Hit or Miss

Hi, everyone! Thank you for all of your lovely comments on my other entry. I really appreciate it. :)


My flight went well and felt shorter than I thought it would, thanks to my brilliant idea: buying Stephen Colbert's book to entertain me. You should read it. Seriously. To backtrack a bit, I went to swipe my passport to get my boarding pass and got Carolyn Guy's boarding pass headed to Memphis. No thanks. Nice glitch in the system. So that was sorted out and I was on my way. I had a lovely view of the wing for 12 hours but I was so excited I didn't care. The Tokyo airport was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Miranda, there was Hello Kitty stuff everywhere. It's everywhere here, too. I will have no problem finding you a souvenir!


Darcie (my new co-worker) and I met at the Tokyo airport. We chatted for a little while and then started boarding. The flight from Tokyo to Seoul was an hour shorter than what it said on my itinerary, which was a pleasant surprise. Darcie and I met Grace and Sunny at the airport--they work at the front desk at SLP. We got to our motel and the first word that comes to mind whenever I think about it is "tacky." It has the blinking neon signs and the entrance and hallways are dark and cheap. I was worried when we first walked inside the motel but my room was nicer than I thought it would be. Darcie told me that when she walked into her room she noticed a clump of hair on the bed and when she turned the TV on, it was on a porn channel. This leads us to believe that we stayed in what the Koreans call a "love motel." Um, are there really any other kinds? ;)


Darcie and I started training the next morning. There are two SLP campuses: Mapo and Yongsan. The Mapo campus was right down the street from our motel. We stopped there and met Mr. and Mrs. Yang, the owners of SLP. Then they drove us to SLP Yongsan which is where I am teaching. It is summer school right now so the hours are different than the regular school year. All week I was there from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm. When the regular school year starts I will be working from 1:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Darcie is the morning teacher. I'm the afternoon teacher. I'm kind of bummed out since I'm a morning person, but oh well. Here is Yongsan SLP.

We did a week of observation and it was madness. The first class I observed was a kindergarten phonics class. Kim (the teacher I'm replacing) is amazing and I learned a ton from her throughout the week. Then I observed a higher-level reading comprehension class. I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites but I love that class. Oh, and there are so many cute kids with glasses! That melts my heart. Anyway, it was kind of an odd week to do observations. They had reading tests, spelling tests, game day, and their monthly birthday party. The birthday party caused my first run-in with a student throwing up. Sadly, Cindy learned to not eat a load of cheese balls, cake, hot dogs, and grapes too quickly. That reminds me: "Cindy" is her English name. We assign the kids English names when they start at SLP. We do not force them to, however. We have way too many Sarahs, Erics, and Jennys, though. I'm tempted to have fun with assigning English names. I'm thinking "Gladys," "Constantine," "Herman," and "Bambi" will add some much needed variety at SLP.

On Wednesday Kim had to go to the Pension Office so I had to take over one of her classes. It was a nightmare. They were learning when to use "a," "an," or "some" before nouns. I tried really hard to figure out different ways to teach that to them, but they really didn't get it. I'll have to come up with some different worksheets for that lesson.

On Wednesday night, the SLP staff went out to dinner to say farewell to some teachers and welcome to others. I had just come off of a horrible teaching experience, it was rainy, and I was sick of feeling left out of the conversation. Kim, Meredith, and Darcie all went to school together when they were younger...and they all know one of the teachers who is staring at SLP next month. Sometimes I feel like I'm invading a high school reunion and it's really irritating. Sometimes it's to the point where I think, had I known that they all know each other, I would have gone with a different program. Kim was actually really, really good at including me so I'm sad she went back to the U.S. on Saturday. To top things off, I had heels on and slipped on a puddle on the subway stairs and hurt my ankle on the way home. It's still pretty swollen. Exhibit A:


The next day I taught the morning kindergarten classes and they were GREAT. It made me forget about my nightmarish Wednesday. The only problem at school on Thursday was that a lot of the kids felt compelled to speak Korean. SLP is an immersion school so they are not allowed to speak Korean at all during school hours.

I also had to teach the morning kindergarten phonics and higher-level reading comprehension classes on Friday. It all went smoothly. They had spelling tests and then they just played games because it was their last day before vacation.

We moved into our apartment on Saturday. It takes me back to living in the dorms. I really love the location we're in. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, and convenience stores around us. I'll post some pictures of my apartment once it's presentable. I did laundry yesterday and there are no dryers in our building so I have clothes hanging everywhere they can possibly hang. I got very inventive. On Saturday night Darcie and I wandered around and ended up at an outdoor restaurant where we ordered pork and vegetables and we had our own little grill at the center of our table. It was an amazing meal.

Here is the first meal I ate in Seoul. It's called bibimbap. It has veggies, rice, egg, and a spicy red sauce. I have a feeling it will be my bread and butter while here.



Here is Myeong-dong, one of the most popular shopping areas in Seoul:

I will post pictures of my apartment in a couple days!

(Fellow Tori fans: I'm sitting in a coffee shop and "Big Wheel" is on in here. That makes my day.)

♥ Carly