Better

This week has been a little frustrating. Exams begin for my students on Monday, and for the third years, they are quite important. I haven't taught them at all this week, since my Korean co-teachers are borrwing the classes to do intense reviews. For my first years, I planned a two-page review on the idioms, opposite words, and the past and future tenses. They actually did the worksheets quite well, even though they were pretty overwhelmed at first. I like these kinds of classes, where my co-teacher and I can hop around from student to student, giving them a little individual attention. We just walk around the classroom, keeping the lazy kids on track, answering questions, helping with spelling, etc. My supervisor was supposed to visit my class today, and I was praying she wouldn't come for class 1-1 (they were so bad last week that they got a verbal lashing from my co-teacher that lasted for a good 10 minutes). She actually never showed up at all, thus sparing me from a little extra stress.

So basically, I've only been teaching two classes a day--that's an hour and a half of work. I'm always finished before 11:30, but I have to stay at the office until 4:30. It's been mind-numbing at some points...I have no idea how many times I've refreshed certain topics on Soompi. Other than that, I've watched three episodes of Gossip Girl, studied a little Korean, chatted with a co-teacher, and updated my cyworld.

Speaking of cyworld, mine has gained more traffic than usual over this week. Two of my students in my JA have had my cyworld address and it's never been a big deal. After going to the KB B-Boy show with those eight students, that number increased. From there, they showed their friends...who showed their friends...who showed their friends. Some of my giggling students actually came to my class a few days ago and said, "Teacher...in 6 class...we looking at your cyworld!" Embarrassing. Really embarrassing. I've been locking up stuff away from them since the beginning. The pictures of me and Dean, for instance, are blocked, so are the pictures from clubbing/bars on the weekend. They've been commenting and scrapping up a storm, though. Yesterday, when I logged on, I noticed that one of the students had made comments on about fifteen of my pictures. Intense. I've been updating like crazy, though, out of boredom. Today, I went on icanhascheezburger.com and the failblog, and put a bunch of those on my cyworld.

Oh, how awkward. The principal was just standing by my shoulder, watching me type. He is perpetually smiling--it's pretty funny. Anyway, I took out my earbud, smiled, and bowed. And, as usual, he smiled back and said, "I don't...speak English." And, as usual, I smiled, nodded, and said, "That's okay." Then, he said something about "working hard." Er...except that I'm on Soompi. *whistles and looks around innocently*

Also, one of my JA students dropped by my desk a few minutes ago. She's the one who comes by about twice a day to just chat. Anyway, she pulled a cute notebook and a wooden easel notebook holder from her bag and gave it to me. I was really surprised, since it's not my birthday, Teacher's Day, or anything like that. When I thanked her and asked her why she was giving it to me, she simply said, "Well, because...I like you!" She's so, so painfully sweet and she has such amazing potential. One thing that sucks about leaving in a year is leaving a semester before her and her friends graduate from middle school. I'm going to feel like crap when I have to leave halfway through their school year.

So tomorrow is a national holiday in Korea! No school! Dean, me, and four other girlfriends are taking the KTX down to Busan. It's time for the international film festival, so the city will be chock full of Korea's most popular celebrities and tons of artsy indie filmmakers. Dean and I bought some sparklers for the beach at Homeplus yesterday. Two of our other friends are mixing giant bottles of mimosas for us to sip on the journey down south.

Ok, no pictures today--I haven't really taken that many recently, unless you count the dozens of pictures I took of my cat a few days ago. I figure my next post will have oodles.

This title is Better by Regina Spektor

If I kiss you where it's sore

will you feel better?

Oh yeah...my dad told me couple of times that Korean-Americans are discriminated against, too.

If you're an American living in Korea, do you still vote? Or no?

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go obama go obama

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by: geekazoinks

Oct 11, 2008 4:12pm

kipling: The culture shock wasn't bad. In some ways, Korea is so different from the US, but on the surface, Seoul is very, very Westernized, so you see lots of familiar signs and such. I thought the shock would be worse, but for me, it was very gradual and natural.

geekazoinks: I think that Korean-Americans get more flac than Korean-adoptees. It's never been discrimination for me--rather, you can tell they feel sorry for you. I've had shop keepers apologize to me before, after I told them I was adopted. They looked really sad. It was kind of weird.

Yeah, I would love to get into that kind of business. Teaching has been a great experience, but I'm ready to move on.

by: the real ginger

Oct 10, 2008 10:36pm

Hehehe, this is my first time posting on Soompi.com, since I'm a regular on the forums, but I decided to reply to this since I read it so often :)

I wanted to know, did you ever encountered any discrimination against your being adopted? Sorry if this is too personal :x

So, after your teaching job, you want to work at an entertainment company, or broadcasting station?? I wish I knew you first in real life, because I think I might know someone that could help you XD Well, best of luck in Korea!

Oct 10, 2008 5:45pm

Just saw "Twilight in Korea" in your cy and had a giggle XD And who knows? Maybe time will fly from here until next September.

How was culture shock for you? Although I'm generally fine with adapting to new cities given a couple of months, I don't think moving from Los Angeles to a 'small town' in Florida would have the same effect on me as the US to say, Korea or anywhere in Asia for that matter (since I'm not a Korea-phile).

It seems to me that Korea is a good temporary stint. I admire the folks who live there for years. Who knows, maybe I might. But from America, it doesn't seem likely...

by: kipling

Oct 08, 2008 11:03am

mUsiCisMYlifEy: I did! I'll be posting pictures up later today.

The school year in Korea starts in March, and my contract began in September. Thus, I came in right in the middle of their school year and will have to leave in the middle of the school year.

KTZ811: I'm leaving next September, so it's really...11 months away! A long time. :) If I can get a job on the staff at a production/entertainment company, I'd definitely stay. But if not, I'm throwing in the towel with teaching and heading back to the US.

: Da Xing Di: My cyworld is: www.cyworld.com/ladylux. I tend to update it pretty quickly now, so my newest pictures go there first, then to this soompi blog, then to facebook. My traffic lately has been a lot of the under-16 crowd...le sigh.

Oct 07, 2008 6:14pm

this post made me realize: i've totally forgot your cyworld url, lol, i know you've posted it in one of your entries, and i did check it out then, but forgot to add you n stuff, so now i have no idea what it was, lol

not like with that much of attention from the girls, you would like more traffic,lol

by: Da Xing Di

Oct 05, 2008 3:02am

Hi Ginger!

Wow I bet Big Bang is going to be there huh? So, so jealous here *sad face*. Plus, aww! What's this about you leaving in a year?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Because in this world, love is more hungered for than bread."

by: KTZ811

Oct 04, 2008 2:31am

I hope you have fun at the festival.

National Holiday...

I have to wait until November....T____T

How come you're leaving before their school year ends?

How sweet of her.

by: mUsiCisMYlifEy

Oct 02, 2008 10:17pm

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