Hello again, 
First off, an apology for the lacking posts. It's a mixture of our laziness, the annoying sticky keyboard we have to type on (because we are too lazy and forgetful to buy a new one), our computer once again being swarmed with a strange virus that turns off our monitor every few minutes and then we are forced to restart the computer (well, now it's actually in the computer graveyard and we are in a stinky, smoky PC room or internet cafe), the daunting task of uploading and explaining my millions of pictures and not all that much going on in our lives!
I'm sure we've mentioned it a million times over, but times has just flown since we've got here! We are already 1/3 finished our contract, and we now know all the students at the academy by name (we're guessing around 200 of the little buggers). Most of the Korean names are a combination of two of these in no particular order: Young, Min, Cha, Dong, Bin, Yay, Hye, Un, Hee, Jung, Da, Ji. None of the names are gender specific either. For example, I've had a male Jung Wee, and a female Wee Jung, and both a male and female Da Oon. We know our students all by their Korean names, even though in Korean English Academy's it is regular practice to give the students an "English" name, and always go by that name in the academy, and when the students meet english speakers.
First off, an apology for the lacking posts. It's a mixture of our laziness, the annoying sticky keyboard we have to type on (because we are too lazy and forgetful to buy a new one), our computer once again being swarmed with a strange virus that turns off our monitor every few minutes and then we are forced to restart the computer (well, now it's actually in the computer graveyard and we are in a stinky, smoky PC room or internet cafe), the daunting task of uploading and explaining my millions of pictures and not all that much going on in our lives!
I'm sure we've mentioned it a million times over, but times has just flown since we've got here! We are already 1/3 finished our contract, and we now know all the students at the academy by name (we're guessing around 200 of the little buggers). Most of the Korean names are a combination of two of these in no particular order: Young, Min, Cha, Dong, Bin, Yay, Hye, Un, Hee, Jung, Da, Ji. None of the names are gender specific either. For example, I've had a male Jung Wee, and a female Wee Jung, and both a male and female Da Oon. We know our students all by their Korean names, even though in Korean English Academy's it is regular practice to give the students an "English" name, and always go by that name in the academy, and when the students meet english speakers.
As our computer, and hence all our pictures and files, are currently unaccessible, I will just post the pictures that I uploaded to Facebook before our beastly and emo computer took it's own life, and include a short update.
Our first experience at English Camp was a ... ... hmm... strange but not too painful one. We hopped into our bosses Hyundai Mini-van at 5pm on Saturday with 10 students (that's right, plus, Jake, me and our boss!) , and headed to (one of) our bosses "beach appartments" about 45 minutes outside of the city.
Jake taught and sang the classic BNL (Barenaked Ladies for those of you that aren't the die hards) "If I had a Million Dollars", we made some curry for dinner (the students peeled the potatoes and carrots), and then slept on the floor. Well, everyone except me and the tiny little Cindy you will see in the pics slept on the floor. We got a queen sized bed to share, and though I was in a separate sleeping bag, I feared in the night I was going to roll over and crush her like the 10 pound bug that she is. Fortunately for me Cindy fell off the bed in the middle of the night on her own, eliminating that possibility... haha. She climbed right back on though, still completely asleep and unaware. Her mom told us that she hadn't slept the night before because she was too excited for English Camp, so she was pretty exhausted that night. My thoughtful students woke me at 5am, and the day had some more games, and then ended at the local fish market. We got back into Ulsan around 2pm with 150,00 won.
I was able to witness my first Korean concert on a soccer field at the local Ulsan University campus. It was pretty elaborate and interesting, though I didn't quite care for most of the music.. except of course, the latest boy band sensation Big Bang with their latest (and only) single "Lies". I'm going to try to get it on my Ipod and perhaps post it here. I have a video of it that I will post later as well!
Have a good one, we have to head to bed now. We'll write more when our new computer we ordered today gets in on Thursday. Until then, call us!
**Pictures 1, 2 , 3 **
Cheerios,
콜린 (Colleen) and 제이크(Jake)
