I sit in my apartment listening to a podcast of ‘Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me’ and am unaware of most of the newsworthy items they are referring to. I know some basics and am able to laugh at the expense of some of the folks trying to run for President in the Republican category, but I feel more out of the loop than I have in some time. I miss waking up and listening to the Morning Edition on VPR and getting the scoop while making and eating breakfast. Now that I’m so far removed, literally and figuratively, from the States and the news, I find it hard to take the extra effort to read up (read the news!?) on what’s happening back home. I find out some important information from New York Times Headlines e-mailed to me (though I often only read the subject line of the e-mail before deletion) or through, sadly enough, Facebook, which is how I recently found out who was in the Superbowl. I don’t really know what to make of all this; I know I should keep myself more informed, but I don’t want to feel guilty about it, so it is what it is.
A lot of change has been occurring in my life over here as a new semester began on Wednesday; my old Kindys graduated, I got all new classes and a new classroom, and five teachers left with two new replacements coming in, which suddenly makes me an ‘experienced’ teacher at my school. It has been a lot of fun to see Korea again through brand-new eyes and asking ‘Have you tried kimchi? Norebang? Do you like BBQ? What do you think of the people/culture/CROWDS?’
It was certainly hard to introduce the new teachers (newbies) to the school in such a tumultuous time while trying to be realistic yet not pessimistic. Basically there has been a lot of staff changes and under enrollment, which accounted for less teachers being hired this coming school year. This may be directly related to our administration, or to the fact that Korean families are moving away from Hagwans because Korean elementary schools are beginning to offer English lessons also.
Whatever the case may be, the beginning of the semester was quite stressful. The schedule wasn’t fully worked out and two teachers did not have morning classes and were unsure of how to spend their time and therefore unsure of their position at the school. I found out that moving classrooms is a major bummer, especially when you’re adding your stuff to the previous classroom owner’s, and that starting new classes from the beginning is confusing and overwhelming and made even more so when you have learned from past mistakes and are trying to improve upon them.
That all said, I cannot even tell you how wonderful it feels to start from the beginning. When I arrived I came halfway through the semester and the students did not even know their teacher was going to be leaving. BIG adjustment period. I didn’t come in as ironed fisted as I should have, which contributed to some behavioral problems in the afternoon classes. This time all the kids I currently have knew I would have them a couple weeks beforehand. They were prepared and so was I.
This semester I have ten six-year-old (five in Korean) Kindergartners in the morning, called the Dolphin Class. They are ADORABLE and think just about everything I say is hilarious. Talk about a self-esteem boost. I am no longer just ‘Ms. K’ but am now full-fledged ‘Miss Kearney’ and it makes my heart sing to hear those little voices call it out. One girl, Edeline (who writes her name with hearts attached to every letter) often looks at me and says, with a look of confused wonder and happiness, “Miss Kearney is silly!” Yes, children, yes I am. The other day I played my ukulele for them and they all went nuts during “The Wheels on the Bus.” Three girls were actually head-banging, which made me giggle a lot. I guess head-banging to music you’re reaaaally feeling is more instinct than a learned behavior.
In the afternoon on Monday/Wednesday/Friday I have my old Kindys back, plus three others from another recently graduated Kindy class. There are eleven of them altogether and as I have my fist full of iron now, they listen to me like champions. I actually look forward to teaching this class, while last semester evening classes seemed more like a duty. It’s so grand to be reunited with my Deer Class (though they chose their new name and are the Eagle Class now) and I cannot wait to continue learning and growing with them.
On Tuesday and Thursdays I have a class that I fought hard not to get, but to no avail. They are the “ESL Kindy” class, which are four kids who are in their second year of learning English. They are called ESL because they have never had the all day full immersion program, but just afterschool twice a week. They are notoriously the worst class to teach as they are badly behaved and with little (LITTLE) English. The bad-ass ring-leader (the kind of kid who looks a grown-up in the eye and says ‘NO’) dropped for a month so the first day wasn’t that bad. It was actually good. I came in with two iron fists and an iron helmet to which they responded well. I have come to learn the rule of having students respect you before liking you when the time calls for it.
I could tell you tons more stories about my new kids I have – the way I just have to look at Yuni and she closes her little eyes and giggles, or how Katie tried to sound out b-i-t by looking wildly around the room before shouting out ‘CAR!!’, or how Joon is perhaps the shortest 5-year-old I’ve ever met but thinks he’s probably the strongest – but I want to end with something totally different.
Lunar New Year happened a few weeks ago and I took a vacation to Japan with two good friends and were then joined by two other friends. I wrote this ‘piece’ (that feels like a pretentious writer’s word) about it the night I got back and it sums up our time well.
I am overwhelmed at how awesome the vacation was that I just had. I went to Tsushima, Japan with Ada, Chris and then Dashik and Ashley for the last day. We traveled far, long, and well while overcoming obstacles left and right. We met wonderful people who were very kind to us, especially Takashi our pension host who was the best. Ever. We hiked grand areas, and explored wonderful beaches. We found a blue starfish (he-toe-day) with orange speckles all over it next to a ‘run of the mill’ starfish missing one leg of its star in a tide pool. 
(Finding a treasure like a starfish in a tide pool has been my dream for as long as I can remember – thanks Sesame Street – and that dream just came true to a higher level than I ever could have hoped for.) We also saw some of the elusive cat scat (plus the innumerous amount of deer turds all over), and hawks everywhere including as many as nine in the same spot circling over an area. We saw the most amazing views, including one where we could see both Korea and Japan (we think, but we’re going with yes because it made it all the more amazing), all of the two towns, lots of mountains and ocean, ocean, ocean.
We ate a lot of noodles, though not as many snacks as we would have liked, and also had an outdoor Japanese BBQ under the stars complete with sushi at the end. We had the most random brunch I have ever experienced on our last day including ramen with mushrooms and cabbage, galbi meat cooked with tons of onions, coffee made in a rice
cooker bowl, and some cereal all while R. Kelly serenaded us in the background. We went to a sauna and I finally got the hang of the cold water pool interspersed with the HOT water and saunas. We bugged out about a three-hour bus ride once we got on the island, only to have it be on an old amazing bus with huge windows on a day that was full of glorious sunlight, through twisting mountain roads with beautiful scenery.
We slept in Busan one night in a jimjilbong next to at least a hundred other Koreans. Noisy business. We took two ferry rides, one of which had to be first class due to lack of space, which earned us a free drink and peanut/fish snacks. We kept re-learning skipping rocks in the ocean is super hard, but something you keep doing when there are plethoras of perrrrfect skipping stones surrounding you. (This fact makes me realize how much I value other people who love skipping stones enough to also look down at rocks and exclaim “These are perfect skipping stones!”) We played silly games and even got two Japanese friends to join in with us. We learned that attitude is everything, especially when you are traveling in a foreign country. We came back to a hugely crowded city, but were blessed with a snowfall big enough to kick some up when you ran through it.
From a land where folks don’t play football nor know what a groundhog is, Until Next Time.
