Post Card

Most days I feel like aren't worth writing home about. I don't think: wow, I should write about this on one of my many post cards.

All month I've been getting to school early and not having a chance to really sit down and breath until 1pm. To say my energy has been drained is an understatement. I changed up my diet to see if that will help. I gave up rice and am slowly cutting Korean food out of my diet (no complaints here, I am over it). Starting May first I will be off of my school's lunch plan (praise the Lord).

I haven't had much time to blog because when I do sit down at my desk at 1pm I have to quickly start lesson planning for the next day's class and edit my students essays (which is slightly less painful compared to last semester). I have decided to start calling students out on using translators because it is SO easy to see which ones do it. They are the essays that have huge words in the wrong tense that don't make sense. Oh little kiddies, use the words you know not vivacity or methodical.

After today my life should slow down some because the English play will be finished (or as the Korean's say: finishee). I have enjoyed the experience but I have had many pull-my-hair-out moments that mostly involve the language barrier. I think the students are ready for the performance and hopefully are prepared for the competition aspect of it. I think they are winners but I know there is pressure from the adults to win.

There are two days from this month that I think are "post card worthy".

Two Fridays ago I got to tag long on the 5th grade field trip to some nature reserve near the ocean. There were indoor and outdoor gardens and a reptile building. The students seemed to enjoy the event and I was thankful to be out of school and in the fresh air. Some of the students got to hold a big snake and when the man giving the lecture held it out to me I went to touch it and before I could he put it around my neck. Man, the kids got a real kick out of that. My favorite part of the trip was just having random students come up to me to chat or share their snacks.

Another great day was last Saturday. Ulsan had a whale festival to celebrate their ancestor's whaling history (yes, I said whaling). There were boat races and food and random craft tents. They even had straw tents like they lived in hundreds of years ago. I think that's the most foreigners I've seen in one place since coming to Korea. It was a bit overwhelming. After that we went to this very fancy (very expensive) buffet. I just assumed that this place was going to be Korean food but I was wrong. It was tables upon tables of delicious western food. We all ate ourselves silly and went home in a food coma. Sadly that place isn't in any of our budgets for frequent visits.

 

Bless friends!