First day of teaching

today was my official first day of teaching. It actually wasn't so bad. I mean it was horribly uncomfortable at times and I drew total blanks on what to say for minutes on end but it could have been worse. Now I'm a talktative guy, the proper term might be 'never shuts up' but when these kids are only going to understand the most basic things I say it becomes tough to fill the dead air in class. Its really all about the games. The instructional books here aren't very good and the kids will quickly get bored of them, add to that the fact that we are only supposed to do two pages out of each book each class and you've got a recipie for alot of dead time. "Look at the ball. Spell the ball. Do you like balls?" and then you have 35 minutes left to kill. So most of the teachers here create some educational games for the kids, of course the educational value can be very limited. The kids all love 'Memory' but have long since added the names of every card to thier vocabulary so they really aren't getting any english out of it. Anyway I'll figure it all out in time. I know that I killed the Hangman game today, did it in a bunch of classes because I had absolutely nothing else prepared. Theres a bunch of websites with other games that I'm gonna check out soon. Shoudl be able to squeak through another day or so by the skin of my teeth until I get a chance to organize stuff, and tha twill also give me a good idea of what I need to do.
Right now I'm just concentrating on learning everyone's name. I teach a bunch of different classes at different age groups and they've all been given English names while at the school to get them used to how english names sound (koreans dont use the letter v for instance). But they are named by the teachers and sometimes they are given strange ones, either unintentionally by thier Korean English teachers or intentionally by thier foriegn English teachers. I have guys named Valentine, Joy and a pair of twins named Rod and Todd. Its actually funnier when the kids get to name themselves, which is what happens at the elementary school I teach at on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have a class full of girls named Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and every other disney character you could think of. Its very tough to chastise Cinderella without smirking.
I did my first workout at my new gym today. I suppose its passable, I'll be able to get in decent workouts as long as the weight area doesn't get crowded. Cardio is much more popular here and they have a tonne of machines for that. However they have only one squat rack, which is never a good sign, and yes some guy was doing curls in there. It felt good to work out a bit but I was too tired to do anything extravagant, I was wearing my dress shoes all day today and my dogs are beat. They're good shoes but just not meant for a whole day of walking and standing. I dressed up a bit today because I met my boss for the first time and wanted to make a good impression. And now I will just let my appearance slip until I show up to work in some dirty boxers. honestly though there is no dress code and I'll dress somewhat professionally for my own sake of mind. Paint stained t-shirts and flip flops seem to be staples for the other teachers.
I didn't get a chance to talk to the director about my apartment, but the other foreign teacher there Matt (patrick work fors the school but doesn't teach in the building) asked about it on my behalf and it really seems like nothing is going to happen. Which is fine, I like the area I'm in and the apartment can be fixed up to liveable standards. And honestly I hope to be going out and exploring the city every chance I get so maybe not having a kicking pad will make me less of a homebody. Matt is giving me a bunch of his old stuff since he's moving, a table, desk, nightstand, drying rack etc.. its super nice of him. Probably save me at least a hundred bucks if not more. Money I will likely put to buying a combo range/toaster oven I saw at E-mart yesterday.
Anyway you can probably tell by the lacky of jokey-jokey in this entry that I'm dog tired, so I should probably sign off and get my food ready for tomorrow. The school provides me with a lunch that isn't that bad, as long as I supplement some protein and eat some fruit instead of the rice (Atkins forever!)
You stay classy San Diego.