R.I.P Troll

So it's about 3:00am here on Wednesday and I cant sleep so I thought I would update you all with what has been going on the past week or so. Not too much has happened but of course, I have some interesting stories that I know you all will appreciate!
Well I guess I should start with my dear student Troll. Don't you worry, he is still kicking around, however after much thought and deliberation, I have decided to officially change his name. My reasoning being this; let's say one day little Troll decides he wants to leave Korea and go on an extended trip around North America (or pretty much any other English speaking Country). Since he was not born with an English name, he would be travelling around meeting lots of new people and probably have a difficult time introducing himself since other travellers might not be able to understand or even pronounce his Korea name. Then he might think to himself, hmmm.. when I was younger, I had a Canadian teacher who assigned me an English name (which is all he knows) and decide that that would be the name he would use while travelling and perhaps even call his own! Well I couldn't live with the thought of poor little Troll being ridiculed or tormented in the future and decided it would be best to give him an average Joe name. His new name is Joe. lol.
While we are on the topic of 'names' I received a new shipment in (I speak of these children as if they are products..haha) and again, had to quickly come up with new names. Thankfully some of them already had English names which was easy, but one student in particular asked me (no joke) if his new name for the remainder of the year could be "Donkey". Okay, even I thought that was pushing it... I mean.......DONKEY?! SERIOUSLY?! He then proceeded to inform me that Shrek was his favorite movie ever but I still wasn't okay with calling someones home and asking to speak to their child named "Donkey". So that wasn't a go and even though I am now "mean teacha" I know he will thank me in the future!
On another note, my first week back carrying on with my normal afternoon hours has been incredible!! I don't feel bad going to sleep late since I wake up at noon and still have 2 hours to spare! I even had time to go furniture shopping before work yesterday. I didn't buy anything since... well... I couldn't understand A WORD the store clerks were saying to me...so I'm planning to go back next week with a pen and paper in hopes of them physically writing out the prices for me to see. Otherwise it's pretty much a lost cause. My principal made an interesting point today that Korea is very different from any other Asian country (China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, etc) in that it is the only country where English is not spoken ANYWHERE other than in a private English academy. Once the students are back at home they only speak Korean and the majority of Koreans don't speak ANY English. Even in China you will find that many locals are able to converse with foreigners in English, but it is difficult to find anyone here, other than a foreigner who speaks the language. I guess that makes it a little easier for us native teachers to pick up the language (I can now officially communicate with a cab driver; left, right, straight, stop) but it definatly makes things more challenging.
Speaking of cabs, I have decided (after 2 months of living here) that I am going to steer away from taxis and am going to utilize public transportation. They have a great bus system in Gwangju however since the cabs here are sooo cheap its hard to justify taking a bus. Last Sunday I finally built up enough courage to find a bus stop and mission home from downtown by myself. The Hangul (Korean writing) made it somewhat more difficult to figure out when I needed to get off, but since I live 2 minutes away from the World Cup stadium it was just another landmark to assist me with my departure.
Since then, I have also bussed to another area in Gwangju, not too far from where I live, to meet a friend for Sushi. I was a little hesitant seeing as my last sushi experience here was pretty cheesy (no pun intended)... however this new Japanese restaurant was delicious!! I was VERY impressed and will definatly be back there soon. After that appetizing meal, my friend and I decided to walk around the area and just scope out the scene. This particular neighbourhood wasn't exactly a "classy" one; lots of homeless people and garbage flooding the streets, however I think what really made me realize its tastelessness was accidentally stumbling upon Korea's very own "red light district". The only difference was that the women in the glass windows were all Asian and over the age of 40!
Just as I have mentioned before, Koreans are largely interested in style and ones personal image. For example, my older students (12/13 year olds) who have pimples, will wear small flesh colored band aids over them so they are not exposed. I really wish someone would tell them that it makes them look 1000 times WORSE than it does anything else! I had a student walk into class yesterday covered in these face bandages... it was horrible. Felt kind of bad for the kid. My co worker told me a sad (but hilarious) story the other day of one of his students who wears these "false teeth" over her natural ones because she hasn't gotten braces yet and I guess, feels that her teeth are insufficient to be shown to the public eye. Long story short, the student was running into class late, tripped over the leg of her chair and her false teeth went flying out her mouth, landing on my co teachers SHOE!! Probably beats anyone elses "most embarrassing story". haha. Poor girl...
My last story of the day happened 2 days ago when I was teaching my grade 2's. These students are very young and can BARELY understand a word I say... it gets pretty frustrating but I make due. Anyways, it is mandatory for the students to bring their workbooks to school since we do activities in them every class, so if a student happens to forget his book at home, they are supposed to go to a different classroom and work with a Korean teacher. Well one of my grade 2 students did not have a book so I tried to explain to him that he had to go to the 4th floor and work with his homeroom teacher. I had a slight inkling that he might not have understood my directions when he grabbed his jacket, so again, I told him to leave his jacket here and to find his Korean teacher. Once he left the room, I began my class and about 3o minutes later, my little grade 2 student comes running back in to the classroom with red cheeks, gasping for air and his book in hand. The poor kid had run all the way to his house, picked up his book and ran back to my class (without a jacket)!!!!!!!!! I felt sooo bad. Definitely a miscommunication! OOps.
Alright well I should be heading off to bed now! I am going to bring my camera to school sometime soon and take some pictures of my students so you can put a face to their (ridiculous) names. Troll.. uhhh.. I mean Joe, will be my first target!!

Miss you all,

Write more soon!

Signing off,

Gillian xx