Me with my "Congratulations" cake, lol
Dinner group :)
For new year's eve, as I said, my friends and I ventured to Muju resort. My intentions (while everyone else skied and snowboarded) were to relax in the resort area, drink coffee, and read my nook. However, Muju was highly different than the last ski resort we went to, so my plans changed. Without getting into a boring story, I ended up not doing much except sitting in a cafeteria & riding about 5 different buses around and around for a couple hours with a friend trying to figure out which one took us back to our pension.
Back at the pension we took naps, went out for dinner, and then got ready to bring in the new year with sparklers and roman candles on the bridge near our place. That part was the highlight of my trip, and unfortunately ended in me severely paying for my fun the next day. While my friends went back to the resort area to ski the next morning, I spent the first day of the new year lying on the pension floor in misery, throwing up until I could hardly move. Ok, so drinking that much the night before was of course a mistake, but hey, that was a "last year" decision! Haha! :) Here's a few pics that my friends took of the night:
The ladies @ some random bar we found in the small town
Notice me in the back, gripping my bottled
Screwdriver with my "good hand" lol
Niall & I were excited about the fireworks :)
So, moving into this year, there hasn't been too much excitement yet. Last week was busy due to teaching my own classes each morning before lunch, and then going to the elementary school next door to teach an English winter camp there. I enjoyed working with the little kids. My hands were covered in glitter each day that I left the school and I loved it! What was odd was that we started with 9 kids on Monday, then had 7 on Tuesday, and only 4 for the remainder of the week. All boys as well. I asked one boy on the first day of camp, "Where are the girls?" And he smartly replied, "You!" Took me a second to realize he was stating that obviously I was the female in the room, lol. Overall, working this camp was the easiest couple hundred dollars I've ever made! All the kids did for two hours each day was repeat some vocabulary words & sentences that I read aloud, and then they colored, cut, pasted, & glittered a few things! Not sure how the last part helps with their English skills, but hey, I didn't make the plans. I was just there to assist!
Elementary arts & crafts
For my own winter classes I am doing a scavenger hunt with them. For this type of game I gave them a list of things to bring to me, as well as a list of things/scenarios to take pictures of. Due to not having a co-teacher to translate for me in class, I had a couple of my teachers assist me in translating the entire 90 item list into Korean. I know it's English class, but to save a few trees I didn't even bother giving them the English list. Instead I showed it on the screen and we discussed most of them together. I also gave them some example pictures to make sure they understood.
So far, most of the kids have been enjoying the game. I have each middle school class for 3 times in January and each high school class for 4 times. We are continuing the game until their last class with me, but I'm only giving them two class days to work on the hunt. For some reason nobody has attempted the "1 student inside of a cop car" picture! There's a police station right across the road from the school. I think I'm gonna make it for even more points to see if anyone attempts it. I'd also like to see them do "ten people inside of one car" lol. "Take a picture with the principal or vice principal" is also on the list, and only a couple classes have been brave enough to bother the vice principal. Here are a couple pics that I've uploaded so far. I have an entire album on my Facebook page that I need to add more to.
"Three students on a bicycle"
"YMCA"
"Two students playing leap-frog"
The other two days are being spent working on a project. For their project I'm having them "create a new country" in order to increase their vocabulary in terms of geography, tourism, population, economy, etc. The first day is just writing facts about their made-up countries (which I know bores them, but it can't all be fun & games everyday!). The second day of the project is spent making a poster to advertise their country. I can easily tell who paid attention to me during class (remember I have no translator) because some posters turned out really creative & fun, while others read, "Come visit the U.S.A!" Lol, guess they didn't get the concept of "making up a NEW country" that doesn't already exist. I think one of the students must have recently watched "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" because her country is entirely based around chocolate. Her poster looks amazing! It makes me happy when atleast a few of the students understand the concept of the activity!
I spent alot of my own money on supplies for this project! I hope the next foreign English teacher appreciates the supplies they will already have in the classroom thanks to me! All my school provides is markers for the white board & they bought me one set of pens at the beginning of the year. Gee thanks! It's kinda hard to keep students awake in class if you just lecture from a white board the entire time. I like to get them participating with materials to be creative with, as well as make sure they have something to write with for the writing assignments. But then again, just like back home, school budgets suck, so you either work with what you've got or dig into your own pocket from time to time.
So here's the breakdown for my last couple months in South Korea:
- Jan 9-20: two more weeks of winter classes (and I get to leave early everyday after the last class, which ends @ 12:55pm!)
- Jan 18: I GET MY UGLY GREEN CAST OFF MY RIGHT ARM!! :) Freedom!!
- Jan 21-Feb 7: 18 days of vacation (we get 10 working days off, so this includes those days, the weekends, and an extra two days for the Lunar New Year holiday!)
- Feb 8-24: 13 days of desk-warming (or so I'm assuming because there aren't any classes to teach during this time due to the students being on "spring break"). My co-teacher said he still needs to ask the principals what they want me to do during this time.
I plan on starting the packing process during the last couple of weeks before my flight. It shouldn't take too long because I sent most of my stuff home on the boat, which should get to Texas before I do. The only tricky part is fitting everything into those same 3 suitcases I brought & 1 backpack. Also, I found someone to buy my bike! They came by to look @ it & they're gonna get it at the end of this month, so that's one less thing to worry about!
Hopefully I can wrap up all the paperwork, bank stuff, & moving out of my apartment in the last few days before my flight on the 26th. It's gonna be weird because I leave on a Sunday & will arrive at 8pm on Sunday in Texas! Gotta love the time difference! Alright, that's all for now I believe. It's Saturday night & since I spent most of the day sleeping off & on I'm sure I'll be up for awhile either reading or attempting to find something to watch in English on television.
7 more weeks (roughly 50 days) until I'm home!!!! (I wasn't joking about counting down, lol)
XOXO,
Amanda
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