The Longest Week of My Life

Hey there!
So this last week was crazy, exciting, exhausting, trying, and about a million other words I won't bore you with. So here is a basic breakdown of what happened after orientation. Oh and I have some pictures but the are on my iPad so I will try to upload them soon!

Wednesday: The day I left orientation and came to Mokpo.
My Principal and Yoon Jong-Il, my mentor teacher, came to pick me up. They were both pretty nice and luckily for me Yoon's english is ok so the hour and a half car ride was not unbearably akward like I thought it might be. We went to the school first. The first typhoon had just been the day before so the school was kindof a mess, trees down and some broken windows, and there were many people cleaning it up. I teach in 2 classrooms, one is sooooo small and they stick 14 first and second graders in there which makes it really hard to play games but I'll just have to make it work. The other room I teach in is bigger so that's nice and it has a whiteboard, which the other one does not. After seeing the rooms Yoon took me to the "office" he and I share. It is the storage room. No joke, it's packed with all the old excercise equipment, desks, instruments cabinets that no one uses anymore. I have a desk, no computer, and a few drawers. At first I felt bad for myself, then I thought whatever it will work, and I realized that I felt worse for Yoon. He is a real teacher but he is the newest and the youngest, he is 26, so it gets the brunt of all the work and apparently the crappy office too. Ironicaly that's also how he got stuck having to help me, poor guy!
Well, after that Yoon took me to my apartment. There is no elevator and luckily I live on the third floor bc my bags were soooo heavy! I felt aweful he wouldn't let me carry them up, but that was really nice of him. He showed me what button to push to turn on hot water and the floor heating and he also labeled every button on my washing machine  in english. The rest of the day he helped me get the internet started, get a phone, and start my alien registration process. He really isn't obligated to help me do any of that so I really appreciated all his help! Later that night we went to dinner with the rest of the staff. Apparently the principal I had met that morning was being transfered to a new school so this was his farewell dinner. The staff are pretty nice, some of them try to speak with me in english which is fun and the rest of them just smile at me.

The Weekend
The next day another typhoon came around so I stayed in my apartment, did lesson plans, scrubbed mold off everything in the kitchen and bathroom and slept, or tried to sleep. When I opened the bag that had my bedding there were only three blankets and two pillows, all of which smelled less than nice, and I thought "where's the bed part?" I know I wouldn't have a mattress but I thought there was supposed to be some sort of pad for support. Nope. So for almost a week I just slept on top of 3 thin blankets and in the morning I could hardly move. Thank goodness for the missionaries!
I found the missionaries, Elder Wixom and Elder Yoon and they were so helpful to me! I met them at a bus stop and they took me to the church and showed me how to get back. Elder Wixom also showed me a store were you can buy a "yo" or bed mat. Holy cow what a huge difference! I went to church on Sunday and the members are very nice! There are quite a few who speak english and translated for me. The asked me to join the choir as they are the musical number for stake conference coming up, and this Saturday they are going to Seoul to go to the Temple! It actually works out awesome bc next Sunday the english speaking singles in Seoul are getting together to watch the devotional with Elder Holland, so I think I will stay overnight so I can go to that.
Anyway, one of the families that invited the missionaries over for dinner also invited me, they made homemade pizza and curry(interesting combo) but it was so good. They taught me how to play a traditional Korean game with four sticks that reminded me a lot of Sorry.  We had a good time and I'm so glad to be able to go to church! Not being able to go for a month was horrible!

School Starts
Monday was the first day of school and before I even made it to my office, a big group of students all gasped and then ran to me and started asking me questions in Korean. I just smiled and said hello, hello, hello, because each of them wanted their chance to say hi. I got them back in their classroom, not sure where the teacher was, and went to my office to get ready for class. During my classes I had them make namecards, and pick english names which they really liked, and I showed them a powerpoint about me. When I said I was from america, in almost every class someone shouted "Obama!" They love him here.
The rest of the week went well. My 1st and 2nd graders are adorable. The can get a little loud but when I hold up the warning card the quiet down bc the want  a sticker on their sticker chart. I love my 5th and 6th grade class! There are only 10 of them and they listen and want to learn english so we have had a good time. And then there's my 3rd and 4th graders. Hmm, what can I say about them? They are crazy! There are almost 30 of them and no matter how many times I try the "no sticker for today" aproach they don't care. Thursday was the worst. I was going to teach them vowels, simple easy, I had games and a video. We did absolutly nothing bc the class was so wild. One of the boys got up on a cupboard and bodyslammed another boy. Yoon went back to stop them and they body slammed him. Meanwhile I was trying to keep the attention of the other students by playing "Boom chicka boom" it didn't work bc it was so loud they couldn't hear what I was saying for them to repeat. So I said sit down. Some of them did and some didn't and we waited for the last five minutes of class to be over.
Ugh. As I told my mom, I was having thoughts of becoming a teacher when i get back. I think I will stick with publishing. Don't get me wrong, besides that one class I really enjoyed this week and I know things will get easier and better as the year goes on. But I don't think I can see myself doing this my whole life! Kudos to you teachers! I get home and I am literally exhausted!

Odds and Ends
So here are just a few interesting, funny things to wrap up this post. As I'm out walking I have more than once felt someone pull my hair. I turn and sure enough someone is touching me, sometimes kids, sometimes adults. Apparently here it is good luck if you touch blonde hair, too bad they don't know it's semi-fake. Well, I hope it brings them luck anyway!
I have never been so nervous to take out my trash! Apparently the garbage system is really complex here and we have to buy a certain color trash bag and not only that but you can't put food waste in that trash bag. Food waste has to go in some big communal trash can, that I have yet to find. Anyway, at orientation more than one person told us to do the trash right bc they get really upset and have even been known to come and throw your trash back at you. Ughh, that seems a little extreme, but ok. So yesterday for the first time I took my trash out very discreetly. I'm still not sure where I am supposed to put it, so I saw a big pile of trash across the street, slinked behind cars, dropped it and walked very quickly away. So far no trash in my face.
Last but not least the worst meal I have ever had in front of me. On Friday we went to lunch and as we sat down Yoon pointed to my soup and told me what it was. I very audibly gasped and all the teachers asked Yoon what was wrong. He was baffled. For any of you who know me, you may no that I don't like dogs, in fact there are some dogs aka ones that pass my knee that I loathe. They scare me, they stink and some of them slobber way too much. I'm sorry to my friends that are dog lovers, but my loathing for dogs hit a new level on Friday when I found out I had eat one. I kid you not. First week of school ends with Dog Soup. I have eaten so nasty things in my travels. But I have rarely wanted to gag like I did looking at that soup. The teachers favorite pass time at lunch is to watch me eat. Almost everyday they clap for me I guess when they feel I picked up something really well with my chopsticks. No pressure right? Anyway, I told Yoon I could not eat this soup. He asked why and I explained dogs are pets to us and that I just really did not want to eat this soup. So he ate it for me. It's a local favorite in Dokcheon, great.

Well, I love you all and hope things back home are great! Have a wonderful week!