Me to a tree and back again

Anxiety fills my chest.
Why have you come to linger here today?
Once in a while it comes to visit me,
it doesn’t stay,
too long,
but it is an annoyance, nonetheless.

Things appear to be great.
My courtyard is sprinkled with cherry blossoms.
A gust of wind creates a snowfall of petals.

I walk by the same smiley, old man every day.
He stands at his bus stop as I head off to work.
Stepping out to meet me on the sidewalk,
he looks at me head on and smiles.
We smile and give a slight bow.
High Five! Slap!
Or a gentle handshake some days as I walk on by.
I don’t stop to say hi,
I just keep moving, smiling too now.

A warm breeze blows and in comes the yellow dust with it.
How bad is that stuff anyways?
Some days I can see the small mountains in the distance, oh so clearly.
And other days it is a misty mystery as to what lies down yonder.

I walk by the purple budding flowers,
snap,
take a picture, it will last longer.
So, I do.

Babies breath... is that babies breath I see?
No, no I don’t think so... but I thought so.
Do babies breathes smell as sweet as that flower looks?
I think their breath smells more like sour milk, mixed with magic babiness that makes it smell sweeter than you would imagine.
Or it really smells like sour milk and baby cookies.

The grasshoppers have started rubbing and humming again,
I can hear them at night when I am out and about.
It makes me think of France or other places,
it makes me feel like I am on vacation.
Sometimes I think I am on vacation.

How does a person go back to their old life,
after living this life here?
What is my old life? What is this life?
What is real and what is part of the “vacation”?

I look forward to the weekends here like I never have before.
What will I look forward to in the future?
I suppose I could keep focusing on the little, beautiful things that are all around me.

I have meaningful interactions with people everyday here.
I believe that I have taken them for granted some days.
I try to constantly appreciate everything that goes on around me.

Like the smiley, old man.
Or, my children, who look up to me and some days I feel things for them that are not very nice... and I don’t know why I feel this way.
I am here to teach them and some days I think that they made me come here and teach them... and I will resent them for that, because some days I don’t like my job and it’s not fair to them.
I don’t know how much of me they see when I am feeling this way,
I always try to mask it, at least for the most part.

But when I think about them in moments like these,
I feel genuine appreciation and I would even go so far as to say, a certain type of love for them.

I buy milk from the same man every day.
He speaks English and we talk a little here and there,
usually about the same old things.
But as I approach his store, I get excited to go in and say hi.
And he always kinda chuckles because I am so predictable,
buying the same small milk every day, for my cereal.

My anxiety is gone now... as will be the petals on the blossom trees.

Field trip with the young ones

Last week we took the little morning kids to a big indoor playground. There were padded floors, an air filled play area, balls to jump in, a trampoline, a huge, complex maze of tunnels to crawl through going left, right, up and down and slides to go down. It was so much fun. I spent a good hour or more chasing a student of mine, Joon Woo, around that place. He was screaming, turning around to see that I was still after him, laughing and just completely over the top, excited! It was hilarious and I had so much fun, maybe even more fun than some of the kids. Check out some of the pics.

My morning class

These are the kids that I spend Mon-Fri with from 9:40 am - 1:20 pm... it's called Intensive Preschool or IP. I am growing more attached to them as the weeks go by.

Little Pee Socks

Well, by now, who ever has been reading my blog for the past bit has heard of Pee Socks. My cutie pie student who has had a few accidents. We went on a field trip with the morning kids and I took some pics. Here is a pic of Yoon Young aka Little Pee Socks. Isn't she adorable? Awww...

PARTY ,PARTY, PARTY!

So, our boss took us all out (like 20 of us or so) to a nearby restaurant/bar on Friday to thank us for being good teachers. The food was non-stop. Just as you were finishing a dish, another would come and be placed down at whatever table the server could find room at. Dan had meat free potato skins and some fries, but other than that, everything had some kind of fish or meat in it. Everyone had small plates and shared whatever dish was laid at their table.

The beer flowed all night and all of us proceeded in drinking our worries away. Our boss (Mr. Kho) and his wife (Stacy) were partying just as hard as we were. Their kids were with us. Julie is their daughter. She is very sweet and is currently one of my students. Most of us there have at one point or another taught her. Her little brother Doo Won (whom I call Mini Kho, cause he is a mini version of Mr. Kho) who is 3.5 years old was also with us for the whole night. A little strange getting drunk in front of a student, but she didn't seem to mind.

After hours of eating and drinking we walked the next block over to a Noribong place (private Kareoke rooms). We sang there for a few hours and danced and played tambourine. Everyone sang at some point. Dan and Dan sang "So Happy Together", which I thought was great, cause they're so funny when they're together. We ended the night with Piano Man. Loved it!

Oh, those cherry blossoms!

So, we went to the Flower festival in Seoul yesterday. First we walked through a park that was just starting to blossom. There were people on bikes (some on the two person bikes), some were roller blading, while others played basketball.

Then we walked towards the National Assembly building. On the way we found these strange large mirrored boxes on the street and all of these people were taking pictures of themselves in the mirrors... so, of course, we had to do it to.

We then continued on our trek and came across these people who had mad roller blading skills. I took a video and a few pics. They had little pylons set up and were weaving in and out of them while spinning in circles, with music playing out of their ghetto blaster. Their feet looked like rubber as they bent and bounced around the pylons.

Then we walked on the grounds of the National Assembly and there were statues, flowers, water fountains and other pretty things. Following the sound of drums and cymbals we found our way to the festival, which was behind the Assembly building. We went up this hill into a forested area, which then lead us onto a flat area with trees in bloom, people having picnics, playing with their kids, sitting on benches, or laying around on the grass. We played hacky sack there, which was good fun! Two Korean guys stood watching intently and then Dan invited them to play with us... they were so excited every time they kicked the hack. It was cool.

There was a street that ran along the river lined along both sides with hundreds of cherry blossom trees. We made our way down to that road and walked along taking pictures. Along the shore of the river, off in the distance, there was a shack that rented out kites. There were a handful of kites being flown above in the sky. It was a really great day!

Cherry blossom time, just around the corner!

I am going to a flower festival in Seoul this weekend. Cherry blossoms everywhere, along with a bunch of activities and performances of all sorts. Woo Hoo!

Amie Teacher's random update.

They all call me Amie Teacher and Dan is Daniel Teacher... even some of our fellow teachers call us that. Dan is called Daniel because we have another Dan at work too... So, not to confuse anyone, they all call him Daniel, except me. :)

So, I just finished my report cards yesterday and Dan finished his today... that was hell. Out of every month at work, about a week of it is me staying for 12 hour days trying to do marking, report card writing and the daily stuff too. But then that crazy week gets finished and then it's time to catch up on everything else I was putting off... lesson plans and prep stuff and the other side jobs that they keep piling on. The supervisor will say to us, "it's only this. It'll only take 2o minutes". Then sure enough, there is something else that comes up.

Total hours worked last month after teaching all day, which 3 of those teaching days are almost 8 hours of teaching- 60 hours. Yes, I said SIXTY. And, no, there is no overtime or bonus pay or even a big thank- you... well... actually the boss is taking us all out for beer and dinner on Friday, which I heard starts at 7 pm, but some teachers (like Dan) aren't finished teaching until 8:40... so, I dunno. But, to be honest, I appreciate the dinner, I do, but I would really prefer to get paid some overtime for all of those extra hours I spent there.

We received some new furniture last weekend from some friends of ours that we work with. See Dan the Man's blog for the details. Pictures of the place with all our delightful furniture are coming soon to a blog near you.

Pee socks- Oops, she did it again! Yes, little pee socks peed her skirt, tights and socks again, today. Did I tell you that I am teaching kids who are 4 years old, but according to Korean years, they call them 6 year olds? Not all of them are four, but none of them are six either. Yes, anyways, this is why they sneeze gobs of snot out onto the table and look to me for help and are still wetting themselves... I try to remind myself of their true age on a daily basis and sometimes a reminder isn't necessary, because you can plainly see their age in their actions. The problem is, I am most often expecting them to behave like proper students, not the little, little, little kids that they are.

But, I am starting to get into their mind frame. I am often down on the ground getting jumped by them at all angles. Roaring at them, tickling them, grabbing their feet as they try to get away... them looking at me and laughing hysterically, coming at me for more, only to run away laughing and screaming when I turn my attention to them. Or I will have anywhere from 1-3 kids on my lap at our morning circle time on the carpet. One will get off me and another will take their place. It can be really fun and they are sweet, for the most part. And they tell me they love me and I say it back (secretly feeling awkward about it... but I don't want to hurt their feelings).

Anyways... that's a little about what's going on here. I saw the first blossoms of Spring yesterday. Purple flowers growing on some trees on my walk to school. The Yellow Dust season is approaching and the people are wearing their face masks more and more. Sometimes the sky looks a tinge of yellow, especially when you look somewhere into the distance. It's pollution that rolls in from China at this time of year. It lasts about a month and it's not good to breath in at all.

Ok, that's long enough, sorry... I hope you are all doing well!
xoxo
Amie