Wishing I could speak and understand Korean!... I made cookies tonight, and brought some to the lady who owns the little store on the corner. She made me coffee and we tried to talk for nearly half an hour. What I learned is she has an 18 year old son, who is in high school. He doesn't like to study, but he loves to cook (apparently something with jam and bread that he mashes up...?). Also, she was very young when she had her son - she is now 37 years old. I think her husband is the man who's always at the store. He's at home sleeping right now. I really adore them, and hope when Jason's here we can love on them a lot more, maybe even have them over for dinner sometime? It was a good day today - I went out to lunch with my coteacher Marrisa, and then went back to school and helped her get some work done. Yesterday the yellow dust was horrible, but today was a bright sunny day! Beautiful :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust <<<--- This explains why it looks like a ghost town around here. I first heard about this dust last week... I saw it for the first time yesterday. It's here again today, too. Really creepy!!!

My new co-teacher's name is Ee Geum Hee. She goes by Marrisa.

She is in her mid 30s and is single. She just moved here from another city in Korea about a half hour away.

So far we've done well together. She's a lot more uptight about teaching than my previous co-teacher. Before, we'd just use the textbook curriculum and wing our lessons. But Marrisa puts a lot of extra work into planning for each class. I think she's a good teacher and tries really hard. She has a lot of energy!

My role seems to be extremely small in teaching. I feel like I could easily be taken out or replaced and no one would even notice... seriously. I can't really do much, because the kids will not listen to me, and bad things happen when I try to go beyond my role (which is basically just saying "repeat after me... book/house/car/whatever..." I am basically a living breathing broken record player).

What do I mean by "bad things happen"? Here's just a few examples from the past 2 days: During our 6th grade class one boy pulled out a knife and held it to another kid's throat. I told the boy to put give me the knife and not bring it to school again. He just stared at me with a death scowl on his face, refusing to obey. I wasn't going to wrestle him for it... I was afraid I'd get knifed. I called Marrisa over and the kid immediately handed over the knife to her.

Korea is known as the "Hermit Kingdom," because they are so closed off in their thinking and ways of doing things. These kids don't respect me or take me seriously - because I am a foreigner.

Then today, in the middle of our 4th grade lesson, a boy was punching the girl next to him. I went over and calmly stopped him... when I did, he punched me. Yeah, normal day.

I am seeing that I personally have a lot of problems with the culture here. There are MANY things I do not understand or agree with... but that's just the way it is. A wise person reminded me this is not America... South Korea is a "Second World" country... of course things are going to be a little less civilized; rougher around the edges. That's just the way it is.

I'm a guest who is only here for 7 more months, and I can't try to project my cultural values and standards onto the people here.

All part of the experience... let me just say I am admittedly ethnocentric (think my own culture is superior) - something I'd always criticized other people for, but can't deny in myself. Most things are way easier said than done. I am far from perfect.

Also, with the lesson planning, Marrisa does it all and even when I ask her how I can help she doesn't give me anything to do... so I just find ways to contribute however I can - make extra worksheets, create extra games, etc... try to help with classroom management ideas, too (without being too intrusive with my own cultural standards of classroom behavior- which are a far cry from the expected norm here)...

It's official: I am getting a new co-teacher when school starts up March 2nd.

I found out yesterday. Yoon Jin is being moved to first grade homeroom teacher.

My new co-teacher is coming in from another school, so I've never met her. I will keep you posted as I find out more (or probably after we meet).

It's been snowing and dark all week, but it doesn't feel quite as cold as it has been. The snow is beautiful (but I won't complain when spring arrives).

Today is the graduation ceremony for the 6th graders. I better head to the gym!

I can start to see the first signs of spring...

The ice is melting from the ground. Winter coats are on super sale. The ice cream shop on the corner opened up. I am so thankful to have lived through a real winter, and am excited to see everything come alive in a few weeks!.. I've been hearing winter season officially ends here in March.

Things have been kind of weird at work. It's the end of the school year (this is the last week of classes), so the schedule is different every day and I never know what's going on until after it happens. I just come to school expecting to teach every day, but there's always a curve ball (for example, today we have no classes... I'm not complaining!). On Thursday are the closing ceremonies, and Friday is graduation for the 6th graders. Then, the kids have 2 weeks off and the new school year starts March 2nd.

I think next year will probably be a lot different... new principle, new curriculum for 3rd and 4th graders, new students (current 2nd graders will be our new youngest batch when they are promoted to 3rd grade!), new administration staff, and some new teachers... I might even have a different coteacher. I will find out for sure on February 22nd. As frustrated as I can sometimes get with my coteacher, I dearly love her and definitely would be thankful if she were to remain in her position as English teacher. However, it's the (new) principle's decision what grade/subject each teacher teaches, so we will have to wait and see.

I have been enjoying cooking Korean food. I made a menu plan, but quickly found I couldn't adhere to it bc it was just too much food for one person! I find if I make 1 recipe per week, I have enough food to last all week. I have started employing my freezer for variety's sake :) Last night I made some super yummy chicken soup, called samgyetang. I want to make that one again for sure! My next creation will be "japchae" - noodles made of sweet potato powder, mixed with various veggies and sauces. We had it for lunch the other day, and it's one of my favorites!

Last night, right after I got done cooking my soup, someone was pounding on my front door and trying to open it. Thank God I keep it locked at all times. I was so scared... they stayed there for at least 5 minutes, but it felt like a really long time. I've never really felt unsafe around here, but there was no way I was opening that door... I tried to look through the peep hole, but it was all fogged up from the cold weather. I'd been planning to go on a walk and enjoy the sunshine, but after this incident I stayed inside behind locked doors.

The bad part about that was my heater stopped working. So, I worked out for about an hour and a half (learned a super fun dance routine) and got all warm... then when I went for a shower, I had no hot water. Bummer. I got a bowl and used the electric water heater to warm up some water so I could at least wash my face.

I woke up in the morning looking forward to a hot breakfast... I whipped up some scrambled eggs and went to turn on the stove to cook them - stove didn't work. So, I covered the eggs, put them in the fridge, and defrosted a piece of bread and made some warm milk. When I got to my classroom, the heater was on full blast, and it felt amazing :) I told my coteacher about the situation in my apartment, and she got right on it... everything should be fixed by the time I get home today. I'm so thankful. Apparently, there was some kind of issue with my Alien Registration card, and the gas company thought no one was living in my apartment. That explains the man trying to break in yesterday...

So, all in all things are fine here - there is another foreign teacher who I met on Facebook, and we are going out to dinner sometime this week. She seems really nice.

Sorry I have not been keeping up with this blog lately! Time seems to be flying by... I have concluded that all the hype about Korean winters is overdone - I, who am always cold, am surviving just fine :) I don't even use the heat at night! In general, I realize there are many positive things about Korea and the culture; however, these things are never talked about in the U.S. because all people know is the negative (what we hear on the news about North Korea). The Korean people are extremely giving... they love to share. Every day someone gives me tea, coffee, fruit, a little craft, you name it... just little trinkets symbolizing friendship and acceptance. For a foreigner, this is extremely appreciated :) This is also a very safe place to live - the only people who have guns are the police. The mentality is so group oriented, that crime is virtually non existent - no one wants to stand out in a negative way. I am so thankful for the opportunities I have here, and am surprised that my contract is already 1/3 over - wow! My friend Alysha just stayed with me for a week and helped teach during the English camp. The camp was so much fun... I really enjoyed teaching :) There are no kids this week or next week... then they are back for 2 weeks... and then there are 2 weeks off again. I am still trying to understand the Korean education schedule. So different from ours. I was explaining to the teachers yesterday how our education schedule workds, and they were just as confused as I am about theirs ;) As with most things, there is not necessarily a better or worse - just different. We can learn a lot from each other :)

I'm Back

I arrived in Korea on Saturday night, and am back in Chuncheon with Alysha! We are starting winter English camp today... will keep you posted on how it goes! It's beautiful here - everything is covered in a blanket or white snow, and somehow it doesn't feel as cold as when I left.