I'm going to Japan (for real this time)

New month, new flights (apparently!). So I was finally told the October school calendar today. It turns out that besides my midterm exams from Oct 17-20, there is also a testing day on Wed the 22nd. So, I realized that if I could get out of teaching on the 21st, I could have had a nice trip to Japan. Too bad the plane was sold out, right? Well, Ike and I decided to check one more time today. It turned out that my so-called "sold out" flight had seats again! OMG! So after classes today I went to ask my co-teacher about getting that day off of work. We had to ask the VP and he gave me permission! (I'll probably still have to make up the 3 classes either before or after the trip somehow, but its totally worth it) So then my co-teacher called the travel agent, as usually travel agents are cheaper than online here in Korea, and that way I would be able to pay out of my Korean bank account. Well, the travel agent said that not only were no seats available, but that the 1pm flight had been cancelled! She said that the internet was giving bogus info. Shit! So then I called the airline directly and they told me that yes, indeed seats were available. But to book it on the phone was going to be $700 something!! Online the price had been $450. Well, I went back through the website and the price had miraculously jumped to $500, but whatever, I got the ticket! And I have a real confirmation number and everything! So, officially, I will be in Japan from Fri, Oct 17- Wed, Oct 22!! Woow! Best feeling ever!

My classes went pretty well today also. My last day of teaching for the week! Thursday is the school picnic, and I'll be joining the first graders. Friday I leave for Gyeongju for the 4 day Fulbright conference. It turns out that my school has no classes on Friday anyway, because it is Founder's Day.

I was a little pissed off at the English teachers today. Today was the day they were supposed to hand in the teacher feedback form I gave them last week and we were to discuss teaching strategies, what I'm doing that's good/bad in the classroom, etc during our teacher's workshop. Well, instead, they decided it would be best for the students participating in the speech contest on Sat to give their speeches to all the English teachers. So, that took up the whole hour, and we didn't get to talk at all. None of the teachers even had the survey filled out that I gave them last week. I asked them to please get it to me today or soon. Well, I got 2 back today and the comments are somewhat weird and not at all what I expected. One wants me to teach the first graders out of the textbook so I can "write the test questions" -- yay, totally not my job, so I won't be doing that. I might use the textbook material to incorporate into the lesson, but I won't be writing test questions or teaching from the textbook. My job as an ETA is to be creative and help these kids find their own sense of creativity in such a rote-learning based ed system. Another told me to stop squirting the boys with water because they don't like it. Well, they shouldn't like it as it is punishment for being late or sleeping/talking in class!! And besides, they do love it -- they get so excited when someone comes late and they get to watch me squirt them. He also said that I should show movies once a month, aka 25% of the class time I'm with them. If they don't understand my slow, basic speaking now, there's no way in hell they would understand a movie. This is absolutely out of the question! He also wants me to give them homework. These poor kids are already overworked, exhausted, and not motivated for school at all. There's no way I'm going to give them more homework and contribute to the vicious cycle. His comments were pretty un-useful.

Dance class was good tonight. Also, my host mom cooked me some fried sweet potato slices after school that were delish!! And the fish we had for dinner (I think it might be mackeral) is my new favorite fish -- even better than salmon I'd say. It is soo yummy. Anyway, enough random ramblings. Goodnight!

Quick note: I found out what the Korean word for America means ("miguk") -- it comes from the Chinese characters for beautiful country!! That's so flattering!