Such exciting events!!! ...but where to start?
A couple days after I wrote my last blog I received a phone call from the board office here stating that I would be transferred to a new school come the new school year (March) and would fulfill the rest of my contract elsewhere. The dude on the other end of the phone sounded like I should be thrilled with this change of plans, but initially I took it quite hard. Actually, when I found out I cried LOL…but I waited for the dude to hang up first. Why was I so upset? I’ve made terrific relationships at my school and my overall experience has been really great. I didn’t want to go to another school and start all over again…what if I got transferred to a horrible school? (yeah I realize this is a pretty selfish statement). Of course, everyone at school found out and my Principal and Vice Principal decided to make some phone calls.
The reason why I was being transferred was because of budgeting. Seoul had voted in a new mayor and part of his campaign would include students having free lunches at school. This also meant cutting back on foreign English teacher jobs. My school was one of six schools in the Songpa region who would lose funding for a foreign English teacher. This ruffled some feathers at school because they did not feel it was fair that our school had to sacrifice their English education. As explained to me by my head teacher “this budgeting clearly goes against the English learning mandate established by the government and education office”. So what did my school do to retaliate?
They decided to call on the people the school board would NEVER want to piss off: Mom’s Council. For those of you that don’t know, parents here really call the shots in education. If they don’t like something you’ve done, you’ll find out and best change your ways. That said, eighteen mothers went to the board office and PICKETED outside the building!!! My head teacher called me into her office and told me that these women were picketing on my behalf and that I had a better chance of staying in our school if they requested it. All I could think to myself at that exact moment was “Holy shit! What have I gotten myself into here?” LOL. And as much as I’d like to tell you all how “I’m the best teacher ever and that is why they picketed for me”, I do realize that it wasn’t necessarily for ME that they were fighting for. I do see the bigger picture…….but when my principal and head teacher gave me the news, and she had tears of joy that I would be STAYING, I felt really honoured and cared for (just let me bask in the reflected gloryJ).
BUT, having now lived here for almost four months, I have also learned that ANYTHING is possible and that there is probably still a good chance that I will be transferred hahaha. That’s just Korea!!
So other than being somewhat connected to some radical collective movement, what else have I been doing?
I’ve joined a volunteer group called Bean Seoul and have helped out with a couple events. I’ve volunteered at an orphanage and have donated a gift for the Christmas toy drive. There are other volunteer opportunities that I’d like to get involved with as well, like ocean fishing or tandem bike riding with the blind, but with over 500 volunteers, it’s hard to get an opportunity to get involved. It’s kind of a first come, first serve basis LOL…I guess everyone just wants to help out ‘round here…
The orphanage was really not like I expected, which was a good thing (I always expect the worse). We teach for about 40 minutes and then the rest of the time is spent snacking and playing with the kiddies. The age range was toddler to 10 years old (I think) and the whole experience was pretty chilled actually. The best part of the experience for me was playing tag with this little girl. It was soooo much fun!! I haven’t played tag in years…and enjoyed every minute of it. Big smiles in return always make it worth while anyhow J
And of course, it wouldn’t be an ordinary story from MOI unless I told you about the part where I was ALSO playing catch with this one girl and I might have passed her the ball when she wasn’t ready and it SMASHED her really hard right in the face! … and she was wearing glasses….ahhhhhh man!! I felt so HORRIBLE. So I just ran up to her, grabbed her head and started hugging her. She was pretty tough though…she didn’t cry! But some volunteers did look at me mortified…so I just went on my way and played tag again.
Peace.
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