I work at a private school where the children go to learn English after their regular school day.  These are very common in Korea.  They are called hagwons.

Before I came to Korea I really liked the word because it reminded me of Hogwart’s.  Unfortunately, the job is not quite as magical as the word association might let one imagine.  But there is one very special aspect of my job that makes it all worth it:  the students.

The kids are all grades 1 to 4, and the classes have maximum 12-13 students, although they are usually smaller.  Most of the kids have English names, which their parents usually choose for them, but some get to pick their names themselves.  Some of the most memorable ones I have had in class are Cabin, Simpson, Puppy, Jazz, and McQueen.  I also subbed another teacher’s class once that had Sally 1, Sally 2, Sally 3, and Sally 4.  Every girl in the class was named Sally.  Honest to God truth.

One day my whole class decided they wanted to change their names.  I finally agreed to let them have nicknames for the day.  They became Blue Ghost, Shark, Brainstorm, E.T., and Ankle.  We laughed a lot that day, but I insisted they go back to their regular names in the next class.  It was just too distracting having to call a kid Ankle.

I also have a nickname widely recognized by the students of Langcon.  They like to call me Tiger Teacher.  Tigers happen to be one of my favorite animals, so I don’t mind it much.

There’s a break between classes and the kids usually bring snacks to eat during this time.  They also really like to share their snacks with the teacher.  This is great when it’s something that’s individually wrapped or an orange, but often they bring you some broken up noodles or smashed cookie pieces in their outstretched hands, with sweet smiles.  ”For you, Teacher!”  In these cases, it’s just best to say, “Thank you so much!  I’ll save it for later.”

Once my student, Jay, gave me an opened bag of a fish flavored crunchy snack.  I was pretty hungry, so I eagerly accepted it and threw a bunch into my mouth.  They tasted funny so I inspected the contents of the bag a little closer.  ”Jay,” I said, “there’s a crumbled up chocolate chip cookie in here.”  She nodded, looking slightly guilty and said, “I thought it would taste good.”

At Langcon, all the levels have names that are related to exploration.  The letter below is from David, one of my favorite students.  He gave me this on the last day of his “Telescope” level class.  He moved up to “Nina” and I’m not his teacher anymore *sniff sniff*.  (Telescope is a beginner level where they focus on phonics and vocabulary, so It’s very impressive that he wrote a letter like this.)

“Dear Tyra Teacher,

Hello? Tyra Teacher I am David.  We are go to a Nina class. : (

But I memory teacher.  No cold and teacher go nother class teacher memory me!

Thank you far telescope class lesson Tyra Teacher.

Good-by ~ teacher.

I love you~

from David”

I never realized I would like teaching children so much.  As I said, they make it all worth it.

I’ll leave you with pictures of some of my favorite student artwork.

The students were asked to design a mystery book cover.

Drawn by Serim on Term Test Day. (She thought it was spelled "Tom" Test)

Week 1, Bundang, South Korea  

Annyounghasehyo!

 

After the longest flight I’ve ever taken in my life, I landed in Incheon airport, South Korea.  I said goodbye to the very talkative Philippino man who sat beside me on the plane (His name was Romeo), and found my driver, who didn’t speak a word of English.  It reminded me of my first day in Chile, except this driver knew where he was going.

 

 

 

I was told my first week in Korea I would be in quarantine. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but now I guess it means I would be dropped off at an apartment (which was kind of dirty) with no contact with anyone from my school for a week.

 

My apartment building is conveniently located in the middle of a posh commercial area, so I quickly found the Starbucks, where I could connect to the internet, and the supermarket where I bought food and cleaning supplies.

 

So now I have a sparkling clean apartment, although I still need some curtains, since there are construction men working 3 feet from my window all day every day.  The first day a group of men were lowered down the side of the building on a window washer type of platform.  I stood there at my window watching as their feet, bodies, and then heads came into view.  I waved, and they all looked shocked.  At least I didn’t cause them to fall off or anything.

 

I tried to talk to the man in the lobby of my building who sits behind the “information” sign, but he didn’t understand a word I was saying, and it clearly stressed him out that I was trying to communicate with him (not a good charades player, I guess).

 

I haven’t been able to find a map of Bundang, so every day I have just started walking in a different direction, exploring and trying to learn where everything is.  There are a couple of really nice and very large parks close to my apartment.  They both have bike trails, so I can’t wait to get a bike!

 

I really want to eat more Korean food, but none of the restaurants around here have any menus in English that I’ve seen so far, so I’m not sure how to order, and that Korean “hangul” sure is intimidating.  

 

The day I was determined to eat something new, I found a place with good pictures and walked up to the counter, with my pointer finger ready.  After waiting quite a while for someone to acknowledge my presence, a girl walked over and told me in English that I had to order the food at a different counter, then pick up the food at this counter.   She walked me over to the counter, then asked what I wanted, but there were no pictures at this counter!  I had no idea what anything was, so she suggested some Japanese noodles and ordered for me, then went back to her own food.  When the food came out, I took the only open table, in the middle of the crowded restaurant,  and looked at my tray; chopsticks, noodles, soup, and some different things on the side.  I noticed a couple of men sitting near me with the same thing, dipping their noodles in the soup, then eating them.  So I copied, struggling a little with the chopsticks, but I felt like I was doing a pretty good job.  Trying to ignore all the stares from everyone sitting around me, I tried a bit of the brown paste on a side dish. Oh! That was brown wasabi!  Way too much in my mouth! Hot! Hot! My eyes were watering!  I went back to my noodles, trying to not draw more attention to myself than I already had, and trying to keep my hair out of my bowl as I slurped up the noodles. A lady at the next table got up and went to the counter, when she returned she laid a fork on my tray.  Very embarrassed and uncomfortable, I finished my food quickly with the fork and got out of there.

 

Next time I go to a Korean restaurant, I’m taking someone with me, so at least I can laugh at myself with someone else, instead of feeling so completely alone and in the spotlight making a fool of myself!

 

I bought and ate this cup of “hot taste” Ramen.  Unlike in Chile, when they say hot here, they mean it!  I had to take breaks from the ramen and go back to it each time the burning subsided, but I managed to finish it and am very proud of that!

 

I’ve tried to learn some Korean, but haven’t gotten much past “hello” and “thank you”, which I’ve put to good use in the past week.  

 

Today I finally met the director of my school and some of the teachers I’ll be working with.  They all seem nice, and the school looks like a good place. I start observing some classes tomorrow.

 

 

 

It’s fall in Santiago. You can tell because the city suddenly seems a lot more crowded. The metro is filled with groups of students in their black and white catholic school jumpers and uniforms (los pinguinos). The nights come sooner and are getting colder. I had to bring the blanket back out of my closet and onto my bed. It’s much more difficult to find chirimoyas at the fruit and vegetable market.  In fact, I haven’t seen any chirimoyas for quite a while.  The traffic under my window seems twice as loud at night (or maybe that’s not a sign of fall as much as proof that I’m slowly going crazy from lack of decent sleep due to those “weones” with their loud motorcycles).

But the days are still beautiful and sunny, and I hope this nice weather sticks around for a while. A student told me he heard predictions that it would stay this way until well into May. Good for me, since I really hate winter. But not so good for Chilean farmers who rely on the rains that come in winter, which seem to arrive later and later each year.

I’m a lot busier with classes, yet another sign of fall. My students have all returned from their summer vacations, are slowly getting caught up at work, and are finally ready to devote themselves (ha ha) to the grueling task of learning English.

While my guitar lessons are temporarily on hold due to changing schedules (and I need to be more self-motivated with my practicing), I’ve been listening to other people make some beautiful music (although I must say that no one compares to Damien Rice).

Keane came to Santiago in March. Great music, and some interesting lighting/technology effects. But I saw very little of the actual band due to my height (or lack of) and having tickets to the “cancha” (no seats, standing room on the floor only). I left the show with a crick in my neck from trying to lean/ twist/ stretch/ look around the tall people standing in front of me.

 

Ed, me, Ale and Marcela at Blondie

Then I had an opportunity to get a cheap ticket to see Blondie, Rick Astley, and a-ha in the same arena. I verified that this time I would have a seat to the side of the stage. Blondie was great, I’ve only recently discovered how many Blondie songs I love! And I was surprised that Debbie Harry looked so young; I know she must be about 60 now. I only knew one song each from Rick Astley and a-ha, and I remember watching their videos on VH1 when I was about 8 years old, so it was really fun hearing them live.

 

I have a vivid memory of my mom taking me to school at Longfellow Elementary in our tan Astro minivan, and Rick Astley’s song came on the radio. “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you….” “I hate this song!” I yelled. “It’s been stuck in my head all week!” Well, I guess I don’t hate it so much anymore, since I sang along with it at the concert!

 

The road to Mendoza.

I made a very quick trip to Mendoza, Argentina, where I went shopping, laid in the park reading a book, and ate some deliciously cheap food in outdoor cafes (where they played Blondie AND Rick Astley on the radio while I was eating, but no a-ha).

 

 

All of the bathrooms in Argentina have bidets..

I’m really curious about this. Do people really use them? How? Can anyone explain to me how this works?

 

 

And finally, I’m not sure if this is good or bad news; I bought a one-way ticket from Santiago to the U.S. My scheduled date of departure is July 1. So I plan to really take advantage of the few months I have left in Chile. I may not return quite so soon this time.

A lot of really good bands have been coming to Santiago more and more often in the last three years.  I’ve seen a few great shows (Manu Chao, Calexico), but I’ve opted out of a lot of big names that were pricey and crowded, and since they weren’t my favorite musicians, I decided to just save my money until someone who was really worth it came.

So one night recently, I got a text message from a friend saying, “Damien Rice is coming to Chile, but I guess you knew that already.”  No!  I didn’t know already!  I did a little happy dance after reading the message, than ran to my computer to find out how to buy tickets.  When I navigated to the ticket site, there were 8 seats left in the VIP section, 38,000 pesos (about $70), much more than I wanted to pay, especially at this time of year when I don’t have many classes, therefore not much income.

I thought about it for a while, had no idea what to do, sent a message back to my friend telling him my dilemma, then went to bed.

That night I dreamed that I was in the airport, about to get on a plane to go see Damien Rice.  But as I was standing in line to board, I realized I couldn’t find my ticket.

In the morning, I had a new text message from the friend, it said, “Buy the ticket, go listen to the music and be happy.”  I thought that was great advice, so I did. And by the time I made the purchase, there were only three seats left.  Whew, just in time!

I only bought one ticket.  I didn’t have time to try to find someone who wanted to go, and I was pretty sure none of my friends would want to pay that much. I’d never gone to a concert alone, but Damien Rice was worth it.  And the more I thought about it, I loved the fact that I could be that independent (I came to Chile alone, why should it be so hard to go to a concert alone?)

The big day came.  Another of my friends starting sending me countdown text messages (“24 hours to Mr. Rice”, “Just 5 more hours”, etc.).  It was exciting!

I entered the theater, found my section, row, and then seat.  And as I was stepping over someone to get to my seat, he said my name: “Tyra?!”  Coincidentally, I was seated right beside Luis, a friend of a friend from Colombia, who had also come to the concert by himself.  We were so surprised to see each other, and talked excitedly about music until the show started.

Damien Rice came out, just himself and his guitar.  He was doing a short South American tour without his band, because a friend had asked him to do a benefit concert in Brazil, and at the last minute he added a few other cities.  I’m so glad that it was this way, the music was beautiful, and the show was so intimate.  He told stories about the songs and made jokes with the audience.  He even took requests.

There were a lot of people in the audience with cameras, including Luis, who was recording everything for his girlfriend who was out of town and couldn’t be there.  Damien Rice made several comments throughout the first half of his show about all the cameras, and he worried that if everyone spends their life “creating memories”, they miss life.  A few songs after that comment, he asked if there was any one in the audience who didn’t have a camera.  A few people raised their hands, me included.  So he invited us all on stage.  I though it was a joke at first.  I stood up, than sat down, then stood up again uncertainly.  Then I saw people start to go up, so I went.  We crowded in a group around Damien, and he assigned us parts of Volcano (my favorite song) to sing with him.  We sang the song, and all the people still in their seats recorded.  As I was standing up there, a few feet from Damien Rice, I could barely believe it was really happening.  I kept thinking, ‘I can’t wait to get home and watch this on YouTube’. (Hehe, good thing all those people brought their cameras!)

For Blower’s Daughter, he asked them to turn down the lights and turn off the speakers, he stepped away from the microphone, and sang us a version so heart-wrenching it brought tears to my eyes.  In fact, I got teary-eyed a few times during the show.  If you don’t know his music, just listen to a few songs and you’ll understand.

I hoped the concert would never end.  I felt like I could’ve stayed there forever.  But it did end, and I left the theater feeling very excited and happy.  It was absolutely and completely without a doubt the best show I’ve ever seen.

Fortunately, I can relive it all through YouTube, and I have been!  I found a really good, clear version of all the people on stage singing Volcano, but I was too far over into the shadow to make myself out in the video.  Oh well, at least I know I was there.

 

I counted down to 2009 on a rooftop in Valparaiso, Chile, with an old friend and several new friends, and a glass of champagne in my hand.  Then we watched a spectacular fireworks display that stretched along the coast in both directions as far as we could see.  It was a nice way to start the year, and I’m feeling very optimistic about 2009.  

Last year was a challenging but rewarding year for me.  2008 started off with some personal struggles, from which I believe I have learned and grown more than I could have imagined at that time.  This last year showed me what wonderful friendships I have in my life, and what a wonderful life I have, really.

So here are some of my favorite memories from 2008:

1.  March: Going to the beach with Dad and Tamara.  Pichidangui is one of my favorite beaches in Chile.  It’s beautiful and not very crowded.  Dad and Tamara didn’t listen to my warnings about the sun in Chile and Tamara ended up with a blistering sunburn.  She had finger marks above her nose where she had hastily applied sunblock, and a man in Santa Lucia Feria asked her if she fell asleep with her hand over her face.

 

 

 

 

2.  April:  My short-lived experience as the singer of a band.  Jorge truly made one of my dreams come true when he called up his musical friends and scheduled a practice room and formed our band (which I’m not sure ever had an official name.)  I think the other band members were a little skeptical at first, but I won them over with my special peanut butter cookies, and we had some really fun practices, until I left for Peru and then Kentucky.

 

 

 

 

3.  May:  John’s visit and our trip to Peru.  We met a Belgian girl named Isabel on the bus in Chile, and she joined us for most of the trip.  John and I don’t always see eye to eye (fortunately we had Isabel there to break up some of our spats), but I’m so glad he came and impressed that we are still friends after all this time (and drama). “Buchas” gracias, amigo!

We started in Santiago, took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, where we stayed a few days, then went on to Peru, where we stopped in Arequipa, Cusco, Aguas Calientes, and Machu Picchu. 

Machu Picchu was incredible, and our hotel by the river in Aguas Calientes was damp, but beautiful.

 

 

4.  June and July:  Being back in Kentucky after 1 and a half years.  It was so good to see everyone again, although sadly there were a few people I missed while I was in the states.  But I even ran into a few unexpected people in Mayfield.  I’ve always said you can’t go to the Mayfield Wal-Mart without seeing 20 people you know.

Jorge visited, too, and I made sure he ate plenty of fried okra, although his favorite thing he tried was “tater tots“.  We went camping at Land Between the Lakes, where the raccoons ransacked our trash, and we sat in the car through a flash thunderstorm (something I really miss when I’m here in Chile.)

5.  September:  Dieciocho in Cauquenes.  Julia, Leandro, Esteban and I spent the national holidays in an old adobe house in the country.  We flew kites, drank homemade wine, bathed in the well, and just enjoyed being there with each other.  The outhouse had a beautiful view of the rolling hills…How often do you get a view like that while you’re sitting on the toilet?

6.  November:  Haley and Fena’s wedding reception.  Beautiful location, buena onda, wonderful people, delicious food, open bar and dancing nonstop ’til the morning.  Need I say more?

7.  January-December:  All of the wonderful moments I shared with Julia and Leandro.  Julia has been such a wonderful friend since I arrived in Santiago 3 years ago (and long before that, too).  Chile feels a little lonelier since she and her son went back to the U.S. on December 30.  I wish the best for them in their new home and new adventures, and I know that I’ll see them again soon, but I have to get a little nostalgic right now and say that I will miss making lunch with Julia and talking about our lives and friends here, watching Leo grow bigger, learn to crawl, then walk, then speak, singing “Itsy-Bitsy Spider”, struggling to stay up watching Heroes with Julia after she finally got Leandro to sleep, then spending the night there and being woken by hugs and kisses from Leandro.  I will even remember with a smile the not so great times, like the night Leo got sick and I had to help clean up puke from the floor, bed, and everywhere else it reached (you should know how squeamish I am about vomit), and there was also the day Leo threw my cell phone down the water-filled drain in the garden (amazingly, it still works, after being taken apart, blow dried, and replacing some of the parts!).  I don’t know what I would have done without you both in the last year.  Thanks for everything.  Besos from Tia Tyra.

That is part of life as an English teacher in Chile; people come and go, and I find myself saying good-bye a lot more than I’d like.  But I am so lucky to have met the people and formed the friendships I have here.  Happy 2009 and thanks to everyone who made last year so memorable.