Tuesday, July 24, 2007

"Everytime you do that thing you do..."

Good morning Korea!! I just awoke from a 12 hour sleep, but I'm not sure jet lag has been adequately fought off. I'm staying in a dorm room with a roommate (Mike from Windsor), and we are two of six English teachers. The "How Fun English Camp" is located in Juchiwon, which is a small town in the mid western part of South Korea.
Lets see, here's an overview of the last few days.
Thursday night: We arrived. Although we left on Wednesday morning at 10 am, and the flight was much longer than 12 hours, we still didn't see a bit of sunset or night time. We went from Wednesday to Thursday without any type of night! Once we arrived, Becky and I had to look for a man holding a sign with our names. It was pretty awesome walking out of the baggage claim area because there were SO many Koreans there with signs and cameras and hopeful looks in their eyes. It felt like I was walking out on stage at a rock concert at a little venue. And they were so interested in what we were doing and where we were going. Three or four came up and asked us who we were or where we were going, and ... being the paranoid Western type, being trained on what to do when strangers ask personal information I just replied "No, it's ok. We're being picked up by a friend." And that sent them off looking for another white face; probably another English teacher.
So finally outside the airport we saw a bit of night time. We traveled back to the University (3 hours away) and found our dorms. Pretty nice rooms, with "True" high speed internet.
The weekend was spend in meetings, and wanderings by myself, Becky and my four other co-workers. We tried to catch up on sleep but... at least for me, it didn't happen. We eat together in the cafeteria everyday, breakfast lunch and supper. The food is... different, not in a bad way. Kim chi and rice seem to be standards in every meal. It doesn't seem to matter the meal, the food is relatively the same type, although they might have toast and cereal at breakfast time.
The kids arrived on Sunday and the classes began on Monday. Yesterday (Monday), the classes felt SO long. The day went like this: Woke at 7am (they play the song "that thing you do", I think its by the Moffat's, every morning over the intercom as a wake up call). Breakfast is at 8am, Classes start at 9am and go until 12:30. Lunch ends at 1:30pm and then classes resume. The classes will end around 2:50pm or so, and the project classes begin. Project classes include games, and more games. At 5:50pm we head off to supper, and then the 'work' part of the day is done. I guess I must be recovering from Jet lag still cause I was SO tired yesterday.
I teach the intermediate class, level one. This just means that they can understand key words that I might say. Conversational English does not exist with them yet. But they are better in English than I am in Korean...
Anyways, it's a pretty good time, and fun work atmosphere. And I'm sure after the tiredness wears off I'll be able to be able to take advantage of the cool hiking trails that surround the school. Pictures will come soon! But now, it's off to shower and then breakfast, and then off to the classes.

2 comments:

Jac said...

ok thats funny cause i just sent you an email asking stuff like that, and then i got your blog post which answers much of it.
wow... 7am? i bet that in a couple weeks you will grow to hate that song, if not already. but then again, you are more of a morning person than i am. ;)
give becks a hug for me!

Matt said...

mmm... jet lag...