Internet, bank accounts, and cell phones

So I guess getting internet setup, bank accounts, and cell phone accounts are all dependent on getting our alien registration cards, which coincidentally take about three weeks to process. (This is the government's fault, not our school's.) So for now we are either going to "PC" rooms - where dozens of Koreans play computer games, eat, smoke, and even sleep to pass the time - or we are leeching off of a local business' internet here in our apartment in order to get by. I guess only my computer can pick it up, and I have to be sitting on the bed in order to get the signal. But honestly, that is not a big deal at all. I am just glad to have internet! Knowing that we have this access to it, we will likely start posting our photos online somewhere so that you all can look at them. (More details on this as we figure it out.)

Earlier today, we had a lunch with all the other teaching newbies here at our hogwan. Our personnel manager gave us the run down on many of the specifics of our positions/contracts and gave us many helpful tips about beginning teaching. Also, we have a fellow teacher who helped us out with buying cards for the subway, buses, taxis, and other forms of transportation; these cards will save us some money as individual tickets are more expensive.

In pedagogical news, we just started teaching our first classes today all by ourselves. No outright disasters took place, for which we were grateful. But we both have many kinks to work out before we completely understand the curriculum we are supposed to teach. Luckily, we have an incredibly supportive staff; there are four other teachers that have been there for some time, and we have Korean partners (who teach our students during different periods) who give us many pointers as well. So we are very lucky to have a great network of other teachers to help us out, and luckily - for both them and us - prep time is almost non-existent as our lesson planning is done for us and is generally based on a canned curriculum. (I may express my thoughts on this via email.)

After work tonight, we met some of the other teachers who teach at schools just a few buildings away from us. Our hogwan has somewhere in the area of 160 teachers spread throughout Daegu, and our school is almost right next to two others. (Our schools are in large buildings that house other businesses, like gyms, billiards rooms, PC rooms, etc.) But tonight we were able to receive quite an earful about Korean culture from some of the teaching veterans, so it was nice to learn so many things all at once. It seems we feel more and more prepared as time goes by.

Ace