You always remember your first Vice PrinciPALs

I had the luxury of having two Vice-Principals in my first semester as a teacher. Both were very kind, in a sense. Unfortunately, they have moved onto greater things in life. This obviously means I get to meet more Koreans obsessed within whatever educational admin-people do for a living (is it typing?). Just kidding, I'm sure their jobs are just as important as training the leaders and athletes of tomorrow. But I digress...

My female Vice-Principal, who retired, reminded me a lot of my Nana. She was very kind and always smiling away. She stood outside every morning, rain or shine, greeting all the students and teachers. Her English wasn't the best but she tried to talk to me about teacher-related things, or compliment me on my tie or my exquisite physique - never winked when she said stuff like that though. She seemed like a very genuine person and I never heard her raise her voice.

Now the male Veep was a completely different administrator. He liked telling jokes, drinking, sleeping, and his English was pretty minimal. He was an old grump I would say, actually kind of like Grandpa. That's not weird at all is it? Either way every time I talked to him outside of school he was rosy-cheeked. I can't really blame him. One month into my tenure at the school I heard through the grapevine he was due to become the principal of another school in the next year, so he didn't seem as caring as his counterpart.

Our first Encounter:

My first Friday in Korea was my first day going to my school. I met my evil Co-teacher and she took me to a hotel since my apartment wasn't ready yet. I pulled out my presents that I had bought in Canada for the Principal and Vice Principal: maple syrup and shot glasses, respectively. When she told me there were two Veeps I was a little disappointed to separate the two ever-so-Canadian shot glasses. When I presented them to each of them, out of the decorative box, the wiser Veep looked at it completely disinterested, and the grump said, "Oh Soju" with a big grin on his face. At least I won one of them over.