New year's Eve!

It's currently 10:41pm December 31st 2008. I am sitting in the teacher's room for the Suncheon Winter English Camp. I am sipping bokbunjajoo (delicious raspberry wine). The rest of the foreign teachers are sitting behind me, but casual conversation is no longer enough to keep my eyes open. Although the conversation between nine exhausted foreigners can be HILARIOUS.

For example, public school teachers are allowed 26 paid vacation days in February. Public school is not in session during January either, but it is up to each school's discretion to decide if the foreigner must go to school or not. Fortunately I don't have to go for MOST of January. Just the 5-7th where I need to plan a day camp for grade three students. No biggie. NORMAN however, has to teach grade 1 and 2 students music and KOREAN LITERACY. I laughed for fourteen minutes straight.

Dean is flying his remote-control helicopter in the foyer. That also makes me smile.

This camp has been an EXPERIENCE so far. I was really scared to teach middle school students. I know how catty the students were when I was in middle school. I didn't know how I would handle adolescent students.

The first day we had to take a group of sixteen students and make a team cheer and poster. I was like 'oh Lord, I can't make a cheer! And this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I HATED to do in school'. But it was fine. And as much as they whine you can tell they enjoy it.

I am sharing a room with Ali:) We have a single bed each and a bathroom (with no tub of course, we shower all over the bathroom, the toilet and sink get soaked). The students are sharing rooms the same size as the one Ali and I are sharing. However, they have 4-7 people to a room, and no beds. They have to cuddle on the floor :S

We work our BUTTS off from 9-9. And after nine, the students are pretty much left to their own devices. At the moment the Korean teachers have all left the premises (which some foreign teachers are a little bitter about, but I don't care) and the nine foreign teachers are hanging out two floors below their bedrooms. There are two security guards in the foyer (which as far as I know only covers 1 out of 3 possible exits to the building).

If I was facing the same situation in Canada, the 7th and 8th grade students would be off the walls. I think ten of them would be having sex, three smoking pot, eleven of them drinking alcohol, seven of them escaping and going into town to get into trouble, four of them hanging out in a cemetary, and the next day half would be missing, a quarter would be hungover, a sixth would be bleeding and a tenth would be on fire. (one kid could possibly be dead)

This morning the Korean teachers were upset because five of the boys had had....

A DANCE PARTY

They turned on their music and DANCED.

And THEY are the 'bad kids' in the camp.

Nothing

Today has been exceptionally annoying.

I got permission from all of the homeroom teachers to watch a movie with their students today. And didn't the internet cut out for our ENTIRE school. Of course, I only found out I couldn't show my movie ten minutes before my first class. Fortunately hangman was almost as low maitenence as a movie would have been (I had the students doing the words at the board).

All this week has been cakes and cookies and junk. Just now I had a large piece of cake put in front of me. We also ate cake yesterday morning around 11am. I don't know why.

I must gain some willpower over the holidays. Or maybe even the Korean term for, 'no thank you, I'm full'. Or MAYBE just tell them I'm on a diet??

I had another really good conversation with my favourite Korean lady today (henceforth fkl).

Her children are six and eight years old. The keep asking her what presents Santa will bring them. She told me, 'I sit them down, and I SWEAR to them, that Santa is just mommies and daddies, but they will not believe me! So I told them that Santa cannot come to Korea this year because of the economic depression'.

Koreans don't have chimneys either. My tour guide at the palace in Seoul told me THAT'S why Santa doesn't come to Korea. Either way, Korea is getting gyped.

My tonsils of doom,,,

have finally caught up to me.

I knew it was coming. They require me to feel miserable at least twice a year.

I went to the ear nose and throat specialist 20 minutes ago, but they told me to come back in forty minutes. It took me a while to understand this. I'm sure they are dreading interacting with me as a patient!

Ah well, I know the two most important things...

cheon mogi apayo (my throat hurts)

And

cheon penishillin ae allergiga isseoyo (I'm allergic to penicillin).

Hopefully the rest comes out in the wash.

______________________________________


This morning on my way down in the elevator, I had to ride with an older couple, along with their heaping tub of huge fish (probably about a foot long, and almost circular in shape, like a big decompressed blowfish). Most of the fish seemed dead, but a couple were still opening and shutting their mouths. When we reached the ground floor, the man started dragging the tub behind him, allowing the other end to scrape along on the floor. The now sloped tub presented an opportunity for one of the huge fish to wiggle out onto the elevator floor. As soon as the fish escaped the elavator doors shut trapping me, the woman, and the flopping fish in the elavator.

I hate flopping fish.

And when I say flopping, it was REALLY giving'er. Just thrashing all over the elevator. The lady and I were both hopping and squealing, 'EEE' "EEEEEE" and trying to avoid being touched in the 4X4 space we had. Finally she had the presence of mind to hit the door open button. I would probably still be in there screaming now.

When we escaped from the elevator, my fellow captive turned to me with an apprehensive look on her face. I smiled at her, and she smiled her big, nearly toothless grin back at me.

All in all it was a pretty exciting way to start the day.

AND I have no idea why they had all that live fish in a tub in an apartment building. One of life's unsolved mysteries I guess.

Whining again...

I've officially lost all motivation.

I NEED VACATION.

I've watched 'Merry Christmas Mr. Bean' nine times over the past two days. I am hoping the teachers at my Thurs/Fri school will be okay with watching a video.

Right now I am drinking (here goes the spelling neighbourhood) chrysanthanum (close?) tea. I am trying to fight off this annoying cold/sore throat I have. I can actually see the flowers in the tea bag.

They also sell chrys.. in grocery stores, in little see-through containers. Tree bark is also available. Probably also for tea purposes.

I don't have a day off until the 25th. Then I work an overnight camp for middle schoolers from the 29-2. Then I work a day camp for grade threes from the 5-7. Then from Jan 8-approx March 1st I have vacation. I am YEARNING towards the eighth with every ounce of my being.

I am exhausted. It's really not surprising that I'm a bit under-the-weather. I was pondering going to Seoul this weekend. But now I think vegging is necessary. I shouldn't complain about how much there is to do. Most of it's fun. But when you're CONSTANTLY doing SOMETHING blargh.

Also, shivering constantly is probably also detrimental to your health. The principal visited my classroom today. Apparently we were dying of air stagnation. He insisted all the windows be opened immediately. My students brought out their 'Hello Kitty' blankets and snuggled in. I feel bad for them. Few of them have any body fat at all. Their little lips are turning blue and they're bouncing up and down trying to stay warm, trying to hold pencils while they are wearing mittens. It's pretty brutal sometimes.

This past weekend Ali and I went to Wando to visit Suze. It was a really good trip. Wando is a remote island with a population of 9995 Koreans, and 5 foreigners. There were nine of us on the island this weekend (almost doubling the foreign population). It was kind of cool. We could look around and say 'every foreigner in Wando is currently in this bar, eating birthday cake, singing like a fool, etc, etc'. Adrian is a Mississippian living in the even remoter island of Nohwa. I don't know the Korean population of Nohwa but the foreign population is: one. Adrian comes to Wando every other weekend to socailize with other 'native speakers' (that's what the education office calls us).

I don't think I've ever met anyone from 'the deep south' (his words) before. I didn't realize how thick the accent was! I honestly don't know how his students understand him when I had trouble! (I asked him this actually. He replied, Aah haaav to taaaak laike aah aaaam deuumb). I can just see his cute Korean kids learning family names (brutha, motha, sista, fatha).


Anyway..

Things I hate:

1. Songpyeon and it's ilk.

Gag me with a stick. A lot of Korean food sounds gross, but is actually delicious. For example, pork spine soup and octopus soup are both dishes that had me blanching at the sound, but groaning with pleasure at the taste.
Songpyeon is supposed to be DESERT. I can't even tell you how gross it is. Chewy, smushy rice cake, rolled around sugary red-bean paste. Takes five minutes to get out of your mouth and into your belly, and every second is extruciating.

2. How it's disastrously impolite to refuse songpyeon.

I KNOW I hate songpyeon. Yet, if the secretary offers me songpyeon, it's obligatory. I'm eating some right now, trying to keep the disgusted look off my face. Yuck.

3. How the high schoolers on the bus with me talk about me EVERY SINGLE DAY. Young children saying "hello" to get a thrill doesn't bother me (often) but sitting there having them chatter about the waygookin (foreigner) pisses me off and makes me feel like the bus is a moving zoo and I am the exhibit.

4. Making stupid cultural mistakes.

I've been in Korea for almost four months now. There are certain things that I should know. However, when one of my co-teachers asked me if I had eaten yet, I stupidly responded, 'oh, not yet, I'm just about to go to lunch'. I'm pretty sure the only answer to this question is 'yes'. They're not asking because they care. It's just another way to say hello. It would be like us saying 'good morning' in Canada, and having the other person respond with the details of their breakfast.

This co-teacher is my favourite Korean lady ever. Instead of trying to make me feel bad, or letting my mistake go uncorrected, she smiled and said: "My foreign friend once asked me why Koreans are always asking, 'have you eaten'. It goes back to times of famine, but we are not actually asking that question." She said it in the sweetest way though. She is tact personified. And she is hilarious. One day she was telling me about her children. She said (in the most dramatic tone):

Everyday day I ask my God WHY? am I such a terrible mother? I don't like cleaning or cooking...In fact I feel sorry for my children to have me as a mother. I don't even want to eat what I cook. It's such a waste of my time. The grocery shopping, the preparing, the clean up. And it doesn't even taste good!

Today I told her she looked nice (she really is beautiful, she's 35, so she looks late-twenties to me, and she just glows).

She grabbed my arm, turned me to face her and said:
'Do you swear from the bottom of your heart?

I said 'yes'.

She said 'oh, that is so good to hear, you know my husband always tells me VERY VERY truthfully what I look like'.

I love her.

I am glad this entry turned into a 'things I love post'.