Today is the last day of Chuseok break. Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving. We get a week off from school. Korean families get together and clean off the graves of their families. They celebrate together. It has been likened to our Christmas but without presents. The kids have said that they do get money. I heard about Chuseok first, from the old man who runs the GS25. He told me he had to get up extra early to cut the grass and clean his parents' graves. He told me this as we sat out on the picnic table after skating at the skate park. He also talked about watching a skateboarder in Seoul and how that kid never gave up until he got the trick. He appreciated the perseverance it takes to learn to skateboard. He also told me I am strong like a man. I think that was a compliment in a foreign language sort of way. There isn't only the GS25, on the front street we have a CU too. It is like having 711 and Max all in the same block. On that block, there is also a Quizno's and a Pizza place. Above them all are hedgewans. I don't know if I spelled that correctly. That is what it sounds like to me. They are schools that the kids go to after school to learn more. These students study a lot. This segue nicely to talking about school.
Christian just woke up and we talked about going back to school tomorrow. It is always hard to go back to school after a long break but after you have that first day, it is like you never had a break at all. You get right back into the swing of things. He said he hated school. I asked him what he hated about school and he said the uniform then started talking about things that he liked. He likes his teacher but his Maths teacher talks and talks and talks and talks and they never have time to get done the work. But Mr. Lilywhite doesn't talk as much and he knows better how much time they have to do things. He is looking forward to having school lunch tomorrow. So, I guess he doesn't really hate school. He will miss this school when we go. It is a gorgeous school. My only problem is that I have so many classes with so little time. Forty minutes is not enough time to get changed, do a proper warm-up, teach something, have time to create and share. It is much too quick and the campus is so large, they spend most of their time wandering slowly from one class to the next. At least they are getting their exercise walking around. I on the other hand, have a million names to remember and all the students are wearing masks and uniforms. It is difficult but I am going to keep trying. Maybe I will get them all by Christmas? Here I am already looking forward to the next break. There is one more part about school that I should write about for when I look back on these memories. The rocky start up.
Maybe I should choose a better adjective. Maybe I should say windy start up? First of all, starting at any new school comes with its own set of challenges because everything is new. I am learning wherever everything is and this school's new policies. However, I think all schools this year, are doing things a lot differently, so even if you have been at your school forever, this is a year unlike any other due to Covid 19. Every teacher has been struggling to start this year in a new way. Our school feels really safe, although I am not sure how safe I will feel going back there tomorrow with all the kids having been in Seoul for the week. But, I do feel safer here on this island and I am thankful I am not at home in Surrey teaching this year. This isn't the way I planned this year in my mind. I am not going to Seoul or Japan or Bali for holidays, but no one is going anywhere. (And, I really plan to go to Seoul and dance at 1Million dance studio before I go.) Anyways, where was I? Oh ya, all schools, including mine have had a rocky start. We had four days of online teaching where the school was closed to day students for Covid 19. We taught the borders in the classrooms and taught the day students online. That was challenging. It is hard to do both without neglecting one or the other. However, at least I got to be in the studio and there were some real bodies with me. Jonny didn't like that because Christian was home with him and working through a screen all day. Same schedule as normal school. Kids can't stare at screens that long. Some teachers were smart though and gave them tasks to do outside and then take a photo. We were also interrupted on two separate occasions by typhoons. There was Typhoon Bavi and Typhoon Maysak. This is what I mean when I say we had a windy start up. Man did those trees dance. It was so windy, our doorbell was going off. I went to check the door and I thought the door was going to blow right out of my hand. Of course no one was at the door. The wind was at our door. Nature's dance. The water came into our home and made music in the pots and pans. Jonny stayed up late emptying them out. The power never went out though. For these two natural events, we taught online from home. That is not fun. I don't think I like online teaching. I wouldn't mind if I was teaching from exotic location and it was my choice to teach online and the student's choice to take an online course, but no one signed up for this kind of teaching and learning.
That is the first part of school. Christian comes home happy to play and I come home ready to eat, sleep and do it all again. The kids are awesome. They are not shy. They like to move and they are respectful. But for today, it is time to go back to the beach to swim and play in the sand with Christian. We had an amazing day yesterday and today, there is no school and tomorrow it will be like we never had a break. Right back at it.
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