The Beginning Again

Well, after a two month hiatus, here I am, back at school, doing that whole "teacher" thing. Well, not quite yet. The farthest I've gotten in teacherdom is lesson planning. The hard part's over, now I only have to worry about the delivery, eh?

Today is the first day of a new school year (yes, March and yes, a Friday. don't ask, it's Korea, that's all you need to know). Lots of changes are swirling around right now. Thankfully, my schedule is exactly the same. It's sweet, so I'm glad they don't mess with it. However, both of the Korean English teachers from last year are gone, so I have two new co-teachers to meet, get to know and become accustomed to. My official co-teacher is Jeong Eun Hae, a fiesty young woman (under 30, single) who taught at the boys middle school last year and who I have known since coming to Korea because she is in my teacher workshops. Score 1 for Vanessa. She's got quite the workload this year because, aside from being my co-teacher, she is also a third grade homeroom teacher (a very busy job) and has other admin responsibilities within the staff room. Why so busy? Well, they tend to give lots of work to the young single pups who don't have the rigeurs of family life to deal with.

My other English teacher is a dude, Mr Na. This will be my first experience teaching with a male co-teacher, but he seems nice enough and I'm sure everything will be fine *crosses fingers*.

Also, two of my favourite teachers from my workshops, Mrs Shin and Mrs Park have moved on to different schools in different counties, so I won't be seeing them anymore *sigh*. They were awesome and now another native speaker will experience their awesomeness.
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The Spring Vacation Haps

After coming back from my Cambodia Thailand vacation I spent a boring week in school for graduation week and then got another 2 weeks off. This last two weeks is called "Spring Vacation" here. Last year, I didn't understand this as the weather was still pretty bitter, but THIS year, it was quite delightful. Spring has certainly sprung in the these parts.

The first weekend of spring vacation happen to be Solal, a very big holiday in Korea. (Known to most westerner's as Chinese New Year's or Lunar New Year's.) Young Min invited me to experience the holiday with her family in Boseong and I was both honoured and excited to take part. on New Year's Eve I went to her house in the morning and helped her cook traditional Korean New Year's grub. We cooked for about 5 hours and it wasn't jus tthe two of us. Her cousin Min Young (who happens to be my student) and my friend Hang Bin also joined in the fun!

The next day I went to Young Min's house bright and early (8am) to have the traditional Korean New Year's breakfast. YUMMY! After breakfast, the young people bow to their elders and receive money from them. I was looking forward to seeing this custom but to my surprise, I didn't just see it, I LIVED it!!

First, I bowed to her Grandmother (we all bowed to her, including Young Min's parents). She gave me money!! I was quite embarassed. Then we bowed to her Aunt, and then her parents, all of whom gave me some money. Finally, Min Young (my student, the youngest) bowed to me and Young Min, so we gave her some money.

[aside: i realise how confusing some of the names may be. espeically since my friend, Young Min and her cousin/my student, Min Young, have the same two syllables, only reversed. This is only a taste of what learning Korean names is like :P]

So, Korean New Year's was a special experience for me. The rest of the vacation I pretty much spent hanging out with my Korean friends in Boseong. I played volleyball, I played a bit off soccer (from which I earned 3 goals and a pulled quad muscle), I slept, I read, I watched movies, I chatted.

Another fun experience was the Korean birthday party I was privy to. My friend, Hang Bin, turned 27 (korean age, 26 in Canada) and decided he would throw a bash. He rented a condo and had what I can only describe as a kind of house party. We cooked food and ate dinner, then the drinking began. Now, at a Western b-day house party, the drinking would be accompanied by music, chatting, etc, etc. There was music and chatting here, to be sure, but there was also another, very important aspect...the GAMES. We played games all night long. All kinds of games. Jenga, card games, drinking games, childhood games that Koreans all know, but I can't describe, whose penatlies for losing included getting whacked on the back by everyone else. The piece de resistance, methinks, would have to be the round of hide and go seek that we played outside at 3am. CLASSY!!! Even though I was the only foreigner and understood less than half of the conversations, I still had a blast!!

Anyway, the long and short of it is that vacation life was gravy, and I'm sad that it's over. HOWEVER!! I'm happy to be back at school because I always have a good time and I'm looking forward to what the next 6 months has instore for me!