- 회식/Hwe-Shik - This is the new staff members welcoming party. Simply put, you eat good meat, drink lots of alcohol and sing lots of hours drunk off your ass. It happens twice, the first time is paid for by the staff that's been there already and the second time is paid for by the newbie crew.
I moved into Wando County on the first of March and was placed on school residence. Basically its a little strip of about five single room houses that comes with a puny kitchen and a puny bathroom.
Another teacher had been using it (until he transferrred) as a sort of relaxing place and the place was a horrible mess. You know when you watch TV and it shows dark scenes in gray where things seem dark and gunky? Well yea, that was what it was like before I busted my ass for four hours scrubbing, dusting, re-organizing. At first there was no gas line,, no laundry machine, the boiler was broken and there was no independent internet line. I managed the get gas connected on the first day, but it turns out the boiler was out of goddamn gas. So I called a company to re-stock about $100 bucks worth, which should last me 'til summer (by then I should be using cold water because it'll be so hot). It stopped functioning the day after but then started working again the day after that.
They gave me one used laundry machine that another one of the teachers had before they transferred. You know that episode of Simpsons where they had to get a new machine because it was loud and kept moving on its own? Mine was kinda like that, except it stood still thankfully. I managed to wash stuff for one round but then after it just didn't work. After trying for two days I said fuck it and I had it moved outside where the garbage guys will take it away. Soon after the boiler broke AGAIN and I had to call the guys to fix it for good. I signed up for the KT internet service here, the other option would've been to share the school's line but it would be very slow so I decided to get my own line so I can play some proper Super IV in April.
We had two Hwe-Shiks and I gotta say it's actually pretty fun drinking with older people (and three ppl in their 20s thank god). There's like a ritual that the vice-principal and principal have to do during the first one, where they go around to each staff member and exchange a shot of Soju. Because I'm the school's first foreign teacher all the staff members exchanged shots with me in a 30 minute time frame (also counting the rest of the time in the restaurant, karaoke and another restaurant.) The principal turns out to be my uncle's distant cousin and therefore my aunt in some ways which is pretty cool. Now during the second party, the newbies have to go around exchange shots with every one of the original staff. Because I was the youngest I had to go first. There were about 25 staff members and I don't get a break period, I go from one person to the next and so on. In the course of five-ten minutes I downed about 20 shots (a few didn't drink that night) and I was feeling a bit tipsy. About an hour in the female staff started oggling and chatting with me o.O. I dunno if it was because they were drunk but they're like 'OMG HE'S SO CUTE!!!~~~' I wish I heard it more often from girls closer to my age LOL, kind weird hearin it from people who are like 10-15 years older. -___- The first party I don't remember how I got back, I just woke up in one of the teacher's homes on the floor in my underwear along with four other teachers in their underwear. (Yea, major awkward moment). The second time I got back home surprisingly but as soon as I got in, I turned on the comp and passed out. xD
I go to work every weekday except Wednesday, being assistant teacher to the main curriculum English classes as well as being in charge of the after school English classes. Almost every other TaLK member has a university student co-teaching with them, but sadly no one wants to come all the way down to bum-fuck Wando. So I'm left in charge with about 20-25 kids per class usually. Because my school (청해 초) Cheong-hae Elementary is new to the TaLK program they don't have shit figured out from previous teachers. They also have a special feature where they have after school classes that include piano, dance, violin, art, taekwondo, science and of course English. Reason being is because we're stuck in a poor area and the kids' guardians don't have the time/money to take their kids to after school academies.
Now because of this stupid system, they mixed the students participating all over the place and as a result there's an even blend of students in grades 1-6 in every class. Anyone with a brain can tell you that there is no way the kids can all learn properly when there's such a huge gap in English level and age. So every lesson I'm stuck with half the class being bored/irritated = start yabbering in class/fighting/goofing around.
They seriously need to get this shit figured out because so far each class has been far less productive then it should've been. They gave me a pointing/beating stick, but suggested that I refrain from hitting the children considering my strength and status as a foreign teacher. So for now I use it as a scare tool, when I yell at the kids I'll usually point the stick in their face and wave it up and down a bit implying that I'll hit them if they screw around. So far I had to take one smart mouth kid every day after classes end to yell at them. You know that one mouthy kid that always disturbs the peace of the class? Yea him, so I've been quite frustrated with how work is going so far. If they would just fix the schedule and assign students to a set class/time then there wouldn't be a problem.
The school also feeds the students and staff lunch everyday in their cafeteria. As an ex-trainer I can say the meals are very nutritionally balanced and are damn tasty. It's not like the shitty caf food I had to eat in Jochiwon/조치원 but this time it feeds us restaurant quality meals every day. An example, today we had pork ribs, rice, kimchi, seaweed soup, spinach side dish, cherry tomatoes, an orange and a carton of milk. Yea you see? Props to the lunch ladies for their superb cooking skills. =D
I also met and acquainted myself with the after school dance teacher and my god she's a damn hot beauty. Every model like description you can think of, she has it so I don't have to go into detail. xP Sadly she works on Wednesday (which is my day off) but whatever I live literally five seconds away from the school. xD Come to think of it, the Kindergarten teacher is kinda cute.. hell in general the women in Wando are at least average and above. The term 'farmer's daughters' can be applied here literally and figuratively. Maybe me being alone all the way down here as lowered my standards but hell I ain't complaining. xD
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