Tuesday

This is the Tuesday edition of a standard day in our week. The morning starts out the same. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days of the week teaching wise. I am school for 8:40 and start teaching my first class at 9:00. All the teaching planning and prep (photocopying, cutting and pasting) either has to be done or quick to do. I have four regular classes, two grade 5s and two grade 6s and then extra class. Extra class is just a few weeks old and it is great. I teach 10 grade ones and twos. They are the cutest and best behaved kids in the school. I don’t know how they were picked, or if their parents chose for them to attend, but they are great. It is the same 40 minute format, but there isn’t a curriculum so I can do what I want. Right now it is mostly alphabet, phonics and preschool basics (shapes, colours, etc.) They are little sponges for language and can mimic anything I say. Also they LOVE bingo game. After that my co-teacher has another small extra class of grade 4 and 5 girls. I don’t have much to do with it unless she needs help, which is rare since they are all smart and well behaved. That is my school day, long but with overall good classes.

For me Tuesday is soccer night. The foreign teachers have been playing soccer for years and invite new Mokpo teachers as they come to Korea. We start at 6:30 so that give me about a half hour at home to get ready after school. I ride my bike to the field, about a 20-30 minute ride depending on traffic. We play on a school field made of artificial turf that is smaller than regulation. The English teacher who works at the school arranged it all through his principal, including turning on a couple of lights for us, which is essential since sunset is around 7 now. Turn out depends on the night, we average 10 vs. 10. It is a fun league with widely varying skill levels including a couple of girls who scream when the ball comes close. So I am not the worst player. We play to around 8:30, sometimes later, and then it is off for a beer or some food. Afterwards I cycle back home and depending on how many drinks I am home around 10. Lately I’ve needed a hot shower to warm back up from the cold and then it is relaxing with Laura time.

 Laura will have to write her account some day, but Tuesdays are Tae Kwon Do night. She goes with our friend Lisa to the gym directly next to our apartment building. The girls picked this particular gym (there are hundreds of Tae Kwon Do places) because Lisa’s students are its main customers and a few of her students found out that she was looking for a place to learn. So Laura and Lisa not only got a dozen free and eager translators but also the gym was so happy to have them that they let them train for free (including the uniform). So every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 they train with the little kids (I think grade 3s but not sure) for an hour. Laura is really enjoying it; she is learning some martial arts, getting a work out and lots of laughs from the kids. Laura and Lisa have become quite popular and they get a tonne of hellos from all the kids in the neighbourhood. Lisa had her hand held when she walked to our place last night.

So that is our average Tuesday. Wednesday might be late since I just found out I have to go to the town of Haenam with my school tomorrow. For what exactly I am not sure, details are forthcoming. Or as the Koreans say “Yes, maybe, no.”