Week 1

After my first weekend getting acquainted with my new home, it was time to jump head first into being a teacher. From what I hear, I was more fortunate that most in that I got a couple of days of orientation before being thrown into being a teacher on my own. Orientation was a little pointless though. I spent two days watching both of the Korean teachers teach their classes, both of whom have the luxury of explaining things to (and not to mention diciplining) the kids in Korean. None-the-less, it was useful in that I learned a few basic techniques to keep the kids' attention. My first day of teaching on my own was the Wednesday, and it actually went as smoothly as I could have hoped. I quickly indentified the kids that were going to make this year a little easier, as well as those that were going to make every day a struggle. 

Thurday was pretty similar, but Thurday night I got my first taste of a night out in downtown Gwangju. We went to one of the foreigner bars called "Songs", aptly named for both it's owner and the presence of kareoke. This was also my first experience with Soju; a traditional Korean liquor thats about 20% alcohol and tastes like sweet vodka. The bar didn't serve it, but the owner didn't have a problem letting us running to the Mini Stop to grab a few bottles and bring them back. Needless to say, when the drinking games began, making new friends was easy: 

It was also my first experience going to a bar that had no closing time. I got to sleep around 4am, dreading my first day of teaching hungover. 

I ended out getting it pretty easy on Friday, because Friday morning for the kindgarteners was field trip day this week. The school is only a few minutes from the Gwangju National Museum which had an entire children's museum as well. 

There isn't much to do at the kid's museum, but these cut-outs provided some pretty adorable photo-opportunities. 

There is also a sandbox; a sure-fire way to keep kids occupied for a couple hours. And, because I'm not their parents and don't have to deal with them after the morning, I didn't particularily care how dirty they got. 

After the museum, the rest of Friday went much the same as the previous two days. I was dog tired and Fridays are usually pretty relaxed (games, activities etc.) so I had no problem mailing it in.

After school on Friday, we had planned a camping trip to the city of Jindo, located at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. That weekend warrants it's own post, so this ends my second blog post. Stay tuned.