Live From The Swiss Hotel

Hey folks,

It's Thursday evening here. Just arrived at the hotel for the night after a solid few hours of continued opening week festivities with the other new teachers.

Turns out we're going to be in this hotel for a bit longer than we anticipated--hopefully we'll all be moved into real apartments by this time next week, but it's all really up in the air for now. That's actually just fine, because it's been a busy week and keeping 90% of my belongings in one solitary spot has been advantageous so far.

I'm still in some utter disbelief that I actually live in Gwangju! This was a city I idealized to no end, visited only on the weekends, only to return to my humble abode out in the sticks where I would spend my weekdays longing for that (surprisingly) cosmopolitan concrete jungle of organized chaos that is civic Gwangju. It's been really nice to show some of the new teachers around, introduce them to to food, and help them get oriented here. It's a hell of a crew, and I'm really happy to have met each and every one of them.

We began training at one of our academy (LCI Kids Club)'s three Gwangju branches on Tuesday, after a Monday full of errands and paperwork. We've been slowly worked into the routine, and are now beginning to lead some of the classes. The first and main observation I have is YIKES. The vast majority of the students at this academy are still in what is, more or less, kindergarten, and their English level is incredible. I'd go so far as to say, to put it in perspective, that I haven't really had a student (of total Korean background) in my previous years (and that includes kindergarten to 6th grade, mind you!) whose English caliber rivals that of these little study machines. Let's call them that, because that's really what they are--English is just a portion of their day, in addition to (including, but not limited to): Chinese language class, Korean language class, math, science, violin lessons, cello lessons, piano lessons, figure skating lessons, taekwondo lessons, and various other extracurriculars intended only for students of this feverishly motivated stature.

It's amazing. It's overwhelming. It's a lot of work. It's more pressure than I'm used to. It necessitates even more self-organization than I'm accustomed to. It's familiar. It's more difficult than expected.

It's a job that, regardless of what I learn in the coming days, will challenge me in ways I cannot understand until the time comes for me to do it all on my own and impose my personality and teachings upon these (mostly) sweet and eager children.

Challenge accepted.

Off to bed. Women's hockey in 3 hours! Need a little sleep if I'm going to get up for that one.
One perk of being in a Korean hotel for another week or so: plenty of free coffee, orange juice, and 100 channels. Let's hope it's on TV!