Seoul week 1:
As I mentioned in my previous post my first week was consumed by training. Training was pretty stressful. It was full of tests and mock teaching. The material itself was not very difficult but if you failed training you were without a job, no place to stay, and no plane ticket home, which put a lot of pressure on all of us trainees. ChungDahm (the school I work for) is not like other schools in the way that train their teachers. It is very common for English teachers to just be put in a classroom with little to no direction, so I do appreciate the training. I slept little, bonded quickly with my fellow trainees over dinner and studying (aka freetime), and....PASSED!!!! Not to brag, ok brag a little, my head instructor said that my final evaluations were the best he's seen in a very long time, if ever! I was pretty happy to hear this because training wasn't the most uplifting experience.
Immediately following training they ship everyone out to their separate locations. Not gonna lie, the transition was a little rough. I met some really great people during training so it was strange to be taxied away to a little apartment that had nothing (suppose to semi-furnished) and where I knew no one. Okay, I know thats lame, but I felt really alone. So I decided to get out and explore my new neighborhood. I made it a few blocks and then...got hit by a truck haha. Well thats a little dramatic, I was backed into, but it hurt none-the-less. I quickly learned the Koreans drive where ever they please, convenient by dangerous. No worries though, this was just a bad day, the only bad day!!!
Week 2:
A friend from training has been staying with me for last few days and it has been really nice to have the company and an exploring companion. We have wondered around Eunpyeong (my new homeland) quite a bit. We went to a local bar. Korean bar snacks= seaweed, nuts and soy sauce. And have tried a few local restaurants. A few nights ago we went to a small, side-street, restaurant that was amazing. It was traditional Korean bbq, you grill your meat on a charcoal grill in the middle of your table, so good! And the staff was super friendly, and helpful. Towards the end of out meal our neighboring table, about 4 Korean men wearing the recognizable soju glow, slyly passed us some of their meal. Im still not exactly sure what it was but it appeared to be some sort of shellfish, with a little spicy salad on the side. I am a HUGE texture person, and can't stomach the thought of eating something slimy, but I also didn't want to offended anyone. I put on my best poker face, chewed and swallowed, not one but two as quickly and politely as I could. I had to fight my slime-gag reflex, but I loved the experience! And so did the drunk Korean locals, "not afraid, not afraid!" they laughed and gave us more, great, haha!
I started work on monday. My co-workers all seem really nice. They have all been here for a few years at least and the branch seems more relaxed than others I have heard about. I job shadowed for the beginning of the week and subbed weds-fri for a teacher that left. It was really great to finally get in and start teaching. The kids are so adorable, well most of them haha! It was the last week of the term so all of the classes I taught were the students last day. It was little tough to jump in to a class on the last day and keep them interested. I could totally tell that they were like "ok I only have this teacher for one day, I can do whatever I want." Also all of the students had already taken their "level up" test so they knew weather or not they were moving up a level. It was basically like getting a sub on the last day before summer vacation. It was so much fun! I cant wait to start with my own classes on Monday!
So that basically sums up my first two weeks in Seoul. I feel like I'm forgetting some major events, but thats pretty much the gist of what I have been up to.
I wrap things up with some interesting things I have learned about Korea:
1. Heated floors make it really hard to wake up in the morning (when sleeping on the floor)
2. Men buy inserts called "shoe lifts" to make them appear taller, and will sometimes lie abouthow many they have in.
3. Like I mentioned before, they drive where ever and however the please, its nuts!
4. Statistic say that over 80% of girls have had plastic surgery.
5. Heated toilet seats kinda make you feel like you peed your pants.
6. Almost all business names are in English, but nothing inside is.
7. American fast food chains are everywhere, pizza hut, baskin robbins, burger king, dunkin donuts, starbucks, mc donalds, quiznos, pappa johns, is crazy.
8. Drinking soju makes using chopsticks very difficult.
and much, much more to add later......
I love and miss you all very much. There is a lot in the media right now about the tension between the North and South and I have gotten a lot of worried messages. Please know that I am safe and happy here. It is a little unsettling but we can only hope that it will all blow over soon, if not maybe I will be seeing you all soon!
LOVE FROM KOREA!
Great post! I'm very late on catching up with how you ahve been doing so i'm starting with this post. Sounds like training was pretty rough, but all-in-all a good first few weeks :)
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