We’ve Got a Year

I’m a teacher! I've taught my first lessons and met all of the students I’ll be teaching this semester. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I teach four Grade 6 classes and on Tuesday and Thursday I teach three Grade 4 classes. The Grade 3 and 5 kids are taught by a different teacher but from February when everyone moves up a grade, I’ll meet those too.

Yongdu Elementary

My Desk and English Classroom

Yongdu Elementary is quite a small school compared to the numbers I've heard from some of the other teachers here – still, over 400 students so enough to keep me busy! The school has a great outdoors area for break times and PE lessons. A full running track and a large football pitch as well as a climbing wall, swings, see-saw, monkey bars and climbing frame. The school also has a dedicated English classroom which is where I have my desk alongside my co-teacher (CT) Seunghee and apart from lunchtime when I eat with the rest of the staff, it’s where I spend all of my time. They've got really good facilities, including smartboards and a small library. My CT has been great with helping me get registered with immigration and setting up a bank account and speaking to different people to get me the best deals for a mobile phone and internet contracts. Without her I would have had to act out a lot of things or spent ages flicking through my pocket dictionary.

The language level at the school is quite low. This includes the staff. It’s been difficult to chat with them because I often just get a smile and a nod back at me, which is friendly enough but when you’re asking where the photocopier is, doesn't really get me very far… From next week I’ll be running a 2 hour afternoon class for 3 teacher who have expressed an interest in learning some English and I have signed up to start Korean language lessons twice a week starting in October. I hope this will narrow the English/Korean gap and that I’ll be able to get to know some of the other teachers a little better. I've been invited out for a welcome dinner with all of the teachers at the school on Friday evening – our new Principal will also be there so I’ll have to be on my best behaviour!

Me, Katie, Dana, Sam, Pete C

Subway Stare

Apt at Jegi-dong

My apartment is just a 10 minute walk to the school. The size could be described as… petite. But compared to what you could get 20mins from the centre of London for the same price, it’s brilliant! I've got a double bed and plenty of floor space – easily fit me plus 3 guests, as tried and tested on Friday after a night out in Itaewon.

On Saturday morning I left 2 of those sleeping bodies and heading to play Touch Rugby in Gangnam. I didn't have to worry about them locking up because I don’t have keys to my apartment…it’s just a keypad code on the front of the door!

Views from the top of my building

Rugby was great. Two girls I’d met at orientation were there too, as well as some of the members of the Seoul Sisters Rugby Club. Training for contact rugby starts in a few weeks so I’ll be playing Touch until then. I did OK, but this heat is a killer. Well, the heat and the hangover… The previous night’s soju was dangerously close to making another appearance so I left half an hour early and headed back to my apartment for a nap.

Today is Sunday and I’m planning on taking a walk along the Cheonggyecheon stream followed by whisperings of the possibility of going for a SUNDAY ROAST. Whilst my school lunches have been pretty tasty there’s no way I’m missing roast potatoes and gravy!

And that sort of brings me nicely to my post title. There have been times this week when I've been absolutely knackered (9 year olds are exhausting!) and I could have quite easily come home from work and stayed in doing nothing, watching a movie, messing around on the internet. I said a few times this week, “I've got a whole year”.. so there’s no rush, I can do things tomorrow/next week/next month… But I’m acutely aware that actually that isn't a great deal of time. Not when there is so much that I want to do and fit it. So now I've changed that to, “I've only got a year”. I don’t want to necessarily turn into Yes Man and it doesn't mean I’ll go on every single night out or event, but if my only reason for  not doing something is that I can do it another time then that’s not good enough.

This new sense of semi-urgency took me to a Wednesday night FC Seoul game at the World Cup Stadium – both sets of strikers were worse than Torres in a dry spell but with a 17000 attendance and beers allowed in the stands I happily sat with the FC Seoul “Ultras” and sang (as best I could without knowing the lyrics or Korean) for the whole game which ended all square at 1-1. I got chatting to a guy I spotted wearing a Notts Forrest shirt and he’d been in Korea for almost 4 years and goes to the mid-week games quite often.

Lucky dip dinner at Banghak (above)
Lucky dip dinner at Jegi-dong (below)

Earlier in the week I also journeyed 25 minutes north to Banghak where Katie is living and working. The area has loads of traditional sit-on-the-floor-while-you-eat type places and most importantly, a Baskin Robbins. I’ll be back! Pete C and Peter C (nightmare!) are also at a school's in that area, whereas Sam is around the same distance from me but to the south. I feel quite central which is nice but it’s so easy to get around on the subway (which I keep referring to as the Tube (old habits die hard)). I’ll need to practice a bit more on the buses before I know exactly where I’m going but everything has announcements and signs in English so it’s not too bad.

I’m going to be talking a lot about different places in Seoul and the rest of Korea over the next year so check out this subway map to get an idea of where I've been to. My stop is Jegi-dong.

Oh, I’ve also booked a trip to go to the Korean F1 in October… HUZZAH. But I’ll tell you more about that nearer the time.

Right, I’m off to explore my new city.

Until next time,

Bren.