I got my ARC a couple days ago. It is hilarious to compare it to my drivers license. My face looks noticeably older, probably from dealing with teenagers for the last five years. My beard is magnificent, if I do say so myself, as compared to the days when I could barely grow one at all. It's a pretty nifty looking card, all holographic and stuff. Before we go any further though, you know the drill, we need to get you a K-pop fix. This one is distinctly saturated with waygook culture. You can see the non Koreans all over the club and even the feel of the song is a little more hip-hop styled. Notice the choreographed dance moves. Gotta love it. Bust some of those out next time you go dancing.
Anyway, as my English friend Graham would say, I "got my phone sorted" the other day after school. My co-teacher has been totally awesome with this stuff. He got in there and negotiated the deal for me at about 5:30 and it took till 6:30. He is part of a carpool and had to make them wait. Also he helped me pay the initial 20,000 won payment because I had no money. It turns out phones are way cheaper over here, same with phone plans. The one I have is pretty awesome. Hopefully I can bring it back and use it in America. We will see. Maybe I'll never come back ;)
My friend Nate had a run in with eastern medicine the other day. He twisted his ankle or something, doesn't actually know what he did to it, but he went to a medicinal clinic and they guy put needles in his ankle then sucked the blood out into a bulb. The next time he went the guy just jammed a needle in till it hit bone then set fire to the end with a barbecue lighter. Kinda makes me glad that I haven't had a run in with that.
Had a much needed talk with my father last night. Wish I could have spoken to my mom also but she had left for work. This time difference makes talking on the phone kind of awkward, but it was definitely worth it to hear a familiar voice. I have a video that I want to post of my apartment, but I cant do it till I get internet at my place. It's too difficult to do it on this computer that has all the dialogue boxes in Korean.
My after school classes are ok. It's just me with a bunch of kids. No Korean co teacher to help translate for me or help me control the class, but that's not really a problem considering how good these kids are. Even when they are acting up it's just a bunch of girls looking at their own reflections while applying make up. Hardly the high school boys that you can't turn your back on without them making crude jokes. I found a document on my computer when I was looking for some lesson plans that I did that had been left by the guy who was here before me. He wrote a letter to the governor of Chungbuk tendering his resignation. First off, the governor has nothing to do with our employment. Second, if he resigned, it either happened at exactly the half year mark, or right before the end of the year. He didn't get his severance pay, and says that the reason he left was "unsatisfactory working conditions." I have to say, this school is effing awesome. I have only been here a week, but man, this place is great. Compared to teaching high school back in the states, I have never had more off time and less responsibility. My only fear is that I will get used to it and return soft to my old profession when I come back. The classroom management isn't really up to me, because I can't understand what they are saying anyway. All the things that they shouldn't be doing, like using a phone or opening an umbrella in class (someone did that yesterday) all you have to do is look at them, or point at them, and they stop. If that doesn't work I can just bring them to the PE teacher. He is quite the yeller, and I am sure that anyone in this school would be scared at the sound of his name. Right now he has some girl doing pushups next to his desk while he is brushing his teeth and speaking sternly to her. The teacher before me apparently became very upset because of an incident involving a student saying something like "yeah, If I had to take something to my dream island, I'd take your wife." but now I'm recounting a story that was recounted to me by someone who heard it form a girl who heard it from a student. So who knows what actually happened. What I do know is that if you can't handle a little sass from students, you probably shouldn't be in a position of authority over them. I mean, that insult wasn't even that creative. That being said, when I was having my major back pain, I was pretty emotionally fragile from the lack of rest/comfort. There were some days when I just couldn't make it through the whole day and had to take a half-day for fear that someone would say something mean and I would just start bawling. That was like 90 percent me and 10 percent student though, and the 90 percent me was not in a good place. Now that I am back in top form, I can't really imagine these students saying anything that would get me mad. They would be like "Teacher! Teacher! Girlfriend!" "Yes? Do you mean my girlfriend?" "Yesuh! I take your girlfrienduh!" "No no no. I would take your girlfriend. Repeat after me. I." "I uh" "would" "wooduh" "take your girlfriend" "I would take your girlfrienduh!" "Good job. Class, repeat after me, I would take your girlfriend." Teachable moment, right there. You have to take that jackasstical teenage energy and harness it, much like the mighty Fremen riding a giant sandworm on the planet Arrakis.
The food here is delicious. I have said it before and I will continue to say it. My favorite game is "whats in the soup." It's a very complex game involving soup, and trying to guess what is in it. Today was mushroom. I don't even like mushrooms and I ate a whole bunch of them. The meat dish was squid tentacle stew. I was kinda grossed out until I ate one. Then my whole rule of not eating anything with more eyes or limbs than me was immediately thrown out the window. Boy do they know how to cook squid. About once a week we get bibimbap. It is still by far my favorite. I suggest you look it up if you don't know what it is. If you know what it is and haven't tried it, you should, cause it's freaking awesome. There is always a massive portion of rice, and some kimchi, as well as other assorted side dishes. Today we had some sort of dried salted seaweed and a little thing of yogurt. It was good.
On a more personal note, it feels kind of isolated over here. I feel like friendships are drying up. I don't get to talk to my friends much, and when I do I don't really know what to talk about. Life is so different now. Perhaps my new group of friends will be just as satisfying as my old one. There is a lot of potential over here, but it's hard to buy potential a beer. There are no movie theatres here, which I find totally weird. Also the affection. It is not considered weird here to see men holding hands or hugging, or to see women holding hands. The little punches that friends gave to each other back in the states, it's like that but exponentially more intense. They sit there in class and massage each other or hold hands or whatever. This is the guys too, not even the girls. They told me the other day that they had some policy where the students in high school aren't allowed to date. Not at all. I find that kind of weird.
I was gonna finish the blog off but had to include this story. We were playing password or taboo, where one kid stands with his back to the board and tries to guess the written word while other kids describe it in english. The word on the board was "Alone" so one of the kids is standing up there with his back to it and the other students start shouting "You! You! You are this!" and then just stop shouting things. The kid then proceeds to guess "Pig. Stupid. Crazy." The class was rolling on the floor laughing. Me and the co-teacher couldn't help but laugh also. Eventually they referenced a Michael Jackson song and he got it. Guess the king of pop would be huge in a country known for K-pop. The girls class that I just taught was observed by the assistant principal. He is the same guy who invited me to dinner for early October. Lets just say I am a little intimidated and leave it at that. He is a very VERY nice guy, I am just so totally worried that I am gonna forget to take my shoes off or eat my rice with chopsticks or some other faux pas that I won't even realize I committed until his kids are laughing, his wife is crying, and I am being pushed towards the door by a red faced angry boss. Anyway, he totally observed my class and I was demonstrating how to fist bump. He sat there and watched while we changed activities to password, and he got picked by one of the students. His first word was "tired" and the kids tried explaining what it meant, but it was too difficult. I then gave him the word "moon" and he valiantly guessed sky and sun and clouds. Apparently the clue that gave it away was "star friend" and when he got it, everyone cheered. Then the funniest thing in the world happened. He turned, looked at me, and extended his fist towards me. As I fist bumped by confucian superior, he locked it up. Probably the best moment I have had yet as a teacher in Korea. On the way back from class, while I was still riding that high, a bunch of kids saw me and were like "What's up teacher? High five!" It totally made my entire week. I am going to infect this school with American culture and enthusiasm, and by the time I am done, they will all be begging to see America, and fist bump real Americans. So if you ever see a Korean who looks like he just arrived try and give you a fist bump, just be like "Jeffrey teacher? Bearded American?"
Finally I wanted to show this video. Watch it again a couple of times. It really does get funnier every time. It highlights what is wrong and right with the Korean education system. What is right is that the kids take their schooling very seriously, and the teachers do the same. What is wrong is that they are under SOOOOOOO much pressure. Some of them go to school all day, until well into the night, then at night go to a Hagwon, or "cram school" where they basically try to fit as much book learnin' in as you possibly can. Everyone wants to get into what are called "Sky" universities. Those are kind of like Ivy League universities. The funny thing really comes in this video though. That is what the difference between high school and college is. Look at a couple more of those if you can. The original one went viral and spawned a whole mess of other ones about military life, teachers lives, the usual responses.
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