I left Tampa International at 6:00am with about a bazillion thoughts racing through
my head. They were of excitement, fear, and wonder of the unknown. I was actually on my way to a foreign country. I wouldn't be able to speak, read or understand the language when I got there. I would be starting over on making new friends. And I was going without my family. Yeah, I have moved 9 times before, but the combination of all these things was very unfamiliar and scared me just a bit. However, the thought of something so new was exciting and the idea that I was not going alone was encouraging. I was going with a girl named Caroline who I had only met twice and knew very little about but it would be another American face, a travel buddy, and hopefully a new friendship, so I was excited.
The plane ride from Tampa to Korea was a super long one, about 18 hours to be more exact. However, the actual travel time was about 32 hours when you include all of the layovers, changing of planes, bus and car rides, and time changes. However, things ended up working out real smoothly and our bags all came so that was exciting and already a great start to the Korean adventure. (P.S- we were only allowed to take 2 bags that weighed 50 pounds each for the entire year!!!) We finally got to Gwangju, South Korea where we would be living and teaching for the next year around 1:40am and were driven to our house by "Mr. Moon" aka Alex who we would soon find out was the general manager of our school, ECC.
The next day he picked us up at 2pm and took us out to eat at a very Korean restaurant. We had to take off our shoes before entering, as is Korean tradition, and we ate on the floor with chopsticks. It was our first Korean meal here, and was very interesting to say the least. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't exactly tell you what we ate except for that it was raw beef we cooked in a soup like thing. We also had Kimchi, a very Korean traditional dish of pickled cabbage that is eaten at all meals, noodles and some fried rice. The meal was good, but EXTREMELY spicy and Caroline and my lips were on fire by the end! After lunch Alex took us to a shoe store and bought us "slippers" to wear at school. We are not allowed to wear real shoes in the school and they must be replaced with our slippers upon entering the building.
Anyways, the next day we were taken to the hospital and were given a checkup as well as an x-ray, a blood test and a drug test. So that was fun (YEAH RIGHT!) but it really didn't take long at all so that was good. After that and for the next couple of days, we spent our time walking around Gwangju orienting ourselves and just kind of exploring the area. Gwangju is so much bigger and not at all how I expected it to look. Think big city kind of feel. Its not how I remember Korea but I like it. Anyways, so that weekend we went out with the other "foreign" teachers from our school to celebrate a guy from our schools last weekend in Gwangju. there were 14 of us and we all bought matching T-shirts to wear so that was fun. Sunday was our last day of just hanging out before we started our job on Monday. We were in quarantine because the Koreans are freaked by the Swine Flu.
Monday and Tuesday we observed and a TON of information was thrown at us. Wednesday we were thrown into teaching with very little to no help. We were each given a binder with information that was left from the previous teachers we were replacing, however, both of our binders were a joke and told us absolutely nothing. We didn't even know what pages we were supposed to be teaching and barely even knew where to go. Wednesday was extremely stressful, as well as Thursday and Friday. We have to teach on Monday and then the summer vacation begins. Its only a week but we are looking forward to it because it will give us time to hopefully kinda read over things and figure things out some more.
To give you an idea of how our school works, I will try to explain it as well as I can. It is an English private school, but think of it more as an after school academy. Its something the students go to after they have already been at regular school all day. Except for kindergarten (Kindy!) that goes here first. NUTS! Anyways, so school starts at 9:30am but we have to be there at 9. I teach Kindergarten from 9:30am until 2:15pm. I have a new class every 30 minutes with 5 minutes in between classes. Its crazy because the teachers switch classes not the students so the teachers all leave the students 3 floors up by themselves while we run back down stairs to get the stuff we need for our next class and wait for the bell to ring again. (This would NEVER happen in the US and a teacher could be fired for leaving her class by themselves but it seems to work!) Every teacher carries a little yellow basket full of supplies we will need for the class so its funny to see everyone going up and down several flights of stairs or in the elevator with their little baskets. I have kindergarten students that range from 5 to 7 in Korean age. This is really 4 to 6 years old American age because when Koreans are born they are 1. Anyways, so the kids are separated into classes by age and number of years they have been learning English. Its helpful but it gets confusing because some kids are younger but have been learning English longer than some older kids and some have been to our school before and some have come from different schools so they are separated too. Its weird, but I guess it works. I have 2 classes I go to everyday and see about 2 or 3 times a day for different subjects, while other classes I only see once or twice a week for one class period. Its confusing and makes very little sense but I guess it works. I teach drama, story reading, phonics, math, art, and reading to these kids.
At 3:00 I switch to teaching elementary school students. This is fun but very different. The kids are not as excited to be there and I don't get to teach anything fun, but instead teach boring English straight out of the curriculum. These are 50 minute classes with 10 minutes in between. I teach 2 or 3 of them depending on the day. And to make things
complicated, some kids come everyday while others come only once a week for 10 weeks,
or once a week for 12 weeks, or just 8 weeks. And some come every other day. And Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are completely different days and schedules than Tuesdays and Thursday. Its all really just quite crazy and hard to understand. And then on top of that there are like 20 different books and workbooks that you have to get through in different amounts of times with the different students. Some are 2 month, some 3, some just 1 month books, some last a year or even two and then you have to figure out how many pages a day to do depending on the book and the length of time of the session. Its so weird but I am sure we will figure it out eventually.
Basically, I am at school from 9-6:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays and 9-4:50
on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, we were just informed that we need to stay until 6:30
or 7pm everyday starting after the break because its school policy to make the teachers stay
in order to plan. It stinks but oh well.
Oh and suprisingly, the students are sooooooooooooo much different than I pictured. I thought they would be very quiet and still just waiting to do what was next but this is defintely not the case at all. I would say 95% of my kids today was CRAZY. They are loud, goofy, mess around a lot but I LOVE them. They are ridiculously smart and I am able to hold a conversation with even my kindergarteners. I would say they are on 2nd grade level as far as US grades go and this is their second language. Its AMAZING!! Some of my kindergarteners are so advanced that when I ask them how they are, I have 5 year olds telling me they are extremely excited or fantastic! And then they can tell me exactly why. Its crazy! Oh and all students call their teachers by their first name and then the word teacher after it so I am Whitney teacher. However, this is hard for a lot of them to say so in some of my classes I am Windy Teacher and sometimes I am Whi-ta-ney teacher. And Wh-ta-ney or something of the sort means teeeth or something in Korean, so its weird but funny. Anyways, I dont mind and really just love that I am called something and then the word teacher. Its cute. I am really enjoying myself here! The oher teachers at the school are all really nice
and super helpful. Oh and Caroline and I are soooo similar and get along so well. Its
funny how much we are alike.. its almost scary. I am soooooo glad she is here! I know it is going to be a great year and I will be extremely suprised if I dont come away with a best friend!!! :)
Sorry this post is so long! I should have started blogging earlier! More to come in future days!!!
I love and miss everyone TONS and TONS!!!
