Disclaimer: I do not endorse any ESL schools.
"So, teachers can stay here?"
"You live next to Smoking Area?"
"You have A/C in your room?"
"Teacher!! Is that you?!" someone would shout at the smoking area while you were brushing your teeth at night at the sink next to it.
These are just some of the typical questions I hear from my new students.
As I've mentioned in my previous blog, being a stay-in-teacher is one of many perks of being a full-time teacher at the school I used to work in. Actually, this is another reason why I applied for a Full-time teaching job aside from the fact that full-time teaching position could give me stability at work. When I was a part-timer, I used to be a bed spacer in one boarding house since I could not afford to pay my own apartment.
(Note: It takes an hour and a half from my hometown to my workplace, so I had no choice but to rent)
When I became a stay-in-teacher, I didn't really know how to start. I was used to living with different people, but the people at the faculty then were different. However, I had to save more money, so even if I didn't really like them, I had no choice but to put up with them.. until little by little, they left and they were changed by the people I got along well with.
My family always thought that, I, being a stay-in teacher was so cool. They always had that idea that I could meet Koreans, Japanese and Chinese students everyday. They just didn't know that I wanted even just a day not to see anyone of them..😂😂😂 Sometimes, it was kinda annoying when one student knocked at the faculty room at night and asked for an extra room key, and no-one was there except you. Or a new student would ask for your help to order food in McDonalds. Or sometimes, it was just annoying when you wanted to sleep more in the morning, but you could hear "Manangs" gossiping outside the faculty, and you could literally understand every single word they were saying because you speak the same dialect. Or sometimes, it was annoying that everybody went out to enjoy the night, but you were there alone while wifi was not working, and it was already late when you realized that you should have just come even if you thought that it would be boring.
There were also rules that we had to follow as stay-in teachers, and my hatest was that we had to turn off all the lights at exactly 11pm.When I was a new stay-in teacher, I got so stressed with this rule whenever I was alone. I cannot sleep alone without lights because I am Nyctophobic. I always get paranoid when I am in the dark alone and it makes me panic all the time. I even received a lot of warnings from the staff, including an assistant head teacher. I even thought of writing a petition and told them about my condition. The fact that they could not understand my condition pissed me off a lot.
Why didn't they think that people are different? If it was easy for them, it doesn't mean it is also easy for other people. Right? At the end, I realized that I didn't want to be stressed again, so every time I was alone, I never cared. The light was always on until they just ignored it.
Cooking was not allowed at the faculty.
There was this Carenderia near our school (perhaps ten-minute walk) we used to go to almost everyday to buy dinner because we could not cook. However, when we didn't have enough money or when we were too busy with our extra classes and we didn't have time to go out, we had to sneak food at the Dining area with the help of some kitchen staff. When you were a new teacher, you had to abide by the rule that you were not allowed to cook at the faculty room, but as time went by, specially when you were desperate to eat, you had to break the rule like what we did multiple times. It started when the Chinese manager who was my former student left her Rice cooker to us, so all the magic started there. While my roommate would bring rice, I was in-charged of cooking it secretly in our room, and we would bring dish from home that could last for a couple of days like adobo, bagis or other fried food. I would prepare the rice very early in the morning, and just turn the rice cooker on before 11am class, and so boom! at 11:50, our rice was ready to be eaten. We even tried to cook our own Shabu-Shabu version in our room while playing the TOEIC listening test, so that we (all the stay-in teachers at that time) couldn't be suspected doing something illegal in one room. (but we did something illegal..haha).
Since we could not go out, we would buy bunches of snacks and stuck them into the drawers of our desks. Two types of rats often ate them when we were out of sight. First were those little rats sharing the faculty with us, and the second ones were those who had two legs and two hands and could speak. Sometimes, it was exasperating when someone ate your snacks and didn't even ask you first. And they would just tell you, "Teach, I got cookies in your drawer. Sorry, I was starving." It was fine, though. However, didn't they know that we stuck them because we could not go out often times?
Speaking of rats, we had an unforgettable story about it at the Faculty Room. So we had this one teacher who is also a close friend of mine who stuck a lot of food in their room, and they were eaten by rats. I didn't know what kind of food he had, but that started every nightmare we had at the faculty at night for almost a month because those rats became so active and even wanted to eat everything at the faculty. They even destroyed my drawer to eat my snacks, and everything became a mess the next morning. To stop all of this, that co-teacher of mine bought a rat killer (it looked like rice) and sprinkled them in his room. The day after, manang got angry because it was stinky all around the faculty since a lot of rats died and they didn't know how to find them all .Some of them died on the roof and even in narrow corners which were difficult to clean. I remember getting rid of a dead big rat in our room as well. (I don't want to remember that, though..haha)
The nightmare lasted for almost one week until Manang and Manong already got rid of all of them. After that, he was told off not to use that "RAT KILLER" anymore. Moreover, I could sleep well again at night because I could no longer hear those rustles from the rats.
There was a convenient store inside the Academy which was one of my favorite spots. It wasn't just a simple convenience store, but you could buy different legit cosmetic brands here directly bought in Korea. (It wasn't surprising since the owner of the school is Korean.) The staff there was kind, but business-minded..haha
Note:We call her Joana Marie Konsomisyon: a name we gave her because we always gave her a problem when we didn't have anything to eat, and we asked her to cook.) . It was always nice of her to cook for us.
The store would sell pancit canton, but it cost 50 pesos for 1 order (2 packs of pancit canton). Since it was very expensive, we could not afford it, and we would only order pancit canton when some kind students treated us. They would also sell Shin Ramyeon, and because it cost 80 pesos for 1 bowl, we only bought it again when kind students bought it for us. In other words, we didn't really buy at the store if we used our own money because the prices were twice the price from the supermarket. Though, many students always bought because they didn't want to go out, and perhaps, it was still cheap for them.
Being a stay-in teacher was quite difficult sometimes. Because we were the ones who were at the faculty almost all the time, we were always in-charged of facilitating activities at school like the end of the term and parties. We (all the stay-in teachers and even our students) experienced finishing making some decorations early in the morning for an activity the next day. Good thing, we had camaraderie and it was always fun to work with people whom you trust.
All in all, I loved being a stay-in teacher. You know why? It was quite nice to be called by students at night and would bring you a meal or snacks, or even bring you left-over cakes or food they couldn't finish eating at the restaurants they had been to, and you would eat it in the morning. Or being invited by them for dinner, specially when you didn't have enough money and you were craving for Samgyeopsal. 😝.
It was also pretty nice to see the person you like inside the campus everyday and night.😆 Or you just love the atmosphere that you could rest right after your 4:50pm class or you could lie on your own bed in your room during your "lucky time" without anybody knowing.
(Lucky time: a term used when your student is absent or 15 minutes late).
Sometimes, life will bring you into places that will teach you how to survive, be a better version of yourself, and for you to experience different goodness that humanity still has.
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