February
Back to school! Well actually back to desk warming. At this point I reached the highest degree of desk warming; animate paper weight. Most days when I came to school there were no teachers in the building. If I happened to run into a teacher in the faulty room or the hallway they would be shocked. A few teachers suggested that I should go home. I wanted to take some of my vacation time and go to Japan for about 5 or 6 days. I know it would be a short trip but it would be better than desk warming. My request was denied since during that time there were going to be special teacher meetings I had to attend. Also Co.1 didn’t make it clear to my VP that I was planning to go to Japan rather she told him my Japanese friend was coming to Korea. >_> . Oh well I’m definitely going to Japan in the summer. Co. 1 told me the identity of Co.2. I was delighted to find out it was going to be the 1st grade teacher. (THANK THE LORD!) Co.2 and I get along really well. She’s closer in age to me than Co.1. She makes me feel more like a co-worker and professional rather than an “English Language Bar Wench”. Co.2 will be leaving for maternity leave in July which isn’t too bad since I’m only here until August. I’m not sure if they will get a teacher to fill in or not. But I will wait and see what happens. Anything is bound to happen since Korea is dynamic.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
[6 months Review ] January
January
The New Year was full of surprises. For most of the winter class schedule I spent it planning for the next semester. I was determined to hit the ground running and learn from all my mistakes to improve my lessons. I’m not going to lie there were some days where I couldn’t stay on task and did everything under the sun but work. My Co-teacher informed me that she was leaving the school. (In Korea every 4 years teachers change their schools) I was secretly hoping that the current 1st grade teacher that spoke excellent English was going to be my new Co. Co .1 (my first co-teacher) over time became hard to deal with on a day to day basis. She refused to co-teach with me, she didn’t explain information to me, did things last minute all the time, stiffed me with all the classes to teach, and, spoke to me in Korean most of the time not bothering to make the effort. My Korean isn’t all that great so I was always lost in translation. Co. 1 isn’t a horrible person she was quite helpful and taught me about daily life in Korea. It’s just that she would have been more helpful if she made more of an effort to understand me and speak with me.
I started to go clubbing every now and then with my friends. We went to a smaller club in our area. Most of the time Korean guys spent their time staring at me with expressions on their face like “ooooh a black girl”. One night before I was going to leave I ran into a guy who would take a “No” for answer. All in all he ended up getting my number. The fool ended up drunk dialling me 3 times in one night.
1st call
Me: Hello? (I answered thinking it was long distance, the family sometime forgets the time difference)
Mr. Grabby: HellooooOooo, Eveeeeeee~ I want to see…
Me: I’m sleeping…bye
Mr. Grabby: Huh? Sleep? Nooo… I want to see… please come to me…
Me: No.. Good bye
2nd call
Me: YA! I’m sleeping!
Mr. Grabby: I’m sorry… I can’t English…
Me: bye!
3rd Call
Me: HEY, YOU’RE DEAD! (said in Korean)
Mr. Grabby: *hangs up*
The New Year was full of surprises. For most of the winter class schedule I spent it planning for the next semester. I was determined to hit the ground running and learn from all my mistakes to improve my lessons. I’m not going to lie there were some days where I couldn’t stay on task and did everything under the sun but work. My Co-teacher informed me that she was leaving the school. (In Korea every 4 years teachers change their schools) I was secretly hoping that the current 1st grade teacher that spoke excellent English was going to be my new Co. Co .1 (my first co-teacher) over time became hard to deal with on a day to day basis. She refused to co-teach with me, she didn’t explain information to me, did things last minute all the time, stiffed me with all the classes to teach, and, spoke to me in Korean most of the time not bothering to make the effort. My Korean isn’t all that great so I was always lost in translation. Co. 1 isn’t a horrible person she was quite helpful and taught me about daily life in Korea. It’s just that she would have been more helpful if she made more of an effort to understand me and speak with me.
I started to go clubbing every now and then with my friends. We went to a smaller club in our area. Most of the time Korean guys spent their time staring at me with expressions on their face like “ooooh a black girl”. One night before I was going to leave I ran into a guy who would take a “No” for answer. All in all he ended up getting my number. The fool ended up drunk dialling me 3 times in one night.
1st call
Me: Hello? (I answered thinking it was long distance, the family sometime forgets the time difference)
Mr. Grabby: HellooooOooo, Eveeeeeee~ I want to see…
Me: I’m sleeping…bye
Mr. Grabby: Huh? Sleep? Nooo… I want to see… please come to me…
Me: No.. Good bye
2nd call
Me: YA! I’m sleeping!
Mr. Grabby: I’m sorry… I can’t English…
Me: bye!
3rd Call
Me: HEY, YOU’RE DEAD! (said in Korean)
Mr. Grabby: *hangs up*
[6 months Review ] December
December
I went to Namsan Tower with Jacob. I had such an awesome time with him. First we went to Namsan Tower and saw the place where all locks are on the fence. (Lots of couples come to this one area near the tower, write a message on a lock, attach it to the fence and throw the keys away to signify the promise they made to each other.) After Namsan it was off to the Hanok Village. Jacob and I played several of the old time games and wondered about the area together. Next it was off to Insadong but first it was short stop in a coffee shop to defrost a bit. In the coffee shop talked a bit… about what I can’t remember. I suppose that it was because I was making goo goo eyes at Jacob most of the time. Went we made it to Insadong I was approaching night time it was getting colder. Jacob shared his gloves with me. I wore one and he wore the other. The other ungloved hands we stuffed into our jackets. Eventually Jacob relinquished the other glove. We had dinner in Insandong. Jacob taught me how to text in Korean. It was something I wanted to learn since I got my phone but no one would show me. To say thank you I sent Jacob a message in Korean. Later he walked me to the subway station through Insadong we walked arm in arm close together (to keep warm). When it was time to part ways, Jacob offered his hand for a handshake. I shook his hand but he wouldn’t let go. “Umm, I’ve got to go…so you gotta let go of my hand…” I say. A smirk crosses Jacob’s face and he pulls me toward him. After I regain my balance we have a good laugh. Finally he lets me go and I leave.
As for school life things were slowing down. I didn’t teach much English classes at the middle school. My Co-Teacher was planning the winter class schedule since there were no winter camps at my school.
I went to Namsan Tower with Jacob. I had such an awesome time with him. First we went to Namsan Tower and saw the place where all locks are on the fence. (Lots of couples come to this one area near the tower, write a message on a lock, attach it to the fence and throw the keys away to signify the promise they made to each other.) After Namsan it was off to the Hanok Village. Jacob and I played several of the old time games and wondered about the area together. Next it was off to Insadong but first it was short stop in a coffee shop to defrost a bit. In the coffee shop talked a bit… about what I can’t remember. I suppose that it was because I was making goo goo eyes at Jacob most of the time. Went we made it to Insadong I was approaching night time it was getting colder. Jacob shared his gloves with me. I wore one and he wore the other. The other ungloved hands we stuffed into our jackets. Eventually Jacob relinquished the other glove. We had dinner in Insandong. Jacob taught me how to text in Korean. It was something I wanted to learn since I got my phone but no one would show me. To say thank you I sent Jacob a message in Korean. Later he walked me to the subway station through Insadong we walked arm in arm close together (to keep warm). When it was time to part ways, Jacob offered his hand for a handshake. I shook his hand but he wouldn’t let go. “Umm, I’ve got to go…so you gotta let go of my hand…” I say. A smirk crosses Jacob’s face and he pulls me toward him. After I regain my balance we have a good laugh. Finally he lets me go and I leave.
As for school life things were slowing down. I didn’t teach much English classes at the middle school. My Co-Teacher was planning the winter class schedule since there were no winter camps at my school.
[6 months Review ] October & November
October
The middle school situation kept getting worse. There was one day where I just broke down and cried when I had to go. “I don’t wanna go to schoooool” I cried into my pillow. At that moment I didn’t care how loud I was crying or who might hear me I just need to have a good cry. By the end of the month I started to get a handle on things. My lessons actually grabbed their attention for more than 5 minutes. (with or without the possibility of getting candy) Also some of my middle school students grew on me. The 3rd grade (gr.9) students quickly became my favourites enough they gave me the most trouble.
Health wise I was getting skinnier by the day since I couldn’t keep down Korean food. When it came to school lunches I could only eat soup and rice. Occasionally there was fruit served with the meals and on some special days there was “western” food served. For the longest time I could only keep down Western food. For some reason Korean food just didn’t agree with me. Most people I spoke to about it thought it was stress OR they just thought I didn’t like Korean food. That wasn’t it at all I like Korean food it was just that my stomach doesn’t like it. After a while I just decided to deal with it in my own way by avoiding eating things I wasn’t sure about. Turns out certain family members when that moved to Canada had similar issues. There were certain Canadian foods that just made them sick. So I guess its genetic.
November
Most people that I met through the EPIK orientation have forgotten about my existence. Since I spent most of my time sick I wasn’t going out much. Therefore there were many miss connections. But I did end up hanging out with a lot of Korean people. Lots of people approached me to do language exchange. My new laptop was running on Vista and it crashed. I went about a week without a computer and lots a lot of data. I never had it happen to me before. Thankfully Hi-Mart Boi came to the rescue and helped me about.
The middle school situation kept getting worse. There was one day where I just broke down and cried when I had to go. “I don’t wanna go to schoooool” I cried into my pillow. At that moment I didn’t care how loud I was crying or who might hear me I just need to have a good cry. By the end of the month I started to get a handle on things. My lessons actually grabbed their attention for more than 5 minutes. (with or without the possibility of getting candy) Also some of my middle school students grew on me. The 3rd grade (gr.9) students quickly became my favourites enough they gave me the most trouble.
Health wise I was getting skinnier by the day since I couldn’t keep down Korean food. When it came to school lunches I could only eat soup and rice. Occasionally there was fruit served with the meals and on some special days there was “western” food served. For the longest time I could only keep down Western food. For some reason Korean food just didn’t agree with me. Most people I spoke to about it thought it was stress OR they just thought I didn’t like Korean food. That wasn’t it at all I like Korean food it was just that my stomach doesn’t like it. After a while I just decided to deal with it in my own way by avoiding eating things I wasn’t sure about. Turns out certain family members when that moved to Canada had similar issues. There were certain Canadian foods that just made them sick. So I guess its genetic.
November
Most people that I met through the EPIK orientation have forgotten about my existence. Since I spent most of my time sick I wasn’t going out much. Therefore there were many miss connections. But I did end up hanging out with a lot of Korean people. Lots of people approached me to do language exchange. My new laptop was running on Vista and it crashed. I went about a week without a computer and lots a lot of data. I never had it happen to me before. Thankfully Hi-Mart Boi came to the rescue and helped me about.
[6 months Review ] August & September
I wrote a review for my 1st 6mos in Korea... its a long post so I broke it up into parts.
August
August was a hectic month. It was filled with many ups and downs I’m surprised I have made it this far. The 10 day EPIK orientation went by in a blur and my birthday celebration wasn’t what I expected. If some told me 5 years ago that I’d be celebrating my 25th birthday in S. Korea I wouldn’t have believed them. At the orientation one of the coordinators started and inside joke with a phrase from one of the “travel Korea’” campaigns. “Korea is dynamic” basically this means when “crazy”, “odd”, “confusing”, or “last minute things” happen to you in Korea it’s because” Korea is dynamic”.
September
School was in full swing and I was going through my culture shock. There were many moments where I day dreamed about packing my bags and running away in the middle of the night. You’d be surprised to know how many people have done that in the past. One day after a hard day of classes I fell into a deep sleep around 5pm. About 30 minutes later the sound of yelling and drums violently woke me up. I honestly thought it was the coming of the apocalypse. Completely disoriented I run around my apartment look out into the hallway then, run over the window. I’m scared and half expecting to see the four horsemen outside my window. Actually it was much worse it was about 10 Korean men marching in the streets with flags and drums. Even with the visual my heart is still beating like crazy and echoing in my ears. The sounds of drums and yelling fade until they make it around the block again. This continued every Friday until October. During this period “Korea is dynamic” became my mantra, though it didn’t help much. Being stared at and whispered about wasn’t as hard to deal with compared to the insanity of my middle school classes. At orientation I was relieved to find that I was assigned to an elementary school. Once I met my co-teacher I was informed that in addition to elementary school classes and would also be teaching at a middle school. Which I think was ridiculous. All the people that know that have two schools are placed at schools of the same level. For example two elementary schools, two middle schools, or two high schools. The co-teachers at the middle school did little to help me when it came to lesson planning. It caused me a lot of stress and headaches. Toward the end of the month Korean food started to make me sick. I wasn’t sure why and the doctors had not answers for me… so of course they assumed it must be stress or some mental defect.
August
August was a hectic month. It was filled with many ups and downs I’m surprised I have made it this far. The 10 day EPIK orientation went by in a blur and my birthday celebration wasn’t what I expected. If some told me 5 years ago that I’d be celebrating my 25th birthday in S. Korea I wouldn’t have believed them. At the orientation one of the coordinators started and inside joke with a phrase from one of the “travel Korea’” campaigns. “Korea is dynamic” basically this means when “crazy”, “odd”, “confusing”, or “last minute things” happen to you in Korea it’s because” Korea is dynamic”.
September
School was in full swing and I was going through my culture shock. There were many moments where I day dreamed about packing my bags and running away in the middle of the night. You’d be surprised to know how many people have done that in the past. One day after a hard day of classes I fell into a deep sleep around 5pm. About 30 minutes later the sound of yelling and drums violently woke me up. I honestly thought it was the coming of the apocalypse. Completely disoriented I run around my apartment look out into the hallway then, run over the window. I’m scared and half expecting to see the four horsemen outside my window. Actually it was much worse it was about 10 Korean men marching in the streets with flags and drums. Even with the visual my heart is still beating like crazy and echoing in my ears. The sounds of drums and yelling fade until they make it around the block again. This continued every Friday until October. During this period “Korea is dynamic” became my mantra, though it didn’t help much. Being stared at and whispered about wasn’t as hard to deal with compared to the insanity of my middle school classes. At orientation I was relieved to find that I was assigned to an elementary school. Once I met my co-teacher I was informed that in addition to elementary school classes and would also be teaching at a middle school. Which I think was ridiculous. All the people that know that have two schools are placed at schools of the same level. For example two elementary schools, two middle schools, or two high schools. The co-teachers at the middle school did little to help me when it came to lesson planning. It caused me a lot of stress and headaches. Toward the end of the month Korean food started to make me sick. I wasn’t sure why and the doctors had not answers for me… so of course they assumed it must be stress or some mental defect.
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