The Deep Shame of Havingnothingtodo

Since the Swine Flu Episode, schools have been cancelling by the busload, and even the day programmes have been hit hard by the inherent Korean fear of foreigners and their diseases. I've not had much to write about really. The Village has been amazingly quiet, even on the weekends, and I have to admit I'm starting to miss being badgered for my autograph when I go to buy a coffee - amazing but true. I've started to fill the space in my heart with photographs of my new home (not so new anymore - I celebrated my six-month anniversary this week!) This is our deserted main street, normally not visible under the tramp of stilettoed heels.

Here's a photo from the City Hall looking up the main street.


The Village is filled with signposts made in the style of London signs - until you look closely at them, when you notice the Americanised spelling. There are more Americans here than any other nation, but when we combine, the Canadians, Brits and Antipodeans outnumber those who use American spelling. It can be annoying when we're in class and a Powerpoint uses a different spelling to the one you've just used on a board, and your kids point out to you that you're wrong! I just see it as my mission to show Korean learners that there's more than one way to spell favourite...


One bonus of the silence is the number of animals who now venture into EV. I sat one morning and watched a dark brown Tree Squirrel leap about the courtyard below my balcony - none of us had ever seen a Korean squirrel before!



There has been a little excitement - film crews, taking advantage of the silence, have been busy. We've had a music video, a horror movie (with tiny little blonde actresses, about 5 years old...), a soapie episode, and a school uniform photo shoot... um, well the last isn't very exciting, I'll admit.

As for work... well, we don't have any. For the past three weeks we've been doing workshops, talks, lectures, discussion groups, team-building exercises, training, briefings, debriefings, and a LOT of coffee breaks. I got to teach a special elementary program one week, and the sight of the wee ones running round screaming and pulling each other's hair... well, it brought tears to my childless eyes, I tell you. I miss the monsters. I really do.

At the end of our 3rd week post-Isolation, we started observing Day Program classes and Edutainer edutainments in the street. Lots of fun and very interesting to see how they adapt to the environment and time constraints and still manage to teach something to the kids. We even took part in a game one morning - every single OWP teacher working that day was there, so around 50 adults packed onto the verandah type space. Oh, and one very small kid and his smaller baby sister. We hustled them up to the front and made sure he was included in games and challenges and he didn't seem fazed at all. Once a friend of mine called to him and told him to come sit by her, and he looked a bit cross, turned to her, very theatrically put his finger to his lips and loudly whispered "Shhhhh!"

This is our team winning one of the challenges...



Because of the lack of work, we've been given the option of unpaid leave for the last week before the Chuseok holiday which Harry jumped at - on Saturday morning I was up at 5am to drive him to the airport and see him onto a plane to Japan for 2 weeks. It's been odd not having him around! Funny how quickly you get used to situations!

It's all good though, as I now have less than a week till I leave for Bali on Friday night. Very excited, mostly about the fact that I'm meeting my sister in Bangkok. We'll be in Indonesia for a week, then it's back to EV, and management swears we have a program booked for after Chuseok. Here's hoping...

In The Trough

This week, paranoia and fear hit English Village. Scared to leave their rooms, teachers took voluntary unpaid leave rather than work with their colleagues. Other teachers were villified for walking their dogs and sharing meals with friends. Management was charged with reckless endangerment and a petition was started. Masks were brought out. Today, the village is eerily silent; yes, ladies and gentlemen, the dreaded pox has arrived.

The deadly swine flu (well, 2 people did die last weekend in Korea...) was brought into the village by six teachers here to train on a drama course, after they went home for the weekend and contracted the disease. They continued to walk around for another two days before leaving for good; on Sunday four EV drama teachers were isolated and tested for the flu, their first tests came back positive on Tuesday; schools withdrew their kids within hours and the Village was closed to day visitors. On Wednesday one case was confirmed. On Thursday afternoon, the regional government had an emergency meeting with EV Administration and teachers were sent home for the afternoon. Still in training for a phonics programme, 20 of us continued to attend the course, and being the largest group we were the first to be told that quarantine was going to be applied to all teachers - so of course, the minute the course ended (a day early - cram those phonics...) we all rushed out to catch taxis and lifts with friends to the local shops where we stocked up on pot noodles, eggs, milk and beer - all the essentials - before the edict could be made public. Luckily nobody ran screaming down the streets when they saw us - they were obviously the public who hadn't yet seen the local newspaper, or the KBS reporters hanging around at the closed EV gates.

So quarantine kicked in Thursday night and we're all locked up for the duration. By lunchtime on Friday, I was already suffering from cabin fever... Apparently there's a limit on the number of movies you can watch in one go. The village is so quiet - not even the usual people wandering past my balcony or congregating on the benches to chat. Everyone is wearing masks when outside, and we have nurses coming daily to our apartments to check temperatures. Of course, we figure that if any one of us has it, the rest have already been exposed, so at least I've had Cait and Leigh with me all day - we've decided to fight the boredom with milk tarts, yoghurt cakes, and scrabble. Hooray!

We also - I have to admit - had a bit of a party last night in Harry's apartment. Hey, whatever works to make us feel better about being stuck here for a week!