Endless time off!!
05.01.06- Well, I’d like to say that something really exciting was new but as usual it is the same. Good news, there have been field trips, tests, and other things that have made my schedule a little less crazy. I have not had a full week in a long time. I don’t know what will happen to me when I actually have to teach all of the classes. So I am relaxing and enjoying it.
As for things here. HamAn is the "Peaceful City" that it always is. Just a note for you, HamAn actually translates to Peaceful City. I checked out the characters (Cheng An or City Peace literally)!
Today BeopSu (the smaller school) Middle School invited me to go out to dinner with them. It is really a nice feeling to be out with them as they are a very small school. Teachers always try to talk to me about something. It feels like a family. I drank some soju (Korean alcohol) with a teacher and now he wants to take me out to drink. He was impressed that everytime he had a shot, I also had one with him. Hmmm, hehehe. That is good.
This weekend I will go to Busan with another native speaker and we will have some fun there. I want to take her to a sports game, and Hyundae Beach, perhaps some sight seeing. It will be nice.
We can be invisible for a few days and walk outside of our house without 10 students coming to us saying "Hi, ___ teacher. How are you?" And we will be able to relax. Yes, here I am known as Mary Teacher. Usually they call us Mary Sun Seng Nim, which translates into English as Mary Teacher. So I am used to that name now because if they use the Korean I usually tell them that they should speak English with me. So, we compromised on using an English translation that sounds like Konglish!
Now I am at home. I should get some lessons done for classes but I wanted to say hi. I have done about 3 different lessons in the past 2 months! That is how many classes I missed. And we still have Buddha’s Birthday/Children’s Day, Teacher’s Day, and election day this month alone. There is also a sports festival day or two in there but I am not sure if it is this month or next month.
Oh yes, that reminds me. Monday is a vacation day for HamAn Middle School. Here in the country, students have to help their parents on the farm. So they will have 1 harvesting day and 1 day to plant. Monday is the day that the boys at HamAn Middle School must stay home and help their parents. Unfortunately, I have to go to BeopSu Middle School. However, that just means that I need to go to work at 11 instead of 8:30!!! Feel sorry for me?!
Ok, will write more soon, going to get another lesson finished so I can rest easily. Even though this week is mid-term week and that means that many teachers need to have more classes in order to catch up before the mid-term. Sadly for me that means that there are less classes that I have to teach!
Mary
