Wanderer: Wonderland

So far school has been good. The kids are so cute. I teach Korean ages 5 (western age 4, some are 3) – age 13 (western age 12). When Koreans are born they are 1 years old. It’s completely bizarre to me. I’ve learned that if you actually want to know how old someone is you ask what year they were born in. In the mornings when I teach I have the kindergarten classes until lunchtime. They are a lot of fun but as you know kids can be a pain at times. For the most part they all listen pretty well and pay attention. In the afternoons we have the elementary classes. I really enjoy the elementary classes, especially the most advance class. They kids in the most advance class can speak English well and it is fun to talk to them. In all of our classes we have workbooks/lesson plans set out for us. I do not have to do a lot of lesson planning at all which is really nice. For lunch we eat in our classrooms. We have a cook for our school that makes lunch and snack everyday. I eat with the 6 years old class and Sharon teacher. I really like Sharon. She lived in New Zealand for 2 or 3 years and taught at an elementary school there. She loves learning about the culture in America compared to the culture in Korea and New Zealand. Sharon speaks English the best by far. Sharon has a baby that’s about 4 months old or so. He’s so cute! Amy is my director. She doesn’t speak English nearly as well as Sharon does so I always go to Sharon to get answers with questions I have. Amy has two sons. One’s the same age as Sharon’s baby and the other one, Joseph, is in the 6 years old class. There are two other Korean teachers at Wonderland, Sally and Jessica. They are both very nice. I’ve hung out with Jessica more than Sally but they are both super nice. They are going to take me to an all you can eat buffet place in Chuncheon on Tuesday for our day off. It’s a holiday on Tuesday, Buddha’s Birthday, so we get it off! I love the random Korean holidays. There is also one other foreign teacher at my school, Elizabeth. She is from the Philippines but she grew up in LA. She’s super nice. When I first got here she included me in everything and showed me how to get around. She’s been here since August so she’ll be leaving in the end of summer to go back home. My favorite days, besides holidays, are the field trip days. We go on a field trip at least two times a month. This month we were supposed to go to a strawberry farm but it ended up being cancelled because it was raining that day. I was so bummed. We ended up going to a Cinderella play instead which is interesting and in Korean. Haha. Our next field trip is going to Seoul to have a picnic with the kindergarteners. I’m super excited to go. We also go to the mountain for a field trip every month. Last month they made the kindergarteners hike up this mountain that was at least a mile long. I could not believe it. Sharon had a hard time doing it herself and they expected these little 3 year olds to climb the mountain. It was crazy. Right now my work schedule is good. I get tired from being with the kids all day but overall I enjoy it a lot!