Fish and Elephants

It's been another great week in Bucheon.  I am now two weeks into teaching, and have officially been in Korea for a month!  This past week was a great one with my students.  Besides teaching them English, I was able to get to know them all a lot better this week.  On Wednesday, I got to go out with a few of my adult classes.  One class took me out to coffee and lunch and I got to eat an amazing dinner with another class.  And then on Friday I had a third class take me out for lunch.  I'm being spoiled by them quite honestly.  They are all so eager to hear about why I decided to come to Korea and what I think of it so far.  And as soon as we were out of the classroom, they all wanted to know if I drink!  I told them I don't, at least until they aren't my students anymore, and then things could possibly change haha.  I've gotten lots of great tips from the students, and I even signed up to start learning Korean on Friday.

I've also had a very fun weekend.  On Saturday a group of teachers from other SDALI (the school I work for) locations all got together to take some students on a field trip in Seoul.  We went to the COEX Aquarium.  COEX is a crazy-big mall, large enough that it has an enormous aquarium inside of it.  It was great to see some of the teachers I went through training with again, as well as meet some teachers that have been here longer.

  

Earlier today I ventured over to Incheon to catch a Korean Basketball League (KBL) game.  It was a hotly contested game between the Incheon ET Land Elephants and the Anyang KGC.  This was my first professional game of any kind in Korea, and I was not disappointed.  Anyang was leading pretty much the entire game, up by 10 even in the fourth quarter.  But Incheon kept the home fans happy with a come-from-behind win, 72-69.  It was quite the experience for me going out on my own with nobody who could help me with Korean.  Even just getting a ticket proved to be a little tricky.  But for just under $20, I was able to land myself a 2nd row ticket, hamburger and a beer!  The crowd was absolutely nuts compared to an NBA crowd.  They were all chanting and clapping the entire game.  And a simple layup was enough to get people to stand and cheer.  It was a great experience and makes me even more excited for the coming baseball season.  Did I mention I was the only white guy in the 7,500 seat arena?