Days 31-32

Okay, after this post, I should be caught up.


Yesterday was Wednesday. I....can't remember what I did in the morning. x_x
In the afternoon, I went to my elementary school with Chaewan. He is terrible with directions. He made me walk all over the place while he looked for the right bus stop. We almost missed the bus. We had to run to catch it while it was at a stop light. I'm not a fan of running in heels.
After we got on the bus and rode it for a while, he had us get off at the stop he thought was our school. He though our school looked like the Gongju Girls High School. They look nothing alike. The high school was out in the middle of nowhere. You can't even see our elementary school, it's so hidden behind other buildings.
After we got on another bus, Chaewan almost missed out stop. He didn't recognize the area, but I saw the entrance to the school as we passed by, so I told him we needed to get off at the next stop.
The school visit was pretty boring. I thought I might be observing a class. Turns out, I was just supposed to get used to my classroom and my scholars. For all I say bad things about Chaewan, I'm just joking. We get along great (I think. I hope he doesn't think I'm being serious when I rib on him). It was my first time meeting my other scholar, HyoJu.
After meeting with them, I knew I was going to have to change my school schedule. I was kind of hoping I would be able to actually attend a class, but that won't happen. I changed my schedule today.
Dinner...we ate at home. Ramen with rice and tuna. After dinner, Jina and I went shopping. We bought some power strips and a toilet paper roll holder. The whole time we were shopping, I was texting with an exchange student from Belize, Carlos, who is in a grad program here. He wanted to go out to dinner on Thursday, so we were making plans. That went well and we decided on it. I was a little nervous though because I didn't know him all that well (only met him for a little bit on Monday).

Today. What can I say about today?
I had a meeting with Rob at 10. I showed up at 10:10 (getting ready for the day took longer than I imagined). I told him about how I would have to change my schedule around and told him what my suggestion was for making up the classes. He liked my idea of learning Korean and leading some discussion groups for the conversation classes. He told me to take this weekend to think up a schedule for how much time I will spend in each conversation group, and how much time a week I will spend learning Korean. I'm still thinking about it. He asked me if I had anyone in mind to be my teacher, and I said I would prefer Meok.
However, after we discussed all this, Meok came to Robs office, as well as one of the guys from my group the day before, Teach. We went down to get coffee, and then went outside. At that point, Meok was talking about how busy her schedule was and how she wasn't sure how she was going to have time for everything. So I don't want to add one more thing to her already busy life. So maybe I will have to have someone else teach me. Chaewan keeps offering, but I'd prefer to keep lesson planning for the elementary seperate from Korean lessons for myself. I don't mind hanging out with Chaewan and being friends, because I think it will make us better team-teachers. But throwing in something else is too difficult.

After I went back to my room...I had nothing to do until dinner time at 5, when I was supposed to go out with Carlos and a friend of his. Carlos texted me around 2 and said I should invite some friends. So I texted everyone I could think of in the Gongju area asking if they wanted to have dinner. Almost no one was available! I hadn't texted Chaewan at first because I didn't want to go to dinner with just a bunch of guys. But I caved, and he said he would go with me and that he would invite some friends of his who were girls. Turns out, they were the two girls who were talking to me and helping me fill out my paperwork on Tuesday. I hadn't texted them because I didn't know them all that well and wasn't sure if they actually did want to be friends with me or if they were just being nice.
Nari and HaHyun, the two girls I met on Monday, also said they would come, so I had a nice buffer of friends. And of course, Meok came. I don't know what I would have done without her this week.
Carlos showed up with four friends, all guys except for one. They were all Spanish speakers, except for one of the guys, who was Korean. However, none of the Koreans could even tell he was Korean. They kept guessing all over the place. He later said that because he is from Jeju, his Korean sounds very different.

Dinner was nice. We ate at some Korean place, that had spicy food (of course). Everyone made fun of me because I am a baby (age-wise), and I can't handle spicy stuff. It was all in good fun though. The Korean guy that Carlos brought, Jun, seemed rather amazed that I was in Korea at such a young age.

After dinner...we were walking back and I saw Jina on the street. I asked if she had found a job (she didn't go with me because she wanted to find a job). She said she did, so she starts work next week at a Hagwon (acadamy), as an English instructor for elementary-aged students.

On the way back to our rooms, I came across HoHyung, a previous student at CC. I got her phone number but we didn't talk long, because she was in the middle of eating dinner with her friends. She just came out when she saw me walking by. It was kind of neat.
I enjoy seeing people I know. There are tons of people Jina introduces me to and says they studied at CC, but I don't know any of them.