I can finally call myself a teacher.... officially. This past week I have had my first full week of teaching my own class. It has been quite an adjustment. We start our day walking 30-45 min. to work around 1:30 pm. Then we teach our first class at 4 pm which lasts 3 hours. We get a 20 min. break and start again. Our night ends at 10 pm when we make the trek back home. Needless to say, it makes for a long, strange day. Luckily, I do get to sleep-in more than I would at home. :)
Highlights from class? Well, some students asked me if I was married. When I replied, "no," they said, "oh, so you're Mr. Christine then?" I giggled then thought, "I didn't realize how confused I've been about biology all these years. If I'm not married, then logically I MUST be a man." I've been shopping at all the wrong stores..... Koreans are a lot less politically correct than Americans too. Thus far many of my kids (gah, that's so cool to say!) have said something wildly offensive. For example, one student was using his pen to color-in a girl in one of the books. The boy next to him raised his hand and shouted, "teacher! He made his girl a slave. That's funny!" Oh and the examples do not stop there.
On Friday we had the students write a skit where one person liked classical music and the other pop. They we suppose to convince each other why theirs was better. "Classical is boring. Plus, Beethoven was handicapped." "Pop has Micheal Jackson, and he's African." I don't even know where to start with that one. Anyway, it keeps you on your toes..... and values? It's just a different world. Just where I am, I'm one of the few white people. Korea is not what I would describe as diverse. People pretty much stare at me when I walk down the street.
One of my favorite perks of my job is three day weekends. Yep, you heard that right. Three day weekends. It's grand. Aaron, one of the other teachers, invited me to go to a city where they have a themed park dubbed Toilet World. I actually really wanted to go, but my funds a bit pinched and I kind of wanted to slug around all weekend. He said it was all we dreamt of. I'm sure I will find my way there at some point. So besides slugging around like a lazy beast, I did go out on Saturday. I spent more time with Matt (another teacher and my new neighbor) which was nice. I can say for certain that he is not a murderer; not that I thought that to begin with, but I didn't know him enough to say otherwise. I also met some other foreign teachers and some of them I re-met. It was great fun.
It is also planned that the teachers and our 3 favorite barkeeps from WaBar are going to nori bong (Karaoke) this Saturday. It should be quite the sight! Hopefully I'm smart and bring my camera.
Speaking of cameras, I did try and add a slide show to my blog. However, I don't think it's working. Which is quite disappointing because I took pictures of my walk to work and Amanda's BBQ at the bar! Sigh, if I only knew new technology. Oh yes, I also got my phone! Check me out. However it is a used phone and quite the piece of shit. It's touch screen..... and like I've always suspected, I don't like touch screen. Oh well. Calling and texting will still be really expensive, but my number is: 010-7518-5264
Also, I'll give you my address. Note that it is my work address. No one is ever in our building to sign for mail, so all the teachers get stuff sent to the school:
Christine Morfit
C/O Chungdahm Institute
185-3 Okchun-dong 3rd FLR
Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do
290-010
South Korea
Nice to blog with you,
<3 Stine
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