Friday, August 25, 2017

그대는 어디에

You've been wondering. You've been asking. You've been begging for it. Well it's your lucky day, because I'm about to give you what you have all been waiting for:

~~****** a written blog post ******~~

Ok I'm joking. But it's been a hot minute since I have updated, and I'm starting a new stage of my *journey* so I probably should.

Where are you?


"But Zack, what are you doing? Where are you? Why aren't you in America?"

I'm glad you asked. If you did not already know, Fulbright Korea allows you to teach for 1-3 years in Korea depending on availability of schools. And if you didn't watch my last vlog, I have renewed my Fulbright contract to teach one more year! This time around, I'm teaching in Seoul! I have now finished my first week of teaching, so I will give you the run down.

School


I am placed at 대동세무고등학교 Daedong Taxation High School, a vocational high school that specializes in business and accounting. This is the only high school in Seoul with a Fulbright teacher. One major difference from my old school is that this one is co-ed!! It's my first time teaching boys besides a special Saturday class last year in which I taught 5 boys (egads). 

Workload


Another difference is my workload. Last year my schedule consisted of only 11 normal classes, whereas this year it is 20! That number is actually more normal for Fulbright teachers, but I didn't realize just how blessed I was last year until this first week at my new school. I teach the ten homeroom classes twice a week, and each class is exactly 26 students. If you're doing the math, that's 260 names to memorize (not as much as many of my other friends)!

Students


I must admit that this week has been extremely tiring, and it's not just the extra hours I'm putting in at work. The students themselves seem much more energetic and unruly than my sweet, sweet Gyeongju girls. Don't get me wrong, these students are sweet too, and most of them are just excited to see a foreign boy teacher (after 3 years of female Fulbright teachers). This year I will have no co-teacher in the classroom with me, so I will have to handle discipline matters on my own. So far the students inability to listen or be quiet has me a bit concerned, but I'm hoping it's just the fact that it's my first week and they are very excited. 

As far as students go, I'm also concerned about connecting to my boy students. In each class, I have between 7 and 9 boys and the rest are girls. I think these boys were particularly looking forward to having a male teacher because they expected a sports-crazed, American, bro. From my observations so far, there are two broad categories of boy students: sports boys and game boys (obviously a generalization, but it's just an observation from my first week). While drastically different, I can't necessarily relate to either of those categories. It doesn't help that many of the soccer players (about 2 boys per class) are attending the school on soccer scholarship and are extremely low English level.

Speaking of English levels, the classes I teach this year are not separated by level! Last year I taught levels A-D and could cater my lessons to the levels of my students. This year, I teach the homerooms, so students of all levels are mixed together. I'm still unsure how to tackle this obstacle in terms of reaching all my students effectively.

People my students have said I look like: a character from "Rick and Morty," Ron Weasley's brother (don't know which one), "Ratatouille!" and Mark Zuckerberg.

Co-Teachers


One bright side to teaching at Daedong so far has been my co-teachers! I have some amazing coworkers who are really helping me settle in both at school and in Seoul in general.

박정은 (Park Jeong Eun or Sarah Park) - Jeong Eun is not technically my co-teacher, yet has become the teacher I'm closest to so far. She is very young and sits in the desk right next to mine. She speaks perfect English and has helped teach me everything I need to know about Daedong H.S. 
김혜경 (Kim Hye Gyeong) - Hye Gyeong is my Fulbright Co-Teacher, so I thought I would be spending most of my time with her. Unfortunately she sits in a different office than Jeong Eun and I, so I actually haven't seen her much this week. Aditionally, it is her first year at the school, which means she is extremely busy. That being said, she is really sweet and willing to help with things as well! She is the teacher who met me at the end of orientation (last weekend) and drove home with the Vice Principle and me. She also studied abroad at U.T. Austin!
은솔쌤 (Eun Sol Teacher A.K.A. Gisele) - Gisele or 지젤 is just an English teacher who sits in my office and is extremely sweet and funny. She is always making me laugh and I have only known her for one week! Her desk looks like a unicorn threw up on it.

So far it seems that I will be able to bond with more teachers at my new school a little better because of our proximity in age. I loved my co-teachers at Seondeok (my old high school), but I could not really picture myself seeing them outside of school or talking much in school. We will just have to see!

In our office, I am technically part of the 연구부, or Research Department. I'm not really sure why this department is named that, as none of the teachers in it do research (perhaps the business high school is just trying to sound professional). This past week, the department went on our first 회식 Hwe-Sik, or after-work meal/social gathering! I don't need to go into too much detail, but wanted to share one nugget from the night. For our hwe-sik, we ate dinner at a seafood restaurant and introduced ourselves to each other. Some of the older male teachers asked me my hobbies and I told them I like to dance, play violin, and that I started to learn the Daegeum while living in Gyeongju. Later during the night I expressed my concern about connecting to the boy students due to my disinterest in sports. One of the female teachers said something like "Oh, you don't like sports?" to which an older, male teacher replied, "Of course he doesn't like sports! His hobbies are violin and dancing!" This was funny at the time, but also slightly insulting (dontcha' think?). I'll let you think what you want about his comment, I just thought it was entertaining enough to share!

Mail


If you want to mail me anything:

Bulgwang-ro 1-gil 2-4
Daejo-dong, Eunpyeong-gu
Jujube B 504-ho
Seoul, 03396

or

서울특별시
은평구 대조동 
불광로 1길 2-4
주주베 B 504호
03996







As per usual, this blog turned into a stream-of-consciousness mess. But hey, do you expect anything different at this point? Maybe I should have made this one a vlog, as I somehow managed to both ramble AND not cover everything. Just let me know if you have questions.

Annyeong Y'all!



Fulbright Renewees!
2.0
My friend Maddie!
Best friend in Fulbright, Jason
If you didn't hear about this, where you been?
View of my apartment from the front door. She small, but cute
Clock the empy Pepsi bottle
View out my window
Today was already school Festival day, so working hard clearly
A crappy picture of a cute (and impractical) drink
Welcome to teaching boys

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Set a Fire Down in My Seoul

Yo yo yo,



Pictures are back! Yay!

These are roughly in chronological order.

Meeting Edward Avila, a semi-famous beauty Youtuber in Korea

Joan Kim! Also a semi-famous, Korean beauty Youtube who is incredibly sweet

Pictures with Joan in Gentle Monster 
New and old friends~


Last day with my first-semester co-teacher (on the right). I miss her!

Papa Rick and I in Seoul

A fancy candle store


Gentle Monster pt. II (with Rick)

Gyeongbokgung Palace! 경복궁 Right next to my school next year

What to get after dinner in Seoul? Gigantic waffles of course

Seoul isn't the only pretty city! Hwangnyongsa Pagoda in Gyeongju! 황룡사


Bulguksa in Gyeongju 불국사


Dabotap 다보탑

Seokgatap 석가탑 




Dad being a dork as usual, but the host fam loved it. My younger host sister Min Yeong 민영

My host mom, Soon 순


My older host sister Min Ju 민주

Cheomseongdae Astronomical Observatory in Gyeongju 첨성대

When you find a nifty bathroom, just take the selfie

Anapji Pond in Gyeongju 안압지


I went to my first drag show ever! It was in Seoul, and it featured Kim Chi and Naomi Smalls from season 8 of Rupaul's Drag Race. Obviously, it was hard to get quality photos in a night club.

Cute burger place in Gyeongju

This is Moon. Sometimes he's nice. Sometimes he's an asshole.

Holi Festival celebration in Busan



Our school dog, Deokdori! 덕돌이!

My friend, Marie, married our Korean friend, Evan, and had a traditional Korean wedding!



Min Yeong 민영 being cute

Commence Cherry Blossom pictures 


Immediately outside my school. Small replicas of the towers from Bulguksa Temple and Cherry Blossom trees!


The view from a window in my school. Minus the telephone wires, it's pretty nice!




My friend Starr looking like a candid AF cowboy





Those are all flower petals


The following pictures are from when some American students came to visit our school! This is my sister Min Ju 민주 being a dork




The chairman of our school welcoming the Democracy Prep HS students



Cherry Blossom everything

A beautiful picture of my friend Jason

Jason in Jeju pt. II

Jason pt. III (this is how he normally looks at me, irritated)

Jason took artistic direction for this shot


My students requested I take a picture like this... so here


Katherine and Rachel (and Mrs. Lee)

Me, Eugene and Jason (hi Sean)


Katie!

Erin, Eugene, Mika, Helen, Jason and I

Are we cute or what? Katie, me, and Mika



One of my few "Gyeongju friends," Lizzie, being the natural-born model she is

Spotted in Busan

Also spotted in Busan. A wild Maddie 




Sometimes I forget that Min Yeong 민영 is still a child

Sports Day shenanigans!


With some precious students!




Golden Bell Challenge!! (The TV show)



This is a bad picture, but Ye Jin 예진 is one of my favorite students!

Another great student, Jeong Eun 정은

This is also a bad picture, but my host sister Min Ju 민주 got interviewed and then danced for everyone! She slayed

Happy birthday, Debbie! (Another rare "Gyeongju Friend")

Not sure if this is legal, but these precious children spotted me eating in McDonalds and kept talking to me through the glass 


A fewllow First Violin, Seon Hui 선희!


My stand partner and friend Han Na 한나!


Min Yeong 민영

The host fam came to my concert!

From my favorite cafe in Gyeongju, Cafe 737!! The owner is so awesome, and he made ALL the decorations in the cafe, including this!

The owner of Cafe 737 studied sculpture in college, and he made all of these astronaut lights as well!




If you made it this far, God Bless! Thank you!


Annyeong Y'all