School is going as well as it can I guess. The kids are spoiled little brats and some days it's really hard to keep them focused. This is the first quarter of the school year after their two month long break from regular school (we're now a month into the quarter) and they are starting to burn out. Korean kids attend regular school plus several academies after school (what I'm teaching at), which means they basically attend class from 8am to 10pm everyday. They are tired and hungry and their little brains are mush by the time they get to my class which can make things difficult if the topic isn't very interesting. Last week, my listening class topic was self confidence and no one was really interested.
But then there are moments that make you smile and you finish the day feeling like it was all worth it. Like last week. I had one girl in my youngest class whose parents demanded she be taken up a level even though she's not ready (the school obliged in order to keep their business). I was really sad. I hadn't made any progress with her and she wasn't doing well. I hated losing her to another teacher (another teacher whom I consider to be less serious). However, the school decided to stick her in one of my extra homework help classes in order help her catch up and she really came out and started trying! It's probably because the class only has one other student in it so I was able to give them both very special attention but it was a great encouragement to me to see her finally try and take a risk when answering a question.
I've been so sick that we haven't been able to go out and explore our city yet but I'm feeling better each day and we're slowly expanding our little corner of Busan. Tomorrow is Jeremy's 30th birthday and over the weekend we went out with friends for dinner, ice cream and bought him a new coat (which he really needed). Tomorrow we're going out for Indian and Sunday we're having a birthday party complete with a cake from Costco. Should be fun.
Jeremy and his cool new coat!
Also going on right now, the cherry blossoms are in bloom! Unfortunately we are still one week away from our first paycheck which means my camera can't be replaced in time to go capture all the magic. I'll still take pictures with our point and shoot but it won't be as good.
The best news at the moment is that we should be getting our boxes from Australia this week! That means I'll have my photo frames, my wall art, my clothes and my running shoes! I can't wait to see my things again--but particularly the shoes. Standing for 6 hours straight is hard on a girl's feet. I brought three pairs with me: two flats and one walking shoe. The walking shoes are my preferred shoes but they are pretty ugly and not very nice for the classroom. It'll be nice to finally be able to put some variety into my wardrobe! We're also looking forward to having our big computer again! Right now all we have is our small laptop and it's an annoyance that we have to share it. That and it's speakers are pretty terrible so watching movies on here is almost impossible.
That's just a quick update on our life here at the moment! Other things are happening too but I'll try to write about them later. I'm still sick so I find it hard to muster up the energy to do much typing. We'll see how things go this weekend with the party!
No comments:
Post a Comment