One week already

I can't believe I finished my first week of teaching and that I've been here for over more than a week already.  Time really does fly by when you're having fun.  I've met so many more fellow English Village teachers as well as their students.  There are so many things I want to mention so my posts might me in a random order.  Anyway, some of the places I've visited so far are:

 This is Namdaemun which is like a giant flee market area with lots of stores, restaurants, and street vendors.

My friends from left to right; Daniel (my roommate), Anna, and Talyn got new glasses here at a store called Look Optical.  I think me and my other two friends Krystal and Alex will get some too later on in our trip. 

The next place is Myeongdong which is where many tourists come to go shopping because of the many big name stores.  There are also many street vendors and restaurants here as well.  As you can see this place is having a big sale right now until the end of July.  

Funny pajama looking pants I saw. 

So many people when we went.  

Next place is Seohyeon where I took the train with my friends Kevin and Talyn along with one of my students and one of Kevin's.

The stop we got off brought us to AK Plaza, a giant mall. 

We had dinner at a small restaurant outside the plaza.  You can see that buildings are very tall here, full of signs because each level is a different store or restaurant or activity place (like playing pool).   

Yesterday was our first EV program activity where we went to Gwanghwamun to visit the Sejong Museum.  Each teacher was to answer questions on a sheet of paper with their students by looking through the different exhibits to find the answers.  I combined with my friend Krystal (wearing black) because none of her students could make it, and my other friend Christina (on the right) along with her two students that showed up.   

This is a turtle ship that Admiral Lee Sun-shin invented with the dragon being the figurehead.  I had to take a picture because it reminded me of dragonboating. 

Another task we had to do for the activity was to spell a word with every member you have on your team, each representing a different character from the Korean alphabet.  It was hard to think of an eight character word but we finally decided on 한 국 어 I believe.  Sort of looks like it right? 

These are three of my students that were able to make it.  From left to right: 아 람, 대 호, and 민 욱.  Their English names are April, Eric, and Philip.  (April already had hers, the other two I helped name) 

Our group in front of the King Sejong statue. (The museum is underneath) 

Walking to lunch I saw this statue and I thought it could be a giant colorful ice cream swirl since it is next to Baskin Robbins or a giant colorful poop swirl but I'm sure it's neither. 

We also got really lucky to run into these cool guys.  They were marching through the streets. 

We followed and they stopped in front of the King Sejon statue and they were allowing pictures so me, Eric and Philip (April had to leave) got a picture with one the guys.

It has been a tiring but fun week and I can't wait to visit more places and try more food.  These are definitely not all of the pictures I've taken.  I will only feature some on here while everything else will be on Facebook, so check out the rest there.  Redondo out!

Time to teach

Yesterday was my first day of teaching and I was really nervous but excited to finally meet my students.  All of my fellow teachers felt the same way and we all told each other good luck as we separated to our respective buildings and classrooms.  The plan for each class was to start off with introductions as a warm up, talk about the class in general for example what to expect and learn, discuss any questions or anything they wanted to know about, start the lesson, and play a game.  I think overall it was a great first day.  They weren't too shy and were very focused and engaged in our discussions.  Each class had once person that stood out, whether it was their English sounded good or they talked more than others, but in the end every student participated enough.  The game we ended up playing towards the end of class was hangman, or hanging for them I believe.  They were so determined to guess the word.  Hopefully I will be able to help them improve their English speaking by the end of the program.

And here are pictures of my classes:  

9-10:50 AM

 12-1:50 PM

2-3:50 PM

Aren't my students just the cutest people you've seen? :)  Can't wait to get to know them even better!

End of orientation

Today was day 2 of orientation and everyone was just really excited to know how many students we had in each of our classes.  In total I have eight students: 3 in the first, 3 in the second and 2 in the last class.  We all had the chance to share our first lesson plan for Monday with each other in small groups.  Then we took group pictures which I can hopefully get and post later, and had a little tour of the campus to see where our classrooms are located.  After orientation, my Long Beach group went took a bus to E-mart to buy some supplies like detergent for our laundry, hangers, etc.  What we spent most of our time doing at E-mart though was walking around taking food and drink samples just like at Costco.  Once we had our fill, we went back to the dorms to change for dinner.  Don't remember what we ate but it was really good.  I need to start writing these names down.  From there, we went to get shaved ice and while waiting for the order, we ran into the Dankook students we hung out with and played basketball with the previous night.  We were all really excited and pretty much blocked the entrance, being loud with enthusiasm.  We decided we need to have a basketball rematch possibly on Sunday.  I can't wait!  Now for some pictures.


Here are a few things you can see on a walk through campus (taken yesterday): 

 Convenient store a couple of minutes away from the dorms

 My friend Krystal pointing out toward the basketball courts

 Stairs we go up and down everyday. 219 steps one way!

What I had for dinner last night.  Spicy but very tasty.  My spicy tolerance will definitely go up thanks to the food here.

Another long and tiring day today but lots of fun.  Can't wait to meet my students on Monday!  One sad thing though is that we are going to say goodbye to some friends tomorrow morning because they will be teaching at the other campus, which is around 2 hours away from this campus.  We get to see them again after three weeks but still pretty bummed.  Well I can't seem to keep my eyes open for any longer so now it's bedtime for me.  Forgot this in my first post but Redondo out!

So far so good

I officially arrived in South Korea last night at the Incheon airport around 7:30 in the evening.  I was pretty nervous traveling by myself but in the end it wasn't bad at all.  It was my first time riding with Korean Air and I just have to say it was awesome.  The stewardess' were really nice and I was not expecting to have three meals.  I even got to practice some Korean with them.  Once at the airport, I found the Dankook student that was there to pick me up, along with two other DK pick up students and two students from CSU San Bernardino also doing the program.  From there we took a bus to the bottom of our campus, where we were picked up by another DK student who drove us up to the dorms.  Once we arrived at the dorms, three new DK students showed us to our rooms.  All of the DK students I met last night were really friendly and easy to talk to.  Hopefully I get to see them again, get to know them more and will post pictures of them when I get the chance to take some.  I've only taken three pictures so far...but definitely more to come.

Anyway, I finally got to the dorm room to see who my roommate was.  The person who opened the door ended up to be Daniel, who I met through my CSULB friend Christina, who is also here on this program.  Here is a picture of the room once you get in:
 

And here are the beds.

The right one is mine!

Now moving on to the next day, which is still going on right now.  Today was our first day of orientation.  I got to meet a lot of new people already, coming from New York, Canada, Holland, etc.  It looks like a pretty diverse and fun crowd and I can't wait to get to know more of them throughout the program.  We got to meet the dean of the university, received information on lesson plans we will be developing, and met our partner instructors.  My partner is James, also from California.  Don't remember exactly where he's from except that it's an hour up the valley from Riverside.  He seems like a chill guy so far and we're both nervous about whether our students will like us but I'm sure we're going to be fine and have a good time.  I will be teaching three classes of intermediate level English and can't wait to meet my students!  

  

Here's James!

Oh hey we're matching!

Well I'm off to dinner to meet some more DK students!  Stay tuned for more pictures and posts of activities and events I end up doing! :)