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My third month in Korea starts tomorrow. That means I'm only a month away from having been out of California the longest (and also having been out of the country the longest... I already passed my previous record for being off North American a while back, which was 7 weeks.) As you may know, there was no training period when I got here. I was basically told "Watch the other teacher" and then given classes. This meant I essentially had to figure out what to do on my own. My first month was a bit strained because I had to make sure I had enough money left in my American bank account to possibly pay 2 months worth of  loans, and I had a limited amount of money locally. When 50,000 won (about 42 dollars) disappeared from my wallet, never to be seen again, that scared me a bit too. It took until just short of the end of my first month there before I was taken to Immigration to get my alien residency card. The alien card was needed for things like bank accounts and other transactions like this. When I registered for my ARC,  immigration took my passport. I was told I'd have it back in 2 weeks, but I had to have a bank account for my paycheck. This meant that one of the teachers would have to sign up for a bank account for me temporarily. Over the course of the next month, I began to learn about the *joys* of banking in Korea. When I got my own account, I found out my branch couldn't do what they call "overseas remittance." I had to go to a main branch to do that. I tried to collect my bank information to do the wire, but I had to go with a couple of the Korean teachers to another bank. The whole process took a long time, and I was told I'd hear back in 3 days if there was a problem. About a week passed, my money was still not in my account back home, and I talked to the person who took me, and she said that the money was at Chase, but they didn't know what to do with it (or something.) So I had to wait for the money to come back. I was done with doing it that way. It took too long to even find out if it would work, and I didn't have the time or money to waste, because I had loans to pay. I was going to try Paypal. Even though the koreans were against the idea, for often ridiculous reasons, I asked if one of them could sign up for a Paypal account and I'd pay them the money, then they'd send the money to my American paypal account. I got a lot of resistance on that idea, so I finally just said I'd wait for my alien card to come in so I could get a bank account under my own name and get Paypal that way. When my alien card finally came in, I got ready to set up my account here. I got all of my information in, including my government number, and... I didn't get through. It said my number was invalid. I tried it many times, but it wouldn't take it. I got a check card from the bank, but it was BC card... Not Visa or Mastercard, which were the only cards that paypal would accept. I had a Korean go to the bank with me again, and got a new check card, after asking for Mastercard... The card I got was MAESTRO. Maestro is the same company as Mastercard, but it is NOT a Mastercard. You can't put in a Masestro number and have it register as a Mastercard. It was JUST as worthless as the previous card. I finally got Taylor (male korean teacher my age) to agree to sign up for Paypal, and he did. Everything went through fine, but there was one problem... Paypal can deposit to Korean Bank accounts. They can't withdraw from them. The only direct withdrawl from Korean bank accounts is check cards. The check card that Taylor has is also Maestro. I got online banking from my bank, and discovered I needed 3 separate bank accounts in order to do "Overseas remittance" online. I needed 2 korean accounts, and a foreign currency account... Which means I have to make dollars before I can send them... *sigh* I finally just decided to go Western Union... Only thing is, again, I can't send Western Union online. I have to go into downtown Anseong, which will very likely make me late for work. The person doing Western Union at my bank in downtown Anseong doesn't speak English. She also takes personal calls and sits there for 15 minutes while I'm waiting to send.  I only know they're personal because I asked the Korean teacher that went with me the first time. So... a lot about money. Time for something else. Classes My schedule went like this for most of the first 2 months: Monday 10 am, 7 year old class half an hour. 11 am 5 year old class half an hour. 3 pm Beginner class, mixed ages and skill levels 45 minutes 5 pm Elementary level, maybe 4th or 5th grade 45 min Tuesday 10 am 7 year olds 1/2 hour (every day, actually) 10:30 4 year olds 1/2 hour t+th 11:30 6 year olds 1/2 hour t+th 3 pm beginner class, young 45 min 4 pm beginner class, mixed 45 minutes 6 pm middle schoolers, lower intermediate 45 min Wed (same morning as Mon) 2 pm beginner, young 45 min 5 pm elementary, 4th or 5th grade 45 min Thurs (same morning as Tues) 3 pm Elementary, young 45 min 5 pm Elementary, 4th and 5th grade Friday (same morning as Mon, Wed) 2 pm beginner, young 4 pm beginner, 3rd or 4th grade 6 Lower intermediate, Middle school now all my 45 minute classes are 50 minutes, and my 7 year old classes are at 1pm. The 4 year old class is just saying "Good job" and pointing out what they're coloring and saying the things and colors and numbers in English. Nothing to that, and I don't really get  mutiny in those classes. THe 5 year old class is fun, but I've got a few kids that alternate causing lots of trouble. I have one very clingy little girl who loves to be lifted over my head, and when she does, there will usually be a few others that follow after her. The 6 Year old class is the most trouble out of the early classes. That's where Peter is, for one. He's got some sort of mental problem, and his parents still send him to a private school made to teach them something extra on top of his normal school. I don't think Korean culture really understands mental handicaps. They're expected to perform just like everyone else. When I had two 7 year old classes that alternated, I had the most trouble at first with the small one. A little girl with glasses seemed to be in control, and would never work and distracted the other kids. That came to an end when I confiscated her pencil box These kids' pencil boxes are practically their souls, the way they are about them... None of them are the same, they're all decorated, they all have something unique about it (a couple have games, one has a compass, one has a little marble game, among many others) Oh, and ALL the kids freaked out when I confiscated her pencil box. One of them was freaking out because their pencil or something was in the box.  I told her I'd give it back when she finished her work, and she understood and got to work. The other class, however, had a boy named Fred that challenged me on everything. He would try to stare me down and he made it perfectly clear he wasn't doing anything he didn't want to do. Then there was Willy. He was the weak kid, who obviously looked up to Fred. He had a hard time with writing and paying attention, but would often get caught up in Fred's stuff. I've had to take both of them out of the class a few times, and Willy was afraid of me.  Then there's Emma. I think she's related to the director, because she's around a lot... Possibly his great neice or granddaughter. She... Well, she gave me some problems too. I don't have the larger 7 year old class anymore. I only have the smaller one, now. Every day. More later.