Hi all,
Sorry for the longer delay in posts, I was relatively busy last week creating lesson plans and trying to avoid going to the PC bangs (internet cafes) now that my laptop is working again. Unfortunately a healthy computer doesn't equal instant wireless connections as Papa and I found out yesterday. Thankfully I've picked up a stronger signal tonight so here comes a big new entry to the blog.
The 2nd week of teaching went even better than the first week. I'm beginning get more familiar with the students, not so much their names as much as recognizing their faces and associating that with their English levels. It's funny because the more talkative kids in some of the classes aren't necessarily the best English speakers. One thing I've realized is how much the kids love Jeopardy, almost as much as yours truly. If only Mom and Dad had captured my Jeopardy dance on video, they could blackmail me for any amount to keep that video a secret. This week I start all my special and advanced classes, which I'm excited for because the students' English levels are higher and I feel I can be more engaging in my teaching style with more interesting material. All in all I'm beginning to settle into a routine but there will be little surprises, like last week when we were served crab soup for lunch or last Friday when we had a staff badminton tournament and afterwards I played soccer with some of my students for a while. Also, last Wednesday night a group of people from the Madison group and another friend from home, Paul Chodosh, got together for dinner in Paul's town, Byeongjeom, only 2 subway stops away from Suwon. It was nice to meet other people and see how everyone was getting along so far and a few of us were planning out future weekends, trips, etc...
This past weekend I made the long trek via subway up to Ilsan to stay with Dave. Alex also came in again from Paju and we both claimed our respective spots on Dave's floor. I didn't get in until late Friday night so we kept the night low-key. We spent the night playing Winning Eleven, a soccer video game, which I'm sure the parents and grandparents aren't too happy to hear, but we all needed something less taxing after long weeks of teaching. Anyways, Jinhan, Dave's co-teacher, and myself were dominant, winning all but one of the matches, mostly due to Jinhan's skill and much less to my timely passes and stellar defense. Saturday was a much more eventful day thankfully. We took the subway to Insa-dong, a nice neighborhood in greater Seoul, to meet up with Mika, another friend from our Madison group. We walked around through a fairly new area of Insa-dong, which had a very European feel and reminded me of walking in Uptown; there were art galleries, coffee shops, and tea houses everywhere! After our mini-tour of the neighborhood, we met up with Jinhan at the National Folk Museum, which is located at the palace ground of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was first built in 1395 to signify the moving of the ancient capitial of the Joseon Dynasty from Gaeseong to Seoul (known as Hanyang). The palace was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion in 1592 and wasn't reconstructed until 1868. An effort to fully restore the palace has been ongoing since 1990. In short, the palace and the grounds in their entirety were amazing! The architecture is so interesting and so different from other historical palaces I've seen. We all enjoyed the excursion and took many pictures. Afterwards we went to check out a little flower sculpture garden across the street and made our way to a picturesque stream, both in an area of downtown Seoul. After dinner, we made our way to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to see FC Seoul take on FC Jeonbuk in soccer. I can't remember the last time I attended a soccer game, but for 4,000 won (roughly $3) who could turn down a ticket? The game was great, the fans are as rabid as any soccer fans worldwide and we really enjoyed ourselves. For a nightcap we went to Itaewon, a very Westernized area of Seoul, to check out Dave's co-worker Andy's friend's band, a British cover band playing everything from Clapton to the Stones, Oasis (sorry Jed) to Zeppelin. They were great and overall, Saturday and the weekend were a great success. On Sunday I made my way to Ichon, right on the Han River for my ultimate frisbee league and arrived back in Suwon around 6:30 pm, exhausted from a wonderful weekend.
I am looking forward to my Hangul class (the Korean language) which starts this Wednesday after school. Hopefully I can pick up the characters fairly quickly; I've already begun to teach myself a little bit. I also hope to have my apartment wired for Internet by the end of the week; I have to wait to pick up my Alien Regisitration Card, which won't be ready till Wednesday. I also hope to get a cell phone either later this week or early next week and will keep you all informed to the status of both. For now that's all from my end, hope everyone is well back home in Canada and the States.
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