I've got spirit, yes I do!!

Ah, this weekend marked the annual rivalry games between Korea University and Yonsei University! I was only able to go to the soccer and rugby games on Saturday because I was busy working on Friday during basketball, hockey, and baseball! Oh well. I do not think I would have survived two days of these games anyways. Would you like to know why?! Well, of course! These are not your ordinary sporting events. You do not bring lawn chairs or sit on metal stadium seats and enjoy the game with some popcorn. First off, it took place at the 1988 Olympic Stadium in Seoul which was amazing!! When I walked in, I was greeted by free food and drinks, headbands, wristbands, visors, and plastic bags. To say the least, I was completely covered in something red for KU. Second, it was a huge dance party the entire time! These people danced for 5+ hours straight on Saturday. You could feel the stadium shaking and swaying from all of the constant dancing! Oh, and those plastic bags are not trash bags as we all thought. You fill them with air, hold it closed, and they are now noise makers to use for dancing!! Some Koreans in the seats behind us became friends with myself, Keely, and Falyn and showed us every single dance move to every single song. I could only dance for about half of the time and then I was ready for a nap. I was not anticipating sweating on a day like this but I ended up nasty and sweaty. It all made sense why people were bringing in coolers of water bottles at the start of the games!! After the games, the alumni of KU agree to pay for fans to come eat and drink for free at certain restaurants. It is insane, but definitely a great time! Oh, and KU won the games this year!!! :)

Falyn & I with our headbands

Using the plastic bag!

In front of the rings!

The crowd!

Storming the field after KU won!

The dancers leading all of the dancing

In more normal events in my life, school was good this week! I had my 1st full five-day week. It was not as exhausting as I thought it would be. This whole normal job thing might just be okay!! :) I found out that I will be teaching my unit plan from October 17th until October 28th to the 6th grade English classes. I am very excited, although a little bummed out as well. I had planned on doing pen pals with students from the US but having only a 2 week time span to teach what I want does not allow for multiple letters to get sent back and forth. I may still stick with the same theme of learning how to write letters but just do pen pals by exchanging between the classes I teach. I am obviously still figuring things out. My teacher really wanted me to teach them how to write letters though because they have no knowledge of it whatsoever. Also, in school they mainly focus on pronunciation and correct sentence structure orally so writing is left out of the picture. I think the National Curriculum here is very strict so teachers are only allowed to do so much with a scripted book. I am trying to show them some ideas to get students moving and learning, but they are hesitant. Cross your fingers for me!

On Wednesday of this past week, I was able to attend a workshop for English teachers at a nearby school. It was 1.5 hours long and I found it to be very interesting. We watched an actual English class take place at this school. The lesson was 40 minutes long with one native Korean teacher and one native English teacher. During the lesson nothing but English was used which I loved! Even the native Korean teacher spoke English and reinforced the children's use of it! Some activities in the lesson were 2 interactive games where students were up out of their seats moving around or changing partners and playing games. The whole time they were practicing forming sentences using their vocabulary from within the unit but HAVING FUN! Afterwards there was a short question and answer session. All of the English teachers from my school said that they learned a lot and they found some good ideas to use! Maybe this will be some hope for me to do interactive lessons :)

I played badminton this week and actually surprised myself a little bit! All of the teachers told me that I must come back and play again because I'm pretty good! So I guess I will be a badminton regular at Seokgye. Let's hope the badminton racket doesn't bruise me anymore, though. And yes, I did get bruised by the badminton racket and it was an accidental, self-inflicted bruise. Ah, you live and you learn though!

Pathetic bruise!

My stipend for teaching finally came in! I am 500 bucks richer except I do not have my bank card yet so that money will just be sitting for a little bit longer :( It is nice to know that it has finally arrived though. My plane ticket reimbursement should be arriving in my bank account sometime in the upcoming week, so I am just one rich lady!

School lunches are still the most difficult thing for me. The plus side is that I do not have to pay for my lunches while I am here! Weekly, there are servings of octopus, anchovies, seaweed, sprouts, weird soups, etc. There are definitely some good things like bibimbap, pork, fruit, and the usual rice. This past week was our first Pizza Night and it was not only delicious but very informative. We got to share information about our school and learn about what the other girls are encountering. Some Korean students were also there so we were all able to hear their side of Korean Education. Very neat experience and I am loving Wednesdays!

Until next time....

~ E

Please, step into my office :]

The "big girl" office

Well, I have finished my first official week at my school even though it was only a two day week! I have an office with 5 other English teachers and somehow we manage to make it work in such a small space. My desk is the farthest one on the left! It is so nice to have my own space at a school that is welcoming me for only 3 short months. I have already started to understand the Korean school system a bit more because my colleagues have allowed me to read some of their literature. The requirements for school are so interesting. For example, students are required to know how to properly ride all city transportation, use chopsticks, have respect towards unknown foods, and be responsible for all of their belongings by the time they enter elementary school in 1st grade. The students are expected right away to be very responsible children in a bustling society. Personally, I think it is great because students can learn to have some more appreciation for the things and people around them!

I am already feeling very involved within the school as well. The English teachers invited me out to a school dinner this past Friday. Literally every single teacher was there and we all sat down and enjoyed each others company over some delicious Korean BBQ. Everyone keeps commenting me on my ability to use chopsticks so I must be doing something right :) It was so nice to hang out with my colleagues outside of work and get to know a little bit more about them! I need to start preparing for some intense badminton on Tuesday because the Phy. Ed. teacher is expecting to see me there... :/ I'm not sure my skills are up to par with these pros!

This coming week is my first full week at Seokgye! I am sure it will be very exhausting as I am not used to this type of weekly schedule. I am eager to get into a routine though! I could not be more excited to start this week because I will get to spend more time with the students that I will be teaching English to throughout the semester. They all seem to be very bright young individuals who are ready to learn. On Wednesday I will even get the chance to visit another school to see how their English program is going. This will give me some insight into how to include some variations in a classroom where everything is so strict because of the national curriculum!

In other news, I had a very fun and exciting weekend. Betsy, Keely, Falyn and I finally booked our trip to Busan, which is located in the southern part of Korea! Our mini trip will be Oct. 8th - Oct. 9th! Apparently Korea offers a free bus trip from Seoul to Busan for foreigners so we snatched that up right away! We plan on touring the city, utilizing the free bike rentals around the area, and spending the night in a hostel. Betsy and I went to Kyobo Book store in Gwanghwamun to look for some books in English. It is by far the largest bookstore I have ever been to and we only made it through part of one floor!! I will definitely be back. My mom sent me a package with a bunch of goodies and it arrived way before I thought it would so that was exciting! Betsy, Falyn and I also decided to go hiking! We hiked up Mt. Yongmasan and were amazed at the beauty of the sights we saw. Our muscles will definitely be sore after that hike, or should I say climb! We plan on going a couple more times before we leave.

On Mt. Yongmasan!

The goodies that my mom sent me from the States!

The most delicious, sugar-free mints ever!

A shirt that I bought in Itaewon!

More updates to come in the near future :)

~ E

안녕하세요 선생님! or Hello Teacher!

Today was my first full day at Seokgye Elementary School. I really did not do much at all but I finally have my schedule figured out. I arrived at 840am and at 9am I had to introduce myself to the entire school over their broadcast. Jeong-a, my supervisor at the school, did not exactly tell me that I would have to speak so I am sure that I looked rather awkward on every TV in the school. Then my day consisted of sitting at my desk from literally 915am until 245pm. The school did not want me observing until we had our meeting at 3pm to figure out exactly what I would be doing until December. I can understand their hesitation, but at the same time I just wanted to get out there and start some observing and teaching! Here is what we figured out at the meeting. Every week I will be teaching 6 classes of English. One class will be on Tuesday and 5 classes will be on Wednesday. All of those classes will be 5th and 6th grade or the highest level of English speakers. I will teach my unit plan during these classes sometime in October. For the next 2 weeks I will only be in the English classrooms. After that I will spend one week in each of the following; music, science, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd grades. I will observe a few lessons daily and towards the end of the week (Thurs and Fri) I will be able to teach their class. My lessons can be something they want me to focus on or something that I come up with, either culturally relevant or curriculum relevant. In between all of this, I can observe in other levels of English classrooms as I see necessary. I am very excited about my schedule because I will get to teach a variety of different subjects in English :) Oh and I am joining the badminton club for teachers every Tuesday and Thursday! I need to get involved somehow!! Tomorrow is my first day to start observing and I am very excited. Whenever I see a student in the hallway they always say to me "Hello teacher!" It is adorable!

Besides all of this, I think every one of my colleagues is trying to set me up with a single teacher at the school. Did I sign up for teaching English or dating at Seokgye Elementary!? Hahah :)

English Classroom #1

English Classroom #2

My brand new laptop at school

~ E

Traditional Korean Markets!

Today I had quite the experience. My roommate, Ana from Guatemala, invited me to go to a Korean market with her and some friends. She said there were cheaper things at the market than what I would find in the department stores. So, Keely and I decided to tag along. It was myself, Keely, Ana, Kehk (from Laos), Vuthea (from Cambodia), and Joan (from France)! We were quite the group :)

We all took the bus from Korea University straight to the market. It was my first time riding a bus in Seoul but it was only three short stops away. There were so many sights and smells to take in, both good and bad! Kehk (from Laos) could not stop laughing at me because apparently I was "special sight to see" at the market since I am American, light skinned, and have lighter brown hair. Vendors would be speaking in Korean and then suddenly switch to some English just to say "hi" and wave to me. It was entertaining none-the-less. One man even saw that I had a camera so he wanted to take a picture linking arms with me! Too funny!

So, Kehk was our tour guide and she really knew her way around. I would have been so lost going to this market by myself! She is quite good at bartering, too! I saw many familiar products and many products that I had no clue what they could possibly be! It just shows you that a simple grocery store in the US is a small taste of what the world has to offer! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the market today...

Market entrance

Small booths and crowded walkways

Tons of green veggies

More grains than you can imagine

Bowls of small dried fish

Sad :(
These rays were for sale for people to eat...

As you can see, there are many delicious things that they sell and many not so delicious things (they also sell dog :( but we did not want to see that). I ended up buying a bunch of bananas (₩ 1,000), 4 apples (₩ 2,000), 4 sweet green peppers (₩ 2,000), and a bunch of green grapes (₩ 3,000). Instead of spending an insane amount for these at Home Plus or Lotte Mart, I only spent ₩ 8,000 or the equivalent of about $8. I was pretty happy about that :) I would call this day not only a success but a great event to have experienced! 

~ E

Seokgye Elementary

Well today was the day that I finally got to visit my school, Seokgye Elementary! I was very nervous to say the least. One of my Korean Buddies took me so I wouldn't get lost (and without her I probably would have never arrived!). It is 5 subway stops away from my KU and then about a 10 minute walk or so. It really is not too bad. Let's just hope that I can find my school again come next week. The school itself is HUGE! I think it is 5 or 6 stories high and there are many different "wings" to the building. Sadly, I could not take any pictures of the school today because we were running late and it was raining. So, I do not officially start at my school until next week Thursday because there is a holiday this upcoming week. It is called Chuseok, which is basically the Korean Thanksgiving but it is observed over three days.

Let's just say that everything is not figured out quite yet. My supervisor at Seokgye Elementary was very confused on my requirements for the course so she had me doing things that would not fulfill my requirements. I made it very clear what I need to accomplish over these next three months so she is going to re-work everything over the holiday weekend. She gave me some sort of idea though. The school wanted me to be able to observe and co-teach in many different classes and grade levels so I could see what different subjects are like and also get a good taste of Korean education. I thought that was a great idea. I would be with a teacher who can speak English, but the teaching would be in Korean. The teacher would allow me to co-teach and help out in every lesson where needed. I could take small groups aside or help individually etc. I did not want to be stuck with just English lessons so I really liked the idea of this. Also, they wanted to put me in an English class. The students have English for three 40 minute periods a week. I would be with the highest achieving English students in the school so communication would be easier. Within this class I could teach my required unit plan that I will come up with during the semester. So if I am doing something of this sort for the next three months I would be happy. I will find out come next Thursday.

Overall, I think the school is excited to have me but nervous as well because I am a native English speaker. The woman who is my supervisor has many questions and is rather nervous. It is her first year at this school and she is taking on a native English speaker and trying to fit me into the program. She has a lot going on so I can understand her frustrations and feelings of being nervous. We all want to get the most out of this program as we can and are staying positive. There will be more updates on my school in a week :)

Before I left for my school!

~ E

Welcome to Life in Seoul!

I arrived in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday September 03, 2011 around 4pm. We were instantly thrown into the culture here considering our driver who took us to our dorm spoke very few words of English. The driving here scares me because, for instance, people merge without any notice! To say the least, the four of us were on edge during the ride to our dorm, the CJ House!

My first few days were consumed with a lot of jet lag. I felt like a walking zombie. I am sure it did not help that I accidentally took a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day once because that would have been my normal time to sleep back in the states. Oops! In the midst of all that jet lag, I managed to visit a few cool places including Itaewon, Myeong-dong, and Insadong. The picture below is from the shopping district we visited called Myeong-dong. Instead of just having one story of shopping, everything is stacked on top of one another. There are also many food chains that you would find in the states like Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Coldstone, Outback Steak House, Subway, Smoothie King, McDonalds, Popeyes, Burger King, etc. Street vendors are another huge thing that I have noticed here. They sell everything from food and dresses to sunglasses and postcards. It is a very cool atmosphere to be around.

Other than finding my way around the many districts of Seoul, I have been trying to find my way around the Korea University Campus. There are huge hills everywhere and it is safe to say that my calves might be looking a little more in shape when I head back to the states! The campus here is much more spread out than it is back at UMSL so it will take some time getting used to by just walking around. As I said before my dormitory is called the CJ House. I am living with Keely for the next three months! Our dorm room looks so bare though because we don't want to spend money on decorating it since we are only here for a short time :(

View of KU from the main entrance

View from CJ House at night

Our dorm - my side is the right

On Friday I finally get to visit my school, Seokgye Elementary. One of my Korean Buddies will be showing me how to get there! Apparently it is only 10 minutes away usng the subway! I am excited about that because some of the other girls have an hour commute by subway to get to their school. I will give you all some more info about my school and the grade I will be teaching on Friday! Talk to you then :)

 

Map of the Seoul Subway system!

 

 

~ E

Predeparture Jitters!

Well my departure is now 2 short days away and to say the least, I am a bit nervous! I think I have literally worried myself sick considering I have been to the doctor twice this week and it is only Wednesday! There has also been some unexpected, expensive purchases in the form of a new laptop. Looking on the bright side, at least it died before I left the country. I think I have been driving myself crazy :) Therefore, I definitely have some predeparture jitters happening right now.

Even though I am very nervous, I would say there is a ton of excitement going through my veins! I have never been abroad so this will be a very fresh and new experience for myself. It will also give me a great experience for teaching some English as a Second Language (ESL). In my eyes, this could be my competitive edge when it comes to getting a job after graduation! I mean ideally we all want to get jobs and put our degree to use! Besides all of this, I am looking forward to the learning experience that these three months abroad will provide me. I will have a whole new outlook on the world, other cultures, and education. I cannot wait to be immersed into a new life!

About two years ago I found out that there was the possibility of doing student teaching abroad through University of Missouri - Saint Louis (UMSL). It is safe to say that ever since then, the thought has been replaying over and over again in my head. I think I told my parents about the chance to student teach abroad in South Korea the day I found out about it, so I would like to say I gave them a two years heads up because I was determined to be given one of the four spots! My family is excited for me but I have picked up on the hints that they are nervous as well. I would expect nothing less though! The fact that I am gone for 3 months really is not a big issue. My school in Missouri is already 6 hours away from their house in Wisconsin so sometimes our time spent together is spread apart. Their nervousness comes from the fact that I am a 14 hour plane flight and many countries away from them. As always, I am encouraged to have a great time while learning and growing from my many new experiences.

There is so much that I hope to gain from my time in South Korea. Personally, I want to be a more worldly person who understands more about different cultures that may be around me. I need an eye-opening experience and I think South Korea is it. This will also help me to learn more about any biases that I may have and values that I hold. Professionally, I hope to gain skills that allow me to be more multi-cultural. I want to come back with more ways to be successful as a teacher in the classroom and have techniques to connect to the many students that I will encounter over the years. There is much more that I want to gain from my time abroad in South Korea, but these are just some that came to mind quickly. Challenges are bound to come up while I am abroad as well. I think one of the biggest challenges will be language barriers. Some students may know English better than others and even my own English may come across a little fuzzy to the students. It will definitely be a challenge for me to slow down my speaking in order to help my students understand better. Another challenge will be the difference in teaching methods because South Korea uses a lot of teacher centered methods. With every new school comes new challenges, goals, and hopes for the future. I am nervous and excited at the same time but I could not be more ready to open this next chapter of my life!


~ E