My Hood - Around The School & Neighborhood

I took some time and snapped a few pictures one day around the school and neighborhood. As always, click to see bigger images.




This first one is of a few of the random students. They are first years (7th grade) and from one of my nosier classes. Rather goofy group. They think I don't understand that I know when they are joking about me (at least the middle one doesn't). The one with the glasses is always acting goofy, yet she gets mad if someone calls her a comedian.










Schools over here don't have janitors, so the students are responsible for cleaning the school. Everyday after school they clean their classrooms. I don't know why, but the brooms here are so short. They have regular sized mops, but super short brooms here. Confuses me to no end.













I sometimes bring my football to work and throw it around during lunch with the students. They still call it a "rugby ball" and have no clue how to throw it or catch it. Still, they find it interesting that i like it so much.















Anyone who's spent time over here will tell you about the street food. You can't get away from it and you will eat it. This one happens to be the snack stand next to the school. The kids raid this place after school. They also sneak over and buy food during school hours and lunch when they aren't supposed to. I often stop and grab something here either during lunch or after school. Not the best food in terms of health, but it's good and cheap.








The owner of the corner mart next to my apartment. He and his wife are so cool to me and have even started carrying items just because I asked about it. A pretty remarkable accomplishment considering they hardly speak any English and I barely can greet them in Korean. Still, they always speak even when I don't come in to buy something. I can only imagine what they think of my random buying habits.

I Wanna Be Sedated

Perhaps I caught it from a student or perhaps it was yesterday’s lack of socks, but I now have a cold. It hit me like a brick wall this morning and it hasn’t let up. I went down to the nurse and she gave me some meds. They have helped, but it’s still pretty bad. I stuck thru my one main class today because it was my favorite class. When they were asked if they wanted free study time or my regular class time they choose class time with me. Strangely, the acted up for the class period and I told them I was rather disappointed in them. I’m NEVER disappointed in 101!

After class I my co-teacher told me to get a rest and come back for one more class. On the way, a couple of the other teachers stopped by the food vendor next to the school and asked me to join them. They don’t speak a whole lot of English but they were nice to me and they even paid for my meal (despite me telling them not to a few times!). Still, I thought it was nice of them considering how little I get to communicate with most of the teachers at my school. Got to love that language barrier, right?

After my unexpected lunch, I went home and took a nap. I ended up oversleeping because my alarm on my cell phone didn’t go off (dang it). She wasn’t upset with me because she knew I was still feeling crappy.

I plan on going to Holy Grill despite how crappy I’m feeling. I have a free meal and I plan on using that up today. Besides, I’m kind of up for some Guitar Hero afterwards.

On a completely different note, my family needs to send me my damn PS3. They don’t understand my lack of entertainment around here! I only have some random books and a few oddball Korean TV shows I find myself watching despite not having a clue as to what the actors are saying. I am not If it weren’t for the laptop and internet I would have gone insane by now. By the time I get my system sent to me, it will be August and time for me to go back to the states!

Random side note: I found out that the 3rd year boys have a running bet to see who can hug me. I had figured this out some time ago, but I just bothered to ask one of the students about it today. This proves my theory that Korean boys are evil.