6 months into it and a very important lesson

Much apologies! The last blog was written in July. That is a poor effort on my part.

Today officially marks 6 months since I started at my school.
So many things have happened and my gosh time has flown by!
I will try and summarise what has happened since July...

In 3 months time my darling 3rd grade students- all 339 of them that I currently teach will move onto High School. In some ways I am a little sad to see them go because some of them I have developed a good student-teacher relationship with. Some I am not sure how they will cope ( I am talking about the ones that fall asleep at the back of my classroom when I am teaching), as High School students in Korea study so damn hard. Majority of High Schools students start their day at 9 am and do not get home til 10pm. Once they get home they crank out the books and study til early hours of the morning. As the end of year approaches many students are starting to get anxious about doing well for their final exam. As this exam will determine who gets into the best High Schools in Gwangju.

I am so glad that I made the choice to come to this part of the world to teach. Korea is central to most Asian countries. Next year we plan to travel to Japan, Hong Kong, China and other neighboring countries.
This year for Winter Vacation we were fortunate enough to take a well deserved 6 days to Jeju-do, known as the Hawaii of Korea.
The highlight was climbing Hallasan- The tallest mountain in South Korea: 1,950 metres above sea level. Hallsan was an active volcanoe until about 25,000 years ago. The track we took (Seongpanak trail) was 19.2km in total (up and down) and took us over 8 hours. It certainly was testing both mentally and physically. The last 20 minutes up I kept thinking "there is no way I can climb anymore, my legs feel like jelly and my feet hurt from walking over small sharp rocks from the last 4 hours. But you grit your teeth and power it up cos you know it is going to be a wonderful view from the top- and it was...just serene, beautiful, breathtaking and peaceful.
The other highlights from Jejudo included a visit to The Teddy Bear museum and a visit to The Chocolate Musesum, where I discovered you can get Kimchi flavoured chocolate! I dared not to try as I am still getting used to Kimchi- maybe next time.
We hope to go back to Jejudo at some stage and stay maybe on the Northside- there are more beaches up that way. Jejudo is also very cheap to fly to from Gwangju and takes only 30 minutes.

I recently celebrated my 27th birthday here. This birthday was definitely the most spoilt birthday I have had. Julian bought me a Pink bicycle equiped with its own little basket. He figured it was time I got my own rather than a) trying to fit my fat bottom on the end of his bike when he rides b) chasing after him when he rides, just so i can keep up c) Kicking him off his bike and insists he walks. This little beauty has saved me a lot of money so far and also helping me develop strong thighs.
I also learnt a very important lesson on my birthday. The Clash of Cultures: I wanted to celebrate my birthday with my Korean English Teachers, so I suggested dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. They agreed and everyone was excited. On that night one by one my teachers walked into the steakhouse armed with a large coffee cream cake from Paris Baguette, various products from the Body shop, Makeup, a beautiful Pot plant- I thought how kind and thoughtful. Definitely Spoilt!
My teachers kindly chose what to have for dinner for everyone as parts of the menu was in Korean. They chose a set menu - which included soft drinks, 2 large pastas, 2 steaks with various side dishes for 130,000 won (roughly $130- $150 NZ/AUD). We ate, we chated, we laughed, we cried ( as Julian is always so charming and hilarious). Then came the bill. My co teacher handed me the bill. I looked at the damage that was done and gave Julian the "can you pay for my half" look he threw in 60,000 won and I gave the bill to my co teachers. They looked at each other, talked in Korean for a bit, I asked "is everything Ok" "yes, yes" they replied. They paid and everyone said their goodbyes and left. The following Monday my co teacher acted a little strange, I just ignored it and figured she must of been tired from the weekend.
After school the same day she came up to me and said "Helen.....on your birthday, we were suprised you didn't pay the bill. We came with gifts and in our culture when someone invites you to birthday dinner, guests usually bring gifts and you pay. We were very very shocked we had to pay" my stomach did several backflips as I tried to defend myself.."Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I did not know that. In my country if I go to dinner with my friends we usually split the bill" she raised her voice slightly "but you are in Korea! you should know these things!" I said "I am sorry I did not know that, If I had known I would of paid" then we just went back and forth with the same argument. In the end she said "go, go home" and did a gesture that hurt me a bit- she waved both hands at me suggesting I should go and that she couldn't look at me.
That night I had trouble sleeping. Crap I have pissed off a Korean. Its not going to be pretty the next day, and it wasn't. My co teacher ignored my for 3/4 of the day. We were in the same office and she said nothing to me, not even a "hi" in the morning. I apologised at lunch time and said it was all a "mis understanding" she said she felt a little bad when she said that to me yesterday and also said that I needed to learn this is how things are done in Korea. Lesson Learnt- never suggest dinner with a group of Koreans unless you are generous and can pay for the whole table.

On that note this weekend is Julians birthday. I am taking him to the Outback Steakhouse- where I can actually afford to pay for just him and me.
Happy Birthday Babe!