Lucked out

I can't believe my first week of teaching is over! My transition to Korea has been made ridiculously easier thanks to the remarkable people I work with and my perfect recruiting agent. She's getting flowers this week, because I owe her a big fat thank you for finding this job. It's the perfect fit.

I was worried about working in a private school because set curriculums taught out of textbooks sound like a drag to me as a teacher. Luckily, our boss gives us the capacity to be creatively free with our lessons as long as they correlate with the book and we stay on top of our shit. He isn't constantly breathing down our backs or checking up on us. He trusts us.

I was gung-ho about teaching at a public school, it seemed like I would get more out of my experience here. I interviewed for a position and got offered a job, but there was so much confusion about where I would be teaching and I had such short notice to accept - my gut told me to hold off. I couldn't have made a better decision. 

My first day teaching was my first day at work and only my second full day in Korea. I was anxious as all hell and I felt incredibly unprepared, but my English coworkers promised I had nothing to worry about. They were right. How could I be worried when my biggest class size has only 10 students? One of my higher level classes had only 3 students. I had my book as a guide for my lesson and with my uncanny ability to be flexible and adapt, I did just that for my first day as an English teacher. 

A student-designed apartment, complete with a room for Burgers.

This week I've been getting into the swing of things. Overcoming jet lag and trying to get on a normal sleeping schedule has proved to be more difficult than I thought. I'm waking up at 5am when I don't work until 3pm. At least I have loads of time to do normal life things, like blog and paint and study Korean and explore.

My new friend making me my favorite cheap dinner, Gimbap

                                   

Food. So much food. And surprisingly I've been eating more foreign food than Korean. My boss took all of us out to an Italian restaurant for lunch my first day. Korean Italian, however, takes a slightly different spin on things. We had a bulgogi (불고기) salad, which may have been the most delicious thing I've are thus far. I celebrated Canada earlier in the week with my coworkers at a western cafe and ate eggs Benedict and poutine, and then had Indian food the day after that. 

Spur of the moment on our way home from work Karyn and I decided to go out for chimek - a shortened version of chicken and the Korean word for beer, mekju. There are fried chicken places on every corner. Other than it being completely western influenced, it has definitely earned it's place in modern Korean culture. 

Daewangam Park