Adventures in South Korea: December 2009

Once there was a tea house snuggled deep within a city called Seoul. It was a charming place filled with exotic treasures, healing herbs and the most splendid, most delicate and most delightful array of birds. A colony of birds to be exact.

Well now, to be absolutely accurate, these birds weren't simply delightful nor simply splendid nor simply delicate and beautiful, these birds were extraordinary in the fact that they too, but much more than the tea leaves, had healing powers. Some could bring happiness to the hearts of all the people in the shop with a just a slight shiver of their feathers. Others could cure colds and such illnesses with their sing-song chirp. And yet others, the very, very, very special few could heal all wounds with the giving of their feathers.

To be logical, as most people are, the birds hide their extraordinariness, and have been for ten thousand years. This way they do not draw too much publicity, and neither are they over worked. Birds get tired too you know.

Because they have been around so long they have developed a specific code amongst themselves so as to not "blow their cover", as they say. Course, I don't know the code. I'm a people. They would never tell me. But I'd guess it'd be something along the lines of 1) no talking to people, 2) no showing off before peoples, and 3) keep your feet clean and be sure to land your droppings on the tree only!

Just a guess.

Anyways, among these enchanted birds lays a discovery like no other. A find that Indiana Jones and Lara Croft would kill, butcher and enslave for. The find of, well do you know? Hint: the same birds have lived as a colony all around the world for the past ten thousand years.

They have what the Christians called the aqua de vitae, what Herodotus mentioned briefly in his histories, and what Alexander the Great supposedly journeyed to the Land of Darkness for, the Fountain of Youth.

From A to Z, to all the in between. The birds chirped all the day to bring well-being.

The trees, the wood, the mountains and springs; the small candle light's hue shone on all happy things.

Decide to be in or out they say.

I'll decide what I decide darn it.

Hm, as always I'll stay.

Far and deep into the hollowed out room,

a secret kept quiet,

awaiting just the right tune.

For how many years have people thought it the tea?!

The tea, the tea. What more could there be?

Birds do not heal. I doubt birds can feel!

Look past the tea to the treasures below. Where have the been? I'd like to know.

Keep on your guard! The black tipped bird said.

You bite that bon-bon, I might raise you from dead!

The morning sun shone on the writing wall.

It said here is where I start.

I'll grant all your wishes if you give me a part.

Out the window there's death, in there's life.

The bird stared in confusion at his cousin in flight.

It's the tea! It's the tea! I say. Nothing much more.

If birds can be healers, then I am a door!

I wrote awhile ago about preparing for a "Korean Halloween". It was a special after school party I put together for my "special students", aka those who had been determined "gifted students" by some random test done by the school before I came. They were actually tested on their science and math skills, then using those results were picked for special after school classes ranging from math and science to English and social studies. Why the same test is used for ranging subjects is quite beyond me, but my guess is it made sense to someone 'important' and therefore was implemented without question.

Anyways, my Halloween party went spectacularly well... I think. I had spent two weeks decorating the entire classroom with monsters, skeletons, hanging bats, spider webs, and let me not forget the mural of vibrant purple velvet, paper and gargantuan proportions of tape. Yes, I may have gone a 'little' overboard. But come now, this is my first year having an ACTUAL job. This is also my first year of legitimate influence on something other than a grade or what kind of toppings you want on your burrito. I also have ridiculous amounts of time to think about such things that make no difference to the world, but make the people immediately around me quite happy (I hope.) So, yeah, I went a little nuts-o. But the way I see it is that these kids have never had a Halloween party, and only have a limited idea of what Halloween really is. So, I guess I tried to realize that for them.

So after the decorating, I began to plan the party. First we watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" the week before the party. I had them do a matching worksheet, and made it worth so many points. Then the day of the party, which was a special two and a half hour class time (rather than the usual fifty minutes), I had them break into groups for a contest of sorts. There were four stations. The first being Halloween mask making, in which they cut out their own scary face and colored it. Second was the grand traditional Halloween festivity of bobbing for apples. Next was Halloween decoration making, in which they cut out skeleton parts and but them together with safety pins. Lastly was the bean bag game of "Feed the Monster". I made a card board monster cut out for them to toss spiderweb balls into for points.

Then after the stations, we would all get together with fifth grade versus sixth grade... a grand battle. First was the game "Spiderweb", which consisted of each team undoing the spiderweb balls from the bean bag game as fast as they could. Inside the scotch tape balls was candy, a greater incentive than points to twelve year olds. Second we played "Mummify", a game using toilet paper to wrap up a peer the fastest and best. Then after that, prizes and Dirt Worm Sundays- you know, the ice cream, ground up Oreos with gummy worms fiasco? A bit crazy for forty young kids to all want ice cream at the same time, but it worked, sort of.

By sort of I mean this was all the plan. I had told my co-teach and the head teacher two weeks before about what I intended to do. I was so excited, so thrilled to get to have a party all designed by moi. And for Halloween, too! Ah, I was ecstatic. Then the week before the whole shindig- my co tells me she can't help with the party. She has to go on a "business trip". I say ahhh okay, Ms. Lee (our head teacher and other English teacher with me) can still be there right? Oh yes, of course was the reply. So I did not worry. Monday of Halloween week my head teacher informs me that she won't be showing up until three as she too has a business meeting. Hm. Okay. Now I do worry. As I said before, these kids aren't the cream of the crop for English. Math, science- okay. Not English. And now this week I have them for an hour alone. All thirty-seven of them. My mind raced.

Wednesday came and I decided to go with it. How terrible could it be? We still needed to finish the movie we started last week. That bought me forty minutes. But the crucial need for translation was well before my head teacher could show up. So what to do? They needed to really understand the 'stations' in order for organization to triumph over a mass of pre-teens. I tried.

The head teacher did not show up until three-twenty. I stood on a chair to gain attention and hopefully order. They listened a bit, but remained full of questions, each of which was the same as the next, yet none that they would all sit and be quiet for as a whole. I was truly on my last leg when Ms. Lee arrived. Chucking spiderweb balls across the room at Feed the Monster, 'More paper! More paper!' from the decoration station, "How? Ottokae?" from the mask makers and then "Shinchong plu! Shinchong plu! from my bobbing for apples crew. Ugh, I wanted to scream and walk out. I cursed all "business trips" and "shinchong plu" (aka swine flu). I cursed my school for leaving me with these kids. I cursed my stupidity, er gullibility, at having thought this party would go as planned. I of all people should know already that nothing in Korea goes as planned, not if you're the bottom feeder that is. (Meaning the two months I waited to finally get here. Not much caring on the part of my school.) So this should not have surprised me. We didn't even finish the stations, let alone the fifth vs. sixth grade games. We had to stay an extra half hour just to dish out the ice cream in an orderly fashion. Ugh, never again. A great experience for me, yeah, but never again. I had my party and I'll actually fondly remember it. As it was fun once I threw in the towel and let them rule me.

The next week, once my co teach could attend, we played the group games separately. They had fun, and I did too, with my co-teach my by side saving my butt with every Korean word.

Below are the pics of the events. From the classroom decor to the group games to my costume as "Kiki" from the Japanese animation film Kiki's Delivery Service. Please enjoy, as it was quite a lot in the making! ^^

Ah Minsu- always the ham.

The kid on the left is not so great of student, and as you can see not too thrilled about the activity whether fun or not. Have a theory that he's an old crabby man inside a twelve year old. So far my theory has yet to be disproved.