Don't count your octopi before they've spawned

I don't even know if what octopi do is called spawning, but I thought it more appropriate than chickens.

I have a job. And I am UBER excited about it. But I haven't actually signed the contract yet. I do that tomorrow.

I've been wresting over this whole job things for about two months now. I thought I had found the perfect company to work for (Poly School), and that was going to pay me loads of money. And then I found myself playing the waiting game with them. And THEN they said two positions had opened, but they were .4 million less than what was originally offered, and they were night classes. So I kept looking for another job, kept taking phone interviews and going to interviews in person, always turning down offers because they didn't feel right. I thought they didn't feel right because I was just waiting for this high-end school to tell me they had a position open.

And then, as I was searching the job offers on an ESL board, I came across an ad for a gifted and talented school for 2.7million won per month in Apgujeong, which is part of Seoul. And my heart skipped a beat. I LOVE teaching gifted. I started my Masters in gifted, and if it hadn't been for the less than ideal circumstances, I may have even completed it. I was in the gifted program as long as I was allowed, until I entered IB. My mother has been teaching it for most or all of her career. The funny thing about this posting was that I had already sent an e-mail to the same address asking about another position within the company, and had never heard anything back. So I didn't really have high hopes for this one.

But then I got phone call from the school, asking me to come in for an in-person interview around 5 or 6pm. I told them that I was pretty far away, and since my school ended late I wouldn't be able to get to the school until 8pm. She told me she didn't mind waiting at all, and was eager to meet me. And then. And THEN I got the pictures.

Pictures of the school.





Work samples.


The kids.



And then I allowed myself a little bit more excitement. This was exactly kind of environment I had wanted to teach in back home.

So last week I asked my director if I could leave after my last class today (3:45) instead of at 6pm for an interview, and she nicely said yes. And as I am ever tied to my computer, I checked my e-mail at 3:50 as I was walking out the door.






I hadn't heard from the Poly School in almost three weeks. And there, just as I was about to leave for an interview, was an e-mail, offering me a job in a good area in Seoul for 3.0million per month for morning/afternoon classes.

I felt like I was being tried or tested by someone. Here I was, ready to discount the Poly School altogether and try to decide between the public school position (which still hasn't contacted me with a decision) and this gifted school which so far seemed to be right up my ally, and they send me an offer that was, on the surface, much better than this gifted school I was going for. I was quite frustrated at having yet another school to add to my decision list, but I sent a quick response to the e-mail saying I was interested and asking a question about the location before heading off to the interview.

I got to the school around 6, and was asked to wait in a small room outside the office since the principal was on the phone when I arrived. The walls were covered in both student work and certificates that the principal had received, as well as research papers (in English) on how to work with gifted students, differentiated curriculum, and other terms that had almost completely left my vocabulary since I stopped teaching back in the states. There were even certificates of attendance for the past 4 years to the CAG (California Association for the Gifted) conference, the last of which was attended in Feb 2009. After staring at this wall, I realized that this school was where I wanted to be, and I knew with certain peace that not only would I love the job here, but that they would offer it to me and I would accept it without thought of the other positions I had as a possibility.

The interview lasted almost an hour. It was more of us talking than an actual interview. She explained a lot about the school, and the more she talked, the bigger my smile got. Everything struck a chord with me, even down to the names of the classrooms (I'll be teaching Sapphire class). The school feels that each child is a gem, and when they enter the school, they have been mined from the earth, and that each day spent in the school is a cutting and polishing of a rare stone. (I'm sorry - how awesome is that??). I'll get to do science experiments, theme units, current events, and I'll get to continue my penpals for another year. Shortly before I left, she asked me officially if I wanted the job, and I replied absolutely that I did. She asked me twice if I promised I would accept, as she would stop looking for a teacher for the position now that she had interviewed me.

The teacher that's leaving's contract ends the third of August. She wanted me to come a few weeks before that so I could shadow and train, but I told her it was impossible because of my family reunion at the end of July. So at this point, she wants me to start the first week in August, which means it'll be crunch time getting all my documents ready and sent as soon as I get back home so I can get a visa number before my position is supposed to start. This also means I'll only be in Florida for a little over two weeks total before I go back to Korea.

So... this also means that all the blogging I've been meaning to do (I've had a draft blog up for two weeks of the second leg of my weekend trip that I've uploaded all the pictures for but haven't finished writing about) is probably not going to get done. I'll do my best, but it seems that the longer I stay here, the busier I get, and I have less time to actually write about all the stuff I spend my time doing.

And seeing as how it's 1:22am and I have work tomorrow, I will now say goodnight. 잘자요

Manic Monday

On Monday we woke up early and went in search of coffee after deciding to stay in Mokpo for another night and head for Boseong the next day. We had past a few coffee places that were open the night before, but weren't able to find one open at 9am. Most of the places we saw were open at 10am, some were noon. It still amazes me that you can own a coffee place anywhere in the world that isn't open by 7am - at the latest. Regardless, we decided to head over to Yudalsan Park, which was listed in our guidebook and we both had wanted to see. It was between us and the shore, where we wanted to take a boat out to some of the further reaching islands, so it seemed like a good idea to walk through it.

Now, when I think of a park, I think trees, grass, maybe some landscaping and places to sit and have a picnic. This is probably because that describes most of the parks I saw growing up in the flatlands of Florida. When Korea says 'park', you can almost bet that it's actually a mountain. This one happened to be about 600 meters high. This is the walkway up to the park through the city:

We missed the glass botanical gardens, mostly because when we got there it was blazing hot, and we were really just concentrating on getting up the mountain, and not what the guidebook said to look for.

We saw Madangbawi (great views and two rock carvings) and Ildeung, another peak on our way up.

We must have taken the long way around, because it took us about 3-4 hours to get to the other side to the beach. We wanted to take a boat ride out to some of the further flung islands, but the ferries only run twice a day, and we were a good 20 minute walk from the ferry terminal and only had about 3 minutes before it left. So we took a small boat tour in the bay around Yuldusan.

Then we took a bus to the Mokpo Natural History Museum. Aside from a horribly stuffed taxidermy tiger that looked like a third grade sewing project, it was actually a nice museum.

It took us forever to find a place to eat. Most places won't serve just one person -there has to be at least two people - and the first several that we tried were either too expensive, or wouldn't allow us to share a single serving of any dish (even though some of the dishes started at W30,000 each). We decided to head to bed early since we wanted to be in Boseong first thing the next day. We debated about trying to head out anyway and cancel our reservation, but having a place to keep our bags and a shower, as well as not knowing if we'd be able to find a place in Boseong, was worth staying in Mokpo another night.

A trip to the hospital

I only had to teach three classes today, since I went to the hospital to get my physical so I can apply for my alien card. My first class, lemon, was from 9:45-10:30. They usually have snack then, so Julie Teacher took over for me while I went to the hospital (I'm Breanna Teacher to the kids, only they usually pronounce it teachah). Lee, Julie's husband, drove me there, and took care of all the paperwork. It was a lot of running around between floors 1, 3, 6, and 8. Some of the elevators only went to even floors and some went to odd floors and some went to all of them. Only some of them were labeled.

The first thing they did was the obligatory pee test, then 4 blood samples. There was a very long conversation between two nurses and Lee before they took my blood, and the only thing I caught was HIV, which they would be testing for. Lee couldn't translate any of it, partially because his English is basic at best, and I don't know that anyone but a fluent speaker in both languages could translate medical terminology. Then we went downstairs where I thought they would do a physical, but their version of it was asking me "Do you have health ok?". Then we went back upstairs, since apparently the first set of nurses had to go to lunch and didn't have time to do the rest of it while we were up there. We got another form, went back downstairs, where they checked my teeth (no cavities, no missing teeth). Then back upstairs they checked height, weight, blood pressure, hearing, sight (all of which are fine), and did an x-ray of my chest. And then we left.

By the time we got back, it was almost the end of lunch. So I had lunch in the kitchen with Lee and one of the kids. Everyday there's soup, kimchi, rice, and then two sides. I can't eat the kimchi - it's way too spicy. Lee told me there's something called pakimchi, which is similar only made without pepper, so it's milder. But most, if not all, restaurants only serve kimchi. I do, however, love dried seaweed and rice. It's my new favorite snack. I had some sort of little silver fish that had been cooked, had it's head and tail cut off, and covered/stuffed with some sort of vegetable sauce thing. It was a bit spicy, but pretty good. Lee also showed me how to correctly hold my chopsticks, which seemed to work for the first time. It still amazes me that the kids eat such spicy food, and not only don't mind it, but they love it (the teachers eat the same thing as the kids, just bigger portions).

Julie teacher even taught my class after lunch, so I only had my two apple classes to do, which are pretty easy because one class has three kids and one class has nine, and they all speak English fairly fluently. Even though my last class is over at 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm not supposed to leave before 6pm (which isn't bad, considering my day starts at 9:45 and I get an hour break after lunch). So I spent the rest of the day working on my lesson plans for lemon and cherry for next week, and making sure I had all the materials I needed for the activities. They're pretty straight-forward, and everything is pretty much scripted for you from the teacher's book. They have songs that go along with storybooks, and activity books, and homework books, all relating to whatever story they're reading. I've learned such riveting songs as "Little Bear Lake", "Let's Go Camping", and "Hello, Ranger Joe". And tomorrow is Memorial Day, so Cherita, James and I are going out to downtown Uijeongbu (pronounced weejongboo) tonight since there's no school tomorrow. I did find out from Julie teacher that my birthday, which is the Korean Independance Day, is no longer a holiday off from school - apparently Korea has too many holidays and they changed it last year to a normal school day. :(

There's lots of little things here that I find facinating. Things like when you order pizza, they always tie it with a red ribbon to keep the box closed. Or how the cars have the right of way, not the pedestrians, and they can make a u-turn in the middle of the street, as long as there's no traffic going the other way. There doesn't seem to be any laws about where to park either, as people park in the street all the time with no permits. In their registers, they keep their money vertical, instead of laying down horizontal, and most bathrooms don't have toilet paper - you're supposed to bring your own.