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| The "big girl" office |
Well, I have finished my first official week at my school even though it was only a two day week! I have an office with 5 other English teachers and somehow we manage to make it work in such a small space. My desk is the farthest one on the left! It is so nice to have my own space at a school that is welcoming me for only 3 short months. I have already started to understand the Korean school system a bit more because my colleagues have allowed me to read some of their literature. The requirements for school are so interesting. For example, students are required to know how to properly ride all city transportation, use chopsticks, have respect towards unknown foods, and be responsible for all of their belongings by the time they enter elementary school in 1st grade. The students are expected right away to be very responsible children in a bustling society. Personally, I think it is great because students can learn to have some more appreciation for the things and people around them!
I am already feeling very involved within the school as well. The English teachers invited me out to a school dinner this past Friday. Literally every single teacher was there and we all sat down and enjoyed each others company over some delicious Korean BBQ. Everyone keeps commenting me on my ability to use chopsticks so I must be doing something right :) It was so nice to hang out with my colleagues outside of work and get to know a little bit more about them! I need to start preparing for some intense badminton on Tuesday because the Phy. Ed. teacher is expecting to see me there... :/ I'm not sure my skills are up to par with these pros!
This coming week is my first full week at Seokgye! I am sure it will be very exhausting as I am not used to this type of weekly schedule. I am eager to get into a routine though! I could not be more excited to start this week because I will get to spend more time with the students that I will be teaching English to throughout the semester. They all seem to be very bright young individuals who are ready to learn. On Wednesday I will even get the chance to visit another school to see how their English program is going. This will give me some insight into how to include some variations in a classroom where everything is so strict because of the national curriculum!
In other news, I had a very fun and exciting weekend. Betsy, Keely, Falyn and I finally booked our trip to Busan, which is located in the southern part of Korea! Our mini trip will be Oct. 8th - Oct. 9th! Apparently Korea offers a free bus trip from Seoul to Busan for foreigners so we snatched that up right away! We plan on touring the city, utilizing the free bike rentals around the area, and spending the night in a hostel. Betsy and I went to Kyobo Book store in Gwanghwamun to look for some books in English. It is by far the largest bookstore I have ever been to and we only made it through part of one floor!! I will definitely be back. My mom sent me a package with a bunch of goodies and it arrived way before I thought it would so that was exciting! Betsy, Falyn and I also decided to go hiking! We hiked up Mt. Yongmasan and were amazed at the beauty of the sights we saw. Our muscles will definitely be sore after that hike, or should I say climb! We plan on going a couple more times before we leave.
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| On Mt. Yongmasan! |
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| The goodies that my mom sent me from the States! |
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| The most delicious, sugar-free mints ever! |
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| A shirt that I bought in Itaewon! |
More updates to come in the near future :)
~ E
2 comments:
The view while you were hiking looks great.....sounds like you are having FUN!!
Well, I guess I'll try this again; evidently didn't do it right last time. It sounds like you're having a blast. I'm glad everything is going so well at your school. We enjoy all your posts, so keep them coming. Love you. GE & GB
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