I started this blog somewhere else but the Korean internet evidently ate it, so I'm starting over again. I arrived in town about a week ago. I just got internet in my room yesterday so I thought it'd be good to start letting everyone know how things were going.
I'm teaching in a city called Cheongju for the year. It's a pretty good sized city (I think like 650,000)--well, it's enough to be a city; there's lots of neon lights and cabs and stuff. The place I'm teaching is a small institute right in the middle of town. I generally will be teaching three classes a night from 4-11. I'm replacing the listening teacher, so mostly I'll be going through listening tracks with the kids, quizzing them, and then the kids have to give speeches for the last half hour or so. Right now I'm just observing the classrooms so I haven't actually had to teach anything yet. The guy I'm replacing is really good though, so I hope I can I be as good about keeping the kids entertained as he is. The curriculum is really great and straightforward so I only need about a half hour of prep for the night of classes. The kids seem really cool so far, so I think it should be a really good year.
It's pretty cool too because the other teachers are really nice--it's kind of like a little family or community. We call ourselves Foreigners and everybody kind of hangs out and helps each other out if they need it. The first week I was here one of the teachers from my school, Haley, was really nice about taking me to lunch with her and helping me meet some people. Everyone seems really friendly, so hopefully it won't be too lonely over here. I, of course, have one of my best friends, Lucci, over here to keep me busy too. He's been kind of under the weather lately though, so hopefully he'll start feeling better soon.
This weekend the teacher I'm replacing, Ben, actually planned a rafting trip with him, myself and two other teachers from the area. It was a really awesome time. We went up to the moutains of Inje and rafted. The guide didn't speak much English which made things really interesting--he was good though. The rapids weren't too thrilling, but it was fun just being out there and seeing some of the scenery and hanging out with some new people. Its really interesting because people here are from all over. We went rafting with two girls, one from Ireland and one from Canada, and I've already met someone from New Zealand and one from South Africa. It's pretty crazy how all these people end up in Korea.
The Koreans are really friendly too. Unfortunately I'm very scary to them. The cable guy came yesterday and acted like I was going to eat him if he stayed too long. He was right (I haven't been eating too well because I have no idea what I'm ordering in the restaurants) but I still would have preferred him being a little friendlier at first. Then yesterday afternoon Lucci and I went to the downtown area so I could get some bedding stuff; we went up to one of the workers in the department store and tried to mime that we wanted bedding supplies and he went kind of crazy. He was sprinting around the store and calling people--I told Lucci I thought maybe he thought we needed a place to stay. I felt awful because I could tell he was really stressed. We just kind of left after he didn't come back for fifteen minutes, so Korean Department Store Guy if you ever read this, I'm sorry for making you run around like that.
Other than me being a kind of aryan monster it's been really good. The apartment is really nice and I live one door down from Lucci and down the hall from Haley. It's funny because I actually live closer to Lucci now in Korea than I did when I lived with him last year in the house. Craziness.
It's pretty cool too because the other teachers are really nice--it's kind of like a little family or community. We call ourselves Foreigners and everybody kind of hangs out and helps each other out if they need it. The first week I was here one of the teachers from my school, Haley, was really nice about taking me to lunch with her and helping me meet some people. Everyone seems really friendly, so hopefully it won't be too lonely over here. I, of course, have one of my best friends, Lucci, over here to keep me busy too. He's been kind of under the weather lately though, so hopefully he'll start feeling better soon.
This weekend the teacher I'm replacing, Ben, actually planned a rafting trip with him, myself and two other teachers from the area. It was a really awesome time. We went up to the moutains of Inje and rafted. The guide didn't speak much English which made things really interesting--he was good though. The rapids weren't too thrilling, but it was fun just being out there and seeing some of the scenery and hanging out with some new people. Its really interesting because people here are from all over. We went rafting with two girls, one from Ireland and one from Canada, and I've already met someone from New Zealand and one from South Africa. It's pretty crazy how all these people end up in Korea.
The Koreans are really friendly too. Unfortunately I'm very scary to them. The cable guy came yesterday and acted like I was going to eat him if he stayed too long. He was right (I haven't been eating too well because I have no idea what I'm ordering in the restaurants) but I still would have preferred him being a little friendlier at first. Then yesterday afternoon Lucci and I went to the downtown area so I could get some bedding stuff; we went up to one of the workers in the department store and tried to mime that we wanted bedding supplies and he went kind of crazy. He was sprinting around the store and calling people--I told Lucci I thought maybe he thought we needed a place to stay. I felt awful because I could tell he was really stressed. We just kind of left after he didn't come back for fifteen minutes, so Korean Department Store Guy if you ever read this, I'm sorry for making you run around like that.
Other than me being a kind of aryan monster it's been really good. The apartment is really nice and I live one door down from Lucci and down the hall from Haley. It's funny because I actually live closer to Lucci now in Korea than I did when I lived with him last year in the house. Craziness.
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