so much to write, so little time!

Hello world! I promise that I am alive and well--I have simply been detained by an inordinate amount of paperwork issued by the Lesson Plan Monster. I am conquering these tasks, though, so hopefully life will begin to settle down some.

First off, I would like to announce that I am officially a teacher!! I have completed my first week of being in charge of my own classroom (from the writing to the execution of lesson plans) and while there have been several ups and downs, I have great students and awesome co-teachers.

After a couple of days of settling in to my new apartment, host family, and hometown I went with my host mom and Ho Jin to visit Galsan Elementary School. To get to school every day, I walk about fifteen minutes to the bus stop and then take a twenty minute ride to Galsan. From there, it is a two minute walk to the school. The commute is a little longer than I would have wanted, but I do not mind the extra time to read my Kindle. After arriving at school that first day, I immediately set to work cleaning my classroom. It had been used over the summer to teach math because there was construction in the other rooms and took the full day to straighten up. My first official day at school was on Wednesday, August 25th. While I did not teach, I got to give a small speech the students and meet the rest of the staff. The kids are adorable and I love saying "hi" to them in the halls.

My first day of actual teaching was on Thursday. I met the first and second grade classes. In Korea, English training is not officially required to start until third grade. But because Galsan is so small, I am able to teach all seven grades (K-6). There is no textbook for K-2, so I am currently working on phonics with them as well as introducing other simple topics. I am slightly concerned regarding coming up with enough topics to fill the year.

During the course of the week, I teach twenty different classes, each requiring its own lesson plan. This has been rather overwhelming, especially this first week, and yesterday I was not sure if I would be able to handle the workload. I want to teach high quality lessons, but if I were to devote two hours to the planning of each lesson, I would have at a minimum a sixty-hour work week. In addition, I am finding it difficult to effectively control a class when I cannot adequately express myself in Korean. Today, after a noisy group of first graders, I had a little heart-to-heart with God regarding my stress level and feelings of being overwhelmed. I was reminded of something:

This is my first time teaching on a full-time basis. I do not yet have the experience to automatically know what to do in each situation (if that ever comes). There will be mistakes and that is okay. The important thing is not to do this perfectly and spend every waking moment planning for the classroom. That is called burnout-in-a-month. The important thing is to take the time to figure out what works with this classroom, love my students, plan and prepare as much as is reasonable, and remember when a lesson does not go as well as anticipated that tomorrow is a new day.

After that, I took a new approach to writing lessons (writing all the lessons for a unit in one go) and was able to crank out eleven lesson plans in one afternoon. (Do I get a Klondike bar for that?) I feel as though the situation is more in control and that I will eventually find some sanity in my teaching.

Beyond teaching, here is some other news of what I have been up to:

I have sampled three of the coffeeshops in town and plan to become the local coffee connoisseur. I like two of them, both in coffee flavour and atmosphere.

I have not had a face-to-face conversation with a native English speaker in two weeks.

I just experienced my first typhoon (the worst typhoon in Korea in a decade) and as a result spent this morning without any electricity in my classroom.

I have been playing my host sister Jisu's flute and loving every minute of it.

Funny Teaching Moment #1: My awesome taekwondo skills came in handy when I was hanging out with some of my first and second graders. They were practicing kicks and so I decided to join them. I amazed them with my high kick. We then moved from martial arts to arm wrestling where I defeated half a dozen seven-year olds.

I went to Seoul with my host family for my first Korean wedding. It was fascinating to compare and contrast the differences of weddings in Korea v America.

There is a Baskin Robbins and a Dunkin Donuts in Hongseong, but I have only sampled the former.

I like octopus.

Well, that is all for the present. I will work harder at updating my blog more frequently!!

forty-eight hours later

I am pleased to announce that I have now lived in my homestay for two days. It has been a great time so far. On Friday, I hung out at the apartment with my host-sister, Ho Jin. We watched TV, relaxed, and I spent some much-needed time lesson planning and getting ready to teach in a couple of days. When my host parents came home from work, the house got a little crazy. A friend of my host-mom came over and we had fruit and this rice dessert. I had another opportunity to smile and nod and catch one word out of twenty. I think I am picking up more of the language. Then, a swarm of people came to figure out the internet at the flat. I got my computer hooked up to the network (YAY!!!) as well as my ipod touch. In addition to my computer, my host family moved their computers around and installed an internet phone. I have yet to figure all of that out, but I did watch BBC in English today.

This morning, I woke up and had breakfast with my host mom and Ho Jin. Then Ho Jin left to go to a music competition. She plays the violin. My host mom, her friend (that I had met yesterday) and I attended the competition and went out to lunch afterward. I got several stares for my white skin by random people. My host mom was very happy to explain that I was staying with her for the year while I taught English. Later this evening, after my host father got home, we drove to where I will catch the bus to school and the drove out to Galsan Elementary School. There was construction going on, but is was great to see the campus and imagine teaching there. We then drove to the middle school where my host father works. He likes to help with the gardening at the school as well as teaching. Then we drove about half an hour to Hemi Castle, a historical landmark. When we got to the castle, I handed my camera to my host father, to take a picture. I took over taking pictures for the whole visit, which I thought was really funny. It was interesting to look at the buildings, but it was hard to casually read at various locations that this was where they tortured Catholics in the late 1800s. At Hemi Castle, we met up with the English teacher from my host father's school. He wandered around the castle and then went out to dinner with us. We had a meal where we fried pork (it looked like thick pieces of bacon) and then put the meat, this really yummy red sauce, and vegetables in a piece of lettuce ate it in one bite. It is now another one of my favourite meals. On the way home from dinner, we went to the Yellow Sea coast-about half an hour from my apartment. The water was beautiful at night.

It was wonderful to spend time with my host family, and to see them out of the apartment. I especially liked talking with Ho Jin and having her more comfortable with translating, when necessary. This should be a great year.

Here I am with my host family!

This is Ho Jin and the English teacher I met.

I am attempting a traditional Korean game, complete 

with purse and high heels.

 Ho Jin and me!!

홍성 and my homestay!

Today has been a particularly crazy day! I woke up bright and early for my 7.45am dorm room check out. After that was accomplished by my roommate and I, I headed downstairs to my final breakfast of rice and these sausage-ish things at Jungwon's Grand Cafeteria. Then began the slow process of departure day. For the first hour, we hung out in the Fishbowl (a meeting room with lots of windows) snapping photos and exchanging goodbyes. We then had a series of info meetings, addresses by the president of the university and the director of Fulbright, and random breaks ending with the departure ceremony. All 107 ETAs lined up in the Auditorium and waited for our name to be called. I was probably in the last third of the group. When my name and school were announced, I stepped forward, located my school principle who was waving at me, accepted the flowers offered by a sixth grade teacher from Galsan Elementary School, bowed, and then stepped back into line. Fortunately, I did not trip, miss my name, or blurt out anything ridiculous. Next came the most awkward part of the day. I had lunch with my principal and fellow teacher, neither of whom knew very much English. We slowly exchanged a few pleasantries and mostly nodded at each other. I then had one final meeting and round of goodbyes before grabbing my luggage and heading out with my new boss.

The ride to Hongseong was nice. We talked a little and stopped at a rest stop for ice cream halfway to town. My family pictures on my ipod touch were great to communicate through a language barrier. I loved the mountains and the view as we drove. We arrived at my new home around dinner time and were greeted by my host dad. He and another teacher helped me move my belongings up to my new room. In the apartment, I met two of my host sisters: 지수 (Jisoo) who is 18 and spent a year in Nebraska for an exchange program and 호진 (Ho Jin) who is 13 and speaks English very well. I took a picture of the three of us, but unfortunately I had forgotten to put my SD card back into my camera after uploading the last batch of pictures. More pictures later. We ate dinner and the principal was surprised that I like kimchee (I am really starting to love this spicy dish). Conversation was a lot easier with the two girls to help translate. I was able to use a few of the Korean phrases that I have learned and occasionally pick up on the gist of the conversation.

After the principal and teachers left, I took some time to establish my new room. I have a bed, wardrobe, desk, computer, and small porch-ish area that is kind of like a mudroom on the eleventh floor. All of my belongings fit comfortably, so that is a relief :). I really like my host parents and hope that I get to know them better in the next couple of months.

On the whole, it was a great, if slightly emotionally taxing day. It was difficult to say goodbye, especially over a stretched out period of time (I have the rip the bandaid off all at once philosophy). It is crazy that there will be no more nights in the dorms at Jungwon, or group meetings with the Orientation Coordinators. Pretty soon, I will have my teaching schedule and be fully into the swing of this year. I can't wait!

new adventures

Tomorrow, once again everything changes. I will be leaving my orientation site and heading off to my placement for the year. There are so many emotions coursing through my mind. I am excited to start teaching, but sad to leave the friends I have made. I cannot wait for more independence and freedom, but also a little nervous as to how that will look. For the most part, I have been avoiding processing my emotions, saving that for when I get to my new home. I think it is the homestay that is most pressing on my mind. I found out that I will live twenty minutes from my school by car and will have three younger sisters (why does that sound familiar?). Both of my host parents work at school, but not the school at which I will be teaching. I keep pondering what the people will be like and if I will quickly connect to them. Orientation ended so quickly. One minute I was stressing out over the next Korean exam and now the whole thing is over. Within a week, I am going to be a teacher.

The Bible Study I am a part of had a final prayer service before we all head out. It was a good time to turn the control back over to God and remember that the next days are in his hands.

Well, I had better get some sleep for the big day...