The Big Blog

Hey everyone!
Although I have been in Korea for a couple of weeks now, I am just starting to get my blog up and on the go. I have written about the first few days and I will include them all in the one post. Then I will start to make additions and and add pictures later on. Feel free to browse and add comments if you wish. Enjoy!

May 1

Today was a fairly long day. It began at the St. John's airport where I said good bye to my parents and boarded the plane. I then flew to Toronto, on to Vancouver and finally Soeul. The flights were long and boring, where I slept some, read my book watched the movies, etc.

I arrived in Seoul somewhat nervous of how I would be able to get around. But it was fairly easy. Customs was a breeze, even as stern as they looked.I found my luggage no problem and then proceded to the payphone of where I had to call the school to tell them that I arrived. The payphone was quite advanced, of where you can go on the interner, play games, etc and so I took a picture. The airport has English signs and many people speak English, so it was easy to navigate. I then had to board a bus to Bundang city, of which a Korean girl who spoke English helped me.

Mr Shu picked me up at the bus station and brought me to my hotel. By this time, it was about 6pm and I was quite tired and wanted to go to sleep. But not right now! We then went to the school where I met the coordinator, Clara. She gave me the following weeks schedule, showed me around the school and we met some of the other foreign teachers.

At this time Alexis came on the scene. She just arrived and was as tired as I was. But who could stop there!? We then went to an Irish bar, near our hotel which is a favorite of the foreign teachers. Jen (Cape Breton) and Dwayne (New Zealand) have been around for a bit and are actually soon leaving, and gave great insight and tips on living in Korea, while over a few beer.

And being so jetlagged and my body is still running on 'daytime mode', I managed to steal only got two hours sleep! Tomorrow Alexis and I get to see the foreign teachers in action.

May 2

The goal of today and for the rest of the week is to shadow the other foreign teachers and observe thir teaching methods and skills. Most of my classes are kindergarden (5 and 6 years old), so half of the class is spent trying to settle them down. My afternoon classes consists of children who are a bit older (11 and 12) and so it can be a welcome change from the smaller kids.

At this point, everything seems jumbled as to what classes are what, the books for each, how much the children should know, etc. But after all, it is my first day of school. Everything should fall into place soon.

I have leaned today there there is an age of "Korean Years" When children are born, they are actually considered to be 1 year old. And so a child of 6 would actually be 5 years old by our North American standards. Age is a big concern to the Koreans. Anyone who is older gets automatic respect. So it is not unusal to go into a store and be asked "How old are you?" or "how old do you think I am?"

Happy 14th birthday Champy!!

May 4

So today was the last day of school for the week, as Friday is a holiday, Children's Day. Observing classes was fun and all, but now the crunch is on and teaching begins on Monday. I started doing some lesson planning for Monday and found it very frustrating trying to figure out where the last teacher left off, verus where they should be in the syballus.Finding books and tapes can sometimes be difficult. And to top it off, we also have to coordinate with the Korean-English teachers, who teach for half the period. Arrrrggghhhh! I know it is frustrating now, but I also know in time it will become easier.

In the evening time, we went to an all you can eat and all you can drink buffett, free of charge (Thanks YBM), as a farewell to the old teachers and welcome to the new teachers. There was so much food there, it was unimaginable! In the end, we were the only ones left, and they actually had to kick us out! Afterwords we went to the Bublin Irish bar, just across the street from our hotel. It must have been forigner night or something becuase there were a lot of forigners there, along with Koreans too. It was cool to meet with others from all over. We also went to Karoke, known in Korea as Noraebang. Now Karoke here is not like it is at home. You rent your own room and get to sing and embarss yourself in front of your friends instead of strangers. And so the night was full of good food, drinks and company!