As I write this, at 8:01 PM, there is currently a front-loader (I think) at work digging out our front and side yard. Why, you ask? Well, I have no idea why it is operating at night when it was perfectly bright and sunny today and probably will be tomorrow as well, but I do believe it is digging the foundations for an extension to our cow barn! It’s kind of exciting. Now I’ll be closely surrounded by moos on two sides. Good thing they actually are cute animals and don’t smell bad.
So the last two days at school have been pretty excellent. I have been trying to work out how I am expected to teach, with some help from my co-teacher but he is a very busy man. I have a feeling that he is pretty important at the school and does a lot of stuff for it. And now he has me to take care of as well. I feel that I am a bit of a burden, but he assures me that even though he is busy, I must come to him if I have questions. So I do. I haven’t been doing too much work at school. I have been looking through the teacher’s guides for the English course books we do have and finding out where the teachers are in the lessons. Basically, the lessons are already outlined for me and I think I am just expected to follow them almost exactly, with perhaps a bit of tweaking if it gets boring or if the kids become disengaged. That’s nice in a way, but I’m not sure if I agree with the whole method of learning by strict memorization. It seems tedious and also ultimately ineffective to me. I suppose it’s not my place to question their methods, though, if these are the agreed-upon educational methods in use. I think I will have more liberty in the kindergarten, first, and second grade rooms, so I’ll make sure to have a lot of fun there. Today I also found what seems to be a pretty good EFL website authored by a woman who taught in South Korea, actually. I think I will be taking a lot of song and chant ideas from there. I’ll be doing the hokey pokey all day long! In total, I will be responsible for twenty classes per week—each of the nine classes twice per week, a teachers’ workshop, and an enrichment class. Of these, only four will repeat (because I will use the same material for both second grade classes and both fifth grade classes). That comes out to SIXTEEN unique lessons per week, while most of my ETA friends are responsible for ONE. Sigh. Good thing my kids are so darn cute. It almost makes up for it. No, I’m kidding—I’m happy to do it. I am really happy at my school so far. All of the teachers are very nice, though a little hesitant to speak to me in English. A few have attempted real conversations with me and I am very appreciative. It’s been a good start so far. I feel so welcomed here, at the school and in the community.
I guess everyone at the school is happy with me, too. My co-teacher told me last night that he thinks the principal views me as the daughter he never had. He specifically told Choi Hyun Moon to tell me that he is very appreciative of the fact that I didn’t complain about my schedule and that he is proud of me. The principal really has gone out of his way to ensure I have a good time here—for example, in not letting me live in a house without a good cook. By the way, I found out that I was confusing teachers. It was a different female Kim who wanted me to live with her but was not allowed due to her poor cooking skills—the young fourth grade teacher. The principal told me (through my co-teacher, our interpreter) that he hopes we become good friends. I hope so, too, but she intimidates me a bit. She is probably only a few years older than me—30 at most—and very well put together.
Anyway, so this all happened last night at a party the school hosted. All of the teachers and staff came to a restaurant in Buyeo after our staff meeting yesterday. (I went to the staff meeting, too, but all I understood was my name, said a bunch of times by my co-teacher in what I think was a presentation of what all the teachers are expected to do with me, and the word hakseng, which means student. Not very informative for me. Instead, I tried to memorize teacher names but was largely unsuccessful because I was so tired!) It was a party given in honor of departing staff (a man who had been here as part of his mandatory stint in the army) and incoming staff—myself and the new nurse. The food was supposed to be really good, but to be honest, I like my host mother’s cooking better. Maybe because she caters to my taste. But they did make sure I was well-fed. I sat across from the principal and he ordered more of the side dishes without meat specifically for me. As I had been warned at Orientation, there was a lot of alcohol. Much more than I had thought possible. The principal basically was continually guzzling shots of soju in between bites. (For those of you who don’t know, soju is a Korean wine-like drink. I think it tastes like watered-down vodka. It’s about 20-25% alcohol and you drink it in shots with other people. It’s a social thing.) I think he must have had at least one bottle all to himself. I wasn’t watching the other men, but I think they were getting wasted, too. It was a perfect demonstration of the “Asian glow” phenomenon for sure. I made sure I wasn’t drunk, though. No need for them to see that quite yet.
After dinner, my co-teacher invited me to another place to drink. Now, I had been warned by my Orientation Coordinators not to go to “the second place” and definitely not to go to “the third place.” I was more concerned about getting a ride home, so I just went with the flow of that. So the group ended up being me, the new nurse (I forget her name right now), pretty Miss Kim, and all the men, most of whom were pretty intoxicated. We went to the river first. It’s called the White Horse River and is named after a famous battle in which Buyeo was overtaken by the Chinese 1300 years ago. I think. My co-teacher’s English was lagging at this time. Then we went to a traditional drinking house nearby. It had pictures of all these relics and featured Korean rice wine (and soju, of course!). It was here that I heard all of the above information from my co-teacher about my principal and Miss Kim. We hadn’t been sitting together at dinner, so I didn’t speak much to him then. It was actually really entertaining to see them all out having fun this way, and though the concept of school teachers hanging out and getting wasted together on a Wednesday night seemed a little weird, I was enjoying the vibe. Everyone made an effort to talk to and include me, and it was really fun. The nurse is evidently interested in getting to know me, too, and made Miss Kim switch seats after a while. She was really concerned that I was going to be sick today. Shows how much she knows about college in America! I hardly even drank last night, really. I was just people-watching and enjoying. I wonder how often they have events like this. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing it again!
I have suspicions that the third grade teacher was trying unsuccessfully to hit on me last night, and I think everyone else was encouraging him/maybe making fun of him, too. I didn’t understand the words, just the context. He sat next to me at dinner and became progressively more chatty as he was drinking. His English isn’t great, so it was a bit awkward, but I think he might be an awkward person anyway. He seems nerdy. It’s too bad that men and women aren’t really friends here at all. We’re only a year apart and I think we could be friends, if the culture would allow it. Anyway, he was making ridiculous comments on my skills with chopsticks (ha!), the color of my skirt (he applauds my mother’s choice of peach), and my lovely charm bracelet (thanks again, Mom—you appear to have made me irresistible!). He insisted on carrying my backpack to the second place because, according to him, in Korea the men must carry things for the women. (Yes, I had a backpack…it was full of my volleyball clothes, but we didn’t even play because it was too hot!) He was trying to tell me all about all the relics in and around the bar, too. The funniest part was when my co-teacher was telling me how this teacher (Kim Keun Hwak) and the second grade teacher call him “Older Brother,” indicating their close relationship. I then asked what he would call them in return, but he thought at first I was asking what I would call them. He said, “Oopa!” and then laughed. Oopa literally means big brother, but Korean girls often call their boyfriends oopa, too. I am sure he didn’t know that I knew this, but in any case, the third grade teacher was embarrassed, I think. Oh, if only they knew that I realized what was going on!
I rode home in a taxi with the vp, another teacher, and our outgoing army man. It was only 9 pm, but believe me, it was late enough. In fact, our army friend puked on the way home. Oh, memories! And strangely enough, Kim Keun Hwak was missing today…a bit too much of the sauce last night, perhaps? My co-teacher had to teach third grade in his place today, so I barely saw him. It was okay, though…I had an easy day.
My superstar status with the students has been continuing and even rising as they are becoming more accustomed to me and less shy. Even the little ones will usually say hi to me now. One fifth or sixth grade girl talked to me for a while this morning and introduced me to a lot of kids in the library. Too bad I forget their names. She was very nice. I went upstairs again after lunch, thinking I would do a bit more research online and then get out of there, but I didn’t realize that many of the kids played in the library instead of outside during their lunch hour. So I was literally smothered with small children. Most of them were second-graders, I think. It was really fun to talk to them. They actually knew more English than I thought—colors, numbers, the ABCs. It was definitely a broken conversation, however. And I only got my work done once the rascals left.
I finally found the post office today with the help of my little second-grade friends. They were ahead of me on the street, turned around, saw me, and immediately I had three little helpers vying for my two hands. And they were so helpful! They took me right to the post office (and proceeded to paw through my wallet while I was sending the letters). Then, they helped me pick out shampoo and toothpaste. It was a nice little interaction with my prospective students. One of them seems like she will be a handful, but I think I will really enjoy having them in class.