Class 14!

Here are a couple pics of my homeroom class and our super awesome classroom decorations.

That tree contains a panda, a cameleon eating a dragon fly, a little yellow bird, and a bee hive. It's quite a little ecosystem.

The kids are really good, and having them all day makes things pretty easy. I've developed an easy going teacher student relationship based on mutual respect, which allows me to quietly emotionally blackmail them when they are bad. Needless to say, the kids behave really well.

This week has been a lot easier than last. Though the general atmosphere of stress amongst the teachers increases daily, I find myself more relaxed and energetic everyday.

This past weekend I went for a great bike ride with my 54 year old roommate (also a Canadian). Given the circumstances, you might be thinking that we were out for a leisurely country ride. You would be wrong. Gordon, who looks about 10 years younger than his age, has been a competitive triathlete for years. He's the kind of guy who gets up at 5:30 everyday and goes running. I'm the kind of guy who gets up at 9:00 everyday and drinks pu-er tea for two hours.

He just finished off a tour of Thailand and Laos by bike as well, and he told me that everyday he got up early enough to meet the first rays of sun on his bicycle. Brett and I were usually on the road by 10:00. Well, at least 10:30, or 11:00 at the latest.

Anyway, I have to reiterate that Korea is similar to Taiwan. Biking around, there's a similar feeling in the air.

Actually, I know nothing about Korea. I don't really feel like I'm anywhere. I'm just at a summer camp. It was a funny feeling to walk into town for pizza on Saturday - I was shocked to find myself in Korea.

I mean to say the Korea looks a lot like Taiwan. The buildings and the roads and railways. The brand new cars. The heat. Like that. It's hard to enjoy it as much not being able to talk to people, but it's still a cool place.

As a side note, I have to mention an experience I had here on my first weekend. I went along with a big group of teachers to what was said to be the "best club in town". But, we walked in and found the dance floor was empty. The music was quiet, and terrible besides. I was pretty disappointed, so I went to buy a beer to console myself. I turned around a minute later, beer in hand, to find the entire dance floor full of people. At least 50 people were suddenly dancing. Strange.

Of course, we all went out on the floor to dance, and we were having a really good time until about half an hour later. The DJ said something into the mic in Korean, and everyone walked off the floor.

Apparently he said "now is time to stop dancing".

Twenty minutes later the DJ returned and seemed to announce "time to start dancing", because within ten seconds, all 50 people returned to the dance floor.

This happened again and again over the next two hours. Does this happen back home?

I'll try to post some more pictures later, including the much sought after "Aaron leads morning exercise in front of 250 elementary students" video.