Ok this is my 1st Blog entry so bear with me if its a little rough. I arrived in South Korea close to the end of September and have been teaching English to Middle School children at Naedong Middle School. Since I have been here everyone I work with has been great to deal with. As for the kids all of them are great outside of class and then when I get into class they can be a little disruptive. I would say about 25% of them really want to learn English, 50% are so-so, and another 25% just don't care. The 1st grade is like the US 6-7th grade,2nd grade 7-8th grade, and 3rd grade is like our version of freshman.
The city I live is called Bucheon and its really nice. There are loads of the tall apartment buildings that you see when you think about Asia. There is a pretty nice park with alot of walking paths, fountains, ampitheater, statues, basketball courts, and etc. This park is called Central Park and has to be one of the nicer city parks I have ever been to. Its really nice just to walk around on a fall day. Across from Central Park is the city hall. At the city hall they have basketball courts and sometimes they have artwork on display or they might have a farmers market going on the weekend. Another interesting fact about my city is that its the center of animation for all of South Korea. It has the nickname city of cartoons. Here are some pictures of my city,Bucheon.
So on Sunday a group of us went to Seoul and did a number of different stops. First, we went to Yongsan and looked around all the electronic shops that they have there. I have never seen so many cameras, computers and other electronic goods. They are not necessarily cheaper than department stores but you can haggle with some of them as long as you have cash. I think I might buy a PS3 there sometime soon since winter is on its way. Our next stop was Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is in Namsan in Seoul and sits atop a small mountain. The view was awesome and you could see all over Seoul. It was also a great day thanks to the weather and seeing all the leaves on the trees changing colors. Our next stop was Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun is a place with tons of malls and stalls that sell about everything. You can haggle with retailers here as well. I found a couple shirts there which was surprising since I have a hard time finding things in my size.
