Exploring Sejong & Our first days of classes

Friday (our first full day in Sejong), was spent exploring our building, buying ramen from the convenient store, and unpacking our bags.

There is a convenience store on the ground floor of our building which we have already visited several times. It has some basic toiletries (including American brands like Listerine, Pantene, and Aveeno), slippers, snacks, tons of ramen, plus drinks. All of the labels are in Korean, with minimal English, making it hard to tell what flavors we are buying... it has been an adventure in itself!

There are a lot of huge apartment buildings in Sejong

This is an IRS/tax building right next to our apartment. If we ever take a taxi it is easier to tell them to take us here because this building is well known.

Plenty of construction happening here as well

There are a lot of biking and walking paths all over the city. Most seem to follow rivers.

There is a puppy/pet store right around the corner from us.. so many adorable pups 😁

First day of work

It turns out that Friday was not just about orienting ourselves to the school, its schedules, and the other teachers. Nope. Friday was going to be a full work day. We arrived around 1:30pm with our first class starting at 2:25pm. We were pretty much thrown into it, which was a little crazy. All we knew was which textbooks we were using for each class (and it is different with each class).

Here is a breakdown of what teaching will be like for us:

• 7 class periods per day
• 50 minute classes
• Skill levels range from 
• 5-10 minutes break between classes (depending on class period)
• MWF = elementary school students
• T/TH = some elementary with middle school students in the second half
• Three foreign teachers total (Sam, myself, and another guy named Jay)
• I have 29 classes, Sam has 28

Monday and Tuesday have been a little better. We have started to organize our schedules a bit more, some classes have repeated so we are getting to know our students better, and we are starting to understand the vibe of the school.

3 Things we have noticed about Korea:

• Everyone is really nice, trying to help us and communicate with us
• Sejong is like a city.. but it's in the countryside, kind of. So it feels a little countryside here
• Every building seems to have a convenience store and a coffee shop

Coming soon: Video of our trip to HomePlus

Also coming soon: More updates on school, walking around Sejong, and more!

♥ Zoë