Jesse's First Day of School

So I started my first day at school today. It's a very nice school and is very large. It's also a public school which seems more prestigious than private, based on what I've seen - which would be the opposite of back home.

My day started at 8:40am and it's only a twenty minute walk to school. There's lots of beautiful scenery to look at on the walk including many mountains. Once at school, I went to a meeting with all the teachers. It's very interesting to be surrounded by people speaking a different language than you because you try really hard to listen and focus a lot on body language. There were about six new teachers at this school including me and so we each introduced ourselves. This was my time to shine as I used the Korean I'd practiced for weeks. I said annyonghaseyo, jeoneun jesse-imnida choeum beopgessumnida. People laughed and clapped so I think that may be a good sign.

I then went to the "broadcast room" where morning announcements are filmed. This is a very futuristic school. Two young kids operated the camera while the Principal and vice principals spoke to the camera and introduced the new teachers. I assume that it's broadcasted into each classroom.

There was then an assembly with all the grade 1 students and their parents. This was 10 in the morning and it seemed like every parent was there. Education is very important in Korea.

At noon, there was a lunch for all the new teachers. This was a bit scary since my co-teacher, who speaks English, was not going. Lucky for me, one of the new teachers is an English teacher and is very fluent in English. She served as the interpreter between the Principal and me. The restaurant was very cool and just like how I've seen it on TV. Shoes were removed at the door and we sat on the floor on some cushions. There was no menu to select food from as food was scattered all over the table and more kept coming out every few minutes. You just grab things with your chopsticks and eat them. I think they could tell I was inexperienced with the sticks as someone asked if I wanted a fork. I wish I could describe what we ate, but I didn't even know what it was. Everything was good though and a lot of it was spicy. There was this neat thing I'll describe. Everyone got a big hot cast-iron bowl of rice. You empty the rice into a smaller bowl and then pour boiling water into the iron bowl of rice. You eat the rice you scooped out and then after awhile all the rice that was sticking to the sides of the iron bowl have been loosened and you eat it as a kind of soup. Hot water and rice soup I guess is what you would call it. Koreans never waste any rice! The Principal asked me different questions about Canada as well as do I drink. I said 'some red wine', and then he asked me about Scotch and Vodka and how many I could drink. I think he found it funny that I didn't drink much.

The rest of the day was spent at another meeting and going to the hospital. I had to get a full body checkup in order to get my alien registration card. They ran me through the gauntlet: eye exam, reflexes, blood pressure, urine, blood. I think I'm okay.

My teacher dropped me off and that concluded my first day of being a teacher in Korea, which happened to include no actual teaching. I'll try to post pictures later, I just want to find out if it's okay to take them first.

In other news Ali found a grocery store that has many food items in English like spaghetti and tomato sauce. If you throw a stone around here you're bound to hit a restaurant or supermarket so we never have far to go. She also reorganized our smaller apartment to make it feel more spacious. She is to start teaching on Monday, March 8th.



Jesse