Travels of Teacher John

Hey everyone, as some of you may or may not know, I am taking a month off of work to travel. I will spend a week in Northern Thailand, 10 days in Laos, 3 days in Cambodia, and then a week in the Thai Islands. I told some students that I would shave my head.. but I just couldn't cut it all off. I'll try to keep you updayed on my travels.

I arrived in Bangkok at midnight. After 30min of search, my friend and I settle at the Rainbow Guest House on Khao San Rd. It is the backpackers haven of Bangkok.
At night it's busy with foreigners walking from bar to bar enjoying some late night refreshements. During the day it opens up to a street market selling all kinds of times including bracelets, watches, sunglasses, and clothing. Some are traditional, some are knock-offs.

For lunch we enjoyed Pad Thai (Pad means noodles) cooked from a street vendor. It tasted decent. For $1, the price was right.

We spent one night in Bangkok, the next afternoon we headed to the train station. Next stop: Chang Mai - Thailand's second largest city.

It was a 15 hour train ride.
During the day it was a cool ride with large windows. This my friend Scott, an old buddy from high school who came this way to travel with me.

It was a nice, scenic, ride with a view of jungles and a mountain backdrop.

Travels of Memory Mega Students

Trip to the United States
By Marie (이유리), Mega

In August 2007, Marie went to the United States with her family and some other people. She saw many Americans, and she talked with them. She learned about America. She went to Sea World, Universal Studios, San Francisco, California, and other places in the United States. At Sea World, she saw a whale show. The whales splashed water on her and other people. At Universal Studios, she rode many rides. The roller coaster was a little scary. She had a good experience in America. She says that she loves America!


My Visit to the Philippines
By Kelly (오정혜), Mega

I visited the Philippines for a month. At first, I was worried about this trip, because it was my first trip without my parents. The object in visiting the Philippines was to study English and to go through another country’s culture.

I made a lot of friends, and I learned English with Filipinos. The first weekend, I went to a volcano jet. To go there, I rode a horse! It was too interesting. When I arrived at the volcano jet, I saw smoke. I was surprised when I heard my teacher say, “It can erupt again whenever.”

The second weekend, we went to SM Megamall. This is the biggest mall in Asia. This mall has everything: ice rink, food, clothes, games, amusement park, etc. I went to SM Megamall three times in on month, but I couldn’t see everything there.

The last weekend, we went to Subic beach. This is a Korean person’s own beach. The Philippines has more than 5,000 islands. So when I went to Subic beach, we went to that island from another island. It was too fun! We spent three days there, and went back to a hotel. We always played on the beach, and it was exciting. Then the night before our last day, we bought a cake and played and fought with friends. On the last day, we went to another shopping mall. It was small, but the landscape was too beautiful. Then it was time to go back to Korea, and we were so sad.

This is the best trip of my life, I think.

Birdie Class acting out

Mr. Smith is angry with his daughter, Suzanne, because her cell phone bill was so high. He has grounded her as punishment so that she will learn to control her phone usage better.
Suzanne wants permission to go out tonight so that she can attend her best friend’s birthday party. She is nervous about asking her dad because he is so angry, but she thinks that she can persuade him.

Creating Creatures with Bridge Class

You and your partner are scientists looking for a new species of animals. After a few days of exploring you discover a new animal no one else has ever seen before. You spend a few days observing the animal's characteristics and behavior.

Jenny

The animal we are going to make is adapted from different kinds of animals. This is adapted in particular for life in the sky. It also lives in colonies. It can see far away and it depends on the kinds of rabbit's ears, big eyes, eagle's wings, and horse's legs.

April
My imagination about my animal is an owl but it is much bigger and has four legs. It can swim and protect me from danger. However, it undergoes several distinct stages during a bath and is adapted in particular for life in the garage. Depending on the kind of weather, its personality can change. The species of my animal can maintain tremendous numbers without being seen.

Laura and Jane

Some less creative boys wrote about their favorite Star Craft race instead:

David

I found a strange animal named Zergling. Zerglings have claws to scratch and they are adapted in particular for life in the ground but they didn't undergo several distinct stages during their development from egg to adult. Also, they live in colonies called hatchery. They eat everything that I give and they can maintain tremendous numbers without interfering with each other. They can burrow very well, also used for protect, and can heal itself.

Cindy's Trip to Japan

I went Japan in 2007 December. We took a ship named "KO-BI". When we arrived to Japan, the guide took our group to 'A-So mountain', 'Qurogawa spa', 'Houston bouce'. A-So mountain is a volcano. The water in A-So mountain's color is emerald. Also, A-So mountain is a live volcano. Qurogawa spa is located outside. In there, my foot hurt by sharp rocls. Next, we went to Houston bouce. Houston bouce is made up with Netherland's shape amusement park. We also took many pictures in Houston bouce. Travelling to Japan was very fun!!

What's more harmful? Smoking or Drinking?

For an m-learning assignment, interactive students were asked:
Which do you think is more harmful to your health, drinking or smoking?

The majority of students believed that smoking was more harmful.

Rossa - Par Class
I think smoking is worse than drinking, more harmful to our health. Of course drinking is bad for our health too, but drinking have treatment. But, when we smoke, we don't have any treatment to get clean, healthy lungs. Also there is no way to prevent cancer.
In conclusion, I think smoking is worse than drinking because we don't have any treatment for cancer from smoking.

Tony - Birdie Class
I think smoking is more harmful than drinking. Because, first, alcohol can be detoxified, but nicotine goes straight into our lungs and destroys it. Also, in case of the destruction of liver, you can get a transplant from other people, but, we don't have enough skills to transplant new lungs instead of destroyed lungs. As a result, I think that smoking is more harmful than drinking.

Amy - Birdie Class
I think smoking is more harmful to my health than drinking. First, if I drank a lot and vomit it's ok, but smoking isn't. Second, young people like me smoking is approximately 20 times more harmful than adults smoking. Also, these days, elementary school kids drink but their parents don't care which means its not that harmful. Last, smoking can be addicted easily and very difficult to stop. On the other hand, drinking is not that much addictive, especially for kids like me.

Memory Tera: Fun With Chunks

A story by Angela

The weird looking alien fell to the earth. And a person saw something falling from the sky to ther garden. So, the person went outside. First time the person thought that it was a stone from sapce. But it was a little green alien. So the person was surprised. She screamed "Ahhhhh!", but the alien told the person "don't be scared of me". So the person relaxed. The person and the alien became friends. So the person decedide to make the alien her pet. But she didn't know how to feed the alien and what kind of food she has to give the alien. So, she searched for some books about aliens. Also, the person was so interested about the alien. She took a look at the alien carefully and she wondered how the alien could speak the person's language. But, she was so proud of herself because she found a weird looking alien. So she brought the alien to the park and some playground and taught it how to ride a bike. After one week they were really good friends. But the alien told the person that he needed to go. So the person was so sad and missed him. And the memory echoed in her brain for the rest of her life.

A story by Rachel

There is a monster named 'Tino'. He lived just under the Sun's surface. One day, in his hometown, their was a party, so many firecrackers blasted into space. It was very beautiful. Then sometihing flew very fast to his hometown and it fell to the ground. Monsters went there and discovered men and saved their lives. But the men were spies from Earth! They killed the monsters one by one and collected their samples. So, the monsters were betrayed and became extinct. However, Tino saw it and he hid. He is ready to get revenge on the men.

A story by Cindy

Jack had a look at something strange in the sky. It was falling to the ground. Then, he decided to look inside it. Jack knew what it was! It was a UFO!. In his school, the teacher said to bring a document about the UFO or space. So, he ran to the place where he saw the UFO. Jack searched for the UFO for a long time. He found the scary thing. Aliens were in there too! So Jack ran for his life.

Jack got the award for that document because it was fun and exciting. Also, he got money too. So he went to the mall and his parents bought him what he really wanted. That day, Jack was very happy.