Lunch

I generally have lunch at the school most days.

It's the same thing the kids have but as you see I generally forget to get the soup.

There is a much bigger plate for teachers but I only get that on Spaghetti days. There's always rice and everything else is a delightful(?) surprise. Generally aspiring to lukewarm, hardly the stuff of legends.

For Science

So, the bottle rocket. (No, not that kind)

 

I made this with Brown class and they loved it. I drew a big taget on the board and they aimed for that with MUCH enthusiasm. This way, no 'rockets' were lost down the back of the lockers or outside the window.

 

It was a lot like the water gun fiasco which I, of course, failed to take pictures of before I had to cannibalize it for parts.  >:3

 

These things got some surprising height. I wonder how many of thing were fired into irretrievable positions...............................probably all in the end.



 

 

Practical Education

Part of the curriculum at Ivy Kids involves Science!

The kids love it and it is a lot of fun but there is a large level of dubious content which shall no doubt show up here soon enough.

I have two science classes at the moment so I get both Brown and U.C. Berkeley for sciency fun.

I receive a giant pack per school session. A big plastic bag of  'experiments' for the kids and a teacher bag with one so I can demonstrate the process(/cannibalise it for spare parts.)

With Berkely recently we did this:

I'll be honest, when it comes to creating a refreshing breeze, it's kind of useless. However, the kids loved it. The plier- things were quite hard to operate though. Slippy and stiff.

Naturally, some of the motors didn't work so we had to tear up some of the spares. No on off button but the connected/not connected settings..

Still, although I doubt they actuallylearned anything it had a certain *Eeeeeeee* appeal to the kids. (and the teachers who have one sitting on their desks.)

Mad Skills

 One of the most important parts of an activity is modeling.

What this essentially means is leading by example. You do a half-assed example of the task for the kids to reference and hopefully they won't copy it word for word identikit. (...........)

Pictorial reference is also invaluable when teaching new vocabulary. (Although sometimes the children already know the strangest words and gestures...)

I frequently do this through the use of my clearly awesome art skills which are only slightly demonstrated here. Sadly I did not take pictures of such materpieces as my marker illustration of a parka coat (for a lesson on clothes - hey it was in the book) or my fabulous depiction of a ninja in the bushes (for 'action words').

Well, some people learn through images so it's all enforcement (or theatrical rhyme) in the end anyway.

Convenient Video Explains it all.

Lota of videos -yay. No, I don't work there. But some of my OTO students go to school there and they have serious American accents.

But yeah, this is where I live. It's obviously not nearly as polished as the videos make it but y'know people actually live here. -_- That makes all the difference.

Whatever, have some Gangnam style. Most places he goes are very familiar.

So that's what that sound was...

Everywhere I go I hear an incessant sound from the dry grasses. I'd thought at first that it was the sound of construction, then I realised that it was more likely the insects.

However it is now perfectly clear to me that I must be hearing the sounds, not of the natural goings on around me but of insidious mechanics and electronics as detailed HERE.

Big Brother is watching you...and you, and you and you.

I've seen though 'pneumatic trash collection' machines but I've never used them. They seem mostly overflowing anyway. Anytime I've passed one they've been surrounded by bags of trash that wouldn't fit.

To throw out your rubbish here, the first thing you must realise is that your old plastic bags are verboten.  I had to buy specially approved plastic bags from the GS mart which, once full, gets left outside in a designated area along with your recycling. At least mine goes outside, the others have complained that their drop-off point is on the first floor of their building and the smell can really get appalling.

I've seen staff further sorting the recycling- brave men and women. At least the insects are minimal. *shrugs* I've yet to have anything worse than a fly buzz around my head when I drop a bag off. NO wasps -yay! A short jaunt away from the Japanese Hornet......*Aghast*


Songdo.

Above you can see pictures of the places whereI go to get sunburned because I am an idiot due to lack of sufficient foliage.  It's hard to reconcile Songdo with that article because I'm right on the ground. Mostly I see, 'that bbq joint', 'the subway stop' or 'grocery store - need milk'. I don't notice that stuff because the wobbly blocks in the pavement outside of the side entrance have trenches beneath them and if you step on them while it is raining you will get dunked into the little hidden pond.  (I ruined a pair of shoes that way.)


Well, I think there should be more shady walks like in UCD, then there'd be less of this.

I deserve that sunburn...

This morning I had the excitement of ironing. Woo ~ party in Songdo. =.=  It's so hot these days that I'm doing twice as much laundry. I knew I'd have to iron it eventually.
Still, at least I don't have wasps buzzing around me or bees trying to fly into my hair. Instead I have these guys perched on the ceiling.

Around lunchtime, I took the chance to go for a nice leisurely stroll without suncream which is why I'm writing this covered in aloe vera.

On the plus side Central Park is pretty and has boats.

TEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEA

So we went back to this place in Insa-dong.

What I did was, I walked straight in the door and went straight to the tea samples. I have neither shame nor regret.

As far as tea shops goes it's pretty high class joint. I didn't investigate the class or the tea room though. (Another day though...)

I shopped for tea and inspected some lovely sets that sent me into hysterics of laughter. My god, it's lovely but why would I buy that instead of eating?

A girl came to help me shop and it was a little embarrassing becaue she kept giving me samples of dried tea to smell and it and I haven't a clue. (If it'd been a cup of tea though...)

She tried to sell me wedding tea and I gave her the eyebrow. I explained that it as a gift and if I sent that to my mother she would get the wrong idea altogether. XD

Another shop we popped into (and where I WILL go back) threw samples at us the minute we came in the door. It was 'five fruit' tea and was a little sweet but delicious. I don't normally like drinks like that but it was extremely good and very soothing. It's probably good for colds and sore throats.

So I did buy myself tea and a lovely thermos to bring it to school with. C:

Huzzah let the the tea festivities begin!

A grand tradition among my people.  >:3

Bedecked and beribboned

So we visited the famous Namdaemun market which, in one form or anoither, has been in Seoul since the 1400s.

It's huge and really difficult to navigate......yeah. I ended up not taking many pictures but in the end it's a market. Think of any you've been to yourself and imagine it on an enormous scale- packed tightly together, above, below, beside....

....and all the bag shops seem to be run by young men.

...and everyone has lunch delivered so they much on their noodles beside their workbenches.

....and there are several behemoths like this.

These places have enough hair accessories to bedeck every little girl in Ireland several times over.

While we were welcome to go in and shop these places are a lot like warehouses and I'm positive they sell a lot of wholesale packs.

Aside from that I have one word for the place: MEANDERING

Friendly Hyunja

This is the place in Insa-dong we were going to have lunch - we didn't.

We had spent a good part of the day in the famous Namdaemun Market but couldn't really find anywhere to eat. It didn't help I suppose that a good section of the sidestreets where we found restaurants had a smell that turned my stomach.  (Still riding the travel sickness wave at this point)

So it wasn't until later when we got to Insa-dong that we sought out a place. Unfortunately the steps were quite steep and made with wobbly stones. I wasn't thrilled with the angle (pr the precarious wobbling) but the menu looked interesting so I was willing to take the lunge.

However Karen - who is not great with steep steps- couldn't and after she stumbled on the higher steps we gave it up as a bad job. (I'm glad you're alright but Jesus my heart does not need such shock.)

So we ignored the stairs and simply went into the restaurant right there instead.

It was a nice place and at that stage I was just glad to be sitting down.  XD



They didn't have Chilsung (WTH, Dudes?) so I had to settle for Sprite. We questioned the veracity of it 'being' Sprite or 'being like' Sprite but hey, it's endorsed by the Coca-Cola Company so it probably is.......although I really ended up failing to care.

So I hadn't had chicken in a while so I asked Karen if she wanted to split an order between us. She agreed and we got a big ass pot as you see above.

It was delicious, really, really tasty. But the portion was enormous so next time we need more people.

Also, what we did not realise was how spicy it would be. Too spicy for me I'm afraid hahahaha (No, I most certainly did not stop eating!)

Karen, being much tougher than me, noted that the spice seemed to stick to your lips, not charring the nerves of your whole mouth.

Between the two of us I don't know if we made a respectable dint in the pot but we sure as hell tried.
We had a hilarious mime session with minimal English and Korean where we explained to the staff that while the food was delicious we just weren't manly enough to eat the entire pot.

Still, it was really nice.

It's thataway!!!.............or not

When Helen passed a Tourist booth the other week she picked up a rake of maps and paraphenali for us and became my girl!hero for doing so. (There are pressies coming for this heroic act, surely!)

One's a guidebook and the other is a big-ass map but that's not important. What's important is the subway maps in the back of the book.

Brandishing like I weapon I navigated our way (Karen indulged me that I wanted to do it all) and found us our way there and back again. (hooray!)

I also learned that it's true that most places don't seem to have a toilet and it can be impossible to find one in Seoul sometimes. D:>

Yes, those are tags and annotations poking out of the guidebook. I am that kind of a nerd.

Fans

Fans are everywhere over here.
The countries of Asia - much like anywhere else- have a long and tumultuous history but they doo seem to agree on the important stuff.

• Rice is tasty
• Tea is art
• Fans are awesome

Well they have been infamously  famously used for battle and there are countless records of people assassinating/saving lives through the use of a cunning fan. Obviously not the bamboo and rice kind but the prettily painted kind forged by the blacksmith.

Ah but they have so many uses martial arts, slapstick comedy, dance and keeping cool....wait.

Regardless, every other person on the street has some form or another fluttering from their fingers, (Hey, it's hot.) and a coupke of people say 'to hell with that' and seem to carry around electric fans a little bigger than the norm for hand held variety.

All the tourist shops sell a variety of the exact same model - paper, fabric, plastic etc with and without boxes/cases. Sometimes the prices surprised me in that the cheaper and uglier fans were more expensive than the larger ones -weird.

Anyway, most of it was nice but the same guy was probably supplying half Seoul.

In Insa-dong, we found an old guy who had set up a stall at the top of the street (I believe he was actually from a shop further down) painting fans. [see above]

These were decent enough quality fans but he had (and was still)
 painted all of the fans which is what made them interesting.

While there were lots of pretty fans painted with flowers et al I knew that for me it should be nothing other than the teapot and cups. XD

I bought the cover and accessory at a shop elsewhere. (two different shops in fact) Before that though, I had fun fluttering my fan as we walked down the street. It was hot so I really appreciated the breeze I can tell you!

I wrote down my name in English letters for him and he read my name in Korean. Pretty impressive Hangul. On the right is his signature as the artist and on the left is my name. How do you like that? ^_^

Bubble Tea

On Wednesday (1st) Karen and I went to Namdaemun Market.
Before we left we wandered into a cafe to get something to cool down and I had the opportunity to try a "Bubble Tea". (Thank you Taiwan)

Those black things in the bottom are tapioca balls - which had a texture and consistency unlike hard jelly which I did not like at all.

I got a Taro flavour - no I don't really know what that is - and it smelled like cookies.

Overall -meh. It was nice enough and was closer to masticated ice than a smoothie. I'd never actually had one before so I had assumed that it was supposed to be some sort of carbonated tea drink.

It's essentially a smoothie with Tapioca balls that pop up the straw. Yes, I did try them. No I didn't like them. Euck.

I should mention that I couldn't finish it though. It was quite filling and like everything else I get, the portion was just too big.

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

With my new supply of stickers there will be absolutely no resistance to my assault! Victory is mine! 

That dangly thing on yer phone

Naturally enough, the first thing I do with a new phone is find ways to ruin it and generally offend sensibilities. (Since I am doing this from another hemisphere Sean, it is now an art.)

Having made brother #001 splutter in indeignation with my practical plastic case cover and selecting an annoying ringtone I judged it time to attach impractical dangling things.

Hoorah for pretties.