"Romeo's" 1st day at Young Seong MIddle

Monday the 30th was my first unofficial day at Young Seong Boys Middle. Paul picked me up at my apartment, I grabbed the small gifts I brought for the VP and co-teacher Ms. Lee, and off we went. We took the bus to school and I bombarded him with questions about what the school was like and what I should say to my co-workers upon meeting them. Apart from the basics, anyong haseyo (hello how are you), kamsa hamnida (thank you), and je ireum-eun Quinn imnida (my name is Quinn), Paul taught me a few phrases to help impress my future co-workers. I dropped bangap seumnida (nice to meet you) after, well, meeting people of course. It was amazing how high my stock flew after muttering a few poorly pronounced Korean words throughout the day!

Anyways, my day at the school started by meeting the Vice Principal. Korean schools place a lot of importance on internal hierarchy. The principal was absent so the VP was The Man at school. I gave him the fancy UW shot glass that I brought from home (lay off, I heard it was a good gift to bring) and got off on a good foot with the bossman. He spoke little to no English but managed to mutter with grin, "You...are...uhh...Romeo." We both laughed, me being confused and uncomfortable. "Do...you...uhhh...know why?" I looked at him with an awkward smile and blank eyes and shook my head no. "You...are...uhh...Romeo...because you have....uhh....Juliet! You are....loverman!" He then broke out laughing and I realized he somehow knew that I came to Korea with Julie. Throughout the day my co-workers would introduce themselves, welcome me, shake my hand, and ask me about Julie. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Shaking hands was supposed to be  taboo in the professional work environment, and we supposedly weren't allowed to ask co-workers about their social lives. Well, everyone shook my hand and everyone knew about Julie! Paul showed me around the school and periodically we ran into students. He would make them bow to me and say good morning/afternoon to their dismay. This process was rather comical. As we walked by classrooms, heads turned as the students laid eyes on their new English teacher. I felt like a gazelle walking by lion's den.

The room I'll be teaching in is super nice. It has a huge smart board, air conditioning, and each one of the 8 tables where students sit at has a built-in TV that comes out of the table at the push of a button. Crazy! The English room, oddly, is by far the nicest/biggest room in the building. And it's all mine! Kinda seems too good to be true actually...

Anyways, I had lunch with some of my coworkers and everyone was very nice. Kimchi, kimchi, and more kimchi! After lunch, the VP told Paul that he had a little somethin up his sleeve for me. He wanted Paul to ask me to conduct some sort of after-school English program. It would meet 2 days a week for an hour and a half after school, and I have complete freedom as what it would be. Paul was a little skeptical of my desire to work extra hours and to produce a lesson plan since I have never taught English before. After a long convo with Paul, I decided to do it! It's going to be called Sports English and I'm gonna play soccer, basketball, badminton, and, surprise surprise, table tennis with about 10-20 kids 2 days a week after school, somehow incorporating a little English here and there. They are gonna pay me an extra $100/week for an extra 3 hours of "work". Can you say cha ching!

Other highlights of the day include:
-our sweaty school techie calling me very handsome
-having only one "Western-style" toilet in school
-finding out a past English teacher was fired for downloading porn (insert joke here)
-multiple teachers brushing their teeth throughout the day in the staff lounge


That's all for now! First day of school starts tomorrow morning so I'm sure there will be funny stories to report.