The Time I Played Soccer With Koreans: (also an e-mail) 

9/23/2010

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Haha hello everyone, just thought it was necessary to share my Monday with y'all since I stink at updating my blog!




 Okay so started off as a normal Monday morning, but of course I can never predict the way my days will go over here which i LOVE. anyways, on Friday some of the teachers began talking about how they were going to organize a soccer game with the students and teachers and I should play in it. I was like yeah that'd be awesome!! anyways Monday morning rolls around, and I havent played soccer in FOREVER. anyways half way through the day at lunch one of the male teachers goes "you play soccer with us today?" i was caught off guard and i'm like, umm  sure!! He said you wear dress? Cause i was wearing a dress and i was like no no, i will run home and change. so next thing ya know the entire faculty got wind of this and theyre all like smiling and waving and keep saying "soccer" and giving me the thumbs up. so normally i am freaking out about teaching my lessons to make sure everything goes smoothly but now all i can think about is, "oh god they are expecting big things out of me, why the hell did I ever put that I played soccer in my "about me" power point presentation for my first lesson."




anyways 3 oclock rolls around and NOW the kids get wind that "Teacher Sheila" thats what they call me, is going to be playing soccer today. So they start asking me in broken english, "defense??" cause they remember me saying I played defense. and that's one of the only words they know. so I nod and stuff and proceed through to 4 oclock when the day is almost over. then my co-teacher comes over and hands me a gym t-shirt of theirs and says put on uniform. i said okay and I go change into normal soccer clothes my sneakers and this shirt. next thing ya know I come out, and the girl students are clapping and cheering in the hall. I literally wanted to run and hide haha, So i head on out to the filed which just so happens to be in the front of the school where everyone can see and the teachers/princicpal and 75% of the students are waiting out there. Turns out, I AM THE ONLY GIRL!!! hahaha, it is literally me, and about 20 korean boy students about 15 years old, and 4 guy teachers. Not only am i playing soccer with all boys, but i teach some of them and they don't know any english!!!! Talk about lack of communication (godwin would just love this!) haha he always told me i didn't communicate well on the field well how about now!!




anyways i start laughing and just think, now or never and run on out there. I say "Teams??" which they understood thank god. and we were divided up into teams. I could tell by the looks of some of the boy students they werent so pleased to get the "girl" on their team so I had some work to do to boost their confidence. I'm not sure if it was the fact I was standing on a dirt soccer field in korea with all boy students knowing i had to prove myself to them or they would never respect me as a teacher let alone a person!! all discipline in the classroom would be out the window or the fact that I may have blacked out and just gone crazy on the field. I felt like it was  CBA soccer game under the lights again, (tray i needed you there!) next thing ya know, I am diving for balls, heading the ball and probably losing all brain cells left and looking like a 14 year old boy who just got done playing in the dirt. Haha one of the boys said "good good good" so i think that means I was doing okay. i remember going for a ball in the air and pushing one of the male students over and all his friends  going "ooooooo hahaha" i qucikly realized this could be a form of student-teacher abuse and helped him up. Needless to say 45 minutes later I was about to drop on the ground dead seeing as I havent ran a full soccer field in over a year let alone run over 2 miles!!! But i had to keep going if i was going to get any form of respect out of it. We ended up losing 2-1 but hey we scored!! I got a few high five's at the end and 2 of the male teachers said "very well done, good american." hahahahaha, and i got asked back to play tomorrow!! so looks like i made the cut.




Typical Monday morning turned into one hell of a memory. LOVE KOREAN SOCCER!! I forgot how much i loved this game. my next goal is to get some of the women teachers out on the field with me!!! haha keep ya posted. love ya and miss you all!!




love, Sheil



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My First Day Teaching

9/15/2010

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(an e-mail to my parents below, so you can really capture it all, Don't mind all the spelling errors I was in a rush! :)


Hey Mom and Dad,


Okay, so I SURVIVED. I taught 6th, 7th and 8th graders and I cannot even describe the experience. Haha, my first lesson is introducing myself and all about me FOR 40 MINUTES! I do love talking about myself but for 40 minutes 4x/day I never want to mention another word about myself when I'm finished. They still think I am good friends with Justin Beiber and one of the boys said "are you a single lady like Beyonce?" haha, they think just because she sings "all the single ladies" that she is single. I had to reassure them that she is actually married and it is just a song but yes I am a single lady. haha.


Okay so part of Korean culture is bringing gifts to your co-teachers/principal/vice principal etc.


So I went to this bakery near me this morning and went a little crazy (i think it's because it was my first day of teaching) and I think i bought out the entire place. haha. I got donuts/korean breads/green tea loaves for all the teachers and then I got some cookies/chocolates and nicer gifts for my main korean co-teacher who has helped me out (the one whose house i had to stay at and sleep in his 12 year old son's bed!) haha and the principal i got gift wrapped chocolates and the Vice principal I got some weird cookies that were good. We have to present it with two hands and do a little bow. I got so awkward doing it but I gave it to them and it's all done now! they were very thankful. but of course they wanted to give in return, so the next thing you know I'm eating sweet potatoes and some random type of black coffee with the teachers. Haha, I swear each day I never know what it's going to turn out to be and I love not knowing. Part of the adventure. Things are far from routine here which i'm sure a routine will develop soon but the days are flying by since I am teaching now.


The first class was 2nd graders (7th grade). they refer to middle school as 1st 2nd and 3rd graders which totally confuses me but I am getting the hang of it. I was able to co-teach with my favorite teacher Mrs. Kim (she helps me SO MUCH) she translates and writes things down for me. I really need to learn more korean when I find time. So my power point about me didn't work the first 2 classes due to software problems so there I was carrying around my new mac laptop showing the students pictures of my family/NYC/america/soccer etc. they acted like it was Christmas morning the way they were "ooooohing and ahhhing." their jaws drop when I tell them my last name is Catanzarita but they call me Teacher Sheila so that's all they need to know. so I talked about myself/where i come from/my family/etc for the first 15-20 minutes then I have them write down ANY questions to ask me. The first question in EVERY single class today was "do you have a boyfriend" they are hilarious. Dad---when I put your picture up all the girls go "OOOOH HANDSOME!" haha and they call you beautiful mom, and the boys love Sara and Mary. I told them you are going to try to visit in Spring and that almost made the room explode of yells and cheers. haha. They will soon figure out I am not that entertaining as they believe! or interesting.


anyways the first class was very active, the older kids are a bit "cooler" but once I call on them or go around the room to make sure they are writing things down they get the hang of things. It's SUCH a division of students of how well they know English or not. Some students know it SO well and carry on convos with me when others don't even know how to respond when i say Hello or ask their names. I have a few great students (mostly girls) who sit in the front row of my classes today and help me out.


I finished off class with them writing things down about themselves and reading them to me so I could get to know them as well. Then I played Hangman with english words they had to guess and that really got everyone involved since there could be a winner.


I taught with 3 out of 4 of the other English teachers today but it's not co-teaching yet. It's literally just me being the main teacher and them translating stuff if the kids don't understand. I've never talked so slow in my life (you'd be proud since you are always telling me to slow down!) it's pouring rain here, and I work til 4:20 then I am heading home to meet the internet/cable guy AT LAST! I got my Alien registration card and multiple visa so Japan looks like it may happen in 2 weeks! woohoo. I'm heading to my friend Melissa's birhday dinner and out to celebrate tonight, so should be fun! She's the big 2-5. Crazyyy. oh p.s. in Korea you are a year older because you are considered "1 year" when you are born. I DONT WANT TO BE 24!


Okay I'm being offered chocolate by the girl who sits next to me AGAIN. They literally feed me every second so I better go. There is supposed to be a typhoon to sweep through here but apparently it's "normal." haha.

Talk soon! Love, Sheil

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My First Official Night in Korea

9/8/2010

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I was greeted by my Korean Co-teacher at the Daegu High School where all the rest of us had been dropped off by our buses after a 3 hour long bus ride from Jeonju. It felt like I was heading to my very first day of Kindergarten, not knowing who or what lie ahead was a bit nerve wracking to say the least!

I looked around and saw everyone else being greeted by their Korean co-teachers. And then I hear the name of my middle school called and there was my co-teacher. He was a shorter man who had a serious look on his face. I thought oh no, here we go. I got a mean one! Just my luck. He nodded at me and directed me to follow him out. I smiled and mumbled, "anyungaseo," my best attempt to say hello in Korean which we learned at orientation and followed closely behind him. He was with another man from the school who was the head of administration. He smiled at me and I smiled back. I never have been one to like long silences so I uttered the only thing that came to mind "wow, it's really hot out!." They both looked at me with a blank stare. "OH NO!" I thought, I got the co-teachers who know ZERO English. This is going to be a LOOONG year.

In the car I began talking about anything that I thought they may know of or have heard of. I was in the backseat, and both of them in the front. Their ears perked up when I said I was from New York. Turns out one of my co-teachers knew more English than he first let on, which I learned is just part of Korean culture, they are a bit shy until you speak to them and get comfortable with them. If you don't talk they think you don't like them. Well sure enough i'm blabbing away about America, New York, how many sisters I have, my name, and basically anything that came to mind. It loosened them right up and even the other man was able to say "wonderful personality" and "pretty name." It was enough for me!

After about a 15 minute car ride, we had made it to the middle school. Well, now I know how celebrities, or I mean aliens feel when they arrive places. ALL EYES ON YOU. It was literally like I had 10 heads, but in a good way. So many smiles and attempts to say "hello" that it made it very easy to already feel comfortable at my school. I attempted to say hello in Korean again and did a bow a few times to anyone I passed. One teacher came over to me and said, "I excited to study English with you." I met a few more teachers, but by then most had already gone home since it was the end of the day. There were no students at the school since it was around 5 p.m. so I wasn't going to make my real "debut" until the following day. I had learned that I was the first "Native English speaking teacher" they have ever had at their school, and I would be the only American at my school for the next year. Quite an adventure to take on to say the least! This was the case for many of my friends placed in Daegu as well. The plus side is, they have noone to compare you to :)


After we left the school, the next stop was to bring me to my new apartment. My new home for the next year...AH!

Luckily my apartment is about 3 minutes from school. I literally live two streets away which makes it very convenient. 

As we pull up, I get a good look at the building and it looks new and modern, and my only fear was I hope it's clean!! It's a 5 story walk up, as I head upstairs the 2 Korean men follow with my 2 massive suitcases and the door to my apartment opens. My heart stops hoping, wishing and praying it is everything I had hoped it would be and more. Hoping it is not like some of the horror stories I heard about from past English teachers at orientation. Well the clean part was perfection, it was spotless. But, I literally mean SPOTLESS. There was NOT A PIECE OF FURNITURE IN SIGHT! Ha, yup, my apartment wasn't exactly "ready." After a long day of traveling and 9 days at orientation living out of a suitcase I just wanted to unpack, get situated and go to bed! Well that was far from the plan on my first night.

My co-teacher said, "Sheila, we bring furniture sooner than later." A phrase I have come to hear very often, but have grown to like because it turns out they do actually mean sooner than later!! It usually happens very soon. In a panic, with no working phone, no access to internet and no way of contacting Alex or any of my other friends from orientation, I say "where do I sleep?" They didn't quite seem to understand that part so I made a hand gesture and put my head down and said, "where do I sleep tonight?" They thought about it for a second then my co-teacher said,

"You come to my house?"

 Oh God I thought, for all I know he could be posing as my co-teacher and actually may murder me. I'm dramatic as always, I know. 

So I say,

"Maybe I go to friend's house?" Not actually knowing of anyway I would even find out where they live since we all went our seperate ways with our co-teachers a few hours ago. He must have seen the panicked look on my face cause he then says,

 "I have wife and kids, you come with me." 

There was no other option and I had no energy left, so I figured, sure what else am I gonna do?! He told me, "pack small bag." That's the point when I wished I had actually packed and organized my stuff that morning at orientation when we were leaving instead of throwing everything I had brought into one big pile and zipping it shut. There was a look of horror on their faces when I opened my suitcases and had socks bras and random items of clothing flying everywhere. I grabbed a dress, a toothbrush and anything else I could find,  and threw it in a "small bag" and we headed out the door. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the adventure.

We stopped at this place called E-mart. It's like a Wal-mart here in Korea. Everyone stared at me in the place like I was profusely bleeding from my head or something, but I have come to known they will always stare and Koreans are just very curious or interested about you. It's a good thing. Especially on the subway, some older women literally stand 2 inches away from my face and just stare. At first I would slowly move backwards, but now I'm getting used to it.

We had to get 2 passport sized photos taken of me so I could apply for my alien registration card the next day. That in itself was a process. The Korean woman working at E-mart who was taking my photo did not think I should smile in my picture. She was unable to say this so she finally said "NO TEETH!" Ha, so I look like a masked murderer who just escaped from prison in my photo ID that I will have with me the next year. Awesome!

It took about 20 minutes for them to develop the photo so my co-teacher told me" "wander around store, while we wait." So, I wandered off, up and down the aisles, thinking in my head "OMG, I am in Korea in an E-mart and I have no idea where I am going, what I am doing, or what even will happen in the next 5 minutes, what do I do?!"

God must have answered my prayers because all of the sudden I turned down an aisle and saw my friend Melissa, from orientation shopping with her co-teacher for things for her new apartment. (Well, well, isn't she lucky!) I don't know what came over me, but I had never been so happy to see an English speaking American in my life. I ran over and jumped and hugged her. I must have terrified her co-teacher the way I rambled on about my apartment not being ready and how happy I was to see her etc. She was already getting sheets and pots and pans for her apartment! I couldn't believe how different our experiences had been already!

Anyways, after a few minutes of rambling away, I could see her co-teacher wanted to get things moving again, so even though I didn't want to part ways, we said our goodbyes and planned to meet up the following day, somehow, somewhere! That was the breath of fresh air that I needed!

I headed back down to where I had left my co-teacher and we picked up my photos and off we went. In the car we attempted to make the best attempt at a conversation that we could have with broken English and me knowing zero Korean. At one point he said, "I take you outback?" I thought,  "Oh God, this is when I get murdered," he is taking me "out back." Unsure of exactly how to respond to that, I said, "umm no no, I'm okay." He then firmly said, "No we go Outback." I literally did not know what to say or do. He got on his phone with someone after that and had a quick little convo and hung up. I thought, oh great, we are meeting more people "outback." Well at least there will be others to witness this...

Turns out he was taking me to "Outback Steakhouse" with his family since he knew it had American food. His phone call was with his older son and we were stopping at his house to pick them up first. Talk about freaking myself out for no reason! As I said, Koreans are so very kind and welcoming and always want to make sure you feel comfortable and are okay, and this was just an example of it. His sons got in the car. One was 17 and the other 12. I forgot to mention I had been sitting in the back seat this entire time. I didn't know if it was okay for me to sit shot gun so I played it safe. If only a camera could have captured me in the back seat and my Korean co-teacher in the front like a cab driver. His older son sat up front and his younger son in back with me. They too had broken English but I was able to ask them their names and ages and a few more questions. The younger son kept glancing over at me and I would turn and smile and he would quickly look away. The 4 of us then headed into Outback Steak house. My co-teacher told me his wife was "exercising," and she does not like the expensive prices at Outback Steak house so she would stay home.

Dinner itself should have been filmed because there are no words to really describe it! I did my best to make conversation with 3 other Koreans who did not really understand English. I told them the food was good or made random noises about the food just to fill the silence at times. At one point in the meal my co-teacher burped loudly which I thankfully was already warned about at orientation. Koreans burp out loud in public and spit on the street very often so I tried my best to not think twice about it. His older son nudged him and said something Korean to him after this and he smiled and asked me "is that rude in American?" I reassured him it was Okay, since I did not want to offend him! I thought about "belching" myself but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I pictured all those long years my mother taught me manners and I just smiled instead. It was quite hilarious though to experience a different culture's manners.

There were about 10 big American guys sitting in Outback Steakhouse at a table over from us. They were from the U.S. army, there is a station here in Daegu. I wanted to run to their table and tell them about my last few hours even though they were complete strangers. I felt like I knew them because we all spoke English, but instead I just said hi, nodded, and watched them stare with question on their faces as we finished up dinner and I walked out of the restaurant with 3 Koreans, all male. HA!

We headed to their "house" after dinner which turned out to be a nice apartment on the 20th floor of an apartment building. It is VERY important to never wear your shoes inside especially in a house in Korea so thank God I remembered that on the way in. His wife knew absolutely no English but was very smiley and kind and gave me some kind of tea or drink that was very strong. To this day, I am still not exactly sure what I drank, but I got it down none the less. After I finished, I asked, "E-mail??" So I could e-mail my friends and family and tell them about how my day had turned out!

The son understood me and set me up on the computer, and my co-teacher headed out the door to play some tennis (which I have come to learn he does almost every night after work.) So then it was just me, the wife and 2 sons left to "hang out." I hopped on the computer and onto Facebook and Gmail and began type away until I looked to my right and left and I had one son looking over each shoulder in curiosity and interest as to what I was typing. GREAT!! I smile at them and start to write an email (a pretend one) to show that I'm really not that interesting, and then I think, ehh what the heck, they probably can't even understand what I'm typing anyways, so I continue on. They lost interest pretty quickly so my plan worked. I am absolutely exhausted by this point, so I ask "where to sleep?" The wife directs me down the hall and into her 12 year old son's bedroom. The door opens, and there is a twin sized little bed, a fan, "boy things" all over, and glow in the dark stickers of stars and planets all over the wall. I laugh to myself, thank her, shut the door and dive into bed. I will never forget my very first night in Korea...




The very next day my co-teacher took me to buy all new furniture, bedding, kitchen ware and everything else to fill my apartment and they paid for it all! The other man who was with my co-teacher when they first picked me up at the high school (the head of administration) handed me an envelope the next day. It was a typed out letter in English of how he was sorry he did not have good English the day before but he will "study" and "learn" it so we have have "many conversations." He said that he was sorry if I felt uncomfortable, but he was very happy to have me at his school and said he will help me get settled in with anything I may need. They have turned into to be some of the nicest people I have met in my life. Just like I learned when I was little, never judge a book by it's cover :)



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Perspective

9/3/2010

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 I have begun to see things with a new perspective in my first month here. Although I realized I was coming here to teach English to middle school Korean students I had no idea how important and how much they value the English Language here. They see it as a gateway to opportunites, as something so wonderful, something I took advantage of the last 23 years of my life without even knowing every word I spoke out of my mouth was so interesting to another culture and their response to each word is treated as if I were almost "privileged" to know this language. 


It's made me really appreciate the education I recieved growing up. It also made me want to learn some Korean so I could meet them half way as well. If they are this interested and excited to learn English then I want to learn or attempt to learn their language as well. There are free classes offered every Friday here in Korea that over 100 English Teachers have signed up for so I began my first Korean language class last friday! And boy is it harder than I thought! So far I can say I'm an American, I'm a teacher and hello and thank you!! I guess one baby step at  time...19 more classes to go, we shall see how it ends!!






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