Lost in Busan

I was fully intending on making it to the orphanage today. The plan was to meet either at Bennigan's at noon or Starbuck's at 1:30. I left my apartment a bit later than I had planned, then I forgot how long a walk it is to the bus stop, and then I had to wait perhaps 15 minutes for the bus. I got to Busan at noon so ate at the Lotteria in the bus station, but then stayed there reading. When I went to get on the subway Nampo-dong was also farther away than I remembered it. By the time I got to that stop it was 1:35.

I emerged from the subway in the drizzling rain and walked around, but didn't see any Western places, only Korean stores and restaurants. I decided to give up on it and enjoy walking around. It was only raining a little, and neither hot nor cold so was comfortable enough (I ignored my wet shoes/socks). I walked up the mountain to Busan Tower. Yes, walked. The escalator was closed for some reason, so that left about a billion huge steps to climb. Almost as bad as climbing the Great Wall! Looking down on the city and the port with the low clouds and little bit of fog was gorgeous. I didn't actually go up in the tower, but just walked around and enjoyed the view from the park. Then back down.

I passed a bookstore and had to go in. I bought two novels, starting one in a coffee shop I went into to dry off for a bit. Then back to Ulsan. So while I was never really lost all day, I never found what/who I was looking for! Back in Ulsan I took a warm shower, put on dry clothes, and ordered pizza for dinner.

Happy Birthday Baes

It was SO HARD to wake up this morning. I made it on time to Dave's academy, but he was late. We got a lot done on the webpage. Euri helped a lot in deciphering the Korean instructions. Get this—the webpage is in English, but the buttons to update it are in Korean, as is the search function on parts of it. At least all of us (Scott, Kendall, and I) can read Korean. We were writing down what the various words meant and memorizing what different keys do. We got all of the "test" posts deleted, added a few announcements, and tried to update pictures (from Roger's wedding, the orphanage, and the bowling tournament). However, pictures aren't working quite right. And we can't do anything about the links that don't go to the right sites because it's somehow incorporated into the template of the page. We also opened up a web address for our church at ulsanchristian@yahoo.co.kr. The USA version of yahoo gives 4 MB of storage; the Canadian page gives 6 MB; the Korean page gives FIFTY!! Dave walked me through the instructions. But then you can sign in from the regular USA site and it displays in English. I might have to get one of those sites for myself for storing larger files online!

When we finished we went to the McDonald's at Save Zone. It was a quick lunch as I had to start teaching at 2. When I was in the teachers' room getting ready for class Penny, Kate, and Danny came in to give me Penny's gift—a purple handphone charm. Later in the 2 PM class Billy gave me a letter, but made me read it after class. The envelope is address to "Baes" (which is how they say my name). The front of the card (printed by a card company) says "Happy Birthday" then Billy wrote, "Hi Baes! Your happy day vary vary thas 2004 5/13 Billy" Wow do we ever need to work on spelling (and punctuation!). But for 2nd grade, that's OK.

Sometime in the afternoon the teachers started talking about tests. The Side by Side book is such a pain since I'm the only one who teaches it. I have to make up 10 listening questions, 15 speaking questions, and 2 writing questions (with example paragraphs). Then on top of that I have to do 10 listening questions for the High Impact book. At first Joelle said 20 listening questions and we didn't think we had tests made for Impact Intro and First. When Sandra asked Julian to help he pulled such an attitude and said that if he had to help me then I needed to help him with filling in the Tactics for Listening book because it's going to take HOURS and HOURS to do that and he's teaching 31 hours already. Sandra pointed out that we're all teaching that many hours, and that I have other tests to make. We found the Intro and First tests before things got worse. It was so annoying, though--I don't think he's even started doing the book to see how fast it goes. (It consists of listening to a tape and filling in the blanks. Whoever made the books can't put out an answer key, too??) Several months ago I did about half a book, and it took less than 90 minutes—it's not as bad as it looks. I didn't make a big deal out of having to do the extra work. In fact, I don't know if anyone besides Kara knew about it.

We also have a meeting sometime next week in the morning to discuss "changes." What changes?! Sandra already knows many of them, but isn't sharing. I did ask if classes would remain 50 minutes long, and she said yes. I know that instead of paper journals, the kids will start doing them on the computer which will be inconvenient because we won't be able to correct them between classes (with only one computer for all 10 teachers to use). We tried doing the journals online last year and the kids have such trouble with basic grammar and spelling stuff that trying to type in English just makes the journals worse. Then some of my beginning students were confused about the purpose of various parts of the site so were typing in Korean or thought it was cute to enter stuff like "I like apple." Both of those kinds of things showed up on my list to correct. At that level they're not supposed to be writing a journal!

The entire 4 PM period I spent correcting journals. There were SO MANY because they didn't turn them in last week because of Wednesday's holiday. Many of the 6th graders commented on this being their last Children's Day. From Jay's journal (with my corrections):

The Worst Children's Day Many children like Children's Day (people who don't like Children's Day aren't children). But this time was bad. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't buy anything. I just played computer and rode bikes. So this Children's Day is the worst Children's Day of my life.

The original was pretty good, if you ignore the lack of punctuation:

The worst children's day Many childrens like childrens day (don't like a childrens day this person was not children) But this time was bad I didn't go to any where Just I played computer and I rided bikes So this childrens day is the worst childrens day of my life

The rest of the day wasn't particularly good. Late students, dense students, loud students, arguing students. The end to another week.

Stalker and Ketchup Tiger

When I walked up the stairs at work this morning the phone was ringing and ringing and ringing. I looked at my watch and was surprised that no one was there yet. Then when I got to the top of the stairs I saw the lights were on. I walked to the doors, saw Jennifer sitting at the front desk, walked in, and said hello with a questioning voice. She explained that a "stalker" was on the phone. The next few minutes she continued picking up the phone and immediately hanging it up. Then she asked me to answer the phone. OK, sure, let's see the reaction to an English voice. I picked up the phone and answered with my most professional-sounding voice (all in English). Then, "May I help you?" The guy hesitated, said "yes" in English, and then started in with a string of Korean obscenities. Lots of them I had never heard before, but he kept repeating "Shi-pal" (fuck) again and again and again and again. I considered saying "You have the wrong number" but the guy didn't give me an opening. I simply hung up. A minute or so later when he realized there was no one on the phone he called back. Jennifer again picked up the phone and immediately hung it up again. After a few more tries the guy gave up. In the back of my mind I wondered if it was perhaps her boyfriend. Whoever it was, he had quite a mouth!

The adults gave me three pairs of Valentino Rudy socks imported from Italy for Teacher's Day (which is actually Saturday). At 3 Lisa brought Fantas for everyone. I let them drink them in class, which was a mistake. They were careful not to spill them, but the sugar made Ally totally and completely insane. Jenny gave me things that were a cross between socks and hose. In their book Ally read the word, "ketchup," a new word for her. She asked, "Teacher? Eeny, meeny, miney, moe, ketchup tiger?" I laughed, "No, Ally, it's 'catch a tiger!'" and went on to explain ketchup to her.

At 4 Tony took off his bandage to show his badly injured elbow (bicycle accident). Yesterday Billy called me over to his desk and took the band-aid off his thumb to show a beautifully infected wart. These Korean mothers are crazy. If a kid has the sniffles they'll take them to the clinic but they'll try to self-treat a wart at home!! Also in the 4 PM class Kane came up to my desk to show me something in his book and accidentally knocked my book and notebook off the desk. We both said, "Oh no!" and he added, "The ship is sinking!" (from the Hip Hip Hooray Swiss Family Robinson story a couple of sessions ago). The 5 PM class is oh so dense. At 6 PM Tom gave me a sweet letter as his Teachers' Day gift. It said,

Dear Beth Hello Beth? How are you? I'm your English student Tom. Be careful Beth. Why outside is cold. Your very good teacher. Your good teach children. I want your read English. Why you have read is fast. So I'm listen OSS culb Hip Hip Hoary! Tape. Beth your very good teacher. Now my class more more teach. Please Beth. Bye! 2004 May thirteen Thursday See you Tom

How sweet! We studied a reading passage on diamonds for most of class. By the end of the class I think most of the class was saying "diamond" right. In Korean, the word is "die-ah-mond" so it's hard for them to say the English pronunciation, "die-mond." I skipped over Jack and Paul several times for the reading, for no particular reason, then when they pointed it out I purposely skipped them to see their reaction. Paul asked me, "Are we terrible students?" "Yes, of course you are," I joked. Jack put his head down on the desk and made a good show out of pretending to cry. They're so insane.

Brandon, Brandon. He's going to drive me crazy yet!! He's one of the few students who I can sincerely say has something wrong with him. ADD, ADHD, some kind of problem with his voice that he must always SHOUT EVERYTHING BECAUSE PEOPLE WON'T HEAR WHAT HE'S SAYING IF HE JUST SAYS IT IN A NORMAL VOLUME. I'm constantly reminding him, "Use an inside voice!" yet he continues to shout. Anyone care to send me some Ritalin or other mood-adjusters?? "Here, Brandon, try some American candy! Take one everyday before you come to my class!!"

Then on to Bible study and home around 12:45, to bed an hour later.

Warning: Gruesome Description of the Beheading

More drizzling rain today. The first class at 3 PM was pretty good, especially Sera. Next was fine, then at 5 they were clamoring for play and rest—they totally did not want to study. At 6 Tom and Billy were a little better than usual, but Nicole was absent so no one was there to explain the harder concepts. At 7 Paul continues to be so cute! Beth was absent and the other students weren't as good as normal. Could it be that her little 4th-grade wanting to learn attitude keeps the rest of them in check? At 8:30 they were rather quiet, but not studying and barely speaking any English at all. Glen was back after a month-long absence (to study for middle-school tests). He was clueless to answer even simple questions; Tom had to translate almost everything for him.

At home I went through all my nightly blog reading. I'm up to about 15 that I read regularly. One of them had a link to the beheading video, and my curiosity at what the media is keeping everyone from seeing made me click it. It wasn't at all like I imagined. When I hear "beheading," I think of the guillotine—quick and easy. I don't think of a dull knife sawing its way through flesh and bone and a spinal cord. I don't think of gushing blood and gasping for breath. I don't think of, even after all that sawing, the head having to be twisted back and forth until it finally comes loose. I don't think of what a real head looks like as it's held up for the camera; then the camera zooms in to show the neck and the blood continuing to flow onto the floor. As I watched it my stomach knotted. I still feel disgusted to think about it.

Do I regret seeing it? Am I glad I saw it? I don't know. We need to know that that kind of thing exists in the world, and the media descriptions don't do justice to just how horrible the video is. The media is making such a martyr out of the guy, but he was there to pursue business opportunities, or spy, or whatever he was doing, and had had plenty of opportunities (and warnings) to leave. What happened is horrible but so is the media's response. The video being so available on the internet is also questionable. Right to information, but the guy's family must feel horrible. Lots of tough calls on this issue.

Ranting

Nothing interesting yesterday. Today Joelle asked me—AGAIN—when we'd finish the book for adult class. A new student wants to join when we start a new book. I told her maybe a couple of weeks but that I wasn't sure. After all, we usually only do a page or sometimes two in one class. They'd rather talk than study a book, and isn't keeping them happy what I'm supposed to be doing? Then Joelle told me that the format for the class would be changing—I would teach it 4 mornings a week, and Miro would teach once a week (not Annie). I protested that I need some mornings off, and that the two hours between adult and elementary classes can be boring. She immediately went to tell Mr. Kim that I wasn't cooperating, while I thought about other possible solutions. When she came back she said that since the students have been absent a lot that we'd change the class to only 3 days a week—me twice and Miro once. OK, that's fine, or I suggested that if we changed the class time to an hour later that it would leave me less waiting-around time between classes (and more sleeping time in the morning!) so I could do 4 mornings per week. She insisted that the 2/1 will be good. No mention of when it's starting, though. Will they charge the same amount for fewer days? I think regardless of if the price changes or stays the same, the students will be unhappy with the change.

Grace is STILL not hearing the difference between the words "upset" and "absent!!" I worked with her on the word stress, then just individually on the sound of the letters. In English, "b" and "p" sound very different!! As does "a" and "u!!" Why are you making them sound the same, crazy lady?? They liked the lesson on sentence stress.

The rest of the day was spent in a bad mood, partially from Joelle and partially from hormones and cramps. I shouldn't let my mood affect my interaction with the kids, but sometimes they deserve to be yelled at.

The whole "Sandra as head foreign teacher" is starting to get to me. I know she has more experience than me and doesn't flaunt her role, but recently lots of things have been bothering me about it. Shall I list them all? OK, she's always the one who gets to interview the new Korean teachers, like our opinions don't matter. She gets to pick the new foreign teachers. The leading the meetings part I don't care about. She teaches the "returning" classes (full of genius kids who have lived overseas) that usually have 2-6 students. She gets paid more than us, yet has a shorter schedule. Often the Korean teachers (especially Joelle) will ask her questions and I hear her give an answer that's only half-right. Often I bite my tongue to keep from pointing out the problem. It's not like I've eavesdropping or anything—the teachers' room is extremely small and everyone hears everything that's said there. Sandra is stronger in some areas of teaching, but I'm definitely stronger in writing and grammar rules. Yet those are often the kinds of questions that Joelle asks Sandra! Yet another thing is that all the new teachers shadow Sandra and no one else. It's like Mr. Kim is saying that Sandra is the best teacher and that new teachers can't learn anything from anyone else. When I started I observed two different teachers, and learned something from both teaching styles. It's SO annoying that my going on 2 years of experience don't count for anything with Mr. Kim!!

Barbecue

After church we all headed out for the BBQ. Dave bought meat not just for the 29 people who signed up to come, or for the 5 extra "maybe" people, but for 50 people. Well, since that many people ended up coming, that was a good thing! What happened to "RSVP???" We had hot dogs and bulgogi. (What exactly IS bulgogi, anyway? Usually it's beef cut up into bite-sized pieces, marinated, and barbecued. Sometimes it's pork, while sometimes it's cooked a little differently. Just think, "meat.") The two Johns kids rode on the bus with some of us to show us where to get off. Drizzling rain lasted all day, but the house was plenty big enough for everyone. Carpet!!

I talked to Professor Cho and his wife for quite awhile. When I pass an older person I often wish we could communicate so I could hear first-hand what the Korean War was like. Before I always thought that it would have to be an ancient person to remember the war. But in my conversation with Professor Cho (he teaches some kind of difficult science at Ulsan University) he told me how he met his wife (also Korean) when they were in graduate school in the USA during the early 1960s. The math of it didn't hit me until later--if he was in graduate school then, he has at least some memory of the war. But how to bring it up? I don't know how appropriate talking about the war is. I don't want to risk offending or upsetting him. He's really dignified, yet personable. Remembering the sad events of the past, especially if bad things happened within his family . . . and depending on his age (I really had never thought of him as that old before) he might have even fought in the war (although I don't think he's quite that old). Hmmm . . . something to think about. We talked a lot about the USA--his 2 children live there, along with his grandchildren. He wants to retire there, but isn't sure where. His wife ruled out Florida after hearing that there are no mountains there. (She likes hiking.) Talking with them at church I hadn't realized that they both spoke such good English! But to attend GRADUATE school in the USA, they'd have to. To be overseas in the turbulent period of the 1960s probably means they came from wealthy and politically powerful families. Anyway, it was an enjoyable conversation (especially when compared to the English teachers talking about work). I met some new foreigners who live near the foreigners' compound, so it wouldn't be feasible for us to get together often.

The food worked out fine. Only fruit for dessert, but that's fairly common here. Plenty of food for everyone, and plenty of variety. When Dave bought the meat he also bought the hot dog buns—lucky me! The things that looked like hamburger buns actually had a thin layer of some kind of cream in the middle of them. They were OK, but wouldn't have tasted good with meat! So another project finished and another sigh of relief. Now it's back to working on the website!

Around 6 PM lots of us bus people headed back to the city proper. It took a full hour to get back to Mugeo-dong. We were all tired from the excitement and the food that we weren't used to (both the type and the quantity). I did nothing of value after getting home, and then went to sleep early.