Friday, November 18, 2011

Where I'm at now...

I've been working for a month in a private after school academy. I work from about 2 or 230pm to around 930pm. I tutor kids one-on-one Mon thru Thurs. I group teach a single session on Wed and all of Fri.  Weekends are mine...

I like the kids. I should rephrase. I like the kids in the one on one sessions. Put them in a group and they are hell on wheels...I'm already not a patient man and If you aren't careful you will accidentally call one of them a turd in class...

A lot has happened...

since I last posted in May... I'm in South Korea and I'm tutoring kids and some young adults in English. I have been here since early October. I work in Suwon. It's a large city south of Seoul. I've been teaching just over a month and the way it looks now I'm going to be here at least 2 years... I'm going to post the unfinished journal entries I made after I first arrived...they are incomplete as I stopped writing after I started getting busier at work and I started worrying about finding toilet paper...

Thursday, October 06, 2011 This begins my first full Day in Suwon… I made it. I’m in Korea. But I must step back and describe the trip here. I slept an hour the night before due to my panic and ability to procrastinate. I still didn’t get everything I needed done. (Mom, I’m sorry about that) but I got stuff throw together and got to the airport in time. During the automated check-in it asked if I would volunteer to take a later flight. I should of just said yes (foreshadowing). I forgot to take my belt off in security and got random screened. Then I got bumped from my 6:30am flight. The agent initially wanted to send me on the noon flight which would have completely missed my connection in Atlanta and cause a 10 hour layover until the next flight. I decided to take plan-b which was to just go the next day with same flights. As I start calling to make arraignments the agent franticly waves me over. To her credit, the agent got me on the 7:30. The flight was delayed 30 minutes due to a 10 min circuit breaker issue and 20 min of paperwork the pilots had to due before leaving. But after that, the flight to Atlanta was fine. I get to ATL and there are no maps saying where particular airlines are located (at least in the section of concourse C I was in). I could of asked someone, but what would of that proved. I searched the web on my iPhone (RIP Steve Jobs). The ATL airport website map of concourses is useless. I ended up going to the Korean Airlines website to find it (concourse E, if you’re interested). I check-in fine. The flight boarded at 1230pm EST with departure 30 min later. I get a window seat. I’m seated next to an elderly Vietnamese lady and her daughter. While they were nice, the mom doesn’t know crowded place etiquette as she had her elbows in my gut most of the 15 hr flight.

Friday October 06, 2011 Observed class
Saturday, October 08, 2011 Trip to Seoul Saw Korean Dennis Kucinich
Sunday, October 09, 2011 Trip to mountain and castle, festivals, market & Chicken place…
Monday, October 10, 2011 Went got registered as foreign teacher at police station (not even a week in korea and I’m at a police station, got U.S. cash turned into Korean cash and began work and maybe I’ll get internet tomorrow…