Last calligraphy class :-(

Today was a great day!!! Language class was overwhelming, as usual. I've posted a video below as well as a couple pictures from class today.

We had really good (and spicey -- yay!) chicken today for lunch. My spice tolerance is building!! ^_^ After lunch we had some workshops. The first 2 were Camp F de-briefings and were pretty boring. The last, though, we met with an orientation leader and were broken into groups according to the school type we'll be teaching in. So I went to the talk for HS boys. There are actually 6 girls this year teaching at all boys HS. And only 3 men! Whoa! I think we will be a good support system for each other. The talk helped a lot, but I still have lots of questions. Some of which won't be answered until I am actually in the classroom teaching, of course. Right now I'm trying to figure out a good disciplinary plan and classroom rules. Then I'll have to start thinking of my first lesson plans. It may be that I teach the same lesson plan over and over the whole week (I might only see each class of students once a week) or I might have to do a couple lesson plans a week. Either way, the first week will be mainly a self-intro and setting the tone of the classroom/rules. I really enjoyed this session.

Dinner in the cafeteria was pretty horrible, so of course Anne and I went for some 팥빙수 (patbingsu) to fill us up. We were joined by Daniella and Matt. Then I had my last calligraphy class. I'll be sad to not have it anymore. But, we had a great last class! We wrote our Korean proverbs and then we took the rest of the class to make bamboo and flower pictures. I made lots of little gifts to send home!! I think they will be perfect for Christmas. Check out some pictures below! Our teacher gave us her email address and we are taking her out for patbingsu next week. I wrote her an email tonight:

선생님 __ --
안녕하세요!! 저는 Bethany (베다니) 예요. 수업을 좋아했어요. ^^
감사합니다!!
다음 주 마나러 팥빙수를 머걸 거예요. ^^
--베다니

It says:
Teacher (for privacy issues, she'll be anonymous) --
Hello! I am Bethany. I liked your class. Thank you! Next week we will go eat Patbingsu.
--Bethany

Yeah, yeah, pretty short, but nonetheless, it's in KOREAN!!!!!!! That's pretty sweet.

I better get back to studying. We have to give a 2 minute self introduction speech on Wednesday, so I want to have the first part memorized tonight.

Happy Monday everyone!

Chalkboard in Korean class. This was learning the verb tense of a rhetorical question, like when you ask a question and then follow it by "...., right?" or "...., isn't it?". Yeah, we learned that after 4 weeks of Korean class. Here are the 11 verb tenses we have learned:
1. Present tense
2. Please/request.
3. Past tense.
4. Intention/will ("Would you like..." / "I would like...")
5. Let's ...
6. Reason for going someplace. (ie: I'm going to Ice Cool to eat Patbingsu.) Yes, this does have it's own tense. Oh wait, it gets better....
7. Future tense
8. Suggestion (Shall I/we ....?)
9. I/we want....
10. Reason for something. (ie: Because it was snowing, I didn't go to school.)
11. Rhetorical question. (ie: "....., right?" / "....., isn't it?")
Ok, so after the intense Korean class, we had a little bit of down time. I decided to take some artsy-fartsy pictures in the little patio outside our classroom building. This one is of the roof.
Um.... a leaf and vine.
More leaves and vines with bench in background.
Me and the calligraphy teacher with my Korean proverb. Some of the things I made today to give as gifts to the grandmas, mom, etc. They are flowers and bamboo.
Those of us there for the last calligraphy class with some of our work. The teacher is all the way on the left, and I am all the way on the right. Isn't she a cutie!!! :-D

Video from our language class today. The teacher is reading what is on the board, and then the class is repeating. If you listen closely, you can hear my name in Korean: Bay-ta-ni, in the second example.