Well, I can’t believe it’s been a month since I arrived in Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm. Although I am yet to understand how it managed to get that nickname! Most mornings for me begin with waking to the sound of car horns or music blaring from a shop outside, a quick shower and a bowl of Tesco’s very own Rice Snaps (I actually did a little dance in Homeplus when I found these…on my second day here) and making my way, still bleary eyed, down the street to school. Nothing wakes you up fully like screaming 5 year olds. I teach kindergarten in the mornings, and I love them. I’m already trying to work out how I can get 2 of them on the plane back to England with me. Then after my lunch break I come back to school for the elementary classes. These are a bit more of a challenge – I could think of many other words to describe them but I’m not sure they’re suitable for thepublic domain! That’s probably a bit unfair actually, the majority of them are lovely, and teaching them can be both enjoyable and rewarding as the level of their English is on the whole better than kindergarten. There’s just a couple of children who I swear must be the Devil’s spawn. They can go from 0 to tantrum in 3 seconds flat, and then back to normal again just as quickly. But the less said about them the better…
There’s a lot to get used to, I’m sure I am yet to experience the full whack of culture shock, but so far so good. Yes, there are some things which make me scream inside ‘but in England…’; sometimes all I want is to eat my dinner off a plate, using a knife and fork, sometimes I’m craving minty toothpaste, and I’d like never to see another cockroach for the rest of my days. But it’s during those moments that I have to remind myself that I came here looking for a completely new and different experience, that’s certainly what I’m getting, but I absolutely love it.
Amy in Wonderland 