So we're gearing up for the end of the school year and winter camps. It's been a little stressful trying to catch up on curriculum and plan things but I'm thinking the camps will be fun once I know what's going on. It's been like pulling teeth trying to get any info about what I'll need to prepare.
Korean schools have a long winter break (the whole month of January) just after Christmas and then go back to school for a week or two in February before the school year ends and they move up a grade midway through Feb. It's really weird the way they've broken it up. I would think they'd just move on after the break. I think it has to do with the lunar new year in February. But, on the bright side, it gives me more time with my sixth graders.
The 6th grade students have really become my favorites but now they're all talking about going to middle-school and stupid stuff like that. I wish I could just hold them back. I keep telling them they can't leave me and I know it's going to be really sad when I teach my last lesson with them. My two travel schools have their last lessons with me next week and then it'll just be Cheonjeon until mid-February (aside from winter camps). It'll be weird to start a new year in February with a new batch of students. And suddenly my 5th graders will be my 6th graders. So weird. I teach completely different styles for each grade so I'm sure it'll be weird for them too. I just can't believe those 6th grade punks will be in middle school soon. They're just babies.
Most of the EPIK teachers went to an English Symposium on the coast last weekend but when I asked my school for permission to go they informed me I'd be going to a workshop with them instead. I was a little bummed since I'd miss out on seeing some of my friends from orientation but it was fun to spend time with my school. The only problem was that all the meetings and tours were full Korean so I would have no idea what was going on.
So Friday, we ended school early and everyone hopped on a bus to Yeongwol (about 2 or so hours South of us along a river). Yeongwol is a very small town nestled in the mountains with a river running through it. Mr. Song explained that it's basically a town of museums. People go there to river raft as well as visit the many museums scattered throughout the little mountain range. The museums are fairly small and each is pretty remote (they're each hidden on their own little mountain) so the bus had to cart us back and forth along the windy little roads.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed Yeongwol. The first night we stopped by a photography museum that was full of old photographs depicting Korea after the war, when the country was still struggling. None of the captions were in English so I had to fill in a lot of the gaps myself or find Mr. Song or another teacher to explain things to me. But the photos were really eye-opening. There was such a huge contrast between the 50/60's and the 70/80's when there was a sudden boom of modern life and prosperity. There were a lot of exhibits showing the inner-workings of cameras and how they've developed over the years that I really wished were in English. There were also a lot of little green screens where you could take a picture with different backgrounds. I took one with Ms. Hwang (the special ed teacher) that was supposed to look like we were hang-gliding but I think their camera wasn't calibrated because the framing was really off. It was a cute picture though. Ms. Hwang is the one around my age who likes to have tea in her classroom together. She's one of the happiest cutest people I've met. Her first name is Beongal, which Mr. Song told me is Korean for "smile". I thought it was very fitting.
After the museum, we went out for Korean BBQ. Any time we all go out for dinner, there comes a part of the night where everyone starts going around pouring shots with each other and conversing. It seems to be the goal to exchange shots with every teacher. Our vice principal is usually pretty conservative about alcohol and I've only ever seen her sip beer - I think because she usually drives people home or has to keep a level head while she keeps an eye on the principal. But I think since we had a bus towing us around, she decided to let go a little. She drank A LOT that night. At one point, she had been making rounds pouring and accepting shots with the other teachers when she came to me. She grabbed my sprite bottle and started sloshing it everywhere but my glass while telling me, "Hittuni-saeng-nim, I lub you. But I can'tu Englishi". Then she kind of shuffled off. It was a beautiful moment we shared.
After that, I was really exhausted. Being surrounded by Korean language and formalities all day is kind of draining so I was ready to crash. I shared a room with the other four female teachers around my age and they informed me the moment we got settled that we would have another meeting at 8:30 that night. Even though I don't speak Korean, I wasn't exempt from any of the meetings so I went. Everyone sat in a circle on the floor of the principal's room where there were snacks (we had eaten SO much food already at BBQ, I thought I would die) and then they whipped out MORE beer and MORE liquor. I'd already seen the principal get lost trying to find his bathroom so I was pretty shocked that they'd brought out more alcohol. As the meeting proceeded, I slowly slid back into the hallway with an armful of oranges and a book. More and more lately, I've felt like the school's pet Labrador - always present but not really involved. But I was perfectly happy eating my oranges and reading my book as long as no one noticed me not participating. Eventually, the principal spotted me and shouted something at Hanna (the 5th grade teacher). She crawled over and sat next to me and said "principal say I have to take care of you". Oh good, a babysitter. But she told me she didn't really care about the meeting - it was awkward for her too since she's younger. So we sat and chatted for a while. One of the administrators stumbled into the bathroom next to us and when she came back, she slunk against the wall and slid down to sit next to us. I guess she was too drunk to make it back to the circle. So she joined the conversation as best she could. She told me she worries about me - I hear that a lot from the other teachers. It's sweet. It was nice, I don't get much opportunity to talk with the other teachers at my school. Usually, everyone's really busy all the time.
After the meeting, the principal insisted on Noraebang (Korean karoake) but I had hit my limit so I snuck away to my room. Usually hotels here are just an empty hardwood room with little sleeping pads folded up in the closet. So I found a nice spot by the window and passed out.
Saturday was a marathon of museums and memorial sites. First was the traditional paintings museum, which was a short hike up a mountain and over a hanging bridge. The paintings were beautiful and this was the one museum with English descriptions so I devoured every little label I could read. The paintings held a lot of really interesting symbolism - mostly to do with prosperity, having lots of children, and learning. One of my favorites was of a fish becoming a dragon - a painting commonly gifted to scholars who were about to take a big exam. There were a lot of paintings of ancient Korean gods with little boxes for cash offerings that were full of won. Most of the art was on those folded partitions, many intended for wedding gifts to bring good luck to the newlyweds. The partitions gifted to scholars were made of beautiful Chinese characters containing stories from Confuscious. Most old paintings, especially scholarly ones, contain Chinese characters because the Korean alphabet was considered too easy and wasn't taken seriously by scholars. So most old poems and shrines are in Chinese. It kind of evened the playing field for me and the other teachers.
After that, we visited some historic sites such as the burial ground and home of a famous poet - Kim Sat Gat (I think it's a pen name that means "Weird hat Kim" or something). He's always depicted wearing a domed hat, which isn't really the style of most Koreans. Mr. Song told me that Kim Satgat's grandfather was a government official who surrendered during political turmoil so that the family had to go live in exile. Kim satgat wasn't aware that it was his grandfather but won a literary contest with an essay that criticized the government official who had surrendered. When he found out it was his own grandfather, he donned the hat out of shame, claiming he didn't deserve to see the sun or sky ever again. A lot of the history I learned was pretty depressing.
The next stop was an island in the river where a young king was also sent to live in exile when his Uncle took the throne. He lived there for several years until he was found and killed by his uncle's men. Mr. Song told me that the uncle was actually a very good king so I'm really confused about the moral of the story. The island was really beautiful and we got to see a recreation of the king's house. While we waited for the ferry back, a few of the teachers started trying to skip rocks across the river. Mr. Song was really good at it, I was second best next to him. The other teachers were really impressed with my skills ;) Hanna came over and asked me what we called it in America and I told her "skipping rocks" I guess the Korean word for it "Mul susaebi", which literally means "water pasta". Random. I think susaebi is like "gnocchi" so I can almost picture it making sense.
After a few more historic sites, we stopped in a tiny restaurant for lunch. I sat with mostly non-English speaking teachers so I took the opportunity to practice my Korean by asking them what some of the side dishes were. We had soup for our main course and it was really tasty but had some weird blueish-gray chewey bits in it. I was pretty sure I didn't want to know what they were so I kept eating. Eventually, one of the teachers noticed me eyeing the little morsels and whipped out his translator. He smiled broadly and proclaimed "snails!" And I nearly spit out the mouthful I'd just taken. Ah, man. I was eating a bowl of pond water. I later told Mr. Song that Americans aren't big on snails but the soup was still pretty good. He seemed surprised we don't eat snails. I guess it's pretty normal here. I know they roast and eat some other kind of bug because I've seen street vendors selling them so I guess snails don't seem that bad. Not as bad as sundae either.
On our way home, the principal had us make one more stop. We hiked up a little ways to a giant standing rock overlooking the river. We could see the whole valley from it and it was an incredible view. Korea's landscape is so diverse, it never ceases to amaze me. It turned out to be a great trip and I learned so much about Korean culture.
Church was fun on Sunday. The Chinese couple got called to teach the gospel doctrine class so it's in English now and when we have a Korean investigator, the missionaries translate for him. Since the relief society is now made up of two Korean ladies, me, and the Chinese sister, they like to have us do part of the lesson in English as well. It's really sweet. We all bore our testimonies at the end of RS this week and it was a sobfest. I also heard they might be giving me a calling around Christmas and I'm a little nervous. I think we agreed that my only useful skill is the piano but I don't know when I would ever practice. I threatened that I would play with one finger if they called me as a pianist so we'll see what happens.
Today was awesome with lessons. I love when my lesson plans click and the students get really into it. I'm on a lesson with the 6th grade at my 2nd school (it's a bigger class) where I'm basically teaching them how to explain Korean culture to foreigners. We're learning phrases like "how do you say this in Korean?" and "Can you tell me about it" and such. There's a Korean board game called "Yutnori" that keeps coming up in the lesson and the kids seemed pretty interested whenever it came up so I did some research on it. It's a really old game that goes way back and is usually played on New Years. Instead of dice, they throw four sticks in the air and move the pieces according to how the sticks fall. It's kind of a strategy game and I didn't get the rules so I made a giant board with each space containing a prompt for them like "What is a Janggu" "What's ____ in English?" etc. I also bought the sticks they use and some colored magnets to use as markers. I've been working on it for a week and it's the most excited I've ever been about a lesson. I kept it all hidden when I came into the classroom today. The textbook part of the lesson involved a lot of reading and writing to explain the rules of the game and the students were pretty bored with it. Halfway through class, I asked if they could tell me how to play Yutnori. They said yes, thinking it was a speaking assignment and I asked them what I would need. One student chimed in, "You need four sticks", so I pulled out my yutnori sticks and said, "Are these okay?". It was the best reveal ever. The kids lit up, sat up straight and shouted "Wow!" when they realized we'd actually be playing Yutnori. Then they said I'd need four markers for each player, so I pulled out my magnets and put them on the board. The excitement built a little more. The last thing they said was "a board" so I pulled out the board I'd made and their teacher helped me put it up on the chalkboard with more magnets. The game turned out really fun and the kids loved explaining the rules to me as we went along. It was more complicated than I thought. It was a huge hit and really hilarious. Each student had their own method of throwing the sticks. Some would gather them up and kind of prayer over them before flinging them up. Some would throw them sideways like they were skipping rocks. It was fascinating. And the strategy behind the game was intense. We had a last-minute underdog win the game right at the end and the classroom exploded. Some of the girls grabbed the board off the wall and admired it for a while as I packed up and some of the boys came over to review the game with me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to top that lesson.
I went into the 3rd graders room next (I was early) and they were watching a video as a class. It had English subtitles up so I sat and watched with them. It was a claymation about a piece of dog poop - Koreans have a weird fascination with poop. The claymation was actually pretty emotional, I got a little choked up. The little piece of dog poop was sad because his only friend, the piece of cow poop, was taken away to be fertilizer on a farm. Then he was lonely for a while and pondering his existence and purpose until he met a fallen leaf who explained the circle of life. But the video ended early and the teacher said they'd finish it tomorrow so I never get to find out what happened to the dog poop :/ The video they'd watched last week was about a mother pig who's husband kept trying to eat their babies but she made such delicious kimbap (korean sushi) that her husband would transform from a wild boar into a docile pig....they watch some weird stuff.
The school was cleaning the shoe lockers today so the principal took all the teacher's shoes into the faculty room. He cleaned every pair himself and set them by the heater so they'd be warm when we left. It was a super nice gesture, I felt really bad when I walked in and saw him cleaning my shoes. They were probably real dirty.
Anyway, hope you guys are having fun with Christmas festivities! The holidays have made me super homesick but I'm getting through it. The ward's having a Christmas party next Saturday and I've invited some girls from Korean class to their special Sunday service. We'll see how it goes. Some of my EPIK friends are having a dinner on Christmas Eve here in Chuncheon and a Christmas party the next day plus we're doing Secret Santa. So it sounds like there will be plenty of festivities.
Let me know how things are going on your end and let's arrange a skype session for Christmas!
-Whit
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