It's been almost 2 weeks

I got to school early this morning (7:25) so I have a few minutes to post before I head over to immigration to hopefully get my Alien Registration Card which allows me to get my settlement $$, my airfare reimbursement, my paycheck in a few weeks, internet service, and a cell phone. Basically, you can't do anything without it.

It's been a good first week here at school. I am teaching at Jejudong Elementary School which is outside of town a bit but still in Jeju City. I'm pretty close to many conveniences like my bank, a bakery, a huge open market, the Underground Shopping Mall (a huge mall under the streets with tiny little boutique stores and a few restaurants...I've shopped there a few times), the beach, and City Hall which is a great part of town with restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The school itself if very large with 3 buildings, about 65 teachers, 45 of which I teach, and about 1500 kids, at least half of which I teach weekly or bi-weekly. Today is my 6th day of teaching and I've almost taught all my kids once. I still have the 4th grade to go!

My first lessons went great. I did an introduction about myself, sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, played "teacher says" similar to Simon Says or Director Says, had all the kids introduce themselves to me, and did a writing/drawing activity modified for the different age groups. The kids' English skills vary quite a bit. Some were incredibly confused when I asked them to write their names in English because they don't know phonetics at all and don't know how to sound out their names. Also, the way Korean translates into English is not straight forward because their vowel sounds are typically a combination of English vowels and their consonants just sound different than the way we pronounce them. But we all got there eventually! Some kids are amazingly proficient in English and obviously go to the Hagwons, or language schools, for English lessons. They wrote whole paragraphs to me and told everyone else how to spell their names.

Both of my co-teachers are wonderful to work with and know how to handle the loud, enthusiastic kids (and the apathetic kids...there are always those, too). They both speak English very well and can help translate my directions to the students and my stunted conversations with the other teachers. I've figured out that we're actually in the role of Team Teaching (something they explained at the orientation we did not go to!) so we're supposed to plan lessons together and both teach in the classroom. That's coming along well as Kee Jeung and Pyong Su are both are happy to use the book supplied lessons and I'm happy to make up games and songs to accompany them. I think it's going to be a great year. The other teachers also seem excited to get to know me. Today I start teaching English to the teachers after school and hopefully I can get to know their names and a little bit about them. I've been encouraged to mostly speak English in school so people feel comfortable approaching me in English. Not that I know much Korean, but I was trying to use it in conversation when it fit.

As far as materials and resources, I have plenty. My classroom is the English room. We teach 3rd, 4th, and 6th in here and my and Kee Jeung's desks are also in here. For the 5th grade I go to their classrooms with Pyong Su. His English room is in one of the other buildings along with all the 5th graders classrooms. Our rooms are decorated with English posters, cut-outs, signs, and a few big white boards. There are books, tapes, DVDs, basic art supplies, flashcards big and small, extra posters, a few computers, and other misc English resources. We have POE (the head education office) supplied workbooks that the kids all have for each grade along with teacher books (mostly in Korean), accompanying DVD's, and a dialogue book. I'm encouraged to teach from the lessons that give basic English phrases and idioms but they are amazingly dry and boring so thus far I prefer to make up accompanying fun lessons to communicate the same points. For instance, the 3rd grade lessons for the next few weeks is "I like apples". The kids are learning some food vocabulary (apples, bananas, oranges) and "I like..." or "I don't like..." In the books, we repeat that same dialogue for 3-4 weeks. AAh! Boring! But we'll see if I can successfully spice things up...

Last week I was invited to two dinners, one for the whole staff on Monday and one for the 6th grade teachers on Thursday. Monday's dinner was a traditional Korean meal. We had almost the entire restaurant and sat on cushions on the ground at low tables. We were served a plethera of side dishes like pickled onions, potatoes, little fish in chili paste, kimchi, radishes, seaweed, lettuce, bean sprouts, pumpkin (used for any kind of squash), rice and many different sauces. The main dish was fish soup, which is typically the main dish in a Korean meal, so I just ate bunches of side dishes and rice. It was plenty of food for me! We also gave a few toasts with beer and soju including the traditional toast to the new Principal and V.P. of the school. On Thursday there were 11 teachers, seven 6th grade teachers, the head teacher, myself and 2 other English teachers, at a restaurant by the coast called Victoria. It was decorated like a Victorian tea room with cushy couches, big coffee tables and...forks! First time I've seen those since I've been here! I ate spaghetti accompanied, of course, by kimchi and pickles. We also had soup, salad, and coffee that almost tasted brewed. Koreans drink instant coffee or the little individual coffee mixes with powdered milk and sugar. Oh, and coffee is called "cop-ee" since they don't say "F" in their language.

I've also been exploring the island with some friends from my building. Last weekend Julia, Mike and I went out around City Hall to a restaurant with a Texas theme (very bizarre) and then a 2nd story bar with great "bar food" of traditional Korean side dishes where we drank Soju. Then we hit Samyang Beach and swam in the ocean around midnight. The water was warm and calm and it was a beautiful night. On Saturday John from Idaho,who was on my flight from Seattle to Jeju, took the ferry to Jeju from Chu-ja-do (Chew-jaw-doh), a very small island where he lives and works. We walked through town and did some shopping. He doesn't have a grocery store on his island so he was excited to get fresh produce and packaged food. I cooked dinner for him, Julia, Cindy, and Marcie and we sat around eating and drinking Soju most of the night. On Sunday, John and I walked around the village where I live, Goesang (Ko-sahng), got immersed in the early morning fog, and watched some locals weeding and taking care of the overgrown fields. Even though it was cool, we were still soaked in sweat from the humidity by the time we got home. John found the ferry home and I took the bus to Soegwi-po with Julia and Cindy for the day. It was hot, clear and sunny and we found some beautiful waterfalls and rugged coastline, walked through a big open market (they're all over the place), and got sunburned! It was so overcast when we left we didn't think to put on sunscreen. I've learned my lesson now, though. Apparently it's a must through October. The sun here is pretty intense.

Time to go teach! Feel free to post a comment or email me with specific questions. I'm sure I'm being pretty vague. Miss you all!