Dear Mama....Back to Business, Happy "Chinese" New Year!

Classes resumed and I had to plan classes with no set guidelines. It was a more relaxed 2 weeks. It was a little sad because those were the last classes with the 6th graders. I didn't even get to say goodbye to my favorite class on the last day. Not only was it goodbye for the 6th grade, it was also goodbye to the principal, vice-principal and my head co-teacher. It was my first time going to a retirement party and it was so cute. The principal's family came, there were special video messages from the students and teachers, the teachers did a cute dance wearing toy headbands and there was a special tribute video. The principal even shared his gift of playing the saxophone...and the gift of spam!

Before the goodbye dinners it was the Seollal holiday aka Chinese New Year. It seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating Seollal with a homestay family in Seoul. To celebrate the holiday this year, I went to a farm party which happened to be on valentine's day. I was happy to be able to spend it with people seeing as my friends had dates. There was only one other foreigner from Hong Kong which was s little unexpected. Most of the Koreans were students and some spoke English well. The ones who couldn't still made an effort...well some. We went to a farm house in Yeongpyeong in the Gyeonggi province. It was so country the road wasn't even paved. It was very quiet and peaceful. We ate a huge lunch with FRESH chicken picked right from the backyard. Then, we played some traditional games called Tuho and Yunnori. They also had a competition to see who could pick up the most beans using chopsticks in the shortest amount of time. I won that game...twice! It was a lot of fun playing games, snacking on fresh strawberries and learning how to make songpyeon.

My roommate happened to also be a designer and everyone kept praising her. When I told a couple people I did   that too they just ignored me so I was a little jealous. All they see you as is a teacher once you say you're a teacher. Later on, each team made dinner together for a cooking competition. As soon as they said start everyone was off doing things and I kept asking what I should make or do to help but no one was really responding. It was a little unorganized to me because there was no leader to sit down and lay out what each person's contribution should be. I seemed to be the only one left out of the loop until one of the organizers asked if I wanted to make something on my own. I figured I would do an omelette but it just turned into a square fried egg that they used for the bibimbap. But it was one tasty egg! The hosts judged our team dishes but I think it was a tie.

We finished it off before enjoying music by the bonfire. My phone had stopped working for no obvious reason so I was a little down about that throughout the day. I didn't get to record the bands but they sounded great and one of the singers gave me a box of truffles for valentine's day. It was also my first time sleeping in a hanok during the winter so I didn't know what to expect. The rooms use floor heating so the back of my body was warm while the front was cold. I woke up with a headache. The rest of the day was a repeat of cooking together with no direction so I just relaxed on the side. The hosts were really sweet and gave everyone  homemade soybean paste. I wish I knew how to cook it. The rest of the week I was sick, again, so I stayed in the house the whole time.

When I got back to school, I was alone the first two days but when my co-teachers came back I learned a little more about the re-organization of teachers for the next school year. My 4th grade co-teacher is now my head co-teacher even though I will not teach with her and she no longer teaches English. She will be a 2nd grade homeroom teacher. I have new 4th grade and 5th grade co-teachers. I did not find out my schedule until the first day of school! So unorganized!! I have been in a funk ever since October where I am ready to leave and get annoyed by everything in Korea. I thought my vacation would be a break away to recoup but it didn't help because I still feel the same. The school year starting off this disorganized doesn't help the situation much either.