I'm Here!

Hi everyone. I’ve arrived and now have been in Seoul officially one week. I can hardly believe it’s only been a week because so much has happened within the past 9 days. I’ve already learned so much about the city and Asian culture but I still have a looong way to go. Seoul as a city is awesome. It’s HUGE and so different from any city I’ve ever seen before. The Korean people are very nice and the city seems generally safe. There are a lot less Westerners than I was expecting and I found that I’m going to need to pick up on some Korean ASAP because not many people speak English. Guess that’s why there’s such a demand for English teachers? Needless to say, this makes ordinary tasks like ordering a meal and catching a cab a lot more difficult. I’ve already eaten a few mystery creatures and have had a few very expensive cab rides, which leads me to think that learning Korean is going to have to become my next new hobby.

As far as teaching goes, I think I’m really going to enjoy it. I’m teaching at Sarah’s English Academy, which is a private English school. Private schools provide English classes for Korean kids to take in the evenings. In Korea, taking English lessons are the equivalent of taking extracurricular classes (piano lessons, tennis lessons, etc) in the US. I’ll be teaching kids ages 8-12 and work roughly 2-9pm Monday through Friday. Last week I observed the teacher that I’m replacing and I’ll be teaching on my own starting next week. At my school there are roughly 15 other English teachers, 5 of which happen to be kids from Miami. The other teachers are from all over the world and have been really supportive in helping us get acclimated to life in Korea. 

There have already been many experiences and there will be many more to come. I hope I’ll be able to show you the city through my words and pictures and I hope you enjoy reading of my experiences while I explore this foreign hemisphere. More posts to come!