February is an important month for a couple reasons. First of all, my vacation starts this weekend! My real, official vacation, I mean (as opposed to my last two weeks of secret, off-the-books vacation). Jeannine and I will leave Daegu bright and early Saturday morning (make that dark and early...we're leaving at 4:30am, so we probably won't even see daylight until we reach Seoul). We'll meet her sister at Incheon Airport and fly to Beijing. After nine days in China, where we'll visit Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, I'll meet my friend Diana and her sister in Taiwan. After four days there, mostly in Taipei, I'll move on to Hong Kong. I'll be by myself in Hong Kong, but it's supposed to be an easy city to get around and my hostel is in a great location, so I should be fine!
The food in Taiwan and Hong Kong is supposed to be amazing, and I plan to spend at least as much time eating as I do sight-seeing. Also, I'll be in Beijing for the Chinese New Year celebrations! It might make the touristy things a bit more difficult, but I'll be in the best possible place to celebrate one of the biggest holiday festivals in the world!
February is also important because the 25th will be the half-way point of my year in Korea. The time has gone very quickly so far, but I feel like I still have a really long way to go! I told myself that I would wait until at least six months had passed before I started thinking about what to do when this year is over. I expected that by this time I would have a definite opinion about teaching and living in Korea, or that I would at least be leaning one way or another (toward either leaving Korea or renewing my EPIK contract for another year). However, the fact is that I don't have a clue yet what I'll be doing after another six months have gone by.
I know how I feel about Korea and teaching - they're both okay, but I'm not in love with either one. That sounds like a good reason to move on, but: Korea is a very easy place to live and I'm saving a ton of money by working here; I'm able to travel all over Asia and go out every weekend for next to nothing; I don't work any nights or weekends; I have a lot of great friends here; and I've had over four weeks of vacation in the last six months alone. It would be hard to match this lifestyle anywhere else, and hard to live without it now!
I definitely miss home, but I just as definitely want to do some more traveling. That could mean teaching in another country, or going back to school in another country, or just saving up and backpacking around for a few months before settling down back at home.
It's a blessing to have so many options before me, but right now I would welcome a little more focus. I'm honestly tempted to renew my EPIK contract and stay in Korea for another year, just because that would mean that I have a plan, a paycheck, and health insurance for twelve more months. I'm open to advice and ideas from anyone at this point!
Anyway, I probably won't blog while I'm on vacation, but check back for updates and photos ( http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg ) after the first week of March! Depending on where in the world you are, happy Valentine's Day and/or happy New Year!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Dirty Pop
This post was inspired by two YouTube videos. Made by a young Canadian couple teaching in Korea (their blog is also really entertaining, www.eatyourkimchi.com), these videos are about Korean pop music, or K-pop. Specifically, they are about K-pop dance moves.
My own impression of K-pop is that it reminds me a lot of American pop music from the late 90's and early 2000's. My reasons? Here are just a few: The bubblegum sound. The dance crazes. The boy bands. The girl bands. The backup dancers. The boy bands, girl bands, and backup dancers collected and assembled by corporations based on their physical appearances. The triple-threat entertainers (singer/dancer/actor). The themed or matching clothes.
That all being said, K-pop definitely has its charms. While I wouldn't call it deep or thoughtful, K-pop is abundantly entertaining and definitely a guilty pleasure. My favorite thing is to listen for the random bits of English thrown in; you'll hear a bunch of it if you watch these videos. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t, but like I said, that doesn’t diminish the fun.
How to Dance K Pop Style 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rYo8jXcesY&feature=related
How to Dance K Pop Style 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOInGnTngdQ&annotation_id=annotation_666873&feature=iv
Watch the videos and tell me your own opinion of K-pop!
My own impression of K-pop is that it reminds me a lot of American pop music from the late 90's and early 2000's. My reasons? Here are just a few: The bubblegum sound. The dance crazes. The boy bands. The girl bands. The backup dancers. The boy bands, girl bands, and backup dancers collected and assembled by corporations based on their physical appearances. The triple-threat entertainers (singer/dancer/actor). The themed or matching clothes.
That all being said, K-pop definitely has its charms. While I wouldn't call it deep or thoughtful, K-pop is abundantly entertaining and definitely a guilty pleasure. My favorite thing is to listen for the random bits of English thrown in; you'll hear a bunch of it if you watch these videos. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t, but like I said, that doesn’t diminish the fun.
How to Dance K Pop Style 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rYo8jXcesY&feature=related
How to Dance K Pop Style 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOInGnTngdQ&annotation_id=annotation_666873&feature=iv
Watch the videos and tell me your own opinion of K-pop!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Taebaek Snow Festival
First of all, check out my photos! There are now pictures from my teacher’s trip to Tongyeong and the Snow Festival, as well as updates to the ‘Halloween in Seoul’ and ‘Busan Fireworks Festival’ albums. http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg takes you to all of my albums.
Last Sunday, the 24th, I joined an Eagle Tour trip to the Taebaek Snow Festival. Eagle Tour is pretty much a one-man operation run by Eric, a Korean who speaks English and just puts together short trips for foreigners in Daegu. As the Facebook page for Eagle Tour says, “We provide domestic/overseas tour for foreigner in Korea. As you know that korea have many beautiful, historic place…but you hard to get there anytime alone… If you want go to anywhere, I'll prepare good way…” That about sums it up. Eric is really nice and the whole day, including the bus and festival entry fee, was only 25,000 won.
Taebaek is both the name of a town and a mountain range that runs along the eastern coast of the entire Korean peninsula. The festival was of course in the town of Taebaek, which is in the province of Gangwon-do, in north-eastern Korea. We left Daegu around 6:30am for the 3 ½ - 4 hour bus ride. There were around 25 of us (both Westerners and Koreans) and I knew about five people, including my good friends Jeannine and Diana.
Taebaek was really freaking cold – we were several hours north, of course, and it was also a very windy day in the mountains. I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and two sweatshirts under my coat, Under Armour under my jeans, huge fuzzy socks in huge fuzzy boots, and two pairs of mittens. With all this on it wasn’t actually too bad, and we managed to stay outside most of the day. We also had a good, if self-righteous, time making fun of the Korean girls wearing mini-skirts and no coats!
There was actually very little natural snow on the ground, but they brought in tons of it from somewhere to create a sledding hill and cover the ground in certain areas. My pictures definitely look winter wonderland-ish, but it was mostly just loose snow piled up on top of the ice (people were wiping out left and right, and poor Jeannine actually dropped and broke her camera when she slipped).
The festival covered a large area, but there wasn’t as much going on as we had been led to believe. There was hill-sledding (on plastic bags) and dog-sledding, but it was pretty much for little kids. We had the most fun with the ice and snow sculptures. There were dozens of these, and they were really big, very detailed and well-done. As you can tell if you look at my pictures, you could climb on them as well! Jeannine and I spent most of our time cutting in front of children and families to get pictures of or with the sculptures; it was pretty crowded and difficult to get your own picture, which is why I have several nice portraits of Korean families and other people’s cute children.
There was also a big tent with lots of different food stalls – basically Korean fair food – meat on sticks, fried tofu on sticks, red bean dumplings, rice cakes and more. We walked around and tried a bit of everything. After buying a box of dried persimmons (delicious) on the street, we settled in for the long bus ride home. Daegu felt downright tropical after playing in the snow up in the mountains all day!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
School's Out! Part II
More catching up:
The last week of December was an eventful one. Monday the 28th was a school day, but instead of classes we had a field trip! As I mentioned before, some special school events had been cancelled in the fall semester because of swine flu, so on the Monday after Christmas the entire school went downtown to see Avatar. I got to sleep in an hour and the movie was pretty awesome; the 1st and 2nd graders and their teachers saw it in 2D, but the 3rd graders and the rest of the teachers – including me! – saw it in 3D! I would definitely recommend it. We trooped back to school for lunch and all the students went home after that.
That same day Hyun Ju and I joined a gym - The Fitness Palace in Wellness, which is a five-minute walk from our apartment. The best part so far has been the hot shower, hands down. My apartment, especially the bathroom, is so frigid. The bathroom is unheated, and also has a window that might as well be wide open – it leaks cold air, and if someone smokes outside under the window, I can smell the cigarette smoke inside. Besides that, the showerhead is at a really awkward place on the wall, and although the water is hot, it’s hard to keep it at a steady temperature. Anyway, I absolutely dread showering there in the winter, so the prospect of a hot shower in a warm, clean locker room is the only motivation I need to exercise. I honestly skip showering now on days that I don’t have time to work out! Besides the awesome shower, there’s free soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, even toothpaste! They also provide towels and shirts and shorts to work out in. I got a 3-month membership for 80,000 won, or about $70, per month and I love it.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of that week we had a teachers-only field trip. We (almost all of the teachers and administrative employees at Jeil) left from school Tuesday morning and took a bus to Tongyeong, which is a city and several islands at the southern tip of the Korean mainland. It was a pretty relaxing two days – mostly sight-seeing and eating. Tongyeong is really pretty – a lot of water, a lot of mountains, and dozens of little islands. I got some beautiful pictures. Our hotel in Tongyeong was also really nice – I think there were about eight or ten female teachers in a four-bedroom suite, with a kitchen, living room and big TV, and two bathrooms.
We drove around in our bus, took a cable car up a mountain and hiked around a bit, took a one-hour ferry ride to one of the islands, visited the market (there must have been dozens of kinds of seafood and fish, much of it still alive, swimming in aquariums or hanging off of hooks), took a lot of pictures, and ate a lot of good food. As you can imagine, being by the sea we ate a lot of fish and seafood – including raw fish and live octopus! I tried some of each, and they were okay – raw meat in general doesn’t have much flavor to me, and the texture is really hard to get used to. Plus, I was terrified that the octopus was going to stick to the side of my cheek or throat and I would choke on it. Check out my pictures – even though I didn’t eat a lot of the fish, there were definitely enough side dishes to fill me up! Here are all my pictures from Tongyeong: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg/TeacherSTripToTongyeong?feat=directlink
We got back to Daegu sometime Wednesday evening, and I woke up the next morning, December 31st, intending to spend the day cleaning my apartment, working out, and repacking my bag, because we were headed to Seoul for New Year’s Eve! Unfortunately it was not meant to be – as the day went on I was feeling worse and worse, and by 3:30 or 4pm, I was throwing up and my temperature was over 101 degrees F. I called my friend Jeannine to bail on the Seoul trip, and then my coteacher Carrie to get a ride to the hospital. The doctor pushed around on my stomach, and Carrie’s interpretation of his diagnosis was ‘inflamed intestines’ from eating too much raw fish in Tongyeong. I don’t really understand that, because I didn’t really love the raw fish. Even though I tried everything, I don’t think I ate very much of it. Guess it doesn’t matter though – the doctor’s visit and mysterious prescription from the pharmacy came to less than 10,000 won, or 8-9 dollars, and I did start feeling better after a day or so. But I completely missed Seoul and New Years, and still paid for the hostel and train ticket! Lame.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
School's Out! Part I
So it has definitely been awhile since my last update, and the reason is Winter Camp. Winter and summer camps are special times in the Korean school schedules. My case was a little different, but most of my friends did 2-4 English ‘camps’, for 3-5 days at a time, either at their own school or another in Daegu. My school just basically held classes for 3 weeks this month, rather than having a special camp. I taught the 1st graders, totally on my own, for two hours every morning. The class itself was pretty easy – the kids were very quiet and well-behaved, and there were only 9-13 of them in each class. The lesson planning totally sucked though – I had to have two new lessons every day, so I was basically a hermit for those three weeks. However, I could go home as soon as my classes were done at 10:40 each morning, and the time went really fast because I was so busy.
It was also worth it because right now, I have two weeks of ‘unofficial’ vacation - I’m supposed to be desk-warming at school, but since there are no classes and no work, my very generous principal is letting me stay home. I’m not allowed to leave the country, but as long as I’m quiet about it and the main office doesn’t find out, I can be away from school! I will be using this time to catch up here on everything that’s happened, besides winter camp, for the last month and a half.
First of all, I had a really nice birthday (December 10th). At school, some of my first grade classes sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and one of my students even gave me a box of cookies (this same girl also signed up for my winter class, and gave me a candy bar on the last day! I want to take her home with me). A group of the teachers sang to me as well, and even gave me a birthday cake with candles! It was a sweet potato cake – not just sweet potato flavored, but it actually had sweet potatoes in it. It was delicious, and so thoughtful of everyone.
That evening, about 15 people came out for dinner with me! We had samgyupsal and soju, and my friends surprised me with another cake and a round of singing. The picture at the beginning of this post is from the restaurant; check out the streamers over my shoulder. We went out to noraebang afterwards for some more alcohol and singing. I had a great time – it was so worth being sick the next day and having to teach four classes with a hangover!
Christmas was also really special, even though I couldn’t be home. There were about fifteen of us, including my coteachers Bosun and Soo, that met Christmas Eve at Dave’s studio for a potluck and Secret Santa. Between the fried chicken we ordered in and the sides that everyone brought, we had way too much delicious food. We had a good time exchanging presents and guessing about the givers (I got a pretty scarf and warm fuzzy socks from Kelly), playing drinking games, chatting, and later going out for noraebang (of course!). I got home around 4:30am, and stayed awake for another few hours to Skype with my family – all the relatives were over for Christmas Eve, and it was great to see and speak with everyone.
It was strange how normal Christmas was here. The noraebang place was open all night on Christmas Eve, and I woke up in the middle of the day on Christmas (after going to bed at 6am) because of the construction noise outside my house. It was basically just a bank holiday.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
You know, surgery would be a great souvenir...
A couple of articles from the New York Times online edition, one from today and one that is almost a year old, inspired this post. The article "Ambitious South Korean Parents See Tall as All" was published today and is about a “growing conviction” among South Korean parents that being tall is a key factor in their child’s future success. This conviction is fueling a new industry – ‘growth clinics.’ Some Korean parents spend the equivalent of hundreds of dollars per month for their children to visit growth clinics, which provide “growth hormone shots, Eastern herbal medicine and special exercises to ensure that young clients will be the ones looking down, not the ones looked down upon.” And, as you’ll realize if you read the full article, by ‘young clients’ they mean as young as five years old!
The emphasis on appearance is something I noticed right away when I got to Korea. Almost everyone I see on the streets is very put together; girls and women are in heels and skirts more often than jeans, most of the men are in suits, everyone has matching bags and shoes, the whole nine yards. I very rarely see a Korean in sweatpants, and when the weather was warm enough I never saw flip-flops on the streets. Koreans, men and women, take their image very seriously. There also seem to be a lot more mirrors here than in America (Jeil Middle School, for example, has mirrors in every hallway and even quite a few of the classrooms), and Koreans are never ashamed of checking themselves out. While out with friends at a restaurant last week we saw a girl at the next table over, holding her chopsticks in one hand and a mirror in the other, inspecting herself over her food. I've seen people, as they are walking down the street, stop in front of parked cars to check themselves out and adjust their hair or makeup in the window, or just pull out a mirror while walking around downtown with friends. In Western culture we would probably smirk and call this self-centeredness, but in Korea a little bit (or a lot) of vanity is perfectly acceptable.
On one hand, I think that attention to your appearance is nice and respectful, but sometimes it can be seriously annoying, and even a little scary. Besides the newer growth clinics, South Korea is also famous for plastic surgery. According to the second article I read today, “Economy Blunts Korea’s Appetite for Plastic Surgery,” many Koreans value physical attractiveness for the same reasons they value height – for “providing an edge in this high-pressure society’s intense competition for jobs, education and marriage partners.”
In one of my classes I asked students to plan and write a schedule for a one-week 'dream vacation,’ in which they could go anywhere, meet anyone, and do anything they wanted. Several girls stated quite seriously that they would use one or two days of their vacation to get plastic surgery. And last week when we wrote letters to Santa Claus, several girls asked Santa for plastic surgery. Middle school girls!
But I guess I can't blame them, because like I said, it seems to be ingrained in the culture. One of my coteachers told me that on job applications and resumes, Koreans not only attach a photo of themselves but also list things like their height, weight, and vision. So it’s no wonder that “an estimated 30 percent of Korean women aged 20 to 50, or some 2.4 million women, had surgical or nonsurgical cosmetic procedures last year, with many having more than one procedure.” 30%!!! In one year!!! It definitely makes me wonder – I have four female coteachers, which could mean that at least one or two of them are looking a little bit different now than they would have if I’d gotten here a year earlier.
This article is actually about the effect of the recession on the plastic surgery industry, and cites one woman, “typical of South Korea’s more frugal patients” who has had to choose cheaper, nonsurgical procedures like Botox over her usual surgeries, as well as reduce her visits to the plastic surgeon from twice a year to just once. This just shows again how common these procedures are, and how necessary they seem to women here – even in a recession, it’s not something you give up!
If you read this article, also note the types of surgeries Koreans are getting – “…the wider eyes, whiter skin and higher nose bridges that define beauty for many here” - basically, procedures to make them look more Western and less Korean. Before coming to Korea, I had never in my life gotten compliments on my nose, but according to my students it’s really high and beautiful. Another question I get a lot (right after, “Do you like kimchi?”) is “Are your eyelashes real?” Seriously?
“Ambitious South Korean Parents See Tall as All” by Choe Sang-Hun, published December 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/asia/23seoul.html?_r=1&hp
“Economy Blunts Korea’s Appetite for Plastic Surgery” by Martin Fackler, published January 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/worldbusiness/02plastic.html?_r=1&ref=world
The emphasis on appearance is something I noticed right away when I got to Korea. Almost everyone I see on the streets is very put together; girls and women are in heels and skirts more often than jeans, most of the men are in suits, everyone has matching bags and shoes, the whole nine yards. I very rarely see a Korean in sweatpants, and when the weather was warm enough I never saw flip-flops on the streets. Koreans, men and women, take their image very seriously. There also seem to be a lot more mirrors here than in America (Jeil Middle School, for example, has mirrors in every hallway and even quite a few of the classrooms), and Koreans are never ashamed of checking themselves out. While out with friends at a restaurant last week we saw a girl at the next table over, holding her chopsticks in one hand and a mirror in the other, inspecting herself over her food. I've seen people, as they are walking down the street, stop in front of parked cars to check themselves out and adjust their hair or makeup in the window, or just pull out a mirror while walking around downtown with friends. In Western culture we would probably smirk and call this self-centeredness, but in Korea a little bit (or a lot) of vanity is perfectly acceptable.
On one hand, I think that attention to your appearance is nice and respectful, but sometimes it can be seriously annoying, and even a little scary. Besides the newer growth clinics, South Korea is also famous for plastic surgery. According to the second article I read today, “Economy Blunts Korea’s Appetite for Plastic Surgery,” many Koreans value physical attractiveness for the same reasons they value height – for “providing an edge in this high-pressure society’s intense competition for jobs, education and marriage partners.”
In one of my classes I asked students to plan and write a schedule for a one-week 'dream vacation,’ in which they could go anywhere, meet anyone, and do anything they wanted. Several girls stated quite seriously that they would use one or two days of their vacation to get plastic surgery. And last week when we wrote letters to Santa Claus, several girls asked Santa for plastic surgery. Middle school girls!
But I guess I can't blame them, because like I said, it seems to be ingrained in the culture. One of my coteachers told me that on job applications and resumes, Koreans not only attach a photo of themselves but also list things like their height, weight, and vision. So it’s no wonder that “an estimated 30 percent of Korean women aged 20 to 50, or some 2.4 million women, had surgical or nonsurgical cosmetic procedures last year, with many having more than one procedure.” 30%!!! In one year!!! It definitely makes me wonder – I have four female coteachers, which could mean that at least one or two of them are looking a little bit different now than they would have if I’d gotten here a year earlier.
This article is actually about the effect of the recession on the plastic surgery industry, and cites one woman, “typical of South Korea’s more frugal patients” who has had to choose cheaper, nonsurgical procedures like Botox over her usual surgeries, as well as reduce her visits to the plastic surgeon from twice a year to just once. This just shows again how common these procedures are, and how necessary they seem to women here – even in a recession, it’s not something you give up!
If you read this article, also note the types of surgeries Koreans are getting – “…the wider eyes, whiter skin and higher nose bridges that define beauty for many here” - basically, procedures to make them look more Western and less Korean. Before coming to Korea, I had never in my life gotten compliments on my nose, but according to my students it’s really high and beautiful. Another question I get a lot (right after, “Do you like kimchi?”) is “Are your eyelashes real?” Seriously?
“Ambitious South Korean Parents See Tall as All” by Choe Sang-Hun, published December 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/asia/23seoul.html?_r=1&hp
“Economy Blunts Korea’s Appetite for Plastic Surgery” by Martin Fackler, published January 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/worldbusiness/02plastic.html?_r=1&ref=world
Monday, December 21, 2009
Holiday Plans
I definitely got a lesson in humility on Saturday, the four-month anniversary of my arrival in Korea. It came from my amazing friend and co-teacher Bosun, and was definitely something that I needed to hear.
She texted me early in the day (Saturday). She had to be at school that morning and wanted to let me know not to go see the new movie Avatar, because the principal had decided that all the teachers and students will see it together next Monday, the 28th. Because of the swine flu, the school canceled this semester’s festival and sports days, so they decided to take a school-wide field trip downtown to see Avatar instead.
My initial reaction was to get angry. I knew it was a long shot, but I had been really hopeful for a long time that I would be able to go home for Christmas. I desperately wanted to, and I really didn’t see why I shouldn’t. The last week of school is a hodge-podge of exams, special end-of-year ceremonies, the one-day Christmas vacation, and even an overnight field trip just for the teachers. We’ve finished teaching from the textbooks and the students don’t want to listen anymore anyway.
I also felt like I should be able to go home because it seems like Christmas is so much more meaningful and ‘important’ to Americans than it is to Koreans. Bosun told me that gifts are only exchanged between couples or given to small children; I know that Christmas in general has less religious significance for Koreans than for Americans; and besides, they only get one day off from school! How important can it be?
So between all of the end-of-year shenanigans going on around this time, and the difference in attitude about Christmas, it seemed obvious (to me) that my school wouldn’t miss me at all, and it would mean a lot more to me to be able to go home than it would for them to have me there. But it was impossible because there is only one day off for Christmas, and my contract doesn’t allow vacation or personal time except during actual school vacation periods. So when I heard that yet another day of what could have been my precious Christmas time at home, had been devoted to hauling 400+ kids downtown to see a freaking movie, I was so, so upset.
So I immediately fired back a text to Bosun, basically something along the lines of ‘Seriously?!?! I can’t go home for Christmas because I have to be at school on ‘school days,’ and then we all decide to go to the movies together! This sucks!’ Not my most mature or thoughtful moment, considering that: 1. We’d already discussed this whole situation, and she knew exactly how I felt and has been very sympathetic; and 2. All the other teachers work two Saturdays a month, so she was working while I was at home, watching TV and subjecting her to my crabby texts.
Anyway, here’s the response she sent me:
This is how things go at school in Korea. 28th’s movie trip is also kinda school schedule, and 29-30th teacher trip, too. Most people who work for company and school can’t use their vacation. Especially, teachers can’t go anywhere during official school days, even though there is no class to teach. I know how much you get angry, but you have to understand it. Sorry for your Christmas.
So that definitely brought me down a peg or two, especially since she was reminding me of stuff that I already knew or should have known. I’m a teacher like all the other teachers at Jeil, and even though as a foreigner I very often get special treatment, it doesn’t and shouldn’t extend to every issue. Also, Koreans, and Korean teachers especially, are very hard workers and their attitude toward Christmas vacation is just a cultural difference. Lastly, I volunteered to work in Korea, and I knew when I made that decision that this might happen, and that signing a one-year contract might very well mean that I don’t go home for one year.
Now that a few days have passed and I’ve cooled down, I’m starting to actually get a little excited for Christmas in Daegu. I’ll be spending Christmas Eve with friends – we’re doing a Secret Santa and a potluck dinner. And Avatar should actually be pretty cool – we’ll meet at 9:20am at the movie theater downtown, so I can sleep in an hour; the movie itself is in 3D; and after the movie we’ll go back to school for lunch and then the students go home! And the teacher’s trip sounds like it’ll be fantastic – I’m still not sure exactly where we’re going, and the itinerary I was given is in Korean, but I think it’s several hours away, near the shore somewhere, and will involve a ferry ride, some really amazing decadent meals (raw fish!), and an actual budget for snacks and beer. Definitely my kind of trip.
She texted me early in the day (Saturday). She had to be at school that morning and wanted to let me know not to go see the new movie Avatar, because the principal had decided that all the teachers and students will see it together next Monday, the 28th. Because of the swine flu, the school canceled this semester’s festival and sports days, so they decided to take a school-wide field trip downtown to see Avatar instead.
My initial reaction was to get angry. I knew it was a long shot, but I had been really hopeful for a long time that I would be able to go home for Christmas. I desperately wanted to, and I really didn’t see why I shouldn’t. The last week of school is a hodge-podge of exams, special end-of-year ceremonies, the one-day Christmas vacation, and even an overnight field trip just for the teachers. We’ve finished teaching from the textbooks and the students don’t want to listen anymore anyway.
I also felt like I should be able to go home because it seems like Christmas is so much more meaningful and ‘important’ to Americans than it is to Koreans. Bosun told me that gifts are only exchanged between couples or given to small children; I know that Christmas in general has less religious significance for Koreans than for Americans; and besides, they only get one day off from school! How important can it be?
So between all of the end-of-year shenanigans going on around this time, and the difference in attitude about Christmas, it seemed obvious (to me) that my school wouldn’t miss me at all, and it would mean a lot more to me to be able to go home than it would for them to have me there. But it was impossible because there is only one day off for Christmas, and my contract doesn’t allow vacation or personal time except during actual school vacation periods. So when I heard that yet another day of what could have been my precious Christmas time at home, had been devoted to hauling 400+ kids downtown to see a freaking movie, I was so, so upset.
So I immediately fired back a text to Bosun, basically something along the lines of ‘Seriously?!?! I can’t go home for Christmas because I have to be at school on ‘school days,’ and then we all decide to go to the movies together! This sucks!’ Not my most mature or thoughtful moment, considering that: 1. We’d already discussed this whole situation, and she knew exactly how I felt and has been very sympathetic; and 2. All the other teachers work two Saturdays a month, so she was working while I was at home, watching TV and subjecting her to my crabby texts.
Anyway, here’s the response she sent me:
This is how things go at school in Korea. 28th’s movie trip is also kinda school schedule, and 29-30th teacher trip, too. Most people who work for company and school can’t use their vacation. Especially, teachers can’t go anywhere during official school days, even though there is no class to teach. I know how much you get angry, but you have to understand it. Sorry for your Christmas.
So that definitely brought me down a peg or two, especially since she was reminding me of stuff that I already knew or should have known. I’m a teacher like all the other teachers at Jeil, and even though as a foreigner I very often get special treatment, it doesn’t and shouldn’t extend to every issue. Also, Koreans, and Korean teachers especially, are very hard workers and their attitude toward Christmas vacation is just a cultural difference. Lastly, I volunteered to work in Korea, and I knew when I made that decision that this might happen, and that signing a one-year contract might very well mean that I don’t go home for one year.
Now that a few days have passed and I’ve cooled down, I’m starting to actually get a little excited for Christmas in Daegu. I’ll be spending Christmas Eve with friends – we’re doing a Secret Santa and a potluck dinner. And Avatar should actually be pretty cool – we’ll meet at 9:20am at the movie theater downtown, so I can sleep in an hour; the movie itself is in 3D; and after the movie we’ll go back to school for lunch and then the students go home! And the teacher’s trip sounds like it’ll be fantastic – I’m still not sure exactly where we’re going, and the itinerary I was given is in Korean, but I think it’s several hours away, near the shore somewhere, and will involve a ferry ride, some really amazing decadent meals (raw fish!), and an actual budget for snacks and beer. Definitely my kind of trip.
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