Our first week in Bundang

Our trip got off to a good start when the nice United representative at SFO kindly overlooked the fact that all our bags were about a pound or two over the maximum 50 lbs. Then, since United has a horrible policy of assigning seats in the order that they're booked, we were stuck with the middle two seats of the middle 5 seats in the second-to-last row on the plane... But when we asked if there were any other available seats, we were upgraded to United Plus for free (yay legroom) and had seats across from each other, next to the aisle. Good start!

The flight took about 12 hours and we arrived early in Seoul, breezed through customs (have any other Americans noticed how much easier it is to leave the country than to come home to the States?), and collected our luggage. This year (maybe it's a second-timer-bonus), instead of being driven to our school, our "driver" collected us, walked us to the appropriate bus, and told us the station that we should get off at (Jeongja). Hmmm. We napped for about an hour, then arrived at our new home at roughly 7pm, greeted by Helena (our school's director) and her brother, Mr. Na. They showed us our apartment, gave us food (Dunkin Donuts and fried chicken), and said that Mr. Na would come pick us up the next day at 9:00.  Would we be observing classes? Oh no, they said. Teaching. ...Great.

Fortunately, we were way too tired to be nervous, so we made a pitiful attempt at unpacking and crashed for the night. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast (Jay went shopping to find kimchi), and met Mr. Na at 9:00. He walked us to the school across the street from our apartment, explained the daily schedule, and gave us a vague idea of what we were going to do. 

If for some strange reason you're interested, our schedules look a little something like this: (if you're not interested, skip this part)

Time\Day	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
9:30-9:50	Prep for classes (the kids play and dance)
9:50-10:50	Kindergarten class
10:50-11:00	Break
11:00-11:50	Kindergarten class
11:50-1:00	Lunch (we normally leave for lunch, though there is a cook who cooks for the kids and the teachers)
1:00-1:30	Kindergarten class				Yoga
1:30-1:50	Break
1:50-2:20	Kindergarten class
2:20-2:30	Break
2:30-3:20	After-school class 1
3:20-3:30	Break
3:30-4:20	After-school class 2
4:20-4:30	Break
4:30-5:20	After-school class 3
5:20-5:30	Break
5:30-6:00	After-school class 4

Cynthia (the 3rd full-time foreign teacher) teaches the six 7-year-olds (6 outside of Korea, since Koreans consider their children to be 1 year old at birth), I teach four amazing 6-year olds (really only 5), and Jay has four 5-year-olds (4). His kids just started taking classes a few weeks ago, so their level is very basic, but the older kids can communicate quite well. We teach the same group all day, and the classes include phonics, reading, singing, science, math, and games. We have a huge amount of freedom over the curriculum (the only requisite book is the phonics book, which Jay's kids don't even have yet). 

Our after-school classes are all different: Jay has a group of 4 young elementary school students (maybe 1st or 2nd grade). He teaches them social studies, science, and reading and has them for the first two afternoon classes every day. He then has a break during the 3rd class and (just for July) will then teach my older students for half an hour at the end of the day (maybe a conversation class). 

I have two 7-year olds (at a very basic level) Monday and Wednesday for the first class. On Friday I lead the 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds in a conversation class, and Tuesdays and Thursdays (starting tomorrow), a conversation course for Jay's 5-year-olds. They can't speak, so I'm not sure how that one is going to work...  I then teach a great (practically fluent) group of 2nd-graders for 2 hours on MWF (reading) and 1 hour on TTH (science) and that's it.

We have a Korean co-teacher in the class with us for all of our kindergarten classes and most of our afternoon classes.

In total, we have very few students, a good amount of break time, and a lot of freedom in planning our lessons. This can be stressful as well as nice, but we're enjoying the change from last year so far. 

Additionally, our second day at work (Wednesday) was a field trip! We went to Seoul Forest with our kindergarten students (well, 12 of them - Jay and Cynthia were each missing a student). 

Here are some videos and photos from the trip:

Video: On the bus - part one

Video: On the bus - part two

Video: Playground

Photos

Other than that, there's not much to report. Our apartment was pretty bare when we got here (no closet/sofa/shelf space), but since the community's so wealthy here, people in our apartment complex dump out perfectly good furniture. We picked up a sofa, mirror, shelf, and closet on our first weekend (with the help of the building's security guard, who pointed out the mirror once we expressed interest in the couch). That weekend, plus a couple trips to E-mart (a Korean department store) and now our apartment's looking pretty good. We're on the 3rd floor, overlooking the 탄천 (Tancheon), a stream that leads into the Han River in Seoul. It has biking and walking/running paths, so we've been running there every other day. Here are some photos and videos to give you an idea of our new home:

Video: Tour of our apartment - part one

Video: Tour of our apartment - part two

Photos: Our apartment

Photos: Around 정자/Jeongja (our neighborhood within Bundang)

Photos: Along the 탄천 (Tancheon, or Tan Stream)

Photos: Little River Day School

Photos: The area around E-mart, and inside E-mart (about 20 minutes from our apartment)

Video: A ridiculous music video on a TV in E-mart

That's about it. We're doing well and keeping busy, so I'm sure more updates will come in the future. 

From Korea, with love,

-J&J

Our last few days in the States and a note on the North

We've signed year-long contracts with a school in Korea. We sent our documents to Korea for the school to initiate the visa process. When their half was finished and they sent us our visa issuance numbers, we drove overnight from Mt. Shasta to Berkeley, slept for a few hours, dressed up all nice and took our passports and paperwork to the San Francisco consulate. Despite the hassle of new procedures that weren't necessary a couple years ago (background checks that must be notarized and have an apostille, in-person interviews at the consulate), we were surprised by the speed with which we received our visas. Although interviews are technically required now, since we were not first time applicants and we apparently didn't look murderous, the woman we spoke to simply told us to come back in 2 days to pick up our visas. No interview necessary. I'm not sure if it was our appearance, our experience, or the fact that we'd used some hangeul (Korean writing) on our applications... But we certainly weren't going to complain!

We are in the Bay Area now and pretty much packed - all our suitcases are maxed out at 50 pounds each (United Airlines' maximum allowance for free luggage) and we've just left a few articles of clothing out for our last weekend here. On Sunday afternoon, we'll fly out of SFO and (after crossing the international date line) arrive on Monday evening in Incheon.

Because of some attempted sabotage earlier in our job search (we worked for such lovely people...), we're not willing to post information about our new school or location until we arrive, but we're very excited about it and we'll hopefully post updates in the next week or so. We've been in contact with a current teacher there and it sounds like a good fit for us (though a lot of work). But hey, after a 10-month vacation, we should be plenty rested!

At the moment we're working on studying some Korean and getting ready to teach and live in Korea again. We're excited to return and see old friends, explore a new area, enjoy Korea, and get back to teaching. Of course, after such a long break, we're also a bit nervous about getting back into the classroom. Luckily, since we're arriving late on Monday, we probably won't start teaching until the next Monday, which would mean nearly a full week of observation. If we do in fact start teaching the day after we arrive.... We'll be too surprised to get nervous :-)

On a more serious note, I know that the Koreas have been in the news a bit recently. The North is (as always, it seems) being a bit impulsive, and the former South Korean president committed suicide last month. We've received a few concerned e-mails and calls from worried friends and family about returning to that region of the world. In response, I would like to point out a few things. First, North Korea was launching test missiles before we first went to South Korea in 2007 and yet our year there was uneventful. In fact, the South seemed relatively unperturbed by the launches. Second, North Korea's closest allies, Russia and China,joined the other members of the UN Security Council in unanimously imposing sanctions on North Korea after their recent nuclear test. 

In addition to an underground nuclear test, missile launches, and the capture and sentencing of 2 American journalists to 12 years in labor camps, the North routinely threatens to attack anyone who does not bow to their demands. The escalation of their rhetoric and actions is most likely a response to the new South Korean government's harder stance against (and discontinued aid to) North Korea and the ailing health of Kim Jong Il. It's a country of millions of people who are, for the most part, starving. The government clearly has no diplomatic tact whatsoever, and threats are a childish response to a difficult situation. However, childish and wacky as Kim Jong Il and his family may be, we do not believe that they are suicidal or stupid. They know that attacking South Korea would put them in an immediate war against South Korea and all its allies (including the U.S.). That's why they haven't attacked for years. Now more than ever, at a point where even their closest allies are disapproving of their actions, any attack against the South would be short-lived, disastrous and costly for the North, not to mention idiotic. More likely, they are just vying for attention and posturing in order to gain some sort of leverage to demand more international aid. 

We don't think that traveling to and living in South Korea is any more dangerous than it was a few years ago. In fact, given some of the crazy and scary things that have been happening in the U.S., it may be safer than staying here. To tip the scales a bit more, there are people in Korea that we love, places that we miss, and an amazing culture that calls to us even in our dreams (I may be so deeply in kimchi withdrawal that it affects my sleep). 

So, dear friends and family, don't worry. Things look crazy in the media. They always do - it's how newspapers sell, after all. Bad things happen all over the world, but it's not a reason to hide out at home. The actual risk of going to Korea is far lower than the risk involved in visiting many other places (some of which we have been to in the past few months). We'll keep an eye on the situation and we'll keep you updated as much as possible. Also, if you want to come see things from the other side of the pond (no, the other pond. The BIG one), we're always happy to introduce people to Korea :-)

We're excited to continue our Korean adventure - Part 2 commence!

-J&J