Bi-weekly update #1 12/17/08

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Hey Everyone!

It's Wednesday for me, you know what that means.

So far this week's been pretty good. I've got to say I like Wednesday evenings because it means the workweek is more than halfway finished. 3/5ths finished to be exact. Just far enough from last weekend to start craving another.

My students are great, especially the ones who know as much English as I know Korean. I think I'm starting to find my style of teaching which is pretty cool. I know a month from now I'll say I've got it down too. The fun and challenging part of the job, always learning new ways to bring the material to the kids. Especially the ones who don't know much English yet.
The easy part for me is with the exception of a few classes, the material is already provided for me from the school. For only one series of books, I have to make it stretch the class period or improvise if I get done early. The class I get to have fun with is the reading class and while there are already some books for them to read, I'm going to run out soon so I'm going to try and make them last by coming up with activities like write a story as a group here and there.

I can't express how glad I am I made the decision to come here. The honeymoon of coming here is starting to wear off bit by bit though, and being here is starting to feel like my new home. The day to day stuff is in some ways the same as back in the US and different in others.
Some examples:
I have to turn on the water heater to heat water for showers, and be damn sure to turn it off when I'm done or I'll waste all our oil, which we use to heat everything.
No dryers means after I do my laundry I'm putting everything on a drying rack and constantly reseting the timed fan for three hours.
I can get take-out and walk to work, much like I'm sure many people back home do, it's better Korean food here.
Bottled water is a necessity, Mia claims to have caught something from the drinking water. Truth to that story or not I don't think I want to chance it.
The traffic lights last for-ev-er here. It's not surprising to me that cabs, moped delivery drivers run red lights. If you're on foot be prepared to spend 5 minutes standing at some lights waiting to go. - I think I'm going to get a bicycle sooner than later because of this. I just need to find helmet.

I'm starting to learn a bit of the language, not conversational Korean yet but enough to get by. Numbers, alphabet, what the word is for this or that ingredient in food is, how to order a drink, hello, goodbye, thank you. After my trip to Gwangju the letters I'd learned were more solidified in my understanding.

Speaking of Gwangju; no idea what I'm doing this weekend. Going to Gwangju last weekend was a spur of the moment decision. Maybe I'll pick something nearby on a map Friday, or just see what my friends here are doing and tag along.

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Photos

told you it snows in Korea
Here's a picture Mia took of Me, Susan and Dylan in the snow just the other week when it was snowing.

Mia and I
This is Mia and me taken by Mia.

house party by mia
Here's a picture of all who came to the housewarming party we had last Thursday, by Mia.