내일

I stayed in Gimcheon last weekend. All of the teachers besides me have to work on Saturdays. So after school on Saturday I hung out with 민채. When we were taking a walk after dinner we ran into someone who works at our school... actually, it was the vice principal. So we talked to him briefly and then went along... he was waiting for some friends or family on a bench. I hope he doesn't think it was anything romantic because it was just me and 민채 alone. My three or four best friends at the school are women. The two young English teachers are naturally the best at English (because they had to study it for so much longer than the older teachers) and they sit right next to me, so we get along well. So I'm in the clique with them and a couple of the other young women, who speak good English for not being English teachers.

On Sunday night, we had a big meeting amongst native English teachers to introduce everyone that hadn't met yet. I had already met them all, other than Lindsay. But I'm glad that I went because she is pretty cool. We did bowling/drinking (or, for some of us, drinking/bowling), then noraebong (or for some of us, drinking/noraebong), and then we just got rid of any pretenses and went drinking. Of course, the numbers dwindled at each step of the way, but I usually think that small groups are better than big groups anyhow. The guys in my town have their own clique which consists of the sauna/dinner/noraebong (karaoke)/bar routine pretty regularly. It can be fun every once in a while.

Tomorrow I have to present my lesson to an officer of the Province that I work in. As the teachers are employed by the state, myself included, its a pretty big deal. Even the principal is worried. He is making us do the same lesson for the students twice (and pretend like its the first time). He sat in on the first class and critiqued us. I dont mind presenting in front of the officer from the province, or the principal, vice principal, and 20 other teachers from my school and nearby schools... but I don't like our principal's methodology. Now, we not only have to worry about having a good lesson, but we also have to worry about making all of the necessary changes to appease our principal and also to make it seem like we haven't already taught this material to the students. Today, 혜진 and 휘연 did their class presentations... but there were only three people watching and none of them were officers from the Province. Nonetheless, they were getting evaluated from the principal and I was glad to hear that their classes went great today. Tomorrow is dinner to celebrate our impending success!