You will hear a lot of advice about how to live in a foreign country (if you decide to do so). The most important I will ever impart is this: there is no point if you don’t have adventures. It’s easy to get caught up in your daily bubble – work, errands, home, repeat. But that’s just taking the daily grind overseas. Sure, along the way you’ll pick up a few cultural tidbits, but not enough to truly experience the country.
LIFE
Toni’s definition of adventure; any experience outside your everyday norms.
We went to a museum, walked through a new part of the city, did a wee hike, went to a baseball game, ate some street food, took a trip to Busan to dip our feet in the freezing ocean, rode a cable-car and played with some dinosaurs. As one does.
WORK
The kids have started to pick up my mannerisms and phrases. They tell me I’ve done a “good job”, and say “high five” when they’re too far away for a physical one. They say, “one, two, three” when they want something repeated, and tell each other “good try” when they don’t get an answer right. They’ve even started to nod encouragingly at each other the way I do, and I some have started to do the duckie* when we dance. One day I was rushing to write something on the board and missed the period at the end of the sentence. One of my students very helpfully said, “Teacher, try again.”
My co-teacher Joy (pronounced Joey) and I tend to give each other amused looks during class when the kids do something cute or funny. Sometimes I’ll ask a question like, “who can tell me what letter is silent in the word walk?” and one kid will raise his hand very enthusiastically, and when I call on him he’ll say, “penguins can NOT fly, but they ARE birds!” This is when Joy and I give each other a “kids, ammiright?” look.
I will also throw jokes into my lessons just for Joy’s sake. That same student showed me a picture of a penguin couple he drew. When I asked him what all the (hundreds of) black dots around the penguins were, he said, “those are allllllllllll their babies!” To which I replied, “Oh my, how are they going to afford to send them all to school????” Joy laughed. The student looked at me very seriously and said, “Teacher, penguins don’t go to school.” Joy laughed even harder.
Remember the ice cream discussion I had with the kids a couple posts back? Well that day has spawned an inside joke in our classroom. Out of the blue I will say, “what makes ice cream REAL ice cream??” and the kids will yell, “MILK!” and then I’ll say, “and what’s the best flavour of ice cream??” and they will all scream, “vanilla!” as I try to yell over them, “mint chocolate!!!” and they pretend to be disgusted at the very notion of a mint-flavoured ice cream, while I ‘pretend’ to be wildly disappointed with their answer.
Cut to one of my student’s birthdays. When the kids have a birthday, the parents bring in a cake and we take first period to celebrate. Pictures are taken, cake is eaten, and everyone gets a treat to take home. Well, on THIS particular birthday, my student specifically (and very seriously, I’m told) asked his parents for an ice cream cake that had a section of mint.
DID YOUR HEART JUST MELT BECAUSE MY WHOLE HEART MELTED.
Not only that, but he also made sure that the take-home treat did NOT have any flour in it, so that I could enjoy it, too. 6 years old, and this kid is already THIS considerate? Someone is doing something very right.
SOME STUFF
- I TRIED to share the birthday macaroons, you guys. I TRULY TRIED. I was going to bring them to game night. It’s not MY fault game night was cancelled!! (They were so delicious. One of them was BANANA!)
- I am proud/sad to say that the phrase, “Teacher I no looking!” has turned into, “Teacher, I can’t see, move please.” Also, “Teacher, this yes?” has become, “Teacher, is this right?” And “Teacher, pee-pee!” has thankfully shifted to, “Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?” (I will never be that teacher who says, “I don’t know, CAN you??” These kids are 6 and learning a foreign language, they can learn the difference between “can” and “may” later).
- One of the parents at our school has NC Dinos seasons tickets in the skybox. They couldn’t make it to a game, so they gave their tickets to the teachers. It was SWANKY.
- LEVIATHAN; any giant mythical creature from the sea (like a Kraken). I was honestly blown away. The kid is a genius.
- I was taking the video of the dinosaurs, and a man I thought to be an employee of the park took my phone and told me to pose with the dinosaurs (at least I assume that’s what he said based on his gesturing). So I did. But then he guided my head into the raptor’s mouth, practically giggling, took the picture, then gave me back my phone. After I thanked him, I watched him walk away and pick up a little girl, placing her on his shoulders as his wife laughed and waved at me. It was not, in fact, an employee, but just a random dude who really wanted to help me get an awesome picture.
Letters From Auntie 