Kimchi and esKapades

Alright. I know escapades is spelled with a "C" instead of a K, but somethings just deserve a change. I was waking up throughout the night: once at 3am and once at 5am. I just decided that I wouldnt go back to sleep at that point. My apartment needed to be cleaned badly so maybe the Lord wanted me to do that in addition to talking to him. I opened up my Bible to Isaiah 41 and started reading form there. My spiritual side needed some nourishing!Ive discovered that it is easier for me to get into a routine of showering and praying [linking a physical cleansing and a spiritual cleansing--thanks Shiflet].

In the states I thought I would be able to catch a cab to work every day for about 2 bucks- to my surprise, cabs do not really hang around my part of the city. Technically, I still live in the farmlands of my city. About 2 years ago, much of the city was still farmlands...it had not been until recently that it is developing into an urban community. Needless to say, I have started to become a pro at these 30 minute walks to work.

Once inside the school, I was introduced to all of the other teachers there. I work with 3 friends from Washington State [Bri, KT, and T], Andy, The Canadian Duo [Aim, and Sarah, and Rhonda. Jade, my school director surprised me with the information that I would be teaching classes on the first day. They would not be able to let me strictly observe. Wow.
Do they realize they are asking a guy who has no real exposure to kids- to teach??

The school I teach for is governed by the LCI [Language Clubs International]. It is a private English school where parents pay upwards $800 per month to send their kids there. We are also contracted to teach at the Korean Kindergarten School across the street. The LCI director's mom is the overseer for the Kindergarten. In their kindergarten alone, there are 600 kids. Who would have thought that would even be possible?

I teach 2 English classes [40 minutes each] in the Kindergarten across the street. Each class has 12 students. The first class are 7-year olds and the second class are 6-year olds. They were fairly well disciplined for my first day...maybe they were in shock that I was their new teacher. A male teacher. I have a helper teacher who stays in my class and makes sure the kids are well behaved and she speaks to them in Korean if they are not quite sure what I am trying to communicate to them. My topic for the month is feelings and emotions. We will hopefully be able to identify and spell the numerous emotions.

In LCI, I teach a group of eleven 8-year olds. They are more knowledgable than the kids in the kindergarten. We can have basic conversations and they exhibit understanding. We are going through a basic book called "I Can Swim" and they work on writing sentences and have spelling words each week. I will also teach them science. Over at LCI, I have a aprtner teacher who is paid by LCI. She is a Korean national who speaks Englsih and Korean fluently. She is responsible for teaching them phonics and grammar to the English language.

My day runs from about 7-8 everyday. Wow. Hopefully I will have the stamina to last through this schedule. I mean, Im used to running all the time anyway!
I pray the kids like me and are actually as well behaved as they are showing me today.