It's already/only been a week?

It has been snowy here. Not “a light dusting,” snowy, or “winter wonderland” snowy, but “more snow than they’ve seen in 100 years here, cars abandoned on the road” snowy. It all started last Sunday night and continued building through Monday morning. If I had had a couple days to chill (no pun intended) it would have been lovely. Here are some things I might have done: take pictures of beautiful Korean scenery, cuddle up with a good book and enjoy the view outside my window from the comfort of a warm room, write a poetic blog about the transformation of the area around me. But none of that happened. Why? My week of training in Seoul started that morning and I HAD to be there. The shuttle that was supposed to pick me up decided not to show. Thankfully, the director of my school came and said he would ride the subway with me since I had absolutely no idea where I was going.

When we got down to the subway platform there were tons of people. Because of the snow people couldn’t drive and the busses didn’t want to run. The first train came it was so full people were pressed against the door windows. A couple people got off and even more got on. We decided to wait for the next train. This scenario repeated itself a couple more times and when the fourth train came, we decided it wasn’t going to get any better so we crammed ourselves into the cracks between people, then stood pinned, unmoving (except when others tried to get in or out), until our stop finally came. Oh, and I should mention, that along with the two of us, I had my carry-on suitcase with everything I needed for the week in Seoul.

Even with all of that craziness, I was still the second person there. The other four were delayed coming from the hotel because their shuttle was inching along through the snow. Once they got there we had a short introduction, were given schedules, and were sent to Seoul Medical Center for an examination. Since I had not gone to the hotel before training, I had to drag my rolling suitcase all around the city - through slushy snow, and thick, unmoving snow, down subway stairs, and up subway stairs. We got to the Med. Center and were subjected to a series of tests. They tested our vision and hearing, did chest x-rays, took our blood and collected our urine. The six of us trotted around from center to center passing each other in gowns and with Dixie cups filled with pee. It was a wonderful way to get to know the people with whom we would be spending the rest of the week!

The rest of training week was filled with long workshops during the day, and crazy study sessions at night back at the hotel. We slept little, and laughed a lot. And I guess we learned some things too. I trained for two different classes, Memory English, and Par Reading & Writing. I could try to explain all the different levels, but it would take too much time. If you really want to know I can tell you another time. Suffice to say they’re two different levels, ME being the lower and Par being the higher. When I got to my school Friday evening, I found out that I was actually going to teach ME and English Chip, the level before ME. This was a very nice surprise as I didn’t really enjoy Par, and EC is a simplified version of ME for adorable younger kids who are eager to participate (as opposed to the older students who are too shy and self-conscious to speak above a whisper most of the time).

Today was my first day of teaching and it went well. Not as well as I would have liked, but also not as badly as it could have. Classes are three hours long each, with five minute breaks each hour and the schedule is crammed full. If you get off even a little, you can get to the end of class and still have material to cover. Because the next day is just as full, you can’t do it then. And because students need to have everything in the book filled out, that means extra homework for them. Oops… Guess I better go faster tomorrow…

Anyway, that’s enough for now. Sorry, no pictures this time. I’ll try to take some before the snow melts, but from the looks and feel of it, I have a little time!