It's been a good weekend so far, and it's not over yet..

We're having a great weekend this weekend and it's only Sunday morning and we have a few things left to look forward too.

we had a nice quiet Saturday morning catching up with Mom and Michele et Ross on the phone. after the phone calls Milton decided that he was brave enough and that it was time to experience his first Korean haircut. We had been warned about hair dressers in Korea: they are artists and they like to ''style" hair not just cut it. Milton went prepared with a photo of what he wanted - just a little trim. This is what he came home with:

He was happy that it only cost 8$ but he wasn't happy that it was shorter on one side and swept to the other like a small side mohawk. He's a bit nervous about going to school on Monday!

Yesterday afternoon we headed to Gwangju for a Baseball game with a bunch of other foreign teachers because we thought it would give us something "familiar" to do. It wasn't far from a north American baseball game, but the teams weren't very good. There was only a small crowd so we tried to get right into the middle of all the action and the noise. we bought noise makers and contributed the cheering. The game was 0-0 the whole way through, but in an extra inning the Tigers finally got a run and won the game.

The Kia Tigers played the LG Twins, but there were no Twins fans at this game - Go Tigers!!!

Tickets were only $6 and you could sit anywhere you wanted. We were pretty happy with the seats we chose.

They don't have large or talented cheerleading squads in Korea - just four girls with a few easy dance moves and some loud music - they don't even cheer!

Like I said, we were looking for a feeling of familiarity, or a more North American experience and we thought the baseball game would be the perfect solution. one thing we were really looking forward to was the beer and the food. Of course, we had no luck here. there were no corn dogs or pizza or anything at all really other than a little stand that sold chips and beer. Most Koreans brought their own food for the game - rice and kimbap (rice rolls like sushi but with no raw meat). there was a woman selling a few other snacks too, but Chris was the only one brave enough to eat them...

A few members of our crowd had some great luck: Hugo caught a ball and Milton somehow ended up with a baseball bat that he was so proud of he wouldn't let go of it for the rest of the night!

We ended the night of course with some singing and a few more beer!

Pretty exciting so far, and Milton and I still have a great Sunday ahead of us. We have a birthday badminton match with two other couples this afternoon, and this evening we have free tickets to a Korean musical. The office of education offered the tickets to all foreign teachers as they hope that this musical will help us understand a bit more about Korean culture. the price was right and it will give us something else to talk about on our blogs so we are looking forward to it! more to come soon....

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!

Chuseok vacation

Finally the weekend! Milton is away for he weekend in Suwon catching up with Adam who is here from Canada to visit his sister, and I am more than happy to have the apartment to myself and to finally catch up on a few things I’ve been meaning to do. I’ve spent about 4 ½ hours on the phone so far trying to get back in touch with people, and still have a few more calls to make today. I’m also finally finding the time to post a few things on my blog.

If you’ve been checking Milton’s blog, some of what I have to tell will be old news because he seems to have more time than me during the week while he is at school to update his blog and does it more often than I do.

Last weekend was the Korean Chuseok holiday, when Koreans return to their home towns to visit family and celebrate the harvest – like the Canadian thanksgiving I suppose. Korean women don’t like this holiday too much because tradition states that they must visit their mother-in-laws before visiting their own mothers, and because the women have to do all the cooking all weekend while the men drink and play games. Family gatherings are quite big and meals often have to feed 20 people or more, and they eat ALL weekend, it’s not just one meal.

The holiday gave Milton a 4 day weekend and me, a 5 day weekend, so we decided to get off the mainland for a few days and we headed to Jeju Island for a mini vacation. We ran into lots of other Canadians on the ferry ride over who had the same idea as us – take advantage of the long weekend and the nice weather we are having, and stay away from trains and buses since everyone in the country is travelling and the roads are completely gridlocked, bumper to bumper all weekend. It was a nice ferry ride over, but the ferry was not quite what I was expecting. When we picked up our tickets, Milton and realized hat we had the same seat number which we thought was a bit strange. Well, it turns out there are no seats – the number was room number to a room you share with about 20 other people and you all sit Korean style on the floor for the 4 ½ hour ride! Here is a picture of our room:

The people either ate and ate and ate the entire ride, or they slept (see the lady eating her cold cob of corn in the background - she ate about 6 cobs on top of all the cookies, popsicles, and hard-boiled eggs she had eaten earlier). Milton and I spent a lot of time out on the deck and then in the lounge area where there were actual tables and chairs.

The weather wasn’t fabulous for the entire weekend but we did get in a few fun activities. The first night we met up with 9 other people we know who are teaching in Korea right now too. We went for a nice swim before sunset and the beach was amazing! The sand was white and the water was still fairly warm still and it was so clear! When I was swimming I could see everything in the water – fish swimming by and at one point I may have seen a sting ray, but it may also have been a volcanic rock that was perfectly shaped to look like a sting ray. Either way, me and the girl I was with screamed and swam away as fast as we could, and I didn’t let my feet touch the ground again!

Sunday, Milton and I made our way to Mt. Hallasan, the highest mountain in Korea. There are 4 paths you can take to climb the mountain, each one offering a different view, and also a different difficulty level. We wanted to do the longest, most scenic route that would have taken close to 8 hours. In order to do so, you have to be at the mountain to start by 10am – we were cutting it pretty close. We were on a bus on our way and we tried asking the bus driver if we could get a cab to the mountain instead since it would be faster, but he didn’t understand us. We were so surprised when he handed me his cell phone and had me talk to his daughter who spoke enlgish very well. She explained the situation to him and before we knew it, he was stopping the bus to get us a cab and telling the cab driver where to go and to get there fast! Koreans are so nice sometimes and really go out of their way to help us. So we hoped in the cab thinking we would get there on time, but it turned out that the cab driver was heading towards the start of a different path, a shorter one that doesn’t go all the way to the top, and since it was raining, we gave in realizing that the 5 hour climb would probably be more than enough time spent in the rain.

The only other problem we had was that we hadn’t eaten breakfast, since there was nothing at the hotel and because as soon as we stepped out the door of the hotel we were on the bus. We were really happy to find a little shack at the bottom of the path where there were toilets and a tiny store selling rain coats and noodles! So we had the breakfast of Korean champions – warm, spicy Mr. Noodles, put on our gear and headed for the hills.

This is what we looked like all dressed in our ridiculous rain gear with umbrellas, while the Koreans passed us on the trail decked out in $2000 worth of hiking gear.

I stopped at this nice little water spring for some mountain fresh H2O!

It was actually a much more difficult climb than we had imagined and we experienced a few different types of weather along the way, but we made it up in 2 hours and down in an hour and 20 minutes. I think we are done with climbing mountains for a while though now!

At his point we were above the clouds, but still had quite a ways to go!

Here we are at 1600m - which took almost 2 hours to get to, and we are still not quite at the end of our path.

The mountain is 2000m high, so it was pretty disappointing to get to the top of our path and to think that there were only about 3000m separating us from the highest peak. At the top of our climb was another little shack and some toilets. Milton has another bowl of noodles -that cost 1000 won more at the top than they did at the bottom, which I totally disagree with! they should be giving them to us cheaper for having made the huge climb! I skipped the lunch noodles since my stomach was still angry at me for the spicy breakfast!

After the climb, we made our way to the other side of the island to Seogwipo, the other major city on the island. It had been raining pretty much all day and was still raining, so we were really happy to get to our hotel to dry off and to have a place to rest after the trek! Beside our hotel was a sign saying that we were only 300m from one of the 3 great waterfalls on Jeju island, so that’s where we headed first thing Monday morning. It wasn’t quite Niagara falls, but it was impressive and beautiful none the less. Our photos are a bit blurry from that day because we hadn’t notice that some of the settings on the camera had been changed and not set back to where they should be. I think you can still see though how nice the park and the falls were.

The first waterfall we came across seemed a bit small compared to what we had read in the tourist information booklet.

Ok...that's more like what I was looking for! Like a scene out of a movie - gorgeous!!!

The ride home on the ferry was a bit more rough than it was on the way there because of the weather, but we were smart and as soon as we got on the boat we set ourselves up at a big table in the lounge where we stayed for the entire ride with the other 9 people that we had been with on the Saturday night. Everyone else played cards while I tried to convince myself that I wansn’t feeling seasick! I distracted myself by taking pictures of this guy who I think looks like a Korean Johnny Depp! Am I right??

It was a nice mini break, but we were happy to set our feet back down in Mokpo – I guess it really is starting to feel like home!

2 days into a 3 day week and it's a horrible week!

I thought the shorter weeks would be the best ones, but that's not how is seems to be working out! After a five day weekend I was happy to come back to school for a 3 day work-week, but there has been nothing but confusion and chaos since yesterday morning!

Yesterday, my co-teacher would not stop asking me to do things while I was in the middle of something else, and for stuff that really wasn't important or that didn't concern her. For example, I had been dealing directly with the school administrator working on getting my airfare refund (that everyone else somehow got the first week we were here!). Everyday it seems like they are asking for a new form, or copy of something. My co-teacher came looking for me asking for copies of my passport - which I of course don't carry around with me everyday now that I have an alien registration card. I had already told the administrator that I would bring in in the next day, but for some reason my co-teacher is getting involved and she wants to make five copies. I'm not sure what she thinks she will need them for, since all the other paperwork is completed, but she insists on 5 copies even though I told her that seemed silly! She also came in ten minutes before my first class and demanded that I give her my lesson plan for the teacher workshop I was holding in the afternoon. She couldn't wait until lunchtime (still 3 hours before the lesson) she wanted it right away, which required me to put it on USB and go to the other end of the school to print it. I have this ongoing battle with her about lesson plans - she takes them in advance and photocopies stuff and gives it to the other teachers before the lessons. They kind of cheat this way, and it totally kills my order of presentation or management strategies I had for the lesson.

Also yesterday, she asked me if i would be interested in teaching the employees at the office of education since I am not teaching the full hours of my contract. I asked her how i would get there for 4pm on Thursdays since it is at the other end of town and i have no vehicle and there are no buses that come to my school. She agreed this would be a problem and that she would look into it and get back to me. Well I didn't exactly hear back. Instead, today at 2:30 she came to my class and told me that I would be giving a lesson at the office of education an hour later at 3:30, and that we would be leaving at 3pm to get there in time. I totally panicked!!! No warning = no plan, and no time to come up with one! I decide to use a lesson I did with the teachers at my school and I frantically start making photocopies. 3pm arrives of course quite quickly and I'm ready to go waiting in the staff room when she comes in and tells me, "oh never mind. The office of education isn't prepared for you to come today." WHAT?!?! They aren't prepared? they don't have to do anything! they sit, I teach! Totally frustrated, but a bit relieved at the same time, I return to my classroom to plan tomorrow's lessons and write all this down on my blog. She doesn't even know now if I will be teaching next week. Why are Koreans incapable of planning? it is so unbelievable.
That wasn't the only short notice schedule change that i experienced today. I had my co-teacher's class 4th period (just before lunch) and she decided to tell me right then that she had decided she would send her students back during period 5 for a make-up English lesson that was missed due to the holiday Monday. She couldn't have told me this yesterday while I taught in the classroom right next to hers all day or maybe during one of the million times she came to see me yesterday to bug me about something?!
So like I said, only 2 days into a 3 day work week and I can hardly stand it anymore! Maybe I'll call in sick tomorrow ;) They warned us that schedules change often in Korea - which I think is normal anywhere really, but what is the most difficult is how little notice I get (because I am on the bottom of the food chain here) when all the changes affect me directly! I think it's just one thing I will never get used to here, and something I have learned that I appreciate about the way things are done in Canada.

Fan Death

I just thought I 'd write a short note about the most ridiculous belief I have ever heard! I couldn't figure out why the other night my teacher came into my classroom at the end of the day and insisted that I unplug the fan over night. It turns out that the night before I had left it on and when she discovered that in the morning she was shocked and quite afraid. I thought maybe she was concerned about energy consumption, but it turns out she actually believes that it is harmful to leave a fan on in a room with closed door and windows. I really didn't understand, so at dinner on Saturday when talking to some other Canadian teachers, I discovered she was afraid because of the Korean belief of "fan death".

Please read the information posted on Wikipedia for a full explanation of this ridiculous belief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

It turns out that they even use fan death as a cause of death for some driving accidents. A car can be demolished from smashing into a wall, and COD will be listed as Fan death because the driver was enclosed in the vehicle and likely had the air on. Now that I think about it, this may also explain why whenever I've been in a car with a Korean they only let the AC run for a few minutes before they open windows and then close them again to let the AC run a bit longer - just to let in some fresh air or oxygen so we don't die! The accidents of course have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Korean are big drinkers and love to party and then drive home drunk - no! that couldn't be why they crash! ;)

Just a little more Korean craziness for ya!

My first "staff dinner"

So last night I had my first staff dinner. These are outing organised by the social coordinator in the school, with team building being the goal, but the outcome is usually a hungover staff the following day. All the teachers are EXPECTED to attend these dinners where endless bottles of Soju and beer are served.

My principal is really understanding and tries really hard to ensure that when we go out I can eat the meal since he knows I don't eat seafood. So we went to this restaurant - where you sit on the floor, of course, and in the middle of the table they put burning wood and cover it with a grill. Kind of like when you go camping except there are no flames, i guess its more like hot embers? anyways and you cook pork and pork ribs on it and then roll it in lettuce leaves with radish, onions, garlic, and stuff. it is really good! so we sit and cook and eat, and drink - lots!

the male teachers move around and socialize with the women and I of course had the drunkest of all teachers park it next to me. He poured a shot of Soju for me which I'm supposed to take and then immediately turn and fill the same glass for him to drink. My co-teacher was on the other side of my and was secretly encouraging me to pour the soju into another glass while i turn away to drink (females don't drink in front of males, you turn away to be polite). So this went on for a bit and then he was trying to tell me something by saying "beautiful" and then gesturing around his chest. I of course figured he was telling me i had nice boobs and that's why I'm "beautiful". After the other teachers starting laughing hysterically and said something to him, my co-teacher explained that what he was trying to say was that I was beautiful, but he was not, and that doesn't matter because beauty is on the inside. I'm glad he wasn't talking about the size of my chest, but now I'm not sure if i should be insulted or not - am i beautiful on the outside but not on the inside?!

Just as i think things are wrapping up and I'll get to go home, the principal announces the second venue for the evening: Karaoke! So now we go and drink more and have to sing. I of course am freaking out trying to come up with an excuse why i can't go or why i can't sing. I told them i had badminton (good one eh?) but they insisted i come. The principal and VP of course request that i sing, but its not like Karaoke at the spur where you get up with a bunch of people and no one cares how bad you are (think back to my "gangstas paradise" performance). here they are super serious (and all really good!) and you are in this private room with just your party and everyone gets up a sings alone! I am trembling by this point and trying to do shots of beer that they are serving in Dixie cups just to work up a little bit of courage. The English songs are quite limited and it was either a song by Eminem, or Girls just want to have fun. having learned from the gangstas paradise performance, i skipped the rap and went with what i know. I'm sure I was terrible, but i think just the fact that i went up made the principals happy b/c no one commented on how bad it was! When I thought I had done my duty, I got told to sing the final song of the night - that's right, I had to sing TWICE! so i did "let's twist again" and got a score of 94/100 -- the TV gives you a score after you sing.

so that was my night. I survived. these dinners can happen fairly often and I've been told that since I'm in a small school they will! I better start working on my list of excuses!

First few days of school…

So I decided not to post the entry I had written after my first day of school because my first day was terrible! The first day I pretty much sat all alone all day with no idea what was going on around me. I was given the only room in the school that has no air conditioning, and of course, the computer and TV and any other electronic equipment doesn’t work or just isn’t even there. I was surprised when I was thrown up on stage at an assembly and had to do a little speech, but thankfully, no one at my school speaks a word of English and they had no idea how bad my speech really was. I also have to wear these stupid “slippers” around school – no street shoes, or even shoes in general even if they are kept solely for use indoors. Nope, must wear slippers. So I’m walking around in $2 knockoff Adidas sandals that look ridiculous with the professional attire I’m required to wear (pinstripe suits and dresses) and because they are so bulky and floppy and whatever I fell not once, but twice on my first day! –Great start!


I only saw my co-teacher briefly when she came to sit with me, during the time we should have been eating lunch, to translate my three degrees and my certificate of qualifications from English into Korean so that the VP would understand it. Can you imagine how fun it is to explain who the Dean and Registrar are and why their signatures are on the degree?! The only thing my co-teacher could understand was Principal and Vice Principal of university so that’s what the Dean and Registrar have been translated as. On my Brock degree I had to convince her to just leave a blank beside Chancellor b/c I didn’t have the patience to tackle that one and had run out of comparisons. I think the hardest was trying to explain my certificate of qualifications from the Ontario College of Teachers. She couldn’t understand that OCT wasn’t actually a college, and that the page I was showing her was a summary of all my degrees.


So that was the day in brief, but things are getting a bit better and I’d rather write about that! So when I signed my contract back in Canada I was told I would be teaching elementary school, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that would entail. Most foreign teachers teach 4-6 when placed in elementary schools. Not I! I have been given the job of teaching English to every class in the school from kindergarten to grade 6. I have one class of each grade, and two grade six classes. So the only lesson plan I can repeat in a week is the Grade six plan. I’ve also got no training or experience with kids younger than grade 4. So Monday we didn’t have a schedule yet for this semester, things are very unorganized in the schools here, but I was told when I showed up Tuesday morning that we were following last semester’s schedule. That meant I had to teach a kindergarten English class first period, which was only 15 minutes away! OMG! 15 minutes to plan a 40 minute lesson and THERE ARE NO RESOURCES for anything lower than grade 3. So I’m running around my classroom looking for anything I can use, thinking the last teacher must have left me something or at least I would find out what he tough them during first semester – no luck! So I see some fuzzy, coloured dice and I grab a few of those and some flash cards, and figure we will review colours, classroom commands, numbers, and the alphabet. I show up and there are only 6 kids in the class! I was picturing 20, so right away my game of roll the dice, call out the number, and make kids run and get into groups of that number, has pretty much been thrown out the window. Also, time goes by a lot faster with only six kids to call on for everything, so I very quickly ran out of things to do with them. Their teacher also abandoned me, which they aren’t supposed to do. So here I am all alone, no ideas left in head, staring at these tiny little kids who don’t understand a word I’m saying and that are answering back in words that I don’t understand either! What a gong show. I pulled it off with a few rounds of ring around the rosie and a game of “what colour is this? Now run and find me something else that is that colour”. So that was kindergarten, and I’m so glad I only have to teach it once a week.

Later in the day while cleaning my class (there is no school janitor at our school and so I’m responsible for my class or I have to punish the kids and get them to do it), I found a cd with English songs on it. I never thought I would ever hear the Sharon, Lois and Bram song “Chooga Chooga” after Vicky and Laura (the kids I used to babysit) grew out of it, but I will likely come in handy for at least one lesson with the kindergarten kids to teach up, down and side!

In my grade 5 and 6 classes, I decided that we would do English names. So I typed up and printed 20 names for girls and 20 names for boys, using names of friends and family. Well, it didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. The girls all wanted boy names and the boys wanted girl’s names. So in one class I have a male Emma, Elissa and Carolyn and Alan and Frank were taken by girls! Don’t worry Mom, Dad, Jeff and Scott – your names were taken gender appropriately. Some kids picked their own names like Hulk and Chucky.

So today is Wednesday and I show up thinking I’m starting to get the hang of things around here. I’ve got my schedule and my lesson plans already to teach Grade 3, 4 and 1, but after the grade 4 lesson, grade 6 shows up followed by grade 4! When 6 showed up I was thrown but knew I had my lesson from yesterday’s grade 6 class to fall back on, and when 4 showed up a period late I had the plan but was expecting grade 1, so the blackboard was covered with magnets of the alphabet and numbers and flash cards of colours to review with the little kids! At lunch when I asked my teacher why no one was following the schedule, she said the other teachers don’t know the schedule yet. WHAT?! Can they look at in the teacher’s lounge maybe instead of showing up for English whenever they want to? I’ve now been told that next week we will follow the schedule, so I’m not sure how I will plan for the rest of this week.

Another delicate situation has been the lunch arrangement. Normally, all the teachers eat in the lunchroom kind of like when you eat at camp. You don’t pick and pay like at a cafeteria in Canada, you are served and eat whatever they cook. This is a major problem for me! The first day I had the choice between fish in chili sauce, octopus in chili sauce, or fish and mushroom soup –my stomach turns just thinking about it! So I ate white rice and a fresh fig. I had already told my co-teacher that I don’t eat any seafood so I knew there would be a problem. We were told it isn’t very well accepted that we bring our own lunch because Koreans are very proud of their food and are easily insulted if you don’t eat it. So I told my teacher I would pack a lunch everyday because I am on a “special diet” because I have a very sensitive stomach and get sick a lot (we were told white lies is the best way to go in Korea!). So I bring my own lunch and everyone stares at me and wants to see what I’m eating. Today the cook came put to see my lunch and boy did she look angry! I keep telling my co-teacher to explain to them that I can’t eat seafood or spicy sauce (the only seasoning they have here is chili sauce, hot chili sauce, or blazing hot chili sauce). Oh well, a few Koreans hate me, but I’m not starving!

Tonight we have our first staff dinner. It is quite typical for Korean coworkers to have a work dinner almost weekly. This is where they all get drunk and then bring up any issue that they have with each other – crazy but that’s how they solve problems: drink and fight. So I can’t even imagine what I’ll be faced with on my plate, and then in regards to how this week is going with my teaching and my not eating in the lunch that is served. I hope no one hits me tonight :S (in Korea it is OK to hit people, as I learned my first week here when the lady hit me to get off the phone!)

So I’m off to dinner soon, and maybe there will be a good story on my blog after tonight!