We left school at 3:00. I rode with my main co-teacher and two Grade 3 teachers. Of course I didn't say much during the ride, because the 3rd grade teachers speak next to no English, and between the three of them, there was rarely a moment of silence to get a word in. Every time I find myself in that situation, my heart goes out to my Art, who has had to endure this with my family for years now.
Once we got to Gyeongju, we met up with a couple other teachers and went for a walk around a man-made lake, and we followed that up with a lengthy stop in Starbucks. Though they're rare, I always enjoy our teacher outings because I get a chance to interact with teachers I rarely get to see at school. In Starbucks, one of the teachers started asking me (in English!) questions about Canada, and I was both surprised and impressed with her English skills. I told her that people walking by must be wondering how that lucky foreigner found himself surrounded by half a dozen beautiful Korean women.
 |
| Down in front! You're ruining the shot! |
 |
| Much better. |
 |
| Hello, Mr. Tree. |
 |
| POW-POW-POWER WHEELS! |
 |
| This was set up in the plaza where we had Starbucks. It was a photo booth type of thing where people could pose in front of Van Gogh's The Bedroom for some reason. |
After Starbucks, we hopped back in the car and headed to a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere--it was literally surrounded by farmland--to meet up with the rest of the staff for dinner. It turned out to be quite possibly the best dinner I've had during my time in Korea. As we were driving to the restaurant, my co-teacher tried to describe it as "pumpkin duck," which of course left me clueless. Turns out, she was completely right--the server brought out a small pumpkin cut up with a pile of pieces of cut up duck meat stacked in the middle. The duck was so tender and juicy, especially with some spicy sauce. Apparently Ulsan doesn't have a restaurant that serves that meal, but I would gladly drive out to the middle of nowhere in Gyeongju to have that meal again. If only I had a car...
At one point, the Vice Principal got up and told everybody to switch seats so that they're sitting with different teachers. I somehow ended up sitting beside the boss man himself. He whipped out his phone to show off his cherry blossom photos on his phone, but then the teacher laughed at him and said, "But where are all the people?! There are no people in your pictures! Here, look, these are pictures!" She pulled out her own phone and shoved it in his face. I laughed and put a reassuring hand on the Principal's shoulder. "Don't worry," I said, "I do it all the time too." He nodded and smiled, hopefully understanding my joke. That was probably the second or third thing I've ever said to the Principal since arriving here (he never leaves his office, and he knows no English at all), so I was happy to make him smile.
The highlight of my night was speaking to the woman seated directly across from me. I knew she understood English because she once told my co-teacher during lunch that I am a very good older brother after I had just finished telling a story about Doris, however I had no idea she could speak decent fluent English.
She basically teaches the Korean equivalent of the Home-School Program. For my non-teacher readers, I taught HSP for a year and a half at Malvern; it's a Special Education class. Students spend their morning in HSP learning English and Math, and then they go to their regular classrooms after Lunch. I was curious as to whether the job was as demanding in Korea as it is back home, so I asked if they had to write up any legal documents outlining a student's individual curriculum expectations. (Back home this is called an Individual Education Plan.) I tried wording it in a simple way to get her to understand what I was trying to ask about, and I shocked to hear her ask, "Do you mean an IEP?" I wasn't surprised that they were required to write IEP's, but I was surprised to hear them referred to the same way. We understood each other's pain. It was weird to think back to all of those hours sitting in front of the computer monitor at Malvern; it felt like a lifetime ago.
Once we were done stuffing ourselves with duck, we headed out to Anapji Pond, another man-made body of water in Gyeongju National Park that dates back to the ancient Silla dynasty. The night view was rather beautiful, but I was surprised to see how packed the place was so late on a Wednesday; and all the visitors were students! I felt like I was back home in Toronto during Nuit Blanche; that's how crowded it was. Apparently they were all there to honour Buddha's upcoming birthday. We stayed long enough to take a casual stroll around the pond before heading home.
All in all, a great evening; I just wish our staff would do more things together. It seems like my friends go out to teacher dinners much more often than I do. (Or maybe the teachers just aren't telling me about the teacher dinners....Nah.....)
No comments:
Post a Comment