Thursday, October 28, 2010

“Love is Mr. Navarro, because he smiles”

I did not make up that quote in the title; one of my students actually said that. The freshmen had oral exams this week and their topic was L-O-V-E. I’ve gotten some really outstanding responses, and a few not worth mentioning, so let’s dive right in and mention the good ones! These are just excerpts from longer speeches from different students.

Love is fire, it is dangerous and not easily quenched
Love is a mosquito bite, the more we scratch it the itchier we feel
Love is a black hole, we don’t know much about it but we want to explore it
Love is a present from China to Peru, because all people do love (reminded me of Sarey...and David, lol)
Love is a cell phone because I always carry it around
Love is coffee, sweet and bitter
Love is a shoulder bag, happy and light at first, but heavy and exhausting after a long time
Love is being stupid together
Love is poison and betrayal because it causes depression and greed (bitter much?)
Love is a puzzle because you have to adapt and you can easily break
Love is sleep, without it you would be lifeless
Let’s talk about love (I had 2 students from different classes with this opener and it floored me each time)


But out of all of these my favorite one was one I can’t even write about and wish I had recorded.

The kid made awesome gestures detailing the effects love has on his olfactory being. From what I can remember he said this: “Love is great. You can not hear it (points to ears). You can’t see it (points to eyes). You can’t taste it (points to lips). You can’t even smell it (points to nose). But I know love is all around, that’s why it’s so great.” I’m really paraphrasing here and my putting actions into parentheses does not do justice to how he walked around the classroom. These exams are always fun for me to do because all I have to do is “sit back and watch my ass grow.” (I think that’s a Homer Simpson quote)

My sophomores got a taste for Halloween with my Halloween lesson, one of the most fun lessons I’ve done thus far. They enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, it was great. I showed them a picture of my friends and I from last year at the South Bay Brixton and had them guess the costumes. Please tell me why my students can quickly guess that I was CLEARLY Peter Pan yet my friends back home gave me answers like Robin Hood and Link from Zelda???? Hmmmm?

BTW, I told them Pati was Lady GaGa, which some of them guessed. Rainbow Brite isn’t so big over here.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So it has been super cold this week. A little over 30 degrees farenheit has been the average here. It also included me getting sick. Granted, I’ve been here for almost 5 months and for this to be the first time I’ve gotten sick since I’ve arrived isn’t so bad. Even my cold isn’t so bad. Thanks to some rest, vitamin C, and Korean meds (which are a bargain btw) I am feeling much better now. It doesn’t mean that I’m warmer as I dress up like an Afghan housewife all covered up when I leave my apartment and haul ass to work. On the plus side, I’ve gotten to work earlier this week. Well that’s all for now, enjoy this picture of me while we all wait for me upload the Halloween pics from tomorrow’s party!

In this pic I'm IMing with 2 friends. Concerned face much? Notice my layers in clothing, trying to keep warm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is currently my power song. I recommend it for working out. Move over "Survivor." My favorite part is the chorus with Concha Buika, sounds flawless.

p.s. The student who influenced this blog's title did not receive a high grade. Aside from this opener the rest of the speech was pretty much downhill from there. Flattery got him nowhere.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Talent, All Hallow's Eve, and the Freeze

So last week was the anniversary of the school where I work. In SK, when a school's anniversary comes around it is a festival followed by a day off of work (school for the students). The festival was not what I expected. I've seen these kids perform in the past, but for the anniversary talent show they really stepped up their game. The funniest thing was one sketch that consisted of about 15 students putting on an Idol-type competition sketch. The show included an awesome 70s type performance with go-go-type backup dancers and le piece de resistance (insert French accent) was a "Single Ladies" performance by three of the boys in the sketch. Here it goes:











I was floored when I saw this. This festival is pretty much a big deal complete with a streamer shooter, smoke machine, pyrotechnics, lighting, and projectors. Quite the spectacle indeed (and my couch is still debatable?). The foreign exchange students participated as well, so everyone was happy to see them get involved in student life here. I was also a judge so it was nice having my hand in who won the prizes.









Had the following day off, it was nice to get mid week off. I was able to go out the night before, sleep in the day off, and run errands as well as run into one student after the other on the street.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Halloween season is upon us and I'm very excited. Went to Itaewon on Saturday for a costume/birthday party taking place there. It was a blast, but because we decided to stay later than we had originally anticipated we ended up having to stay at a, and I use the term loosely, hotel. You have to dress in what I could only equate as bad middle school PE uniforms, and sleep in what I could only equate as the Holocaust 2.0. It was hot and hard to sleep there, but we all managed to nap I suppose. We caught the first train out of there and used Sunday as recovery/catch up on sleep day. All in all it was fun, an experience, and in retrospect pretty funny.













I was "emo" for that Halloween party, a costume that was thrown together last minute based on my attire and easy access to guy-liner. However, for Josh & Audrey's costume party this Saturday I have something else planned. Stay tuned.

Also, my neighbors are planning on having a Nightmare Before Christmas viewing on the actual halloween night. Yes!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was Monday October 25, 2010. Yesterday was the first day since I got to SK that I actually felt cold. Like cold cold. Like really cold. It is going to be an average of 35 degrees (f) this week, so pardon me LA, but you don't know what cold is. What I love about cold weather though is that I sleep like a log and it's easier to make yourself warm when you're outside than it is to make yourself cool in when it's hot.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Have You Seen the Ghost of John?

There's a Halloween song that I remember we used to sing in Mr. Cooper's 3rd grade class at Norwood Elementary. It went a little something like this **clearing throat***:

Have you seen the ghost of John?/Long white bones with the skin all gone/OOooooh Ooooooh/Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?

So in retrospect that song doesn't deserve a Grammy or anything, but it's one of my favorite things about my favorite (or at least top two when I think of Christmas) holidays ever: HALLOWEEN! I'm really excited to soon be celebrating my first Halloween in another country. I started getting nostalgic over the fun times I used to have in Halloween so I even changed my FB picture to reflect my last Halloween back home. As a kid I used to enjoy Halloween very much. My favorite costume as a child: Beetlejuice! I remember that was the same year Celia (my sister) dressed as Elvira.

My favorite costume as an adult? Well, there have been so many but I think it was the year I was either a mobster or a gravedigger.

My costume is 90% complete for this year, can't wait. I can't believe I haven't dressed up as this sooner!

Here goes the best music video to hit costumes everywhere!



Sunday, October 17, 2010

A message from me....IN THE FLESH

I swore I was going to Vlog when I moved to SK and I guess I just never got around to it. But here goes a vlog (hopefully not my last one):



Saturday, October 16, 2010

NEWSFLASH!


I'm coming to Los Angeles, for two weeks!

I'm excited about going back home and seeing everyone's faces again.
I've been spreading the news like wildfire the past 24 hours on Twitter, Facebook, through calling, and TONS (and I mean TONS) of Skyping.

I'll be home not only for two weeks, but I get to be home for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and Epiphany. It made my family especially happy.
Still 2 things I need to do when I get home:
1. Get my hands on a chicken Chipotle burrito with chips and a side of guacamole (this is some serious business folks).
2. Go to Disneyland!

I may be broke as a joke until my next pay check, but it'll totally be worth it. I'm really excited to see everyone, I can't express that enough.

After a long conversation with my sister and a 2-hour long conversation with Phoebe, the possibility of a Vegas New Year's celebration might be in the works at some point as they have both suggested it (conspiracy?). Wouldn't be the first time I spent a winter holiday in Sin City.

I'm sure all those details will get sorted out later, but yes, I'm so stoked I get to go home, I have my flight and everything. There's a bit of a layover in China, but who cares? I would've come back from LA at that point!!!!!!

So block out your calendars friends and family, because I plan on all of you to keep me busy.

Also, today is Lisette's wedding day. I just spoke to her to congratulate her. Very happy for her, she's now an honorary Chapin as she is going to be wed to one soon.

Until I see all of your faces near my face Los Angeles, I shall keep you all posted.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Question Part 2

Well aren't I in a blogilicious mood today?

Conversation during lunch today led to this:

Mr. Lee: So what's keeping you from wanting to renew your contract?

Loaded question much? So yes, it came up again. It was also followed up by another question asking me what my plans would be if I decided to move back to the USA. Well I've said it before and I'll say again, and this time with capital letters: I-D-K. I really don't know.

Actually, what I plan to do this weekend and later share with you is a decision that will affect this decision once it is played out. Sounds confusing, I know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've noticed my blogs have sequels now. Last time I had this many sequels it was during student-teaching, something that was monumental in me deciding if teaching was something I was built for doing. The 16 year-old in me was right when he decided go into English education.

Ferdinand and the High Road

Michael Vick's hurt? I hope it's not his hold-a-dog-underwater-til-it's-dead muscle. – A Sarah Silverman Retweet originally posted by @thesulk on October 3, 2010.

I remember seeing this tweet because I “follow” @SarahKSilverman and laughing in my head about how spot-on Michael Vick gets addressed nowadays and how everything changed when his dumb-butt got caught staging dog fights. Animal cruelty sucks and it shouldn’t be allowed. Bottom line.

I’m not a vegan and I’m definitely not a vegetarian, but it comforts me more in knowing that an animal gave up its life in order to satisfy a human need, to feed the hungry. That is different from an animal having given up its life in order to fulfill a type of human greed, gambling, and recreation in a manner I can only identify as cruel. Dog fights, cock fights, and even bullfighting I find to be unnecessary, cruel, and downright ignorant.

Did you ever read the story Ferdinand the Bull? I remember reading it in early elementary and completely loving it. If you haven’t you should and you should share it with as many children (and grown-ups too, why not?) as possible because it has an awesome message. Ferdinand is a bull in Spain, and like many bulls in Spain he is destined to become a fighter against a matador (side note: matador is a Spanish word for “killer”—just saying). However, Ferdinand is not like the other bulls. He appreciates things like nature through looking at flowers and enjoying the shade under a big tree. He decides on taking the high road and that he’s a lover not a fighter. Aside from relating to him, I found it to be true of animals.

They may not speak, but they are definitely part of nature and they can be loyal if you treat them right. When I see things on the news like how an underground cock-fighting arena was raided, or how a ground for breeding fighting dogs was evacuated, I can’t help but think of the pets I’ve had in the past. I grew up in a household where we never-not had a pet. And I mean everything: birds, fish, lizards, turtles, dogs, and rabbits. My family is a pet family and I would love to have my own dog as soon as I could room one. But when I see these news reports I just think of the faces of my old pets and my family’s current dog, Patches, looking back at me. What did these animals do to deserve being programmed to fight their own kind? Why should they be tortured for the sake of a bunch of drug-peddling-alcohol-induced-overly-addicted-to-gambling audiences? I never understood this. The only justification for watching pain for sport is if you’re watching people boxing, ultimate fighting, etc. They made a conscious decision to be there.

To make a light situation out of this blog I decided to post this video which is related to my topic, just forward to 3:15 (funny stuff).


"If I Were a Boy, I Would Turn Off my Phone, I'd Tell Everyone it's Broken..." Part 2

In continuing this week’s lesson on scenarios I’ve gone ahead and introduced the idea of scenario planning through the Barenaked Ladies song “If I had a Million Dollars” which is something I learned at the teacher orientation. I keep receiving some great scenario responses from students like so:

  • If I were a pop star I would meet many stars like Oprah Winfrey or Rain.
  • If I were a superhero I would help sick people to go to the hospital.
  • If I were president I would make a happy world.
  • If I were a movie star I would buy sunglasses and walk the road because I'm famous.
  • If I were a movie star I would shoot a wonderful kiss scene with a top actress.

The last two were written by the same pair of boys, who are obviously ready to be famous. Well the same group of boys who wrote the last two statements on my list did something that totally caught me off guard. As they were finishing up their statements they broke into song and sang....WAIT FOR IT...."If I Were a Boy" by Beyonce. Again, I was thrown off guard and thought to myself "Did these guys read my last blog entry?" Granted, I have not mentioned this Beyonce song in class at all, so I was in awe when these boys started to belt it out. I told them how the song is a good example of an imaginary scenario and how I happened to enjoy that song. Then I carried on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news it's Lisette's wedding this Saturday! Crazy! I'm very happy for her and I wish I could be there. I was touched when I got her invitation here in SK. Also, Andres' birthday/house party is that same Saturday too, happy birthday in advanced!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Very excited about what I get to do this weekend, and even more excited to share it with you all soon.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

"If I Were a Boy, I Would Turn Off my Phone, I'd Tell Everyone it's Broken..."



In this chart-topping Beyonce song, she presents the scenario of what she would be able to get away with if she were in fact born a male.

Well a big thing I'm doing with my students this week is talking to them about scenarios.

I've presented some scenarios to them that were selected at random by them and they would have to make sentences and present what they would do in the given situations.
Some of these responses I really liked and some of these responses really cracked me up, which made me like them more. Here are some of their examples:
  • I were president I would remove the university entrance exam.
  • If I had a million dollars I would invest and manage my money to have more than a million dollars.
  • If I were a movie star I would buy a middle sized island in the pacific ocean.
  • If I were a pop star I would have many super cars, about 100.
  • If I had an airplane I would go to Japan because I want to buy comic books.
  • If I were president I would make a nuclear weapon to kill every people in the world, except kind people.
  • If I were a movie star I would make a scandal with a sexy woman.
  • If I were a movie star I would walk the steet enjoying the popularity.
Here is my favorite performance of the song (mainly because it includes an Alanis Morissette cover):


And Here's my favorite spoof:

"Drink Up Judah Ben-Hur"...."You Truly are the King of Kings"



It's Monday, what else can I say?
It was all in all a good weekend. Had a busy Saturday going from Songtan to Pyeongtaek to Songtan to Pyeongtaek and back to Songtan again (no joke). Went to the air base to catch the air show, at least that's the excuse to use when you want to eat on base. So much food! It was fun, I think I lost my hearing, but it was fun nonetheless.
This upcoming weekend is extremely important to me. Excited!!!!! I got the “green light” that I get to do so and I can’t wait to tell you all once I make the decision. Some already know what the news is, but I shall build the suspense for you…starting now. It’s going to make some people happy, ok, enough said.
The title came from a joke that kept coming up from this weekend, nothing too serious.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"work"








I recently had the week of Chuseok off (only worked 1 day that week)


This week the kids have midterms (I only have to teach one day this week)


Next week classes resume, so it's back on schedule


The week after it is the school's anniversary for there's a festival on Tuesday (no classes) and no work on Wednesday (the day off)


The following week the students have district exams (no classes)




Case in point: My mother was right, I came here to "work" (emphasis on the air quotes)


Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Foreign One Pt. 2

So there’s a story my friends back home and I always laugh about these days, but when the story was unfolding we could not have been more worried, scared, and angry…

It was during my junior year of college at CSUDH and I got a call at about 6 in the morning. My friend Sarey’s mom called me asking me if Sarey had spent the night at my place because Sarey had not come home all night. I was worried, and this turned into a series of phone calls between my friends and I in trying to locate Sarey and making sure nothing happened to her. At some point I think Yaya initiated a missing person’s poster campaign. It turned into a squad search event to say the least.

Well things got squared away not too long after. After having noticed an endless amount of texts/voicemail messages on her cell phone, Sarey got back to everyone and the situation was put at ease. She came home late, and left early to go jogging. No one noticed when she came home and no one noticed when she left that morning. That was it.

So why have I decided to write about this event?

I’m glad you asked. Well on Saturday night/Sunday morning I had a “stay-in” night after many other events unfolded. I had been watching movies on iTunes and before heading to bed I thought I’d have Facebook a detour.

Well next thing I knew a fellow teacher, Lexi (who has only been in SK for ~2 weeks) IM’d me in total panic. The conversation asked me to call another new teacher Brooke (because Lexi has yet to get a cell phone in SK, she only has Internet) and to get her to call her mother. Here’s how that went:
1. Brooke left her mom a phone message mentioning the word “hospital”
2. IM from Lexi on Facebook asked me to get a hold of Brooke and to call her mom
3. I call Audrey asking her for Brooke’s number and fill her in
4. It turns out I already had Brooke’s number on my phone
5. I call Brooke twice and leave her two text messages explain the situations
6. 10 minutes go by
7. I get a text response from Brooke
8. We talk
9. Turns out her mom heard “hospital” but Brooke said “HOSTEL,” she had gone to Seoul for the weekend and left her mom a voicemail saying she had checked in at a hostel, not hospital
10. I tell Brooke to call her mom, and lecture her to this time enunciate
11. Brooke is officially embarrassed
12. I fill in Audrey and Lexi on the situation
13. It becomes a conversation topic on Sunday

And because of course this is the second time something like this has happened to me, I can’t help but laugh it off. But you better believe I will use this as ammunition to poke fun at the parties involved.

Before I left for SK, Nick told me that I should be on a mission to find Korean equivalents of all my friends. Even though Brooke is from Colorado…I think I found someone who can somewhat compare to my Peruvian friend.

p.s. Equivalents will never come close to the originals

p.s. HAPPY UPCOMING BIRTHDAY TO MY TWIN ETNA!

The List(s)

My Friday and Saturday in a Checklist




  • One of our school’s French exchange students had a grandfather who passed away.

  • I turned down a dinner with not one, not two, but three school principals. In retrospect I feel that was big no no.

  • After dinner with friends, I found out that my neighbor was hospitalized during his family’s vacation (they hadn’t had a vacation since they arrived from NYC in 2007).

  • My house-sitting assignment started earlier than expected.

  • Had to unexpectedly ride a bicycle in South Korea. Never in my life have been honked at so much by drivers (and I’ve driven w/ an open trunk in LA freeways).

  • I had to walk around with a big bag of Science Diet for the dog in Songtan.

  • I ate my weight in mondu.

  • I was not able to go to Seoul this weekend as planned (Come to think of it, I haven’t been back in Seoul in a while).

  • I found out I’m allergic to at least one of the family’s cats (there are two).

  • Made 2 discoveries, one of FB, and one on my own (both weirded me out).

  • Had to play “pass along the message” between a fellow teacher and her mother.

All in all, big middle finger to you October 2nd, and part of the day before too!

On my Sunday however…

  • Had the house sitting routine down to a science

  • Went to Pyeongtaek and enjoyed the rooftop view from the AK Plaza

  • Burst into sudden laughter while Susanna and I were carrying pizza boxes to “Jaudrey’s” place because we heard an instrumental Kpop version of “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

  • Had pizza

  • Played many fun rounds of King’s Cup and BS over soju with great people

  • Laughed hysterically about the "pass the message" occurence, as well as the 2 things that weirded me out.

    Verdict: Good Sunday

Saturday, October 2, 2010

A letter

Dear Life,
Please erase the last 24 hours, I'd really appreciate. Thank you. Granted I've been here for 4 months already and I was bound to have a bummer sooner or later, but still. I nice big push of the "delete" button would be awesome. Thank you.

Sincerely anticipating a response,
-Osc