so this is the new year

I've been getting snippets from my host mother and co-teacher about the new principal who started in March. I haven't gotten much of an impression of him directly since he speaks zero English, though I did have a nice attempted conversation with him once, while I sat in his office with a cup of green tea trying to make chit chat. He'd called me in to meet the foreigner who teaches over at Maesan Boys' High School, and then the foreigner (a New Zealander named Greg) left and I sat there and had to finish my tea. The conversation consisted of the Principal (his rank takes such precedence that I don't even know his name) speaking to me somewhat at length in Korean and me responding with awkward smiles and a mangled, "I'm studying Korean at the university."

Anyway, what I've been hearing is that this new principal is a bit more of a stickler than the last one. "Not generous," is how my co-teacher described him yesterday when she had to go ask him for permission for me to go to Seoul to meet my mother instead of sticking around for finals (which I don't typically administer--luckily he let me go). I know that back in March the teachers were somewhat displeased that a teacher from Maesan Boys' High School had been appointed our principal, as opposed to someone within our own ranks. Tensions have risen a little now that we see he's also somewhat reform-minded. He got the English teachers in a bit of a stir by suggesting that they all co-teach my classes with me, like they do over at Maesan Boys'. He's ordered the trees trimmed back in the yard, and even told one of the English teachers that he had to stop coming to school in hiking gear. That might seem strange, but keep in mind that hiking gear in Korea is a full-on uniform, not just any old clothes: black lycra pants and a windbreaker, usually red for some reason. It's not like this teacher just rolls out of bed and this is the most convenient thing for him. I mean, I don't know precisely why he likes wearing hiking gear, but he's not doing it out of laziness--and in general somewhat casual clothes seem to fly at my school, or used to. (Or in my case, business casual clothes that still manage to be unkempt get me through).

This new strictness made me nervous this afternoon when I let a class out of a few minutes early and, despite their careful creeping, heads kept below the level of the hall windows, they were still detected rushing down the hall to get into the cafeteria ahead of everyone else (Maybe it was the giggles and pattering feet that gave them away).

I forgot about my anxiety after I ate lunch myself and then strolled out into the sun. A clutch of girls, I'm not sure which class, were standing on the outer stairwell. A few of them had been standing there since the previous period, holding their arms over their heads as punishment for I don't know what. The girls waved. The ones with their arms in the air turned and waved their arms. When I circled back, returning from the little school store, the Vice Principal was scolding them for letting their arms drop. They stood still with little smiles, facing away from him. It seems like the schoolgirl tactic at my school, is that if you are caught misbehaving, you act like nothing's happened and hope that the authority figure just goes away.

I sat in the sun on the bench beneath the trees and ate a popcicle. Spring really has arrived.