bluerosefairy

*drags self out of the depths of the internets*

Hello, gang. Been slightly-MIA due to extreme lack of computer and various work-related stuff. Starting with the fact that absolutely no one besides my two co-teachers (Jim and Chris) and I knew I was leaving in December. I booked my post-Korea vacation last week (a week in Vietnam! I am SO PSYCHED!) and since my return flight is included in my contract, I wanted to arrange for it to be included in my last paycheck. Imagine my shock - and my director and AD's shock - when I found out that James (the hiring director, who isn't based out of Siji anymore; he's down in Bongduk at another SEI branch) never told anyone that I was only working a four-month contract.

So there was a bit of a kerfluffle, and I've been ass-deep in paperwork, writing down class procedure and contact info and move-out dates and it's kind of hitting me that oh holy god, I'm going home in less than two months. It's a bit terrifying, to be honest, because I've gotten kind of autopilot-y, working and hanging out with the KTs and Jim and Chris and PCbanging on weekends and being really lazy, and it's almost been kind of a year-long vacation. And now I have to go home, which, don't get me wrong, I'm really excited for because I miss my parents and my friends and family. But I have to get a job back home, and an apartment, and it's just going to be weird.

And yes, one of the first things I intend on doing is to eat large quantities of all the food I've been missing (chicken parm sandwiches! real pizza! Chinese food! turkey! french fries!). I'll probably gain back all the weight I've lost in a week. Oh well, totally worth it.

Also - HI to all of the new friends from various new fannish loves. I promise I'm mildly entertaining when I have actual computer access on a regular basis.

I hate my computer. I had a huge-ass entry typed up, all laid out in a coherent manner, and then my mousepad freezes up again (that's the latest fun thing my laptop has decided to do to me) and causes my computer to reboot, and I lost the entire damn thing. Let's hope I can recreate it.

( You'll go home, I'll stay here, seasons keep on marching . . . )

So yes, doing better. Further apologies for the drive-by flailage and disappearing. Four months and counting.

Oh, I just adore Korean methods of communication.

Long story short, the school I teach at was scheduled to close at the end of this week (which I didn't find out until LAST week), and today I come in to find out that no, we're not closing because the director's sister-in-law has decided to try her hand running the school. So all the panic I was going through with possible plane tickets/packing for home, and then interviewing at three different schools (NONE of which I'd have to teach kindergarden at) is all useless. We're still going to be open after vacation. I still have five months of kindergarden and grade-schoolers left.

What pisses me off isn't just the horrific lack of communication, it's the complete and utter idiocy of the people I work for. They only opened the school because Ally, the wife, wanted to. Enoch, the actual director, has no experience running a school, and to be fair, he's done a decent job. But he quite clearly does not want to be in this business, and he's only continuing because he doesn't want to disappoint his wife, or Mommy and Daddy, who are paying for all this. He was a week away from closing before, and then this woman named Anne who he and Ally are friends with stepped in. She lasted a week. Now he was ready to close again and suddenly Cleo, his SIL, is going to single-handedly run the school? With just as little experience as he's got?

God, I was just about to sign a new contract with another school to teach conversation and writing to HIGH-SCHOOLERS. No more babysitting. No more whining. No more students who quite clearly do not want to be there and yet we have to bend over backward to please their parents. No more grading recordings and book reports that they half-ass ANYWAY. No more kids who can barely speak Korean, let alone English.

I'd gotten my hopes up SO much. I was excited to teach for the first time in four months. I was doing lesson plans because I wanted to. I was putting together writing projects (blogs! one-act plays! short-story collections!). And I can't use any of those ideas for my current students, because none of them are anywhere near that level and those that are are maybe one or two students out of a class of four more who can't. I have to go back to unit assessments, weekly spelling tests, and did I mention the fucking recordings? (Most. Useless. Teaching Method. EVER.)

And I'll be by myself doing it, too. Brett's got maneuvering room. He's staying in Korea longer than a year. He has a girlfriend with a school of her own. He can afford to break his contract and walk away and say "fuck this noise, I'm going to teach for someone who knows how to run a school". I can't. Everything I've got here is tied into the school I'm at, for a year. And I know I'm dwelling on the negatives, I know I'm bitching about a situation I can do nothing about, but dammit, I wish I had more of a say in what the hell was going on with my life.

Meme snagged from evilgmbethy who is awesome.

( And if someone tries to make me/I will simply run away . . . )

This one was totally the "let's remind the audience that Ray's not a total wanker" one. Which I do appreciate.

( Not me, I never lost control . . . )

Went to Seoul on Tuesday. OMG LOVE. If I ever decide to come back to Korea after this year, I'm going to teach in Seoul. It's almost exactly like New York - to the point where I mastered the subway system after five minutes and some translation from Jenna.

To put it in geeky English major terms -

Daegu : Philadelphia :: Seoul : NYC.

Updated my wordpress blog (the List of Things I'm Learning in Korea), if anyone is at all interested in checking it out.

You can find it here.

Ugh. Sleeeeeep. Also, NyQuil, as have caught the Korean Death Flu. Again.

How goes it, gang?

We’ve just started our winter break schedule - all the kids are off from their regular schools for an entire month and need to be kept occupied, so we’ve got morning classes in addition to our usual afternoon classes. So I’ve been really ridiculously tired, crashing into bed every night when I get home from work. I haven’t been killed by the kindergardeners yet, which is probably a good sign. When they’re engaged in what we’re doing and not wrestling each other all over the classroom or screaming their heads off, I like them quite a bit. But when James and Fred are engaged in a kickfight, Emily and Nicole are coloring on the table, Kelly and Elly and Alice are chattering about what I think might be a television show, and Mark and Donna are the only ones paying attention, it’s insane.

Then I have some additional one-on-one classes, with my older students. Princess Flora is my 10 am girl, and I’m getting pretty good results when I dispense with the board-writing and recitation and let her braid my hair and play with my bracelets during the lesson. She read an entire two pages with only one mistake (on the word “university”, which would stump most English-speaking students, let alone a Korean second-grader) yesterday, so I’m hoping to continue that this week. My 11 am gang are Susie (fourth grader, and pretty smart when she stops being so shy and opens her mouth), Steven (who it is like pulling teeth to get him to even respond, let alone speak and comprehend), and Crystal (who is one of my very favorites and is reading Harry Potter in Korean to me after lessons). I also get Daisy (one of my very-awesome sixth-graders) at 7 pm one day a week for listening comp, which is awesome because it’s music-based, and I let her listen to examples of the music styles the book discusses.

I’m also exploring the city more - been to Beomeo (the nearest subway stop, which is like, six blocks from my house) and up near Suseong Lake. Still haven’t found the Thai place, but I’ve found three more Italian places and a really, really good Japanese place. And to Steve’s everlasting shock when I IMed him about it, I ate an entire roll of sushi and liked it. \o/