Cursive Writing.

Only two more days, today and tomorrow, until two of our teachers leave. We're having a party for them on Wednesday night after work. We're going to go out for dinner and drinks, and probably end up at a nooribang (a karaoke room) after that!! Not sure what's in store for Wednesday night, but we're definitely going to be celebrating for sure! And luckily for us, the next day is a bank holiday so we don't have school. Woohoo!

Our first round of pen pal letters came in from Camelot, so we're so excited! I already opened the package to see what was in there...and boy was I surprised!! Almost all the letters from the students were written in CURSIVE WRITING!! That wouldn't normally be a problem, but no one here can read them except me!! I passed a few around to the teachers, and even THEY were struggling with them. So, I asked Darren if he wanted me to type up the letters that were written in cursive, and he said..."I'll think about it. I have another idea." So I didn't worry about it.

Well, yesterday Darren told me that he wanted me to teach all my elementary and middle school speaking classes how to write in cursive. SO EXCITING!! The kids were ecstatic!! Even my classes that I expected would complain about the lesson ate it up! They were all little perfectionists and kept asking me to check their handwriting. Even when the bell rang for break, some of the students were still working hard on their handwriting, trying to finish. It was great!!

I don't know how well they'll be able to read their pen pal letters, but at least now they have the basics behind cursive writing! I'll definitely incorporate cursive writing into future lessons for those students who are interested and want some extra practice. Either way, I'll probably be reading tons of letters all day! :) That's alright. I'm just really excited for them to read their pen pal's responses.

BIG CHANGES.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. A new teacher at Johnny and Tommy’s school arrived on Friday, so we met her. Her name is Coleen, and she’s from Boulder, Colorado. Based on the stories she told us, she’s pretty much a world traveler. I think she will adapt just fine to Korea. We showed her around town a little bit, and got her acquainted with all the basic places she would need to know.

On Sunday night, Johnny, Coleen, Lisa, and I all went to Suwon Station for dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant, which was delicious!! That was my second time going, and it was just as good as the first time! It’s actually owned by people who are from Nepal, so the food isn’t REALLY Indian food like you would expect. It has a hint of Nepali in its flavors…Either way, it was yummy!

So, there are some big changes happening at my academy. Currently, there are 4 Korean teachers (Sue, Kate, Iris, and Jessica), and 2 foreign teachers (Amanda and me.) Sue and Kate’s contracts are ending on March 1^st, and they were asked to not re-sign new contracts. They are both excellent teachers, but the owner of the academy decided to just have four teachers total, 2 Korean, 2 foreign. The schedule is also changing a bit, and the classes are going to look completely different. It seems really overwhelming right now because I teach 8 classes a day with one break, so I’m not sure how my schedule will look beginning in March. I’ve talked to my boss, Darren, and he seems really optimistic about the new changes.

I decided a few months ago that I want to stay for another year here. This whole time I’ve been thinking of just re-signing another contract for this academy. I have had a wonderful experience here, the kids are great, Darren is really understanding and accommodating…everything has just been wonderful! Now that these new changes are taking place, I’m not quite sure how I will like it. Technically, I’m supposed to tell Darren in March whether I want to stay here another year or go elsewhere. I talked to him on Friday and asked him if I could have the entire month of March to decide. He agreed.

I’m hoping that these new changes will be really good for the academy and won’t be stressful, like I’m anticipating. I definitely want to stay here another year, but maybe I will have to start looking at other academies in the area. I think I’ll know pretty soon what my decision is. I’m really hoping I can stay here, but I don’t want to completely burn out. That will defeat the purpose of teaching overseas in the first place. It will ruin my experience if I’m constantly stressed out at work.

So...on THAT note, send some happy thoughts and prayers my way as I make a big decision!! I'm trying to stay positive about all this. Sue and Kate will leave on February 29, and our new semester begins March 2.

"Are you lonely?"

Yesterday began a week-long lesson about Interviewing. (I know I've talked about this in previous blogs, but it's that time again!) Our elementary students are given the opportunity to interview the foreign teachers and ask anything they want to. I told my students that I will answer any questions they ask (brave, right?!), except, "who is your favorite student in this class?" That question is completely off limits. It would normally be seen as a joke to ask that question, but because of the competitive school culture here, feelings would definitely be hurt since they are all striving to be the best and the favorite. Anyway, yesterday began Interviewing. These are a few favorites from yesterday:

-Do you think you're pretty?
-Do you have many money?
-If you don't eat, what is your feeling?
-Are you going to be a soldier?
-How old are you?
-If you want one age, what will it be? (This mean, if I could be any age right now, what age would I want to be.) :)

These were from all my classes across the day, but it was funny because they all had the same theme:

-Can you jump from your house window and not die?
-Can you dive from a building?
-Would you jump off the Eiffel Tower with no parachute?

In one of my favorite classes, a boy came to the front and asked, "What is your favorite picture?" After a little help from the rest of the class and some Korean being tossed around, I finally figured out that he was asking, what is my favorite pose in pictures? So it turned into a really funny few minutes of all the students standing up and making their favorite poses. I really wish I had my camera with me in THAT class!! (They're so photogenic and crazy that I'm sure they won't mind re-enacting it later this week.) That just NEEDS to be documented. :)

The last class I was in, one of my girls asked, "Are you lonely?" I was really caught off guard by this because I thought she was saying that I looked lonely or sad. But, when I asked for further explanation, she said that because I was living far away from home and couldn't see my family for a whole year, she thought I would be lonely. I told her that I had made many friends here and was still able to talk to my family and friends back home. It sparked a really great discussion about living abroad and traveling and being on their own. It was an older elementary class, so it was a very mature discussion. We went a little off topic, but it was a really productive rabbit trail. Those are always the best. :)

Cat Café.

On Saturday, I experienced my first “Cat Café.” These are all over Korea, but I have never had the opportunity to go to one and see it for myself. On Saturday morning, Amanda, Sarah, and I all met at 9:15am at the subway station, and headed to Seoul to do some shopping. (Friday was payday, so what better way to spend our money, right?!) We weren’t looking for anything in particular, just looking around for anything that we just couldn’t live without!

We hit up a few stores, and then met a new girl, Wendy. She’s basically a friend of a friend through Amanda. She’s only been in Korea for 2 weeks, so she hasn’t had the chance to make any friends or see any part of Korea. We met her, and she’s really great! She works for Hyundai, and is only here for 7 months on an internship. (Wendy is one of our few non-teacher friends, so we were pretty excited to meet her!) She’s Chinese-Canadian, and she’s around our age, mid-twenties. All four of us hit it off right away, so that’s good. We did some more shopping, and then grabbed some lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant. After that, came the Cat Café.

There are cat cafés all over Korea. (There are also dog cafés for those dog-lovers out there!) When we got there, we took our shoes off and slipped into some soft sandals they give you. We went up to the counter (which had a cat on it!), and paid. It was 8,000 won (about $7), and we ordered a drink, any coffee or tea that we wanted. (This was included in the price we paid at the door.) We sat down at a table in the corner, and gave the café workers our purses. There were about 15 cats wandering around the café. There were toys everywhere, boards nailed into the walls for the cats to climb on, sleeping crates and scratching posts around the room, it was basically a cat’s heaven. And while we had our drinks, the cats wandered around. We could pick them up and play with them, or hold them or feed them. Sigh…it was so wonderful.

So, my first cat café experience was a success!! You definitely have to be a cat person to appreciate cat cafés, but it was wonderful! I definitely want to go to another one in the future.