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Published: October 1st 2008
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classy
as it gets Is it really going to happen, am I going to start teaching? It seems like it's headed that way. Our school had it's first outing with prospective students and parents. We converged on English Village, which is a model town of what the "west" is supposed to look like, but instead looked like a mix of England with Roman era buildings and courtyards. The only American part about the place was the terrible hamburgers that you got a at soulless fast-food joint. Besides the "foreign" setting, the games and interaction with the kids and parents went great. This was the first time that I have been put into a teaching role, and I enjoyed it, although it did tire me out. I estimate that I played 800 to 900 games of rock, paper, scissors, and keeping the attention span of an 8 year old on a soccer field really makes you dig deep for patience and understanding. You know if you were him/her, you would want to run around and wrestle rather than sit in a circle and hear about banks, and hospitals, and markets, and all the establishments that you see at home and in the next few hours at
Seamus
fellow teacher Seamus and few Korean lads on subway. English Village. That being said, the kids were great, even if the English Village wasn't.
This was a huge success for our school, now it's up to the construction crew to get our school done, so we can get them in there. The school is going through the last and final stages of construction, with mostly just interior cosmetic details to be sorted out. We have a tentative schedule of classes we will be teaching. I am mostly a elementary teacher, but will have a few kindergarten classes. I am also the PE teacher and am looking forward to working these kids into a frenzy before setting them loose on the other teachers.
We are scheduled to open the 6th of October, so all this week is preparing lesson plans and setting up classrooms.
Other than the few hours we have spent in school, we have been doing what we can on limited budgets. The construction costs have started bleeding our employers dry, and getting this months pay has been slow to say the least. So far we have received only half of this months pay, with the rest supposedly coming in early next week, so traveling, drinking (to an
Olymipic Park
outside Olympic park in Seoul. extent) have slowed down quite a bit. We have gone to an island for a 3 day weekend, which was great. Warm water, sandy beaches, good friends, bonfires, and cheap soju. Not much more to ask for. Since Yvonne is here, I have been trying to show her around as well, but with not much money it is hard to get out snoop around. We have gone to markets, big parks, seen some night life area's of Seoul and are planning a trip to Busan for the next 3 day weekend coming up.
I have also started taking Korean lessons with everyone from my school. Our supervisor speaks very good English and is giving everyone lessons twice a week. So far I have the characters down and know a good amount of animals, I can say mole, and hippo, but have yet to master..."where is the bathroom?". We are starting with everyday situations now that the alphabet is done. The Korean language is hard to pronounce, and can be down right confusing when spoken, but the characters are arranged easily enough for me to understand and read. I can order some food and drink, just don't look for anything to
Gary
Friend from another school. fancy on the menu. As I was saying that the language can be confusing when said or heard, well the word for mushrooms is almost exactly the same as "take off your shirt", which could be a little awkward when your in the market asking a 75 year old woman for mushrooms for a dollar.
I probably haven't talked much about my coworkers in any of these blogs. In total there are six foreign teachers and two Korean teachers. Sian and Liegh were the first to get here about six months ago. They are from Scotland and just graduated from college. Then Justin and I came into the mix about 3 months ago, followed closely by Seamus and Ross. Those two dudes are from Ireland, right outside Dublin and graduated from art school two years back. The great part about our school is that all the teachers get along. There are of course the few bad days we all get, but for the most part working with this group is great.
My last blog I asked that if there was something that you personally wanted to know about that I would try my best to answer it in this blog.
Most of you wanted to know about the school and to see pictures of it under construction and finished. Here are some of the under construction pictures, I will have the finished ones on the next blog. A few of you also wanted to see pictures of the kids, but that is also going to have to wait, since I didn't have my camera with me that day and they have not start school. I put up a few night pictures and food pictures since I have not put any up yet. I am still trying to put together pictures that portrays this place like a video game Travis, but it will happen soon. The night pictures add a little to that notion.
It has been almost a month since my last blog, and I am probably forgetting details. I will though have a new blog up soon after this one with the start of the school year and future happenings. I think with Yvonne getting here, that took up a lot of my time, and I have been slow at getting things down. I have also been down right broke this month, so traveling around and new adventures were
king of the hill
Boulder next to our path in Buhkasan national park. at a low for the time being.
I would like to get actual home addresses of everyone, so I can send postcards, letters, presents, and random crap. If you are a person that would like to receive any of those things write me an email with your address and I will get on the ball with personal messages. Christmas is coming up, and I know some of you would like to get some soju and weird Korean trinkets. Until the next blog...
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auntie rue
non-member comment
;-)
... and a good time was had by all!!! great writing!!! great photos!!! great fun!!!! i am jealous, so have a good time and take care of each other!!! good to see you, e-von, in korea!!! where is the photo of something purple or atleast red?!?!?