My Placement 08/29/2009

Yeah, so I live in the middle of nowhere. At first, they told me I would be in a town called Jeongseon, but it turns out that I am in a teeny-tiny town about half an hour from there called Yeoryang. Don’t bother looking for it on a map, because it is only made up of a few blocks. Check the satellite view on GoogleMaps. The scenery is breathtaking, and I am sure I will have some pics within the next week or so for you to marvel at. So it is not all bad, but I feel pretty isolated already.

Yesterday, I met most of my colleagues at the elementary school and we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. We had a family-style soup that was a bit spicy with cute little white mushrooms and various other stuff – not to be confused with the soup I had for lunch today (see next post). I was, again, complemented on my chopstick prowess, and it seems that they are genuinely excited about having me at their school.

I went to visit the school today, even though I am not technically required to work on the weekend. Jason, the teacher I am replacing, was nice enough to introduce me to the classes and show me some of the games he plays with the kids. He is pretty much fluent in Korean now, even though he did not speak a word of it a year ago. He is not a typical case though. He says I know and use more Korean now than many native teachers do after spending their entire year in Korea. However, I know I am going to have to learn much more very quickly, because almost no one in this town speaks any English. Some people at the school speak some English, but there are big gaps in their skills and they are reluctant to speak.

Yeoryang Elementary School is very, very nice considering that this is a tiny farming mountain town with only 68 kids in the entire school. I will have to show you the library sometime soon, because it is breathtaking. This school will be my home base, but I have 3 or 4 other places I will be teaching including the middle school here and schools in other nearby towns that I will have to travel to by bus. I am a little nervous about figuring that out without knowing much Korean, so I hope all goes well.

I am about 2 hours by bus away from the city of Wonju. I know it would seem I am closer, but mountain driving takes much longer. I am committed to taking the bus ride often, otherwise I will have no life whatsoever and that would not make for much enjoyment of Korea. You hear that Tim?! Us rural girls are coming to bug you often, so get ready!