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