The key to peace=Menstration

Greetings once again, hopefully everyone had a fine Easter. I spent mine reading an entire book. My Easter dinner was a bowl of noodles. Don’t cry for me though, I had a fine time. Just another good day to relax. It was also kind of nice to be away from the whole celebration thing to actually reflect on what’s being celebrated. Just a different way of marking a holiday I suppose. I actually think this will be the most “unholiday” for me. Christmas I have a few days off work and will *hopefully* be in Thailand for the days. Maybe Thanksgiving will be close to Easter-but I have that day off and will probably spend the day with Westerners anyway. So that’s my Easter story.

In the last set of comments Linda brought up a topic I had totally forgotten to explain. My Job:

My job essentially has two shifts. Monday through Friday I teach during the day at Kwongwoon Elementary school. I teach 3 6^th grade classes and 1 5^th grade class. The classes are 40 minutes each. I usually get a 40 minute break in there somewhere too, and a 40 minute lunch. I try to get to work about half an hour early so I’m usually here from about 8:30 to 2:30. It’s a 40 minute bus ride to the school so my day usually starts about 8.

I teach about 12 kids in each class. The normal classes are about 30 kids, the classes are split into 3 sections. The high level A group, the medium level B group, and then the me speaky no enrish C group. I don’t teach the C kids thank god. So one day I see the A group of a class, the next day I see the B group. They’re all good kids really. I only have one set out of eight that I have any trouble with, and I got them pretty well figured out at this point.

I try not to give my kids homework, (which irks some of the homeroom teachers). But this kids work like crazy. Your average 12 year old over here will be in school from 8 AM to about 10 PM every day. They have a standard school day from to about 5. Then their parents usually send them to math/English/music academies afterwards. The school I work at has school every other Saturday as well. The Saturdays that they don’t have school here most of them go to a day long academy. They don’t go to preschool here, but starting at 5 years old they go to school/academy/start English the whole shebang. In short, the education here is just like you would expect in an Asian country. Cut throat and intensive.

As an example. I also teach an intensive course at the elementary school on Wednesday afternoons. Only 2 kids from each class can get in. It was tough for me to choose because I have so many good students. 3 students cried uncontrollably when they didn’t make the advanced class. They’re under that much pressure here-mostly from their parents.

I enjoy the kids much more than my night classes, I like the kids a lot though. The evenings aren’t that bad though. Monday/Wednesday/Friday I also teach evening classes at the academy. Essentially I’m subcontracted through the academy to work in the elementary school. From 5:30-6:10 I teach more children-these kids are public school though and clearly don’t want to be at academy, so that class isn’t much fun. I just kind of teach at the wall. Meh. Then from 7:00 to 8:30 I teach adults. I teach the highest level of the system which is called 3B. It’s still out of a book, it can be arduous at times because the adults are much less willing to say “I don’t understand” than the kids are. If I ask “are you following me?” they just sit there. Doesn’t matter if they are, if I’m going too slow, or if I’m going too fast. No response. Plus, they never volunteer to answer questions and I’m not about to grill an adult. You’re paying for the class, if you don’t want to participate it’s your money you’re burning. Still, it makes class slow at times. Kids are easier than adults.

Finally I teach a free talk class Mon/Wed/Fri from 8:30 to 10. This class is for anyone who’s at least conversationally proficient at English. There’s no book, no structure, just me talking with about 12 Koreans. This too can be difficult. Sometimes getting conversation out of them is like pulling teeth. It’s not nearly as bad as the other class though. I usually have a news article or two to discuss. Sometimes theyre not interested though. And again, if I say “what do you guys want to talk about?”, I get nothing. One of the oddest things is the few people I have in this class have never said a word. They volunteered to sign up for the class for practice, yet, nothing. This class is free TALK. Essentially they’re paying a couple hundred dollars to sit and listen to me. I’m flattered, but I’d talk for free. So my nights are never great. They’re never horrible either though.

So to sum up my schedule

Monday: 8:30-2:30. 5:30-10.(I get a chance to eat lunch and dinner in there)

Tuesday: 8:30-2:30

Wednesday: 8:30-10(I teach extra classes in the 2:30-5:30 period. There’s not much of a break)

Thursday: 8:30-12:20(My easy day)

Friday: 8:30-2:30 5:30-10

It seems like a lot, but if you add up the total hours I’m teaching in class(which is how I get paid) it’s only 26 hours of in class teaching. But as anyone who’s a teacher knows, that actually means about 35 hours a week of actual work. Still not a bad deal I don’t think. I’m keeping an eye out to pick up some extra private lessons on Tue-Thur as well too. Those are technically illegal, but you can get away with it, and they usually pay about $40 an hour, so if I could pick up 4 hours a week of that I could pretty much live off that and bank my regular pay.

Speaking of which, I get paid Friday. Finally. I still have plenty of money left, but having a nice fat check sitting in my bank will be wonderful. Plus, that means I’ll finally be able to get internet and TV at my place.

Couple other quick thoughts. Saturday I went to the “cultural center of Seoul”, a district called Insadong. On the weekends it’s a massive, and I do mean massive, flea market. It was a very good time. There were a lot of traditional antique Korean wood carvings/furniture etc. A long with a lot of cool little trinkets and tea sets and such. I didn’t buy anything because I didn’t want to lug it around all day, but next time I’ll probably be a buyer. One interesting aspect of the area was that it had a traditional, centuries old, palace right next to it on one side, and on the other was the Jonggak(Chon-GAk) tower, which is one of the more famous and modern towers in Seoul. (Pictures at the bottom)

After Insadong we(we is Alex and I by the way) met up with Taran and Erin in Itaewon. Another eventful night, but it’s become ‘the usual’ so no need for long details. Just a couple of thoughts. We stopped by a bar called “Rocky mountain Canadian bar” It was designed to be just like home in Canada. If Canada is like that bar Robin Williams is right Canada is like an apartment above a really great loft party. That place was just depressing, and the rest of Itaewon is a giant party.

So we left there quick. The next bar we went to was far too chic for me to ever be allowed in I thought. It was called B1 and was in the basement(GET IT!), dim lights, stone walls, bubbly couches, the whole deal. Anyway, not only were we let in the bar, we were escorted to the “red room” oooh fancy. The place was certainly more fun than Rocky Mountain though, and the drinks actually weren’t that expensive. So we sipped cocktails there until we were feeling sufficiently social and then headed to the giant party bar-Geckos. Fun there as well.

A couple “those wacky Koreans” moments:

Friday night Alex went out with his students-I went home. They bought a bottle of Raspberry wine, they were passing it around taking shots. When it got to Alex they told him “Raspberry wine is for man stamina, you have no girlfriend, you can’t have.” That’s not the first time I’ve heard that discussion either. A couple of weeks ago, the principle of my school, through the interpretation of my female Korean counterpart told me to eat these gross mini-fish things because they help man stamina. Apparently, sexual longevity is not only an important subject, it’s also a great conversation starter!

Another anecdote from the gutter:

Taran was telling us some stories from her students. The two best:

She asked the students “What do you usually do when you’re home alone?”

The Student replied: “I usually play with myself”…

Two, She asks “What do you do to relax”

Female student replies: “I usually menstruate”

I’m pretty sure that’s about as far from the truth as you can get lady.(She meant to say meditate)

Well, I guess that’s enough for today. I need to get some work prepared for my night classes. Here’s a couple of pictures:

That's Jonggak Tower



That's a palace like literally across the street


Seoul Tower in the distance