Random day at school

This is a picture of my favorite 9th grade class. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but they are the best, most fun, and all that.

So my school has exams today and tomorrow, which means I have no classes to teach. Instead of letting me stay home, they make me come to school and sit at my desk for no reason. So, I'm utilizing this time to do a lot of odds and ends tasks, and plan ahead for next week as well.

I'm learning a bit of Korean, and we have a class every Tuesday night with one of the teachers at my school. By we, I mean the other Native English teachers in Yesan. The girl who teaches is very nice, and is one of our friends, and always helps us out. I find myself already starting to recognize certain words and I know important phrases that are useful for wandering around town. I'm hoping to be able to communicate in a baisc way within 6 months. The language structure is very different, so it's hard to transition from English.

My schedule consists of teaching 25 different classes. I teach 9 classes of 9th graders every week, each with about 35 girls, 12 classes of 8th graders, each with about 24 girls, on a rotating bi-weekly basis, and 4 classes of 7th graders, each with about 20 girls, every week. The 7th graders are the top in their class, and the 8th graders are broken down into 4 levels, with 3 classes in each level. Those classes are easy to teach to, since they are all about the same proficiency. The third graders range from top to bottom in every class. It makes it very difficult to get the lesson across in a good way, but thats one of the challenges I'll have to overcome. Next week we are off Monday and Tuesday (this weekend is Buddha's birthday, the biggest holiday here) and I have a field trip the week after, so I'm looking forward to a fun month of May!

Backdated posts

So, Ive decided to post some thoughts about my first month. I made notes as things happened, so these will be backdated.

At Orientation, March 26-30:
Stayed in a dormitory in Seoul for the first 4 nights in Korea, with about 140 other native English teachers. Had a great time while I was there, met lots of other cool people, most of whom did not know anyone, so it was a great networking opportunity and a great way for us to get transitioned to life here in Korea. They held lectures and useful information sessions about not only how to teach, but how to get along with other teachers, what things to see/do, thigns to avoid, etc. On the last day they took us to see the national museum of Seoul, Gyeonbukgung palace, which is over 1200 years old, and a Korean performance called Nanta, which is like Stomp, but better and with a storyline involving chefs. Very great musical performance, and hilarious as well. The whole orientation I did not know where I was going, or what grades I was teaching, they finally told us on the busride to my province 30 minutes before I got there. Korea is very dynamic, likes to not reveal things til the last possible minute.

In Yesan, March 30-April 22.
The bus dropped us off at the Chungcheongnam-do (the province I'm teaching in) office of education, in Cheonan. It is here I meet my co-teacher, who then procedes to drive me to Yesan to get my aparment. The first thing she says to me as we get into the car, "I hate driving, and I'm not a very good driver." She would prove both of these facts frequently over the 45 minute ride to the school. We arrive at the school, where I meet the principal and vice-principal. They take me into his office, I dont say anything, they talk to my co-teacher in Korean for 10 minutes, then we leave. Same thing happens when we go to the Yesan district office of Education. Seems to be a very strange practice, but it's all about customs here in Korea. Finally get taken to my apartment, and I see waht I'm dealing with. It's actually a nice place, new appliances and furniture and whatnot, jsut very small. I'd say its about 22'x 16' approximately, and that includes Kitchen/Bathoom and living/dining/bedroom. Notice the shower is just a handle above the sink, next to the toilet. Very different, but I'll get used to it.
The next day is my first at school, and its quite the experience. If I ever wondered what any of the guys from NSYNC or Backstree Boys felt like, now i know. All the girls would do anything just to catch a glimpse of me, some would stop in their tracks, some would stare, some would giggle. It was surreal. I am literally a celebrity. I sat in my classroom, and every break period, literally a line of girls would run to the door, shout broken english, then giggle and run away. Truly amazing.

The pictures is of aview from the top of Mt Kumo, in Yesan.
Not going to bore with details, and I'll be posting more frequently from here on out, but it's been quite the amazing experience so far, and I'm lookin forward to many more.

First month in Korea

OK, So I've been here for about a month now. I'm teaching at an all-girls middle school in Yesan, which is about 2 hrs south of Seoul by train. So far, its been good, but there is much to learn and even more to accomplish while I'm here. My apartment is a very small studio right in the middle of town. I can walk to school, to the store, train station, bus depot, basically anywhere in town I need to go, its a 15 minute walk or less. The town itself has about 45-50,000 people, which is small for Korea. It does not look or feel that big, trust me. There are 12 other foreign teachers living in Yesan, all but 2 of them livin in my building, which is a great asset. They have all been here longer, so they know the area, thigns to do, etc.. We do a lot of things together, since we're pretty much the only ones who speak English in Yesan. Most of the people here and never left, or rarely leave, and before last year when they started this program, had never seen a person who wasn't Korean in person. Everyday the girls at my school will say hi and giggle, say I'm handsome, they love me, stare at me, you name it. It's bascially like being a teen icon back in the USA, I've even signed autographs for the students. It's a nice change of pace, thats for sure.
As for living itself, there are adjustments to be made. The food being the biggest one. A lot of things I'm used to, they just dont have, especially in a small town like Yesan. I'm adjusting, though, and finding things that I enjoy, and being pleasantly surprised by the taste of some horrible looking foods. But, for everything that tastes good, there are 2 more that taste horrible. The people here are really friendly, and are genuinely interested in me and the rest of the foreigners, they just have a hard time speaking English, so they rarely talk to any of us. Only the ones who are good at English will actually have conversations with us, and thats hard enough for them. Luckily, we are assigned a co-teacher who helps us take care of all the administrative paperwork, and is our liasion for any problems at the school. Theres also a teacher at my school who is my age that hangs out with all of us foreigners and is a huge help in walking around town, buying train tickets, helping me get my phone, pretty much anything. Any help I need is not far away.
I have been to Seoul twice so far, once for the orientation, and just again this past weekend for fun. It's a huge city, so it will take many more times to do half of what I need to do. The greatest thing about Korea is the ease and cost effectiveness of traveling. I can get pretty much anywhere in the country in less than 2 1/2 hours, and the most expensive train ticket I would buy would be abou $15. The train to Seoul is less than $8. I'll be taking full advantage of that situation as much as I can. That will about sum it up for my first blog post. Sorry it took so long to get this out there. This blog will only improve as I learn how to use it and continue posting. Talk to you again soon!