Knives, Blood, and Drunkenness. oh my!!! (part III) - the final enstallment

I started teaching full time on Monday morning. The preschool kids are especially great. They're sooo cute. I have four boys, twins and then two other brothers. They’re Korean age 6 and 7 so Western aged 4-5. (Oh, and I’m 23 Korean age). The kids here are really touchy-feely too, they like to hug and kind of . . . pat you and hold onto your hand. At one point in the class a boy kind of started sulking because they were all trying to hold onto me and when I made him let go to try to start a game another boy took his place! I'll have to figure out a better way to curb that kind of behaviour when it's an inappropriate time. The physical contact will be kind of hard to get used to in general in this ‘semi-professional’ setting. Working with kids we’re taught to be so wary of physical touch back home because of fear of sexual harassment suits, etc.

For the most part I like all of my classes. Some are more enjoyable than others and some kids are kind of hard/frustrating to deal with but I’m also seeing my favorites develop! (I’ll have to be careful to not let that favoritism show) There’s this boy Marlon (the little one in the white shirt with the shaggy hair, in the pics with the four boys kinda falling over each other) and I get such a kick out of him, a bit of attitude but I’ve always had a soft spot for the bad boys. Then there’s Beth, she has to have the biggest eyes of any child I’ve ever seen. She’s really sweet too, very quiet, but VERY cute. (She’s the little girl lying on the floor holding the bunny mask). Some funny things have happened too, like in one class when they found out I was from Canada a girl was like ‘but teacher, teacher, face, white face. Canada white face!!!” and so I had to explain that Canada had all colours of faces and listed a ton of countries as examples – including Korea. They found that pretty interesting I think. Then another day I came in and a girl started laughing, pointing at my feet and saying “bathroom shoes! bathroom shoes!!” so I had to try to explain that they weren’t bathroom shoes but crocs. I think they didn’t accept my explanation though and continue to think I wear bathroom shoes to work! (The bathroom floors are often wet here if you read the thing about the shower you’ll see why so there’s rubber slip-on shoes to wear in them). I took pictures of some of my classes. Though for a number of classes only a few of the kids wanted to be in the picture and for some no one wanted to be in a picture at all. I didn’t remember to take my camera for the preschool class I only teach on Friday’s but they were soooo cute. Western age they’re like 3-4. Crazy though. I had 9 of them. Every tried teaching 9 kids in a foreign language to them?? Not easy! It was pretty much chaos. Cute chaos though! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last Saturday night after the festival I ventured on the bus alone to get back to my part of the city. It was good. Easy. And really clean! The seats are like the ones in greyhound buses. While walking around downtown beforehand I was able to take in some of the city life I don’t’ really get to see as much in my part. In some ways the downtown area is reminiscent of Chinatown in Toronto but flashier. I love all of the markets and the prices are really good. I won’t be buying much though because I brought so much with me!! I was told that I wouldn’t be able to find clothes but I think it wouldn’t be too hard. Pants may be a little difficult but the rest . . . ah well. Maybe if some of my clothes wear out enough I’ll be able to justify getting rid of them and buying some more. I’ve already semi-ruined tow of my shirts. In class we have board markers and I’m usually wielding two or three at a time. You all know I’m a clutz if you know me at all . . .

The other really nice thing is that there’s mountains surrounding the whole city. I haven’t gotten to any yet, I was hoping to today but it’s pouring out (so I’m writing instead) but it was really cool to see them in the distance as I was taking the bus home. Maybe tomorrow, I found a church last week and it’s very close to a mountain. (But about an hour away from me). The people there were super nice and friendly though and I’m looking forward to going back. Ok, so another thing I discovered on that voyage away from my neighbourhood is that along the river they have these exercise parks. At first I thought they were playgrounds but on closer inspection it’s tons of exercise equipment –really neat idea. I hope to find one of these outdoor gyms not too far from me yet. I’ll have to do more exploring. On a jog the other morning I did find my first Buddhist temple. It was really beautiful. I loved all the lines in the architecture, the intricacies of the carvings and the bright colours. I didn’t have my camera but I’ll go back some time and take a picture.

Another sight that’s not really new but surprising in the context is the mother’s going around with their babies on their backs. They use these think cotton wraps that look like they must be sweltering. The heat and humidity here is insane and it’s only supposed to get worse through July and August. I’m usually practically dripping in a t-shirt, (sorry for the semi-gross visual) I can’t imagine how those women bear it!

I may get a chance to go to the mud-festival in Boryeong in a few weeks. It seems like a pretty incredible set up. (You can check it out at http://mudfestival.or.kr/english ). I was going to go with a bar downtown that was setting up a bus, etc. but I’d rather find another way. They offer a way there, sleep on the bus, travel insurance and beer. I imagine beer accounts for a considerable amount of the cost and seeing as I wouldn’t be drinking while there – I’d rather not pay for other’s booze. (Something I’ll probably doing a lot of but I’ll comment on that more in the next blog.)

Oh, I almost forgot. I think I’ve had my most unusual food this week. There was a man in observing some classes and so the teachers bought dinner to share one evening. I was trying some of it and they offered me something I can’t remember the name. It was black, and kinda squishy with a filmy wrap around it. Taste alright though. As I was eating the second one offered to me Becky came over shocked that I had taken it, and commenting that she could never, it made her sick. The delicacy was blood pudding. Pig intestines soaked in blood and wrapped with some membrane type skin. . . it was alright, but when I found out I definitely felt pukish and kind of sick for a little bit. I don’t think I’ll be eating it again – unless at someone’s house perhaps to avoid rudeness.