Elderly

About a month ago I finally got a new computer that wasn't about to blow up and I was stoked because I could finally upload pics onto my computer instead of having my Korean photo friend do it for me and what do I do? I lose the cord that connects from my camera to my comp. Doh! Sorry folks, I'll have pics soon.

This past weekend I experienced the "I-just-want-to-pretend-i'm-not-in-korea-for-a-hot-minute-because-i'm-so-annoyed-disease"...or at least that's what I diagnosed myself with. I was just kind of exhausted from the miscommunications due to the language barrier, being elbowed in the face by people on the subway, having to plow people over on the sidewalks (this should be a blog in itself. just walking on sidewalks becomes pretty frustrating because of the walking pattern of people over here...or lack thereof), and constantly being stared at. The being stared at thing gets on my nerves more than anything and it's weird because some of the english teachers have said they don't really notice it anymore but I really think it's because of my hair. I know that sounds silly but I suppose I would stare too if I had never seen an afro. Needless to say though, going into Monday I was a bit of a grump. About a month ago, all of my kids wrote letters to pen pals and my mom did an amazing job of distributing them to schools all over Tucson so for this week's lesson the kids got to read their letters and had been ruthlessly asking me about it up until that point so it was a pretty big deal. I go into my first period class where all of the girls are so great except for one team/group that gives me a hard time every single stinkin week. So I pass out the letters and all of the girls are going absolutely nuts because they are so excited...except that one group. I look over and they are pouting more obviously than I have ever seen anyone pout so I walked over to ask what was wrong. "I hate Kelly" says one of the girls and points to her letter. Apparently, because their letter was shorter than all of the other teams they decided to throw a hissy fit. So being a very mature educator, I grabbed the letter and muttered under my breath "Well, Kelly doesn't like you either". Hahaha I know, grow up right? Ya, someday it will happen. But in my head I'm thinking "Come here Samsung, I'm gonna throttle you and dropkick you to freaking China you little punk."

It's funny how things happen though. Without fail, whenever I have the crappiest days, there's always a ton of little things that happen the next day that remind me why I love being here. I've really gotten to know a lot of my students and I can predict down to the minute now when certain girls will come into my office throughout the day. Donald Duck is definitely the most frequent visitor, but I have one student that for the past two weeks has decided to change her name every single day. Most students call me "Ashleigh Teacher" or "Ashoree" but in Korean, the word for teacher is "seon-saeng-nim" so students will either address their teachers as that or "Sam" which is kind of funny. But this girl is one of only a few kids that calls me "Sam" so that morning after my near blowup the previous day, she slides open the office door and yells "Sam! Name today! Elderly!" So the entire day, I nearly died every time I saw her because I had to call her "Elderly"! Then, maybe twenty minutes after that, Crazy Minji comes in and had forgotten her school slippers, which if that happens the students just wear their socks around all day. But she had made these shoes with paper and tape and it was HILARIOUS because she struts in with two other girls and starts doing the runway trot to show off her new fashion creation. Then, today I'm trying to explain a game to Elderly's class which tends to get kind of loud and crazy so I will always say "chill out" or "settle down" when they start getting wild, and whenever I do they always mimic what I say. Normally when I want classes to be quiet I'll just stand there and wait and one or two other students will quiet everyone down but I started to get impatient and I clapped and yelled "Hey listen!" and Elderly, who was "Pencil Case" today, says "Oh Sam chill outa" and stands there smiling. Haha, if I knew they were doing it to be turds it probably wouldn't be funny at all but these girls are so wonderful it's hard not to smile.

I'm probably going to sound like Mary Poppins when I say this but I think one of my favorite things about South Korea, at least while it's warm, is the birds. They are so loud but not in an annoying way, more of like a feeling of being on vacation. It reminds me of growing up and spending tons of time in Scottsdale, Arizona with my grandparents. One of my favorite memories ever. So it's kind of cool to feel connections to stuff like that if that makes sense. And yesterday, I got lost and it ended up being the most amazing run. I felt like I was running through the hills of Trinidad with all of the trees and the humidity. I might be going crazy. But either way, even though it's annoying sometimes to be so different, Korea is a pretty rad place with some pretty amazing people.