Highway to the English Zone

This is the hallway leading to the "English Zone" of the school. This section was just renovated right before the end of the year.

Here is my nice and comfortable office. I get a good view of the outside and some great amount of daylight. My desk is the one closest to the windows.

Some interesting door and wall details that I thought was worth showing. Inspiring quotes and useful readings are displayed along the walls.

One of my favorite quotes is on this wall!

The computer lab is used for the English Club that I will be leading. There is also a small collection of books that include novels from Harry Potter, Twilight, and Chronicles of Narnia. For the drama club, modified scripts from movies such as Ice Age, Dead Poets society, and Pirates of the Caribbean are available.


The main English classroom is pretty awesome. It has a computer, microphone, speakers, and a flat touch screen TV (with sliding chalkboards) for my co-teachers and I to use.

Dinner for the Tender Soul

My co-teachers wanted to cheer me up, so they decided to take me out to dinner. There were many interesting dishes to try for sure. I was very touched by their kind gesture. It made me realize that my stay in Korea is going to be special. I will definitely need to find a way to repay them for their efforts.

Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans

Here is an "interesting" article that I thought was worth posting here. How would the Koreans ever cope with a shortage on their beloved side dish?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15kimchi.html?_r=1

Life happens...

I'd like to apologize that I have not been updating my blog regularly like I promised. I'm going through some very tough times. The pain has become detrimental to my health and making it nearly impossible for me to post my thoughts. I will try the best that I can to maintain my blog as I recover from this difficult time.

When night falls...

Outside my apartment facing my right

Outside my apartment facing my left.

My assigned school

Here is the middle school that I'll be teaching at next week. It takes less than 10 minutes for me to walk from my apartment to the school. March 1st is a Korean National Holiday, so the school is closed for today. The rest of the week I'll be meeting with my co-teachers to discuss our plans for classroom activities. I'll try to get some indoor pictures once school starts. Wish me luck!

My apartment

Here is the front of my apartment.

My apartment is definitely larger than I thought it was going to be.

Awesome front load washer, the only problem is the buttons are written in Hangul. I forgot to ask my co-teachers how to operate it....

Stove top with an exterior gas valve. Whenever I want to cook, I have to turn the valve on. After that I have to turn the valve off. I don't want to know what happens if I forget to put it in the off position!

One of my five co-teachers. She is very nice and I will definitely enjoy working with her.

I had to look good on the first day of meeting with the school staff.

Traditional Dance

Some interesting dance movements representing the grace of a butterfly. The background music was pretty relaxing. I have to give credit to the only guy dancing in the group. I definitely could not pull that off.

Traditional Drum Music

Here's a short video of the drumming during the opening ceremony last week.

Annyeong haseyo!

Hello! Just wanted to give everyone an update of my time here. The school staff so far has done a great job of preparing me for my first week of teaching. My last week has been very busy, but very interesting. Each day has a series of lectures and workshops that we have to attend. They include things like class management, lesson presentations, and learning about Korean customs and traditions. There are also basic Korean language classes that we have to take, which are actually pretty fun. I'm looking forward to trying out some Korean once I'm confident enough to use it! I'll make sure to share some of my encounters as I go out and test my skills.

Najung ebayo (See you later)!