Looking Forward to the Weekend

This post may be a little shorter than the previous ones because I am completely beat.  It's been a long day, and we've been staying up much too late.

Today started out pretty well, except that our showers turned us into popsicles.  We did all of our lesson plans for the week yesterday, so we're all set.  I got to school (Sinback campus), finished all of my copying and sat down to enjoy the last few minutes of freedom I had before I had to be on my feet all day. I even brought a book to read.  But, as I sat down, in came Julia.  She told me that she wanted to run another of my classes today.  My first Essential 2 class of the day, specifically.  Of course, I had no choice in the matter.  Not only was I completely frustrated, but I was also very disappointed.  I love the "Essential" classes.  The kids still care about what you have to say (and tend to be genuinely interested) and their English is getting good enough to joke around.

Not only did Julia take over one of my classes (and she made me sit in it, you know to learn how to teach English, because she's fluent), but she didn't teach to my lesson plan.  Instead, she went back into Unit 1 and fished out something we couldn't do when we were supposed to because she never got us the CDs for the audio lesson.  Now I have one group of Essential 2 students who will be behind by A FULL UNIT.  Julia spent the entire fifty minutes on two pages of material we had already worked through and past.  THen she assigned the the same homework I had the previous week.  Of course, non of us said anything.  Yes, reviews are important, but I have them planned at the end of every two or three weeks, not after one.  And again, while she told the students "There no Korean in here, this is English zone," when she hit a wall with getting the students to understand the lesson, she gave them directions in Korean.  Nice crutch to lean on, if you've got it.  And I find that letting the students use a little Korean can be really helpful.  They help one another and get each other on track. I don't mind hearing some thinking out loud in Korean, so long as its primarily English in the classroom and we're working toward some sort of understanding.  Plus, the way Julia puts it sounds extremely oppressive to my American ears.

I can't wait for Julia to back off.  She's a nice enough person, but I'm not terribly fond of her as my boss.  Even if there wasn't a language barrier, I feel like her communication skills leave  a lot to be desired.

 I did manage to ask her about our hot water, which worked out well, because now it's fixed.  When I told her that we hadn't had hot water for three days, she asked me why we didn't call her immediately.  To be honest, we didn't think she'd be of much help.  Granted, we were wrong, but it seems our employers don't have much faith in our ability to make our own way here.  I mean, we talked to the man who is the closest thing to a "super" we've seen.  We took action on our own; we didn't need to run to our keeper.  Julia's husband asked permission to borrow my keys so that he could check out the thermostat situation in the apartment.  Then he told me he would make a copy for "next time."  First of all, I don't intend for our thermostat to freak out again, second of all, he already has a copy of one key (which I just found out). They just don't have a copy of the deadbolt lock and I'd like to keep it that way.  So, I questioned him about it, but he just seemed confused.  When he came back, he brought me an English diagram of our thermostat (we were right, heated floors, btw) and some "ham bread"  which, though nice of him, did little to ease my eeped out feelings about the key copy.  Luckily he didn't stick around, so I didn't have to try to save face with the ham bread.  That could have been gross.  Luckier still, he didn't manage to get a copy made.

 

David's diagram, complete with "DO NOT TOUCH" elements.  We're going to touch those dials anyway.  In fact, we'll mess with them more now... that we know what they do.

So, we won't be seeing G.I. Joe on Sunday with Tina.  The movies changed and now they're all Korean with no subtitles.  I was really disappointed to hear that but, she's taking us to a "famous" (by which I think she means popular) place in Jecheon.  We don't know what this place is, but Tina seems excited, so I'm sure it will be a blast.  I'm sure we'll see a movie soon...  I want to see "9."

Well, tomorrow we're going to the Gosu caves and seeing a little more of Jecheon.  We're having bimbimbop for lunch, so it'll be nice to eat some more traditional food. "Go-gee pego chu-say-o."  No meat, please.  Kim has helped us get a vegetarian meal in the past, so I'm confident in our dining success with her.

Don't worry, the blog tomorrow should be much more upbeat.