Unexpected Changes (Mar 21)

• Today was one of those days they warn you about at orientation – where, all of a sudden, there is an event at school that you are supposed to know all about and attend! When I arrived at school today, the Office Guy told me that lunch was right away! 20 minutes earlier than normal. Then I went upstairs and Mi Hye (the other English teacher at my school, who comes on Wednesdays, and has been REALLY helpful to me) said that we had to attend a meeting at 2:00...but I teach from 1:20-4:00. She said, “Oh yeah...well, I will ask the head teacher but I think you can just leave the students in the classroom while you are at the meeting.” OH! After freaking out in my head, I decided I would have them watch a movie. Whew. So then we ate lunch :) I love seeing Mi Hye on Wednesdays because she’s so positive, sweet and helpful and translates for me. After a good lunch, we went upstairs...and the 1^st graders were already there! 30 minutes early! Oy. So I started their class early, in an effort to have some time before the meeting. After that class (which was pretty good), grade 2 through grade 6 came in! I wasn’t expecting all of them at once. Mi Hye helped me explain that we had to go to a meeting and that they would be watching a movie while we were in there. She also added that she would appoint some students to write down the names of students who misbehaved or were loud and that she would punish them (she is amazing). We chose Su Hyeon and Dae Han (my 6^th graders) and they were so good! They wrote down names (it ended up being the regular trouble-makers) AND worked to keep the younger kids in line, even after I came back in the room. After struggling through about 40 minutes of an improvised lesson (I had plans but everything was all messed up :(), I dismissed the 2^nd and 3^rd graders and Dae Han, Su Hyeon, Chan Gi and I played Jenga and Days-of-the-Week Go Fish, while listening to Kpop. I know that I will eventually have to teach them real things...but not right now.
• After I was done teaching, Mi Hye asked if I could help her with her homework – she was working on some English worksheets! It was kind of fun, trying to remember all of the grammar rules and verb tenses...why is English so complicated??? I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have it as my first language.
• When I got home from school, I waited for PP and Anna to get home from Jukdo Market and then we went to Mundeok to meet Liz for dinner. It turned out that we met Liz and a few of the teachers from her school (the youngest ones). It was really fun! We had a spicy-ish dinner and got to know each other a little. Her mentor teacher speaks English really well - he lived in California for 3 years. The boys (her teachers) talked in Korean and the girls (Liz, me, PP and Anna) talked in English with a little bit of cross-conversation, with te help of Liz and her MT. It was really great because Liz was able to explain some Korean culture things to PP and Anna that I hadn’t, or that I just didn’t know. For example, we take shoes off at school because, for children, teachers are considered the next best thing to parents – so going to school is like being at home, where we always leave our shoes at the door. Cool!
• After dinner, we got ice cream (the dinner was really spicy) and then went to a beer restaurant/bar. It was surprisingly fancy in appearance but not in feel – we played 31 at our table and had yummy drinking snacks. Then, we went to norebang again! It was fun, mostly because we had had a little more to drink and were singing all kinds of songs...including “I Like Big Butts” and “When Will My Life Begin” (from Tangled). It was fantastic :)