First Week of Work

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I officially finished my first week of work!

So many things happened that I will only write down the most memorable ones.

On monday, Mark and I were picked up at the ICYE office by a relatively young man (I don't know if he's 25 or 35, to be honest...) and he took us to the Gangnam YMCA. His English was pretty good, but it seemed like he was feeling very self-concious about it. He seemed to be a little nervous, but in likeable way. As we walked up the hill, he walked very slow, and his breathig was a little heavy, so I was wondering if he was not used to walking? But then as we entered the YMCA and got into the elevator, he said in his (rather cute) Korean accent:

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I drink last night until 3 in the morning, now my brain is dead."

He just had a hangover! It was really funny.

Later that day, he tried to explain to me what I had to do and whenever he didn't know a word in English, he just went "Aish!" and buried his face in his arms. I laughed every time. He said because of his hangover, his brain wasn't working.

My jobs so far at the YMCA include:


• picking up the kids with the school bus and making sure they put on their seatbelt, talk in a reasonably quiet voice (aka stop screaming for one second) and stopping them from doing stupid things (like opening the window and sticking their head outside... yes, that happened)...



• Assisting the English teacher



• Assisting the Musical English teacher (I had to sing and dance with the kids, and practice a little Peter Pan roleplay)



• Assisting the Piano teacher (correcting the kids' practice sheets and keeping them somewhat calm as they wait for their turn)



• Watching the kids during break time/when no teacher is present



The kids are all between around 5 and 8 maybe and so, so, SO adorable!! They are full of energy and happiness, and their smiles are just so heartwarming! They call me either 올리비아 선생님 (Olivia seonsaengnim) which literally translates to Olivia-teacher or 영어 쌤 (yeongeo ssaem) which means English teacher. Sometimes the also say "Teacher" in a really cute Korean accent.

I'm really liking this job so far, although the language barrier is a bit of a problem at the moment... I really need to learn Korean quickly!

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