when teacher's not happy, ain't nobody happy

Bad days. Everyone has them: kids, adults, students and teachers. It’s as if the grayness of winter has seeped into our classrooms. The children march in with scowls on their faces, declaring that they are very angry with the system that is school. They’d much rather go to ES resort and eat mangoes and play in the pool all day. They hate you because you mean work—what’s a teacher to do?

My entire week has been strung with bad days. Everyone at our schools is on edge. Miscommunication abounds even at the best of times. These week it’s been compounded by the winter grumpies. I’ve been yelled at by our Korean coteachers several times for various minor details, which stresses me out during the day. When I’m stressed, I tend to get more aggravated with the kids… Clearly it’s not a healthy situation.

I almost snapped today. The kids were terrible: speaking Korean despite my constant warnings and disciplinary action (taking stickers), telling me they didn’t like me/hated me, punching and kicking each other. It takes a lot to make me angry, I consider myself a generally calm person. Today though, they pushed me to the edge. As soon as I realized I was no longer in control of my temper, my face flushed and my hands shaking, I yelled at them to leave. They promptly got from their seats and walked out the door, leaving me to simmer down to angry iPod songs. I know they’re just children, but sometimes their words dig deeper than they might intend them too. Hearing “I hate you” thirty times in one class doesn’t do too much for my overall attitude.

Although they week has been slightly stressful, I did get two surprises. My dear friend Shana sent me a care package for my birthday/Valentine’s day. She included a whole bag of Sweethearts… the candy I get myself sick on every February! A letter from another friend came to cheer me up as well, so not all is at a loss. The cook at school also gave us some of her delicious food—chicken and a snack of rice noodles. Her food is always delicious, so it helped cheer me up as well.

David and I are going on a retreat this weekend for married couples with our church Jubilee. I was a bit reluctant at first, since it swallows our whole weekend, but I think it might end up okay. I’ll get back to you on how it is.

The time I don’t spend at school is dedicated to writing and editing my novels. The more time I spend at school teaching, the more I realize that writing is what I want to do for the rest of my life. David is the same way, except professional photography is his dream job. There are those touching moments and I love my kids… yet, I’ve decided that in the end, teaching really isn’t for me.

because everyone needs a laugh this time of year...

so you see... there were two muffins in an oven...

The Birthday with Two Cakes

My morning kindergarten class has dwindled from 5 children down to 2. One girl left over break due to learning disabilities (long story short) and took her friend with her. My boy Ethan moved to another city. At least, that’s what they tell me. Things in Korea aren’t always as they seem. White lies are very common here, its one of the more sneaky aspects of the culture. It’s been nice and peaceful with just two children, although I miss the ones that left. It’s almost a little too peaceful. Class is so quite now that I have to consciously keep my self awake, with a cup of instant coffee in hand. My small morning class also disarms me for my second class of the day, which consists of five, grumpy and hyper seven year olds. I’m always a little frayed after an hour of dashing around, tearing markers out of their hands and shouting at them to sit in their seats. This is also the class which decided to hold a vote on whether or not my butt is big. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the situation... although if you must know the outcome, it's large.
Last week I turned twenty-three! It wasn’t a big production. Most of my birthday presents were opened at or around Christmas time. One of my most anticipated gifts was a pair of PUMA tennis shoes from the store down the street. David took me there and let me pick out a pair of my very own! I’ve wanted a pair since high school, but I’ve never allowed myself the luxury of buying them. I picked out a cute gray and bright pink pair. I’ve worn them almost every day.

We went out to eat at “What’s David’s.” I got some delicious fish and chips (my mouth waters just remembering it) and had a nice meal with my husband and friends. We went back to Steve’s apartment, where they surprised me with a Baskin Robbin’s coffee ice cream cake. It was pretty delicious! Although the ice cream cakes over here are completely made of ice cream. There’s literally no cake part to the dessert!
We sat down to watch one of my favorite movies (“Serenity”) and the doorbell rang. It was Steve’s Korean girlfriend—who we all know and love. Steve ran back into the dark room, whispering “Act surprised! Act surprised!!” while throwing our used cake box into the closet. His girlfriend walked in, grinning and holding yet ANOTHER Baskin Robbin’s cake (it was strawberry this time)!! We acted surprised and they sang Happy Birthday for me yet again. I blew out the candles and made a wish for the second time. It was pretty delicious—and probably the only birthday I can claim having two surprise cakes within an hour of each other! What a great example of Korean hospitality.





Unfortunately we had Saturday school that weekend. Saturday school, in my opinion, is the devil. It saps all of the joy and fun out of my week and my weekend. Plus is exhausts me and makes me a very grumpy person. Hopefully it’s the last one we’ll ever have to do. Ever.
Despite the drag of Saturday school, David and I made the most of our Sunday by going out to explore. We went to Munhak Sports Complex, a stadium near here, and explored ancient government buildings that are across the street from it. David was doing some experiments/learning some things with his camera, so he got a lot of shots. Afterwards we went back to the Dr. Fish café and enjoyed a nice hour of reading and coffee. I let the fish nibble on my feet for a few minutes too.






That’s about all that’s happened in our lives. The next big thing on the horizon is a ski trip we’ll be taking in February and a week after that some family is coming!! I’m so unbelievably excited for that!

Quickie

One of the hardest things about being away from home is not being able to be there when those you love fall on hard times.

Celebrated my birthday this week. We went on a field trip and had Saturday school again. A future post to come on these subjects when I collect all of the pictures in one place.

Just letting you know I haven't forgotten about you.

Home Sweet Home

Well, the big event in our lives as of late is that we were home for Christmas!! It was such an amazing time filled with family, friends and memories (not to sound too cheesy). The trip overseas is long and pretty exhausting, but the end result (a holiday with our families) was well worth the money and time.
Let’s start at the beginning. We had to work Christmas Eve all the way up until 5:15 when we left for the airport to catch our flight. Everything went smoothly, although the children were on a bit of a sugar high for the majority of the day. We made our flight to LAX. It was a ten hour trip, which now doesn’t seem quite so bad to me. We landed in LA with a nine hour layover, so we decided to get some fresh air and indulge in an In and Out burger (mmm). The first few hours on US soil were full of reverse culture shock. There were so many little things that took my by surprise. I had the mind to document them as they came to me… so here it is:
Oh how wonderful it is to hear the words “Welcome Home” even if they are spoken by a customs guard in the LA airport. I’m having some culture shock: every sign is in English, there are children with blue eyes and blonde hair, I had a full conversation with the man I ordered my burger from and he had no accent, the traffic lights here are uber-short, I can understand every single conversation around me and talk to strangers. The money is all the same color, cars don’t stop when you walk out in front of them… but oh—how sweet it is to be on American soil. How many things I take for granted…
As you can see, I was shell shocked but happy. We spent most of the layover inside a Starbucks, nursing highly caffeinated drinks to keep us running. Our five hour flight to the east coast left around 10 pm. We stumbled into the Charlotte airport at 6 am, bleary-eyed, but happy to see David’s parents. The entire day was an intense struggle for me to stay awake. After a nice gift exchange with David’s family, the house lapsed into inactivity. We had to take a walk and keep ourselves busy to not fall asleep (I’m convinced that staying up and pushing through the day is the best way to get over jet-lag). After a meal of Bolivian stew (made by Mache’s excellent mother), I collapsed into bed… not to wake until hours upon sweet hours later.
The 26th was Christmas with my family. We drove down to Charleston. The last five miles consisted of me squealing at the top of my lungs because of all the sights I’d missed in the past four months. I was practically hyperventilating by the time we pulled into my parents drive. The reunion was every bit as sweet as I’d thought it would be. There were a few tears and much peeing on my dog’s part. We had a great day of catching up and exchanging gifts.




Much of the week was dedicated to seeing friends and buying things we couldn’t get in S.Korea. We stocked up on macaroni and cheese, granola bars, fluoride based toothpaste and Dove chocolates. I also had to spend all of my gift cards that I’d received for Christmas!








All (well, most) of our beautiful and wonderful friends.

The other big event of the trip was Cara’s wedding! As I’m sure you could imagine, the Strauss house was complete chaos that entire week. So many relatives and family friends were all over the place. David became completely engrossed with some photographer friends who came into town and gave him some tips on the trade. He got some really great shots of his sister’s wedding, which was great practice for him.




We had to leave the wedding reception early to make it to the airport (boo!). The travel was relatively smooth, although we landed in the beginnings of a blizzard in Incheon. The snow was everywhere and it wouldn’t let up the entire day. We had to go straight from the airport to school to teach, but fortunately kindergarten classes were cancelled for the day due to the intense weather. I’ve been able to make it through the day without jet-lagging too badly… I slept 11 hours collectively on the 24 hour trip back here. I think that’s a record without sleeping pills for me!


It’s a bit overwhelming to be back. Knowing I have 8 more months before seeing (most of) my family and friends again. 8 more months of long work weeks and foreign culture at my doorstep. I know it will go by fast—but I think that if it’s possible, going home has perhaps made me even more homesick. Sigh. Oh well.