Gratuitous Song Post #2

Dear fellow pirates,

I miss you.  Please come to Korea and visit Leslie and me.  We live right next to Wolgye station in Nowon-gu.  Bring a guitar or two.  We have a copy of Rise Up Singing and easy access to a photocopier (although I think the principal wouldn't be too happy if she found out we were using it for non-school-related things).  I will bake you cookies (which will have no structural integrity whatsoever, probably because the flour is different here) and give you glasses of milk (which you will think tastes funny), and we will sit around the living room and eat and drink and sing.

Love,

Daniel

Warning to non-pirates: strong language (G-- D---) in the following video.

Gratuitous Song Post

One of the best things about not sleeping for a really long time (say, 36-40 hours), or being sleep-deprived for an extended period (say a week or two) is the moment when you realize that you don't have to (or can't) stay awake any longer: you can (must) just lie down and sleep.  The very best thing is the feeling you get when you lie down, pull the covers up around you, and put all worries from your mind.  At that point, you can't worry: you're too tired to worry anymore.  I think at those moments I am more carefree than I ever have been since I was a child.  It almost makes it worth staying up for that long.  Maybe that's why I still have such bad sleep habits.

This song reminds me of those moments, and maybe that's why I love it so much.

[FIRST NAME REDACTED] Kim's mom just gave me cologne and aftershave

That's the kind of gift that says, "[FIRST NAME REDACTED] told me you smell bad, so I thought I would do something to help you out."

It's parent-teacher conference time here at APIS. We had a half-day today (with 25-minute long periods). Then we spent the afternoon into the evening talking with parents. We'll spend the whole day tomorrow in conferences. Yay.

The mom who gave me cologne was the first one to come in. (The students all came with their parents, so [FIRST NAME REDACTED] was there too.) Her son is in my homeroom, so I gave them his report card. Most of the rest of the conference was taken up by the mother yelling at her son in Korean, pointing to his religion grade and saying "F!" and pointing to his GPA and saying "2.58!" It was not a very productive discussion.

My final conference of the day was with a kid whose father is the CEO of a huge company in Korea. The mother spoke no English. The father thought he spoke better English than he did. I asked him after we had talked for a while if he had any further concerns. He proceeded to talk for about five minutes about his concern that his son have enough time to study and also play sports so he would stay healthy. I was not sure how to respond to it. He seemed to expect a response, but there didn't seem to be an appropriate response besides, "Well, in my expert opinion, [FIRST NAME REDACTED] should be studying for three hours every night, so that would probably leave him time for about an hour and a half of sports every day." And I wasn't going to say that. Then he talked for another five minutes--I really don't know what he was trying to get at, but it had something to do with prestigious high schools and colleges. Again, he seemed to expect an answer but did not provide me with anything to respond to, so I was a little baffled.

Now I'm really tired. That was oddly taxing, just like everyone said it would be. Just one more day of it: they can hurt you, but they can't stop the clock.


Leslie's Addendum:

I didn't get cologne, but I did get chocolates, tea, an umbrella, Burt's Bees lip balm, and sweet Korean dumplings. One more thing--we got to see the awesome Clara Kim on Saturday!! This was her house-warming present--delicious tira misu:



I can't wait until conferences are over! I saw seven homeroom kids and twelve other kids that I teach this afternoon and evening. Some conferences were very pleasant, while others were very awkward. During one conference, the 10th grader looked like he was about to cry the entire time. I felt really bad, but he got a 91% in my class. I think he was mostly upset about his other grades. Oh well! A few parents wanted to talk to me about college and AP classes. One 6th grade mother is already very worried about her son getting into a great college, and he's an amazing kid! He has a 98 in my class and has almost perfect grades in every other class. I told her she shouldn't start worrying for another few years... :)

Daniel's addendum:

Not only did Leslie get chocolates, tea, an umbrella, Burt's Bees lip balm, and sweet Korean dumplings, but she also got four Halloween candygrams from her students.  I didn't get any.  It's pretty obvious whose students love their teacher more.  Not that I'm jealous or anything.  (He wrote, and resolutely blinked back his tears.)

The Scariest Thing I've Ever Read

From a student's journal:

[Discussing an episode of CSI: New York, which his mother encourages him to watch to help his English, and in which there was some bad language]

"My mom said you have to learn swear words, too. Because I can use in situation like bar fighting."

I'm so glad I'm preparing these young minds for success in every aspect of their lives...

Happy Chuseok!

Happy Chuseok!! Today is the beginning of our four-day weekend in honor of Chuseok, an important Korean holiday. It is a bit like Thanksgiving for Koreans; they spend the weekend with their families, often leaving Seoul to visit their parents or grandparents, to whom they give big gift boxes of fruit, or they visit the graves of their ancestors. In addition, instead of having class yesterday, we had an all-school field trip. The pre-school through second graders went to see a show called "Bubble World," while the third through tenth graders went to an amusement park called Everland. Since I am a ninth grade homeroom teacher, I had collected my students' permission slips and money, and yesterday morning, I went over the rules with them and gave them my cell phone number in case they had any problems.

Once we arrived at the park, which was a little more than an hour away, I, like the other homeroom teachers, gave them their passes, told them where to meet us at 2:50 pm, and set them free to enjoy the day (which was 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny). This meant that all of us secondary teachers also had the day to ourselves (I only received one call from a student). The highlight of the day was riding a new (as of last year) roller coaster called the T Express. This is apparently the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world, with the first incline at an angle of 77 degrees, and it was awesome! I was afraid at several points during the ride that I was going to fly out of my seat. It was actually the only roller coaster at the park (the other was closed for inspection). The other "ride" we did was the "safari," which involved waiting in line for a long time and riding in a bus through areas of free-roaming lions, tigers, and bears (and a liger). It was cool but also very sad (the animals did not look happy). Otherwise, we walked around with some other teachers, ate lunch, and watched a too-long "Happy Halloween" parade. One we arrived back at school, Daniel had to talk to a couple parents about their son's inappropriately helping other students with homework. Then, even though we were pretty exhausted, we went to another great concert by the Seoul Philharmonic with Sophie, the band teacher; they played Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead," Sibelius's violin concerto, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Now, we're cleaning the apartment and getting ready to relax and work. Hope you're all doing well!

Some pictures:


The sunset from our apartment


A river near our apartment



It was a beautiful walk but full of mosquitoes.


A stall near our apartment.


Caitlin and Lee on the safari ride at Everland


The two of us (with other teachers in the seats in front of us)


He was this close to my face.


One of the poor bears


The T Express


The beginning of the Halloween parade


The view while walking back to the main entrance