my town

So I found out my town yesterday and got here today about 4 hours ago. I am in Gimcheon, which is in Gyeongbuk province. It sounded great when they told me about it yesterday. It is the 3rd largest city in the province. I am teaching at a high school like I requested. Elementary school teachers have to follow pre-set lessons, so I didnt want to do that. I figured High School students would be able to better teach me about Korean culture. Also, they told me that the school was hard to get into and was known for its good academics. So I was pretty stoked yesterday.

Today I was told that it was an all boys school and even the vast majority of the school staff is men. Also, the town is really decrepid. All of the young people move away, so even though it is a big town it is not modern at all and there aren't many people my age. I met my co-teacher, the head of the English department, the Vice Principal, and some other people at the school. Then I had to pick out my apartment in 1 day. All of my choices were pretty abyssmal, so I just picked a studio apartment that was near the school.

Since I wont be getting my apartment until Monday, I am staying at my co-teacher's studio for the weekend. He is at his parent's place in Daegu, about an hour away, so I have the place to myself. I am trying to find one of my EPIK friends in the same area as me to do something this weekend so I'm not so bored, but none of them are being neglected by their co-teachers.

On a positive note, Gimcheon High School has never had a foreign teacher before so the students should be very interested, which will make my job easier. The semester starts on Monday the 2nd, but I wont actually be teaching at all for a week or two. I will only see the students once per week, so I wont even have to prepare a real lesson for the first couple of weeks, because I can just talk about myself and where I am from.