Museums & Such
I have finally spent some much-needed time touring some museums this past week/weekend. I was feeling really guilty of having not been to some of the “big” museums in my area. So, I am feeling pretty good that within this past week I had four cultural excursions – Seodaemun Prison Museum, Seoul Art Museum, Deoksugung Palace, & Korean War Museum. Hoorah!! Admittedly, I did not go into the Picasso exhibition related to the Seoul Art Museum & I was really disappointed in general about the “museum” – it was an exhibit on only one artist. Anyway though, I would like to dedicate the rest of this blog to my trip to Seodaemun Prison – because it was really interesting.
The SP trip was related to my work/company excursion, which was nice. The main part of museum deals with the history of the prison during its use by the Japanese government (Japanese annexation of Korea…do your history). During that time the prison-house a lot of political prisoners, people who opposed the Japanese regime. There were torture rooms in the prison and some prisoners were executed there due to their actions against the J gov. You get the picture? Anyway, it was all very interesting/moving….but I’d like to deal with the strange aspects of the tour.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean theme song that played at one of the displays. It really distracted me, I was reading about the Korean prisoners & I kept wondering when Jack Sparrow would pop out. Arg Matey, change your song choice! *if you forgot the theme song, here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=729i-eh-6uY
2. There was a large number of Japanese high school students touring the museum. They probably were on some school trip. Firstly, if you are visiting a museum about some less than reputable things your country did to a group of people (i.e. torturing) then you should try to act in a mature/respectful fashion. Or at least that’s my take on it. Anyway, there was a really odd encounter btwn some female students and one of the people in my group. He could be considered handsome, and when they saw him they went crazy. Complete fan-girls. Saying (really loudly) how cute/handsome he was etc. Wanting to shake his hand, take a picture with him etc. Needless to say, it was a little distracting going through the museum with a gaggle of Japanese girls tailing behind you. It is important to note, that he in no way discouraged them and acted like a peacock in its prime. Men~
Update
So, this is me together with a special little boy named Chang Jin, 창진. I “teach” him, but it is really more like babysitting. I see him usually on Saturdays. Here we are petting the horses. He loved it…but he wasn’t light. That’s all I’ll say. lol
Now, about some WordPress issues. For some reason the page has looked kind of wonky of late — pictures not connected to their posts, etc. I’m not to happy about it. I tried to fix the problem but can’t figure how to – and don’t know what’s causing it. I think it a stupid website glitch – and my general computer curse. Regardless, I tried changing the background, which did not do much. What I can say is that if you click on the title of the post, like “Update” – it will show up normally with the corresponding picture and reply comments. So, I recommend when you see a new post, you automatically click on the title of that post. Just an idea.
Open Class
For those of you who weren’t informed (although I am not sure who that’d be), I had an open class this Thursday 10/21. Basically, an open class is a demonstration class where outside teachers (korean and foreign), and education administrators are invited to watch & critique an English class. It is understated to say that the class requires a great deal of preparation. With my co-teachers’ advice, I created a 21 pg document outlining the structure of the class, and detailing our goals and teaching techniques. This, coupled with a PowerPoint and video display, resulted in a lot of stress. I am not going to say a lot, other than the divvying out of this work was not 50/50. Regardless, the class went well. We got a lot of positive feedback. One teacher even said that it was the best open class he’d seen; another said we had high chances of winning an award (there is an evaluation of all open classes at the end of the year) for our open class. I’m not trying to brag, I am just proud of the result – because of all the hard work put into it. Additionally, the students were great (there are 18 students in this class; and they are all “A” level, & adorable^^). Maybe they were too good though (this was my 2nd open class with them) because now I am tempted to use them again for the next open class! lol But I hope that next open class is far in the future, preferably never! ha ha
Also, I wanted to thank the people *cough cough* who sent me the wedding pictures online. They were very useful and made the ppt much more personable. The students really enjoyed the lesson on cross-cultural comparisons (weddings, baby showers, & funerals). The day was a successs and I couldn’t be happier to have it all behind me now! ㅋㅋㅋ^^
Me, students, & spectatorsWorking~
Mellow in South Korea 