I'm lazy and am NOT writing double

It was my birthday friday and I documented it on Ten Pin Korea...but wanted to share it on here as well.


Enjoy

Birthday Korea Style, part I


Parts two and three :)

Nose bleed seating

So my day didn't have a great start...ok well before school was good. I had gone to the gym for lifting and will go back after school for cardio; breakfast was very Korean with fruit and Bibim ramen.

I had started my first class and elementary grade four, five and six. They're a bit troublesome with acting out and not comprehending things. I have a great student though Heh Sun. She's brilliant and so sweet and makes teaching the class worthwhile. So of course as I'm taking roll about three students say "Teacher...no book." I really hate making copies and was going to put my foot down today. I interrogated them (which in part was also because these girls are a little behind the rest of the class and for them to forget books just infuriated me) to which Heh Sun translated. I wont go into the whole respect thing because you just need to be here.

While this was going on I remembered I had let a student go to the bathroom. Sahng Hyun is a bit mischievous so having to go myself went to check on him. As I was coming out of the bathroom I peeked into the boys room and saw my student with a bloody tissue standing over a sink with bloody water. Gross is an understatement.

Bless his little heart when he said "Teacher, help me." And so after years of dealing this this same issue I quickly took control of the situation. We started by taking out all of the tissue in his nose. It seems that the Korean way of dealing with a nose bleed is to just let it run it's course while you're stuck with pieces of tissue in your nose.

We took the American proactive way of doing things. I got some new tissue out because his were all battlefield bloody. Then I quickly took his nose in between my index finger and thumb and squeezed. We walked out of the bathroom and I had him sit on a chair with tissues and a waste basket made from a drink carrier. It took a few times of me walking from the class to him to get him to find out that squeezing is better than letting it run wild.

I went back to class and maybe five minutes or less he was back. Class was going much smoother now that I was out of a bad mood. It's funny how stressful situations like that can change your mood. It's also nice to know that bratty kids, even really bratty mean kids (Sahng Hyun isn't that bad...just he needs more physical activity b/c he has too much energy) have a vulnerable side.

From here and there

I've been reading a blog about another adoptee who is in the process of adopting her second child from Korea. It's a wonderful blog and it' been helping make my time here as constructive as it can be. I have a super long blog post that will be all about the leaving process seeing I'm still getting my thoughts together; it seems that only those who have been to Korea or taught here can really understand what it's like and even then for some who bask in the glory of being "Western" have a veil over their eyes as to what Korea, Koreans and their culture is really like.

The blog is www.korean-adoption.blogspot.com if you're interested. It seems I'm having problems with blogger and posting links.

Anyway, good stuff...till then

Just lose it

I wrote this when very angry...but the underlying message of my abhorrence of foul language is such that I feel this needs to be posted.


Ever since I was in middle school I knew what curse words were and how to use them. Occasionally they would slip into conversation, at times if I wanted attention or thought I was being cool they'd get more and more time in my speech. at the time I didn't think much of it.

However, upon joining my sorority (You were not do swear in letters...unladylike) and getting to college in general the idea of swearing was vulgar and only for those on the lowest rungs of society. Yes, I had and still do have friends that swear. Most of them aren't bad and usually they're in context of the conversation.

Being in Korea however at least once a day in class a student will say the f-word, the s-word or some version of (the bird) which I tend to ignore. I read up on what others do in this situation

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=1873450

copy and paste the above to get to the web page...apparently you can't create a link to this sorry everyone.

I feel I need to be blunt about the subject. For the most part I do ignore it or give the kid a look and get an immediate "sorry techa." However I suppose this week and the past week I've just had it with this whole situation.

Its disgusting that middle school ages children would say such words around a teacher or any adult. They won't say Korean swears at the Korean teachers, so why should I have to be on the set of "The Wire" everyday dealing with words I don't say because I know the meanings.

On the one had yes I probably am giving them the power. Making them find out what makes me angry. On the other say for instance they do visit an English speaking country after university. Because they've been able to let fly the f-bomb, they wont think twice about using it, thinking it'll get a good laugh out of someone. Yet, come to find out people don't like bad language too much and the perpetrator gets in a whole bunch of trouble at a bar and gets the crap beaten out of them because they can't explain in English that they weren't talking about the guy he annoyed.

I'm trying to teach culture here because though learning English is a part of schooling from 3rd grade on, culture isn't. Knowing what is culturally acceptable is very important. Koreans get annoyed and even angry if we foreigners don't do something right. However, the faux pas of swearing out loud in polite company is tolerated??? It makes no sense and infuriates me.

As stated in the title, I did almost lose it today in class. I gave out an assignment to read and expected the students to start reading...no reading at all. Oh there was talking and a game of who can flip the bird the most at each other. I think this was definitely the final straw. Imagine two little girls giving each other the middle finger. Yeah, if it wasn't my class it'd be a bit funny. But, on the other hand it's absolutely disgusting. It's rude and derogatory and for a country so concerned about being polite entirely hypocritical.

So the result was I just saw red and started screaming at them why they would do this in my class (because I'm American and know what this stuff means) and if they would do this to their parents or their other teachers...note while I was yelling at them I had my middle fingers up as an example of what it really feels like (not very good) and at that point had to leave the class for fear I'd smack the living daylights out of all of their ornery little faces.

Evan taught my classes the rest of the day...since then I've been taking the passive aggressive approach to bratty behavior and all around bad manners, which seems to work okay since I lead them to the teachers room and let the Korean teachers deal with it. I have a week and four days left and I refuse to let this be the overriding memory of that.

Happy Birthday Chi Omega!

"Chi O's were ideal partners for all occasions. They were discrete, desirable, tactful, polite and fun. Every mom dreamed of her son coming home with a Chi Omega..." -David Letterman-

Leave it the Letterman to say just the right thing...

Ahhh yes, Chi Omega the best fraternal organization for women in the world. Of course I'm completely bias because I am an alumna. April 5 is the organization's Eleusain or birthday. It was founded on the campus of the University or Arkansas, Fayettville in 1895 by four very special women. Along with Dr. Charles Richardson (a Kappa Sigma fraternity man who helped to organize Chi Omega) Ina Mae Boles, Alice Carey Simonds, Jean Vincenheller and Jobelle Holcombe.


I was a member of the Theta Lambda Chapter at school. During my time there I held the offices of Panhellenic Chair and Secretary. I was then able to become a member of the All Greek Honor Society, Order of Omega. This opened other doors of opportunity on and off campus.


I joined in my sophomore year and it was probably the most wonderful thing I could have done for myself. I was very hesitant to join a sorority my freshmen year because of all of the drama that seemed to arise from recruitment and rivalries. However, I had met a girl the year before who was just amazing. She was fun, smart, independent and full of integrity. I absolutley loved her. I decided to go out for recruitment in the fall, it was less stressful since there was no quota (the number of girls you can accept) limit, and I got to choose which organizations I wanted to meet. It's been history ever since.

I'm so PROUD to be a Chi Omega and Greek. I get made fun of sometimes for being a "sorority girl" but it doesn't really matter seeing most of the people who say things are non-Greeks and have no idea what they're talking about.

My sisters are the best friends I will ever have. To be clear we're not all best friends and some of the girls (The new members from this year and last) I hardly know. But because we're sisters there's a special bond that those on the outside could never understand. There are special rituals that we have that we can't tell non-members, yes. And no I'm not going to tell you.

But I feel that it's the things that are public such as our values of friendship, career development, community service, scholarship, campus activities, and high standards of personnel are the most important when explaining what makes us different and why Chi Omega is so special to members. A very special writing called the Chi Omega symphony was written by Ethel Switzer Howard on the night of her initiation. Its an absolutley beautiful work of art. This is what all Chi Omegas strive to be and live everyday.

Rho, Beta, Upsilon, Eta, Sigma.