ngo (노) in south korea and Lo/Roh (로) in north korea. i was actually introduced to a Ngo about a week ago. she's been charged with the responsibility of uncovering the history of our ancestors in korea. i can't wait. i really hope it's something awesome.