White Day

Friday was a special holiday here in Korea: White Day. Ever heard of it? No? Me either. Well, it is a holiday recipricating Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, men sit back as the women shower gifts and chocolates on them. White Day is when the men take over the gift giver role. It is the day where men can express their feelings to the women they love or appreciate. My friend, the art teacher (the one I walk to the subway station with each day), snuck out of work right away and came back 20 minutes later with an apple strudel-type cake for me! :) It was so sweet of him to do that. I also received some tissue paper flowers with candies and notes from a student of mine. After the week I had (which I will mention in brief, later), the cake was a welcomed sight!

In short, last week was horrible! I managed to infect ALL the computers at the school with a virus via my USB (I was told it had to be my fault because I opened an English website), and I upset 20 kids' parents and made them doubt my professionalism and seriousness (due to receiving partial information about the after school program). I didn't sleep well all week and was awakened with bad dreams many nights. I had a couple misunderstandings with co-workers because of the language barrier. All in all, it was not a good week. I went to sleep on Saturday deciding that the bad week would be over! I started over yesterday with a clean week and a new start. So far, not bad. Today, after work, I went out for dinner with two of the new, young, co-teachers. These two girls have become instant friends! They are both near my age and share many things in common with me! Plus, their English is nearly fluent! They have been a lot of fun to get to know in these few, short weeks.

When a teacher moves from one school to the next, it is customary for the old school to send the new school some treats. Specifically, rice cakes. Each day I return to my desk to yet another pile of these doughy delights (or not!). This pile is one day's collection. It was unusually large, so I took a couple of pictures!