It's Been...One Week...

So I've officially been at my new job for one week, and let me tell you, it feels like it's been much longer. I don't have tons of time to write this post, so I'll try to cover all the important parts quickly.

My new apartment is brand new, so it's very clean and shiny. The only problem is, it's so new that there's no furniture besides the bed. I was supposed to get some this weekend, but for whatever reason my boss wasn't able to get it to me. I'm sitting on the floor with my laptop propped up by a box as I write this. It's not comfortable. My clothes are still sitting in suitcases too, which makes them harder to sort through. I hope that whenever I do finally get furniture there's enough of it for my needs.

The kids at the new school love me, and the material I teach them is pretty basic. The only problem is that there seems to be a wider variety of English levels within the classes. In the youngest kindergarten class there's a really smart boy who answers every question as if it were too easy, and there's another who does nothing but try to play the whole time. As far as I can tell, he barely knows any English. At my old school there were definitely kids who were better than others, but for the most part they at least understood English.

Everyone here has an English name they go by rather than their real Korean name. I've got most of the kids' names down, but I still have to check with them sometimes.

Naju is a small town, so the atmosphere is much different than big-city Gwangju. I love how peaceful it is here. There's a main road outside my window, but there's still very little noise. The downside to being in a small town, however, is that I'm under more of a microscope. I'm not allowed to wear shorts outside the house because I have to present a good image for the school. I'm also required to interact more with people while I'm at school. I want to do the best I can, but it can be hard sometimes. Stores close earlier here too, which is a change I wasn't expecting.

I'm still learning how to teach here, because it requires a much different style than before. Instead of standing in front of a classroom with desks, I now spend most of my day sitting at a big table, and the classes come and go. Each class session is only half an hour long too, and I don't have to give them homework, so that's nice. By the end of the week I had already somewhat gotten the hang of it, so I think there's hope for me yet.

Tomorrow begins my second week, so hopefully, now that I'm more experienced, it'll be less stressful than the first one.