Wow, I'm bigger than Jesus here ...

or at least bigger than the fourth graders I teach. Except for that one, but she'll fail my class for that reason alone.

Yes America and rest of the world, I am somewhat settled in to Korean life. Let me give you the run down of the last few days (like any of you really care.)

I arrived in Korea March 1 and began a one week orientation session at a corporate retreat facility about one hour south of Seoul. There were 50 of us who had been hired to teach for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education who attended.

It was an awesome orientation for a few reasons, my most important is I made friends, some of whom teach in my area. (If that was the wrong usage of whom and you feel like pointing it out ... bite me. My vocabulary has gotten a lot worser since I done began teaching the Engrishee.)

On Thursday we finished the orientation and went in different buses to our new district offices within Seoul. There I met one of my co-teachers, one of three really nice Korean ladies who teach class with me and help explain grammar to the kids in Korean as well as dole out punishment.

Friday was the first day of school and normally I wouldn't show up fifteen minutes late my first day of work, but I was lost and even went to the wrong school. (No joke, I walked into a high school near mine, thought their vice principal was mine and asked where my office was.)

Fortunately, he pointed out where my school was and I was off.

I haven't done much at school over the last two days other than walk into classrooms and tell the students "Hello, I'm Mr. L. How are you today?"

But the kids go nuts seeing me. I think it's the first time many of them have seen a white person outside of the television.

They stop dead in their tracks in the hall way, bow and then wave to me screaming, "Hi."

It's like I'm a celebrity.

Today I even went on the school's morning talk show (though it's not really a talk show but televised announcements) and said hello. I was impressed too. They have fifth and sixth graders who put that show together, cut to different shot between the cameras and even patch it through to the school.

I don't even trust American children to look into a video camera yet alone use one.

There are a few drawbacks though. I don't have a regular Internet connection in my apartment yet, so whenever I can catch a signal (like now) will post. I should be on my class computer the rest of this week, so I will post more about my school, what I already think is the best idea in education that takes place in Korea and what my neighborhood is like.

Sayonara (I don't know the Korean words for goodbye yet),

James