Korea Life Blog 1 -- Jeongja, Korea!

Until now my blogs have been about the processes involved in becoming a teacher in Korea. When I have a blog about something specific to Korea I will title it accordingly. However, I also wish to have more personalized blogs on this site. I will label them as "Korea Life Blog #". So, if you don't want to hear about my boring life, you can avoid these posts ;)


I am sorry it took so long to write something more interesting to my friends and family who are reading this. It has been a loooooooong three days. So this post may be a little long.

Day 1/2: I did manage maybe an hour or two of sleep on the flight over--it didn't help that I slept only 3-4

hours before my 21 hour flight. Oops. It also didn't help when I got to the airport and couldn't find my friend. Though I had my phone preset for international use, it doesn't work. Apparently Korea uses only one... signal? In the USA we use two or three? I obviously have the wrong one. So after buying an unusable calling card I spent 30 minutes freaking out before my friend found me. Luckily, I wasn't alone. I met another American named Emily who arrived on my flight, so we were working together to try and decipher the card when Stefanie found me and helped both of us in getting bus tickets and let us use her phone. The secretary and VP met me at the bus stop and showed me to my hotel room. I cleaned up and met the other teachers. Stefanie went to see a friend while we went and talked at a coffee shop. Afterwards I returned to the room and Stefanie came back to visit a little and answer any more questions before going home.

Day 1: I was picked up from my room by one of the teachers and we went to the coffee shop meet the other two teachers and eat breakfast before work. They are all really nice (even though they are all around 6 feet with natural modeling figures~ haha). I will be taking the place of the one American. The other two teachers are Canadians. I shadowed my classes for the day, learning the basic class set-up and observing the teaching. I also met with the director and had a short "post-interview" type thing.

I went on a nice 2-3 hour walk around Bundang, East of my hotel. It is so beautiful here!!! It seems like
anywhere there is five feet of space, they put a tree and anywhere they could they placed a park! For my friends and family you can check out my pictures on Facebook. I also got slightly lost (I was going the right way, but I wasn't completely sure at the time) and it was after dark. Luckily I found another foreigner out for a jog and asked him. I noticed there are a LOT of foreigners in Bundang, so I can't imagine in Seoul. haha

Day 2: I shadowed classes some more and was told more about where everything I will need for teaching and homework is. He also typed up the general information for me as a reference. After school, another teacher took me to buy a T-pass (for the train) which was a fun time. She was having trouble asking the clerk and he kept pointing to the cigarettes! But a hot guy behind us spoke some English and helped out. haha
Then she showed me how to put money on it... but I hadn't changed my traveler's checks yet, so it was only 1,000 won (~$1).

After that we returned to the school where we met with the other foreign teachers and a few Korean teachers. We all went out to eat a welcome/goodbye meal. We went to a Korean restaurant and had fried pork and beef, with an amazing collection of side dishes and soups. It was free for me and Paul since it was apparently for both of us. (Though the Korean teachers had to make the suggestion to the VP...)

Day 3: I left early and without breakfast to meet the secretary to go in for my health check. He drove. The health check was in Suwon, which took about 30 minutes each way. I was apparently pretty nervous (and maybe stressed) because my blood pressure was actually too high! (P.S. Normally my blood pressure is so low that they make fun of me for being dead... I'm not used to people telling me it's high.)
Then again, who can blame me when I had to sit in the back seat of the car of a person who claims to speak no English and therefore just doesn't speak!!! Also, the back seat thing... It seems normal in Korea to get in the backseat simply because they can't be seen with a white person in the front seat of their car (at least it makes sense to them). I feel like, in America, if I had the person get in the back and didn't let them sit in front it would be rude. Is that just me? -_-
Anyways, the blood pressure thing was an issue. They took it another 4-5 times before they accepted the last one which was 142/70.
Then came the pee test... For the first time in my life and I can only hope the last, I had to pee in a cup!!! OMG. I didn't think I would be able to do it. I was sitting in the bathroom while three other people came through and used the stall next to me before I could finally pee!!! I was really embarrassed about it too; I put the cup in the shirt pocket to hide it (my cup had a lid, but apparently when the other two girls went theirs didn't).
After that we went back to school. I felt like crap since I hadn't been able to eat because of the tests. I was really angry when I had to go into work without any food. Luckily, there was still 15 minutes before next period so I asked the VP and went to the corner shop to buy a rice ball. So I was able to cheer up and get through the day.
After our classes finished Eric let us leave early so a teacher could take me to the bank to cash my traveler’s checks. So I have money now. But the bank teller had no idea what he was doing and it took more than 30 minutes to finish.
I will be leaving in the next 20 min. to meet the foreign teachers for Indian food.

Other points of interest would be:

My co-workers are all really nice, not just the foreign teachers but the Koreans as well. The staff is altogether friendly and helpful, so it's very nice.
Also, the kids are great. I was told I would be teaching 4-15 year olds, but actually mine are all between the ages of 5 and 9. It's mostly a kindergarten with a few after school program classes. On Tuesday/Thursday, I finish just after my everyday classes at 3pm, but need to stay at work until 4:30, which is no problem. On Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I have another 3 classes which end the day around 5:30pm.
Everyday lunch is served at the school for free, but if I want I can go to the convenience store that is just one block away and get something to eat (I usually buy my breakfast there).
During lunch they play a movie in the "kid's room" for the students who finish eating and need to be occupied. I usually go in there and join them once I finish eating. The kids seem to find it amusing. Many of them will come over to sit next to me or on me. Several of them will also take any chance outside of class to try and teach me Korean! ahaha. They get really excited when I say anything in Korean, so it's always fun. We just have to keep it limited to free time. However, whenever they teach me something I always make them tell me in English, that way I know what I am saying and they get English practice at the same time.^^

So far so good, but tomorrow is my first day of real teaching!!!! Wish me luck!!!