58) Thrown into the mix

This last week was a little crazy. After some confusion at the immigration office on Monday, I showed up late to my first day of work. I couldn’t really help showing up late or the confusion, but I didn’t think that was going to be too big of a problem as I was only supposed to be training for the week. When I showed up, one of my co-workers casually said “oh, you’re late”, which of course I knew. But what I didn’t know is the guy who was to be training me, Roy, was in the hospital. His apartment started on fire with him and his girlfriend in it, he ended up in the hospital and his girlfriend escaped out the bathroom window. Apparently it is pretty serious, he sustained burns and inhaled a lot of smoke. So I think he will remain in the hospital for a while longer.

The original plan was for me to get one week of training, then cover for Roy while he went on vacation for a couple weeks, and then move to downtown Seoul and teach at a public school for the rest of the year. Not surprising things didn’t work exactly as planned, that seems to be par for the course while in Korea.

So I will probably be teaching at this school for a couple months, and then I guess we will see what happens after that. If you are getting the idea that I am annoyed by any of this, it is the wrong idea. So far almost everything about this school has been so much better than what I was coming from in Suji. For starters the apartment is close to twice the size of the cockroach box I was living in while in Suji. The location is also much better- as far as having things to do. I would still like to be in the downtown area, but I am only about 20 minutes away by subway, so that is not too bad at all. And it is nice to be in an area where there are girls my age- not just moms and high schoolers (nothing against either one of them, but they are not really in my dating category). So far this school has been much better as well. For starters the afternoon schedule is unbelievable, I am able to wake up whenever I want, and then get to the gym before school starts. I can also eat two meals a day at the school, so that helps cut down on food costs. And the classes themselves are a lot nicer. They are 40 minutes each- which seems like they are over before they even begin, after coming from 80 minute classes. The short classes also make it easier to control the kids- 80 minutes can get pretty long, and you can only play games for so long before they stop being fun. The overall atmosphere is also much better. The people I work with actually want to be there, and it is much more relaxed. There are no bells (anyone having worked at Swaton would know how that bell haunts your dreams) and getting to class on time is not really too big of a priority. All of this combines to create a much nicer atmosphere.

I still don’t have internet in my apartment, but it is not too big of a problem as the PC rooms here are about the same price as in Cambodia, at roughly a dollar an hour. The biggest draw back of not having internet in my apartment is updating this blog. It is a bit of a pain to do it in the PC room, and it is just not worth posting pictures, because it just takes much effort and time. But hopefully soon I will have access in my apartment, and then I will be able to post some pics of my new students.