Today was a pretty chill day because it was a testing day at ECC. Every 2nd and 4th Friday (if I’m understanding correctly) is a testing day so I basically just watched Marc give out tests and helped grade them. Everyone thought I would be bored but it was still nice to see the way he answers their questions to see how much information to give during a test. I’m really learning a lot by following him around. It sucks he’s leaving because he seems super cool.
This morning I woke up at 10 and got ready to go to Pioré to
use their wifi. For the past 2 days I’ve just gotten a “strawberry juice”
(strawberry smoothie) for breakfast so I’m not mooching without buying
something but it is kind of expensive so I probably am only going to be going
there occasionally once I get my wifi. Honestly, there are cheaper places to
eat if all I wanted was wifi but I’m familiar with this place now and its part
of my routine. And the ladies that work there are super cute and smile at me
when I walk in.
My smoothie is 6,000 won (~$5.63) which is a lot, even at home. So this is
going to be a temporary routine lol.
I skyped my parents and talked to a few people this morning.
I wanted to make sure to finish downloading a movie I bought on itunes
yesterday. Having no wifi is really annoying lol. Like I’ve mentioned, all I do
is watch the same episode of How the States Got Their Shapes to fall asleep so
yesterday I rented Pitch Perfect (which looks stupid but a lot of people seem
to like it so I’m giving it a chance.. I want everything to do with ‘Fat Amy’)
but it said it needed 2 hours to download. I didn’t have 2 hours so that’s the
back-story of why I had to finish my download today. Luckily I finished with
enough time to head to the place with the orange sign (I really need to learn
what the name of that place is lol) to get some gimbap to bring to school with
me.
When I walked in, the woman that I had trouble communicating
with last night was laughing at me lol. I asked for 2 kimchi gimbap to go
(which was less than my smoothie this morning.. shows you how cheap food is
here) and headed to class. Here are some pictures of how gimbap is packaged
when its to-go and also what the inside looks like. The dark green leafy stuff
at the bottom is the kimchi. I think the square yellow thing is a radish. The
white stuff is rice, obviously. I have no idea what any of the rest of it is
but I’m into it.
Gimbap is perfect to bring to school because we don’t get a
lunch break. We just have to stuff our face in the 10 minute breaks between
classes. Not a big deal. Honestly, the work seems so easy that I don’t think
I’ll mind not having a break. I get my whole morning to myself so I can’t
really complain.
Instead of following Mark to his last ECC class, I went
upstairs to watch Rob give a P.E.T. (don’t ask me what that stands for) which
is some sort of important test that the Prime students take twice a month. I
still haven’t really gotten the hang of how the tests are different or their
significance but I’ll figure it out once I’m thrown into it. The company I work
for is YBM and ECC and Prime are academies within the YBM company…if I’m
getting that right lol. ECC students are younger and the Prime students are
like middle school/high school age. ECC starts at 3 something (I think) and
then after four 45 min classes, we go upstairs to teach at Prime. Students in
Korea are involved in some sort of productive education like non-stop, all day.
They go to school at 8 in the morning, finish at 2, then they come to these English
hagwons (private English schools that are kind of like tutoring/after school
centers at home). The reason Prime starts so late is because older students go
to music or math hagwons after school and then come to the English hagwon. Some
nights we don’t finish until 10 PM (by law, hagwons can’t be open after 10) so
that means these students are in school for like 14 hours. It’s super
competitive here and everything is all about what college they’ll get into.
I was able to leave at 7 tonight, which was nice. I think
the head teacher at Prime didn’t really see the point in me watching everyone
give tests. I headed to Pioré to get my wifi on and got a vanilla latté. I
normally hate coffee so I don’t know if I’m just excited about Korea but that
was the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life.
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I love Pioré. I wish it wasn’t so expensive. They
play old R&B in the sound system lol. Today’s mix had TLC, Lauryn Hill,
& Mariah Carey. I have my table I always sit at where I face the street and
watch everything go by and its right next to an outlet so I can charge my
computer and I’m out of everyone’s way in my little corner. I just love it so
much.
I love my corner! There’s also a huge glass window next to
me too. It’s perfect for people creeping. I feel like as long as I always order
something when I go in, the ladies leave me alone and let me stay as long as I
want.
I’m just sitting in bed right now writing this on Word so I
can put it on the blog tomorrow. I’m waiting to hear from everyone about going
out tonight but its extremely difficult with no wifi because I can’t get or
receive anything on my phone. I already feel myself falling asleep and its only
8:30 here so I might be asleep by the time they get back from dinner or they
might just go out after dinner. I’ll have no way of knowing because I have no internet
(annoyed). I’m hoping to see Ben, Caitlyn and Angela from my certification
class this weekend if we can work something out. Its hard because I don’t
really know where I am/how the transportation situation works/know enough
Korean to feel comfortable winging it to be able to be much help offering a
place to meet. Most of my problems will be solved next week when I move into my
own place. Then I’ll be able to be in better communication with everyone and
will be out getting things for my apartment so I’ll get more familiar with
where things are.
I asked Domonic today if he’d take me to get my medical
check next week so he’s taking me on Monday. This will be really good because
the results don’t come for like 7-10 days so the sooner the better. It’s too
bad you can’t just tell someone you’re not on drugs & they can take you’re
word for it. Instead I have to pay 100,000 Won to make it official.
