So we have been in South Korea for a week now and it feels like decades! When we first arrived we rode on a bus for 4 hours to the city of Gwangju. Our boss from our school met us at the bus stop, we had our first Korean meal and went to a hotel to stay the night the following day our boss picked us up and we went and met up with 2 other Americans that used to work for our boss. They were really nice and told us a lot about the job. It was also good seeing other Americans! It is so strange everyone is Asian! haha i mean everywhere! I guess I really don't think of it a lot in America but it also seems like you see such a diverse crowd in America not so much here! haha The second night we also stayed in a hotel in Gwangju the next morning (Monday) we went to one of the branches of You and I in Gwangju to have an "orientation" at the orientation we were told that we may have to teach that day. I was really nervous because we had no idea even how to teach. The owner of the school went over all the material very quickly. After the orientation our boss said that one of the teachers at the school in Yeosu is not coming in today but he would teach so we could watch him and kind of see what we need to do! We were relieved by that because we were really confused how to teach the material. That night our boss told us the rest of the week we would stay in one of his friends "vacation homes" I guess they are called "pensions". The first night there was no bed so we had to sleep Asian style on the floor!!! It was a little strange but the floors are heated so it was really warm but not comfortable at all. The rest of the week we had an actual bed so that was good. Here are some pictures of the pension.....
we got to watch the debates!
sorry this is sideways but this is the bathroom!
these are the views!
We were suffering with no Internet in this beautiful place, and we were kind of stuck there because there was really nothing around and on the 3rd night our tv stopped working. We loving referred to it as jail in paradise!
Tuesday through Friday Wes and I had to teach on our own. It was very interesting to say the least! It was really difficult at first because there is certain material you have to teach the kids and it gets really repetitive and somewhat boring. It is also very confusing at first but we finally got the hang of things. The kids are very sweet but they are a little crazy too! They have a lot of energy! Just like American kids! I thought they might be a little different from American kids but nope they are pretty much the same! They are really cute though. Most of them can speak very good English so it isn't really hard to communicate with them. We did not have our adult teaching job last week but that starts this week and I am kind of nervous about it. They are employee's from LG who are all engineers so that makes me a little nervous. Wes said he thinks he is going to enjoy teaching adults more than the kids.
All in all our first week was pretty good.
So I thought I would write some first impressions about Korea.....
1. There seems to be no rules on the road. Everyone runs red lights and speeds.
2. They eat rice for every meal, breakfast lunch and dinner.
3.Everyone drinks instant coffee, and at gas stations and stores they sell cold coffee in little to go cups it is actually quite convenient and tasty.
4. Rest stops are VERY popular and big! They are like shopping malls!
5. They eat potato and sweet potato pizza I have never heard of this before but it is really good!
We thought of more but can't think of anymore at the moment!
Well that's all for now!
=]
