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