Arrival....
Arrived safe and sound yesterday (well today for you guys). I met a nice older Korean man, Byun Chang, before my flight from Chicago to Incheon. He is a history teacher/pastor/missionary and apparently decided to adopt me temporarily. I got to sit in the business lounge! I know, spiffy! I showed him Grandma's book and he is super excited about Ch. 11 (Guiding Principles of a Successful Relationship). He says he is writing a paper about how important it is that the people left behind when missionaries leave should be self-reliant. He asked that I copy a few pages, he is even going to try to get the church librarian to order Grandma's book for their library! I do want to get him an autographed copy once I get a mailing address. He also invited me to go to his Presbyterian church (about 50,000 people attend) which also has an English service. The church is not too far, by train anyways, from the school which hopefully means it won't be far from my apartment.
Mr. Chang even stayed with me after we got off the plane. He insisted on staying with me until my driver arrived, even though I have a feeling he needed to go. He even insisted on calling the school for me, twice, to find where/when the driver would arrive. My poor driver spoke maybe 5 words in English and claimed his name was Mr. Bob. (My former students would get a kick out of that.) The ride from the airport was about an hour, traffic was busy going into Seoul. People drive crazy here! I thought it was bad in Ft. Myers, but those yanks and Floridians got NOTHING on Korean drivers.
I was dropped off at a hotel, where I will be staying till Wednesday (from my understanding). I was met by three ladies, two of which I will be working with. Mary-Beth, is from Georgia, seems very nice and understanding of the whole new-ness of everything. The other lady, Bella, is one of the Korean teachers and will be my supervisor. Mary-Beth asked if I was freaking out, which honestly a small part is because of how different everything is, I responded a bit, but I'm looking forward to it all. To which she commented I seem like a free spirit. *laugh*
My hotel room is smallish, most of it taken up by the bathroom which is enclosed by decorative frosted glass. They didn't stay long since they had plans to go out. Which was okay with me since sleep was desperately wanted. I crashed around 7:30pm, only woke up a couple times and fell back asleep. I set my alarm for 5am so I could call people, but my phone and phone card are not being cooperative. I will try to find a place where I can get internet free and/or get a phone card. Once I am all settled I'll be looking into getting a phone for here.
The floor is heated/cooled...awesome! The bed is just my size, so anybody over 5'10 might find it a bit short. I'll post pictures online/email some as soon as I am able. Right now the blog is not working since 1)the hotel still uses internet explorer and 2) the computer is in Korean and I can't find where to turn it to English. Oh! There are shows/movies in English on TV so I've already watched a bit. Right now I'm watching a show in Korean that I've watched before with subtitles. So I'm pretending I know what they're saying. :p
Anyways, I'm going to get moving and in a bit venture out for some breakfast.
First day...
Since I cannot seem to access my blog I'll be "posting" from here. My first day went very well, a bit long, but it was a good day. I have 4 students in my kindergarten class, which is the smallest and brightest class. So I am the envy of all at the school, lol. Not really, but sort of... The girl I've been shadowing is as organized as I am when it comes to running her classroom. What makes it even nicer is my lesson plans are basically set up by the school. All I have to do is fill in how I'm doing the lessons, which each week are emailed to the parents.
In the afternoon I have a 3rd grade class, mostly boys. They are a rambunctious group, but I speak boy so I think I've made a connection. My morning supervisor, Bella (her English name), is super nice and told me that she asked the kids if they liked me and so far they all said yes. So, yay me! I will be working with a special reading group, which again is very small but the boys are a handful. It will be interesting to see how things develop with them.
As of Wednesday I'm on my own, so slight EEP moment. I will also be moving out of the hotel and into the apartment of the teacher I'm replacing. Luckily it also houses the other English teachers so I'll have people to walk to and from work with. There are a lot of similarities between the school here and my previous one. Both a good and bad thing, lol.
Tomorrow morning I go for my physical and hopefully will make it back to the school before lunch. Unfortunately the field trip to a palace is rescheduled for next week so I'll be doing some creative moving around of lessons. Well, off to crash for the night.
In the afternoon I have a 3rd grade class, mostly boys. They are a rambunctious group, but I speak boy so I think I've made a connection. My morning supervisor, Bella (her English name), is super nice and told me that she asked the kids if they liked me and so far they all said yes. So, yay me! I will be working with a special reading group, which again is very small but the boys are a handful. It will be interesting to see how things develop with them.
As of Wednesday I'm on my own, so slight EEP moment. I will also be moving out of the hotel and into the apartment of the teacher I'm replacing. Luckily it also houses the other English teachers so I'll have people to walk to and from work with. There are a lot of similarities between the school here and my previous one. Both a good and bad thing, lol.
Tomorrow morning I go for my physical and hopefully will make it back to the school before lunch. Unfortunately the field trip to a palace is rescheduled for next week so I'll be doing some creative moving around of lessons. Well, off to crash for the night.
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