First Day of School

My first of school...at a new school...in a foreign country.

 

I got to school fairly early.  I was worried about getting lost on the way (even though it is a very straight 15-20 minute walk from my apartment to the school and wanted to take my time to try to observe things around me.  And keep an eye out for a “PC bang” (or internet cafe).  I won’t have internet until my Alien Residency Card comes (in about 2 weeks) so will have to rely on PC bangs and discrete internet usage at school.

 

Anyway, my first day of school.

 

One of the teachers I met yesterday too me up to the English Department and the head English teacher showed me to my office.  I have a decent sized office to myself.  I left some of the materials that I brought for students to look at there so keep from having to haul them back and forth everyday.  The door locks and I have a key and there is locking file cabinet there that I left those things in.  Next door teacher brought me toothbrush and toothpaste, a roll of toilet paper, and two mugs.  Apparently, I should have had these things, but more on that later.

 

My co-teacher took me to meet the principal and we had tea with him.  Then to a teachers’ meeting where I had to stand in front of the faculty and have the Vice Principle introduce me and then say a few words to the staff.  Of course I was nervous and embarrassed, but managed to ramble my way through it.

 

I didn’t have any classes to teach, which I am so grateful!  I felt like I was being eased in to things.  So my co-teacher and I sat down and discussed what I would be expected to teach...I am supposed to focus on writing skills a few other things, like saying sentences and having students recognize intonation, etc.  So I put in half a day of meeting people and working on a lesson introducing myself.

 

Another English teacher came to see me just before lunch.  He was excited to hear that I was from Memphis as he is a big Elvis fan.  We talked about Elvis and Memphis (we promised to work on changing the students’ view that Elvis is old and out-dated), our families, and then he and Next Door Teacher showed me to the cafeteria.  After lunch (more kimchi, but this pork stew stuff that was really good and a seaweed soup that was ok) Next Door Teacher and I went back to the classroom/office where she showed me where I should brush my teeth.  Makes sense now.  A lot of Korean food is quite spicy and the minty, cool toothpaste helped to calm my poor, overworked taste buds.

 

After lunch, my co-teacher came by to see me.  She had a schedule of classes that I would be expected to teach (17 in total), but since I was contracted to 22 hours, I would hold office hours for students starting in a few weeks and then office hours for faculty to come work on English skills.  She gave me a schedule of classes I needed to teach next week, not too many since Monday has a special event planned and Thursday is a holiday.  She told me to take to rest of the day off to have a rest and have some time to myself. 

 

My co-teacer came by later in the afternoon to help me change the passcode on my door and see if I needed anything for the weekend.  I assured her I would be alright and would spend time exploring and knew where the grocery store was if I needed anything.   

 

And so, the adventure begins in earnest…