중앙초 Jungang Elementary
The English classroom is on the 3rd floor. This seems like quite a big school to me, yet there are only 150 students or so.
What a good-lookin' English teacher. Actually, all the ladies and girls at school tell me I'm 예쁜. They're so sweet to me.
I am just desk-warming this week, working on lesson plans, and waving to cute kids as they walk past my classroom. (The older ones bow deeply to me. The little ones just yell "Herro!" when they see me in the hallway.) I start English classes next week. According to my mentor teacher, a lot of 1st grade girls have signed up for the English class--girls who wouldn't have signed up with the last TaLK scholar (no offense to him, maybe it's just because I'm a girl and they think I look extra friendly).
Adventures
I took the bus all by myself and found the Immigration Office! I have been officially declared "Korean." Just kidding. My Alien Registration Card is just being processed.
I am the only blonde. Anywhere. I love all the looks I get. The other day in Daiso, an old Korean man came right up to me and I thought I must have been in the way of something he was trying to look at behind me. But, no, he was just looking at me and what I was purchasing. Out of curiosity.
Yesterday, my school had an official dinner because our vice principal is transferring to another school (apparently people don't stay in the same job long in Korea, maybe 8 years max). We went to a restaurant and had Samgyeopsal, which is fatty pork belly meat that comes to your table raw. You then cook it, along with vegetables (kimchi) on a hot plate/grill that's on the table. It was actually really good. I just didn't love all the fat.
I told my mentor teacher I don't drink, so she poured water in my shot glass while everyone else poured soju in theirs. The drinking culture is very important here. So it was important for me to participate, even if it was just water in my cup.
There were three older ladies sharing my table and grill. One is a janitor at the school and the other two are lunch ladies. They don't speak any English, but they acted like my mom all night and made sure I ate plenty of food. They kept pushing meat towards my side of the grill with their chopsticks. My mentor teacher was laughing and joking that I had three "mommies" taking care of me. They were so sweet, though. And I got so full. But, surprise, they brought out bowls of rice next. And spicy tofu soup. And then grapes. And then the VP wanted to take everyone to a cafe, her treat. So I had a fruit drink and shared some desserts (Korea is a very sharing culture, if you haven't gathered that yet).
When I got home after dinner, my landlady (who speaks English quite well) knocked on my door and asked, if I had time, if I would meet her 20-year old daughter who is visiting from university in Seoul. She invited me to go to the supermarket with them, because she said I just seem like a good person. Haha. My landlady bought me a huge bundle of bananas. And then...then they took me to a dessert cafe for bingsu. Hahaha...more food, oh my gosh, I ate so much yesterday...
Today, I made a calendar in my classroom. It's so cute. I love my job.
After desk-warming, I went to a game cafe with my co-teacher and another TaLK scholar...
Game Cafe...you just pay by the hour to play Nintendo and Wii games...
The rooms are very...decorated and colorful...
It almost felt like home. *sniffle* Almost.
And then my mentor teacher joined us for dinner and I finally tried Dakgalbi, the spicy chicken and cabbage dish that Chuncheon is known for. We sat on the floor around a circular table with a large pan/cooker in the middle. A lady came and dumped a big pile of raw chicken, cabbage, sweet potato chunks, and rice cakes into the pan. The ladies working at the restaurant cook it for us right at our table, using a big metal spatula to push everything around (it looks like back-breaking work, because the table is barely off the ground and they have to bend over it to cook...good thing they're generally short people). After we mostly finished the meat and cabbage, the lady came back, pushed the leftovers to the side and laid out a rice mixture on the pan. She pushed the rice back and forth and flattened it until it was just a thin layer. She cut it in sections and rolled up the rice into rolls. It was delicious! Almost like Mexican-style fried rice. A little crispier than normal rice. And spicy. So yummy. I will have to video the process next time and take pictures. But I didn't want to be rude with my co-teachers there.
It's been raining all last night and today. I heard that more southern parts of Korea experienced the typhoon that hit Japan, but we just got light rain here. But welcome to the rainy season, I guess. There is a sea of umbrellas everywhere you go.
Oh, and one more thing: what's a fortpolio??
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