My Class

Hello and Happy Sunday! I thought I would update my blog today with a bunch of pictures of my class! Then maybe another post with other stuff.

So my schedule is as follows

10am Kindergarten

12:20 lunch break

1:20 More Kindergarten

2:40 First Grade

4:00 Second grade

5:30 Third or Above

7 HOME

So here are my kindergartners! I have 6!

This is Daniel! He is very cute and cuddly and sometimes very very naughty.

Here is Jack. The one winking! He is super smart and spikes his hair daily. He likes to be a little smart alec because he knows he can get away with it!
This is Grace. She is so sweet and quiet, but a very good student
This is Shawn. You can tell he is my student : )
Leo doesn't like pictures unless he can act like a monkey. He is a real cutie, but he can be really naughty as well!

Shawn doing another face for me.

My last student is Sally. She is sitting next to Peter (he is in a different class). Sally is my darling little monkey who loves to hold my hand and kiss my cheek!
This is Yerial. She is in a different class that I watched for the fist week. She is such a doll!
June is in the same class. He is such a handsome little boy. He is going to be such a heartbreaker!
So this is my class (getting ready for lunch) Starting with the back left: Jack, Shawn, Leo, Daniel, Grace, and Sally.

Teaching them is quite hard right now because they have only been in school for 2 weeks. They don't know how things work yet and my job involves lots of cuddling and yelling. They are all 4 or 5 and this school is a lot of work. They are learning from a book that teaches them how to read and speak English. Most of them can write decent Korean already. Crazy I know!

They require a lot of energy, but I think in another 2 weeks or so they will understand how school works and hopefully take less energy from me! After teaching them I still have 3 more looooong classes!

First Korean Post!

Hello all! I have now been in Seoul, South Korea for a grand total of 9 days! I arrived last Saturday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by a man sent by the school....I then arrived at my new apartment!

Here is a picture of the bedroom portion of my apartment. You should admire my lovely purple comforter and my lovely flower covered windows. :)
I was provided with a kitchen table and while I wait for the arrival of my computer desk it is a desk, vanity, and kitchen table in one!

Here is my lovely kitchen area and this wonderful balcony. Why is that a washing machine on the balcony? hahaha yes it is! and a stove area! all in one tiny space! It is quite funny, but not that big a of a hassle surprisingly!

This is my bathroom. In true Korean style the shower is the entire room. I really like my shower. It has great pressure and it feels like I am in a salon!

These are some of the other teachers at the school! Liam is new like me and then Hannah and Laura are both from/attended minnesotan Universities!

This is Laura posing Korean style in front of our pig spine soup!

Here is Liam stirring another batch of pig spine soup!

This is the waitress making fried rice in the soup pan after we finished the soup! She was nice and let me tourist photograph her hahaha

This is this really cool statue by my house! Seoul has tons of public art everywhere.

This is my school lunch! I opted in to get lunch at school and I get this little yellow lunch box everyday with different delicious Korean meals! It costs about 2 dollars a day and tastes great (at least to me hahah)

Notice the little silver/gray things in the right corner.....those are anchovies!

This is Shane. He is the teacher whose classes I am taking over (minus morning Kindergarten where I have a brand new class). He is super nice and it sucks he is leaving while I am coming!
This is Hongdae! It is a popular area to go out and has tons of bars, clubs, and restaurants!

I went shopping at Express Bus Terminal market. It is an underground gigantic market. This booth was selling everything for a dollar and the mountain of stuff behind the display made me laugh!

So far Korea is going really well. I am at school from 10am until 7pm (sometimes I get off a bit earlier).

From 10am until two thirty I am teaching Kindergarten. This is a lot more intense than American kindergarten. They learn to read and write by the age of 5.5 usually! That is read and write AMERICAN on top of Korean!

I have been busy non stop since I got here and tonight is the first night other than last sunday, where I haven't gone out to dinner with friends or done other fun evening activities. It actually feels great to stay in and watch some true blood and recharge.

I am going to try and keep writing on this blog (as I always say) or at least put pictures on.

BYE!

Pre-Post

So it is 6:50 am on Friday August, 20th and I am up and showered and I guess ready to go? I leave for Korea today from O'hare Airport and it still doesn't feel real!!!

I was supposed to leave tomorrow, but the school wanted me earlier. So I had 2 days at home and I am leaving today at 12:35 pm. One positive note is that I was able to get a direct flight!!!!!!!

13 hours on one plane Chicago to Icheon (city next to Seoul) with the best airline, Korean Air!

The next time I write on this blog (willing that I actually write on this blog this time) I will be in Seoul, South Korea.

Over and Out.

So I am leaving for Korea at the end of August 2010 and maybe I will keep up with this blog for once! : )