Monday morning I got up early and went to the café with free wireless which I am currently favouring. Apparently they are starting to recognize me, because they gave me a free sweet potato with my coffee. For anyone who wishes to chat, I am officially on Skype. The time change is tough to calculate if you’re tired, but I’ve managed to find a few times to go online when I have a chance at talking to someone from home.
Work on Monday afternoon revealed some new information. First, I found out what my teaching assignment was going to be for the next few weeks. I had heard rumours, but knew nothing for sure until that day. Turns out one of our teachers was granted a couple weeks off to go home and visit and ailing family member. They had kept this on the down low due to the fact that those weeks occur over Thanksgiving, a holiday that most of the American’s would have loved to have been home for. The plan then became for me to spend some more time observing this teacher and his classes, and do one day of co-teaching before I took over completely. It didn’t quite pan out that way, due to the following.
During our prep time on Monday, our Academic coordinator came into our staff room and gave us some really unfortunate news. One of our students had passed away due to the H1N1 virus, and the case had attracted some media attention. The media didn’t know that the child attended our Hokwan, but the parents of other students probably would. The first concern for the school was, of course, the school’s reputation. Despite the situation perhaps not being handled in the best way (not that I know what the best way to handle this situation is) the school did extend some compassion towards one of the child’s teachers. That compassion took the form of giving the teacher a couple days off, with me filling in for their classes. My first real subbing job! This quickly extended to a second real subbing job, as the next day another teacher called in sick. Luckily, none of our teachers seemed to have caught the H1N1, but this is still flu season.
Monday night I decided not to cook, and found myself wandering down LaFesta, eyes open for a dinner place where I could sit by myself and perhaps steal some internet. I ended up running into a fellow teacher couple from my school and joining them at a café with live music. Korean’s love cover songs, and the live music is always similar to the American original song, but different enough that it can take a few seconds to recognize.
Tuesday morning I tried Yoga at a studio which a few other teachers go to. It was very relaxing. So relaxing, in fact, that I felt unmotivated to do anything until arriving at work for my first day of real teaching. I ended up at a Café / Bakery called “Paris Baguette” where I grabbed an Americano and some mocha cream bread to go. The Mocha Cream part of the bread is actually a filling , spread between each slice. Yum, tasty calories!
I was a little bit nervous about my first class, but the absent teacher had left clear instructions for me, and unlike high school chemistry, the content of the lesson was very straight forward. The youngest children, who I taught in the first class, are very cute. The older children that I taught later in the evening are well rehearsed in what to do at a Hokwan, Despite their studious repuation, the children are still children, and are very playful. In the class I taught with the highest level students, they quite enjoy hide and seek. They are so adept at it that I honestly didn’t know where half of the class was. This was funny the first day, but later on it just became a time waster.
Wednesday was Pipero Day! In Canada, Nov 11 is remembrance day, in the states, it’s veterans day. Here in Korea, 11/11 is a consumer holiday in which you buy long thin pastry’s that resemble the number one and give them to people. I bought some to give to my students, and many students gifted me likewise. On the plus side, I didn’t need to buy any other snacks for the rest of the week.
Snacking is very necessary for our class schedule. After two hours of prep, we teach for 6 hours straight. We only have 5 minutes to move from class to class. This means no time for a meal, no time even to run to the washroom. If I’m hungry I grab an orange and a cookie in the few minutes that I have. Most teachers avoid needing a meal during class time by going for a large lunch at around 1:30. There are several Korean restaurants around the school, and lots of convenience stores.
On Friday I gave up my subbing schedule and took over the USA destined teacher’s classroom for what should be two weeks. The classes were quite average, with a couple interesting behaviour students mixed in.
I’m already noticing my language degrading. Simple words, like articles, are beginning to vanish from my vocabulary. It’s difficult trying to simplify your language so that the students fully understand, without losing the essential sentence form.
On Friday night, myself and a group of teachers went out for Korean BBQ again. This time we had pork. It was delicious. After a long dinner ( I feel like we were the only table left in the restaurant when we finally departed), some of us headed over to another western Bar, called West Island. Once again, I was surprised to see foreigners! But once again, this was an ex-pat bar, so that’s what I should have expected.
Saturday Morning I went for coffee to a place called “Coffee and Cat”. It is a so called ‘Kitty Café’, where you order a drink, sanitize your hands, and proceed into room filled with chairs, tables, cat toys and at least 15 Cats. Some are just kittens, some are older, but they are all adorable. I think they might keep them hopped up on cat nip, because most are very playful, but every once in a while a cat will curl up next to you and fall asleep. It was a strange place. I tried to do my Korean language homework, but every time I opened my book a cat would jump onto it.
Saturday afternoon I made plans with a fellow teacher, Danielle, to head into Seoul. Because I don’t have a cellphone or internet in my apartment, finalizing plans was difficult, but we ended up on the train into Seoul by 3:00, and easily met up with a few of Danielle’s friends. Danielle’s friends were accompanied by a visiting father, so we were headed for a tourist district to check out some authentic Korean arts and crafts. This would have been a very nice afternoon, if it wasn’t for the cold and wind. I, due to my rushed departure, was not properly dressed, and found myself darting from store to store to hide under heat lamps. The group of us found a Korean restaurant and settled down for an early dinner. We had some really good beef bulgolgi, and braced ourselves for the frigid outdoors once again. After a bit more looking around, we got back on the subway and went off in the same direction but with separate intentions. Danielle and I went off to meet another one of her friends, and we found a warm café to huddle in. In this one I had hot chocolate and a cheesecake with a blueberry topping.
With it too cold to really explore the area, we all met up at a jazz club, very appropriately named live jazz club. A Korean jazz quartet was playing to a crowd of around 100?. The saxophonist was very into the music, and swayed, danced, and even sang along to the rest of the members in his quartet. At the end of the night he gestured to our table of foreigners ( we were sitting right in front of the stage) and asked us where we were from. My table responded “American, and Canada” pointing to me. The Saxophonists was apparently more interested in Canada, and asked where from. I tried saying BC, but he didn’t understand so I just said “Vancouver” and he nodded, saying “Ah!”. He then just said “Quebec?” and Ontario?” I nodded. He said “Long time yesterday.” Meaning, I think, that he had once been to Canada and visited those places. Some Californians in the back then called attention to themselves and announced that it was someone in their groups’ birthday. He talked a little bit more, then the set was over and our group left the club, looking to find somewhere less expensive for one more drink. We found a place called “Bier Hall”, shared a pitcher and took the train back to our individual sides of the city.
And that’s enough for now.
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