Author: Maddie Fischer

I only celebrated Halloween in my 5th and 6th grade classes which made me feel sorry for the 3rd and 4th grade classes. We had a Halloween party for the my Kids on the 29th a few days before Halloween because of when I actually met the kids for class. The kids were expecting to really get in the Halloween spirit by dressing up as something bloody but I passed on that and just wore a witches’s hat.

So we started our class a mystery box where the students were blind folded and had to guess what “body part” was inside of the box. Some students got really freaked out when I enjoyed ahah. I did a powerpoint that explained what Halloween was and it’s meanings along with some Halloween vocabulary and a game to tie it all in. The highlight of the class was when we did a rely game of bobbing for apple and toilet paper mummies. My kids seemed to really enjoy it. So it was nice to seem them laugh and have fun. Of course we ended class by trick-or-treating for some candy.

English classroom all decked out!

On the actually Halloween I headed to Seoul once again to celebrate it with my friends. I’m not gonna lie it turned out to be a complete mess. My group of friends and I were going to do a group costume of the seven dwarfs from snow white. Total fail, we only had 4 dwarfs show up ahha. anyhoo. We headed to Itaewaon for the night and there was SOOOOOOO much people there. I dont understand. Korea doesn’t even celebrate Halloween why was the entire Korean youth out that night. Not the best Halloween, but I was with my friends so it doesn’t matter we still manage some how to make it fun from time to time.

cant you tell how dead we are by the end of the night?

so much more next time.

xoxo

Chuseok is basically Korean Thanksgiving. Therefore we have a long weekend woo! Of course I headed to Seoul for a weekend fun with my friends, but I was already planning to go to Seoul that weekend cause my sister was coming in or a visit on Sunday and it worked out perfect.

We did our usual, shopping during the day time and bar hopping at night haha.

There was a special at Lotte World for foreigners and we got in at a special price. So after a night of bar hopping and finally rolling out of bed we headed to the amusement park. And it was a really good idea. All the families were at home for Chuseok. So the entire park was empty. We had a really good time. The weather was little hot but that didn’t stop us. By the end of the day my feet were killing me and I had to be up early the next day to pick up my sister at the airport whose flight from LAX landed at 6am.

so much more next time.

xoxo

With the semester done and with this crack down that EPIK has on enforcing the 22 work week for their teachers I haven’t had a chance to breathe these past few weeks. My co-teacher told me that EPIK continually sends her documents and e-mails about making sure that I’m at school during certain times and not just desk warming but teaching during those hours. Which is pretty ridiculous.

Because of that I was given a HUGH pile of extra classes to prepare for and teach during my desk warming time. So I have/had my summer camp, extra after-school classes, storytelling classes, teacher classes, and an extra English camp at another school. I’m pulling anywhere between 18 to my required 22 hours a week of teaching. I’m just tired all the time these days.

my ugly schedule for summer

Yakdong Summer English Camp: I felt like no matter how much I prepared for my English camp I was always missing something. The theme that I picked for my camp was travel which was pretty out in the open and it allowed me to go in any direction that I wanted to go. Honestly, I didn’t know what I should prepare or do for camp. I felt kind of bad for the kids at the end of my camp because it could had been better. But they still said that they enjoyed it and majority of them said they would attend the camp again.  So, this is how camp went down. Camp was a total of 4 days, 4 periods of day. My camp consisted of 14 students from grades 4-6. The camp was to prepare the kids for a trip overseas, everything from packing your bags to asking someone to take your picture. First day of camp, was a mess. The kids that joined camp just happened to be the kids that didn’t really enjoy role playing which was the main activity that I had for the periods. So I changed most of the plans for class the day before. The rest of camp went pretty well. The last day of camp the kids had the opportunity to visit the US military base Camp Carroll which is located in our city and only about 20 minutes away from our school. My poor babies.  The weather that day was horrible hot. I so worried that my kids would faint from all the heat. They kept on asking me for water, I pulled out my own water bottle for them to drink. Other than that they were just glad to make it back onto the bus where the ac is on. camp done.

opening orientation for the summer camps

Sungsoon Summer English Camp: I had to teach an English camp at a school that I had never been to before. Sungsoon Elementary is about 20 mins by taxi from my school. This camp was a mess. Oh my gosh. The school is much smaller than my main school, camp consisted of of 6 students grades 4 and 5. My co teacher told me that i would have another co teacher teaching along side me but it turned out that I was really teaching the kids by myself. The co teacher for the camp would take the 4th graders while I had the 5th grader then we would switch. There was no main theme for the camp so I just followed the instructions that my co teacher gave me for an outline of the camp. The highlight of this camp was actually when the 5th graders did their own rendition of Jason Maraz’s I’m Yours which was actually really good. We practiced the song during camp but they had already learned the song before camp. Oh, side note I’m super grateful that one of the teachers gave me a ride home. I’m really amazed at the hospitality of that I’m shown.  On the first day I asked if the staff could call me a taxi or where I would be able to catch a taxi instead 3 of the staff members offered to give me a ride home instead. My brought some pastries my last day of camp for the staff to show my gratitude.

Teacher’s classes:   Only one teacher other than my co teacher showed up, I mean was really interested in my teacher’s class. My co teacher told me that a lot of the other teachers ask what I would be teaching in the first place and they didn’t really seem interested in coming. But the one teacher that did, he made me feel so special, ahah. He actually tries to use a lot of the terms that I taught in the teacher’s class which makes me happy. I’ll give him this, he’s age and I did teach a Konglish class and a slang/common expression class with him. But the fact that he tries to integrate the things that I taught him when he talks to me it’s endearing.  My staff tells me that my Korean has gotten pretty good. I understand a lot, using context clues of the conversations. It’s harder for me to spit out the words that I’m trying to say though.

Storytelling classes: I have these storytelling classes that I read books to second and third graders. This is the first time that I got into interact with second graders and they’re just cute as a button. But second and third graders English levels aren’t has high and are limited. I have a hard time talking to them without using my broken Korean with them. But its okay I still did. The first day of storytelling was really fun no lie. But it got old fast. I still had a good time just talking to the kids having to them practice as much English as they could.

I finished my last desk warming day today and it was raining crazy cats and dogs. One of the staff asked me how I was going home and I told her taxi. She offered me a ride and I did not decline it.

Next stop Thailand.

So much more next time.

xoxo

I’ve survived my first semester as an English teacher here in Korea. That means that I’ve already finished half of my contact, half of my stay in Korea is already done. I can’t believe that my six month mark in Korea is literally a few days away.

The semester had its ups and downs, but in the end I wouldn’t had traded this opportunity, this experience for anything. In the end, my kids make it all worth it. I freaking love them. I understand now why, when I was in school the teachers would call us their kids. Cause the students really become like your kids. You spend this crazy amount of time with them five days a week and you start to worry about them, you yell and scold them, you laugh and joke around with them, you talk about them with your friends. They’re your kids. 

The last two weeks of the semester was SUPER busy, no lie. I was busy planning for my summer camp at my school. In addition to planning for my English camp I had about a million of other things to plan for too. EPIK is really cracking down on their teachers during the the vacation time. So I have all these extra classes that I have to prepare for in order to fulfill all my 22 hours a week, yes I still have to do 22 hours of teaching during vacation time.  So, to fill my hours I have my summer camp, extra after-school classes, teacher classes, storytelling classes, and a second English camp. But I’ll save this drama for another blog update.

So, party time as one of my kids would say, haha. With the end of the semester, we had a teacher trip, labeled as a teacher’s workshop. We headed up north to Gangwon providence for some touristy events and bonding time. I cannot stress enough how much I love my staff. Whenever I’m with them I know that I’m in for a good time. We chartered a bus and bright and early we made our way up north.

BOOM! 10am shots of soju and beer were going around on the bus. Way for too early for me to even think about drinking. We haven’t even arrived at our first destination yet, this is only a foretelling of later events 😀 First stop, morning hike. It had just finished raining so our hike was nice and muddy, but so worth the hike up.

(the landscape is shaped like the Korean peninsula)

Next stop lunch. Need I say more.

We made out way after lunch to a cave, which was really interesting. My staff keep on pointing out to me that the signs were in English, so I didn’t have to worry. But just the questions were translated from Korean to English no the answers, no point of me reading them. I got separated from my co-teacher pretty early on so there wasn’t anyone there to translate with me. I bounced around from one group of teachers to another, it’s okay I like everyone ^^ It was cool, refreshing in cave, when you first walk in it was cold but it quickly felt good because of the ugly humidity outside.

 

Back on the bus = more shots of soju and beer. I guess one of the teachers noticed that I always refuse the alcohol and ask why. Is that obvious then? Drinking is pretty much apart of the Korean culture, it’s infused into their social events. I just told him that I just don’t drink. He response? ohh I see. lololololol. Then the teacher passing out the alcohol came by to my seat to offer me a drink and I gladly accepted. Byungjoon (the teacher that had just asked me why I didn’t drink) let a big “WHAT!” I told them this drink is for Byungjoon and all you can hear was laughter.

Next stop, coal mine museum. Not as interesting as it sounds lol.  Once again I got separated from my co-teacher. Took picture inside and made our way to the second part of the museum which was located in a different building about 5-10 min walk. Just a little bit more fancy than the first one. Took some pictures and we made our way back to the bus. I don’t know how the entire day I manage to be apart of the last group that makes it was to the bus, but I did. The walk to and from the two parts of the museum was more interesting to me. I got some pretty amazing shots of the flowers right after the rain.

(I just realized that I cut off the picture of the pig he was posing with, sorry, lol)

(random ostrich)

DINNER TIME! 고기! 고기! 고기!  so we had Korean BBQ for dinner and drinks of course. We squeezed our entire staff into this tiny mom and pop BBQ joint and ate up a storm. Even though I was full I couldn’t stop eating and drinks kept on coming. My co-teacher even asked me if I knew when to stop drinking because she hadn’t seen me drink that much before. Everything they made a speech my glass had to be finished first and then refilled. Every time there was a toast being made and that table next to me they included me. The 6-1 homeroom teacher would not stop. Regardless I had a good time with them.

What’s next? Norebang of course! I think because we were a small town we the norebang place couldn’t accommodate our group so we were split into two groups. The groups turned into they younger teachers in one room and the older teachers in the other room, with a few teachers jumping from room to room. What would norebang be with out drinks. I don’t enjoy norebang as much with the teachers because no sings songs that I know and I’m not completely wasted, lol. I belted out my own rendition of Bruo Mars’ Marry You but I still had to dance the night away with every teacher that came into the room. But all wasn’t a bore. I was super impressed by two of my teachers. They seemed like norebang regulars, hahah. uhh but no lie, they were very attractive

After a long long long long day we finally finished out day of events and all headed back to the bus to make our 3 hour-ish drive back home. but not with out turning out bus into a party bus. gah this lasted until we made our first pit stop at a rest stop. I don’t even remember the rest of the ride home, i had my sunglasses on and that was the end of it.

We started our day at 8am and got back at 12:30am and I went to school the next day to get ready for camp.

What a day.

so much more next time

xoxo

This blog will pretty simple and to the point. I’ve had the chance to eat pretty amazing food while here in Korea. This is just from the past few weeks. Be jealous. Here you goooooo

Soba noodles with sushi

jajangmyeon

coffee bingso

buffet, sushi plate

pho

potato pizza with sweet potato bites

ultimate tuna & swordfish sashimi

fish egg bibimpap

egg rolls

boo pad pong karee (crab with curry) // ปูผัดผงกะหรี่

ชาเย็น // Thai ice tea

Pad See Ew // ผัดซีอิ๊ว

more next time,

xoxo

If you didn’t know I come from what I would describe as a very traditional Thai-American family. Both my parents are immigrants from Thailand only to meet in the United States (at the immigration office at all places) and start new lives together. My dad has traditional values to his core while my mom is a little bit more less traditional but still up holds most traditions and values. My sister and I were raise in an American society but with Thai traditional always lingering close by. We were given the double standard when wanting to be raised the with “American” standards vs “Thai” standards. With that little rant that i just had, I’ve been pretty much conservative my entire life, never wanting “lose face” as my parents would say. I’m a representation of my parents and I never forgot it and they never let me forget it either.

How conservative are my parents you may ask? I didn’t get my ears pierced until the 5th grade and when I wanted to get a second piercing on my ears my dad freaked out. Imagine. I don’t drink like at all back home, my dad’s always lecturing about how drinking is bad for you this and that. Anything that you imagine pretty normal was too radical for my family, especially for my parents. Why did I go in this entire rant of my conservative Thai parents? There’s a point I promise. I’m in my 20s there still a lot that I want to do before I become a “real” adult. There’s still a lot of things that I haven’t done yet either.

So what did I do?! haha nothing too drastic, well you may think. I dyed my hair. This is the time that I’ve EVER dyed my hair. Yes, I’m 25 and I’ve never dyed my hair before. I’ve been wanting to dye my hair since high school but my parents never let me. Then when I moved to Korea at the start of fall I really wanted to dye my hair, I think that it was the pressure of every single Korean having their hair colored here, haha. So I went into Seoul with Karen of course and we got out hair dyed together.

Karen was really unhappy with the dye job that she had got before. She said it made here look too Korean and she really didn’t like it. So she wanted to turn here hair into an ash brown color instead. I went for an ombre color. I kept my roots black (so that I don’t have to maintain it too much), a dark brown for the middle (which i really like) and and orange blonde ish color for the tips. A grand total of 3 hours to do my hair. Since my hair is “virgin” hair (hair that’s never been treated) I already knew it was gonna take a while to do, but I didn’t think that I would have to have my hair bleached. The tips of my hair was bleached and then dyed after. I LOVE MY HAIR. It did take me a little while to get use to yet though.

before and after of me and kar

so enjoy an ample amount of selfies i’ve taken with my new hair <span class='wp-smiley emoji emoji-heart' title='<3

next thing, tattoos haha we’ll see about that.

more next time,

xoxo

WOOWHOOOOO FIELD TRIP DAY!  Unlike that last school field trip where I wasn’t invite to go along I was invited to supervise my schools trip to Spa Valley in Daegu. Which to equivalent to hurricane harbor or raging waters back home. Days leading up to the trip my kids kept on asking me if I was going to go to the swimming pool with them on Friday and my answer every single time would be “I don’t know.” Because for a while I really didn’t know if I was going to go with them or not. I thought it was a giant community pool because the kids kept on calling it a swimming pool I had no idea that it was an amusement park type of thing.

The school chartered buses for each class and we headed down to Spa Valley. The drive took maybe about an hour-ish. Gahh my kids looked so freaking happy to be there, it was so cute. Every time they ran passed me they’d yell over and over again “hi Maysa teacher” and every time they said hi to me I’d say it back to them. I spent most of the day taking pictures of them and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. There were the kids that stopped for me to take their pictures, the ones that hid from me and the ones that I got the candid pictures of. Those were my favorites. The ones where they stopped and tried to play with me and I’d take there pictures instead. Just thinking about it makes me smile again. I ended up taking close to 500 pictures that day. What I did was sit down and sort out my picture my grade levels: 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Then picking my favorite and best ones to put them in a video for the kids to watch during class. Which they really enjoyed. I liked it because I got to see their smiles and laughs as they watch it as cheesey as that sounds.

병준 and 현섭 to of my co workers.

My poor little kids once the day finished and they all changed back out of their swim suits they looked so tired. (oh side note: my kids went swimming in their swim suits and their “regular” attire.) I hung around my 4-2 girls while we waited for the rest of the students and staff to gather in the lobby. It was little chilly that day so I was checking the girls hair to see if it had dried enough because i didn’t want any of them to catch a cold. I ended up like a mom grabbing their towels and drying their hair for them. I’d hear them say 상쾌한 which means refreshing. The next thing i knew it, there was a line of 4th grade girls waiting for me to dry their hair for them. freaking cuties. 

When everyone gathered the homeroom teachers had to take their classes to have lunch so the teachers who didn’t have a homeroom class (English teachers, science/health teachers) along with the head master and vice principle we we made out way to a coffee shop where we waited for the students to finish lunch. Our vice principle treated us to coffee and a yummy cake treat. This was one of the rare times that I as with my co teacher and with the other teachers in an almost non-formal-ish environment where the staff asked me personal questions. Normally my co teacher isn’t there cause it’s during volleyball, haha. But it’ was nice and awkward at the same time having here there cause I had a translator for both ways: someone to translate the question and someone to translate my answer. But I think i kept it a little formal compared to when I talk to my staff at volleyball.

my co teacher sunny

 

End of the trip was the start of the weekend.

so much more next time,

xoxo

I was told by our resident Native English teacher Charlie (whose been living in Korea now for 5 years) that volleyball gets kind of crazy and intense in elementary schools in Korea. She jokey told me that it should had been on our EPIK applications to state if we play volleyball or not if we are placed into an elementary school. Which I think is pretty accurate at this point in time.

I started playing volleyball right before I graduated the 8th grade and that was May-ish of 2003, so it’s been awhile, right? I mean you expect me to understand and know how to play and the rules of the sport. Which I do, but I’m not the best player but I can get down and dirty when I want to. A good game with old friends or a random match at open gym, I’m done for it.

When I told my staff that I played volleyball back home in the states you should had seen the look in their eyes. It sparkled like stars, haha. “YES WE GOT ONE” they must have thought to themselves. I’m not gonna lie, my school is a little intense when it come to playing volleyball, especially the female teachers. Starting a few weeks ago, we started having volleyball again just for fun: Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. And it was fun. Then all of a sudden we had a game scheduled with another elementary school and things got a little crazy. It turned into volleyball practice every single day.  I do mind, I’m not gonna lie about it but it’s not like I can say no to the staff. But this heat and humidity is killer.  I’m just tired all the flippin’ time now. I don’t have enough time to desk warm to finish my lessons for the next day and when I get home just want to take a nap/sleep. I don’t understand a few things either. The male teachers come to volleyball and help the female teachers practice but once the clock hits 4:30 if they want to leave they can. However if I want to leave Korean words start to fly all over the place and I end up staying until 5-5:30.

The other teachers ask/tell my co teacher questions or comments about me. “You know Maysa looks very tired these days, is she feeling okay?” OR “Maysa’s lost her passion for playing volleyball with us.”  

uhh yea.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my staff to pieces. I think I just reached my limit with the volleyball. Sometimes I feel like they’re not really elementary school teachers but athletes  training for a big competition or something. But volleyball was the best buffer I had to at the start of the semester to get close to my staff and it really made it easier for me to “talk” to them during this time. I do forget about these petty things when the staff treats me us to different things like coffee, bingso, chicken and so much more after we finish playing. It become more of a love hate relationship at that point. 😀

bingso makes everything better. who knew they delivered?!

I may have seen the end of volleyball at least until the end of the semester or till the start of the next semester. HOORAY right?!? So we finally had the game with the other school that my staff has been practicing so hard for. I haven’t heard a single utterance of volleyball since.

fingers crossed. I’ll finally be able to get some work and rest.

so much more next time,

xoxo

Second long weekend in Korea my peeps and I made our way to Busan to celebrate our friend Ashley’s birthday. Busan, like Seoul is a very popular tourist location. From Daegu, on the KTX it’s only about a 45 min train ride. I took the train into Daegu from my city and meet my friend at the train station so that we could go together. There was three of us that still had school that day even thought most schools had it off, our luck right?

DAY 1: We make our way to Busan in no time and then on to the subway to our guest house. Our guest house was BEYOND amazing. I really liked it. It was comfortable for the 6 of us to stay. The host of the guesthouse was super adorable too. We were talking when we booked the place that the picture posted online must look like the real thing or we want our money back. We even demanded that there would be toast because the website had pictures of toast. AND there was!! Let me tell it was the best freaking tasting toast at 2am that anyone could eat. Right across from out guesthouse was makgeolli (Korean rice wine) bar that we decided to have dinner at. My first makgeolli experience, not bad haha I don’t think that much anyways. After a delicious meal there was no surprise that we found ourselves at a noraebang. But hey we ALWAYS have a good time. Next thing you no it it’s 4am and we’re in bed chatting, but the second the lights go off everyone is knocked out. We sleep until maybe 11 only to be up and do it all over again.

DAY 2: UP kinda bright and early, well not really lol. First stop Haeundae beach. We didn’t really stay for long we weren’t beach attire ready. We ended up just getting lunch at a chicken place across the beach with an amazing view Haeundae over looking it from above.  We hopped on the subway and made our way to Jagalchi fish market. We did a LOT of walking. I got a chance to take a lot of nice pictures of the market. Once it again the market reminded me of being at a market in Thailand. Maybe I’m just nostalgic or longing for something familiar these days. We decided that we were done with the market and was just gonna call it a day so we headed to the subway station to make our journey back to our guest house. We ended up going back and forth between the two sides of the subway trying to make up our minds or trying to figure out if we were going in the right directions. Only if we could see what we looked like on the CCTV  we must had looked like such idiots going back and forth for a good 45 min-ish. So we somehow made our way to another market where it said was was an antique market but really was just another traditional market.  Then made our way back to the fish market to eat some mouth water fresh food. It was to die for no lie. Food coma. We made it back to our guest house where we had some time for some R&R and ended up playing jenga that Ash had brought along with her. In the end we decided to go to Gwangalli bridge which we were told is pretty amazing at night. Fireworks, drinks and picture taking on the beach at night seems like a normal tradition for my group of friends now, cause that’s exactly what we did. After we ended up at bar where we continued with the birthday drinks for Ashley and a good night.

DAY 3: We make our way back again to Haeundae beach for  a kind proper beach day. They had a sand castle festival thing that weekend so we check out some pretty cool sculptures. Really it was just a chill day to be at the beach. But bonus points for  finally being about to try sannakji (산낙지) which is live octopus. LOVED IT.  We headed back to Daegu after that. Once we got to the train station I had to wait maybe another 45 mins to wait for the train to go in Waegwan with a dying phone. Finally got back and t’was my first experience in Busan.

so much more next time.

xoxo

I know you guys are due for another update. I’m sorry again. Here we gooooo

What do frogs eat was the title of my lesson for my open class. Bit by bit pieces of my open class came to me; like what class it was going to be, the lesson, even the day.

We don’t have open classes back home at least I don’t ever remember having it going to school. Open house yes, but not classes. An open class is when the student’s parents are invited to sit in one our classes and observe how their child is being taught. They’re given a questionnaire to fill out during the open class evaluating the class and the teachers.

So here we go- What do frogs eat? the lesson had 3 main expressions: 1. What do ____ eat? 2. ____ eat ____ 3. Be careful! yes. It was a very boring lesson. It was the food chain, the text us a basic food chain of animals however it is very possible that other animals can eat each other. But I’m not a science teacher. So we asked the kids if any other food chain connections was possible and of course they came up with other ones that weren’t in the book.

We prepared for what seemed weeks in reality it was only a few days. I had a song related to our topic, picture cards got laminated, I took every precaution for the open class.

The big day. I got to school pretty earlier than normal. So did all the other teachers. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best, literally. I was told at lunch that in addition to the parents attending our open class the vice principle, principle, headmaster and a few other teachers were also going to attend the open class.

Class started and the parents slowly came in. My co teacher welcomed them in and asked the students whose parent they were they found a seat in the back of the class and watched me like at hawk. My co teacher told me the expectations that most Korean parents had of the Guest English Teachers and that just made me more nervous.

Since this was the first period of the new lesson the main objectives of the period was the introduction of the new vocabulary and key expressions. For the students it was mainly listening to me pronounce the words: listen and repeat type of thing with is typical for a new lesson.  I did notice that when I was going over the listen and repeat portion of the vocabulary that some of the parents were repeating after me too.

It went better than I expected. My co teacher translated the comments and evaluations that the parents left behind for us. Overall it was all positive: class was interesting; very interactive; students look like they were enjoying themselves; comments like that. However one parent said that they wished that the would had been more speaking on the students behalf but it was just the first period so i didn’t take it much to heart.

 

two weeks later I had another open class. This time the class the ministry of education would visit our school and attend one of my classes. And I’m still on the same lesson with my 6th graders: what do frogs eat? more fun. Same thing with the open class two week prior. I was told that this open class would be more important that the other open class which my nerves got the best of me again. By first period I was told that the English class was going be the first stop that the ministry officials were going to stop by, so the first 10 minutes of class, which is just me and my co teacher talking and reviewing material, ahhhhhhhhhh why?!?

side note: I still don’t think that I’m good enough, teaching wise. I feel like I’m not improving fast enough or at all.

Turns out they came about 20 mins into our 40 min lesson and stayed for 5 maybe 10 mins tops. Good I think. I didn’t get any complaints about the lesson.

What an experience.

pictures of my lesson planning nightmare for the open classes