Getting Adjusted

I'm starting to get more and more adjusted and the homesick feeling is getting a bit better. On Sunday we were able to see the school and meet two of the teachers we will be working with this year. The school is gorgeous! We are lucky because our school has it's own building and is not in the middle of the city. Private schools in Korea are usually in an office building and the kids have no opportunity to go outside. Our school has it's own backyard with playground equipment and garden. In the spring the kids get to plant lettuce and cabbage! The building is less than three years old so everything is new and clean. I'm excited to start teaching.

We were also able to go out to lunch with the two teachers and ask any questions we had. We also saw our apartments and got a tour of the area we will be living in. I'm really lucky because our apartments are very nice and our location is great! We are right by a subway line, many bus lines and it's very easy to get a cab. We have everything we need within walking distance and it's really easy to get to those places we can't walk to. We also have a gym about a block away and the river is close. So I will have many running options! The weather so far has been great and I've been able to run outside all 4 days we've been here.

This week has been our orientation/training week. We were able to observe the current teachers the first two days and do practice lesson plans for the assistant director. Tuesday we were told what age group we would be teaching and who our partner teacher would be. In this school, we each teach two different classes of the same age group. Our partner teacher teaches the same classes but at opposite times and they teach different subjects. This makes it much easier on us to only have to prepare 3-4 lesson plans a day opposed to 7-8 everyday. Our partner teacher is Korean and can also help us with any language barriers we might face with the kids. But the kids are so smart and their English is better than most American kids I know. I was surprised at how much they know and how well they can speak English at such a young age. Today we were given our schedules for the first month and our lesson plans. It's a bit overwhelming at first but it will be nice once we can get in our classrooms on Friday and really start planning for the year.

I have also been fighting a cold/sickness these first few days. I think my body is just trying to get used to the new foods, climate, and the fact I just traveled half way around the world. I was pretty miserable yesterday and just wanted a few pieces of toast and my own bed. But I was able to get a lot of sleep and feel much better today. I hope once we get into our apartments and can actually go grocery shopping and eat food we want to eat I'll start feeling better. The food isn't bad but it's just not as filling or satisfying as I'm used to. I understand now why Koreans are so skinny! They don't eat a lot of fat or high caloric foods.

Thankfully we aren't getting picked up for school tomorrow until 11 so we can sleep in a bit. Tomorrow and Friday will be spent preparing for the start of the new school year, which starts next Tuesday. It'll be nice to actually do something productive the next few days.