Skip to the bold titles if you are bored by details of my school life and just want to hear my misadventures.
Today officially began my 2nd semester at Sincheorwon Middle School. A lot has changed over vacation. My office (twice), my computer (thankfully) my office mates, my co-teachers, the English classrooms, the English building (found out today English classes are moving to the main building), the principal, the textbooks, the schedule... basically everything has changed.
This semester, I'll be teaching 14 middle school classes with my four new co-teachers, and 4 high school classes with a teacher at the high school. I only found out today that I'll be teaching at the high school, and tomorrow I begin classes! I don't even know where to go, so I hope my high school co-teacher is ready to help me out a lot.
While the high school classes make my schedule harder to manage (the two schools run on different schedules, so at one point I will finish class at the middle school at 3:10 and simply have to get to the high school as soon as I can, as that class begins at 3:10. My co-teacher has agreed to begin class without me that day) I am also looking forward to it. For one thing, I will receive a bonus for taking on a extra school- yay money! For another, I really loved the graduating class of middle school students, and I'm delighted that I'll be teaching them another semester. Finally, this class is totally on me, as to the topic, which I'm sure will be challenging at times, but also allows me a lot more creativity, and is a lot more fun.
My four middle school co-teachers, so far, have been a delight to work with. Mindy is my main co-teacher and will teach 2nd grade with me (that's 8th grade in the US). Emily will teach 3rd grade (9th) and Rachel and Narae will split 1st grade. Mindy, Emily and Rachel, have all just graduated from university and have no teaching experience. Narae has taught for one year. Emily sometimes refers to me as "Sunbae" (senior colleague) which I find a little amusing.
Many of the new teachers are quite friendly and try to speak a little English to me. The new PE teacher in my office shared some coffee with me. To my surprise, it was not syrupy-sugar power mixed with hot water, but actually looked and tasted like real coffee. I expressed my surprise and he informed me that it was Kenyan hand drip coffee. I told him I love coffee, and my hometown is near the first Starbucks. He pointed to himself and said "Barista!" Well, I have no problem having a barista in the office!
Misadventure #1 slippers
It is normal in a lot of schools here for most or all of the teachers to wear slippers around the school. And when my feet continually felt icy in the cold office, I soon joined in the slipper-wearing crowd (thanks to some lovely slippers from mom and dad). Today I was wearing slippers as usual when my co-teacher informed me that we were going to the gym for the opening ceremony. I failed, somehow to note that my co-teacher had changed into her shoes. Once we entered the gym, I became aware that the normally slipper-clad feet of my coworkers were suddenly clacking about in 5 inch heels. I began to feel a little self conscious. Then my co-teacher told me that we all had to walk into the gym and sit in the teachers section. Seconds after arriving in the teachers section, we were trotted up on stage and introduced to all the students and many of their parents. In my slippers. Oops. I was trying to figure out how I could look less slipped clad, when I decided, hey, I stick out like a sore thumb anyway, so what does it really matter? I went up on stage and smiled at everyone and bowed when they called my name. Afterwards the vice-principal said something to Mindy, and I wondered if it was a comment about my slippers, but Mindy told me he said I look like a movie star.
Misadventure # 2 Toast
Oh, teachers dinners. After dinner (with the entire middle school staff) we had several toasts. I was enjoying the fact that my entire table was downing shots of water and hadn't even opened the soju, when suddenly a microphone was put in my hand and I was required to give a toast. I mumbled a few welcome wishes for the new teacher, and I love Korea, I love working at Sincheorwon, and meanwhile the guy who handed me the microphone (and who, incidentally, doesn't speak English) "translated" what I was saying into something that everyone else thought was uproariously funny. I ended with "Cheers" rather than the Korean version, because I thought they'd like it, and then they made me repeat it three times so they could all learn the new word before we could actually have our drinks and someone, thankfully, took the microphone off my hands.
Misadventure #3 I am handsome.
The highlight of the evening, was, no doubt, when a rather drunken coworker pointed at me (with the wrong finger) and shouted "BERY HANDSOME!"
Misadventure # 4 Thumbs up?
One of my new coworkers (the barista guy, actually) gave me a thumbs up. I responded in kind. Apparently, I was agreeing to go drinking. I backed out of that pretty fast.
