Let me begin by explaining the lateness of this post. I had promised that it would be closely following the walk through of the apartment, and it was typed by then and then technical difficulties set in and prevented me from from posting. I usually type the post in a word document on my tablet and when I went to save before copying and pasting I lost the entire document. Should've listened to my old preachings to my students where you're always reminding them to "save often." Actually I think I'll save right now.
On my way to work the other day (an enoyable thirty minute walk), I saw an abandoned bicycle at one of the crosswalks that I pass. Bicycles are prevalent here in Suncheon, so much so that you can use your bus pass to also rent a bicycle at certain stations, but even with all the bikes I hadn't seen one yet that wasn't locked up. As I got closer to the bike I noticed the puffy back of a red jacket off the sidewalk and then lucky me passed just about the time that the golden stream of relief started to flow. This is a main thoroughfare in Suncheon and takes me back to all the times I've seen people peeing on Williams Drive in Georgetown. WAIT! I've never seen people peeing on Williams Drive. Then again the police force is such a weak presence that minor offenses such as peeing on the street, speeding, reckless endangerment with a motor vehicle and other small oddities slip under the radar. Compare that to a "similar" small town like Georgetown, where 36 on the 35 of Williams will find you with red and blues in your rear view. I did see the Suncheon police force flex it's law enforcing prowness when It set up a DWI roadblock on a Tuesday night. That's a heavy drinking night right? Saturday and Friday nights have nothing on Tuesday. They're always telling us on the news back home about "no refusal Tuesdays." I was headed to get my green card (or Alien Registration Card, ARC as they're commonly referred to here) and my boss was telling me that speedng and red light cameras do most of the traffic enforcement and with the exception of the bimonthly DWI roadblocks, the police force is sometimes unseen. Then again in a country where the people think it's ridiculous that I had the right to carry a gun back home, maybe not much of a presence is needed. Then again there is more than one way to skin a cat as Grandpa Davis would say and guns aren't the only thing that kills people back home. As the bumper sticker goes "guns don't kill people; dad's with pretty daughters do."
So after my ARC trip (don't have my card yet, it's in the mail) I took a long needed trip to Office Depot to pick up some necessities in order to make my classroom more "mine". I walked in and the first man tells me Hello instead of the typical Korean greeting. I said Hello back and then told him I was looking for posterboard. The quizzical look was clear on his face and so I held my hands to signify a big square, then rubbed my fingers together and then separated them for slightly thicker. He motioned for me to follow him and pulled out a sheet of: posterboard. God bless pantomiming! The rest of the store fascinated me as well. The entire Office Depot store was crammed into an area a little larger than a McDonald's bathroom. There were shelves sometimes 8 shelves high and the "aisles" as I'll be generous and call them were so skinny that your back rested against the opposite side whilst you perused one side. I found some other little things to help in the creation of a personality of my classroom. I got a nice pair of scissors that came complete with a sheath for the blades. When I embarked on my task of personalizing my classroom I got a little done in between class preps. Afterall, it really doesn't matter what's on the wall if I'm not ready to teach. There have been a couple jokes made that I'm trying to show everyone up. If they think what little I've done (only 7 mind maps are currently posted, relatively tame by most standards and the girls here at work have decorations as well) is a lot then the classrooms of people I know back in Irving or Georgetown ISD's would make them feel damn embarassed. There is more to come in my classroom and soon I'll take pics.
Noodle dishes such as soups seem to be a national dish here. Either unofficially or officially they're everywhere and everyone eats them. In the grocer there is atleast 1 aisle devoted to ramen like dishes, on both sides of the aisles, and sometimes there are two. There is even a snack that is made from the ramen noodles that the kids in my classes often eat on their break times. I've started experimenting though with my noodle soups at home. First it was the marinated tofu that I'd sear and soak in the broth that I've already posted about. Next it was a sunny side up egg that added a splendid depth. My final experiment as of to date, was with shredded onions, chives and some brown rice. Also adds to the flavor of the soup and makes it more than just boiling water with a flavor packet and noodles. Future things that I've looked at would be the shitake mushrooms that look remarkably delicious at the store. Bean sprouts, shredded cabbage and nori are all on the list as well for things that I'm definitely going to have to try. They also sometimes add dumplings to their noodle soups so I will definitely experiment in the future with dumpling making skills.
***Random Thoughts***
Some of the topics that are in the books that we use for this curriculum are deeper than you'd expect middle-school students to dive. Saturday with some of my higher students, we're we studying the class system of China, and how the Hukou system of China has created an infastructure that promotes the cheap accessible labor that drives the world market. At some point I'm sure I'll stop being shocked at how smart these kids are. The project at the end of the class was about the mistreatment of biracial children, and creating a public service announcement to inform about it. I was brainstorming with the kids when I asked one of the girls if her mother and I shopped at the same restaurant, who'd get treated better. She said her mom. I then proceeded to ask why and one girl chimed in that it was because I was a guy and another girl goes "no stupid it's because he's white." I couldn't help but crack up. Atleast they'd gotten the point after that conversation. I was no longer a "white teacher" I was "just a guy".
Bought an airsoft gun the other day. That's where my priorities are. Move in, get a cooking implement, then toy gun. Haha. It was incredibly cheap too. Most of the ones I've seen in the state stores start at 15 dollars but this one was only 4 and is great so far. So much to say about closing the distance between production and sale shelves. Yogurt cups are my current targets, stacked in a pyramid fashion on my my sweater chair as my sweaters create a perfect backdrop and pellet stop.
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