Our local coffee shop

Coffee is an important part of my day. It tastes great and gives you that boost that you sometimes really need. In most countries, if you only had one coffee per day, you would drink it in the morning. I remember a short 9:30am meeting at work in Melbourne. As soon as that meeting was over the whole team would get a coffee. This is not really how it happens in Korea.

Most Korean coffee shops don't open until 10am so no getting coffees on my way to work which would be ideal. The average Korean drinks coffee after work between 6 and 10 at night. I guess this makes some sense sense the average Korean sleeps 5 hours a night and doesn't go to bed until 1am.
Statistics in above sentence may not be accurate...

Loren and I have found a local coffee shop which is a 3 minute walk from our house. The coffee there is possibly the best I have had in Korea. The girl who works (and possibly owns) the coffee shop loves us. We occasionally get free cheese cake or free brownies. She remembers our exact order so we could go in and just say "the usual"....if we knew how to say that in Korean. Our coffee girl's name is "En-me"....or that's what I think she said it was and what I have been calling her for 2 months.

The coffee shop has those "frequent buyer stamp card" things. After I had completed two of those cards En-me was very thankful and told me she would make Loren and I a present. The next week she took a photo of the 2 of us but due to our language barrier we didn't really know why. 2 weeks after the photo was taken, En-me asked me to write down our names for her. Once again, didn't really know why or what she was making but I wrote them down none the less.

Finally, 4 weeks after she told us about the present, En-me gave us a wrapped parcel. We opened it and to our delightful surprise it was a drawing of Loren and I in our coffee shop. Take a look:

Speaking tests

This week my students had speaking tests. Instead of normal classes they would each come talk to me in my office for up to one minute. I would then ask them a question and give them a score.

Most of my students did very well and told me some interesting stories. However, some students didn't go so well. Here are some of the funny things that I was told this week:

Other English teacher: Who is your favourite family member?
Student: I play the piano.

10:45am
Me: Hi. Ok, please begin.
Student: ...blank stare...
Me: You can start now.
Student:...blank stare...
Me: Did you prepare a talk?
Student: ...blank stare...
Me: 시작 ("Start" in Korean) 
Student: ...blank stare... 
Me: Ok, thank you.
Student: ...blank stare...
Me: Ok, you can go now
Student: ...blank stare...
Me: Ok, time to go (get up and gesture to the door)
Student: (Finally leaves) 10:48am

Student: My mum makes lots of food. Her food is delicious not like her.

Student: My dad is fat and I don't like that.

Student: My friend is very pretty and cute.
I am very intermate with my friend.
I want to be intermate with my friend forever.

Student: Hello Mr Parry. My name is Dum Bit Cher

Student: I was in a story telling contest.
I wait in the line but na ture kell.
The line was very long and I got nervous.
I stood in line a long time but na ture kell.
It was finally my time to story tell.
I got on stage but nature called and I urinated all over the stage.
It was very embarass but I am proud of my acomplishment.

Sports Day

Last Friday there were no classes because we had sports day. For about a month leading up to sports day we have been having classes cancelled all over the place for "sports day practice". I thought how much practice do these kids need to run a few races, do long jump and shot put. Korean sports days have a lot more to them than just that. It started with an entire student body 10 minute stretch/tai chi kinda thing. Apparently this is a nation wide sports day warm up/cool down routine. The P.E. teacher was in his element up on the stage leading all the kids (and teachers).

Each year level had their own 5-10 minute dance performance (now I understand why some much time was needed to practice).

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5 and 6

Between all the performances there were running races, but no other track and field events like discus, long jump etc....

The parents and older siblings even got to run. The grandparents didn't run but they did do a relay where they had to push a giant ball around a pole.

Finally it was my time to shine! The teacher vs parents relay. Ashley (the other native teacher) ran first against a mother we had seen blitz the parents races. Ashley managed to beat her. I ran 3rd last and by that time the teachers team was well and truly behind. I didn't lose any more ground, but I didn't make up much. All this week the students have been saying "Ashley, good runner" then they look at me and either say nothing or say (not very convincingly) "you too....."

The day ended with another insanely cute school stretching session.