A brand new school year

Wow, it's been busy for me and Keith lately! We started our new school year the beginning of March. I unfortunately spent the first week home sick in bed, with no appetite and a horrible stomach flu (which was going around the area), although at first I thought it was food poisoning from our recent trip to Thailand, but I don't think that was the case.

But, I am healthy and back to teaching now, and so excited about all the new positive changes this semester. First, it feels so nice not being the new teacher anymore! I am still teaching in the same middle school with boys and girls (they are in separate classes), so all my 2nd (7th in US) grade students know me from last year and I am familiar with the school and feel closer to my students since I know more Korean and know more about the Korean culture and my students' interests. This all helps so much in the classroom because my students participate more, feel closer to me and I know how to be the best teacher I can be for them (I understand that I have to speak more slower...when I do this, I am so proud of how closely they listen to my words in order to understand what I am saying. I also have learned what English vocab words and terms they know, and that it helps when I ask them to say the word in Korean to check their comprehension, ect).

Here in Korea, teachers change school every three years in order to keep the teachers working hard and to change up the staff. For this reason, I have many new Korean co-teachers this semester. Instead of only having 2 different co-teachers, now I have about 6 co-teachers all together, but it is still only one co-teacher in my classroom at a time. My new staff members are great!! They actually speak a high level of English, sit next to me in my office (which is still on the main floor) and are always there to help me. I appreciate them so much! My principal and vice-principal are the same, which is also nice since many EPIK teachers had to change schools and get new principals that they must impress for the new school year.
Unlike in America, the new school year begins in March and ends in December.

What else have we been busy with? Well, Keith is still continuing to take muay thai kickboxing lessons from the wonderful kickboxing instructor near our house at Dragon Gym each night after school from 6pm-7:30pm. I have been going to our gym near Mt. Sarabong (15 minute walk from our apartment) where I run, lift weights, abs, take yoga classes, and will hopefully begin swimming soon.

The weekends are just as busy, since we just started teaching Saturday school 2x a month. On these days, Keith and I are both picked up by a teacher, who brings us to an excluded pretty elementary school out in the country area. The school has tangerine trees in the backyard and flowers and plants in archways inside the school near each classroom! I love the relaxing atmosphere. We both teach from 9am-12pm, and then are dropped back off at our apartment, which is convenient. We get paid 120,000 won (about $110) for only 3 hours of teaching (which is rare to find here)! I am loving the classes so far because now I not only get experience teaching in my middle school, but also teaching 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at this elementary school 2x a month.

On the Saturdays that we have off, Keith plays ultimate Frisbee for most of the day (which he is practicing for the upcoming Frisbee tournament that he will be playing in), while I run and take a yoga class at the gym, and on Sundays, Keith and I usually go to church (which is walking distance from our apartment), and then go to the gym, where Keith now plays on a Korean college team as an intramural sport, while I get my workout on.

The weather is still cool most days, usually around 50-60 degrees F and sometimes very windy. Everyone here on the island is waiting anxiously for the warm weather to hit and stay, which supposedly happens sometime in April/early May. One great sign of spring arriving has been the beautiful pinkish white cherry blossom flowers that have bloomed on many of the trees here found all around the island! Last week they had their annual cherry blossom festival, however, everyone was a little disappointed that the new location for the festival did not have a single cherry blossom in site! Didn't understand that! lol The festival, like most here, was filled with Korean food and snacks, such as seafood and veggie pancakes, pork, kimchi and rice, seaweed soup, corndogs, fish pancakes filled with red bean paste, popcorn, cotton candy, etc. There was also a few funny male performers who were singing and playing drums, and dressed up in girlish clothes (skirts, face paint, hair up in a ponytail, etc.)...don't ask because I have no idea what the tradition was...but I did take a video, so I'll put it up here later. Besides the food and music, there were carnival games like darts to win stuffed animals, there was some type of Korean gambling/ betting (played on the ground), and there were 3,000 won stylist hats (=$3) which of course I picked a USA hat out for myself..it's a tradition now that I shop for hats at festivals, since it is the best price I have ever seen for hats. We only went to the festival for about an hour or two because it was so cold!!!! I really hope it gets warmer soon, considering there's palm trees on this island and it's supposed to be the Hawaii of Korea. lol

Well, once the warm weather begins, everyone will start heading off to the beach. Most foreign English teachers will be participating in the upcoming V-ball tournament which will be held near the end of May. Basically, like last semester, it's 2 days of playing v-ball on the beach, followed by partying and camping on the beach at night. I sat out last fall and cheered on the side because of my shoulder, but now have decided to be on Keith's team. We have a pretty good team and I can't wait to start practicing! Plus, I can't wait to start being active outdoors...running, swimming, maybe biking, hiking, snorkeling, fishing, etc.

Besides our active lives, we have had many friends' birthdays on the islands, which means lots of dinners out and celebrating in the downtown city life of Jeju-si! Plus, since it is a new semester and I have some of the same students, I have been making all new lessons this semester. The last few weeks, my students have been interviewing and introducing their partner to the class, while playing a competitive Typhoon game. This week my students are learning about family relationships, in which I teach them vocabulary, then show them my family tree (which I copy/pasted a picture of each of my family members onto a power point family tree) to help illustrate the relationships. Of course I had to add in the possibility of Ricky getting married to Angelina Jolie and having a son...in order to have the students tell me the relationship of sister-in-law and nephew. I also added in if Ricky got married to Britney Spears and had a daughter, so my students can tell me the relationship of sister-in-law and niece. After this example as a class, I had my students practice by telling me the relationships of the Simpson's family tree. They have really enjoyed the lesson so far this week. Next week my students will be creating their own family trees, in which they can use their own family members or celebrities/ cartoon characters. This lesson will then be tied into comparisons (teaching "______ is stronger than ____", "_______ is older than ________"). They will use their family trees and a celebrity family tree that I created (it's very funny!) to make comparisons of the family members.

Last Friday was also a BIG exciting day for my students at my school because Keith came to visit!!! His school had the day off, so before he ran errands in the afternoon, he came to watch my three classes in the morning. As we walked around the halls of my school, boys and girls shot their heads or bodies out of their classrooms and yelled, "Handsome!! Oooh, soo tall!" and lots and lots of oohs and ahhs from the girls!! It was as if Keith was a famous celebrity visiting their school! The girls were so cute and shy in that they would smile at him and yell handsome, but then cover their faces and turn the other way. I think it was a bigger deal also that Keith visited because I am the only foreign teacher at my school (besides Cynthia who only comes on Mondays to teach). It was definitely a special day for me too, since Keith helped in my classroom to make the lesson extra fun, and since everyone who has heard so much about Keith finally were able to meet him, including my co-teachers, my students and my principal/ vice-principal.

Also, before I head off to do more lesson planning, I just want to say Happy Easter to everyone for this upcoming Sunday. God bless and hope the weather is nice for you and that your spring (and spring break) is warm and sunny! Miss you all! And if you haven't heard yet, Keith and I will be coming home in August to visit for a few weeks. We'll be looking forward to seeing all of you! Can't wait!