week 3 - "Eva Teacher"

Details that may interest you, by category:


about WORK:

Kids call their teachers " First Name Teacher" at my school. No Ms., Mrs., or Mr. titles. So I am (I hope) affectionately known as "Eva Teacher."

The foreign teachers at my school are mostly Canadian, Aaa? Jen, my new Bundang friend, is Canadian. Her mother is French though, as in, from France, and her father is British. I like these new diversified people that are around me. Many have traveled a lot.

I got my first "love note" or kind words of encouragement from a student my second week. Her name is Alison. She is one of my older afternoon students. She wrapped up a letter on construction paper inside more construction paper with a construction paper heart on top and wrote: "Dear Eva, Hello! I like you. I like you better then Ben teacher. You are kind and beautiful. Shhhh. Don't tell others. It secret. xoxo. Alison." Ben teacher is the teacher I replaced, AWESOME! (Later on, my core class, the ones I spend the majority of every day with, decided as a group that they missed Ben and didn't like Eva Teacher, and told me this. Even now, every journal entry they write ends in "I miss Ben Teacher." Tough act to follow.)

Apparently I am expected to wear a costume to school for Halloween and to run a "Halloween Station" (or two) with almost 120 kids cycling through that day. (Feel free to submit costume ideas for me). In addition, I have to choose a play by Monday to have my kids perform for the holiday program this December. Oh my goodness...... Stuff like this, crafty/creative stuff, whatever you wanna call it, it really doesn't come very naturally to me. Please send strength, I can't imagine how I'm gonna pull off getting eight 6 year olds to memorize lines for a play. Believe it or not, I have the oldest children, so more is expected of my class. Greaaat.

I am not the only tall white girl at my school, but I pretty sure I'm the most gigantic, especially when I wear heels to school.

I signed up for school lunch. It's hit or miss. The bony fish, I really, really can't do that. It's awful. but there will be other random things like a hard-boiled egg without the hard-boiled egg white. It looks funny but tastes normal. Always soup. Always with rice. Always. There is a sign in our faculty room that says "Teachers, please make sure your students eat their rice. Rice is a big part of Korean culture. Mothers feel we do not take care of their children when they do not eat their rice."


about HOME:

Showering: They have hot water "on demand" here. So when I want hot water, I press the red button on the wall. Then I wait... so I can wash my face, hands, take a shower, do dishes, etc. I imagine it's probably an energy saver because it makes it pretty hard to waste hot water, seeing as you have no choice but to be intentional in its use. That's the up-side. The down side, besides having to plan ahead, is that the hot water also runs under your floor and acts as the heating system, so every time you want hot water, inadvertently this also is like turning on the heat, I'm pretty sure that will be annoying to have the heat on every time I shower in the summer. BUT, it's nice not to have cold floors in the winter... My head will be cold instead, being that it's such a lofty distance from the heating source.

For those who were asking, I live alone. And I found out I have one of the "bigger" apartments.

I live on a hill, about a five minute walk from my school, on the second floor of an apartment building. I think there's one or two more floors above me. Most families in this area live in very large apartment buildings, some as many as 20 plus floors, pretty near to my house.


about korea in GENERAL:

Picture a 24 hour convenience store, just like back home. Now picture it selling booze 24 hours a day/everyday. And guess what? There are plastic tables and chairs outside that you can sit at. You can drink 'round the clock right outside on the street by the convenience store and keep running back in for bevs and snacks. SO weird, but I like it!

There is no such thing as tipping here. In fact, it would be considered rude to do so most places. But the other night I had a delicious galbi (spelling?) meal. This is a traditional Korean style meal where they cook things in a skillet over a gas flame only a foot off the floor. You take your shoes off upon entering the restaurant and sit down next to these low tables that anyone of moderate size could just barely squeeze their thighs under. (Ok, moderate exaggeration.) The nice Ahjama (spelling? means married woman) kept coming over and flipping over our meat, etc. Point being, she was both cook and waitress, and a damn good one. Still, no tip. I felt bad! Best damn meat I ever had though, incredibly tasty.

Street food rocks; they got us totally beat. I can get a bowl full of fried dumplings full of meat and other mystery stuff for 2,000 won which is essentially $1.80 or something and they're really delicious and filling. Kiwi is always ripe and scrumptious, about 6 for $2 bucks; but a single apple can run you as much as $4.00.

You bag your own groceries, and you bag your own things at Wal-Mart-ish places and stuff too. Trust me, you look like an idiot at first waiting for them to do it. Wal-Mart is called "E-Mart" here, but waaaay awesomer with elevators and multiple floors of fun crap.

As far as my favorite foods from back home go, there is no cheese, at least not as we know it. Even in the foreign market, I cannot find real cheese, like a block of cheddar or mozzarella, This is one of my biggest issues with Korea, thus far... Yogurt is pretty cheap and super delicious. They don't have as many low-fat things so the Yoplait here (apple, kiwi, orange, and fun flavors like that) is really thick and creamy so I'm happy. No, I haven't found Cheez-its. Also an issue, no brunch. :(


I should have some pictures soon.