The Sleeper

I arrived at my after school class yesterday to the usual scene of chaos. One small thing was different though. One boy lay asleep on his desk. This was unusual for the after school class but he was less distracting than the other little devils running around so I left him alone, figuring he was one of the students in my class.

We were watching a movie for that class so I sat in the back to monitor cell phone usage of my extremely plugged in students (by the end of class I had collected at least 8 phones).

The movie reached a particularly loud scene and the sleeping student, who I now sat across from, finally stirred. He sat up, stretched, a looked around confusedly. After some discussion with the other students he stood up, bowed to me, said sorry and goodbye, grabbed his bag, and left.

According to my students He had been sleeping since the class period just after lunch...he had slept for 4 hours in his desk with no one bothering to wake him.

Poor kid. Only 13 and he's already sleeping that much at school. Sad day.

And yet hilarious. I laughed for quite awhile afterwards.

WPM

I was never the best at typing...in fact, I usually end up backspacing as much as I'm typing to correct whatever mistakes I have made.

Today, however, a pair of very small first graders came and stood behind me. They didn't call my attention so I didn't notice them for quite some time and, when I finally did notice, I first finished up the lesson I was typing. I turned in my chair to ask what they wanted. Their response?

"Nothing."

They stood there for a few more minutes before wandering away. My co-teacher leaned over afterwards and told me that they were staring at how fast I was able to type in English.

...maybe it's something in the water.

Confusion.

My office is a confusing place. Teachers and students and random parents run amok between the desks and tables and rolly chairs. Korean is the primary language...as is expected and when English is spoken...well it catches my ears. Generally it's students asking for candy...or a teacher with more essays to give me...or a student waiting for me to ask him the same questions I've been asking them for the last three weeks (that's another story for when I have more time).

But. There is one teacher who speaks very little English...and when he does speak it it's only when he is 'slightly' inebriated. He's big and scary and has the whole militant PE teacher thing going on. Really nice when you aren't in his way...but the students make sure not to press his buttons.

And every once in awhile he tried out his English. He started to say 'good morning' to me and, lately, I will hear him saying "ok, ok" when he is on the phone, or talking to students, or anybody really. I had actually started to get used to it a little bit.

But nothing stays the same in Korea.

Today, just as I was becoming content with the slow spread of English through the school (which is becoming obvious with the delinquent kids actually speaking in full sentences instead of the one word questions: 'candy') everything changed.

The PE teacher had asked for something and sent that person away with...

"Arigatou"

Suspicions

My suspicions have been confirmed. For months I have been noticing that my candy supply has been dwindling much faster than I was giving them away.

Finally, yesterday, I set a trap. With plastic strategically wrapped around a tower of chupa chups that were placed in a VERY specific position on my desk I toddled of to lunch at 12pm....with a group of the usual delinquent students writing line outside. The office...was left empty.

Sure enough....I came back from lunch and the tower had been disturbed. That was the last straw. I had been giving those kids candy out of the goodness of my heart all week. We even shared a special 'secret' and yet still, they stole.

I promptly took the tower and all other candy at my desk, went to the new English Room which I've had for the last week for my own personal use, and lock my candy in the cabinet for which there is only one key...and it's in MY possession.

Take THAT, delinquent kids. Muahahahaha.....

Dear Korea.

Dear Korea

I don't know if you got the memo but, it's only just barely June. It should NOT be this humid so far from the equator. Seriously, get with the times.

Sincerely,

Disgruntled.



As you might have guessed from the letter above...it's really hot here. Hot for me, anyways. I never enjoyed humid weather and seeing how it's only supposed to get hotter...well, we'll see exactly how I feel when that occurs.

Life continues on as per usual though. The days fly by, especially with how insanely busy I am these days. 10 hours at school today and teaching just about every minute of them. Tiring, but hopefully worth it. The competition is in a week and a half. Frankly, I don't know if I'll be able to last until then. But, there's a nice long weekend in between with some promised fun to be had.

But the flowers continue to bloom, the kids continue to be delinquent (as was particularly noticeable today when a bunch were lined and given a breathaliser test) and good times continue to be had.

A charming blue door. I pass this every day on my way into town. The blue door is less awesome when you see that roof is the same colour....but at least the green roof is natural...

 Flowers in a junkyard. This little lean to type house is just behind my building. The rest of the property is a junkyard, literally, but this just seems like a little bit of heaven.

Bright red roses on a gloomy day. They sure brightened it up for me. Ten hours of straight teaching was rough but these flowers were a nice pick me up for the walk home.

Yes, this is my name in Korean. Contrary to what my students think, I do know how to spell it....and what it sounds like when they say it.

  A nice little rice field...one of a few that surround my school.

The Joch at night from the roof of my building. A nice little sight.

Weekend Duties

Three days sitting at my desk doing just about nothing has prompted me to write a quick little post.

It's been awhile since I've had to work on Saturday but it was easy enough to fall back into the pattern of wearily dragging myself out of bed and going about my day with a grim sense of duty. That disappeared pretty quickly when the first 'job' of the day was watching ADORABLE elementary school kids sing and dance on stage. After a couple of hours of very tough decision making (it's really hard to judge a competition when they're all just so gosh darn cute) I headed to school for my first Saturday classes. I really don't have it that bad. I've been in Korea for almost 6 months and I haven't had to work a single Saturday yet. My students, on the other hand, have to attend morning classes every other Saturday. Sucks to be them.

The afternoon consisted of 2 1/2 hours of trying to control 15 first graders. 13 year olds are...boisterous...and rambunctious. It was fun...but it seemed like a lot more work than an afternoon shift at Tim Hortons. Finally class was about finished and we gathered all our stuff to go outside for an enhanced game of telephone...only to discover a teeny, tiny problem. All of the doors of the school had been locked. Chains of the doors and locks that only open with keys we didn't have. Needless to say my 'school' day ended with my fifteen students and myself clamoring through a window with them saying "We're not thieves, we promise" the whole time.

Oh Korea. You never cease to entertain.

A Sense of Warmth is Tapping at the Door...

Well it's been awhile. More than a month has gone by since my last blog...mostly because I've been putting it off. Again the workload hasn't been so intense that there hasn't been time, although I have been kept busy, I'm just super lazy...to the point where I've contemplated making a template for writing emails to people...

School started a couple of days after my return from 'abroad'. The schedule was a bit scattered for awhile, and the classes more a little daunting. Each class had yet to be divided into their English levels which meant each class was thirty-five boys of varying ability in English. Not being used to this made it a bit of a trial but before long everything settled into its usual routine. Now I have between twenty and twenty-three classes a week with enough variety in the necessary content to keep me on my toes.

My extra-curricular activities have been pretty non-existent. The occasional day/night out but nothing beyond that. Mostly I just chill in my apartment (which is looking more homey with the awesome additions of a couch and an area rug), or at the bar or a cafe with Ruth or Charlotte. Jochiwon isn't the most...happening place on earth which seriously limits the number of awesome things we can do with our time.

St. Paddy's day provided some entertainment to pick us all up out of our March blues. It was definitely a whole other experience spending it with actual Irish people...

The only other event of real significance was the strawberry festival we went to in Nonsan just this weekend. Ruth, Charlotte, and I trekked a bit south to revel in the lovely warm weather and experience a bit of the country 'flavour'.
The festival was awesome and the sun was invigorating. Families with young children were out in full force, reminding of the Rockton fair during the day, before the teens crawled out of the their caves. Balloons and face painting and petting zoos and craft decorating brought a rush of homesickness back. Happily though the random shawarma stand and the buddhist drum circle helped keep everything grounded. I definitely kept thinking "HOLY SMOKES!!! I'M IN KOREA!!!" And you'd thing after almost six months I wouldn't be so thrown off by that thought. But this country never gets old...it just starts to smell a bit.

Well that's is for now! Maybe something more exciting will happen in the next couple of weeks that will make for something interesting to write about but, for now, I'll just have to live with warmer weather, flowering trees, and students walking around with notes written in blood. Oh Korea. You're awesome.