Playing in the Street

I went to the grocery store a couple of Sundays ago. I live in an area of one lane winding roads. Cars are always stopping, backing up; pedestrians waiting for 2 cars to pass each other. Not always, but it is common. Traffic is light in general though. It is perfect for what I saw on this Sunday... 3 children playing in the street. I was struck dumb and had to stop and look at these children... they were PLAYING on a Sunday afternoon. My first thought was "I like this" and my second thought was "and the fact this never happens is why I don't like Korea". It got me thinking of all the parks in the neighborhoods around here and how I walk by them all the time and take the occassional turn on the swings, down the slide or play at balance on the center of teeter-totters. I realized that the only time I have noticed children at all these numerous parks is once last winter after 10pm when Daegu had a rare snow that stuck enough for midnight snowmen. The park across the road was filled with children that night. Otherwise, couples smooching on the benches or older men sharing soju or beer from paper bags. That Monday I was teaching a level 2 class, 8-10 yr olds and I said, "Did any of you go outside and play over the weekend?" They looked blankly at me. I said, "What did you do this weekend?" The twins in the class, the talkative ones, said "teacher, we study on the weekends." Interesting. Regular school in the morning, English academy at my school at least 2 afternoons a week, sometimes 3 or 4; and I know most students take a music lesson some afternoons and many are in math, computer, science academies. So, that is just about every afternoon during the week and some classes last until 10pm. Of course there is homework for regular school, as well as for the academies... and music practice of course. So yeah, 8 year olds study on the weekends in this country. Mind you, this conversation happened during these kids' summer break from their regular school. Makes me feel SLIGHTLY less frustrated about some of the students I have with behavior problems. No kidding kids are hyper right?
Anyway, once it hit me I have found I can't get over it. Everyone is so FAST here. Parents spend their lives searching for bragging rights and those rights rest on their children. It just doesn't seem right. The sight of those kids that Sunday... the way it stopped me... the population of this city; the sheer number of academies and the fact they stay in business, and then the realization that I rarely see children outside of school. Of course visions that flashed in front of my eyes were of Egypt and Micronesia. Lol, especially Pollap. Remembering how I could not sit in the grass with a book anywhere on the island without a group of 4-10 kids coming to sit and just look at me if I ignored them; play or talk if I interacted with them.
My director told me today that the E6 class I teach likes me. He picks them up for class and he asked them for their favorite teacher. Of course, I enter the classroom every class with a big "HELLO FROM YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER!" so maybe I have brainwashed them just a little, lol. Anyway, he said they said I am fun. Then I had to confess to my director that last week I accidentally said "shit" in class (which has NEVER, surprisingly yes, happened before) which of course the students loved (this is an older and more advanced class). But seriously, ok, I do think this class does like me and it makes me happy that they think they are having fun in my class. I know I have fun teaching them and I can't say that about all that many classes. But I think my new goal needs to be to feel it more often, with more classes. These kids need some fun, don't you think? Maybe tomorrow we will all go out and have class in the streets... :)

Weekends in the City

I didn't make it to the beach this last weekend. Instead, I went to Seoul; had planned to stay one or maybe two nights and then head to the beach for the rest of my 4 day weekend. But I ran into a friend in Seoul I didn't expect to see and ended up staying 4 nights. It was very strange because I found myself actually enjoy Seoul, specifically Itaewon. Itaewon is an area in Seoul built up to meet the desires of the American base nearby. Therefore, it has lots of western bars, restaurants and shopping. I ate Mexican and Thai food. I met people from Algeria, South Africa and Egypt. Maybe I enjoyed it more this time because I actually partook of the daylife. I went to a bookstore with only English books and bought 2. Read one of them that day in a coffee shop and the other one I finished Wednesday night, lol, some things never change. So many people in that area speak English too, it makes it so easy and comfortable to shop and go places. I think it may have been the first time EVER in my life that city life appealed to me. One of my co-teachers said it reminded her of Chicago. Well, I guess I have always kind of fantasized about living in a city and having a home in the country too (on the coast of course), but no city has ever made me feel like I feel when I have that fantasy. This past weekend though, Seoul felt nice. I still don't think I would REALLY want to live there. For example, my friend that I ran into has a car now and we went for a drive. I remember relaxing to the music and feeling good and then suddenly yearning for a freeway, suddenly wanting to feel the wind in my hair and getting panicky at the thought that we would have to drive and drive and drive and maybe we still would be stuck in that cramped stop and go city. So, you know, I probably still need that beach house to be able to do the middle of one of the biggest 3 cities in the world. I am kind of looking forward to visiting the city again soon. We'll see. In the meantime, maybe I can get to the ocean this coming weekend...

Weekend Relaxations

The monsoon season ended and now we have had about 2 1/2 weeks of plus95 degree weather. I wish it'd rain again :) Before this I had bragged about not using my air conditioner this year thus far. But now that I walk into my apartment and my little thermometer says, after 3 flights of stairs, 94 degrees, I turn it on.
So last Friday my director decided he would like us to go to the east coast on Saturday morning at 8 and come back on Sunday. So we rearranged our schedules and did just that. This is called "planning" in Korea. Everyone was crabby about it until we were on our way, and then we were all fine. It was awesome. The beach is about a 2-3 hour drive away and it is in our director's hometown, so he knows the less touristy areas. We drove along the beach on this little one lane road and these old women came up to the car asking us to stay in a room in these 3 room houses for the night. Of course I was on top of that and everyone went along I think just because I was so enthusiastic about it. So we stayed a 2 minute walk from the beach. The beach is lined with like small covered platforms about waist high that you can rent to keep your stuff, cook, drink, sleep, come out of the sun. So we rented one of those for the day. One of my students once said, "Teacher, did you know people swim in the ocean without a tube?" And I get it, it is uncommon for Koreans to be in the water without some kind of floatation device. Anyway, the Sea of Japan is NOT the South Pacific. It was FREEZING. It felt like Glen Lake in May... maybe even worse. Despite the cold it was wonderful to swim in the sea again. It was also wonderful to be able to make out the stars at night, man I miss home sometimes. Later in the day my director and I went to another place to snorkel and we jumped in and I just couldn't breathe, I thought I was having a panic attack, but it was even more cold and I just couldn't catch my breath. It was really sweet because it was so hot, but after being in the ocean I felt comfortable for hours. Unfortunately, not all the teachers at my school like the water, can you imagine? So it was kind of disheartening knowing some people were maybe bored and all, but overall it was awesome. This coming weekend we have a 4 day weekend and my director asked us to go with him and his family to Pohang again only to stay with his in-laws this time; he says the best beach in Pohang is there. No one else is going but I am. Sounds like the in-laws live in the country. I am hoping to get some good journal time in and maybe figure out what i am going to do next. I did talk with my director today and he knows I am not renewing my contract; he did extend an invitation to extend it if I want though. I pretty much told him I would, but I know that now that I have I will probably hear from Vietnam. So basically my new plan is... work here until December, go home for a nice long relaxing stretch, a month or so, and head out again to where ever. But don't put too much into that, I have a new plan about every other day. It makes me crazy, so I know it makes everyone else crazy too. I am sure that upon my return after my 4 day weekend I will have all new something for this place...

Feedblitz

Hey everyone,
You will notice a new link on the side of my blog. It is feedblitz, thanks to my dear Rocket friend. Add your email to it and you will get updates when I update my blog. Cool eh? No spam, seriously. Try it out! This may even motivate me to post more often... uh oh!