Thank God- I think we (finally!) got through winter here. It was cold, rainy, and windy for so long but this week has been perfect! 50 and 60 degree weather and sunny skies. The only downside here is the pollution; it's horrible and I should really buy a few face masks for the really bad days, you can often see the pollution in the air and makes things look foggy and cloudy. Great right?
I call this one: Pollution Sunset (also my street! I live in the orange building)
As I was saying: IT'S SPRING! I'm so so happy. I love it. The beginning of spring in Korea means that it's cherry blossom season: the trees are everywhere here and they're gorgeous. And it also means cherry blossom flavored drinks- holy crap they're so good. Anyway, yesterday I went to 온천천, a stream surrounded by flowers and cherry blossom trees, I could have spent all day hanging out walking along the river and taking pictures: it was so pretty and picturesque.
온천천
I'm gonna upload more of the pictures on my blog too because I have so many. So after we walked around 온천천 for a while, we headed to grab an iced americano (seems to be Korea's favorite coffee drink) and went on a short hike where we could see the ocean from the top. I love that hiking is so popular and accessible here, I can't wait for more hikes now that its warming up.
Alrighty, now I want to talk a little bit about work since that's technically why I'm here.
So in the past month i have come to the conclusion that teaching is exhausting. I've had desk jobs and retail jobs, but let me tell you: teaching is the most tiring one. I'm now in awe of most of the wonderful teachers I've had in my life because dang this job is hard. I get it now. On top of the actual teaching aspect theres so many other things to think about: not picking favorites (or really not making it obvious who the favorites are), not letting your frustration show too much, and staying patient when you just want to yell. So so hard. Especially when your students don't speak the same language as you.
But even though teaching can be tough, it can also be really fun and rewarding. Earlier this week I was trying to explain the concept of demonstrative pronouns in the simplest way I could think of which was: 'this/that'- singular (1) and 'these/those' - plural (2+). My students kept saying "these are cookie" and "those are party hat" even with me trying (and failing) to get them to understand they are talking about more than one item. It got to the point where I would just have to yell "cookieS" while emphasizing the 's' and risk sounding nuts and was basically giving up hope. BUT after about 10 minuets of struggling to explain and with a bit of help from my co-teacher they slowly started adding the 's' on the end of the words. And by the end of the class, most students were able to understand the difference between 'these are cookies' and 'this is a cookie'. Thank the Lord. Sometimes my short 40 minute classes feel hours long.
I believe I've said it before but oh well, gonna tell you again- I teach 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade elementary and see different classes each day. I struggle to communicate with my 3rd graders, love my 4th graders, and get ignored by my 5th and 6th graders: its fun. My students are actually pretty great though even though we can't always communicate that well, they're usually very sweet, energetic, and hilarious. I have also ran into some of my students out side of school which is a blessing and a curse: I can learn if they actually know more English than they let on because its a one on one situation and they're not surrounded and influenced by their peers, but I am usually unprepared to be seen by them and look like a stressed out mess.
Dongcheon Elementary
So my school is fairly large, all the teachers are very friendly and my principle and vice principle are two of the nicest women ever: the vice principle even made me saenggang tea (tea with ginger, honey, and pear) the other day since i'm sick. Every day I eat lunch in the cafeteria with the students and sit with the teachers, we eat the lunches that the school serves- it always consists of kimchi or kkakdugi, some other side dish, a meat or tofu dish, soup, and rice which sometimes has beans or corn mixed in. Some days they'll change things up and serve things like noodles, curry, or bibimbap. As you can tell they give us a crap ton of food, and I unfortunately have to eat around a lot of beef and pork that they make so it's a good thing that I love kimchi: I'm pretty much living off of it for my school lunches.
And that's pretty much all I have going on with my school currently. Lesson planning, teaching, and desk warming are going well and I don't have many complaints. I have been very pleased with my school situation so far and I can't wait to see what else this school year has in store for me! For now though, I'm taking things day by day and enjoying my time here as much as I can!
Back with more soon,
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