Just Another Tuesday

Today was a warm spring day! I didn't have any classes after 2PM so I went outside for an hour and just watched some of the students play basketball and soccer. The students were really enjoying the day outside after classes, and many of them came up to me (shock!) and talked to me (double shock!). Most of the time, they watch from a distance or shout "hello" to me, but don't often sit next to me and attempt holding a conversation with me. I think it was the weather that had everyone transfixed and acting abnormally! :)


Many of the students and homeroom teachers (not me) have been staying after school until 9PM lately. They are required, by the new vice principal, to decorate the back walls of the classroom and are awaiting judgment from a select group of staff members (also not me). The teachers have been complaining about this for at least a week as it is still the beginning of the school year and many of them are still getting their lessons set up for the year. There is a heck of a lot of paper work these poor teachers have to complete, and it doesn't help anything that all the parents are invited into the schools on Thursday to observe and ask questions. If I have never mentioned anything before about how serious parents take their child's schooling, let me take a moment to do so! It is nothing short of an obsession here! By kindergarten, most Korean children can read and do many basic math skills (even recite multiplication tables). Students attend school during the day, then race off to their academies in the evening. Many of the students don't finish with classes until 9PM most nights, then go home to begin their homework (no wonder they sleep in my class sometimes!). So, the idea of these parents (who can be very critical) in the back of the classroom is not a welcomed one!

Anyway, here are a couple of the decorated classrooms:



And, I took this last picture to point out two things. The first thing is the haze in the background. I have no hard evidence, but I am pretty sure that it is yellow sand. This stuff is pretty fierce! It is sand from Siberia that blows through China each year, and picks up pollution before blowing over Korea. It is pretty hazardous to one's health--it makes many people sick each year. I am a little nervous about it because I was sick for so long last fall. I guess I have to cave and buy one of those schnazzy face masks! Honestly, I always think of SARS when I see them! I have to get over that! I will post pics of me wearing one when the day comes that I put one on! (cringe!) The second thing I want to mention is the buildings in the background. They weren't there when I got there last August. Those soon-to-be apartment buildings arose this winter, BLOCKING MY VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS!!