Spunky

Good Evening Blog Readers,

This is a picture of my garbage can.  It's about average size and good for the trash needs of one person.  It also has bears on it.  Cute little bears, wearing clothes.  WHAT.  My first disclaimer here is that I did not buy this garbage can, but inherited it from one of the previous English teachers at my school.  Now I've done a little shopping around at the local stores here, and it seems that it is impossible to find an average sized garbage can without some sort of character on it.  Bears, Hello Kitty, puppies, you name it.  They also all have sayings just like this one.  I don't know how you feel about this, but I know I definitely don't have a soft spot in my heart for those bears on my trash can.  

Along the same lines of garbage cans, garbage and recycling have been tricky to figure out here.  The garbage will only be picked up in front of my apartment if it is in the special garbage bag.  These special garbage bags can only be purchased at the local convenience stores.  So, if you put garbage out in simply a plastic bag you got from the grocery store, they will just leave it there.  Whatever.  Today I finally got some of these special garbage bags (there is absolutely nothing special about them).  My co-teacher had to write down 'I would like a garbage bag please' in Korean for me to hand to the cashier.

Overall, school has been going alright.  As I keep meeting Koreans in Taebaek, everyone keeps telling me how crazy I am to be working at an all-boys high school.  They then tell me that my high school has a reputation of being really really bad.  As in bad behavior.  As in all the punks in Taebaek and the surrounding area go to this school.  At first I was a little taken aback by this, thinking to myself, oh crap, this year is going to be so exhausting.  However, upon entering my third week of teaching at Hwangji High School, I beg to differ.  The boys here are probably 10 times, even 100 times better behaved than some of the kids I dealt with in the Minneapolis/Robbinsdale Schools.  In Korea, there is no such thing as behavior support for a classroom.  No such thing as I.S.S. or police interventions.  The worst behavior I've seen is a toss up between sleeping in class and playing games on their fancy smart phones.  Man, if that's the worst I see all year.  Hallelujah!  Plus, someone told me this weekend that I will make it in the high school, because I have 'spunk.'  Not everyone is cut out for high school, but my spunkiness will get me through.  No worries.

Here are a few pictures of what I'm surrounded with everyday.  I still haven't taken any pictures inside the school, but it really is on my to-do list.  Really.

My apartment complex.  My building is on the far left.

My apartment is the second balcony from the top.

My apartment is down the hill, directly across the street.  My walk to school in the morning  just consists of this GIANT hill up to the high school.

Driveway up to the school.  At the top of the second hill is the library where my office is.

Brand new track and soccer field at the school.  They had an opening ceremony for it and I got to attend a teacher's party where they were serving lots of champagne and donuts...

On Sunday, I climbed Taebaek Mountain (about 10 min. from where I live) with some of the other teachers here.  It left me breathless in more ways than one.  The incline was pretty steep the whole way up, which was about 4 miles.  The way down was of course easier, but we all wanted to just stop and sit in the middle of the path multiple times.  It was also defeating to keep being passed by these elderly Korean hikers.  With their fancy hiker gear and bandannas around their necks, they made us look pretty bad.  Plus, it takes a lot for a Korean to break a sweat.  They never sweat.  Even the boys at the school hardly sweat during or after exercise.  Jealous.  Here are some pictures from the day.

At the top of Taebaek Mountain.  I don't know what the sign says, but the side of it says Taebaek City.

Every once in awhile there would be these water stations along the path.  You use the pot looking ladles to scoop up the water and drink what you want.  Very refreshing!

At the top of the mountain we had a little picnic.  Yes, that is Nutella on my  banana.  I will survive in Korea.
(There is also a 'Paris Baguette' and a 'Tous Les Jours', both bakeries, across the street from my apartment.  I might as well be in France.)

This was our unofficial tour guide.  He was on the bus with us to the park and ended up doing the entire hike with us.    He made sure we went the right way, helped carry backpacks, and always waited until the last person caught up to the group.  Too awesome.  Koreans are so generous with their time and actions towards others.

Picnicking at the top.

Group picture: From the left, Mica, me, Sanja (back), Emily, Adrian, Judah (green, back), Natalie, Brandie Lee, and Kelly.
Sanja, Emily, and Brandie Lee all live in Taebaek.

There is nothing too exciting going on this week, although my ARC card is supposed to come, so I might get to open a bank account.  Exciting!  I also just found out about an International Church in Wonju (about an hour west of Taebaek) that has an English service on Sunday afternoons.  There's another girl in Taebaek who is also interested in finding an English service, so we might venture out that way next weekend to check it out.  It would be awesome to have a faith community while I'm over here, so hopefully I'll like it!  Plus, it's a really beautiful train ride through the mountains to get there.

And finally, there are these little pet stores everywhere in Taebaek, filled with kittens and the cutest little puppies you have ever seen.  I don't want to think about why there are always so many baby animals, so consistently, but dang they are cute.  So cute in fact that I probably need to start taking alternate routes when I'm walking around town.  Too many times past those windows and I'm going to have a new friend in my apartment.  However, there are also a lot of plant stores.  Maybe I should just get a pet plant.

I hope you all have a great week!  Happy Monday!