For ever and for ever when I move

Since it’s been awhile since I’ve posted some pictures, here are some super cute ones of my students.

Last week was the big entrance exam for University that the 3rd grade students have been preparing for all year. It has been described to me as an equivalent of the SAT, though I’m certain that comparison is made only for lack of anything in America with greater equivalency.

Cluster of students with sign.

In Korea, the entire community is aware which day is testing day. Every effort is made to keep silence in the vicinity of the school. First and second grade high school students get the day off. The middle school next to me got the day off, for they would be too loud and consequently distracting to the third grade test- takers.

The third grade students spend the entire year preparing for this exam: they study vocabulary in mass quantities. They take practice exams every week. They are constantly testing, constantly studying, constantly preparing for this exam. Keep in mind that Korean high school student do very little other than study: many of them live on campus and only get to go home every other weekend. From what I understand, there are no after school clubs or sports. Instead of spending time in track and field, or in the National Honor Society or playing four square or playing in the pit orchestra for the school musical, Korean students will attend extra classes. Sometimes students have to leave extra classes early in order to go to Academie, which is basically private, expensive, concentrated school.

Waiting for the 3rd graders to exit the building....

What do Korean students do on the weekends? They sleep, watch drama or variety show on TV (Korea is famous throughout Asia for their television shows), or study. Many students attend Academie class on Saturday evening and take exams for Academie on Sunday. Korean students are expert study-ers and test- takers.

So basically, this University exam is the pinnacle of years and years of studying. If they do poorly on this exam (which, I feel, is unlikely), they may not be able to attend their University of choice, consequently losing the opportunity to prepare for and get their job of choice, consequently losing their lifestyle of choice. It’s a big deal. Stress levels are high, to say the least.

Two days before the exam, the first and second graders piled the third graders high with gifts and chocolates. The day before the big exam, many of the younger students made a cheer line outside of the school while the third graders filtered out to go home. It was really sweet, lots of cheering and laughing and freezing, but a very happy event. I’m so happy I brought my camera along and manage to catch some shots– also, while these students may all look similar to you, and their faces blend together with their uniforms as they once did for me, it’s really neat for me to realize that I recognize them. These are my students. They already have stolen a warm part of my heart– I see their smiles, their squirming faces as they try to communicate to me on a daily basis, their cheerful hellos in the hallways, their giggling Korean that I cannot understand… they’re my students. I’m proud of them. It’s an incredibly special feeling to have, and I’m grateful to the experiences that have led me here.

Bashful, giggling third graders as they are cheered to by their younger classmates.

A couple students grabbed me and yelled, "Teacher, teacher, picture, you!" These two are super giggly happy girls that are always giddy to see me. <3

While we’re on this sentimental note, I’ll just end with this last thought. I have been teaching extra classes after school, and three nights a week I teach in two- hour blocks to anywhere from six to twelve students. Every other week the classes swap, and occasionally I have a new student or two trickle in. It’s amazing some days, how I leave class and though I am exhausted, and oftentimes go home and immediately collapse in bed only to wake early in the morning again…. it’s really amazing, the warmth in my heart I feel towards these girls. They try so hard for me, and I try for them, and though some days we only play games, other days we work really really hard to find words to express what they want to say. It’s incredible.

Some days it’s really tough, but I’m blessed to be here and I’m grateful for their eager hearts.

Picture this.

It’s 6:10 pm and I’m waiting for the students that are late to my extra class. Six of the early students are already sitting and chatting with me before one of them tells me that class will end early today. I send her down to talk to the main teacher for a time confirmation, though I easily believed her, for upon my entering the dormitory tonight, the entire downstairs was filled with colored balloons. “Party tonight! Third grade… exams finishee, University…” were amoung the explinations I received while blowing up my own balloon and bopping another one at a student as she screamed and ran behind me to bop another balloon at me from behind.

Side note, the students are the ones that let me know if anything is happening. It’s rare for a teacher to fill me in on the events before they are already underway.

Back to the classroom. We receive confirmation of early dismissal time, 7:30 pm for the party. Happily, we all decide there isn’t enough time for a worksheet and, with much rejoicing, decide to play Bingo and Catch Phrase. Tonight we played Exercise/ Sport Bingo, followed by Animal Bingo, followed by a rousing game of Catch Phrase.

My extra classes are generally a really great time.

Bingo usually goes as follows: brainstorm as a class, completely fill the white board with words, individually fill out a 5 x 5 self- made Bingo board. When we’re ready to begin, I walk around the room with a recently emptied pencil case, newly filled with little slips of paper that have the freshly brainstormed words handwritten on them. Each student picks a word and has to say it. Fun every time.

Catch Phrase is just like the catch phrase you play with your friends on Friday night, and is basically one of the most fun games in the world. I brainstorm new words for the studets every time, put them in a self- made envelope and watch my class of adorable high school Korean girls speak in English and get enthusiastically, wildly excited when the clock runs out on the other team.

Finish extra English class early. Clean up scraps of paper. Leave the room and the dorm is swarming with excited, screaming girls. Enter an elevator filled to the brim with students, me in the middle. Lots of giggling. Ride down four floors. Still surrounded by giggles. An occasional mystery poke. More giggles. Not sure what to do once we reach the main floor, I manage to find one of the teachers nearby.

She grabs my arm in a sea of students, and says, “Hamburger…”

I giggle, “What?”

“Yes, hamburger… go to office… on your desk… hamburger. Please eat.”

I’m still giggling. This is so goofy. “Hamburger?”

“Yes, hamburger! Hamburger. Please enjoy hamburger. On your desk.”

Still laughing, I thank her and ask if she will join me in the office (though I’d rather stay with the giggling girls and join the party…) and, “No, I stay. You enjoy hamburger.”

So, short brisk walk back and I arrive at my teacher cubicle desk to find, as promised, an individually prepackaged hamburger and a miniature can of Pepsi soda pop.

I’m not completely sure when it was decided that a hamburger was an appropriate snack, especially after already eating two full meals today (and I mean huge, full, and inappropriately stuffing meals) … but, when in Korea? Eat Western food as the Koreans do?

Hah! False.

The truism is as follows: When in Korea, avoid Western food at all costs. Do your best to avoid eating that sloppy, soggy white bread with ketchup, corn pieces and hot dog slices, folded once on itself and stacked high in a tray with dozens of other “pizzas”.

Do your best to avoid Korean imitations of American candies. Korean skittles, though they sound like they might be skittles when you give the bag a test- shake, are actually rock- hard sharply neon- flavored citrus and taste awful. They may or may not crack your teeth upon chewing. Chocolate will not melt in your mouth. Though Krunkie candy bars are a little bit like a Crunch bar, and will satisfy your immediate cravings for chocolate, they won’t satisfy in the long run. Hard candies will probably taste like ginseng and make your burps taste funny for the rest of the day, unless they taste like grape, in which case they are amazing.

Rice and red beans are used for desert purposes and make delicious cakes. Consequently, since rice is the familiar mode of sweet desert, wheat products will be treated as a delicacy item and will most likely be completely loaded with sugar. Sugar white bread. Sugar coffee. Other super- sweet sugary things I can’t remember at the moment because it’s time to end this excessively long footnote, pour out the rest of this mini- Pepsi and make my way home. Hooray! Home.

As you may or may not have heard, the big questions upon meeting someone in Korea are as follows:

(1) The age bomb. It usually goes as follows:

“Nice to meet you”(Bashful look and Korean murmurings.) “Do you mind, I ask how old you are?”

To which I’ll respond, in Korean years, which are one year more than most human years, being that the 9 months in Korean utero are counted as near- enough to pop you out as a one- year old. (Also, all Koreans increase their age at the new year–not on their birthday! So though they still celebrate their birthday with cakes and stuff, since cake and bread is all the rage for delicacy and special occasion ’round these parts, they don’t get older. Weird, huh.)

Even despite using Korean years to boost my age, I’m always met with “ooohhhhhhhh” and “murmurmurmurjjjealous” and “so young!” So, needless to say, I generally dread this question.

Furthermore, in the event I ask the curious questioning Korean their own age, they will be super- duper tricky and say, “Guess!” which is IMPOSSIBLE to do, due to the fact that (1) all Koreans dye their hair dark, and (2) it is impossible to guess Asian ages. Seriously. So hard.

(2) Your blood type. Now, I was given ample warning that this question would hit me regularly, but it’s still a little goofy to me. From what I gather, knowing your blood type is a little like knowing whether you are type A or type B personality, or knowing what sign you are, or any other means to guage personality and compatibility upon first impression.

Basically, I can never tell them my blood type, because I don’t know. I’ve never known. Unless you donate blood, which I’ve tried to do a couple times but was short on iron due to lack of red meat and broccoli consumption in my late high- school years, you just don’t know.

They always look so disappointed when I can’t tell them.

Oh! Also.

My personal favorite is that in many of the calendar/ planner books in Korea, on the back page where you write your name and info and stuff, you have to option to fill in these corresponding boxes: Name, Address, Phone Number, Birthday, Blood Type, School, etc.

(3) The Boyfriend. If you’ve managed to continue conversation past the first two bombs, you may be met with this:

“I’m sorry, but may I ask… do you have a boyfriend?”

To which, when responding with a ‘no’, you are met with either surprise or concern. “But, oh… but you so pretty!! Why boyfriend, no?”

I’ve made the mistake of feigning disappointment at a couple of these questionings (do not underestimate how many questionings I’ve had… endless upon endless encounters with these three bombs…) which just brings on a huge show of genuine pity, and/ or the attempt to set me up on blind dates.

Also, side- side note, blind dates in Korea are a pretty common thing.

One of the most comical boyfriend moments: One day, a few weeks back, I was walking with one of the young female teachers from my school to the Post Office. One of the foreigners in Yeoju (of which there are only about 20-30 foreigners to the population of 100,000 Koreans in Yeoju), who happened to be a boy, and who I also happened to know, biked past and said hello to me. We briefly asked each other about dinner plans before saying goodbye and moving on.

Ms. Lee turned to me, excitedly, and asked, “Your boyfriend!?!”

I told her, not regretfully at all, no.

She was quiet for a moment before turning to me and saying, quite solemnly, “You missed an opportunity there. Really, I think.”

Ba dum dum. But! No fear. I’m happy as a clam in jam.

Aaaaaand, school’s out. Today is Wednesday and I get to go home while the sun still sets! (No such thing as Daylight Savings Time in Korea! Sun is gone by 5.20pm).

Love!

Mountains in Juwangsan National Park, Cheongsong-gun, North Gyeongsanbuk-do Province, South Korea.

Incredibly beautiful weekend hiking in the mountains two weeks ago. Amazing experience.

Temple nestled at the base of the mountains in Juwangasn.

Autumn colors in Juwangsan. Beautiful.

Little pavilion nestled in Juwangsan.

Piles of prayer rocks along the hiking trail in Juwangsan National Park