I also have an afternoon kindergarten class, with students who love to play with me, a second grade class, a third grade science and writing class, and a fourth grade literature class. Yay! I get to teach Literature!!!! Anyway, back to orientation, I am really glad to say I have awesome supervisors who really help out, especially Meena, who is the supervisor for three of my classes. Michelle and Ellie also supervise a class for me. Without them, I would probably be completely lost. Meena does a lot of things that would normally be my job, but she does it anyway. Thanks so much Meena!!!! I also found out I had to into my apartment the first day of orientation, which was nice, as I didn't have to stay in the love motel. I unpacked the night I moved in since I was having trouble sleeping anyway. Here are some pictures of my apartment. It is much bigger than what I lived in in Japan.
Anyway, I was much looking forward to the weekend, as I got to see Nathaniel, who is also in Korea now. Those of you who read my Japan blog or were in Japan with me, you will remember that Nathaniel and I were close, so it is nice seeing him again. Even if I did have to harass him ... and if you know me ... you know I literally mean harass. But anyway, Nathaniel took me to visit a Korean friend who we also knew from Japan, Seong-muk. He showed us Anguk, which I think is either part of Seoul or near Seoul. Either way, he showed us an old architecture town in Anguk which was really cool to see. Wish I had remembered my camera, but I didn't, so the pictures below are ones I stole from Seong-muk and Nathaniel.
In the old town was a Gold Leaf Silk Printing museum, and so Nathaniel and I got to hear the history of Gold Leaf Silk by a Korean guide who spoke English. It was interesting to hear about the differences in culture. For example, the bat is revered in Korea (or at least it was in the past) and in the US we think of the bat as a dark creature. Also, we learned interesting little facts like the princesses would wear green silk and women couldn't show their hands. The tour guide found it interesting when he started talking about the first birthday, or what I call the 100 day birthday (I don't remember what it is called in Korean, when I told him I had actually celebrated it since I was born here in South Korea, and didn't leave until a month after that 'birthday.' The below picture was Nathaniel and I leaving out mark at the Gold Leaf Silk Museum. After that, Seong-muk treated us to Korean Style ice cream, which I rather enjoyed despite in being a milk tea or something like that.
So, first week of teaching was interesting, especially since jet lag finally decided to kick in. I have a lot of work to cover in a short amount of time, so it can be very stressful, but I find that I am loving my job for the most part. Monday through Friday, I have my morning kindergarten, which is a class full of characters, but I like them all, and my second graders, who can be quite the handful, but there are some pretty smart kids in there if they make the effort. I have high hopes for them. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have my Afternoon Kindergarten class, which currently consists of three little girls who take any opportunities to chase Jessica Teacher (yes that is what all of the students call me and I now find myself refering to myself in the third person as Jessica Teacher) around. On Tuesday and Thursday, I have my third graders who I teach science and writing to. Then my fourth grade literature class which is three girls who think The Count of Monte Cristo is too difficult and much better in Korean. Which I proceed to tell them it is basically the same book, just in a different language. Those girls also tend to like to ask me personal questions, like do you have a boyfriend. Which normally I wouldn't answer, but since they were making the effort to speak English, I made an exception.
Anyhow, it was a busy week trying to figure out schedules, having to catch up on reading the same books as my students so I knew what was going on, doing the same homework so I had the answers to their homework, etc. I was really glad when I stopped sitting at the printer desk, and finally got a desk of my own, and binders, so then I could at least attempt some form of organization which has now saved my life. I also had to learn how to write weekly progress reports for my morning kindergarten students, which was interesting, but figured it out and now get to respond to parent comments and such in future reports. Should be an interesting process. I have learned to greatly appreciate prep time, as it means I don't have to continue staying late or taking work home. I am also appreciating weekends a lot more. After a long week, you definately want the break.
We have class pets for morning kindergarten, which for most of the classes are edible snails (which we are not going to eat). My class named the boy Mickey Mouse, and the girl Seraphina. We tried to get the girl's name to be Minnie Mouse, to have a set, but couldn't get enough class support, as too many girls wanted the name Seraphina. So Seraphina is the name of the girl snail. A lot of us kept forgetting to feed our snails, but I eventually remembered and found out that the snails like apples but don't like bananas. I hear they like lettuce too, but I haven't tried it. I have managed to not kill our class pets as of yet. So Yay! Though one of Ben's class snails came dead, so we had a little snail funeral for him on the way home from school one day.
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