I finally got the internet hooked up at my apartment. I heard recently that in a poll, American high schoolers said they'd rather live without TV than the internet and I think I may agree with them! Plus, even after I got on my internet, my blog page was in Korean, so it took me a while to figure out how to get it in English, but now I'm set to go!
So, I've been in Korea for almost a week now. Things are going well so far. I got in Thursday night, after an 11+ hour flight, but the jetlag actually wasn't too bad, considering. I was one of the later new teachers to get in, so Friday and Saturday were big group shopping days. We went to the Korean stores GS Mart and E-mart (which I found out today is apparently Wal-Mart...and I was hoping I wouldn't shop there!) and Costco. So I spent a whole bunch of money, but got a lot of the household items I need. Sunday was a bus tour around the city in the morning and then that afternoon, a former Kamaik student took me out to lunch, to a movie, and for dessert, which was awesome (although a little long).
Starting Monday, it was all about school. There's just so much information to take in and, of course, I don't know who to ask what questions of, so there's a lot of running around right now. Tomorrow the returning teachers have to be there, so I'm looking forward to sitting down with those who I haven't met with and figuring all this stuff out. Next week, the kids come for a half-day on Monday. Tuesday is some sort of Korean holiday, so there's no school, and then Wednesday, regular school starts. The school uses a block schedule, so the kids take 8 classes total, 4 per day. Teachers only teach 3 per day and classes are about 80 minutes each, with an hour-long lunch/activity period. I'm starting to realize the benefit to having a union, since teachers have to supervise detention, the lunch room, and have bus duty on a rotating basis...public school teachers wouldn't put up with that! Oh well, all in the name of new experiences, huh?!
The weather so far has been hot and HUMID. It's been raining like crazy too. I've heard that July is usually the monsoon season, so it's very strange for it to still be raining right now, but it sure is. Acid rain is a problem here, which is comforting to think about when you're slogging through puddles in your flip-flops and your feet are wet all day long!
I'll definitely take some pictures (I have yet to take any yet...I need to start taking my camera places) and post them in the next few days.
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