Typhoons, fire and a missing chapstick lid...

Participation Jar

My first week teaching has been adventurous to say the least!!! Monday was my first day in school. I was asked to get in front of the camera during announcements and introduce myself to the school (in English, thank goodness) I forgot my co teacher mentioned I would be doing that last Friday. She also said I would be introduced at the teachers meeting. I volunteered to give my speech in Korean, that I had written for my Korean class. Don't ask... I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway the teachers meeting ended up getting moved to next week so I have extra time to practice. Monday I basically sat around my classroom all day and prepared for teaching the next. I made participation jars, star charts, printed worksheets and class lists. I knew I was ready to teach the next day and then boom! a typhoon hits Korea. We definitely got off easy in Cheongju but school was closed anyway so I hung around the house, skyped and played with my host sisters.Although I thought all the windows were going to fly off at any second ( we live on the 20th floor and the wind was intense) there was hardly any rain so everything was fine.

My teaching schedule

I came in on Wednesday anxious to meet my students and start teaching. I taught 4 6th grade classes my introduction lesson. So we talked about rules, routines, I introduced myself and they did a worksheet about themselves and created name tags. Everything was going very well. I was supposed to meet Dan after school (an eta at the high school across the street from me) at 5 so after my lessons were over I stayed at school to lesson plan and prepare for the year. I am sitting at my desk watching this silly chant and dance video that goes with the fourth grade textbook when all the sudden the power goes out. I got up and walked in Caelyn's (my official Fulbright co teacher) classroom and she said she would find out what was going on. I walked out into the hallway and saw a lot of teachers running around outside and pointing to a classroom diagonal from me. Caelyn comes back and says, "The computer room is on fire" and proceeds to go back to her desk and work.... and I'm like what?!!?! shouldn't we maybe...possibly... QUICKLY... leave the building? (There was smoke pouring from the window and a firetruck pulling into the parking lot). Apparently fire alarms don't exist in Korea, and teachers don't believe in evacuating (I will save that for another blog... Things Koreans don't believe in) Anyway the eventually decided it might be a good idea to make sure everyone was out of the building. The fire department came and the firefighters climbed up their ladders into the window and put the fire out. Very crazy! Then I met Dan for coffee and got to tell him all about it!

Thursday there was another typhoon and I am pretty sure I ruined my shoes walking to school and back. I think Korea has finally convinced me to buy a pair of rain boots... They might be useful after all. My host teacher took me to the bank to set up mobile banking, which is really confusing but Caelyn is great!. Yesterday I taught fourth grade and had to improvise my lesson plan a little bit but overall my first week of teaching went well.

Friday night all the Cheongju ETAs met downtown for dinner at Ashley's an "American" buffet. There were wedge fries... so I was happy :) It was really awesome to get to meet everyone again and catch up on how everyone's first week went. Today my host family took me to the Yeongdong grape festival. I had a good time, and I enjoy spending time with the family. They seem so excited to have me and really willing to include me in everything they do. Sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming but the other ETAs assured me it is better to be in this situation than with a family that is never home. My host sisters finally found my lip gloss... so that is gone and I am now missing the lid to my chapstick... I asked Amy where it went but she 'doesn't know' haha. They have also discovered my jewelry, which they are currently playing with. Tomorrow I will go to the international church in cheongju and maybe hangout in E mart (walmart sort of...) for a little while and look around.

Host family- From left to right- Me, host dad Max, Sister Sally, Host mom Julie and sister Amy