17 January 2009
It’s now about 5pm here on Jeju, and I’ve only left bed once or twice. And to be honest, it’s kind of nice. About 2 days ago I started getting a sore throat (which I thought came from talking/yelling during class) and it has progressively gotten worse. I woke up yesterday (Friday) every two hours with a fever, chills, body-aches, congestion, the whole gamut. I contemplated not going to work, but realized how much I need the money. I thought about being nice and not infecting the kids, but it was those brats that gave me this sickness anyway, so let them deal. Joking… Bud judging by how dirty they are, they have almost definitely have built up an immunity to this cold anyway. Plus, all new people get sick here within the first month or so. I ended up just taking a steam shower in my little apartment and some Excedrin and left a little early for work, hitting up a pharmacy (where I didn’t purchase anything because it’s ALL behind the counter) and then Paris Baggette for some tea and a Skype session.
I felt like death most of the day. I pounded tea to soothe my throat like it was going out of style, and even went to the local grocery store to get some fruit juices to help ease up the symptoms. Jeju has some delicious local OJ, but the honey-ginger beverage was somewhat strange. The day went OK, all considered, and my horrible little pre-schoolers were somewhat tolerable. I was told I would be working with 3 and 4 year olds in addition to my other kids (up to ages 10/11) and was not that worried about it because of my 3 year old neighbor Sean back in the states who is apparently the coolest 3 year old in the world. Sean can tell time, make up incredible stories with a small vocabulary and apparently is quite the dragon slayer. My 3 year olds can climb on tables, pick their noses, not notice the snot caked to their upper lip, scream at high volumes in the couple English phrases they know, lick the floor, lick the table, lick the wall; but apparently not the electrical socket... The kids were so wild, I had to have one of our Korean co-teachers yell at them before class, and then our director came up during class to tell them to behave. It’s fairly tough for me to discipline them when the only English they know consists of “I am here; I am fine/good/so-so/; Freezy Song; and Hello/Goodbye Muggs Teacher!” Life would definitely be a lot easier without them, but I least I only see them for 50 minutes 2-3 times per week. My other classes are getting better. They are realizing that I will discipline them, but I am fair. I don’t sing and dance, but will put on the ‘Freezy Song’ (the basically run around while the music is on, and stop when it says ‘Freeze!’) if all goes well. As time goes on, I’ve grown to like a few of the kids, picking up on the similarities that are apparent in kids all over the world, and appreciate the differences between them and American kids. The little girls crack me up when they giggle (always covering their mouths if the joke has something to do with me) and the boys have a strange touchy-feely kind of affection for each other that you wouldn’t necessarily find in the states. I do my best to teach these kids some level of English competency, but I’ve decided to teach the brats that the letters ‘L’ and ‘R’ are pronounced the same.
Outside of school, things have been going well. I still go out to dinner with Paul and Meaghan most nights since it is just as cheap and probably easier than cooking at home. A group of us went out Thursday night to nice dinner (I can’t remember the Korean term) where we all sat down around these kettles of boiling broth and cooked our own 3 course meal. It was delicious and extremely filling, but sitting on the ground for a couple hours is not the most comfortable thing in the world for me. It was nice finally meeting some of the people I’d been in contact with online and good to hear more advice from people that’d been here in Seogwipo for awhile. I’ve decided I’m definitely going to be getting a motorbike as soon as I have the money so I can explore the island. I just need to find a way to strap my boards onto it and get to the beach. On other food notes, I discovered Korea’s version of the corn dog, and have been eating at least one a day for the past week. The vendors are pretty much on every street corner, and the dog is only $1. Delicious. One can only eat so much seaweed soup, rice and kim-chi for lunch.
I should have the internet in a week or so, and that will be great. It’s really been a pain having to go to shops or Paul and Meaghan’s place in order to talk to people or check email. I barely know what’s going on in the world, besides the fact that Bush will FINALLY be out of office in a couple days. So many people from around the world have told me how excited they are for a new president in America. They think it’s a chance for America to work its way back into world favor and take some steps in the right direction. I don’t really want to get too political, but I am very excited about what Obama can do in the next 4-8 years.
Well, I just wasted another 45 minutes of my day, and I better go do something. I at least need to run to the corner store and look for some detergent so hopefully I can get a little wash done, now that I have a washing machine. The washing machine was thoughtfully placed directly under they shower-head in my bathroom by the delivery men, leaving me no room to shower. I had to push it a couple feet to the other wall, stretching out the cords/pipes and making it so the floor will probably flood. Awesome. But I can’t complain, at least I have the option to do laundry now. As for drying, I’ll probably hang up my wet clothes in front of the heater fan and let it go to town on oscillation mode. Oh, I almost forgot. The director of the school got wind that I wasn’t crazy about my apartment and said that she’ll get a new one for me by June, which is a plus. Maybe I won’t have to hear the TB patient down the hall or smell drying squid every morning, but that’s just a pipe dream. This is Korea, and they love their seafood…
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MuggsJust a little journal about my life. Click 'Comments' or the Titles if you'd like to add anything. The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.
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