Life is moving slow here now. The second stage of culture shock is beginning. "What is the second stage?", you might ask. Bitterness. The second stage is bitterness.
No more "Oh wow, everything is in Korean! How cute!" Or "Hey that kid always says 'Nice to meet you', everytime he sees me, without fail! How cute!". These have been replaced with "Please God, I will kill for a picture menu" and "How about you use one of the other fifteen phrases I have tried to teach you, for the love of GOD! I KNOW it is nice to meet me, believe me, you have made that abundantly clear. Now, if you don't say 'Nice to see you again' next time you see me, I will punch you in the face." They typically smile and nod, because they don't understand any english other than "Nice to meet you", and even that, they don't understand, they just saw it made me smile on the first day.
It's not all frustration and threats of violence, of course. There has been bills too! Yeah, the free ride is over. Time to pay the uitilities. They're not bad, but I had gotten so wrapped up in the idea of receiving money I forgot I would have to give some of it away again.
It's going to sound really bad, but I was surprised at just how detached culturally the people here are from anything in the west. It seems like our pop culture has only existed here for a few years. ie, they think that Britney Spears and Brad Pitt are all anyone knows about, and they have really no knowledge of anything before about ten years ago... I guess that's pretty fair, because I learned most of what I know about Korea reading my Lonley Planet guide on the plane as we cruised over the Pacifiic. For someone like me, it's a little torturous when they see me listening to music, and ask what I'm listening to. I'm on a motown kick right now, and it's tough to explain why I like Marvin Gaye to someone who thinks Nick Lachey is God's own personal gift to songcraft. The bottom line is, they know about mainstream western culture, but only the ultra-modern, and the ultra-popular. They aren't interested in anything old. I don't know, as horrible as it sounds, I just kind of took it for granted, I guess, that "worldwide superstar" actually meant that, but I guess it's kind of a lie on the scale of "Miss Universe".
I managed to pick up a used cell phone. I was told that it was a miracle. And from what I have seen, it is very very hard to get anything used here. People don't seem to want it, and when I asked my coteacher about used bikes, furniture and phones, she said that she didn't know, because nobody here would want it! And on a few of my walks, I have come across real treasures, beautiful furniture and bags and bags of clothes and bedding, just put out on the curb as trash. I didn't take any bedding or anything, that would be weird unwashed and all... but it looked brand new! I couldn't believe it!
Anyways, the cell phone was a bit of an adventure. We went in, and I said I wanted a plain phone, with no extra features, and as cheap as possible. The first phone I was shown was \250 000 (~$280), which I laughed at. Then, she clued in to me being serous about cheap, and showed me a \190 000 phone (~$210), and I said I didn't need one that bad, and was about to leave, when she dove behind the counter and screamed (or maybe just said loudly) "Youst Andapone??!". I realized she meant "Used handphone??!" (God bless her for trying, seriously!) and bought it for only \50 000. I was so proud.
More bitterness arises out of the expectations being placed upon us by our coteachers. Not so much for me, I have been given total freedom in my planning at two schools, and only follow the curriculum at the third. Jessie faces this problem every day, so I'll join in on this rant, although, it is really only about 18% my frustration being expressed.
Basically, the kids here know NOTHING. Nothing at all. They have such a low base, it is unbelievable. I have more Korean knowledge after one month than some of these kids have in English after 9 years. They know how to smile and nod, but that is about the extent of it. The curriculum that is being taught is conversations and dialogues that are WAY beyond their level of comprehension. They should be getting taught how to say "the", how to read "the" and the letters of "the" alphabet. But, no, Jessie is stuck teaching them dialogues about ATMs, and I am teaching them a dialogue about a class planning a musical. Wow! useful! And Jessie, instead of being able to work around what is being taught and bring in useful things as well, is forced to test them on how well they can memorize the dialogues, but not on their comprehension. ugh.
Back to me - I work nine to five every day, but I only teach 20 hours of class a week. I have about 20 hours to plan, which is ridiculous. I mostly read. Seriously, I can't believe Hermione died. Anyways, that would normally be a suitable amount of time to plan, but in my case it is not. I will explain. As I said, the kids are at a really low level. I teach the same lessons to grade 1-3 at middle school. Because they all stand to gain approximately the same amount from it. So, for 14 of my 20 class hours a week, I teach the same lesson. 14 times. It only takes me about 20 minutes to plan a lesson, and about 40 minutes to get the materials ready. And they are good materials! At the school where I teach the curriculum, I teach the same lesson 4-6 times, depending on the week. So basically, that's between 16 and 18 hours to sit around and read. I spend a lot of time on the internet, and I read. Seriously, I can't believe the grail was in the Louvre.
Anyways, I am a little bitter right now, but all in all, I'm great. A few things are driving me crazy, but I'm actually really happy. Last night, I was the happiest I'd been since the night before, which was the happiest I'd been in a really long time. We bought dwarf hamsters on Monday, and they are just too cute to believe. And fun, except when they run up your sleeves and poop. Even that is fun, as long as you don't shake it out into your dinner. And, the weather has finally broken. It's only about 23 degrees here during the hottest part of the afternoon, and it goes to 13-15 degrees at night, which is just cool enough to make getting out of bed hard, but not cool enough to make us want to shut the windows. And we bought a shower curtain, which has done a remarkable amount to make our apartment feel more like home to me, and also to keep the bathroom floor dry.
Also, I've done so much great reading. Seriously, I can't believe Harry's father wasn't really dead.
I have a pink shirt now. It looks great on me.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Send me pictures of you celebrating with family to use in class! Also, any other pictures (no nudies, please, unless you have received a personal request).
In the immortal words of a student who LITERALLY just left the english lab:
"Lycos my e-mail makes angry!"
Okay.........
Bye!
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