Where It's At

In bullet form because frankly, I'm not sure what I'm going to say once I start writing....

• The new job: Well. hmmmm. It hasn't settled down yet. No, not one bit. We've had at least one change to our class schedule every day this week; there is still confusion over which students belong in which classes, what are homework assignments are supposed to be like... Or not. And well, this is the really frustrating thing about working in private schools in Korea: It's all flash and PR to attract extremely wealthy parents and their rotten kids. Here's a great example: we have oil pastels in the art room. And expensive paints. And that kind of coloring chalk that artists use, but we don't have any complete sets of crayons in our class rooms. Nor do we have enough scissors, glue, file folders or a copy machine that actually works, or enough damn desks for all the teachers in our faculty lounge. So we are always fighting over materials and workspace, thereby reducing the amount of time we have to be productive when we are not in the class room, and in fact always having to leave our classrooms to find the things we need. And when we do find the things we need, we usually have to steal it from someone else, which of course is really annoying because it never gets returned. Just, why oh why are we dealing with such ridiculous scarcity for the things we really need, when our school is overflowing with stupid, pretty, useless things that are going to break or get wrecked within 2 months anyhow? SO FRUSTRATING!


• Speaking of rotten kids... my kids are like totally rotten. Cute, but rotten. Smart, but rotten. We had a meet and greet with the parents last weekend. Boy, was that telling. Our students rule their parents and as such they expect to rule in the classroom. This week has not been easy. No, little 5 year old, you can not tell me what to do. This is school, and I am not your mother... So my students come from an interesting and assorted group of the Korean elite: I have one child who is the daughter of a very famous actor; another whose father and uncle are professional baseball players for Texas and some Florida team in America; a big politician's daughter; and the remainder mostly come from rich executives or old money from the Korean chaebol legacy. I'm trying to remember that it is not the kids' faults that they are so damn rotten, but when you have 8 students with 8 ideas about what they want and have never been told "no," well, sometimes you just feel like lining the kids up against the wall and making your classroom into a boot camp that breaks their will. Now in honesty, the thought of that abhors every anti-authoritarian instinct I have, but it's a hard balance of teaching a kid to remain independent and spirited and not letting them step all over each other and their teachers... Especially when their parents are teaching them to step all over everyone to get what they want...


• OH what happened to my sweet, smart and respectful students at the first school? Dolphin class and Giraffe class, I sure do miss you kids.... and your great parents.


• Life with the GS this week has been a little better. He hasn't worked since last Friday when his dad died...He has a lot on his mind of course, and has spent a lot of time on the phone with his family and is doing his best to help them from here, but it's been really nice just to see him after a totally exhausting day and not wonder how late his meeting is going to last or if he is going to have time to eat a meal with me this week. Unfortunately this week will be over as of tomorrow, so it' s back to the grind of being too busy for much of anything outside of work.


• Although no decisions have officially been made yet, it looks like this will be the last year for us in Korea. He will probably go to Bangladesh first to take care of things with his family... I'm not sure what my plan is yet because I want to finish a year at this school and make enough money to be able to travel to the US and to Bangladesh before I'm settled anywhere.


• I'm not freaking out as much as I was last week, mostly because that stuff doesn't make sense to freak out about right now. And the GS is still the same old GS, and although it is really sad that his dad died, it is really nice to see him reconnecting with his family and owning up to his responsibilities. And while I don't know what that means for us as a couple, I guess it is good for me to see this side of him and get to know him more deeply... And well, isn't that what being in a good relationship is all about? The adventure; the learning to be there for each other even when it is confusing and hard; and the rewards of growing together, even when it is in sometimes equal and opposite directions... You can spend a whole life time getting to know someone... Isn't that fun?