DAY ONE (AND TWO)

I was picked up and driven to school on Tuesday for my first day. I walked into the office where the money guy (head administrator) asked me for my passport and bank book. He wanted my passport so he could begin to get my alien registration card, and he wanted my bankbook so he could deposit my salary in the bank. I was impressed. These are things I’m used to nagging others about, and here they are doing what they should be doing without me uttering a word. What a refreshing change.

He also told me that I would get my airfare back that day for my trip to Hong Kong, and true to his word I had the cash by the end of the day. So far, all is wonderful.

How many classes did I have on day one? None. There was provincial testing going on, so there were no classes to teach. The only thing they asked me to do was to read some dialogue for the test because they didn’t have the tape to play. I handled that quite well I must say.

I spent the day sitting in the teacher’s room just fooling around on the computer. I have a desk and I’ll have my own computer set up on it tomorrow. The teacher’s room is kind of strange. It’s a bunch of desks but in the middle of the room sits a big desk with the vice-principal behind it. I think his job is to sit there and look at the teachers. I really can’t figure out what else he does. I asked the English teacher if that was his job and she laughed and said yes.

The English teacher there now is only there until June 15th until the regular teacher comes back. She was extremely nice to me. She gave me my schedule and I saw that instead of “team teaching” which I thought was to be, the hours had been split so she had her classes, and I had my classes. Since I’m leaving on June 10th and she’ll be gone when I return, I see no point in discussing how to go about teaching. I’m sure she’d do as I asked, but I don’t want to upset the apple cart just yet.

She gave me the textbooks the school uses, and I started freaking out. They have the instructions for the exercises in Korean. I don’t like that, and I don’t understand Korean. I asked if I had to use these books and the substitute English teacher asked if I wanted to use other text books. I said, “sure, can I buy some”. She went to the vice-principal and came back and said I could buy whatever textbooks I wanted. I think I understand her and she understood me. I liked that answer. I’ll have to look at these books more closely and calmly, and then decide what I want to use.

I called someone from the education office who I met on orientation last week and told him about the Korean and asked him if there were other “approved” textbooks I could use. He told me to not worry, all the textbooks were pretty bad. I should just pick the spots I want to use, and do whatever I want for the rest. I liked that answer too.

I asked the English teacher if I could come to her classes to just watch and figure out what the kids knew, and she said that would be fine. I’m sure it will make her nervous because her English isn’t great, but it was quite gracious of her to say I could. So that’s my main job this week, to study the students and figure out what to do with them.

The class sizes are huge. There are two classes for each of the three years of middle school. The first year has class sizes of 51 and 50. I’m told they’re adding a new class next week so we’ll see. The 2nd year has around 40 students a class, and the 3rd year has about 30 students a class. Class sizes are way too big and it’s surprising considering that this country places such a high value on education. I would think it’d be a priority to get the student-teacher ratio down. I asked my friend Yoon-soo what class sizes were when he was a kid, and he said they were about 60 students. He also said that students weren’t allowed to talk at all, only the teacher could. A student could only open their mouth if the teacher specifically asked that student to talk. That sounds like fun.

I also learned on day one that the 2nd day was a holiday so today I had a holiday. It seems schools and businesses are closed on election day. That works for me. First day, no classes. Second day, no school.

After school all the teachers went out for dinner. I was told there was no reason for it, and it was the first time it happened. What an excellent idea to go out together in a social setting. We went to a Korean restaurant where you take your shoes off and sit on the floor. They bring raw meat to your table and you grill it yourself. And there are about 145 side dishes of varying amounts of disgustingness. I sat beside the English teacher and she kept asking me what I liked. I told her I didn’t like what was on the table and she’d ask the waitress to bring other things for me to try. I did try, and I didn’t like them. She asked what vegetables I liked, and I mentioned cucumbers. Next thing I know, I have a big bowl of cucumbers in front of me. I told her she was worse than my grandmother telling me to eat, eat. She got a laugh out of that, and said it was like that with her grandmother too.

The meat at dinner was quite tasty and I enjoyed that. It was much better than the school lunch which I limited to tasteless soup, and tasteless rice. I asked for water and I was given a soup bowl of water to drink from. There were no cups. I don’t understand and I didn’t ask.

There are a few teachers at the school who speak some English. Everyone whether they spoke English or not, had a smile for me and made me feel quite welcome. I felt most appreciative of that. When we got to the restaurant, we sat down. As others came in, they sat down. Then the principal came in, and we all stood up. What a pain. It’s a respect thing, but if you’re getting me to sit on the floor, please don’t make me get up unless it’s an emergency.

They brought out the soju for toasts. Soju is the national alcohol drink of Korea and it’s pretty foul. I had a bit. I think the P.E. teacher had quite a bit because he was always walking around with a bottle and a big smile on his face. He sat across from me and told me he was the “most handsome”. I think that was the extent of his English. I told him that no he wasn’t, I was the most handsome. So we argued the point a bit and then used the traditional Korean way of settling arguments. We played paper, scissors, rock. I’m not kidding, I think it’s the national sport. The kids are always playing it and now I was playing with the P.E. teacher to decide who was the most handsome. He claimed (as was explained to me) that he never lost at paper, scissors, rock. However, I was up to the challenge and beat him 2 out of 3 so I was the most handsome and he was only handsome. I felt that even with limited language communication abilities, I was fitting in a bit.

I was asked to stand up and give a short speech. I whispered to the English teacher asking her what I should do. She said to just be brief. I said, what’s the point because no one will understand what I’m saying. She said to just use easy English. So I stood up and thanked everyone for their most warm welcome and for making me feel at home already. It seemed to go over well and I got a nice round of applause. All in all it was a very successful first day from the standpoint of making new work friends. I still have a good feeling and I think I will actually come out of this with some work friends. Of course, only time will tell but all indications are positive.

We ate in Ilsan and I took the bus home which was fine with me. It gave me an idea of how long the trip actually is. It took about 35 minutes to get home which was fine. I called Yoon-soo when I got home and he was quite pleased to hear from me. He said he had 3 pieces of good news to tell me. I asked what they were. He told me that he got a new car because his brother bought a new car and gave him his old one which is much bigger than what he had and in almost new condition. The 2nd thing was he received a prestigious award from the education ministry for his teaching efforts. He said that this is not a common award and his was quite honored. He went out and bought small gifts (rice cakes) for all the teachers at his school as a gesture of thank you because without their help, he couldn’t have been as good a teacher as he was. I thought that was a most excellent idea. His 3rd piece of good news was that I was back and I called him. I’m not kidding. He said that and he was sincere. He’s a nice guy and I’m glad we’re friends. He asked me if I needed to do any shopping and I said not really. I mentioned one or two things I wanted so we made plans to go out to get a few things, and then have lunch and then coffee at Starbucks.

When Yoon-soo came to my apartment this morning, he told me that there was a sign in the downstairs hall that would be of interest to me. I’m glad he noticed it because I’d just ignore it as it was in Korean. It seems that the building complex was offering curtains or blinds at huge discounts to people who lived here. We went to look at the samples and I ordered vertical blinds that will end up costing me about half of what I thought I was going to have to spend. And, they will install them so on Friday afternoon I will have window coverings at a most reasonable price. It will cost me about $150 for a bunch of window area. It’s cheap and I’m happy.

I also bought a bicycle today. I know that’s funny to those who know me as Mr. Exercise. I live too far from school to walk, and too close to take a bus. The bicycle will be perfect, I hope. Yoon-soo took me to a used bicycle shop where he’s bought a few bikes and I got one that seems comfortable to ride. They threw in a basket and a lock so I’m set for school tomorrow with my new mode of transportation. Yoon-soo said it’s good for teachers to ride a bicycle to school because it gets respect from the students and shows them that teachers aren’t money obsessed or status obsessed. Of course, if I fall on my face in the parking lot I may not get the respect I’d like. I haven’t bought a bike for myself in about 35 years so it will be strange. My test ride makes me think I can do it, but we shall see tomorrow.

After that we went to Bennigan’s for lunch. Yes, Ilsan has a Bennigan’s. I had the ribs and they were okay. After that it was off to Starbucks for the coffee. Yoon-soo told me that he won’t be able to drink coffee at school anymore because he likes the Starbucks too much and the school coffee will now taste horrible. Another Starbucks convert.

I made plans with Robert for Saturday. The original plan was to see X-Men 3 but it seems that it isn’t playing in Korea until June 15th and there is only crap out now. We will have to come up with an alternative. I just love being able to visit a friend on the weekend without it being an overnight excursion.

On a side note, I must admit I’m a little disappointed that no one commented on my video I shot or on the email I received from Jo Yeun. I like the comments because it makes me feel like I’m more in touch with whoever reads this. Of course, no one is obligated to ever write anything but without any feedback (either through emails or comments) I feel like I’m talking to myself. And although talking to myself is part of my reason for doing this, it’s also so I can have a connection with those of you so far away. I just wanted to say how I felt and it’s not meant as a “slam” at anyone. Everyone is free to do as they please.

As promised, I will leave you now with a picture of my new statue from the Tang Dynasty. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.