선생님 이에요! (I am a teacher)

"Teacher, teacher, teacher!!!"

The word that I have always used to describe my future career now it's my whole identity.

Lets rewind.

I don't remember when I decided I would be a teacher when I grew up. I just always knew. I always had this love for teaching, for school, for helping others, and for kids.

One thing that I do love about the american education system, it that dispute being a teacher, you retain your identity. Here, it doesn't feel like you do.

I was explaining this to a friend back home when she asked about what my students call me. In Korean culture, your title is more important than your name. I don't know if this is because its so easy to have similar or the same name as others, or because of the need to have pride and save face by being successful, or some other reason I don't even know.

So if you are a teacher in Korea, you are often just called 선생님 (son-sang-nim) or if they need to be more specific then your name then 선생님. For example, in English my title is literally Kristy Teacher to the kids. To some students, I am just Teacher, others I am just Kristy, and some call me Kristy Teacher. Most of my students just call me teacher though. Especially if they are calling me over.

A few weeks ago another fulbrighter was teaching her students to say "My name is blah, his name is blah," etc. And she pointed to their homeroom teacher and said "her name is..." She was really surprised when none of her students could tell her their teacher's name. Some of them just said 선생님, because they didn't know. Now they are only third graders and I know the older students do know their student's names but it was just very surprising and really made me think about that.

In america, I know its a big deal if students know your first name, and some teachers try to keep it a secret, but it was even more surprising that 'teacher' becomes their entire identity.

And mine.

I walk through school, "hello teacher"

I walk through town, "Oh, Hi teacher!"

I'm in my house and host sibling's friends come over "Teacher!?!"

About a month into my stay with my homestay, I actually had to tell my host parents to tell the kids to just call me Kristy, because I felt weird about being called teacher at home. I love being a teacher but I don't want it to be my whole identity. But in a country where the biggest job market for foreigners is English teacher, my whole appearance makes people assume I am a teacher. I have literally been approached multiple times and within five minutes I would be offered a job as a private tutor or an academy teacher.

But it's who I am. I am a teacher. I can't change that. So as long as I am here, my name is teacher. Not Kristy. Not Ms. Sonberg. Just Teacher.

Wish me luck.

Getting my Ears Pierced!

Okay, so I know what you might be thinking. "This girl is in Korea and almost 23 years old and doesn't have her ears pierced?" Well I do. I got my lobe ear piercings at a Clare's store in the Mall when I was 10 years old. My mom recently reminded me that my ears got infected and took a really long time to heal, so she was kinda surprised when I wanted to do it again. I actually forgot all about that.

A few years back, I had decided that I really wanted to get second holes in my lobe of my ears and get a helix (which is on the upper outside part of the ear) on my right ear. For multiple reasons, nothing too specific, I never got it done in college. When I got to Korea, I new that eventually I needed to go and just have it done. I had wanted it for so long. Eventually around March, I decided I really just wanted to get it done. I waited until it started to warm up (because hats) and I would get it done the next time I was in Seoul. Well that proved to be harder than I anticipated. I just forgot to plan before hand.

So when I want to Seoul last weekend for a friend's birthday, I made sure I wasn't going to go home that night without new piercings. I told my friend and her Korean girlfriend and they actually ended up being really helpful, so after a fun day at a delicious restaurant, a fishing cafe and a dessert cafe, they actually took me to where the places were in Hongdae. We first went to a nice place, that didn't have very many people in it, and we figured out why real quick when we looked at their prices, and we ended up leaving and going to a place across the street that was significantly cheaper. I wish I could remember the name of the place because the lady was so nice and the prices were so good. Three piercings plus jewelry was only about 32,000 won. I even convinced my friend to also get a helix piercing. The girlfriend was really squeamish, but we were both really tough and I personally didn't think it really hurt that much.

I love the piercings. Though its a bit difficult to sleep, since I sleep on my side, so I'
ve been using my neck pillow so my ear can be in the hole and it cradles my head. I'm so glad I have it.

My Experience at a Korean Hospital

Don't worry everyone! I'm fine. I'm not sick and I didn't break anything. I promise. A few months back, I applied to renew my Fulbright grant for a second year. As part of the application process, I had to get a physical done at a hospital to prove to the Korean government that I'm healthy, I guess. Well, the way the health system is set up here, I had to go to a hospital (essentially the equivalent of going to the doctors instead of a walk-in clinic). To make matters worse, I couldn't go to the hospital that is literally next to my school, but instead had to travel all the way to Chuncheon. This was because one of the required tests that I had to get done (as a foreigner getting a physical) isn't a part of the Korean physical and therefore only available at larger hospitals. Great.

Lets set the stage for the day. Since I couldn't go to the hospital in Hwacheon, I had to actually request off early one day to travel the 45 minutes on the bus to Chuncheon, to get to the hospital and have the full appointment before they closed for the day. Because I teach everyday in the mornings, I couldn't take the whole day off or come in late. My co-teacher and I decided I would leave at 12:30 on a Wednesday after finishing my final class.

Oh, yeah. I haven't told you why I wanted to go to the hospital in the morning. I had to fast. It was terrible. Anyone who knows me knows I don't skip breakfast. And because of this physical, and my class schedule, I had to skip breakfast, teach all morning, leave at what would be my lunch time, take a bus (which makes me nauseous on a good day) then go through an entire appointment before I was allowed to eat for the day.  Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (I drank a lot of water) but it still sucked. Especially since I just happen to have picked teachers day to do this on. So I was given a vitamin drink from the students and there was fruit in the morning meeting that just sat there taunting me, because I couldn't eat it.

Now, just before 2pm I arrived at the hospital, which I have walked past so many times and never knew it was even a hospital. Now, for a country that is usually has enough English on signs for me to get around, this hospital had NONE! I walk in the front door and I can't figure out where to go at all. I see a woman at a desk and show her the paper I needed (I had a sample of the form with English translations that KAEC was nice enough to provide) and she holds up two fingers. No clue what she means, she eventually translates on her phone second floor. Okay. Cool.

Now you think getting to the second floor would be easy. Yeah, it wasn't. Now, the stairs were tucked away (and I found them later) but I didn't want to draw attention to myself by trying to find them, so I took the elevator. Okay, so when you see two elevators next to each other, you would assume that they go to the same places, right? Never assume anything in Korea. I pushed the up button on one elevator, but the other one was already being called and arrived first. Okay. I got on. I tried to push the 2nd floor button, but it didn't light. Apparently this elevator skipped floors 2-4. Great. That would have been nice to know earlier. So to act inconspicuous, I get off with a few people that are getting off at 5 and the elevator continues to 8 for the rest of the people. I call it again to go back down. Back to the first floor. I get off then get on the first elevator I meant to get on in the first place. The correct one, I found out.

Wow. So much happened before I even got to the doctor. I get to the second floor and there are multiple desks, all with signs in Korean above them. I freeze. No idea where to go. One person notices me, and waves me over. I show her my paper and she sends me over to a godsend of a woman. This woman (not really knowing English beyond a few words) literally sat me down, took care of my paperwork and walked me from station to station for each part of the exam.

The physical itself wasn't too exciting. There were a few interesting tidbits, like how I had to give them a passport size photo for my paper (I did know this before hand and came prepared). Another was that for the urinalysis, they gave me a paper (not plastic) cup with a line drawn on with sharpie, and forgot to show me where the bathroom was. The last thing, and most bizarre, was that the last test on the exam was to go over to the dentist next to the hospital and they had to check my teeth. I have never had to go to the dentist for a physical.

All in all, the exam from start to finish only took about a half-hour. So by about 2:30, I was free and could finally eat lunch. I thought it was worth it to walk 20 minutes to the McDonald's to treat myself. It was delicious.

I went back on Saturday and picked up my results to submit them, and it only cost me about 54,000 won (like 50 dollars ish).

Science Day!

This is going to be short and sweet. Today was science day at my school. Every semester, my school hosts a science day where students go to different classrooms and do different activities. Last semester, our classroom was in charge of making little homes for cockroaches. I was praying that we weren't doing the same this year. We weren't. This time it was snails instead of cockroaches. You know what? Snails are significantly better. I think they are really cute.

Students are assigned to the classrooms and activities they are supposed to attend. We got 2nd grade, which is really interesting considering we don't even teach 2nd grade, but maybe that was the idea. Assign the classes to places where they don't go.

It was actually really fun to make these little houses for the snails and I also became the resident snail wrangler. I was the person that would get the snails out of the little cups that they came in and put them in the new homes if the students weren't able to get them out or were too scared. I had one girl who wouldn't even hold the cup. I had to carry it to her desk, take it out, put it in the container and close the lid before she got close to it.

Each of the kids got to put everything in the container and name it. Ping Ping was a frequent choice (Gary from Spongebob's Korean
name). It was actually really cute to see the different reactions each of the kids had, and how the snails adjusted to their new environments. By the time class was over, there were some that were climbing all over the walls and even investigating their food source. I am very happy I got to experience this with the students.