A little bit of everything!

Sorry if I kept you waiting! :) I know I usually blog on Sunday evenings, but I got a little side tracked with other things that I'll explain later. Excuse me if this gets a little long, which I can guarantee it will. Anyway, life is good, or should I say even better, now that I have moved into my new and permanent apartment for the year. Just when I was getting used to my old apartment and actually not looking forward to moving everything (washer and all the furniture), I realized how great it was going to be having windows that bring in light, floors any color but yellow, and just a little more room! I packed my entire place up (not that I had much, since I came in two suitcases) on Wednesday evening and by the time I got home from school Thursday evening, the moving crew was almost finished bringing everything in to my new place! All I had to do was point where I wanted things to be set up. It was WAY too easy. I am so much happier now. It's a very nice and clean apartment with plenty more space than I had before. I truly feel "at home" now. I've spent a little (too much) money getting things to decorate, but it's my first real place on my own, so I had to!

Last week also had quite a few firsts. We took our first field trip. Being that each teacher has 7-10 energetic kindergartners, we all got a little anxious when our supervisors told us we were going hiking. If we couldn't keep them together in a 10x10 ft classroom, how were we going to do it on a mountain?! However, our supervisors eased us by telling us, "not to worry...it would just be a (word for word) morning stroll." The hike started quite easily on wide paths, but my students were complaining that they were tired within the first five minutes. Soon, we (the teachers, parent supervisors, and Korea staff) were literally dragging kids straight up the mountain OR catching them from sliding back down. We started to think, maybe this is just a "morning stroll" for Koreans as there are mountains everywhere and hiking is so popular here. Needless to say, somewhere along the way, we took the wrong path. The good news is, almost everyone had a blast, no kids were lots on the mountain, and no teachers had a heart attack. It was QUITE the morning stroll.

I also had my first and worst student quit last week...hope it wasn't because of me! He was very smart, but never paid attention in class and always frustrated the other students by not knowing where we were in readings and everyone was always having to wait for him to get his work out five minutes after I would ask. Sad to say, but today already made a world of difference on how smoothly class went! Friday was also my first monthly exam for all of my elementary students. The English teachers have to write the exams for at least one of the classes they teach. When the students took the test, I realized what it was like to be in the teachers shoes when a student asks you a question that they desperately need an answer to in order to be able to answer the actual test question...yet you REALLY can't give it to them without actually giving it away. I was ALWAYS that student, and now I am the teacher, and boy is it a tough position to be in! You want the students to do their best, so you want to help them, but they really should have studied just a WE-BIT more to know that answer. Overall, the students knew most of the material, but struggled greatly with short answers where they have to write full sentences. Articles like "a" and "the" are SO hard for them to grasp, so grading their tests has also been a struggle when you know they clearly understand the answer to the question, but have trouble writing a perfect complete sentence. You want to give them all the points, yet they have to learn to write properly. Who knew there would be so much internal anxiety in distributing and grading elementary exams! All I can say, is I hope it gets better as time goes on like most things do.

Finally, my uncle Bob got to come to Suji for his first time. It was a short but sweet visit. He got to my school in time to see my last class of the day for about 45 minutes. We were practicing vocabulary words by writing sentences on the board. They enjoyed having a new face in the room and his English assistance when their sentences just weren't quite long enough! He was great with them, and it was so special having him there to see me teach. After school, he took Britney, London, Shauna, and I to our favorite Korean restaurant and translated the entire menu into English for us! We now have more than just two options: cheesy ramen and Bibinbop. That night we all tried something new, and were for the most part pleasantly satisfied! Our new menu will never leave my wallet! Then, I got to show him my new apartment and we walked to Lotte Mart where he showed me a few new things to try. Like I said, it was a short visit, but he still had an hour to travel into Seoul for work the next day. He is always so generous with his time, Korean knowledge, and money :) when he is here. Thank you Uncle Bob from all of us!