Crab Chips

I haven't posted anything on my blog for almost a week now, I'm slacking. I have been teaching all week- I'm flying solo in the classroom and I am exhausted after school everyday! Since I am teaching full days every day for the next 5 weeks, I'm going to do weekly blogs (with others in-between) as to not complicate my life further.

This week was my first week teaching and I LOVED it. I had many challenges to face (mainly behavior) and many more lesson successes! I introduced DEAR time to my students this week (Drop Everything And Read)- they loved it! Ms. Bechtold doesn't do DEAR time, so it was a new thing for the students. I was very surprised at how they reacted, they were silently reading their books the entire time!

Lilly, Aylin and Molly during DEAR time

Jiun reading during DEAR time

This week we dove into the Ocean science unit for IB PYP! The kids absolutely love learning about the ocean- from water to creatures! We did some water experiments this week, we were scientists in second grade this week! We did one experiment with an egg in fresh and salt water (density lesson). The students were so intrigued- we ended up making our own version of the experiment by cracking each egg afterwards and predicting what would happen in both the fresh and salty water.

Scientists posing for the camera- Check out our eggs!

For oceans this week, we also created an 8ft mural of our very own ocean! It is a work in progress, but will be completed at then end of the unit right before I leave! I'm excited to see what the students do with the mural. I gave them 8 feet of white paper and the following instructions- "work together to create our own classroom ocean on the paper". They busted out crayons, markers and stickers. I'll keep you posted on the progress of our classroom ocean!

Working on our ocean mural

Yesterday, I had an adventure after school! There is a new student teacher in 1st grade who arrived this week. Her name is Alicia and she is from Texas (goes to university in Idaho). She is my new adventure buddy and we ventured out with my cooperating teacher, Alice, and the 5th grade teacher, Christine. We went downtown Daejon to buy my bus ticket to the airport for spring break and to have dinner. We ate at a little hole in the wall authentic Korean restaurant. I discovered two things that I loved, and two that I didn't enjoy as much. At the restaurant I bought Aloe juice- its my new addiction. I also got Kimchi soup, another one of my favorites! I tried fish spam and fermented sour radish as well, a waste of my money!

Downtown Daejon at the bus station

Underground shopping mall under the street (miles long)

My main dish for dinner was a traditional Korean dish called Bibimpap. Its a dish that has rice on the bottom and raw veggies on the top, with an egg cracked over everything. They serve you a steaming hot stone bowl with the ingredients that cooks everything. You are suppose to mix everything and add spiciness to the dish. The dish didn't have much flavor to me, but it was a great meal compared to other things I have tried in my time here.

My Bibimbap

Cooking my Bibimbap

Christine and Alicia at the restaurant

Alice (my teacher)

After dinner, we went walking around downtown and did some shopping. I was finally able to buy a hair dryer! It was White Day in Korea when we went out (similar to Valentines day, but the boys are suppose to give the girls chocolate). There were all sorts of chocolate stands and stuffed animals- it looked like Valentines Day to me! As we were walking around, we stopped for some street food. There were squid sticks, spicy rice cakes and sweet egg bread. Alicia and I tried the egg bread. It was a sort of pancake batter bread with a poached egg in the middle, very strange. I enjoyed the egg bread, as much as someone who doesn't really like eggs can.

White Day booths 

Street food- squid sticks, rice cakes, more things...

Egg bread

Today in class we celebrated St. Patricks Day (because it is on Sunday). They didn't have a clue what the holiday was which was a lot of fun for me! While the students were watching Narnia during free time, I set up a little surprise on their desks for snack time! They were so surprised and were very curious to learn about St. Patrick's Day!

Snack time surprise for St. Patty's Day!

Aylin enjoying her green snack!

Today after school Alicia and I ran to the shop near school quickly before dinner. We stocked up on some groceries and I found two gems (sort of). At the market I found some face masks; I bought pure charcoal face make for relaxation and purification. I also bought spicy crab chips for a snack! When I was checking out, I asked the clerk man if the chips were actually crab (tasted like crab) and he said "no, spicy. vrrrrry spicy" and started to make a fa movement toward his mouth. I assumed this to mean that the chips were not actually crab flavored, but rather crab shaped spicy chips. I love spicy things so I bought them.

When I returned home, I put on my face mask after dinner and made a mess! The face mask actually was pure charcoal (it said volcanic ash on it). It was so thick and messy- not very relaxing. Once I got my face mask on I opened up my bag of chips only to be rudely awakened by the horrific fish stench. Yes, they were indeed crab chips, just like the picture on the bag says. I was very disappointed. Now I have a huge bag of spicy crab chips that are not appetizing. Lesson learned- in Korea believe the pictures over the non-English speakers.

My spicy crab chips

Charcoal mask