My experience in Korea thus far has been great. It is beautiful here and Jukjeon is pretty amazing. I love how city-like it feels. I am happy to be in this kind of environment since I stayed in the countryside during my year in Wales. Korea is very beautiful, clean and the people are nice. I feel super safe here and people are very friendly.
So far, I have explore some parts of Jukejeon and went to Gangnum. I have eaten lots of great food and have more yet to try. There is a staircase that has about 12-15 flights up to from the dormitory to the front of campus and let me tell you, going up that staircase is EXHAUSTING but by the third day now I am getting used to it. Walking around in Korea feels like a workout already; with those stairs, plus walking every where and the humidity, it's like you're walking in a sauna all the time.
The majority of the people here are from California. There are three campuses here: Fullerton, Long Beach and San Bernardino. There people here from the states such as Michigan and Ohio, and other countries like Canada, the Netherlands, Wales, England and Germany!
Yesterday we had our first day of orientation and today we will continue with another session. We received packets yesterday that give guidelines on how to teach the classes. We also got to know who our partner teacher was. I am paired up with someone from Wales, so it is quite nice to be partnered up with someone from a country I used to live in! Plus, I think it will be cool to give our students insight culture in America and culture in the UK. We were assigned to each all advanced placement classes. At first I thought it would be a challenge, but then all my students will be great English speakers, so communicating with them won't be that bad. It will indeed be more conversational compared to the beginner or intermediate students. That doesn't mean I need to try hard to teach my students, so hopefully the orientation today will help me give insight on what to teach to them.
Things in price are generally cheaper here. It's so easy to get to Seoul, there is a train system in Jukejeon that connects to Seoul and it only costs about $4 for a round trip. There is a shuttle bus that picks you up from the campus and directly to the city center for free, so it is really nice to not always purchase a ticket to get somewhere.
So, there is yet still lots to come! I will leave with some photos I have taken thus far.
Oh my goodness Linda, this is so exciting! It seems like you're going to have an incredible time. It's great that your partner teacher is from Wales. You'll have so much to talk about. I really look forward to your posts. What an awesome experience. I'm glad it's going so well already.
ReplyDeleteThanks Whitney!
DeleteThe experience is great! I'm learning loads. Thanks so much for reading my blog. :)