My school

As promised, this post will contain a discussion (and PICTURES) of my school. Apartment pics coming sooooooon.

Anyways, so my school is called ShinHeung Girls' Middle School. It is a five minute walk from my apartment, which is very convenient. The Girls' middle school is located immediately next to a Boys' middle school by the same name (replace Girls' with Boys' and there we are). There is also an elementary school behind the middle school. The students wear uniforms at the middle school but not at the elementary school. My schools uniforms are not pretty. They aren't terrible, but they fit the girls SO poorly. The skirts are blue red and green plaid (navy background) and are below the knee and pleated. The blouses are a hideous pink (with navy blue, forest green and garnet? wtf?) and the shirts are always clearly too small for the girls. I can't tell if it's just because the uniforms are a half year old (they started in March) and the girls have just grown, or if they have always been that small. In the chest area, some of the girls can't even button all the buttons. Plus, they are entirely too short. They all have to wear tank tops underneath for modesty's sake.

My school is 4 floors, with the main office on the first, grade 1s and the teachers office/principals office are on the second floor, grade 3s are on the 3rd floor, and grade 2s are on the 4th floor. The Science lab is on the first floor, and the English lab is on the 3 floor along with the grade 3s. I basically have a whole wing of the school entirely dedicated to me, which is SWEET. I see ~575 students each week (every single once/week) which is simply not enough. To make matters worse, I don't know anyone's name, and all my students names are moderately similar (Imagine: one class, 8 students last name Kim, two Kim Yoonas, a Kim Yooni, a Kim Yang-gi, etc-- they put family names at the beginning).

My students are pretty much your standard 13 year olds on methamphetamines. By this I mean they simultaneously don't give a shit about anything in life (13 y.o.) but still manage to be the most talkative, giggly, screamy set of girls you'd ever meet. My days consist largely of students yelling, "HELLLOOOOOOOO TEACHA!" or "Hiiiiieeeeeee teacha!" Throw in a couple "nice to meet you"'s (this is what they say when they see you outside of school as well, which is humorous) and a "I'm fine thank you, and you?" or two. The talkative part is usually a good thing because they are more willing to participate in the class. Unfortunately sometimes it is difficult to get them to chill out for 10 seconds to listen to the rules of a game or conclude a class. CRAZY.

My students are great though. Really. They have taught me how to create a cyworld account (still impossibly difficult to operate because it is all in Korean, and without any obvious buttons, which makes it extra hard), talked to me about Chaebom from 2pm (so sad he is leaving Korea T.T), taught me the yeong kae baek su dance (chicken dance, ahahaha) and the nangmyeun dance (cold noodles dance), while still managing to sort of learn some English. I love having them around all the time. Most people I talk to who are teaching abroad seem to feel like they always want a reprieve from the student's attention, but I love having them around. It means they are interested and that every opportunity is teaching. My students have already asked me about essay competitions and for help with other English things.

My classroom is huge and gorgeous. It consists of three parts: 1. a large, colorful, high-tech classroom (see the huge, touch screen t.v. connected to the computer and a ridiculous microphone system (which I don't use...) The window shades have images of various world landmarks (some in the English speaking world, others not) including the statue of liberty, the Colosseum, and Tower Bridge in London (mistakenly identified on the window shade not as London Bridge, but as BIG BEN, which is a bit hilarious). There is a big world map and special Allison-made (and partially store-bought) decorations on the bulletin board. To the left of the calendar bulletin (yes that is a giraffe chillin on top of the month, there is a scene of summer with a cutout of a girl saying, "I love learning English!" 2. a listening center with 7 computers, a dozen and a half dvds, more cds and a study area. This area is not frequently used, and so I leave the lights off and the a/c off over there almost always. Occasionally during lunch a girl or two will go online over there. If you look closely at the wall, over the computers, there is a picture of Harvard University (diane!) as well as Columbia (to the right) and Yale (which you can't see). These schools are the dreams of Korean girls. 3. my office/movie screening area/reading area. haha, this area is really a hybrid. This is where my main desk is, as well as a second and third computer strictly for my use, another huge screen t.v. (for watching English movies at lunchtime), a couple hundred English books, tables, and about 2 dozen American games (Apples to Apples, Boggle, Scrabble, etc). My main desk, as you can see, appears to be a receptionist's desk for a real-estate agency of some sort. You can't tell, but there is even blue mood lighting for the background. Very cool. I also have my very own laminator, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever made. I laminate lots of stuff these days. everything, it seems, is ripe to be laminated. Currently, during lunch, we are watching the Princess Diaries (omg, Sarah, Amy, Ali-- I totally confessed my school girl crush on Michael to the students who thought it was ridiculous [I think they all prefer Erik VonDetton] ahahahah). Sometimes girls play Guess Who (which they seem to like a lot) but only in Korean. Forget asking questions in English.

Anyways, so like I said, during lunch students often come in and hang out, and sometimes some students come in after school too (particularly Scarlet and Audrey, my FAVORITES). During that, they do all sorts of things but for the last two weeks usually there are about 3-7 girls crowded around my desk gossiping with me about who the cutest member of 2pm, big bang, ShinEE, etc is, or helping me set up an account on cyworld (Korean facebook).

I LOVE IT HERE. Seriously. I haven't the slightest bit of homesickness (yet). Knock on wood. Everything here is great. Ask me again in a month or so. We'll see how I feel then.

p.s. I went to a doughnut shop today called Doughnut Plant New York City. SO DELICIOUS. A bit pricy, but the doughnuts are huge and I had an espresso one, and they are so COOOOOOL. srsly. Come visit, and we will enjoy Korean doughnuts.

Up next: a discussion of my apartment, the subways (and the people who ride them), SHOPPING, and more about my students and co-teachers (who are the greatest people in Korea).

xoxo,
A