Culture shock is setting in. I've been here for a week and don't get me wrong, I love it here, but the novelty is starting to wear off. There are things from home that I'm starting to miss more and more with each day. The people and the food. I know I'll always miss my friends and family, but it doesn't help that I can't get a cell phone for a week or two. My alien registration card comes in on Thursday. Once I get that I can get a phone...money permitting. Then I'll at least be connected and in the loop with the other people here. Another major thing is the food. As part of my introductory "about me" presentation for my classes, I talked about RI food. The dirty things I'd do for chowder, cakes, and a Del's. I love the spicy rice-y Korean food, but there ain't no cheesesteaks here. On the up side, I think all this healthy Korean food is having positive effects on my love handles.
Enough of the whining. There are a lot of good things I've experienced this week.
First off, the students are hilarious. There are a few of them who can say "Hi, how are you, long time no see" and they think they're such hot shit for it. When I had them ask me questions sure enough the first thing asked was whether or not I had a girlfriend. Some other odd questions were my height and if I had 6 pack abs. At first these questions seemed very intrusive and way too personal. I later learned that Koreans just want to know all the details about you for concern, and to see where you fit into their social hierarchy.
Some of the students are downright punks. I was in the middle of a lesson when I heard a very high pitched sound, bordering on inaudible. Looking up, I paused and asked what that sound was (knowing full well what it was). The students were shocked that I could hear it. They set their ringtones to these absurdly high pitched screeches because the older teachers can't that high of a frequency. What little shits. During my 8th period class, one of my first graders flipped another student off. He was mortified when he noticed I saw that. I was told by the other foreign teachers that they make their bad students do push ups or stand up in front of the class when they're out of line. I know that sounds cruel but its way better than telling the Korean English teachers who carry bamboo sticks around with them.
One thing I'm extremely happy for is that my school is super on top of their game. My co teacher took me to apply for my alien registration card on thursday, which is awesome seeing as how I need it for pretty much everything. They put in for my flight money and 300,000 won signing bonus to be deposited into my bank account. Thats 1,220,352 won! I desparately need that money. I came with 600,000 won but I'm hovering somewhere around 100,000 now. This week has been full of swine flu tests, buying things for my apartment, and going away parties. The money gets deposited on Monday. That should definitely be more than enough to hold me over till payday. Lastly, once my alien card comes in, I can get my health card. Once I have those, I'm officially done with the legality of moving to Korea!
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