It's hard to believe another week has come and gone. It's already the end of October, and that alone is blowing my mind right now. This week was a pretty big mix of everything--especially at school.
Monday and Tuesday I didn't have classes because of my school festival. Monday I was deskwarming, except for about an hour when I had to host the Goldenbell competition. Goldenbell is a type of game that is apparently well-known in Korea. Basically, it's like a competition with random trivia questions that students have to answer. Students are eliminated question-by-question until finally there is one Goldenbell winner. The questions are all given in English, so I got to host it with two of the other students who have lived abroad, and therefore have really awesome english.
Goldenbell was fun, but the real festival started on Tuesday. There's a lot to say about this day, so I'm going to make it its own post later on. I have some pretty awesome videos, so keep your eyes open for those! (Hint: they're mostly of my students signing and dancing like they are K-pop stars....AWESOME)
I didn't get home from school until almost 11 PM on Tuesday night, so needless to say I was exhausted on Wednesday morning. However, being tired quickly became the least of my worries. When I wake up I always have to press a button to turn on my hot water. I usually brush my teeth and by the time I finish the water is hot enough to shower. But not this Wednesday. The water was cold...and it didn't get any warmer. I texted my neighbor, who is also an English teacher here, to ask her if hers was working, and she said hers was fine. Luckily, my neighbor has been in Korea for 3 years, can speak Korean, and is probably the most helpful and awesome person I could ever hope to live next to. She let me use her shower, and she called my landlord to let them know what was going on.
My landlord was supposed to come that evening, which meant that I was rushing because I was expecting friends to come over at 7. I figured I would quickly make some pasta for dinner...until I tried to turn on my stove and it didn't work. My landlord then said that they would just send the maintenance person in the morning.
So, at that point I was on day 2 of no hot water. When the maintenance person finally came they told my friend that my gas was turned off because I didn't pay my gas bill. Now, the thing is I DID pay my gas bill. I'm not the type of person who is late paying bills, never mind just not paying them. Additionally, my neighbor knew I paid because my gas bill was the first bill I got in Korea so she showed me how to pay it. When she got back from school she double checked my bank book, and sure enough it showed that the money had come out. Ugh!
This morning was day 3 of no hot water. But alas! My neighbor called the landlord back and told them that I did pay, and they turned my gas back on. Woohoo! I can cook and take showers again!
It was a little bit of an ordeal, but I am really thankful to have such an awesome neighbor for not only letting me use her shower, but also dealing with all the communication that goes along with solving something like this. I really don't know how I would have solved this one without her--it probably would have been a lot more complicated and timely.
On a different note, today I went to teach one of my classes, but as soon as I walked in the girls all greeted me with a look of pure confusion. They told me that they had a test so we didn't have class. SURPRISE! So I went back to the teacher's room and asked my co-teacher if we had classes and she told me no, there were no classes today. So, I was desk warming attempting to catch up on work, when my other co-teacher told me to come because we had class. What?! So I quickly grabbed my stuff and went to teach a class that at that point I was not mentally prepared to teach. Oh well. Apparently 2nd graders had testing all day, but 1st graders only didn't have classes in the morning.
They warn you about this last minute stuff all the time, but this is the first time that it's really happened with classes for me. Gotta love those Korean surprises. But still, I only had to teach two classes today. Not such a bad Friday.
Despite the gas fiasco and the last minute schedule changes, I am feeling really content and happy with my life. I feel like everyday I am noticing more and more blessing in my life. I feel grateful for everything that has happened over the past two months, and I feel eager to keep having new experiences and seeing where life takes me. I know culture shock should be right around the corner, but right now I feel like I am just loving Korea more and more.
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