Drinking with both hands: The worst day I have ever had in Korea?

Tuesday, March 29 started like any other. I woke up, watched some news and went to school. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that I was trying something new in my lessons: I was incorporating music. I am more of a visual learner and I tend to teach lessons the same way. I decided to reach out to the students who I had been boring with my classes and start things off with something fun and active: I chose to play I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. It's a "party anthem" type song that I got pretty tired of quickly, but I wasn't playing it for me. The students seemed to enjoy it. We did a listening activity where students stand and sit depending on the lyric that is sung. Thanks to deft autotuning and clear annunciation the students can hear and comprehend what is being sung. Everything was going great and we did the "American Breakfast" lesson that I had been gushing about to my friends for the past few days.

My most troublesome class are a group of the oldest middle schoolers who are normally too cool to participate in anything. Somehow the magic of Fergie singing compelled them to stand, sit and dance. They were angels. We went through a quick lesson in the book and I finished with a game that they participated in enthusiastically. As I was stamping the record sheet of the winning team, one of the students decided to take my lifeline: They removed my and my coteacher's USB drive from her laptop and took them. I was without a way to bring my lessons, pictures and songs to my classes. Additionally, I was presenting my lesson tonight to the 3 week long after school training that all guest English teachers get to attend that night. So the timing was less than perfect, to say the least.

If this happened in the states I would have taken it in stride and shrugged it off. But before coming here I was regaled of Pat's tales of seat-saving in a restaurant using nothing more than a full wallet or a cell phone while teaching in Japan. I had unrealistically high expectations of my students, and maybe the society as a whole. Perhaps I was still viewing Korea through rose colored glasses. Yes even in this country which is on the brink of near-utopia petty theft by teenage boys is a problem.

I figured out how to get my files to the training center via the interwebs in time for my presentation that evening and as luck would have it, I was the sole presenter. I'll be honest, I was way nervous going into the lesson. I actually woke up around 3am the night before stressed out about what I needed to do. As I walked into the training building, I saw another teacher walking in the hall. He told me that I was the only person presenting that evening so I would be going on first, not second.

Walking into the classroom felt like deciding to cliff dive on the count of three and jumping on two. I didn't give myself a chance to think about it and I immediately went into teacher mode. I got on the PC, told the class trainer to act as my co-teacher and I was off.

I skipped the "lesson" format that I was going to do and instead talked to the "students" (aka the other teachers) about their torturous rides to get there that evening and I said that since they had been so good about coming to training for nearly 3 weeks we were going to play a game. I went from teacher to sarcastic talk show host as we played scattegories and Jeopardy. My 20 minute lesson stretched to 45 minutes as the class got a much deserved break and had some fun.

By that point I was de-stressed about the day. Class was fun and people responded positively. We got out early and I met my friend Dale for a trip to the jimjilbang. He had been to one before, but not this one. As per usual we were the only westerners there. I haven't decided yet if the Koreans are happy that we are embracing their traditions or if they feel like we are encroaching on them.

Either way, Dale enjoyed himself and it was good man time. Dale has an incredibly positive attitude and is way into rock climbing. We discussed plans to check out the surrounding mountains, go climbing and see more of the country as soon as the weather and time permits.

We got street food for dinner and the night's tally for nearly 2 hours of soaking in various hot tubs, cold tubs and sitting in incredibly hot saunas plus dinner and transportation: about $8 each.

So that was my worst day. I got my USB stolen, my head got ripped from the clouds and I was forced to face the reality that sometimes kids take stuff, even in Korea. As far as bad days go, it wasn't too terrible. It ended really well, so maybe I should just call it a bad 3 hours.

Oh, I bought a new USB stick, so everything is good now.

Here are some pictures from around my neighborhood...