Three days sitting at my desk doing just about nothing has prompted me to write a quick little post.
It's been awhile since I've had to work on Saturday but it was easy enough to fall back into the pattern of wearily dragging myself out of bed and going about my day with a grim sense of duty. That disappeared pretty quickly when the first 'job' of the day was watching ADORABLE elementary school kids sing and dance on stage. After a couple of hours of very tough decision making (it's really hard to judge a competition when they're all just so gosh darn cute) I headed to school for my first Saturday classes. I really don't have it that bad. I've been in Korea for almost 6 months and I haven't had to work a single Saturday yet. My students, on the other hand, have to attend morning classes every other Saturday. Sucks to be them.
The afternoon consisted of 2 1/2 hours of trying to control 15 first graders. 13 year olds are...boisterous...and rambunctious. It was fun...but it seemed like a lot more work than an afternoon shift at Tim Hortons. Finally class was about finished and we gathered all our stuff to go outside for an enhanced game of telephone...only to discover a teeny, tiny problem. All of the doors of the school had been locked. Chains of the doors and locks that only open with keys we didn't have. Needless to say my 'school' day ended with my fifteen students and myself clamoring through a window with them saying "We're not thieves, we promise" the whole time.
Oh Korea. You never cease to entertain.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
A Sense of Warmth is Tapping at the Door...
Well it's been awhile. More than a month has gone by since my last blog...mostly because I've been putting it off. Again the workload hasn't been so intense that there hasn't been time, although I have been kept busy, I'm just super lazy...to the point where I've contemplated making a template for writing emails to people...
School started a couple of days after my return from 'abroad'. The schedule was a bit scattered for awhile, and the classes more a little daunting. Each class had yet to be divided into their English levels which meant each class was thirty-five boys of varying ability in English. Not being used to this made it a bit of a trial but before long everything settled into its usual routine. Now I have between twenty and twenty-three classes a week with enough variety in the necessary content to keep me on my toes.
My extra-curricular activities have been pretty non-existent. The occasional day/night out but nothing beyond that. Mostly I just chill in my apartment (which is looking more homey with the awesome additions of a couch and an area rug), or at the bar or a cafe with Ruth or Charlotte. Jochiwon isn't the most...happening place on earth which seriously limits the number of awesome things we can do with our time.
St. Paddy's day provided some entertainment to pick us all up out of our March blues. It was definitely a whole other experience spending it with actual Irish people...
The only other event of real significance was the strawberry festival we went to in Nonsan just this weekend. Ruth, Charlotte, and I trekked a bit south to revel in the lovely warm weather and experience a bit of the country 'flavour'.
The festival was awesome and the sun was invigorating. Families with young children were out in full force, reminding of the Rockton fair during the day, before the teens crawled out of the their caves. Balloons and face painting and petting zoos and craft decorating brought a rush of homesickness back. Happily though the random shawarma stand and the buddhist drum circle helped keep everything grounded. I definitely kept thinking "HOLY SMOKES!!! I'M IN KOREA!!!" And you'd thing after almost six months I wouldn't be so thrown off by that thought. But this country never gets old...it just starts to smell a bit.
Well that's is for now! Maybe something more exciting will happen in the next couple of weeks that will make for something interesting to write about but, for now, I'll just have to live with warmer weather, flowering trees, and students walking around with notes written in blood. Oh Korea. You're awesome.
School started a couple of days after my return from 'abroad'. The schedule was a bit scattered for awhile, and the classes more a little daunting. Each class had yet to be divided into their English levels which meant each class was thirty-five boys of varying ability in English. Not being used to this made it a bit of a trial but before long everything settled into its usual routine. Now I have between twenty and twenty-three classes a week with enough variety in the necessary content to keep me on my toes.
My extra-curricular activities have been pretty non-existent. The occasional day/night out but nothing beyond that. Mostly I just chill in my apartment (which is looking more homey with the awesome additions of a couch and an area rug), or at the bar or a cafe with Ruth or Charlotte. Jochiwon isn't the most...happening place on earth which seriously limits the number of awesome things we can do with our time.St. Paddy's day provided some entertainment to pick us all up out of our March blues. It was definitely a whole other experience spending it with actual Irish people...
The only other event of real significance was the strawberry festival we went to in Nonsan just this weekend. Ruth, Charlotte, and I trekked a bit south to revel in the lovely warm weather and experience a bit of the country 'flavour'.The festival was awesome and the sun was invigorating. Families with young children were out in full force, reminding of the Rockton fair during the day, before the teens crawled out of the their caves. Balloons and face painting and petting zoos and craft decorating brought a rush of homesickness back. Happily though the random shawarma stand and the buddhist drum circle helped keep everything grounded. I definitely kept thinking "HOLY SMOKES!!! I'M IN KOREA!!!" And you'd thing after almost six months I wouldn't be so thrown off by that thought. But this country never gets old...it just starts to smell a bit.
Well that's is for now! Maybe something more exciting will happen in the next couple of weeks that will make for something interesting to write about but, for now, I'll just have to live with warmer weather, flowering trees, and students walking around with notes written in blood. Oh Korea. You're awesome.
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