Second Day of School and Gaeksa

---

Today was my second day of school. At least when I woke up, I had a warm shower, unlike yesterday. I got ready for school and was ready for a day of meeting new students. I arrived and went to my Cookie classroom where kids were already there playing. All of the really young classrooms (K) are named after Sesame Street characters - Cookie and Oscar. The older classrooms (1-3) are named after Disney characters - Mickey, Minnie, and Donald.

Today, my kids and Paula’s kids (Cookie and Oscar) went to Gymshule. So In-Suk led the way since she knew what she was doing. She gathered all of the children and took them to the hall to put their shoes on and then started shoving them in the elevator. They were pressing buttons and trying to shut the elevator, so I intervened and stood by the buttons. This elevator can fit about 5 or 6 Western adults if you’re all squished like sardines. We managed to fit 13 children, In-Suk, and me in this tiny elevator. I thought this was going to be our only feat today, but I was sure wrong. We walk out of the building and our school is on a busy street. In-Suk takes them to the curb to wait for the van and they are running wild! This is a Western teacher’s nightmare! I was freaking out yelling to get them away from the street, stop picking up garbage, and stop running toward traffic. I thought, “Sure, one of them is going to get hurt, I’m going to get sued, and I’m going to be on the first plane back to America!” Thankfully, no one got hurt as the van pulled up. Now keep in mind that we have 13 children, and now three adults because of our driver. In-Suk and the driver start piling kids in to the minivan, yes, it’s like a small American Dodge Caravan, if you can picture that. We get most of the kids in and there are still four left standing outside, so I’m thinking another van will come and we can fit into that. Oh no! Are you kidding?! We shovel all of the children in the van - some standing, some sitting, some sitting on other kids, some laying on other kids, and I’m in the front seat! Now, I’ve told you the way Koreans drive - they can thread a needle with a car - well, at this point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to lunch today! During the ride, kids were screaming and singing and raising hell, but apparently that is normal. We finally arrive at Gymshule with the other class right behind us. We get everyone out of the two vans and go inside headed toward the elevators. These elevators are probably twice the size of the one at our school, so of course, we pile my entire class, Paula’s entire class, Paula, her co-teacher, In-Suk, me, and a couple of random business men into this elevator! We had about 35 people in the elevator!

We arrive at gymshule and the kids take their shoes off and then run like mad toward the play area. Think McDonald’s play place with a lot more sharp corners and dangerous objects. Yes, it was again a Western teacher’s nightmare! I was counting the ways the children could get hurt! Paula, who is from Canada, came and we started chatting and I was telling her that I was having a big bout of culture shock today with what had happened in the last 20 minutes! She explained that here in Korea, they don’t really have the concept of suing. If a child gets hurt, it’s just a kid being a kid. They recently had a student get stitches and the mom wasn’t upset at all, she just thought he was being a young boy. She also told me to not be surprised if they put a child on my lap in the van because they just do things differently here. Safety is not a big concern yet. More and more, parents are putting their children in the back seats, but I guess I will see dads driving their mopeds holding a child between them and the handlebars - Yikes! Paula said she went through the same thing when she first arrived because she was trained as an administrator and was counting all of the dangers to children in the gymshule building! Needless to say, it was quite the experience.

I then had a parent drop by and drop off his son. I think he was either Australian or British. He was really nice and said that his son could be quite the handful and if he was acting up, just tell him that I will call his daddy and he won’t get his dollar. Apparently he gets one dollar per day of spending money, so potentially he can get $5 per week. He also let me know that I could threaten him with his two favorite things, soy milk and DVDs, both of which he enjoys after school. The father was really nice and I appreciated him dropping by to say hello.

The first few minutes, the kids just ran wild burning off energy and then they had organized play afterwards headed by one of the gymshule people. They practiced balance on a mat that reminded me of half an orange and tried to throw an arrow into a skinny tube. Two girls managed to make it into the tube, which was pretty impressive. Afterwards, they had warm down time where she blew bubbles and the kids tried to pop them. It was then time to leave, so Paula guarded the gym door and I went out and guarded the main door, because if we didn’t we would have kids everywhere! After they managed to put on their shoes, we went to the hall and attempted to separate our classes to get a head count and then proceeded to the elevator where, again, we all piled in. After getting off the elevator, my Cookie class left to go to the vans first and since we had one more in tow, I, just like I had been warned, had a child on my lap. I felt like Britney Spears when she was chastised for driving with her son on her lap! Of course, none of us had seatbelts and they were all pretty much going crazy. I at least tried to buckle the little boy on my lap in with my hands, but a lot of good that would do in an accident! We finally arrived safely back at the school and again piled all 14 children, In-Suk, and me into the elevator. Total culture shock today!

Back in the classroom, we had to finish some seat work and read a story. Then it was time for me to leave. I met Joni and she was going to take me to the Shinhan bank over in Gaeksa, or downtown. The cab ride cost around $4, and when we got there, we were approached by a Korean man who spoke English who stared and then said, “Hello.” It was kind of awkward and he finally asked where we were from and whatnot. We just assumed he was an interested Korean, but no, he had a friend from Oregon who he pulled over to say hello. Then he tried to give us Jehova’s Witnesses pamphlets! Some things just transcend cultures, and this happens to be one of them. You just can’t get away no matter where you go! Well, thank goodness the light changed and we were able to cross the street to the safety of the international bank. Unfortunately the Won was high today, so I only got about 90 cents to my dollar, I was hoping for lower. Boo. But that’s ok, I just need some Won to get me by until I get paid at the end of the month. The lady who helped me was very nice and spoke pretty good English. After we left, Joni was telling me about what is around the area and different places to see. We were also hungry and pressed for time to get back, so we saw a KFC and decided to stop for lunch.

The KFC was very clean and had some different things on the menu. I was warned that Koreans put red pepper on all of their chicken. Supposedly when you bite into it, the chicken is actually red from the peppers! Joni and I waited at the counter and witnessed another form of South Korean productivity problems. Instead of taking multiple orders like in the States, they take one order, finish it completely, and then move on to the next, so we were standing there for a good 6 minutes waiting to order! We decided to order together since this would in the end be a faster way of getting our food. We ordered the same thing - a spicy chicken sandwich, fries, a drink, and of course a biscuit. The chicken sandwich was good, the biscuit tasted like vanilla cake - very different - and the fries needed salt. That’s another thing here in Korea. They don’t like to put salt on fries and other foods that we would normally put salt on. So when wanting to ask for salt, get a napkin, put it in the palm of your hand and with the other hand, point to it and say, “So-gum,” and hopefully, they understand that you want them to pour extra salt on a napkin. We finished eating and left the restaurant to hail a cab. On the cab ride home, Joni pointed out the actual Gaeksa and it was a traditional gate-looking thing.

We returned to our apartments and Joni told me where to get adapters for my American electronics. So I went home, grabbed my computer cord and left for the little shop down the street. The store was just a hole in the wall place and it had what I would describe as junk everywhere, even outside. It was very dirty and crowded, but he had what I needed. I bought three of them - one for my computer, one for my camera, and then an extra one just in case I needed it. They were about 50 cents each! In the states they would have been A LOT more - anywhere from $5 to $25! So if you are planning to go to another country, it’s probably best to wait until you get there to purchase adapters! I then stopped by Joni’s house and she gave me some hangers to use, and I returned to my apartment. It was about 1:30 and I didn’t have to be at school until 3, but I decided to go early to do some planning and work on my computer. It’s really great because I can take in my laptop and work in the lounge because the whole 3rd floor has Wi-Fi, so the internet is there if I need it!

For my classes, I was still having a lot of questions about what I was to be doing. It is very hard right now because I am new and trying to pick up where someone left off without knowing where they left off since they didn’t write down any page numbers or notes. I ended up having to ask the kids for most of the classes, and they were able to tell me exactly what they were to be doing, so that was a great help. Most of my classes today were really good, but of course I have some preteen girls who don’t think it is necessary to talk in class to learn English. I will break them of the habit one of these days!

In one of my classes today, I had a couple students up next to me and I was grading their tests and one of the girls picked a hair off of my shoulder and with a look of astonishment she held it up for me to see and then carefully put it on the dry-erase board ledge to save it. Apparently it was really amazing to her because it was curly! I also had many classes staring at me and pointing to my face, and I finally figured out that they were amazed at my blue eyes! They finally started saying, or yelling, “TEACHER! BLUE EYES! TEACHER! BLUE EYES!” It was just one of those funny moments!

After school, I didn’t have anything to do, so I went home and had a cheese sandwich, yogurt, and a few bananas for dinner. Those are my staples right now! At least they’re mostly healthy! After dinner, I poked around on the internet and then watched some YouTube episodes of the Golden Girls while waiting for Mom and Dad to wake up so I could video call them. They called about 9:30pm my time, 7:30am their time and we talked for about a half hour before I decided that I was really tired and needed to go to bed.

So that was the end of another exciting day in Jeonju! An-nyeong-hi-kye-se-yo!

---

Comments

[Aunt Marshy]

one day at a time
Things will get easier as you become more familiar with procedures...and the children will learn also what you expect. HUGS!!!