Sunday, November 4, 2012

New Structure and Updates!

So this blog has been kind of a fail lately.  Oops.  Sorry!!!  I really meant to write a few days but I always seem to put it off and find other things to do. I think I am going to restructure this so rather than writing my usual novel-length entries, it is short tidbits every couple of days.  A few ETAs are using this structure and they stick with it soooo hopefully that will work for me!

For today, I will just give the highlights of things I have done since last time (Chuseok):
  •  Teaching has been great!  I have done lessons about careers and jobs, natural disasters(filler/catch everyone up lesson), last week I did elections to commemorate the upcoming US and Korean presidential elections, and this week I am continuing this theme and we are going to learn about government and specifically laws.  
  • My club class has been good, but I feel like I need to put a lot more time into it.  It is hard to tell if the students are interested or think it is worth the time.  Then again, it is early in the morning and three days a week so perhaps this explains the lack of enthusiasm.
  • We are planning our winter camp!  It is coming up at the beginning of January.  I am trying to get a theme down this week so I'll let you know about that.  It is actually a 4day 3night camp which is highly unusual for ETAs so I think I am actually pretty lucky because I will get to know the students a lot better and see them outside of a classroom setting.  And I get to bring 3 ETA friends with me to help teach!
  • I went to Mokpo for a dinner and visit with my friends.  Mokpo is about 1.5 hours away.  Seemed like a neat city but I didn't get to stay too long unfortunately.  And the bus ride back took forever cuz we stopped at a bunch of different small cities along the way! It was so annoying but it was worth it so see my buddies!
  • Speaking of seeing buddies, we all had our first conference in Gyeongju!  It was sooo nice to see everyone and to catch up with each other.  We also had a lot of great sessions and got lots of great advice from my peers.  I went to sessions ranging from Money Management to Planning Winter Camps.  It was a great conference and it makes me excited for the next one...on Jeju Island!
  • The last major trip I went on was to Seoul last weekend.  I went with a few friends and we had a mini class reunion with our Korean teachers from Orientation!  It was so great to see them! I reallly miss my Korean teachers and I am sure you know from my last few posts that I am quite fond of them. I will probably see them again sometime during winter break.
  • Speaking of winter break, I landed myself an internship!  I am going to teach a couple of extra-curricular classes at Pusan National University in Busan.  I was thinking I wanted to live in Seoul for the break, but this internship seemed like a great fit.  The only issue right now is housing.  They offered a place in a guesthouse/hotel for $45.00 a night!  I was pretty shocked because we planned that I would be there for 4-6 weeks.  Yikes.  So we are trying to find a more affordable option because that will definitely NOT work, especially since I am not allowed to be paid.  Hopefully I will find something that won't completely break the bank!
  • Next Sunday I will be running in the Suncheon Marathon/5k.  I am obviously doing the 5k part because I am not crazy and silly enough to put myself through a marathon.  I am running with a few of my gym friends.  I am totally loving my gym and I am so sad that I will not see them for two months during the winter!  I always look forward to walking down the stairs to the gym and hearing the music blasting away and cringing everytime I see the WOD (Workout of the Day) on the board.  It's great though and always a ton of variety which helps!
  • I went to my first Korean wedding two weekends ago with my homestay mother.  It was definitely a lot different than American weddings.  It is very fast paced with a few different weddings going on at once and everyone was talking through the ceremony.  There wasn't a reception afterwards, but instead just a huge buffet lunch and we were back home by 4.  A lot different, but good!
I think those are the major happenings lately.  Next major thing I have to do is figure out winter break travel plans, if any.  I might just hang around Korea and travel throughout here instead since I will be in Busan for a decent amount of time, but who knows!  I don't have basically anything set in stone which is bad since ticket prices are probably going up.  If I were to travel, it wouldn't be until the end of Feb so I still have some time I suppose.

Okay now with a new format in mind, I think I will be good to go with the blogging world.  Thanks for putting up with it!  If you ever want to know what's going on, you can always just facebook or email me too!  I am much quicker with that haha.

Hope things are good!

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