Snow!
Argh!! I really was beginning to think that I'd have a completely snow free winter, but no. On Monday morning I woke up to about 2cm of snow. Nothing by Canadian standards, but that little bit was enough to close the school. Teachers whose drive normally takes about 30 minutes from Masan were arriving two hours late. The children were of course very excited...it's been three years since they've seen any snow here.
Wednesday (Feb. 8) afternoon ... the snow is pretty much all gone.
This week I started teaching at schools other than Chilwon. I guess you could call Chilwon Elementary school my "base", but in the next few weeks I'll be teaching at eight other schools. All of the other schools are much, much smaller than Chilwon. There are 945 students at Chilwon, but at Daesan Elementary where I was yesterday, there are only 55 students in the whole school. I think the other schools are all about that size. I rather like the smaller classes...it makes it easier to get to know the students, and controlling the class is certainly easier. Not that discipline is a big problem, but I compare it to riding a large horse who knows he's big and can dominate a rider, and a smaller horse that may still be spirited, but is much more easily controlled.
On Friday, February 18, students all over Korea will graduate. Students in grade 4, move up to grade 5, grade 5's go to grade 6 and grade 6's move on to middle school (junior high). The following two weeks are spring vacation, but I am expected to come to school for 8 hours a day and work on lesson plans or whatever. I'm looking forward to it anyway because my lesson plans are still a work in progress and having yet another week to catch my breath and regroup isn't a bad thing at all. However, I prefer to work on them at home, so I'll spend my time at school reading. Also, since I won't be going to other schools from Feb. 20 to March 3, I'll be able to swim everyday.
At this point I don't have an internet connection at home, but sometime very soon I will. It should cost me now more than about $30/month for a high speed connection. It'll be handy for work since there really is a wealth of ESL teaching resources on the net. Also, having my own connection will make it easier to keep the blog up-to-date.
Friday (Feb. 10) ...a couple of guys came over to my apartment around 6pm to connect me to the internet, yeah!! The cost? It'll add about $40 to my monthly phone bill. Not cheap, but I think the cost is justified because:
- there are a wealth of ESL resources online,
- there a lots of free online Korean courses,
- I don't want to go to the noxious PC Bang anymore,
- it'll make it easier to update this ole blog.
And I can listen to CBC radio online and keep up with the ins and outs of our new government whose motto should really be, "We're here for a good time, not a long time."
Anyway, all that to say that I'm glad to have the internet at home. However, it seems to me that almost the second that I was online, and before the guys had even left, I had a virus. I know for a fact that it wasn't there before I was connected. I had something called the "Maslan" virus. Not a terribly inimical thing, but annoying as hell anyway.
So, I bought a copy of McAfee online for U.S.$39, did a system restore to a point sometime last week before I was connected to the internet, re-installed McAfee and then did a full virus scan. It worked ... I'm virus free! That's the most complicated computer related work I've done since I've been here. Ah, Miller time!
Here I am in my favourite bar again sipping a local beer called 'Hite' and yes, enjoying a couple of cigarettes with it. I brought my book; and hopefully my talkative friend won't be here tonight to interrupt these peaceful moments of mine.
There are six men at the booth in front of the one where I'm sitting. There are only three booths, three small tables, and two seats at the bar in the whole place. Tonight the place is hopping! Once you get to know them, Koreans are quite animated...quick to show joy, saddness, and yes, anger. But, as someone recently pointed out to me...the people in this area are country people and I shouldn't expect the same simple ways of Koreans in larger, more populated areas such as Seoul.
This somewhat harsh and beautiful country is such a mass of contradictions. It is an ancient land, but the people are obsessed with youth and youth culture. Some people here don't understand why I don't colour my hair. It is a popular thing with men and women here. I've done that in the past, and just don't feel the need to do it anymore. My hair is, what it is - my hair is not me.
Like people all over the world, Koreans are concerned about their health, and yet at least 80% of the men I've met are smokers. It is truly a beautiful country! Mountains occupy about 70% of the South Korea, and yet too many people think nothing of throwing trash wherever they want. Even worse, massive over-industrialization has led to the environment being contaminated by heavy metals and consequently, Koreans have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world.
Sounds pretty bad, but like I said, it really is beautiful. However, the most important and precious resource in this country which imports virtually everything, is its people. I'm constantly amazed by how hard people work - especially service workers. Waiters, waitresses, cooks etc., work so hard for very little money, they do it very well, and they do with a smile.
Saturday (Feb. 11) I traveled to Masan with a couple of teachers from Chilwon this afternoon. The mission - to go to the biggest department store in this area, "Shin Sehgeh" (New World). It is pretty big and to me seems to employ too many people. One thing that I find interesting is that at larger stores like this one when you pull into the parking garage there is an army of young, bright red-coated, university age kids who bow politely and direct you to the nearest available parking space. Neat!
My companions and I had lunch at a sushi place, and then we did some window shopping. We walked into the men's clothing department and I could see immediately that nothing in there would fit me. I've lost some weight, and my pants are all very loose on me, and even when I lose all the weight I want to, I will still be hard pressed to find clothes. My shoulders are quite a bit wider than the average Koreans, and that's not going to change a whole lot no matter how much weight I lose. However, on a positive sartorial note...I have at last found a place where legs as short as mine, are perfectly normal.
I ended up spending about $70 on groceries and vitamins.
Cultural Note: The Korean word for Mr./Miss/Mrs. is pronounced 'she'. Some people here call me "Peter she" or sometimes "Mr. Peter" which confused me a little. So, thinking I was being respectful I started calling one of my friends, "Hwang she" ( "Mr. Hwang"). But, he was a little insulted. My co-teacher explained that in Korean it is very rude to call someone by family name + 'she'. Calling someone by given name + 'she' is quite all right though. I then explained to her that in English we don't usually refer to someone by 'Mr./Miss/Mrs.' + given name - it's not rude, but we just don't usually do it.
I think pretty all of the schools I've been to are about 100 years old. In the older sections of all of them, the toilet is just a hole in the floor. So far I've managed to avoid using one of those.
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