I Survived the Great Typhoon of 2012

Yes, there was a typhoon that just swept through the nation. And, by swept through, I mean, it probably actually tidied things up a little bit :)

the slightest of flooding in the rice paddy- it will be gone by friday

The buildup to this typhoon was a days-long, armageddon-esque topic, about which people spoke in wide-eyed hushed tones. "It's the biggest typhoon to hit Korea in 10 years!" It even made the front page of the BBC news website. That made me a tiny bit nervous (I've never even experienced a hurricane before!) but having lived through a few other large storms here, I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing. Koreans, like everyone else, love to be dramatic when speaking about the weather, I know this very well after a sunny snow-less winter which all of my co-teachers swore was "the coldest in memory."

Well, my classes were cancelled yesterday, students ecstatic that they'd be allowed to stay home and seek refuge inside with their smartphones and televisions. I, however, had to come to school! Public school teachers in Korea are considered public servants- so, I made the hour's trek to school to "plan safety procedures" with my co-workers. This generally amounted to me sleeping on the couch with a couple of books all day long, emerging to eat lunch and go to the bathroom. It was a pretty great day :)

only a few trees were knocked over, and i saw one window broken

Though, I admit, some sick part of me is a little disappointed I didn't get to see the might of a real storm. I did see a bunch of trees down in the park I usually walk through to get to and from the bus stop, as well as one broken window- but in less than 24 hours, the typhoon was long gone, leaving relatively little damage in its wake.

Typhoon season doesn't end until November 1 (the same as hurricane season in the Atlantic) so time will tell if this is the worst we will get this year!

More soon!
M

Trouble in Paradise

My serious meeting this afternoon with my co-teacher about issues I've been collecting throughout the year just ended with her crying, me giving her a pep talk and telling her everything would be fine. No issues resolved. What?

To give a little background, I have been on a downward spiral (with regards to teaching) since about the end of May, growing more and more disdainful as the days go by. I know my attitude hasn't been the greatest, though I absolutely haven't shown it at work- I'm just as upbeat as ever with my students, who have grown (it seems to me) more and more hopelessly disinterested in learning English. It's not like they were ever super enthusiastic about it; the fact is, most of my students are orphans. They don't have a strong support system or anyone who is a particularly motivating influence in their lives. They live in a monastery with monks who beat them with bamboo rods and tell them, on a daily basis, how stupid, lazy, and worthless they are. I try to keep that in mind while teaching English, a subject most will probably never use. The minority of kids I teach that do have families are mostly farmers' sons and daughters, who will grow up to inherit the land their parents broke their backs tilling over the decades. I have several students who are (quite obviously) physically abused at home*- one boy's father beat him so badly over the summer vacation that he came back with a steel rod holding the broken bones in his leg together. 

(*Korea's stance on child abuse and spousal battery is, in my opinion, disgusting. The authorities are very aware of the problem and are constantly sweeping it under the rug; better to silence the victim than expose and humiliate the perpetrator, in turn, admitting the problem exists. It is extremely rare for someone guilty of child abuse or sexual crimes to be prosecuted here; if carried out, the sentences are considered a stain on Korea. It's a part of the culture I absolutely can never support, but also, unfortunately, am powerless to change.)

I have good days and bad. I try to just think about how lucky I am that I have a family who loves me no matter how stupid or worthless I am, and the freedom and means to travel and do basically whatever I want. I have experienced so many things that these kids will never get to see, and I am thankful. But that fact doesn't make it easier to keep 150 unruly, emotionally damaged teens, at the peak of puberty, who don't understand me, in line, respectful, and interested in hearing what I have to say.

However, a big part of this problem has consistently been my co-teacher, who has not been supportive to me at all since she started working at the school in March. Kim is, at 46, emotionally decades younger. She is wiry, timid, flighty and, for lack of a better description, a space cadet. She has, on more than one occasion, physically abused the students, had emotional breakdowns in class, and has dropped any and all authority in class. I have been reluctant to be confrontational about these issues for fear of really damaging our working relationship; she is very sensitive, and also my only mouthpiece to the rest of the people I work with. Today I just couldn't take it anymore; after weeks of classes behaving deplorably, I absolutely had to say something. I had to beg for her help.

I spent most of the morning thinking about how I would do this: I e-mailed my recruiter, Alistair and asked his advice. I looked on web forums for people who have had similar problems to mine. I wrote out a list of problems I was having and planned a speech, and, before class, asked Kim if she'd have a meeting with me after class was finished. 

So, we met. I kept a very calm tone, and, as kindly as I could, addressed each issue and asked her opinion on it. She was very quiet, and probably as I reached issue three, started stirring uncomfortably in her seat. This quickly led to her crying. I was trying to finish the list, but I felt so guilty that the conversation kind of turned around and it ended with me comforting her and telling her everything would be ok. I just.... don't really know where to go from here. It's absolutely clear I'm the one that has to be in charge here, in curriculum, discipline and planning, no matter how much I wish it weren't the case. I guess I just have to take things one day at a time and hope my students start cutting me a little slack.

More soon,
M

Goodbyes, Gangnam Style: The beginning of year two

Phew! It's been a minute I guess. I've been incredibly busy lately- well, to a point. It's the season of goodbyes, so most of my time (vacation included) has been dedicated to doing those properly: laying in the sun, jellyfish stings, eating as much ice cream as we can, riding the scooter all over the place, and partying all night. The goodbyes aren't mine, though- I signed my contract today (!!!) for another year in good old Korea! Today is the official start of the second semester- and this weekend marks one year since I left Buffalo. I miss it every day still!! I can't wait until Christmas when I can go home and see my family and feast on the wonderful things my awesome city has to offer!!!

one of our last shows

saying goodbye to eve.... my best bud

Reflections as of late:
1. The goodbyes have been hard and probably aren't going to get easier. I know more people are going to come and fill those holes as best as they can, but so far it's kind of been like experiencing a death. Dramatic, I know. But when you're used to seeing these people almost every day- they've been the constants in my life- it's been more than a little depressing to try to move on from that, especially knowing you'll never see the majority of them ever again. Change is a constant here in Korea, and it comes in two massive waves- September and March. This is a big time for people to leave the country (semester change). Things will level off very soon, but even my Vice Principal, who has been driving me to and from school every day for nearly a year, is retiring this weekend. We can't communicate with each other very well but it still breaks my heart that he's leaving. One day at a time!

The Jisan Valley Rock Festival- we saw Radiohead, M. Ward and Elvis Costello among others. It was almost unbearably hot but a super awesome time!!!

2. Things would be really different if I had a different co-teacher I think. She is simultaneously impossible to like and impossible to hate. I mostly can't believe the things that come out of her mouth, and get stressed when she expects me to behave like the Korean teacher while she behaves like.... a child. She just traveled out of the city of Jinju for the first time in her 46 years of life (!) to a neighboring city. She makes my job and interactions with my other co-workers far more difficult than if I were just to be teaching alone; she actually never informs me of schedule changes, planned events, or really anything. However, I'm convinced she has an actual mental/emotional problem, or is going through something really terrible. Anyway, working together has grown more and more difficult recently, and I'm praying something changes soon.

3. My health! .... I recently had a tapeworm infection and successfully got rid of it. I took a whole bunch of different pills (over the course of MONTHS!) that didn't really work, and it was really difficult to communicate with the Korean doctors. My system is so depleted, I've been dealing with it over the course of the past six months. I'm still infected with some kind of parasite, but, again it's been kind of hard to find a good doctor here who knows about the gastrointestinal stuff. I've just been feeling really tired all the time, stomach cramps and diarrhea constantly since pretty much June, brain fogs etc. Apparently parasites are REALLY common here (I had no idea really!) and the anti-parasitic drugs don't require a prescription and only cost a DOLLAR! It's craziness. Mostly if you go to the hospital here and describe the symptoms, they'll immediately try to give me antibiotics and shoo me away (not effective for me, kind of why I'm in this situation to begin with I think!), OR, go the opposite route and get really invasive, and go for and endoscopy, which is really expensive and probably not even all that effective in finding microscopic organisms in my digestive tract. Great. This week I had to start an anti-parasitic no sugar/no yeast diet. No beer! No bread! No ice cream :( I don't know who I miss more.... Sean, or sugar. If you know me at all, you'll know I've been deprived of my favorite things to ingest. I've already lost a moderate amount of weight. Again.... one day at a time!

I usually get through the weekdays by plotting events for the future, and though I have none that are particularly exciting as of yet, I do know that autumn is the best time of the year to live in Korea- it's the height of festival season, and this year I have a tent. I'm super excited to have excursions into the corners of this country and explore all that I can while I'm here and while the weather is nice.

More soonish,
<3M