Second

I haven't been able to write much the past few days. I get up early and come home fairly late it seems (early being like 6:30 or 7:00 and late being around 10:00). Last night I went out for dinner with a class (Cheryl and one student). We had wine and seafood and California Rolls. It was quite good, but towards the end of the evening I was quite exhausted.

During my days I have been sitting in on classes (some of which have gone really well). I think that I am slowly getting a grasp of what will be expected of me in the intermediate and advanced classes. The beginner classes have me very freaked out, though. I think they will be harder as I will be most unsure of myself in those situations. There isn't a real curriculum here, and I understand why that is now. The students here want something different than what the other Hogwans (Korean private English school) offer. They want experience with real English conversation, but they also want to be corrected when they make mistakes, and that is something that can be offered in the smaller class sizes here at Connexus. I have heard from some students that what I have been doing while sitting in on classes is what they are looking for, so I think that is a good thing.

I really miss being home. Everything here is very fast paced and I find myself becoming lonely for what I had while I was at home. I figure that if I can make it through this I can make it through pretty much everything, and the staff here have been really great so far. I find that I am fitting right in and am enjoying the support that this offers and that this will offer for me.

First

I arrived in Seoul at the Incheon (Inch on) airport last night. The flight was long (just over 11 hours from San Francisco). It has all been very overwhelming so far. I am staying with a Korean family in a very small apartment. There are 3 rooms (I have one of them). The family has two boys (aged 6 and 9 I believe). The eldest son's name is In Pyo and I can't remember anyone else's name right now. Both parents work for NGOs. The father travels a lot; he left today and won't be back until Sunday. The family lives in a city called Gwacheon (pronounced "kwa chun"). It is right next to Seoul, but with only approximately 70,000 people, it is missing the hustle and bustle of Seoul.

Seoul (at least during the summer) seems very warm so far. Although it is always very hazy. You can see the sun, but never directly. In this way it reminds me of Hong Kong. Some of the haze is probably pollution.

Today I will most likely head down to the Connexus office. I hope I'll be okay as my foot is still very swolen from when I stubbed it about a week ago. I would love to go out for a walk before I do that, just to take some pictures perhaps and see what is out there. I will spend the week sitting in on classes and learning what goes on. The next week is a vacation. I am very nervous about this teaching as it is something that I have never done before.

This morning I went out with my host mother while she did some shopping. We went to the bank and to a deparment store and some other smaller stores. Everything is very bunched together here, like it was in Hong Kong. I'm not quite sure what to compare it to as I haven't seen much like it before. When we got back the ladies of the Peace Education class came over and did some crafty stuff, making trees and leaves and fruit. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of it all was. When they get back from their class I will head to Connexus so that I can see what everything is all about.

I spent the afternoon and evening at Connexus. Just meeting people and reading a little bit of some English teaching texts. I had dinner with the other teachers and two of the students. It has all been very exciting so far. The idea of teaching is still very overwhelming, but I will be sitting in on some classes later this week and apparently Cheryl (the head teacher here) will be helping me with some of my classes.

That's it for today. It's late and I'm off to bed.