The first 5 days...

Annyong haseyo everyone! I’ve been in Korea for 5 days now and oh lordy, it’s been quite a shock. Let me start from the beginning. Here is my abridged story thus far:

After 23 hours of travel I arrived on Friday the 6th at the Gimhae Airport in Busan City, Korea. Waiting for me with a name sign in hand was Mrs. Lee, a fellow teacher at my school, and her husband. At this point I still had no idea where my school was or even what age group I would be teaching so I had many questions for Mrs. Lee. Initially I asked how old the students were which she misunderstood as me asking my own age. “25!” she said. I laughed and told her I was actually 24. “In Korea you are 25!”… she said eplaining that they give each child born one year to start. Duly noted!

Once that was settled I again asked about the school. I found out that I’m at the Jeon Po-dong Middle School for lower income boys! Ha! I have a feeling that this is going to be quite the year! Mrs. Lee assured me that the students were great, “just loud” she said. “They are very excited to meet you, they want to know what color you are and what your age is! You are so young but you look strong and healthy.” Glad she approves!

Mr. and Mrs. Lee dropped me off at the Angel Hotel as my apartment wasn’t quite ready. At 10:30 the next morning she took me to the school which is in the heart of down-town Busan. I was taken on a tour of the school where I met the administration staff, other teachers and the Principal. Using Mrs. Lee as the translator, the Principal exclaimed that I had to learn one Korean word a day so I could talk to him. He was too old he explained, so it was impossible for him to learn English.

After the tour, an admin staff member named Mr. Kim took me to my apartment. He spoke little English but we made small talk in the car. It went something like this:
Mr. Kim: What is your family name?
Alison: Lewis
Mr. Kim: Do you like noodles?
Alison: I do like noodles.
Mr. Kim: Do you like pudding?
Alison: [trying not to laugh] Why yes, I do like pudding.
Once we arrived at my apartment, he took me on a grand tour. I was expecting a 10 ft by 10ft cubicle so I was very impressed to find a spacious and clean apartment. I think from what I’ve read, I really lucked out!

Later that day, a fellow teacher named Mrs. Kim arrived to help me get settled. There’s no relation to the before mentioned Mr. Kim, Kim just happens to be the most common last name in Korea. I’ve since met 4 other Kims in the last two days alone.
She decided that the first order of business is to acquaint myself with the bus route to school. She had a car so it was just as new to her. After Mrs. Kim asked a good number of people, she finally determined that we needed to be on bus #17. After getting on Bus #17 going the wrong direction, we both determined which side of the street to stand on to catch the right one.

The stop closest to the school is at the Lotte Department Store, a massive structure with an equally massive underground series of stores all surrounding the cities subway line. This makes for a labarynth of passage-ways all surfacing at different parts of the city. With Mrs. Lee again asking and re-asking directions we were able to emerge a mere 6 blocks from the school. For our return trip, Mrs. Lee decided that we should take a different route. She proceeded to lead me down a congested alley-way. She suddenly turned to me and asked me if I like noodles (sounding familiar?) “Yes I do!” I told her and she led me down and even smaller and more congested walk-way with little Korean women squatting over massive baskets of unknown food. We turned into a restaurant and she ordered our meals. She then explained that we were in a VERY famous restaurant called 1501 Kuksu with VERY famous noodles. After we began eating I noticed the building across from us had the sign 1501 Kuksu over their door. When I mentioned this to Mrs. Kim she turned, paused, and then asked the woman serving us if both buildings were the same restaurant. The woman shook her head no. Apparently I’ll have to eat my very famous Korean noodles another day.

We finally made it back to my apartment and I invited Mrs. Kim up for some blueberry tea. She therefore gets the title of my first official house guest! After our tea, we went to the Family mart for some essentials. I was pretty out of it so I basically let her make the decisions for me.

The next morning I awoke promptly at 4:30 am, unpacked and at 10 decided I needed to test the bus out on my own. Everything went smoothly so once I was back at my home I decided to find some concrete free nature. Luckily I’m nestled in the foothills so I discovered a hiking trail a mere 10 minutes from my front door. Because its fall, the trees are on fire with color which made for a very beautiful hike! It was a good end to my Sunday. Monday was to be my first day of class.

Monday morning I arrived at the school to find out that I not only needed my lesson plan (which I was told I needed) but also a work sheet for the students (which I had not been told I needed). I madly whipped one out in time for the principal to call me over. He pulled me in front of a rolling camera where I introduced myself to the school. I used my one of two Korean words that I know (Annyong haseo) and I think everyone was very impressed. “The other English teacher didn’t know any Korean!” Mrs. Kim exclaimed, so hey, at least I’ve got that going for me.

After my chaotic morning, I still had four 45 min. classes to teach. I allowed the students to ask me questions about myself. The most common question: “Do you have a boyfriend?” Ah yes, nothing like teaching middle school boys, it’s the same everywhere!

The basic set-up in the school is that I will be co-teaching with four other Korea English teachers. Each teacher has a very different and unique style. All of the teachers however, use corporal punishment. Some pinch the students' ears, others cary around a wooden stick to threaten the boys with and others just smack their heads. Never seeing punishment like this in a classroom up close and personal, its been very interesting.

At the end each day the students are required to clean the school (can you even imagine this in the United States?!) The school remains relatively clean because in typical Asian form, all people trade their shoes for slippers once they enter a building which keeps the traffic areas relatively clean. On a side note, I've been incredibly impressed by the cleanliness of Koreans. Everything from a sanitizer spritzer for the toilet seat to plastic baggies at restaurants for wet umbrellas to keep things dry. The city itself is mainly free of litter and though areas may be shabby looking, they're scrubbed.

After class, Mrs. Kim (who seems to be my personal tour guide/translator) took me to the hospital for a health exam and then back to the store for some more essentials (a much needed adaptor for my computer and cooooffffeeeee!) The school has been super generous in helping me get settled. Basically they gave Mrs. Kim a credit card which she was instructed to use for anything I might need! I keep expecting some catch but none has come so far.

Basically this bring me to today, my second day of teaching. It went smoothly enough though it feels looong. My job is to create one lesson plan a week (very easy!) but I still have to be at school for eight hours every day even though I'm only teaching half of that time. This means there is much time in front of the computer which I'm not exactly good at.

The students Christmas vacation is coming up and Mrs. Kim and I will be in charge of the English Camp. I had a grand vision of games on the soccer field shouting the english names for various fruits and vegetables but Mrs. Kim just informed me that its basically just an extension of class. Boo!

My general impression of my school, fellow teachers and Korea as a whole is very positive. I am really enjoying this adventure and am happy to be doing it alone! I'm sure in a couple of weeks I'll be crying for some native English speakers but at the moment I'm enjoying Mrs. Kim and the other teachers though there are constantly miscommunications between us!

I do miss all of you back home and already can't wait for visitors (i.e. Mom, Jos, Rachel, Em, and maybe Jer!) Thats about it, more to come soon!