Halloween 2012

This year I dressed up as a zombie/ghost thing again! My sixth graders were more scared than the second grade!

Happy Halloween!

Scary!

Willow!

Change of heart

I have changed my mind and decided to stay in Korea for another year. I think I just wanted to leave in August as I was having a tough time, but I am over it and a better person for it ^^. I know I can't work in Spain next year as the economy over there has hit a all time low. I would be stupid to give up the comfy life I have over here. Plus, I started to get homesick when I thought about leaving Korea.

I asked my school if I could use my holidays together to do a CELTA course in Thailand and they agreed. If I get a CELTA and two years experience after gaining this certificate, I can work in TEFL in the UK! New plan!! ^^

I will miss my friends in the UK but I will be back for my Summer vacation to see everyone!

Classroom Display - Rules

My rule display. I asked students to pose for pictures. This is because students are more likely to take notice of it, if other students are in the pictures. I think it turned out quite well ^^



Rules board



Be nice to each other

Listen

Classroom displays

Me and my co-teacher are preparing for our open class in a few weeks. Here are some of our new displays ^^



 This is a common word wall. These are all words we use nearly everyday ^^. My students can use the word to make sentences.

Plus, it brightens up my classroom.

This is the 'What does it mean?' display. This helps students with their writing. Me and my co-teachers will write symbols on their writing, telling them what they need to change. This wall helps them understand the symbols. For example, SP means they made a spelling mistake.

We made this so students can start thinking for themselves rather than the teachers giving the answers. They are more likely to remember for next time if they correct the mistake.

1 year in South Korea!

Last Wednesday (22nd feb) was my offical one year in South Korea! I didn't even realise until my friend mentioned that we had been here a year on Friday. It's been a good year with ups and downs with new friendships but also the odd fall out. I can safely say, I now have a good group of friends around me. I've been lucky in a lot of ways.

My school is ace. Because it's so big that we had (yes had! *sobs) four native English speakers. This gave me a chance to have friends in work so time flew by. Sadly, due to budget cuts in the Edu town program, one native teacher is leaving and the other is moving to the after school program.

There are also loads of younger teachers at my school and they speak English pretty well. Again, one of my friends left this year (yay! she is having a baby!! :D) but three of us are having a bookclub/cooking thing so we can visit her (and the cute baby when it is born!).

My principal is strict (I heard!) but he is powerful so that works in our favor. He is also kind. Last but  not least my (ex) co-teacher. I was sooo lucky to have had Mina as my first co-teacher! It was strange as everyone said we were like sisters in the way we acted and the foods we hated etc. But, I can always go and visit her upstairs. I met my new co-teacher the other day and she was really really nice. She said she was happy when she heard she got me which I take as a good sign. Oh yeah, that is my bad news. The principal decided I would have 5th and 6th grade again this year. I first found out on Thursday, I had 3rd n 4th so I took all my decorations down to us in my new classroom. Then on Monday, as an after thought, a teacher told me it had changed. I was so pissed! As the new 5th grade are horrible! Worse than sixth graders and last years sixth graders nearly killed me! I was hoping to do an evening language course this year but I won't be able to now. After teaching 6th grade last year, I was half dead during the week and then I had to use the weekend to zone out. I will be a zombie this year!

For this reason, me and Sarah decided we need a drink (or two)! We ended up in Itaewon (I am slowly liking this place more and more). First, we went for some Greek food (same place I went last week. Yummy!).

This is for sharing! I am not a pig!

But I wasn't only lucky with my school (except 6th grade). I think I was lucky with my apartment and the location. Sure, it isn't in the nicest area but it's fairly ok. Plus, it's on line 5 with is a pretty useful line for transfer and main locations. Even for the airports - Incheon 1 transfer, Gimpo 0.

So, all in all, I've been very lucky. I keep trying to tell myself this as everyone this week is going home/travelling and I half wish I was one of them. But then I realise there is nothing for me at home (just the unemployment line) and if I went travelling I would want to save up more. This year my plans are to save up loads of money for when I do go travelling/or house deposit and to see the rest of South Korea. Next month I am going Kimchi making as my first day trip! I also want to go travelling in my winter/summer holidays. I am still unsure about my third year as it depends on the SMOE budget cutbacks.

Anways, enough of thinking :p. Tuesday was pancake day! No, Sarah I didn't say American pancakes with cheese and blueberries!!! Bleugh!! For those who don't know. English pancake day is the Tuesday before lent. So back in the olden days people had to use up their stocks of milk, eggs etc. So they made 'pancake day' or 'shrove Tuesday'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday I don't know about other countries but we have lemon and sugar on the English pancakes. Yummy!

On Tueday, I invited my friend around for dinner then.....pancakes. We ate far too much that night! Butter curry then 5 pancakes each! I am getting fat!! :O

Julia taking pictures of pancakes!!

I am hungry just thinking of pancakes....

Ooo, I have been desk warming for the first time since I have been here. Though luckly, I have Sarah to keep me company and in Sarah's room there is a .....kitchen!! To make cookies!! So I spent the week making cookies. Though, I am not a sweet person (I meant sweet toothed!). I'd much rather have a packet of crisp or a pasty ^^ So everyone else got to eat my yummy cookies (or I got to give everyone food poisoning mwhahahahaha!!)

Coconut chewy cookies

Everything cookie bars

As I mentioned above I am getting into Itaewon so on Friday we ended up there again at the Bulgarian restaurant. There was so much to choose from so everyone was taking ages to choose (me mainly :P) which annoyed poor Lea as she hadn't eaten for over a week due to a bug. The food was lovely but sooo rich. I could only eat a bit. I would go again just to try something else. I seriously have to stop eating so much!! I look like I am having a baby! ><

After we went to some pubs. First was the English pub. We played darts and then left as it was small and all 'older' couples. Though there was a funny Korean couple there. The girl had a pint while the guy had this really girly cocktail...well, it made us all giggle :P.

Next we went to the Wolf hound, where there was so many cute guys! Big headed and knew that they were good looking of course, but a girl can still look.

Focused

My friend Lea is leaving tomorrow *sobs*. I am half glad as she has been ill over here due to the children germs. But I am mainly sad as I will miss her *sobs*. I knew this was coming from when I met her at orientation as she wanted to stay just a year but it will be weird her not being here. We met on Sunday for coffee which ended up turning into waffles (I can't diet! It's not in my blood!). She forced me in to a hug at the end as I hate goodbyes!!! >< Urgh.. I am sad just writing this! Bleugh!!! Though, I will most likely see her again as there is a direct train between our homes in the UK, plus we are both always travelling. So I will just say goodbye...for now (sounds like a threat!) and have a safe journey home ^^.

Stupid

So here I am, sitting in the cold office alone. Why? Do you ask? Well, because I totally forgot we could come in to work an hour late today! Donkey balls!!!

One more year in Seoul!

I've just re-signed my contract for one more year in South korea. So far the process has been easy. My school just got me to sign the application last month and today my contract came. They are now sending it off to get stamped. I have to get my medical checks next month and then get my visa. There are a group of us who need medical checks so we will probably go together.

Classroom Display

My display for grade 5 lesson ` This is my bedroom`. I made each group do a presentation for their dream bedroom.

The roleplay was from a pervious lesson ^^

Work trip day 2 - Siteseeing and more food

We had to wake up at 7.15am the next day for breakfast. I can only eat fruit or dry food (toast) in the morning so I couldn't really eat anything they had to offer. Plus, it was all the food I don't like at any time of the day. It was soya sauce fish, Spicy octopus noodles and rice. I ate some rice and then finished off my satsuma from my goodie bag (see pervious blog :p).

We then went for a small walk along the beach with some hot chocos/coffees. We boarded the coach not long after and were stuck on it for ages!!!! They played the movie 'Blind', I couldn't understand it but I got the basic idea what the plot was. It was really quite good. The adjummas on the bus were really into it.

One of the drunk teachers actually walked into the wet cement the night before....

Anyways we went to Buan. Our first stop was a artifical lake which wasn't a lake anymore because it was too big and cost too much to change the water from salt water. I was told there was protest about it etc. In fact the whole area is 3 times bigger that Seoul they told me and the government spent a lot of money making it in to a nature reserve (orginally that wasn't the  plan but again there were protest in the government ruining the land where bird migrate). Anyways there was a cool dam thing. The road ran through it and they made it look quite nice (even though it's not used anymore).

Lake/non lake....

Our second stop was a museum about the area. Me and Mina just played hide and seek which wasn't hard as it was only one room. After that we went to our lunch area. We were first made to go for a walk around the port and take a group picture (I don't think I was even in it as I was too short!). The area was like an older fishermans village.Though two adjumma food store were having a competition of who could play there music louder. At this point me and Sarah decided we were in step up 4! Luckly no-one else was around :P

When we entered the resturant most teachers were already there. The resturant was so small and not made to fit 90+ teachers. We saw our group around ta corner hidden but before we could sit down we heard a 'Laura, Sarah' we at first pretended not to hear but Sarah got captured to her way to the restroom and I couldn't ignore it when I heard my name said again. Yes, we were made to sit at the principals table. That is why I have no food pictures. Lunch was rice porridge (yuck), clams, and raw crab. The raw crab was intresting. I was told this resturant is the best as normally it smells so bad but this had no smell. We had to suck the meat out of its legs. Of course the male teachers were drinking raspberry wine by this point.

We then got back on the coach we made our way to a temple/hiking spot. There was the most beautiful tree there. The leaves were yellow in the middle then went out to red like it was on fire. The area is in a poem based on fact saying that after a battle many years ago the kings mistresses threw themselves off this cliff. My teacher said it was 30,000 but it was most likely 3 or 30 and the number got bigger and bigger throughout history. When we finished we saw the principal waiting with food (and drink).

Fire tree

The suicide cliff

Famous temple where many romantic poems were written

The journey back took too long as it was on Friday night in Seoul. We left at 4.30 and arrived back at 9pm!!!

We were still full from the last two days that we didn't need dinner!!! ><

Work trip - Day 1 - Daecheon beach and lots of food

Ok, I have to start this story a few days ago. Normally at schools they have work trips (sometimes overnight and soometimes...well...not). This trips are paid for by the teachers throughout the year as they are in some sort of group. As a foreign teacher we aren't expected (in most cases - I have heard about native teachers being asked to join) to pay this mmoney and join this group. Therefore we don't go on these trips which is probably fine with most people. I was the same and I was looking to my Friday off work relaxing. Yes I said WAS! Because a few days before the trip we got informed that the principal wanted the native teachers to go too.

Of course my co-teacher was happy, as it meant more young people there. I had to agree as it is one of them cases where the principal says you don't have to go...but you do. Nearer the actual date I started to look more forward to it as all of us younger girls got put into the same room ^^.

So on Wednesday night I packed my thermals. We left about 3.15pm on Thursday (School was closed Friday as a school holiday) after everyone had finished their lessons and kicked the students out of the school. On the bus we got a food bag full of goodies. Nope they don't cheap out here. If this was the Uk we would of got a packet of crisp (potato crips) and an apple. Oh I love Korea <3 (though I could murder for a packet of salt n vinegar crisp.

The journey wasn't too bad compaired to the last time I went to Daecheon beach as it was a Thursday. We arrived at our hotel around 6.15 and went to dinner at a resturant on the beach. I actually heard our someone say the principal owned the resturant but I could of heard wrong. Anyways, The resturant was full of hungry teachers so of course the adjusshis got drunk and ended up having red faces. We had sushi, soup, lots of other foods and ....live octopus again. Why?!?!?!?!?!  I filmed it so I'll put it on youtube soon..... I refused to eat it again. We all made Sarah eat it as she wasn't at the last staff meal so she was the only one who hadn't tried it. She ended up liking it haha.

sushi

It's alive!! Live octopus

It's super fresh!!!

We were outside waiting for the rest of the girls when the pricipal saw us (the rest of the teachers had escaped). He brought fireworks so we all went to the beach to set off fireworks and sparklers ^^

Me, Sarah and Mina ended up running around the beach like headless chickens haha

Me, Mina and Minji managed to escape but sadly Sarah got captured by the elder teachers for norabang. We hid (seriously mission impossible!!!!) behind a big electricty metal thingy and tried calling. We waited 20 minutes (OMG!! So cold) before she could escape with the help of two other young teachers who scaficied themselves for Sarah (they were made to go norabang until 12.20am).

Mina had been on a mission for clams since we boarded the bus earlier so we followed her to find a good clam resturant (she is an expert in all things food. That's why we get on so well.). We actually found a little place run by a grandmother with the most wrinkle free skin ever seen. Sarah even asked her how she looks so good at one point.

Omg! We ate so much by the end of it. I tried everytype of seafood possible that night. I think I ate half the ocean. It was so good though. So so good and so so fresh. We had this special ones which spice etc one. It tasted like the steak of the ocean. Yummy!

The owner even gave us a free bowl of the yummiest noodles ever!! All of this (including 2 bowls of soup) cost 30 pounds for 4 of us!! So cheap here!! Our office manager came in while we were eating and paid for us all (I didn't understand until after as they were doing the 'I'll pay', 'Noooo we will pay' conversation in Korean. Our office manger is so nice though, he is always smiling.

We ended back around 11pm. The heated floor in the hotel was on thank goodness!! My feet haven't been that warm for months!! ><

Halloween

Monday was Halloween so I decided to use this time to scare my students! I decided to make myself into a zombie/grudge type thing.... I did my makeup at school as I didn't want to scare my bus driver!

It ended up going really well. Even though I was teaching 6th grade (the first class didn't even blink a eye) that day, some 5th graders popped by my classroom. Then within 2 minutes (literally), I had about 50 students at my door. I chased some of them, picked up some of them and pretending to run away with them.... The only annoying thing was them shouting 'candy candy'. I don't know who told them about the candy part but I am not rich enough to buy candy for 550 students!

The best bit of the day actually was a 6th grade student. I ran up to her and she screamed so loud and fell on the floor! My second favourite part was some 2nd graders who I waved to. They looked at me then looked again and literally jumped out of their skin! So cute~~

After lunch I popped up to the 5th floor corridor. OMG! It was crazy! All the students came out of their classrooms!! So scary!!!

It was such a great day though I went to sleep early that night!!! ><

Roar!

Update

Sorry I haven’t updated in donkeys years but I’ve been so busy with work and just tired.

So I re-arranged by apartment to make it more homely. I will post pictures soon. I also got some cute apartment stickers.

Work has been pretty crazy. I spent last few weeks decorating the classroom and it still isn’t up to my standard. I don’t have much material to work with at all but I will try my best. I had an open class on Wednesday which went ok but it turned out we had the second worse 5^th grade class. My official open class to decide if I can stay should be soon. I also have my after school open class on the 9^th November. Add to the fact I have to lesson plan and start preparing with winter camp. Things are pretty busy….. I know I’m stressed as I break out in spots when I am stressed.  Can’t wait for January!

Next Monday is Halloween so I’m going to dress up as a Korean ghost and scare students. My 6^th grade will probably laugh AT me but at least my 5^th grade will enjoy it and laugh WITH me!

Will post pictures on Tuesday!

Work stuff

So on Monday, I was called over by the office manager. The old lady in our office was retiring, so the whole office was going to go on stage in front of the school (95 teachers) and sing.  

Now I can’t speak Korean and I CAN’T sing!!!!! >-< So on Monday and Tuesday we practiced singing. Luckily, I was next to two women who could sing well so I just sang very quietly mwhahaha. The office manager also Romanised the song for me ^^.

On Wednesday, we went to the ceremony. The vice principal was also leaving to become a principal in another school L. During the ceremony the lady from our office was presented with a medal and certificate sent from the president of Korea!!! We then sang on stage (I didn’t look up from my lyrics). 

I missed the second half of the ceremony as I had after school classesL . But we all went out for a work meal. It was then I finally got to see how many teachers work at my school! 95 or more!!!!!! Yea…. My school is pretty big!

Anyways during the meal a lot of the men ended up having red faces from the soju! ^^ My principal came over at one point and made us have a shot of soju. I was so nervous that I held the bottle wrong!!! >< Luckily, I remembered the other drinking customs, so he seemed pleased. There was also a karaoke machine that got messy! Haha!!

It’s funny because the next day everyone is so polite to each other as though nothing happened. Sometimes I love Korea ^^

Justin Bieber Fans

So I had my first taste of crazy Justin Bieber fan girkls yesterday in my afterschool. It was event day so they could play games and watch videos One of the videos was Justin Biebers 'Baby'. As soon as it came up the 6 grade girls were like 'I love him','He's so handsome' etc. Not missing a chance to tease my 6th grade girls I casually mentioned that he has a girlfriend now..... The whole room changed! 'I hate her', 'She's so ugly!' and my personal favourite..'I want to...(punching movements!)' .

I love teasing my 6th grade students!! Mwhahahaha (I also mentioned how pretty his girlfriend is and put her picture on the next PowerPoint :P)

Teachers Day!

Today is teachers day and as it falls on a Sunday this year, the school celebrate it on the Friday before. I didn't know anything about it but got a shock when every teacher in the office got given a flower. Then later on, I got given letters from some of my students. One wrote saying he wants to take my class more than once a week. He also said sometimes he is naughty in class and that he is sorry and he will try harder to listen! So cute!!!!!!! >-< I love my 5th grade! I also got given some polo mints in one of the letters. Maybe they are tryng to hint that I have bad breath! :)

It always hppens to me!

On Monday, I was just sitting at my desk doing work and waiting for my afterschool class to start, when all the teachers left to go for a meeting. The last person to leave was an 80+ year old woman who normally sleeps at her desk and gets telephone calls to remind her class is starting. She is lovely but she is one of these people who will never retire.

She turned off the lights in the room but it was bright outside so I didn’t think much of it. That was until she shut the door and I head a lock being put on the door. I got up to the door but I didn’t know what to say as I can’t speak Korean and she can’t speak English. I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t move! She had locked me in!!! She probably didn’t see me (I think she had only just woke up). I called out but she was already long gone and my after school was starting in 10 minutes. I had to call another native English teacher but she didn’t know the lock code! I ended up calling one of the teachers out from the meeting but she couldn’t undo the lock for whatever reason. By this point my afterschool class were outside the classroom laughing. At the end I ended up climbing out of the office window. Yes, the window!! It could only happen to me!!

Someone has been playing too many video games. . .

Co- teacher – ‘I want you all to get into pairs and ask what’s your name?’ Student – ‘What’s my f***ing name?’. Let’s just say someone got shouted at.

P.s Happy white day! Today guys buy chocolates and candy for their GF/crush. On Valentine’s Day girls buy/make gifts for the guy they like. Today I ate a whole pizza and ate cake because I’m so cool. Oh, yeah!

Meeting the dreaded sixth graders.

About 5 different teachers have warned me about the six graders. The things said to me have included cocky, think they know it all, hard to control, they don’t care, uncontrollable and they think they own the school.  So on Monday morning I was feeling slightly nervous. I thought the first class wasn’t so bad until I was walking around the classroom and saw written on the table ‘Mother f****’ and other bad language. I think these kids have been watching too many American movies! The other classes weren’t so bad, exempt a few boys, but it was only orientation day (Me and my co-teacher introducing ourselves and the classroom rules). I have a feeling next week will be a different story so watch this space…..

On Tuesday I had another warning from a Korean teacher about the six graders. She said they had made her cry in the past!!! Went out to Leanne and bumped into another SMOE teacher in my apartment! We all went out to a restaurant and I ordered Kimchi rice (my favourite). It wasn’t bad for 4,500 won (just over £2). I went to Homeplus again. It’s strange that I know where everything is in the supermarket after 1 week….

On Wednesday I walked into school to find about 50 kids inside the school entrance shouting with banners. At first I thought some sort of protest was going on, but then I realised the posters had different kids’ faces on them with their grade number. Yes, it was voting day for the year leader or whatever they are called. This meant my first 3 classes were cancelled so I had chance to research good TEFL websites. The only class of the day was so hyper! It was also full of jokers. My co-teacher – ‘Why do we learn English?’ Student – ‘Because the USA stopped Japan’. Of course the whole room burst out laughing with me looking lost.

I’m always so tired at the moment, so it was one of those days where you think ‘What am I doing half way across the world by myself’. I could easily fall asleep on the train if I wanted to but I don’t want to be robbed. So in need of sugar, I popped into my convenience store for crisp and what did I find??? Toffifee! Yes, it’s cheap worldwide! 1,500 won (75p) in fact! Take that pound shop in Stafford! I also got some Korean crisp, so I’ll write if they taste good or not. I had a choice of Chilli, onion, plain or some sort of fish flavour. Naturally, I went for the fish flavour and the chilli (not together!). Who wants to be boring and have onion or plain?! (I say that now but wait until I try them).

Some random advice! Don’t ever buy a film off itunes unless your computer is super-fast with lots of memory. I brought some films off there so I didn’t need to bring a separate DVD drive. Big mistake! It jumps, stops and I hate it!!! Arghhh I want to punch apple in the face. I packed my DVD drive in one of the boxes (my parents are moving house) so my mum won’t be able to send it me. I think I will have to go to Homeplus again. But I haven’t seen DVD’s anywhere…..Strange!

First day at school!

Woke up at 6.00! It was quite easy to wake up early as I’ve had to wake up early every day at orientation (takes me ages to straighten my hair!!) plus I have no curtains so it was bright in my room. I woke up this early as I didn’t know how lost I would get going to work (due at work at 8:40). Had breakfast and popped to the bakery to buy the English department a cake to share. So far so good, it was7:35am. Got on the train and was proud of myself until I saw I was at some random stop! I looked at my metro app on my ipod and got off to go back in the opposite direction (8am). I got off the train then realised I was back at the stop where my apartment is not my school (yes I’m stupid!). I got back on the train, going in the right direction this time (8:10am). Did the train change halfway with no problems (thank god!) and arrived at my station where my school is. I followed the hundreds of kids and made it to the school in one piece.



My classroom



The next problem was finding where I was supposed to go. I phoned my co-teacher and I made it there at 8:38am! Go me!! The journey was supposed to take 25 minutes…

The lessons went okay. The kids just were very shy (with a few exceptions!). Lunch was good except all the kids were looking at me eating and waving! Haha So cute!! =^-^= At 3:30 we went to apply for my ARC but they were so busy they had stopped issuing tickets for the day. My school said they would book an appointment for me over the internet. My co-teacher and another English teacher took me for dinner which was so good (I love Korean food!!). It was kimchi rice, dumplings and other dishes that I don’t know the name of. The dumplings are supposed to be famous and had meat and noodles inside! Yummy!

I then went home but just outside my apartment I bumped in to Clare who is a SMOE teacher from orientation!! I told her about Homeplus and we decided to take a trip there together. It was only 3 stops away from our apartment and you can’t miss it when you come out of the station. We spent well over an hour in there getting food and other essentials. The people in the supermarket level were so friendly; I think I will like shopping in Korea.

Goodbye Orientation, Hello School!

Today is the day we left our bubble and went into the big wide world. Breakfast was empty because a lot of people went out drinking the night before and had hangovers (I know this because I heard them running and shouting until 1pm). We loaded our suitcases etc. on to the coaches. Then went to a lecture on Korean food customs, which wasn’t as useful as it may sound. I think they were just trying to burn time. We then had the closing ceremony which was a video with videos and pictures that the staff had filmed throughout the week. It was really good and we all got a copy on a cd (I have no cd drive but I’ll try and figure a way to put it on here). We had our last lunch which was packed due to 50 more teachers arriving (they couldn’t come to the main orientation due to lack of space). Finally we all said our goodbyes and got on separate buses L

After a short ride we arrived at a building where our teachers were waiting for us. At this point everyone’s faces were white and nervous looking. It was like the first day of school over again. Not all the co-teachers were there yet including my teacher, so we waited. I was waiting when I heard someone say roura cooper (r’s and l’s are difficult to pronounce for Koreans so my name is really hard to say). I turned around and there were two young women. At this point I calmed down a bit because previously I was worried I was going to get a man, a much older woman or even worse an older man. We greeted each other and got into the school bus. During the drive, I learned only one of the ladies was going to be my co-teacher. Her name was Mina and she was really friendly. I also discovered the area of the school is not well off but the government invest a lot of money in to the school. But most importantly I learnt I wasn’t going to my apartment first but to my school.

When we arrived at the school the van drove off with my suitcase etc. (I didn’t know where it was taking my things! In fact I didn’t know anything and I felt like a lost little lamb). We went to go greet the teachers and my principal. I gave them the gifts I prepared and got a shock when there was not just one but two vice-principals. I’m not joking when I say the school is big, in fact it’s huge. The teachers told me from the mountains it looks like a university. I was also told it was supposed to be a joint elementary and middle school but the middle school backed out. There are also 2 more English speaking teachers and they are getting one more in the summer (if you’re thinking of applying for SMOE August 2011 you might be at my school!).

After meeting the principal we had to go to the first teachers meeting of the year. I wasn’t the only new teacher; there were around 10 new members of staff. I was told I needed to introduce myself to everyone but luckily I had prepared for this during Korean classes at orientation. I said in Korean ‘Hello, It’s very nice to meet you. My name is Laura. I come from the UK. Thank you. Please take care of me’.  My principal gave me the thumbs up afterJ. The meeting went on for so long (Maybe 30 minutes to an hour) and because it was in Korean I was just staring in to space.

At 5pm my co-teacher and the head of the English department then took me to my apartment. The apartment was really nice but there were a few problems or should I say a few missing items. These items included a bed, curtains, a TV and a microwave. Fear not my UK readers, I had a kettle ;). My co-teacher and boss made a few phone calls to find out what had happened. From what I can gather the last teacher left and the bed disappeared??? They told me maybe tomorrow or Friday I will get a bed and curtains. My boss asked me to stay at her house but I had been living out of a suitcase for a week and a half and just wanted my space. I told them if I could get a comforter (goes between you sheet and bed to keep you warm in the winter) and blanket I would be ok. They were both worried still but at the end they agreed.

My lifesaver

My boss told me she would take me out for some dinner so we went to a boiled pork restaurant (I don’t know the Korean names yet so forgive me!). The food was really good. It was a Korean style restaurant i.e. no shoes/sit on the floor. I discovered my boss had lived in Singapore as an English teacher and her best friend is British. Her English is of a top level and my co-teacher informed me that my boss has the highest level English certificate. My co-teacher speaks good English too. During the meal my co-teacher told me she had told her boyfriend about what had happened and he was going to pick us all up and take us to Homeplus (Tesco/Samsung shopping centre that sells everything). My co-teachers boyfriend drove us to Homeplus and I got a blanket/comforter/pillow. I also got some rice and breakfast for the next day. My boss brought me some thick tights as she was worried I would be cold at school (I told you everyone at my school is soooo nice!).

After helping me bring my things to my apartment, everyone said goodbye. By this time it was 9.30pm! Such a long day! O I forgot to mention that I was told I would start work the next day…..