The week of scared children and new teachers

This week was indeed the best and worst of times. It seems like years ago that we said goodbye to Jo and Pete on Monday night. Almost as long ago was our goodbye party for Shaun, Aaron and Chris on Tuesday night. It was sad to see them go, they were a lot of fun.

Our "old" group of teachers (taken on Tuesday after Jo left but before Aaron, Shaun and Chris)


Meanwhile, at school it was my first week with "Team 3" (there are 8 teams, Team 1 knowing the least English, Team 8 the most). For the last 4 weeks I have had Team 1, but with so many teachers leaving, Team 3 was available and I decided to take the plunge and switch, as I was told that Team 3 had similar English to Team 8 but retained the cuteness of Team 1. Without getting into too many details it turned out not to be the case this week, as they were quite the troublemakers. It was trying, to say the least, but the situation was greatly improved by the fact that we had Halloween programming, which included classes such as "History of Halloween" where I read the students scary stories, "Pumpkin Carving", "Trick or Treat", and my personal favourite, "Haunted House". Haunted House was my favourite because the students sat and watched a scary movie in the Theatre while the teachers dressed up in scary costumes and hid in the classrooms. Then, the students went on "tasks" ten at a time, such as "Drink blood in the Restaurant", "Take the neck tie off the zombie in Homestay" and "Feel the eyeballs in Hospital". When they arrived at the given classroom to complete their task one of the teachers would jump out and scare the begeezes out of them. My job was even better, as I got to dress up as the Wicked Witch of the West and randomly walk through the halls, jumping out from behind pillars and doorways. I got a lot of good screams. It was awesome. Yes, I am sick.

The Wicked Witch of the West
The teachers preparing to scare the crap out of the kids

In other news this week, our three new teachers arrived on Friday afternoon. Two guys and one girl, from Canada, the US and the UK. On Friday night five of us went for Indian food in the Hotel basement and it was INCREDIBLE. Like 50 times better than the first time. I'm not sure if it was because someone different was cooking, or if it was because I missed non-Korean food more this time. It was so comforting, I felt so mellow afterward. I had two heaping plates and I woke up Saturday morning still full!

On Saturday we had a 9–2pm Halloween program for kids aged 6–10. It was a lot of fun because they were so young and cute. The didn't understand a word we said for the most part, but their cuteness made up for it. This was a voluntary overtime deal, so we could either be paid for it, or we could take an extra day of vacation whenever we wanted it. I opted for the vacation. I'm hoping to be able to do 5 days of overtime before my guests arrive so I can spend more time with them all. I don't know if the Village will have that many Saturday programs though. Hopefully!

So, on Saturday night the our new group of teachers decided to go to the "Crazy Duck" which is a mostly foreigners bar that we've been to a couple of times now. It was a lot of fun, and although I packed it in at about 2am, I found out today that almost everyone else went to Karaoke after the bar and didn't get home until 6am!! Too crazy for me.

Today I finally went to Hwaseong Fortress which is a wall surrounding the centre of Suwon. It was built over 200 years ago by the King of the time, for his father who had been suffocated in a Rice Chest by his father. It's a lovely story, really. Anywho, the fortress was cool and we found this amazing golden Buddha which was about 2 stories tall. I stupidly forgot my camera, but I will get pictures from someone else and post them ASAP.