I mentioned in the previous post that moments of warmth are doled out between servings of trials and tribulations. The bookends around this cozy weeeknd have been trying. Friday ended with me witnessing a fifth grade boy and girl fighting in the courtyard which was broken up by other students but not before the boy punched the girl straight in the face. Maybe one day I’ll work at a school with well behaved students. I reported it to Helen but who it makes it to is unclear. Do we even have a school counselor? Worse is that if the behavior is reported to the home room teacher, I feel he…

My hair appointment started with illegal parking (jk no such thing in Korea) and ended with me eating silkworm larvae in the backroom with the two stylists. Life is uh full of surprises.

Korea requires emission testing every two years and as a proud car owner, I had to face that reality several weeks ago. The serviceman told me there was a hole in the exhaust pipe and that I needed to replace it and return for confirmation if I didn’t want to face a fine. After a week of asking Yana, then Anthony, then Yana’s husband, we concluded that my best bet would be the Chevrolet Car Center. Everyone promised that the branded service center wouldn’t up sell or rip me off, which might be the case if I go to a local mechanic shop. This is quite different from the U.S.…

Sundays are a blessing because my Korean teacher always sends me off with a new bit of inspiration, especially when I feel ground down by COVID and expat life. I left class happily to get my nails done and then wandered around looking for Halloween candy to drop off at House Owner’s place. I had just exited a foreign snack shop when a young man stopped me. For a weird moment I thought he was chasing me down because it looked like I had stolen something. “Is there a problem?” I asked, having to look up even though I was wearing three inch heeled boots. “Yes. I like you.” Wow…

Jack launched out of his chair when I got back to the office. “Are you okay?” He asked. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. That’s a pretty loaded question. Emotionally? Physically? Mentally? Jury’s out. “I heard a student broke a ruler in class. The homeroom teacher was really worried you got hurt.” I wracked my brain for any incident outside of the norm; I mean, earlier I saw one boy riding another like a horse. What about today was particularly different? “She said a piece flew off.” Ah. One of the special students in fourth grade snapped his plastic ruler, sending a large shard sailing across the room…

In other dramatic news, Jenny and I found out from the Office of Education that the debate tournament, finally on the official schedule, is actually a required event. Required for all students. As you may know, getting even three of the ten students to show up for the debate class has been… a challenge. Strangely, the debate class itself is not mandatory but the tournament is. Not surprisingly, when Jenny broke the news in the group chat, she was ignored by half the students and rejected by the rest. “But teacher, I really don’t think I can go that day.” Sure. “But teacher, we have a mandatory event for school…

My pretty pink USB crapped out at the T minus ten minute mark so I emailed the sixth grade teachers on my schedule today with the lesson PPT attached. When I arrived to 6-4, I got to prepping. But the short video for today’s class opened in what appeared to be an already loaded internet window. The first tab read: 알겠습니다 영어로 Or, “how to say ‘okay, understood’ in English”. I stared at the tab for a moment. The 6-4 teacher is amazingly proficient, mostly evidenced by her cheery English small talk in the sixth grade break room for which I’m so very grateful. A small, touched laugh stuck in…

The recent and drastic change of weather from summer that overstayed its welcome to winter that showed up much too early to the party has zapped the health of teachers right and left: Ten from our school alone left early this week, myself and Jack included, suffering from colds and fatigue. I had to even uncharacteristically take a nap at my desk on Tuesday afternoon. MJ, my office mate the floating teacher, greeted me in our early morning liminal time before Jack and Helen usually arrive with a Lotte Mart gift bag and hot cup of tea, like I was Lotte VIP. I peered inside as she explained in Korean.“There’s…

I made my way across town for the mandatory annual emissions check. I idled nervously in the third line at the car center, unsure of what exactly was expected of me and what results would be returned. A younger man asked for my registration in Korean and then gestured for me to leave the car running and wait in the makeshift office in the giant warehouse. It took about five minutes of me fiddling with the chair and glancing at the TV with updates on everyone’s cars, the place was busy for 5PM on a Monday, before an older mechanic called me over. “Do you speak Korean?” He asked. “No,”…

A few hours after lunch, Yana suddenly asked, “do you want to play volleyball?” “In general or right now?” “Right now.” I had suspected this might come about when she surreptitiously mentioned volleyball only to never follow up. I didn’t have any gym clothes, or rather, gym clothes appropriate for playing secret volleyball with the teachers on a Wednesday afternoon, so I offered to be the score keeper. There was an official stand with flippable numbers I called my own. Yana, decked out in track pants and a wrinkled green t-shirt, gathered the new 2-1 teacher on our way to the school gym. “Oh! Hello!!!” the new, very young teacher…