I am seriously starting to love it here.
First of all, the stuff as school seems extremely
straightforward and easy. I had my first day today, where Jeremy and
I combined our classes and I essentially observed what he was
doing. Tomorrow I’m on my own, but I feel totally prepared for it. The
kids are also super fun. There are more kids in the first class, and
some of them are really cute. All of them are much better at English
than the afternoon kids, because they come five days a week whereas the
afternoon kids only come three days a week.
A few of the kids, in a nutshell:
Morning Kindergarten:
Bright Kim: This is going to be the kid I have
stories about for the next two weeks. All of the teachers know and
love him. He’s hilarious, and totally strange, though
intelligent. Today they had to write six “O” words that they knew,
and most of them just copied the “O” words on the word board, which is
essentially what they were supposed to do. Not Bright
Kim. Bright Kim came up with “Organ,” “Ostrich,” and “Orchestra” on
his own. He also drew me a train that said “Happy” on it, then said
he was not happy and did not like trains. He shared his MoonPie with
me at snack time and tackled me during play time when I was helping him with a
puzzle, and wrapped his arms and legs around me so that when I stood up I had a
Bright Kim fanny pack. His head is shaped like a giant loaf of
bread.
Thomas: CRAZY. He was also really
funny and talented at English. He is Bright Kim’s best friend.
Sueong Ho: Sneezed on me. Thanks
Sueong Ho.
Afternoon Kindergarten:
Linda: Would NOT stop holding my
hand. She is cute as a button, with curly hair and insanely cute
clothes. No idea what’s going on, ever, and just does whatever she
feels like. She has almost no grasp of the English language.
My personal favorite of the day was
Kevin. He was totally uninterested in me for the first two hours,
and then I played with him for about thirty seconds (literally) at the end of
free play time and after that he was IN LOVE with me. He kept
sitting on my lap, or trying to sneak up on me and tickle me. My
favorite was that game, because if I caught him he would try to lean against
the wall and whistle, looking away as if to say that I hadn’t caught him, and
then he’d back away slowly. Only he couldn't whistle, so he just sort of
blew air out and sputtered. After a while he started army crawling up
behind me. That worked the first few times. He’s very
silly and extremely cute.
In defense of the way I will probably write
about my children in the future (and have already written about them here) I
will say this: I am well aware that I am not supposed to have favorites. Rule number one of being a teacher is that
you don’t play favorites with your children.
Well, rule number one is don’t punch them in the face, rule two is don’t
play the shaken baby game, rule three is don’t play favorites. It’s still an important rule. I understand why. I also know that having favorites or liking
one thing or one person more than another is a huge part of human nature and by
and large it cannot be helped. I liked
all the kids I worked with today. I’m
sure I will continue to like them, and my favorite students will shift a bit
from day to day, week to week. I treat
my kids equally. But I am not going to
sit here and pretend to you, my readers who don’t know these children, that I
don’t have favorites, because I do. I
can’t help it, and I’m not going to feel guilty for being human.
Moving right along.
After work Allison,
Jeremy, and Holly took me out to dinner at this place a few doors down from my
apartment, set to be my first experience with Korean barbeque or gkalbi. OH
MY GOD IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. There was this really good, somewhat spicy
soup that I poured over white rice, which was delicious, and another soup with
roasted garlic and sautéed sweet onions. The main course was sweet
marinated pork ribs that get cooked right in the middle of the table on a
frying pan type surface, and then you put the pork on a leaf of lettuce, drop
on some sauces and rice, wrap it up and shove it in your
mouth. There was also beef and another kind of pork that Holly said
is like Korean bacon and it was all SO GOOD. I loved every
bite. Some of the sidedishes, like the kimchi, were slightly too
spicy for me, but Allison said there’s plenty of delicious Korean food that
isn’t spicy at all, like the stuff we ate tonight. Even the
spicy-ish soup (called kimchi chigue or kimchi stew) was delicious and a bit
spicier than I could usually handle. I’m
getting the feeling that living here and eating all this delicious food is
going to make me more amenable to eating spicy foods back home. I’ve never really cared for spice before, but
the stuff here is delicious and I could see myself becoming more accustomed to
the flavors.
Oh man, I can’t stop
obsessing over how good it all was.
Holly is really cool, and
she’s staying here for another year and a half. Allison and Jeremy
are married and they’ve been here a year already so they’re leaving in a few
weeks. Anna is leaving too, and I’m taking over her class once I’m
done with Tara’s. There are five new people coming, but I’m the
first one here of the newbies, since I have the most experience with kids, so
I’m getting to know a lot of the older teachers before they
leave. I’m starting to get really excited about the prospect of this
position and this time spent living abroad.
Also, there is bread
easily available, and a foreign section at the local supermarket, and
apparently there’s good pizza down the street from work. So when I get
homesick I can pretend nothing’s changed.
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