Best Co-Teachers =)

Arriving in a new country where you do not understand the language seems hectic.  You start to miss home, your friends, family, food, snacks, everything!  It has only been two weeks and I'm obviously still super excited about Korea, but there are people back home who I wish were here with me.  Amazing co-teachers are what makes this entire experience much more comfortable, enjoyable and for a split second, can help me forget about how much a miss friends and family back in Canada.

When we arrived in Seoul last Thursday, one of my co-teachers and the teacher-head of my school picked me up, fed me and drove me to my apartment. The native teacher that was living in my apartment before me had just left earlier that day so they had no time to clean up, so they spent 2 hours helping me clean up my entire apartment. Amazing right?

Then, the day after, last Friday, was the first the I arrived at my school.  Another co-teacher I met that day told me that it would take a few weeks for me to get my ARC, so what did she do?

She stole her daughter's phone and said, "you can use this until you get your own."

Yesterday, the same co-teacher realized that my webcam didn't work so she gave me hers and told me I could keep it until I buy one myself.

The tool that allowed me to webcam my boyfriend, mom and friend in Canada. Before this, I was upside down and speechless because my mic was broken =P.

My main co-teacher is always telling me that she tries her best to help native teachers because she has children in the States and she knows how difficult it is to adjust to a new country and new environment.  She somehow figured out that I would not be able to live without a phone where I can check my emails and text messages every few minutes, so she went out with me to find a phone.

LG - SU760, apparently it's a new phone, I would've taken anything so I'm super happy.

Koreans are awesome, because I got a new phone, they told me that I get a gift with purchase.

I don't know how any of this has anything to do with a cell phone but at least now I have extra detergent and paper towels =P.

Because I was too busy getting a phone with my co-teacher, I wasn't able to have lunch with my friend, Claudia.

I cooked my own instant jjajang myun, it's definitely not as good as the ones in restaurants.

I'm extremely lucky and thankful to have such amazing co-teachers.  People are truly what makes a difference in life.  Even though this experience has been pretty overwhelming so far, I'm glad that I have all these people in my life who care about me and makes this transitional period that much easier. =)

xoxo

1st Day of School

Yesterday night, we freaked out about our first day teaching and what better way to freak out than have some Shabu Shabu?

mmmmm..meeeaat =)

This was a really interesting meal because Chinese people have Hot Pot all the time, especially in the winter, but we just shove whatever we want in the pot and pull it out when it's ready.  Here, we had to take a piece of cooked cabbage, put in some cooked beef with a sweet sauce, add some mushrooms, wrap it up and engulf it.  SOOO GOOD!  After we finish all the meat, veggie and noodles, the ahjumma takes out most of the soup and pours in rice, eggs and veggies, and you get something that looks like jook/congee/rice porridge.  It was really good, I think I'm going to start doing that when I go back to Canada.  The flavour from all of that meat and vegetables in that broth? Awesome!

After I got back home, I figured that I would be a diligent teacher and prepare an introductory powerpoint JUST in case my co-teachers ask me to teach on the first day.  They told me I had a week to observe, prepare and plan, but it never hurts to be a little bit prepared.

I got to school early, not because I was punctual, but because my co-teacher told me to leave the house extra early because of the traffic; I made it there in half the time and was 40 minutes early =P.

I finally met my main co-teacher today, who was waiting for me in the classroom, she was so nice.  She said the students will only have an opening ceremony today and the subject teachers do not have to teach.  I had no idea I had to run downstairs and introduce myself.  I frantically ran into the office where my principal introduces me through a video broadcast where all of the students can see me live in their homeroom classroom TVs.  I introduced myself as cute, little Korean students giggle in the background.  It was one of the most awkward moments of my life.  

I went back upstairs and we discussed next weeks lesson plans, assessments, school holidays and vacation periods.  My co-teachers are very considerate and are all trying to make my stay in Korea as comfortable as possible.  Seems like this will be a great year with awesome adventures and experiences.  

So you may ask, what do English-subject teachers do on the first day of class after summer break?

Eat cup ramyun of course!!

Students had a half day today and two teachers are retiring so we had a special free buffet lunch where I had to introduce myself once again *sigh*.  

Here's all our staff gathered together =).

Hope all our Epik-SMOE teachers had an awesome day as well.

xoxo

Trying Something New

Ever since I arrived in Korea, I spent hours and hours writing long, crazy emails to friends and family.  If you know me, you know that when I say long, crazy emails, I mean LONG, crazy emails lol.  I had a hard time keeping track of who I told what to.  Each email was slightly different, yet still the same.  To be honest, it was totally driving me insane!  My friend Claudia convinced me that blogging is the way to go, so here I am, doing something that I never thought I would do.  I hope this makes everybody's life a little bit easier, well mine at least =P.

I wanted to start yesterday, but I was just too tired and busy, if you really want to know what I've been up to so far, you can check it out here: http://nosojuplease.blogspot.com/.  We're always together, so we pretty much do the same thing =P.

Now, time for laundry and some ramyun cooking =)