First Day on the Job

I am sitting here in the Vice Principal's office...waiting...bored out of my mind! I'm glad I brought my handy dandy Korean Phrase book (yay Lonely Planet) to keep my occupied in the meantime. I really need to learn Korean.

All morning consisted of a lot of bowing and hand shaking, most of which I did not participate in and feel awkwardly stupid about. Classes have started and apparently I am not teaching this week. Which is GREAT because I could use the rest of this week to recover from my aching illness before I jump into a classroom of 25-30 rowdy 3rd to 6th graders.

There are suprisingly a lot of male teachers...maybe even half. They're all older but really cute. i.e. The principal is wearing a baby pink tie with hot pink bubbly circles all over it. The kids are very cute, especially when they are speaking in English.

Apparently, my curriculum is very easy. All elementary schools in South Korea are using the same CD-Rom that has pretty much all the lessons planned out for every unit. All I have to do is one follow-up lesson. Considering the skill level of these students (VERY basic), it won't be too difficult. In fact, I don't really have to know anything about English except how to pronounce words. I'm a little relieved at this curriculum...but at the same time I don't feel like I'll get a chance to challenge myself and be creative. That kind of challenge would be more at the middle school/high school levels. Perhaps next year?

Oh yes, I also LOVE the toilet hole in the ground at school. My thighs are going to be stone hard when I come back to the States. Granted, there is a western style toilet at the school, but the stall door is broken! Just. My. Luck. This will take some getting used to.

Again, I REALLY need to learn Korean. On the up side, my coteacher bought an electronic Korean-English dictionary so we could communicate more effectively :-)