2009.09.07

First day at school!
Its Monday! Today was the first day at school for me. Currently still at school, it is 12:23, lunch time but i have a medical check so i can't eat until after the appointment. Today was an assembly in the gym for me, which i had to introduce myself with a 2 minute speech. It was easy, a lil nervous but fun because they were an audience of kids. I just came from a class i just visit, grade 4. Just substituting but it was fun to learn how a Korean class works. They all cheer each other on, clap when someone stands to speak, sing a song when teacher tells them to quiet. They speak good english too! Better than the adults, and it seems they have a good grasp of the language, more than i thought. They were able to ask me questions and understand my answer. At the same time, i'm thinking this might be tougher than i thought because of their high level of comprehension, which i underestimated because of their age. Makes me think, i really need to increase my learning speed in Korean to keep up with their ability to learn English. Its orientation week for me, but i still get paid for last week and this week, aint that sweet? hahaha.

Documents
Geeze, i have loads of paper work and documents i have to sort and complete. Some documents are for my residence and life teaching in Korea, and some are related to home in Canada. They want a residency card, i kinda delayed it because its difficult, but i better get that done this week. Annoying.

Sunday night
What a boring day, it was hot and humid so i stayed indoors all day. Until Ji-Sook came with her friend... wow i forget his name already. He spoke even better English than she did, he was also a teacher but his school was alot bigger than mine. We talked about our differences and similarities between Canada and Korea. He knows about motorbikes so if and when i decide to get one, he will help me purchase one. He went for out for dinner, i was hungry for chicken and the chicken was pretty good here. Fried chicken here is not greasy as KFC lol. It's cheaper too. We talked about food, eating meat and eventually i brought up how Koreans like to eat dog. He said he had it two days ago, sweet! Now we planned to eat some bbq dog next week... i had it in Vietnam. Taste like a mix of chicken, beef and pork. Imagine that, 3 meat in one. Also, their are cool and refreshing side effects to eating dog meat in hot weather, which is why they eat it here. Usually men eat it, not women. Same with drinking, it is said that Korean men love to drink and everynight when i walk Ji-Sook to her bus stop, i see drunkards stumbling everywhere. Oh yeah, last night i saw a young girl wear a T-Shit that said "Fuck Yourself", thats hilarious. I wonder if she knows what that means to be wearing that lol.

Phone
I need a cell phone, but not until I get my medical check, then alien registration card and so on... I dont have a home phone either, but i was able to call home to Canada earlier to speak to my mom with a phone card at school. Finally!

Technology
Again, it really seems that Korea is more capable of having access to technology because Suwon is the hometown of Samsung, like Blackberry/Rim is to waterloo, but times 10. So they have everything here. The classroom has a computer, printer and a frigging 50 inch flat screen TV!!! I also get my own desk and computer in the teachers office, the same as Ji-Sook... this is great.

Curriculum
In so far, i've seen and study a bit of the English books. Its hard for me because the book is written in Hangul but I will be teaching grade 3-6 English with her so that actually makes my life easier... Choosing a public school in Suwon was one of the best descisions i made. I hear horror stories about teaching overseas in Korea, but i got lucky. My school is new, i teach 22 hrs, i have a translator, i get stuff (desk, housing allowance, paid apartment etc) and its mostly girl teachers here. Its fun...

Things are looking good. I'm glad that things have finally turned up and that i am now working. I gotta get back to... work? I honestly am not teaching this week, just orientation (ie visiting classrooms and taking notes). I also remembered, i gotta apply to teachers college by November... thats might not happen if i like it here to much lol.