"And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physcial expression, go out and explore... Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, 'What is the use?' For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a great deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg."

-Apsley Cherry-Garrard, from
The Worst Journey in the World



Sunday, 10 October 2010

Have managed to do me lesson plans a whole HALF HOUR before the lesson starts so am just writing this real quick (am starting to realise that being organised is saving me so much time).






Last week I had a map on the board of Antarctica and asked the kids if they could pronounce a few of the labelled countires around it.




Who knows what country this is?!




'AUUUS-TRAAA-RIA'



YES! Well done, how about this one?




'South America!!!!'



AMAZING!!! How about this one?? Oh this one is hard!!



'fffff--fffaaah--fffffaahcklaa. fahckland? FAAAAHCKLAND!! FAHCKLAND ISLAND!!!' (Falkland Islands)

It knocked me off course quite badly. I was blinded as to what the lesson was about after that... I couldn't even laugh at it so did a sort of broken 'NO.... FORLK-LAND, FORLK-LAND-------- well done----- SO this country....'






I know I have a lot to catch up on but for this moment I only have 10minutes so it's not so good to start just yet. The picture with the rocks is a monument to the ingenuity of the wall builders around here. Most walls are built so that the wind can blow through them (i.e. they have holes in them).


On the beach there must have been maybe 50 of these small towers which are right on the beach front, surviving typhoons aplenty. There truely is a skill to balance apparently :D.



The picture of the beach at the top is Heopjae Beach... the really popular one 4mins cycle away from our house ;P!! the day was hot and the water warm and not one person was in the sea swimming. Koreans do have quite an odd attitude to the sun and sea.


This weekend we're heading up to Seoul for a 'TEFL Conference' which will involve one of the companies upsetting 11pm curfews. We tried to extend the flight so we could stay one extra night in Seoul and fly back on Monday morning for school but it was a no-go area.



MEANT TO SAY on Wednesday last week I had twelve 5th graders!!! Normally I have between 4 and 6... something good must be occuring here!?! Although saying that they did demand soccer, so we reached a compromise that the first 25mins will be English and the last 15mins would be football ONLY on condition that everytime they kicked the football they had to say an English word so it didn't look like a free lesson to the other teachers.
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