Well I’ve
been here for one week, but it seems like a lifetime of activity has happened
during that time. I’ll try my best to
recap for ya!
I arrived
in Seoul at Incheon airport on a Friday afternoon and promptly jumped on a
train that took me all the way across the country to my new hometown of
Ulsan. I had joined Ulsan’s ultimate
Frisbee team (go Narwhals!) back in January when I first found out my
placement. As it happened, our first
Frisbee weekend was also the weekend of my arrival. And so I was greeted at Ulsan’s train station
by two teammates with Soju and beer, not a bad welcome!
We then
hopped on a bus and headed into the university area of Ulsan for my first
in-country meal of barbecue, 100 pounds of luggage in tow. Food was delicious and drinks aplenty!
Finally,
exhausted, we headed back to my friend’s apartment around midnight and I
promptly crashed… and after a luxurious 5 hours of sleep we were back up and
out the door!
The
ultimate Frisbee matches were being held a 4-hour drive away in Heongseong, so
I met a few more of my teammates early the next morning in a crammed minivan,
jet-lagged, and a wee-bit hungover.
We played 3
games of ultimate on Saturday of which we won the first, but lost the second
two. However, we played the second two
games without any subs due to a couple injuries on our team. All told we did a pretty outstanding job
considering this was the first time we all played together as a team.
We spent
Saturday night in a 400-year-old guest house in Heongseong. According to the owners it belonged to the
town’s mayor way back when. I could
barely make it past dinner before I pretty much dropped dead from exhaustion.
On Sunday
we roadtripped back to Ulsan and I spent most of the day just bumming around my
friend’s apartment…I was too tired to do much else.
Monday
morning, I met my co-teacher at the immigration office and she helped me get registered
with the authorities. After that she
took me around my neighborhood and showed me my apartment…pretty sweet! I still don’t have internet, but the apartment
is really nice and has a good view of the river below.
I also
learned on Monday that I would be teaching at Beomseo Middle School… or
teaching Beomseo Middle School rather because I see every single student in
that 800+ middle school in my 22 class periods each week. Since none of my classes repeat themselves, I
have to give my same introductory lesson 22 times over…it was fun for about the
first 3.
I started
at Beomseo on Tuesday and am currently through 14 of those 22 classes. Beomseo hasn’t had a foreign English teacher
in quite a few years, so I’m still a bit of a novelty to the students and
staff.
My
co-workers are great and each day someone usually brings in a treat for the
whole office. Today one teacher brought
in hard-boiled eggs for everyone…I’m not sure what to do with it so it’s still
in my fridge.
My co
English teachers are all very nice and helpful.
A couple of them have worked with other native English teachers before
at other schools, which is nice. They
all took my out for dinner and coffee yesterday and taught me how to write my
name in Korean!
To say my
first week here has been busy would be an understatement. I haven’t had the chance yet to really digest
the fact that I’m living in Korea. I’m
sure I’ll get that inevitable culture shock and homesickness that comes with
every kind of trip like this soon enough, though. Nonetheless, I’m alive, happy, and most of
all thankful to be doing what I’m doing.
Shred gnar,
Teacher
Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment