Notes from the Peninsula

A "week long edition" of Notes from the Peninsula . . .

Last Sunday night just as I had gone to bed for the night I realized that I forgot to do the latest NFTP post.
I figured that since I've already missed it once, I would just do it a day later.
Then on Monday night just as I had gone to bed, I realized that I had forgot to do it again!
So I decided that a week long vacation from the blog was in order.
So what happened last week?
Well, last Saturday night was a rare night of going out early, and coming back early.
I met a friend for drinks at around 8 pm, and was home by 10.
Sunday was spent just hanging out, not doing anything much in particular.
Wednesday night was the usual-midweek drinks with the co-workers.
Since Wednesday is such a long day, we always look forward to unwinding with some cold ones.
Speaking of cold ones-that pretty much describes the weather nowadays.
Even though we're still in fall, it feels like winter.
This week president Obama stopped by Korea for his first visit.
Somehow my invitation to hang out with him got lost in the not so reliable Korean mail service.
Oh well, he is the most traveled pres. so far, so I guess he'll be back soon.
Saturday my new computer arrived from America so I've been setting it up all weekend.
In fact, this is the first post on the new computer.
So, what to look forward next week?
Here's a hint . . . it involves a bird.

The test

Today in Korea all high school seniors had to take the college entrance exam.
Imagine the SAT except 100 times more pressure.
Basically Korean kids study most of their school years to take this one test.
This test decides their future-whether or not they will get into college.
If they don't get into college, they will bring shame upon their family.
If it sounds like I'm being melodramatic, trust me, I'm not.
This is one serious test.
Traffic patterns are altered for this test.
Planes are not allowed to fly during the listening comprehension portion.
Government offices started an extra hour later so they wouldn't be clogging the roads.
Again, I am serious.
I feel bad for these kids, but this is the way it has been, and it probably will stay this way for a long time.
Yes, it's that serious.

It's amazing

It's amazing what students (and I use that term loosely) think they can get away with.
Wednesday is not a day I look forward to, and today was a prime example why.
Right after I took attendance I noticed that two students were missing.
Keep in mind that I had just called their names.
I asked the class what happened to the two that were missing.
They told me they went home.
They came to class to get marked, and then decided to leave.
They thought that I wouldn't notice.
The two id. . . students sat in the front of the class!
Why did they even bother to come!
What amazes me is that they thought they could pull the wool over my eyes.
Here's a hint-don't sit in the front of the class!
This job would be a lot easier if it wasn't for the students.

Learning something

One of the good things about my free talking class at night is that sometimes I learn something.
I always thought that there weren't many single parents here in Korea.
So tonight I asked my students why this was the case.
Many of them seemed very confused by the question.
I wrote the question on the board, but they still didn't get.
At this point I was surprised because I thought this was an easy question.
Turns out the reason why they were confused was because they all believed there were a lot of single parents in Korea!
They told me that in Korea there were many single parent families.
Tonight was a good example about how a teacher can learn something from the students.

Right now I'm watching a documentary about the Berlin Wall.
I do remember watching the nightly news and seeing footage of people dancing on top of the wall, and using chisels to take parts out of the wall.
I was thirteen years old, but I didn't quite realize the impact of the wall coming down until years later.

Notes from the Peninsula

A "rainy day" edition of Notes from the Peninsula . . .

Today it has been raining pretty much all day.
It was perfect for staying inside and doing nothing.
Last night friends from Cheonan came down to visit.
We all had a great dinner at an Indian restaurant followed by drinks at the local watering holes.
Today I listened to the FSU/Clemson game on the computer-and unfortunately had to listen to them lose.
We must win two more games in order to be bowl eligible-a streak that has lasted for 27 years.

Interesting

My night class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is a free talking class.
It is a good mix of older students (married with children) and college aged students.
Last night we talked about men and women and it was a really good discussion.
It's not easy picking topics for a free talking class because you never know what's going to go over well.
Sometimes what you think is a great topic turns out to be a real dud.
But when you have women and men together-talking about each other is usually a good way to go.

In unrelated sports news the NY Yankees won their 27th World Series title-in 6 games just as I predicted to my co-worker.
Hideki Matsui-aka Godzilla-was the MVP.
He's also the first Japanese born MVP as well.
Great job Yankees!

Second verse, same as the first . . .

Why such a short post?
Is it a deadline?
No.
It's so short because it's more of the same.
Wednesday.
Bleh.
Discuss amongst yourself.