Day 8: Thursday September 1

Long Day Learning Curve

As mentioned previously, Thursday was my first teaching day and the teaching part of it was slow-going, but still left me feeling excited to do my job.  Thursday evening at Wonderland, however, was not very as fun.  In truth, my day already seemed very long because it had started at 7am with a complex, yet incredibly successful trip to the Seoul Immigration Office for my Alien Registration Card.  My Alien Card allows me to be recognized as a citizen of South Korea so that I can have a bank account, utilities, etc which means that the faster my card arrives, the sooner I will be able to have internet in my own apartment –yay!  

Then, with almost perfect timing, when I returned to my motel room to change for work, James (the maintenance man/helper at Wonderland) was knocking on my door to take me to my apartment.  He quickly swept up my luggage and almost as soon as we got to my apartment, I was heading to Wonderland to teach.

So when my workday ended at 6pm, I still had lesson planning, book collecting (and labelling) and a one-on-one meeting with my supervisor Ann.  September marks the beginning of new textbooks, so I have one or two textbooks per class to organize; two textbooks multiplied by eleven classes equalled piles of label-less books on my desk.  Needless to say, I didn’t leave work until 930pm and I was tired from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with my learning curve.   

Fortunately I was going home to my new apartment –not just the motel –to put my new jammies and sleep in air conditioning.  Once I had completed my busy day of submitting an Alien Registration Card application, moving in to my new apartment and carrying on my first day of teaching at Wonderland, I was very happy to snuggle into a newly-made bed and sleep comfortably in my Gwacheon dorm-sized place.

The Immigration Office (the large sign is helpful when your only direction is "go straight for 10 minutes")

Subway sign and shops... typically full of people & good prices