This morning Molly, Dillon, and I (teachers at Wesley Mission Language School) managed to roll out of our beds at 8 in the morning to go on a class field trip. We rode the school bus to Cheunon (Cha-non)with 25 kids in tow and watched Night at the Museum 2. It's a great movie with a lot of action, but it's still really kid friendly and funny.
After we returned from the field trip the American and Korean teachers all went out for noodles. I order jajeongmen, which tastes a little like french onion soup. It was pretty good.
Heong He (who we sometimes call Sabrina) took Molly and me to a really big mall. The mall was back in Cheunon, so Gin Ho gave us a ride to the bus station and we took a bus.
We went shopping for a while and then watched a very scary movie together at the cinema. We chose Burger King for dinner. We went to a different restaurant for dessert and had canned fruit in ice. They just dumped a can of mixed fruit into ice water and charged us 11 bucks for it! But, it was good and we had a great time (and now we know what to serve for dessert when Koreans come over!). Heong He speaks English very well and gave Molly and me a lot of insight into Korean life.
It was good to simply spend time with Koreans outside of the work environment!
The Korean teachers at our school are amazing.
He Young is like the director. She also handles discipline problems.
Bek Young (no relation) just got married and she and her husband and great to be around.
Heong He is just here until the end of the semester, which is sad because we are already so close - but she is moving to Seoul ... so we will always have a couch in the city!
P.S. When I re-read this it reminded me that I should explain Korean names. Korean names consist of 3 parts. The surname (last name) comes first. Kim is the usual surname, more than half of our students have the last name Kim. The next two parts are given names. They come from Chinese characters. So, for instance, He Young means Bright Sunshine and Bek Young means 100 Beautiful. Same given name, different meaning. Given names have no gender significance. It's a world of Pats. Surnames are common given names.
So, it's common in class to have
Kim Young Seong
Young Kim Seong
Seong Kim Young
It's really confusing ... like ridiculously confusing. But sort of fun.
One of my favorite Korean names is Dasl. It's gorgeous! I had a Korean student named Dasl, and I asked her what her named meant. Da was part of the word for active, and Sl was a part of the word for wise. So, the parents combined the characters. Dasl said though that there are many Dasls, but they all have different meanings depending on what word the parents chose the character from. I think it's super-cool. More creativity.
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