SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE QUEBEC

They are always posting notices in the building. I don’t know who “they” are, but I assume it’s management. It seems every 2nd day there is some sort of announcement coming into my apartment through the intercom system. What does it all mean? Beats me. It’s like Quebec and the French only signs. What’s with this Korean only? Don’t they know an ignorant westerner lives here? Guess not.

Another week comes to a close and it was a rough week. I think I feel asleep at school every day. Monday is a holiday, I have one class on Tuesday, and then it’s summer vacation. The little tykes are off for 5 weeks. I have to do camp for 3 weeks and I don’t really have a definite plan other than a few ideas. I suppose I like to wing it. I have no idea what the level of the kids in the camp will be. I think they will be like regular school with most of them being below average. That doesn’t thrill me. Four hours a day to entertain. I’m told to not think of it as four hours, but to break it out into blocks. Guess what? If you total the blocks it’s still 4 hours a day.

I have a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. It’s time to refill my prescriptions and I should probably have some blood work done. I asked the science teacher to find me a doctor who knew English and make me an appointment. He did and he says the doctor studied in America. So there is a chance I’ll be understood.

I also have arranged for a cleaning woman every 2nd Friday, beginning next Friday. My apartment is always basically clean, but she should do the glass and there is lots of glass in this place. Apparently they offer three services when getting a cleaning service. One is your basic apartment cleaning, the 2nd is they do your laundry, and the 3rd is they prepare meals for you. I told Min Kyung (who booked them for me) that I did my own laundry and unless they prepare American food, I’ll pass on the meal preparation.

It seems to get hotter in the classrooms every day. They don’t use the air conditioning much. I guess they don’t have a lot of money, but it sure is uncomfortable. The kids spend most of the time fanning themselves. I just sweat a lot.

Today I just played games with my classes. I did some Bingo, Hangman, and throwing balled up pieces of paper into a wastebasket. Not great English activities, but everyone had fun and there is nothing with having fun in school sometimes. I would give out prizes. Actually what I would do is grab something in the classroom (keys to a cabinet for example) and present them as a prize. I gave away teacher’s attendance books, and teacher’s chairs. I’ll do anything for a cheap laugh.

I have a student who is going in a speech contest next week. I’ve spent a few afternoons working with her. Her English is quite good and she’s a good student and a very likeable young lady. She likes English because she hopes to be a diplomat when she grows up. We were talking today and I asked her what she thought of Korean teacher’s hitting kids. I told her how uncomfortable it made me. She thinks it’s not right and it doesn’t solve discipline problems, just teaches the kids to dislike their teachers. She says it’s part of the culture, but it’s wrong. Of course, I told her that I don’t see it as a culture, but we’re on the same page. I love when I can have intelligent conversations with the students. There aren’t many of them capable of having a decent conversation.

After hitting the low point with Min Kyung the other day, things were better today. I just don’t really discuss much about school. She gave me an attendance sheet for camp and all the names are in Korean. She said I should really learn the kid’s names. She’s right. I should. I told her I’ll try but even if they were North American kids, I’d still have a problem. I’m just no good with names. Of course, that’s a lame excuse. I need to try.

I put on the electric fan for the first time tonight. It’s really good at moving the warm air around. I suppose I have another 6 weeks of heat. I keep telling myself not to complain about it, but I do. I miss air conditioning.