AshRey Teacha!

Today was the first day I actually got to meet the students I will be teaching for the next year. At first, I was nervous. Surprisingly so, actually. As with meeting any new class, I was worried that my students might not like me. Mostly, I was afraid they would not welcome an American English teacher. However, my fears were quelled when the first group of students entered my classroom. They chattered amung themselves, pointing and gasping at my mere presence in the classroom. My co-teacher greeted the class and then introduced me and I gave a brief introduction of myself. They all got excited when I said I was born in "Cal-i-forn-ia" and that I played soccer. Most girls don't play sports here, which explains why they are either overweight or bone-thin with not a shred of muscle. All the students pronounce my name "Ashrey", which gives me quite a laugh. "Ashrey teacha! Ashrey teacha!" they yell to me in the halls. It is ADORABLE!
I observed my co-teacher teach today, which I believe I will be doing the rest of the week. She gives the entire lesson in Korean, so I am nervous about how things will go once I start teaching. I am making progress with the Korean alphabet, but do not yet have it down. Learning Korean will really help me to be a better teacher, not to mention help me gt around better. I couldn't even go grocery shopping on my own! Saul had to come with me to help me read what things were. Without him, I probably would've bought cow intestine when I thought it was chicken!
Although I have obvious concerns about the language barrier, I am excited to start teaching here in South Korea. I have only ever taught classes that were not filled with much diversity. I welcome the challenge of working with another race and culture and am excited for the experience. And I am quite certain it will be quite an experience!

Some things I've learned so far:
- Korean's walk on the left, which took me a while and few too many awkward stutter steps to get use to.
- Chopsticks here are not flat or wooden. They are round, skinny and metal... I miss forks.
- The beer here is crap.
- I have 6th grade flashback constantly because Koreans, especially the kids, wear a great deal of Fubu.. so 90's.
- Even though Seoul is the 6th biggest city in the world, there are tons of random hills throughout the city that make for great hiking. I am excited for spring to conquer those tiny mountains!

Will post more soon! Love from Seoul.