I woke up a little later than what I had expected. I hurried downstairs to get changed. I had been assured that the subway started at 5:00AM by one of my fellow ETA friends. Unfortunately, I found that the subway starts at varying degrees of 5:00. The line I needed in order to make my 6AM bus started at 5:40AM. The woman telling me the correct time was wrong the first time too. The first time she said 5:25. So, the math running through my head was as follows: 5:25 + :25 = 5:50 = 10 minutes to get off the subway, get my bag from the locker, and get my butt over to my bus. 5:40 + :25 = Screwed. So, I checked in on another line that left from the station...only to be incredibly confused at the direction it was going. Because of course, the only other line out of that particular subway station is the dark blue line which intersects and drops off at points and does all kinds of crazy shit. At this point it was almost 5:30, so I just left the station and found a taxi. I figured it wasn't TOO far for the two points. Sadly, it was a little further financially than I initially thought...about $6...which again doesn't seem like a lot, but I come from Wonju where I don't like to take a taxi ride over $4 or $5. Ha!
Anyway, I got to the station with 15 minutes to spare, so I figured out how to get my bag out of the locker I had entrusted nearly 12 hours ago. I think I put another $1 in when I didn't have to...note to self...figure that out for next time.
I slept all the way home and took a taxi straight to the apt. I got in around 7:30AM which meant that I still had about an hour before I had to head to school. Hmm...what to do, what to do. Sleep! So, I did...off and on. I woke up for about a 5 or 10 minute breakfast, watched my host sibs head to school, I had about 3 minutes until I figured I absolutely had to go to school...annnnd I fell back asleep. Host mom definitely woke me up at 9:00AM. 20 minutes after I was supposed to be at school. Luckily I didn't have an actual class; I was just supposed to be helping out with the English Village.
I pulled together a lesson...a pretty cute lesson if I do say so myself. ^_~ The first class was 30 minutes late. To a 40 minute class, my first class was late by 30 minutes. Ok.
Here is the ingredients for a 10 minute lesson:
-Patience (The teacher probably just forgot about the English class that her children have been going to for 16 weeks. Could happen to anyone?)
-Brief "How are you today?"
-Last two sign language letters
-The song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
-Time is up! I will see you next time!
-Flexibility (What the hell can you teach a child in 10 minutes that doesn't end up being...can roll my tongue, want to see a magic trick?)
-Confidence(That teacher thinks you can teach her children all of the secrets to English fluency in 10 minutes. You must think the same! Haha!)
In all reality, I have learned quite a bit of flexibility with this job and everything I say really is in sarcasm, because it doesn't bother me when the classes are late. I have come to expect that it will happen, on average, once a week at least.
Second class. was. frustrating. They didn't want to listen to me, and I was still tired which made me cranky. This made an incredible combination! We did very little with the activity I had planned, and by the end of the class, I detained two children who had given me the most trouble. The teacher informed me that they were sick...now did she mean that they are "sick" in the head (thinking it was this one) or literally sick. Either way, I don't accept a student misbehaving that repeatedly in my class. And perhaps if their teachers didn't write them off as mentally incapable, they would have learned some classroom etiquette by now.
Special needs students are quite readily looked over in Korean classrooms. Also, they are given much more leeway than any other student would be given. Often times, the teachers' reasoning for a student with special needs not being able to do something is that he/she has special needs. Special needs does not an incapable student make. Coming from an education background where we are taught to adapt classrooms to allow effective education for every student, this "let them slide" attitude frustrates the hell out of me.
I once asked about special education classes or schools. There is one in Wonju. A city of 300,000 people, there is one school. Nearly all students are mainstreamed. in a society where prestige is given to those who rock the test, many students (not only special needs students but especially special needs students) are being left behind. (This is not meant AT ALL to be connected to the poorly-handled No Child Left Behind Act)
After classes, I hung out in the first grade teachers' office. We always manage to get random food sent to us or bought for us. The parents are incredibly generous. Last Wednesday, I walked in on the teachers ripping a whole crab apart that 1-6's parents bought for the office. It was still warm and yummy too! It was hilarious watching the teachers go at it though (sorry full veggies out there...I've had to adjust to certain things.) I've been a vegetarian since first semester of my senior year in college, but at the time I was a full vegetarian. When I lived in Japan the first semester of my junior year, I began eating all kinds of crazy seafood. It wasn't a question in Japan, it was a must. So, eating seafood is a big part of me now. It has helped me a lot in Korea. Food is an incredibly important aspect of Korean culture. Since the WWII, when Korea was very poor, Koreans have worried about whether their friends and family are getting enough food. That is why in these days of a very healthy Korean economy, many of my fellow ETAs have host families who feed them too much. Hence, also, the common greeting, "Have you eaten?"
I went to the orphanage today. I love love love these kids! They are so adorable! We made paper thermometers with Celsius on one side and Fahrenheit on the other. I really think they could have cared less what it's technical purpose was, they thought it was really cool that they could make the red line go up and down though. Haha! We then did a coloring activity. They rock at their colors!
I told the woman who first helped me with them that I am not living in Wonju after this semester. I guess I just told whoever reads my blog that as well. Kind of a rough decision...well cross out kind of. It was an incredibly difficult decision to make.
I decided not to go to yoga today, but I still went to guitar lessons.
The lack of sleep comes into play when I decided that I wasn't going to go to sleep until I made a real decision about where to live next year. I told Susie that I would tell her by today. Well...around 4AM, I finally had written an email to Susie saying that I was going to move to Seoul. I passed out before I had the nerve to actually send the email.
Guess...that whole process didn't work out so well.
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