Day 1:

Success.

My first day of teaching went well. Aside from being wicked tired because I kept waking up last night, today was fine. I caught a cab with Adam to work. The drive to shinae (downtown) was pretty nice. Jonggo middle school is at the top of a huge steep hill that overlooks the whole downtown area. At the bottom of the hill is the Jinnamgwan, the largest wooden structure in Korea. The Jinnamgwan was the headquarters of Admiral Yi Sun-sin who was integral in fighting off the Japanese between 1592-1598. Yi's success was largely due to his invention of the Geobukseon or turtle ship. These ships were heavily fortified and had a completely covered deck to deflect cannon fire and they had iron spikes to prevent enemy boarding. Even the name of my school is historically signifigant. Jonggo means drum ringer or bell ringer. The hill is called Jonggo because during the attempted Japanese invasions alarms were sounded on the mountain to alert the people of Yeosu. I think its awesome that I work in a place that has so much history right there.

Class is 45 minutes long and a lot of that time is taken up by how slow I have to talk so that the students can understand me. Today I basically just made a powerpoint presentation about myself and where I'm from. When I asked about lesson plans I was told to just use the same lesson for every class that week. Regardless of the grade level. That sounds easy enough. I have 4 classes per day and the rest is free time aka facebook and internet time. Some of the other teachers told me to pick a hobby or two so I don't die of boredom. I met my principal and vice principal who said I made a very good impression. Whenever I was introduced to someone I just said manaso pangapsumnida (nice to meet you) and they ate it up. A little Korean goes a long way.

The school lunches are also phenomenal. We had bi bim bap with soup and kimchi. Then yogurt and kiwi for dessert. Really good and really healthy. I could definitely get used to Korean food.

After work Mrs. Lee took me to get my physical examination and to get my pictures taken. On thursday after lunch (we both have two periods free) we're going to pick up the test results so that after school we can get my alien registration card. Once I have that I can get a phone and my health card. I can't wait to get a phone so I can have a little more of a social life and be a little more in the loop.