Singing rooms with the principal and smart boards

We have completed our first week of teaching here in Ulsan and learned quite a deal about the Korean culture. Matt has bonded quite well with his principal and staff, he has joined the volleyball team, is helping coach basketball and is teaching an after school class at Sinjeong middle school. My students know Matt by name even at the next middle school over as "sexy man!". On his lunch break today, to help with the commute between schools Matt bought a 125cc scooter and has been braving the crazy Korean traffic (I thought Italy traffic was nuts until now!) We have been out nearly every night this last week with Matt's staff of teachers, eating, drinking soju and singing in the norrebang (singing rooms). It is a HUGE insult if you do not sing infront of everyone in the singing room so Matt and I were a hit with "Thriller" "Like a Virgin" and "Yesterday".
I am teaching ages 14 and 15, mostly boys, class size is around 40 or more, did I mention I have no idea what I am doing?! My voice is about gone from yelling at them to stop
beating eachother up in class, but I think very slowly I am gaining their respect through youtube videos and soccer references. The swine flu is on red alert here and so we get to school around 8:15am and stand in line to get our temperature taken, then there is about five minutes of good morning head bowing and us trying to speak in whatever polite Korean we have managed to pick up, and then the first gang of students come crashing into our classroom. It is really nice each having our own classrooms, they are brand new with top of the line technology equipped with a smart board and great sound system. Lunch time is unique not so much in the chaotic atmosphere present at most
middle schools but in the force feeding of Kimchi and mandatory teeth brushing afterward. We teach from 9am until 4:30 and then Matt and I have each taken on extra after school classes which are smaller and with younger students, so those are more extra curricular and really fun.
In our free time we have been hanging out with many of the other teachers we met at our EPIK orientation
"teacher's camp". We've been going to the Spa, a soccer game, the national archery championship and we even managed to fit six of us in our tiny apartment for a sleepover. That brings us to our first home together, or as we have been calling it: "The windowless box". It's a bit smaller than we had expected but we are making it home with photos of all our friends and family from home and even a few guilty pleasure American comforts that we didn't even partake in back at home (America's next top model and dunken doughnuts). Matt and I are doing pretty well, trying to help one another with different side effects of culture shock and homesickness, both debilitating and contagious at times.
The scooter was a great purchase to help us get out of our apartment and explore our new city. Ulsan is a fantastic place with all of the life of a big city and the ecclecticism of a university town. We are living right next to the University, a giant park the swimming pool and a great shopping center with bars, restaurants and markets. This weekend we will head with some of the other EPIK teachers on the midnight train to Seoul to see what the heart beat of South Korea looks like and to visit our teahcer camp leaders Nicole and Zeno.

(Korean soccer mascots)

We will surely have an update after our visit to Seoul and until then, missing you all and we will let you know when our SKYPE is working properly.
Lots of Love, Matt and Emily