Well it is a cold, rainy and nasty day here in Korea, which has given me the perfect excuse to curl up with yet another Paulo Coehlo book and waste the day away in my comfy WARM apartment.
Quick Update:
Last weekend I went to the horse races, lost my phone, danced the night away…again, ate some REAL chocolate cake, got a great shot if the Seoul Tower from the rooftop of the Soonhawk Women’s University, and ended the night waiting with Joey for the 6am train. We had intended to just stay the night at the local Jimjillbong (which is like a community bathhouse that allows people to stay the night on little mats strewn about a very large sauna), but something caught fire in the sauna which caused the whole area to fill with smoke. We got a refund, but there were still plenty of other people sleeping there since they had turned off the alarm. I guess there rational was purely bureaucratic. We were told that if the fire department showed up again they would be forced to shut down. Again, where is the logic here? I have to think that having to carry out a couple dead bodies that stopped functioning due to smoke inhalation would be a worse situation than having to deal with the fire department, but I’m just a crazy American, what do I know?
Classes were great this week because all of the students were having tests in the public schools which knocked out about 5 kids per class since they take their tests very seriously and needed to stay up studying for them rather attending the Hagwon. It was so peaceful and as much as I feel bad for the torture these kids have to go through with testing, I am eagerly looking forward to the next session, which is bound to happen soon. The Koreans love their tests. After an e-mail mom sent me an e-mail about Korean tests being delivered in an armor truck. Intrigued, I talked with Joey about it and he confirmed the test mania/paranoia. I guess at his University they put the entire building where the tests are held, on lock down and only a select group of people are allowed to enter through one door only. All this for a bunch of multiple choice questions that these kids won’t remember the moment they walk out of the testing room. Listening to Joey talk about his experience teaching here and witnessing the education process myself, I am convinced more and more how STUPID things like “No Child Left Behind” and standardized testing really are.
Regurgitation of information is not digestion of information, and though it’s easier, multiple choice tests are not good for digestion.
So that’s that. This weekend was pretty calm as I spent it just hiding out from the cold, reading, writing (that darn personal statement), discovering an AWSOME bakery called the Muslim Bakery that makes the best, I swear it must have dropped from heaven, baklava, buying yet another Paulo Coelho book, falling in love once again with the singer Idan Raichel, gorging myself on an Indian Buffet, and swinging from a hammock, digging my toes into the sand and getting drunk off some fabulous conversation in a bar full of foreigners, Koreans and cheesy beach memorabilia.
Good times.
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