Seoul Shift: School and Birthday!

I just finished teaching my first week of classes here at Bonggang Elementary School. So far, it's going great. My first day was Monday, and I had three afterschool classes, starting at 1:30 and going 40 minutes each. I get 1st through 6th grade, but I only teach one at a time, either 2 or 3 times per week depending on the grade. For my fist class, I made a powerpoint introducing myself to the students. The kids here are super interested in your personal life, and if you show them a few things, they won't forget it. So, I showed them my family, some pictures of life back in the U.S., and some things that I enjoy doing. After that, I would say that I want to know about them, so ranging in difficult according to the grade, I would have the students write their names and some information. First grade wrote, "My name is", and sixth grade wrote that, along with a few things they enjoy doing and where exactly they are from. I originally was just going to use their Korean names, but the previous TaLK scholars gave them English names which they all knew very well, so I let them use those.

The kids are really great. I have between 6 and 10 students per grade, so it's not that bad to manage the classroom. I have a few really crazy ones, but with the help of my co-teacher, nothing has really gotten out of hand yet. I've taken pictures of everyone so that I can remember their name, and that seems to help. 46 students shouldn't be hard to remember within a couple of weeks. Today, I played soccer with the kids during their lunch break, which was a lot of fun. They are surprisingly organized for elementary students. In the U.S., I feel like it would just be an all out brawl. Here, they play outs, corners, and they balance the teams. Then, when I came to play, after they put me with a team, they said, "Teacher, no shoot, only pass", which is fair. Some of the kids are actually pretty good, and they will play right up until the bell.

This week was great all around. It was Chusseok, which is the Korean thanksgiving holiday. So, from Friday until Wednesday there was no school. I went out to visit my friends in Boseung, which is about an hour from here. We had a great time. We went to the Tea Fields in Boseung, which are some of the best tea fields in the country. After two nights there, I came back to Gwangyang and a few friends came with me. My birthday was Monday, the actual day of Chusseok. Well, I get a call from my friends from the group (Group 6) saying that they are all (15 of them) on the train to my place, so to meet them at the train station. Sure enough, everyone showed up, and we had a great time walking around Suncheon and just hanging out.

On Sunday night, Gio and I made it to a Chunnam Dragons game. They are the pro soccer team in my city of Gwangyang. They play K-league, which is the highest level of soccer here in Korea. We actually got in free because someone we went with knew a guy that worked at the stadium. So, even though it was sort of raining, we went to the game and watched the dragons win 2 - 0! Great times. O, and because they don't really sell concessions at the games, you just bring in whatever you can carry. So people are brining in buckets of chicken, beer, whatever they can carry and just setting up. Overall, an awesome environment! On the 24th we are planning on making it to a baseball game in Gwangju, and we are expecting that to be a great time as well.

I've also gotten to know some of the foreigners in my area that have lived here a while. Some have been here for months, some for nearly a decade. They get together at local places and hang out some evening, and i've been lucky enough to be invited. They are a great group, and really informative about stuff here in the area. I look forward to spending time with them during my stay.

I'll try to keep up with the blog as much as I can. I've got some great stories I need to get up here. I'm going to take an afternoon soon and catch up with the stories, they just pile up on me. Until next time!