K-Wreck SMASH!

So, I'm not in the greatest of moods today. I've realized that I might have spread myself a little too thin and now I am paying for it with stress. Along with stress comes the frustration of living in another country. That rolls into a rather large, bulbous form known as consternation. Add in some anxiety. Throw in some sleeplessness. Fold in several small annoyances. Turn the heat up(after all, you can't forget that it's summer!) and wrap it all up in a sweater and trousers, and you have a magnificent recipe for K-Wreck SMASH!!!!

I know Fridays are usually the days for my thank you notes, and today is no exception. I shall rise above and be thankful for the incredible opportunity to come to this lovely country and meet all these delightful people.

Thank you, ajumma on the train, for popping your gum for a full half hour. I actually didn't realize that looking like a cow gnawing on grass could be even more annoying. However, you have proven me wrong once again, Korea. Thanks to the same ajumma for staring at me that whole half hour, while popping your gum. It wasn't awkward at all, actually.

Thank you, water heater in my apartment, for being so incredibly good at your job that I can't take a shower without burning and boiling myself. I thought we had a good relationship, but I suppose now that it's summer you've moved on. Is it the toilet brush? I knew I should've bought the less pretty one.

Thank you to my bank card for not working. I knew I didn't need all that stuff for my class the next day. 

PS: Thank you to my secret stashes of cash everywhere for making sure I had enough cash to pay for said stuff.

Thank you to my school. Actually, I didn't need to know that the schedule had changed. And that 5th grade class definitely could deal with the whole 10 minutes of class they actually got to have. Since they don't have English next week, I'm sure that's more than enough time to actually absorb new vocabulary and sentence structure.

Those are just some of the small, but frustrating, annoyances lately. Also, as usual, the staring. I don't know that I'll ever be able to completely ignore the staring. 

However, writing this makes me feel just slightly better. Now I just feel like doing this:

And now, since it's Friday, I shall finish my lesson plans and wait for 4:30 to roll around so I can start my nerdfest of a weekend. Next post: a review of Seoul's Comic World!!!

It's Friday.....thank Cthulhu

All I have to say is:

It's Friday, thank Cthulhu.

Aww, yeah.

Being that it's Friday, I feel I have some thank you notes to give out. Roll call!

Thank you, teacher's office, for calling me down to sign an attendance paper and then sending me on my way with a gift of toothpaste. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a message, but I was just about out anyway, so I'll take it as Korean intuition.

Thank you old Korean people, for keeping it real. Seriously, you guys can do whatever you want. Most of the time, you do exactly that. Thank you for shushing people on the subway, while you can yell into your cell phone unchecked. Thank you for giving people dirty looks until they give you their seat (Except us waygookins, of course. Our seats are somehow tainted). Thank you for deciding to piss and poo wherever you like, even outside in full view of the public. Thank you for mentally scarring me for the rest of my existence.

Thank you to all Koreans who use public transportation. Am I really the only person that realizes that there is more than ONE line to go through when exiting the subway station? I mean, there can be six queues available, but everyone crowds to the same one. Probably too busy on their phone to realize.

That's as thankful as I can be right now. I'm going to finish my day of teaching, then head off into the sunset toward Busan for Comic World. Boo-yah.

Once I'm back I'll make sure to make a post about my experience of paragliding last weekend. I'm behind on the blogging, sorry.

So there's this thing called an "Open Class."

There's this thing called an "open class" for new teachers here in South Korea. It's mandatory, everyone does it, and it's a total pain in the ass. Seriously, I can't be bothered.
What happens is that a few new teachers are put into a group. This is referred to as the "Critical Friends Group," or CFG. These "friends" come to your school and sit in on one of your classes. Sometimes the Principal, Vice-Principal, other teachers, etc., can come too. They watch, take notes, and afterwards give you some helpful pointers on what you could do to improve, what you're doing really well, etc. So far I've gone to three of these classes and I've gotten new ideas for my own classes from each one of them.

You might be asking yourself, "Well, that doesn't sound too bad. Maybe a little nerve-wrecking, but certainly not that big of a pain."

To that, I answer:

Of course, that's not the bad part. I don't mind having people come watch me teach. I'm actually not nervous at all. Call it confidence or stupid pride, but I'm a good teacher. I enjoy my job, and I think it shows. The only problem with open classes are your co-teachers. 

For an open class, you have to submit a lesson plan to the DMOE about a week in advance. No problem, right? Well, that's until you have a co-teacher who believes that this open class will either make or break their entire career. So they give their advice. Which basically looks like this:

No, this is not an attempt at subtle racism.

So it ends up that I write 5 different lesson plans before we send one off to the DMOE for the open class. I figure if I don't like it, I can still change it before the actual class. I have a week left, right?

Well, today I went to see another open class. By the time I got back, my co-teacher had worked herself into such a frenzy over what needed to be changed. I'm like: 

Okay, fine. We can change some stuff. Not a problem.

So we do. I rewrite the lesson again, putting in a couple new games and some vocab drilling. I figure it's brilliant (as usual). Apparently not. My co-teacher is afraid that some of the rules of the game won't be understood. 

So now we're rewriting and "experimenting" with a different class tomorrow. At this current moment I just feel like doing this:

This post was really just an excuse to use a bunch of gifs, 'cause I love them so. Also, I'm just frustrated with stressed out Koreans.