Piss, Vinegar and Spitting Fire

...basically if you haven't gathered that I am livid right now, get with the program: I couldn't be angrier if I tried.

Let's begin this story with preemptive information:

• I have been working 34 teaching hours a week. Our contracts are for 30 hours after which we would be paid overtime. My schedule runs MWF 2:50-9:00pm and TR 12:55-9:00pm...this means that on Tuesday and Thursday I work teaching for 8 hours straight. These are not easy days and I have been doing my best which I will admit isn't great but passable.
  
• Today we resigned a contract with our school for 6 more months, meaning we will leave here in April and have been working for them for a total of 18 months.

Okay. Work was fine today, I actually got to finish 50 minutes early which was awesome. So at 8:10 I left my last class and our coworker/ friend Lyn asked if I was done teaching. I said yes and she said, "I have a bad story to tell you."

UH- OH.

So I sat down in her classroom and she proceeds to tell me that our boss is not "angry" with me but that she is "worried" about me and my interactions with the students. Apparently a student in one of my classes quit yesterday and said it was because I grabbed him by the shoulders and made him sit down(!) and that he's "afraid of me."
I asked who this student was and she replied that she only knows his Korean name and wasn't sure which class he was in but she thought it was a 3:50- 4:40 class...and maybe his name was John.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

So I asked some more probing questions, desperately trying to wrack my brain for an interaction like the one she described recently with this unknown kid, until we finally decided it was "John," who is in one of my and Adam's worst classes of all time (not that that has any bearing on anything, just a side note.) Anyway, I still could not recall having ever laid a hand on this kid but Lyn went on with her story about how our boss told her to tell me that she's "worried" that I will make other kids so afraid of me that they will quit our school.

Basically after being told I was a liability, I went off. I started in on how there is a complete and total lack of support for any of the teachers at the school; how our boss feels the need for the second time to have someone else at our school deliver bad news instead of sacking up and doing it herself; how my days on Tuesdays and Thursdays are insanely long and I am made to handle a load of classes with a new teacher at our school and she doesn't say a word to me about anything...ever; how things like this make me regret signing a new contract; that our school doesn't give a shit that so many kids are in the wrong classes and won't talk to their parents out of fear of our school's program looking weak; ETC ETC.

I'm not fully regretting staying here for 6 more months because I know this kind of bullshit happens at all schools. Why, just last week our friend Greg had a girl pin him as the reason she quit their school. But being the scapegoat is getting old. There's no platform I can stand on to defend myself. And Adam is convinced that he's actually the one that probably sat this little pain in the ass down by grabbing his shoulders but for some reason or another they either just assumed that "foreign teacher" meant me or this kid had it in for me.

Either way, I'm tired of being blamed for things I didn't do and then being told by a third party. I'm tired of being the scapegoat for people who are running a business incredibly poorly. If there is failure in the classroom, students who are acting out or students who are not learning because there is no Korean support system in place and a dearth of Korean adults in general then I would look first in the mirror to blame someone for the failure of your school and not the foreign teacher who is struggle to maintain peace in a war zone.

Two Long...and Again!

Wow! Twice in one day!

I completely forgot: we are staying in Korea! We will be here until the end of April when we will begin traveling. We asked for a raise, which we got, and have also been working overtime so we're making decent money and will be able to save about 10 grand from this year and spend the rest that we make from here on out to travel around Asia for 3 1/2 months. So total our time in Korea will be 18 months.

We are sending our kitten home in late March or early April and he will terrorize my Dad until I get back from traveling and can take care of him. My plan right now is to go to community college to earn about 40 credits I need to get into a Physician's Assistant masters program. It will be quite the change to go from teacher to student again but I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Too Long Ago, And So Far Away

I'm baaaaack! Well, we'll see for how long. For some reason the drudgery of day to day life doesn't make me think: "run to the computer and tell everyone about another day at work!"
Most days I don't think of doing much other than our normal routine of wake up- shower- make lunch- eat- go to school- walk home- work out- shower- eat- movie/ bed. That's about the size of our days here.

I decided that even if I didn't have much to add in terms of interesting stories or am in no mood for typing out my complaints about life, I would at least regale everyone with some anecdotes about our boss who never ceases to be strange.

Recently:

Mrs Jung (to Adam): What did you eat?
Adam: We had french toast.
Mrs Jung: Is that a soup?

Besides the fact that asking what we ate is a very common question (for some other foreigners their bosses ask if they had "good sleep") she seems to have a knack for only asking on the days we eat french toast....so this was not the first time she had heard about it and Adam has explained multiple times how to make it. Furthermore, toast is a word in Korean that means a grilled sandwich.


Friday:

Mrs Jung (to us): What will you do this weekend?
Adam: We will go to an island with our friends on Saturday.
Mrs Jung: Will you stay over there?
Adam: No we will come back.
Mrs Jung: Ahh, good. I know good walking near Jinju. We will go. Gavin, Lyn, Jini will come. I will call you.
Us: ...okay...
around the corner
Adam: Did she say walking?!

Ohh sigh! I won't lie: the last thing I want to do on a weekend is spend time with my boss. But what makes it worse is that we would have to drive almost 2 hours and then go "walking"(?) with our boss and coworkers. She would spend the whole day talking to them in Korean and we would just be wondering why in the hell she made us come!

So that's all I have. I started a post about our amazing trip to Bali, Indonesia but I think since I spent a lot of time writing a diary about it I didn't feel like rewriting everything in blog post form. :-P That's just my laziness shining through! Next weekend we are going to Seoul for a couple days since we have a Friday off from work for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and wanted to take advantage. I will try to post about that weekends fun events!

Living in Korea...the 9 month mark

We have now been in Korea for a solid 9 months and it has at times felt like carrying a little Korean love child. It kicks, it turns over when you're least expecting it, it gives you gas and headaches not to mention the constant fatigue. But in the end you realize that one moment that changed your life forever might not have been such a big mistake so much as a giant pain in the ass that you can't for the life of you drop off somewhere for the weekend and forget about.

Somethings have been coming to light recently. One thing is that the tolerance here for anyone who is not Korean is ridiculously low. A big reason I have been swaying back and forth between staying longer and going home is missing that feeling of belonging. People here (children, old people, parents, single people, groups- EVERYONE) stares and points at you. All the time. I can't go to a coffee shop without having someone look at me like a have a second head. And they POINT right at your face. I have a giant cyst next to my nose right now and it makes me feel even more self conscious than I usually do in a country where blending in is not an option. So when people point and stare I can't tell if it's the usual: you're not Korean or if it's: oh God, what's wrong with your face?!

I explained these feelings to our coworker and she said that she could imagine how I was feeling. I also explained that in America we are taught from an early age that pointing, starring and talking about someone is really inappropriate. She retorted that the same thing is taught to young Korean children....BUT IT DOESN'T APPLY BECAUSE I AM FOREIGN. Really- enough said.

Back to the cyst though: I have been asked SO many times by my boss, PITA coworker and about 20 students what is wrong with my face and why it isn't going away and is it getting bigger? I explained to everyone (in particular my nosy boss) that my face will look like this for upwards of 8 months and to please stop asking because I am self conscious about it already. Everyday I still get questions about when it will finally go away. I told my boss yesterday it would probably disappear when I left Korea. ;-P


Other news from the hagwon front: our second kindergarten teacher quit. She up and quit and claims it's all these different reasons (she doesn't have enough students, she has too much work, she wants to get pregnant, she doesn't think the LF system works, blah blah blah) so her last day will be July 28th. So now we're in a situation where our boss claims she can't find anyone to take over for KG and is guilting and/or pressuring everyone in our school to add this additional job to their already full schedules.
No one wants to, so her next plan was to ask Adam if Ian could come over like right now and teach KG. A foreign teacher. Teaching 10- 4-5 year old Korean children. ANYWAY...our boss is freaking out and on and off making comments to everyone that are asinine. Including saying to our co-teacher, "Do you want me to have to close the school?! Why won't you just be the kindergarten teacher?!!" This kind of attitude makes me particularly angry since our boss needed to hire an additional Korean person back in February when our other Korean English teacher quit. Instead she made our front desk woman who speaks practically no English take over. Now she wants everyone to do Kindergarten which is a full time stressful position, too?! No way crazy lady!


So as much as I find things to complain about with our jobs, it is nothing compared to some of our foreign acquaintances have to deal with. Three girls in particular work at a hagwon that makes Mrs Jung and the LF drama look like heaven. My heart goes out to those people who have it so much worse than we do and I apologize for the bitching about my cake-y situation.


Brighter news: I posted some more new pics on Flickr. A mix of more Bijindo and an area of Tongyeong called "Dong Pi Rang" which is a colorful older area of the city that was revitalized with some paint and thought from local people. Kind of cool.

Here's an updated shot of us enjoying the finer points of Korean life:

Alive and as well as can be expected!

I'm here! I didn't fall off the face of the Korean's tiny, self-centered, xenophobic Earth. I have been furiously working on a horrific thing called "OPEN CLASS" at my hagwon as of late.

This invention of torture for both students and teachers alike is practiced at all sorts of schools (public, hagwon, tae-kwon-do academy...) and is the most stressful thing I have dealt with here in Korea. Open Class is when the actual class from the day is moved to 8pm and is set up stage style in front of a room full of parents, our director and the Korean teacher who does absolutely nothing to help you. The week is set up with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Open Class slots for Adam and I. Due to the nature of our schedules, I teach 2 a week and he teaches 1. There are a total of 16 open classes- I have 3 left out of my 10. It is HELL on KOREAN EARTH.

First off, the Korean teacher is not expected to help you during the actual presentation. It is all you. They sometimes help in the days leading up to the open class, but depending on who you have to work with at my school, this help can be over the top helpful help, or really rather subpar "oh god, I need to assist you somehow?" help. I get a lot of the second kind. Adam is blessed with the first.

Anyway: having 2 open classes per week means that while I am trying to print and color and prepare one class, I am simultaneously doing the same for a second class. There is no down time in between. This has caused me to develop a giant cyst on my face. Riiiiight next to my nose so everyone can see it; and children often point out my hideousness (thanks kids!). It's huge and, probably like my last cyst, will take around 3-8 months to go away in some fashion but never really fully heal.

Needless to say I am dying for these things to be over. And in case you're wondering, I do have one on the Tuesday and Thursday surrounding my Wednesday birthday. Is there no rest for the weary?!

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Okay, happier things.

We bought a grill to bar-be-que on! It's awesome! We had a little cook out last night on the pier outside our apartment with our friends and it was so relaxing and tasty. (Unfortunately Adam has a wicked stomach bug and didn't eat but still managed to spend most of the night sitting on the floor of the bathroom. His back is also very out of whack again and he needs to go back to the other doctor for that! EEK.)

Also, last weekend we visited Bijindo island with our friend Amie. Adventures on the boat ensued due to the heavy drinking nature of Korean men and their willingness to share their drinks. They began pouring soju mixed with beer down Adam's throat and then got Amie and I involved as well! By the time we got to the island we were on our way to being drunk and more interested in sitting watching the scenery than we were in hiking anywhere. We ate all our food and drank the beer we brought and took naps near the beach. A very relaxing day.


Amie and Adam and our view from the TOP!


Farmland butting up to water

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A few weekends ago, I went hiking with Mike, Christine and Maggie on Yokjido (said: yolk-gee-doh) and we had a splendid day. It was slightly overcast for a while which made the long trek a lot cooler. The sun did manage to come out eventually and we warmed up considerably. We hiked our asses off and had a great time doing it. The island has a small town on it, but much of it is old, disintegrating and very cool looking.

House in town...


...but the farther you go, the more rural and more beautiful it gets.



Lunching spot:


A greenhouse we saw that was abandoned. The earth was reclaiming it.



My typical pan view of the top:



It was a great day with some real work for the muscles. We did see some of the biggest hornets in the world. The Japanese Hornet which is about the size of a finch. It scared the shit out of all of us and I wish we could have taken pictures but it doesn't like to pose and I don't like to be pushy with insects with 4.7mm long stingers! EEK!

Biking like there's no tomorrow!

As one of my lessons at the beloved Little Fox goes:

"I got a new bike.
It is fast.
I like it.

The car is faster than the bike.

The motorcycle is faster than the car.

The airplane is faster than the motorcycle.

The rocket is faster than the airplane.

The rocket is the fastest.

The airplane is slower than the airplane.

The motorcycle is slower than the airplane.

The car is slower than the motorcycle.

The bike is slower than the car.

The bike is the slowest.

But I don't care.
I got a new yellow bike.
And I like it!!"

Well- it's not yellow and it may be the slowest in this example, but it sure whips the crap out of walking! I have been zooming for 2 days and guess what?

I LOVE IT!!!

POW Camps for Kindegarteners...

...or, "A Day in Hell."

Last week we were informed that Tuesday, May 5th is "Children's Day" which is a national holiday where children get a day off from school/ hagwons/ incessant working to spend with their families being...children! Which means our hagwon would be closed and we would get a rare, and therefore well earned, day off from work. Since it was falling on a Tuesday and our boss is vacationing in Italy for 10 days, they decided to close the school on Monday as well! OMG!! A long weekend!!! BUT WAIT- Kindergarten is going on a field trip...we should make the foreign teachers go too!

So we were told to be at school 10 am sharp on Monday for the trip. I asked where we were going: a Prisoner of War Internment Camp and a Museum of "Old Stuff." Really, I could not make this stuff up. I said, "Isn't a POW camp a bit SERIOUS for a group of 4, 5, and 6 year olds???" Yes, but that is the destination none the less.

And boy oh boy was it EVER. Adam and I were luckily in a different vehicle than the children and were shuttled by our very quiet main Korean teacher well outside the City of Geoje. This is where the Museum of Old Stuff was located. We spent about 45 minutes driving there and a hour and 10 minutes looking at..stuff. Then we had an hour lunch.


You can look AND touch!



Class in Session!!


Lunching in Style for the Kiddies


So when all of that was finished, Shawn (main Korean teacher) said to get back in the van. We didn't seem to be going somewhere else, so I thought maybe someone had rethought the POW camp...but nope, we got there in due time.

Upon entering the gates, I knew we were in for no fun. Geoje was the site of a very large POW camp for the Korean war. Initially it held North Koreans, but later it began interring communist sympathizers and defectors. At it's peak there were around 140,000 people there. They have obviously parred this down to about 10 small barracks and some "museum" type structures. I think they had some grad plan of being a really forward thinking museum with ideas like a "Tank Museum" on the side of a hill that had only a single escalator in it that carries the viewer past cardboard cut outs of the key players in the war.







Oh yeah, that's MacArthur.

So after this the rest of the place is more small buildings that smell old and dusty with tiny dioramas of POW scenes (i.e. this is how women lived, this was the layout, etc) or disintegrating animatronic solider figures with their padding torn and falling out.






The best part of the entire day (besides the end) was when we went into the area where they showed the barracks where the people of the camp lived, ate and...well, "evacuated":





Needless to elaborate, but this was completely the wrong trip to have Kindergarten aged children go on for a "fun day of learning." I think, due to the overabundance of posed set ups during the day, it was mainly a photo-op to show prospective student's parents. But it was boring. For everyone involved. I pray for many months free of KG field trips and never again will I look so favorably on a day our school is closed.