Miss America

Well, today was a much better day. The director, who still doesn't seem to like me very much, called this morning and asked me to meet her at the school in half an hour. She spent almost an hour and a half going over the curriculum with me and explaining how things run, how the classes are divided, etc. I told her again and again how helpful that was. I also told her I intend to be an excellent teacher here at the school and that I take a lot of pride in my work, so having time to prepare is not only helpful but really important to me. That seemed to be a good answer. She was sweet to me all day and even took me for a walk around the town after lunch to show me where some things are. I hope this is a new beginning and not just a temporary reprieve.

I'm going to start teaching preschool (4-year-olds) and the pre-K transition class (5-year-olds) on Monday. The rest of this week I'm mostly sitting in on the other teachers' classes. Just sitting there is really pretty boring. The director has some parent-teacher conferences tomorrow, so I will be teaching a couple of her classes alone. I'm fine with that now that I've actually seen the textbook and have an idea of what they're doing and what they can do.

I just got back from the Wednesday night prayer service. The people all pray aloud at once, so it's a very noisy place. I'm going to use the audio feature on my camera to record it sometime. It's really something to hear! On my way down the church steps after the service, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and started talking excitedly at me. A teacher who has been here three years and can have simple conversations in Korean, said she wanted to know why I was here. He explained I'm the new missionary teacher, and she started jumping up and down in her hanbok (long traditional dress) and almost fell down the very steep stairs. She then followed me across the parking lot saying "Thank you, teacher. Thank you, teacher!" As I've said before, the people couldn't possibly be more welcoming.

Something comical happens everyday. I sat in on the kindergarten class when another teacher was teaching. The kids wanted to know where I was from. "Teacher, you China?" they asked and giggled. "Teacher, you Korea?" More giggles. "Teacher, you Africa?" and they pointed at the other teacher, who is from Liberia, and giggled some more.

I said, "America." (No one says "United States" here, even when speaking English.)

"Oh!" one little boy exclaimed. "Teacher Miss America!"

Now the whole kindergarten class calls me Miss America.

That's all for now. 4 days down and I still like kimchi.