Dreams Are Made To Be Seen: January 2013

Monday, January 28, 2013

long and overdue update

"Some days I feel like I am an overpaid babysitter who the kids sometimes accidentally learn from" - Meredith.

The quote above was said by my friend Meredith a couple Friday nights ago while we were chatting about our winter camp experiences. I couldn't agree more.

What have I been doing the month of January? Babysitting... I mean.... I have been solo teaching at a free winter camp at my elementary school. I knew it would be a lot of work but I don't think I expected it to be as much work as it turned out to be. As I had said before I spent the majority of December preparing materials for camp but as my days slowly went by I realized I didn't have nearly enough materials to make it through fifteen days of teaching hour long lessons.

I taught four classes a day. Two in the morning and two after lunch. Both sessions were split by the kids level of English. One group spent an hour with me and then switched for an hour with the Korean teacher. My classes varied in size from 7 to 15 students. Some of the higher level kids really got into my Harry Potter theme but sadly some of my younger kids couldn't sit still long enough to have an enjoyable class. An hour is far to long to sit and listen to someone talk in a foreign language, especially when you are in 2nd and 3rd grade.

One of the hardest parts of camp was remaining flexible. Before camp I was asked to write lesson plans and give them a schedule for the whole camp. No problem. Then on the first day of camp I was told that the materials wouldn't be ordered until midway through the camp. And then a few group days were moved around which meant I had to move my schedule around again. In the end I think I moved my lessons around four times. At first that frustrated me but as camp progressed I decided to throw my hands in the air and accept that whatever happens happens from day to day.

At the end of each day I had to start preparing for the next day of lessons by making powerpoints or games. I even spent a frustrating night trying to figure out how to make an origami dragon. In the end I'd say it was a success. I think I tricked the kids into using English in a fun way, which was my goal. The best part for me was getting to know the students names finally and also getting to know them better.

Me on the first day of camp wearing my Harry Potter themed clothes.

The students made their own magical animal. This is one of my favorites because of it's creative name.

One of my favorite lessons was "potions" because the kids got to experiment mixing different substances (like pink vitamin water and baking soda).

We made soap as a group one day.

Some other things we did was to practice the future tense through making "predictions". The kids really got excited when they got to predict who would win in an arm wrestle contest, me or a student. Oddly enough some of the young boys beat me while the next day I was able to beat the 5th and 6th grade boys. On the last day of camp the older kids got to write their own story. Most of them ended in death but at least they were creative in English.

I've been enjoying a few restful days off before the last three weeks of the semester begins in February.

Bless friends.

Friday, January 4, 2013

3.

Today marks the end of the 3rd month that I’ve been in Ulsan, South Korea. December started out slow and cold but as Christmas approached my days seemed to fly by.

For the longest time I have wanted to write a blog post with the title saying: “Korea: 595 Foreigner: 3” because things seem go the opposite of what I’d like them to and honestly some days I feel like Korea wins all of the battles I face. But this afternoon I decided to visit my favorite coffee shop and reflect on my life and it hit me: no matter how confusing the logic and culture is; this is also a very generous and forgiving place.

I’d like to share some of those stories today.

The common interactions I experience with the Koreans in public places typically involve big, unblinking eyes, quickly spoken Korean (as if I can understand the language if they use hand motions), and grabbing my arm to steer me in the right direction. But sometimes I encounter this magical, get-out-of-jail-free, royal treatment.

Meredith, Janene and I bought tickets to Seoul this past weekend. Janene and I got tickets for the express bus that left near my apartment while Meredith got a ticket for her express bus stop. We figured that if my ticket said 7:40 that she’d need to buy a ticket for earlier so she bought a ticket for 7:10am. At 7:30 I see Meredith in the window of a bus and I quickly jump on the bus and the driver takes my ticket and looks at it and then at me. I could tell something was wrong and I started to ask if we had the wrong bus but he just waved me on the bus. He did the same with Janene’s ticket. We just laughed as we got the back seats and settled in for the 4 and a half hour ride to Seoul.
In Seoul we were relying on our Subway Map App on our cell phones and while we were deciding what direction to take an older man came up to me and started pointing to the map. We told him where we were going and he literately started grabbing every young Korean who walked by asking if they spoke English. After a few failed attempts he got one to help us. The funny thing is we would've figured it out eventually, but it was nice to be "taken care of". The older man even got on the same subway car and made sure we got off at the right stop.
The best example of this kind treatment is on our journey back to Ulsan early Tuesday morning. We had a slow start due to snow and missed our bus home. While we were trying to decide what to do a bus driver got out of his bus and looked at our tickets. He then started to talk to us in Korean and kept pointing to his bus. He ended up getting another man to help translate and told us that the bus driver wanted to give us a ride and that we can switch to an Ulsan bus later. So we got on the bus not fully understanding what was happening. We only knew that the bus was headed for Busan (which is the big city an hour away from Ulsan). About 4 hours later the bus stopped and the driver stood up and motioned for us to get off the bus. So we grabbed our bags and got off. I expected to be at a bus stop but instead we were on the freeway pulled over behind another big express bus. The bus driver motioned for us to get onto the other bus and we handed over our tickets that said Ulsan. The passengers in the new bus seemed surprised to see waygooks (foreigners) get on the bus. I had barely made myself comfortable in the seat when we arrived in Ulsan. I still don't fully understand what happened but somehow that first bus driver got us home!

There are certainly worst places to be lost and confused. I can now say confidently that I'm going to survive the rest of the year. In fact I look forward to more crazy-confusing-get-out-of-jail-free experiences.

Bless friends.