Day 49: Boredom, Shattered

Today was a surprisingly energetic and *fun* afternoon! I'm feeling much better today and my energy/enthusiasm level was 10-fold what it was yesterday. My voice is still coming and going, and cracks occasionally, making it sound like I'm just entering puberty - all of this is much to the delight of my students who giggle every time I open my mouth! Anyways, this afternoon it was back to reciting the boring dialogue that we've been doing for the last few days, but something strange and wonderful happened today... To practice the dialogue, we've been doing a bit of 'role-playing' in class where me and a student sit up at the very front at a small desk and pretend to be having a conversation, based on the dialogue we've been rehearsing endlessly. This has been quite boring...until today.

While sitting up front with one of my students, engaged in the dialogue, one of my students suddenly jumped up from his seat, came up to the front and started to pretend that he was 'filming' us, using a cookie-tin lid as a mock camera. And then another student caught on to his game, and grabbed a textbook, sat it on his shoulder, and pretended that it was a video camera, and circled around us over and over, as if he was a part of a camera crew. And then a third student grabbed a really long ruler and stood and held it over us, pretending that it was our 'mic' - instantly we had a 'TV studio'! The energy level of the class went from being on life-support to total ecstacy in about 15 seconds. Suddenly the whole class COULDN'T WAIT for it to be their turn to be a 'TV star' and engage in the dialogue! A few of the girls in the class even pretended to be teenage fans of me, and asked for 'autographs.' It was absolutely hilarious, and I was having such a blast!

This random, sudden spark of creativity from the students blew me away. A routine and dull exercise was suddenly transformed into a fun, entertaining learning game that *everyone* eagerly wanted to participate in. And I couldn't take any of the credit for it. It was all the students, who just grabbed the idea and ran with it, completely unprompted and undirected. For a moment I felt like I was the student, and it was them who were leading me in the classroom. I can't remember the last time our class had so much fun! And this was the same exercise that we had all been falling asleep with the day before. Wow what a difference a little creativity makes!!! It was completely inspiring.

After work today I decided to treat myself and head into the city for some dinner. I've been a bit of a hermit all week long with my cold and all, and decided that some time out of the house tonight would be a good thing. I took a train down to the area near where Chongo Tower and MusicLand is, had some dinner, and then went to the Starbucks just around the corner. This was my first visit to a Starbucks since arriving in Korea, and I was shocked at how it was *EXACTLY* the same as the ones back home.

Now I've been in plenty of Western chains since arriving in Seoul, and they are all basically the same as the versions back home, but yet all have *slight* differences that just make it a little bit 'Korean'. McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. are all examples of chains here that I've seen that have slight differences from the ones back home, either in menu items, names of products, or even just fonts and colours used in the store. And then when you eat the food, it tastes *almost* the same, but not quite.... But this Starbucks...it was like I had somehow instantly beamed myself to Robson and Thurlow back home. Everything was absolutely identical, and I was even able to order everything in English without any difficulty at all. My caramel macchiatto was delicious, as if it has been cloned from one in North America. The chairs, the furnishings, the decor and store colours, the music, the menu boards, everything was exactly the same - the only difference was the addition of Korean text next to English. Otherwise I could have been in Vancouver, and with all the Asians it didn't feel any different from back home at all! I sat for almost 2 hours and read my book, and every time I looked up, I had to keep reminding myself that I was smack dab in the middle of giant Seoul, in faraway Asia. It was almost creepy!

I ordered a decaf drink but I don't think it was made that way because I've been absolutely *wired* since Starbucks. I jittered all the way home on the train, and couldn't sit still on the bus. I love the music they play on the busses here in Korea. It's always the most random unexpected mix that you can't even imagine and it's always really fun music. I boarded the bus and was greeted by Boney M, of all bands! And they actually play the music fairly loudly on the bus - it's not just background music! Following Boney M, I was seranded by 'Hey Mickey' (but the cheesed-up remix from the movie Bring It On), some Korean cover of a Barry Manilow song, Eagle-Eye Cherry's 'Save Tonight', 'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None The Richer, and then Elton John's 'Believe'. SO MUCH FUN! :-)

Let's just hope now that I can sleep tonight!