The College Entrance Examination pep rally

Tomorrow, 7 November, marks the day of the exalted College Entrance Examination. The Examination's the culmination of all those years of studying, for the students' scores on the test will largely determine what universities they can enter. Not only that, but their universities will largely determine what companies will hire them after they graduate. It's a serious occasion. This year's an especially interesting one because these are the students I met as 1st graders upon arriving here 2 years ago. It'll be bittersweet to see them move on. The year isn't finished yet, but they've nearly reached the top of their mountain. FIGHTING!

The high school and girl's middle school principal giving a speech. The banner talks about amazing test scores and realizing your dreams.

We commemorated The Day Before with a pep rally to raise their spirits. The principal and head teacher gave speeches and we cheered for the 3rd graders. They went home after the rally.

Fall foliage

3 December's dinner/Eating at the cafeteria at night

As I've noted before, my school has a dormitory for about half of the high school students. The cafeteria in the dorm serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday and also some weekend meals as well. A while ago JB the coteacher informed me that I could sign up to have dinner in the cafeteria if I wanted to. It would cost about 60,000 won per month and would get deducted straight from the paycheck.

Such a deal sounded good, considering that I usually went out to eat anyway, so after mulling the idea, I said sure. Going to the cafeteria sounded better than ordering 1 of the same 5 things every time anyway. I've been eating dinner there since mid September or so. Every day, I leave school at 4:30, walk home, and walk back to school to eat at 6. Such an arrangement cuts into the evening free time, but it does have two advantages: I get a good walk and I get more time with the students. It works well. The exercise feels good and the food's even better.

I suppose that at 26 I should probably start cooking more, but the convenience and low cost of eating out makes cooking in attractive. Sure, I can put a few things together and I do eat at home on weekends, but this way is easier. And also, kimchi's expensive on stores, but it comes free on Korea restaurants. A day here isn't the same without kimchi.

Now for the food itself: it's good. our young nutritionist keeps us fed quite well! Here's what we had on Monday night: some mixed pork and onions, a big potato pancake, soup, and a whole bunch of rice. We get well taken care of on the carbohydrates department here. What you see here is the result of months of telling the ladies "a little, please" when they give out the rice. At this point it's a losing battle; unless I go 2 days without eating, the rice just won't get completely eaten.

Stand by for more school food photos.

We have a weight room at the (academic) high school now

* I almost said the high school, but then I remembered that saying would probably slight Kirsten, as Gimhwa has two high schools instead of one.

The exercise equipment arrived a couple of months ago, but I forgot to write it about it until today. (There's been some extra free time because of the upcoming exams) the room's open to teachers and students at certain times of the day. I plan on using this room soon. It's one of those things that got put off for a while.

If you look closely, you'll see a Marshall guitar amplifier and a drum kit. Some of the kids practice at night. Again, I probably should ask who's in on this because it might lead to some quality jams.