The Children Have Arrived!

A quick catch up: I didn't post during orientation because it was basically the same thing every day. It was ice breakers and team building during the day, hang out and meet people at night. It was good fun, but not all that informative. The last few days of orientation involved getting down to business and getting real details about daily life. This culminated in the staff party the night before the kids arrived. All English staff, Korean staff, teachers, and families were invited to a party in the gym with tons of food, beer, and karaoke. It was a good time, and the perfect end to the orientation. You could tell there was a cohesive group of people in the gym, and it felt good.

Yesterday, we decorated our floor all morning, and students began arriving at 1:30PM. I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be, mostly for meeting the parents! Everyone arrived by 3:30 or so, and by 4, parents had left, and it was time to get down to business. I can already tell that learning names will be a bit difficult! We have 19 boys between 6th and 8th grade, and room for 3 more. There are three dorm staff members on the floor; there's me (overseas assistant), Jennifer (Korean assistant), and Bryan (the house specialist). So far I've bonded well with both of them, and it's been relatively smooth sailing besides some minor communication with students. It'll be a bit of a learning process, as all three of us are new.

I can already tell who my troublemakers are. Some of the former middle school specialists warned me about who they would be, but I didn't even need to know names. It's typical middle school boy stuff: being rough, swearing, being disrespectful when someone else is talking, some bullying. I think we made it pretty clear that we run a tight ship though. The boys loved that I worked for the Cubs, and during some free time, I even jammed on guitar with one of my students. A small faction of the boys has taken to calling me Mr. Hulk after we did some dodgeball and basketball last night. I think that's a good thing? It's weird enough to hear Mr. Bedell and Mr. Ryan. It makes me feel old.

The wake up calls are the hardest part. We assign student leaders each week to wake up early and rouse their peers. Today, the house leaders were up at 6 (they needed to be up at 7), and were waking people up by 6:30. I attribute it to being excited for the school day. While they're in classes, I'm free to do as I please. At 3, we have a staff meeting, and at 4, kids are out of school. I have Monday and Tuesday off, so those days will be best for me for catching up.

The homesickness hadn't really set in until I saw the kids saying goodbye to their parents yesterday. I really do miss all of my friends at home. I've done a good job of keeping in touch with many already, but I'm starting to realize how far away I am! However, I have this feeling that already this experience is helping me grow. It's reassuring to know I'm in the right place.

It's pouring today, so I went on a sopping wet bike ride, which was fun. My coworker Matt was nice enough to give me his old bike. It needs some work, but Bryan enjoys working on bikes and has offered to help! As soon as my visa goes through, I'm going to look into a car or scooter so that I can really start exploring. There's great rock climbing, hiking, and surfing here on the island. So I think I will have to start getting into all of those!

Anyway, not much else to report for now. Miss you all! Email me at ryanbedell3@gmail.com or rbedell@kis.ac, and we can set up some Skype! Have a good rest of your week, folks.

-Ryan

My First Few Days on Jeju Island

Hello all!

Sorry it took me so long to write a proper post. As you can imagine, the process of settling in has taken a few days. However, I've finally got my room all unpacked and organized, and orientation is in full swing. I'm going to try to recount all the way from leaving Saint Louis, moreso for myself because I haven't had time to journal, so feel free to skip a few paragraphs if you want info about where I'm at right now!

Friday night of last week, my family came over for dinner, and reality began to set in. I ended the night with my closest friends coming over, and then I began preparing myself to wake up early and leave. I was up at 4:30AM scrambling to get myself together, and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Chicago. When I arrived in Chicago, I was told my flight from Seoul to Jeju had been cancelled due to a typhoon on the island, so initially, some panic set in. I was in Chicago for three hours, and then hopped on the plane towards Seoul.

I slept for the first 5 hours of the 14 hour flight, then watched a few movies and stayed awake to try to beat the jet lag. When I arrived in Seoul, my first order of business was to get my bags and then find an Asiana Airlines desk to try to get on standby. As I wandered aimlessly through the airport, I thought I had all the time in the world. I went to an information desk after an hour or so, and the woman pointed me in the right direction. As I was walking away, I overheard the man behind me ask where to go for a desk for Asiana, as he was trying to get to Jeju. He was a middle-aged American man named Tim, and I got to talking with him. At first, we couldn't find the desk that the woman pointed us to, but almost out of nowhere, Asiana came up on one of the screens, and immediately a large hoard of people flocked to the desk. After some time in line, we finally got to the front, and were informed that our flight was in fact still going to Jeju that night, and it left in 30 minutes. I checked my bags and sprinted to the gate with some time to spare. I was rewarded with a first class seat on the plane, and I sat next to a nice Korean high school student named Jeff who told me some horror stories about his own experience in an American boarding school. An interesting start.

When I landed in Jeju, I found my bags (They made it. A miracle) and proceeded out of the terminal where the KIS staff was waiting for me. Several other people from my staff had been on my flight, so we met and all piled onto the school's bus to go back. By the time I got to the school, it was 11PM local time, and I was beat. I went back, set my stuff on the ground, and crawled straight into bed.

The next morning was the first leg of orientation, which basically involved a brief meeting then going to the supermarket, E-Mart. Talk about a great introduction to Korean culture. It was basically a gigantic supermarket crossed with a Best Buy, a Lowe's, and an IKEA. There was K-pop blasting the entire time inside. It was wonderful. I bought some of my necessities and then we went back to the school, where I got set on organizing my room and unpacking my bags. We went to dinner that night at a small Italian place up the road where I had a delicious pizza.

Today, we did some team building activities and then had a tour of the school. The campus is massive and has separate buildings for the elementary school, middle school, and high school. It has several pools, gyms, and auditoriums. It has a putting green on the roof of the high school with an indoor driving range and virtual golf room. There's several weight rooms and teacher's lounges in each building. Needless to say, the place is pretty swanky! We went to dinner at an organic burger restaurant, and then we had the rest of the night off. One of my best friends from home, Luke, randomly had a friend who is living on the island for the month, so I just got back from hanging out with her for a bit! It was crazy to see a semi-familiar face.

Tomorrow, we have orientation all day, and then, a ton of the staff and teachers are going to the local professional soccer team's game, so I am really looking forward to that. My current observations so far amount to this: it is the most humid place on Earth. St. Louis is a humidity infant compared to this place. Also, the free cafeteria food is sub-par, but it's free. I can deal with it. I'm going to love it here. The staff are all really cool, and the island seems awesome. The one thing that's interesting is that there's a ton of bugs. I am going to need to adapt to massive spiders, beatles, and various other forms of insect vermin. It will take time.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Sorry for the novel. From here on out, will probably post at milestones, such as the students arriving, etc. Below are some pictures for your enjoyment. Hit me up via email or Facebook for Skype dates! Au revoir, people, and have a good week.

-Ryan

I'm Here!

Just a brief heads up that I'm at the school and in my room! My room is great, and I will post pictures when I can. I slept about 5 hours of the 14 hour flight, so I'm starting to feel tired. Waking up tomorrow to go to the hospital at 6:30AM, and it's midnight now. I met some of the other dorm staff, and they all seemed very nice. The business staff from the school were very welcoming and gave me a welcome package with a mug, my ID badge (the worst picture of me ever), and some coffee and water. Off to a great start here in Jeju! If I have time tomorrow, will go into more detail.

From the other side of the world,
Ryan