Better Late Than Never

It's hard to believe I've been in Korea for more than a month now. There has definitely been a whirlwind of activity and I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I know this might sound cliche, but it feels like just yesterday I was sitting at the Lansing airport listening to Wicked worried about missing my connecting flights due to bad weather in the midwest. Luckily getting to Korea went smoothly and there were even personal TV's on my thirteen hour flight. Let's be honest that was all I was worried about.

Thankfully I had a heads up as to what training week would be like so I was expecting the worst. I was placed at CDI April Institute which is a hagwon. Telling people that I work at a hagwon sounds like I work at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, but really it's Korean for private institute. The students at April are the youngest at Chungdahm so I had it a little easier than others in my training group. While my lessons were on animal communication (including dolphins!) and Athena, everyone else was prepping about more controversial topics that I would've had to look up on Wikipedia to know more about. The best things about training were staying at the Coatel, role play cards in class, discovering Paris Baguette, and the use of lots of sticky notes and highlighters (clearly color coordinated). Besides cramming my brain with teaching methods and confusing level names and schedules, the number one worst thing about training was having to wear a swine flu mask. Even though I had a pink Hello Kitty mask, I felt like I was suffocating the entire time (no exaggeration). Obviously, I survived the swine flu mask and training.

There were thirteen people in my training group from all of the world including: Canada, New Zealand, California, Texas, New York, and three others from Michigan. I don't know if it's my ability to relate everything to a reality TV show, but during training week I literally felt like I was on one. This next year is all about meeting new people, seeing new places and experiencing life halfway around the world.

Welcome to The Real World: Korea!