Back to the Grind Stone...for now.

Today marked the end of Chuseok break as I ventured back to school to teach the most delightful girls possible.  

On Mondays, I teach three classes, so I spent the rest of my time reading NPR, editing more English newspaper articles and ... opening mail!  Today, because of the holiday I'm guessing, I received three letters / cards AND three packages.  Thanks, again, to all of the senders!  I had to laugh because my mom sent me healthy oatmeal as requested (less sugar...) and my gal pal Wiener sent me caramel apple Hersey's kisses and homemade chocolate chip cookies and monster cookie bars.  I think they cancel each other out...  When I shared Wiener's goodies with some of the other teachers in my office, they were so grateful!  One teacher was very touched and said, "Oh Noelle Teacher.  Thank you for your kindness!"  I love this job.

Today in my third year classes, we practiced how to order food at restaurants and we talked about the American restaurant experience as a whole.  I told them about tipping because in Korea, tipping is basically unheard of so they aren't used to the practice.  One girl asked me, "If I leave big tip, will cute waiter give me phone number?"  The same girl, not two minutes later, after the lesson was over with a couple of minutes left in class, said, "Noelle Teacher.  I want American boyfriend.  How do I meet boys?"  I said, "Buddy, if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be single."  They laughed.  I still can't get over how boy crazy some of the girls are...too funny! 

For the following story, it is important to know that I wore my contacts to school for the first time today.  When I arrived at school, many teachers had fresh haircuts and / or were wearing new clothes following the Chuseok holiday.  I saw the co-teacher with whom I do Morning English each day after lunch.  He was sporting a new haircut.  I said, "Ahh.  Happy Haircut!"  (Bob taught me well...)  He said, "Uh, happy you not wear your glasses today... day...what are those things called?" to which he trailed off and left.  We're still getting to know each other...

Emily and I took off from school today during our afternoon free periods to go pay bills.  I misunderstood how to deal with bills.  Instead of everything being automatically deducted as I had previously explained, my bills go like this:  my cell phone bill is automatically deducted from my bank account each month.  My internet, electric and phone bills all go to the school and are split among the four apartments on my floors, all of which are owned and inhabited by teachers at one of the three Kyung-Hwa schools.  I pay these bills when they ask me to...  So, maybe I'll pay for one month or maybe I'll pay for three months at a time... however (and whenever...) they ask me to pay them.  I have yet to hear about how this will work...  So, on a monthly basis, the only bill I am responsible for paying on my own is my gas bill.  I looked at the gas bill today for the month of August (which was before I moved in, so I didn't actually pay it...).  It was for a whopping 4,600 won or something like that.  That is about $4.  For one month of gas.  Crazy.  Paying the bill is even crazier.  You go to the bank, stand in line, and when your turn comes, you go to a machine much akin to an ATM machine.  You stick your bank card in, individually insert each bill, and the amount you owe is deducted from your bank balance.  At the end, it totals your amount and prints a receipt.  It is the slickest bill pay I have ever seen. 

Here is my schedule for the next couple of weeks:

First, no morning English, so I still arrive at school at 7:50, but don't actually do anything class-wise until at least 9:00 when the first classes start.

This week - Monday and Tuesday are normal (aside from no Morning English).  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - I go to a teacher training workshop attended by several Westerners from all over the province (the satellite cities surrounding Seoul), so I don't teach at all, and am not even in Gwangju those days.

Next week is midterms.  I come to school on Monday, but don't teach anything because all of the girls will be taking exams.  I'm not exactly sure what I do since I don't give a Midterm and don't proctor any exams.  I guess I'm supposed to use the time to lesson plan.  In a perfect world, that is exactly what I would do.  But, alas, I still live at Procrastination Station, so I'm sure Monday will be NPR, CNN and Facebook filled.  I have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off...which makes for a six day weekend!  Sadly, no one else that I know has this time off (because Emily starts her new job that week), so traveling anywhere isn't really possible because I don't want to travel by myself...  Helloooooooo Seoul exploration!

Nothing else too exciting to report...  I got my new American driver's license in the mail today.  Hello angry looking pixelated Noelle.  Yikes.  Also, I bought peach air fresheners, so now my apartment is peachy fresh.  YUM.