maybe i'm not the one who is confused...

TGIT! and I'm sure I'll be even happier tomorrow when it's Friday, but for now I'm just happy that Friday is almost here. It's been another crazy week at school, which I think eventually I will have to start calling normal because they are all crazy!


This afternoon was supposed to be my first lesson at the Office of Education, I even saw the contract stating the dates that I am to teach there (I was pretty upset that my school just "signed me out" to do another job without even checking with me or having me see the contract, but apparently my Principal "owns" me and can send me to do my job at other places). So, I saw this contract that states all the dates that I am to teach at the office of ed. If you've been reading my blog, you'll remember that last week, after giving me only 15 minutes notice that I was to go teach there, the school board cancelled telling me they weren't prepared for me to come. This week, I figured that since it's in writing, and since they've had a whole other week to prepare, they should be ready for me, right? well that's a big fat negative! Once again, I'm prepared and they don't seem to be! I show up with my co-teacher with my lesson plan in hand and no one is able to direct us anywhere because no one but the head honcho who singed the paper knew that I was coming. After about 20 minutes Mr Kim (who was the man who picked me up at orientation and drove me to Mokpo when my school didn't show up) came to see me and explain that the employees have been really busy lately preparing for some inspection by a higher office, and no one got the word out. Anyway, I think I should stop feeling bad about being confused sometimes, because the people who live here and speak the language seem much worse off than me!


Monday and Wednesday were also long days this week. Monday I arrived at school as usual and prepared myself for the day. I was surprised when my first class showed up 20 minutes early. I taught it and figured I'd ask my co-teacher what was up at recess which should have been right after my first class. Well, no luck...the second class was at the door waiting before my first class was over. After the second class, I ran next door to ask Seul Ki what was up. I asked her, "schedule change?" and she said No. I said, "why classes early?" (Yes, I actually speak like that now, in very simple, short sentences since no one here understands me otherwise). She answered, "ah...time change". Alright, I thought that kind of fell under the category of schedule change but whatever. She said that "school, end early. go outside. play volleyball." So it wasn't perfectly clear who was going out or when, but I had a class waiting. I thought I understood that it was like a special phys. ed. day or something and the whole school was going outside to play volleyball for the afternoon. Before I knew it, literally 3 minutes later, she was at the door telling me "Ellen, come. lunch". Well it turned out that school was over for the day and that the teacher were heading to another school to play volleyball since we don't have a gym at my school. I had been told that we might play volleyball occasionally, and that we'd go to another school, but that it would be on Wednesdays when all the other schools in Korea play volleyball. So I tried to explain to Seul Ki that it was important that she let me know of any changes like that to the schedule (or time of classes, as she would understand it). I asked if the parents knew about the kids going home early and she said no, the parents don't care. Then when she was upset that I didn't have clothes and shoes for volleyball (I was wearing a skirt and heels) I insisted again that I can't be prepared when I don't know ahead of time about stuff like this. Trying to defend herself, she said that she had told me at the beginning of the year that we would sometimes play volleyball. I reminded her that "sometimes play" isn't notice and that she also told me it would be Wednesdays and this was Monday.

So off we go to some other school at 1:30 in the afternoon, and i of course have been scolded by the principal for not having gym clothes and so has Seul Ki for not warning me, to find that it is some major tournament and there were 7 schools there. EVERYONE was asking why I wasn't playing because they think that all Canadians and Americans are superstar volleyball players since we are tall.

Since this was such a big event, there was also food set up outside on tables and each team took turns, when they weren't playing, to go and eat. My principal signaled me to come over and stand at his table and he told me to eat. Well, for starters we had just finished lunch so I wasn't very hungry, but I don' t think I would have had much appetite for raw fish anyway! I had some grape juice and a little piece of songpyeon (rice cake) to please him.



I was also told while we were at volleyball that there was a staff dinner after the tournament. Again, thanks for the notice! But when i made up my little white lie to get out of it, i was informed that it had just been rescheduled to Wednesday - what is with the plans that only last 2 minutes?!!



So Wednesday was another interesting day. I went to school prepared for the staff dinner -- i brought a big lunch in case i couldn't eat what they were eating at dinner! Wednesday is also the day I teach the teachers at my school, so i prepared some rice krispy squares as a treat to try to make my class worth coming too (attendance is dwindling). Well I could only find coloured marshmallows in Korea so my squares turned out orange. Quick fix: I drizzled chocolate over them so that they were orange and brown - Halloween colours- which fit right in with my lesson on Holidays and celebrations! When we were walking out of the class at the end of the lesson, some of the teachers were grabbing seconds and thirds, and telling me that they were really delicious. One teacher said to me, "you husband... is... haf penus". I wasn't sure if she was asking me if he was a penis or if he had a penis, but it turns out she wanted to say that my husband must be happy because i am a good cook! She just took her time getting out the last part -lol!



After that we all got into cars and headed to the restaurant where we were to have our staff dinner. I asked Seul Ki in the car what we would be eating and at first I thought she said dog, but when i made dog sounds she said no, duck. G and K are interchangeable in Korean, same as R and L, so things can get pretty confusing. I'm just starting to get used to being called Erren.

so dinner was really similar to our first staff dinner but with a different meat: you sit on the floor, there is a grill in the middle of the table to cook the meat on, and you then wrap it in leaves of lettuce with onions, radish, and hot sauce, and stuff the whole thing into your mouth. My staff always has a good laugh at me because I'm still struggling to use chopsticks to do all this, and because they think I eat weird since i take small bites rather than stuffing the whole thing in all at once!

Dinner was okay but just when i thought it was done I was told we had to go to the Principal's house. It turned out we were actually out to celebrate his housewarming since he just bought a new apartment. My co-teacher had to run home in between venues so I ended up getting a ride with the Principal. this was most awkward! He only speaks single words of English, kind of like my Korean, and it was a pretty long car ride. It did allow for me to figure out why all Korean cars are equipped with a TV/GPS on the dash. The lights in Korea are super long. they only let one side of traffic go at a time. In a counter clockwise direction, the light turns green only for traffic at nine o'clock, then at six o'clock, 3 o'clock and finally at 12 o'clock. So no head on traffic is ever going through the light at the same time you are. Since the lights work this way you can be sitting for a long time -- we waited 7 minutes at one light! So the Principal turned on his little TV and watched some information TV program on the drying of chili peppers. If you get stuck at more than one light you can pretty much watch an entire 30 minute program., and so this is why they have TVs in cars!
The house-warming party at the Principal's house was pretty dull. The women went straight to the kitchen to start preparing food while the men all sat and watched the biggest television I have ever seen! It was one and a half times the size of the biggest flat screens I've seen in Canada so it must have been 75-80 inches! principals must make a fortune here b/c his place was pretty nice and had flat screen in every room, a built in oven and a dishwasher (major luxuries in Korea!) I didn't check but i bet he had a clothes dryer too! The party pretty much continued like it started: women serving men, men sitting around doing nothing, and by the end of it 14 of us women were standing near the door just waiting for the Principal's permission to leave!

Now the week is almost over and to celebrate my first paycheck (we only get paid once a month and they decided not to pay us in August, that they would add it to September's pay!) I am meeting a friend for dinner. We have not been to any of the restaurants in our neighbourhood and so it will be a great adventure to try to find a restaurant where we understand the menu and can eat the food. I've got my trusty Korean phrase book in hand, but I'm hoping for picture menus -wish me luck!