Lunch Time at Gamjung!

Lunchtime in Korean schools is MUCH different than in the US, and lunchtime at Gamjung Chodun Hakyo (my school), it's even MORE different! First of all, students don't bring their lunches to school in Korea! They are served actual meals, with rice, some sort of meat, a soup, and some vegetables. Most schools have their own cafeteria, but my little itty bitty school doesn't... so the food is shipped from my friend Aaron's school (a couple miles away) in large rolling carts. Here's how the process goes:

4 moms volunteer to come everyday to put the carts of food on the elevator and roll them down to the ends of the hallways on each floor.


Then, when the bell rings, the class leaders find their cart and roll it to their classroom.

Once the cart is in the classroom, the class leaders cut the rice into squares, pull all of the canisters of food out, and of course - put their aprons on! :)

Then it's time to serve! TEACHERS ALWAYS GO FIRST!! This is Josh, (4th grade teacher).

Then it's the kids turn! They were very excited today because they were getting fried food!


This is the 5th grade class down the hallway. They don't wear aprons, they were bandanas!  It's important for them to be fashionable at all times around here!

... and these are my sweet little kindergartners!   Once the student's food is served, they eat lunch in their classrooms at their desks.


After they are finished eating, they have to put all of their uneaten (sp?) food into a recycling bowl, stack their trays, wash their chopsticks, and brush their teeth! We've got them trained around here!

As much as I love these kids, I am VERY thankul that I am not a "homeroom teacher." I actually get to eat downstairs with the adults!!! :)

Welcome to My Classroom!

Since I can't give you all the official tour in person, I've taken some pictures, so you can see where I live from 8:40am - 4:40pm Monday through Friday! If you remember, when I first got to Korea, I posted some pictures of my classroom. Since then, they have knocked down walls and remodeled the space and have come up with this! I took these this morning. Enjoy!

This is the view from the door, walking into the classroom.


This is looking from the back of the classroom - forward.


This is my view from the front of the classroom while I'm teaching...

This is the computer area of the English Plaza.

This is the English Plaza and MY DESK!

This is my desk - clean and organized as always! Some things never change!

I hope you enjoyed the tour! If you ever want a real tour, feel free to come over :)

Dinner with the Girls!

Last night I met Jess, Sowon and her sister Soyon in Nampodong for dinner! It's always nice to have girl nights!

After I got off the bus from work, I walked through the market to get to where they were and snapped a couple pictures of what I get to see, living here. This market is famous in korea and is only 2 stops from my school, and about 5 from my house, so I come here often!




Jess and I spent some time catching up at Smoothie King before we met Sowon at PIFF Square (Where the annual film festival is held in Pusan.)

Sowon and I at dinner. She took us to the most famous traditional korean restaurant in Nampodong. As you probably have already seen from all my blogs about eating out, they serve TONS of side dishes. There was one that looked like baked fish, so I tried it. It was delicious. I later found out it was an eel! Hey, there's a first time for everything!


Soyon and Jess

Jess is always the last one to finish eating when we all go out because she takes 5 minutes to create 1 bite of food and only eats vegetables and lettuce! We love you Jess!

Hey, I know that song!

I thought I'd share with you, some of the most commonly played korean pop songs right now. Literally, every store you go into, you're bound to hear at least one of these playing - most of which are extremely catchy!

4minute

명카 Drive


Girls Generation


Super Junior


2ne1

Big Bang

Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra

G-Dragon

You did What?!

We are working on an art project with our 6th graders today about what they did on vacation. One of my favorite students, who I've given the English name of Seth to, was drawing and talking and said, "On vacation, I played baseball with my ganja!"