MY NEW DRINK OF CHOICE

Last night, for the first time since my entry into this fine country, I had more than 2 drinks. More than 3 actually. I didn’t count but I think it was about 6. Bloody Mary’s are no good because of the tomato juice so I needed to check what kinds of juice were available. This bar had lime juice so I thought I’d try vodka and lime juice. It was quite the hit. Makes for an excellent dinner.

I met this man from New Zealand online who works at a school here in Paju and we decided to get together. It’s always nice to meet a new face. I had actually seen him at the teacher training I went to back in May, but didn’t remember him. This is his 2nd teaching time in Korea after spending 4 years in China. He’s 55 so there are a few of us older crazies out there.

I suggested Starbucks and he suggested bar and I thought, why not. It’s been a while (not including my b-girls adventure) and we found a nice quiet place. There were 2 bartenders and next to no patrons. One was a young man of 26 and the other was a young woman of 21. The man did some excellent card and coin tricks. I showed him my one card trick and he was impressed. Very nice young man. The girl was interesting to talk to as I enjoy talking with Koreans of all ages since how they feel is so different from one another.

I didn’t get bombed and I could probably use a good bombing but so be it. Busy guy I am. Wednesday dinner at the Outback and Thursday a liquid dinner. I think tonight I’ll suffer through Korean food with another friend because it’s not always fair that I only want American restaurants. Hopefully they’ll wash the food off for me to get the spiciness off of it. Sometimes it’s nice to be treated like a child.

I think I’ve moved into battle mode with some of my classes. In my first class today I asked for the homework that was assigned. About 22 of 42 didn’t do it so I had them stand. Two kids talked too much so I threw them out into the hall. Then one boy was taking so I made him sit on the floor. Then the class was being non-responsive so I told them I wasn’t teaching and they could just sit or stand there silently for the next 20 minutes. It was the quietest my class has ever been. At the end of the class I had them all sit down and I told them that every class would be just like this one unless they changed their behavior. Will they? Who knows and who cares.

Friday has arrived at last. I look forward to the weekend and am already dreading Monday. I’m a bit tired today. I wonder if it’s the alcohol. It’s 10:20AM and I have one more class today at 2:15PM. Lots of time to sleep and read. Next week the kids start using “my” English room. It might make a small difference as there aren’t rows but several groups of 4 desks each. I hope to mix the good kids with the bad kids. And the room is huge so if some kid is being disruptive I can just make him stand alone at the back of the class. If I want to be Korean about it, I could make him lie down on the floor.

Oops, fell asleep. I guess that’s one advantage of having my own room. I can sleep in peace. Min Kyung came in and disturbed my sleep. She gave me a sheet of paper and they want to know what parts of the text book I will do every week until the end of the school year. And, I should finish the text book too. It doesn’t matter if the kids learn at a snail’s pace, it’s very important to finish the textbook. I know that about Korea. It seems no one cares if they learn anything because they all pass so why worry about what they know. I just told her I’ll fill out her paper because I can lie but there is no way it’s going to happen. “But the bosses want it”. I don’t care. I can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. I can’t draw blood from a stone.

She’s always going on about how I need materials in my class to help me teach. Things like pictures and word cards. I went into her class yesterday to observe. There were no materials. The class was boring as hell. Half of it was in Korean. The kids learned nothing. It was exactly like I thought.

I wish I would have known from the start that they expected me to finish the textbook in less than a year. If I knew that I wouldn’t have bought it. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have made an effort to try anything. It’s just banging my head against the wall. I don’t think I’m going to last out the school year here. Dealing with the kids is a challenge enough, but dealing with the idiotic philosophy of “the textbook is everything” is just too stupid for me. What a dilemma, and one I didn’t want.