I moved into my apartment last Friday night, after spending about a week and a half in a motel (its referred to as the Love Motel by all the foreign teachers here). My apartment, my home for the next year, is nice. And by nice I mean pretty cozy. And by cozy I mean pretty small. But I'm fine with that. Less area to clean I guess. I will try to post some pictures. Basically my bed is to the right of my door, then I have a desk and a closet type thing. Then there is the kitchen/washroom. I have a little gas stove, a sink, some cupboards, and then the washing machine. There's just enough room to stand and cook. The bathroom is in the back corner. I will try to explain how the bathroom works but a picture will probably explain it better. What you have is a toilet, a sink, and a removable shower head on the wall. So the whole bathroom is the shower. Everything gets wet (learned that the hard way when I forgot to remove my toilet paper from the bathroom the first time I showered) and there is a drain on the floor. It sounds a bit inconvenient but I get more and more comfortable with every shower. All in all the apartment is pretty good. I put pictures up, and of course the Iowa football poster from the fair, and it is feeling more like home all the time.
As far as teaching goes...I had one week of observation which went pretty well. I started to think, "Hey this isn't so bad and it looks pretty fun." Then I sat down to write out lesson plans and I realized I really had no idea what I was doing. Now, after almost a week of teaching, I think I kind of know what I'm going, but I have no idea if what I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing. The lessons are pretty much laid out for you, but they don't want you to bring the teacher book with you to class so we have folders we write the lesson plans in and then take those to class. The part that is confusing is the fact that there are like 5 different books for each class, and there are two teachers for each class and we each teach for 40 minutes so you have to figure out who is teaching what part and so on. It's just a bit overwhelming when it's all thrown at you at once. But as I said, I think I've somewhat figured out what I'm doing, I just don't know if it is what I'm supposed to be doing.
I teach one kinde class for 80 minutes everyday. Right now there are only two kids in the class. They are both really cute, and they can speak a little English. I don't know if I will get more kinde kids or if I will only have two. I guess we'll see. Anyways, after kinde I teach elementary kids. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I teach three classes of beginning elementary. Each class is forty minutes long. Then I teach one 40 minute class of more advanced elementary. I really like that class because they are pretty good and you can actually have conversations with them. Then I have a class of older elementary kids. I'm not a huge fan of that class. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my kinde class I have an 80 minute class with 5 girls who are awesome. I think they are all about 9 years old and they are amazing. They seem almost fluent and they are just fun to talk with. Then I have another older elementary class for 40 minutes, and I finish the day with an hour long class with 4 middle school girls. I have to push them quite a bit to get them to talk but their English is pretty good. For the most part teaching is going really well. The kids are all pretty good and pretty fun to be around. I'm enjoying it so far. I just hope I can get everything figured out so I know for sure I'm doing all the lessons right and such.
Other than that...I still love the food. Especially galbi, which is the Korean BBQ. Oh man it is so good. I haven't been into Seoul again, but I'm sure I will this weekend. I might go to an amusement park on Saturday. That should be fun. I'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend. Teaching gets pretty tiring. I tried learning some Korean from a book I found in my apartment. I learned a few words but its pretty tough. I may look into taking some Korean lessons soon. There is definitely a lot less English around than I thought. Not many people here speak it, or they are just too embarrassed to try. The people are very nice though. Very willing to help you whenever they can.
I'm having a pretty good time so far. All the teachers at my school are very nice and helpful. I went to dinner with some people last night and they wouldn't let me pay for anything. I had an awesome dinner and a few beers all for free. They really want you to feel welcomed and comfortable so that's nice.
That is about all I have. I will try to put some pictures up so you can see my apartment and such.
Oh I almost forgot...due to my unfortunate inability to come up with lies on the spot I have a nice young Korean Jehovah Witness man wanting to come to my apartment and talk about the bible with me. He, and his mom who didn't speak English but just nodded and smiled, stopped me right outside my apartment a couple days ago so I couldn't lie to him about where I lived and for some reason couldn't even lie to him about when a good time to come and talk to me about the bible would be. So he stopped over tonight, again with his mom, but I told him I was getting in the shower and meeting a friend (only a half lie because I really was about to get in the shower) and I'm sure he will just keep dropping by every night until we talk about the bible. Any advice on how to get rid of him would be much appreciated. It's not that I don't like talking about the bible, I just don't want this young Korean Jehovah's Witness man coming to my apartment everyday wanting to talk about the bible. I'm just too honest for my own good. I just felt bad lying to him because he was so nice and he was talking about God. It's hard lying to someone pushing God.
Anyways...I will be updating much more often now that I have internet. I love hearing from everyone back home too, so keep the comments and emails coming.
Laters...
Hey Dearie- Good to hear some thoughts and observations. Wonder what that man was talking about?? Maybe he thought you were someone else. Makes me think of "Gran Tourino", and the grandma on the porch. He probably was asking why all you Americans don't stay in your own country, and who needs to learn English anyway!! Maybe He'll become your best friend and bring you chicken dumplings.YUM!
ReplyDeleteNice thing about being a teacher of young kids, you can toot anytime and blame it on one of them. They just think it's funny. I wondered if you play memory with them. I love that game, but I think you always beat me.
Love ya, have a good Friday 9-ll. Wonder if you'll hear anything about that there. Did you also realize it was 9-9-09 the other day? Cool.
MOM