Meet the Principal Day

Today started off rather early with a 7:00 a.m. wake-up call. I'm not a morning person. In fact, I can think of much better things to be doing at 7 in the morning, like sleeping. Just one of the prices I have to pay for being a teacher. I know I will get use to it once the ball starts rolling, but I'm still jet lagged, so 7 is early. Mrs. Kim picked me up around 8:20 a.m. and we got to school 15 minutes later. The morning starts off with a 6th grade teachers meeting. I forgot to mention in my earlier blog that Jiny teaches grade 6, so I'm in the 6th grade office with her. Mrs. Kim teaches grade 3, so she is downstairs. Today, I again sat there completely oblivious to what was being said, but I got to enjoy this delightful honey cake (kind of reminds me of angel food cake, but stickier) and tea while they chatted. When all the teachers left to teach their classes I agin enjoyed the internet. Then I joined Jiny for her 6th grade english class right before lunch. As soon as I walked in every single student stared me down. It was awkward, but cute. Jiny introduced me in Korean and I only knew to acknowledge the class when they all yelled "Hello" to me at the exact same time. As soon as I said it back they all were giddy and awestruck. Then I gracefully made my way too the back of the class to an empty desk and watched the lesson. Insert funny story here: the boy sitting directly in front of me kept turning around and staring and smiling. Then he was leaning back in his chair and bumping my desk, very annoyingly. Then he turns around again to stare and notices my nose ring, so he gracefully points to it and, so naturally I point to it and smile and nod yes. Well, he starts to blush and smiles back and then turns back around. He didn't stare at me once the whole rest of the class, until he said goodbye at the end. Strange kids these Koreans, or strange white girl who has odd nose piercing. Periodically, thorughout the 45 minute class students would trun their heads to stare; quite amusing. I don't quite understand this english class because it is taught to the students in Korean, but the english words they are learning are in english and that's it. I think this kind of defeats the purpose of an "english class", but that is curriculum. Once I was done observing this, oh so, delightful class, Jiny and I walked downstairs to enjoy lunch together. Todays meal was better than yesterdays, but it was still cafeteria food. Today was kimchi, which I avoided. Rice that looked purple, but tasted normal. The Korean version of pizza, which was soooooooooo good. It was shrimp, an assortment of veggies and then breaded; strange, but good. There was also soup that tasted like fish and had round balls that were made of rice in it and then there was an orange slice. After lunch we went back up to the office and I basically did absolutely nothing. Jiny and another teacher taught me some Korean words. I needed to learn how to say hello to a superior (an-nyeong ha-sa-yo) because today was also meet the principal day. When Jiny went to her next class she told me to stay in the office and rest, I was like what am I resting from, I've done absolutely nothing today, but I did what I was told. One of the teachers randomly asked me if I liked chocolate and marshmallows, and of course I said yes. So, she leaves the office and comes back with a box of chocolate covered almonds (my fave) and some marsmallow dessert things. How great is that? The best part of today at school was when my brand new beautiful desk and drawers arrived. I now get to have my own little space in the office that is just for me, and it comes equipped with my own computer. At the end of the day around 4:00 p.m. Jiny took me to meet the principal, which was very nerve racking because he defines the school. His office was a palace with two big meeting tables and very comfy leather chairs around them at one end of the room. The middle of the office had comfy low loveseats surrounding a table. The other side had his desk and the two giant windows were covered with Korean plants. I was absolutely mesmerized and I will likely, never see that room again. Anyways, so basically, I sat at the table while he asked me questions about myself (translated to me by Mrs. Kim). He asked standard questions: Tell me about yourself. What teaching experience do you have? What do your parents/siblings do? What were my jobs back home? AND, Are you married? HELLO who asks that ever?? After, I met with "the man" Jiny and I left school for the day.