It has been a long week. A long, long, long, long, long week. The children have been out of control, discipline issues were rampant, I had five classes straight through with no breaks, by the end of the week I was croaking (so much trying to talk over kids/yelling), exhausted (no sleep weee), and stressed (will the grad school applications never be finished?).
Ended up going out with some Korean friends (as in, they are Korean) Friday night. It was a nice break.
Today I went to the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and made song pyeon, little half moon shaped rice... well... it's a rice pastry and it's filled with either a sweet sesame mixture (that reminded me a lot of the filling for kolach) or red beans. The dough was either white (straight up rice dough) or green (mixed with 'vegetation' not really sure what they were getting at, but they are tasty). It reminded me a lot of making pierogies, only in miniature. They were tasty. Unfortunately they decided to have us count off and divide the tables by number, so I was with three people from CA (who are in our language class) a British woman who was just taking pictures, and a Chinese/American woman. The British woman was very into her picture taking, the Chinese/American very focused on her song pyeon making, and the three Californians were only interested in talking to each other (believe me, I tried to be conversational). It was a fun time, and then afterward I wandered downtown and art street. Saturday seems to be the day to go to art street! In addition to the normal shops (not all of which were open, sadly) there were also street vendors. Art Street was also really busy, which was nice, I felt less awkward not being the only person around. I bought myself a really nice set of placemats with some really nice chopsticks. While on art street I ran into one of my coworkers! We had a brief chat and then parted ways, she was out with a friend and husband. I also saw three of my 6th grade students. It was rather awkward, I said hello and they muttered and looked away. I wasn't even trying to talk to them!
Next week we have a 3-day break for Choseuk, which is like Korean Thanksgiving. I was offered a very, very unique chance to spend some of it with a Korean family. Expect a full report when I return!
And now everyone's favorite amateur anthropologist pulls out her giant list of "things American's will find strange" and finally decides to share them with you:
- My very first day in Korea, when I was sitting in class with Sandy, a kid pulled out an exacto knife. A freaking exacto knife! Coming from a country where any kind of knife can be considered a weapon this shocked me so much that my first reaction was to demand that the kid hand it over. I have actually gotten used to this, kids whipping knives out in class. They use these exacto knives to sharpen their pencils
-Physical contact with the students is allowed. So that means you can hug the kids, pat them on the shoulder, separate a fight, etc. It also means that sometimes your third graders will give you back rubs. It feels like child exploitation when they do it, but not only do they volunteer, they just come up behind you and start beating your back. They are surprisingly good at it. Apparently they are taught from a young age how to give a proper back rub so that they can help out there elders. Which leads us to...
-The children will feed you. Not 'they will give you food' (which they will). THEY WILL FEED YOU. They will say "HERE TEACHER" as they shove things in your face. God help you if you have food allergies or don't like something or have an aversion to grubby child fingers because they just shove it in your face with no explanation as to what it is or if they washed their hands after coming out of the bathroom.
-Your washing machine will drain itself onto the floor. Do not be alarmed. Keep an extra pair of chopsticks handy in case you need to pull disgusting things out of your drain
- (This one's for you, Dad) All the trashcans have lids. All of them.
- (This one's for you, Bridget) Koreans compost and recycle all plastics/glass/metal. There is also a clothes donation bin outside of every apartment.
also, if you are interested
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049825&id=1326450018&l=4104c93786
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048838&id=1326450018&l=795ff8479e
Those are the links to my two facebook albums of Korean pictures. The second look is a more irreverent take on the little odds and ends of Korea (and my hamster), whereas the first link is actually serious pictures. Feel free to look at one, both, or neither!
Enjoy your weekend, and have a happy Choseuk!
~Hannah
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