my birthday was tuesday and with it, slipped in: a new spin around the sun, a new school year, new co-teachers, new students, new after school classes. a lot of "new" and it seemed to slip right through the cracks. i didn't have much expectation for my birthday this year. while i love birthdays, and last year i was so celebrated with surprise parties, i don't love birthdays abroad. i don't love being home alone at the end of the night. i don't love being surrounded by strangers. i don't love being hours ahead (even though it does give me a 38 hour birth-day). and my birthday this year was a lot of those things.
it was a tuesday. a tuesday at school with new co-teachers. there was no cake, no well wishes, no cards. mrs. kim and semi and julie and byungtak took me out for dinner. and i watched the bachelor with a who outdid herself with a beehive honey cake. and i ended the night alone in my little cave apartment waiting for america to wake up.
the week didn't get much better. my new co-teachers are a motley crew and made me realize (as if i haven't already) how lucky, lucky, lucky i was to have all the other co-ts i did. we have: 1 - third grade with harriet. she's kind and sometimes she smiles and sometimes she even laughs. but she doesn't tell us anything about what is happening in the school, and she doesn't deviate much from the book (and the book is so. boring.) 2 - fresh girl. she graduated in december and has never taught before. anything, much less english. and i'm teaching fifth grade with her. so far, she hasn't listened to anything i've suggested and gives me the "easier" portion of the lesson even though i'm the native speaker. it's going to be an uphill battle, but she did ask me what i'm doing this weekend. (also: i'm older than her, which adds a weird twist into the korean hierarchy aspect of things). and 3 - middle school boy. (story: for the first semester we overlapped at school, i thought he was a middle school student that never went to school and hung out around the elementary kids...). i teach one third grade class with him on fridays. this friday, he asked me what i wanted to do and said that i was the professional and that i was good at finding and playing games. so i taught the entire class.
i have four new after school classes this semester on thursday and friday afternoons for overtime. it's a challenge. 25 first and second graders who know the alphabet and not much else. but i have the first week under my belt, and after a few hiccups, i think we'll get along quite nicely.
enough with my complaining. in my mission to journal more, i've found that it's effective for me to get out my angst and complaints onto paper so they're no longer jarred up inside of me. then i get on to the things that were peaceful and kind and good. i'm a little sorry that i did this on the blog as well as in my journal this week, but i felt it was important to write about the first week back at school and writing it twice must be doubly effective, right?
---
good things:
--the many wishes and messages i got from friends and family back home. i'm so excited to be stateside for my next birthday and to be surrounded with people i love and enjoy, that's all i ask.
--extra money each week from the new classes, finally figuring out taxes so i can eventually be reimbursed for the last 16 months.
--finding someone who also watches the bachelor so we can dish about it during and after, it adds a certain sweetness to the week.
--having four schools to choose from for graduate school in september (although it's proving a challenge as well).
--darling little first and second graders who want to know everything about me and are eager to learn the alphabet (both the big AND the small letters). spending time with them as they furiously hunt for letters and match the big with the small. little bobs, and tahyuns, and other children who are more faces than names right now. little boys who were terrified of me the first day, and tackling me the next (he also wouldn't speak the first day, and was rattling off random letters the second). even though it's going to be a lot of work planning for these classes and teaching them myself, i love how i feel when i leave. i feel accomplished and needed. something i'm not feeling in my other classes at the moment.
--saturdays in the sun. spending time climbing to the sinchang fortress and sitting on the stone walls looking over the village. walking through campus for a latte. and napping on the roof of my building cocooned in my comforter and listening to criminal podcasts for the afternoon.
so i look forward: to warmer weather and blue skies, visits with semi and mrs. kim, afternoons of sunshine and bus rides home and runs with staci, lattes in the morning, hillsong concerts in april.
---
a nugget of gold: little bob (he informed me it is pronounced "bohb" not "bawb") rushed to give me a hug before i left on friday. he made me feel special and i'm glad at least one of the rascals likes english.
*to weeks of positive attitudes and outlooks and good things to come. that was the point of this blog.
*welcome 24, i'm excited to see what another spin around the sun will bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment