Making friends and searching for fitness....

This has been a big week for meeting other foreigners. Last Saturday, we just happened to be wandering the streets on a rainy evening and passed another foreigner couple. We stooped and said hello and ended up going for a cup of tea and a chat. The next day we met up for lunch and got to know each other a bit better. They are a couple from the United States, but had been living (and met) in Spain for the past 8 years! As we talked we found we had quite a bit in common with regards to our goals with teaching abroad and our experience in Buyeo so far. It was quite relieving to hear that other people have had some of the same difficulties as us with regards to getting set up and settled here. We're excited to have met them and look forward to hanging out with them more often. The weekend was rainy so we stayed in Buyeo and made the most of it, walking when we could and getting some errands taken care of. This past Tuesday we met up with another bunch for dinner. Three are teachers the fourth is eh husband of one of the teachers. All very nice people. We had dinner at the buffet at the outlet mall and it was pretty decent. We got a lot of great info and tips for teaching and living in Buyeo and Korea. It's been a steep learning curve to date, but people like this make it heaps easier.

I (Brian) am finally in a place / routine where I can get up and have enough time for an hour long walk / jog / hike / run. I'm loving having the mountain right across from us. I step out our door and within a few minutes I'm up into the mountain. It's quiet and beautiful at 6:30AM. Just me and a handful of the ever so prominent 60+ crowd. They walk, stretch, do sit-ups and aerobics, it's awesome to see. Today I went for an hour, 40 minutes of which was in the mountain with lots of uphill running, jogging and power hiking. The last 20 minutes was back down through town, with a stop at the grocery store to pick up some soy milk for Julia. I managed 11k in the hour. Not bad considering the hills and technical trail on the mountain.  The fitness is coming back. We have the Spartan Beast (25 obstacles over 20km of running) June 13 and I have the Incheon  70.3 on July 5^th. I'll have to get out cycling soon! And Julia's main school in Buyeo supposedly has a pool that will open in June. I suspect it will be packed though.

The teaching is getting a bit easier, but we have good days and bad still. Sometimes it was our lesson or our delivery and other times it's because we aren't getting much help from our co-teacher. It's a tricky situation because we want to do a good job and have the support of our co-teachers, but we know how busy they are outside of our classes. I also start a Teachers Training class this Friday that will run from 3 – 5PM. I found out about it last week and will have to figure out what to do ASAP. After a class or two I'm sure it will be easy.

A week ago...

I wrote it... but forgot to post it!

Wow! Do these weeks ever fly by!

I’m still a little behind in getting blog posts up, and I know at least my mom is interested, so here goes.

My last post was the 22^nd of March, about a week and a half ago. Since then:

We got paid on the 25^th! We get paid on the 25^th of each month. Between us it’s decent. We get more than others because of where we are and how many schools we teach at. So in total, we get an extra ~$500 per month for being rural and teaching at multiple schools. Neither of us are complaining! We don’t make what we did at home, surely, but we also don’t have the same bills that we did at home! And living rural means it’s easier to save as there aren’t as many expensive things (entertainment, retail etc) to spend our money on. We’ve literally JUST sent the first chunk of money home (to cover the bit of the mortgage that our rent checks don’t and to cover things like insurance and car payments). Banking here is a challenge (well EVERYTHING here is a challenge really). It’s tricky to get things set up and their online banking is ultra-secure. When you sign up, you get a special card that has a bunch of random codes associated with a number (1 through 20 or something) and each time you log on, it will ask you for another random one. We’re also still learning the ATMs, because even though we’ve only been to ones from our own bank, they’re still sometimes a bit different.

Teaching is going fine so far. No huge issues there and still enjoying it! It’s a pretty straight forward gig at the end of the day (except for the unexpected surprises). I typically teach here at Yongkang Middle School for periods 4, 6 and 7, plus one in the morning at Buyeo. Well my Buyeo class was cancelled today because the students are on a field trip, so I came here early. I was here about 10 minutes before the first class. My co-teacher asked if I could teach the first period instead of the fourth. Same grade, so I said yes (really what other option do I have?). Just little things like that that add a bit of stress every now and again. This wasn’t a big deal though. I also found out on Tuesday that I’ll be teaching Korean Teachers on Fridays for 2 hours (after my 5 classes) and that I need to produce topics for 15 lessons immediately. That was a bit stressful, and I’m still confused as to exactly what I need to do.

Julia’s teaching is quite similar. She teaches almost exclusively from the textbook, so she can prepare 3 (maybe 4) lesson plans per week, whereas mine are sort of all over the place. Her classes though are much larger than the majority of mine. I have 6 classes that are 30 – 35 students, but the rest are anywhere from 7 – 17, which makes classroom management a breeze, especially when some of your co-teachers are barely in the room. 

That reminds me. 

Anyone that is applying to teach in Korea with the EPIK program MUST be open to absolutely anything. The thing you keep hearing is that it varies, and boy does it ever!

When we first applied, and before getting place and getting here and everything, we pictured ourselves teaching at one elementary school, with one co-teacher, in Busan. Then we found out we weren’t in Busan, we were somewhere in Chungnam. Then on the last day of orientation, we found out we were in Buyeo (in Chungnam province) and were teaching middle school, and at multiple schools (Julia: 3, Brian: 4). I (Brian) have 7 co-teachers including one school where I actually don’t have a co-teacher at all. At one school, I teach from the textbook, at another I teach from two storybooks, at another I teach from one of the same storybooks plus a different one, and at the fourth school I teach whatever I want, to the same 11 students for 3 periods in a row. How’s that for variety?! What I’m trying to say is, be ready for anything, and expect the unexpected, and just roll with it.

I must say though, living in Buyeo is awesome. After a recent trip to Seoul, I’m glad we weren’t placed in Busan (maybe I’d have a different opinion if we went to Busan). The city is massive. There’s lots to see and do, but almost TOO much. Too many people for our liking. We’re settled in here in Buyeo and have found some incredible recreational paths and lots of hiking trails. The town has just about everything we really need.

I have class in 5 minutes so I’m going to have to cut this short… but hopefully post something again on the weekend!