A Day in the Life - Bekah's POV

Good evening friends! I hope everyone had a delightful Valentine's Day.

It's been a little while since our last post, so I thought I would give you guys a much-needed update.

Everything is fine-- we're getting adjusted, and we already have lots of stories to tell!

The view at our bus stop on the way to school.  If you are looking for a business in SK, look up.

Today I'm going to give you guys a little look into what our average day is like.  The school day is different for Ben and me, but this can give you an idea of what we are up to during the week!

Tuesdays and Thursdays are long days for me, but today, Wednesday, wasn't so bad.

Here's what my Wednesday looked like today!

7:00am - Wake up and eat a bowl of a weird chocolate rice chex cereal.

8:50am - Leave the apartment to go catch the bus outside the subway station.

9:15am - Arrive at the school.  It isn't too far from us, and it's easy to get to.  We take the "810" or the "50" bus to a stop about half a mile up the road from the school, and we walk the rest of the way.  Our school is on the 7th floor of an 8-floor building.

9:40-9:50am - Stretching/warm-ups for the kids.  There are 6 "foreign" (American/Canadian) teachers at the school, and we rotate this "duty" all week.  Basically, it's all about wrangling about 30 kids and getting them to stretch before class.

9:50-10:30am - First Period.  My homeroom class is "St. Louis" class, which has 9 six-year-olds.  3 boys, 6 girls.  For me, first period is always focused on vocabulary and reading comprehension.  On a side note:  An interesting thing that you may not realize is that in Korea, age is counted from conception.  So if you ask the kids how old they are, you have to take into account that they are usually a year younger than they say they are.  My kids say they are 7, but actually, they are 6.  

10:30-10:45am - Snack time!  We have to line the kids up to go wash their hands.  Snacks range from fruit to rice pasta to tiny bowls of cereal.  This is a small break for us foreign teachers!

10:45-11:25am - Second Period.  This ranges from drama class (the kids have a performance next week of two plays per class!  EEK.  Talk about pressure to perform) to an Accelerated Reader program to P.E.  They have so many different classes in the school, and they rotate them all week.

11:30-12:10pm - Third Period.  Again, these classes vary.  By this time we are definitely ready to have a break!

12:10-1:00pm - Lunch!  We have to line up the kids again to wash their hands, and then we have to serve them.  They eat lunch in their classrooms-- they have their own personal lunch trays that they bring everyday.  Once we serve them, we can go eat in the teachers' room.  Lunch usually consists of rice, soup, some kind of meat, kimchi, and another vegetable.  The kimchi actually isn't so bad, once you get used to the taste (and the slimy cabbage texture).  We eat with spoons and chopsticks!

1:05-1:45pm - Fourth Period.  At this point in the afternoon, we switch to a different class.  My afternoon class is "San Francisco" class, and we usually focus on math, science, and vocabulary.

1:50-2:30pm - Fifth Period.  Same goes.  My afternoon class isn't as big as my morning class (6 students instead of 9), but they can still be a handful.

2:30pm - The Kindergartners go home!  We have a little break to prepare for our elementary classes at this point.

2:50-3:30pm - I had a break today, but Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't get a break at all.  This is the first period for the afternoon elementary classes.

3:35-4:15pm - MAP class (the Accelerated Reader class).  Ben and I teach this one together every Wednesday, which basically means that I get to be the nice one, and he gets to be the one that scares all the boys into submission.  Basically, they read books on their allotted reading level, we ask them basic comprehension questions, and then they take the AR tests on the computer.  Just like junior high, guys...

4:20-5:00pm - Seattle class.  In this elementary class, we study reading comprehension and vocabulary using a textbook as well as novels.  I have two students in this class, and today we almost finished up Alice's Wonderland.

5:05-5:45pm - Washington DC class.  This is one of my favorite classes because the three students are very advanced.  They speak English fluently, and we study science (using "Time for Kids" magazines) and novels.  They are almost finished with the book, Chemical Secret.  Our next book will be A Christmas Carol.  Fun fun.

5:45-6:30pm - Teacher prep time.  We have to stay until 6:30pm everyday except for Friday.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, classes run until 6:30, but on Mondays and Wednesdays, we have "Teacher prep time," which allows us to review material for the following day's lessons, grade homework, and work on evaluations, creating tests, and making props for our upcoming play performances.

6:30pm - We run to catch the bus home!  We take the same bus home, and we are usually too exhausted by the time we get home to go out much.

In the evenings, we usually watch some Burn Notice, eat some food (tonight we got take-out... we were tired), and relax.  Our apartment is pretty cozy, and we'll be glad to spruce it up whenever we get our first paycheck!

I hope you enjoyed my "tour" of the day.  Like I said, each day is different for us.  Keep your eyes peeled for a post from Ben soon!

If you have any questions or requests on blog topics, please comment below!  We are happy to accommodate!