On Wednesday it was Pepero Day. A bit like Valentines day for Koreans where they give each other this snack that are sticks, that look like 11/11 hence why they are given on 11/11! I got 2 packets, one off a student and one off my co-worker.

This week was an interesting one work wise. I went for dinner with one of my adult students, which caused more trouble that it should have because of.... yes.. you guessed it KM!

I was doing L blends with my phonics class - black, sleep etc. The l and r have the same character in Korean, which caused a few mispronunciations. I was getting the students to repeat the words after me. Me - black, my student - Black. Me - clap, my students - crap. Me no no cLLLap. My students - crrrrap! They couldn't understand why I was laughing.

Then with my Kindergarten doing sh blends. Shake was one of the words. One of the kids recognised the word and proceeded to tell me to 'Shake my bon bon' which of course made me laugh, so she proceeded to tell me again, and again, and again!

Last week one of the kindergartners came in with a 'little black book' I often have deep and meaningful conversations with my kids where they just stare at me blankly or laugh at me while I talk at them. I was talking to her about her little black book and asking if she had many men in there and if she had been on any hot dates recently. One of the other students recognised the word 'man' and replied 'oh superman superman!' So apparently one of my kindergarten students is dating superman!

It always surprises me how some of my kids know no English but mention homework or something they do not like and I receive the response 'oh my god! Oh my god!'

One of my students came to talk to me at my desk and I got a huge whiff of alcoholic, not wanting to judge my 11 year old student for drinking at 4 in the afternoon or accuse of her of being an alcoholic, I carried on talking to her. Then she pulled something out of her pocket and said 'Jocelyn teacher'. It was hand sanitiser and proceeded to squirt it all over my hands! Turns out she wasn't a wino just another paranoid swine flu fearing Korean!

Yesterday, I went on base for 'Save your Bacon'. It is basically a scavenger hunt, that involves finding different locations, where there are drinking games and lots of pork products. At the end everyone ends up at the Delta Bar where there is huge roasted pig. Even being vegetarian I had fun and especially enjoyed the veggie BLT's! We had a poker game, the price is right, golfing, 80's quiz, beer tasting and dancing to the Birdie song.

I also got a proper look on base and saw what the dorms were like and the food court. The dorms were very much like halls of residence, lots of little studios but with a small kitchen, rather than a shared kitchen, like I had at good old Storthes Hall in Hudds! Some of them were one bedroom apartments. The food court had a Burger King, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Pizza etc etc. You have to pay for everything in American dollars. It is such a little bubble of America. I met one GI in bar street in Naundong. He was leaving in a week and this was his first time on Bar street. Some of the guys never really leave the base and have no clue about what Korea is like!!

One more week until China!