2nd Day of Observation

The second day plays out pretty much like the first except that during the afternoon I watch Renee and some of the Korean teachers. Renee and Matt are from Sudbury, Ontario. Actually, this day is kind of a blur to me now. Maybe I should've done this sooner.

The Melon class (all the Kindergarten classes have fruit names) is pretty much the same as the day before. All the kids are afraid of Amy Teacher. She's the Vice-President and she's the one that disciplines the kids hardest. It's part of her job description I think so that we don't alienate the kids by being overly harsh. I don't know how harsh she can get. I'm told she has a little belt.

Jupiter tells me that I need to give him my passport, my tickets, and 2 passport photos. He needs to register me with the local authorities. I need to get some photos so over the lunch break Matt and Renee take me to a photographers. I also tried to get some money from the ATM. One wouldn't take my card and the other is only in Korean. Luckily red buttons mean cancel everywhere I guess. It's my second day and I have no money and have yet to spend a dime. Matt and Renee have given me food and Matt pays for my photos.

During the afternoon, I watch Renee. She seems like a good teacher. Then I watched some of the same kids with their Korean teacher. I didn't know these kids could behave so well. Apparently, they know that the Korean teacher means business but they think that the foreign teacher (i.e. me) is for fun and games. Glenn doesn't jump on his Korean teacher, Julie, at all. Then I watched one of Renee's classes again. She has one student named Sarah who asks me all kinds of questions and draws a picture and covers it with 'no's' and then draws another. I don't know what that's supposed to mean. Another Korean teacher and another dramatically different class. Actually, the Nobel class is pretty good anyway just a little restless maybe. The afternoon classes are all named after scientists. I have Einstein, Kepler, Newton, and Nobel. The kids are better behaved with the Korean teacher though.

I start to make some lesson plans. Matt and Renee tell me they're pretty much not worth doing and once I don't have to show them I should quit making them. I just look at the assigned pages and make stuff up to do. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing at all. That night I had to stay later than Matt and Renee so I could do my lesson plans for the next day. I have to start teaching tomorrow. I go to Gareth's after school to get my key. I meet him on the way. I can't believe all he has is this backpack. I guess you really don't need that much travelling. Maybe I've brought too much stuff. Anyways, I get the key and say goodbye to Gareth. He goes off to the station to go to Seoul and I go to Matt and Renee's. All my stuff is there and Jupiter is going to give me a ride the next day to take it all to my place the next day.

That night, I eat a chicken kebab, or chicken on a stick and some slices of pizza. I had leftover pizza for breakfast too. I'm not big on breakfast and they'd run out of bread that morning. We watch CSI and then a movie. Equilibrium. Disutopia movies take themselves so seriously. It wasn't bad. Then I go to bed.