TRAVELS WITH MYSELF

I called Yoon-soo at about 5:30 to see if he was busy and if he wasn’t if he wanted to go out for dinner or maybe just to Starbucks. He thought dinner and Starbucks was a good plan so we made arrangements for him to call me about 6. Shortly before 6 he called and said he couldn’t have dinner with me because he had to have dinner with someone else, but we should meet at 7 for coffee. That was fine although I really don’t understand why he accepted the dinner invite in the first place. He then called me at about 6:20 to say he had to cancel coffee because an emergency came up and he had to go see his brother. No problem I assured him. We would do it some other time. Now, I really wanted to get out and hit the road, so I decided I would venture to Starbucks in Ilsan by myself. I had a rough idea of how to get there and figured it would take me about 20 minutes.

Wrong. It took me 1 ½ hours to get there. Every wrong turn I could make, I made. I couldn’t even get on the highway properly. And as someone who can smell out a Starbucks from 5 miles away, I even managed to drive by it once I got close. I had quite the drive but where I was, I have no idea. I think Paju in area is quite big. I thought I was in another city, but I saw signs for the Paju police department and city hall. Once I got to Ilsan I got off the highway at the wrong place. I lucked out and saw the street I wanted so I cut over a couple of lanes to turn right. Wrong. I should have turned left. Whatever I did, the right way would have been the opposite way.

I finally made it to Starbucks and had coffee and cake. It was kind of cool to be able to go out to Starbucks and sit there with my magazine and relax for a bit. Of course, I would have been more relaxed if it didn’t take my an hour and a half to get there. But the car means I can do things like that. Go where I want to go, and even go where I don’t want to go.

I learned some interesting things at school today. I learned that Cecilia and I will have an open class on October 25th. I like lots of notice, and this is lots of notice. An open class means that school officials, other teachers from other schools, parents, and whoever the hell wants to can come and watch the class. What a joke. I mean, the kids will be quiet so it won’t be real life. We don’t team teach so that will be new. I think Cecilia is nervous already so she should be a wreck by October. We are going to another school next week to see an open class and watch the show.

I found out that they have counted my trip to Texas as vacation time. That annoyed the hell out of me. I told them that they should dock my pay as it was to be unpaid leave. Now they are saying it’s too late to do that. I’m gearing up for a mini-battle because someone screwed up. Either Yoon-soo didn’t understand me on the first meeting, he didn’t translate what I said properly, or the principal has no memory. Cecilia says we need to respect the principal and the vice-principal. I say that when they are right we should respect them, and when they are wrong then they don’t deserve the respect. It’s very difficult to subscribe to the always following orders of the higher-ups on the food chain. She was going to tell the principal that I had a problem with them making my trip to Texas vacation time, but I told her not to. She wasn’t there so I’m going to talk to Yoon-soo about it and get him to say something. Cecilia has enough on her plate so she shouldn’t be saddled with translating my disagreement when she wasn’t even present during the discussions.

We talked about the summer vacation. I think the students are off for four weeks. The plan (at the moment) is to have a “camp” for three of those weeks. They will select 20 kids from each of the 3 grades and the lucky kids (I’m being sarcastic) get to come and be with me for 4 hours a day for 1 week. I have no idea how I will amuse them for 4 hours a day. Forty-five minutes is hard enough. Then she tells me that she has to work for 1 week during the vacation with the worst students to help them. The reason for this is that the classes are so big that you don’t spend enough time with the bad students. I say hire more teachers. Why should she have to work during her vacation because they can’t staff a school properly? I asked her if there was a teacher’s union and she said yes. I told her to go on strike but it seems that teachers cannot go on strike in this country because they are government officials.

Cecilia is upset about this working for a week. I learned that her 4 year old daughter doesn’t live with her, but lives with her mother in Mokpo (which isn’t close to here). Vacation is the time when she can be with her daughter for an extended period of time. Of course, I don’t understand farming your kid out to your parents in a far away city. She says her hours are too long at the school. I have no idea of the day care situation here, but you lose so much by not being with your children that I can’t understand why anyone would give up their kids unless it was a dire emergency. I’ll never get the Korean mentality down straight.

I asked Cecilia what punishment she decided on for the boys who were abusing the girls. She said she got them to close their eyes and think about what they did. Then they had to write a “reflective” paper on what they did and get their parents to sign it. I guess that’s okay but guess what? The same boys did the same thing again today. I think she’ll be inviting the parents in for a chat. And when the parent comes in, they will have to bow low to the teacher because their kid is an animal. It’s quite humiliating for the parent to have to do this. Good.

I told Cecilia to tell the principal that I wanted to be a home room teacher. I think it would be a blast with me not speaking Korean and the kids not speaking English. It would be a form of immersion. She can’t be sure that I’m serious but I assured her I am. She said she didn’t think I could be because I’m not Korean. I know that no one will go for this crazy idea but if she tells the principal that I am willing to do this, I figure I’ll look good because I want to participate in the school and help. I did tell Cecilia that was one of my motives in volunteering. I’m curious what his response will be.

Tomorrow night is another teacher dinner. Cecilia asked me if I was interested in going, and I told her that of course I was. I told her about the first one I went to, and that I thought it important that I participate in teacher activities where I can. I am looking forward to it because it’s good to go out with others, it’s a Korean thing, and it helps further break the ice between the non-English speaking teachers (all of them) and the non-Korean speaking teachers (that’s me).

Mee Kyung (the substitute English teacher) phoned me tonight. I emailed her yesterday telling her I was back and letting her know that I was interested in continuing our friendship. It was hard for her to call because her English isn’t very good and I think it was the first time she had ever had an English phone conversation. I think she phoned instead of writing back because her writing must be worse than her speaking. I keep telling her that her English is fine, and she keeps telling me it’s not and that I need to speak Korean so she doesn’t have to speak English. I think she’s going to call me next week and we will go for a hike after school one day. I hope the exercise doesn’t kill me. I was quite glad she called.

When I was in Austin I bought 3 hand made colorful Texas Longhorns. I can’t explain what they’re made from (I think it’s a light wood) and they are colorfully hand painted. They are not cheap but I wanted to get some nice gifts for some special people and it’s good to give a gift from your country. (I know I’m a Canadian, but I was in Texas). I gave the first one today to the money guy. I also got his kids something small. I think he was quite surprised and touched, and I think he really did like the Longhorn. I was very happy about that. I have another Longhorn for Yoon-soo, and one for Mee Kyung. I took a picture of one of them so you can get an idea of how they look.


If anyone has any ideas of what sort of performance I can give kids for 4 hours please let me know. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is to take a day trip to Seoul. Of course this has to be approved by the principal but I think it would be fun. We could have lunch and catch a movie. Some real English like activities for the little tykes.