1. Here I am!

Well, I have arrived. I'm still can't entirely believe that I'm here. I'm safe, I'm sound... and I start work tomorrow. Insane.

I had a bit of an inauspicious beginning here in the Land of Morning Calm. The 14 hour flight over was murder. I slept in fits and starts, and was eager to get to bed when I arrived... a half hour early. So it really sucked that the guy who was supposed to pick me up (Stephen) was over an hour late -- meaning that I was waiting in the airport for almost 2 hours. Stephen had gotten caught in traffic due to a rather major accident. But I was home by 7:30 yesterday morning.

Where is "home"? Well, I'm in Ilsan, a suburb of Seoul -- about half an hours drive out of the city, at least that's what Stephen said. I was way too tired to pay that much attention to how far we drove. But I have since talked to one of the Canadian teachers at the school I will be working at and he says that we're pretty close, so that's good.

First impressions? Well, so far it just looks like any other city, except with signs I can't read... at least not all of them. It's insane how many signs are in English. I went grocery shopping today and passed by about 6 churches -- at least I think they were churches based on the large crosses... so finding a church shouldn't be a problem. I just have to figure out how to find out when they start.

I'm nervous about tomorrow, I must say. The "2-6 day training period" I was promised seems to actually mean "a couple of minutes of orientation in the morning before you start teaching". And David (one of the other Canadian teachers... the one who showed me where the grocery store (and more) was) felt the need to warn me about some of what I can expect... I can expect the parents to complain about me for a little while -- it apparently happens to all the teachers at first. English education is so competitive -- there are schools everywhere, so parents have a lot of choice, and therefore a lot of power. They will watch me as I teach... via video! They have televisions in the lobby of the school that show us teaching, which seems crazy to me, but is not as bad as some of the schools which have it set up so the parents can watch from home via the internet!

He also warned me that the parents will be 'confused' by me... because I'm Canadian but not white. Apparently Mr. Lee (the director of the school) looked at my picture a thousand times and kept asking David if I was "really from Canada". Stephen (the recruiter) also brought it up in the car -- the "you are black people" issue. I was warned about this before I even started applying for jobs in Korea, but I admit that it still shocks me a bit. In Canada I have to put up with people asking me if I'm "really black" all the time because I'm light skinned... Here... well, things are different. They're quite certain I'm black.

Onto good things. One of my main concerns (petty as it may be) was that I wasn't going to be able to pronounce the names of the children... well, that won't be a problem as they have all been assigned English names. I am of two minds about this... it seems so wrong somehow, but I'm also incredibly relieved. I'm going to have either the second youngest class (known as Cookie Monster) or the third youngest (known as Snoopy). At first David was saying that I will have the Snoopy class, which he went on to explain was the worst behaved class in the school. I couldn't help but laugh at this, because that's what happened to me when I went to teach in Belize -- they gave me the worst class too. But after a little bit, David came to the conclusion that I would probably have Cookie Monster. Either way, I think I'll be okay... I'm good with kids. Of course, I'm good with North American kids, but they can't be that different over here, can they? I suppose I'll find out.

They told me that I'd be within walking distance of the school, and they weren't kidding... I'm about a 1-2 minute walk from school. It's insane.

Anyway, I suppose I'll show you some pictures now.
This is the building that I live in. I have yet to meet any of my neighbours. I had actually thought that there would be other English teachers living here, but all the voices I've heard so far are Korean.

The street I live on (I still don't know the name, actually... I don't know who to ask to find out my address, I'll just ask around at school tomorrow) looks kind of like a back street to me, but it isn't... it's actually a 2 lane street, but I would hate to drive down it myself. It looks a lot wider in the pictures than it does when I'm standing on it.












I'm sure you all want to see pictures of my school... so, here you go.












It's on the 4th and 5th floors of the building.











The school itself is on a fairly busy street.

















David also showed me the local 'mall', which is more like an outdoor market, except it's not. Um... I'm not sure what to call it, so 'mall' will do. It's known as "La Festa", and it's where I went today to do my grocery shopping. I imagine I'll be there a lot.

And now, what you've all been waiting for. My home. It's about the size of the Curles' living room (for those of you who have been there).

The bathroom is interesting, I must say. If you look at this picture closely you may notice that there is no shower curtain, just a shower head hooked up to the sink. This is fairly standard. I haven't quite figured out how to turn on the hot water yet -- there's a series of buttons labeled in Korean (don't worry, Jen, they aren't in the bathroom! I won't get electrocuted), I just have to figure out the right one.

Anyway, that's it for now. Much love to all of you!