Oh, Henry

Picture an even more adorable Korean version of that ridiculously cute kid with the oversized head from Jerry Maguire. That's Henry.

Today was my first day at school, and Henry was the first student I met. He waddled up to me in the teacher's lounge before class this morning, wearing a napsack nearly twice his size, and a grin that was even bigger, and proceeded to stare at me for 10 minutes straight. I tried to talk to him but he just stared right on back, mouth wide open. The other teachers say he's in love, but we just met so I think it's really too soon to tell.

I'm convinced that Korean kids are the cutest on the planet. My little ones range in age from about 5 to 9 years old; originally I was supposed to be teaching 6 to 10/11 year olds, but one of many surprises I've learned so far is that Koreans actually count the year spent in the womb as part of their actual age. So the Western teachers coming over end up with classes a bit younger than expected.

I'm teaching various 30 minute classes throughout the day, with several breaks in between, so the other foreign teachers say that the days go fairly quickly. The classes are divided by skill level, and each class at my school is named according to a major Western city like Chicago, London, Toronto, etc. My classes are mainly New York and Atlanta. Regardless of their skill level, these kids speak English as well, or better than, kids of the same age group in North America - it's crazy. The kids are not permitted to speak Korean in school, to the point where there are big signs on the walls saying NO KOREAN to enforce English-only habits. But that didn't stop this one little guy, Tristen, from yanking me on the shoulder every 5 minutes to whisper in my ear something like "Shhhhh....but the Korean word for dinosaur is..."

The foreign teachers have lunch provided to them every day if they'd rather not go out and spend the money. It's always traditional Korean food, and from what Kady (the American girl whose place I'm taking at the school) told me, it's a gamble as to whether or not the food will be good each day. Today we had rice, kimchi (I love love love kimchi. Such a relief - it's a staple of the Korean diet) soup, seaweed wraps and calamari. It was really great, home-cooked food, and cool to try my first traditional Korean meal. The metal chopsticks were a bit of a challenge (apparently Korea is the only Asian county to use only metal chopsticks) but I'm learning.

Anyway. The first day was definitely entertaining! I can't get over these kids though, they're too funny. In the meantime only 1 day until the weekend!!! That means sleep for me!!! Oh, and Sex and the City 2 party tomorrow night - the other foreign girls haven't seen it yet, so they're throwing a screening party for anyone who might need their fix. Oh yes.