August 26, 2014

Hey family! 

This is going to be a very long update so sorry in advance for all the word vomit.

I've got my first class in about 30 minutes and I'm nervous but feeling pretty good about it. I've got 5th graders today and all I have to do is introduce myself and play some "getting to know you" games. The only concern is their level of English since I have no idea. 

First off, Chuncheon is not a "city" like I was thinking it was. It's population is higher than most places in Gangwon but it's still quite rural. It's probably a bit like Salt Lake. One little urban development and then farms and scattered shops surrounding it. My apartment's in a good area with lots of shops but the school is out in the boonies. And I have 2 other schools I'll be going to that are probably even more rural. The highest class size is about 12 students. Some classes are only 3-6 students. 

I arrived yesterday after a very long bus ride and we pulled up to a gaggle of co-teachers all talking and pointing at each of us. That was scary. I was last off the bus because the driver had to backup to let a car out of the lot so I had to wait. When I got off our coordinator was calling out, asking if anyone knew where "Britney" was. I got angry and corrected him pretty rudely, not realizing my co-teacher was the timid-looking man standing behind him. Oops.

My co-teacher is a 46 year-old sixth grade teacher named Song JooHyeon (I just call him Mr. Song or "Co-teacher"). He's actually very nice but wasn't aware I was even coming until that morning. He's also a homeroom teacher and kind of got stuck with me since he's the only teacher at any of the three school who speaks English. He told me his sixth graders are awful and that made me nervous since I have to teach them three days a week but he assured me they'll treat me well. It's mostly boys in that class so it'll certainly be rowdy. 

Chuncheon (Song is constantly correcting me on the pronunciation, he reminds me of Cho when I try to say "Taekwondo") - anyway, the city is very beautiful. A few tall apartment buildings tucked into these beautiful green  mountains with a wide river running through. The bridges are gorgeous and they light them up at night. Song says it's his hometown but he'd been living in Seoul for about 20 years and just recently moved back. There are lots of farms and very few people speak any English. 

UPDATE - I stopped in the middle of this to go to class and Ms. Kim told me it's cancelled. They call it "Korean surprise" when you never know something's going to happen until it happens. The kids have a 2-hour ukulele lesson instead and I'm crazy jealous. She just had me introduce myself since the kids had been looking forward to meeting me and she didn't want to disappoint them so I stepped in and said "hello, class." They mostly just stared while slowly strumming their ukuleles and then one boy piped up "hello, Whitney-Teacher!" I was so nervous I started rattling off how excited I was to teach them and got blank stares. The teacher told them to say "see you Friday" and they finally spoke up in unison. Man, that's going to be interesting. Either they only know three words or they're extremely shy.

Anyway, I was talking about Chuncheon. I have pictures from my first view of it but I'll have to attach them when I get back to my apartment. I pretty much have to work at this computer all day til lunch and then I'll wait around for Song to finish his classes so we can go get me a phone. 

Last night, Song took me all over town, showing me bus stops and places to buy groceries. We stopped by the school to say "hi" to the Principal. He was very nice and just knew enough English to say "nice to meet you". And that was all. The girl I'm replacing is from South Africa and she left her slippers at the school and luckily we're the exact same size so I can just use hers. They're a bit like platform sandals so I tripped all over myself trying to navigate around the school but I'm getting used to them. The kids must think I'm crippled or something because every time they see me, I'm taking slow steps up the stairs and clinging onto the railing. 

The kids I run into either politely say "hello teacher" with a deep bow or get in my face with rapid Korean, probably commenting about my odd appearance. Song says they very rarely see a foreigner around here so I'm a bit of an oddity and I might scare some people. I'm wondering what the South African girl looked like and if she got the same treatment. I get a lot of weird stares walking around my apartment it's making me really self-conscious. 

I finally made it to my apartment last night and it's REALLY nice. It might be considered kind of crappy in the States but it's actually pretty spacious compared to other apartments I've seen. It's above a convenience store too so I could get a few items for breakfast this morning and if I ever want to take a crack at comic books they have a giant selection. My shower is just a hose connected to the bathroom sink and I've got a little gas burner in my kitchen space to cook on. It's all one open room with the bed, a weird appliance that's either a microwave or a toaster oven, a little A/C unit, TV, and a kitchen sink and burner. It took me a while to figure out how to get the washing machine going and how to turn on my hot water. Hopefully I don't end up burning the place down by mistake. There's another small closet space with a pint-sized washing machine for my clothes. They don't have dryers in Korea so I have to hang all my clothes up to dry. Sadly, the bed's not on the floor but they did compensate by making a mattress that FEELS like the floor. It's actually a lot more comfy than the one I had at orientation and the pillows aren't made of recycled straws. I have a lot of windows as well.

The girl before me left a lot of things - pots, pans, sheets, iron and board, a little bit of food and seasoning. She also left a super nice bike, which I'm dying to use since Chuncheon has some of the best bike trails in Gangwon. She even left me a cute little gift - a bottle of wine and some ferrero rocher chocolates. I might hold onto the wine to regift later ;) maybe my principal will like it. Finally, Mr. Song left me there and told me to be at the school by 9AM. (I'm not always teaching classes but I am required to be at the school 9-5 everyday). 

This morning was the worst start I could have had. I got on the bus okay and was trying to keep track of the stops but the stops were spoken so quickly I couldn't understand them. I tried to see if I could recognize where I was but didn't have a clue. The bus went into farmlands so I couldn't even get off to hail a taxi so I was stuck waiting til we got somewhere more populated. Then it went up to the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere and stopped.
 I was having an internal meltdown at this point, when the bus driver pulled into a viewpoint next to another bus. He turned around and asked me something and I put together that this was the end of the line. I went up and showed him the paper Song had given me and pointed out the address of the school and the stop I should have gotten off on. I couldn't understand what he said but it was pretty clear that I had missed my stop by a lot. It occurred to me that I should have pointed it out to him in the first place, since I was bound to get lost. I knew just enough to ask him where a taxi would be but he just shook his head. He told me to stay on the bus and went to talk to another driver. He showed the other driver my paper and they talked for a while and then told me to get on the other bus. They were both very nice but didn't seem to know what to do with me. They told me not to worry about paying when I pulled out my wallet so I just sat down miserably while they talked. Finally I looked at my paper and saw Song's phone number. Luckily, "do you have a cell phone" is one of the few phrases I know so I asked one of the bus drivers and he handed me one.

I called Song and he was frantic. The Vice Principal was waiting to meet me and Song had been at the bus stop waiting to bring me to the school. I handed the phone to the bus driver so he could explain to him. Finally the bus driver started the bus and took me to the stop. I was amazed how kind he had been. I thanked him profusely and got off on my stop. Song was there and I blew straight past him looking for my school. Started out going the wrong way and then I turned around and saw Song standing by the bus stop rolling his eyes and laughing. I felt so dumb. 

He took me to open a bank account and once again I felt like a child. He had to point out every part of the form that I had to sign or fill out and had to put addresses and phone numbers down for me because I clearly cannot function. 

Then he led me to the faculty room where I met the vice principal (she's my direct supervisor) she was very kind and concerned about me. She offered me tea and kept asking about my health, if I'd slept well, and asked Song about the bus. I was too embarrassed to look at her. 

Then Song led me to the library and told me to stay put. Not sure what I'm supposed to do so I've been polishing my "about me" presentation and chatting online with other teachers. They've all had similar experiences so I don't feel too bad. 

Ms. Hwang, the resource teacher, came to fetch me at one point. She only speaks a few words of English so we speak in a mix of very broken English and broken Korean. Or just miming. She's the resource/special ed teacher and is very fun and energetic. She took me to lunch with the other teachers. One teacher (I think he teaches gym?) keeps asking me if I play badminton and wants me to join them after school sometime. The other teachers spent a lot of lunch trying to figure out where I'm from and how to say my name. We settled it with "Whitney Houston". One of the administrators who handled my paperwork thought my last name was "Marie" and I had to explain to her that it was a middle name, which they don't have here. The other teachers told me that my name is too long but that it's pretty. I keep forgetting that it's rude point and such, I hope I don't offend too many of them.

The library has just the one computer aside from the librarian's computer and then a few shelves of books and tables for the students. I guess this computer is my office now. It's very old and runs slow. Most of the teachers don't want me to teach until Friday or Monday since they weren't expecting me until next week so I'll probably be spending a lot of time here. I've already perused the English books and taken a crack at some Korean picture books. My Korean is so bad... More and more I'm wishing I was fluent. And sometimes my Spanish comes out instead of Korean since that's my go-to foreign language. That confuses people even more than English :/ 

I've spent my morning listening to kids playing recorders since the library is right next to the music room. For some reason the principal wanted to show me the new music room they've built. That was interesting, he kept gesturing around the walls and door, I think trying to decide colors or something. Sadly, I was not very helpful. The English classroom is under construction so for now I don't have a physical classroom and have to go from classroom to classroom. This school is a lot smaller than Aspen though so it's not difficult, I just can't work with my own resources.Tomorrow, the vice principal is going to show me the other school. Not sure if I'll be teaching or just getting a tour. I'll probably find out last minute. 

I just got accosted by 3rd graders who came to return books. At least I understood them asking me in Korean if I was the English teacher but that's as far as we got. 

I guess Chuncheon is the most coveted city in Gangwon. There are two other bigger cities but everyone wants to be here. They actually don't have a lot of teaching opportunity here since people usually stay at least 3 years once they're here and I'm the first new teacher in several years to come here. (Well, me and the 3 Canadians who are teaching middle school). One of our guys from Ireland, Niall, who was with us at orientation has a twin brother none of us knew about. We met his twin, Seamus, at the immigration office and assumed it was Niall so we all started talking to him like we knew him. It took about twenty minutes before we realized it wasn't Niall. He told me to look him up and he'd give me a tour of the city since he's already been here for a long time. There's also a "welcome" dinner next week for us with the other veteran epik teachers in the area. Should be fun. Assuming I can figure out how to get there. 

Anyway, that's all that's happened so far. I'll send pictures when I get a chance and should have more time to skype or call in the next few days. Hopefully I can get a good deal on a smartphone today so I can get Kakao. 

Miss you guys!

-Whit