Anne in Korea: Making things official: I am staying in Korea!

So I have been thinking for a while about staying another year. Things have been going so well, I'm saving money, and my life is the most stress free it has ever been (and probably ever will be). The thought of coming home to be an unemployed bum leaching off of my parents is highly unappealing.. as is the scenario of becoming a barista and serving now successful people from my high school. So I've decided I will re-sign and stay another year. Adri is flirting with the idea of staying longer too. I hope she stays for a year, she hops I stay for less.. we will have to wait and see! Anyways, I figured I'd put this on my blog for the few readers who I haven't remembered to tell personally.

A lot happened today! Well not really, but it felt like it. Today was randomly a day off, but for foreign teachers only. Most of my friends had it off. However, it was also open class at my school. This means that parents would be coming in, and evaluation our classes. My Wednesdays are with the grade 4's, and the grade 4 English teacher had specifically asked me a while ago if I could do the class with him. So I figured what the hell it's a Wednesday, no big deal to go in to school. We did our open class, things went well, and he was soooo grateful for my help. So grateful in fact, that he sent me home after the open class which was only second period! Yipee!

Next, I tidied and cooked for a while at home, only to return to school because there was a teacher dinner. We drove out to Bomun where I had a leisurely coffee with the grade 6 teachers. It was really lovely. Most conversation was in Korean of course, but a few chatted with me as well. My coteacher told them I was staying in Korea for another year and I couldn't have been more touched by their reaction. Everyone, including the teacher of 6-4, clapped and seemed genuinely happy. They made me feel so wanted! When they heard I had come in on a holiday (albeit for 2 classes) they were all super impressed, and thanked me for my "service" teaching. Service is the term here used for "on the house" when you get free things!

Here are some of the interesting conversations I had...

Adorable child ran by with curly hair. The child was definitely pre-kindergarten. Everyone agreed her curls must be a perm. When they saw my flabbergasted face, they asked about my perm and dyed hair. When I said my hair was all natural, both in curls and colour, one teacher said my hair was "a work of art." He is an artistic man and plays in an amateur orchestra, and can even understand some Italian from opera listening, so this was a huge complement! I envy Korean's thick lustrous hair so much, it's easy to forget that mine must really look magical to them despite it's thinness. Interestingly, when I showed a baby picture to prove the authenticity of my hair, on teacher was super surprised by my "low nose." I guess they wouldn't know that us big nosed people aren't born that way! We would be very very ugly babies if we were.

We discuss me playing rugby in high school. They were all shocked and amused. We jokingly discussed me switching from English teacher to P.E. teacher and teaching rugby to all the students. How fun!

Another interesting convo.. One teacher asked me my future plans. I said I didn't know, and that I had actually studied biology in school. He then asked me if I believed in evolution, since I studied science. We chatted a bit about evolution and genesis, and apparently in Korea you either are a Christian and creationist, or a non-christian and believe in evolution. I asked if you could be a Christian and believe in evolution and he said no, but that in schools they taught evolution annyways (phew!). Made me kind of sad that they had to make that choice here. Hopefully Christianity here will chill out eventually and evolution and homosexuality and all that jazz might be a little more accepted.

Finally we ate about 500lbs of Jeju Island black pig barbecue. My section of the table included two young men so we kept getting meat from the other sections who couldn't eat anymore. I felt like I was on a marathon representing the gluttonous West. Eventually, even I was defeated by the never ending amazing meal.

Lastly, here are some pictures. I went to Cheomseongdae with a friend yesterday. It's the oldest observatory in East Asia.. cool? Haha despite the tower itself not being that impressive, the surrounding area is full of flowers and prettiness. As the sunset, the tower was lit up and became mmuch more beautiful. We also passed some lit up lanterns at a temple all decked out for Buddha's birthday. It's funny.. all the light up lanterns made it feel more like Christmas than it did in December. Funny how such a different religion/holiday would include such a fundamental human joy: pretty colours!