Reflecting on Cebu, Back in Korea

Island Hopping on Thursday was amazing...Went out on a boat all over Mactan Islands with a group of 5. All inclusive lunch and beer....food was great chicken, pork, fish, mangos and rice.

Friday Jerry, Dan, and I went to Kawasan Falls. It was a 3 hour road trip and was worth every minute of it.

Not going to write much more other than I had a great time, and I feel relaxed. Now I'm back in Korea and I'm cold again. I can't wait until summer in the USA!

Still lovin' it

It's Tuesday and I have to leave on Saturday from Cebu. I'm loving the Philippines. The people are so nice. It's incredible. Today I spent the morning resting and the afternoon in the jacuzzi. Now im just lying on a beach chair checking email by the pool. Nothing exciting today just a whole lot of nothing which is great!

I'm gonna be working on two assignments later on this week, but it's not that big of a deal

Last night went to the Waterfront Casino for an incredible buffet which was only about 13 dollars....

Love how cheap this place is.

Hopefully I'll have more to report next time I get out of this chair :).....Vacation..OH THE LIFE :)

Day 2 and 3 Philippines

Day 2 and 3 went by quite slowly in a good way. Day two was spent down by the pool. We met Steve from Australia, Jerry from Seattle, and Tonya from Hong Kong. We spent the day in the sun drinking and listening to music. We followed up the day with a nice buffet dinner at a fancy place called Marco Polo...After a long cab ride home to Mactan Island...it was time to rest..The food was delicious...but im so sun burnt...I'm in serious pain.

Today (day 3) we went to the beach. Pineapple shakes and watermelon smoothies with fresh fish at the restaurant. It was nice. Maribago Blue Waters is where we went...now im just resting...this weather is beautiful...i just hope i get over this sunburn LOL

Anyway...life is good :)

Cebu, Philippines Day 1

Arrived yesterday at 400pm in Cebu to find myself at a very secluded resort....its very peaceful. Went for a night swim and a beer at the pool and have enjoyed catching up on much needed rest. Today, I woke up and had a great breakfast. I'm off to the beach....more will come as soon as I get a grasp of the place....so far so good, weather is amazing, food is great, and the people are so friendly....til next time!

School Read-A-Thon

Today was a cool day at school. This week was Read-A-Thon week. To celebrate the end of the week, students and teachers dressed up as their favorite book character. A fellow K2 teacher brought in 3 animal suits and my co teacher dressed up as Harry Potter's girlfriend. Dan was the lion from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Narnia), Jess (was a bunny I forget the story) and I was the Frog Prince....I still cant believe that we get paid to have this much fun.

Afternoon, is my last Spanish club. I am teaching the students how to make chicken tacos while using Spanish vocabulary :)

Tomorrow at 830am my flight leaves for Cebu (Mactan Islands) of the Phillipines...It's time for the beach!

Hasta luego!

St. Patrick's Day in my Classroom

Today is March 17th, and I thought I would bring a little St. Patrick's Day tradition from my past to my current classroom here in Seoul. The kids made a "leprechaun trap" and sought out to trap a leprechaun. Before today, they all made plans of how they were going to trap it.

The day started with the children entering finding that all of their name tags were switched, chairs and activies upside down, a chair in the sink, and green glitter with a note that stated

I am the sneakiest man that you have ever seen. I have tricks and surprises. I turn things green. Watch out! I'm here to make some noise, to trick all you little girls and boys.

Love,

the Leprechaun.

So, the kids went crazy thinking all day they they heard the leprechaun, and I had other teachers make noises outside to get them excited. Children made little leprechaun sized hats and everyone wore green today.

Well the afternoon came, as we were dancing to Irish music, a loud THUD was heard. The leprechaun was caught in the hallway with our trap. The kids ran to the trap only to find that the green cookies that were left for the leprechaun were missing and a note with gold glitter was left on the floor. The note stated:

"This is the best trick that you have seen. It's now time to drink milk that is green. It is true what you have been told. The leprechaun is here to give you gold. You tried to catch me, but I'm too quick. I hope you enjoyed my special tricks. Happy St. Patrick's Day, I'm off to Ireland.

Love,
The Leprechaun

So the kids picked up the trap only to see that the "leprechaun" escaped by cutting a hole in the back.

I turned the milk "green" with my special magic paper that the "leprechaun" left a.k.a. food coloring at the bottom, and the kids went wild...WOW you are magic Mr. Dustin. Then, we had a scavenger hunt for gold coins that the leprechaun left.
The kids finished the day by eating green cookies and drinking green milk.

Now I'm headed home as I need to rest. I'm starting to get a cold.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hate Mondays!

Tomorrow is Monday. I hate Mondays. I have a presentation for my school parents on Tuesday, four grad school papers to do this week, have to lead a meeting for the language arts committee, then its off to Cebu. I hope I get through this week alive.

It rained all day today. Last night, I went out with friends for a pre-St. Patricks Day party. Green beer and all! Finished the night with a great Korean barbeque....Why can't the weekends be longer?

Up and at em early Saturday morning

This morning I had to wake up to meet my other grade level teachers at Seoul Grand Children's Park as we were going to do a previsit for a field trip that we want to take our kids on. Well Dan and I couldn't find the other two teachers anywhere...we walked about 2 miles around the "Seoul Grand Park Zoo" thinking we were at the right place. After viewing the Dolphin Show, we got a call from the other two teachers who said that they couldn't meet us at the Dolphin Show because there wasn't a dolphin show in the park. Come to find out, we spent the entire morning doing a previsit at the Seoul Grand Park and not the actual location: Seoul Children's Grand Park. Well anyway, we had fun, enjoyed the dolphin show, saw some cool animals, took notes thinking we were going to map a route.

At lunch time, the take-out line for Korean food said "Come out Food"...looks like the person translating shouldn't quit their day job.

Then we took a luxury taxi (not by choice) to Shinsegae to shop with our gift certificates from our school parents. I bought some new Armani Code Cologne....to hide the smell :)

Worked on a power point for a few hours now my eyes are getting drowsy.

Off to nap, then its out for green beer for a pre-St. Patrick's Day party...

My Blogging Absence

Hello world! It's been a few days since I have been on here blogging about my crazy life abroad. There are a few reasons for this. First, I have been working on a presentation about emergent literacy and the building blocks of reading for the parents of my student body. Next week is reading week, so as the Language Arts coordinator, I have been asked to present. I'm done with that, so that's one check mark off the list.

The second reason is that my new graduate school classes start (Educational Research) and (Schools and Society: A Comparative Analysis). They have to be two of the most demanding courses to date. So, I'm busy writing many papers and presentations.

Here is the good news though: My Phillipines trip is back on track. I decided to reschedule the trip after cancelling it. I thought I wasn't going to have enough time, but I decided to work ahead here in Korea for the next 9 days, then enjoy and relax on the beach. Of course, I'm taking my computer to do a few things, but overall I'm hoping to take the week off to lie on the islands of Cebu!

Anyway, that's all for now! Tomorrow is an in-service day which means no students. We have to attend a KORCOS conference which is an educational conference for international school teachers residing in South Korea.

Life is busy, but good :)!

Hangover Heaven

Last night was my birthday party. We went to a brewery. It was all you can drink beer for 16 dollars....quite the deal. Then we went to two other bars in what I think was a birthday bar crawl. It's Sunday now, so I'm going to rest on the couch all night.

But thank you to all of my friends that made it out last night and made the night special. I really enjoyed myself and think that everyone else did too!

I have a headache! lol

My students threw me a birthday party

Today was a great way to end the week. I went to school knowing that I was already having a "surprise" party thrown by my students and the parents. The kids (5 and 6 years old) tried so hard to keep it a secret, but kept telling me about it and told me about all of the letters and cards that they made me. It was so funny. One girl told me ("I have a surprise for your birthday, but I'm not going to show you until the party.") She must have forgotten that i proofread her letter which was addressed to me ahahha. Oh the things kids do.

So my room mom brought cupcakes and bought me a very nice gift from the parents. What a great group of parents and kids!

At the end of the day, my student from India's mom brought me a huge sack of homemade Indian food: chicken masala, Indian rice, and pakodas. I enjoyed it so much. It was such a surprise, and she made so much, so one of my roommates and my best friend Jaimie ate it watching American Idol reruns! Korea is a year behind, so I have to download season 9 off of the Internet.

So, tomorrow is my actual birthday. We are going to a brewery, 16 dollars (all you can drink) and half priced food. It should get interesting.

I was kinda bummed tonight, because I am cancelling my Spring Break trip to the Phillipines because my next two graduate school classes are going to be very time consuming. I also have to do a presentation for my school's parents as I'm the Language Arts Coordinator, and I have to write narrative evaluation reports for my students as well. So, the next 8 weeks will be extremely busy, but it will pay off in the end!

Got my two grades for my last 2 classes, and I got a 98% in both, so that was a nice pick me up.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow for good beer, good food, and great friends! Good night Korea! Good morning America!