First Monday in Korea: Work time!!

WSU reunited in Korea! Kevin, Tia, me, Bri and Daniel! :)






Making clocks for science class! June and Bebe are in the far left and are too cute!!





The boys pretending they're Michael Jackson...hilarious!!!!!





Charlie, he's adorable, and super energetic!! <3


Monday February 8th 2010: First Day of Class!


The first day of school was a success! When I woke up this morning I was anxious to go and see the kids and finally get back into a normal routine. I wasn’t really nervous to be inside the classroom, for my senior project back in high school I taught 2 5th grade art classes for the year and I absolutely loved it so I figured it wouldn’t be hard.

I woke up around 5:30am I don’t know if it was because I was excited or the floor was uncomfortable. I got into my ‘shower’, which is basically a removable showerhead that sprays the toilet and sink, I was a bit skeptical at first but actually it wasn’t bad and quite convenient. I got ready, checked my e-mail then went into Bri’s room to chit chat before work. Tia and Bri seem really nervous about being in front of the classroom, but I know that they will do great and kids will love them. I learned that if you go into the classroom confident in yourself then the kids would respond in a really positive way. We just need to be happy and confident!

We walked to class around 8:20am with the other girls in our program, Ta-leah, Amy and Sarah. They have been pretty helpful with info for us and I’m curious how close we will be by the end of this journey. When we got to the school our director assigned us teachers to follow. Bri followed Ta-Leah (who I hear has great ideas w/ kids and can also understand Korean so she is a good person to follow!), Tia was with Kevin and I was with Daniel. Kevin and Daniel both went to WSU so that made me more at ease to ask questions. Daniel has 40minute classes and we didn’t start until around 10:40ish (I think..) so the morning was really chill before class. Daniel slept and I talked to Amy about the classes. When it was time to go to our first class it was only 4 boys, Charlie, Paul, Randy and Tyler. They are the cutest kids in the entire world!! I noticed that they love to speak in front of the class and perform. They aren’t shy at all and want to impress you with their English. In the US kids wont want to raise their hands or do speeches in front of the class but these kids were so enthusiastic and had more energy than I have ever seen in my life. Korean kids are adorable but also the most rowdy kids ever!!!! They had to practice their graduation speech in front of me (graduation is in 2 weeks for these kids then we will get a new set of kids). The speeches were too cute; they were about what kinds of super powers they would want to have. They were all soooo creative! And for 5 year olds their English is amazing.

The age groups are really interesting here. The classes are grouped by ‘sixes’ or ‘sevens’ etc. when you are born in Korea you start at the age of 1 not 0 and once the New Year hits in January you turn 2. So the kids who were born in December can be 2 years old a month later. So in the classes the sixes can really be 5 or even 4 and they are all so bright! You would expect them to be older than they are.

My other favorite class of the day was with a little girl named Lily in it. Daniel had them play musical chairs and once she was out she came right up to me to talk! She loved my hair and said, ‘Katie Teacher you beautiful’ and another little girl chimed in, ‘Like a princess!’…(I can get use to this kind of confidence booster haha!) Lily loved my hair and called me ‘yellow head’ because of my blonde hair she kept trying to teach me how to say it, and when I would try she would giggle. The kids love it when you try and speak Korean with them! She loved my eye color and my rings, she counted them and asked to try one on and told me she has 7 rings at home. She was adorable. At the end of the day all of the kids said ‘bye Katie Teacher’. These kids know how to make you smile!!

After work, Kevin and Daniel took us to Pho a Vietnamese restaurant. Tia got beef flank pho and I got a seafood pho dish. I ATE OCTOPUS!! It was really squishy and definitely not my favorite thing in the world…but I didn’t hate it. I gave Tia a bite of what I thought was a sprout and Tia and Kevin played along but when I took a bite it was some sort of meat, possibly octopus legs? They tricked me!! But I’m really glad I tried it. After dinner Kevin asked our server to call a taxi for us because it was raining and our walk home was about 20-25minutes long. Kevin sat up front and directed the taxi driver, our taxi home was a about a dollar each—so cheap!!!

When we got home we all just relaxed. We couldn’t eat or drink past 8pm because Jade wanted us to ‘fast’ before our medical checkup tomorrow. (I was so so thirsty!!!) We have to get blood drawn and I’m not looking forward to it. But once we pass our checkup we’ll receive our alien card in a few weeks and that will let us open up a bank account!