Kyongwha Girls' High School

This will be a short post, as I am sitting in what they call a PC Bang (bang means room) and I'm surrounded by teenage boys playing Starcraft and other ridiculous fighting online games.  I won't have internet in my apartment for at least a couple of weeks, so I guess I might as well get used to the background noise of shooting guns and teenage korean boys!  Onto the more exciting news...

I am officially going to be teaching at Kyongwha Girls' High School in Daegu.  The last two days have been overwhelming to say the least (I feel that's the theme of this trip - overhwelming.)  On Thursday I found out that I will be teaching at the girls' high school and my friend Holly will be teaching at one as well so that's reassuring! That night we had a huge celebration/farewell dinner and then most of us quickly packed and went and walked around town for the night! It was fun and a great ending to orientation - I'm sad it's over...mostly because they spoke my language!

Yesterday was....scary.  I dressed in my professional best although we had no idea what we would be doing after we got off the bus in Daegu. We were called up one by one in front of a ton of important looking people and we left with our co-teachers.  My main co-teacher is amaaaazing. Her English name is Amy and she's young and has spent time in the States and speaks wonderful English.  We get along well and she really helped me out.  After grabbing my 150+ lbs of luggage, we headed directly to the school (good thing I dressed up!) I met the head of the english department (who can't speak much english haha), the principal, the vice-principal, and was shown my desk.  They then took me to my apartment.  It's small but not bad at all (except for the contrasting wallpapers. bleh!) and it wasn't toooo dirty.  Apparently it's bad luck to clean a house before you move out, so I've heard some horror stories. I'll post pics of it soon.

After showing me how to work everything, Amy drove back and the English Dept Head and I walked back to school so I know the way.  It's about a 20 minute walk which will be good for me in the mornings!  It was fun to try to talk with him.  He showed me the "English Zone" where I'll be teaching, and it's really nice!  Then I hung out in the office, wrote a quick email to my family, talked (well attempted to) to some of the other teachers, and was asked which young  male korean teacher was more handsome! hahaha it was fun.  Then I had to a teachers meeting that was for ALL the teachers and guess who had to stand up and be introduced even though I had no idea what they were saying? yea, me.  I stood when they all looked at me, waved, and said hello.  They all laughed in a good way I think.

To round the day off, Amy took me to a close E-mart (kind of a small walmart) and we picked up a few things like cereal and milk and cleaning stuff to hold me over.  I spent the rest of the evening cleaning my apartment top to bottom and unpacking all of my stuff.  I think I have it all situated now and it should be just perfect for me!  I finished the evening with watching a funny movie on my laptop and eating a Korean version of a KitKat -- a Kicker.

All that to say, it's still overwhelming.  I'm more nervous now than ever.  It's hard to imagine myself being comfortable in this country to be honest.  I can't read signs, I stick out like a sore thumb, I don't even know where in Daegu my apartment is.  Even though yesterday went well, I'm still scared. I want to speak english to someone.  I know it'll get better - and it's not bad, it's just uncomfortable.  Anyway, I need to go so I don't have to pay much.  This turned into a longer post than anticipated.  But encouraging emails are much appreciated....I kinda need them.  I'll update soon!