School's out...forever!

I would go so far as to say that today has been fun. Behold the day's events:

1. Every month the school holds a birthday party for each child whose birthday it is that month. Since the school is closing, er, tomorrow, we celebrated all those children who have birthdays in December, January and February. This was about half the kids. It was a half an hour affair involving present exchanging between friends, blowing out candles, and taking photos of each child individually - where possible with a kiss from a classmate of the opposite sex. The teachers were chanting "뽀뽀해, 뽀뽀해!" ("Kiss, kiss!"), probably rather inappropriately, but witnessing a six year old boy going in for the snog on the prettiest girl in school was priceless.
   


2. The aforementioned party meant that my first lesson of the day was only ten minutes long. This was just enough time to introduce the lesson, sing a few songs, and ease my guilt that I'd not planned anything to do anyway. Second lesson was "Screen English" - where the kids just watch DVDs. I enjoyed that too - today the protagonist of the series played with the cat because his baby sister was asleep. Most amusing.
   


3. During third period Lauren and I were informed that it would be up to us whether or not the school went ahead with the deal with this other school that is interested in buying it out. "But no pressure!" We were told the school was nice and that we should probably go for the new job, "But don't let them pressurise you into making a decision".
   
   We had lunch with extra 야쿠르트 (yoghurt) and 케익 (cake) that had been provided for the birthday party from parents, before heading off to visit the potential new school. [An aside: each character represents one syllable. Note how yoghurt now has four syllables - that's ya-go-re-te - and cake now has two syllables - ce-ik. My world has turned into one where the power of the vowel prevails...]



4. Straight after lunch Lauren and I went with one of the Korean teachers to visit the other school. It seemed nice when we got in - with colourful displays and large classrooms. But once we got into the nitty gritty, we both knew we would not be working there.
   
   The principal of the school did not speak particularly good English, and perhaps there were some strong cultural differences, but the impression we got from her was less than negative. She asked us about our GCSEs, as if scraping the barrel for questions to ask in the interview; she questioned our abilities to communicate with the children because we don't have American accents; she was very wary of the fact that we didn't have any formal teaching qualifications; she dismissed any questions we asked as unimportant, though we were doubtful as to whether she understood them anyway. It felt as though she wanted to make us feel as inadequate as possible, and yet in her head she was going to employ us anyway to expand her school.
   


5. We got back to school where we bitched about this principal, making it very clear that we didn't want to go ahead with the deal. I think everyone was relieved to hear this - it means the school can just close tomorrow and everyone can forget about it. There'll still be issues of December pay and entitlements, but at least we can all take a break.
   
   After we got back and relayed our news, the black cloud above the staff room just disappeared. The afternoon became a free-for-all, with teachers going through their belongings and clearing out their desks. Lesson plans were thrown out of the window and classes consisted of art and DVDs. I drew a beautiful picture of the Eiffel Tower but my co-workers were unimpressed, and rudely expressed their opinions of my artistic abilities :P


6. This evening I was reluctant to go home. I was feeling quite hyper active, and hanging out at school going through all the stuff I could potentially nick seemed more exciting than facing the clogged drain in my bathroom. I asked the other foreign teacher about this (he lives in the same building and I use him as my apartment guru) and he told me how to take apart my pipes. At home, I released all my excess energy into my first plumbing experience, which, with all the adrenalin running through me, wasn't as disgusting as I'd hoped ^^ Mmmmm to lumps of hair coughing out of my plughole...

So now I am jobless and fancy free *^^* My drain drains like a dream, I have as much origami paper and as many notebooks that I could get my hands on, and all I need to worry about now is what I'm going to have for dinner...

...and finding a new job, but don't spit on my fire, thank you :P