May update

I know its been a while since I last updated and I am extremely late for my monthly update of May. There was so much to do each week, but I finally found the time to sit down and describe about how the month of May went for me in Korea.

The month of May went by really fast. There were two big holidays in May. May 5 was Children's Day and the 10th was Buddha's birthday. In addition to the holidays, I also had quite a few unexpected days where I didn't need to teach due to a school field trip. However, even though my students are out on a field trip, I still had to come to school and fulfill the hours because I was receiving a fixed salary. I still had to pay the 5100 won to get to school, but I didn't mind coming to school and chatting with the school faculty members.  Last Thursday I came to school and the doors were locked. I called my mentor teacher a few times and didn't get a response. So I called my co-teacher and asked if I missed out on something where I wasn't suppose to come to school. My co-teacher was on her way to school as well and told me she was not notified of any school closing. I decided to wait until my co-teacher arrived and 10 minutes later, the 2nd grade teacher pulled up at the school and unlocked the doors. Apparently the kids had no school that day, but some teachers still had to come to work and they went out for lunch together. Normally when I get to school, it's lunchtime. But that Thursday, since no kids were there no lunch was prepared. My vice principal was worried about me being hungry so she ordered some buns with red bean paste and dumplings. It was delicious. Sometimes, the vice principal and other teachers at my school look out for me more than my mentor teacher. He is busy however, so I understand that some things slip his mind sometimes.

I went to Seoul during the weekend of the 7th and was able to visit 3 famous palaces. A friend and I stayed at the Dragon Hills Spa Jjimjilbang (bathhouse) near Seoul. I was told that it is a very famous Jjimjilbang and many celebrities even go there. Dragon Hills spa was really fancy and the interior design blew me away. The first floor was decorated with water fountains, marble tiled floors, and bright shiny chandeliers. Unlike the other jjimjilbangs that I have visited before, Dragon Hills also had single noraebang rooms and an open rooftop on the top floor where they had a big screen projector playing a movie. If you are looking for a place to stay for the night, jjimjilbangs are a convenient and cheap way to sleep somewhere and get relaxed. It only costs 12,000 won ($12) to stay at a jjimjilbang for 12 hours. You will find various different spas and sauna rooms as well. Many families often stay at a jjimjilbang and eat their meals there too.

The weekend of the 28th, I attended a special event that I was invited to. A friend of mine from the TaLK program was getting married to a lovely Korean lady in Seoul. What a privilege it was to attend a mixed American/Korean traditional culture wedding. The table of the groom's friends was pretty close to the front. So we not only got good seating, but a good view:) There was a buffet with both Korean and American food as well.  The neat part about the wedding was that my friend Steven had read his vows in Korean, while the bride read hers in English. The wedding was beautiful and I'm so happy for them both.

After the wedding, a friend and I left for the airport because we were going to Taiwan for vacation. We had brought our suitcases to Seoul and left them in lockers at the metro station. The lockers are fairly cheap and convenient. You only pay 3,000 won and you can store your belongings for up to 4 hours. If you need to keep your things in for a longer period of time, you pay another 3,000 won. My friend, Alex and I spent 8 days total in Taiwan and got to visit the capital and a few big cities during our time there.

Prior to leaving for Taiwan, my mentor teacher had notified me that I will be teaching 3 extra hours a week after school. On wednesdays, I now teach 2 extra english classes with some of my 3rd and 4th graders and 1 extra class on Fridays with my 6th graders. So now on wednesdays, I am pretty much at school for an entire 8 hours. It's pretty tiring. But I guess this is preparing for what a typical work day is like in my field of study. I have these time sheets that I fill out at the end of every school day of how many hours I worked. The teacher in charge of after-school program activities refers to the time sheet at the end of every month for my fixed salary.