my first (and only) Chuseok present! one of the teachers at school gave me this gift pack of Dove products! sweet! i won't have to buy soap for the next year! haha... i really wasn't expecting anything from anyone so it was really nice to be remembered... not that my "co-teacher" did anything for me (other than make my day frustrating as hell). i figured that if anyone would do anything it would be him, but it was another teacher, whose name i don't even know! she doesn't even speak english! but she's been extremely kind to me since day one. she's given me a box of green tea, a pair of shoes to wear instead of the sandals that jay gave me on my first day - have i mentioned the shoe thing yet? see below. anyway, it was really nice to get a prezzie. i'll have to get her something now and give it to her after the holidays.so we were still in mid-terms at school today, so i had no class, but i had to sit at my desk all morning trying to look busy - i.e. emailing, surfing the net. i actually worked on a lesson plan for a while, i had most of it done, but it needed some polishing according to Jay. could he tell me what he wanted? no. of course not. we had made plans on friday to work on our "demo class" today after school. the demo class is next thursday, basically it means that a bunch of big-wigs from the board of education and some other english teachers from the area are going to be watching our class... so it has to be good. we had agreed last week that the lesson will revolve around halloween and that was it. he told me to figure something out, even though it's supposed to be "team teaching". so i planned a whole lesson and gave him a copy on friday and we agreed to discuss it today. BUT, after waiting all morning, and then expecting to get to work, he comes to my desk and says "did you eat lunch?" well, obviously i hadn't... he saw me sitting there all morning, so what gives? anyway, then he's like, "ok, i'm off to lunch, go eat, and i'll meet you back here at 2." well, i may have over-reacted a little, but i was like "what do you mean? i thought we were working on the lesson. it'll only take about ten minutes to go over, so let's get it done with."
Jay: no, no, i'm hungry, we'll do it later.
Liz: i'd rather get it done with, i have to go to the bank, and leaving school to eat lunch will take me too long.
Jay: well, i think it will take longer than ten minutes... blah blah blah.
(it came out later that he also made plans to go play tennis with someone at 2...argh... i told him that he needs to communicate these things with me... if i didn't ask Jo (teacher next me) all kinds of things, i'd be in the dark 95% of the time.)
finally, he made me go for lunch with him and two other teachers, and then he dropped me off at the bank (more on that later) and now he's coming over to my apartment at 5 to work on it. which just pisses me off... he doesn't like my lesson plan because it isn't in the format that he wants, but he never told me what format to use, or gave me any kind of guidelines... he just told me to come up with something! ARGH! anyway, we'll see.
so i finally made it to the bank, and there is money on its way to my account in canada, but i still think it's going to be late for my auto payments. i'm kind of screwed, i think. i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the time difference will make it all work out... but this week is full of holidays, so they don't count as business days, so i could be screwed. we'll see. the guy at the bank J.J. was super nice and quite chatty, his english is probably the best i've heard from a korean (other than an english teacher). i don't know if he was asking me out on a date, or just to do something, but he did ask if he could call me. of course, i still don't have a phone, so i told him i'd call him when i got one. it'll be good practice for his english and maybe i can pick up a little korean from him...
so the shoe thing. people don't wear shoes in the house here, at all. and they have a pair of slippers for the bathroom and when you go to school you have to wear your "school shoes". the kids all have these weird slipper things, and lots of the teachers wear beach sandals.. i have a pair of loafers that i got at payless right before leaving canada, and they are what i wear every day. but on my first day, i didn't have them, cause i didn't know, so jay gave me these men's beach sandals... and the nice teacher who gave me the present today, lent me a pair of shoes on the first day so i wouldn't have to wear men's shoes. it was funny. but that's just how nice she's been... she also gave me a mug to have my tea in. very sweet, especially since she can't even talk to me!
so another day, another dollar - and lots of money on its way home - a potential date with a cute korean (never thought i'd say that, but some of them are really good looking) and then six days off to do as i please... things are definitely looking up. :)
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