A day in my life

So a few people have asked me what an average day is like here in Korea and how it compares to Canada so I thought I would give a brief summary here. Bascially this is a breakdown of an average weekday for me (weekends are different because of course I don't have to go to work).



6:45 - I wake up and turn my hot water on. The heating system here is very different. I have a box on the wall where I control both the heat in the apartment and the heat of my water. I flip a switch to have just the water heater on or the room heater or both. You have to be very careful not to leave the water heater on when your not using it or you will pay dearly when you get your heating bill. You also turn your heater off when your not home. They use a heating system here called On-dol heating which means the heating comes up through the floor so the room heats up quickly. It's kind of great because your floors are always nice and warm and you can walk around barefoot.



Once the water is heated up I will have a quick shower. My shower is very different from a Canadian shower. Basically my bathroom is my shower - we call it a toilet shower. You have a showerhead attached to your sink and a drain in the floor and you shower standing in the middle of the bathroom. Your toilet paper and other items are in a special enclosed area so they don't get wet but everything else gets soaked. Usually I open the window so the floor dries pretty quickly.



7:45 I head to the bus stop to catch my bus to school. My bus ride usually takes 15 min depending on the traffic. The bus stops are great here because every bus stop has a screen and it will tell how many minutes until the next bus comes. I'm lucky because the bus I take is fairly empty when I get on so I can usually find a seat. The seats on the buses are wierd. Some buses have almost no seats in the front just open spaces for people to stand, but all of them have seats in the back that are up higher, you actually have to step up into them. I try to avoid those seats because you can't see out the windows and it's hard to know when your stop is. Bus drivers are crazy drivers too. If you have to stand then you hang on for dear life because they barely slow down when they take a corner and usually wait until the last minute to hit the breaks. Compared to Canada buses are very cheap. It costs $1000 won (approx $1.00) if you ar epaying cash. If you have a Hannkumi Card then it's only 950w. A Hannkumi card looks like a credit card and you deposit money onto it at the GS25 convenience stores. Every time you get on the bus you swipe the card and it deducts the cost from your balance. They also let you transfer to another bus or subway without repaying.



8:15-8:30 I arrive at school. I go to my desk, turn on my computer and review my lessons for the day. Sometimes I meet with my co teachers to go over last minute details for our classes that day. Usually this means that they try to talk to me and I don't understand a word they say, then I speak to them and they don't understand a word I say. We then go into class and try to teach together. Usually the first class of the day is difficult because we are both unsure of exactly what the other is going to do. However we teach the same lesson all day, so for example on wednesday I teach only grade 4 but to 5 different classes, so after class one the rest of the classes usually go fairly smooth.



9:00 - 2:00 I teach. I am pretty much in the classroom right through until 2. We have 40 min classes with 10 minutes inbetween and an hour at lunch. The classes are fun so the day goes by quickly. The school is very digital, so everything is computerized and high tech. It's pretty neat and I'm starting to do things on my computer that I didn't know were possible.



Lunch - this is an experience. My lunch is provided for me in the cafeteria. I believe the cost is deducted from my pay. I usually go to lunch with my co teachers, we butt in front of all our kids and then grab our spoons, chopsticks and metal tray which is divided into compartments. the lunch lady fills the various compartments with different foods. There is always some kind of soup (it usually has tofu in it), a generous portion of rice, some kimchi and some kind of vegetable. Occasionally we will get stuffmixed with the rice like seaweed or vegetables and sometimes we get fruit or meat. Last week we had chicken legs. I am slowly getting used to the lunches but they give such large portions that I can never finish. Also my co teachers eat very fast and I am not good enough with my chopsticks to keep up. I ususally end up leaving half my lunch behind. After we are doen eating we take our trays to thesink and then we are given a glass of lukewarm tea which comes out of a big water dispenser. I got a shock the first day when I took a big gulp thinking it was water. I believe the tea is meant to clean your mouth as rice sticks to everything.

The rest of the afternoon I spend at my desk preparing lessons and activites for the next day.

4:30 I head back to the bus stop to go home. I sometimes feel badly leaving at 4;30 as all the other teachers are still there working. I found out that some of them are there until 6:30 - 7:00. However my contract is only until 4:30.

My evening is usually spent watching tv. Occasionally I will meet with friends but that doesn't happen to often during the week. It takes me 45 min on bus to get to downtown so usuallyafter teaching all day I can't be bothered. I learned that I can get a few english channels on my tv and I can watch all my favourite shows on the internet.