Gimhae for you-First impressions!

Alright, I have a lot of entries to smush into one for this first week! I will try not to make it ten pages but...don't hold your breath or anything:-)

So Charlie told us we could rest until 1pm on Friday and then he would pick us up so we could meet the Korean English teachers. Rest sounded so wonderful at that moment! I will admit, being in the small apartment for the first time and realizing it was my home for the next year was a bit shocking. It just seemed so small, cold, sterile and dirty. I know, sterile and dirty don't seem right but sterile as in just...white and lonely and dirty as in, old and...dirty. Haha There wasn't much here furnishings-wise and I had just been telling Joey that sometimes a "furnished apartment" can mean a plate, mug, pot and bed! Well, at least we got the dishes part! My bed is a mat. On the floor. I was a little saddened about that at first but very quickly realized that when there are people in the world sleeping in the mud and dirt, why in the world should I be sad about a nice mat on a warm floor? There are plenty of people in Asia who have these kind of beds and I am trying to be as Korean as possible, after all:-) After the initial shock wore off it didn't take too long to fall in love with my little place. Here's a look of me trying to move stuff in! ^

One of the first culture lessons I learned through my Korean dictionary/phrasebook was that Koreans ask "Have you eaten?" as a greeting. Wellll I wish I had learned this before I got here because when Charlie came to pick us up Friday afternoon, he of course asked us if we had eaten. We said we hadn't and were hungry and I wondered why he seemed confused at that answer!! I think it was the next day when I found and told Joey my discovery and we had a good laugh over that. BUT, he did take us to a delicious noodle house which is super close to my apartment and is cheap! Now this was my first dining experience in Korea and it was so cool. There was a platform type floor with all the small tables and you take your shoes off and sit on the floor at the table. Not every place here is like that but most of them are, and that's how we eat at the school too. The noodle house was the first time I tried kimchi (aside from some type of kimchi soup back in Chinatown) and I have had it every day since then! It's quite the popular side dish here, served with every meal. After the noodle house, we finally went to meet the Korean English teachers. They are so sweet and we had our first little meeting where we all introduced ourselves and they explained that the school opens in March and we would be teaching sample lessons starting Saturday, the next day...wait.....what?!

Surprise! What a shocker! The building isn't even all the way finished yet! It's absolutely beautiful with so many windows and really cute wallpaper all over. They told us we would be teaching 4 mini classes THE NEXT DAY! We got to pick which one we wanted to help with, storytelling or cooking. I totally jumped on the storytelling bandwagon and didn't even feel like a jerk. We did some prepping that day and discussing what we were gonna do the next day and they let us set up the computer room so we could write our poor suffering families! Yeah I hadn't yet called or written home. My dad got me an international calling card before I left but when I was on my flight to Japan I pulled it out and saw that you can only call from the US to anywhere!! I had absolutely no way of contacting my poor parents when I got in and I felt so terrible about that. I just prayed SO hard that they would know I was ok! Sorry about that :-)

The first day of teaching went by smoothly and we met parents and talked to kids and taught fun (quick) classes and bonded with the teachers and bosses over lunch at a super nice traditional Korean restaurant in the mountains. By bonded, I mean they went over all their funny stories of the day in Korean and Joey and I sat in the middle trying not to fall asleep! It was a great day overall though! We did a little exploring on Sunday and walked to one of the seemingly many "downtown" areas of Jangyu. It's pretty awesome here! There's so much to see, so much to do!

First Week of Classes
Then came the sample classes! Monday morning came and I was preparing for the two afternoon classes for 9 and 10 year olds. It's a good thing ICS majors at Nyack get taught to be flexible and learn all about going with the flow because while we were eating lunch our director added a kindergarten class...at 2 o'clock...to go to 3 o'clock! It was already 12:30 or 1 so we ran back downstairs and next door to MBC OSS and got to work. Joey and I were supposed to co teach that one. Then we were told that the kindergarten class was just put on the schedule for all week! No problem, turns out they were really adorable:-)

I did get very frustrated with the school one day because we had talked to Hannah, the head teacher, about what we were gonna teach the kinder class the next day. That night and the next morning we planned our lesson and I even had the room set up for everything and then, bam! We were supposed to teach something completely different. Oh, and that week's planner thing we were supposed to make for Hannah? Yeah they made one and gave it to us. I started feelin super irritated until I realized they were just as flustered and rushed as I was, and probably way more. They were runnin around like crazy and so stressed and pressured. So, I let that slide:-) They did a really great job this past week. I know there were a lot of setbacks (wait, which kid is missing?...) and they felt pressure from Monica, the director, to be completely awesome and impress lots of parents. I think the week actually went very well! Lots of students are already signed up. Good news! Without them, I'd be jobless:-D

Even though they were all so busy, the teachers and Charlie helped so much to settle us in. I was able to use the school's internet but really wanted to Skype so I was close to impatient about getting internet in my apartment! Charlie went out and got us some sweet cell phones in the middle of the week and I felt a little more like myself...isn't that terrible? Haha, I don't have any reason to expect a phone call or anything but I realized I was carrying it around like I do my phone at home! One day I had it sitting beside me at the desk at work and it was time to go eat lunch so I grabbed it like I actually use it. Psh. Probably not a good sign. Ha! Then Charlie got us internet and came over while the guy installed it. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and we talked about Cambodia and my "daughter" over there. He's been to Cambodia! He's a very nice, wonderful man. The kindergarten had a music festival that night so we hurried over after our internet was finished. Let me just tell you, it was so cute. Just picture a bunch of little Korean kids singing badly and playing Korean instruments while all the parents wave from the audience and take pictures and run up and give high fives and thumbs up as soon as their kids are finished. It was basically amazing. Oh wait, here's a little help picturing it...



There was another music festival the next night and Monica brought us to the front and said stuff about us in Korean then handed us a microphone. Haha it was so awkward and I had no idea what to say so I did an awkward bow, a little weird wave and said thank you in Korean AND English...just in case.

Well I have one or two more stories then I will dismiss you:-) So I tried to use the bathroom that's on the same floor as the little library and I'm preeetty sure it was straight out of Elf. I felt like a giant in a tiny land! First, I hit my head on a metal bar trying to get into one stall. So I go to the next one and realize the door probably wouldn't close unless my knees didn't exist. Well as I was attempting to escape from there, the door flew open and hit the sink and I was actually laughing out loud at that point. I decided to use the handicap one, which I think is actually the "adult" one. Good to know! But definitely made for a good story.

This has been such a long post and I won't even try to tell every single story and detail because there is truly so much that is different and amazing. While I was on my extremely long and eventful yet boring flight I kept going between "This is the coolest thing I've ever done" and "This is the DUMBEST thing I've ever done, what am I doing?!?!" That was before I met these kids, and my co-workers, and Monica my Oma (my director, my Korean mother!). I'm having a wonderful time and I look forward to so many adventures! I will tell you one more story because I'm terribly proud. Tonight I went to a yummy dumpling stand and I ordered in Korean!! I greeted, ordered, thanked, and said my goodbyes all in Korean. Yay!! I still have so much to learn though! But with that I leave you and your tired eyes. Thanks for reading! More stories to come, you can count on that!

"Erica Teacher"