Hi again.
First off, thanks to everyone for commenting. It's really awesome to see that people are actually reading our little rantings, and care enough to comment, etc. So thanks!
Anyway, moving on.
What haven't we said yet...oh yeah, TEACHING.
So the plan originally was that we would get a solid week of classroom observation before we started teaching. The Korean office of immigration saw to it that that was a non-option. Stupid visa delays.
What actually ended up happening is that we flew into Seoul (as you know) Saturday morning, and we were informed that the teacher Rebecca was replacing was teaching until Tuesday, so she would have 2 days of observation at the main branch of the school, and on Monday I would be going to the other branch (where I'll end up teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays) to observe classes for one night, and then I'd start teaching on my own on Tuesday.
That plan also didn't happen. What *DID* happen was that we both showed up to the main branch on Monday to find out that Becca was still going to be observing for a couple days, but that there was nobody to cover the other classes, so I would be teaching right away. So I had exactly 45 minutes to look at the textbooks for a grade 3 class, two grade 5 classes and a grade 6 class and figure out what/how I was going to teach all of them.
No stress though, seriously.
*sigh*
anyway, the classes went well for the most part. Kids, it turns out, are kids wherever they are. Some are gold, some are....well......somewhat less desireable than gold. Let's leave it at that.
Since then it's already gotten a bit easier. I think I'm getting the hang of this. I have a couple classes that I actively look forward to, which is really nice, and totally makes up for the classes containing the second type of kid.
The apartment's slowly looking more and more like a home now. We spent a solid afternoon scrubbing it, and Becca had a couple hours off while I was still teaching at the second school, so she got a lot of unpacking done (cause she's awesome) so now it's a lot more liveable. We thought we were going to have to pay for an air conditioner, but we found out that the school is actually going to cover that (!) so hopefully that will get installed on Friday too. If all goes well, it'll be a *lot* more like home by early next week, what with the introduction of a phone, the internet, cable, and an air conditioner. So awesome.
The food still sucks. Will update as the situation progresses.
That last bit actually has one exception already. They have this meat here (I can't remember the name right now -- I'll let you know later) that's the same cut as bacon, and looks like bacon, only it's huge. Picture a strip of bacon three times as thick and about twice as long. The restaurant where we ate this wonderful(ly fatty) stuff was set up so that you sat on the floor at a table with a rotisserie/grill in the middle, and the owner comes by and puts two trays of red hot coals in the middle, then puts skewers of this meat on the rotisserie to cook. In the meantime, the lid for the rotisserie is a grill where you can heat up the side dishes, then when everything's done, you wrap it in a leaf of lettuce and chow down. It was actually surprisingly tasty.
As a parting note (cause there's a staff dinner in 20 minutes welcoming us to the school and saying goodbye to Michael, the Kiwi teacher that we're replacing), Korean internet cafes are interesting places. This one has about 50 computers, all with 19" flat screens and the computers are all awesome, with about 90% of them being used to play come form of online game. To my right, as I type this, is a Korean guy, probably about my age (maybe a little older), playing some sort of online multiplayer 1st person shooter game. To my left is a Korean woman who, to my surprise, is actually about 40, playing what looks like a Korean PC version of Mariokart. The air is thick with smoke and the horrible cacophonous symphony of bullets flying, spells being cast and ear-bleedingly terrible Korean techno music accompanying any number of inane arcade-style online games. Truly something to behold.
I have to go now.
More updates to come, keep the comments rolling!!