Swimming, bikes, and some phone teaching

My day was a bit of a valley today. It started out okay I guess. I went swimming with all the kindergarten kids. It was really kind of strange. We have new busses at school I guess. We watched a video on the way to the pool. Or rather, I watched a video. It was Shrek 2 but it was in English and they forgot to put on the subtitles until halfway through. I usually object to dubbing but kids movies and cartoons I think, it's acceptable to dub. Especially the ones for kids. I don't know how well they can read Korean but probably not fast enough to keep up. They laughed at the physical comedy. They also all brought little inner tubes with them. We got to the pool and it turns out they weren't allowed or something. They don't tell us anything but the fact that they found some sticks and propped them upright and stacked tubes with them gave me some clues. Of course, it could be some bizarre Korean custom. Bring a tube and keep it outside the pool and it will keep you from drowning. You'd think they'd have called the pool or something before they bring 40 kids with tubes. The swimming part was alright. I realized that Erica doesn't trust me. I nominated her for student of the month today. The pool was only 3 feet deep or so, too. I could sit on the floor and still have my shoulders above the water, well about water level.

Then after swimming, we had to get changed. This isn't something I'd normally write about but I don't really know you people. I don't think people I know read this. Then again, maybe some of them do and just don't tell me they do. Anyways, Korea is very pro-same sex nudity. There's like nowhere to hide even if you wanted to. They also use towels that are about the size of a tea towel. I'm not sure if that's a Canadian thing or not, the dish drying towel. Maybe I just haven't heard people refer to it outside of Canada. Perhaps, it's only my parents that call it that. Nevermind, so I saw like 20 naked kindergarten kids. A few of them saw me, which is kind of....I'm not sure how I feel about it exactly. Anyways, one of my students grabbed 'it.' Can't get more obvious than 'it' right? So yeah, I was groped or molested even by a 5-7 year old. I don't know how to tell in Korea. Subtract one or 2 years. In January, you can pretty much subtract 2 but December only 1. Anyways, after that I tried to conceal myself as much as possible. I had my big towel and fashioned into what they called a skirt. Then they tried to rip it away from me. I was also pretty much useless. I really did nothing to help any of them get dressed. I helped the same kid who grabbed at me get his leg through the hole in his Winnie the Pooh underpants. What an odd experience. Matt undertook the majority of them. I had maybe 4(are these Freudian typos? I wrote hate. I'm back to edit that). My 3 and another one who feels like he knows me since I teach his 2 older brothers. His foreign teacher is Renee who needless to say is not a boy. I don't know whether he was manhandled at all. I don't think I'll ask. Our boss was there too. Fully-dressed helping kids and some guy from the pool. I was pretty useless though. I helped the one kid with what I told you about and asked one if these were his shoes. The answer was yes. I was fine helping them with shoes. Actually, I'm pretty useless in any situation with self-delegated tasks. I'm also much better at living in Dutch society. It's not that I want someone else to pay for anything but by the time I usually think to pull out my wallet the bill has already been settled.

Then, I got back to the school to enjoy my hour and 30 minutes. I did some evaluations and was pretty slow about it. I like having my desk against the wall. I write with my head leaning on it. I enjoy my location in the office. I don't have to worry about people walking past my desk, except to leave but there's enough room for the door. I just have to deal with kids poking me from the door. I remember growing up that the teacher's lounge was like the one forbidden place in the school. Not in Korea. They run in and out of there all the time. I listened to music and felt retarded. I was reading some science manual written in English by a Korean. You can always tell. Anyways, I couldn't make sense of the directions. It was a combination of strange wording and my lack of mental energy. I had to read it like 10 times. Then I did science with 2 classes back to back. The first got bored with it after 10 minutes. The second class really loved it. It was just a piece of foil wrapped around a cylinder. It was about reflections in a curved mirror. Andrew (different from kindie Andrew) just loved it. They kept saying Bravo and trying to tell me things. They love the phrase "this and this and this" as they either draw or mime. It was kind of fun just being around energy of people who get so excited about shiny things wrapped around tubes. Usually, I just stand up there and yell. Science class though I let them do pretty much anything as long as they fill in the lab report that takes 20 seconds to do. Plus after a field trip I don't have energy to yell. My Nobel class went fine today I guess. They were still loud but this time it was all good humoured. Usually, there's some kind of fight. Kipper gets upset when I write his name on the board but not others. I've really got to become less subjective about it. I don't like doing it but it's got to be done I suppose. It's hard though when the next strike puts them in the corner and they said one Korean word. Anyways, today instead of being a pain about it, he decided to go crazy. Making weird faces and all. The others thought it was funny. So no fights and I yelled less. It's really hard to get them back to work once everyone's been laughing. Then I need to bring out my angry voice and strike others, well on the board. You know what I mean. I've never had the temptation to actually do that. Then I had Columbia and got to go home. There were only 2 of them. They would hate when I would ask about their weekends. I found better ways to get them speaking. Their answers would be so deliberately dull. "3 things." "I ate, I slept, and (struggle with the 3rd)....I stayed at home or something else completely useless." Maybe it was because Wendy, the ringleader was absent. I enjoyed that class today and got to come home early. 7:20. Sha-zaah. We played Guess Who for the last 15 minutes. I don't know why they can't use the word blonde. I was a little peeved that I still had to explain that blonde meant 'yellow hair' for the 5th time. Facial hair was equally funny. They called it special face. 'Does he have special face?' as they stroked their chins and cheeks.

Moving on. On my home I impulsively decided to buy a bike. Actually, I'd been thinking about buying a bike for awhile but suddenly today was the day I would act. I went into the place that I walk by slowly to check out prices. Lespo. There all over the place. I can think of 3 that are less than ten minutes away on foot and I don't really live in a commercial area not that any part of the city is that uncommercial. Anyways, the first bikes were like 165,000 or 210,000 won. Then I found the crappy ones they kept at the back. I bought a new bike for 80,000 which included a free lock and a free little vitamin drink that I got to enjoy as they got the bike ready for me. Then I went riding for about 30 minutes. I actually don't know how long it was. I rode past Daegok station even (the last subway stop), not that far though considering I'm 3 from the end. It felt nice. I was so speedy and the breeze felt nice. I rode to the new school location. It only took me about 3 minutes. 1 of the minutes spent at the crosswalk. I hate the crosswalks here. They take forever to change and seem to have some time-out on the green. It stops after 15 seconds or something even if the traffic continues for another minute. I don't get it. I rode back a different way avoiding to light. I was a bit worried I'd be hit by someone. Some many little alleys and I slowed down at all of them. Anyways, I felt so free that what used to be like a 10 minute walk takes no time at all now. If I want something, I can just go to E-Mart without contemplating it. Soon of course, a 4 minute ride will seem like a long time. It was nice to see a different part of town. I only go to the same places now. To and from school and the weekend trip downtown. It was liberating. I wonder how long it will take me to get to school now. For all 3-4 days that I have left there. Well, I probably shouldn't take my bike on moving day. I can walk one last time. I might never see that area again. Matt and Renee live over there but I've been to there place like 3 times maybe over the last 3 months. I don't know why they don't want to move. They've convinced themselves that 4 months is no time at all.

So phone teaching week was last week but I called a few of the kids I didn't call last week. I had nice little conversations with all five of them. With some of them I just call to hear myself speak and answer the questions for them when they aren't quick enough. Well multiple choice style. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "....pause....uhhh....uhhh....." "Do you want to be a doctor, a musician, a teacher? What do you want to be?" Teacher. Ok. I did find out that in that one class that 3 out of 4 wouldn't be coming to school tomorrow. One was a maybe. Of course, I think I used school instead of Wonderland once. They have summer vacation (1 whole month) from their elementary schools. Some of them are going to skip out on their hagwons that much too. My boss complained about on the drive to my apartment yesterday, A ride home without a hidden agenda (except to make me feel more comfortable at work or maybe he lost his courage to bring up whatever it was he wanted to take about), imagine that? Then I called Bin, whose English name is Robert, he's such a Bin though. I talked to him for like 2 minutes then asked something about his sister who is in my Columbia class. Anyways, suddenly Sandy was on the phone. I talked to her for about 10 minutes or something. It turns out that David, the kid I don't like, thinks I'm just so goodlooking. Like a moviestar. It's a common compliment here. He says I look like Tom Cruise. Similar hair colours and we're twins. Actually, it's not that similar at all. Sometimes, I wonder if they can tell us about at all. Not that I'm that adept at distinguishing between Asians I see on the street. If I only meet them once, I might not be able to recognize them if I saw them again. I don't think they all like Lucy Liu or Jackie Chan though or one of the other 5 Asian celebrities. Let's see who I can name off the top of my head: Jet Li, Chow Yun Phat (however you spell that, I'm not looking it up), Connie Chung, Judge Ito, David Suzuki(Cdn Environmentalist, I may or may not have seen him in Banff once), Xiang Xi (also don't know spelling), Michelle Yeoh, that one Korean who pops up in a lot of sitcoms, Karate Kid guy, Tia Carrere (though she's not really typical Chinese looking), the guy who played her dad in Wayne's World (you don't know his name either), Bruce Lee, Sandra O or Oh. I'm sure there are several other obvious ones that I can't think of. Anyways, phone teaching didn't go too badly. I really hope none of them show up tomorrow. It would feel so nice to leave work before 7:20 one day. Even 7:20 is great. 8 isn't that late but 6 classes back to back is too much to take at times. 5 is such a relief. I'm sure there'll be one kid who shows up and it will be in the class I teach during the second block. I wonder what it would be like if no one in either class signed up for August. I would be paid exactly the same too. I shouldn't get my hopes though.

I was also feeling more active than usual I guess after my bike ride. Usually, I feel like I should already be at the 3rd floor when I get to the 2nd but today I kept right on walking. This doesn't look like the 3rd floor. I guess there's a penthouse or something on the floor above mine. Then I climbed another flight just because the stairs were there and I was in a Magellan mood. Anyways, I ended up on the roof. Another liberating moment in a way. Just some plants and lines for hanging laundry. I walked under them as if they were electrified. I don't know why. I should go up there during the daytime. Sometimes I feel boxed in by the buildings and I never get a good view of anything. My buildings maybe one floor above the ones in front of it. I didn't realize how unparallel my street was to the main road before. So that's why there's no shortcut to the subway station when I'm coming from work. So that was my thrilling discovery of the day.