I just realized that my first few posts haven't really told you much about where I live and what my life is like in Korea. Instead I've mused and told silly stories. Here goes...
I live in Anyang, South Korea. It is basically a sleepy little suburb of Seoul. A sleepy little suburb with about a million people and non-stop motion. In Anyang, I live in Byeomgye (pronounced bum-gay. It's ok, you can laugh. Hell, at least chuckle a little) which is great! Just around the corner from my apartment is a large plaza with tons of restaurants, bars, neon lights and lord knows what else. I think there are hookers and horse meat restaurants as well, but I haven't sought those out. I can find pretty much everything I need within a few hundred yards. Lots of people come from the surrounding area to Byeomgye to shop, eat, drink and party the night away, so I feel very blessed to live right here.
My apartment is nice. It's a decent sized studio, modern and well appointed to my taste. My favorite part is the high ceilings, about 13 feet by my calculations. Please see the pictures. I live in an office-tel, which is an apartment building with offices in it. For example, there's a pho (pronounced fu, like fudge. It's a Vietnamese soup) restaurant in my building, along with administrative offices for gyms and bookstores and such.
I work at Chyongge Elementary School in Gwachon, a town about 15 minutes by subway from Byeomgye. Apparently Gwachon is one of the two wealthiest areas of Korea, the other being Gangham in Seoul, and when I tell Koreans I work there they're very impressed. I'm kind of a big deal. A lot of the kids in my classes come from wealthy families and many have lived in America and other countries. I even have kids whose parents are ambassadors. As a result of this, my kids are a bit better behaved and have a higher level of English than kids in most other schools. Which makes me feel sorry for all the other teachers here; they're still terrors! But I still love them so.
I teach 3rd, 4th and 5th grade English. I teach 24, 40 minute classes plus two, two hour advanced classes each week. I like it. The kids are fun, the teaching usually pretty easy, and the school lunches delicious! The most difficult part is that in each class I have 35-40 kids with English proficiencies ranging from near fluent to can't say hello. I have to get the lower level students up to par while at the same time challenging and keeping the attention of the high level students. It's challenging and always amusing. Some classes go great, some not so much. All I know is that I give each class my all and let the chips fall where they may.
I work M-F 8:30 to 4:30. While most days I'm finished with class by noon or one, all public school teachers are required to stay till 4:30. It's fine by me though. I always have lesson plans and organizing to do. Typically I get home by five, have a snack and either stay home and read or go exploring and taking pics.
On the weekends I'll go for a hike, go out with friends, go grocery shopping and do some cooking for the week, and head into Seoul to go exploring. It's a pretty mellow and good life. I feel very blessed to be here, especially with what's going on with the economy, to have this country take me in, and sight unseen give me a place to live, pay me well, let me try a new career I have no experience in, and even give me great health care, it's just amazing. They pay for your flight over, give you an apartment rent-free, and pay you enough that you can eat, drink and explore to your heart's content and still be able to put $1000+ in the bank every month. Again, I just feel very blessed.
I am starting to take bunches of pictures, and soon I will be able to post them all here and on my Flickr site, but for the time being I'm just teasing ya and holding back the good stuff until I feel more comfortable with my photo editing software.
So that's my life here so far. Nothing to crazy so far, just a normal life, only it's crazy because I'm in Asia.
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