State of Emergency

I was walking back from picking up a few things at Lotte this afternoon before work and noticed that all of the intersections were shut down. There was an officer in the center of each one preventing any cars from going, which I thought was odd. I was just thankful that we were allowed to cross the street on foot so I could get back to my apartment.

Once I arrived back home, I heard a siren going off. It was one of those steady sirens that you hear in movies when there is an air raid or some other related emergency. It was loud enough for me to hear it clearly while in my apartment with the windows closed. It was actually a little worrying since I didn't know what was going on.

I ended up asking the other teachers about it when I got to work and I was told it was a drill that they do in Korea, though I'm not sure how often. It's to "keep it real" as the Australian teacher put it. Just in case of an invasion by the wonderful Mr. Kim up north, they hold practice emergency drills. Kind of an interesting new experience.

That's my interesting tidbit for the evening. 1 am, time to sign off.

Three and a half weeks in Korea

I'm two days now into my fourth week of teaching and having a blast. Teaching in a classroom environment is so different from what I'm used to. There are so many dynamics in a classroom and I'm still learning classroom management and the students are still learning how far they can go with me. Of course, I'm still learning how far I'm willing to let them go before dishing out punishment.

I still love all the kids, though. I especially enjoy being able to talk with many of them in between class times. I've already gotten several text messages from a few students. It's so fun being a teacher and someone that the kids respect but you can still build a relationship with them.

Of course, being back in Korea means I get to go back to my church and church family. I look forward to every Sunday and the morning worship, lunch time together, and coming back to Osan with a group of friends to eat, do something fun, or just hang out at my place.

A lot of things have happened and I've done a lot of stuff over the past few weeks but I'll start from here on out with some more regular posting, time permitting.