and now it's just another...

I felt a little deranged a few minutes ago when I looked at myself in the mirror, so I decided that was an indication that it was definitely time to blog. Wait, I’m going to look up the word for journaling/blogging in my Korean/English dictionary, so I can tell my family what I’m doing if they ask. Okay, I’m sure there is a word for blog, but it’s not in my apparently outdated dictionary. I found the word for diary, anyway. 일기. Good to know.

So today was my first day of school. But wait, something definitely happened yesterday just after I uploaded my blog entry to the internet, that I lamented wanting to blog about, so let me try to remember what it was. Yesterday was… Sunday, and I spent most of the day at home with just the kids, and sometimes grandma. I worked quite a bit on my Powerpoint presentation I created with pictures to introduce myself, wrote out most of what I wanted to say during my lesson, took a shower, and… other things? Yesterday I didn’t even get dressed until about 6pm, because it’s so hot and gross in the house that I didn’t bother showering until then. I just stayed in my sports bra, t-shirt, and athletic shorts, which all smell a little manky after the weekend in them. Oh, we (me, the kids, and grandma) ordered dinner in last night, which was interesting. The cousin with the least English said “Teacher… CHINA!” So I’m not sure I’ve ever ordered Chinese food in the States, but I definitely did it last night in Korea. It was pretty good. I can’t remember the name of what it was, but it was noodles with… darkbrownishblack sauce and what I think was chicken in sweet sauce. Awesome, I just went to the kids and asked them, correctly, apparently, what we ate yesterday, but instead of writing down what we ate, they wrote down for me, in Korean, “What did we eat yesterday?” I’ve been having them check most of my spelling, so I suppose I should have expected that.

Later, when Mom (어머니) came home, we all went to the supermarket, which was pretty exciting for me. They have this store in Chuncheon, and in many cities, called E-Mart, which is a lot like Target (only less good), and I haven’t yet figured out if there’s one in Naju or not. (There’s like twelve in Gwangju, which is what Tim and I are doing this weekend, whether he knows it or not.) But the supermarket we went to last night was called G-Mart, and it was mostly a grocery store with one or two aisles of other things. Actually, grocery stores have other things, and I think G-Mart actually has less things than our grocery stores, but it was okay. I bought candy for class today, a diet soda, and grape juice, so it felt like a success, anyway. After that I got roped into another game of Monopoly and then I headed to my room around 10:15. I’ve been sleeping pretty poorly the last few nights for whatever reason. Well, it’s just been very hard for me to get to sleep. My bed is comfortable enough, and a flat pillow miraculously appeared on my bed yesterday—someone must have peered in while I was sleeping and seen my predicament. Probably it’s just because of my stuffy nose and sore throat, but I hope it passes, because I need extra sleep because of the stress adjustment and to kick this cold.

So I woke up at 6am today, both because I wanted more time to get ready (or really just feel ready) for teaching, and also because you’re not supposed to go out with wet hair in Korea (that’s probably true of professional settings in the States, I would imagine). I don’t yet have a hairdryer. It’s one of the things I need to find sometime soon, along with makeup (because I somehow left mine in Seoul). But alas. So anyway, I woke up early, got ready—I wore my blue dress, for those of you who saw my teaching wardrobe and are interested (Mom :). It’s funny, because I was nervous and putting on new clothes, and I said to myself—hey, it’s like the first day of school… but it WAS the first day of school. No? I guess you had to be there.

My co-teacher (Mrs. Oh) picked me up at my house this morning at 8, and we drove to school. It’s about 20 minute drive. She pointed out to me where the bus would drop me off, but confusingly, it’s probably a ten minute drive from that point, which would take me roughly four million hours to walk in dress shoes in the hot sun. She said, “It is far to walk, yes? You call me, I pick you up.” It is somewhat perplexing that such pressing issues as these are explained to me by people who can’t speak English, especially since I’m supposed to take the bus tomorrow, but alas, I’m trying to be serene about it. My co-teacher is an English teacher, and to be fair, she can speak some, but not as much as you would expect from well, an English teacher. That’s the trouble with Korea, though, apparently. I’m sure she knows more English grammar than I do, and she can probably translate very well, but because of the dearth of native speakers, English teachers cannot communicate in English well. Hence, why me and my conversation class are so desperately needed. My host mother has promised she will help me get to school anyway, so I’m not going to worry about it tonight, when I have other things to worry about. We got to school and it was like my first night in the homestay all over again—awkward. Tim sums it well, I think… he said he felt like a “retarded child”—I don’t know how to do anything and everyone sees me as needing looking after.

Anyway, I got to school and they took me into the 교무실 (gyomushil). (That means “teacher’s office.” In Korea, there’s a big room where each teacher has a desk and computer, because teachers don’t have their own classrooms—they move from classroom to classroom, rather than the students moving as happens in the States.) On another note, I’ve definitely noticed my ability to communicate in English dwindling. That sentence, for example, was poorly conceived and awkward, but I’m not going to bother fixing it. I foresee a lot of that happening in the next year. I will come back unable to speak in full sentences (same same?). So I got a desk and computer in the gyomushil, and then the principal brought me into his office, where they have teacher meetings once a week, I think. There are only 12 teachers (it’s a very small school), so I introduced myself briefly, first in English, then in Korea, and then they talked entirely in Korean about me for about ten minutes, and I didn’t understand a word. I just tried to look cute, as I’m wont to do in these situations. Then they brought me into a big room, where the school was having Opening Ceremonies, and had me introduce myself all of the students. There are about 100, and they were lined up by class. (There are 2 1st grade classes, 2 2nd grade classes, and 2 3rd grade classes). I didn’t know what to say, so I just said hello and a phrase we learned at Orientation: 잘 부탁 드립니다. (Please treat me well.) They appreciated my limited Korean, I think. Then I just sat in the office. I had prepared a lesson, but I think they assumed that because the books weren’t in yet, I wouldn’t be able to teach at all. Still, Mr. Kim (the other English teacher) brought me with him to his two classes. The students are really cute. I can see how they might be a pain in the ass, mostly just because they never stop talking, but I think that my novelty as a foreigner will get me through at least the first semester. :) Their speaking ability is very limited—most of them stumbled through a simple introduction (Hi, my name is… My hobbies are… I am – years old). I assume they know a lot of vocabulary, but like me with Korean, they have a very hard time recognizing it when it’s spoken by a native speaker, or forming sentences themselves. That’s okay. We’ll do a lot of repeating. I sat in four classes today, and I really do like the kids. It’s a little sad that I can’t teach academically challenging things like I would at a high school, but they’re so cute and, I hope, less sassy than high schoolers. I got called beautiful by two boys in their introductions, which was humorous at least. It went well, overall. I like hanging out in the gyomushil.

Mrs. O brought me to the bank after lunch so that we could open my bank account and I could get paid! Then, after school, we went and got my cellphone (called hand-pone in Korea). My phone is bottom of the line, but since the school bought it, I definitely don’t mind. Phones are more expensive in Korea, if you can believe that. And besides, it’s still really nice. It has a touch-pad (good? bad? who knows!) and a camera, so whatev. I’ve never cared that much about how cool my phone is, as Dad, who tried to talk me into a RAZR, can attest. Anyway, I basically just sat on the waiting couch while Mrs. O. did all of the work, since it’ll be in her name anyway. One of the guys working there came over and talked to me in English, which was nice. He asked where I was from and gave me some important cellphone advice (Korean phone… expensive. Do not use… much. Touchpad… gentle.) Amazing. Then he came back in and commented on my tattoo, and we made a little more small talk. Then Mrs. O called me over, and he followed me. This classic exchange occurred:

H: You have… Korean friend?

M: … No? (Why are you asking me? And… awkward! In front of your co-workers and my teacher, who is obviously 30.) Well… seonsaengnim. (That’s me indicating that I’m not a loser, my co-teacher is my friend.)

H: (He consults with my co-teacher to find out something about me… she says, in Korean, I am an English teacher) You want… friend? only friend? I want to learn Englishy! (No really, that’s how they say it. kidding 없서 [not kidding])

M: … (awkward laugh) okay.

Helpful co-teacher: She lives near here.

H: What is your… phone number? (This is especially awkward, because I’m holding the sticky-note with my # that his co-worker JUST gave me. So I show it to him, and he looks at it, but he’s not, I assume trying to memorize it. Because… awkwardly, he could just probably just look it up in his computer system.)

M: You want to write? (further proof I am losing the ability to speak English) 써요?

H: (So he awkwardly writes down his number on my stickynote.)

M: I’ll call you. (maybe, but I doubt it.)

This isn’t as weird as you probably think. Korean people are desperate to learn English, because it’s such a mark of status and an asset in getting jobs, apparently. So I was too distracted by excitement over my phone to think much about it as my co-teacher drove me home. And I didn’t realize where we were, but I literally live down the street from his cellphone shop. After much effort, I managed to change the language of the phone to English, and now I’m filled with joy the way you only are when you’re discovering the nuances of a new technology. (This is my technology! ~drowns self~)

Anyway, I decided to reward myself for my first day by going to the G-Mart and buying a diet coke, a grape juice, and a Snickers bar, and then I called Tim and spoke in copious and fast English for a very satisfying 15 minutes. I forget how much I like talking until I spend a few days in the company of only non-native speakers. I get a text message (문자) from Choi (my new friend) that says… here’s my number, please save it. nice to meet you (in more broken English than that, obviously). So we texted a few times, and then he called me and we conversed in half English and half Korean. Thank you, Confucius: the first thing he asked me was, ‘how old are you?’ because that will shape the rest of our interactions for eternity. Kindly, he offered to be my 오빠 (I’m not sure that’s spelled correctly), which is a specific Korean word for a female’s older brother. Apparently, being a foreign teacher in Korea means you are responsible for educating everyone in the country, not just your students. Past ETAs wrote about being accosted by multiple people while naked in the sauna. (That’s why I’m not going to the sauna, among other reasons.)

So it would be nice to have a friend. Typically I would never become friends with someone I randomly met (is that true? yes… I suppose. I’m really only friends with people who I know through other acquaintances, or some mutual interest), but unless I want to be very bored and lonely for a year in Korea, I should probably step outside my comfort zone. Don’t worry, I won’t meet him alone in a hotel, ‘cause you know what that means (if you read my last blog entry ;).

So anyway, I’m going to try to go to sleep now, although I’m doubtful it will work. It’s hot, my throat’s scratchy, and my curtainless room is unnecessarily bright. I hope you’re all well! Now that I will be spending 많이 (a lot of) hours in the gyomushil, I will have lots of time for sending emails, so I’ll hit you up sometime soon.