Week two has now officially come to an end. I have made many accomplishments although many of them are small, I am still proud of them.
To begin, I taught the entire week by myself. The class of five year olds continue to be my daily challenge. Someday, I hope they can learn to behave. On an exciting note, my oldest, most advanced class just finished our Western Cultures book and I get to chose the next thing I teach them. My supervisor said that I can chose because if the teacher isn't teaching something they're are passionate about, the kids won't learn as much. I pitched Government/American Politics to the kids. They seemed interested and my supervisor thought it would be a good idea. I'm super excited to be able to teach this. These kids have already asked me many questions about Obama so I think it will be great. My supervisor also told me I'm doing a great job so that is always good to hear.
I also ate traditional Korean BBQ this week. When you enter the restaurant you take off your shoes, leave them at the front door, and you sit on the floor to eat. They bring hot coals and stick it in the table in front of you and start grilling the meat. It was amazing. When you eat the meat you take it from the grill, place it in some sauce that's supposed to take the fat off of it, and then eat it. I will go back for this!
This weekend there was a St. Patrick's Day Festival. In previous years, it has been much bigger but I guess due to lack of corporate sponsorship it wasn't as good as previous years. I can officially say that this is the greatest amount of true Irish (really from Ireland) I have celebrated St. Patrick's Day with. It's crazy to think that I have this experience in South Korea. Overall it was fun to see the many cultures celebrate this event. There was free Guinness and live Irish bands. There's something to be said about a little Korean boy dancing with a stuffed Guinness bottle. You have to love the clash of cultures!
Another first I'm proud of is successfully navigating the subway system by myself. I went to pick up a friend of Sebastian's down in Gangnam and brought him up to the St. Patrick's Day festival without making any mistakes. I have to say his subway line is super cool because you get to cross over the river and get an awesome view of the city. Next time, I'll take pictures.
After being able to navigate the subway system by myself, I decided I would tell my friend that has been here for a year and a half that I'm here. She was super surprised and on Sunday we went and visited Gyeongbok Palace which was beautiful. We spent the afternoon catching up and exchanging teaching stories. She's so cool. We went to a coffee shop and I found my first representation of Colorado which warmed my heart a bit and I of course had to take a picture!
One thing I've learned about Korea is you never know what you're going to encounter. On the subway ride to the palace I had to transfer from my line to another line. I walked down the station and I was doubling checking if I was headed the right way on the train. This older Korean man walked up to me and asked me if I was Canadian and I told him "No, American." He asked me where I was going and I told him. His English was limited and my Korean is even more limited but he was genuinely concerned about me. He confirmed I was headed in the right direction and told me I had two stops to go. In Korean culture, it is customary for younger people to give up seats to their elders. A few younger Korean guys got up and offered their seats to him and he pointed at me and I think he told them he needed to make sure I got to where I was going. We established that I was here teaching English and he asked me if I was from New York. I told him Colorado but he didn't know it, so he started naming every major city he could think of and tried to get a Korean girl to help him figure out where I am from. When I came to my stop, He said, "Here and bye, bye." It was so cute. I told him thank you in Korean and left. I wish I could have communicated more with him.
Being a foreigner here, it's hard to blend in. You get stared at a lot especially by older people. It was so nice to see and older man who was interested in me and where I came from and was genuinely concerned that I made it safely. Those moments make everything worth it.
So here I am growing, teaching, learning and finding myself in....South Korea.
P.S. I've started a Picasa album so you all can see all of my pictures. Check it out!
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