week, the third (sort-of)

It isn't my third week here.. but considering weekend divisions, it is the third week I'm here. It's been so activitous! This week is mid-terms for the students, so the teachers are pretty much proctoring the exam times for class periods. That's a huge break for them (teachers) and the atmosphere is a bit calmer in the office as a result.

I didn't mention this last post, but I made an activity sheet. (You teachers must be rolling your eyes at me.) It was my first activity sheet ever! I gave it out to the students and was immediately bombarded by, "Whaaa?!" and "Mr. Luke S. how do...?" EVEN SO, it wasn't a total failure. Initially they worked on the sheet by themselves, from memory, then from the book, and finally in groups around the table. Not ideal, I know, but the point was to make more connections with the material being studied (not so much to evaluate the connections).

Teaching update: Nope. See previous post. The teacher I'll be taking over for will be gone on Monday, so for sure I'll be teaching some classes by then.

The area I live in is very close to a major art university, so there's a big artsy area within a short walking distance from my apartment. There are a ton of cafes and restaurants, as well as live music clubs. The late-night culture is very active, and the streets are bustling well past midnight.

A closed roll-down door.

Helen, the younger sister of a roommate from high school, and I went out wandering a couple times this past week and she showed me a neat cafe/design museum. Apparently the owner buys spaces, and then imports interesting pieces from all over the world to "fill" the space. All the tables and chairs are first design releases from the early 60's onwards.. the cabinets along the walls from Germany, France and England. Some of the objects are made back in the 19th centrury. Even the parquet floor is imported from an old building in Europe.

The lights in our part of the cafe/museum.

The food at the design museum/cafe. Real mozzerella!

On Sunday they had a lantern festival as an early part of the celebration of Buddha's birthday (coming up on Friday). They also had a soccer match between Korea and Ecuador. I managed to make it to both (barely). The match was a friendly pre-World Cup game and Korea made two relatively consecutive goals right near the end. Unfortunately, I didn't get very good pictures of either the match or the lantern festival, but c'est la vie.

Today is the first officially rainy day I've had here.

I know I'm jumping around a bit, but I'm writing as I remember, and I just remembered that on Friday night a group of us teachers went to hear a couple of our own teachers perform at "Soul Underground" which is on the third story of a building. (I thought that was ironic). The couple are known as "The Bell and The Hammer" and you can find them online... somewhere. They're good. I got some pictures from the "event."

I like this shot. It was taken at "Soul Underground."