This week was an extremely eventful week. I’m not even sure where to start. Monday was my last day of work at LCI Academy in Seoul. There was no morning kindergarten, I had no classes to prepare for. All of the things I really needed to do were outside of school, such as going to the bank and transferring money to my American bank account. However, all six of the foreign teachers who were leaving were told that we couldn’t go take care of anything until noon, then we had to be back by 2pm. Even though there was nothing for us to do at the school, and if we all went to the bank at the same time, it would take FOREVER. But logic seems to play very little part in the planning that goes on at LCI. Oh well, I finished everything I needed to, and successfully fulfilled my contract with LCI. Monday night I went to my last Korean class at Yonsei University (at least for the next year). Then, Tuesday morning, I loaded my possessions into the car of a Korean man I’d never met before and drove to start a new life in Wonju, South Korea.
I settled into my new apartment really easily. It’s a lot better than my other apartments except for one respect…the shower. There isn’t one. I’ve seen this in other people’s apartments, but I’ve never had to live with it before. There is a hose attached to my sink and I have to use that to shower. Most apartments have a hook on the wall you can hang it from, but the hook in my bathroom is located in a spot that I cannot possibly stand under…showering has been a bit awkward this week. I’ll have to figure out a way to suspend it from the wall.
Now for the school. It’s a very interesting dynamic. I start out each day by singing a hymn I’ve never heard before, reading a passage of scripture from the Bible, then praying with my coworkers. I like the tone it sets for the day, but it’s a little awkward right now. I’m afraid I’m going to pray wrong or something…even though I know there’s not a wrong way to pray. After morning service, we plan for our classes until 8:30 when the first class starts. Each class is 45 minutes long. I teach on average 5 classes a day. The rest of the time I get to spend prepping for my classes. It’s a strange thing to actually have time to prep for classes. I can create worksheets, and since I have technology available to me in my classroom, I’ve even been making PowerPoint presentations. The schedule is still a little confusing to me, but hopefully the more I do it, the easier it will become to figure out.
As for the students, I really like them. There are some really low level classes, and some really high level. There’s one class where everyone in it is practically fluent. Two of the students don’t even have an accent. I really enjoy teaching them. One of my favorite things about teaching middle schoolers is that I can use my vast knowledge of K-Pop to get them involved in talking in class. This week we had a debate on whether Big Bang or 2PM was a better Korean boy band.
My co-workers seem pretty nice. All of the Korean staff is really busy with the start of the school year, and I feel bad stopping them to ask questions. I hope things will calm down a little bit once we get into the swing of the school year. There are supposed to be four foreign teachers, but right now they’re having a little bit of trouble finding a fourth, so there are only three of us. One of them is from the Philippines. She is really nice. I don’t think she’s actually a native English speaker, but she’s fluent. The other is an interesting gentleman from Georgia. He speaks very quickly with a southern accent. I sometimes have difficulty understanding him, and I assume that the students do to.
I haven’t explored the city very much yet. But I intend to explore a lot this week. I start attending the Korean church next Sunday too. I had to go into Seoul for a meeting this weekend, but starting next weekend, it’s full on Korean mode. I hope they will speak to me in Korean. If I can make church friends it will really help me in a lot of ways.
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