small talk

Yet another Wednesday, where I found myself at the end of school sitting on the side of the building, having a mini BBQ, with lots and lots of yummy alcohol drinks.  Off in the distance small children at play, the principal chain smoking cigarettes and all the teachers doing shots.  Ohhh Korea, what would I do without you?

On the bus yesterday I met a woman who started making small talk with me.  Here "small talk" involves asking you questions like, "are you married?, where do you live?, do you have boyfriend?, how old are you?".  She volunteered personal information about herself, like she is a 46 year old, divorced mother of two and has to work 2 jobs to make ends meet.  I gather that in Korea, divorce is pretty rare and still very much taboo.  Anyway, half way through the bus ride she is holding my hand (not non-stop, but on and off).  In Korea, hand-holding is a gesture of friendship and pretty much everything they do here they are completely in your personal space, which eventually you do get used to, but it does take some time to retrain your western brain.  She wanted my phone number and of course, I don't have it memorized, so she just grabs my phone out of my hand and calls her cell phone with it.  She wants go have a "hamburger" some time, but hopefully I can talk her into a Korean restaurant.  Her name is "Happy Song", just a nickname of course and she majored in English in college and would like to have a friend she can practice with, so I am really looking forward to possibly developing another friendship with a local.  

I was at my wits end at one of my schools and finally had a talk with the vice principal about the unruly students who are making my job an absolute nightmare.  That very day they called a meeting with all the teachers to help straighten their students out.  My 6th grade boys are by far the worst, and have caused me a couple of mild anxiety attacks.  Today they were made to stand in front of the class in a row and get a very long lecture, followed by them apologizing to me one by one and they bowed.  Amazingly, this class went really well.  It was fun, like I want them to be, and all the students were engaged.  Even the students who I honestly didn't think knew any English were breaking out the big words.  I was absolutely shocked.  During our BBQ, the 6th grade teacher gave me some helpful advice on how to maintain control of the class, so hopefully this will work.  I really don't want this to be the honey-moon phase, so going to really work on keeping it this way.

I am really finding my rhythm with teaching and I am enjoying it very much (aside from my problems mentioned above).  My main school, I teach 12 classes at, and I love all of them.  The students are fabulous, but that mainly comes with the fact that my coteacher at that school is always present in the room, and maintains discipline at all times.  She was the one who told me initially that I was a "burden" for her, but happily we have finally found a pretty nice working, respectful rhythm.  She told me the other day that she feels "lucky" to have me and that I really help her out in the classroom.  I expect a few more kinks, but things are slowly but surely falling into place and I hope it will only continue to get better.

Tidbits:   Deodorant is consdidered seasonal in Korea.  
              New strange store that tops the hairspray/sock store:    The T-shirt & Dog Food Store