Mad Menning, Suicide

Lately my life is a blur of getting paid to eat and get drunk /not work at all. My students went on a camping trip for the past few days, and they came back today. On the days they've been gone, I've spent my time napping, going out to lunch, and being best friends/vacation planning with my principal. Two days ago he took me to a secret gambling room two towns over- basically a smoky, dimly lit basement (like you'd imagine) with beers a-flowin' and several card tables strewn carelessly about. It was a grand old time, and it isn't as weird as you might think to be drunk at 1PM at an illegal gambling ring with your 60 year old no-English-speaking boss. Gosh I had to sleep that one off all afternoon! Actually, thinking about it, I haven't worked a full five day week in six weeks now. Not complaining! I love my job lately. My life has begun to parallel the show Mad Men in the best way possible.

Let's see, what else is going on? Mostly just non-stop awesomeness/outside partying, Mexican food loving, and movie filming. I can't really be bothered to make anything of myself lately (save for a few hours every Sunday for band practice).

In other news, on a field trip on Friday, a 14 year old student of mine tried to commit suicide while on a field trip. It was pretty sad- this kid has a really sad life. His single, abused mom dumped him and his sister off at an orphanage three years ago and moved back to her hometown in the Philippines. He has suffered emotionally ever since- he stole money and tried to run away three times last semester. He doesn't speak in school- only sometimes cries silently in the back. My heart breaks for him. Anyway, while on this field trip (which I was on as well), Sangje threw himself into the ocean. He can't swim and was under the water for almost two minutes before anyone noticed. Here in Korea, suicide is kind of a funny topic. Not funny as in ha ha, but strange. As it has the second highest rate of suicide in the world, most people know someone, or know of someone who has committed what my students call "self-die." It's not really as big of a deal here; maybe it is, and they're just really good at pretending. No one even told me anything had happened until we were getting back on the bus to return to school, and I asked where my co-worker friend Kim Sung Ju was.
"Oh, she is at the hospital with Sangje," replied me co-teacher. "He tried kill himself today," almost flippantly, like it was no big deal. I think that if that kind of thing happened in the states, the field trip would be cut short immediately and everyone would have to go back to school. Here it was like, ain't no thang.
Sometimes Koreans handle things very differently than I'm used to.
To further illustrate this point, let me share the story of my co-teacher finding out her son had appendicitis the morning of the field trip. When she told me, I was shocked- Shouldn't you go and be with him in the hospital? I thought. I asked if she was alright, if she would need to go be with him.
"No, of course not," She replied casually. "That is my private life, this is my work life. I have responsibility." I could understand that, Korea is extremely work oriented.
"Well, are you worried about him?" I asked.
"No! Surgery is ok," she said, "But next week is exam week at his school."
Are you kidding me, lady? You're not worried your only son is about to have major abdominal surgery, but you're worried he might not be back to school in time for exams?! I hid my disgust as best as I could and managed choke out, "You're so Korean."

*This is not to say that Koreans are unfeeling, or that they don't care about their kids. They do- family bonds are really strong and important here. It's just really different.

I remembered back to the days when I was in middle school and I would be sick at school- not even talking surgery here, just sick- mom would come get me every time. I remember (vaguely) back to my sister Heather's appendicitis- it wasn't like this. I guess every culture has different ways of dealing with situations like this- it's just hard for me to understand at times.

Anyway, it's almost the weekend, and though I hardly worked this week, I'm still thankful.
More soon.
<3M