Baekjae Festival in Gongju

Yesterday was a REALLY good day! It started out horribly because I was tired, and then there must have been a communication error and the vice-principal didn't pick me up!
But I had a good time at school. I didn't have to play in the volleyball tournament, but I helped out with setting up the food and taking down. Everyone was really impressed with me because I continued serving the whole time, and then when it was time to take everything down, I just
kept working, lifting tables and chairs. The principal of the Yugu middle school was really impressed with me and talked with my principal about what a good English teacher I am. And then the principal and vice-principal kept saying thank you, and telling me "Good woman! Sweet woman!"

The students were so helpful with setting up! Too bad they had already gone home by the time we needed to take everything down.

All the female teachers were trying to help out! We ended up eating a lot of the food beforehand. ^^

Waiting outside to carry more food to the table.

All of the visiting teachers eating after playing volleyball. The person in the front is Misun, the 2nd grade teacher. She really likes to joke with me.

Our food after we finished everything!

WOW! That's all I can say for the musical I saw on Tuesday night. It was SO good! Even though I couldn't understand a lot of the words, I understood the meaning. It was so cool. They had a lot of fireworks and water fountains worked into the dancing. And there was a really amazing 3-D dragon that appeared in the water spray! The story was about King Muryeong, one of the most important of the 5 Baekjae kings. I don't know WHY he was important though.

Fight scene between the Baekjae kindgom and I think the Goguryeo kingdom.

Close to the end of the musical.

Today, I went to the festival with my entire school. It was a lot of fun, but I'm worn-out. One of my 4th grade students has a huge crush on me. He was constantly holding my hand, and he got mad when any other kids tried holding my hand. He even tried kissing my hand. That was awkward. It's such a common habit for me to do to people I love that I didn't even think about it as weird until another kid saw it and yelled "GROSS!" He's a sweet kid, and he really likes English class, but he's not good at English. So I guess he likes it because he gets to see me?

There were a lot of other schools at the festival today so I had so many children saying "Hello, English teacher!" I heard one student say "Yankee, go home" but I just turned and walked away. I really don't think the kid knew what he was saying. At least, I HOPE he didn't understand.

AND I saved the day! At least for just a little bit. After lunch, everyone was going back to the bus, but the 1st graders didn't move. I noticed they were all standing together, and the teacher wasn't there, so I stayed with them. They said their teacher went to the bathroom, so I said we should go to the bus, but they just said "Teacher, STOP!" So we waited. And waited. Eventually, I called my mentor teacher and said I was with the 1st graders, but the teacher wasn't there. She had gone to the bathroom, but assumed her kids went to the bus, so she went there. They were all frantically looking for the 1st graders, so they were SO happy that I had stayed behind with them.

2nd grade class. Only 5 students.

6th grade class. Only 6 students.

Students all getting snack food before lunch.

Most of the school is in this picture, eating lunch.
(Remember, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version)

Chuseok Week

It's been a long time since I posted! I'm going to make this post quickly and then go to bed for reasons I'll explain later.

Chuseok was really nice! I spent the week at Miok's parents house in Wando. Miok was sick for about half of the vacation, so I watched tv. I think I watched about 10 movies while I was there!
The last half of the vacation, Miok was better, so we walked around and saw a lot of really cool places. I posted all of my pictures on facebook, so look there if you want to see.

Today, I was invited to my very first 회식, hwesik, or teacher's dinner party. It was very nice! We had so many courses, and the principal had a drink with everyone. I think he drank quite a bit. In the middle of the last toast he made, he said "I love you" in English. A few other teachers responded with "Me, too." It was really funny.

Waiting for other teachers to arrive.

Course one!

Courses two and three!
Patbingsu for dessert

This week is going to be crazy for me. I'll only teach two days. I taught today, and I will teach on Thursday. Tomorrow, other teachers are coming to my school, and there is going to be a big volleyball tournament, so I was told I should participate. I hope I'm not terrible. They play every Wednesday, but so far, I haven't had a chance to play with them. Then, tomorrow evening, I'm going to a musical at the river for the Baekjae festival (세계대백제전) with Mr. Lennon and maybe some other people from church. A few friends from the TaLK program are also coming into town that night, so I might go out for some drinks with them after the show.
On Wednesday, the entire school is going to the Baekjae festival in Gongju (공주), and on Friday, we're all going to the Baekjae festival in Buyeo (부여). I'm really excited about the Baekjae festival. I went one day last year, and had a ton of fun. This year, the festival is SO much bigger! Last year was kind of small because they were very worried about Swine Flu.

AND I'm going to start a project with this blog! I got the idea from my advisor at Columbia College, Mr. Perkins. I'm going to take a picture of my school at the same spot and time each week, and post the pictures here. It will be nice to see the small changes, and it will force me to update semi-regularly. I'm going to be taking the pictures on Monday at 11:30am when I arrive at school. Here is the picture from today, Monday, Sept. 27th.



For now, I'm going to bed. Why am I going to bed at 8:30pm? One, I have to meet the vice-principal at the bus terminal at 8:10am tomorrow to ride to school, and two, I have a cavity that is KILLING me! It's fine in the morning, but by the end of the day, if I don't have dental floss on me, it absolutely hurts! But on a bright note, I should have received my paycheck today, so I should be able to go to a dentist soon.

Learning how to Interact with Old People

Nothing super exciting has happened since my last post.
Until today, that is. I was riding on the bus from Yugu to my school (it's about a 20 minute ride through really scenic country-side). The same old man has sat behind me for the past week, and each time, he kind of pushes on my shoulder. I could never tell if he was just pushing because he was holding on to the chair or if he was doing it on purpose. Maybe he just wanted to touch a foreigner. I really had no idea. But today, he finally worked up the nerve and spoke to me. It was in Korean, of course, and I had no idea what he was talking about until I heard him say "Hagwon". I said "No, Deokam Elementary. I am an English teacher." BUT....my Korean was really horrible! I used the highest form of speech because I was nervous and not thinking. But it made it sound like I think so highly of myself that even I honor me. I'm sure he understood that I don't speak Korean well, and therefore let it slide, but I still felt really, really bad about it. When he got off the bus (just two stops before mine!) he said "Thank you" so I responded with "Goodbye" EXCEPT...I used the wrong form again! This time, it was just a matter of who is leaving and who is staying. I basically told the man getting off the bus "Stay in peace" instead of "Go in peace".

At school, I was eating lunch when JaeHwa showed up! She was the Korean scholar there last semester and we knew each other from Columbia College about two years ago. The TaLK program did not assign me a Korean co-scholar, so my school just went ahead and hired JaeHwa directly to work with me on Thursdays. Thursdays are the HARDEST days. My three classes are 1st/2nd, Kindergarten, and teachers. The student classes aren't that hard if the homeroom teacher is there. But if JaeHwa is there, the homeroom teacher won't come. So that's BAD! But with the teachers...oh, it was horrible! I'm pretty sure I was blushing most of the time because I felt so awkward. All these teachers who are married with children my age are sitting in tiny little chairs at tiny little desks looking up at me and writing down what I write down on the board. It was just so weird. And since they're adults, we talked about introductory questions. The three questions I used were "Are you married? How long have you been married? Do you have any children?" They practiced and then wanted to know how to ask someone if they aren't married. They were like "What if you have a boyfriend? How do you ask when they will marry?" The worst part was that it was one of the male teachers (only two of them!). They were trying to figure out how to ask me when I will get married. And then to make matters worse, another teacher came into the classroom and started taking pictures of me teaching!

It was all just so awkward today. I don't know how to act around people older than me in Korea. I know just fine in America, but in Korea...I want to be respectful, but I feel like they want to treat me as a friend! If I were Korean, it would not be that way. But because I am a foreigner, they want to get to know me and talk with me in a friendly way. I don't know how to do that. They think it's because of the culture difference. I think it has more to do with the age difference. Hopefully, as the semester goes on, and I meet with the teachers more, it won't be so awkward. It will probably always be awkward with the Music/P.E. teacher though. He never talks, even in Korean, and he is probably the youngest of the other teachers. And I'm pretty positive he worked at JungDong, my previous school with the TaLK program. If so, that's even more awkward.

Introductions

I don't know why, but I'm loving being back in Korea. I think I love it here more now than I did the first time. My school is amazing. Maybe I am enjoying it so much more this time because I have some understanding of what is expected, and also because I already have such a close friend in Miok. We've been hanging out a lot since I arrived in Gongju. We went to the fortress, and we attended a welcome party for new members at church. We've gone out to eat, and gotten my hair cut. We've sat in coffee shops for four hours, just looking at magazines and relaxing. It has been great.
More about my school? As I said, it's fantastic! The other teachers try and communicate with me, even though they don't speak English very well. They are trying and it means so much to me! And my students are so wonderful! They are very respectful, and they always seem cheerful.
One bad thing though, I have a student in my 5th/6th grade class who has a speech disability. The other kids make fun of her and don't want to be her friend. It really bothers me that they aren't trying. I understand, because at that age, no one wants to be labeled as the kid who was friends with the 'retard' but it still bothers me. And the thing that bothers me the most about it is that I understand her! If you just listen, you can understand! But no one wants to take the time to try and understand. The other kids just badger her about it, saying "What did you say? Say it again! Say it right!" and then she gets scared and doesn't want to say it anymore. She stayed after class today and asked me when my birthday was. We had a small conversationabout it. When the other kids aren't around, she's more willing to speak in English. I just wish my kids didn't have to feel so shy around their classmates.

BUT...other than the other kids being mean to Jenny, and my kindergarten class being REALLY hard (they can't even read Korean yet), my school life is going pretty well. I really do love Gongju and Korea.

My new haircut, at Canmore with Miok on Monday night

At the pastor's house for a welcoming party on Sunday evening. Me, simchil (maybe?), Mrs. Kim, Andrea, Mr. Lennon, Nari

Hahyun and I really tired at a coffee shop after looking at 4 big fashion magazines on Sunday afternoon.

My school, Deokam Elementary! It's really tiny and great!

At the Gongju fortress, with Miok on Saturday.