Blessings & Random School Stuff

Hilary = amazing
Last night I met up with Hilary, one of the girls from Bethel who taught here last year and is teaching for another six months. She's been one of my primary contacts as we prepared to come to Seoul. She has been absolutely incredible the whole way through - helpful information, encouraging words, etc. I'm excited about spending more time with her. When she came by last night, she brought cell phones for Sara and I because some of her English-teaching friends from last year went back home and obviously didn't need them anymore. Definitely a huge blessing! She also brought me a T Money card (absolutely necessary for using public transportation - buses and subways) and a whole bunch of other goodies. It almost felt like Christmas! We went to dinner and I was able to find some non-spicy Korean food (dumplings and pork cutlets). I decided it would be a good idea to just get some kind of food into my system, rather than insisting upon being adventurous and trying to fit in with the culture. I really enjoyed my time with her... I'm so thankful she's here. I can't wait until her and Sara are able to meet up. Hopefully Friday night...

The sweetness of jet lag...
Jet lag has been rough. I woke up at 4:45 a.m. the past two mornings. I should probably get to bed, but I'm hoping that staying up later will result in possibly sleeping a little longer. I'm not sure how great of logic that is...

My Classes
I found out that I will be teaching a total of 22 classes each week. At first, I was somewhat overwhelmed. Then the co-teachers told me that I would only need to prepare two lessons - one for 7th grade and one for 9th grade. The 9th graders are at four different levels, so the lessons will need to be modified slightly for each level, but that's not too big of a deal. I'm thinking I might have a lot of free time on my hands... which will be something new for me. We'll see if it actually works out that way...

Yesterday and today I spent most of my time at school meeting my classes and introducing myself. I've got my introduction pretty well memorized by now - talk about how names are different in the U.S., draw a rough map showing where Indiana is in the US, talk about my family members, share about my travel experiences... end with the challenges I faced when I was learning Mandarin in China and strongly encourage my students not to be afraid of making mistakes! Most of them are very timid and afraid to use their English because they don't want to make mistakes. I'm trying to come up with some reward system for students that use their English words -regardless of whether there are mistakes or not (I'm open to suggestions...). The introduction is kind of long... takes up the whole class, but that's what the teachers have asked me to do. I try to weave in new vocabulary words (like "sibling") along with questions for the students to answer about themselves. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures of my family tomorrow. Everyone wants to see what my handsome brothers and beautiful sister look like.

So Beautiful!
Oh, that reminds me of something funny. I'm pretty much convinced that any girl that has a low self-esteem should just live in/visit an Asian country for awhile. When you walk into the classroom, all of the students gasp and say, "Oh, so pretty! So beautiful!!!" It is kind of awkward... Sara and I laughed about our stories together. It's really weird when I'm walking in the hallway and the 7th grade boys shout, "Hello! I love you!" They have no idea what they're saying. I just shake my head and smile...

Most random question ever...
The most random question I had today from a student was: "Teacher, what blood type are you?" My blood type?! Apparently, in Korea, people think they can measure your temperament based upon your blood type. According to my blood type, I am supposed to be "funny." They're stereotype definitely makes me laugh... I'm not sure that it would hold up under any of the psychological tests we talked about in psych measurement.

There's so much more to share, but I'm afraid this post is already much too long. Life is such a whirlwind right now. So many changes. I need to learn the Korean alphabet and learn how to say basic vocabulary beyond annio haseyo (hello).

Good night friends! Thanks for "listening" to this culture-shocked girl... and thanks for all of your prayers!