Getting Settled In

I’ve been putting off writing this post just because so much has happened in the past two weeks that it's hard to get it all down. I’ll try to sum it up the best I can.
Work is going really well so far. It's not at all what I expected. I am teaching at a private Kindergarten/Elementary English school. Because we're living in probably the wealthiest suburb of Seoul, all the families that send their kids to us have beaucoup bucks...not to mention super high expectations for their kids and for the schools. They're paying $1000 per month to send their children to us, so I guess they have a right to expect a considerable amount.

The reception area at my school

I start teaching at 9:40 every morning, Mon-Fri, but we have to be at the school by 8:40 am. I teach math, science, social studies, art...even cooking!...to two different groups of kindergartners (7 per class). It's pretty intense. I'm with the kids from 9:40 am to 2:20 pm without even a one minute break. I got lucky and was assigned to kindergarten classes made up of kids who are in their second year at the school, so they are pretty self-sufficient and smart. Actually, they're brilliant! They understand pretty much every word I say and speak non-stop in English (albeit broken, hilarious English--so cute!). I'm actually feeling kind of guilty because many of the other teachers have the brand new 4-year-olds who poop their pants, spill their food all over themselves and each other, and eat their papers and pencils. One of my friends already had a parent call the school irate that her son had come home with poopy pants and that my friend hadn't noticed it during the day. Another one of my friends sent a letter home to her kids' parents with two spelling mistakes in it. By the next day, three mothers had called the school to complain about it. Talk about pressure... Needless to say I'm now checking, rechecking, and TRIPLE checking all my notes going home with my kids. The parents also get super upset if we don't make their kids eat their rice during lunch. Rice is sacred here. Don’t mess with the rice.

Staff room- full, busy, messy...

Most of the kids have chosen English names (or rather their parents have chosen English names for them) to use just at school. I actually don't even know most of their real names. I do have a couple, though, who choose to go by their Korean names. I also have three students who I would take home with me right now if their parents would let me: Kitty (wears a Hello Kitty ribbon in her hair every day and is decked in pink from head to toe), Clara (predictably and without fail says, 'Teacher, teacher...this is so very, very, very, very, very hard' about 15 times while doing ANY coloring activity...but in a really quiet, accented voice that just makes me want to crack up and give her a big hug), and Na-yeon (does gymnastics stunts off my body and insists on performing her ballet moves for us every day during talk-time). Sooooo adorable and sweet.

My classroom (called "Sydney"--all the rooms have different English-speaking city names) and my kids eating lunch

So most of my day is spent with these 2two groups of kindergartners, but I also teach English classes in the afternoons and evenings to older elementary kids who come to our school after their regular Korean school. On Tues/Thurs, I teach a class from 2:40-3:40 and another from 3:40-4:40 and then I'm done for the day. On M/W/F I have a two hour break after my kindergarten, and then I teach a class from 4:50-5:50 and another from 5:50-6:50. Not being done until 7:00 on a Friday night kind of stinks, but other than that, the hours aren't so bad. We have the Korean version of Thanksgiving (called Chu-Suk) coming up really soon, so next Friday all the kids are coming to school dressed in hanboks (the traditional Korean garb that no one actually wears on a daily basis anymore) and then we'll be playing traditional games, eating traditional food, etc. Should be fun! We have a four-day weekend for the holiday, so my roommate and I are going to leave the city and try to go camping (TRY being the operative word here--we'll see if our super-minimal knowledge of Korean will get us there) in a national park south of Seoul.

My city, Bundang, is very cool. I’m so glad I decided to live in a suburb instead of right in Seoul. There are all sorts of parks, walking paths, hiking trails, etc. There are tons of trees, lots of grass, and small mountains--very unlike the concrete and grey of the big city. There’s a huge park right by my apartment that has a walking path around the outskirts, a lake in the middle, and even bungee-jumping on site. Like I said earlier, Bundang is considered quite a ritzy suburb--like the Beverly Hills of the Seoul area. Everyone drives ridiculously nice cars (equipped with GPS of course) and sends their kids to private schools. You can tell by the presents that the parents give the teachers at our school that the money flows. My roommate got a Dior perfume set from one of her kid’s parents today as a Chu-Suk gift. So jealous.

At The Rainbow Room--a hooka bar in Seoul

The shopping and fashion are super upscale in Bundang too; sadly, I definitely cannot afford the shops in the downtown area. Mom, Gina, Karla, Troy--you gave me crap for packing all of my cute, impractical high heels, but if Seoul isn’t the place to wear super-high, impractical foot-killers, I don’t know what city is. I don’t think women here know what flats or running shoes are. One of my friends went on a rafting trip a few weeks ago and said the women were even wearing their high heels in the rafts. Now that’s commitment. My point: I’m glad I brought my cute shoes. At least I can attempt to fit in.
So, given that I’m living in such a fancy-schmancy area, one would assume I’d also probably be living pretty comfortably. Think again. Apparently my school didn’t get the memo. I think the people in charge of housing at my school must search out Bundang’s most dingy apartments and rent ‘em all for their suckers of teachers. Liz and I moved into our apartment last Saturday, and that was the second time since I got here that I wanted to pack up and go home. The apartment is small...and pretty nasty. To say the least. The wallpaper is all yellowed and perma-dirty, and the whole place is musty and smells like kim-chi (one Korean food you’ll want to pass on if you ever come here to visit!). Oh, and our laundry room has mould. It’s awesome. I think the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of natural light. We only have a few small windows, and they’re frosted. Even better, they’re barred. The one window I do have in my bedroom doesn’t even open to the outside; it opens into our moulding laundry room...so basically it just stays shut. Tight. We’re starting to feel better about the whole situation though. I mean, it IS free housing, and apparently our apartment is a heck of a lot nicer (and bigger) than most of the other teachers’ accomodations. I can’t imagine. We’re also going to go out this weekend and buy some rugs/lamps/plants/ANYTHING to cover the walls. It’ll feel a lot cosier and homier after that. Besides, we aren’t at the apartment that much anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what it’s like when it comes down to it. I need to just suck it up and stop complaining. We’re just spoiled in North America.

Our kitchen. Looks surprisingly nice here...don't be fooled.

Other than teaching and scrubbing my apartment from floor to ceiling, I’ve just been exploring the area and trying to figure things out. The teachers go out to eat quite a bit. I LOVE the barbecue-your-own-food-at-your-table deal. Really fun. And yummy! I’ve also experienced my first check-your-shoes-at-the-door-and-sit-on-the-floor restaurant AND my first squat toilet...the first of the two, very cool, and the latter, not so much. I’ve mastered about three Korean phrases so far and am still trying to get the chop-sticks handling down. It’s an art. As far as the language goes, it’s a LOT harder to get by with just English than I thought it would be; VERY few people here on the streets speak more than a few basic words of it, if that. So in order to make my life a lot easier, I better pick up a little more Korean in a hurry. My students are trying to be my tutors :P.

Eating a french-fry-coated hotdog from a street vendor in Seoul. Delicious.

Grocery shopping here should be strongly considered for Olympic-sport status. No joke. We spent THREE hours just trying to get some basic stuff. This massive supermarket was jam-packed, and everyone just fends for themself. When you spot an opening in the crowd, you better shove your cart in there STAT. From what I’ve read, it’s part of the Korean culture; Koreans don’t feel any obligation to be overly kind or considerate to complete strangers. They treat their acquaintances and friends marvellously, but strangers--not so much. Hence the chaotic madness of shoving and pushing at the supermarket and on the subway. People will even blatantly try to cut you in line at the grocery store if you leave an opening. Hard to wrap your head around as a friendly Canadian :P.

This is in the grocery store, believe it or not. I shudder every time I look at this pic.

All in all, things are going really well. Work is a lot more WORK (and exhausting) than I thought it would be, but it’s also much more fun and rewarding than I expected it to be too...so I guess it’s all good :). I’m loving learning a million new things every day, but miss home like crazy too. I can’t believe I’ve already been here two weeks; the time’s going to fly. There are so many other quirky things about Korea and different experiences I’ve had that I wish I could share with you. I am finally up and running with reliable Internet at my apartment, so I’m going to try to start writing shorter posts more often. That way I won’t get so overwhelmed by the daunting task of summing up two weeks in one post.