The new school year started on Tuesday. Monday was a holiday, I think it was the Korean independence day or something. All these holidays - I really have no idea what they're for, but I don't complain. Anyway, new school year started on Tuesday, and so there is a whole new batch of kids, which naturally - I never see and don't get to teach. High school in Korea has 3 grades, but since my school was new, there were only 1st and 2nd years when I arrived. Now that the new year has started, there's nearly 270 new 1st year students. This is a HUGE number because the other 2 grades have about 150 students each. I'm really disappointed I don't get to work with these new students. From what I hear they're WAY better behaved than my current students. Plus I was hoping I could reuse some lesson plans instead of having to make all new ones but no such luck.
So Tuesday after work I came home and was relaxing and minding my own business when my co-teacher Sang Jin called me. I was a little worried, because she rarely calls me outside of school, and if she does need to get ahold of me, its generally by text. About 10 of the teachers were near my subway station having "hwaeshi" which is a teacher's dinner gathering. I think it was sort of an impromptu thing. But I threw on some clothes and met up with them. OH. MY. GOD. The first day must've been rough on them because when I got to the restaurant around 8:30 I was shocked to find most of my superiors completely trashed. I mean....they were on an entirely different level than I expected anyone to be on a Tuesday night. Totally untouchable. I couldn't even begin to catch up.
One of my (new!) neighbors in the noraebang :)
Sang Jin and me after leaving our mark on the restaurant wall
What else... Ooh I no longer have to take the bus to school in the mornings, which is totally lame to be excited about, but believe me its awesome. Two teachers from my school moved into my building and one of them has a car and drives us now. Saves time, and money. How efficient. Ew. I sound old.
Also, since its a new school year and we have a bunch of new kids and all...there's new teachers! Including 2 new English teachers (and a third who I'm pretty sure worked at the school last year teaching something that was definitely NOT English because she can barely communicate with me, so I have no idea what running a classroom with her is going to be like). One of the new teachers is really soft spoken and seems really intimidated by the rowdiness of the students. I told her she better get used to it because the kid have been bad this week already and I can tell that's their "good" behavior and its only going to get worse.
I've been dancing a lot - which has been great because after being with those crazy kids all day, its soooo nice to be able to go to the studio for a few hours and dance it off. The weather is slowly getting nicer - I was even able to go for a run outside this past weekend. There's a great running/walking/biking path along the river near my apartment, and I don't feel all the judgmental eyes on me the way I do when I walk around other places.
I think tomorrow (Friday) I'm supposed to have another teacher's dinner gathering thing. Unfortunately I was only just informed of it today, and already have plans to hit the dance studio and then go out in Itaewon with everyone. People here sort of don't get the concept of preplanning - they just do everything on the fly when they feel like. Sorryyyyy but I have a life, you gotta give me some warning! Itaewon is a part of Seoul where the US Military base is, so there are lots of foreigners and most people speak English pretty well because they're used to dealing with the military. I generally try to stay away from it all, but I could use some diversity.
BIG NEWS: There is a Taco Bell coming to Seoul - in Itaewon! I almost died when I found out because there is no other fast food I have been craving more than that greasy fatty fake mexican yummy goodness. I don't know when it opens, but the sign said "Coming Soon". Life is complete.
Did everyone watch the Olympics?! Kim Yuna!! I'm sooo happy and relieved that she won gold. Poor girl has a lot of pressure on her over here. She's in every other advertisement on TV and like I mentioned before, a small country like Korea gets (in my mind) unusually proud of their celebrities who make it outside of Korea. I was definitely cheering for her. But now...people are still talking about it. She's on a million different TV specials. SBS replayed her performances over and over and over. They even played her performances with the commentaries from different stations around the world - including NBC so i was able to hear the English. Its a little overdone - a concept which Korea doesn't seem to understand, but regardless - I'm still happy and excited for her!
I won't even go into the whole hockey thing, but needless to say - that was incredibly disappointing Team USA - shape up! Also, I couldn't stop laughing during the closing ceremony when the big beaver came out, not only because it was so categorically Canadian and random, but because the commentary said "ahh and the always enjoyable giant inflatable beaver..". Whaaa? Always enjoyable? I'm pretty sure that was the first giant inflatable beaver I've ever seen, but thanks Bob Costas for your amazing commentary.
Here's the latest K-Pop song, its called "Change" by Hyuna. I learned some of the dance in class last week actually. Well the parts that can actually count as dancing anyway, which is only a little bit, but still fun.
Waiting for warm weather!
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." -- James Michener
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