My Blog

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

12.20.05 Recently there have been a bunch of tests followed by papers due in my TESOL class. I keep on focusing on the fact that once this is over (in 5 weeks) that I will have my life back and I will also be certified. That is the only thing that keeps me going. It is a very intensive class. Would have been easier to do an online class!

Not to mention that the people in that class are a HUGE stress in my life right now. They are only concerned with their grades and are very rude to me. I find that I want to scream at them but instead I just walk away and do not think about it.

However, one good thing came from this class. I met Jeniffer. She is a little bit older than me but feels like I have found a good friend in her. I am grateful for her, she lets me stay in her house and takes care of me. It is nice to find someone like that.

School is great. The students are learning more and more each day. I find that there are so many students that want to talk to me. One of the greatest feelings is when they talk to me for a few minutes and can have a conversation with me without too many problems. They are still learning and have a long way to go but it makes me feel good to know that I am teaching them something.

This would be Seth, he is in class 2-1 and he is one of the kindest students that I know. He has been talking to me since I came here. His English has improved a lot. Yes, some of the students are taller than me!!

There are a lot of kind students here. I will miss it when I leave. I am used to seeing "my boys" everyday and they have become like friends to me. They are country boys and so there is an innocent to them that can’t be found in a bigger place. Perhaps it is a blessing that I was put in the country!

This would be my extra class. Yes, they are very energetic. They have challenged me. I have to make activities that require them to move around and be active while learning. But it has been fun. They are the lower level but now they can speak and understand just as well as the high level.

So there are a few pictures for you. Hope you enjoy them. When my TESOL class is over and I have my life back I will write more.

Current schedule:

Monday: 9-1 BeopSu Middle School, 1-4:30 HamAn Middle School.

Tuesday: 9-4:30 HamAn Middle School; 5:20-6:30 dinner with the high school teachers; 6:30-8:30 High School class

Wednesday: 9-4:30 HamAn Middle School

Thursday: 9-4:30 HamAn Middle School; 5:20-6:30 dinner with the high school teachers; 6:30-8:30 High School class

Friday: 9-3:30 HamAn Middle School; Then to ChangWon, dinner there and then go to class. 7-10 TESOL class

Saturday: 2-8pm TESOL class.

Sunday: Rest!!!

February 4th is graduation day!! And next week is winter break, so I will only have winter camp to teach. That means I will only be in HamAn Middle School from 9-1!!

Talk to you soon,

Mary

11.07.2005, Monday; Well, I have been teaching for 2 months. I didn’t really have a lot of time to post anything on here. I imagine people have forgotten about me and don’t look on here anymore! I want to say sorry. I have been trying to get used to making lessons and teaching.

Things are better. I now have an apartment here and live by myself. It is peaceful. I do get lonely at times, but it is better than before. Soon there will be some new teachers coming here and that will be nice. I look forward to it.

As for my classes, there are actually a lot of boys now that are on my cyworld (the Korean friendster) and they write to me all the time. I have students talk to me all the time. There are still the problems with discipline and everything but at least it is getting a little bit better.

Can you believe that some of these students don’t even know simple commands in English?? I will be trying out my lesson on commands soon so they can learn what to do when I say "Open your book to page 100."!!!!!!!!!!!

As for everything else, I am half way done with the TESOL class. And I can’t wait until it is completely over. Then I can focus on getting the lesson plans done and having some time for myself.

I will be posting some photos of my apartment on here soon for you to see. Hope to hear from everyone soon. Miss all of you.

Mary

09.05.2005 Monday; well it was my second day of teaching. Let me tell you, I have a newly found respect for Korean teachers. There are on average 40 kids in the class and the classes are not the most well behaved. It is a difficult task to teach and have to deal with the discipline. To take care of this, I am looking for games to play with my students to have them learn without actually thinking that they are learning.

I went to another middle school today where I was greeted with open arms. There are only 60 kids in the 3 grades. That means there are about 20 kids per grade. That was a wonderful switch from the 40. And the teachers and everyone were eager to talk to me and find out about me. The principal had me come into his office about 10 times to talk to me during the break and offered me coffee and some snacks. The students in this class have really never met a foreigner in their life, and so they were anxious to ask me questions and find out about me. I can tell that Monday will be a good day for me.

As for the Haman Boys Middle School, it continues to be an adventure. There are 4 English teachers there and they each have their own style and expectations of me. The overlying fact is that they want me to take full control and teach everything. It is going to be an interesting task. I am not sure if I will be doing this for more than a year!

I would prefer to go back to teaching at the adult level. And although everyone tells me teaching adults is harder (they are a group of your peers and can choose not to be there) I find it more comfortable. Either that or in an organization that has to do with EFL.

I am still in the homestay and things are still the same for me here. I feel like an alien here in a place where no foreigner has ever been to before. And I doubt many will come after me.

Tomorrow is my third day teaching and the board of education has plans to watch me teach. The problem is that they chose to watch the new English teacher and I, so we have no idea what to expect. I spent most of my afternoon preparing for this situation and now I feel I am better prepared to make lesson plans in the future. God bless my co-teacher, she is the sanity to this entire thing!

Will keep you updated as more happens to me.

08.30.05 Tuesday;

Well, I am in HamAn right now. I am in a homestay and live with 2 other people. There would be a mother and her daughter, the daughter is a little bit older than me and she works in the school’s office. I have my own room but everything else is shared.

I have been here for a few days. There is not much here. I asked the other day where I could find a coffee shop…. but they do not have any here. Yes, I am totally serious… no coffee shops here.

I went to the TESOL course orientation yesterday with a teacher from ChangWon. She will give me a ride to Busan every Friday.

Other than that I do not have any more details at the time. I will go into work sometime this week and meet everyone there. So I will write more when I know something. And yes, I do have internet right now, so some news would be really nice.

08.19.05 Friday; Well everyone, I am currently attending the training program for EPIK (English Program in Korea), or as you might know of it the place where I will be working next month. It has been an interesting past few days, I have met a lot of people here. I believe there are over 100 people here. And we are just trying to figure out what is going on.

Next Wednesday, we will meet with some higher ups and find out the exact details of what is going on. But for the most part, I am just enjoying myself and not worrying about anything else. They have classes on culture, language, teaching techniques and a field trip. Right now, I am in my room because they are taking a Korean class. These are basic classes in the language and I have already gone through this.

I am suppose to be doing an alternate activity (like studying or reading the lessons) but to be honest, I wanted to write this message in the hopes of hearing from everyone back home. I wouldn’t call it homesickness, but I would say that with this challenge ahead of me I am thinking a lot about everyone back home. Back home, or even in Taiwan and the rest of the world… I have a lot of wonderful friends that would always listen to me and take the time to care. I miss you guys. Will write more as soon as I can.

I want to let everyone know what my schedule is like for the next month. So if you do not hear from me, you will not be shocked!

August 12: end of Korean class

August 13-15: Seoul (August 14: Chris goes back home)

August 16: finish packing and preparing for the move

August 17-26: training class for work

August 27: moving day

August 29: Orientation for the TESOL course

September 2: start of the TESOL course

~September 9: start work

After I move, I will be setting up internet in my new place. And then I will let everyone know. So please do not be shocked if you do not hear from me for the next month. I am not sure if I will be able to have internet access, or how much I will be able to actually use it for the next month.

Everything is fine here, and I hope to hear from you soon.

08-01-05; Monday we went to Japan. It was an interesting trip, as it was the first time I took a boat to another country. Johnson, Chris and I all went there. While we were on the boat, Johnson found his friend. It is kind of ironic that he would find a friend on the boat, I know he always finds friends when we go out in Busan but this one was really strange.

Then we just got to Fukuoka and took a bus to our hotel. We ate curry at a local restaurant and then had a few beers. Japanese beer is so smooth, it goes down and it so refreshing. I have never had a beer like that.

Then a few beers at the hotel, and off to sleep.

08-02-05 Tuesday; Today we woke up kind of late and so we just ate instant noodles in the hotel. We missed breakfast, and I was looking forward to a western style breakfast for a while now. Maybe tomorrow we can eat that.

We first went to buy tickets for the game. That would be the most important thing for Chris and Johnson. They are very excited about going to a game here in Japan. I just want to go to the beach! Found the Korean embassy, it is right next to the baseball Dome. And it was pretty easy to get that finished. Tomorrow I can pick my visa up!

Then we went to a park in Fukuoka, Ohori Park. It was beautiful. And one thing I noticed is that Japan is a very clean country. There are only a few secluded places where you can see a little bit of garbage thrown around.

The fish that were in the water were about 4 times the size of the fish I have seen before. And they even had cleaning boats that would go around and clean up the water and take the garbage out. It was really amazing.

Then we walked some more and made our way to the Castle Ruins. But to be honest, there wasn’t a lot there. Maybe later on they will find more things to put in there, but as for right now they do not have a lot. I wouldn’t go back there.

After that, we walked around. We went to a nice shopping area where we found some traditional Japanese things. That took us a few hours!! And on the way back home, we found a temple in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to go there and see what it was. It was nice. The temples here are simple, but so nice.

And then we finally made it back to the hotel and ate at a ramien place. The second we walked in I was kind of nervous because there was this smell. But we decided to order and when the food came, I couldn’t even eat mine. Johnson and Chris’ were not that bad. Luckily we had dumplings, so I wasn’t starving.

After that, we went to a bar nearby. It was a small bar, but the food was really good. And once again the beer was so smooth. 3 beers, and 2 small side dishes cost around $30 US!! So expensive here.

Then back to the hotel and drank some more beers.

08-03-05, Wednesday; woke up in time for breakfast in the hotel: western style breakfast!!! Really delicious, and buffet style. I loved it. Then we went to the embassy to pick up my new visa. And the beach, which was right next to the embassy. The beach in Fukuoka doesn’t have as many people as the one in Busan, so I really enjoyed myself. We stayed for 4 hours and just relaxed. The water was clean, and the beach was not crowded. Then we bought a gift for Chance, my sweet dog… I miss her.

Next to the beach they had a lunch box place, and we ate there. It was really good and not so expensive. Then to the Fukuoka Tower where we got to see the entire city. It was just like the towers in Taiwan and Korea.

And then we went to see the Softbank Hawks play. The statium is actually a dome, my first time in a dome statium. The seats were really small, if my butt were an inch bigger it wouldn’t fit!! But the game itself was really exciting. This team is the number 1 team in their division. Not only did they play, they also had a group of cheerleaders, and some characters to entertain us. The Softbank Hawks won, and they had 3 homeruns. After the game they had a fancy post-game show, with fireworks as well. And then at the very end, the dome opened up. Now I know why the tickets were so expensive.

Then back to the hotel, ate dinner in the same restaurant as the first day… and had a few beers in the hotel. Another wonderful day.

08-04-05, Thursday; We ate breakfast in the hotel. Then we went to a Folk Museum, it was extremely small. But they had some things in there of interest. It was better than the castle ruins!! We walked around and saw traditional music being played, and an old artform of making cloth. Then we went to a temple next to this place. It is actually an ancestoral temple, but it is amazing how even the smallest temple here looks so beautiful and unique. It is totally different from the one we saw the other night.

Then we went to Canal City, which is a shopping area to eat lunch. There was another lunch box style place, and so it was inexpensive but really delicious. I will miss the food here! Then we decided that we had seen enough and went to the port to wait for our boat. We ate a snack there, which was really good and just hung out.

Right after we walked out of the store there, Johnson ran into another friend. It is amazing that even in Japan he finds his friends. The boat ride was ok and I think that Johnson wants to go back to Japan. I already told him I would like to visit another city in Japan and see what that is like. I already know that Fukuoka is a very beautiful place, but would like to see something new.

For Johnson it was his first time going to Japan, for Chris and I it was our second. Our first trip was to the country in Japan, in Toyama. And that was a totally different experience. It is like going from Honesdale (my hometown) to New York City!

More news later on…..

Not only will I be working next semester, I will also be studying!!! There is an intensive course that I can take for 1 semester and this will give me certification in teaching ESL (English as a second language). The wonderful thing is that I will be able to work and also study because this is a weekend course. And after just 1 semester of this, it will all be finished. And I will be able to enjoy life in Korea and have the opportunity to teach at the University level if I want to.

7.13.05; Wednesday, Today I met a Japanese women who is married to a Korean guy. It was very interesting for me. She told Sisya and I a little bit about her life here. I think that dating or being married to a Korean guy is in one way very difficult. They are set in their culture and that makes it difficult. It takes a different kind of guy to be able to make things work in a multi-racial marriage.

The good points about a Korean guy would be their loyalty to and continuous thoughts about their family. I think that it is difficult to find such a loyalty in others.

I would have to say that I am not so bad here. Yes, I have my share of complaints but overall, it is not too bad. I think in time, I could make things work here. Not sure yet! Still working on it.

Then I decided to come home and relax. Since Chris has been here, I have been very busy doing the work for two people. Now he is out with his friends having fun.