the strange & bizarre

I had a strange day today, especially in one of my earlier classes when I was teaching the kids about how to tell time and how you'd say that 10:02 is read as "ten 'o two" and not "ten two" or how 12:00 is read as "twelve o'clock" and not "twelve 'o 'o". So anyway, when I asked the kids to read a certain time that I had written on the board one of the little boys literally stuck his hand down his pants and yelled "It's gochu o'clock!" This really only makes sense if you understand that gochu is the Korean word for the hot red pepper they use to flavor everything. It's also a slang term for the more definitive part of the male anatomy, however strangely appropriate that might seem. So yes, in that context one might understand why he would say that. He was just trying to be funny. But...that's not even getting to the most bizarre part of this little incident. The following dialogue is word for word:

Kang (as he runs around the room with his hand down his pants): It's gochu o'clock!!! It's gochu o'clock!!!
Woojin: No, it's supposed to be penis! (said very matter-of-factly)
Kang: I like gochu juice! I like gochu juice!
Julie: I like teacher juice!

From the mouths of babes ladies and gentlemen, from the mouths of babes. One might question why on earth a boy of Woojin's age would know such a word in English, when I speak English as my first language and I didn't even know that word at his age. And to explain the above thing about the juice, recently the kids have been learning about food words and they learned the word juice as well. To practice using the words in context the kids had to go around the room and say what juice they liked best. When they ran out of juices to name they started saying things like "I like TV juice!" or "I like window juice!" So Kang basically just said that to be funny, not really knowing exactly what it was he was saying of course. But oh my god, I about died when this all went down in my classroom today. The first thing I thought was "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" And I would have scolded them for it but I know they had no idea what they were talking about or that it was somewhat taboo to say such things, especially here in Korea.

So yeah...that was probably one of the funniest things that I've witnessed in my classroom this entire year, and I've seen a lot of weird things. Tonight I still find myself scratching my head about how in the world Woojin just seems to know all these oddball words that I am pretty sure he was never actually taught...and I don't think his parents speak English at home either. Hmm...

decisions, decisions

Yesterday my school asked me to renew my contract when it expires in July and stay for another year. They even told me that I could take two weeks off to go home for my brother's wedding in September so I wouldn't have to miss it. I'd probably get a raise too, maybe an extra 200, 000 won a month I think. But...can I stay for another year when I'm already getting more and more homesick with every passing day? Probably not. I know I'd just drive myself stir-crazy if I had to stay for a whole extra year, even if I did get a chance to go home for two weeks.

The only thing is that I still don't know what it is I'm going to do when I get back...where I'm going to live, what I'm going to do for a job. I mean, yes I'll have money saved up to live off of for a while, but it won't last forever and it's really not that much in the grand scheme of things. I'm still considering the Peace Corps and I'm still considering going to teach in Japan next year with the JET program, but I wanna go back to the states and spend some time at home before I do all that. I know I could always come back to Korea and teach, and if I did come back I'd like to come back to this school. So maybe I'll take a year off and go home and then come back next July and teach kindergarten again. That's always an option I guess.

Still I can't help but think how good it would be for me financially if I did stay here another year. I could maybe pay off the rest of my car loan or a significant chunk of my student loans. Or I could just save it all and invest in stocks like a friend of mine did. It sounds like a really good idea, right? Even so, I don't think I can stay now...it's just not something I can do at the moment. The pull to go home is just too strong, because every day I always find myself thinking of all the things and all the people I miss. There's just too much to go back for right now, there's just too much I have to get sorted out at home.

So if I can't get my visa extended to stay that extra month and a half then I'll probably be coming home in July...and July is just around the corner. I'll probably start actually packing up my stuff and cleaning out my room soon. Today is Election Day here and I have the day off so this might be the perfect time to get started. Anyway...

The bottom line is this: I miss home and I don't wanna stay here another year...so I'll be back in either July or August.

See you then.

I will miss the food though...