Wednesday, May 26, 2010

(Kind of) Getting to Know You

I was able to talk to Daniel for a whole 3 minutes earlier today.  He came to sit in my class so he could see how a class without and Korean was run.  He came for my 3:30 class, but it turned out it was canceled.  I didn't know that until the bell rang and I had no students.  They had come in a few minutes earlier,  but one of the boys walked in, yelled at them and they all left.  I walked down the hall and asked Mrs. Choi (the principle) where my students were.  It turns out that they had been moved to another class for a different lesson.  I don't know why, Daniel speaks a little Korean, and he spoke to Mrs. Choi, but no explanation was offered.  I didn't mind having the extra free time, but I wish I hadn't put effort into making that lesson plan.

In our brief discussion earlier, I learned that Daniel has been in Korea for two weeks.  He came to Ilsan looking for a job.  He found a position here and it turned out that he had family in the area, so he accepted the position and is now staying with family.  He said his apartment is about a five minute cab ride away, but he doesn't know the name of the neighborhood, and I didn't recognize the name of his apartment building.  I asked him what he thought of Korea and he says he loves it.  He's still amazed when he goes out and is surrounded by Koreans.  I wonder what that's like for him being a Korean-American.

We may get a chance to talk later, but as I have classes from now until 8 o'clock, I'm not sure.  There's always tomorrow.


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Update: 

After another millisecond conversation I found out that Daniel will be taking Angela's position (this is her last week) and teaching some TOEFL classes on top of that.  So, there will be another foreigner around.  Maybe we will invite him out to do something on Saturday to better get to know him.  I told Angela that we should all get together before she leaves for Japan (her sister lives there and she is doing a little traveling before going home).

On Sunday, we are meeting the Seoul Vegetarian Club for some Mexican food in Itaewon.  It'll be a special set menu with one burrito, one taco, Mexican rice, a side salad, chips, salsa AND guacamole.  It will be a feast.  I'm completely stoked.

1 comment:

  1. You are so welcome, enjoy!!
    I think you should invite the new guy out on Saturday, it is so fun to get to know new people, how cool it must have been for him to find relatives in the area. I wonder if this is his first visit to Korea. Keep us informed. Angela is the one from Vancouver BC , right? She is probably excited to be getting out of there.

    The curry dish looked great! Was it as tasty as it looked? Have fun in Seoul? this weekend. Take lots of photos.

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