In Chungju, at home in Korea

8/30/11

Everyone had a great time at orientation. We all went our separate ways on 8/26/11. I found my new co teachers and my new home in Chungju located in Chungbuk province. I’ve had conversations with my closest orientation friends and they are doing great, and are located all over Korea. That’s perfect for making trips around the country. Not only do they know where to go and how to get there, they may put me up for the night. Saves time and money!

I will be teaching English conversation in two elementary schools.  I have a wonderful co teacher at Ye Seong elementary school. His name is Kim Hyun. I call him Mr. Kim. He’s very young, only 27, single and very handsome. His English is very good and I know we will work well together. This is a really good placement. Last night all of the teachers and the principals went out for dinner. We had dok. That’s an assortment of meat BBQ, right at the table. They also served vegetable side dishes and soup. Ye, of cours, we had rice as well. 

I have another school, the name is An Seong Elementary. I will go there 2 days a week. I think the school is a little smaller at the second placement. So, the situation will be different. I’ll tell you more later. I haven’t actually been there yet. In addition to teaching many classes throughout the day, I will try to convince my students that after school English class is a good idea. I hope they’ll fall for it. I really enjoy teaching EFL. My 5th and 6th grade English students are great! Smiles all the way! 

I have an apartment in Chungju on the 7th floor. The stair are good exercise. It has 1 room and a bathroom. It’s about 200 square feet small, but I’m comfortable. It may be a little tight when Ben gets here, but we’ll try to keep it simple and it will all work out.  Actually, I was pretty impressed with all of the things that came with the place. I have pretty good storage space, enough room for my things and a vacuum, blender, rice cooker, some pans for cooking, an ironing board and iron, a microwave, lots of bedding for guests and all of the other basics like furniture. I’m not sure how much TV I’ll watch, because I really don’t have time and most of the channels are Korean language. So, I watch movies on my computer. I have enough of those to keep me busy. 

Oh, by the way, I was glad when I arrived at my new home and found almost all of the people living there are way gook (foreigner). There’s people from all of the native English speaking countries, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Canada and of course America. There’s a few that trickle in from other places, but I haven’t met them yet. We have a regional professional development organization for socializing and keeping up with new ideas for teaching. The first night I was here, we went to dinner and for a drink after. 

I am really lucky because I have a few friends that I made well before I got here on Facebook. Oh the power of social networking! I met Susie on Facebook while she was going through the application process. She’s been here since February 2011. She has made a few friends that are about my age and we live quite close, so we get together often. I’ve already had an over night guest. It was Susie! : )

I guess you can tell that things are working out quite well here in Korea. I have a job that I love, and good teachers to work with. My apartment is equipped with everything I need and I  am making friends easily. However, there are times when I need the comfort of a familiar voice or some encouraging words from my friends at home. Please write comments on my blog or shoot me an e mail. If you have Skype, search for me Constance.Hendry. Keep reading and keep in touch. It would be a long year without you.