I'm at the Hyundai Learning Center here in Korea, and I finally got internet access on my own computer, so here's the stuff I wrote on my first day here. There will be a couple pics coming too.
August 23, 2005
Here I am in Seoul again. It’s seven am as I write this in my hotel near where I’m going to be living and working. For now I’m writing in Word since I can’t get a good wireless signal here.
The journey yesterday was fine. No problems whatsoever. Laura left me at the airport at about 11:45, I was checked in for my flight at exactly noon, we left about 20 minutes behind schedule, but more or less made up the time in the air. Oh there was one thing. On the flight I was seated near two full rows of kids coming back from a summer camp of some kind. The kids were really rambunctious and kept making noise and kicking the back of my seat. It bothered me a bit, but I think that was mostly because I was having nicotine fits. Some nicotine gum helped soothe my nerves. Guess I need to get used to being around a lot of children again. My luggage arrived safe and sound, and at the same time I did. It was the first time in my three flights to Asia that that has happened.
Korea Connections picked me up at the airport. Apparently I was the last of 12 of their teachers to arrive yesterday. About a dozen more are coming today. All in all, there are 100 teachers coming for the program in Seoul, and another 100 who will teach in Gongs-do. From the airport I was taken to the SMOE office in Jungno-gu, where a teacher and the vice-principal from my school met me. Lois, the SMOE coordinator of this program was there. She’s short, and pretty, and a lot younger looking than I imagined. The hand-off was quick, and soon we were yet again navigating the streets of Seoul. It took about another hour to get to the neighborhood where I am now. From the map it looked like I was going to be in Nowon-gu, but this morning I noticed “Dobong-gu” printed on a trash can outside the hotel. Maybe it’s on a boarder? Anyway, doesn’t matter.
During the drive they asked if I was hungry, and I was, so I said “yes.” (One does, doesn’t one?) Later I wished I hadn’t bothered. They insisted on getting dinner for me, which turned out to be a small pizza and a coke. It was fine, and very nice of them in fact, but I was so tired at that point I only wanted to be alone and to smoke a whole bunch. Eventually they did leave me alone, and that’s exactly what I did, smoking in the bathroom again, just like old times.
The hotel itself is not bad by Korean standards. Not the Hilton. Hell, not even Motel 6, but as I said, passable by Korean standards. There were two service (free) bottles of Hite beer in the fridge when I arrived, which frightened me to death. Lo and behold however, it’s morning and they’re still there. I guess with practice (thanks again Dave) it gets easier to just put it out of your mind. Like, I know it’s there, but I don’t obsess about it. Now if I could only do the same thing with cigarettes. Sigh!
Today my co-teacher (still not clear on her name, only that it’s not the same person who has been e-mailing me) will pick me up at 10:30 and take me to my new school. The other teachers are in training today so the school will be vacant, but I’ll get to see my classroom and the school grounds at least. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I think, they will take me to the training center. Oh yeah, I only found out about this on Saturday night. I knew there would be some training, but I thought it meant I’d go into the office everyday for a few hours. Instead, the training will be held at the Hyundai Training Center about 50km outside of Seoul. Mr. Lee sent me a few pictures and it looks resortesque. What they plan to teach us is a mystery to me, but I’m keeping an open mind. If nothing else, it will be nice to meet the other teachers and hopefully start to make some new friendships.
Yesterday I wrote up an account of my journey back here to the Land of the You Know What, and even burned it onto a disc, but as luck would have it, the computer in the PCbang I'm using has no CD player so you know, not much I can do about that. Hopefully I'll have access from my own computer in a day or two.
Yesterday I was taken out to see my school, and to meet some of the staff. My coworkers all seem very friendly. They are eager for my input and really anxious for this year to go well. They also seem to trust that I know what I'm doing and they've said (in effect) they want to give me a lot of lattitude to run my own show in the classroom.
Unfortunately, I also learned that I will only have one lesson per week with each class. Can't do much without more frequent access to them. I'll have 22 classes per week, with each class lasting 45 minutes, about 4-5 classes per day in other words. That will be nice. Actually it'll be about the lightest schedule I've ever had as a teacher. Hello preparation time! Let's see, in Moscow I taught an average of 33 academic hours per week, or 22 real hours in other words. My schedule here gives me 16.5 hours of actual time in the classroom. (Did I also mention I'm getting way more money for this too?) What'll be a challenge is doing a whole lesson in 45 minutes. I sort of got used to having more time to execute a lesson plan. Can I do a warmer, present new material, and have a practice activity in just 45 minutes? I doubt it. So what that means is I'll be spreading lessons over two or more weeks, (and having the co-teacher check the homework, hehehe)
Sorry for that, I was just sort of thinking out loud. Anyway, the school itself is not fantastic. I was horrified to see they have no whiteboards, only old-fashioned chalkboards. Skreeeeeech!! I don't mean to complain (and if you believe that....) but dry-erase marker is my medium. It's what I do. It'd be like taking Da Vinci's oils away and giving him a set of Crayola water colors. Oh the sacrifices we teachers make!
Today I'm going to Kyobo to see what kind of English teaching materials they have. The other teachers said I can pretty much choose what I want and the school will buy it. I assume that means they'll buy one copy of a book and maybe a teacher's manual. Knowing what I do about this place I doubt they'd be willing to spring for a couple of hundred student books, but you never know. Maybe I can convince them to have the students pay for them. When I'm done with Kyobo I plan to hit a sauna in the afternoon, and make it to the 6:30 meeting again. After that I won't be able to get to a meeting for a week since I'll be going to the training camp.
More about my adventures and some pictures just as soon as I get some access with my own PC.
Yes, my attitude has gotten worse as the weeks have worn on, but you know what? I don't care. While, this company probably isn't as evil as I think, it is at the same time actually evil, in subtle, insipid ways, but evil nonetheless. If I enumerate all the ways they are evil and the evil things they do, it will look not so much like I'm suffering at the hands of evil, but that I'm just a really whiney employee. So, you're just going to have to take my word for it. Trust me, they're bad news.
Among other things that have gone on in the past week. Mr. Lee reports my visa sponsorship letter should be in the mail as I type this. There's a chance it could arrive tomorrow or possibly Saturday, but I suppose Monday or Tuesday is a much safer bet. Panicking will commence at about 2pm Tuesday if I haven't gotten it by then. A week from today I'll leave Portland and go back to San Francisco for a couple of days. Friday I'll spend doing visa stuff at the Korean Consulate, and maybe doing you know, San Francisco stuff. Saturday is a free day, and then Sunday at 2:50pm I'm on KE024 bound for Seoul. Can't believe the vacay is winding down.
Had a really good time with Ryan the other night. We went to Huber's for his birthday. I like Huber's. It's like having Thanksgiving dinner in August. They also had a brownie sundae that left me weak in the knees.
After dinner we hit our usual spot, Scandals. Over Mike's Hard Lemondade (Him) and Coke (me), we had a very nice sort of where-we've-been-and-where-we-are-now conversation. Our friendship has not always been an easy one, but overall I'm still pretty glad he's in my life.
Ok, enough sappiness. This sitting here at work is bullshit. I think I'm going to be getting outta here pretty quick. Never mind what I said before about hanging out until four. T'aint gonna happen.
