I don’t think I could have asked for an easier trip from Baltimore to South Korea. Everything went smoothly despite a few minor panic attacks on my part (the security line at BWI was really long; I wasn’t sure I got on the right bus to Daegu and then I thought my ride wasn’t there). I still think I might have gotten on a slightly earlier bus than I was supposed to, but my ride showed up so it worked out alright!
Anyway, I arrived at Seoul-Incheon airport around 4pm on the 18th October and then took 6:30 bus to Daegu and got in there around 10:30pm. The bus driver was really sweet and came to explain things to me, like when we stopped at a rest station, even though he didn’t really speak English. This has been my general experience with the Korean people so far. They have all been extremely kind and helpful.
I was met at the bus station by Jon and Brendan from Avalon. Jon’s the head foreign teacher for elementary, where I work, and Brendan is a teacher in the middle school and coordinates things for the foreign teachers. We had maybe a 20 minute drive back to my apartment. There was a lot to take in just driving around. We arrived in my apartment and Brendan helped me set up my key pad/automatic lock thing and explained how my hot water and heat work. I also got some dishes and silverware. Then Jon took me to a convenience store around the corner to grab breakfast and some water.
I totally forgot about turning on the hot water, so my first shower was nice and cold, but live and learn. I didn’t sleep very well, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. In the morning the landlady came up to tell me the internet would be installed at 11:30am. She was very nice and came in to direct the guy doing the installation and we chatted as best we could. At 1:15 Lisa, who lives across the hall, walked me to school and I got a full tour of everything. Then I went out to lunch with most of the foreign teachers.
The foreign teachers go out to lunch together every day at 1:30 before heading back to school to prep for classes. The first block of three classes goes from 3:50-6:10. Then those kids leave and another set comes in from 6:20-8:40. The last hour is for prep and making phone calls to students. But I didn’t stay for all this on Wednesday. Instead I wandered around the main street here and tried to get my bearings. I started to get tired around 4 and tried to get home. Well, I remembered how to get to my apartment but it quickly became clear that I didn’t remember what my apartment looked like at all. So I trekked back to school and Jon walked me back to my apartment, which I had definitely walked by about 3 times.
Thursday and Friday I spent shadowing Josh, who has been with haegwon for 3-4 years. He’s my teaching mentor and I’ll be taking over his classes while he goes back to the states for month. Shadowing is good, its nice to be able to take in the class dynamics without the responsibility of teaching at the same time. Josh has walked me through basic lesson prep and it seems pretty straight forward. I’ve prepped the reading lessons for today and tomorrow, so we’ll see how they go...eek!
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