JUST FIRE ME.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Today was my last day of work for the week! I have orientation tomorrow! woohoo! I get to see all the other Gwangju teachers! There’ll be new ones that I haven’t met yet from the Seoul orientation or from the commute to Gwangju from Seoul. I’m excited! Something to make me feel better since today was such a terrible day at work.

I feel like such a moron and am so disappointed in myself. Majorly disappointed and ashamed..like I’ve never been before. This is what happened: I went into my second class for the day, a 2nd grade (8th grade in the states) girls class. I put in my USB and start my introduction powerpoint as I did with all my first visits to a classroom. However, this wasn’t my first time with this class, it was my second! I didn’t have a lesson planned!!! I was so shocked, to say the least. I was going on with my introduction, “Hi, I’m Christina..I’m gonna be your new English teacher..” and then some students were saying “Last week!” and I was like, “What?” and they repeated themselves, “last week!” So I thought for a millisecond and said, “I did this last week???” and the class shakes their head and says yes. I was mortified. I told my co-teacher to come to me and I told her I didn’t have a lesson planned. At first I thought, oh, maybe they’re doing study habits, which is what I have been doing with my 3rd grade class. Nope, they weren’t. Not even close. AHH!! I ended up doing the lesson I had planned for my 1st graders about San Francisco and directions. I felt SOOO horrible at the end of the class. It was my lunch break after that so I had time to sulk. I was close to tears, but I held it back. I was really disappointed in myself. When I sat down at my desk, my main co-teacher sitting next to me said, “So I heard you had a bad class.” and I was like, “WHAT??? You’ve already heard???” Awww man! That’s the last thing I want – for everyone to know. She told me not to worry about it and that we learn from our mistakes…but I HATE MAKING MISTAKES! I know it’s only human, but I hate it. A lot. A lot a lot. After that, I had a few more classes and I thought to myself before my next class, “Don’t let it get to you in this class. Just move on, do your job” and I did. It may not have been the best, but it’s how I would’ve done it regardless of how my other class had gone. It wasn’t any worse, so that’s good! After my after school class, I felt so much better.

And also, Okailey was coming to sleep over!! I was really excited! It would be like having a roommate again, except we would be sleeping in the same bed. haha I used the Internet for an hour or so after work ended and waited for Okailey at the front of my school. She finally arrived via taxi and we headed off to my apartment to drop off stuff and chit chat a bit because I had not seen her for a week! This girl is basically my best friend here. She’s an amazing person. So we caught up and then got my (photoshopped) passport picture printed out because I needed it for my Alien Registration Card then headed out to get some yummy Korean food at a poppin’ local restaurant that we walked up and down the street to find. We wanted one with people and we found one! It also had some cute Korean kiddies! haha Then we went to a 1000 won shop (equivalent to the dollar store in the states) and bought some household items and some ICE CREAM. We actually got free ice cream from the restaurant we were at too! We love our ice cream, even if it’s cold outside! The ice cream that we bought at the 1000 won shop is not like any other ice cream we have ever tasted or seen. One of them has some jelly in the center? Strange. and the other one is CORN ICE CREAM. Koreans sure love their corn. They even have corn tea that smells/tastes like popcorn. We have yet to eat the ice cream though. it is still sitting in my freezer and Okailey and I forgot about it, so I’m gonna have to wait until she comes back to my place!

About the photoshopping – Koreans love their photoshop..you would think they’re working for magazines that promote an unhealthy body image or something. They photoshop EVERYBODY. It’s quite ridiculous. Taxi drivers usually have their picture displayed on the dashboard. I always notice that it does not look like them AT ALL. I mentioned this to someone and they said it’s because they photoshop it. That made sense. I thought maybe it was an old picture, but sometimes it doesn’t even resemble the driver. Prior to this, I was looking at the teachers for the Korean classes that I signed up for. I told my co-teacher that I couldn’t wait to meet these teachers and that I would keep an eye out for the people in these photographs. She told me that I would not recognize them from the photos and I asked her why. “Photoshop”. Everything is about “face” here. They are so occupied with how they appear to others, it is life-consuming. That is one thing I do not like about this country. They will keep something super crazy quiet (e.g., kids getting gang raped at a school) just so they won’t lose face. C’mon. There are more important things than how other people perceive you. It is important, I’m not gonna lie, but you’ve gotta get your priorities straight. But yes, enough about that. Tomorrow, ORIENTATION :)