1.23.06, Monday; I have added a lot of pictures. You should look under apartment and school. I hope that you enjoy these.
This week I will go to Taiwan for a week!!!!! I am very excited. I miss Taiwan soooo much. When I return I will add more about my trip to Taiwan. Hopefully I will be able to take a lot of pictures and have a lot of fun.
1.16.06 Mom, If you are reading this Happy Birthday. I wish that you all the happiness in the next year.
As for me, I am busy as always. This weekend we will have our final presentation in my TESOL class. I am the one who will put that all together and perhaps present.
Classes are ok and I only have 1 more day of winter camp left. I will welcome the break from working so much. After tomorrow I will only work 2 hours a day!! And then I will have my week vacation to relax in Taiwan. Ohhh, so many plans when I get to Taiwan but mostly they include catching up on my rest and relaxing. I will do a bit of sightseeing, shopping and go to many many different coffee shops. In HamAn there are none!
I miss my friends and family and it has been even more difficult these days. I have had the TESOl class and haven’t been able to see my friends from Busan. Then all of my friends in HamAn went away because of the winter break. So it is a bit lonely here. However, that will all change in a week when I go to Taiwan and see some friends there!
Today, I arm wrestled the champion of HamAn Middle School. Hehehe, I beat him. He was a bit upset, but he will get over it. I do not think that anyone in school is going to hear about that from him!! I think it is funny. During the break he was arm wrestling everyone in the class to make up for the loss!!!!
Other than that, there is not a lot of news to report. This week I will be preparing for the final presentation and cleaning my apartment for the New Year. If you are reading this, leave a message and let me know how you are doing. I would love to hear from you.
1/12/2006 Thursday; This is the last group for winter camp. Kind of sad as during these past few weeks I have been able to help a few students at a time and really help them in the way I want to. I got to really know the students by their name (usually an English nickname!) but I got to know about them personally. I am going to miss that when we start classes again and there are 40 students in a class and I just have to say "Hey You SIT DOWN NOW!"
So, I will enjoy the last week. This class only has 9 kids and so it is a lot of fun and challenging. They study hard and finish many many things. We might even get to talk about New Year!!!
As for the TESOL class, only 2 more weeks left and I am so happy. I will be free and can finally do what I want to do. No more tests or studying. No more going to Busan and spending most of my weekend in that class with those ungrateful people. But I will not waste my time talking about that!
Last week I had an interesting happening. I came home one day and 4 kids rang my doorbell. I figured I could open it and find out what they wanted. They stayed for a while and wouldn’t leave. They were so rude I wanted to scream. And the ironic thing is that they brought some fruit (which they ate almost all of it) so I know that their parents sent them to play with the foreigner.
That wasn’t bad. The next day they rang my doorbell again. Remembering how hard it was to get rid of them I didn’t answer the door. They watched for me and then came 10 minutes after I came home. They stayed at my door for 10 minutes ringing the bell, banging on my door, calling my name until they finally left. Only to show up 10 minutes later and repeat the process.
This happened for 2 days, I just ignored them. Now they are gone. But the thing that bothers me the most is that the parents have to be telling the children to come. The children bring fruit to my house. That is a sign that they are sent, why would children bring fruit on their own?? And they are 7-10 years old. Why would someone my age want to be playing with children that I have no connection with or do not know in any other way.
I can understand the parents thinking that it is a good opportunity for their children but this kind of attitude leaves no respect for me as a person, as an individual. It is aggravating.
ok, enough about that. Focus on the good and forget about the negative. It is a learning experience and I will be more careful in the future. I have to get some things done so I am ready to go to Busan tomorrow and study! More later…
1.02.06 Well, Mary’s English Winter Camp is very interesting. It is funny because the students who came really want to learn (mostly want to play my games) and so they are energetic. They try really hard. Some of them are higher and some lower but they are good kids. I am having a lot of fun.
I did make a camp book but we didn’t really use it. We just used some and the rest of the time we just talked or played games together. Tomorrow is their last day, and then there will be another group of students.
These would be the group of 1st grade (middle school). It is an interesting mix of HamAn Middle School and BeopSu Middle School. HamAn boys are wild and crazy and BeopSu kids are quiet and reserved. I am looking forward to the other classes.
Let’s see. I should update my schedule now. I started high school classes during the winter. I can get 30$ an hour for these classes. It is not too bad as I can re-use my lessons for the middle school and just make them a little bit harder.
But a shocking thing happened when I went to class today. I went there thinking I would have to get to know 30 more students and found that more than half of them were my students from the middle school!!!! They are taking winter vacation classes to catch up on studying, these students study SOO MUCH it is crazy. And these students were accepted into the high school in March, that is when they graduate. So only half are new and I must get to know them!
Monday to Thursday: 9-1 HamAn Middle School Winter Camp; 2:30-4:30 HamAn High School winter camp
Friday: 9-1 HamAn Middle School Winter Camp; 2:30-3:30 HamAn High School Winter camp; 7-10 TESOL class
Saturday; 2-8 TESOL class
Good news though, the TESOL class will be over in 3 weeks and I will be a certified ESL teacher, not to mention I will have 12 graduate credits for this. So almost free!
I met the other Native speakers in HamAn, there are 3 here now. I met 2 of them and we had a wonderful time. They are so kind. I hope to meet the other one sometime soon. I think it is wonderful to have a support group, something that I have been missing here in HamAn. We are literally the only foreigners in HamAn county and so it can get lonely at times.
Another plan for after winter break would be a Korean/English language exchange with some of the teachers from my school. I am hoping to have them over to my house once a week to teach me Korean and I will teach them English. I need to learn more Korean, I know I have not had the proper time to spend on it because of the TESOL class but I am ready to move forward and learn as much as I can.
Promise to put more on here as soon as I can. I hope that everyone still comes here and reads this! I know I have been horrible with writing, I am trying to get on here and post more often. Love and miss you all,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May this year bring you lots of happiness and great things.
Mary
