drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain, kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain

after a terrible, awful, horrible, no good, very bad WEEK last week... things are slowly starting to turn around for the better. and i couldn't be more happier with that. let's start from the beginning... the cause of said bad week. 

woke up on monday with a killer migraine. my migraine bracelet broke the weekend before when i went out. this means my migraine was going to be pretty bad without it. it lasted 4 days before calming down to a dull headache; in which i still have. got to school on monday, turned on my computer and was confronted with a black screen reading in korean, "reinstall windows XP". awesome... no work computer. after getting the CD's we thought we needed, we find out we have to call the technician and he has to come pick up my computer to fix. so that means i need to bring my laptop in for work. 

tuesday, brought my laptop in. everything was completely fine that day. minus my devil class being royal shitheads. 

wednesday, my work computer was brought back to me in perfect working order. the only issue i have now with it is minor. sometimes internet pages won't load and it says that it's something with the server. so basically i have to refresh the page a bunch of times and it eventually works. so not a big deal. 

thursday, woke up and my personal laptop wouldn't work. completely frozen and then died. i got a grey screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark. just lovely. brought it to work, had my co-teacher call the tech who fixed it the first time. i have to bring it to him again, but he said i can ship it to him. so we go to the post office after teaching... turns out it has to be specially wrapped, which costs more and has to be done at the big post office, not my small one by my school. this means my co-teacher has to do it after work. so now i'm without a laptop and frustrated beyond belief. thursday was a lot of crying. lots of tears. all out of frustration. 

friday, my laptop made it to the tech and i had to wait till like 8pm to hear from him. apparently it was the same issue as last time. he had a 1 year warranty on the part, so he would fix it for free. at this point i was pissed... i just had my computer fixed 2 months ago with this problem and it was already broke again. so i told him to fix it, but it was going to take a week to 10 days.... GAH! at this point i said screw it, and called my mom. i asked her to ship me my brand new computer that has been sitting at my parents for the last two months. it was gonna cost a bit to get it, but in the end it will be worth it, because i will have a computer that works and i don't have to worry about it dying every 2 months or freezing all the time. 

saturday around 3am it was decided my computer was getting sent to me. at 7am, after a groggy phone call or two, being how i got home and went to bed around 4:30am, my computer was shipped through fedex and should be here soon. 

sunday, come home sunday after going to dani's to pick up a borrowed work computer from her to a freezing cold apartment... it was literally 6 degrees in my apartment. turned the heat on, bundled up in my pjs and was working on a few things. went to grab something out of the freezer and realized my fridge and freezer were both not working. at all. things were defrosted and my fridge was warm... lovely. 

at this point my exact thoughts were, 1)technology HATES me!! 2) am i being punished for something?!

everything turned around on monday.... thankfully. my computer had/has made it to korea. though it has been sitting in customs for 3 days. monday did bring good news of all kinds. my recruiter finally called me back with not one but TWO schools that were interested in me. i also found out one of my close friends here isn't resigning (not good news, very sad, but it's the right decision for her), but that opened up another school that would instantly hire me without an interview at all. i also had another friend here who has previous co-workers who are looking for native teachers. so this means there are options.


today brought more good news. it's just piling up. after talking with fedex two different times, i finally got an account number to transfer my duty fee for my computer. it was then cleared from customs FINALLY!! after just checking it, it has made it to ilsan and i should have it by tomorrow! i also went to dinner with my friend who has previous co-workers looking for native teachers. turns out one of them knows my current co-teacher and called her right up. 


fact that i learned tonight: 
there are 3 different types of budgets for native teachers... fully funded by GEPIK (which had all the cuts), fully funded by the city (which is stable), and then half from each. my school falls in the 3rd category of being funded half and half. this means everything is uncertain still. hopefully we should know something by this week. so there is still a possibility of being able to stay at my school. 

and upon me getting home and changing out my dead battery for a charged battery i came into EVEN MORE good news... if my school can't hire me because of budget cuts then i FOR SURE HAVE A JOB FOR NEXT YEAR!!!  let me repeat that just to make sure you got that..... 


I FOR SURE HAVE A JOB FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!!! 

i am sooooooooooo happy! wether i stay at my school or go to clara's school, either way i know i am going to be happy there. :) 

i am having an amazing week and it's only tuesday! new laptop tomorrow, wednesday is special lunch, which is always super good, a somewhat set plan for the next year of my life, dinner with steph tomorrow night, christmas exchange for secret snowflake on thursday, christmas weekend with dani! it's going to be amazing! :) 

food for thought

The Best Teacher Ever

Author Unknown

There is a story from many years ago of a primary school teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.

But that was impossible because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And, Teddy could be unpleasant.

It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers. At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last.

However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise, Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around."

His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with pretty ribbons, except for Teddy's. His present which was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to."

After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer - the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course Mrs. Thompson did.

And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

my grad school professor posted this in our discussion forum for this weeks class. i won't lie, i got a little teary eyed reading it. this is why i love teaching... even with all the downs, it's something like this that makes it all worth it. i want to be able to do this for one of my students.

i'll be home for christmas, you can plan on me

this is me procrastinating again... i really don't want to work on my paper, or my camp book, or read, or lesson plan, or do really anything. i'm too tired. but i know i need to use my time wisely because i have a lot to do, but i'm slowly running out of time. i keep telling myself that keeping busy is a good thing, but i'm slowly getting overwhelmed. it's frustrating. i just keep telling myself 2 more weeks of grad school and then it's winter vacation till after january. then one more week of classes and then i am taking two weeks off for my winter vacation. 

as of friday night tickets were book for indonesia in january!!! i'm sooooooo excited. 17 days traveling around the country with dani. it's going to be awesome. flying into bali on the 15th and not coming back to korea till the 31st. oh i can't wait. 

there are so many countdowns that i have... 

11 days till my winter camp book is due. 
11 days till my sister's birthday. 
14 days till winter vacation from grad school. 
18 days till the last day of school here.
20 days till christmas! 
21 days till winter camp starts. 
41 days till INDONESIA! 


i also need to still be on the look out for a job. i had an interview last week with a middle school in bucheon, but i didn't get it because i have no prior teaching experience with middle schoolers. it's sucked that i didn't get it because now i am back to square one where i started, but i really didn't want to teach middle school anyways... so i guess it is better this way. but now i am back to the beginning, which is more stress. my recruiter sent me one other school, which i turned down because they couldn't pay the full amount and i refuse to take a pay cut. 


it's santacon this weekend. which is basically a night where foreigners get dressed up in santa outfits and go out in seoul and bar hop. i still don't have my santa costume, but i'm excited. it should be a lot of fun. :) 


i am pretty excited for christmas though. even if i won't be home for it. i have put up the lights i got from jennie before she left, my mini-tree is decorated with lights and ornaments, and i have my presents from my aunt under the tree. plus my sister sent me christmas music that i get to listen to. and i just made a christmas music playlist at work to listen to as well. love christmas. 


i guess i should probably stop procrastinating and work on my camp book some more. or my portion of my research paper that's due this week. either way i need to be productive.