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!

new puppy and moving

hello! well since last post we got a new puppy!!! jens found him at his school!

here's the story he posted on facebook:
Expats in Korea have an itinerant habit of taking in stray animals, at which I always laughed in my Rabelaisian way. But yesterday I pulled into my school parking lot to find some first-graders tormenting (with love) a shaggy Maltese pup. I liberated the poor guy and realized, once I picked him up, that I could not put him down - not that I would not, or should not, but that it was simply not an option. I called Randi to okay it, and we had another member of the family!
He was in bad shape, with long streaky tear stains and muddy belly and sooty greyish fur on his back and snout - road pollution, like snow on the side of a highway. His hair was comically ragged - someone, a child or possibly retarded adult, had long ago tried to cut his hair with scissors, but given up partway through. There were bald patches and half-hacked patches; he looked like a mop run over with a lawn mower.
I took him to the vet. I didn't have a dog box with me for the scooter, so I tucked him into my jacket and zipped him up, with his shaggy head poking through my collar. The Koreans looked at me, shall we say, "with interest". But he rode calmly all the way to the vet, fortunately not urinating on my nice red-striped shirt.
I played with him in front of the vet's office while waiting for the vet to show up. He sniffed around the parking lot with lively interest and stuck his tiny head all the way in a drainpipe to lap up a little bit of water. The pitifulness of this TRANSFIXED me, and I ruminated thus: "Poor guy..."
The vet arrived and I deposited the pup with orders to groom and examine him. Randi and I toyed with names all day; initially I favored "Perestroika", but she suggested "Hobak," which is Korean both "pumpkin", but is also slang for "ugly girl". But it didn't quite roll off the tongue, so we went with "Jjang", which is Korean for "very good" or "awesome," and is fun to say.
After work, I returned to the vet's, and he told me that Jjang has a mostly clean bill of health, except for an inflammation of the anus. Wow! But a shot of antibiotics ought to clear that up. He weighs only about two kilograms, it turns out, after the shaving. I took him home, and he met Sadie. They warmed up to each other quickly and were soon chasing each other up and down the apartment.
Jjang slept in Sadie's old bed next to our bed - he won't get to sleep ON the bed until he's pad-trained. Still working on that. When I came home from work today, he went berserk and tried to climb up my leg. He's attached! So is Randi. Not I. I am immune to human sentiment.

so yeah, things are going pretty well so far! sadie and jjang play all the time! jjang is much tinier than sadie but he holds his own! he's 4 lbs. and she's 10 or 11. we're in the process of pad-training him. he pees on the pads about half the time and on the floor half the time :o( it's been quite a while since we've had to pad train a puppy so it's hard getting back in the swing of it and realizing we need to be veerrry patient! i'm hoping he learns faster than sadie did! it took her about a month or two to totally stop peeing on the floor.

now if all i was having to deal with was pad training a puppy it wouldn't be so bad but since we're also in the process of getting ready to move and start at new schools we've got some added stress. tonight i've been trying to clean the apt. up because my co-t is coming to inspect it tomorrow. i guess to make sure all the stuff is in here that needs to be in here. and it's been quite a hassle since i've already had to clean up pee twice and settle some fights over bones, etc. lol

i just hope it looks decent enough for her tomorrow and that we can get it all spic and span before we move (for the new people).

the movers are also coming by tomorrow to give us a quote on how much it'll cost to move the stuff we need to move. we're taking a few pieces of furniture with us that we bought ourselves like the dresser and bookshelves along with all our small junk. i think they might be dropping off the baskets that we'll be putting all our stuff in too (they don't use boxes here. they use these big plastic baskets.) i was surprised they'd be dropping them off so soon cuz last time we moved they didn't give us the baskets until 1-2 days before we had to move. so i'm glad we'll have longer to pack this time.

it's getting so close!! jens and i went to immigration today and extended our visas and alien registration cards for another year. that's expensive! 80,000won per person for a multiple entry visa. that's a little less than $80 these days. and the multi- entry is so that we can visit other countries and come back. everything went pretty smoothly so that good! :o)

i'll be getting a raise this year which is nice :o) jens doesn't get one because he's already at the highest level (well there's one more level but you have to live here like 5 years or have a masters in educ. or something to get there). and almost all the english teachers in jeollanamdo will be getting another raise in the next couple of months because the exchange rate is so bad right now. so that's really nice! we're really hating the exchange rate right now. we don't even wanna send money home because we'll "lose" so much. for example before the economic crisis if we sent 1 million won home it'd be about $1000. but now if we send 1 million won home it's only $755!!! we're hoping it'll get better.

anyway, we've got a busy weekend lined up! sat. we're celebrating little eoghan's first birthday in the afternoon and then that night the fighting mokpo all-stars (band jens is in) will be performing at alex and katrina's going away party at p club (that's the couple we're replacing). then on sunday there's a picnic on yudal mountain which i'm really looking forward too. i hope it's warm. it had been pretty warm for a few days there but today it was a little chilly because it rained over night.

then next week is my last week! i can't believe it! i don't even have to work the entire week actually. wed. is my last day and i might get out early because jens scheduled the movers to come then. we're off thursday! (yaaay!) so we'll get to unpack and settle in. then friday is our first day at our new schools. but i duno if we'll have to go in for the full day and actually teach or what. all the brand new teachers will just be getting into mokpo that day. so i doubt we'll have to teach. i wanna get my room set up with all the things i bought in the states when we visited. i got some big continent posters, abc cursive chart, a couple other posters, etc.

then that sat. we'll meet our replacements, show them around town and then there'll probably be a welcome dinner for all the newbies that night.

i think jens and i will have a housewarming party on sat. may 2nd which will be fun. i'm still super excited about having a bigger place :o) you'll definitely be seeing some pictures once i get time to load them.

speaking of pictures. i'm gonna go add pics of jjang to facebook right now! have a great week! live*love*laugh!

Almost time to move!!!!

It's April! Yay! I feel like writing a colorful blog today! :o) It's actually beginning to look a lot like Spring here in Mokpo, South Korea! The Cherry Blossoms are blooming :o) I LOVE them! It's still pretty cold though so I'm hoping it'll warm up soon!

But now that it's April I feel like I can begin my countdown to the time we move and start our NEW jobs!!! We've got about 2.5 weeks! Woohoo!

Now, first of all I wanna get some venting out of the way. So here goes:

I was a bit frustrated this past week because I called in sick on Monday (everyone has a cold right now) and on Tuesday my co-t actually gave me crap for it. She said I shouldn't ever call in on a Monday because I should have time to rest on Sat. and Sun. which I can understand to a certain extent but you can't help what day you get sick! I felt the worst on Monday so I called in. In Korea they don't have the concept of - if you're sick, STAY HOME! They think you should always come to work no matter what. I've never had a co-t that has ever taken even ONE sick day! So you can imagine the conflict between the Korean teachers and the foreign teachers here when it comes to sick days. Foreigners see it as- I get FIFTEEN sick days in my contract so I'm allowed 15 days. Period. No questions asked. Yet as soon as a foreigner takes ONE day their school freaks out! The first time I took a sick day my principal had my co-t come to my house to check on me! (Which would be so inappropriate in the U.S. - an invasion of privacy). It was like he thought- omg, if she called in she must be dying! Better check on her! either that or - I don't believe she's sick, better go see.

What frustrated me so much this time was that it's the beginning of the school year. I'd only be working at this school for 2 months of this school year. I've got like 10-12 sick days left to use. This school has been working with me for 2 years. They know that I take sicks days eeeeevery so often. And I'm about to leave forever and never work for them again. Yet STILL when I take ONE sick day they have to scold me over it and act all put out. The thing is I know I didn't put out my co-t by not being there Monday. I know for a fact that she has no problem teaching by herself. I know this because she practically takes over my portion of the teaching every time I try to teach. It's obvious she'd be happier if I just wasn't there. But because she had to tell the principal that I wasn't coming to school and because of the way Korean culture is she felt she had to say something.

In my opinion it just created unneccesary awkwardness and tension between us. Because she scolded me it made me angry and frustrated and made me not want to interact with her for most of the week. I felt like it was a bad time to pick a battle ya know? I've got 2.5 weeks left! What's the point in trying to change my "sick day" behavior now? It's like just wait 2.5 weeks and you'll be rid of me! lol

What I think needs to happen though is this- Korean teachers need to be better informed of what foreigners are like, what their culture is like and how they're going to think about certain things. For example- sick days. Korean teachers should be told that in most English speaking countries- when you're sick, you call in, no questions asked (within reason of course! if you call in like 3 days in a row someone might need to say something. or if you call in like once a week for 3 weeks or something that's definitely grounds for a talking to but you get what i mean). KTs should just be aware that FTs have a right to take 15 days a year within reason. They shouldn't say something to us the first time we ever take a sick day. Or if we only take one like once every 3 months or something they shouldn't scold us. No FT I've ever known has ever taken all of their 15 days. It's not like we're abusing the privelage of having the days. Most people take one just eeeevery once in a while- like you might back home. And I think Korean teachers (and principals, etc.) just need to accept that. There are things we FTs have to accept about Korean culture and I just believe this is one thing KTs should back down from. It's not that big of a deal and esp. in elem. school it doesn't mean that the classes won't get taught- there's always a co-t there to fill in, no problem.

Ok I'm off my soapbox now :o)

Anyway! I'm hoping my new school (the high school) won't be as uptight about sick days. I've already asked my "predecessor" about it and apparently he's never had much of a problem. His co-t doesn't act put out, she doesn't call him later in the day or show up at his apt. to check on him and doesn't scold him the next day at school. So that sounds nice :o) This whole sick day ordeal at my school has been the bain of my existence for TWO YEARS! I have always gotten flack for it every single time I've taken a sick day so it'll be really nice not to have that problem anymore :o)

Of course I do realize I will have other, different problems at my new school lol Mainly, the main co-t. I don't have to teach with her but she's sort of my "guide" in and out of school in Korea. I go to her for help with immigration issues, apt. issues, getting a cell phone, and anything related to "life in Korea" and my "predecessor" calls her "the retard" lol ...for good reason! She apparently has no clue how to interact with people (asks inappropriate questions and is super awkward), gets confused about the simplest of things (even in her everyday life in Korea...not due to translation problems), and many other things. So I'm not really looking forward to dealing with her. But! it sounds like there will be several other English teachers that are really cool and helpful. So that'll be good :o)

I'll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade high school (which is 10th and 11th grade in the U.S. - I know it's really weird how they do it here) and I'll have 8 classes of each grade so 16 classes a week I believe...plus one extra class and one teachers class. Something like that. Doesn't sound bad at all.

I'll have my own classroom with my very own attached office! Plus I'll have another desk up in some teachers staff room which I'll have to go to every once in a while. So all in all I'll have like 3 desks in the school which is pretty cool. I'm most excited about having my own classroom though. Like really my OWN! I don't even have to share it with a co-t like I do now at the elem. school. So I can really and truly do whatever I want!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'm ecstatic about that!!! I can decorate it how I want, I can make my own rules and punishment system and ACTUALLY implement it! And I can teach whatever I want, however I want (to a certain extent of course- I'm sure if I just showed movies every day that wouldn't fly lol). But I'll have total autonomy- I can't even believe it! I've been dealing with co-ts at my current school for so long I can hardly imagine what it'll be like to actually have some say in what goes on in my classroom! Yipee!!! When I leave the elem. school I'm really gonna have to resist the urge to say SO LONG SUCKA'S!!! lol

Now I know I will be replaced by another person and I don't want it to sound like that person is going to have a horrible time at my school- they most likely will have a fine time if not a great time! Why? Because it'll be their first year. I think the first year is the easiest in a lot of ways because you're brand new, you don't know much about the country and how it works and why it is the way it is. So when weird things happen at school you kinda just blow it off. You chock it up to cultural differences and don't worry about it that much. It's when you've finished a year here and go through a second that things start to get a little difficult because now you know a lot about the country and you see why certain things are the way they are. You see the things you believe to be faults and how they could fix them, yet they don't fix them so it's frustrating, ya know? I know that sounds really ethnocentric but it's true. You can't help but project your own values and culture on Korea when you're here long enough. That's just how it is.

So yeah, I'm sure the new girl will be just fine at the elem. school. It's a pretty good gig overall. The schedule is good. It doesn't look like they're going to force extra classes on her. There's an English classroom which makes so many things so much easier. The co-t speaks really good English so there's not as much chance for things to get lost in translation (there's just the chance of cultural differences getting in the way). There are a lot of things about the school and the job that are positive. I've just worked there two years and need to move on to something different. I need a change.

Anywhoooo- tonight is the 1950s style welcome to Mokpo/birthday party for our contact person at the JOE (Jeollanamdo Office of Educ.) The entire office is moving to Muan so she'll be living in Mokpo now (they're next to each other). The Fighting Mokpo All-Stars will be performing! It's Jens, Alex B., Nick K. and another guy I've never met. They've been practicing 50s tunes all week and it's been pretty fun to listen to :o) I grew up listening to that stuff with my parents on 98.7 KLUV! lol Made me kinda homesick.

I'm gonna try to find a pink scarf to wear in my hair today. I think Katrina is gonna go downtown with me. I also wanna see if there are any affordable, business-style clothes down there. I feel my wardrobe is a bit too relaxed compared to what Korean teachers wear most of the time. I just wanna get a couple items to spruce things up a bit...if there's anything affordable. Last time I looked I could only find tops for like 100,000won! Koreans spend way too much on clothes!

Then tomorrow is little Eoghan's b-day. He'll be 1 year old! It's crazy to think it's already been over a year since Crystal and I threw Amanda her baby shower! That was the first baby shower I had ever helped host and now I'm about to co-host a 3rd one! Abby's pregnant and Shanna and I are planning her baby shower for end of June/early July. I'm so excited! I love party planning in general. Wish I could do it back home but I dunno how to get into it...plus it prob. doesn't pay much...

Pretty soon here we're gonna have to go over to the new apt. and figure out what all we wanna keep/switch out, etc. We're gonna switch out some of the stuff that we bought ourselves. Like we wanna keep our coffee pot, dishes, some utensils, etc. So we'll take ours over there and bring theirs over here. We won't be taking anything that's meant to stay in this apt. though. Stuff that belongs to the school.

I'm SO excited about having a 3 bedroom apt. though!!! I just can't wait!! It's gonna be so nice. I was pretty content with our apt. this year but it's just really exciting to finally be living in one of the big apts.! We'll actually have space to walk all the way around our bed! and we'll have a table that can seat SIX people! and we'll have a REAL desk! (not a converted vanity table on stilts lol) and we'll have a looooong balcony and tons of storage! and a BIG sink! and TWO wardrobes! oh AND a closet!!! omg the list just goes on and on! not to brag or anything :o) I'm just getting excited to finally have all these creature comforts :o) some people are lucky enough to get a big apt. their first year. It's just a matter of what job you happen to get. So it just so happened we were stuck with a tiny apt. our first year and for our 2nd year we convinced our schools to move us but we still ended up with a less than ideal-sized apt. It was definitely better than the first so that's why I've been fairly content with it. But it's just awesome to finally get one of the biggest apts. out of all the foreigner apts. in Mokpo. Now I'll have no problem when it comes to having big parties! I can invite everyone! Yay!

So that's what's going on in my world- finishing up the elem. school job. About to move to a big apt. and start working at the high school. Going to birthday parties. Cuddling with the puppy :o) (she's doing just fine by the way). Enjoying the coming of Spring! Anticipating warm weather! And that's about it for now :o)

I may not update again til after we move. Not sure yet, we'll see. Until then I hope you all have a wonderful April! :oD

things are good :o)

so last friday jens and i had some korean friends over for dinner- his co-teacher (kim ool ji), her boyfriend (___ seon oo - don't remember surname. he is a p.e. teacher at my school) and pak ji on (a young, male, 6th grade teacher from jens's school). they're all younger than us- like 23-24. we made fajitas and they liked them. then ji on grabbed jens's guitar and started playing so jens broke out his electric and they started jamming a little. then ool ji noticed we had a violin (which i thought was broken) so she got it out, tightened the strings and started playing that! it was so cool! at one point jens and ool ji did an interesting rendition of la bamba on guitar, harmonica and violin lol

we also looked at arlington, tx and mokpo on google earth and had strawberry shortcake for dessert Po: it was a great time! we're gonna go to ji on's this friday and have korean food so that should be fun. i'm hoping he makes something we like! lol

sat. we went to kat and alex's for brunch and they made some yummy east coast canadian style food: fish cakes, baked beans, fried eggs and fruit. it was so good! then we just hung out and chatted into the afternoon. we talked about their current jobs/our future jobs and what we'd want them to keep in the apt. for us. i'm SO excited about having a bigger place! it's got THREE bedrooms! one will be our bedroom, one will be the office and one will be the yoga room/guest room.

sunday we had a book swap at a coffee shop near our place but not many people showed up. then that night we went back over to kat and alex's for a game night. shanna, joe and jason joined us and we played chez geek, catan and madgab. oh and katrina had made some amazing chilli for dinner! omg it was awesome! i'm definitley gonna have to make chilli sometime here. i guess i never did before because beef was so expensive for so long and then jens and i started eating vegetarian at home. but i'm definitely going to make some sometime Po:

the past two days at work have been alright. i was a little frustrated monday but i got over it lol i won a small battle with my co-t. she wanted to show the kids this horrible, slightly racist role play video on the cd-rom but i prepared another activity to do instead and she gave in :o)

next week i'll be starting a conversation class with the 6th graders. it's not really an extra class. i won't get paid for it because it won't go over my hours i'm alotted in the contract. each day after lunch 1/2 of a 6th grade class will come in and have a very informal convo class with me for 20 mins. i only do it 4 days a week. so that amounts to 80 mins. a week. the schedule will go like this: monday 6-1 girls, tuesday 6-1 boys, thursday 6-2 girls, friday 6-2 boys. and it'll go on until i've gone through all six of the 6th grade classes and then start over again. so each group will see me like once a month...that's really not much. but korean people love to look like they're doing something worthwhile lol

anyway, in other news- we got an english world map! this 2nd grade teacher randomly gave us one! i dunno where he got it! i was gonna get one but didn't know where to buy one in korea and didn't really wanna spend the money to get one shipped from the states and then lo and behold one appears! pretty cool! so now the kids can finally find the various countries on the map that we've been talking about the past 3 weeks lol

another thing that recently appeared in mokpo and that i'm even more elated about is a tom 'n tom's coffee!!! it's this cool coffee shop that sells pretzels :o) like the good handmade kind with different toppings :o) mmmmm. jens and i went to one in seoul and liked it and now we have one in mokpo! yaaaay! mokpo's really moving up in the world! lol

this weekend we've got that dinner with our korean friends, then it's our friend's b-day party sat. night and sunday jens is having a chess tournament at ti amo (coffee and gelato place). so it'll be another busy weekend!

we've just got about one month til we move and change jobs! i think we're actually going to get one day off to move and arrange our apt. which i'm really happy about. i was afraid we'd have to call in sick or something lol

overall things are going well. we're making it through our last month at our school, jens has started writing his second novel, we've been exercising in various ways, having fun with friends, cooking new foods, and having a good time! :oD

second week down

this past week was our second week of school in which we actually taught classes. we have 6 6th grade classes and 6 3rd grade classes. we see 6th grade twice a week and 3rd grade once a week. we have a seating chart for each class which i think will help a lot with discipline and it's already been helpful in calling on students. i'm doing to write the romanization under each korean name so that the new girl can read it when she first gets here. most likely she won't know how to read korean yet...at least not perfectly.

so things went pretty well. we just introduces the rules and punishments to each class. well to the 6th grade at least. in the 3rd grade classes my co-t didn't want to tell them about the punishment procedures for some reason. i think she thinks the 3rd graders will be so good that we'll never have to discipline them....yeah i know, it's crazy! lol i think i'm going to talk to her this week about letting them know the system the next time we teach them.

we also had a bit of a disagreement on how to dismiss the students. she would tell them bye and wait until they were halfway out of their seats to tell them we had a specific procedure for leaving the classroom. THEN she would tell them how to leave. it was unneccesarily confusing. but not that big of a deal.

a bigger deal was that she went over time in every single class and then the homeroom teachers kept having their students show up early. i told my co-t we should have the students line up outside the door until it's actually time for class so we can actually have a break but she said- can't they come in and sit in their seats? i was like well we need a break between classes. and she just gave me a look that let me know she was going to completely ignore what i said lol so yeah, all the classes have been coming in early but i'm still taking my breaks between classes. i need them to stay sane. i have to have that 10 mins. to just sit down and prepare my mind for the next class.

lunch has been more fun than usual now that the 5th and 6th grade p.e. teachers have been sitting with me and talking to me in english. it makes a world of difference! they're really funny. they talk about the most random things sometimes. i guess because they're not sure what to talk about and also they have limited english. the 6th grade p.e. teacher is dating jens's co-t so we're having them and another teacher from jens's school over this fri. we're gonna make fajitas. it'll be really nice to have some korean people over. we haven't been that successful in making korean friends here. the two we have live in other cities now and it's hard to see them. in fact we have a 3rd korean friend but she lives in australia! lol

anyway, the weekend was nice. i think we stayed in friday night and all day and night sat. there was a hike planned sat. but it actually SNOWED sat. morning! isn't that crazy? being texan we couldn't really get over the fact that it had snowed and couldn't bring ourselves to go out until like 5pm lol we took the dog for a walk, got a few groceries and then went in again for the night.

sunday i made biscuits and i used the baking powder abby and j brought us from canada for the first time and MAN did it make a difference! korean baking powder is crap! it makes all our baked goods smell like chemicals for some reason! like bleach! it's horrible. but not only did the canadian baking powder not smell like bleach but it also made the biscuits taste better than any biscuits i'd ever made with korean baking powder. they were AMAZING! if i do say so myself ;o) lol

then i met up with a bunch of my girl friends at ti amo (coffee and gelato place) to vote on who we thought would win this season of america's next top model! :oD we're all putting 10,000won in "the hat" and whoever picks the girl who wins will get the money pot! we did it last season and i won, which was nice :o)

then that night we had dinner with a and j.

and today was monday! we're doing the second part of lesson one with 6th grade this week and it's all about "where are you from" so i gave 10 kids a different country's flag each and then i asked them where are you from? after they told me i looked up that country on google earth and they loved it! they thought it was really amazing to see real pictures of all these different countries and cities. i showed them my parents house and our school and it was really fun :o) i LOVE google earth!

no one has mentioned extra classes to me and i'm wondering if they're going to have me do any before i leave. like i said before i gave my co-t a list of my "demands" lol but i dunno if she really understood the fact that i'm either gonna do that or nothing. i'm worried they're planning it all out a different way and they're gonna come to me and say oh here's what you're teaching next month. the kids have already signed up and the parents have paid, etc. and if it's different than what i said i'd do then i'm gonna be pretty annoyed. i'm just gonna have to say no. i told you what i would do and this isn't it. it would be so AWESOME if i didn't have to do any at all before i leave though! i'm loving having the afternoons free. it's such a relief to come back from lunch and be DONE!

i know a lot of people would consider me lazy because i'm complaining about possibly having to work one more hour a day but i've just always hated working! i dunno what it is! i mean i know a lot of people don't like to work but i've also known a lot of people who have said- i like to work to keep busy. i dunno what i'd do with myself if i didn't have to work, etc. i, on the other hand, truly, truly hate it. i'd be ecstatic if i never had to work again! i mean i've really liked some of the jobs i've had at the beginning. but it doesn't matter how much i like it in the beginning i ALWAYS get sick of it! and i wonder if that's how it's always going to be. if i'm never going to find a job that i don't get sick of after a couple years. i have ideas of jobs that i think i'd be interested in and possibly passionate about but i worry that i'd just get sick of those too. i wish i could just not work and just volunteer doing things i'm really interested in and enjoy doing and i can hop from one thing to another so i never get tired of whatever i'm doing! that'd be great!

but for now i guess i just have to stick this out! :oP

alright i'm gonna go make dinner! have a great day!

the first week of school is done!

so this past week was the first week of school. kind of weird to get back in the swing of things. i have the same co-teacher as last year. she didn't want to teach english this year. she wanted to be a 4th grade homeroom teacher but she was denied. she actually threw a tantrum like a two year old which was pretty weird but hopefully she's gotten over it and won't be a horrible co-teacher...

the best part of the job this year is we have our own english classroom! we spent the first few days cleaning it and organizing it. it made me want to bring the wonderful invention of the 4 foot long broom to korea. all the brooms here are like 2 feet long and you have to bend over to sweep. and for some reason they don't use vacuums in schools so it takes FOREVER to clean the floors. they don't even bother mopping...

there's a desk at the front of the room which will be my co-teacher's desk and we'll use her computer for teaching the class. i have a desk at the back of the room and it took all week to hook up my computer and get the internet going. so needless to say i got a little restless. i cleaned, i read, i tried knitting but didn't like the yarn i was using, i slept, ate hershey's kisses and doodled.

finally i got internet on my computer thursday at 4pm and spent all day friday on it...making up for lost time i guess lol

i've tried talking to my co-teacher about this next year but she's not been very receptive. i made a rules sheet and then she acted like i had wasted my time. i suggested a punishment system and she avoided talking about it. i asked her what she wanted to do for discipline and she said she'd think about it and then never brought it up again. i told her what i would be willing to do for extra classes the next two months and she said the parents would decide (???), so i didn't bother telling her my ideas for classroom procedures or how we should teach. since she's been so resistant and i'm only there two more months i don't feel like pushing too hard. i have a feeling that even if i got everything set up wonderfully that once the new girl gets here my school/co-t would still do whatever they want. so whatever...

we have a new principal. i've seen him but haven't officially met him.

we're teaching 3rd and 6th this year. korean students start taking english in 3rd grade so they should be really easy. 6th graders on the other hand start out normal and then turn into little demons...glad i'm not gonna be here for the end of the semester/year lol

we've been talking to alex and kat about their schools. we're taking their jobs at the end of april. sounds like both schools are gonna be pretty awesome. alex has some new co-teachers and he says they're all pretty cool and kat has a new co-t who's a young girl so she's easy to work with. i'm hoping things go really well with these new jobs. i hope we want to stay two years. having the bigger apt. is gonna be great! i can't wait for that! :o) we're gonna have THREE bedrooms! freaking awesome!

friday night we had a little welcome back dinner with friends at the gamchatang restaurant and then song's beer. well after dinner a bunch of us went to ti amo and had coffee and ice cream before meeting up with the others at song's beer. it was fun :o)

yesterday jens and i chilled at the house and then alex and kat came over for dinner. i made irish stew and i have to say - it was amazing! lol i hadn't ever really made anything like that before - a dish you have to cook for a loooong time. it was soooo gooood :o)

then this morning there was a book swap at dunkin' donuts in hadang. it was the biggest one i had been to. lots of people showed up so that was cool. we weren't going to take any books but we couldn't help ourselves lol

after the swap some of us had lunch at little jakob's. then jens and i went home and took the dog for a walk. it was actually not freezing today! makes me think winter might actually end!

after that we came back to the apt. and jens played video games while i watched a movie. i watched american teen a movie which is a documentary about some real life teens. it was good! made me somewhat nostalgic for high school but also really glad i'm a lot wiser than i was in high school lol sometimes i wish i could go back as the person i am today...i think i'd have a lot more fun than i did back in the day!

the weekend went by really fast. i guess cuz we did so much. this next week we start teaching. the first lesson in every class will just be intro though so that'll be easy. teaching the book will be easy too but i'm a little apprehensive about it. i guess it's just cuz i haven't worked for soooo long. i'm out of the habit lol

i think this semster will go by really fast though because we're changing schools. i think i'm gonna volunteer at the orphanage too so i'll be busier. a bunch of my friends volunteer there and i'm looking forward to being involved in that.

jens met some guy at the book swap that has pretty much all the same music tastes as him and loves to perform music so i think they're gonna try to jam soon. jens said this guy wants to learn the drums so maybe that pressure will be off me now lol drums were fun but i don't think they're really my thing...

a friend of mine is talking about leading some yoga sessions on the weekends which i'm really excited about :o) jens and i have been pretty good about doing yoga on our own but i usually have to lead our sessions (unless we use a yoga video) and i really prefer following someone else. so i'm happy to hear there might be a class situation in the works! esp. in english!

anyhoo, that's about all for now. hope you all had a lovely weekend! peace, love and happiness to everyone!!

this is so important to know!!!!!!

If you don't smoke but live or work in a smoke-filled environment, that's still going to age you. Spending just one hour in the presence of secondhand smoke is the equivalent of your smoking four cigarettes. Whether the smoke you're breathing is from your own cigarette or someone else's, it ages your arteries, increases your risk of heart and lung disease, weakens your immune system, and promotes cancer.

- Dr. Oz on Oprah

and people wonder why i hate being around smoke so much!