I finally put up pictures of my apartment, so you can see them on my flckr account... it's very small, but I've become used to it and actually kinda really like it... Besides the plain white wash insane asylum walls, it isn't too bad :)
I also had my first birthday party in my kindergarten class which I was very excited about because I heard that they were pretty intense, and it was! It was Sally's birthday Wednesday, and so her mom brought in a huge cake, cookies, a whole box of tangerines or clementines or whatever they were, juice, and suckers. I got her a little gift thinking it would be so fun for her to get a present from her teacher, but all the other students brought a present and they were way cooler than mine... but hey, I guess it's the thought that counts (probably not though at 7 years old...) Another thing, they celebrate birthdays, but they don't actually become a year older... as good old wikipedia explains it... "Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year rather than the birthday, adds one year to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as one instead of zero, so that a person is two years old in their second year, three years old in their third, and so on" So my class is 7 but they're really like 5 or 6? A little confusing I think!
Regardless of age, we had a lot of fun with the birthday party!
On the next work related topic... I had my first breakdown at the school, luckily not in front of the kids. My first grade has just been really overwhelming and since the supervisor left (who sucked) I've been getting a ton of new stuff, which in the long run will be way easier and way better to teach but when it was all piled on in one day I just started crying in front of my new supervisor. Later, the head supervisor wanted to talk to me because she knew I had cried, so then of course I cried again... shocking, but they were really nice and comforting and actually the other two new teachers had already cried before me so at least I didn't feel as pathetic!
Anyways, off to Sokcho tomorrow which is on the East side of Korea for Seoraksan National Park for the three day weekend.
Happy October tomorrow everyone!
Love, Meghan
Friday, September 30, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
One month anniversary!
As of last Friday, I have officially been in Korea for one month! And boy did it go fast, I'm sure the next eleven will be slower as I get more and more into a routine, but still, I can't believe how fast it is going!
The past week at school was by far my most stressful week... With the supervisor leaving and everything, I was getting a lot of feedback and observations from the head supervisor and my new supervisor in my kindergarten and first grade classes. It wasn't anything negative, more just constructive and positive feedback but still, it made for a stressful week! Then on Saturday morning, I met the parents of my first graders during their meeting with the head supervisor. I mainly just had to say positive things about each child, and then they also asked for negative things or the things each child could work on, which I wasn't prepared for so that was a little stressful! But overall I think the meeting went well. Hopefully this upcoming week will go smoother...
A quick funny story...I have been running a lot more now that I'm more comfortable with my schedule but the other night when I was running I fell! As if I didn't stick out enough being a) a runner, and b) a white person... but they have these paths along the river that are almost like sport court material, or indoor track, I don't really know how to describe it, and it's completely flat for the majority of the run, literally... So I'm running into a new direction that I haven't gone before so I look up for literally a split second to read the sign to see what city I'm running towards and all of a sudden my foot hits something and I do an awkward half lunge type thing and use my hands sort of to just push myself back up. I laughed to myself and just kept running faster.. My knee's a little scraped up but I was more just embarrassed!
This weekend I didn't do too much, Friday night I was completely exhausted after the week so just hung out with a couple of the teachers and went to bed relatively early. A lot of people have been getting sick so I'm trying to be smart and not do anything to weaken my immune system either. At the school, you don't get any "sick" days...Saturday, after meeting the parents, we headed into Seoul for the FC Seoul soccer game! It was "Foreigner Night" at the game so almost all of the teachers at my school went, and a bunch of teachers we know from our area. It was only 10,000 won (so a little under 10 dollars) and you got a free beer and free hot dog with it so it was a pretty good deal! They played at the world cup stadium, but it was pretty empty. I don't know if it was because it was a 5pm game or maybe their games just aren't really that popular? Either way, the game was fun to watch, but they weren't very good, at least in my opinion. FC Seoul ended up winning 4-1 against Daejeon. It did really make me miss playing soccer though, and all my teammates back at GAC.
After the game, we headed back into Suji to go to a bar called Gecko's to celebrate one of the teacher's husbands birthday. It was a pretty nice bar and restaurant (and expensive) and since I was still feeling really tired and wary of getting sick, I just hung out, had some birthday cake, and we walked home about 1:00am. Her husband works for Samsung and so a lot of his co-workers were there also, and one of them was french! So I did actually speak french for a little bit, probably not well, but he was from Paris so it was nice to talk to someone about that and dust off my french skills at least a little.
From talking with the Samsung employees and just from other conversations, Koreans work very long hours. A lot of them leave at 8 in the morning and don't get home until after 9pm, except for Wednesdays which is "family day" and they get home around 6 or 7. The teacher's husband's boss even told him once, "Samsung comes before family, Samsung comes before wife..." which I think is pretty extreme! It's also quite hard for someone to work their way from the bottom to the top.
We have a three day weekend this upcoming weekend because of National Foundation day on Monday, so we are headed to Seoraksan National Park for a hiking trip along the different trails! I'm super excited for it especially if the weather stays how it has been this past week. It is still about 75-80 and sunny here, so that's one reason I'm glad I'm not in MN still! Everyone says fall is the best time of the year in Korea so I'm trying to do a lot right away since the winters get pretty cold here and summer is the rainy season, so it's pretty much now or never for some stuff! This is also our last vacation day until Christmas break... I don't know if I'll last! I counted (naturally I had to analyze it to death...) and we have 11 full weeks before Christmas after next's week four day week... That is a longgggg time! At least I'll be counting down to the Philippines which as of Saturday, was 3 months away!
I forgot to bring my camera to the game... so I'm going to get some emailed to me from other people and also put up pictures of my apartment this week hopefully, if not, I'll put up more pictures after our hiking trip :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Meghan
The past week at school was by far my most stressful week... With the supervisor leaving and everything, I was getting a lot of feedback and observations from the head supervisor and my new supervisor in my kindergarten and first grade classes. It wasn't anything negative, more just constructive and positive feedback but still, it made for a stressful week! Then on Saturday morning, I met the parents of my first graders during their meeting with the head supervisor. I mainly just had to say positive things about each child, and then they also asked for negative things or the things each child could work on, which I wasn't prepared for so that was a little stressful! But overall I think the meeting went well. Hopefully this upcoming week will go smoother...
A quick funny story...I have been running a lot more now that I'm more comfortable with my schedule but the other night when I was running I fell! As if I didn't stick out enough being a) a runner, and b) a white person... but they have these paths along the river that are almost like sport court material, or indoor track, I don't really know how to describe it, and it's completely flat for the majority of the run, literally... So I'm running into a new direction that I haven't gone before so I look up for literally a split second to read the sign to see what city I'm running towards and all of a sudden my foot hits something and I do an awkward half lunge type thing and use my hands sort of to just push myself back up. I laughed to myself and just kept running faster.. My knee's a little scraped up but I was more just embarrassed!
This weekend I didn't do too much, Friday night I was completely exhausted after the week so just hung out with a couple of the teachers and went to bed relatively early. A lot of people have been getting sick so I'm trying to be smart and not do anything to weaken my immune system either. At the school, you don't get any "sick" days...Saturday, after meeting the parents, we headed into Seoul for the FC Seoul soccer game! It was "Foreigner Night" at the game so almost all of the teachers at my school went, and a bunch of teachers we know from our area. It was only 10,000 won (so a little under 10 dollars) and you got a free beer and free hot dog with it so it was a pretty good deal! They played at the world cup stadium, but it was pretty empty. I don't know if it was because it was a 5pm game or maybe their games just aren't really that popular? Either way, the game was fun to watch, but they weren't very good, at least in my opinion. FC Seoul ended up winning 4-1 against Daejeon. It did really make me miss playing soccer though, and all my teammates back at GAC.
After the game, we headed back into Suji to go to a bar called Gecko's to celebrate one of the teacher's husbands birthday. It was a pretty nice bar and restaurant (and expensive) and since I was still feeling really tired and wary of getting sick, I just hung out, had some birthday cake, and we walked home about 1:00am. Her husband works for Samsung and so a lot of his co-workers were there also, and one of them was french! So I did actually speak french for a little bit, probably not well, but he was from Paris so it was nice to talk to someone about that and dust off my french skills at least a little.
From talking with the Samsung employees and just from other conversations, Koreans work very long hours. A lot of them leave at 8 in the morning and don't get home until after 9pm, except for Wednesdays which is "family day" and they get home around 6 or 7. The teacher's husband's boss even told him once, "Samsung comes before family, Samsung comes before wife..." which I think is pretty extreme! It's also quite hard for someone to work their way from the bottom to the top.
We have a three day weekend this upcoming weekend because of National Foundation day on Monday, so we are headed to Seoraksan National Park for a hiking trip along the different trails! I'm super excited for it especially if the weather stays how it has been this past week. It is still about 75-80 and sunny here, so that's one reason I'm glad I'm not in MN still! Everyone says fall is the best time of the year in Korea so I'm trying to do a lot right away since the winters get pretty cold here and summer is the rainy season, so it's pretty much now or never for some stuff! This is also our last vacation day until Christmas break... I don't know if I'll last! I counted (naturally I had to analyze it to death...) and we have 11 full weeks before Christmas after next's week four day week... That is a longgggg time! At least I'll be counting down to the Philippines which as of Saturday, was 3 months away!
I forgot to bring my camera to the game... so I'm going to get some emailed to me from other people and also put up pictures of my apartment this week hopefully, if not, I'll put up more pictures after our hiking trip :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Meghan
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Muuido.
After Chuseok last weekend we only had a three day week at school so that was a nice break. One of the Korean supervisors left this week, I'm not quite sure what the deal was, if she was fired or what not but I'm quite happy she is no longer there. A little background, there are five supervisors and they are the ones who make the lesson plans for us and act as the liaison basically between the parents and the teachers if there is something lost in translation or the parents have any concern. There are three that I really really like, two that are younger and sometimes are with us on the weekends and then the head supervisor who is older and really nice. The actual owner of the school I don't know very well and I don't see her much. So my kindergarten and first grade classes supervisor is the one that left, and so we got a new one on Thursday and I can already tell I'll like her so much better! The old one basically didn't do anything, and I would ask her for something and she would just say yeah, ok or something completely not assuring and then forget, so I'd have to ask her three more times...very frustrating to say the least! Other than that there is really nothing new at work.
Onto the fun part of the week... Friday night we just went to a bar called "The Underground" where one of the teachers was playing a show at (guitar and singing) so that was fun. It's usually a bar full of foreigners and some Koreans but the guy who owns it is really nice and knows the teachers from our school really well. I think its pretty safe to say that everyone's a regular there. On Saturday, we decided to go an island called Muuido which is just off the west coast right by Incheon (where the airport is). We left Saturday about noon, had to take one bus to the airport, another bus from the airport to the ferry, the ferry across literally 300 yards (I don't get why a bridge wouldn't be easier?) and then another bus from the ferry to the other side of the island to get to Hanagae Beach. It only cost about 20 bucks round trip though and maybe took about an hour and a half to get there? It was about 80 degrees in Suji (where I live) and sunny, but on the island it was a lot more overcast but still pretty warm. We went swimming but first you had to walk about 5-10 minutes just to get to the water from the beach because the tide was out. It was crazy! So basically all we did for the whole day was swam for a bit, got dinner, and drank and had a bonfire. We rented a little hut to sleep in which are only 30 bucks a night and they have pillows and blankets to use in them. There were some exchange students that we met on the bus so they stayed with us (girls in one hut and guys in the other) and then we met up with some different exchange students at night with the bonfire so we met a few English people, French, German, and one Australian. I spoke to some of the people from France but got too nervous to speak french! I could understand them sometimes though when they spoke so at least I got a little practice!
Sunday, it was actually sunny and warm so we laid out on the beach for a while before heading home. It may be the last time my face will actually get some color before the long winter so I had to soak it up while I could! Don't worry Mom, I did put sunscreen on my nose like a good child :)
Another full week ahead of teaching so nothing new there! Next weekend, they have a soccer game we're all going to because the tickets were only 10 dollars (I say dollars, but its really 10,000 won, which is about dollars, so I'm just putting everything in American prices)! I'm really excited to watch some soccer, I've been following Gustavus' season and I really really miss playing and everyone from the team. We also get a free beer and a free hot dog for foreigners! AND you can bring in any outside food or drinks, not like the Twins Stadium where a beer alone costs 7 dollars!
I heard it was getting pretty cold again in MN, well cold by my standards of fall weather... so I'm glad Korea is a little bit behind in that department. I haven't needed my coat yet which is nice!
This Friday the 23rd will officially be one month since I've been living here and it's finally starting to sink in actually, in a good way. Now I only have eleven months to learn more than just "hello" and "thank you" in Korean. We'll see....
Tootles!
Meghan
(pictures are updated also... http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/)
Onto the fun part of the week... Friday night we just went to a bar called "The Underground" where one of the teachers was playing a show at (guitar and singing) so that was fun. It's usually a bar full of foreigners and some Koreans but the guy who owns it is really nice and knows the teachers from our school really well. I think its pretty safe to say that everyone's a regular there. On Saturday, we decided to go an island called Muuido which is just off the west coast right by Incheon (where the airport is). We left Saturday about noon, had to take one bus to the airport, another bus from the airport to the ferry, the ferry across literally 300 yards (I don't get why a bridge wouldn't be easier?) and then another bus from the ferry to the other side of the island to get to Hanagae Beach. It only cost about 20 bucks round trip though and maybe took about an hour and a half to get there? It was about 80 degrees in Suji (where I live) and sunny, but on the island it was a lot more overcast but still pretty warm. We went swimming but first you had to walk about 5-10 minutes just to get to the water from the beach because the tide was out. It was crazy! So basically all we did for the whole day was swam for a bit, got dinner, and drank and had a bonfire. We rented a little hut to sleep in which are only 30 bucks a night and they have pillows and blankets to use in them. There were some exchange students that we met on the bus so they stayed with us (girls in one hut and guys in the other) and then we met up with some different exchange students at night with the bonfire so we met a few English people, French, German, and one Australian. I spoke to some of the people from France but got too nervous to speak french! I could understand them sometimes though when they spoke so at least I got a little practice!
Sunday, it was actually sunny and warm so we laid out on the beach for a while before heading home. It may be the last time my face will actually get some color before the long winter so I had to soak it up while I could! Don't worry Mom, I did put sunscreen on my nose like a good child :)
Another full week ahead of teaching so nothing new there! Next weekend, they have a soccer game we're all going to because the tickets were only 10 dollars (I say dollars, but its really 10,000 won, which is about dollars, so I'm just putting everything in American prices)! I'm really excited to watch some soccer, I've been following Gustavus' season and I really really miss playing and everyone from the team. We also get a free beer and a free hot dog for foreigners! AND you can bring in any outside food or drinks, not like the Twins Stadium where a beer alone costs 7 dollars!
I heard it was getting pretty cold again in MN, well cold by my standards of fall weather... so I'm glad Korea is a little bit behind in that department. I haven't needed my coat yet which is nice!
This Friday the 23rd will officially be one month since I've been living here and it's finally starting to sink in actually, in a good way. Now I only have eleven months to learn more than just "hello" and "thank you" in Korean. We'll see....
Tootles!
Meghan
(pictures are updated also... http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Chuseok!
This last week was my first full week of teaching! It went really well, the week flyssss by so fast especially with my slower days being Tuesday and Thursday! I left already 3 weeks ago today and I can't believe how fast it's gone.
We had a four day weekend because of the Korean holiday Chuseok, which is similar to our own Thanksgiving. At school on Friday we made Songpyeon with our kindergarten classes. Songpyeon is a rice flour dough that has semi sweet stuff in the middle, hard to explain but were pretty good! The Kindergartners also wore their traditional clothing called Hanbok, they all looked so adorable! I took quite a few pictures of them. I also got my first presents from the parents! The only boy in my Kindergarten's mom met me outside of my classroom and introduced herself, she handed me a bag and just kept saying its not much, its not much. I opened it right when I got into the office I was so excited, and it was a beautiful scarf. I'm already excited for winter (kind of...) but at least to just wear the scarf. My second present was from one of my first graders, a girl brought in these little cookie treats for me from the shop Paris Baguette. Such nice and thankful parents!
Friday after class, I didn't do much, just hung out with some of the other teachers and laid low because I had plans for all day Saturday and was really exhausted from our first full week at school.
Saturday, Rachel and I ventured into Seoul by ourselves, without any veteran help! We first went to Myeongdong which is a huge shopping area. I had such good self control for once and didn't buy anything! Even though a lot of their shops were full of cute clothing. We'll see how long that lasts. After Myeongdong, we pulled out our tourists maps and walked from there to Namdaemun street market. This is the place we originally wanted to go but got confused at first! The market had EVERYTHING, food, clothes, accessories, household items, everything. It was very overwhelming, and again I had very good self control and just bought some decorative chopsticks and a present for Molly that I'll send home for Christmas once I figure out what to buy everyone else! Lastly, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a village set up to show what traditional way of life in Korea is like. They had a lot of activities going on there because of the holiday, like painting masks or making a flute. I wanted to make a flute, but they were closing down when I got there... which is probably a good thing because what really would I have done with it? After our long day, Rachel and I got dinner with a couple of teachers that were in Seoul to go to a concert that night then we made our way back home. Our first trip to Seoul and back alone was a success! We had a little trouble finding the subway but everyone was super nice whenever we asked for help. Even when we were waiting to meet our friends in the subway, people asked where we needed to go, thinking we were lost! We left for Seoul around 11 and got back around 10:30pm so I was pretty exhausted and went to bed!
Sunday, after sleeping in for quite some time, we had a movie day at Chad's apartment. We watched a french movie called Un Prophete, about this guy in prison that was really good, and also In Bruges, with Colin Farrell, which I had never heard of but really liked it. I also tried Spam for the first time, or the Korean brand of it. They have a lot of Spam here. It actually wasn't that bad, but I don't think I'll be running out to buy more. Another laid back day, and after dinner, went to bed again.
Monday, we woke up and went hiking again, this time up a much less intense mountain, that was just in Suji, so only about fifteen minutes away. It wasn't as nice of a day and with this mountain significantly smaller, it wasn't busy at all so it was nice to be in a more serene place than the city all the time. After hiking, everyone took a nap and met up later for dinner and to celebrate one of the teacher's, Laura, birthday. She turned 30 so it was a "Death to my Twenties" party and everyone had to wear black. We went out in Hongdae which is in Seoul. It was really fun, and luckily this time we took a taxi back instead of waiting for the bus at 6am!
Now it is Tuesday, and I'm preparing for a nice short 3 day week! I made fried rice today for lunch/dinner and for a first attempt it wasn't so bad! I needed to switch it up from cereal and spaghetti. Otherwise, I haven't done much at all, and at 4pm am still wearing my pajamas! We get so little vacation time throughout the year, I need to take advantage of it. Our next day off is October 3rd, for a 3 day weekend, but then we have full weeks until Christmas break! Which is only 3 months and a week away until the Philippines and Danny is here! So exciting...
I added more pictures to my flickr account too, you can see my adorable children celebrating Chuseok!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Missing everyone!
Love, Meghan
We had a four day weekend because of the Korean holiday Chuseok, which is similar to our own Thanksgiving. At school on Friday we made Songpyeon with our kindergarten classes. Songpyeon is a rice flour dough that has semi sweet stuff in the middle, hard to explain but were pretty good! The Kindergartners also wore their traditional clothing called Hanbok, they all looked so adorable! I took quite a few pictures of them. I also got my first presents from the parents! The only boy in my Kindergarten's mom met me outside of my classroom and introduced herself, she handed me a bag and just kept saying its not much, its not much. I opened it right when I got into the office I was so excited, and it was a beautiful scarf. I'm already excited for winter (kind of...) but at least to just wear the scarf. My second present was from one of my first graders, a girl brought in these little cookie treats for me from the shop Paris Baguette. Such nice and thankful parents!
Friday after class, I didn't do much, just hung out with some of the other teachers and laid low because I had plans for all day Saturday and was really exhausted from our first full week at school.
Saturday, Rachel and I ventured into Seoul by ourselves, without any veteran help! We first went to Myeongdong which is a huge shopping area. I had such good self control for once and didn't buy anything! Even though a lot of their shops were full of cute clothing. We'll see how long that lasts. After Myeongdong, we pulled out our tourists maps and walked from there to Namdaemun street market. This is the place we originally wanted to go but got confused at first! The market had EVERYTHING, food, clothes, accessories, household items, everything. It was very overwhelming, and again I had very good self control and just bought some decorative chopsticks and a present for Molly that I'll send home for Christmas once I figure out what to buy everyone else! Lastly, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a village set up to show what traditional way of life in Korea is like. They had a lot of activities going on there because of the holiday, like painting masks or making a flute. I wanted to make a flute, but they were closing down when I got there... which is probably a good thing because what really would I have done with it? After our long day, Rachel and I got dinner with a couple of teachers that were in Seoul to go to a concert that night then we made our way back home. Our first trip to Seoul and back alone was a success! We had a little trouble finding the subway but everyone was super nice whenever we asked for help. Even when we were waiting to meet our friends in the subway, people asked where we needed to go, thinking we were lost! We left for Seoul around 11 and got back around 10:30pm so I was pretty exhausted and went to bed!
Sunday, after sleeping in for quite some time, we had a movie day at Chad's apartment. We watched a french movie called Un Prophete, about this guy in prison that was really good, and also In Bruges, with Colin Farrell, which I had never heard of but really liked it. I also tried Spam for the first time, or the Korean brand of it. They have a lot of Spam here. It actually wasn't that bad, but I don't think I'll be running out to buy more. Another laid back day, and after dinner, went to bed again.
Monday, we woke up and went hiking again, this time up a much less intense mountain, that was just in Suji, so only about fifteen minutes away. It wasn't as nice of a day and with this mountain significantly smaller, it wasn't busy at all so it was nice to be in a more serene place than the city all the time. After hiking, everyone took a nap and met up later for dinner and to celebrate one of the teacher's, Laura, birthday. She turned 30 so it was a "Death to my Twenties" party and everyone had to wear black. We went out in Hongdae which is in Seoul. It was really fun, and luckily this time we took a taxi back instead of waiting for the bus at 6am!
Now it is Tuesday, and I'm preparing for a nice short 3 day week! I made fried rice today for lunch/dinner and for a first attempt it wasn't so bad! I needed to switch it up from cereal and spaghetti. Otherwise, I haven't done much at all, and at 4pm am still wearing my pajamas! We get so little vacation time throughout the year, I need to take advantage of it. Our next day off is October 3rd, for a 3 day weekend, but then we have full weeks until Christmas break! Which is only 3 months and a week away until the Philippines and Danny is here! So exciting...
I added more pictures to my flickr account too, you can see my adorable children celebrating Chuseok!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Missing everyone!
Love, Meghan
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Teaching and the Weekend!
So I officially started teaching Wednesday, August 31st!
My schedule for the day is...
10-12:30 is Kindergarten. I have five girls and one boy.
12:30-1:30 is lunch
1:30-2:20 is Kindergarten (but depending on the day they have different activities...Monday is a game, Tuesday is song and chant, Wednesday is art, Thursday is "science" (not really...) and Friday they have oral quizzes so pretty much just play time!)
2:30 to 3:50 is first grade
Kindergarten and first grade I have everyday, Monday through Friday. I took a picture of my first grade class but forgot the rest!
Then..
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 3 different classes in the afternoon.
From 4:00 to 4:45, I teach science. It's just a class of four boys.
From 4:50 to 5:35, I teach Social Studies which is one girl and 3 boys.
From 5:40 to 6:20 (my last class) I go back to my class of four boys and do grammar and writing.
Tuesday and Thursday, after kinder and first grade, I actually a free hour from 4:00 to 5:00 which is nice! Then I have class preparation time from 5:00 to 6:00 and then I teach Social Studies and Writing from 6:00 to 6:40 (it's a different social studies text than my class on MWF). This class has four boys and five girls, my biggest of all my classes!
The supervisors at the school gave us all of the materials that we need to teach and go through everyday but it was still pretty hard the first day! The kids are all PRETTY well behaved but still, there is a lot of, "Sit back down please"..."PLEASE". Especially by the end of the day! Korean children go to school wayyy longer than we do in the US. They go to their Korean school in the morning, and then come to our school to learn English. Then most of them have piano, dance, or tae kwon do, or pretty much some other actvity where they aren't done with everything until about 9pm, when they start their homework, go to bed and do it all over again the next day! I don't know how they do it. There is really no punishment for not doing your homework at our school. The only threat or rewards are "stickers". So every class, you put the student's names on the board and then add stars to their name or erase them if they're being bad (or at least threaten to). Then at the end you just mark on a sheet how many stickers they got that class and once they fill up a sheet, they get an ACTUAL sticker. The stickers are traded in for "market day" for money which is only twice a year! Even though I don't really see the motivation to do anything just for some stickers, it somehow works!
Wednesday through Friday went pretty smoothly and actually went by reallyyy fast! I think my first grade is my least favorite... sadly. They seemed great the first day but they are just realllyyyy hyper and one girl just likes to get out of her chair and start doing whatever! It's frustrating but we'll see!
Friday night after class, almost all of the teachers went over to one girl's apartment for fried rice dinner and drinks. It was delicious! We just hung out the rest of the night since we had plans to go hiking Saturday morning.
Saturday, we left at 9:30, and it took about an hour and a half or so to get to the mountain we were hiking by bus and subway. It was a gorgeous day out! I'm SO glad we didn't go out the night before. There were 7 of us hiking and it was sooo hard. My body hasn't been that exhausted in a long time. It was just constant incline for about 3 hours?? Some parts had rockish stairs and other parts I was using my hands to get up, which was nice to give my legs a break! There were a ton of people on the mountain and they were way more prepared! Everyone had legit hiking boots, long legging pants, long sleeve shirts, walking poles and huge visors. They also packed food and you'd see groups resting and eating a full lunch. I didn't think the outfits were necessary but I would have liked a pole once in a while in some spots! Despite the difficulty, it was definitely worth it! The view was absolutely gorgeous (I took a lot of pictures!). We ate lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and finally got back into Suji about 9:00. It was a very long day but a wonderful one. After a much needed shower, we all met up to celebrate one girl's move to a new apartment and went out in Suji. It was a lot of fun with everyone, and the bartender was nice enough to play Justin Bieber for me, not once, but twice at the bar... I may have annoyed everyone else, but I was in a good state not to care.... anyways :)
Sunday, I took it easy and just hung out in my apartment and FINALLY went grocery shopping. It took probably ten times longer to buy ten times less stuff than it would at home! I just kept wandering the aisles not knowing what a lot of stuff was! But at least I can start making some food at home and not spend it on going out to eat! Sunday, one of the other teachers at a different taught a couple of us how to read Korean. It will help but if I don't know what the word means once I sound it out, I'll still be lost! I looked up some free Korean classes and I'm going to try to go to one Saturday though! At least to know how to order food, which is the most important in my opinion!
Monday was just another day at work! The kids were better behaved, they must have just been excited it was Friday which is understandable! And maybe they realize how mean I am now.. haha just kidding, well hopefully. Then after work, one of the teachers, Chad, decided to start "Movie Mondays" at his apartment. So we went over after work, got some pizza, and watched "Oldboy", a Korean movie. It was disturbing and sad but really good. Very similar style as Kill Bill, so if you think of Quentin Tarantino, and put it in Korean, that's what it was like!
Tuesday (today) is my slow day with the break and class prep so it went pretty well! I got home and made my first meal in my apartment...spaghetti, ha. And cleaned and organized some more of my stuff. I finally have internet but I'm STILL waiting on a wardrobe so I'm living out of my suitcase still! They measured my apartment today to make sure it'll fit so I'm hoping this week. When it's all finished I'll finally put up pictures! I have one of the smaller apartments but I guess it'll save on energy costs like heating and cooling, so its ok!
Here are some of my pictures so far... Since I don't know how to add pictures on my blog (all the instructions are in Korean and I can't remember how I did it in France) I thought it'd be better anyway to just make a flickr account. That way I can put way more pictures up anyway! Hopefully this works?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Almost forgot, on a very exciting note, I'm going to the Philippines for Christmas break! We really only get two weeks vacation out of the whole year, and Christmas break is one of them. I think 7 or 8 of the teachers are going and I'm also lucky because Danny will be coming with me! I think it'll be a good way to be distracted from not being home in MN during Christmas with everyone if I'm on a beach and swimming and hiking in the Philippines instead! So...something to look forward to!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
My schedule for the day is...
10-12:30 is Kindergarten. I have five girls and one boy.
12:30-1:30 is lunch
1:30-2:20 is Kindergarten (but depending on the day they have different activities...Monday is a game, Tuesday is song and chant, Wednesday is art, Thursday is "science" (not really...) and Friday they have oral quizzes so pretty much just play time!)
2:30 to 3:50 is first grade
Kindergarten and first grade I have everyday, Monday through Friday. I took a picture of my first grade class but forgot the rest!
Then..
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 3 different classes in the afternoon.
From 4:00 to 4:45, I teach science. It's just a class of four boys.
From 4:50 to 5:35, I teach Social Studies which is one girl and 3 boys.
From 5:40 to 6:20 (my last class) I go back to my class of four boys and do grammar and writing.
Tuesday and Thursday, after kinder and first grade, I actually a free hour from 4:00 to 5:00 which is nice! Then I have class preparation time from 5:00 to 6:00 and then I teach Social Studies and Writing from 6:00 to 6:40 (it's a different social studies text than my class on MWF). This class has four boys and five girls, my biggest of all my classes!
The supervisors at the school gave us all of the materials that we need to teach and go through everyday but it was still pretty hard the first day! The kids are all PRETTY well behaved but still, there is a lot of, "Sit back down please"..."PLEASE". Especially by the end of the day! Korean children go to school wayyy longer than we do in the US. They go to their Korean school in the morning, and then come to our school to learn English. Then most of them have piano, dance, or tae kwon do, or pretty much some other actvity where they aren't done with everything until about 9pm, when they start their homework, go to bed and do it all over again the next day! I don't know how they do it. There is really no punishment for not doing your homework at our school. The only threat or rewards are "stickers". So every class, you put the student's names on the board and then add stars to their name or erase them if they're being bad (or at least threaten to). Then at the end you just mark on a sheet how many stickers they got that class and once they fill up a sheet, they get an ACTUAL sticker. The stickers are traded in for "market day" for money which is only twice a year! Even though I don't really see the motivation to do anything just for some stickers, it somehow works!
Wednesday through Friday went pretty smoothly and actually went by reallyyy fast! I think my first grade is my least favorite... sadly. They seemed great the first day but they are just realllyyyy hyper and one girl just likes to get out of her chair and start doing whatever! It's frustrating but we'll see!
Friday night after class, almost all of the teachers went over to one girl's apartment for fried rice dinner and drinks. It was delicious! We just hung out the rest of the night since we had plans to go hiking Saturday morning.
Saturday, we left at 9:30, and it took about an hour and a half or so to get to the mountain we were hiking by bus and subway. It was a gorgeous day out! I'm SO glad we didn't go out the night before. There were 7 of us hiking and it was sooo hard. My body hasn't been that exhausted in a long time. It was just constant incline for about 3 hours?? Some parts had rockish stairs and other parts I was using my hands to get up, which was nice to give my legs a break! There were a ton of people on the mountain and they were way more prepared! Everyone had legit hiking boots, long legging pants, long sleeve shirts, walking poles and huge visors. They also packed food and you'd see groups resting and eating a full lunch. I didn't think the outfits were necessary but I would have liked a pole once in a while in some spots! Despite the difficulty, it was definitely worth it! The view was absolutely gorgeous (I took a lot of pictures!). We ate lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and finally got back into Suji about 9:00. It was a very long day but a wonderful one. After a much needed shower, we all met up to celebrate one girl's move to a new apartment and went out in Suji. It was a lot of fun with everyone, and the bartender was nice enough to play Justin Bieber for me, not once, but twice at the bar... I may have annoyed everyone else, but I was in a good state not to care.... anyways :)
Sunday, I took it easy and just hung out in my apartment and FINALLY went grocery shopping. It took probably ten times longer to buy ten times less stuff than it would at home! I just kept wandering the aisles not knowing what a lot of stuff was! But at least I can start making some food at home and not spend it on going out to eat! Sunday, one of the other teachers at a different taught a couple of us how to read Korean. It will help but if I don't know what the word means once I sound it out, I'll still be lost! I looked up some free Korean classes and I'm going to try to go to one Saturday though! At least to know how to order food, which is the most important in my opinion!
Monday was just another day at work! The kids were better behaved, they must have just been excited it was Friday which is understandable! And maybe they realize how mean I am now.. haha just kidding, well hopefully. Then after work, one of the teachers, Chad, decided to start "Movie Mondays" at his apartment. So we went over after work, got some pizza, and watched "Oldboy", a Korean movie. It was disturbing and sad but really good. Very similar style as Kill Bill, so if you think of Quentin Tarantino, and put it in Korean, that's what it was like!
Tuesday (today) is my slow day with the break and class prep so it went pretty well! I got home and made my first meal in my apartment...spaghetti, ha. And cleaned and organized some more of my stuff. I finally have internet but I'm STILL waiting on a wardrobe so I'm living out of my suitcase still! They measured my apartment today to make sure it'll fit so I'm hoping this week. When it's all finished I'll finally put up pictures! I have one of the smaller apartments but I guess it'll save on energy costs like heating and cooling, so its ok!
Here are some of my pictures so far... Since I don't know how to add pictures on my blog (all the instructions are in Korean and I can't remember how I did it in France) I thought it'd be better anyway to just make a flickr account. That way I can put way more pictures up anyway! Hopefully this works?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Almost forgot, on a very exciting note, I'm going to the Philippines for Christmas break! We really only get two weeks vacation out of the whole year, and Christmas break is one of them. I think 7 or 8 of the teachers are going and I'm also lucky because Danny will be coming with me! I think it'll be a good way to be distracted from not being home in MN during Christmas with everyone if I'm on a beach and swimming and hiking in the Philippines instead! So...something to look forward to!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
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