Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted much this week,
but I'm trying to get my internet connection sorted. It seems to work for about
15 minutes every three hours, so it's a bit difficult to be productive. Technology
truly hates me.
And hey, for everyone that
is curious about the time difference, I am 15 hours ahead. That's 15 hours in
the future! It's kind of strange thinking that the time for all of you is so
different.
Anyways, this week has
been quite interesting, to say the least. It's been filled with new friends,
great food, and finally moving into my permanent apartment!
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| This is the hallway of the place where my rented room was. There was no way to get a good picture of that tiny room, so this will have to do! |
I arrived on Monday night,
and then really started at work on Tuesday. I just shadowed the three other
teachers to get a feel for how they ran their classroom. It's a very strange
time for me to be starting at SPOL, because it is the end of term for them.
Right now, pretty much all the work is done, so the teachers are showing movies
or playing games and having fun instead of instructing the students. After
classes, I went home to sleep because I still felt pretty jet lagged.
On Wednesday, I had quite
a busy day. Before school, I had to go get a medical checkup that is required
in order to get my ARC (Alien Resident Card). George, a coworker, thankfully
came with me because I had no idea where to go and I speak absolutely no
Korean. They took all sorts of tests--blood, urine, EKG, chest X-ray, and the
infamous boob measurement. I say infamous because apparently everyone talks
about it, and it's the strangest thing because that is the only place they
measure. I have no idea why. After this, George and I got bibimbap for
breakfast. This is a traditional breakfast that has some rice, chili sauce,
sprouts, and other vegetables topped with an egg. It was pretty tasty, but
definitely not something I am used to having for breakfast!
I had classes by myself
for the first time on Wednesday. This was terrifying, to say the least. I
didn't have a lesson plan, and I had no idea what English the kids knew so I
had to go through all the different books to find out what they should know and
then construct games based on that. My coworker Dan, who is head teacher for
the native teachers (meaning those who speak English as their native tongue)
was greatly helpful in figuring out what to do with the class too.
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| On the way to the bathroom at the galbi restaurant, and the most likely reason they call this place General Pee's. |
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| Galbi. So fantastic! |
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| Galbi! And that green glass bottle is of soju a rice vodka that is not bad after you have a couple... |
After class on Wednesday, it was the going away party for Tom, which is
the teacher that I am replacing. We met at Floatie's, which is a bar near where
most of the teachers live. At this bar, they had all the beer and glasses in a
cooler on one side so that people would just go up and grab a beer, and take
the empty bottles to the cashier at the end to pay their tab. It seems like a
system that is much too trusting, and I'm sure that one unlucky person gets
stuck with paying for a few extra beers at the end of the night! Well, we had a
beer there while waiting for everyone to arrive, then set out for General Pee
to eat some galbi. Galbi is kind of like a stir fry with beef or chicken--it is
absolutely delicious! After this, we went back to Floatie's and just chatted
for a while before going home.
Thursday was nice, but uneventful. I got up early to meet other teachers
for Youn’s going away brunch. She is a teacher at my school that is also
leaving. We went to Ashley’s, which was a buffet that featured some American
food like waffles! It was pretty tasty, and it was nice to see everyone outside
of work. After that, I went to school, and played some more games with the
kids. I think that I do not like the unstructured classes very much, it’s very
difficult to fill 50 minutes with games and whatnot. I can tell you that I have
not sung the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” so many times in my entire
life as I have this week!
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| The big blue butt. |
Friday featured classes that weren’t too eventful. After school, I met
people at the Big Blue Butt near my rented room to go to a dak galbi
restaurant. Dak galbi features chicken rather than beef or pork like regular
galbi, but it is just as delicious. This particular place also had cheese for
on top! This is a pretty big deal, because there is not much cheese in Korea.
And when there is cheese, it is usually crappy American style cheese. After a
pretty fantastic dinner, we went to Baby Guinness, which is a nearby American
style bar. It was almost strange to walk in and see a room full of non-Korean
faces, but it was a lot of fun! Next time I go, I’m definitely getting in on
the foosball games.
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| Dak Galbi before it's fully cooked. A bunch of people who work at the restaurant come over and stir it every thirty seconds until it looks like the picture below! |
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| Finished dak galbi, complete with melted cheese! |
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