new apartment, new job

i'm finally updating! moving and starting new jobs takes up more time than i thought it would! lol

my last day at the elem. school went fine. i didn't feel very sad to leave. it was time for a change and since i'd still be living in mokpo anyway it wasn't like i was never going to see these teachers and students again, ya know? in one of my last classes my co-teacher brought out a cake and we lit two candles (one for each year i had worked at the school) and i blew them out while all the kids clapped and said thank you for teaching. it was nice :o) i took some pics of the students and my co-t and that was about all the fanfare there was on that day. there wasn't really a goodbye dinner for me because it was a busy time at the school. the previous week we had gone on a teachers' trip and then had dinner afterwards and eun yeong said that was sort of my goodbye dinner...lol whatever. like i said, it wasn't like i was leaving korea forever.

then it was moving time! jens and i left school early that day and the movers met us at our old place and moved our stuff out onto their truck. they were then supposed to bring it to our new place but didn't show up for like 2 hours! they said they had to use the elevator truck from some other moving job...thanks guys! but we got everything moved in that day and then had samgyeopsal with joe and shanna that night when was nice. i love daebak samgyeopsal! (thinly sliced, bacon cut of pork cooked on your table and eaten in lettuce leaves with garlic and samjang- a red pepper and fermented soybean paste- one of the few really delicious korean dishes lol).

thank goodness we had one day off in between leaving our old schools and starting at our new schools because it took us FOREVER to unpack. we got the necessities done on our off day but we were still unpacking for about a week.

that friday we started at our new schools. we didn't have classes though. it was just a day of meeting people, figuring out how to use all the classroom equipment, doing paperwork, etc.

i was so glad we only had to go to work one day and then we had a weekend because like i said we had a lot of unpacking and organizing to do. we got quite a bit done that weekend though so that was good.

we LOVE having a bigger place :o) it's so nice! jens has his office/music room and i have my yoga/art room so now we can go off and do our own thing without disturbance. he can have quiet to write and he can shut the door if he's playing music really loud and i have the space to do yoga and a place to finally paint these canvases i got over a year ago lol don't know what i want to paint yet...

the new jobs have been ok. jens is teaching elementary again so for him it's pretty much the same as it's always been. his new school has required a little bit more out of him though. so it's been somewhat difficult for him to find time to write. even so he finished his second novel!!! congrats jens! :oD

my teaching situation is TOTALLY different from before because i'm teaching high school. i have a main co-teacher who is absolutely crazy lol she's the craziest co-t i've ever heard of!!! i wrote a bit about her on facebook and i'll copy paste that here later in the post. but for now i just want to describe everything about my new job. my main co-teacher doesn't actually teach with me. she's more in charge of my life at school and in korea. she helps me with all the paperwork i ever need to do, helps be figure stuff out at school and about life in general in korea. if i have a question about an apt. bill i ask her. if i want to know where to get something in korea i ask her, etc. only thing is it's really unfortunate the principal chose HER to be in charge of the native english speaker because she's totally insane lol (like i said i'll expand on that more later).

my main co-teacher is a homeroom teacher and she teaches english. there are 7 other english teachers at the school. the only other one that does NOT teach with me is a male homeroom teacher. there are 6 english teachers that teach classes separate from me AND they come to my english classes to help out with translation and discipline. 2 of them are female and come to 6 of my classes each (12 total) the other 4 co-teachers (two female and two male) come to one of my classes each. i have a total of 16 classes a week. 8 are 1st grade (u.s. 10th grade) and 8 are 2nd grade (u.s. grade 11th). i don't teach the 3rd graders (u.s. 12th graders). apparently they need to focus more on studying and less on speaking english with a foreigner in their last year of high school.

in conclusion it's a bit complicated and took me a while to figure out. i REALLY like the two female teachers that come to the majority of my classes. the other two female teachers that come to one of my classes each aren't as great in the classroom but they're really nice, friendly women. as for the two male teachers- so far i don't like them because they haven't come to any of the classes they are suppose to come to and one of them i've never even met. i think they have the "korean male syndrome" which is- i'm a man, i can do whatever i want....obviously they don't feel like helping me in my classes so they just don't show up and don't even say a word to me about it.

anyway i've told my main co-t about it and she's supposed to talk to them about it...we'll see.

as for the students- they are split by gender. half the 1st grade classes are all girls and half of them are all boys. same with 2nd grade. needless to say i like the all girls classes MUCH better than the all boys classes. unfortunately one of the all boys classes is the class one of the male teachers NEVER comes to. this is a disaster. i am seeking to rectify this situation. i'll let you know how it pans out.

my schedule the first 3-4 weeks has been AMAZING!!!! like i said i had no classes the first day because it was my first day. the second day the students wanted to study for their exams so my classes were canceled them too. then we had exams for 3 days during which i just supervised exams with my co-t and got to leave school early each day. that friday i think i had 4 c lasses. during my second full week the entire 1st grade was on a school trip so i had no 1st grade classes. only 2nd grade. but even some of those were canceled for one reason or another. i think i had about 4 classes that whole week! lol my 3rd week the 2nd grade was on a school trip (and my main co-t is a 2nd grade homeroom teacher which meant SHE was gone all week too! which was wonderful :o) i only had a few 1st grade classes, the rest of the time was spent relaxing or leaving school early to go do whatever i wanted :o) the 4th week we had a school festival on the thurs. and a sports day on the fri. so all the kids were wanting to practice for those mon. through wed. so i barely had any classes! then of course on thurs. and fri. i had NO classes due to the special events. both days i just watched the events, went out to lunch and left early on fri. it was great!

so yeah the new job isn't too bad ;o) the only thing that makes it frustrating is that crazy main co-teacher. here's what i wrote in a note on facebook (i have to warn you i was quite irritated when i wrote it...she can be a very irritating person but i'm trying to figure out ways to deal with her and focus on the positive aspects of my job- because there are many!) anyway here it is (it's really long!):

so as most of you know i have the craziest co-teacher in all of mokpo, if not the world lol i knew this going in but i had never met her before i didn't know the exact brand of crazy that she was. her personality is something i never could have imagined. she's like some kind of comedic/tragic character some ingenious writer thought up.

she's very narcissistic, everything is about her or for her. she asks- i'm very fashionable don't you think? how about my young face? what do you think of my hair? oh you are very fortunate to have me as a co-teacher. oh look at MY school, MY students, MY this, MY that (and koreans are taught not to say MY but to say OUR.)

she is oblivious to other people (either physically or emotionally). she hits me way too hard when she is "patting me on the back" or steering me in the right direction or just trying to get my attention. i probably have bruises. she hit me in the head about 5 times yesterday in her car when she was moving things from the front to the back and vice versa. never even noticed or said sorry. she's talked about my "WIDE HIPS" or "GENEROUS LOWER BODY" more than once! and she even once said - oh i guess you're not very popular in this school (since no one came to visit me in my english lab the week she was gone). she's also oblivious to the fact that everyone thinks she's crazy.

she seems inept at life in general. she can't remember anything, she can't figure out how to use anything, she can't drive, instead of putting her seatbelt on in the car she leaves it off and just listens to the alarm go off the entire time she's driving (i've asked her 3 times why she does that or if the alarm annoys her and she just gives a little laugh and says nothing...???), if i ask her to do one thing she gets it confused and does something else entirely (i asked her to set up a home phone for us so she called and asked about an internet phone...???), she'll say she's gonna do something and just never, ever does it (she said 3 weeks ago she'd have her students come and take away all this paper that needs to be recycled and clean the old dishes that are in there and it hasn't happened), and the list goes on...

she's constantly asking me how to say certain things and most of the time i can't figure out what the heck she's talking about. for example she asked:
the effect of the makeup and lighting on the face ....what is the other expression for this? and i'm like what? what do you mean? so she just says it again. and i'm like i don't know. i don't think there is another way of saying it. so she just asks AGAIN! over and over until i just make something up.

she's always learning big, technical words and then uses them incorrectly. so like today, it's sports day and i say i don't want to stay outside all day. she says oh you should go and show your accumulated mind to all of the teachers and students. .....what the heck does that mean??? lol

we argued over that for a while until i said I HATE SPORTS, I HATE WATCHING SPORTS, I NEVER GO TO SPORTS DAYS! so she said ok fine, you can come just for a little while and show your accumulated mind and then you can leave sneakily and come back to the secondary staff room. so i'm like ok fine.

we go back to our desks and are milling about and then all of the sudden she goes- ohooohohoh! randi! get out of here now! let's go! let's go! it's starting now! (hmm maybe everyone leaving 10 mins. ago should have tipped her off?) so we run out, she sets the lock, we go out and she goes to her car!!! i have to get my shoes so i do so and go out the front, all the teachers and students are right out front on the big field talking and getting ready and i have no idea where to go so i'm just roaming around and then all of the sudden my co-t comes up and is like randi, randi, come here so i start to slowly walk over (cuz i'm tired of being at her every beckoning call) and then she says-OH! come here now! she grabs my arm really hard and drags me over to the side and has me hide behind the bushes, like squat down and she says- they are honoring the korean flag now hahahahha. and i look over and everyone is turned toward the school saluting the flag.

so i'm like first of all she knew when the thing was supposed to start yet she wasted tons of time doing nothing. she said oh we need to go at the last possible minute and we run out. but then she goes by her car to get something (wasting time again) and just lets me roam around where i'm not supposed to be, then she runs over and gets me and we look like idiots scrambling out of sight and hiding!

THEN! she has me walk down to the field with her and we're SUPER noticeable because we are the ONLY people doing this. all the teachers and students can see us walking down along the side of the field. we go stand in the back and every once in a while she's like oh please here and pushes me randomly this way and that for no reason. she says after this ceremony you can leave sneakily and go back to the secondary staff room.

so the ceremony is over but everyone is still standing where they have been for the whole time and she says i can leave "SNEAKILY" and i'm like um ok...there's absolutely NO WAY for me to leave sneakily right now. we're on a huge field with everyone in specific groups and if i walk off now everyone will see me. but i did it anyway cuz whatever, i wanna leave so who cares right? lol as i'm walking off a couple students shout HELLO! so that's really obvious. and a couple teachers nod to me. so i'm just like yeah, this is really inconspicuous lol

she always thinks i'm her little pet. that i belong to her and i can't talk to or become friends with anyone else at the school. she makes sure of this by telling me i need to stay in the second grade staff room anytime i'm not teaching. while i'm in there if any teacher tries to talk to me in english she jumps in and acts as the translator (even though the other teacher is doing just fine communicating with me). she always turns it into an english lesson and starts teaching the other teacher how to say certain things and the other teacher is always like ummmm....okaaaayy....

also if it ever looks like i'm beginning a conversation with one of my other co-teachers (the english teachers that actually help me out in my classes) she will either literally move me away from them or just totally interrupt and start talking to me. one day i had a class wth this one woman right before lunch. so when class was over it made sense for us to go to lunch together. she had to go by her desk and get a lunch ticket and i had to go wash my hands. my insane co-t had already made plans with me to meet at the big mirror on the first floor to go to lunch (as always) so when i'm coming out of the bathroom i'm behind insane woman, we get to the mirror, she notices me and is like oh hello, let's go. at that point the OTHER english teacher is standing nearby so i nod to her like ok let's go and THEN my insane co-t notices this and as the other eng. teacher walks by she says oh and sooo the mirror and grabs me, takes me over to the mirror so she can look in the mirror AGAIN. this was obviously a pretense to get away from that other english teacher and have me all to herself. but thankfully the other eng. teacher just waited for us and we were able to all go to lunch together. but insane co-t found a way to ruin it afterall. she talked to the other eng. teacher in korean the whole time, never talking to me or givng the other teacher a chance to talk to me.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

yesterday was the school festival and while we were there that same eng. teacher came and sat beside me and we exchanged a few short pleasantries. crazy co-t was sitting on the other side of me. the nice eng. teacher had to get up for a second and talk to someone. while she was doing this my crazy co-t stands up motions to her and chair and says please here. i'm so used to dealing with NORMAL people that i immediately switched to the other seat without thinking. i guess subconciously i thought she must have a good reason, right? you don't just refuse and act antagonistically to someone for no reason. so i switched seats, she put her things in my seat and stood behind that chair. the nice eng. teacher came back and sat down and then there was this chair of stuff between us. it was like she didn't want me to tlak to that other teacher AND she didn't want to talk to her either. so she just put her things between us. what the heck??? she's insane!!!

at lunchtime yesterday she said ok i'm gonna take you and some other teachers out to eat. thinking ok that shouldn't be too bad. if anything she'll want to show off her english abilities and talk to me and translate a lot, etc. no she took me to lunch with two old women who seem to know no english and talked to them in korean the whole time. even beforehand she said ok i have to tell them something in korean so maybe you will be bored. so i'm like ok what the frak did you bring me here??? just to sit here and look pretty? i could have been eating lunch with english speakers in the cafeteria at school. in fact i would have rather sat with my students than with them! at least they would try to talk to me in english. god!

so yeah she wants to do that again today but i messaged a couple of the other english teachers and one said ok maybe i will tell all the english teachers to eat togeher today at the cafeteria. so that would be nice but i have a feeling "crazy" will say nononono and drag me into her car and take to eat with some other ajummas who won't talk to me before i can even say no. she's so forceful. i think her strategy is- if i just say a bunch of jibberish and act like i'm in a hurry randi won't know what's going on before i get my way. lol

so i dunno what will happen at lunch. maybe i will go to the teacher's room BEFORE lunch and just stay in there and go with them to lunch and then crazy won't be able to find me.

uuggghh in a way i feel bad for her. she seems really trapped in her own little world. and in her own little world her intentions are good. she seems to actually think i really need her help and she's determined to help me. her ways of helping me are just misguided. and there's no getting through to her i don't think. cuz like i said she's trapped in her own little world. she feels it's her duty to do alll the things she does for me and to me lol she honestly believes i need her. and i think she needs me. she doesn't have children and she seems to have always wanted them and this is her only way to be a kind of "mommy". she even tells me- i'm like mommy. and she'll stroke my hair and tell me she wants to wants to buy be a hair clip...

it's so creepy but at the same time sad. she's just very tragic. i don't know what one should do with her lol i think she should retire and ...hang out with other old people lol i don't know. all i know is i want her far far away from me.

i'm just trying to figure out ways to deal with her for the rest of the year. i really want to make friends with the other teachers so i can have relationships with them and make plans with them for lunch and stuff so i'm not always available for crazy to hang out with.

i'd really like to hang out with some of the other teachers outside of school too. i'd like to have them all over to my apt. sometime. for snacks and mingling. but then i'd have to invite crazy too. but i almost wanna do it just to humor her. she'd probably think it was so great if i had them all over and she could show off her english skills, etc. and that could be that. i wouldn't have to do it again.

i think that's it. i need to find a balance between humoring her and keeping my sanity. i want to keep her satisfied but be friends with the other teachers and have my own life at the same time. i want it to be a good year! i don't want there to be this dark cloud over it from being stressed out about her. :oP

anyway i guess that's all for now...]]]

so yeah, she be crazy! lol but like i said, other than that the job is great! the other co-teachers (the female ones at least) are awesome! i ended up being able to go out to lunch with them on friday and it was great! we talked a lot and they were all really nice. we even talked about my crazy co-t a bit and they all agreed that she is a very "unique" person lol i think if i focus on becoming friends with them (and the japanese teacher who speaks english and is really friendly) i'll be fine :o) i think it WILL be a good year :o)

and if we end up staying a 2nd year at these schools (a 4th year in korea) i won't have to worry about that crazy co-t anymore cuz this is her last year at that school. she'll be moving to a new one next year! yay! :o) so that'll be nice. don't know if we'll be staying a 4th year or not yet. we'll see.

alright well i'm gonna go do some housework now. talk to you all later! bye!