Teacher Monica

I have mentioned my co-teacher a few times in earlier posts, but now I think it's time to dedicate an entire blog post about her. She is truly, one of a kind.

First of all, she's Chinese. She speaks English okay, and she speaks Korean okay. But the point is, she's CHINESE. In a typical day in my class, the kids have no idea what I'm saying in English, Monica has no idea what the kids are saying in Korean, and nobody in the entire school has any idea what Monica is saying in her half English, half Korean, half Chinese abilities. (Three halves make a whole right???)

Even though nobody can understand her, she is extremely prepared when it comes to teaching materials. However, she hoards paper even worse than my dad. I'll come into the copy room to see her standing there with a giant stack of paper to her left, a giant stack to her right, and look down at the copier machine only to see it says '499 copies to go'. It's ridiculous. I think she just like to copies things to copy. Half of the time it has nothing to do with our kids, or what we are talking about in class that month. But her excessive copying does pay off. At the end of the day I'll be planning for the next day, and ponder aloud "I wonder what we should do for our science plant theme tomorrow?". And BOOM. There it is. She'll pull out five different worksheets on plants for me to chose from.

She is also extremely terrifying. Only in that 'good teacher, yelling' kinda way. She can silence a room in 2 seconds flag with a loud but effective, "QUIET!". But more than terrifying, she is also  really sweet and has a hard time saying 'no', especially to her daughter who is in the class next to us. I think I've learned a little something about Asian mother's since living here. They simply do not say no, and their child can do no wrong. Minji, who is teacher Monica's daughter, can and will eat whatever she likes at any point in the day. They come to school early to eat breakfast, and I'll come into class coffee in hand, only to find them chowing down on some fried chicken. At 8:30 a.m mind you! If Minji wants coffee, her mom will give her coffee. If Minji wants wine, her mom will give her wine. She's 4! The parents of our children often send donuts or treats for the staff, and you can usually find us all towering over a table of treats in the afternoon discussing the events of the day. On Thursday we had some fancy smancy donuts delivered, and Minji ate THREE of them! Three ooey-gooey, frosting covered, sugar-loaded, saturated fat outta this roof, donuts!

Aaahhhh teacher Monica. I will miss her dearly when I am gone. I will miss her loud roar of a voice from down the hall. I will miss her making coffee in the morning. I will miss her laughing as her 4 year old eats a double quarter-pounder with cheese. I will miss her three language jibberish. I will miss her standing in the middle of the hallway, sweater up around her neck, while she tries to hike her pants back up to her boobs. I will miss so many things about that woman, she's a riot.

But all laughs aside, she has probably been the most honest, truthful, and accepting person I have met in Korea. And I can bet that I will never again meet anyone like her.