some Ivy School pics for all y'all

Hangin' with Mr. Choi
Yale yo! Kelly-Teacher, mistress of her domain
This is where the magic happens
Ohh Tragic Time

Sooo, I know I haven't been on this piece in a minute, but I'm currently "between" apartments right now and internet time is scarce! I moved out of Kelly's up to the penthouse formerly occupied by the now-departed Matt-Teacher. It's an ant-infested pit of despair, but by next weekend I'll be chillin' in the super sweet pad of the soon-to-depart Justin-Teacher; just 2 doors down from K-Dub herself! Can't wait. Things have been cool here in the East. Nothing terribly noteworthy has occurred, but I'll try my best. Magic Time is still Tragic Time, though I've got a much better handle on things nowadays. I make kids cry on the regular, but its just the way things have to be. The kids here really cry all the time, and for no real reason. You just have to be able to tell when it's something serious or something to ignore. As for my other 5 classes, things are pretty sweet. I think its funny that my Starter class is about 50 times smarter and about 25 times more well behaved than the M-T Maniacs. In fact, I have one Starter who's better at English than some of my levels 1 and 2 kids. 11 (well, 10 in the U.S.)year old Kevin: the greatest child in Korea. I knew I'd found love when I asked the kids to write down all the "J" words they could think of and while the others barely got past "jam" Kevin wrote "John Cena". Now we rap about professional wrestling like crazy and the whole class is in on it. Losing a sticker is now referred to as SMACKDOWN!!! and they all go nuts. If I say "Kevin, Undertaker!" he does the dramatic throat slash thing. Heh, he's my little buddy. The absolute best thing though is that when I try to explain something to these kids, who have been studying English for all of 5 months, and I'm met with confused blank stares, Kevin will rattle something off in Korean real quick and they'll all say Ohhhhhhh and get to it. God bless a teacher's pet.



In other news, the pictures above were taken at the late night party at the one and only Club Ivy. There's a bunch more to come. Tomorrow night we're all going out for Justin's departure, and rumor has it we'll be hittin' up Club Ivy yet again. Partying at school is unbelievably sweet.





As for SoKo in general, it's got more ups than downs. I guess I should list it up somehow...





2 things I love about South Korea:


-/Serviceee/: Konglish for "service", this refers to any sort of free sample or extra treat people hook you up with. The Coffee Tree has the best serviceees by far: delicious macadamia nut cookies with our lattes. Though one time we got baked sweet potatoes instead. weird.



-Egg Bread: Holy moly this shit is good. On the way to work I pass a little sidewalk stand with a funny looking grill in which a very nice lady that loves to talk my ear off in Korean while I smile and nod pours some sort of pancake batter into two holes. She then cracks an egg into one side and closes them together. The egg cooks inside the pancakey thing and the result is pure gold. Think McGriddles. Also, the lady there loves me already. I'm gettin' serviceees up the yin yang. We're talkin' coffees, hot n' tasty yet unidentifiable juice, peanuts encased in cooked batter... Woooo.



1 thing I hate about South Korea:



-Jaywalking, or rather the lack thereof: OK I've hung out in New York enough to know that walking in a city is a competitive sport. Since I haven't been playing softball, it's really been all there is to fill the void. Well people here are seemingly terrrrrified to do it, to the extent that when I've tried to bolt across the main intersection by our apartment before the little red man turns green, old men have yelled "Danguhhh!!! Stop! Danguhhhh". Danger's my middle name, so cool your jets old man.



1 thing that I neither love nor hate about South Korea. It just is.:



-Konglish: Essentially its just adding random vowel sounds to the ends of words. i.e. "serviceee". Now, the kids in class are forbidden from using it, which ends up being a pain because they're constantly saying things like "finisheee" or letters are even worse. "S-uhh" "H-ee". However, it's been totally helpful in getting things done around here. I went to Dunkin Donuts for my tiny one-size-fits-all coffee and said milk a hundred times to a bunch of blank, confused faces. But when I said "milk-oo" it was like the revelation of the century. Pork mandu becomes porkey mandu at the kimbap place, Kim's Mart is Kim's Martuu for the taxi driver, and Chuck-Teacher becomes Chuckuu just for fun.

Well, Sorry again for not posting in a bit. I'm a busy woman you know, that egg bread isn't going to eat itself. Anyway, I hope all are well. Lot's of love!

Deborah "Danguhhhhh" Durant