Things I Don't Remember

Yesterday.... the festival. It was a lol'rcoaster of a day, from start to finish.
When I arrived at school in the morning, everything was chaos. Teachers and students were buzzing around like mad chickens, cleaning, "getting dressed" (?!), preparing snacks, and generally being stressed out and upset. It was really weird. I just kind of sat at my computer and calmly stared into space for a good three hours.

We had been scheduled to perform sharp and early at 9AM. Shockingly enough, the schedule changed last second (not once, but three times) and the performances ended up beginning after lunch.

Everyone had been walking on eggshells to please "the parents." I had never met my students' parents before, and there was a lump in my throat thinking about it after I had witnessed my co-workers change from happy, normal people into crazed nervous lunatics. It's funny that the second the parents step foot in the school, all of the sudden, we have toilet paper in the bathrooms again, a giant snack spread has been laid out, and the garbages have been emptied. Haha.

So, I walk into the gym, pretty apphrensive, and I look over to the "parents' section" which is basically three rows of chairs in the middle of the gym. And there are five pleasant looking people sitting there, including one infant, eating their snacks on their little perfectly arranged plates. They weren't scary.... at all. They just looked bored.

parent "snack plate"

"the parents"

It was just about this time that Ellen came up to me and said, "Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you." (Her most overused line) "Tonight teachers will eat pork together and sing at norebang." (Not optional)

So the first few acts go on, most of them the exact same performances I had seen two weeks earlier. Then it's time for our "songs," which were supposed to be sung in Korean (I never learned the words properly) and our guitar player "dropped out" because he was "too busy" to practice with us. I'm set to sing acapella when, whoosh, out of the shadows, comes the art teacher with a guitar! We sing the songs, my microphone wasn't even turned on, and soon the humiliation was over. Phew. I've already blocked it from my memory.

Next was a weird, hilarious, and humiliating act by the boys of Youngcheon, the Ms. Youngcheon pageant. I was a judge.

the happy panel of judges

Add caption

Things took a sharply awkward and sexual turn of events as soon as the boys hit the stage, dressed in drag. (In the end, the slutty dancer with the big boobs won, furthering the lesson that the right moves and a big rack will get you just about anywhere in life. Above is first, second, and third place respectively. All three actually made pretty decent women.)

Next scene: 6:00PM, an eternity later, dinner with the co-teachers, who are getting wasted and stuffing their faces (and mine) with pork. I compete in a "one shot" game (exactly how it sounds) with my 65 year old Vice Principal and start winning.

the unsmiling reaching man is my terrifying principal.

We then go to the norebang (karaoke) and stay there until 10:45PM. I did things I'm not proud of, I sang a few hilarious songs, my Principal (whom I've never even seen SMILE) slapped me on the butt with a tambourine, we all grew closer.

@ norebang..... it got very late.... very quickly

Ah me.
<3M

Labels: co-teachers, drunkies, festival, norebang, students

School has been crazy lately- so many last second schedule changes that I've nearly missed a class twice this week that I didn't even know I had! It's been stressful. Thursday was my first day at school without my co-teacher (she was on a business trip) and so I was literally the only person in the school who spoke English. It was very strange... but I did alright :)

The week was long and gray, and I was too happy when it was finally Friday and the sun was shining. Friday, 11/11/11, was National Pepero Day. Pepero is a long, thin cookie stick dipped in chocolate. Yes, it's a holiday dedicated to chocolate, because the cookie sticks resemble '1's- couples consider themselves '11's and give each other Pepero as gifts (kind of like Valentine's Day, but I think even more depressing if you're a single person, haha- you're just a '1'). I came to school in a fog and was completely delighted when my students practically showered me with these cookies. I ate so much, haha, and I stashed some in my desk for later, too :)

My two friends, Aine and Gareth, are leaving, and this weekend was their farewell festivities. It was a weekend of pizza and ice cream, rock climbing, lounging on the grass in the sun, shopping, an insane buffet feast, too much wine, karaoke, cat cafe, and lots of laughter. It was one of the best so far :)