Sunday, March 21, 2010

Concerning... First Sight.

" 'Spring, spring, spring,' said the frog! 'Spring,' said the ground hog!" That is a little treat dredged from the memory of one of my favorite childhood books. My mother has tried to make me remember the rest of it many a time but that one line is all that sticks. Ah, la primavera. I really like the etymology of that word because it is so forgiving; no matter who, what, when, or where, spring offers an egalitarian chance to be born anew. This is not a mere face-lift, a new coat of paint, but a rejuvenation, a first sight.

Not a moment too soon, Daejeon reluctantly opened the curtain on Spring with the coming of March 21st. Four days ago, we had snow on the ground and I made hand prints on a railing on my way to work. Today, the whole sky was awash with blue, my skin actually felt the sun, and a chilly wind all marked the equinox. The birds were out, soccer and baseball teams jostled through their games by the river and the sun set at the very reasonable hour of 7.

Before I finish telling you about today, I'd better close the door on winter. Rewind a week. I'm bonding more and more with my new kids which is as expected, but none the less welcome for that. UCLA in particular gets really cute. There is this one little boy named Chris with little glasses who is sneaking up on me as a new favorite. He's really smart, even if he has the worst handwriting in the class, and always cheerfully babbles on to me in English. His favorite way to open EEEEEEVERY single morning as I sit down for our first class at 10 AM is, "Becky Teacher, what and lunchie?" The kid is the size of a pea and lives through his stomach. And. he can't say the word lunch for his life, but we're working on both pronunciation and the correct grammatical structure of a question. We're getting there. The other funny thing is that, no matter that I give the same answer every morning "We have three classes before lunch and two after lunch and then you go home," his curiosity is engaged anew with each passing day, like the time of lunch is a mystical practice shrouded in secrecy and deception.

As cute as this is, however, the moment when he well and truly stole my heart is when I was sitting in the teacher chair at the front of class, correcting some papers, and the kids were all working on an assignment. Chris got up, ambled over, and without a word, just kind of decided that he wanted to be in someone's lap so casually hopped up in mine with no preparation whatsoever. He leaned his head back against me and just kind of quietly settled in for a cuddle session. ADORABLE. Unfortunately, I didn't really deem it feasible to conduct an entire class with a child in my lap so he only got an affectionate minute out of it but it was so endearing nonetheless. He's done it twice again in the days since then, I must have a comfy lap.

Brown's fine, we're mostly working on penmanship and getting some critical base words down. Beyond that, it's just a matter of getting 5 year olds used to being in a school environment which is the real education of kindergarten, in my opinion. Anna still seems allergic to her chair and prefers to aimlessly wander about the class singing ABBA to herself and K-Pop choreography but we're being patient with her. She doesn't quite get the idea of authority as of yet but she's young and been in school for less than a month. I hope she clicks in with the routine by and by as she gets more time under her belt. My favorite times are just coloring with them though. Two of the kids had a month or two of reaaally basic English before this so they can jabber a tiny tiny tiny bit in English. I really like listening to them and just seeing what phrases come out of their mouth and how they use the little English they've learned. For instance, the kids all took some crayons out and decided that it was ice-cream and then wandered around pretending to lick it. One girl, Irene, took them to me and said "Becky Teacher, this princess ice cream, you!" so I was very honored to receive the elite, much sought after upgrade of princess crayon ice-cream.

Afternoon classes are good. My really beginning classes are starting to fall into rhythm and the one with 12 students doesn't give me quite so many heart palpitations- down to maybe 5 a class from 20 so that's good haha. I've found that as a teacher who cannot really communicate at all with the students yet beyond a few words, routine and rewards are the biggest help. I finally feel like I'm building up a report. My other beginning class just got a new student with some sort of disease that makes clotting difficult so we were all stringently warned to essentially treat him as a bubble boy. The first day of class, I found him smart and engaged and was really pleased. I stepped out at the end of class and peaked back in during break time to check in...only to find him wrestling on the floor in friendly combat with the other boy in the class. I nearly had an aneurysm and broke them apart in smiling incredulity. I have a hunch that it would give a bad impression to break him on the very first day of school. We do try to save that until the second.

I've been doing pretty well in the gym lately...veeeery slowly (as I am NOT a natural runner by any means, as it is only for health and in no way competitive, and as it is my least favorite form of exercise) building up my running ability. Don't laugh but I can do 20 mins straight now, obviously supplemented by the deified Korean pastime of speed walking on either end to make it a more legit cardio workout. It's getting better, combined with free weights, and the fact that my clothes are even baggier than 7 months without a dryer would account for, makes me feel good about that. I kind of lost track of the fact that 7 months here means 7 fairly loyal months of going to the gym. So yay me! I'm proud of that and my body feels better and healthier which is the biggest benefit and my biggest goal.

Friday English Club talked about plastic surgery. Fascinating. The article went into all the gruesome detail of a very popular procedure here in Asia of threading a hooked needle through the eyelid to make a western crease. They view western features- high noses, small faces, hooded, large, eyes and big lips- as the new standard of beauty. Sad, I wish they'd stick to their guns and keep their own aesthetic. Either way I'm pretty darn against plastic surgery as I think there are a lot healthier ways to transform yourself if you want to commit- the vast majority of the time, I think it's the easy way out for insecure people looking for self confidence from all of the wrong places. I feel that I can say that as a non-super model looking woman who had to fight long and hard throughout her formative years for a backbone and personal satisfaction. Anyways, it was an interesting convo as most Koreans seem pretty OK with it. I think it goes along with the elaborately embellished clothes and accessories- here, appearance is king. I do, however, firmly draw the line when some Koreans perm their kid's hair and even have them get the eye procedure. We've had one or two students miss class in my school while this happens and I'm sorry, this is probably a cultural difference that I should be more sensitive to, but I think it's sick. All that child will think about is how vital their looks are instead of focusing on other traits, a surgery that young would be really influential. ANYways, there are many things that Korean parents do extremely well so I don't want that to be mistaken for a blanket criticism. Just one peaceful difference of opinion.

Saturday, Chad and I went to Sah-ool (Seoul) for some training. Though way too long and repetitive, I learned some necessary info that I was lacking regarding some new programs that were implemented for the new year. I feel more confident about them now so it was a success in that regard. After, we got a quick dinner at Bennigan's. I had quesadillas with guacamole (!!) and was really adventurous with desert. I chose the cheapest thing, "vanilla ice cream with black sesame sauce" and was in for quite a surprise. When it came out, it looked like ice cream with runny black caviar all over it. In no way could
it have looked less appetizing. However, it was delicious, it tasted like a yummy, sweet, nutty sauce. Go figure. When we went out of the restaurant, the air was yellow. Seriously. Yellow. It was disgusting- our best guess is that sometimes Mongolia has severe dust storms that blow over China, collect pollution, and land in Soko. Isn't it crazy that I live somewhere that gets dust storms from Mongolia?? Anyway, I had a hand firmly over my mouth in the dash to the train station because you could literally taste it when you breathed the air in. Thankfully, Daejeon is an hour south so our air is a LOT better.

Today started with a weird surprise. I emailed some profs at the UW English program about Vic Lit and they all directed me to this one guy, who, a month and a half later, got back to me. He basically said that there was no Vic Lit department there. They had romantic lit, they had modern lit, they just didn't have the 100 years in between. This has thrown me for a giant loop, maaaany considerations immediately vying for attention. 1.) I love books. Like, I really love books, and it is enough of a passion that I'd really like my career to involve them in some way. 2.) I love the idea of more education, it's something I'm extremely willing and interested to do. The rush of actually using my brain is unbeatable. 3.) If I do a PhD, I want to learn from someone. I need an effective dissertation adviser who knows about my research. 4.) If I do a PhD, I need to be able to take classes in my discipline. 5.) If I do a PhD, the Victorian era is my absolute favorite. Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell are why I love books. I have a healthy academic respect for modernism, it's just never going to be more than a friendship haha. 6.) Now with 3 well and truly habitated continents (yes, continents) under my belt, I want a breather. I can't see myself leaving Seattle for quite some time and UW is the only reputable English grad program around. 6.) Having looked into publishing, the cut throat competition and the New York centered industry are not things I'm interested in. 7.) Though I'm having fun here, I don't find teaching kids mentally stimulating in the way that I crave and though high school might give that, it's too hard to get a job for too scanty of a salary. (Not that it's all about money but if I have to invest in more education I need more compensation.)

So that's where my mental threads have stopped twisting at the moment. I kind of feel back at square one career wise and thank goodness I still have some months here but I want to start seriously investigating the job market come August and sending resumes. I'm going on a month long cruise with mom and dad when I get back so I'm starting work (whatever that might be...) mid October so it's key to land a job quickly before the holiday dead zone. All of this means it's pretty important that I get a foothold on these issues tout suite. I don't know, maybe I'll try Amazon. Anyway, one thing I do have figured out for next year is that I'd like an office job. I really want predictable week day hours. And that's that.

After learning about that, I talked to mom and dad a bit which was nice and went for a run along the river. I think a guy on the way back might have thought I was a prostitute (I distinctly heard "How much?" before be brokenly settled into a conversation determined to get my number) so that was funny but all in all, gorgeous day. I even discovered this little islandy thing in the middle of the river that has a pagoda and a stage. Very nice. I've been a little stuffy the last few days because of pollen or pollution or whatever which hasn't made for the most consistent sleep, so I absolutely passed out for an hour and a half this afternoon. Good choice. I woke up so sluggish with that pressure in my sinuses that signals the end of a desperately needed rest. Then, I got some groceries and spicy chicken pizza and caught up on my shows.

All in all, this week was juuuust fine. I am absolutely ecstatic for spring, I am itching for heat and sun, so things can only get better here on out. That and Mom and Dad come in 2 and a half weeks. YAAAAAYYY!

Love,

B

1 comment:

  1. Becky, I really enjoy your writing but could you please include more pictures! And say hi to your folks for me. I miss them already.

    ReplyDelete