SMOE: Teachers prison

This blog is one that seems to run a week behind my real life...however I feel as though my friends and family should know what I did upon arriving in Korea and what I did my first ten days in Seoul.

Before I start, I would like to share some of the questions I asked myself before my landing at the Incheon airport in Seoul:

1. What was that I just ate on the airplane?

2. How am I going to find my way around?

3. How am I going to workout?

4. How am I going to order food?

5. What if no one likes me?
6. What if I don't like anyone?

7. Did I pack enough things?

8. Am I really going to Korea?

To answer the questions in brief; I still have no clue, I will get lost just as I always do and am still doing (I DID get lost, one morning before EPIK orientation and ended up getting dropped off in the front of my dorm by a Korean officer), working out is overrated when you are traveling, I still don't know so I eat rice and fruit, I have friends everywhere (I am lucky!), no and yes.

As most of you know, I was hired to work for S.M.O.E, Seoul Metropolation Office of Education. I am an English Teacher, which involves mostly me talking (not teaching english...but really just so the kids here can hear and practice speaking it) to classes of 40 kids about 20 times a week for 45 minute intervals. Not hard, and extremely fun and rewarding.

The first step as a S.M.O.E. teacher is the completion of a 10 day intensive orientation before being placed in your district and introduced to your school. This orientation, otherwise referred to as English teacher bootcamp, prison, etc. involved a strict schedule of lesson's including Korean foods, Korean Customs, History, Lesson Planning, Teaching in Middle School, Elementary, High School, Special Camps, Teaching with different styles, Working with Korean Co Teachers, even Korean Language classes. It was exhausting yet exhiliarting as we dove into every aspect of Korean Culture over a 10 day period following a schedule of 8 am to 8 pm with a curfew of midnight. We were served mostly Korean style dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet style. This 10 day orientation allowed me to perfect my chopstick using technique!

I stayed with about 200 other future English Teachers, all who were just as excited and bewildered about teaching as me. Our living conditions were good, not excellent, but good as we stayed together in a dormatory shared bathroom/shower facilities as well as sharing a room with one other person. There were 5 floors in the dorm, seperating the boys from the girls for the most part, an excersize facillity, and accross from the dorm was the school where we held our lessons. The dorm set up was a blessing in disguse, as it really allowed many of us to grow close and establish bonds before being sent out to survive on our own.

After the first day, I realized what it would have been like to have been in a real college setting (I worked full time while in college, and took night classes so my college experience was none existant). Almost every person in that dorm was ready to go out and explore the bars and try a taste of "Soju", Korean Liquer.

The entire time while there, S.M.O.E. kept our the future of our next year completely secret. Imagine the build up. Seoul is a huge city, being home for over 10 million people and having several completely different districts. We had no clue where we will be living, what grade we will be teaching, what our new apartments looked like, or what school we would be working at. We were all even given a complete medical exam, blood check and all...S.M.O.E. also kept that a secret. The secret was revealed on the last day...which you will learn about in my next blog!

oxoxox