The Good, the Bad, and the Potato Salad

This week seems like the longest week since I came to Korea. Usually time just flies here, but this week crawled by. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have any special plans for the weekend, so there was nothing to look forward to. Monday started the week out on a bad note. All of the native English teachers were called into a meeting with the Vice-Principal, where we were informed that we needed to have all of our lesson plans for the semester done as soon as possible. We’ve been in school for a month now, and they just decided to tell us we need to submit formal lesson plans? Why didn’t they tell us this in the beginning? Plus, once we submit them to the vice principal, what is she going to do with them? She can’t speak English, so I know she’s not going to double check them. Then a few hours after the meeting we were told that we would now be in charge of cleaning our classrooms. I do this anyway, I always make sure the paper is picked up, the desks are straight, and the floor is swept. However, I was informed that I need to mop the floors, and once a week I need to wax the floors…that’s right, I am supposed to wax the floors. First of all, I don’t know how to wax floors. Second of all, I went to college so I wouldn’t have to do things like that for a job, and third, none of the Korean staff is asked to do anything like that. I think the last part was the most insulting to me. I’m used to being discriminated against because I’m foreign, but this is the first time it has ever gone to that extent.

On top of that Mondays are the day I have to stay until after 8pm. So I couldn’t even go home after school, and let out my anxiety. I was planning for my night class, when one of the Korean teachers came in and asked me if I had eaten dinner yet. I said “no” and she told me to go hurry and eat, because all of the other teachers had already eaten…that was another slap in the face, they hadn’t even bothered to walk to my office and see if I would like to eat with them, instead they just left the poor foreigner to go eat dinner by herself. That was the frosting on my cake of a day, and I just broke down. I spent the next 20 minutes crying in the office and hoping that no one would walk in and see me looking like a baby.

Once I mentally adjusted to the newly added stress and responsibility, I got along fine. That’s how I cope with massive amounts of stress, I break down, then adjust. I’m fine now. I don’t hold any ill will towards my co-workers, I didn’t wax the floors in my classroom, but I did clean out all of the desks and sweep the floor and dust the visible surfaces.

On Wednesday I had my French tutoring session. This time I got paid in strawberries and Korean melon. Yay!!! I like getting paid in fruit and vegetables. My student is gradually warming up to me, she talked a lot more this week, and even spoke to me in English after the lesson was over. Who knows, six months from now we might be friends. I really need to find some friends here my own age. I like my co-workers but they’re all older than me and most are married or engaged. There is one who’s not, and I like hanging out with her, but she’s still ten years older than me. Then I have a couple students that always want to walk home with me and hang out with me, so all of my friends here are either ten years older than me, or ten years younger than me. Where are all of the people my age?

On Thursday, I went with one of my 16 year old friends to sign up for Hapkido lessons. Unlike Muay Thai, I won’t be learning how to kill people with my elbows in this martial art, but I will be learning how to defend myself next time someone tries to attack me. I need some form of exercise, and I really enjoyed Muay Thai, so I figured another martial art was the way to go. I start classes on Tuesday. When I was taking Muay Thai, I didn’t wear the uniform, basically because it was a pair of short shorts and no shirt, and I didn’t think that would be appropriate. With Hapkido, however, I get to look like an actual martial artist, which is exciting.

Saturday, after teaching “Sabbath School” I came home and did a deep cleaning of my apartment. It was oddly satisfying. Then I went to the grocery store and the dollar store to get some things I needed for around the house. Sunday at church we would be watching the General Conference broadcast from Salt Lake, and in between sessions there would be a potluck meal of sorts. I decided to make potato salad. I spent the evening boiling and cutting eggs and potatoes, then blending until everything looked perfect. I put it in a big container, and brought it to church the next day. I put it out on the table, and I think everyone tried one chopstick’s worth of salad, said it was delicious, then moved onto the next dish…note to self, potato salad is not a hit with the Asian crowd. Oh well, now there’s more left for me. I’m going to be eating potato salad for the next week.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad week (except Monday, but now that I’ve adjusted to the pressure, I just feel foolish for crying). The weather is getting better, and as I walked to church today I saw little violets (my favorite flower) sticking out of the cracks in the sidewalk. By midweek, the cherry blossoms should be in full bloom, and spring will be making it’s gentle brief appearance before we are tossed into the inferno of summer.

May your lives be full of blossoms and springtime as well.

Birthday Festivities and Linguistic Incompetence

This week was a pretty good week. Monday I worked my 12 hours. The poor students don’t want to be there any more than I do, so I try to make the class really fun for them, but usually they just want to socialize with their friends, and socializing in English isn’t their idea of a good time. I even created a dialogue about Justin Bieber, and it still didn’t work. I guess I should try a Korean pop star this week.

Tuesday was my birthday. I got to work and there was a present on my desk from the other English teachers, and a bowl of 미역국 (traditional birthday seaweed soup). I’m not a huge fan of seaweed soup, but it was my birthday and my coworker had made it especially for me, so I ate the whole bowl. Then right before lunch they brought out a cake, and everyone sang to me and I got to blow out some candles. My students kept singing to me in the hallway too, it was fun. After school I went out to dinner with one of my co-workers and we commiserated about being non-SDA in an SDA school. After dinner I went home to enjoy a peaceful night of solitude. Then I heard a knock on my door. It was the teacher who is in charge of the foreign staff. He brought me another cake and enough toilet paper to last me through the end of my contract. He told me that he was really thankful that I don’t complain and cause them a lot of trouble like the other foreign teachers do. A sincere compliment is so much better than any material gift (even 50 rolls of toilet paper).

On Wednesday I got to school, and one of my students had bought me a Spongebob calendar for my birthday. She’s a really sweet student. She’s in the lowest level, but she always studies and works hard to improve her English. I even walk home with her sometimes after school. There are a lot of annoying little things about my job, but I really like the students. Even the annoying one that does nothing but cause trouble in my classroom, I like (although I like him a lot more the weeks that the other foreign teachers have to teach him and he just comes to torture me during break time).

Wednesday nights now, I tutor a girl in French. It makes me feel really stupid. I studied French for 5 years, and in my barely two years in Korea, my Korean has now surpassed my French. I guess it’s true that if you don’t use it you lose it. I’m really glad that I’m helping this girl to learn, because it helps me to review, and to relearn what I have forgotten during the years that my French has been lying dormant. This way when I apply to grad school I can honestly say that I am still proficient in French.

My weekend was pretty uneventful. I went to Seoul and wandered around the Electronics market with a friend. I wanted to buy a region free DVD player, because all my DVDs are American and they won’t play on Korean DVD players. So we went to Yongsan electronic market because my friend had bought her DVD player there. However, apparently region free DVD players are illegal…the store owner told me that the police were cracking down yesterday, so they were “sold out.” Sad. Why is it illegal to pay money for a device to allow me to watch my legally obtained DVDs…it’s frustrating. I guess I’ll just have to keep using my computer.

Work, Work, Work, with a dash of K-Pop

It always amazes me how quickly time passes in Korea. I suppose because everyone is constantly on the go, there’s not much time for slowing down and enjoying life. By Thursday I will have been in Wonju for a month already. Thursday is also the official two year anniversary of my arrival in Korea. I still find it hard to believe I am here sometimes.

I worked about 48 hours this week, which is going to be my normal apparently. It’s a lot of work, but I’m enjoying it for the most part. I think I even managed to break my bad student. By the end of the week he was behaving much better in class. I get a new batch of students on Monday. Hopefully, I will be able to crack down with them from the start and convince them not to speak Korean in my class. It’s nice for me, I’m getting a lot of listening practice. But their parents are paying ridiculous amounts of money to send them to a private English concentration middle school so that they can practice their Korean.

This week was pretty stressful. I had a lot of planning to do for work, and the people whose job is was to help me, weren’t doing their job. Which was a big headache for me. It’s all over now. Thank goodness. I had to spend all week planning the Sabbath school lesson for Saturday. Which was supposed to be a shared task with me and my group of students. But the teacher in charge of the program never sent my students to see me. Everyday I would ask her to send them to me at lunch, because I didn’t know their homerooms. She said she would do it, and they never came. Finally on Thursday they showed up. By then I had pretty much already planned the entire thing myself.

On Saturday, when school started, we didn’t have the pianist they had promised me would be there, so we had trouble getting the music started, then I couldn’t lead the music because I don’t know any of the songs, so no one knew what was going on. Eventually, we tried to sing a couple of songs, then moved on to the lesson. That part I felt was a success. I can teach, I can lesson plan; that’s what I’m being paid to do. I am willing to teach anything, but I can’t lead a group of children in singing songs about the Savior that I personally feel are extremely irreverent, and somewhat disrespectful. Luckily, I was informed that my somewhat disastrous attempt at a song session has earned the foreign teachers a reprieve from ever having to do song time again! I’m glad I could be of assistance. I feel that Saturday school will be a lot less complicated in the future. Other than song time, I generally enjoy the 2 hours I have to teach on Saturdays. When exam period rolls around and I don’t have to go into work, I’m going to love it even more.

On Wednesday night I had my first tutoring session with a 15 year old girl from church. She really wants to learn French, so I volunteered my somewhat rusty skills. Because I would feel incredibly guilty, and it’s illegal, I refused to let her mom pay me. However, after the session, when it was time to go home, she gave me a bag of seaweed and fruit. I was really excited. I love seaweed and fruit. She also told me next week that she would force me to go home with some kimchi…Yay!!!

This weekend, I spent in Seoul celebrating my birthday. I didn’t really do much. We went to a famous coffee shop where they filmed one of my favorite Korean dramas. Then we had some Indian food, which was delicious. Afterwards, we went to a Noraebang, and pretended we knew all the words to some popular Korean songs, and even a Japanese pop song (Our favorite “One in a Mirrion”). Then we went to a bookstore, and bought some K-pop CDs and I bought a French book, so I don’t feel like such an idiot when I’m tutoring.

Then, after church today, there was a linger longer, which is code for “all of the military families bring American food, and all of the deprived English teachers eat way too much and feel very sick, but very happy for the rest of the day.” All-in-all it was a stressful, but very good week. I’m pretty happy in Wonju. I like the school I’m at and my co-workers. I have a lot of really good students. I might even start doing Hapkido with one of them after school. I am happy. But right now I’m too tired to feel very happy, so I’m going to bed. Have a great week everyone.!