Weeks 11-12

A couple of weeks ago I lost my “stealer-net” at home (I imagine my neighbor's bill was up until now unpaid because it is back again after two weeks absence). I never realized how much I used the Internet until I didn't have it. Though I have access to it at school, my time is limited. I'm afraid it's been so long since I last wrote that I've forgotten the vivid details and can only give a few general descriptions of what I've been up to.

Without meaning to seem dramatic about it, the week after I finished David Copperfield, I felt kind of lost. I was tempted to pick up Emile Zola's Germinal, but ignored it because I didn't want to read two 19th century novels in a row. I am now, however, happily settled into the first 50 pages of Salman Rushdie's Midnights Children, a 20th century historical fantasy novel. A completely different experience from linear Dickens, let me tell you!

Week 11 on Friday was Teacher's Day. I received wonderful gifts from my students (or, rather, their parents). The best of which was 100,000 won gift certificate (~$100) to Hyundai Department Store. I also received two Dior lipsticks and a Dior 50 spf sunscreen facial lotion. Amongst the other items I received, a hand mirror in a traditional style Korean purse, 20,000 won to Starbucks, three baskets of flowers, two carnations, boxes of sweet breads and cookies, gum, stickers, and about 30 cards from students. The Hyundai card was a combined gift from the pre-kinder Rowling Class moms, organized by Yuri's mom who, when she sees me, seems on the verge of tears on a regular basis. She thanks me for helping Yuri enjoy school. (If you recall, Yuri was the crier from my early blog posts.)

The next day Mike and I were obliged to go with Grace and Danny to dinner (mine was a Hello dinner, and his was meant to be a Goodbye dinner). Before we went to the school to meet her, I sent a text to Mike asking him if he wanted to get some coffee first. He replied that he was “Up to his elbows” and wouldn't make it. Supposing him to be cleaning, I didn't think much more about it. But when he showed up to the school with that shiny glaze in his eyes and a huge grin on his face, I found out, upon inquiry, that he had polished off a great deal of the wine given to him for teacher's day. Neither of us love Grace, and his actions were meant to be a silent rebellion. “I'm not working right now,” he said, “She can't do anything about it.” Dinner worked out just fine, and there were some new side dishes for me to try that I liked, the best of which was a selection of bitter greens served in a kimchee paste.

On the way back from the dinner with Grace I mentioned that I would be okay with being dropped off at Hyundai (which is closer by cab, any how), because I wanted to go shopping. Hyundai, you must understand, is a high end department store. Even nicer than Nordstrom's. It is eight stories high full of Chanel, Dior, Donna Karan, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, etc., etc. Shirts are about 400,000 won, dresses for over 800,000.

Grace decided it would be enjoyable to go with me, and help me find something. On the seventh floor, there was music section, with guitars violins pianos and a saxaphone. The cheapest guitar was 250,000. I took it down and the sales woman said that that one was actually broken (the bridge was too low), and that it needed to be sent back to the manufacturer. They would not get it's replacement until the end of the month. Grace helped me, by negotiating a price cut on a better model guitar, by using the fact that the one I wanted wasn't available, so they needed to give me the better one at a lower cost. So Grace beat the woman down to 280,000 for the guitar, including case, battery operated tuner, picks, and an extra set of strings. All of these extra things would normally need to be purchased separately. I felt all of the luck of it, and spent 180,000 of my own money and 100,000 of my students' parents' money to by a beautiful and rather powerful Washburn acoustic. I played it at home that night until my soft fingers hurt too badly to play any more (which, honestly, wasn't that long).

The next day, Sunday, Melinda, Matt, Mike and I went to Star Trek in the evening. I really enjoyed the movie. I had not seen a movie at all since February. As the credits at the end came up, I had this odd feeling in my body. I was landing back in Korea, after my mind had left it for two hours. I hadn't noticed the Korean subtitles throughout and it wasn't until I realized I was dreading how Koreans push and shove when in line, that I recognized how much at home I had felt.

Week 12

The school week passed fairly quickly, though I felt low on energy for most of it, and instead of showing up 30 minutes early, barely showed up 15 minutes early. It may not seem like a great deal of difference, but I can get a lot done with an extra half hour, and not much done at all in 15 minutes.

On Friday, was the Poly Mini Olympics in the park for preschool, pre-kinder, and kindergarten students. The schedule seemed disorganized from the teacher's point of view, and perfect in the mind of Grace. She expected one activity to be done at a time and for 90 children to sit on the steps and wait their turns while 10 kids played at a time. Seeing the potential for disaster, I found a big box in the supply closet at school and filled it with crayons and markers, glitter glue and face paints. I also printed off and photocopied 100 pictures of Olympic related coloring pages. I gently placed in my camera, extra rolls of film, and my cell phone and carried the big pink box with me to the park.

I volunteered to do stretching exercises to get us started. To get their attention, I shouted “PO-LY!” They shouted back “YES, TEA-CHER!”
“PO-LY!”
(Even louder now) “YES, TEA-CHER!”

I started them out marching in place and I thought of Greg and shouted:

“Left . . . left . . . left, right, left.
I left my wife and 48 kids
without any gingerbread
think I was right . . . right?
Right for my country,
by golly, I had a good job
when I left . . . left.”

The day went fairly well, and I felt proud of myself to have tried my best to prepare activities and it did come in handy. During lunch I painted my own student's hands and cheeks with old thick face paint, which kept them occupied while lunch was winding down. And in the late afternoon when children couldn't sit still any more, I pulled out the coloring pages, crayons, and markers and saw many of the students sit down and contentedly work on their pictures. I took 5 rolls of film to help out my partner teacher, Sunny, who has to compile individual yearbooks for each student in Rowling class by the end of the year.

It was, however, a long and tiring day out in the sun. I drank three bottles of water and still wanted more. I put on sunscreen in the morning, but many of my fellow teachers did not, and Dennis, who has very sensitive skin and some problems with psoriasis, came back beet red. Grace ignored the time, much to my anger and I barely made it back to school before the bell for afternoon elementary classes began. (And I ran ahead of the other teachers.)

There were no teachers in the school, and only the janitor and front desk lady were around while children were monkeying around in the hallways after the bell rang. Two first grade students had collided in the hallway from running (it is against school rules to run in the hallways). Both were crying on the floor and one of them had a bloody lip. I took her to the bathroom to rinse her mouth and check to see if it was bad (just minor cuts in her lips), and to give her an ice pack. The girl cried and said “It's a new tooth.” But I assured her, that the tooth was okay, but that her mouth would hurt a while.

I went to my first afternoon class and explained why I was late, and asked them if they thought they could work very hard and try to listen to teacher so we could get all of our lesson done. They actually did very well, and I find that my students can be very respectful when they see it is important. After that the afternoon went quickly, though I did feel guilty that I was, for the most part, a passive teacher, who gave them an assignment and let them have at it without much direction. I felt, however, completely exhausted from the day and couldn't have done much more with patience if I had wanted to.

After work, Mike, Katie, Kristina, Brandon and I met at the Family Mart (or what we call the “Family Bar” because drinking outside is lawful) for a beer before heading out to a kalbi dinner. We ate at an outdoor kalbi barbecue place. The service wasn't great but eating outside was enjoyable. I was the meat cutter (the kalbi comes out in big chunks that you cut with kitchen scissors so everyone can share), but the first pair of scissors were dull and useless. The second pair were not much better. It was a nice relaxed end to a very long day.

I stopped on the way home at E-Mart (the huge three level grocery store similar to Fred Meyer) to pick up my photos, which I had already dropped off earlier that day. I only bought a CD and contact sheets, not wanting to spend a fortune on prints. When I got home, however, the CD was blank. I was pretty irritated because now I need to make another trip back to get a CD. At least the guy at the counter speaks English well, so I should be able to explain the situation without too much awkward gesticulating.