Another week!

Busy busy Monday!!

Firstly, last night we went out for a nice dinner at a traditional Korean restaurant with the host family, the grandma, and my host mom's sister's family. It was good food, but lots of strange dishes like usual when I go for traditional Korean food. Then we went for a walk along the stream together and I bought the boys ice cream (well, Jun-eun didn't want any). It was delicious!

Today I got up, did my exercises as per usual. Last night I was definitely sleep-teaching. I hate when I do my job in my sleep! I know I was up walking around my room and saying things to imaginary students. Silly me! -- Oh well, I can't help it I guess.

My 3 classes today were pretty rowdy. They are all the first graders (=soph) again -- their listening comprehension is incredibly low! I can't believe how much higher the 2nd graders (=jr) are!! It was frustrating to teach, as even when they can understand me, they are not very motivated and I have to go around to each individual table and repeat the instructions and hold their hand throughout simple activities. For example: journaling! This week we are starting our journals. This is what I wrote on the board:

Journal Question (Please write 5 sentences)
What do you want to learn about in this class?
1. Please write your name and number on your notebook
2. Date, Journal Question, "I want to learn about..."

So pretty much I spelled out everything for them, even giving them a sentence formula, and most of them still had troubles with it. They won't begin to write until I go to their table and re-explain the directions, even though I explained it infront of the class twice already. Teachers tell me to speak slowly, but I am already speaking extremely slow. If I slow down any more, there will be no point in them hearing it, because it would literally be pronouncing every syllable super slowly and no one will ever talk like that! No one will even talk as slowly as I talk with them now. It is frustrating, especially the lack of motivation. But, I can't really blame the students, rather it is the educational system's fault!!

Anyway, we found out the calendar for the month of September. Korean Thanksgiving ("Chusok") is coming up in 2 weeks. It is normal to get the Monday off after that weekend, but I found out today we also get the Tuesday off! YAY! 4 day weekend!! Also, I do not have to go to school on the 18th, as the students will be taking a test all day. Woo!! It will be an easy week for me. :-D I hope I can find something fun to do with my time.

Mrs. Song, my co-teacher, called around to some dance studios today and found 2 that might suit my needs (aka, they offer higher level ballet and I will be able to learn traditional Korean dance). She found 2 that sound great, and the cost is only $100 for 5 days a week at 2 hours per night. I think the $100 is for the whole semester. It could be monthly, but even that would be pretty cheap for that much dancing! The only problem is that it starts at 7pm, which interferes with dinner time at home. I was hoping my host family would be flexible with this, but they seemed disappointed/worried about it tonight when I told them about it. I would be fine with eating a small snack (aka, PB&J -- I bought PB today!!-- and an apple) before class and then eating dinner later in the night after the family has eaten. They seemed to think this was not a good idea and I'm not sure why. We don't really have profound conversations over dinner or anything -- everyone just eats very fast and the parents just tell the kids (and me too) to eat! Eat your rice! Eat!! EAT!! :-P Anyway, they want me to see if there is another time that I could go, like earlier in the afternoon. I don't think that is possible, as I will be taking dance with high school students who plan to major in dance at college (yeah, I'm worried they'll be out of my league!). Anyway, I told them I would ask. I hope this all works out, because I would love to take ballet class 4-5 times a week! It would not only be good exercise for me (and I think I would end up with 0% body fat on me, as I've already slimmed down on the healthier food), but I also think it would be a good release of the stress from a day's worth of teaching.

Tonight I worked on my lesson plan about secrets (check out postsecret.com to see what I am basing my lesson off of) and finally got around to studying Korean!! I just reviewed chapters 1&2 from what we already learned. I'm really going to try to pick up the last few vocab words out of each chapter that I don't have mastered. There are about 10 from Chp 2. (None from Chp 1, it is so easy) I also sat and talked with the family for a bit. Tonight for dinner we had "money fish". I guess they call it that because it is shiny and looks like it is plated in silver, but also because it has a "special taste", so says my host father. It actually was quite good -- it smelled extremely fishy, but didn't taste overly fishy. Anyway, to bed for me as I have another day of teaching tomorrow!

Hope all is well at home!!
PS--
Update on my dad-- he is making slow but steady progress. The disease he has been diagnosed with causes impairment of the upper extremities (thus, the severly reduced movements of his hands) and bladder problems. He is on a catheter right now. Anyway, if you are under 50, chances of full recovery are 50-80% within 6 months. He will be turning 49 this month, so he is right on the cusp of that. Hopefully he will be lucky and have full recovery within 6 months. However, this is still a very long time! We had been thinking it would take weeks, and now realize it will take months for things to get back to normal, if at all. I'm sure this loss of independence right now is hard for him to deal with, so please keep praying for him and for my mom, who is very busy taking care of him right now.