First Day of School

I believe I left you all off at me leaving for Japan....

Well I survived the boat trip there. Though it wasn't at all horrible. The ride there was nice and sunny until I got to Japan where it was raining :(. But...I almost missed my ferry. I arrive at the port about 2 hours before it left. Thought I had plenty of time...so I started to read the book that I had brought along. After a while...I was wondering why the ticket window wasn't open....

Of course, I didn't ask anyone about it. I just kept reading, figuring that it would open....

But it didn't.

So after one more check to my cell phone (that only serves as an alarm clock and 14 hour-off clock), I realized that I had about 10 minutes before I had to board the boat. So...it was finally time to ask someone. Found out that I had to be upstairs to check in. With all that rushing, I made it onto my boat with no problems.

Now, the short time I spent in Japan was fun. A bit mundane at first, seeing that I sat around Colleen's apartment for a few hours while she was working....but once we got out it was a blast. First we had dinner with a few of her friends. I was surprised at some of the English words that they knew....most of them are colorful enough to not mention in this post....but regardless..

Her b-day party (which we were late to) was awesome as well. She rented out a small club for her friends, and it turns out that she knows a ton of people. There had to be at least 80 people who showed up throughout the night. There were 4 Wii's set up with various games and Nomihodai, which is all you can drink for the non-Japanese folk. Of course, I didn't take advantage of this as I am not that big of a drinker. But there were plenty of people who did...inlcuding Colleen, even though she had to be up by 5 am to make it to Osaka for an interview. My sister is a trooper to say the least.

But as the night progress, the party ended and club opened for the public. Which was interesting in itself. I mean to say is that I have never seen soooo many Asians trying to be Ghetto and Gangsta in a really long time. It was absolutely hilarious. Imagine short little Japanese men, dressed in whatever is the latest rapper-fashion, leaning against walls in dark sunglasses, nodding their head to whatever bass-riden music is playing. It was great.

But Colleen and I had a blast.

The trip back to Korea was almost as uneventful as the trip to Japan. There were a few moments on the ferry where I thought we might capsize....but it never happened. If it had, I would have been pissed. Not because I would have been stranded some where in the Sea of Japan, but rather because I had to get to work the next day. Yes, I know, my priorities are so set. Once on land, I caught a taxi back to my apartment. Or at least I thought I did. It seemed that my cab driver had no idea where I lived, even though it was plainly stated on the piece of paper that I had given him. Instead, the driver decided to call it quits, pulled over....and put me in another cab.

Now, this cabby seemed to know where he was going. He moved in and out along the streets with all the confidence in the world...that is until he got lost. 3 times he had to stop someone walking on the street and ask where something was (later I found out that it was the store that's on the corner of my street). 10 minutes later, I see one of the stores near my apartment. So, I started yelling 'Yogi yogi!', which in essence means 'here, here', and pointing to the store.

So, finally I had made it home and was able to fall asleep while watching the Biggest Loser.

And now....we get to the piece de resistance. My first day working. Well I didn't really, actually do a full's day worth of teaching, but it was close enough for me.

The first class I had was with the Calvert Kindergarden class. One of the classes I thought I would have a problem with. Just because there's one girl, Jade, who doesn't necessarily like to participate when asked things. But today went off without a hitch. Jade was active and seemed rather happy to participate. She needed a little help making sentences, but aside from that, she was a perfect student.

I love the class after that. The kids in it are so well trained by my co-worker Kate that they basically told me what they had to do, did it and were so enthused. Made my job about a thousand times easier.

However...after the nice morning came the class I like to call the Bad Kid class. It's not that all the kids in it are bad....but the majority of them are. The majority of them being 3 (there's only 5 in the class). Now these three boys, (Perry, Steve, Tony) enjoy talking non-stop during class and not answering questions when asked. Or...even better, completely ignoring the teacher when they're talking. Luckily, with my mom yelling at me in Korean all these years, I was finally able to put some of my shotty Korean to use. At least Willy, a sweet little boy, does all his work and listens to me.

The class after that was even worse than the Bad Kid class. I found out today that classes are devided up into sections that eventually will spell out 'ENGLISH'. E is the most basic class, and so forth. I had E2. Now, I figure that because they were a bit older than my kindergardeners, that they would know some things about the English language. Nope. I should learn not to assume things. These kids started to ask me where Mike-teacher was, if I was their new teacher, if I was Korean or American, and something else, but I didn't get it cause all questions were directed to me in Korean. After a good five minutes of yelling at them to speak English, I realized that they couldn't. SO.....I improvised my lesson. I began to point to the flash cards (more like posters) that I had and asked simple questions like: What color is this, or What is he/she doing. That only got me so far, and I had 40 more minutes to go. Then, I asked what sound a bird made, and they didn't know...which lead off into defining the word sound and asking them what things do make noise and don't. Then numbers, they seemed extremely impressed with one million and billion.

I've also found out how to take the metro to get me home. It still involves a taxi, but on the days that I get out early (like today) I won't have to wait around for Eddie to drive me home.

So, that's all for now. More work ahead of me, need to do some planning for the Bad Kid class and the E2 (which I shall dub the Newbies) so that they can at least learn some English.

Until the next update on my new (and not-so-exciting life)....TTFN. Ta Ta For Now.