The Grand Old Art of Desk Warming and Other Stories.

'Desk warming' is the term used to describe the situation where a foriegn teacher is expected to turn up to school and sit at his or her desk all day, even though there are no students in attendance. This happens frequently here in Korea. If your contract says you only get 20 days holiday in a year, then you will only take 20 days! Regardless of the fact that the students get rather more days off than that. 

Today was my last day of desk warming. For the last month I have been turning up to my desk at 9am and staying until 4pm, even though I have not a shred of actual work to do. During this time I have searched the job vacancy websites, applied for many jobs and even written a syllabus for a university Conversation English Course I hope to teach one day. (It was required as part of the application for a university job I didn't get - this time. ^^) 

The result of all those job applications is that I now have a new adventure lined up. A 12 month contract at a private elementary school back in the same area of Seoul where I lived when I first came to Seoul - in fact the school is only a 20 minute walk from my first apartment in Seoul. So Happy~~~~~~ looking forward to seeing my Junggye (죽계) friends much more reguarly now. 

Other things I did while desk warming, read several books, watched some movies online, chatted with friends via Facebook, practiced my terrible Korean and each day I volunteered to help a couple of the Korean teachers with their English - that was fun, it was nice to have people to talk to for an hour or so each day. Also, made PowerPoints for church, organized some computer files, twiddled my thumbs and thought about the meaning of life. (Have been reading a fascinating book by Viktor Frankl.)

Today I exited quietly for the final time, stage right, no fanfair. I've enjoyed being at this school, it reminded me how much I love classroom teaching. And, how much I love teaching teenagers. But there are a few things that I won't miss. 

I won't miss the continual trips to Seoul that I have been making four or five times a week, not when they are one and a half hours each way. I won't miss the fact that the five of the six Korean teachers who share my office won't talk to me if anybody else is listening. Is weird, they are quite happy to talk to me if no one else is around, but as soon as another Korean turns up they ignore me. I guess they are nervous exposing their English to each other - which is funny when you consider that they are all English teachers. And I won't miss the giant hill I have to climb each morning - the school sits on the top of it. My new school is the middle of a great big flat plain. And so is my new apartment. 

My new apartment :-) this makes me exceedingly happy :-D

Story time: 

Once apron a time there was a brand new English Teacher in Seoul, she had a cute student named Monica. They got on rather well for six months. The English teacher was impressed by Monica, she was a good and thorough student, kind thoughtful and always cheerful.  

Saddly Monica had to take a break from English classes because of the pressures of her university, and during the break the English teacher was moved to a different branch of her institution. 

When Monica was able to take English classes again she discovered that her favourite English teacher was gone. So she looked on line and found her. The English teacher was delighted one day when Monica surprised her by walking into her classroom and sitting down. 

Now in the new school the English teacher had met a handsome young man named Jake who impressed her very much. He was always cheerful, he always did his homework, he was kind and he never gave up, no matter how much he struggled with English. And he struggled a lot. 

One day Monica chanced to cast her eyes on Jake, and she mentioned to the English teacher that she thought he was 'interesting'. Because the English teacher  really liked and was impressed by both Monica and Jake she agreed to organize a meeting. And the rest as they say, is history. 

They were married a year later and the English teacher was blessed to be able to attend their wedding. 

How does this relate to my new apartment? Well the basement apartment became available in Monica and Jakes building. They told me and I grabbed it up in both hands. Metaphorically of course - but I could almost do it literally :-). It is a tiny little hobbit hole, two rooms and a bathroom that is so short that I have to sit down to wash my hair. When I stand up straight I can touch the ceiling with the top of my head. It is very close to my second school in Seoul, the one where Monica and Jake met. And it close to all my other Korean friends, especially my favourite favourite friend, she lives only three stops away on the subway now - instead of over an hour. My new apartment is only twenty minutes from my school by subway, 7000won away from my church by taxi, and it is in the middle of a great shopping district. There are lots of small roads and alleys to explore, many street stalls- I love street stalls - and yesterday I spied the entrance to the local market :-). Potential adventures everywhere I look. 

Cheers to adventures. 

Second Hand Beauty

Today I went trawling through art gallery's and interesting craft shops and museums and second hand shops with one of my friends. In the process I found this beauty in a second hand shop ...

A lovely old gate way, minus the gate. Can't you just imagine seeing that in a garden wall and imaging what treasures lie hidden behind it. So detailed and gorgeous. I wish I had a garden with a wall so I could buy this gate way. Or maybe I should buy it anyway and use it to frame a great big mirror :-) or a book case - hmmmmm bookcase - now that would be really really cool. 

Also found this gorgeous vase in another second hand shop ...

This is not the best angle for it. I love the shape, and blue and white just happen to be my favourite colour combination. And, I like the fact that it has writing in Chinese characters all the way around it. I have no idea what it says so I can imagine anything I want. Maybe it is a a story of intrigue and mystery, or maybe it is a love letter from the artist to his wife of 60 years, or maybe it is completely prosaic; a plant holder decorated with instructions on how to keep the plant inside alive - which actually might be useful to me, if I could read them. ^^ I have asked some of my friends if they can read Chinese but I'm not sure if I really want to know...

PS if you think I am looking fatter in the top picture it is because today is a 7 layer day. And that's not counting the hat and gloves which were in my handbag. 

Closing Ceremony

Today was the final day of the semester at my school. We celebrated with a staff brunch. No students, they all went home on the 31st of December, teachers got 1st of Jan off and then came back on 2nd for brunch. It was interesting and frustrating. 

Frustrating because the translation of all the speeches etc was not very good so I didn't really have a clue what was going on for a large portion of the time. 

Interesting because I got to see the Korean idea of entertainment at official functions. Which amazingly turns out to be a Hacky Sack competition!

Today I witnessed the school principal give an amazing display of Hacky Sack skills - almost 30 kicks before said sack hit the dirt, followed by the heads of most of the other school departments trying to match his skills. No one came close ... Not sure if that was by design or from lack of skills. 

Turns out the Korean version of a hacky sack looks rather like a Christmas decoration  - the picture below shows one of the more successful department heads displaying his skills. 

At the end of all the speeches and food they gave every staff member a gift - a boxed set of spam ...

... Ummmmm did no one notice that I'm a vegatarian?? I guess not. I gave mine to one of the other teachers. (This is not the actual set I was given, I gave mine away before I remembered to take a photo. But it looked just like this only in a fancier box.)

Overall I would say interesting won out over frustrating. Those speeches I couldn't make head or tail of were probably boring anyway. ^^

P.S. Just in case you don't know, ^^ is the Korean version of a smilie face - the upside down v's look like smiling eyes.