Author: Maddie Fischer

The original teacher’s MT was set for when I was on vacation back home. (side note MT= Members training) But turns out a large number of the staff couldn’t attend so they rescheduled the trip for a weekend that I happen to “available.”  Initially wasn’t very excited about going but in reality I really do love my staff and the fact that I wasn’t renewed for another year at my school I was looking forward to this overnight trip with my staff.

This year’s teacher’s MT was scheduled for Busan. I’ve only been to Busan once before with my friends way back when so I was looking forward to what they had planned for us. The trip took place right after the 6^th grade graduation.

Ahh yes a little about graduation. My 6^th graders graduated and I couldn’t be more proud of them. Their families along with the 4^thand 5^th graders filled up the gym to watch the graduation ceremony. I’d be lying if I didn’t tear up a few times. They seemed so grown up, from the first day that I met them. A slide show played in the background as each of them walked up on the stage. These pictures were taken a while ago, the only reason I could tell was that some of the students were chubbier in their pictures or vice visa or their hair was longer/shorter. Regardless, congratulations my precious 6^th graders. Good luck in middle school. Remember to listen to you parents and your teachers. Study hard. But don’t forget you’re still just kids and have fun.

So yes, after graduation finished, all the teacher’s met in the office where the final remarks of the school year was made. The principle acknowledge those teachers who wouldn’t be returning to Yakdong the next school year and they made their thank you’s. I was only included at the very end because Sunny had squeezed me into the mix. The staff told me to give my words in Korean but I wasn’t too confident in myself to say then entire thing in Korean. In the end was simply, “thank you very much, 감사합니다” with a big bow to my staff.  The school got this uber fancy bus for our trip, turns out still not all the teachers were able to go on trip which was disappointing for me. We arrived in Busan from our school in about 2 hours. Lunch was served on the bus, these massive rice kimchi hamburgers with I didn’t eat because they filled me up with kimbap first. We went to this old village that refugee during the war had taken moved into. The streets have been turned into wall art. Like I always start my teacher’s trips along side my co-teacher and so how we get separated from one another. I spend the rest of the trip jumping from group to group of the teachers while they ask me what happen to my co teacher.  

Next stop dinner! We went to this super fancy seafood buffet that was right next to Gwangalli bridge, where the bus driver dropped us off by the shore and we walked along the water to the restaurant. It was such a beautiful day.

Once we go to the restaurant we were escorted to a separate room where we were served wine, cause we’re classy bunch of people. And it started, the food. All you can eat seafood, my weakness sushi. I mean I picked at the other things but I got my money’s worth for the buffet at the sushi bar. And my other weakness, ice cream. My staff noticed that when I eat food, especially good food and food that I enjoy eating my eyes light up and that I do a little dance while I eat and that gave them reason to call me cute during the entire trip.

We made our way to our seaside pension after dinner. And I wasn’t able to appreciate it until the next morning. But there’s no need to talk about the morning yet because the night is still young. We pre-game as we would call it at home at our pension and then make our way just down a few yards to norabang of course. This lasted well into the night. But I never seem to enjoy norabang as much with my staff because I don’t know any of the songs that sing. I many sit in the back with a tambourine and pour the soju and beer for the staff. Round 3 was back at the pension where my staff made konglish jokes for me. This lasted well into the night. Once sleeping arrangement was made some how everyone found a place to sleep and that was the end of day 1.

I woke up pretty early compared to the rest of my staff. Like I said earlier I wouldn’t really be able to appreciate the beauty of our pension till morning. The entire pension had glass window over looking the sea. One of the teachers and I went outside to snap a few pictures.

Once everyone dragged themselves out of bed and finished getting ready, they all headed down to take in the view. But some teachers took it pretty hard the night before.

Fresh halibut stew for breakfast. There’s one thing that I can’t really seem to get over while my year here in Korea, how easily they consume soju. My principle and vice principle were pouring each other drinks at 9am.       But any who, we started out long day of events fist making our way to a light house were once again we took in the view of how breathtaking it was and I think just to take pictures.

Then off to a local museum with these clay figures. I didn’t really understand and I wasn’t with my co teacher once again. But I did me a dog that I spent most of time with. I’m such a sucker for dogs.  Of course lunch! And once again we had all you can eat, this time BBQ. I’ll let the picture talk for its self.

I can’t express freely to my staff how much they mean to me. But I really hope that know how much gratitude and how thankful I am towards them. From the bottom of my heart thank you so much for everything. Really I can’t put it into words.

Thank you.

Next stop Japan.

So much more next time.

xoxo

I can’t believe that’s it’s been a whole year that I’ve been teaching in Korea AND that I’m going to do it again for another year! For this update I say my thank you’s to the most amazing school and staff.

When I decided to renew my contract with EPIK I was told that there was a slight chance that I wouldn’t have my school and that I would be given another school to teach at. We never thought that they would take away my school and give me a new school plus two rural schools to teach at. I was beyond disappointed that I wasn’t renewed at Yakdong. I wanted to stay another year and not have to start over with having to “fit” in a new school. But these are cards that have been dealt for the next year. I officially started my first day at my new school today, which so far I’ve spend the entire day desk warming but I’ll save this for another update.

There’s 3 main thank you that I want say:

First, to my amazing staff at Yakdong. I would had been so lost without the staff opening so much to me. And a great deal I think was because of volleyball, which was something that I did without my co teacher. I do hope that volleyball at my new school helps me ease in with the staff. Thank you for everything to giving me snacks to eat, rides home, and to dragging me to play volleyball on those days that I’d rather hide in my classroom. Thank you for trying your best to talk to me in your broken English only to have me respond back in my broken Korean. Thank you for worrying about me when you really didn’t have to and for letting me in on your inside jokes. The list can go on forever of all the things that I’m thankful this past year.

Next, my loveable students. I really do love them to pieces, every single one of them. My last two weeks of school, once the students found out that I wasn’t going to return to school it seemed like all they wanted to do was spend time with me. I spent one lunch people holding hands with one of my third graders playing hide and seek with her classmates. I received a great deal of hand written letters along with gifts from my students which just melted my heart. “Teacher I won’t forget you” “teacher thank you” “Teacher please don’t go.” My only responds that I could give them is thank you with hugs. To my kids, I hope that you never grow up. Stay this innocent that your are forever. I hope that you never forget Maysa Teacher and that we’ll meet again one day. Thank you oh so much for loving me this year.

Lastly, my co teacher, Sunny. Sunny and I butted heads from time to time but regardless she was always there to help me, school related or not. She really went beyond what she was supposed to do for me and I can’t describe the gratitude I have towards her. She made my first year in Korea move with ease. Simply thank you.

Once again thank you Yakdong elementary school for making my first year in Korea so memorable, for making my experience in Korea so unforgettable, for making me fall in love with this country of yours.

Thank you.

so much more next time

xoxo

For my winter camp I only had to teach at my school unlike my summer camps where I taught camp at my school and one other school. Winter camp is a grand total of 3 weeks, yes 3 weeks it feels extra long compared to most of my friend’s winter camps. 3 weeks of camp means 15 days, with four periods a day, with comes out to a total of 60 classes for winter camp! I wanted to die when I figured how many classes I had to lesson plan for in like 2 days. In addition to winter camp lesson plans that I had to plan I also had to type up my lesson plans for my after school classes that started back in August. But wait there’s more. I still have to maintain my 22 hours of teaching a week so to fulfill the missing hours of not teaching my co-teacher gave me story-telling classes with 1^st and 2^nd graders and well as teacher classes that I had to create lesson plans for.

Camp started the day after Christmas which I was really sad about. I just wanted to stay home that day, but it is what it is. Oh did I mention that I’m teaching my winter camp alone with 3^rd, 4^th and 6^th graders? (for some reason the 5^th graders never sign up for any of the English activities). I already knew how camp was going to go the moment that I found out that I would be teaching this camp without a Native teacher there. And I was right. It’s just an intensified version of my afterschool classes. My main co-teacher has this very strict rule that I speak zero Korean to my kids. But that’s impossible without her there to help me to classroom management or to help with instructions or vocabulary terms in Korean. Like in my after school classes I speak what little Korean I know to the students. I tried it one day during camp to do classroom management strictly in English and they just stared at me. They didn’t understand a single thing I said. The younger the kids are, I really think that it’s necessary to use some Korean in the classroom. I mean there English leave is basically the same as my Korean level.

So I planned my winter camp to the best of my ability knowing the levels of the students that were going to attend. I had a budget of 20,000 won ($20) for camp. So I tried to keep the materials for camp to a minimal or try to use things that I can easily buy or already had at home or at school.

I counted down the days of camp everyday haha. Some days went by with a breeze, but other days I was pulling my hair out of head. There’s one little monster that just doesn’t care about learning English. He’s the same way during normal classes do I didn’t expect him to be any different during camp. But overall, I really think that my camp went really well. Hopefully some of the things that I taught during camp actually sticks with them. That’s really my main goal.

Tuna melt sandwiches

Also during camp I taught story-telling classes with 1^st and 2^nd graders. Now these kids English level is like zero. So I have to use Korean with them. These kids are super cute. I don’t normally get to interact with them, only the occasional passing in the halls where they greet in Korean first and then quickly change it to a “hi.” During our first meeting I spent some time just trying to learn their names. I really think that it’s important that they know that I know their names. Its makes them more interested in me, so they’re willing to ask me more questions and they’re more interested in English. During class the students are really surprised that I know their names, but I also hear them talking to each other saying “you know Maysa teacher knows my name?” It’s cause I do, I think that most likely know the majority of my student’s names, especially the older kids.

Oh I have to mention my staff during winter camp. Not all the teachers have to come to school during winter break and the ones that are teaching camp come in only until lunch and then they leave. There’s maybe at most 5 teachers including me that have to stay on campus till 4:30. One of favorite parts of the day is when I have lunch with my staff. I get a phone call from them around 12:35ish everyday saying “Maysa, lunch time.” There’s no school lunch because the school’s on winter vacation, so the staff prepares meals for each other or we go out and eat. It’s really like I’m to my aunt’s house for dinner every day. Words can’t express my gratitude I have towards them. Everything from setting up the meals, eating and cleaning they won’t let me lend a finger to help. I have to really push to even wash the dishes or take out the trash. I couldn’t have asked to placed in a better school than at Yakdong. I love the staff and students here, which makes it that much harder that I’m staying another year but not at Yakdong.

Camp is finished! That means I start my winter vacations! Yay! And where is the location of this vacation? To simply put it, home <span class='wp-smiley wp-emoji wp-emoji-heart' title='<3 Since I’m staying in Korea for at least another year, I’m heading for a much needed trip home to see my family and friends. But talking to my sister about my trip home it seems more like I’m going home not to see everyone but to eat. I can’t hide my excited about going home for a few days.

So much more next time,

xoxo

Maybe I’ve noticed it just a little more these days, or I may just been asked more these days from people I meet when I’m out the question: “Where are you from?” and then an array of Southeast Asian countries comes pouring out their mouths, “Thailand?”  “Philippines?” “Vietnam?” “Malaysia?” “Singapore?” and I always answer them in Korean “아니미국사람” translated “No, I’m American.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very proud of my Thai heritage and culture, which has played a large role in shaping the person that I am today. Back home, I’ve always stressed about being Thai when meeting new people. And I do identify as being Thai American. But I’m very much American too, I hold the views and customs that most of the American youth growing up and being raised in Southern California by immigrant parents do. My parents along with my aunts and uncles tried their best to “integrate” American culture to our lives, but at the same time upholding to our Thai traditions. And I’m glad that they did.

When most Koreans think of an American they think of someone that is tall with fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair: not me. I have a darker completion compared to Koreans, short with dark hair. So when I tell Koreans that I’m American they give me a strange look because I don’t fit into this image of what an American looks like to them. Then there’s an awkward silence and I explain to them that my parents are from Thailand but I was born and raised in America.

The next automatic question that comes from them is “What are you doing in Korea?” Once again I answer them in Korea “저는영어쌤.” And it makes a little more sense to them. There responds are just about the same every time “ahh English teacher! Very good!”

I’m not sure what I was expecting when it came to this topic of how I identify myself. I’ve never had to reassure people that I was from the states and that I can speak English. When it comes to speaking to the locals I do try my best to use my broken Korean with them. I often get complimented at how good my Korean or that I sound cute when speaking. Is it just me or do other people do it too? When I speak Korean my intonation goes up at least that’s what I’ve noticed. But I do understand a great deal of the conversation, it’s just hard for me to but into Korean my responds or my question because I’m not sure how to or I’m scared of making a fool of myself when speaking.

I know that my Korean American friends experience the same things I do but differently. Does that make sense?  For example, being about to speak Korean. Most of my Korean American friends here are expected because they’re Korean to know how to speak Korean. It’s almost like a double standard for them. When they do speak Korean and it’s not up to par with what the locals are expected they’re “looked down” for not being able to speak Korean well, but they were expected to speak Korean in the first place. Almost the same kind of feel I have when I go back to Thailand and use my Thai with my family or with the locals there. I feel like in a way they’re trying to say, “We’re better than you.  Because you can’t speak (insert language here) well and you’re (insert nationality here) too. Didn’t your parents teach you anything about being (insert nationality here)?” Which is when I signal to my sister that we should go eat some ice cream instead of standing there being criticized for being raised in the States.

Any who, just a little rant. But I think that it’s something that was necessary for me voice out. On a happier note I’m on my last week of winter camp till my winter vacation!

So much more next time

xoxo

It’s Christmas time!

I started the festivities early this year which seems kind of normal because back home there’s so many different holiday parties to go to: work, friends, family. But when I told my co-teacher and staff they I was going to celebrate Christmas with my friends a few weeks before Christmas they all looked at me like I was crazy, but any who.

Because my group of friends here in Korea all have different schedules, all our winter vacation dates are at different times, even though we all the same amount of days. We all have winter camps to teach, some longer than others, some more than one even more then two schools. Just like my summer vacation we have to fulfill the 22 hours of teaching a week. But I’ll save that drama for another update.

Since we all have different vacation dates, we had a holiday party a few weeks before Christmas.  Which was totally fine with me, just another excuse to be with my favorite people.

Christmas in Seoul 

I went to Seoul (of course it was Seoul) Friday night after school. Nicole and Ashley had gotten there right before me and already started to transform Sydney’s apartment very Chrismasy. I absolutely loved it. They really did an amazing job to start to get everyone into the holiday spirit.

Before we had our little celebration later we decided to have a little girl’s day only that Karen wasn’t able to meet with us cause she was still packing for her bags. Nicole and I laid in bed for most of the morning talking about all the foods that we were going to eat we went home for our vacations. I think that lead to us going to have an American style brunch. We headed to Gangnam to a cute restaurant called butterfinger pancakes which really hit the spot. We were beyond excited to eat. The wait to be seated was about 30ish minutes, which really wasn’t too bad. But in Korea you’re expected to be seated fairly quickly. So waiting to be seated at a restaurant in Korea seems out of the ordinary for Koreans. Once our food came out we the excitement in our faces couldn’t be hidden.  We ate the food WAYYYYYY to fast, but we didn’t care ahah. End result: food coma right there at the restaurant. And what’s the best solution to a food coma, that’s right shopping. We head to 8seconds to do some damage to our wallets, well me at least.

We headed back to Sydney’s place where he downloaded a whole bunch of Christmas movies that we’d end up watching later on. We started watching Gremlins which I have never seen before and people started showing up and Sydney’s apartment started looking even smaller than normal. Honestly, the entire felt a like home: easy, just friends hanging out, it was comfortable. Once everyone showed up we ended up squeezing nine people into there apartment but it was just fine. Syd then went out and bought us some chicken and a cake. For dinner we watch Home Alone, which is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Sydney did good when he bought the ice cream cake, all the girls whipped out their phones to take a picture of it.

 

group shot!

Polaroids are always my favorites

After a few cups of eggnog, wine and shots of tequila we headed out to Hongdae for more drinks. I actually ended up not going to bar with the rest of the group but instead headed to a coffee shop with Ashley where we caught up on some girl talk. Just as we were about to leave in piles our group of friends. We actually headed to grab some pizza before me and Ash left before the rest of the group around 2am-ish and I have no idea what time the rest of the group finished.

Christmas at school

Christmas eve is the last day for the students before their winter breaks, which I don’t understand. With my 3rd and 4th graders the only Christmas activity that I did with them was making Christmas cards. Which my co teacher had already prepared a template for them to complete. For my 5th and 6th graders, it was more like my Halloween party where we did a mini lesson and then played Christmas games (pass the parcel and pin the nose on the snowman). Days leading up to our Christmas party I made Christmas cards with my kids and made snowflakes with my 5th graders. Overall, I say it was good.

One of my kids snapped this picture of me during the Christmas picture. I super excited with the way the fireplace I made turned out. My kids would walk into class and stand around the fire place and “warm” their hands. super cute.

Christmas day

I had to work on Christmas eve. When I think about it, I actually worked on Christmas eve last year too, but it was much more chilled and relaxed. I pulled an all nighter the night before trying to finish all my lesson plans for my winter camp/after school classes/teacher classes/story-telling classes which I didn’t. I’ll save this for another rant. So Christmas eve, was the last day before winter vacation, which I’m not use to at all. I spent the entire day siting in front of my computer working on my lesson plans only to get up for the award assembly and lunch. After work, it was just a chill dinner with a few people and coming back to my apartment and completely knocking out. Christmas day I hung out in the afternoon with a few people at a coffee shop just taking it easy. Then later heading in to Daegu to meet up with Ashley and Nicole for dinner, deserts and norabang. Not your typically Christmas but nothing in Korea is very typical. For me, its always nice to go in and meet with my friends and just talk without any drinking. I enjoy the company, just talking to each other about everything and anything.

Shabu Shabu for dinner

So this was my Christmas. Who know’s what New Year’s has in stored for me.

So  much more next time.

xoxo

Being from California, Los Angeles out of all places I mainly experience a few seasons though out the year. Mainly nice perfect weather all year round. It’s true. Sorry guys. Our winter’s will drop to the lowest of maybe 40 degrees on a really cold day including some showers for a few day. Where then in California everyone forgets how to drive their cars. Spring/summer are kinda lumped together when I really think about it. ahah The weather’s really nice. There might be a little bit more of the Santa Anita winds in the spring and more heat during the summers (ahh and those brush fires) but it’s pretty nice weather all around. Then we have fall. Which includes a mixture winds, rain, and leftover heat from the summer. That’s basically California weather.

When I moved to Korea, I knew that I was going to experience snow. There was no hiding it. It was going to happen. And when it finally did happen I was like a little kid that had never seen snow before. In reality, I’ve only seen snow maybe twice? But I’ve never experience snow falling, yet the first snow fall of the season.

It happened on a Monday right before my 6th period class. My 5th graders rushed into my classing saying “it’s snowing! it’s snowing!” I grabbed my jacket and my phone and ran outside to our forest. Where it was in fact snowing. I couldn’t had been more excited. It didn’t take long for the other students to follow me outside where I as taking pictures and video.

All that excited happened the 10 minute passing period between classes ahha. When we made our way back into our classroom, my co teacher explained to my kids that I’ve never experienced snow like this before and they couldn’t believe it. But I couldn’t had been more happy at that very moment. My co teacher and the other teacher kept on telling me not to get too excited because it wasn’t real snow. But I’m from California, snow IS snow to me.

The first real snow fell overnight a few days later and was amazing. I snapped pictures my entire way to school, at school and during the entire day. The first thing that my kids did when they got to school was of course play with the snow. When I got to my classroom I opened one of the windows and made a snowball from the snow that had piled up and made my way to the forest where the kids were already playing with the snow. One of the boys came charging at me with some snow until i pulled a snowball out from behind me. Then the words “waa 메이사쌤대박”

To tell you the truth. I’m over the snow. HA! My true colors are showing.

So much more next time

xoxo

 

On Thanksgiving since it was on a Thursday and all of my friends actually work and that Korea doesn’t celebrate Korea I had work. But I did treat myself to a new hair dye. So I got rid of my hombre and went darker. I went in to the hair salon really testing how good my Korea is ahah. I told the guy what I wanted and he seemed to understand me. What I wanted was this dark brownish color. Showed him a picture and explained my hair was blenched and I think he understood. In end, it didn’t turn out as I wanted ahah BUT I still really like it. So it’s kinds two-toned right now. With my roots lightened and where the blond was darkened. But when I saw the color of my hair in good lighting I kinda understood how he came to this conclusion. ahah

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. When we first moved into our apartments when back in February and we all established the size of our apartments I called it. I said that I wanted to host our Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment in November. And all of my friends were on board with it. But in the end didn’t end up having it at my apartment. And I’m not gonna lie when I say I was pretty upset about that. It really pissed me off. My friends knew that how much I was looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving at my apartment and having them finally come over. But I couldn’t just say no when my friends was to migrate our Thanksgiving dinner to Cody’s place in Daegu. In the end it really turned out great. I was the first time in a long time that all of us were together so that’s all that matters.

After an AMAZING dinner we headed downtown for some norabang of of course! ahah I love my friends.

Now for the cheesy part. This year I’m thankful for… 

First and foremost, my family. I thankful that I’m healthy that I’m able to get up everyday and be able to do what I do. This amazing opportunity. I’ve been give a change to make and difference in a way that I wouldn’t be able to back home. This opportunity has given me the chance to grow as a person. To actually find myself, which I’m still doing.

I’m forever thankful.

so much more next time.

xoxo

Co-teacher : “Maysa tomorrow we will have a work out day.”

Me : “Okay. What’s a work out day? (I’m thinking exercise”)

Co-teacher : “The teachers will leave and have relaxing day outside of school.”

So basically, it’s a day that the teachers leave the campus to “work” in a different environment. But in reality, its a day that we get to relax and not have to worry about work and school. The past few weeks the teachers have been super overwhelmed with deadlines after deadlines that they had to meet. There was one day that my co teacher didn’t even leave school until 11:30 pm. It was a much needed break that the teachers needed.

We headed off to Gumi, to take a walk around the beautiful lake right before you reach Gumosan (Gumo mountain). The weather the past few days leading up to the day was really cold, but this day the weather was really perfect for it.

But first we headed to and ecological center in Gumi. Of course everything was in Korean and I was once again separated from my co teacher. It was nice, there was buttons and stuff that i pushed and pictures so that I was able to connect the dots to what I was looking at.

After we finished we stared out walk around the lake. I spend most of the time taking to the younger crowd of course. It’s nice just being able to talk to some of the staff with out my co teacher some times. I feel more reserved from time to time when she around. But in the end a good conversation among my peers is all that the doctor ordered.

dinner next! This was the first time that I had a staff dinner that I didn’t sit with my co teacher. So I was left to fend for myself. And I think that I did pretty good ahah. One of the other teacher’s had suggest that we head to Gumo Land (this mini amusement park) after and ride the viking after dinner.  My answer? Call. ahah I think he was surprised. So after dinner we walked over and to find out that it was already closed at 7pm?!

Oh bonus, one of the teachers that had transferred at the end of the 1st semester was actually having a staff dinner at a restaurant close by and stopped by for a quick drinks with us. Of course we welcomed him with open arms. What a day.

so much more next time.

xoxo

 

Pepero day! What is it? So, Pepero day falls on November 11th. For you who don’t know Pepero is this long thin cookie that’s been dipped in chocolate. The Korean version of Pocky which is from Japan. November 11th is dubbed Pepero Day because of 11/11, with looks like four Pepero sticks. Simple enough right? It’s just another version of Valentine’s day. Kids buy boxes of Pepero and hand them out their friends. Those with boyfriends and girlfriends do the same as if it was Valentines day.

I was uber overwhelmed by the amount of pepero that I received from my kids. Totally made my day.

sweets from the sweetest kids.

So much more next time

xoxo

I really I wanted to go see the giant rubber duckie when it was in LA but unfortunately I was in Korea when it made its way to LA. Then honestly, I forgot about it. I think that I really wanted to go see it because all my friends back home were posting pictures of it  Randomly one day my sister sends me a picture of the rubber duckie and it’s in Korea. It was actually here when she was but we both didn’t realize that.

After the crappy night before (Halloween that is). Karen texted me the next morning asking if i had any plans and if i wanted to go see the rubber duckie. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to go and see it. So I met up with Karen a little later and we made our way to the lake where it was docked.

so much more next time.

xoxo