Looking Foreign

Yesterday morning Leslie and I volunteered our foreignness for the director of our school, Sam. Sam is opening a new hagwon (private language school) in Ulsan. It is not opening until September but they were having an open house of sorts to show interested parents what E.L.C. is all about. By Leslie and I being there it validated their claim of having foreign teachers at their school. Even though we won’t be the ones teaching there. We just had to stand in the doorway, look foreign, and greet the parents as they arrived.

This hagwon is on the outskirts of town which is about a 15 min drive from my school. But that’s not entirely accurate because Smith, one of the managers at E.L.C., drove like a madman to the school because we were late. All Leslie and I could do was laugh as he drove through red lights, around traffic, all to the directions of his English speaking GPS system. When asked why it was in English and he said he likes to practice his English this way. Oh, good….except when he confused right turn for left turn and had to quickly cross many lanes of traffic after realizing his mistake!

The school was in a brand new building so everything looked amazing. We grew pretty jealous of the new facilities especially when we saw the teacher’s lounge had a door. At our school there is no door so it’s very noisy at all times not to mention always crawling with students screaming, “Teacher, teacher!”. It’s cute because they always want to carry your basket of books or your cup of water but as Leslie puts it, “It ruins your last few moments of Zen before class begins.” So true. There is an amazing view of the mountains out the large windows at the new school. The view from my hagwon is not spectacular which probably explains the lack of windows.

Learning moment: At both schools the classrooms are on floors 3, 5, and 6. This is because the number 4 is like number 13 to us Americans, associated with bad luck.

After only about an hour greeting parents at the new school we were taken out to eat for lunch. My first experience with a take-off-your-shoes-sit-on-the-floor type restaurant. We ate shabu-shabu, a very tasty soup. It reminded me of that children’s story Stone Soup. Large platefuls of fresh veggies were brought out and one by one thrown into the pot of boiling water. All kinds of greens, mushrooms, eggs, rice cakes, pumpkin, meat, and lastly the dumplings and noodles. Yumm! Except I burnt my tongue on my dumpling…silly me, I was just too eager to eat it! And a surprise cup of espresso coffee as we were leaving (just like in Europe!).

In other news, a new couple came on Tuesday much to everyone’s surprise. More Americans! We now officially outnumber the Canadians. America F-Yeah! Amber and Chris are from Kentucky, it’s pretty funny to listen to their accents as they introduce themselves to students who just laugh. They are the lucky ducks of the bunch because somehow they landed a BRAND NEW apartment that’s apparently huge and has an OVEN! What?! Also, since they came a full two days before the teacher they are replacing is leaving they got an official orientation with shadowing and whatnot. Not fair! But beyond the jealously I am genuinely glad to have other “newbies” here with me so we can get our questions answered together and whanot.

Another surprise this week…come to find out Friday is a holiday! Korea’s Independence Day. Woo, three day weekend! Saturday Kristen, Amber, Chris and I are planning to go to Ulsan beach and Sunday Kristen is taking me to her church. She has met a lot of friends through her church so I hope to do the same. I’m definitely excited for the weekend!

One more thing: watching the Olympics here is funny. They replay the Park (Korean) swimmer guy who won gold in 400m over and over, at all different times and channels. I thought he had won 8 gold medals or something but then I realized I was watching same darn race over and over…