Catt – Settling In

Well, my first 3 days at school and first 4 days in Gyeongju are under my belt.  I spent most of my time at school planning and have got about 4 weeks worth of lesson plans done already!  I successfully took the bus both to and from school today, which feels awesome.  I ride the (public) bus with some of my students, which is strange, but I’m getting used to it. 

I still don’t know my way around town yet so I’m chilling at home tonight.  I still have a lot of unpacking to do so I’m good with it.  I need some time to unwind too.  There was a meet up happening somewhere downtown tonight but I decided not to go, mainly cause I’m terrified of getting lost on the way either there or back. 

So some things that went well today – giving and getting gifts.  I finally remembered to bring my gifts for my principal, vice-principal and co-teachers to school today.  Mostly they were extremely grateful.  All the gifts were Chicago related things like key chains and pens saying “I love Chicago”.  In return I received many thanks and even a pen and a chocopie!  Haha  Chocopies are like crack here.  They are a chocolate snack with yellow cake and marshmallow.  One teacher even gave me some seaweed paper.  Apparently it goes really good with rice.  I haven’t tried it yet but am looking forward to it.

So the students so far seem pretty cool.  Their English levels are all over the place, which will prove to be difficult I think.  I mostly have some games planned for the next few weeks until I can figure out what their levels are and get to know them.  I have next to no materials, besides books, which seems odd to me.  I need to ask about a materials budget. 

Yesterday I went to get my alien registration card and opened a bank account.  I still have to learn how to make deposits and transfer money home.  We (Sunny and I) also went to Costco.  It was amazing.  It just felt nice to be somewhere somewhat familiar.  They have a lot of similar products like in America, but with an Asian twist of course.  Like lots of rice.  Some things were rather expensive, like a small Brita filter was $39,900 won.  (About $40). 

Anywho, please leave some questions or comments below!  I would love to share more but don’t even know where to start, some questions to guide me would be great.  Love you all! 

Talk to you later!  <3