Way-gook-in' it up in Korea!: Bad week and Jeju Conference

The last week at school was a pretty bad one for me, but thankfully it was only 3 days! Tuesday, my first 2 classes were just misbehaving the whole time, but my last class (2nd graders) was pretty fun! So at least I ended the day positively. Then that night I had Korean class. I was eating my kimbap at the restaurant for once, and I'm glad I did because I met a foreigner living in Suncheon. But, she is done after next week and then after doing some traveling, she will be moving to the UAE to teach. Scary.

Wednesday was pure terror. All 3 of my classes were horrible, especially the last class. One student drew some very inappropriate body parts on my stuffed pig that we throw around class to get people to answer and participate. Well, it was quite funny, but obviously I could no longer use the pig. So, after I found out which student did it, I made him give me $10 so I could go buy a new one. I thought this was fair: you break it you buy it! Well, he didn't think so and he went and complained to my co-teacher about it. She then confronted me about what happened and so I told her. While she didn't necessarily agree with the actions I took, she didn't tell me I was wrong to act that way. Frankly, I don't care. It's my classroom and I'll run it how I see fit, especially when the co-teachers don't do their job by not showing up. Ugh. That afternoon, however, I had a really interesting teachers' workshop discussion about North Korea and then it led more generally to the US dominance in the world. Wed night I decided to try out the old ladies' exercise class down by the river run by the city. Well, it turned out to be lots of hip/butt shaking with UBER fast and sharp arm movements (my elbows hurt from it later!) and absolutely NO CARDIO. Isn't that the point of aerobics? CARDIO! I didn't break a sweat in the whole 45 minutes. So, although it was funny to see old women doing crazy dances and movements, I don't think it will give me the exercise I'm looking for. Anyway, I'm glad I at least tried it out.

Thursday my classes were all actually pretty good, THANK GOD. After school, I finished my first hanji project:

it is a Kleenex box holder. It is actually quite beautiful as far as those things go. Thursday night I had my Korean class again. When I got home it was time to pack for my 3 day Fulbright conference in Jeju!

I left home bright and early at 6:40am on Friday morning to take a bus to the terminal, and then a bus to Gwangju, and then a bus to the airport, and then a flight to Jeju city, and THEN a bus down to the other side of the island. It was quite the trip. But, overall the conference was great. We had 4 workshops thruout the weekend to revise and re-do the orientation process and the "getting ready to go" materials in order to benefit next year's ETAs. It's hard to believe that when we leave, a new batch of ETAs will just be filling in for us. But, that's just the circle of life, I guess. One of the highlights of the conference is obviously the food -- AMERICAN SNACKS! We had oatmeal/raisin cookies, cheese and crackers, cheese puffs, jelly beans, and brownies along with the delicious food for meals. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I over-indulged this weekend. :-) It was great to see everyone and talk to everyone about their plans for next year (or at least possible plans). Check out some pictures below, or these links for the full albums on Facebook. We had really great weather, so the pics turned out really nice!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023056&id=62600128&l=053b6950c9
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023057&id=62600128&l=1ed3e52afb