I notice that it has been over a month since I posted on my blog. Sorry, Blog. I have no excuses. It seems like everyone I've talked to has had an increase in workload, including myself, so maybe time is more of the essence and the issue to the missing blog posts? Ehh, probably not. You're right, Blog, if I have time to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition while simultaneously reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Regular-Sized Edition, I have time to jot down the funnies of my job and life.
Today, March 14, was a special day. Just one week ago I was told that the Superintendent of the Chungcheongnamdo Office of Education (the Korean in the title refers to this) would be coming to our school to witness 3 students of mine recite an English dialogue, and that I needed to write opening and closing remarks. No problem. I am used to this thing and have no issue with it whatsoever. I did, however, try to keep in mind the worst case scenario: someone telling me 2 minutes prior to the show that I would have to prepare a 5 minute speech, and right after I would have a monitored class. I feared this because these things happen! Usually, in my case, it's for the better. "Jelemi...today class....no." But you need to keep on your toes and be prepared for the worst. I perhaps worried more than I should, given what I know now. But hey, rather breathe a sigh of relief from unnecessary preparation than sweat in inappropriate places because of a potential embarrassment or disaster. Here goes...
I have never seen such frantic action among my coworkers. I am used to hearing the Stewie-like quick footsteps up and down the hall all day, but this was...I mean, jeez. And it's a well-known fact that things here are usually put off until the last second. Today however, it seemed that only last minute finishing touches needed to be put into effect. I was impressed. All of the classrooms were thoroughly cleaned, teacher's office was arranged nicely, posters were put up, transition pictures of the school were framed and put up (I have never seen the school's change from the 1960s to today, it is pretty cool), the dirt soccer field was....mowed??..and painted, and everyone was handed nice Korean name tags. I liked it, because I finally knew some names (Knew, because now that they're off, I forgot them. It's hard to keep up with names like geul, jang, byeol, etc.). The Roadrunners that I spoke of earlier did things like last second dusting, and cleaning the slippers by the entrance for the guests.
I'll now switch tenses to make this more suspenseful (quite boring in the past tense, I suppose). Now. I have been told that he, the Superintendent, will be arriving at 11, and this morning I am told to go to the teacher's office at 11 for pictures. Time comes, and I descend the stairs, sweaty palmed because I just know I am going to walk into an ongoing meeting, the co-teacher forgot to tell me it was actually 10:30, not 11:00, and everyone's going to look up at the late English Teacher who can't even tell time. Rude. Thankfully, the room's empty, save for a couple administrative staff members, and two guys I've never seen before. Crap! I don't know what the Superintendent looks like! I checked the Provincial Office website earlier, saw a picture of him, and can even see it now. But yearbook-style pictures here are so terribly off of the real thing. Usually the person is much older, and has different color skin, eyes, and a happy expression. So I don't know if I just greeted the Superintendent and now have my back turned on him. Too late to change anything, I've got to sit here and wait to see if someone introduces me, to embarrass me further.
I'll speed this up. The room fills soon enough with men in their nicest suits, women in really nice clothing (they know how to dress up here), and at 11:30, the Science Teacher runs in to yell something, probably "He's coming! He's coming!!" We all stand up, push our chairs in, and watch as 20 people slowly file in, led by a smiling, friendly-looking guy. He goes around one-by-one, shaking hands and saying hello. We are then ushered outside to take a group photo, and then I am told to rest. "We are finishie." What? He just got here, right? We've got to go see the show and the recital. I have to introduce him and fumble around in English for 5 minutes. Okay, so what do we do next? "Rest. Lunchie at 12. Then 6 grade class. Then finishie." And then the English dialogue practice? "Ha, ha! Noooo! Finishie!" So he wasn't late, he just went to see the English show that whole time. Really would've thought the English Teacher needed to be there, but just goes to show, you never know what will happen. The only work I do for the whole thing is the opening/closing speech, and I help with breaking down all the tables. Word, free workout and I got some nice garden gloves out of it.
End note: As I am "finishie"ing up this post, I get a room call from my co-teacher asking me if I want to "milk". I don't know what the heck that means, but for some reason "yes" just spills out. Thankfully, she is referring to getting milk at school, but I will have to pay for 5 days' worth, even though I am at this school just 3 days/week. No spank you. I hope she understands me, and doesn't take the initial spewed "yes" to heart.
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