New foreign teacher arrives!

OK, so the new teacher finally arrived, but he seems to have the best deal..the're giving him 2 days training!!!!!!!! What a luxury! We didnt even get one class! So hes been following us around for classes..wish Rich and I could have done that before we started!!!!!! Anyway, hes from England (23 yrs old)..a Software Engineer. hes already travelled quite a bit of Asia..hes got family living in Hong Kong, and he knows a little Japanese too! But he seems to have gotten the raw deal on the apartment..he had to stay in a motel for his first night cos Wonderland hadnt cleaned his apartment yet (since the last foreign teacher left i.e. 2 months ago!!)..and his apartment is a bit of a wreck..his first night his gas wasnt connected so he couldnt cook or have a hot shower..and his bathroom is so small that his washing machine is UNDER the shower head..so we're not sure how he showers!!!!!! We r really lucky we got a separate laundry! Also, his pots and pans had things 'growing' in them and his sheets are stained. His apartment is in our building, so u would expect all the apartments to kind of be 'standardised' but they're not! He still doesnt even have a cable to connect his tv! So it seems rich and i got the best apartment! Anyway, hes a nice guy..really laid back, so none of this really bothers him! Kim has taken leave until Monday..so he'll only be able to get things sorted out then. He starts teaching classes on his own on Monday..and one thing hes a little nervous about is speaking with an American accent..we r lucky we spent time in South America so it was so much easier for us! He has a real English accent! But our accents are getting really bad - cos we spend the whole day saying things like BAHHHthroom etc..even when we talk to eachother now..we speak like that!!!! Its becoming 'normal' for us..so really hope it doesnt stay that way!

The phone teaching went ok..some kids are really shy to answer the questions, but others love it (like i had this girl Becky in my one afternoon class who ran around the class shouting YAYYYYY when i told her this week was phone teaching!!) But the difficulty is getting through the parents..cos most of them cant speak a word of English..Rich had the phone hung up on him quite a few times! Some parents, on the other hand at least try and speak English..and they'll say things like 'one moment please'  or 'no Daniel, later' or one mom even told me her son would be home at 7:30 in perfect English! So it was an interesting experience! We dont quite understand the whole point of the phone teaching though..although all the schools in Korea do it. I mean we end up staying at school till like 8pm for 2 or 3 nights in a row to get it done..and most of the time, if the kids do badly, we make up their mark anyway! But we have to practice the 5 questions in class with them on the day..so that they at least have half a clue..so that if the parents are listening to them speak on the phone, they actually think the child has learnt something! Michael had a typical 'korean' experience for his 1st night of phone teaching - Kim told him that day that the director wanted to cut his phone unless he paid a 600000 won deposit (cos the last teacher up and left in the middle of the night and left them with a $170 phone bill). So Micheal refused to pay the $600, but he asked if he could at least keep his phone for 1 more night to do the phone teaching..so they were like 'sure, no prob'..so he gets home to do his phone teaching and the phone is cut!!!!!!!!! And the next morning it is connected again. Only in Korea! So now the phone has to be disconnected again (all this at a price). Only in Korea!

Well, no more horror kid stories..except one guy in my UCLA class cut a piece of his friends hair off!! And Rich had to run around the school twice (past the Director!) chasing after one Berkeley kid (4 yrs old)..i wish i could have seen that!!!! I made my UCLA class spend 20 minutes with their heads on their desks cos they just wouldnt behave..it was SOO PAINFUL for them..I didnt actually know they were capable of sitting still for that long!

Well, this wknd we r just going to relax again..this isnt a particularly good time of year for Rich to do his birding, so we're saving those trips until Winter. Also, we need to do a whole lot of internet searching to find out where we r going to go for our summer vacation (9 days- end of July). We were thinking of going to Japan again, but most of the things that we want to see there, are better in winter..like the Crane dances, in the snow. So we aren't sure..the next thing we were thinking about is maybe Taiwan. We'll see..something to look forward to!!!! This month has really flown, so hopefully June and July will fly too! I hope that u guys are able to find these emails ok on the website, if not, pls let me know! Otherwise, hope u guys are enjoying some cool South African weather, or some 'warm' Scottish (or English!) weather, or even some warm Quito weather Nate! Keep smiling, and keep in touch! We'd love to hear what u guys are up to!

Lots of love, us!