singing in the fan

Today we took the kids to the Dobong City Hall. They have a Basketball Gym there were we taught the kids how to play basketball. I am not sure if they really understood everything, but you could tell that they were having a blast! You would think that they gym would have AC, but nope- not at the Dobong Office. I actually asked when I got there why it was so hot in their city hall. They told me that they had to make budget cuts and that was one of the things that they cut back on. So they only turn it on during really - I mean really hot hot moments. When I worked last weekend at the science fair I think they turned it on 3 or 4 times and each time it got cooler but then it got hot again.

Anyways back to my story. The kids LOVED basketball. There was one in particular that was really good! His name is Jae. He used to live in America and he said that he played for the YMCA. :) Every kid after 2 hours was dripping in sweat! We were lining up to go back to the school and there were two huge fans by the door. These fans had to have been 3-4 feet in Diameter. They were huge! Well as I am telling the students to line up a few of the boys jumped in front of the fan to cool down. Then the funniest thing happened! They all started singing in Korean into the fan! I was laughing SO hard! I remember when I used to sing in front of the fan to make my voice sound funny. It was hilarious!




Oh and I forgot...we had 20 kids on a public bus- WELL, I have already said that the bus drivers here are crazy! We are riding along and all of a sudden this women goes to cross the street and our bus driver came about 2inches away from hitting her! He swerved and everything! My heart was pounding! I was like holy crap!!! Krista said last week that her bus driver hit a car and then honked at it to get out of the way. The person driving the car had his hands up ( probably thinking what the heck!! )

After school I volunteer at another school in a 1st grade class. They don't really know any English so it is dificult to communicate with them. Today we went over body parts and on Tuesday we did family members. They are SO stinkin cute! Well today as I was leaving the school I started walking home and this little girl came up behind me. She ran all the way over to me from about 20yards away just to give me a coffee drink! It was the cutest thing!! I wish I could talkl with the 1st graders like I do the 4th/5th graders. Its funny because the 1st graders talk to us in Korean like we know it. hahaha! They don't know anything different! Bless their little hearts! They are so cute! On the way into school 1st graders were walking by and one stopped and pointed at me and said, "Beautiful!" and then smiled and ran away! Another girl in class looked at me and the turn her head to the right a little and said, "eyes, what color?" (cause we learned about body parts today and eyes was one of the words) I said Green and she laughed! Green eyes!!! hahahahaha! Like I was some kind of monster! It was so funny!

Here is the other school: (The kids clean here too! - I LOVE IT!)

some pictures

Sunday Experience!

What a day! Lets just say....I went to church and I had to sit here:


Yes, that sign says forigner! LOL I was so embarrassed because I had to sit up there, above all the other seats, next to the choir, only white girl in the whole place, wearing a bright purple shirt! LOL BUT I really liked the church, I was able to listen to the sermon in English, there was a translator. I had to wear the headphones and listen. : ]

Here is some of my Sunday : ]

Jawoon Elementary School

I have never seen kids SO excited about "foreigners". When we were walking up and down the hall for our school tour the kids were waving, screaming (HI-HI-HI), getting out of their seats to come say hi to us and be next to us! It was so amazing! Monday I got to class, I love my students SO much! I have 12 students in my class, here are their English names they were given:
Jack, Irene, Jenny 1, Jenny 2, Christina, Alice, Brian, Michael, Anna, Hue, Jae, and Esther. So funny that those were some of the names they were given. All students are 11-12 years old which is 4-5 grade here for them! They all know English (some better than others)

The first day they asked me questions like, do you have a boyfriend? are you married? the usual for children. There is another English teacher in my class his name is Meachum. Pronounced- me- chum. He is 6'6, wears size 15 shoe, very skinny, and SO funny! The kids are trying to hook us up because we are both single...its pretty funny!

In the schools the kids clean! Slave labor ....bahahaha! JK...But really, on Monday it was the regular schools last day of school, students had gloves on, mops, cleaning supplies and everything! We were told that they clean their schools! I really like that idea! The kids don’t wear shoes inside the classroom so in all of the rooms you will see most kids have indoor shoes which they only wear inside a room or they have socks or they go bare foot. I went to the Lotte Mart this weekend and picked up a pair of hello kitty slippers! All the girls love them!
It was so funny because during the game time we were playing this game called, “Do you love your neighbor?” everyone is sitting in a chair and one person is in the middle asking that question. Well I started off in the middle- the kids volunteered me! The first kid I go to I said, “Do you love your neighbor? He said,” No!” So I said, “Then who do you love?” and the point of this game is to say something like people with socks on, and then all the people with socks on have to get up and move to another seat. The person in the middle has to try to get a seat. Whoever doesn’t get a seat is not the one in the middle. Well this kid, his name is Brain. Total jokester- smart kid! His response was, “People with black face.” (as he motions his hand in a circle right infront of his face! LOL! I could not stop laughing! There was only one black person in the room and that was Meachum! It was absolutely hilarious! Even Meach was laughing! These kids are great! I love teaching them! They are so well behaved and love to learn! Learning to them is like a fun activity! Today Brian asked me if I have had Soju, beer, wine…ect. I don’t know how he knows about all the alcoholic beverages. Then he goes well I have had 4 beers already this week! I was like oh yeah? You aren’t even old enough to drink! He laughs and says, “ROOT BEERS!” I am telling you, these kids are awesome! I look forward to seeing their faces each day!
Oh and one of the summer camp rules is to punctual. And let me tell you, every kid was their before 9 am …actually when I got there at 8:40am, there were already 4 kids there in their seats!  It makes me smile!
Oh and let me tell you about the bathroom! I had to go to the bathroom so I said hey, I will be right back…so I walk down the hall, and there are student bathrooms and then there are teacher bathrooms. So I walk in, open the stall door only to find that the toilet is on the ground! YEP! Had to pop a squat! I was tripping out! I walk back in the room and go, “Judit, Sky…did you go to the bathroom yet?!” They were like NO, why? They couldn’t believe it either! All the stalls in the whole school are like that! In class Brian was asking me where in the world I have traveled! I was telling, and then I told him about the weird toilets here, and how in Mexico they don’t flush their paper down. He said, “Oh yeah, you ever been to China? Well I have and they have toilets on the ground- with NO WALLS!” lol! I love it here! These kids are incredible!

Game night! Korean style...

I forgot to tell you all about Thursday. Thursday our trip to DMZ got moved to August 18th because Dobong city hall has been SUPER busy with setting up for the science festival. Well Thursday all of us met up and we all went down town. This was a lot of fun! We tried out KFC here, and it was actually REALLY tasty! I found this store called “Art Box” and its my new favorite! The boys were with us and you could tell that they were not that interested so Krista, Judit, and I decided that we need to have a day where just the girls go shopping  It will be al lot better without them – so we can stay in there as long as we want without feeling guilty! Hahaha
Today we had the science festival again; it was so much fun making the slime! I especially liked getting to know all of the volunteers! Many Koreans when they become really good English speakers they receive an English name. Today this boy asked all of us what his English name should be. I thought that he looked like an Adrian, and everyone LOVE IT! So did he, so he stuck with it. About 5 mins later I was like, “hey what about us, can you give us a Korean name?” So they all named each of us!  My Korean name is, “Sumi” like SUE ME. Haha SO funny!
Tonight when I came home I was surprised with a brand-new umbrella from the father! It is a really really nice one! Today it rained pretty much all day, from when I woke up until I got home. My umbrella- well let’s just say it’s from Nevada and you can tell! Haha This one is the nicest one I have ever had! I was so happy because the father hasn’t said anything to me really, he is very quiet! But tonight he gave me that and then got out all of his photo albums and showed me the pictures! It was so nice bonding with him! I also taught the girls tonight how to do my bobby pin twist thing that I normally do with my hair. When I came home they all saw my hair and kept telling me how beautiful it looked!!  The oldest daughter she loves my color, when I said it was not dyed her mom says, “see all natural=beautiful” HAHAHA! They are too kind!
The after me, the mom, the twins, and their older sister played games. I learned this new Korean game and I was pretty good at it! Turns out at the end of the game (which I won 3 out of 4 games ;] haha) they bought the game for me to take home and share with my friends and family! I can’t wait to show you, it’s a lot of fun! I love my host family!  They are so good to me! We also played Jenga, and whoever knocks down the tower they have to bend down and everyone taps on their back and says, “indiannnnnnnn BOP BOP(2 big slaps) and and then high-yah! With your elbow, all on their back. Its pretty funny!!
Even today the mom brought me steamed potatoes for me and the other 5 to eat because we were working the booth all day! She is so thoughtful! Tomorrow we are going to church and I am pretty excited to see how it all goes!
Ps…I got some cute hello kitty sandals today at the lotte mart  its so rainy here and its nice t have some shoes to walk in the rain! 


<3 Stacy Rae

ROBOTS + SLIME = FUN!!

Today we worked the Dobong Science Festival! This was at the city hall here in Dobong. Our team had to man a City of Henderson booth. There we had a station to make SLIME! I have to say this was the coolest booth! Every kid came back because they wanted to make more slime!






I was really impressed at how well some of the students spoke English! A lot of them were the younger ones! There were so many fun things to do at th science festival: there was a 3D movie, but it was all in Korean, there were some really cool simulators for the kids and there was a TV screen in front of them so it was like they were flying a plane! IT WAS SO COOL! There was also a girl Robot that had a computer system installed and it walked around and people could touch the screen and read all about the festival. The 6 of us were talking about having the City do one of these! I really feel as if Dobong is very concerned with their students education and they think it is SO impportant! I wish our city could invite everyone from the community in and do a big science festival to promote learning!

Jawoon Elementary

Today we got to visit our Elementary schools. It was so funny because we have been playing the NA game and all these teachers started walking in and the last one to walk in after all the short Korean teachers was a 7 foot black man from Washington State. It was so funny because we thought that that we stuck out like sore thumbs!

He is the teacher that I will be teaching with. I asked him if he knew any Korean and he said nope, I have been here for a year and don't know anything except for a few phrases and random vocabulary. The kids seemed to love him and he said that they will all be excited to see/meet me! We start next week which will be pretty awesome!

Tomorrow we were supposed to visit DMZ but it got postponed because Dobong City Hall is too busy preparing for the huge science festival this Friday/Saturday. I am actually pretty excited for it because they are going to have robots and craft stations! I can't wait!

My host mom feeds me SO much! I told her I ate dinner and she brought me fruit to eat! HAHA! She said I have such a sweet voice and asked me if I sang. I was like OH NO!!!

Well tomorrow is exploring day! I am so excited!