I am slowly picking up the alphabet and some words, so now I can say sweet potato, water, and every now and then I manage to get all the syllables in 'Hello' strung together in the right order. It has only been two days, so I have low expectations for myself.
I'm still very jetlagged, and despite the fact that by 9pm every night I'm utterly exhausted I haven't been sleeping as well as I feel like I should be, but I guess that's what jetlag (and being in a new place) do to you. No one should worry, because I know that my sleep schedule will get itself sorted out soon enough!!
So after getting settled into my temporary apartment on Thursday (not much settling required, since I saw no point in trying to unpack anything) we went into the school. Mun Hwa is a cram school, so the kids usually come in after they've already attended regular school. The schedule we are on now we work from 4-9, although it will switch to (I believe) 1-7 for intensive sessions starting next week until September. The kids all seem very nice, they are all fascinated by how tall I am, and my height is one of the first questions that I'm asked (173 centimeters, if you're interested). Before I came over here, everyone told me how lucky I was going to be teaching in an Asian country, how the children would be so well behaved! Well, let me just say that after two days of observation, I have absolutely no clue where the 'diligent Asian student' stereotype comes from!! They are just as crazy as American students, and the difference in behavior between the girls and boys is also comparable (the girls will often sit quietly while the boys goof off and yell...) Not to say that they don't all seem like good kids (for the most part) but a part of me was expecting to be teaching to classrooms full of silent children hanging on your every word. Aha, nope.
We went out for Indian food last night as part of Sandy's going away weekend, and I got to meet more English speakers! I'm pretty sure everyone I met was teaching at one of the many language schools in the area. I'm very glad that I got the chance to meet everyone, it's going to be great knowing people. Unfortunately, by that point I was slightly comatose, so while the food was good and the people were awesome I was borderline zombie.
So now I suppose I'll make a little note about the food! I haven't had much yet, but what I have had has been good. Most things seem to be spicy, which will take some getting used to, as will "eating like a Korean." The portions here are fairly large, and of course rice is a staple, so you get full fast! My new favorite snack food is the tuna triangle, which is a convenient little snack you can grab at the 7-11 (yes, they have those here!). It's a nice little rice triangle with tuna in the middle, wrapped in crunchy salted seaweed. Normally I don't like things wrapped in seaweed because I find the taste overpowering, but this was amazing, and I can't wait to have more! I also got a bag of chips of an undetermined variety. Sandy taught me how to read the label on the bag and informed me that they were sweet potato chips! I also tried shrimp flavored puffs, drank some pocari sweat (a gatorade type beverage), and of course Indian food. Eating out here is really cheap, which is both good and bad. I'm going grocery shopping this afternoon and plan to stock up on some ramen (things I didn't think I'd have to say after graduation!) and some little dumplings so that I can make myself lunch and dinner. I was also assured that I would not have to worry about eating dog, which is something that I personally wasn't too concerned about (and yes, I would try it if offered) but since everyone has been asking about it, I thought I'd let you know.
Well, I suppose that's it for now! Tonight will be my first experience with the Korean bar scene, so that update should be pretty interesting!
And because I've only been learning useful phrases about sweet potatos and hovercrafts I don't know how to say bye in Korean! Take care everyone!
~Hannah
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