I was looking through the list of contacts in my old phone last night to get some numbers, and the way in which memories and time collided very much gave me the feeling of stepping into a DeLorean to take a quick trip back to other times. Being so far away from everyone makes me feel like my time back at home is paused; like there is a frozen Katie Kearney somewhere back there and I’ll de-thaw sometime and get back into the picture. Sometimes it feels as though I will be in Korea teaching forever and I have to remind myself that I will soon be gone, back into my old life, and it will eventually get to the point where it doesn’t even seem like I left.
While still here, the roller coaster times at my school continue with new and strange developments happening daily. Our principal was recently fired in a most Korean type of way, which is to say very passive aggressively. More and more power was being taken away from her until one fateful Friday she pulled me and another teacher into an empty classroom just before we were leaving for the day and said, ‘Today is my last day. Don’t tell anyone else. I wanted to say goodbye and thank you for being nice to me.’ It was still a bit shocking even though she had been talking about leaving since the end of October. We quickly got a new principal named Susie who seemed like a light shining at the end of our ever blackening tunnel. We had a big meeting with the entire staff one Friday and she told us things like “use less books and do more projects”, “the students shouldn’t take so many tests”, “you’re certified teachers, you should know what’s best.” I had to remember to close my mouth as it was hanging open in awe. However, I have been in Korea long enough not to get my hopes up and lo and behold, she quit the following week. The owner/current principal of our school holds the interest of money most important and not proper education, or proper treatment of his employees.
As our school is currently vice-principal-less (as our owner is the ‘principal’), the Korean staff now have a much larger workload. Everyone is really stressed out and there are more students dropping from the morning classes. I just lost three this past week and I’m pretty bummed about that, but the bright side is that I can get accomplish more with the ones I have left. This teaching experience is making me think on my feet more than I ever have before, and is allowing me to roll with the punches better than I ever thought I could. Now when odd things happen I can just kind of laugh (or REALLY, REALLY laugh, depending on how stressed I am or the lack of sleep I’ve been getting) and just move on. I can’t control these situations, and I am now learning to set fewer expectations on a place that’s constantly changing.
However, as per usual, my little kiddos are the silver lining in all of this confusion. I have one girl in my class named Sally and she doesn’t speak much English as she just joined our school about two months ago. The other kids in my class very pointedly tell me ‘Sally is a KOREAN’, which to them explains everything. The other day we were doing an ‘Around The World’ kinda game where I showed two students sight words on a flash card and they had to race each other to read it first, and Sally actually won a round! She barely speaks but she beat the pants off another student. I screamed for joy, high fived and hugged her, then realized she looked semi-scared so I backed off to let her know I wouldn’t act that wild every time she spoke. It was one of those ‘holy shit I’m really getting through to them’ teacher kind of moments and makes any bad things I’m going through manageable.
I have another girl in my morning class whose name is Pinky. Yes, Pinky and no, she doesn’t have a friend named Brain. I’m pretty sure her mom let her pick her own name. She’s another one I’ve had some good break throughs with as she was new with the class this year and had trouble socializing. Now she socializes too much and I often have to tell her to quiet down; ‘LILY! LET’S PLAY A GAME!’ She also often comes up to my desk just to see what’s crack-a-lacking and to tell me ‘My mommy is a Korean.’ To which I reply ‘My mommy is an American.’ ‘Well my daddy is a Korean.’ ‘Well my daddy is an American.’ ‘MY BROTHER IS A KOREAN!’ ‘MY BROTHER IS AN AMERICAN!’ And then I have to remind myself I’m not four. However, Pinky is and we go through this routine at least three times a week.
I’m going to include the video I took of all of us singing their favorite song ‘You Are My Sunshine.’ We sang this during their snack time, and it was the second time in a row, so some of them get up and clean up during it. Kids teach me not to get offended so easily. Also, please note that three girls during the song take their hair out of pony tails so they can head bang better.
**The video is taking an unreasonable amount of time to upload, so I will try again later tonight.**
In life outside of school, I have been seeing a lot of art lately. I am becoming more acclimated to living in a city and am enjoying it much more than I was in the beginning. I LOVE hopping on the subway and getting to anywhere in the city that I need to go. There is also just so much to do here all the time, and I am now figuring out how to do it and how to get to where I need to go. I recently saw an exhibit with a friend called “This Is My Home” and it was all aerial views of Earth – from people struggling to the beauty of the Earth to folks picking tea to uranium mines to scarlet ibises in flight to things I couldn’t quite understand because the description was in Korean. The next day I went with some other friends to a photography exhibit by David LaChapelle, which focused on wealth, fame and religion. It was awesome and weird and sparked some interesting conversation. I took myself out on a date a few Sundays back and saw some interesting photography by Karl Lagerfield, who, I learned that day, is a big fashion kinda guy, and he really pushed some boundaries with pictures he took. I say that in an ‘a lot of people were naked and risqué’ sorta way knowing how Koreans are about nudity. I really enjoyed watching their reactions.I am learning so much about myself here and one of those things is that I enjoy being by myself and having dates alone. Now parentals, don’t get nervous here and think I am alone too much. I have been hanging with some great friends from school and beyond, but I really enjoy treating myself like a lady and getting out into the city to see art, grab tea, and eat Korean soup so spicy I have to blow my nose a hundred times. I appreciate this time in my life a lot. Next Monday I am very, very, very excited to go and see Yo-Yo Ma, a most excellent cello player. I even bought myself a new dress today for the occasion.
Speaking of classical music, I am digging it so very much at this time. There are two Korean families that I spend time with in a language exchange sort of way, and they are very in tune (pun intended) with the classical music scene in Seoul. They give me a lot of tickets to see shows and sometimes even bring me along with the family to witness some kick-ass cello and violin playing. I enjoy it very much and am quite thankful to be linked to these two amazing families.
So friends and family I’m happy once again to share my trials and tribulations with you because it helps my mind so much to get them all down and process them through writing. There have been glimpses of spring here, so much so that I actually had to take off my coat when exploring a new park a few days ago. I hope the signs of spring are coming your way, too.
Until next time.
