Starting Classes

Hello,



Last week was my first week of classes. Tuesday was the first day of school, and I began teaching on Wednesday. My first day of teaching, I had three 4th grade classes. They went surprisingly well. I did a very simple lesson reviewing vocabulary for the new unit. We played a version of bingo with their vocab. My first lesson was a bit rough but the other 2 went really well. My co-teacher( Ju-ri, 3/4 grade co-teacher) was very helpful and I think we are going to make a good team. The rest of the week I just observed the 5th and 6th grade classes that I will be teaching, and helped out a bit. I will take over next week as the lead teacher with my co-teacher's help translating when needed. (Yun Seon, 5/6th grade co-teacher)

I know it was just the first week, but the students are very nice to me. When I walk into the room they were all smiles. The seem to be eager to learn. Everytime I pass students in the hall they are smile and say "hello." I live in the town that I teach, so I frequently run into my students. Many of them come up to me and greet me. Some student even come running over to greet me. It is nice to be well recieved. Well, so far anyways. Who knows how long this honeymoon period will last with the students. I was a bit nervous on how the students would respond to me. I didn't know if the fact that I looked Korean, but didn't speak the language would go over well. I was acutally quite nervous about that, but I think they understand it is not a big deal to them. Even if it was, I wouldn't be able to understand them if they were making fun of me. I guess that is a good thing?



I am currently still without cable, internet and a cell phone. It is a bit difficult, but I have figured out ways to live without. There is a PC (internet cafe) within 2 min of my apt that I go to when I need to check my e-mail, blog, facebook, chat, or watch tv shows online. I also have the internet at my school. So, I'm really not living w/o the internet. What I really miss is not having a phone. I use the pay phone when I need to make calls, or ask random people on the street to use their phone when I am in a bind. I hopefully will get my alien card this Thursday, and will then be able to get all of those things.

During the week, I do get a bit bored. After school I don't have much to do. I'm in a small town and the nearest bigger town is about a 15 minute bus ride. I think I will be fine once I get the internet bc I can just watch t.v. online in my apt and also of course chat with people back home. So instead of sitting around my apt and watching my friends dvd's that I brought (which I watch everyday), I usually take a random bus into Seoul and walk around. This is fun for me. It gives me something to do and I always find something new. Sometimes I find interesting things and other times not so much. I also go to random stops on the subway and look around. The best thing is finding new food! I think I need to buy a travel book. I think that will help me by giving me some good ideas of what to see. I did find a nice bookstore with all english books! It's called "What a Book." Maybe I'll go there next week and buy one.

I have met some really cool people here (Korean and foreigners). While I am very happy to have a few Korean friends, it is also nice to have other foreign friends who know what I am going through. This weekend I went to the SK vs. Austrailia soccer game. It was a lot of fun! We had a group of about 20 people that went to the game together. I met so many new people. SK won! Yea! We had dinner before and then went out afterwards. It was nice because most of the people have been here a while and I am learning new things through them. It is nice because they know what I am going through as a newbie here. It is interesting to here everyones take on Korean society.

Also, in the group of people I met 3 other foreign Koreans. One was Korean Canadian and two of them were adopted Korean Americans. It was interesting to hear their perception of Korea. There does seem to be a handful of adopted Koreans here in Seoul, which is nice.

Some of the people I met at the soccer game live semi-close to me. I think I might meet up with them sometime soon. It is nice to meet people closer to me. I think they are only about 30 min from me. Seoul is a big city, and many of the people I have met live 1hr 1/2 away from me.

Well, that is all for now! Hopefully next time I will be typing my blog from my own computer! I will also post picture once I get the internet.