WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW

Is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that’s there just too little of. I’m not feeling the love in my classroom. I embarrassed the hell out of one girl already this morning. She talked and talked and talked. I tossed the marker for the board to her and said “catch”. She fumbled the catch so I made her pick it up. When she was picking it up I sat in her seat. I then said to her, “go and teach”. She looked puzzled. So I pointed to the front and said, “You’re the English teacher. You can talk as much as you want now. Teach”. I think if she could have killed me then she would have. She just stood there looking stupid. After a minute she apologized which of course means nothing. Apologies in Korea are the cheapest things because everyone apologizes without meaning it. However I let her off the hook and let her sit down.

After class I asked my best student for ideas on how to reach the class. Most of them know nothing and don’t pay attention. He told me I was doing as best as I could (nice kid) and he suggested explaining everything to them in Korean. I told him that was the problem they’ve always had. They never paid attention to the English because the teacher would always give them the answer in Korean. He said he would try and think of something. He lived in Australia for 2 years so his English is good, and he’s mature so I asked him. I’ll take help wherever I can get it and he knows his classmates better than any teacher does.

I had my first two classes with the same class today. It’s deadly having 2 in a row with the same kids. There’s no clock in my room and the bell doesn’t work so I went 15 minutes over in the first class. I thought it only fair if I gave them a 10 minute break to make up for the one they didn’t get. Bad idea. The vice principal was annoyed at me again for doing that. I asked Min Kyung to explain to him that I had gone way over time so that’s why I did what I did. Who knows what she told them. All I can do is try.

I went out to Starbucks last night with Yoon Soo. We sat there for almost 3 1/2 hours chatting. I went through my school problems and my doubts as to whether I could survive the rest of the year. He tells me he thinks I’m a good teacher but how the hell does he know. He knows I have weak students and not the best people like my fellow English teacher and the vice principal and principal. He just said if the kids are happy with me, I’m safe. That one I knew.

I heard back from the Russian resume I sent out. Working in St. Petersberg would be fascinating I’m sure, but the money is only about $600 U.S. a month. So I’m not as tempted as I might have been. The job does include an apartment with 2 bedrooms and a piano in the living room. Apparently the landlady and her daughter can come in and use the piano when they want. Plus, breakfast and diner are included so they come into the kitchen to prepare your meals. It sounds different.

I went out on Saturday for a drive to a nice city. I spent 10 hours in the car. There are so many cars on the road on a Saturday that I’ll never do that again. Not to mention I got lost in Seoul and was driving in circles. It was the drive from hell. I don’t know why anyone goes out with all that traffic.

I had a Whopper meal on Friday night for dinner. Mmmn, Mmmmn, good. I don’t have enough of them. I had a real bad craving for Subway on Saturday night late, but I wasn’t going to drive into Seoul to get one. I never ate a lot of fast food but I miss it for those occasional late night cravings. I could order pizza over the phone because someone ordered for me once and told them that if an English speaker calls it will be me. It’s Vatican pizza where every pizza is personally prepared by the Pope himself. And ordering a cheese pizza is easy. You just say, “Cheese Pizza”. But you have to say it with a Korean accent to be understood. But I didn’t want pizza on Saturday night. I wish Ilsan had a Subway. I should open one except for the fact that as bad a teacher as I might be, I’d be 10 times worse in the service industry.

Another couple of months and I’ll be thinking about my Toronto trip in February. I could start thinking about it now but it’s over 5 months still. I’ll be glad to see most everyone but it will go by in a flash. Leah and Taylor are coming up for Jared’s bar mitzvah so I’ll see all the important family members. It will be weird to be in Toronto because I haven’t been there since I left for Korea on February 5th. It’s not the same now though. I mean I was never enamored of it as I got older, and it didn’t feel like home, but with my father not here in mind there is a huge part of it missing. I know intellectually that as you get older, things change. But some things shouldn’t change because it’s not fair. You still have the memories and as good as they are, the reality was even better.