Thank you to all of you who are reading the first post of my first blog! And speaking of firsts, this picture is that of the two friends that I made on-line prior to arriving in Jeonju City. Both Joni (pronounced like my name) and Trudi have been here for over one year and it turned out that all three of us are teachers for the same company. Trudi divides her time between Joni's branch and my branch (and temporarily another). This picture was taken on my first full day in here, just outside one of my favoite haunts, the Jeonju Mart (J-Mart).
This post also commemorates the beginning of my fourth week of teaching. My school, TOP Academy is one many "hagwans" in town that provides English classes to supplement the education that Korean children receive in the public schools. Hagwans are private institutes that are expensive for parents, but seen as necessary to help their children learn at a faster pace. I am contracted to teach 6 hours per day, but teach 8 hours, giving me 2 hours of overtime each day.
My first 2 classes of the day are adults. For the next three hours, I have a break in my schedule, and then return to the school from 3 to 9 PM, Monday through Friday. In the last 2 weeks, I have been tutorning our TOP branch manager from 2-3, making it an even longer day. The only other addition to my schedule is that I have a 2 hour tutoring session with a high school senior, on Saturday evenings from 7 to 9 PM. This will only last for 2 months, until she passes her English verbal exam to enter the University of Seoul.
I can't begin to say how much I love it here! I have conquered my neighborhood re: exploring and have made it downtown for shopping, haircut, and such. My purse is full of little scraps of paper and maps that people have given me to help me get around. Without addresses here, you end up trying to describe the location of something and drawing a map as well.
Here is the website for my town: http://www.jeonju.go.kr/
My email address: Jac2cats@aol.com is the same. I can't imagine ever changing that. Keep checking back. I hope to add to the blog ever day or so. Email when you can!
