It’s already been about a week, and I’m still excited to be here! I don’t really have too much to update... but I started teaching my first real class today... and then did a lot of “practice teaching” which is actually a really good system. I get real-time feedback from the teacher I’m replacing. It’s not even so much feedback. He’s just there so I can bounce questions off of him. And that’s really nice. I thought it would be intimidating, but not so much with Chris. He and Alex are going home on Saturday... and I’m sad to see them both leave, but I’m also excited to move into my own place. I’ll take pictures when I can. And I’ll call you all when I can.

The kids seem fun... I think it’ll take a bit to get through to them, but I’m excited. It’s amazing how well some of them speak English. Immersion schools are definitely the way to go.

The kindergarteners speak so well!!! Not that I’ve worked much with American kindergarteners, but I’m sure their levels are pretty similar. The girls have the cutest little bows and skirts, and the boys have really funny hair cuts sometimes: there are a few rattails, lots of really shaggy kids... and a couple with adorable cowlicks. They have so much bubbly energy. I’ll be teaching Arts&Crafts twice each week with these kids. And I think that’ll be enough. I’m glad to be able to work primarily with the “older kids”.

The older kids range from 7-14, depending on the class. Again, it’s hard because they’ll have been in classes all day and then come to English school where they get really crappy, canned lessons from completely unqualified teachers. I can’t really imagine that to be very interesting. In Korean classes, the teacher speaks and the students listen. That’s not what any of us really want in these classes, so that makes things hard sometimes. But hopefully I’ll be able to break through and get ‘em talking. Inchallah.

Speaking of “inchallah”, there’s a guy here, Eddie, who was in the PeaceCorps in ... where? The GAMBIA. WHAT?! How random is that?! He speaks about 5 words of Wolof... and seemed to have... a very different experience than the one I had.... but I’m still so excited! Someone to share Africa stories with! He said that he met some Senegalese people in Seoul... and that he’ll take me down to the Africa area sometime! Yay! I can’t wait! Maybe my worlds can collide a bit! :D

I really want to start learning some Korean. I feel really guilty living here without being able to say anything. Hopefully I can find some classes soon!

I’ll try to call some of you this weekend or something. We need to catch up!