International Aftermath

Alright... so the homesickness has ebbed a little bit today, as I've learned to make tteokbokki and am again reminding myself of the things I'd already miss if I weren't here, among which are now Milkus, Korean efficiency, the subway system, the little gummy candies whose name I do not know, my students, eating things with chopsticks, tteokbokki, anything made with red bean paste, and more.

Last night, Thomas, Jason and I ate spaghetti again over at Jason's apartment and then watched Blood Diamond, which I must painfully admit was an excellent film. I was sort of hoping it would be terrible so that I could bar Jason from picking movies, but I've been forced to keep him on probation. His taste was in question for having me download Babel, which was possibly the worst movie I've ever watched for more reasons than I can name at present. If you haven't seen it, don't. If you have and wish to argue this point with me, don't. I will probably stop speaking to you. Hah. But Blood Diamond, really, see it.

So, speaking of contrived international calamities (Babel), I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering how International Day went today. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of my own, but I'll do my best to get the link to the Wonderland photo album as soon as possible. I was on my own with two classes (Cherry class and Tomato class), both of which I've had no contact with, for the first three periods of the day today. Having fresh kids was both great and terrible. It's almost impossible to control a child whose name you do not know, but the kids were also great new faces and very creative. They spent over an hour decorating their sombreros and headbands, and looked really cute in the costumes I made for them. Once Michelle got out of her special classes, she came up to help and was great. I enjoyed working with her quite a bit. She's creative, smart, and has a great grasp of how to keep kids in line without discipline, which is a skill I'm desperately seeking to acquire.
The culmination of today, just like the monthly birthday-day, was a photoshoot where the kids refuse to smile. They wind up looking like we'd forced them into the costumes and the facepaint and the whole experience, which, of course, we have. The interesting thing about working for a for-profit school is that we have to do a lot of things for appearances, and teach along the way, which is really not so bad, but makes discipline and grading rather unorthodox and keeps us doing some pretty ridiculous stuff from time to time.
All that said, I think I was the teacher having the most fun today. The other western teachers seemed pretty worn out by it all, but I really enjoyed dressing the kids up and doing arts and crafts all morning. It's probably because I'm new, but I think it's also my outlook. I'm along for the ride for most of this stuff, and the more fun I bring, the more fun there is. I'm not particularly worried about how it's all going to go or how I'll feel when it's done, I'm just trying to add a little fun and learning whenever I can get through.

So, since it's Friday, I'm going to recap what I've learned this week.

1. About my teaching style:
I teach everyone as though they were an adult, or maybe as though I were a child. Either way, it's both working wonderfully and not at all. I get very frustrated when I can't get through to a child. Harold is one of them. He doesn't know what "Ask" means and does the blank stare thing when I directly address him. I'm not so great at dealing with that yet. Michael 1 (that's what we call him since there are two Michaels) is another one like Harold. Michael 1 came in during an intensive session and must've learned nothing. Today I spent five minutes trying to show him how to make an "F" sound, which is one of the tough ones for these kids, and he kept completely zoning out. As much as I'm ADD, when I'm directly addressed, I'm engaged.

2. About me as a teacher:
I get to plan a lesson for Monday about "Earth," whatever that means. I decided that it means climate, so I'm teaching some earth science on monday about deserts and hurricanes and glaciers and I'm ridiculously excited. I really had a moment today when I caught myself getting giddy about my earth science lessons for the next two weeks. Anything that isn't two pages from a phonics book seems scintillating at this point, which probably means I need to refresh my approach to phonics. Honestly though, I'm loving what I do, and I'm apparently enjoying each day's work more than any of my western coworkers, who seem a little worn out with it. Maybe I'll be there a few months from now, but I hope not. I hope I teach like Laura (far better than I am now) and I have as much fun with it as I did today.

3. About me as an Ex-Pat
I adapt quickly. Today I was ready to order movie tickets online, on a site in Hangul, but Tom didn't trust me to do it. I hear more words I recognize each day and I'm learning to read the language much better. I think I was being impatient with myself. I also feel like I'm picking up the culture pretty quickly as well. Ricky (one of the Korean English teachers) asked me today how long I'd been here, and replied to my response that it seemed like I'd been here well over a month by the way I was acting. I think admitting that I was homesick yesterday served the same function as when I first admitted to myself I was in culture shock. I sat and processed the emotion and, once I'd seen it for what it was, started dealing with it. I miss home, and I've been missing it for a while, but now that it's on the surface, it's just like the next lesson I have to teach. I'm not completely sure how I'm going to get through, but my friends here and everyone at home are just like the kids, supportive and eagerly hoping I'll succeed at whatever I'm doing, so I'm definitely going to make it.

4. About me as a cook
Fact: I cannot tell a Korean butcher that I want only a chicken breast. Fact: I cannot cook an entire chicken, especially in the absence of an oven. These two factors combined this Monday to form a temporary rule: Chicken is only to be consumed at restaurants for the next month, while my Korean improves. I can, however, make tteokbokki with red chili paste, and mandu. Both are wonderful and really spicy and have become my staples for snacking Korean style at home. I hope to branch out to other dishes soon, but my cooking is very dependent on my Korean, so it might take me a little bit.

5. About my senses of adventure and direction.
Fact: I cannot tell where I am and how to get back after a cab ride, especially if it's to somewhere I haven't been, and especially if I've been hanging out with people I've just met. I'm adventurous, and I'm breaking out on my own so that I can build more of a life for myself here, but I wound up walking on my own trying to find a cab that could understand me for about a half an hour the other night. On the bright side, getting lost is wonderful for learning a city. When I finally figured out where I was, my brain had done a wonderful job of mapping the unknown so that I could put overlay it on the page. It's also wonderful that Korea is safe and its people patient. In America, a lost Korean with little to no knowledge of the English language would be SOL to say the least. Here I was able to walk around for quite a while, at night, alone, in a neighborhood I did not know, and eventually found a taxi driver who would listen while I fumblingly pronounced the name of my subway stop and pointed at the map. I hate seeming so culturally insensitive, but I'm learning much faster by submersion than by immersion, so I'm probably going to keep taking new plunges.

And that's it for now, my fingers and your eyes are likely very sore, and there are more adventures to be had. I hope all is well back home and love hearing from you all. I wish you could all come and visit, there's really so much to show you, so much more than what I can write that I want to share with you, but I'm learning that the disconnect is part of the beauty of life, and that it's phenomenal that you can even be a little bit here with me when the gulf between us is so wide.

Love and high hopes,
Joe