Crazy Preparation Time

So for anyone wondering how someone who doesn't know Korean and hasn't really had any teaching experience goes to Korea and teaches English as a second language...let me be the first to tell you, it's not easy. These last couple of weeks have been the most amount of work I've done in school since...ever. I'm Queen Procrastinator and haven't ever re-looked at any paper or test that I've ever written in my life, but these lesson plans are not something that I should put off or half-ass, and it's killing me.

I'm on lesson 29 and I'm supposed to have 50 by Friday. They take about an hour to an hour and a half each. I have to come up with a song, find five pictures, create five words, do a phonetics chapter, then a "Learning Language" chapter which are normally 10 pages long, and then create my own daily lesson and activity, then finish with the song. Each chapter is about 60 slides in PowerPoint. That's a slide per minute if anyone's keeping track. With working 30 hours a week and trying to have time to see people before I leave, life is pretty crazy right now.

If that weren't enough, our professor is asking us to learn how to read Korean (she provided worksheets, thank god) by Friday as well. Then by next week we're supposed to have watched an entire Korean drama on Hulu. Those are normally 45 minutes each and there's about 16 of the one that I started watching. It's funny though, it's not like homework at all. Except that there's no time to finish it. That part is very much life homework.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Everything I'm doing is enjoyable because it means that in 18 days I get to leave for South Korea and start a whole new chapter of my life. What I'm saying is that maybe the prep classes should have been around 6 months long instead of one. I have about 40 people who want to hang out with me before I leave. I love the support, just know I'm trying my best. This is all so new to me since the only place outside the U.S. I've visited was England and Scotland for 10 days. I'm hardly the ideal traveler.

In our classes, Dr. Koh brings us traditional Korean dishes like bi-bim-bop and kim bop and a bunch more that I can't remember the names to. Bi-bim-bop is just veggies, beef, and red pepper paste on top of rice. Kim means seaweed and bop means rice, so kim bop is just like a sushi roll only with veggies and crab in it. Guess what I'll be eating mountains of. There have been other dishes with noodles and beef and veggies, cabbage kim chi, gim is just dried seaweed and good for iron, and rice cakes with bean paste in the middle. It's all so tasty and most of it is good for you.

Preparation-wise, I'll be getting my visa on Friday. My flight plans are being worked out right now. I've learned a lot about Korean culture. Apparently, the elderly get away with everything there like walking up in line somewhere and shoving away a younger person so they can be first. You always do a short bow to people older than you when you meet them. Give up your seat on the bus for the elderly and they'll love you. Always smile when you're around people at the school (This one will be NO problem for me. I have to rub my cheeks at the end of every day). Drink when people ask you to. Apparently not drinking makes you nerdy and you'll be more socially accepted if you at least have a drink with them.

I never really realized that other countries have other vegetables and fruit. I know that makes me an ignorant American, but it's true. They have fruits and veggies that resemble ours, but are their own like grapes and apples. The apples resemble fuji apples (which is awesome) and the grapes are close to concord grapes here. Another thing I learned is that kim chi comes in hundreds of types. I thought it was just cabbage, but it can be radish, cucumber, leek, green onion, or even kim chi in water.

So now you're caught up in what I've been learning and tasting and preparing. Sorry this one's so long, but I want to thorough so that I have a record for myself later on in life of the process. Plus, this is a nice place to put down all the things I'll want to remember even when I'm there.

18 days!!!