Moving in Korea - Take 4

I don't know for others, but Korea for me has been a year of moving around. Thinking about it, I have moved 4 times in a year. Sometimes within the same vicinity, sometimes to change completely my surroundings. As I am not a person that like to explore on my own unless I have no obligation at all regarding time or money (if I have absolutely nothing to do on a great sunny day, enough money to pay for a cab if I am lost, a bag that is not too heavy to carry around then ok)....

Says the girl who decided to move to Korea on her own?

Yup. I love seeing myself as a person full of contradictions...

When I re-signed my contract with NGLOWkids, I was glad I wouldn't have to go through another moving spree, so I finally bought two big pieces of furniture: a bookshelf and a coat hanger with a bag compartment at the bottom. Well thet ended up being an extra thing to worry about in moving this time. People always get surprised at how much stuff I end up gathering. Thing is I am slightly OCD when it concerns my living space. It needs to be clean and neat, and practical. 

So even in the smallest apartment, I will find the perfect place to put everything to that it looks clean at all times. Moving however, puts me in the distressing situation where I have to find a new meaning and a new place for every single thing I own. I also am the kind who tries to keep a maximum of things to make crafts and stuff when I wrap gifts and write letters, so I end up with an incredible amount of what I simply call "stuff". People usually disregard "stuff" as being an insignificant detail, but I see it otherwise. When I say I have lots of stuff. I mean I have lots of stuff. When I mean that moving everything with only a SUV will require amazing Tetris skills, I mean it. People should not underestimate the amount of work it requires for me to move. Even from a tiny-ass apartment that looked perfectly clean when everything was set in place.

My ladies ready to go.

My ladies, in their temporary spot on the bookshelf

Making my place into what I want it to be will be a whole process including me buying a couple of sticky hooks to hang things around and a lot of scrubbing, but I know the place will look great eventually, as the frame of the apartment already looks quite nice.

That's a quick overview of the place with stuff less scattered over the floor than on the first day. I got a bad cold with fever on my first night in Guro, and have been pretty knocked down since, but I suppose I am lucky it's the weekend. The weather would have been great to walk around and explore the place but I will have other days...

I walk past the demon's door whenever I go in or out of my apartment. Why does this door intrigues me so? Is there a handsome demon/vampire that lives there? While I am curious, I hope I will never get to meet the owner of this place, because it is much more fun to imagine who could be there than be disappointed my reality.

My building is situated in an area that has lots of buildings giving an "industrial era" feel, with lots of red bricks and traffic. While it looks creepy at night, I like the look by day, it is full of small parks and now all the cherry trees are in bloom in most of the small streets I walked by.

Me walking around with my macbook, trying to find an open coffee shop around the area, that is open on a Sunday. I failed my mission, all that was open were chain coffee shops and I ended up entering into a "Coffee Mama" that had decent tasting coffee but nothing more. I hope I'll find nice coffee shops around, otherwise I'll be missing Dongtan's proximity to amazing small stores and coffee shops...

For those who thought Christianity was not glamour in 2014. Here is a little to ponder about in your free time...

Momo eui Darag Bang

I have written about Momo's sewing school before, a beautiful handcraft haven I have grown greatly attached to. Ironically, the school will be moving to another area of Dongtan in a few weeks to join the local "culture center" of Dongtan in a much bigger room that is shared among a couple of other teachers all working in specific different fields of crafting, including sewing machine work, hand sewing, knitting, chalk and styrofoam art, ribbon art and Korean calligraphy. I was really sad to leave Dongtan for I would not be able to go to the school as I liked, but the place I know, full of last fall's memories, will be no more anyways, so I feel a bit better.

If you do live near the area, however, I strongly encourage you to go to the school. It is right on the street where the McDonald is, in the same building as the Jaws Ddeokboggi, 4th floor. Opens from 10AM to 9PM closed on Sunday and Saturdays of the 2nd and 4th week of the month. I'll try to get the exact address and see if they have a website. Otherwise, if you really need to know where it is, I can explain it clearly with pictures, just ask me in the comment space...

Last week I went crazy on going to the school, because for once, I did not work in the mornings. I only worked part-time so I went to the sewing school in the morning to finish up projects I started, and start new ones, trying to make the most of my last days in Dongtan, with no friends around, so I did not feel too bad to see no one else than my teacher everyday.

My teacher took some pictures as I was doing tome felt sewing, she thought it was a nice picture opportunity. As I had no make up, I was not so sure, but the pictures turned out quite nicely so I must give in Korean eye for nice pictures once more.

From The Airport - Hongdae

Last weekend was really busy for me. I cleaned up my new apartment all afternoon up to the very last minute I could, then left for Hongdae. A senior (weird how we don't really use that naming in English, but as Korea has rubbed on me, and he is older than me, I feel weird saying "friend") from McGill I met through Minho (met in China: isn't it amazing to have Korean acquaintances that you have met in China? I love how my stories are always more complicated than they need to be...) was having a concert in Hongdae at 8PM. I have mentioned him before, when I wrote about in a previous blog entry, and said I did narration on one of his songs, BLACK SKIES.

So I obviously went to see his show. I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't have been happier. I am a big pop music fan, for "music" lovers, what I like usually is crap, but while I love pop, I like all kinds of music as long as it's not too death-metal-sounding (mind you, I admire the artist's research when it comes to death metal's instrumental, I just don't like the yelling part) French rap or western (unless I am in a western bar with people who know those in-line dances and do them together, in this one particular scenario I love western music).

Anyways, straying again...

The show was just the prefect length for a standing concert and the room, while being full, was not packed to the extent of having to look for place to put your feet at. I was really happy with everything in general. They had lockers for jackets (I love Korea) and the room was pretty clean, giving an almost high classy feeling. If you want to get there, here are the direction Min sent me to get there, and even me, who gets lost in a phone box, got there with no problem. I love GPS in phones, makes it so easy to get around. I don't remember the name of the concert avenue though ha ha.. Might edit this entry later and add...

**.... omg U_U I had to stop writing. "Let it Go" started playing in the coffe shop I'm stationed at. This song has taken over Korea... how many months have passed since the movie is out? **

...the name of the place.

I was like SUPER underdressed. I had helped out at a school's market day in the morning and dressed up warmly to stand the cold outside for the few hours I'd have to stand outside, then got to cleaning my apartment and went there directly, so I was wearing short boots black pants and a long red woollen sweater with my hair down. I was thinking, hm, it's hongdae, people are more "grungy" than the pretty dressed up style people wear in say, Gangnam. Well appears Hongdae has more than one type of people hanging out there and I still have a lot to learn. 

People at the concert avenue were all dressed-up, heels, dresses and clean-cut jackets, suits, formal/semi-formal ... and there was me. Even Min, who came with his date, was all dressed-up. Man I felt soooo sexy

The only good point was that, for once, I was not overly tall, as all the people sort of had heels. I actually felt short over my 173cm, trying to see the front stage, with tall koreans all around. It felt quite disorientated for a while. 

Then music took over everything else. I was not expecting much "liveliness" from a band with only two people doing everything on their own, but they were great. There was something on stage, that I have rarely seen. It was everything but boring and I suggest anyone who gets a chance, to go see them play. 

If it can be proof enough, I did not take any pictures or film anything as I was watching, because I didn't want to miss the show (now, I regret not having done so, because I only have words to describe the concert, and well. You need to believe me don't you?

After the show I went out with Min and a couple of his friends for a drink and as most of the places we wanted to go to were full so we ended up going to this Japanese place that had amazing food. We also drank Sake-lemon-soda, A mix I had never had before and really liked. To be honest, I don't like the flowery taste of sake, so I was dreading it, but mixed like this it tastes amazing!

Sake lemon soda heaven mix

We had a lot of different yummy foods, but my personal favourite was the tuna tataki. 

Moving to Guro

I found a new school.

To be honest, I was hesitating between two schools that I both appreciated greatly, and whom both would have liked to have me start as soon as possible. I even had to write out positive things that could be compared from one school to another, with things that were different for both places, to set my mind up...

It was hard.

But I am greatly happy that I chose this school. Even if I am still living in the dread of the getting adjusted to the new school thing. As I am a bit of a control freak, I need to live in an environment that is 'under control' to put myself at ease to try learning things anew: I know that in this school I will have a lot to learn, and I will mostly be rushing through learning/teaching/getting adjusted in a very short period of time and have the stress of being effective and loving at the same time. 

If I want to handle this stress, where I can't control anything, as I am not used to the place and will need to learn tons, I will need a haven of peace, where I can loosen out and be at peace: home.

So I have gone to take a look at my new to-be-apartment. Ideally, just to tidy things up, but realistically, to clean it up my way before I move all my things.

Good thing I went ahead with that great idea.

The girl that lived there, did not live by the same standard of "clean" and "nice" home as I do, to say the least. Now I am not one to fret with details (well that's a lie, but wtv) but I decided to focus on what is positive for now. 

As I was scrubbing the kitchen and separating what foods were past due date and what foods were to be kept, I fell across a few bags of Quakers Oatmeal morning sets: BLISS! 

Did you have those before? I love my oatmeal in the morning but hadn't had had it in years. Trying a better diet since the new year, I had discovered the good of oatmeal for the system, and had been craving it (you see, in Korea, they generally sell oat in whole grains instead of flattened ones, so the way to cook and eat it is much more bothersome for lazy me) for weeks at that point. That discovery made my day a happy day indeed. I had been at cleaning all afternoon and felt like Snow White cleaning the dwarves' mess and finding some treasure to cook for dinner.

Found a nice red ribbon while cleaning and did it legit Snow White style.

 So I cleaned and the next morning, I had an amazing breakfast. I also found, looking quickly in the fridge (I didn't get to scrub it yet so dunno how much of what's in it is still edible, but it looked just fine except the I-need-some-cleaning part), a yogurt carton that tasted exactly like Yoplait! from my youth. Man I loved those liquid yogurt fruit drinks. It appears that Korea and Denmark have been in on this yogurt tag-team for quite a while, making the same exact drinks but in cartons, instead of the plastic bottles we had in Canada.

Because I am good on positivism, I'll add that the girl left some clothes in a basket that she did not want and I found some 10 ish pieces of clothing that I really liked in the lot: free clothes! That should help me try not to shop in the coming few weeks.

Slept with those on and wore them today, as my encouragement to my peeps back
in Quebec, that have had a never-ending winter this year.

Today I had a haircut for the first time in a year! Yay!

Actually I am growing my hair so I usually avoid hairdressers like plea, but meh... my split ends were growing so high up that they were risking to damage the good part of my hair. So I chose to cut. They look much shorter because I asked the lady to make it a straight cut, but she actually did not really cut them much. They will be in much better shape (they already are) with this and it makes me blissful. My hair was long enough so I could afford cutting it without feeling like my growing it up had been a waste. Took me a long time to grow them past "porn-star" length but what was down was so dead that it was best to cut it out. Now back to porn-star length but they will grow faster than before so I'm not too worried. 

I have been seeing so many high schoolers with their perfectly straight lines of long dark hair and I was getting jealous of their perfect lines and non-splitted ends so that's the cut I asked for. And so far I love it.

Two weeks ago - keep in mind I am leaning over
so they appear longer too. Notice how the end is
so thin that there's no thickness at the tip? All of
it was split 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 6 times for each
single strand of hair. Messy messy....

Standing straight on this picture so we see the real length,
but not that the hairdresser slightly curled the end as she
blow dried it. 

See how it now all has the same length? From now on, as it grows, the end will be thick and it'll feel longer than before even when it will reach back to the length it was before.

Asia and Its Weird Random Celebrations...

In the non-Asian community, yearly celebration are, if much less numerous and less commercial, a bit boring. New Year, Valentines Day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas; give or take a couple of dates like XX countries' birthdays. In Asia they found a thing to celebrate every single month. For East Asia, there are a couple of differences between say Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, but the general idea remains. 

There are, in Korea, some 13ish National holidays, dates that are, in the Korean calendar, written in RED (usually we call them "red dates", which is much easier to use when you are not Korea). Those national holidays are not really commercial though: what I will add on in a bit will be.

Korean has pushed commercial celebration to an extent that unless it is hammered into your brain through years of painful useless spendings, it's impossible to remember them all. I often wonder if those celebrations are even all known by Korean, or if it's just a list, with only a few or them  that really matter. I should go out in the streets and ask people around...

Anyways. 

In the "West" (and here I mean, non-East-Asian/Non-Korean-rest-of-the-world), we have a couple celebrations that had "more than just commercial" reasons to exist, for the Christians, for example, with Christmas and Easter, to name the most (?) populars. 

They all got trafficked by companies to sell their stuff however, and many people I know back in Canada boycott those celebrations in opposition to the over-consumption society we dangerously live in. 

I am big on consumption... so me needs to be careful. 

As I have grown up in a family that values the ecology and always strives to use less, and in better ways, I do believe it is important to be careful with those commercial celebrations. However, I AM a big romantic and I think that if you are being careful with your choices in what you buy and what you do, those celebrations can become just that, a celebration of whatever it is you want to celebrate. 

I love the idea of making things yourself to give to loved ones, although I'd rather give nothing than give some little whatever to someone plainly knowing they will never use them.

Last week we've had what East Asians call "White Day", so I thought that I could get you acquainted with a couple of those monthly celebrations that we don't always have knowledge of when living away from those countries. Looking throughout Internet, I found that a crazy number of foreigners have had the same clever idea, but as I know the chances are rare for people back in my hometown to have seen those blog entries, I shall do a little something of my own.

___

I got first acquainted with White Day in Japan, when I was happily 17 years old, living in a host family for a year. I have to say that personally, having had no boyfriends on Valentine's Day ever, and always lived the worst of that celebration, I was never fond of it.

You see, I was born on February 13th... so most of the Birthday gifts I received had been the cheap head-shaped chocolate people find at the corner store, that taste strongly of wax and powder milk. Those cheap milk chocolates imported from the States. So see, I hated Valentine's Day. For my own very selfish reasons.

Then I learned about the unfairness of the Japanese Valentine's Day/White Day system. 

Mind you, I still think those two are quite unfair, and the hell with it.... but I am going astray....

Valentine's Day in Asia, as opposed to Valentine's Day in the West (here again, I am just contrasting West and East because it's quick...not because those naming is accurately describing the cultures I am talking about...) has the girl do everything. 

Valentine's Day is the day where girls give chocolate (best handmade, but there are, in Japan two millions stores selling fair to amazing quality chocolate at that time for the year, for those who are too lazy) to the boy they love. That has no age: young kindies do it, old people do it.

Feb.14 for girls then.

Exactly a month later, is the guy's turn to do something. The name White Day comes from the idea that the guy will give back a white ribbon to the girl he likes that has given him chocolate the month before. White ribbon: White Day. Now, on White Day, the ribbon is usually on the wrapping of the candy of all kinds that are given (to be fair, if the guy gets sweets in February, why would the girl not get more than a ribbon in March?).

That seems fair. Each of them have their own job.

BUT IT IS NOT.

Because Asians are freaking macho (I am saying that with lots of love).

Think about it one minute:

Feb: mister popular in high school gets two thousands chocolate boxes, all handmade with love by all the girls who secretly admire him. Non popular boys get nothing. 

You think that's sad? 

Well if they care they can do something about it. I'm not done dragging guys in the mud for now, and that's an insignificant detail...

March: THOSE BOYS who have gotten chocolate from the girl they like, will give that one girl a white ribbon/candy. 

How unfair is this? 

If you are the most popular boy in a school you get tons on Valentine's Day, and you choose only one ,if you care, in March.

If you are the most popular girl in your school, AND ARE LUCKY enough to have given chocolates to the one guy in school who happens to like you as well, you might get something. 

Machos.

I. want. candy.

Lucky for me, I was in an all girl school at that time so we didn't really have anything frustrating in that department. 

Okay I'll stop for this.

In Korea, they have pushed the idea to have a specific celebration on every 14th of every month.

Jan 14th Diary/Candle Day : decorative candles are given, or yearly diaries/planners are given for the new year.

Feb 14th Valentine's Day     

March 14th White Day

April 14th Black Day: If you were too lame and didn't get anything on Feb/March, you dress in black and go eat black noodles. Because you suck.

May 14th Yellow/Rose Day: Couple dress in yellow and give each other roses. If again, you were too lame to get even black noodles on April 14th, you can go eat Curry (yellow) to get some love-luck...

June 14th Kiss Day: you kiss people. Because why not? Isn't the celebration a good excuse to do something totally inappropriate? You say this is not so commercial a celebration? Tell that to the lipstick, breath freshener companies around that time....

July 14th Silver Day: exchange of silver rings, mainly for couple discussing future plans....Asia and couples...

August 14th Green Day: Nope, not a music day. You know Soju? Well soju is amazing and comes in a green bottle. So guess what you drink on Green Day?

September 14th Photo Day: couples go take "official" pictures, and I know some do it on a 10 years basis, with close friends, to see how they grew up but are still together.

October 14th Wine Day: Couple = romantic dinner; singles = lame lonely wine hungover on Oct. 15th...

November 14th  Movie Day: because people need a special day for that.....?

December 14th Hug Day: hug people around. Because people deserve to be hugged. Even if they missed out on all the previous celebrations because they were single, and thus, too lame. 

FYinSK - Mar 2014 one year later...

March 2014

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

I was really dreading the beginning of the semester, not because of the daycare, but because of the very charged schedule I would have in the after school. I told my boss when I re signed that I wanted to have my prep time at the end of the day, so I could clean my classroom and prep for the next day. With the school difficulties I ended up having a completely full schedule. However, I had my lunchtime everyday, that I could take off, and a break between kindergarten and elementary on Tuesday and Thursday. No time to clean tho. 

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

I was really stressing out with all that, but Monday was wonderful! The two kids already loved me, knew the rules and new NGLOW so we basically started off where we had left at, with little differences. They are great kids. 

For afterschool I had my former 7 years old students again, so it did not feel hard to teach them. I also has a clean lunch break that I never had before (we usually eat with the kids). 

Tik Tok Tik Tok…

At the end of a great day, full of new opportunities, my boss calls me in.

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

And tells me the daycare will close down.

BOOM!

So now, one more time I find myself completely out of balance, on the edge. They are planning on seeing if they can sell the school stuff to another school in Dongtan, and see if the classes themselves can be transferred along with the kids and teachers. 

But I’m done making efforts. You know, NGLOW was like a failed love relationship to me. I saw it was not doing well, but I just decided to put more effort… and in the end they were not what made the difference. It’s funny how it just exploded all at once, the same way all my relationship have.

Well I’m going to Seoul. 

We will see what becomes of life in Korea. One more time...




...

Oh and, today my horoscope says:

Aquarius Horoscope
Sunday, March 09, 2014

You're smooth and maybe just too lucky for your own good. Your intense charm of the last few days is still with you, but more people would question your motivations if they really thought about them. The price that you're currently paying seems reasonable, although you may come to see it as an extravagance. See this moment for what it is. The Stars are giving you a little extra time to wrap up unfinished business. Use it well. For the rest of this week, there are probably certain things hanging over your head.

FYinSK - Jan, Feb 2014

January-February 2014

January was hectic because we prepared for the end-of-year event, the graduation ceremony, the graduation pictures, albums and so on. It was hectic but we all worked together and I liked the stress it made me feel. I have always loved the good stress of preparing a show. I was not burdened with the paperwork stress that my coworkers were experiencing because I had decided to stay. I just wanted to end it well, so I could prepare for the coming new school year (Korean school year starts in March). 

I did not need to move.

I did not need to rush things with the pension office, because I was not going back to Canada directly, so I would not get the money of the pension yet anyways. I was staying with NGLOW so I would get no stress when it came to go back to Canada for the summer or get my year-end bonus, as that was part of the agreement we took when I signed.

The graduation was great. Four of my six kids decided to stay at NGLOW for the elementary school program (as they turned 8 years old Korean age, they could not do the kindergarten program, but they joined the after school program instead, which allowed me to see them even after graduating). Five of the 8 years old in the school quit after kindergarten, but the others stayed. 

My coworker was teaching the 6 year olds that would come to my class next year, but only 4 out of the 7 decided to stay so I would have a small class, but 4 is a cool number to be honest. I prepared my class as such.

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

The principal calls me in and tells me that the kindergarten is not doing so well, the 4 and 5 years old practically all quit so the 5 and 6 years old are going to be pretty empty. And the 6 years old all quit, but one kid. One of my kid (a genius that was actually 6 years old, but was in my 7 years old class because she was already very good and learning very fast for a child who had never been abroad) decided to stay one more year in the kindie so I would have only 2 kids in the end. 

I was sad, but happy. They were two of my favourite kids in the school.

So I completely changed the layout of my classroom. I cleaned it out and I prepped my stuff for those two lovely children I would have all for myself everyday.

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

FYinSK - Dec 2013

December 2013

Monica and snow

According to the Korean law, all hagwon (private schools) are in the obligation to give money for the national pension for each of their teachers. Teachers put half, and the school pays the other half. At the end of a contract, when the teacher goes back to his country, he gets all the money (both paid by them and the school) in full - well Canadians do. The money amounts to something like $90CAD/month that you double up at the end. As a teacher, you can choose not to give the pension money, but then, you basically lose in the end, and the school basically makes money on you, so it’s never a good idea to decide not to pay pension.

I had the genius idea to teach Jingle Bells to my kids
Result: everytime it'd start snowing they'd burst out
singing it happily as then went on working. I love 'em

In December, we realized something: while money for the pension had been deducted from each of our pay check, it was never paid to the pension: the school had been keeping both our pension money, and not paid their own due money. Decidedly, this year was a year for me to get fu*ked over with by money. Now people wonder why I hate money so much…

(I will actually go to the pension office tomorrow to let the pension office know of it and will get my money eventually. It’s just bothersome to have to get to do those procedures. Why the hell do people take advantage of others… It’s really hard not to become cynical at this point…)

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

Anyways. 

It was also the period to think about resigning a new contract if I wanted to stay with the school. The president had made bad business decisions and did not really treat us employees with as much loyalty as we have had worked for him, but the new owner, so far, had been very transparent, had paid our pension, had paid us on time, and had talked about everything that went on with the school since he got there, and we had had meetings every week to stay updated. 

I did like NGLOW: 

Dongtan is a beautiful place and the liberal way of dealing with our respective classrooms in NGLOW was something I really liked. I liked the people I was working with (tho at the end of the year, most of them were planing on going back to their countries…) and I loved the kids that were in the 6 years old class, that I would get to teach if I stayed. All in all, it seemed a decent plan. I had made a deal to have longer summer vacations to get back to Canada for two weeks instead of one, and had a little raise.

I said I’d re-sign if they were to keep their promise for the year-end bonus of my previous contract, and the flight ticket that they were supposed to pay by the end of the year (I’d get the flight back home paid as my previous contract stipulated, and get my flight back to Korea paid with my new contact with NGLOW).

So I re-signed.

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

FYinSK - Nov 2013

November 2013

New school mess up! Yay!

Our boss sold the school to an investor. At first I was on the defensive. He had basically walked around the school, with no introduction and we had no clue what his role was, if only that he put money in the school. He finally got introduced to the staff as the investor and as the « team leader » . We feared that this meant that the new branch director would lose her job, but he never really let anyone think that way as days went by so it was fine. He personally would climb on chairs and replace burnt light bulbs, bought new bathroom slippers and carpets so that the bathroom hallway would not always be wet and gross (kids are messy when they wash their hands…). He appeared like the kind of guy that, short of experience as a school principal, at least was ready to put physical effort in making things worked. 

Meanwhile, my kids kept getting better and better <3

Then our former director (still the president of the NGLOW schools) had to come in everyday to settle things with the mothers of our kids. Why the hell are they changing things AGAIN? Aren’t things setting up just fine? Why change owner? What is wrong? I’d probably be fed up with things as well if I had been one of those moms. Kids at this age need consistency not change. But the president is a sweet talker. He has that charisma that those who always have had everything go their way have, and he put some more time in the time-bomb. 

Tik Tok Tik Tok...

FYinSK - Sept 2013

September 2013

In September things calmed down. The storm that had passed through NGLOW was more quiet, teachers were finally paid and peace was somewhat restored. No more kid joined, but only one left. One of my kid that was only supposed to be here for 6 months, and whose leaving the school was already planned. We had our Chuseok event, and a 5 days vacation that I enjoyed with my parents.

FYinSK - June, Jul, Aug. 2013

June-July-August 2013

Summer set things up and we set the time right for the best and the worst.

The high quality printer we had at the school was replaced for a cheaper one, coffee and milk, that we used to have for free, was not bought anymore (for me that really suck, cuz I had partly chosen that school because it was making me save on the $5 coffee I bought everyday), the 4 managers were replaced completely, the two teachers from Glenview left and were replaced, some 15 kids left the school, we spent a full month without hand towels in the kid’s toilet. We were paid almost 2 weeks late after the summer vacations.

NGLOW was struggling.

All this time, I have found only one way to keep sane: grab onto my class like dear life, and make it as stable as I could, if not for me, at least for the sake of my kids. My kids, who used to be crazy turbulent, turned all bubbly and happy, following rules and improving their English like crazy. I was really proud. As the other classes kept loosing kids because of the endless changes, I actually got one more kid to join. I had nine kids. And I love them like a crazy mother bird.

FYinSK - May 2013

May 2013

Context:

NGLOW was build in the building of a former daycare called KINDERSCHULE and when my boss bought the school, the kids did not all stay, as expected, so merging with the school upstairs was a good solution to fill in the holes.

GLENVIEW Academy, the school upstairs had changed name 5 times over the years (Dongtan only exists since some 7 years ago, so that’s a lot of quick changes) and most of the patient mothers had stayed in even throughout those changes. There were some 40 kids left that had planned to stay until their graduation from kindergarten. Buying the school seemed a good deal for my boss, as it would add 40 kids.

What really happened: 

Glenview had already received the money from all the kids for the semester until September (some 5 months worth of money that NGLOW would not get, but that the boss of Glenview already had swallowed up). Furthermore, as we merged, only some 26 kids came down. That’s like 14 kids that not only did not come down, but asked to be reimbursed by NGLOW for the months they had paid in advance. As NGLOW had bought the school, the debts came back to the school in full.

The change was NOT smooth. The principal of the school upstairs didn’t tell the employees that she was selling the school, they just came to school on a Monday, and then by the end of the week they figured that the school was closing down. No one was prepared. The teacher of the class I took over was fired so I could teach it, two teachers came down. The kids of Glenview were used to just yell and run around everywhere and had no manners at all. My class was the « dumb » class no one expected anything from, from what I heard. 

NGLOW had a branch director and a manager, and so did Glenview. Well instead of keeping our managers, as the school was NGLOW anyways, they made the bad decision of keeping it in plan for a few months, and have the four of them stay. Because of that, from that point on, we had conflicting information from everywhere and no consistency. Glenview teachers, as their superiors were still there, were not doing the clean cut between the old school and the new one, they were using material we did not use and did not adapt well to NGLOW. The managers were always trying to keep Glenview as it was, and our managers were working hard to conciliate everything. Money wise, that was a stupid idea too. Why pay 4 managers?? Was the school rich enough to spend?

Anyways.

It was a very noisy and straining transition.

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FYinSK - Apr. 2013

April 2013

I went to a meeting of the organism that had had me placed in Sanbon, Adventure Teaching, and they were really sweet. They had already found me a new place to move to by that point and had introduced me to some teachers that were already working in the area. My recruiter kept telling me how amazed she was that I’d just move on without seeming too hurt by all that had happened. When bad things happen, usually you find than unbearable, by yourself, and then, in my case anyways, you move on, keep a bit of the fears you cumulated along with you, then look at what life has in it for you. There’s nothing more to do, really.

April went by quickly. I moved to Dongtan, to a private kindergarden called NGLOWkids that had just opened. They hired me in prevision of a to-be-opened-class, so the first month, my schedule was pretty free. I was only teaching English to 4 years old kids 6 times a week, while getting used to the surroundings, helping out cleaning the newly opened school and learning their curriculum. The principal was a young tall and handsome guy exuding well-being and confidence. It was the third school he had opened under the NGLOW branch. I liked that it was a new school, because I had no confidence in myself on any degree. I thought I was useless and incompetent.

On my very first week, I bought a cream bread at Paris Baguette. You know, not the ones that they make every day, the ones that are already wrapped individually? Well the cream in them tasted weird, but I did not want to waste it so I ate it anyways.


NEVER finish eating something when it tastes weird. Especially if it's a pastry.

I had to take two whole days off my first official working week, paying the price of my carelessness. While I might not have been so lucky for a lot of things in my life, health-wise, I have been pretty good so far. I had always seen stomach related diseases, illnesses and discomfort as stuff that others with weaker digestive systems were stuck with.

So Korea had me experience food poisoning for the first time. Ironically, not with Korean food, but with fake French food. So much for my French origins. I got paranoiac with food after that for a while, but I can proudly say that I now do not feel sick anymore as I look at a Paris Baguette store.

Starting at a new school was like starting a long journey, where we all start at the same point, and can only get better. It was good times and the kids were adorable. I love Korean 4 years old (Korean age 5).

We got wind that in April the NGLOW was going to buy the English school upstairs and get all their kids come down…

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To be Continued...