I’ve been reading a few friends blogs and a lot of us we are done with the half way point and lots of friends/family from back home that used to comment all the time on the interesting culture shock stories of our beginning days has stopped. Many of us wonder if people still even read. haha was very funny to see that many people still feel the same, but like I said last week, if not for anything else the blog will be a reminder to myself of this year as a waygookin in Korea.
St. P’s weekend was nice. I went to Busan with a few girls and they had found an outdoor hot springs spa that was the oldest in Korea they wanted to try out. But when we got there it was your standard jimjilbang. They were not keen with being naked, but at least they got to experience it and see the jimjilbang culture. I loved it as usual, always feel much better after being cleansed, sweaty, and a refreshing shower! After that we headed to Haeundae Beach which is where our hostel was and where the Irish Pub was. We got ready then headed out where the Wolfhound Irish Pub was already very busy. I met up with tons of friends, it was so lovely to see so many familiar faces and definitely did not feel like we were in Korea. I also met up with my frisbee team, they found me at the bar! Because the festivities began so early, they also ended pretty early for quite a few people in our group. Which was fine because I had my Frisbee game in the morning I wanted to be ready for! The hostel we stayed in was so fantastic! Again, there was no lock on the actual door of the room. But this one did have little lockers. The owner assured us that if we had a big bag that didn’t fit he had security cameras if anything happened. Everyone knew each other in our room so no one was really worried anyways. They also offered toast whenever you wanted, a fridge, and kitchen It was very cute, and just a door code to remember to get in. The owner was an engineer who went to Postec which is where I live and studied Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Hyundai for 5 years then decided he wanted to own his own business. In the morning I got a bagel for some quick breakfast then headed out to the beach. They had forecasted rain for the whole weekend, but we had some light sprinkles and then the sun was shining Sunday morning which was amazing because the games are rain or shine. So it could have been very unpleasant in the cold rain. But the sun shined all day and it was beautiful, I got enough sun to catch a nice little sunburn if you saw on my facebook status on Monday!
My team is very fun, I think most of us are Americans and played at University, most on a club team.. So they have all these strategies which I still have to learn but will be working on it the next few weeks. We were ahead by a few points in our first game, then I think St Paddys came back to us, we lost some energy and ended up losing. The second game was later in the afternoon so it was much warmer and the other team was playing their first game but they were a really good team. We lost our games but hopefully will win some this weekend! I played about half the time and never was actually free enough to have the frisbee throw my way but played some good D. Running on the sand is something else.. I was absolutely exhausted. I wore my finger shoes and they didn’t make a huge difference because we were running in sand anyways, sand got in them so it got annoying. Next time on the beach i’ll just skip them. I had several wonderful friends stop by the games and say hello and cheer my team on. Michael was a star and stayed and watched both games then we caught the train home together to get back just in time for Salsa classes.
Salsa was wonderful, our friend Dan helped us translate a few things that we weren’t understanding. There are about 20 Koreans about half and half. Many of them were very very shy and did not want to stand in the front by the teachers so I hopped right up there. It was pretty basic, I could catch on within a few times of doing the move. The teachers don’t really speak a lot of English but they say the move names in English as well as counting which is nice. Not that I can’t count in Korean, but makes it feel a little more homey. So its basic, front, side, back, etc, etc. Afterwards we went out to dinner with the class and it was really nice but i really wasn’t hungry but they wanted to get to know us. Dan is engaged to a Korean so they came and helped translated, and also met a few people who spoke decent English. There really are people in Pohang who speak English just that everyone is so shy about it. Many times I will hear other foreginers complaining that no one speaks english down here but in Seoul you ask anyone anything and they can speak english, this isn’t always the case but can be somewhat true. I’m so excited to hang out with Happy, a 35ish year old sweet Korean chick, who is a hair dresser who lived in England for two years!
Tuesday night we had our first dinner club! Abby (across the street) made some delicious sweet and sour chicken. everything from scratch, it was amazing! Everyone brought side dishes, then we sat on the floor and chomped the food and chatted the whole night. It was a lot of fun.
Wednesday I had my first class of 9th grade boys! I was so nervous, had no idea if the lesson I planned was going to take long enough. The class is an hour and 40 mins, then we have 20 mins of evaluation at the end. I didn’t realize a few key essential things, like they wouldn’t bring their own notebooks to write in.. some didn’t have pencils..! So that kinda messed up my idea of having them write a paragraph! But I did my best to keep it going long enough. They told me they don’t like studying but they do like speaking english so I tried to get them talking as much as possible about Korean versus American culture. There are 16 ish boys in each class. This class was behaved pretty well, some were a little chatty. Towards the end they were so ready to go, but who can blame them. They have been at school since 7/8 am. Then they stay after my class until after 10ish and self study.. Blehh I donno how they do it! Today have prepared a few more speaking stimulating activities, less of me talking more of them talking. I’ll teach different students tonight, so can submit a similar lesson plan which is nice. We are supposed to have textbooks to go along with the classes but it wasn’t organized in time for the start of class so have a week or two, or maybe more without. Their English was so good though, it was such a nice change to be able to have a conversation! There were a few really strong students who talked all the time and some were not as strong but either way could all speak English. I’m looking forward to getting the swing of high schoolers. They were very funny in the beginning talking about how beautiful I was, and I love you.. hahah. Maybe it helped a little bit with getting their attention and respect? who knows..
Last night volunteered at the orphanage. We are still looking for a few more people to help so I can alternate. I had to teach by myself, we are supposed to have two teachers. I only had three kids so it was fine, but I prepared some things for the computer because it was our week to use the multimedia room but had problems with it.. ended up only having half the class time. I played apples to apples on a powerpoint version that I downloaded. It was amazing, I can’t believe people can do so much with PPT. I guess a good start would be having a PPT in a language that you speak, then maybe I could learn how to do more. :0 It hardly phases me anymore that this computer is in Korean. Wish we could figure out how to change it but had no luck with last years IT guy.. maybe I should try again as some days it gets very frustrating and can at times make me home sick and annoyed.
Had major co teacher drama this week. Again about the after school class. It’s kind of a lengthy story, but the jist is that Joanne and I think I should teach the class myself. Better for me, and better for the kids. Eunjeong thinks that the reason my class was so small last semester was because there was no Korean teacher there.. The students learn better without a Korean there for sure. My girls from last semester can now carry on a really good conversation and understand most everything I say.. soo the reason it got small was because those students didn’t want to learn english, not that they didn’t understand me. So the end of this drama, was that Eunjeong and Joanne are no longer friends… Eunjeong and I have a fine relationship but she is very hard to talk to and after I arrived she mostly doesn’t do much to make me feel at home. Where as Joanne treats me like her niece or something. If she is driving by my house, she will call me and pick me up, or in the rain will go out of her way to give me a ride. I asked her where I could buy black beans, she brought me a huge bag to school this week. Then she made me lunch, because the teachers where the microwave is are worried that i don’t eat enough so she made me lunch one day.. She has offered to sew several buttons/things that have broken since I got here. She is an all around sweet heart and really does treat me like family. After Eun said they couldn’t be friends she told me this story in the car and I gave her a hug and said who cares what she says. We are on the same page and understand each other. For now just ignore it. If it wasn’t for you there is no way I would still be in Korea. I think she was very touched by that and the next day things seemed to be okay. Hoping things gel over and they are worked out. The third English teacher who went to a different school in March was older then both of them so could help resolve issues before, but now the third English teacher is younger so she cannot help. :/
My cute little Kindergartners have finally figured out what’s your name. Some of them know their English name now too which is awesome. I made a little curriculum sheet for the first six weeks so their parents can practice with them. Many of the Kindergartners are teachers kiddos so I definitely have their support which is nice.
That’s my week. Wow seems like a whirlwind! This weekend have frisbee games, going on a hike tomorrow, Open MIC night and Indian food for a friends birthday! Have almost finished lesson planning for next week!
Have a wonderful weekend! <3 N
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