Boys and Sequence

Here's a blog I wrote last Wednesday (August 29) when I was sans internet...

I’ve made it to Taebaek.  The mountains definitely make their presence known here.  I’m situated in the valley between them, and I feel like a peanut when I look out at them.  The city is really long and narrow, following the Nakdong River that flows alongside the town.  Taebaek has the smallest city population in Korea, but also the highest elevation in the country.  I still have plenty of exploring to do, but I’ve located the grocery store and a couple of other smaller markets.  Needless to say, I’ll survive here :)

There was a slight hiccup with my lodging situation when I got here.  It turns out that the apartment I’m moving into still has people living in it.  They’re set to move out on September 1^st, but we’ll see what happens.  So, for now, I’m bunking in my friend Cecelia’s apartment, another English teacher who has been placed here.  

My mess at Cecelia's apartment...I need all of this stuff, okay?

Cecelia and I met during orientation, so that’s actually working out nicely.  It’s been great being able to figure out a few things together as well.  It turns out that there are a lot of things in Korea that just don’t make sense to foreigners.  For example, why are the apartments stripped of their appliances every time a tenant moves out?  Or the fact that you have to call the gas station to get oil in order to have hot water?  We are both very thankful for wonderful Korean co-teachers who have been extremely helpful in figuring things out.

I will be teaching in Hwangji High School as the primary English teacher.  I am the only foreign teacher in the school, so it’s just me against the boys.  Oh yes.  I’m at an all-boys high school.  And high school boys are high school boys no matter what country you are in.  Some are awesome, some are funny, some always have their head in the gutter, and some just think that class means naptime.  Today I had one class where six boys literally just fell asleep and I couldn’t wake them up.  They were sleeping so hard that I just let them keep sleeping… whatever.  High school is rough for the Koreans. More on that later.

Wednesday was the first day of school for me.  Everything went pretty well.  I taught three classes, basically just introducing myself to them.  I also tried to get to know the students a little bit as well, but all I can say is that I’m screwed in that department.  I literally forgot what to call them about 30 seconds after they told me their names.  It’s so bad.  They all sound the same to me.  Maybe my ear will improve as time goes on?  However, my favorite part of the day was when a couple of the boys tried to introduce themselves with fake names.  Clearly if the whole class laughs after you say what your name is, that’s not your real name.  Duh.  I know what’s up.

I made an introduction Powerpoint about myself, which included such topics as SPAM, the Twins, John Mayer, and a lot of stuff about all of the lakes in Minnesota.  I really couldn’t stop talking about the lakes.  Minnesota just has so many great lakes (ha! No pun intended…)!  Oh!  And get this.  I’m telling them how much I love John Mayer, mostly for myself, because they have no idea who the heck John Mayer is.  EXCEPT then one kid did know who he was!!  I think I actually squealed a little bit.  He was like, wait, John Mayer?  Born and Raised?  Yessss.  We’re going to be good friends (once I remember his name…).

Throughout the week, I will be teaching 18 classes, a mix of 10^th and 11^th grade students (they call them 1^st and 2^nd graders here).  For all of these classes I will be in charge of the lesson planning, which actually isn’t so bad.  It ends up being about 3 lessons a week that I have to plan.  I just have to repeat those same lessons A LOT of times.  I will also be teaching some conversation classes for the teachers, but I’m not sure about the details with that yet.  I will have four different Korean co-teachers, all of whom speak English, who will rotate throughout my classes.  They are basically there for classroom support and translation help.  It seems like the majority of students are at a pretty low level and terrified to use the English that they do know. 

I know this post is getting long, but I want to leave you with one last story from today.  I think you’ll get a kick out of it.

It turns out that if you are planning to stay in Korea for more than 90 days (which I am), you have to apply for an Alien Resident Card, which basically ends up replacing your Visa.  This requires going to the nearest immigration office, filling out some paperwork, and waiting for 1-2 weeks until the card arrives in the mail.  I need this card to finalize my health insurance, get a bank account, get internet/cable services, and to get paid by my school.  It’s a big deal, so it needed to be taken care of ASAP.

The nearest immigration office is an hour away in Donghae.

My co-teacher, Chang-sik and I left school around 3 pm to make the drive to Donghae.  We’re talking some seriously twisty mountain roads.  I thought I might lose my lunch, but don’t worry I didn’t.  Many conversations and more than two temples later, we arrived in Donghae.  However, Chang-sik had no idea where the office was.  So he pulled up next to a taxi, asked the driver if he knew where the immigration office was, and then proceeded to follow the taxi to the office. 

Once at the office, the immigration official told me that my passport photo was too big for the card.  Also, I was smiling in my picture.  That was no good.  So we had to leave and find a place to take my picture.  It’s 4:30 at this point, and the office closes at 6:00.  Just FYI.  About 20 minutes later, we find this Kodak store where they can take my picture.  However, they actually can’t take my picture, because I’m wearing a white shirt.  I have to take the picture with a white background, and because it’s a white background, I can’t wear a white shirt.  Oh yeah that makes sense…what?

So now I’m trying to find a nearby clothing store to buy a colored shirt.  Of course there is nothing around except Chere Madame...a store catered towards older woman who like ruffles, bows, and excessively flared sleeves.  This is my only choice at this point.  It’s 5:00.  The office closes at 6:00, and there’s no way I’m driving back to Taebaek empty handed.  I can only handle the twisty mountain roads so many times.  So into Chere Madame I go.  Upon entering the store, five smiling Korean women swoop down on me.  My co-teacher quickly explains my situation, and they are off grabbing shirts left and right for me to try on.  They then give me the shirts and push me into a dressing room, which is almost pointless, because I am taller than the door.  Everything fit, and in fact was mostly too big.  I had the most ridiculous things on.  I wish I had had my camera to show you how beautiful I looked in these Korean fashions.  Now, maybe this sounds fun, but mostly it was really annoying.  I was so annoyed and crabby.  The first shirt that fit I was like whatever, this looks awful, but we’ll go with it.  I only have to have it on for like 2 hours.  It had a big flower coming out of one boob, white polka dots, and these weird see-through hippie sleeves.  I’m also pretty sure that the 70 year old woman sitting behind the counter had on the exact same shirt.  Unfortunately, this shirt didn’t make it into my wardrobe, because it cost 250,000 won.  That’s like $200.00.  What the heck.  No, no, no.  The cheapest shirt I could find cost 85,000 won.  That’s about $70.00.  Awesome.  It had ruffles and sequence and looked like this….

Now it’s 5:15.  I go get my photo taken.  This is what it comes out like.  I think it sums up my emotions at this point of the adventure pretty well.

Now it’s 5:30.  Luckily we did end up making it back to the office in time, and luckily no one else needed immigration services.  Chang-sik thought our afternoon was hilarious though.  On our way back to Taebaek, he told me a couple stories from his life when multiple things have gone wrong all at once.  Then he bought me a Fanta at a rest stop by a famous temple that is thousands of years old.  My afternoon was revived, even if I was wearing a stupid shirt.