All things Korea: Catchup on my Korea Journey

So, the last time I wrote in here was when I was on a roller-coaster ride of emotions - and you might be happier to know that I am in a much saner place right now! haha!

Quick catch up of life from my last post until Korea

I got the Swiss Summer camp job - and this was one of the best things that could have happened. It made me feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of teaching - and made me realise that 11-16 year olds are actually not that scary after all! We all had an amazing time and even though we were only together for a short amount of time, I feel like I met some people that I will be friends with for a long time.

I had a week at home - I managed to catch up with friends and family. I might not say it often enough but I feel really lucky to have such an awesome group of friends and family who are still here for me when I come back. It was a majorly rushed week so I'm also sorry to those people who I didn't get to see!!

The start of the journey

After a catchup with Suzi at my hotel the night before leaving - me and my parents make our way to the airport. I have two large suitcases, my rucksack and handbag and it suddenly starts feeling very real. I will be away for an entire year...... no trips back to say hello, just me in a foreign country! I start crying as I go through the 'ticket holders only' part and say my goodbyes to the fam......**wah wah what a cry baby**
Flight from London - Paris is simple enough - short, sweet - minus the baby crying, but hey - it was only an hour.

Flight from Paris to Seoul - so after thinking I was getting Business class, only then to realise I had an Economy ticket - I then get upgraded to Premium Economy on the flight. **Phew, I was getting worried about sitting with all those common people haha** I had a really good flight - watched some awesome movies, ate Scallops and was constantly given chocolate......... this had started off well.

Arrived in Korea

After leaving at 7am GMT and arriving in Korea at 7am Korea time - I am running on complete excitement. Even just being at the airport, I am really starting to feel excited about the next chapter of my life - I meet Annie and Uly at the airport and we make our way onto the coaches to orientation.

Orientation

Orientation surpassed all of my expectations......like seriously.

From the lectures, to the field trip, Korean lessons and even the Chicken bar.

Meeting so many people..... especially class 3 woo..... has made me feel straight at home!! I haven't had time yet to feel even slightly homesick.

Arriving at school

After what felt like a Freshers week - the awesomeness that was Orientation had to come to an end. And as we were all sat lined up waiting for our coteachers to call out or names....I think it hit us all that we would soon be actual English Teachers in Korea.

It turns out that I will actually have another native teacher with me at my school, so we wait to be called out - and our coteacher takes us to our apartments.

Click here to watch my apartment video

We make a quick list of what we want to buy and they take us straight to the school to meet everyone. I felt really scared at this point, but I really didn't need to! Everyone was super friendly and even came with us shopping to help us settle in.

We went for dinner with most of the other English teachers before they dropped us off at home ready to start our first day teaching the next day.

Korea was on Tornado alert the next day - so we even got to start school at 10 instead of 8.20.....SCORE!

My school

I am teaching at Hagnam/Haknam Elementary School - it is the largest Elem school in the whole of Daegu......so it's pretty big. I teach the 3rd Graders and the 5th Graders and the other teacher teaches the 4th and 6th Graders. I see each class once a week.

I have my 5th Graders in the English zone....where we have the smart boards and whiteboards - and then the 3rd graders on the floor below with chalkboards.