Day 3 of living in Korea: first venture out of the apartment (besides school)

There are many, many things about Korea that surprise, shock, and tickle me. My favorite surprise so far? Corporal punishment! YES!! Yesterday, I saw a teacher take a badminton racket (for some reason everyone has one) from a boy and whack him with the handle twice! It was awesome! Several of my co-teachers have whomped students on the back with a stack of papers or with the palm of their hand. The best part? The students (including the whompee) all cracked up. I couldn't help but smile :-)

Another thing that has surprised me: there are 7 class periods in a day, which isn't unusual. The unexpected part of that was what the students do during 7th hour. All of the students in the school are responsible for cleaning the classrooms and the teachers' offices. They will come in and sweep all of the floors, empty the trash, and mop the floors. For all of you students in the US, DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT WHAT YOUR TEACHERS MAKE YOU DO!

The teachers here are quite a bit different. So far the 6 teachers that share the office with me are pretty quiet. Jillian (my main co-teacher) told me today that the most talkative one was gone because her father passed away yesterday :-( They're always fluttering in and out of the office. The Korean teachers all have homerooms, so that's where they are first thing in the morning. They'll come back before the homeroom time is up to get some stuff done. While they're at their desks, a student will bring a box full of cell phones down the office! Hmmm...maybe a good idea for teachers back home...

I usually teach 4 class periods a day, running 45 minutes each. One of my classes canceled today. I told Jillian that was nice, and she said "Oh, but that means you'll have 5 classes on Thursday." I told her how many classes I was used to teaching and she couldn't believe it! However, American class sizes are much smaller than Korean class sizes. Most of that is because the schools that I taught in were rural schools and therefore smaller, but urban schools make a very strong effort (as much as they can with all of the budget cuts) to keep class sizes down. I have 20 classes a week with about 40 students in each class-you do the math!!! I also found out today that tomorrow I teach a parents' class. The vice principal decided that since my contract stated I was supposed to teach up to 22 classes per week, she was going to add a class for parents. There's up to 6 moms and 1 dad each week depending on who shows up. Jillian said that the previous English teacher was using something she downloaded from the teachers' blessing that is the internet, so I quickly Googled it and printed off a new set of questions. The main goal is to get them speaking in English. I'm curious as to how this will go! To get to 22 classes a week, we're supposed to have a meeting last hour on Fridays with other English teachers, but apparently they're usually canceled.

After school today, I decided that it was time to venture out of the apartment! Between jet lag and being exhausted from school, I haven't really explored my neighborhood. Tonight I took an hour long walk west (I think) and found many things. I found: Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, Levi's, Baskin Robbins, Outback Steakhouse, two shoe stores, the other side of the movie theater I walk by to get to school, the other side of my school, wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men (3 of them!), the Han river, Guri Tower, a guy punching himself in the abs (true story), and the mountains. And lots of Korean businesses. Lots. I walked along the main street in Guri for at least a mile, which took me past the interstate. After that, it was noticeably quieter. I stumbled across the less hectic side of Guri. I didn't take any pictures here, but I will soon. The buildings in this part were only two or three stories tall and there was only a narrow winding street separating the buildings. I kept walking even though I wasn't 100% sure of where I was. I knew I was being stared at already just for being there and I didn't want to admit defeat by turning around. Fortunately I knew that as long as I had the elevated train tracks in sight, I was ok. I made a quick left turn, walked for a bit more, looked around, and then went in the direction of the river, which took me back to where I had been earlier thankfully. All in all it was a very pleasant walk. Tomorrow, I will go east! (I think)