As of today (we will
ignore the time change for now) , I have been over here for 2 months! It's hard
to believe but it's true! In some ways,
I feel as though it's been longer, but at the same time, I feel like I'm just
getting started… which I am. I'm only 1/6 of the way through my contract, after
all.
I watched Bridget's
Jones' Diary the other day, and so I have decided to give you an update on my
stay here in the same way that she does her life updates… In a list.
days at work: 32
days not at work: 30
(the perks of only working 4 days a week, and coming right before a holiday)
Time I've sprayed
myself with my shower head while attempting to brush my teeth: 5
Trips outside of
Daegu: 3
Languages Learned: 0
Friends made: 12
Operas seen: 1
Yelled at by
employer (directly)= 0
Angry e-mails from
parents about low grades: 7ish. (these go to my Korean co-teachers. I'm sure
there are a few they haven't told me about)
Student names
learned: 14
Student names I can
pronounce: 0
Sick days: 0
Movies seen:
infinite
TV series completed
from beginning to end: 3
New Hobbies: 1 (no,
it is Netflix junkie'. That's more of a life-style than a hobby)
Tears shed: 0
Homesick days: 0
(though my dreams seem to be focusing more and more on my Canada life than
here.)
Important birthdays
missed: 2 (I won't mention names. This way everyone who's had a birthday in the
last 2 months can assume that I'm talking about them)
Online shopping
expeditions: 4
Lbs of rice
consumed: 9 (dry rice. Not including restaurants)
Mountains climbed: 4
Temples visited: 5
(6 if you count the cave with the monk in it)
Awkward physical
encounter with overly friendly Koreans: 5
Sarcastic remarks
that my students didn't understand: a grateful 30
Miscommunications
with the locals: 3 major ones, (but ordering at restaurants is always
interesting)
Galbi meals: 5
American restaurant
meals: 6
Skype dates with my
parents: 8
… That's enough for
now. I won't bore you.
I will share two
quick stories with you before I go.
I think I mentioned (or perhaps not) that we
have phone conversations with out students after class. They sign up for them
(or their parents sign them up for them) and they last for a lovely 9 minutes. It's interesting how long 9 minutes can feel
sometimes… Anyways, this week's topic is lying… one of the questions obviously
being 'what do you lie about?". One
of the boys I was talking to today answered: "My brother doesn't like
broccoli. So one day I made bread with broccoli in it and I didn't tell
him." Now, a normal response would have been 'when my mom cooks something
gross" or "when my friend asks me if she looks pretty". If I hadn't been laughing so hard at his
honest confession, I would have asked him how he managed to hide a green
vegetable in a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, once I was in control of myself
again, I simply moved on to the next scripted question. I didn't quite trust myself.
My oldest students
are getting ready for another round of exams at their schools, so we're not
assigning them homework. Normally, Speaking class and Writing class
are based off of their homework assignment, so we get to be a little creative
about what we cover in class. Today, I chose to make them read this poem…
They
did incredibly well! Much better than I
expected. After the first 2 paragraphs,
I actually stopped them to point out what the poem was doing and why it was
difficult to read so that they understood why I was grinning as they read. They all started laughing when they got to :
"Eye, I, ay,
aye, whey, key, quay!". What made it better was the fact that the boy who was
pretending to be 'too cool to care' was the one who was reading the line out
loud. He was much more interested after
that…
