hello teachuh!

Hello dear friends. I can say without any hesitation that I have been thinking of you frequently -- each and every one of you. I so appreciate that you are out there, reading, and tuning-in periodically to my [mis]adventures. I must also admit, rather sheepishly, that I have completely neglected Felix (my Canon T2i, if you didn't already know his name) so here I am without any pictures of my own to share with you. This is in part due to the "unseasonable" rain Seoul has been having over the past several days, and more-so due to my own hectic shenanigans. I am only just NOW getting settled into my apartment after numerous trips to E-Mart and keeping up with the school's schedule on top of it. No wonder I've come down with my first Korean cold!

I am living in Gwangjin-Gu (pictured), a very non-touristy and lovely district of Seoul. I am, without question, the whitest person by any calculation, and I must admit it's sort of nice and definitely very interesting living as a minority for once. I can't go anywhere without catching someone's eye, and many a small child has genuinely stopped in their tracks at the grocery store just to gawk at me. Their poor embarrassed mothers just shake them and whisper things in Korean as I try to disarm myself as a spectacle by smiling, "Annyeong!" The mothers seems relieved that I'm offering Korean in return, and begin prodding the mystified toddlers to form words out of their gaping little mouths. I usually just shrug at mom and wander away, feeling the toddler gaze-burning a hole into the back of my blond head. It's sort of fun in a weird voyeuristic kind of way -- and strangely refreshing to look as different on the outside as I've always felt I am generally.

My school is called Dongguk Girls' High School, and it's metaphysically attached to Dongguk University, which is in another part of the city. I am working with what we would call 10th and 11th graders (here, referred to as 1st and 2nd grade high-schoolers), though I've yet to have them in class. Thus far, they just gather in the teachers' office and giggle in my direction, occasionally blurting out a "hello teachuh!" from behind their clasped hands. Imagine their delight when I respond, "hi, how are you?" -- I wonder how they manage to breathe amidst all their hyperventilating excitement. My first day of teaching is this Wednesday, the 1st, and before then I am furiously churning out a month's worth of lesson plans to prove myself to the Vice-Principal. Thank goodness grad school made me a lesson-planning machine or I think I would have passed out from the stress.

But it's all to impress the co-teachers! They are a lovely bunch of people, most definitely, though there is a considerable language barrier that provides constant hurdles in our communication. I am doing what I can to stay positive about these tricky relationships, as you all know that the quality of my relationships is something that I cherish above all else. I'm hoping to make Korean friends whenever possible, but I also miss being able to speak so freely and openly with others. Instead, I spent 5 minutes trying to help the head of our English department understand the difference between "arouse" and "awaken" on Thursday. What a first day!

More to come soon, my dears. I need my Alien Registration Card in order to sign up for internet, and I can't pick that up until the 10th, ssoooooooo my entries might be pretty sparse until then. But I thank you for keeping up where you can and I look forward to sharing some pictures of my neighborhood with you! Keep reading and don't give up on me. Love to you...