A Tuesday Afternoon: Day In The Life Of A TEFL Teacher Abroad

Reflecting

It is Tuesday afternoon. I am sitting at a bus stop in the little town of Yukdan-ri. I have completed my day of teaching at Geunnam Elementary School.

Now, I’m just sitting here relaxing, reflecting. I’ve been on my feet, in flats, most of the day. It feels great to sit down and rest these puppies. As you can see from my photo, I don’t have very much to occupy my mind while I wait, naturally I start mulling over today’s events.

Taxi Fares

The taxi ride from Wasu to Geunnam Chodong Hakyo (Guennam Elementary School) wasn’t bad. It never is. It costs about 6,000 won (~$5.40) every time. The taxi drivers are pretty nice and usually don’t ask for the extra when the fare goes over 6,000. I sometimes get up to a 700 won break. It’s not much, but over time it adds up quite nicely. I’m all about saving money, so give me all the breaks you want taxi dudes!

MERS Health Check

Just as I entered the double doors, the school nurse and security guard stopped me. The nurse motioned for me to follow her back outside where she pointed to a sign on the front of one of the doors. My Korean skills are not up to par, so I stared blankly at the sign and nodded my head. Having no idea what was actually written on it. Calling on the mind reading skills I’ve developed since being in Korea, I knew it had to be about taking precautionary measures to avoid MERS. She pointed to her ear and motioned for me to follow her. The ear… temperature I figure. Okay, she’s going to check my temperature to make sure I’m fever-free. No problem with that. Gotta keep the babies safe. Off to the nurse’s office we went. She asked me to wash my hands…Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. Rub-a-dub-dub. All clean. I used the medical technique. She laughed. I stood facing her, waiting to see a thermometer. She looks at me and asks, “Have fever?” I give her a quizzical look. “Noooo,” I respond half declaratively, half questioning. She says, “Okay! Sign!” I scribbled my signature into an empty space on a name list….and that was the end of my medical evaluation for a deadly virus. Ohhh, Korea.  Korea…

A typical school day

After that, since I had about fifteen minutes until my first class, I went to sit in the front office with the other teachers. I pulled out my trusty HP Stream and made sure all my lessons were still in working order. Fifteen minutes later, I was standing in front of about 20 wide-eyed third graders. All eager to learn some English- not really. After the dreaded How Many Dogs? textbook lesson, however, they were amped. We played a telepathy game. Kids here go crazy over telepathy games. Then, it was on to each of my other forty-minute classes: fourth through sixth grades. Not much exciting to talk about concerning them. We had our lessons; I scribbled all over the chalkboard. (I love drawing diagrams and pictures, and jotting down notes- I guess that comes from the scientist and artist in me.) We, of course, played games as is expected of the waygooks here.

A Nice Tuesday

After going over the class time by five minutes, I had to dash off to the cubby area in the next building to change out of my school shoes, and speed walk to the bus stop. Another pleasant Tuesday at Geunnam coming to a close.

Now, here I am. Waiting. I don’t mind this waiting here. It’s much better than desk warming.

Ah, here comes the bus….