Panty Man

In case you're wondering why I titled this post "Panty Man" it's because I found out yesterday that the students call Superman "Panty Man. " One of the students also asked me if I liked panties. I just laughed.

I got my luggage back yesterday, so I'm happy about that. I'm going to try to unpack as little as possible still, since I won't be moving into my apartment until sometime this weekend. It is 5:30 here right now, and I have been up since 4, so I have jet lag to thank for that. It's ok though, since I have TV and the Olympics are on and I do have internet access.

I got to do several observations at the school yesterday, and got excited whenever I realized I was getting paid for my time. It is still not entirely certain all of the classes I will be taking. I will have Kendra's class during the day (5 and 6 year olds, very small class) and then in the afternoon I will be teaching a couple of classes as well. The students are at all different levels in their knowledge of English. They are technically not allowed to speak Korean once entering the school, and during the school day I didn't hear much Korean. After school, however, several of those students don't have any other English education outside of these classes two or three days a week, so they usually do not retain much of what they learn. Some of the classes were very wound up to have a new person around, and some seemed to be more shy. It is a pretty small school, and all of the teachers are American, and the rest of the staff is Korean. I was kind of shocked that all the teachers were Americans, as I was expecting some Korean teachers. However, given the rule of no Korean, it makes sense since we cannot speak Korean and help them in that way. The school I am working for, the Songpa-Gangdong LCI Kids Club has a very set curriculum. It means that I will not be spending very much time lesson planning, as so much of it is given to me. I will use my creativity in other ways when presenting material, but not in coming up with the material. I will be observing all week, and they have a graduation ceremony on Friday for the 7 year olds leaving the school. This weekend is a three day weekend, and the new school year starts Tuesday, so things are kind of hectic right now. They are also getting a new director at the end of the week, which has made things even crazier.

Last night after I got back from school, I started watching some TV. I was surprised to find so many channels in English with Korean captions. They have the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Style, and a few other ones. Shawshank Redemption was on with Korean captions, and GLEE the TV show was on, which made me SO happy. They also have Korean MTV which I watched for a while. It seems like boy bands and girl bands are quite popular over here, since that is most of what I saw.

The kids seem really sweet at the school, and I'm excited to start teaching. I already got a present from one yesterday, a candy necklace he made.

That's all from me for now!

-Emily