I got to Geochang at around 1.30 in the morning and I had to wait for the school director to come and pick me up from the bus station.
She came around 15 minutes later and showed me to my apartment which I would be stopping in. I think it is perfect - it isn't big but it is everything I am going to need while I am here. I have a different pair of shoes for my bathroom, and washroom as well as the main room of the place.
The school director told me to be ready in the morning for 9.30am - I presumed so I could meet the children. But Oh no.... I got to school and they took me straight to the Kindergarten class. They made each child stand up in front of me and say a couple of sentences in English. Then from their I had to speak to them in English and try to teach them phrases to say.
From 11-12 I teach the small children, these kids look around 3-4 years of age. They are very limited with their English but they find it fun to say the phrase "Oh My God!" and it is quite adorable.
Then from 12-1pm I have my lunch with the kids. They laugh at my attempts to use the chopsticks and are alway trying to get me to say words in Korean....which they giggle at so I can only assume they are rude words but I don't mind. I'm glad I can bond with them and make them laugh so easily!
Then I start my afternoon classes at 1.30 until 7. This is a mixture of different ages and abilities, ranging from children who are learning their animal names such as Dog, Cat etc to children who I can have full-blown conversations with in English on various topics.
On Thursdays and Tuesdays I also have an hours lesson with a Medical Doctor, he is wanting to learn English as it is obviously better for him to converse with any other foreigner.
I call my school director Mommy Teacher and all the children call me Rachel Teacher although the younger kids cannot say my name properly yet. They say "Waych Teacher"
I also learned on this first day that my age is different in Korea. I am actually 23 years old but in Korea, they count from the year you were born like this -
1986 - 1 year
1987 - 2 years
1988 - 3 years
...
...
2008 - 23 years
2009 - 24 years
2010 - 25 years
So by the end of Thursday I was pretty jet-lagged still and had quite an eventful day meeting everybody. The other teachers I work with are called Shine Teacher, Sunny Teacher and Amy Teacher. Shine Teacher took me out to meet the previous English teacher who is Grant. He is from the States and I also met a guy from England called Graham. We had drinks and conversed with some other Korean people in the bar who were really friendly. I did not get home again until 2 but even though at the end of my journey - my welcome was fantastic and I had a very good first impression :)
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