Mail-Order Teacher: Changes--The Sequel

I got a cat. But before you get mad, Mom and Dad, it wasn't my fault. And it's only temporary. One of the teachers who left at the end of this last school year begged me to take her...and he's coming back before I leave to collect her. And yes, cats are allowed, and no, I'm not breaking any rules. She came with a year supply of kitty litter and a ton of food. She's already had all her shots and is spayed. I'm looking forward to having a little buddy to come home to every night.

By the way, I'm not leaving until next March. I just started my year over again. Let's face it: "One year eight months experience" looks stupid on a resume. I mean...I don't know where I'm going next...and lots of schools in other countries require 2 full years. Why would I leave my precious little munchkin innocent baby 6 year olds in the middle of their school year and cheat myself out of a decent resume when I could just stay 5 little more months?

Right after Christmas, 5 extra months would have seemed impossible. You know how much I miss my friends and family. But now I'm on all this Vitamin D, iron, and CoQ10...and the weather's warming up a bit...and I love my new class and new coteacher (I loved my last ones, too, but this makes the year ahead of me now seem equally as exciting!)...so my whole outlook on the world is just a bit different than it was a couple months ago.

So, week before last was the last week of the previous, 2011 school year. It was madness. So much work was due right at the end...I was so busy...that Wednesday (two Wednesdays ago) was the last day of the year. All the work at school combined with the fact I needed to pack before the weekend even came was a bit overwhelming. I began to ask people for advice on Facebook.

I got plenty of reasonable, sensible advice. "Pack it neatly into boxes and label them," said one person. "Don't put it randomly or you'll regret it when you're trying to unpack." All of it made tons of sense. And I knew from experience they were right.

But somehow, it wasn't reducing my stress. "Boxes...labeling???" I worried. "Where will I find a pen for that? Where will I get box tape by Wednesday night?" Picture me running around in circles with flailing arms.

Then Gene saved my life. "It'll be ok," she assured me. "Just start chucking things into bags."

That was something I could feasibly do by Wednesday night with tons of work to do every day at my job. That made sense! I felt a sudden sense of empowerment. "I can do this!" I decided.

Thursday was a holiday. It was also Moving Day. Four foreign teachers (there are 7 total) left at the end of their contract, and three of them moved out. The four new teachers were moving in on the same day. One of them got another apartment in Kyungnidan, but the other three moved into the apartments we were all moving out of. I decided to move too...and snag Stephanie's old apartment in Itaewon, where I had had Thanksgiving dinner.

Now I have a nice big living room, a huge bedroom, a bathroom with a bit of a counter and a nice big medicine cabinet, and tons more windows. It's a lot brighter. My plants (and I) are so happy!

Moving Day was crazy. I had asked Cindy, the Korean cutie patootie super girlie school secretary, to get me a couple of strong movers. I have big, heavy furniture and there are a lot of stairs and steep hills in this area. When they showed up, there was only one older man and a couple of ajuma cleaning ladies, who were going to make my old place spotless for the new teacher moving in on the same day.

"Cindy!!!" I said. "I need more than one man!!! My furniture is heavy!!!"

"Oh-oh-oo," she sang Korean-style, "two men...many many expensive."

What? This guy was costing me $130 and I was having to do tons of the lifting myself! I paid $150 last time I moved, and I had 2 young guys, and I didn't have to do any work! Damn!

Oh, well, what are you gonna do? Cindy helped too...and I felt really bad about it...she's so small and girlie...but, it was pretty funny at times.

Once we got everything into the moving truck, the three of us (the old man, Cindy, and me) piled into the cabin, along with all my houseplants and Stabby, my betta fish. He's in a one-liter square fish tank with a glass lid that just rests on top. Cindy was squished in the middle seat, and I was on the passenger side with the small fish tank by my feet. The driver went up and down steep hills to the adjacent neighborhood of Itaewon. At one point, he went down a hill that was steeper than anything I'd experienced even in San Francisco...where y'all from other areas would learn what "1st gear" is for on your cars. As the front of the truck dangled down over the hill, with our faces staring straight down towards the center of the Earth at a 90 degree angle, with a huge load of crap and furniture behind us, we grabbed hold of each others' arms for dear life and squealed like little girls.

I couldn't believe we made it through alive. I forgot all about the little fish by my feet.

"Oh, Miss Anne--fish!" Cindy exclaimed. I looked down at my feet.

"Oh no--water!" I said. Cindy doesn't speak a ton of English.

Cindy gasped. "Many???" she asked.

"No--small," I replied. She was quite relieved.

Imagine me and this chick and an old man lugging a dresser up a big flight of stairs with a turn in the middle and down a skinny walkway on the second floor of my apartment building with the building on the right, and a fall to your death on the left. There is a railing, but it hits me right about at the lower edge of my hip. The next day, Cindy and I were both "ouch." Friday and Monday were both work days...without kids. The new teachers started, and we had two days to prepare our new classrooms. We'd learn what classes we'd be getting, which classrooms we'd be in, and who our new coteachers would be. Everyone has two teachers in their class.

Gene and Amy and I had been speculating for weeks on where we'd be placed. So that Friday, the day after I moved, was to be the big reveal. We had a meeting first thing and about an hour into it, our director told us what we'd been waiting to hear. (There are different types of kindergarten classes you can get here: 1st year 5 year olds (Western age 3 and 4), called "Preschool," 1st year 6 year olds or 2nd year 6 year olds (Western age 5), called "Junior Kindergarten," and 2nd year 7 year olds or 3rd year 7 year olds (Western age 6), called "Senior Kindergarten.")

I was placed in a first-year 6 year old class (yay!!!) with Miss Min (double yay!!!). Min is like my Korean coteacher soulmate. She's bright and cheery and wore a rainbow sequin sweater on her first day. She's lived in Seattle for 5 years before, and she gives me a hug every morning and tells me I'm wonderful. I love her!!! We are both so excited to be teaching together, and have had so much fun setting up our class and getting to know our new students, who are all adorable little angels (so far, LOL)!

On Monday I gave Cindy a set of those Sally Hansen nail stickers with flowers on them. She deserved a special present.

On Tuesday, the kids came! We had them choose little symbols for the helper charts and gave them their own cubbies. We showed them the toys and the art supplies in the classroom. We taught them "The Good Morning Song" and the "Goodbye Song" and "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It." They don't speak English at all yet, but I have so much support at this school...Miss Min, of course, and also Ms. Nancy, who usually sits up front with Ms. Cindy, is staying in our class for a couple months while the kids are still new. Also, I got Ms. Sunny as my bus teacher again!!! When she told me she would be my bus teacher I jumped up and down and gave her a huge hug. Ms. Amy and I had been arguing over who should get her, since she's the best bus teacher in the building. And guess who won!!!

OMG...I thought the last week of school was crazy...no. It didn't compare to the first week of the new year. Trying to print things out in color, laminating things, cutting and pasting, drawing, organizing, getting to know a new classroom, hunting for supplies, trading things, helping the new teachers, who now outnumber the old ones....it was total and complete and utter madness.

Everything has changed over the course of one and a half weeks. New apartment, new neighborhood, new class (and new grade), new coworkers/friends, new coteacher, new schedule, new afterschool classes, and now...a new cat!

And I'm so happy.