First day in Korea

I decided that even though I'm writing this all at once that I'll break it up into a few different sections just because. I doubt it really adds all the much. I guess it's just for the index. How is it that I could ramble on forever about nothing? Also, I don't know why I'm using the present tense. Does it add excitement? I think that lit teachers say it does. Too much rambling.

I wake up and have no idea what time it is. I'm cold and try to go back to sleep. I don't really succeed but just manage to stay in some weird between sleep and consciousness state. Finally there's a knock at my door and it's time to get up. I realize that the bed I'm sleeping on is just 3 mattresses stacked on top of each other. Strange. Ok, backstory. Matt and Renee live on the 9th floor of an apartment building. Not that it's important really, just a detail. Not necessarily backstory either. I have some toast for breakfast. The shower has no curtain nor anyplace for one. Renee gives me a warning about my bathroom. We walk to school. They basically just take me to the faculty room and I feel lost and don't know what to do. I meet Amy the head Korean teacher and Gareth who I will be replacing. I'm to observe classes today, April 6th, 2005. I flip through some books trying to look busy and check my email. There's only one computer in the room so I feel like I can't use it freely and get off.

Observation begins. I guess Gareth was teaching these kindergarten kids but was just playing 1-2 game. Hide and go seek in a small room with a table and some chairs. Well there's a display case but it's not really anyplace you could hide. So instead, I'm going to watch Amy Teacher. Everyone has teacher behind their names. There are only 5 kids. No one uses their Korean names at the school and they all have English names. Some are a bit strange. One mother insisted her child be called Bona. I've only heard of Bona though. I'm glad I'm not teacher a Bona. In my kindergarten class there's Karen, Kate, Catherine, Erica, and Paul. Paul is a bit shy or else just doesn't know what he supposed to say. Karen is very smart/advanced. Kate is tall. I mimic Erica a bit while Amy has her back turned. I think that Erica will be my favourite.

After watching Amy Teacher teach for awhile, we go back to the faculty room. This part actually happened earlier but you can pretend. Jupiter comes in and asked my what I want to be called. I tell him that Tyler is fine. He seems little disappointed and tells me that my name is close to a Korean word meaning "to admonish" and tells me it would be better if I went by my middle name so the kids are distracted. I'm trying to retain some sense of anonimity on this blog but really all I have left is my name and all those numbers linked to my name. Everyone but the other foreign teachers are calling me by my middle name. This is going to be weird.

Gareth and I leave Wonderland so he can show me where I'll be living. He's leaving tomorrow night. Gareth is from Marble Arch in London and travelled from London to India by train and bus I guess. They ran out of money in India and he and his girlfriend found these jobs in Korea. He in Daegu and she in Seoul. He's leaving his position after less than a month to move to Seoul. I guess he gave his notice on the 3rd day. It's nice to know that the school had no problem (well relatively I guess) releasing him from his contract. To get to my house I take a left at the intersection, a right at the glass house, left at blue house and then straight. The buildings on this side of the road aren't high rises at all. There are some typical Asian looking houses (well with an Asian facade at least). Maybe I'll be living in one of these. We get to my place. It looks like an office building. There's a 24 hour store below me. That's nice especially because you can't drink tap water. The apartment is nice enough. A studio. I have cable TV, a funky looking washing machine, and a stovetop that I still don't know how to use. Luckily the subway station is literally 2 seconds from my place.

He shows me around the neighbourhood a bit and we go back to the school. I observe him for the afternoon. He's not the best example of a teacher. The first class is a bit out of control and one kid, Glenn, jumps from the table onto his back. They barely listen to him at all. This is more how I imagined it would be. I guess the kids only take the Korean teachers seriously. I watch him the rest of the afternoon and he gets progressively more control in each class as the kids get progressively older and more advanced in their English. At least it gets better throughout the day. It's too bad that Gareth is leaving.

I go back with Matt and Renee to their house. We have spaghetti and watch the rest of Troy. That's what happened. We watched some both nights. I don't know how much later they stayed up than me on the first night. We also watched the end of CSI. It was the father not the mother's fiance. Troy ends. I take a melatonin capsule for my jetlag. Matt warns me that it makes dreams intense. I take one instead of two, My dreams don't seem any more vivid. Maybe I should've taken two.

I think that's enough writing for one day. I had no idea I'd go into such detail. It's also mostly content and only a bit of rambling at the beginning and now at the end of course. Maybe I'll catch up to the actually present at some point. I need to figure out how to get internet at my house.