The First Week is Through

Hi All,

I just finished the first week of being back in Korea :) It started off rough, but got better and better. In fact, I'd say it was a downright nice week. At first I was very lonely teaching again because I was without my trusty co-teacher, Seon Ha. The kids couldn't understand me and it was very frustrating for both them and me--I felt like I was looking around in the dark for something. However, as the week has gone on, things have gotten better. Granted, my sentence structure has reduced a little bit and I can't use the awesome vocabulary that I've amassed over the years, but the kids are able to understand me more and they seem to like me, which is always a plus. In fact, if you ever come to Korea (especially if you are a male) be prepared to get treated like a rock star a little bit. Try not to let it go to the head :S

This morning I went with my previous co-teacher Seon Ha to sign a preliminary contract for the apartment I will be moving into at the end of the month (Feb. 28 is possession day). I'm going to be a neighbour to Irene, which I'm looking forward to, and I'm going to be seriously 5 minutes or less to the bus stop. I'm so excited :) It's not within walking distance to McDonald's anymore (perhaps no more weekend breakfasts with Harry Potter :( but there's a bus stop on the main road which will let me get to Mickey D's by the number 26 or 30. That same bus can go to the bus terminal too, which is also a big plus.

I've been eating at the cafeteria every day this week because I've been co-teaching with the other two English teachers in the mornings. I'm supposed to log 60 hours this month, and since there's only 2 weeks of school, we've had to smush them all into 2 weeks, which means I co-teach in the mornings and then do my regular after-school classes in the afternoon. I don't mind it actually, it's nice to see all the students who dropped out of my class again, lol. Some of these kids are seriously crazy though. I feel bad for their homeroom teachers.

It's been a bit of a game, trying to disguise the fact that I don't speak Korean. The kids always (naturally) try to speak with me in Korean, but of course I don't understand what they're saying. Sometimes I can, but sometimes it's too fast for me. When they ask me a question though, I usually say "try it in English" in Korean so that it looks like I'm a firm teacher, and it works as a nifty cover up  I know enough Korean to drop a line here and there or respond to one of their questions to fake it though. However, I will be addressing this come March.

I've signed up for two Korean classes at the university in March, which I'm pretty excited for. As a side note, I just want to mention that I received the course timetable on Wednesday and I was expected to pick and register by Friday. Nice. Good thing my elementary school knows whether or not they'll schedule me for co-teaching in the mornings this semester (read: I'm being sarcastic. They won't make my schedule until March). One of them is with the same professor that Irene and I had last semester. Coincidentally, that was the same class where we met Miyuki and Yu and Karla and Calvin and other international students. I'm hoping I can make some of the same type of friendships through these new classes. One of my students asked me today (in Korean) why she should have to study English if I don't study Korean. Good question! This reminds me of something Celeste-Tina said in class back at UFV. She said, "Never give your students something you haven't done yourself." In fact, she even asked us at the beginning of the year if we were studying another language, or had already learned one. She urged us to sign up for classes or get involved in a community group, because as teachers, we're nothing without credibility.

I heard through the grape vine that there are four more North American students coming to CNU next semester! One is from Missouri I believe and I think one is from New York. I can't remember where the third one is from, but the fourth is from good ol' University of Alberta! Time will tell whether the American exchange students will be of similar character and behaviour as the American TaLK scholars.

One student said I look like Woody from Toy Story.

Finally, I just want to write about one of the other English teachers here (the middle-aged, broken English, male one). I think he's hilarious (not in that he's a comedian, but he's just a funny person. Kind of like Mr. Bean). He sprained or broke is ankle a while ago, so he was on crutches for a long time (but he of course came to work. In Korea, a sick day only counts if you're an inch from death) and had brought a foot bath/massager to work. He would go use the "hospital" in our under-used English village for some good R&R.

He brought a big heater to school the other day, but yesterday it stopped working. He was fiddling with it, then he prayed, and then it worked again! Then he asked me about whether I believed in "the God" or not and then showed me a cool video (in Chinese, lol) about how they found Noah's Ark on Ararat.

I like this guy :)

Anyway, after work yesterday, we were walking to his car because he usually takes me to a bus stop in Gwangju. All of a sudden, he wheeled around and sheepishly asked my other English teacher (the 30-something, demure female one) if he could borrow 10 bucks because he was out of gas. ;)

Today he told me he was going to fix his heater over the weekend, because he's MacGyver.

And that's my week in review :)