CHRISTMAS COOKIES!

So as a christmas present to each other me and Eunmi bought a small electric oven! I should probably mention that people in korea don't normally use or own an oven. It's quite small and cheap so I was worried, but it performs excellently.

So we made christmas cookies as gifts for our work colleagues!

CHRISTMAS LESSONS

I've really enjoyed teaching a lesson about christmas this week. I talk about the traditions we have in Britain, and also ask them about the traditions in Korea. We read some christmas cracker jokes together... simple ones they can understand:

Which athlete is warmest in the winter?

A LONG JUMPER

What kind of paper likes music?

WRAPPING PAPER

What did the sea say to santa?

NOTHING. IT JUST WAVED

Then I show pictures of me and my family in England celebrating christmas together. Then I explain about St Nicholas, and how that is loosely linked to Santa Clause. Then I show a presentation that I made explaining who Jesus is, again it's very simple - enough for students to understand and remain interested, but i've been pleasantly surprised at how well they have listened to that part... though it might be something to do with me giving them all a sweets as a christmas present just before.

And to top it all off we watch some of the MR BEAN - CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. Good fun.

BUT IT'S FREEZING!

Every since it started getting cold here in Busan I've walked through the school corridors wondering why on earth all the windows are swung wide open!

All the kids and teachers sit inside wearing coats and talk about how cold it is and yet here we are in a modern building with heating capabilities and all the windows are open.

So I posed the question to my co-teacher, who replied:

"Yes it's very silly, but the problem is that we don't use hoovers like you in the west, when the students clean the school they just use a big brush and it fills the air with dust, so we have to open the windows"

Using those big brushes just moves the dust around rather than actually cleaning, and Koreans make staying healthy a priority, so there we go. At least I know why now. Though I might put forward the idea of investing in some hoovers.

Shh... We're Married... On paper

Last week me and Eun-mi took a trip to Seoul after having prepared all our paper work (including translating documents), and we both managed to take the day off - no small feat.

So we popped into the british embassy, handed in our documents, signed some forms, and said an oath and received a piece of paper that said we were legally allowed to get married in Korea. The best thing about this moment, other than relief, was that just as we stepped outside it suddenly began snowing: The first snow of the winter.


We then tried to get married at the nearest district office, but there were a couple of complications, the funniest being when Eun-mi realised she had brought her own stamp to sign as a witness rather than her sisters - the names are quite similar so it's an easy mistake to make: Hong Eun-mi 홍은미 / Hong Eun-hee 홍은희
So she attempted to stamp the paper with the last character being faded enough to look convincing (Hong Eun-???) But tragically she managed to do the complete opposite: (??? Eun-mi)
Anyway, it turned out that wasn't a big problem because we got a stranger to stamp the paper for us ( i'm not we're allowed to do that in the UK).
But then after all the hassle it turned out that we would have to come back to that district office in 2 weeks time. Which is basically an impossibility for us. So they told us to just do it in Busan

So after that we just took a half hour walk in the snow and then took the 5hr bus ride home.

And now, after having returned to Busan and been to the district office I can happily disclose that me an Eun-mi are legally bonded!
But that's just a happy technicality, we will truly be united when we publicly declare our commitment in front of our friends, family, and God.

SPORTS DAY

Back in november we had a sports day and I took these photos. Look out for the giant tug of war!

DISASTER

I had a bit of a disaster this week...

I was excited about my new idea for a music video project with my 3rd years, so I started cleaning up space on my Macbooks HD and i'm normally quite good at knowing exactly where and what file size everything is on my computer... anyway to cut a complex explanation clear I ended up deleting a folder which I though I had elsewhere... that folder was my teaching folder, and of course it turned out not to be backed up 'elsewhere'...

So this was about 10:30pm and I had just deleted all the lessons I was supposed to be teaching the following day, and also for the next two weeks!

Needless to say, I had a pretty stressful week making last minute lessons to cover my time as well as re-making the lessons I had lost (I originally spent 2 weeks making an awesome lesson on music genres...boo)

During this time I had to also make exam questions for the students and check the other teachers exam questions, design wedding invitations, prepare marriage documents, help lead our new home group, and of course teach my students.

I'm still playing catch up a bit now, but the storm has settled somewhat.

The big lesson learnt was to put my trust in God. Not to rely on my computer and my own well formed plans, because when they fail I can choose to let it get to me and make a big deal of it, or I can find that when I look at what is truly important everything else seems to fade in comparison. Why spend time worrying about lesson plans when heaven is breaking into earth and all things are being made new?

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

The christmas lights turned on last week, i think there are more here than in England... but they don't really celebrate christmas, at least not like we do. Christians will go to church and everyone gets the day off, but for a lot of people there is no christmas dinner, presents, advent, stockings, santa, nativity... so why all the lights I ask?

... maybe just because everyone else is doing it?

 This last one is my favourite, I'm not sure i've ever seen anything like this before.

(see above: Dog has his leg up for a cheeky little wee)

THANKSGIVING

I experienced my first ever thanksgiving when our church decided to have a big thanksgiving meal together. Our group was helping to serve the food.

TEACHING TREATS

One of best perks of being a teacher in Korea is that happy parents will frequently send in treats to say thank you for their sons good grades or for completing their exams.

I forget to take pictures of them all, but here are a few examples:

EVIDENCE

I was asked by my teacher to take some evidence of students who had been just sweeping rubbish under their lockers, fair play.

I also managed to make it into the school exhibition, teaching kids using iPads (this lesson was entirely staged by the way, i've never taught using iPads)

SCHOOL FESTIVAL

We had a school festival last friday, and I was asked last minute to perform a song!

So I decided to do a Korean song, which was not a good idea in the sense that I did a terrible job of singing it - but on the other hand it was a brilliant idea because it meant the kids loved it and just sang it for me haha.

It's an embarrassing bad performance but here is the video for your enjoyment:

SCHOOL FESTIVAL

WRITE IT LIKE YOU HEAR IT

One of my students wrote this on his test when asked to describe a picture. Brilliant.

THE FOLKS!

And so it begins; the coming together of two very distant and different families. My parents came all the way from england and joined us here in Busan for 5 days!

We showed them a few sites, ate lots of food and met together with the whole family. 

I found myself in the middle translating most of the time often two conversations at once! haha

It was really important time especially for Eun-mi, and for the whole family too, i'm sure. 

Thanks Mum & Dad