Our 4th Sunday in Busan – feels like we’ve been here already so much longer!

We are going to have a flat warming this Friday and I wish you could all be here!

We get paid this Wednesday. Our first pay cheques plus our air fares into Korea. We’ve been budgeting and praying, because although it’s a lot of money, it could easily go quickly! We want to use it wisely, especially since God has already been so awesome in providing us here! Two weeks into our time at our schools and our three bedroom apartment was almost fully NICELY furnished! In ways that surpass what expected from our contracts or even thought to want! The only things we still need to get are a big chest of drawers for the majority of our clothes, a shower rail and shower curtain and air conditioning for when summer hits. We haven’t yet been told if there’s any school budget left for those things. We’d also like (at some time) to get for ourselves a small oven for baking/roasting (Korean apartments come with only a gas range and we want everyone to try pavlova), some bookshelves for the practice room/study and a new computer.

Another example of how God has provided for us is the new church home we’ve found through a married couple who were at our EPIK orientation.

Firstly, we haven’t found any bilingual churches here yet, which is a little sad for language learning. Ich vermisse unsere kleine aber kreative zweisprachige Gottesdienst!

On our third afternoon in Busan we visited the foreigners’ service (AIM) at the huge Korean church we can now see from our balcony (Soo Young’s the 2nd or 3rd biggest church in Korea) and we met some lovely people. Although this church is practically in our backyard, the format of the service just didn’t resonate with me. The worship team was good, the sermon was fine… Although I found the additional choir items to be a bit old fashioned and stilted in the context of the service, the people were friendly - but I was hoping for something more. We’ve made some good contacts that we’re maintaining there though. We still visit every few weeks and we’re participating in their married couple’s group.

For our second weekend in Busan we visited ICC (International Community Church). ICC started almost 2 years ago because some foreigners at the AIM service were frustrated that the service had to be in a certain format to please its Korean mother church. ICC’s a lot smaller with more native English speakers there, but it was the service that I really enjoyed. And what was surreal was that we already knew so many people there from our EPIK orientation and as we introduced ourselves to people we hadn’t yet met, we were handed new roles! No one was really in charge of the Mac for service production – they were looking for someone to really learn how to do it. Well Rob and I have been looking at buying a Mac, as well as the fact that Rob used to create the powerpoints for worship and announcements at Jesus Rockt. (We’re praying someone new has stepped forward to do that there!) At the same time I spoke to the worship team and found out that they have a bass guitar that no one’s been using, so they offered it to me to take away and practise with! So now our apartment has a huge iMac and an electric bass on loan, which we are learning how to use! It looks like this will give us more time to save money and more experience to use when purchasing our own ones.

Rob’s already taken on the role as main tech guy, so last Sunday he started doing the worship powerpoints and today he was given the church video camera too. I only got a bass shoulder strap today, so I’ll start rehearsals/services next Sunday. Rob’s been going to the mens' small group on Thursday nights. A new couple’s group (fortnightly) is starting up next Sunday, and we’re hosting it. I’ll visit a women’s small group this Wednesday night.

With free Korean lessons from a local university club on Mondays (both of us) and Thursdays (me only), that leaves our schedules really full already. But we still have time together because we both work 40 hours Mon – Fri. We travel to and from school together. Most of those evenings we have stuff together or some time together before and after the other things. Working in separate workplaces has definitely been a blessing, I reckon. God has really blessed us, with a new life situation that pulls us together as a family team, a home which we can open up to others, a clear idea which church family we should join, a big support network and already help to overcome my biggest cultural barrier currently – the language.

So with our first pay cheque, apart from general living and internet set up costs, some things we have to do are:

• get Rob his dream camera, especially since our old one broke as soon as we arrived in Auckland at the end of January.

You should all know how important this is to him. THE Canon 50D! It’s been sometimes difficult to hang out with him without a “good camera”, but to be fair, considering how important it is to him, he’s coped really well in these last two months with substitutes or ideas to sidetrack him.

• get me some decent music library accessories, since I could benefit from the tools for inspiration as much as Rob needs his.

I’m getting (maybe a second-hand) iPod with a lot of GB, new decent earphones and speakers for it and then I’m going to be spending a LOT of time organising (we have iTunes on the church iMac!!!), listening and using music every day. I’m especially excited about using this stuff for personal worship time, inspiration to practise bassoon or learn by ear/transcribe bass lines and piano parts and for motivation to exercise more.

• I’m also going to buy a new sturdy music stand and if there’s money for it, maybe a small second hand portable mini-amp. If I can find an English speaking bass teacher and time, I’ll have at least one lesson sooner.
• get our multitude of boxes sent from Karlsruhe, Michigan, Auckland and Wellington to here!

If you can remember, it was snowing when we arrived in mid February and it’s been around 20 degrees celsius for the last week now. It’s already too warm on the subway! Although it’s colder inside the schools than the outside temperature, we need summer clothes and more work clothes sent to us ASAP. Remember, they’ll take a while to get here and although we can buy tops here no problem, pants and skirts are a major problem to purchase here (unless you’re capable of ordering through the internet in Korean). I also want my bassoon stand and some bassoon music and we are looking forward to having some key books – all things that were too heavy to bring in our 20kg max suitcases.

• put money on my credit card and in our German bank account, since we drained them during our 2 month holiday.
• invest in a well-padded external hard drive, as this lap top is starting to crap out on us. We need to back up our data fast!
• invest a small amount of money in redecorating our EOZs, since our English departments don’t have fantastic budgets for that this year. It’s all about motivating the students.

I don’t know if I’ve made it clear yet: God is so good. The ultimate provider! We are so thankful. Really, this point is driven home to us time and time again when we talk to other couples and singles about their experiences to date in the EPIK program. We are so blessed here already. We are unworthy and wish to share all of these blessings with you. So I hope you’ll keep in touch and come and visit, if you can!

I miss you all, at the same time as making the most out of our new lives here! Aroha nui.

A typical day so far

Let me give you guys a typical day for me as it stands so far. It will inevitably change since Korea is, as they say, dynamic but for now here's what it's like for me.

Shannon and I wake up around 6, have breakfast and then around 7 - 7:15 we catch the bus number 115-1 headed to Bansong. The bus ride takes about half an hour and is quite bumpy since along the way the bus goes up and down several hills. Most of the passengers who are unfortunate enough not to get a seat and are left standing have learned to keep a deathgrip on whatever they can hold on to. Drivers here are crazy and there have already been several times where cars have just pulled out in front of the bus with no warning whatsoever. Since Shannon and I get on near the beginning of the bus route we can usually find a seat. If not, we just spend the next 30 minutes feeling like human tetherballs. Once we get to the Bansong area, I get off several stops earlier than Shannon since her school is farther up in the hills.

After I get off the bus, my school is only 5 minutes away by foot. The walk takes me through a small commercial district leading into a residential type of area. My school is 4 stories tall and u-shaped. Directly in front of the school is a dirt soccer pitch where the students play during lunch or do exercises at various times of the day. The surrounding neighborhood is made up of small crammed-together apartment buildings (usually about 3-4 stories tall) in various states of disrepair (none of them are new or modern) which are divided by small streets that to me resemble back alleys more than they do streets. Scattered throughout the surrounding neighborhood are stationary shops and small Korean takeaways which primarily sell fried food including chicken, fish and squid. The shops are mainly for the kids as they walk to and from their home or bus stop. In my exploring, I've also found a network of streets only a few blocks over decked out with red overhanging curtains that is some sort of vegetable/fish/kitchen goods market.

Once at school, the first thing I do is take off my shoes. Street shoes are not allowed in the school so everyone takes off their shoes at the door and puts on a pair of house shoes. At the moment I don't have my own pair of house shoes so I'm using a random pair that are either from the last teacher or are for general visitors. It wasn't quite clear when they explained it to me and I haven't bothered to ask since I'm still trying to figure out my Korean shoe size. The house shoes are kept in a small cupboard with numbered shelves just inside the school entrance and everyone has one shelf that is specifically assigned to them. Mine is number 37.

After taking off my shoes, I go upstairs to the teachers' lounge on the 2nd floor. The teachers' lounge is a long room filled with cubicle sections on one side of the room. I have my own cubicle and my own computer but I share a printer with 5 other teachers sitting in my section. There are 7 cubicle sections in total and in the middle section sits the Vice Principal who in Korean is called "gwo-gam song-sang-neem". The Korean word for teacher is just "song-sang-neem" and the words for other types of teachers and school officials seem to be variations of that word. Just to let you know, I am the only foreigner in my school. There are 4 other English teachers but I alone am solely responsible for the conversation & vocabulary portion of my students' education.
One more thing to note: in America we count every grade starting after kindergarten. In Korea, they only count the grades at each school. So I teach 1st graders, 2nd graders and 3rd graders in middle school. In America, I think the equivalent would be 7th, 8th and 9th graders.

Okay, so everyday I go to my cubicle first, check my email and then look at my schedule. I usually have 3-4 classes a day (45 minutes each) depending on the week, since I only have certain 1st grade classes every other week. All of my classes are held in the EOZ (English Only Zone) which is a special classroom just for me on the 3rd floor and I get to choose how to decorate it and how to set it up. In every classroom there is a flatscreen HDTV (I'm not kidding) but in the EOZ there is a HUGE flatscreen HDTV (60 inches?) which I haven't used yet.

Since this is my first week, my only priority has been to introduce myself to the students in each class and then set out the rules. In total, I will have 18 classes a week and in each class there are 30-40 students. In order to avoid complete chaos, I've come up with 9 rules to ensure that the students understand that I'm not their friend or just some crazy foreigner - I'm their teacher. The rules that I have so far are :

1. Be on time
2. Speak English
3. Speak loudly (I make them shout this to get the point across)
4. Bring your book
5. Bring your pencil & eraser
6. Pay attention to teacher (I make sure they understand that this means no cellphones, falling asleep or looking out the window)
7. Be nice to each other (i.e. no fighting, wrestling, pushing or hitting)
8. Raise your hand if you have a question (they can shout out answers but if they need help I want them to get my attention)
9. Have fun (I want them to understand that they should enjoy my English class not dread it or be afraid to make mistakes)

At the end of each class I had this week, I actually made the students come up to the board and sign the piece of paper with all the rules on it to show that they promise to follow them. That way when there's a problem, I can simply point to the paper with their signature and remind them that agreed to follow the rules.

I've only had to discipline 1 student so far but I've had a few trouble-makers that I'm sure will need a strong hand in the future. If they break the rules, there are several things I can do. The first thing is to give them a warning, then if they are persistent I'll make them stand up at the front of the classroom (maybe even kneel to make it more humiliating) and if that still doesn't work then I can always have them hold both their hands high in the air until they're ready to co-operate. It might sound a bit barbaric in comparison to the USA but at least it's a lot better than hitting them which is what some of the Korean teachers do in their classrooms.

Lastly, I have to be at work from 830am - 430pm everyday irregardless of my schedule. So even if my last class ends at 1230 like it does on Wednesday, I have to sit at my desk until 430 and keep myself busy. That can mean preparing lesson plans, decorating and/or cleaning the EOZ or more than likely it means surfing the internet, talking to other teachers and waiting to see if someone needs my help. At 430pm, I leave school and walk down to the bus stop where I wait until Shannon calls me to say she got on the bus near her school. Then I catch the same bus as her and we go home.

That's what my days look like at the moment but maybe they'll change once I start really teaching from the books. After all, Korea is dynamic and things change literally from one minute to another.

If you want to know anything more about what I do or where I work, please send me your questions. Once we get our camera fixed and/or I buy my new dream camera (Canon 50D), Shannon and I'll post pics of our schools and the areas where we spend our time (home, shopping, church etc).