Brace Yourself... It's a Long One!!!

Finally... a blog entry!!!

Today is a special day where I've found time (and more importantly, energy) to update you all on my life in Korea!!! It's been awhile since I've posted and I've done some sporadic updates/picture posts on Facebook over the past few months, so forgive me if this entry is a little scattered and/or repetitive.

I'm finally back into a regular routine at school. At first, I was supposed to teach 24 classes this year (two of them yielding overtime pay) but somehow I ended up getting 21. Not complaining about this... I still get paid for 22. But as most of you know, the money is much less important to me than the opportunity to "educate young minds":)  Not to mention, my job is still extremely fun and rarely seems like a chore.

Mrs. Lee

I have two and a half new co-teachers this year (I'll explain the "half" in a minute). Mrs. Lee is the sole returning English teacher from last year. Despite my major disappointment with Sally and Clara leaving the school, I can now comfortably say that I'm glad that Mrs. Lee was the one who stayed. She's sort of become my school "guardian" and is very definitely one of my best friends here (along with Jin-sung and Yuri). 

Mrs. Kim

My new head co-teacher is Mrs. Kim. If Mrs. Lee cares for me like a mother, then Mrs. Kim is definitely the grandmother. Not a single work day goes by without her smiling at me and telling me how wonderful of a person and teacher I am. My daily confidence and self-esteem boosts from her are 100 times better than my morning and afternoon cups of coffee (which I've grown to REALLY appreciate). 

Next is MISS Lee. She has no relation to Mrs. Lee... this coincidence is due to the fact that like 30% of Koreans have this surname. To avoid confusion, I'll just refer to her as Youjin.

Me and Youjin (Miss Lee)

I'm rather comfortable calling her this since she's the youngest actual co-teacher I've ever had (32) and I've become quite accustomed to closeness with women around that age (more to come on that little tidbit). Finally, there's the "half" co-teacher, Sunny. I still know very little about her and still can't remember her Korean name. This is because Sunny is a temporary teacher at our school who only comes on Thursday afternoons. Later in the year I'll actually start teaching with her. But until then, my mentioning of her will most likely remain scarce.

At a Teachers' Dinner

Making Hotteok (Korean Pancakes)

My new co-teachers and I have become extremely close, VERY quickly. We've already been dubbed "the English family", which also includes Yuri and one other female teacher. I have no problem being the only male in this little group of ours... especially since the majority of the group consists of young, beautiful women. My only complaint comes from when they decide to have long conversations about fashion styles and skin care products.

My English Family:)

Of course, I couldn't talk about life at school without bringing up my wonderful students :) It's awesome seeing the familiar faces, as well as my new group of 3rd graders (who do nothing but increase my desire to have a child sometime in the near future). But my favorite classes are the ones that have students who attended my winter camp. Of course, Lena and her class are on top of this list, especially since she's the best behaved in her class (probably because she expects me to give her candy in exchange for good behavior). I also love Lily's class... Lily sits in the front row and tries her little heart out during every single activity we do. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna name my first daughter after her. In my 6th grade classes, I have Alex, Paul, Simon, David, Lucy, and Jenny back. Jenny is my Tuesday "laugh of the day" because she recently decided she wants to change her name to Lauren. I told her that I'll never be able to stop calling her Jenny, so now I use the name repeatedly just to get a rise out of her. David still showers me with "I love you Mark teacher"s for no apparent reason. Some people would find this behavior a little "iffy", but I happen to know that David is among the school's top "skirt chasers". This quote is brought to you by my trusty co-teacher, Mrs. Lee. Lucy and Alex are still their old selves... and I'm constantly telling them to put their hands down so that others may contribute to the class.

I do have an unusual problem with two of my classes this year... one of them is from a 6th grade class and the other is with a 5th.  Apparently, some of the girls are becoming much more comfortable with expressing themselves towards me. To put it more frankly, I have little girls falling in love with me. Yikes. In my 5th grade class, this actually plays to my advantage. Three of the girls (in the same class) have become bold enough to lock arms with me while I'm walking through the hallways and one of them even tries to rest her head on my shoulder while I'm waiting for the class to begin. I shake these things off as nicely as possible, and in return, they act both as my class stimulants and peace enforcers. They try like hell (and actually speak English very well) and help make the classes more interesting. At the same time, they keep order with the other students and make sure they're always paying attention. This class' 6th grade counterpart isn't quite as helpful. In said 6th grade class, there's one girl in particular who has become quite infatuated with me. She sits completely still and silent through the entire 40 minutes I have with her every week. Last week, Youjin asked her why that was. Her response... "I... can't.... speak. Mark teacher.... just... too ...... handsome!" I thought this was ridiculous, so I walked up to her during a class while they were all working on worksheets. Without even saying anything to her, she instantly turned the darkest shade of red I've ever seen on a Korean face. While walking out of the room after class, her friend who sits in front of her was chanting, "Sarah loves Mark teacher! Sarah loves Mark teacher!!!!" <sigh>.... kids....

But I can't lie... all of the attention I get from the students, even the creepy "I love you"s, make me love my job more and more each day. My students are what keep me going and I honestly wouldn't have the desire to teach without them. Sometimes they frustrate the hell outta me and other times they make me want to fill out adoption papers. Krazy? A little bit. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Church Cell Group

My personal life has gotten much less dynamic over the past couple of months... but that's not to say it's gotten less interesting. Outside of teaching, much of my time has been devoted to taking Korean language lessons. I have two personal tutors who work with me whenever my schedule allows, as well as my co-teachers who love exchanging Korean lessons for English exercises. I also found a group of westerners to play basketball with every Saturday afternoon. Throw that in with a language lesson on Saturday night and my church/Seoul day with Yuri every Sunday, my weekends are pretty much booked solid nowadays. 

Seunghee

But the big news that people seem most interested in lately is the addition of my new lady friend, Seunghee. We met a little over a month ago and have been going on little dates about once or twice a week. Do I like this girl? Bet your ass I do. She's a lot of fun! And the pictures I have of her don't quite do her justice... but take my word for it that she's very beautiful. But am I going around telling people she's my girlfriend? Absolutely not. Things are a liiiiiittle complicated with her. 

On the subway back from Seoul

She lives in downtown Incheon, so it takes about an hour to get to her... her English isn't perfect, but passable.... oh yeah, and she's 33 yrs old. On top of that, she's an assistant manager at Samsung HQ in Incheon, cell phone division. In other words, she's got some money. So yeah... she sorta outclasses me in every way possible. Not to mention, it's very unusual for Korean women her age to be single and without a family... so you know what's on her mind. She's quite possibly thinking things that I'm not quite ready to jump into. So we'll see how things work out. No sense in being hasty... for either of us.


In closing, I'm absolutely ecstatic for my brother and friend Kim to be coming here on Wednesday. Ok, maybe ecstatic is a bit much... but I am very very excited to see them. I've done a lot of work to prepare for their arrival and to keep them happy and entertained while they're here. Hopefully it all pays off... I'm sure it will:) Anyways, keep checking for updates and look to Facebook for complete photo albums.


Peace!