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Published: February 22nd 2011
Dear Blog Readers,
This week has been a week of change. The school semester and year has finished after a week of ridiculous lessons where nobody really knows what to do except tie up loose ends. The teachers have mountains of paper work to finish off so that they can start the new school year off afresh. We’ve also reached the six month mark which seemed very strange simply due to how quickly time is flying by.
If you’re the sort of person who has to know what is happening in advance and with detail then Korea is not for you! I found out on Monday that I wasn’t going to be teaching in the school I was teaching in
during the lesson! A new foreign teacher is coming to Boeun for the new school year and he will take over the renovated Wonnam school that I was teaching at. Consequently, I’ve been placed at the Girl’s High School so we’ll see how that goes. My initial preference when coming to Korea was to teach at a High School so I’m pleased.
It was also Valentine’s Day on Monday. They celebrate it a bit differently in Korea. On
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Playing at St Andrews.14th February, girls buy presents for boys, on 14th March, boys buy presents for girls and on 14th April, all the singles go and eat jajangmyeon to mourn their singleness. Luckily, because it’s Laura’s birthday on 18th February, the Korean Valentine’s alternative is quite good for me! However, the present that I received was anything but pleasant. It is quite common in Korea for couples to wear matching clothes as a symbol of being bound in love together. For the onlooker, such as myself, I shake my head and pity the man who has clearly been forced by his other half to wear such an outfit and can only hope that he doesn’t get violently bullied into submission by his male friends and family.
You can imagine my horror at discovering my Valentine’s present being a matching couple’s t-shirt which says ‘pour mon amour’ and ‘LN loves SW’ on the back. I graciously accepted my present, however, and went next door to show Leonnard and Michelle. Leonnard was the first to poke fun and the torrent of abuse that came my way was deserved and I took it like a man. Little did he know that Michelle had already
Graduation
Band playing. ordered them couples t-shirts but they hadn’t arrived yet. Two days later, Michelle and a sheepish looking Leonnard turn up at the doorstep with t-shirts that are possibly worse than ours!
During the lessons on Tuesday, a Grade 1 student had his phone out. I confiscated it but forgot that I’d kept it until I hear a tap at the window and the said student is there grovelling for his mobile back. That will teach him! My co-teacher, Mr Shin, took me out for a meal of goat meat. It actually tasted pretty good! It needed a lot of sesame seeds, ginger and garlic though to add some flavour to it but it was alright. Mr Shin is leaving to go to Cheongju next semester which I’m pretty gutted about because he’s been a great co-teacher. In fact, about 10 teachers are changing schools next year so it really is going to be all change and new adjustments will need to be made!
Mr Shin took me to Cheongju for some Screen Golf in the evening! It was actually pretty good fun. It’s pretty difficult to do it properly and some Koreans take it really seriously. I felt
Birthday Celebrations
Sunny, Eun-bi and Michelle joining in the festivities! that I did Butler proud back at home with a win with 32 over par over 9 holes. Magnificently terrible.
Graduation on Thursday was a strange affair. I walked into the main hall and greeted to screams and “You’re so handsome!” from the sisters and girlfriends of the third graders who were graduating. Carrie shared my look of shock, disbelief and embarrassment with a mimed “Oh My God.” The main hall was packed with family and friends. All of them holding bunches of flowers to give to their sons upon graduating. I liked seeing some of my unruly third grade students holding a bunch of flowers. They must have felt similar to somebody wearing a couples t-shirt. They also started singing Auld Lange Syne at one point which was quite odd. The school boys who had formed their own band gave a performance full of gusto which was followed by a similarly gusto speech by somebody important. At one point he was shouting and I had no idea what was going on. My uncomfortableness was comforted by the Maths teacher who told me she was bored.
I was given a bunch of flowers from one of the homeroom
teachers who had been given about 5 bunches. Mr Oh came back after an extended lunch break telling me he’d been drinking wine which would make him live until he is 100. Eun-bi told me the school had to notify the police because it is customary for graduating students to strip off naked and pelt each other with eggs and flour. The whole graduating thing baffled me. I pondered that by the time they reach graduating at University, the novelty will have worn off!
On Friday we celebrated Laura’s birthday. She likes going to classy establishments so we went to Pizza School (or should I say Pijja School!) complete with bright fluorescent yellow chairs and wallpaper. We went out for some drinks in the evening with the rest of the foreigners which was good fun. I also noticed Laura starting to pick up the mixture of South African and Canadian accents by saying “pants” instead of trousers and “hey” at the end of sentences. It’s very odd, hey?
We’d both been really looking forward to the weekend. It was Michelle’s birthday on Thursday so we combined their birthdays together to have a snowboarding weekend in Jisan. The weather
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Laura the ruthless snowboarding instructor. Michelle just can't take anymore! was perfect and it was great hanging out with Leonnard, Michelle, Wendy and her boyfriend. Wendy and her boyfriend are Korean and Michelle worked with Wendy a couple of years ago. Her English is phenomenal. She has an almost native Canadian accent and fluency. We were able to show Leonnard and Michelle the ropes and got them carving down the slopes in no time. The sun has begun to melt the fake snow now though so the season is nearly over unfortunately. After a day of snowboarding, we found a restaurant for samgyeopsal which was full even though it was gone 11pm. The six of us managed to get through 9 servings of samgyeopsal!
So the six month mark has been and gone. Here’s to the next six months! Let’s hope it is filled with as much excitement, adventure and enjoyment as the last! Thanks for reading!
Tink and Laura
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