Elemementary Teacher Training course Week 4 - Mission accomplished

The final week has ended. Overall the lessons went very well, and the final mission was accomplished - vvv nice girl seems to like me rather more than I thought she might.
There was a day off during the final week - a Korean national holiday to mark independence from Japan (the Koreans, along with the Chinese, seem to dislike this nation quite a lot). On Monday I got talking to vvv nice girl, and asked her what she will do on her day off. She said she had no plan....and then asked me if I wanted to visit her hometown and she could show me around. I accepted her offer even before she had finished offering it to me - and I think in hindsight I may have come across as a bit desperate. Never mind. She also gave me a coffee drink that she had bought for me that morning (it's in a pot...with a straw. They sell it in Korea and she had noticed I often drink it). So, things were definitely looking up.

The lessons were going well. I had quite a few 'Post Office' venues, and many 'Games and Quizzes' classes to do. Just as I was about to start class E's 'Games and Quizzes' lesson, one of the teachers asked me 'Who was your first love?' Now, I didn't mind this, as it proved that I had successfully created a good rapport with them, and they were now comfortable enough to ask me a personal question. After I had told them, (which took about 1 minute - the same reply would also have answered the question 'Can you tell us about your love life over the past 34 years?) I jokingly said 'Now what about you?!' to the whole class, thinking they would laugh, not want to tell me, and then I would start the lesson. However, they didn't, and over the next 1 hour and ten minutes all but 2 of them opened up completely about their 'first love'. They were far more interested in this topic than anything I was planning on teaching...and so I changed the title of the lesson (which was on the big plasma screen) from 'Games and Quizzes' to 'Group Discussion - 'My First Love''. I could justify the change as they were all speaking and listening in English...so it was oral English practice. One lady, who I thought quite shy, really talked a lot and was incredibly sincere. Everyone was listening intensely to her every word...and it was a really sad story! One part I remember is where she went to the river and floated a paper boat down the river towards the town where this chap she loved lived. She wrote a message on it, and hoped he would find it. But he didn't cause he had no idea she liked him, and the chances of him even being near the river were pretty remote. But she did it anyway. Years later she met him again, and they both confessed that they had really liked each other ...but neither of them knew the others feelings. By the time they met, they were both married to someone else. This story got one member of the class openly crying her eyes out...and others were not far off doing the same. There were a lot of sad stories actually...and they were all so keen to tell them!
The only male in the class told us about a girl he really liked, and he had a 'special place' where he would confess his feelings. This seemed to work, as they got together. The class thought that very romantic. He then said it's a really good place...and has worked many times since with a variety of different girls. After that it seemed the class didn't think this place was quite as romantic as they first thought. I decided I would ask him later where this 'special place' is, as it never seemed to fail. But I forgot.
For the last 10 minutes I quickly told them about what I was planning on teaching them had they not decided to tell everyone about their love lives. At the end of the course they have to grade my teaching for each lesson. I wonder what I will get for this?
I went to visit vvv nice girls city on the free day, and she had everything planned out very well. We went to a kind of memorial/museum park type place...where I learned about many bad things the Japanese did during the war. At the end of the day when we were having dinner she said a few things to me that gave me the feeling that, from this moment on, we are a couple. It was a tad hasty, I thought.
On Thursday the teachers did their skit performances on stage. Many were afraid of this, and I feared it might be an embarrassing disaster. In actual fact, every performance was excellent, and D class came up with the best of them. They all put our own 'Smellarella' skit to shame. Thankfully the foreigners did not perform...so few people know how bad we are.
After the performances someone from Class A whispered to me that they wanted to invite Crazy Korean/American, Paul (from upstairs), and myself to dinner...but not the others. We all snuck out early and went to the restaurant. On the way I was in car with vvv nice girl (who wanted to keep our 'relationship' top secret)and another teacher, and I warned them that if Crazy Korean/American girl drinks alcohol, she will be loud and obnoxious (I thought it best to be blunt). They said I should not worry and that everything will be fine. Fools.
The meal was in a traditional Korean restaurant where everyone sits on the floor and the tables are very low. Men should sit crossed legged with their knees under the table, and ladies sit....like ladies who sit on the floor sit. As I can't get my knees under the table, I always have to sit like a lady. It's frustrating as anyone who sees me thinks I choose to sit like a lady. They don't realize I can't sit the 'man' way.
I had to sit next to Crazy Korean/American...and things went well for around 25 minutes. Then, once the Sodue (Korean alcohol) had taken effect, everyone fell silent as Crazy K/A banged the table to make an announcement. This is what she said (in a loud, drunk Korean/American type way):
'I would just like to say something. I wanna say that when I first came to Korea I didn't like it. I didn't like the Korean culture, and I didn't like the people. I'm from LA in the US, and I really wanted to go back. I just didn't like it here. But now, after meeting you guys, I feel I like it much more.' Nice one. Koreans are very polite, and so smiled and gave her a clap once she had finished slagging off their country. I tried to make my knees, and the rest of my body go under the table, but I couldn't.
Quite a lot of alcohol was being consumed, and Paul was making his way around to every female in an effort to chat them up. He also tried to chat up vvv nice girl, which proved to be a mistake. When he moved on to the next female, Crazy/Korean American went to speak to vvv nice girl and, as I later found out, told her to stay away from Paul, as he was hers (Paul didn't know this). Vvv nice girl was shocked at this, and told Crazy K/A that actually she liked me (so as to calm the nutcase down). From that moment on the evening became a nightmare.
We all moved on to a karaoke bar, and had a few more drinks. Crazy K/A saw this as good chance for her to match make, and loudly and embarrassingly tried to get vvv nice girl and me to talk to each other, or hold hands....thinking we were too shy to speak to each other. It was like being back in the school playground. The rest of Class A couldn't fail to notice this...and so the secret was pretty much out. Vvv nice girl couldn't bare any more of it...and left the room we were in. I explained to Crazy K/A that we already know we like each other, but we want to keep it private right now. She responded by telling me to hold her hand. The alcohol was deep-rooted in her system, and would stay there for a long time.
I chose a song to sing and some beer to drink, and was just going to get started when vvv nice girl returned and told me to go outside. I then got into trouble. Apparently I should have followed her out when she left the room. Oh well. We talked for a while, and she said Crazy K/A is....crazy. I did warn her before, but to be fair nobody could possibly guess what that girl is like when she drinks. I asked her why she wanted so desperately to keep it a secret that we liked each other. She explained that her father is a high ranking official in the education department of the local government, and he would not be happy if he found out. I asked why, and she said it's because I am a foreigner, and her father doesn't think Koreans should be with foreigners. That's a nice explanation. A short time later I made another error, by uttering the work 'sh*t' when I thought Crazy K/A had seen us. Vvv nice girl said she was 'very disappointed' in me for saying such a bad word. Hmm.
Soon everyone came out of the karaoke and took a bus back to their city. Vvv nice girl got a lift back with them. Faced with the possibility of staying out longer with Crazy KA, I went home too. Half an hour later I sent a text message to vvv nice girl - and she replied saying I was late sending her a text, but she forgives me. I decided to remove all of her ' v's ', so now she is just 'nice girl'.

Friday was the last day, and all the Elementary School Teachers were asked to write assessments on each of the foreign teachers and their lessons. I would love to read what they wrote about BFA Pete...but I think we will only be given feedback on our own lessons. And so, after many photos and a farewell speech, they all went away. The next teacher 'training' course will be in January. From now on it's back to travelling freak shows and kids camps. Joy.