Coffee Shops

Another comparison for you... in Korea when we had our base passes, we (we=Raymond, J-9, April and other cool teachers) could go on base to the little coffee shop to do our grading or some random school work in a somewhat quiet environment.... however, those passes didn't last and we had to beg our way on most of the time through sports or some other random organization or event. So we had to resort to Starbucks or some other Korean coffee shop, which can be the LOUDEST places on earth. They are consistently packed and never, EVER quiet. However, in the US, you can go into the coffee shop, set up your computer and be relatively undisturbed and in a somewhat quiet environment. I am at one now and loving it... relishing in it really... *sigh* This is a good comparison, one where I side with the US...

Holy Halloween Batman!!

Sorry... the title just seemed more fun. In this blog, it has been my endeavour to make observations on the cultural differences I have seen in my travels etc. Here are my Halloween observations:

Oman - No Halloween

Korea - Growing Halloween. This holiday (is it a holiday?) has become more and more popular, but mostly as an adult festivity. Adults in Korea (mostly foreign and some nationals) hold huge parties and dress up. Most kids do not Trick-Or-Treat, although lots of the foreign kids find a way to do that in their smaller communities or schools.

Canada - Kids Trick-Or-Treat and adults have parties. There are pumpkins carved and outside the houses and some decorations. It's fairly innocent with some pranks and fireworks.

USA - Um... wow... the decorations are insane. They are taking over the stores, the yards, the houses (but not the schools... no Halloween there). There are pumpkins carved everywhere, kids talk non-stop about their costumes, and packets of candy have been in the stores since the end of August. It is almost as huge (commercially) as Christmas is at home in Canada.

Korean kids vs American kids

Okay, people are always asking me what the difference is between Korean and American kids and I am here to tell you: NOTHING!! Korean kids whine, talk a lot, chatter endlessly, tattle on their friends, work hard, are excited to learn to read and write and all that fun stuff. But here is the secret, US kids are the same!! They whine (yes, even in that same tone as the Korean kids... and I am talking NON-Asian kids), they chatter endlessly, talk constantly to anyone in ear-shot, tattle on their friends for the silliest things, they work HARD on their assignments, and they are EXCITED to learn.
I guess the biggest difference is the parents. Korean parents go too far in pushing their kids to study hard and advance their education and American parents are much more relaxed. When I would send home homework in Korea, it was done and the kids KNEW the information when it came back... whereas in the US, most of it comes back, some never does and lots of parents rush their kids through it on the first day so that they don't have to do it daily (I send home weekly packets with prescribed pages per day).
So, it's not the kids that are so different, it's the cultures and the parent's approach to education that is so different.

Police and hoops.

SO... after all the trouble and paperwork of getting my car imported and asking 8 million questions to be sure I had it all under control, I got pulled over by the police the other day (just down from my school - awesome). Apparently, asking all the right questions to the right people doesn't mean you get the right answer. The question was: Do I need to get a state inspection for my brand new car? The answer: No, not for the first two years. The truth from the lovely police officer: Get the inspection or I'll ticket you!! Okay... so I got the inspection. Thankfully there is an inspection spot right across the street from my school so I got it done a day later. But geez...

The apartment is done...

The kitchen, I am cooking a small Canadian Thanksgiving...

Bet you can guess what room this is...

The lovely TV that my lovely boyfriend gave me!!

The living room.

More living room...

the hallway...
The dining room
The all important wine rack in the dining room.

So there you have it folks, my first US apartment. There are still things to be done and a couple of boxes of antiques to sell off... but it feels more like home now.

And this is why...

This is why I do what I do on a daily basis. This is why I get up before the sun to squeeze in a workout so I can be in the classroom earlier and stay a little later. This is why I take crap loads of stuff home with me and work on the weekends. This is why... (I know... you are reading this and asking yourself what the hell I am talking about, right? Well, let me type the letter I got from a parent this week into the space below. Names are not included of course).

Dear Ms. Collins (okay, my name is included),

I wanted to take the time and say how happy we are with the work you have done with M. This is the first week that M has talked about school and tells us how much he loves it. We were so scared that M would stay in trouble and that I would have to be at the school all the time. Things have changed at home too. He wants to read and do homework. I have pulled out my hair on many a day wanting him to let me read to him. I also tried to get him to color and he would have nothing to do with it. However, the last 2 days the boy colors and finishes the page before taking off to something new.Thank you and we are excited about the rest of the year.

This really touched me because this little person has really struggled for a long time. Before he came to me, he was struggling. The mom came in before school started to give me the heads up on him and his behavior, but something in my classroom is working for him and I have the honor of helping to shape this little person into his potential... and he has a LOT of potential!! So, yea, this is why I do what I do... and I LOVE it!! Thank you, parents for entrusting your children to my care and thank you God for giving me the heart for this work... whether it is here, Korea, Oman, Canada or anywhere else!!

Y?

I recently joined the YMCA in an effort to get into the community more, gain health, lose weight and all that other fun stuff. Thankfully, one of my new friends from my school decided to join with me and I have a workout buddy. I had a workout buddy in Korea too. Just about every morning Christy and I would meet and either go for a walk, jog or hit the school gym. It was great and I miss that a lot. So I am thrilled that Lyndsay wants to do that with me too. It got off to bit of a rocky start because it took us forever to get there on Tuesday when we were going to sign up. So we missed the class we thought we'd do, but that was okay. We planned to meet the next afternoon and try their Zumba class (some dance inspired thing) but we got held up at school and didn't get a chance to go. So then we just hit the gym for a little bit... it was more high tech than I have EVER seen. Here is the comparison for you: My first gym in Korea was about the size of my apartment. It had 2 treadmills, 1 bike, one stairmaster and some free weights... and LOTS of OLD Korean men... My first gym in the US has more cardio machines than I can count (and some I've never seen before - like the mountain climber), TVs for all the cardio machines, a system called FitLinxx that helps to track your progress. You have your own number and you have to be trained how to use the machines so your settings can be stored. They track your sets, pounds lifted overall, intensity of workout, calories burned and so on. You can even load your outside cardio into the system and it will log that too!! It's nuts!!!
So today I finally took a class. My friend Lyndsay and I decided to give Spinning a try... OMG!!! It is so hard and awful and yet so good... I have a love/hate relationship with it and will be back next week if there is a space open for me!!!