Spring Vacation and Goodbyes

Spring Vacation and Goodbyes     27 Feb 

Spent the last week at home doing a long to do list of things I’ve been wanting to accomplish and some sort of work out everyday. Like the winter break where I got to stay home, I slept usually around 10-12 hours a night, got up, made a nice breakfast, and usually lunch/ dinner as well. Really got my boiled chicken down. The costco pack of Chicken has them individually wrapped in vacuum packs, I stick that in my kettle, then on the stove just for a bit after cutting it up into small pieces. The one time I did try to cook it on the stove completely it was soo dry! So this makes it very fast, easy and I don’t have to deal with completely raw meat. But I am almost out of chicken, we should be making another Costco trip hopefully in March, and hopefully will have a Korean friend with a car come along! That would make things even more amazing

Like I said before, it was generally a little warmer. One day last week, it was warm enough to go on a little hike. Michael and I went up this hill near Heunghae and then walked around the rice fields and the new and upcoming sports area ish thingy. They are in the process of building all these different sports fields, walking path, archery range, tennis courts, all along the rice fields, a river and connecting to the area where I would bike/run in the fall near the bridge. I’m looking forward to things warming up a few more degrees but can’t believe how much my opinion of “cold” has changed. The day we went hiking was 50.. after looking at my weather app and walking outside for one minute and only wearing 2 jackets decided that I had to take advantage of the “warm” day. I never thought the day would come that my body would adjust a little bit. 

Had a job interview one morning with a preschool/ early childhood learning center in Hong Kong. The interview went pretty well. I really didn’t do a lot of talking. The lady mainly wanted to tell me about the school and how everything there worked. However she did say she was definitely interested in hiring me, but there were a few reasons that I did not even really consider working there. I would not have time to visit home in between contracts. She would not tell me the salary and accommodation allowance. No round trip airfare paid. 6 day work week. And from the map, it looks like its kind of difficult to get around, she said otherwise but it was part of an island with only one subway line, and a few bus routes. It was good to get some practice at my interview skills and pre interview jitters, but reminded me to just be who you are, and if the position is right for you things will fall into place. Some other interesting things about the position included the fact that they had cameras in the classroom. Parents can log online and watch the class live. The school is apparently the first one in HK to do a bilingual English and Mandarin, instead of English and ughhh I forget the other language.. haha oops another form of Chinese. It was pretty funny though she kept reiterating how safe HK was.. I realize that HK is probably very safe… but I have never felt safer in my life then in Korea. I still keep aware of my surroundings.. like the morning I traveled to Japan. I walked maybe 10 minutes to get to a main street to catch a taxi to the bus station and never in that whole ten minutes of walking in a dark neighborhood felt unsafe. It is something that I love about Korea. Will probably be sending out my resume to a few more places. 

Thursday I went skating. Again was a similar experiences to all the rest where people would just stare the entire time. Then had one guy who wanted to race me.. it was pretty funny. I gave him three shots and was being nice and not going really fast.. hehe Boys… It wasn’t too crowded but like i’ve mentioned before they cone off more then half the center ice for speed skating lessons so makes it hard to try anything. Not to mention the fact that my skating muscles are literally gone! Never felt so out of shape or useless at something I used to be so good at! :/ Was a sad feeling but determined to find a teacher at the start of the school year on Friday who lives near there who can drop me off during the week, to cut costs and time to get to there since it closes at 630 and I don’t finish school until 440. Its about a 5 dollar taxi trip, takes about 10 minutes.. But is the opposite way of the buses so the buses take about 45 minutes to get home. Usually when I go I have to go to the orphanage or downtown after so can break up the bus trip. This week I walked to the orphanage after skating. The orphanage kiddos were a little crazy and hyper. They didn’t really want to do what we were trying to do.. Hopefully they will be a little better once school starts and they are back in a routine. 

Weds night I fetched all my new appliances! Blender, Oven, Microwave, Guitar. Then my friends Dan & Amy who had been here for two years and had lots of belonging passed on had a little get together they called come rob us.. They had already sent home everything they wanted to keep, and packed away what they were taking on their trip to travel SE Asia. So literally she gave away everything in her cabinets, clothes, spices, utensils, etc, etc. Usually people would just leave these sort of things for the teacher replacing them, but the teachers replacing them have already been in Pohang and have their own apartments already. So I got a big stack of clothes, tons of foods, face wash, nail polish, etc, etc. It was all pretty random but proved to be difficult to get back to Heunghae even in a taxi and hands of two other people who had also gotten a lot of new things! 

I came home and cleaned all the appliances and tried to figure where I would put everything. The fact is, it will not all fit. And I only have two outlets in the kitchen.. soo lame right! When they build stuff here, I don’t really think there is usually a plan to it. So I think the microwave will go in the living room next to the tv, haha and then everything else will go in the cabinets unless being used minus the oven. Unless I can figure out some sort of other arrangement! 

Thursday night there was a little going away get together for some of the people leaving. :/ It was a fun night but also sad to know it was the last one in Korea with them! Andy and I have become pretty close living very close to each other, attending similar Universities (SDSU) and a love for the West Coast of the US among other things. Anyways will really miss them! That being said about 30 new teachers will come to Pohang tomorrow to replace them. Which is also exciting to hopefully be able to form some more friendships in Pohang. As I don’t have too many close friends here, mostly have to travel to see my Eastern Besties. 

Thursday both of my co teachers called me to tell me to come to school for a teachers meeting where we would find out what grades we are teaching. I think they are still not on good terms, they sat separated from each other. Thankfully the meeting was pretty quick. The new teachers introduced themselves, then they found out which classroom they would teach in. They all seemed very excited for the new school year. I found out I will teach 3rd grade with E A Un… have no idea how to spell her name. Teach 5th grade with Eunjeong. Joanne will help with afterschool classes… It should def be interesting. EAUN was a 2nd grade teacher last year, after Joanne told me that she was an English teacher the year before I figured she would come and greet me, but she never did. In fact she never spoke a word of English that entire 6 months.. even when I paid her for the teachers association dues. So I have a little bit of a first impression.. I have to sit around Koreans all day speaking in Korean, the least she could do was speak to me in English. Even when we went out that one time for “Singles” Dinner with the other young teachers at my school she said nothing to me.. Apparently she is shy, but still that’s rude! Anyways she is very young and cute so maybe it will end up being great! That’s all I can hope for. 

I’m not sure whether or not I wrote about Eunjeong, but she was supposed to be moved to a new school and never got moved somehow? After a certain number of years I believe 5 at the same school they are required to move.. She had been at HH for 5 so was sure she was leaving.. Anyways I hope since it’s the start of the school year I can work together with both of my co teachers to form a stronger base for the classrooms. Implement reward systems that are actually used. Stray away from using every single thing in the textbook. I am hoping with the 5th graders we will get to use the English room so I don’t have to go from room to room. Then can decorate and such. Also could probably use that computer more, as the one in my office is absolutely useless. It freezes with more then 2 things open! All the other teachers have nice new ones.. maybe i’ll get a surprise and a new computer on Friday? Doubtful but who knows. So I’m planning on doing a little bit of work this week of figuring out rewards how to work that and how I can nicely communicate with Eunjeong my concerns about our classes and how they should run this year. Also found out that we will have a new principal.. but the old principal will train the new one for a month or so then he will go to another school? I’m still a bit confused on all of this. The Vice Principal may change later in the school year. Either way I’m excited to be teaching 5th grade because I can do a bit more with the kiddos. I’m sad that I don’t teach with Joanne :/. She has really always been there to help me and I feel comfortable asking her favors, asking her help with Korean stuff, but no such luck. Maybe it has something to do with her maternity leave? Any how school starts on Friday! :0 I won’t teach for probably at least a week because they won’t have English class at first. 

Ski Trip post coming tomorrow! <3

N