My Students

So a friend from home asked me to give you all an update about what my students are learning and how they are all doing so here it goes.

Phonics: We are half-way our second phonics book. My kids are learning short vowel sounds. So we are doing words like; mat, hit, dam, jam, red, and jet. They are doing really well with it. Some days they have a bit of trouble being loud enough, and they lack enthusiasm, but I am pretty silly so we work it out.

Writing: We are busy in our writing book. The kids get new sight words every week and we practice them everyday. It's crazy that they are able to pick all of this up so fast. I feel like I would be a blubbering idiot if this was expected of me. Their handwriting is improving and it's so cool to see how far they have come. I still have a student who forgets letters in her name, but she doesn't look at her name tag to even try and get the answer right.

Reading: We have moved from our high frequency stories to a book that has a small story a week. We focus on comprehension and what the story was about. We add vocabulary every week.

My kids love Science but the science curriculum we have stinks. It is pretty ridiculous to think that they understand any of what is going on, and it is not that interesting. Most of the time the "experiment" is really just a craft for me to put together and talk about. Yay

We have Music and Gym with an outside Korean teacher once a week. The kids really enjoy that. I kind of enjoy the music class, the teacher sings American songs, but doesn't actually look up the English words so some of the lyrics are a bit off.

My afternoon elementary class is hysterical. I have the same awful co-teacher from last semester but the kids make it worth it. They are quick witted and funny. They speak wonderful English (most of them do) and they think my last name is Donkey. They also spell Minnesota minesoda. Good times.

Well that's just a little insight into my wonderful classes. Hope that helps. I will miss these kids when I leave, but that just isn't enough to put up with my crazy boss and co-teachers.

Spontaneous Seoul

The awesome Friday dinner
I made

New Chinese restaurant 

Did you get the word play? Pretty great right? Well this past weekend was a whirlwind. I feel like I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. Friday night was a good one. Kaylee and I hung out, ate dinner, watched a movie, and just enjoyed our drinks quietly.

Saturday was a little bit different. We finally motivated ourselves to get lunch at 2pm (at a new Chinese restaurant). The restaurant was interesting. They serve shark fin soup, which we absolutely didn't get but it was on the menu. We had fried rice and garlic chicken. From what I remember it was pretty close to Chinese food back home, haven't eaten meat in my Chinese food in a while.

Cherry Blossoms at night

Kaylee tried to sleep on
the train, silly girl.

After lunch we went to sit on Kaylee's roof, it's much more appealing than mine. Kaylee's guy friend (I don't have a good term for him, we call him Dude) hung out with us. He was headed to Seoul that night and invited us along. Now, if you know me at all you know that I am like my mother, I need a plan. So when I turned to Kaylee and said "Let's go to Seoul," she was a bit shocked. By 7pm we were on a train to Seoul.

Now Grandma and Grandpa you should probably stop reading, I don't want you to get the wrong impression.

We started with dinner (probably our 4th meal of the day) at about 10:30pm. We were out until about 7:30....a.m. Yep I finally did it. I stayed out, drinking, and singing Noribang, until the next morning. Mind you this is not uncommon in Korea but it was pretty crazy for me. I could have used my sunglasses when we got back to the hotel that morning.

Awesome soup

I needed some help. 

We got a couple hours of sleep and we were off again. Dude took us Insadong, which has all of these great "authentic" shops, mostly everything is handmade. It's a tourist spot. We saw a Palace and the President's house, called the Blue House. It has a blue roof.

Then we went to a fabulous restaurant where I had this amazing soup. In Korea they have this great soup where they stuff a chicken, a whole chicken with rice and herbs. Then they boil it for hours. Then they serve you the whole chicken with broth. It was amazing. Of course I ate it wrong, as I always do with Korean food and Dude had to help me with the chicken extraction, you have to move it to a second bowl.

Awesome? Nope, wrote
it wrong

Beautiful day for cherry blossoms. 

We then went north of City Hall and went to a small museum where they show you the history of a war between Japan and Korea. Korea won a battle at sea with 13 ships against the Japanese 133. We saw a 4D show about it, and even wrote our names in Hangul. It was absolutely amazing. I am so glad that we had someone who knew about all of this stuff.

We walked along a man-made river for a bit and then took off to the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was great to see all those trees in bloom. While Dude gave us an awesome tour I learned that different parts of the military are responsible for different bridges in Seoul. If at any point NK made it to Seoul the military would blow up all the bridges to the lower part of Seoul. Pretty crazy right?


We finally made it back to Daegu at 8pm on Sunday night. Talk about a whirlwind.

Making fools of ourselves. 

Rhetoric and Panic...Just Kidding

Love my girls

So it has been almost an entire month since I have posted. Crazy. I'm sorry everyone. I have been busy, but that's no excuse. I should be updating more often. It's pretty crazy to think this time last year I was having my final meeting with the School of Education to receive the last check off my list to graduation. I feel like a whole different person since then.

So of course the thing on everyones mind is, what is going on in South Korea. We aren't dead, we aren't panicked, we aren't rushing to get bottled water or rations. Life is going on as if the North is a tiny cat running in the street, no one pays any attention. I promise, I am registered with the embassy and I know where to go in case of emergency. Don't panic...yet.

Field Trip Day!

School has been school. My friend Kaylee will be leaving in less than two months. I don't know how I will say goodbye to her. Kelly and is trying to convince us all that we should move to Seoul together. I would be up for it, but we would need to find jobs pretty soon. We went on a field trip to a bronze ware museum yesterday. It was a good excuse to get out of school. Not what I would pick for kindergarten but no one asks the teachers. 

I am still giving Korea a lot of consideration. I really do love the country, I just hate this job. I have a nanny job possible I think, hopefully I have another interview with them soon. I don't know what the next step is. I just know that will everything I have done in Korea I am ready for almost anything. I've learned to live in a place where I can't read most of the signs and I can't communicate with a majority of the people.

No Socks! And there is
 some grass

The weather is starting to turn around. We has a couple great days and then it got cold again. Yes, I know I can't complain. It's not a blizzard or anything. Tomorrow is supposed to be 70. Can't wait to find some grass and just lay in the sun. I know I will regret this, basically as soon as I get home, but I miss grass.

Maybe I will throw all caution to the wind and leave for CO like I wanted to after graduation. Apply for a license and just see how it goes. I feel like I could accomplish almost anything.

I miss everyone so much. Hope MN and WI aren't too cold. I'll be sure to post a lovely spring day picture tomorrow when I am laying in the green grass. Hehe

Happy Birthday Kelly!

I caught Alicia's bouquet 

Oh Easter Celebration. Gotta love my kids.

Afternoon Kindergarten

Waves

So this will be a different kind of post. It's more a reflection than a response or a story. And it's more for my benefit than yours I'm sure.

I feel like a beach ball. I'm not on the beach but I'm not floating in the ocean. I feel stuck. I'm pushed one way and then another, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

I am continually thinking about what's next. Do I keep applying for teaching jobs? Do I keep applying for nanny jobs? Do I look in the states or somewhere new? Or do I find another place in Korea? It's not black and white and it's not easy either. I am really liking Korea, now when the raining season hits and my hair gets huge you never know. But right now I'm liking Korea. I have great friends, the country isn't bad, if you know what's going on and keep up to date. I still don't like my job, but I could find another one, I'm already here.

I have never been so conflicted. I knew what I wanted before I even started college. I knew what I wanted throughout college. And now I'm not sure what the next step is. I make good money here, I have a decent setup. Do I leave that for the possibility of a job in the states?

So many questions, and too much lost sleep. The wanderings of my mind continue.