Imo Kortney

Thats what my dance teacher calls me. Today, while riding in her car, she said, "My family 4 members, Kortney you 5. Imo Kortney. Imo is aunt." I am now the long lost sister of a Korean woman, aunt to three children: one in America and two in Mung Yeoung.

Last week I told the other teachers at the girls high school that I wanted to take Tae Kwon Do lessons, but they all insisted that I should take dance lessons instead, but no one insisted more than the dance teacher Mrs. Park, Mi Hyang. She followed me around all day Wednesday, forcing the other teachers to help her with her English, shouting at me over rooms of crowded people: "You lose weight! I teach you belly dance! Lose weight! I help you!" I was so embarrassed and finally gave in just to stop her from following me around. I didn't really want my mid-section the topic of everyone's discussion. lol. But you know, I've realized that there is no way I'm ever going to have a private life here. I was teaching at the boys high school on Friday and somehow they knew that I was taking belly dancing lessons. How? I have no idea. Last night I met another foreigner from another school whose co-teacher knew I was taking lessons and I've never met her before! Even my landlord knows! Ahhh!

This is a male English teacher from the girls high school and one of my good friends. His name is Mr. Jeong and he came with the vice principal to pick me up from training--he's also the teacher who attends my church and the one who brought me to the funeral with his wife. He's a very nice guy with such a sweet wife and the kindest heart. I'll try to get pictures of his whole family tomorrow.

Anyhow, back to my teacher. She is so sweet. I can't believe how kind she is. I knew she liked me, but extending her family to me was most generous of her. I truly love this woman. :) She's wild, beautiful, her laugh is infectious, and her heart is so full of joy. I'm addicted to her. I've been taking my dance lessons with her daughter Soong Young, a 13 year old girl, and everyday she brings her son too who's 6 (I don't know him by any name but monkey). Today, she told me that her children talk non-stop about me at home and that her husband was so annoyed because he hasn't met me yet, so on our way out to lunch, we stopped by the police station where her husband is an officer and I was finally introduced to him. He was very nice. My teacher, Mrs. Park, is a highly competitive profession dancer and her partner (a nice man who's brought me dinner at lessons) is also a teacher at the school. When she told me he was her partner at the world championships I realized that I'm quite fortunate to learn from such an experienced woman!

This is my dance teacher and her beautiful children--Soong Young in the back and the moneky in the front. :) They're a happy bunch.

As for my lessons, I can't say I'm much of a dancer, but I'm learning. There certainly is a lot of jiggling goin on... hahaha! But really, it's a great exercise. I'm really enjoying myself. I've been practicing almost everyday with her for about 1 1/2 hours. Usually it's just working on basic moves, but today I learned a dance warm-up routine and she "showed me" some new stretches. Holy crap! She made me sit on the floor, spred my legs like I was doing the splits sitting down, and then she used her feet to push my legs out even more--she pushed them so far I screamed and almost cried! We did this stretch a couple times and I'll tell you, it wasn't pleasant, but I'm sure that some flexibility will be gain through it. I've been working on my flexibility everday since June, but this was definately a stretch for me! Oh, I hope we don't do those again tomorrow!!

All of us together during a break at my Thursday lesson! Her dance partner took the picture.

Friday, I began teaching at the boys high school. Though the boys are generally quieter in the halls than the girls, I am still a victim of Korean "paparazzi." They follow me everywhere too, pointing, laughing, yelling hello to impress their friends, but I've also found that the boys are generally braver about asking me questions, things like, "What's you favorite sport? Do you like Korean food? Who is the most handsome boy in our class?" Things like that! Hahaha! The teachers there are really nice too and I've had a very warm welcome from them. One teacher, another Korean girl my age, started teaching last week and invited me to join her family in the 5 day vacation and celebration of Chusok--the Korean thanksgiving--later this month. I'm currently considering it, but I've also been invited to join another foreign teacher and her co-teacher (the ones I mentioned earlier) in adventure to Cheju Island at the south end of the country. I kind of feel partial to the former option since my vacations are few and this is one really long break that offers significant travel time. I'll keep you all updated.

The teachers above are both from the girls high school. The one on the left is the home-economics teacher (she only speaks Korean so I don't know her too well) and the one on the right is my partner in crime: an English teacher named Shin Eun Jeong (she sits next to me in the office). We rarely get anything done but usually sit and tease each other all day. :) I just love her! She's probably my best friend in Korea.

I head about this other foreign teacher last week when I arrived. Her name is Courtney and she's a 30 yr old woman from Minnesota who just finished an internship with the foreign service in DC and recently finished a term with the Peace Corps in Guatemala. I can't believe how similar we are! We don't only share the same name but also the same interests! I'm so gald that I have anothergirl to talk to. She really is a nice person and her co-teacher is pretty great too.


My co-teacher finally emerged this week. She was gone all last week on a school trip to Cheju Island, but returned on Monday. She's pretty nice but very shy and not very animated, so I'm working overtime trying to get her to open up. Earlier this week we went to Daegu and I registered at the immigration office for my legal alien card. Followin our trip to the immigration office, we went to her parent's house where I met her 1 yr old son and parents. I feel pretty bad for her. Kate (as I like to call her) has to live in Mung Young alone while her husband works in another city, and her baby has to live with his parents over an hour away because she can't find a daycare that will take care of him when she works late nights. All of these things, I think, amount to her quietness. Besides her work, she's alone all week until she meets her family on the weekend--that's got to be an emotional drain, especially being apart from her baby. She's an older mother--about 35--and I know that being so far from her son just kills her. She loves him so much.

Tomorrow I'm going back to the same church as last week and afterwards my dance teacher is picking me up and taking me to some park in the mountains. That's pretty much all I know. :) It'll be an adventure!

In other news: Yesterday it stopped raining and today we actually had sun! It was so wonderful--just what I needed. I recently discovered a workout room for teachers in the girls high school and I'm so excited that I can finally go workout! I discovered it when one of the other teachers asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I thought we were going outside but I was unexpectedly led to a treadmill!! The boys high school teachers play badmitton together everyday after school and hopefully I will get to play with them on Monday. Oh yeah--I'm teaching Mondays and Fridays at the boys school with two teachers, one man and one woman. The man is pretty quiet. I hope he's nice! The girls school has me teaching with three teachers, one woman and two men (one of them seems kinda grumpy, but we'll see how that goes). All together, I'm teaching 22 classes (eek!) and hopefully I'll be starting English clubs at both schools next week for those students who I'm not teaching but want to study with me too. My laundry machine is finally fixed and I haven't had any flooding incidents in one week, PTL! Next week I'm purchasing a pool membership and I'm going to go try out the 24 hour mineral bath house here in Mung Yeoung. The girls high school is giving me free lunches and dinners--horray! Who loves Korean food? Me!! I also get a cell phone next week.