I left from Seattle, early morning on February 18th. Auntie Beth woke up early & took me to the airport. I had to weigh my baggage to make sure it was not over the 50 pound weight limit. I didn't want to have to pay the $350 overage fee. Luckily, both of my bags were under, but only about a pound. That is some skilled packing, I would say. The woman who checked me in was very friendly & chipper for early in the morning. Both Beth & I were impressed.
I exchanged my US dollars for Korean won, gave Beth a big hug, & went through security.
My flight went through to San Francisco and I had a lay over for a couple hours. I ended up running into this girl, Greta, who I had befriended on Facebook that was getting a job through the EPIK program like me. We talked a bunch before the flight & were able to switch seats with a guy & sit together on the long flight from San Francisco to Seoul. It was nice to have someone to talk to as international flights can be very monotaneous. And we did talk a lot of the flight, slept a little, ate a little, but mostly just chatted it up. Greta was born in Cuba & grew up in Miami, has lived & taught in Japan & Chile, so we had a lot to talk about.
Finally we arrived in Seoul. We went through customs no problem, got our bags, met the EPIK crew, & took a bus from the airport to Dankook University, about 2 hours away, where we had a week long orientation for new EPIK public school teachers.
We had 7 days of busy schedule, listening to lectures, studying Korean, eating, going to a traditional folk village, preparing lesson plans to present at orientation, and finding out where we would be working in our perspective cities. There were about 500 foreign teachers at orientation. My roommate, a girl named Angelle from New Orleans, is great, we have become friends, & she also lives in Busan. On the last day, we found out which school we would be working at & the area we would be living in. Then we boarded a bus & were brought to the education board for our area where our co-teachers were waiting for us.
My head co-teacher, Hwang He Lee, along with an office worker from my school came to pick me up. They brought me to my apartment while they negotiated the lease (this included a lot of arguing for at least an hour). I looked around and realized that there was no gas line for a gas stove so I told my co-teacher, but she basically ignored me about that. The man dealing with the lease didn't seem so friendly, but the man who takes care of the building, an older man, was very kind and told me he wanted me to be comfortable & that he would help me if I needed anything.
Next was shopping to stock the apartment. I was so tired by this point, I just wanted to go home, but there was more to do. My co-teacher & I ate some Korean soup & then did some shopping at HomePlus which is basically like a Super Walmart type of store with everything you could imagine, 7 floors. I got sheets, dishes, things of that nature, & finally made it back to my apartment. There are a few more things I should share about the apartment. The ceiling by the window had mold which made my allergies go crazy, I cannot control the heat, it turns on only from 11pm to 9am, the water heater is very small (it takes 40 minutes to heat up & only lasts about 7-10 minutes & then goes cold again), things like that were a bit overwhelming so I was a bit bummed when I first moved to Busan. I arrived to Busan on a Friday night & spent the weekend buying a few more household items, relaxing, & walking around my area.
My work begins at 8:40am so I woke up at 7am on Monday, March 2nd to make sure I was wide awake & could make it to school a little early for my first day. I walked to school, went into the office & met one of my new co-teachers. Then we went upstairs to the special teachers' lounge were I spend some of my non-teaching time & where I eat lunch. I met those teachers as well. Then we proceeded to teach, I mean, clean the English classrooms. They had been under construction during winter vacation & we had to sweep, mop, & rearrange the desks. The first day I cleaned a little bit & then surfed the internet, productive, right. All the new teachers at the school plus the prinicpal & vice principal had lunch at a nearby restaurant & then went back to school.
My working situation is as such. I have 3 Korean co-teachers, grade 6, grade 5, and grades 3-4. They have their English classes which I rotate through. I have two weeks with each grade so I basically see the students 2 weeks out of 6 weeks. Each class has about 30 students. They are 40 minute classes & I teach about half of that while my co-teacher teaches the other half. It is basically team teaching, so it is interesting & a new experience for me. I also have a grade 5 special class once a week on Wednesdays. I am in charge of the curriculum for this class & I do all of the teaching. There are only 15 students in this class & I quite like it. I will begin a grade 3 after school class starting this week. It will be 2 days a week, also be smaller, & I will be in charge of making the curriculum for this class as well. Finally, I have a teachers' class 2 days a week where any of the teachers can join to practice their English. I have been making the lessons for this as well. It is fun to talk to the teachers, but I have to say, they are hard to keep quiet & they speak more Korean in class than my students do. I think it will be a good way for me to get to know some of the other teachers & learn more about Korean culture.
On the first day of school, my head co-teacher forgot to introduce me to the principal so that was very uncomfortable. She even told me she forgot, but didn't offer to introduce me. I asked my other co-teacher Minja Park, who is in charge of helping me with whatever I need, if she would formally introduce me to the principal a week later, so she did, & I felt better about that.
I have a third co-teacher, Sunhee An, who is the grade 6 English teacher. Her and Minja both studied in New Jersey. They are close to my age & very friendly. My head co-teacher is a bit older & has a family.
Up until last week, I did not have internet at my apartment so I had to do all of my MA studying at school. It was a challenge, but at least I have some free time at work & was able to get a lot done. I am now almost done with my spring trimester & will have a 3 week break from that coming up.
The first week was a bit of a rough adjustment, but now I am settling in & getting used to my schedule & life in Busan. I live 7 minutes walking away from my school which is wonderful. I have a mountain range for a backyard, literally 10 minutes up the hill from my house is a beautiful mountain range which has a trail to a village called Flower Village. In the village there are delicious country restaurants, a Buddhist temple, & a large nature park. I couldn't have gotten a better area. I am about 15 minutes by subway from the city center as well. Things are pretty good, going with the flow.
Here is a photo of the first Dong-ju Elementary Teachers' Dinner I had with my fellow lounge co-teachers. We ate sam-gyup-sal, a type of pork that you bbq. It was very delicious & nice to go out to eat with the teachers.
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| From Dong-ju Elementary 1st Teacher Dinner |
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