Week 2...And Still Not Adjusted

 

 

Well, here I am, and it's week number two since I arrived on Korea. I can't say it's been an easy ride. Hectic I think might be an apt description. But I'm surviving, if only just. Okay, I'm being a bit over dramatic. But it has certainly been a crazy ride. You probably already read about my Japan trip, so I won't regail you with all the details. But just a quick recap of everything that happened during my first week, I believe, will emphasize the "crazy ride" I'm talking about. #1 arrived at Incheon airport at 6:00 Thursday evening and went directly to the school. #2 got home at 10:00 only to go back to work the next morning (uggghhh, first days...). #3 stayed at work until 9:00 and got home at 9:30 (we're talking pm here, people). #4 had to go into work on Saturday for the school's musical festival performance (helping the kids change costumes was actually fun, though, and was a good way to get to know them). #5 had Sunday off, but went back to work for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning (training time!) #6 Japan for 4 days (Wednesday to Tuesday morning)!!! #7 Work Tuesday afternoon. #8 Move into my apartment Tuesday night (oh hallelujah!!!). And that was my first week minus the nitty gritty details. In regards to the apartment, I'm definitely going to have to do some fixing upping...The guy living in it before was a bachelor, and you could definitely tell that by the shape of the apartment. Plus he didnt clean before he left. It looks like he just packed upand left. And if he did happen to "clean" before he left, he needs to learn how to clan. I'll make sure to do the whole before and after thing for you guys when I'm done fixing the place up. 

Moving on. As you will notice, I've included quite a few more pictures in this post and the last (I'm doing better, guys!!!). The last one was entirely dedicated to my Japan trip, but all theses pictures are from Korea. First up is a picture of a book (get used to it; you'll be seeing lots of books). This book is different from the normal books I pick up, but is very good in its own right. Seoul Survivor is about exactly what you think it's about: surviving in Korea. Going back for just a tad bit of background here. Before coming to Korea, I did some research and found this cool website: thearrivalstore.com. It is geared specifically towards people coming to Korea. It provides products you may need if you plan to live here or at least stay for some time. This is how I got my cell phone so quickly (normally you need an alien registration card to get a cell phone with any kind of plan). I ordered my phone while I was in the States, and it was waiting for me at the school the day after I arrived. They also have everything from toilet paper to sheets, and pillows to brooms. This book was offered and I thought, why not? It would be nice to have a detailed outsider's perspective on living in Korea, and it was fairly cheap, so I bought it. I haven't quite finished it, but so far it's been very informative. I would definitely recommend it to anyone planning on coming to live/work in Korea.

These next four pictures are just of korean currency (you can find picures easily enough on the Internet, but I wanted to include them anyway). The first two pictures are of a 500 won (that's the name of korean money) piece—equal to about 50 cents. It's not an exact calculation but 1000 won is roughly one American dollar, so it's easier to just move the decimal over three spaces to calculate a price in American dollars.

These next two photos are of korean paper currency (front and back). I'm not sure who the people pictured on the bills are...I'll have to research that. So the amounts are equivalent to (from top to bottom) about $1, $5, $10, and $50.

For anyone not familiar with korean culture (although this applies to other asian countries as well), you wear slippers inside. The first picture is a pair of slippers I use at work. Comfy and cute!
 

This pair is what I wore at the place I was staying while I was waiting for my apartment to be vacated.
 

Here's some korean chocolate filled cookies my host bought for me the second night I stayed with her. Yummy!!!

And here are a couple cereals I've had since coming here. The first is Oreo :D and the second is some kind of chocolate Chex (which was my favorite of the two).

And just a couple views of the city :)

 

You'll notice there's quite a bit of smog—something I am definitely not used to (small town girl, right here). 

And then you have this hotel. This is actually quite common from what I've seen. Koreans—and just Asians in general, I think—love cute things...including hotels it would seem...

And here we have a bus pass (although it works for the subway and even taxis too!). They're also called a T money card. You can buy them almost anywhere apparently. I got mine at a small grocery store.

And now to talk about school—the real reason I'm in Korea. I had very limited training—only three and a half days before I actually had to start teaching, which was quite obviously not to my advantage. All the teachers were busy teaching, so I had no real training. Observation was my main training tool, and let me tell you how much I was lacking in practical knowledge. I didn't know what resources I had available other than the books and my own ingenuity. I saw other teachers using certain programs on a large touch screen computer in their rooms, but I have no idea what they are or how to use them. I didn't even really know what my schedule was or who exactlly I'd be teaching or how many classes I'd have each day until the day before I left for Japan (so basically I'd be preparing an entire week's worth of lesson plans with little knowledge on how or what to teach). Keep in mind throughout all this that, though I've had tutoring experience, I've never actually had any teaching experience. Not to mention I tutored college age students, not children.

It was overwhelmingly stressful to say the least. I was already worried about my trip to Japan and making sure everything went well with that. Add trying to plan and prepare for an entire week of teaching with only a few days of "training"  and trying to plan them amidst a trip to Japan...I was about to lose it. Oh, yeah, I also went straight to work from the airport on Tuesday and straight from work to my new apartment (that was nice at least—I can now do what I want on my own time!). but i spent most of the night cleaning up the mess the guy before me left. I was, gratefully, given a more definite schedule and instruction (though it was still lacking in certain areas—I think they forget I'm completely new at this). I'll let you know how the actual teaching part goes before the week is out. Hopefully it's not too much of a nightmare. My only consolation at this point is the fact that I will have one of the Korean teachers in the class with me (for most classes anyway). And almost all my students are fairly good at English— for their age anyway (5-6 year olds). I was actually surprised at how good their English was. So we'll see how this goes... 

Sorry these posts are so long. Writing has kind of become my stress reliever, and it's basically become my journal. And I should have made this statement earlier, but I apologize if anything I say offends anyone. Nothing is meant offensively. What I write are simply my observations (mostly revolving around differences I see between my culture and the Korean culture).

The real voyage of discovery

consists of not seeing new landscapes,

but of having new eyes...