I'm not Korean!

Rowena: After months of preparing documents, waiting on visas, and frantically filling out more documents...we're finally here...woohoo!!! So Chris has basically covered the details of our time here so far but my experiences have been slightly different. EVERYONE here thinks I'm a local. What makes me say this? Well firstly, on our flight over here, the flight attendants were all greeting me in Korean and Chris who was right behind me was greeted in English. Secondly, at the airport, the immigration officer attempted to have a conversation with me in Korean, and realised about 5 minutes in that I didn't understand a word he was saying. Thirdly, every shop assistant expects me to translate for my obviously foreign-looking boyfriend. 5 days in, and it still doesn't get old! What we're loving so far are all the freebies we're scoring for being foreigners...when we buy a couple of beers,we get... a bowl of ice-cream, 2 fried eggs on a sizzling platter, and other snacks! We've had 2 days teaching and I have to say that I'm EXHAUSTED!! I'm finding it hard coping with a 5 minute break in between classes. No time to scratch your own ass, let alone eat!!! Most of the kids are great...but you always come across a few that can give you the shits. I have to say though, these kids know so much more than what I expected. Not only can they read, write and speak English, they can actually comprehend what they are reading. Some of these kids are more advanced than some kids I've taught back home! We've noticed that the Korean teachers use ALOT of korean in class, some only use korean! Chris and I have no choice but to only use English, but hopefully that will encourage the kids to learn english faster. Hopefully we can eventually understand and speak enough Korean to get by...in the meantime...just smile and nod and continue to walk the streets of Chungju with my D-grade celebrity boyfriend!