Part two of approximately 48

Okay, it's been two weeks since my last update and so much has happened that I have to be quite selective about what I write in here. There is so much more than what is in this email but I have so little time. I hope you enjoy this.

My first day at school 

I was about an hour early for school on my first day because I didn't know exactly how to travel so I took an early bus and hoped for the best. I didn't find the school at first but I did find a government help and information centre with an English speaking Korean and she showed me where my school is. All in all I travel for about an hour to school every day. Well, at least to my main school. I have two schools that I teach at. I teach at Hongsan elementary on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (this is my main school). On Mondays and Fridays I teach at Jungam elementary. I teach grades 1-6 and it's not bad. I would have preferred older students but the young ones are eager and they are super friendly. They smile a lot and shout "Vasti teacher! Vasti teacher!" whenever they see me. In truth they shout "Bashti Teacher, Bashti teacher!" since they cannot say "v" or pronounce an 's' next to a 't'. 

Some of my kids dancing in my class

So I was early but once everyone else arrived at the school I met the principal, an old scary looking lady who sounds like a brainwashing dictator when she addresses the kids in assembly. She speaks no English to me at all. I met the vice principal who also speaks no English but did manage to ask me if I am single or married. And I met the man who made this whole experience much more easy, Raymond teacher! Raymond is another English teacher at the school I work at, the one who teaches on Monday's and Fridays, when I am not here. He's leaving Korea in a week though, but on Monday he let me sit in on all his classes and it made me realise just how manageable this job is. 

There is a slogan in my school that says "He can do it, she can do it, why not me, I can do it". The kids repeat it every assembly. That's how I felt watching Raymond teach :-) Raymond is an Indian from New Zealand and has been here for two years, he left because he was struggling to make a love connection here. Luckily I do not have that problem :-)

Speaking practice.

My classroom is awesome to the point of it sickening me a little. I have more resources in my classroom than I have seen in any of the schools I taught at in Khayelitsha. This is not an exaggeration! I have books and books to plan lessons out of, I have games -lots of games, and I mean like I have seven unopened boxes of scrabble in my class, about twenty boxes of bananagram, I have lots of sets of lots of games I haven't heard of, specifically with a learn English slant, I have balls and talking robots and stationery to rival CNA! Koki's, and crayons and pencils and pens and a drawer I can only describe as post-it heaven. And stickers! Loads of stickers! I have a PC of my own which is hooked up to a massive screen. Massive! It's the size of about six little boys standing next to each other. And I have this fancy pen that allows me to write on the screen (but not on the surface, on the actual image) I don't know how it works but I press a button on the pen thing while writing and the writing appears not only on the image on my massive screen but also on the image on my computer screen. Also I have a printer (currently broken) and a sound system, complete with amp and stuff. On the side of my classroom there are three role-play rooms, a living room (which contains the couch I napped on), a restaurant and a hospital. They are small rooms but they contain little miniature furniture for little people which I find cute. Also "hospital" was misspelled and it says "hospipal" probably because the person writing it couldn't speak English. Should I tell them, no one seems to have noticed?

By half past two however, no amount of anxiety and excitement could save me, the jet lag kicked in and I slept! I slept in the classroom! I was exhausted, it was painful to keep my eyes open, I just couldn't do it. Raymond kept soute for me and said he'd wake me if anybody came. I didn't sleep deeply but I really couldn't keep my eyes open. When we got home from school Raymond took me for coffee and we met up with Carlos for supper, he told me I had to stay awake or I'd never break the jet lag. I still went to sleep at eight, and woke up again at three. 

My first meal in Korea.

Weird stuff about Korea

Korean women in general are fascinated by my hair, people on the street/train/bus shamelessly come up to me and touch it. The ask me strange questions about it (mostly in Korean which I don’t understand), the weirdest being, after I explained how braids worked this guys asked me "OK, so for how long after the braids come out does your hair stay straight?" and then I said "I don't understand” and he said, "with the plaits, your hair it grows, yes? How long does it stay out before in goes into your Head again?" I told him he must have misunderstood a part of my explanation, because my hair does not stay straight for a while then recede back into my head. That is not why some South Africans have short hair. I wonder what questions I’ll get when I take out the braids and expose my afro.

Spitting, Koreans spit! Everywhere! Next to you at the bus stop a little old lady will just drop a gop right next to your foot, NO SHAME! Sis man, my mommy didn't teach me like that. 

The cafeteria at my main school.

Today in the cafeteria during lunch a first grader called my name (Bashti Teacher) and when I looked over she started growling at me, and glaring and pulling this really aggressive face. My first thoughts were "what the hell did I do to this child in class, why does she hate me?" after about 30 seconds her faced relaxed and she said "angry, yes?" Hahaha, the relief was tangible. She was just showing me that she knows that word angry... couldn’t she have cleared that up before she started the snarls? It was hilarious.

There is so much more...some bad things some good things but I cannot expect all of you to read pages and pages of stuff. I'll update you all again in two weeks. Maybe one, if I can find the time and this didn't bore you to the core

Bashti Teacher

hello all

Just so that I cover as much as possible I’m going to split this into three stories

1. Flight or fight

My trip from Cape Town to Jozi was lovely but uneventful. I got a window seat which was lovely and I did cherish looking out over our country for the last time but after a while there were clouds and I closed my eyes and slept a little. I must add that I felt very grown up and capable the whole time...I still do.

At Jo'burg the drama began. My flights luggage took really long to come out, and when it did it came out on the wrong carousel. It took me really long to get my luggage and when I finally came out to domestic arrivals I couldn't find Noma who had my passport which I needed to get onto the next flight.  I finally found her at my check in gate and it was a blessing she met me there because... British airways had allowed me through to Jozi with 38kg of luggage. But when I came to check in at Quatar, the gated me heavy and I had to either pay R380 per kilo I was overweight or just take things out of my bag right there. R380 in jou mag! Can you believe it! Since I didn't have R3000 to spare I had to unpack, luckily my hand luggage could take four extra kilo's and Noma was still with me to post the rest of my stuff home again. What a blessing she was, she was lovely and wonderful and I was so grateful to have her there. When we finally sorted out my luggage I went to check in and the check in guys said I was too late, sjoe did I throw a little fit. I told him about the late luggage and having to unpack and he took pity on me and said, “you're pushing it, but okay, you're the last one” after that everything was smooth.

I boarded my flight and watched Disney movies all the way to Doha, I had access to the internet in Doha airport so I checked my mail and chatted to Ferron, Yumna and Sinclair. Left my mum some offline messages and boarded my next flight on which I slept almost all the way. I even slept through a mealtime. 

The arrival at Incheon

Incheon International Airport

Customs searched my bags when I arrived in Incheon, it took long but they didn't find anything. I was not nervous but I did feel a little annoyed that I had to open and close my bags that I packed so beautifully twice before I needed anything from them. Silke and her friend Brandon met me at Incheon airport and escorted me to the hotel that Teach Korea had arranged for me. I however had to pay for the hotel. A whopping KRW 50 000! It wasn't that much actually, it's something like R300 and Silke and her friend said it was reasonable for the quality of hotel. I was a nice room that I didn't sleep in at all because that very night Silke and Brandon took me to Seoul to party. I met an american korean called Sarah Oh and it turned out she was the one who interviewed me and gave me the post in Chungnam. We went o a place called Itaewon (I think that's how you spell it) and had supper, my first Korean meal. No western food at all. It was nice, we also drank Korean liquor. I can't remember what it's called but it's a lot like cane. Unfortunate they don’t have cream soda here so I couldn't have cane and cream soda :-(

We stayed the night in a love motel. They are called love motels because they are affordable, charge per night and usually only have one bed. I felt positively scandalous, especially because Brandon and Sarah posed as a couple to buy the room and then snuck Silke and I in :-/what a fist night. We stayed up quite late, talking and drinking and eventually fell asleep. I think I slept for three hours and then couldn't anymore. My jet lag was being irritating. I woke up at five and didn't have anything at all to do so I just lay and absorbed the Koreaness of it all before we went back to my hotel and I could meet the Korean version of my agency coordinator who would put me on a bus to my little town of Buyeo. Pronounced like vuyo, but with a soft P in the front.

My apartment, co-teacher and more helpful blessings

Well let me say upfront that I have only met my co-teacher once but she is not the helpful blessing from this segment.

My co-teacher and the local co-ordinator met me at the bus stop and brought to my apartment in a car. When I got here they asked me if I had any questions and I had a million. First and for most, where is my school. I will be leaving for school in a little over twenty minutes and I still don't know where it is. They told me I have to take a bus from the bus stop they picked me up at (where the hell that was I didn't know) and get to Hongsan, which is where my school is. There was nothing else they could tell me, they had very little English and didn't understand when I asked for directions. When they could see that we were in trouble, because we couldn't really get the directions clear they called in assistance. Welcome Shaun and Theresa :-) Shaun is British and Theresa is American and together we sorted out the whole mess. They took me to dinner and showed me where the bus terminal is and how to get a bus and they helped me buy bedding because my apartment didn't have any (and I left the bedding I packed behind in Jozi).

The view from outside my apartment.

My apartment is great though, I have three rooms and a separate kitchen and bathroom. My bathroom is a wet room which is fine, it's very common. The previous owner of my flat left me pans, and cups and plates and three bright orange couches. Also a plastic sword, a bag of balloons, a washing basket, a blender, a hello kitty two slice toaster and like ten heaters. The gas is not on at my apartment because I couldn’t find the building manager last night so I had a cold shower this morning. While it was unpleasant, it definitely woke me up. I have a single bed, a cupboard, a set of drawers and a TV in my room. The whole building is quite old and I have a little mould in my main room but it's quaint and I will soon make it my own. I'm very happy with what I got.

I started this email in my apartment this morning and continued it in transit and I am now at my school and ready to start my first day. I'm early, but rather early than late.

I am not homesick yet but I must admit it's hard to see new things and not be able to tell Sinclair about them instantly. I'm sure I'll get used to it, or just get a phone and bombard him with texts, whichever comes first.

I love you all and hope that you are as happy as I am.

Hugs and smiles

Me