New School Year

Today is the first day of the 2011-2012 school year here at Shinhueng Elementary School. Although, really we can just say the school year is 2011... as nothing actually happens from January-March.

There is much that is different this year from last year, for instance, I no longer work at two elementary schools- I will miss the small class size of Dong Myoung, the commute, however, I will not, miss. The punctuation in that last sentence was just as annoying as my commute to Dong Myoung.

Aside from only being at one school I have a brand new set of coteachers. My old Shinhueng teachers, Youngers and Amy, have decided that they no longer want to be associated with me due to my ever increasing demands and the fact that my good looks were a major distraction during planning. Not really... I don't have many demands. I miss them already! The good news is we're still friends and they are easily my favorite Koreans in THE WORLD.

My new coteachers seem alright thus far, though we haven't taught together yet so I bite my tongue. It looks as though I will be doing the majority of the planning and teaching when we work together, which is fine by me! I did come here to teach, after all. I recieved my new schedule today: #grade-#class-- 1 hour lunch in between 4 and 5.
Mon Tues Weds Thu Fri

1. Free 5-1 6-1 5-1 6-1
2. 3-1 5-2 6-2 5-2 6-2
3. 3-2 5-3 6-3 5-3 6-3
4. 3-3 5-4 6-4 5-4 6-4
5. 3-4 5-5 Free 5-5 Free

Notice anything missing? Grade 4, perchance? I'm guessing here... but I'm fairly certain one of my coteachers, and this is a quote of the first sentence in English I ever heard her say, who said, "I don't want to be an English Teacher, but they are making me." Well, she teaches grades 3 and 5 and has 23 classes in total- the fact that I have grade 3 and double classes for 5 means that she will really only teach 9 classes solo a week. Before my old coteacher left the new one asked her if it was alright if she left during class when I am teaching- the answer was "He will probably call the MOE (office of education) on you!" I don't think she'll abandon me, but I don't expect much assistance from her. Anywho, I just like to see all the kids and I'm a little annoyed that I won't get to see grade 4... I'm contemplating an after school club just for grade 4 students. Even then I will maybe only see 10 to 15 of them.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back in school and teaching again! I do feel a little awkward in the Lady's Teacher Room without Younglan around though... but the Guy's Room is smoker-friendly and the lack of my own office really doesn't give me other places to go. That being said, I've slowly been getting closer with other teachers at my school, it's nice to walk around and get genuine smiles and greetings! Some teachers even told me to call them "hyung" or "nuna", Korean for big brother and big sister. Part of the whole Confucian hierarchy idea, but one that I find kind of endearing if you're on the 'in'.

Also, the students are in awe of my hearty sideburns.

La Moustache!

During Epik orientation we were told by a presenter that Koreans pay attention to appearance, a lot of attention. So much attention that if you change your hair style, for example, they will question your mental health- didn't quite make sense to me either, but that's exactly what we were told. Due to this information I had been putting off shaving my beard even though mustaches kind of annoy me. I generally change my face once every other month or so... I like change.

I shaved last night! Went from a beard to a goatee with burns- a classic me look. I expected to go into school today and have everyone comment on my newly shorn face; it was not so. In fact, I went the entire day with only one person making a comment about it- the crossing guard outside the school. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie "La Moustache" but I certainly felt like yelling "LA MOUSTACHE!!! LAAAA MOUSTAAACCCCHHHE!" On more than one occasion today. Oh well.

Facial hair for me, and maybe all men and some women, is significant in that it becomes part of my identity. When I sport a full beard I look and feel older which juxtaposes my clean-shaven self when I look like a teenager and feel younger than I actually am. Since being in Korea the beard as added yet more depth by making me feel and appear obviously foreign. It is very rare to see a Korean man with any sort of facial hair; I'm told that being hairy is a signifier of lust here. In fact, there have even been stories of teachers being asked to shave by their schools due to these superstitious complaints. Koreans have on more than one occasion told me that I look like Jesus Christ, the comment is always set-up first by asking if I'm religious/Christian, the answer being "No" never stops the comparative follow up. I'd like to tell them that Jesus was probably not a white skinned, freckly, blue-eyed, Euro-mutt... with a pinch of Native American... but I would make less friends if I did that. Needless to say, now that I've shaved I'll be curious to see how new Koreans interact with me when we meet, looking like Jesus was a good way to break the ice.

P.S. I need winter vacation ideas.

Leaf Pie

I just ate a "Premium Pastry Pie" called a Leaf Pie. It was more like pie crust molded into the shape of a leaf with some glazed crust, which I will say was apple flavored. I'm yet to determine whether or not it was delicious.

I'm at school right now, it's T-u-e-s-d-a-y, S-e-p-t-e-m-b-e-r the TWENTY-EIGHTH of what year? Two thousand and ten, 2010 (insert smiley into the last zero). I taught 3rd grade today, which I totally love. However, I planned for the wrong lesson today... whoopsies. I brought in material for lesson 11- It's Cold- which I unpacked from my bag and set-up in the classroom. My coteacher walked in and I was very quick to tell her how extra prepared I was by bringing in my winter clothes! To which she responded, "Why?".

Anyways, we quickly threw together the first part of Lesson 10- I Can Swim- which had absolutely nothing to do with 'It's Cold', though I still wore my winter hat through part of first period... And again thanks to my quick thinking coteacher we had some decent games to play with them, so it wasn't a total bust. Actually I thought the games were all fantastic, though slightly hectic because the 3rd graders were all so excited to play, rambunctious is a good word.

The Leaf Pie was pretty good, I've decided.

I've also decided that I am not a fan of idle time. I came upon this discovery last week during the holiday when I failed to use my days off to my advantage and sat idle through most of the days doing nothing. That being said I finished Season 1 of Breaking Bad, Season 2 of Fringe, a movie or two and I acquiesced Season 1 of True Blood. I had to look up how to spell rambunctious but I didn't have to look up acquiesced... there's something uncategorizable happening to the English portion of my brain. By the end of the week I was feeling slightly mired, as a result of my miring I've decided to be less moored during future idle plights. So I hope I can adhere to that and use mire time moore wisely in the future.

Being back at work is great though, I love what I'm doing which is a fantastic sign for the future; being that I plan on teaching for a great while- whether in South Korea or somewhere else, who knows.

Getting attacked by kids. More later.

The-more-later part:

I got my first paycheck last Friday! And they all rejoiced-- Yancy. Ha ha, I had typed "yayyy" there but Google Chrome suggested I check my spelling, I like their suggestion more. It turns out that I get an extra 100,000 Won for teaching at multiple schools which was a fantastic surprise! Of course the fact that they had to take out 500,000 as a safety deposit was less fantastic, though not a surprise.

Things I'd like to spend my money on:

1. Instrument- Banjo would be preferred but finding one may be challenging... perhaps a quest is in order.

2. Camera- A reasonably priced moderately decent digital SLR... a Rebel or Nikon D-series, maybe even a Sony?

3. Food- I gotsta eat.

4. Alcohol- Liquor... Korean beer reminds me of freshman year of college and good beer is quite expensive.

5. Not student loans- If I didn't have to, I wouldn't...

I'm certain there's more but I just got home and plan on vegging out for a minute or two. I've got an idea- let's end my posts with quotes that may or may not be relevant from now on.

"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who don't have it."
- George Bernard Shaw