The Visit (She Was Here)

• Dr. Koh Day!!! I got to school and was wondering how I would know when she arrives – and when I went to say hello to the vice principal and the head teacher, her and her husband (Dr. Shin) were sitting with the head teacher! I ran over and hugged her. It was really comforting to have someone from home there in my school, who had worked to take care of me and make sure I was in a good situation, and knows the culture and language of the crazy foreign place I live in – it was practically like seeing my own parents. After listening to Dr. Koh, Dr. Shin, my head teacher and, eventually, Winter talk in Korean for a while (it’s so pretty to hear native Koreans speak, especially when I don’t need to be understanding what they are saying), we went to lunch. I told Dr. Koh that my school’s lunch was really good, so she made sure to make time I her schedule to eat with me. And she liked it! She even said that she used to eat one of the dishes all the time as a child, and hadn’t since then. Cute! We (they) talked with some other teachers/staff and then just between us for a while – until we were the last ones in the cafeteria. Oops. After lunch, we had tea/coffee with the principal, met with my mentor teacher (Dr. Koh even thought she was talkative and little strange...ah well), and then went up to class. My grade 1/2 students were surprisingly good today! (When I told Dr. Koh that they were good today, she was like, “Really? Oh...”) Granted, I only had them for 20 minutes because of an earthquake drill, but still. The principal and head teacher came in to watch, along with Dr. Koh and Dr. Shin, and no one threw anything at me (students) or told me to stop teaching and leave (adults) so it must have gone okay :) Dr. Koh and Dr. Shin had to leave quickly after class, to make it to Ashley’s school, but I didn’t have to say goodbye, thankfully. After hanging out at school for a while (no 6th graders means sitting and doing nothing for an hour before I can go home) and several changed plans, I ended up at an Angel-In-Us coffee shop in Idong, to wait for Dr. Koh, Dr. Shin, Ashley and Abby (I had to ride the bus there, Ash and Abby got to ride with the doctors...jelly). I got a lemon tea (DELISH) and sat down to wait for them...and then they showed up haha. We walked around the building, looking for the entrance to Partys Seafood Buffet, and then found it and entered HEAVEN. It was a beautiful restaurant with TONS of dishes that all looked fantastic. Dr. Koh noted that they had a lot of carb and fruit options, along with free beer, to fill you up before you could eat too much actual [expensive] seafood – how tricky – and checked our plates whenever we brought one back to the table. But everything was fantastic. And Abby, Ashley and I ended up impressing her, with both the number of plates we returned with and the types of things we tried. I had pizza (with CHEESE) and a variation of tomato and mozzarella salad (CHEESE), but also SUSHI! Never had it before but I popped my sushi cherry with whelk, squid, eel, crab and scallop (or some kind of shellfish) sushi. They were yummy. Ash, Abby and I have already made plans to go back at least once before leaving Pohang. During dinner, we were able to talk to Dr. Koh and Dr. Shin about lots of things – TaLK, our schools, plans for after July, etc. – and I even talked with them about dating (Korean boys and otherwise) and how they met (used to study at his university’s library, because hers was too far away, and one day he came up to her and talked to her...”I’m so lucky” he told me...SO CUTE!). We stayed at the restaurant for almost 3 hours. After that though, we had to say goodbye :( She has 3 meetings, all over southern Korea tomorrow, starting at 8:30 am! She’s so Korean (works 8 days a week). I gave her a hug and made Ashley promise to give her another one before they parted. I can’t wait to see her when we get back. 
• I wish all of Dr. Koh’s students had the opportunity to understand her in a Korean context. I have known a lot of people who’ve taken her for an intro special ed class at Eastern and have really disliked her. If they knew how hard she works, how much she cares, how professional, protective, forceful, no-nonsense but also flexible she is – and how all of those qualities are related to her life events (she mentioned tonight that she remembered eating those silkworm bugs as a child, because they had no other way to get protein) – they would not dislike her ever. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to dissolve my first impression of her and replace it with actually knowing/understanding her.