And the craziness begins.

I'm two hours into my first day of teaching and already trying to ward off a panic attack. That may be a little overdramatic but I'm definitely in panic mode at this point. This morning my boss and his wife walked me over early to the kindergarten where I am supposed to teach from 10am to 12pm - four 30 minute classes. I was also supposed to get some sort of curriculum, which I still have no received. We got there half an hour early and they sat me down, served me tea, and then proceeded to have a 30 minute conversation with the Kindergarten director about me in Korean, glancing my way every couple sentences. Once that was over with, they showed me to a classroom and herded a group of 20-25 little Koreans in and then left me. I spent the first minute and a half staring at them as they yelled and made indian noises at me (the kind you see in peter pan), wondering how the hell I was going to start teaching this group of 5 year olds that don't understand anything I'm saying. I finally began by introducing myself, to which they responded by repeating everything I was saying. I tried asking them to tell me their names, and they asked it right back at me. After several minutes of motioning and trying to get them to answer, I pulled out a book and settled for showing them pictures. They seemed to enjoy that for awhile, and when their attention started to leave, I put in a cd and we did songs the rest of the class (picture me in front of 25 kindergarteners, singing, dancing and trying to get them to join me).

After two classes like that, a Korean lady came in and proceeded tell me what to do next, all in Korean. After it was clear to her that I had no idea what she was saying, we began what turned into a 10 minute (literally!) exchange of hand motions, pointing, and repeating words slowly in our own languages, to no avail. We finally both just burst out laughing and she walked me to the door, pointed in the direction of Oxford English Academy, and I left. Keep in mind, I was told I had four classes there that morning and I had only taught two of them. I walked back, laughing at myself the whole way. When I was able to get ahold of Mr. Lee, my boss, he called the kindergarten and realized that there had been a misunderstanding and they had combined the four classes into two. I'm told this is typical Korean behavior- to change plans at the last minute or just not plan at all.

Anyway, that was the first hour of my day. Now on to the next 8.