chicken and beer

Our dinner table on thurs.

It's been a week since my last post.... it seems like a month has passed instead. Every day is tiring. I'm getting into a routine finally at work and learning my students' names which make things easier. My "desk teacher" who works with me/helps me with anything I need is Jack- he does NOT speak English at all. LOL we communicate by playing charades and I am so thankful for him. He is a very handsome, tall Korean man- too bad he doesn't speak English!!! Katie, another English teacher, is from Prince Edward's Island, Canada and she is so so freaking sweet. She is like a sister here- so helpful and so fun to hang out with. She is leaving in 2 months and I sooooo don't want to. Love her!

Amy- 1 of my best students, always comes to talk before class

JAMES! my recruiter- so fun he is!

Students are students everywhere- you have wonderful/awesome kids and the not so wonderful/awesome kids and the ughhhhh it's you again- you make me want to pull my hair out kids! In one of my classes I have a group of 6 boys (11 or 12 yrs old) they whisper to each other and giggle. I ignore it at first, but it keeps going; I verbally ackowledge them and they stop for a FEW minutes. One little pipsqueak starts back up and I get really loud with him- he then will not answer me- acknowledge me- open his book- throws a tantrum so I move him away from all the boys. The rest of the class he sits in silence and sulks. The girls called him "crazy boy" LOL.
BY FAR these kids are 110% better than the American freshmen I taught (probably because they look at me in awe). They call me "Megan Teacher" and ask me at least 5 questions about myself every class. "Teacher, you are beautiful teacher." I can sooooooooooooooo get used to this!!! :) It's a different mindset, teaching in korea. In America, we get alot of info from our students on what works best etc. here, the TEACHER knows it all. All hail teacher. It's nice!!! LOL! I ask them alot of questions about their lives and I have learned about their schedules- typical day for my students---- wake up anywhere from 6 AM to 7 AM school starts at 8 or 9AM and goes to 3 PM- go home for MAYBE an hour break then to a specialized class (violin, piano,dance, etc.) then to Academy (which is what I'm a teacher in) and possibly more than one for the rest of the evening- they get home around 10 PM do homework and study and go to sleep hopfully by 12 AM and do it all over again the next day- except MWF may the same and T/TH they have a different schedule. WOW is right!!!! No wonder they are out beating Westerners. Some of my kids know 3 languages and they're not even 13 years old yet! One of my girls goes to Chinese right before she comes to me--ughhhh confusing! I went to school 8-2:45 as a kid and played outside until dark most days in my childhood- I'd take that lifestyle any day. Naturally, you can argue both sides. What is considered "fun" and "leisure" time to them is playing COMPUTER GAMES ughhhh thats all I hear!!! Only a handful of my kids have been to America and it's either to LA or NYC. They ask me about cowboys- "Teacher do you know cowboy?" I always say "yessssssssssss." - and laugh. My last class is what's called a "special class" I teach conversation/debate and a novel. I am teaching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and ughh can't think of the last one. It's a fun way to wrap up the night. Tonight I did my first round of "phone tests" tonight. I schedule a time with my kids and prepare questions and conversation- call them at home talk for about 3-5 minutes and grade them on comprehension, and speaking. To break it down- on Mon. I teach Reading to 4 different level of students (diff. comprehension levels, the lowest I have is A2 it goes all the way to A6) - on Tues. I have my advanced students and teach everything, Listening, Speaking and Reading- on Wed. Speaking to 4 different level of kids- Thurs. is the same as Tuesday- Fri. Listening to 4 diff. levels. I see the same classes MWF and the same on T/Th.
TODAY I encountered something surprising--- I walk to work right- I'm supposed to be at work at 3 PM- today I punched in at 3:01 PM- the day before 3:03 PM- back in the States with everything I have always struggled to be on time- anyways, Lily sends me an email saying do you know you have been late twice--- so I talk to her after classes and she tells me that the principal will deduct 10,000 won (equivalent to $10) every time I am late from my paycheck and it will go towards doughnuts for the teachers!!!! WOW!!!! She said since it is the first week- that will not happen but DONT BE LATE! GEESE-LOUISE you're not in American anymore- wake up! That's not even LEGAL in America I don’t think! Nevertheless I can’t be 1 MINUTE late- the funny thing is we cant leave until 10- well I am never out of there at 10- but rather 10:15- 10:30. ehhhh no biggie just another Korean quirk- they are very precise.
Anyhooo--- soooooo last Thurs. a big group of us from work went out after work- Korean teachers and English teachers. We went to "Kill Time" a bar and drank- then to eat dinner at a Korean restaurant- then to a night club and played drinking games. So So Fun! The female Korean teachers are so beautiful and love to party- they can totally outdrink this Texas girl. We got to talk on a personal level outside of work and get to know each other, gossip about the school's management- LOL. THEN, OMG, on the street we actually ran into the school's principal and Lily and the Korean teachers literally freaked out because its not good for here to see them with US- you know. She does not want them to mingle socially with any of the foreign teachers. I don’t know if anything happened- BUT tomorrow night I am going out after work with my Korean partner teacher for "chicken and beer" - yes that is THE thing to do here folks- chicken and beer, lol!
This past Saturday- Emily and I FINALLY got to meet our recruiter James after corresponding with him so much by phone and computer. We rode the subway to Seoul Station and he picked us up there with his roommate Troy. They cooked us dinner. Troy is in the American military- high up- not sure what though but in the Army. It was Emily, James, Troy and another friend, Kevin who is also in the American military and ME! Dinner has never tasted sooo good- I had actual crab legs for the first time in my life! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! and some kind of shrimp stuff. We all went out in an area of Seoul called Iteawon which is an international area. There were so many white people I didn’t know what to do!!! it was freaky! LOL! I had sooooooooooooo much fun- I wish I could remember all of it- haha just kidding. I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly- but I met a very CUTE guy from Chicago- in the military- an air traffic contoller and is so nice. It was so cute because Troy (who I'd just met that night) was being so protective over me- he told "the guy" you better not mess up boy or I'll hunt you down" hahahahaha- Troy trains military dogs- yep that’s all I'm going to say about that. Saturday night was over-the-top SO much fun! I hope every weekend will be like that.
My apartment is still bare. I will post pictures once I get some decorations up. Oh- I survived a typhoon- my door to my apt is inside the bldg and it was rattling so loudly- the wind was so strong- the next morning the streets were littered with so much debris. A couple of people were killed and electric poles were down. I know Osan Air Base is still without air conditioning in some of their buildings.
Somethings I've learned about Korea since last post- there are NO copyright laws here, drivers are unbelievably talented fitting cars in super small spaces, Kia and Hyundae are Korean companies as is Samsung, a company called "Lotte" owns everything over here- literally it's a monopoly, there is a huge community of korean mafia that is still at it today, McDonalds delivers (i dont know that from experience fyi)

Katie and I with our 1,000 mm of Cass beer yum!

It is now 1 am and I must get some sleep- for tomorrow I have many errands to run before work and I CAN NOT be a minute late!!!! Wish me luck!!!! Until next time- Cheers!
Oh and the picture above me and the cat is of Emily, Kevin, me and Troy.

look closely! OMG they dye female cat's cheeks pink like they're wearing blush! so freakin cute!!!!