Good morning 2009!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Wow, it's really 2009, my little brother just turned 16 today, and I start intensives tomorrow!

I'm going to try and not stress over intensives too much. Things became a little hectic at work right before my 2 long holiday weekends. Intensives schedule changed about 2 dozen times (which makes it hard to prepare for your classes and make syllabi if you don't know which classes you will be teaching!) and we had a runner at my school.

I feel bad for her in some ways since it was Christmas time but then when it came down to the job she was here for, she didn't do anything! I am currently trying to "fix" one of the 12 classes she royally messed up and she had NO grades and NO attendance for an entire month! The folder was blank and journals, workbooks, and speeches were only half graded with no scores! Kids were complaining and my boss (and other teachers) had to talk to her multiple times. At the end of the month after we realized she hadn't done anything, my boss decided it would be best to find her a job at another hagwon in the area. He was helping her find a new job....but she called into work sick on NYE (which meant we had to cover her classes). By pure chance I ran into her the following Sunday (as my arms were loaded with groceries). She had her biiiiiig suitcase and was walking over to the taxis. I was shocked! We told my boss the next day but it was far too late to do anything about it then. We're all pretty sure she's back in the states...Eep! It is kind've sad it all happened around Christmas time but it really couldn't be helped. She was hired 7 days after I was....wow.

The moral of this story? If you decide to come and work in Korea, you really are going to WORK!

So that's the drama with work. Other than that, my life is pretty basic (except for the part about being in Korea!). I have settled in, have been hanging out with friends over the past two 4-day weekends, preparing for intensives, keeping in good communication with Patrick, and TRYING to do better about my communication with my friends back in the states. Paul sent me some pictures from back home including cornbread! It made me smile...and miss it!

Granddaddy and BeccaJane sent me a care package that arrived on Christmas Eve so that made me feel special. Thank you so much! Hot chocolate is hard to come by so it's a fun treat during these cold months.


Patrick and I mailed our packages after Christmas so it should be at work for me tomorrow! Belated Christmas, woohoo! My Korean coworkers say that I receive the most care packages out of anyone and it made me smile. I have a very loving group of people at home! Oh, and I found the post office--a less than mind-boggling experience which made me feel a little better. I also learned how to pay my electricity bill. Cable tv for only 2,500won a month, wow! (Around $2.30) My gas bill was a little high and I'm not sure whether all the heating is done by gas or not. That's okay, I'm proud that I'm learning how to figure things out on my own! My "mailbox" is really an open box for my entire floor at the front of my building. Asking for help is always a choice but it makes me feel good about myself when I force myself to read out and rationalize things for myself, even if it takes a couple of extra minutes here and there. I also have figured out the local bus service which makes transportation down to the subway/Sunae easier, too. It stops just a house or 2 down from my front door and runs every 15-20 minutes.

Mom, Paul, and Grandparents: the CD I put in your "Season's Greetings" letters is the Christmas CD they made for all the kids at HR (my school). I haven't had time to watch the entire thing yet but of what I saw it was cute! Some of the classes are mine and others aren't, but I think you'll get the gist of what the kids at my school look like! It will all change for this next month--many more kids. Phew it's going to be interesting to say the least!

So how was Christmas this year?

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve: I worked on Christmas Eve til around 8pm and afterwards we had a Christmas Party at my work!

I was really tired on Christmas Eve but still had a lot of fun and got to know my coworkers even better!


Silly Jesse humor: doesn't it look like the shrimp took a bite out of the strawberry?! (hardyharhar!)

After the party we went to a Norebang! There were 2 Westerners and 6 Koreans--which you KNOW means it's going to be a hot time. :)

This looks silly because it looks as if we're the only ones in the norebang--but we weren't! We sang Christmas carols so that made me feel a little better. I kept around friends all the time though and that kept me from getting blue.

Christmas Day: I had spent the night over at LeAnn's so I wouldn't wake up on Christmas by myself. We opened her stocking and she had given me some post-its and I gave her some socks. :) We hung out with some other weiguks over at Austins and were just all kinds of lazy, watched The Royal Tennenbaums, etc. It turns out I DIDN'T have an actual Christmas dinner because what I ordered from the Chinese restaurant and brought into the fried chicken place (because that's traditional Christmas here in Korea apparently) had shrimp in it...a big nono for Jesse. :(

So for both Thanksgiving and Christmas I am 0-2 for having a big festive dinner.

Oh well, I just know that next year I'm going to be going waaaay out and overly excited to decorate and make food for Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. :)

Here are some pictures from December!

A pretty building off the Dongdaemun Stadium exit of the Subway! You can see in the right corner where it says "Good morning 2009!" So funny!

We took pictures in front of the lights because they were so pretty! Here's one of me!

One day the girls and I headed into Insadong before Christmas--it was cold and a little crowded as you can see. Insadong is a traditional area of Seoul where you can get some neat gifts. We had a good time!

My favorite meal! Dolcet bibimbop. :) I eat this all the time and some foreigners ask me "Is that the only thing you can eat? Do you get tired of it?" The answer is NO, it's just my favorite dish! How could I get tired of spicy veggies, egg, and rice? It's basic and tasty! :)

Ooh, a really recent photo: 2 nights ago! (I know, I need a haircut--working on it!)

Some of my wieguk buddies! We don't have family here so we were each others' family for the holiday season. :) In the far left corner drinking a beer is Neal, in the far background is Mark, then up front from left to right is Brian, me, Alex and the 2 heads up on top are LeAnn and Vikki.

My first taste of breakfast food in 2 months at a brunch restaurant called "Butterfinger". It was so tasty!

Part of my New Year's Resolution for 2009 is to keep in better communication with friends and family back home as well as to update this blog more often so I don't forget anything and to keep ya'll in the know!

Intensives start tomorrow so I'm going to go get some sleep, though!

I love you all!

Hagwon 411

So what am I doing here in Korea? I'm working at an independent hagwon (private school) in Bundang we lovingly call HR. Is it the best school? No. Is it a good school? I think so! The kids are really awesome and most of them are really smart. I'm teaching elementary and middle school age children which I am SO happy about. I wouldn't do well with preschoolers, no matter how cute they can look in pictures...or from afar. I can handle them in small doses, not year-long-sentences.

I have 12 classes during the week: 6 on MWF, 5 on TR. I have a LOT of prep work and a LOT of marking but I really do enjoy it. Sure in 6 months I won't think grading journals will be the greatest thing ever but it makes me laugh and gives me something to do in the evenings.

I have settled into school and am no longer the newest teacher! Another teacher was hired 2 weeks after I was and I am feeling pretty solid. The Korean teachers like me, my boss likes me (so they say), and the ESL teachers I work with are awesome. I'm the youngest ESL teacher not only at my school, but of anyone I have met here and have affectionately been nicknamed Aegi (Egi, Eggy, is how it is said), which is "baby" in Korean. The Korean teachers named me and many more have adopted it. I really, really lucked out with such a good staff.

I'm a little spoiled right now because my middle school classes are canceled for this and next week due to finals (I only have 4 classes +subbing 1= 5 MWF, 3 TR). It's really intense for them! I also have two long weekends coming up because of Christmas and New Years at the end of the month! January is when intensives start---a wholeeeee lot of work and not much extra pay to say for it. I'll stay happy and positive like always, though!

I'll explain the Intensives season to those of you that don't quite understand my meaning. Students have 2 full months off from school during the year--one in summer and one in winter; appropriately labeled their summer and winter vacations. Now, in America when kids are out of school they go on vacation with parents, lounge around watching way too much TV/ playing video games, or my personal favorite, head out to summer camp! In Korea that's not the case. Parents view this vacation from school as a prime time to milk their children of every ounce of strength, sending them to all sorts of hagwons (private schools like the one I work at, subjects vary) from morning 'til night. They work until their fingers fall off or their brains explode: whichever comes first.

This in turn is when ESL teachers (like me) at English hagwons (like my school) have their schedules changed drastically, working morning until night as well. Seeing as my school is considered a very hard school we will *hopefully* get slammed with a ton of students. On an average day I have quite a bit of prep work and marking to do for my classes. During intensives it quadruples in size which seems quite overwhelming. It is easy to get burnt out during this process, the weather is cold and gross, you work 10+ hours a day AND have several hours of marking to do each night after you're done teaching....and it goes on for a month.

In a training session I had about winter intensives, I was told to "make their papers bleed red" meaning mark them up--cover them in red ink! It's what the parents want so it's what we will provide! Veteran teachers have told me the winter intensives are worse than the ones in August. I hope to be a positive, smiley force to be reckoned with!

I will take pictures of some of the kids in my classes soon--I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me. I have one class with only 4 boys (only 2 showed up today...wow!) and other classes that range to up to 15 students (which can be a bit of a handful)! I am lucky to have had prior experience working with kids. It has come into play and I feel confident doing my job which is important.

I teach a variety of subjects, too! This is exciting for me because it changes things up, I'm not doing the same lesson over and over. I'm teaching science in one class, world history in another, have 3 novel studies classes, a few iBT classes (middle schoolers preparing for the iBT test), speaking, and reading classes. To my (and my mom's) excitement I started teaching Mr. Popper's Penguins to one of my favorite classes this week. It was one of my favorite books when I was young. This should be a fun month. :)

And now for some fun photo ops I had while grading!

An answer on a test. I shouldn't laugh but it was before I knew the students. The students have improved (I think so, at least) since I took over the class.

A drawing a student did of me in her workbook! LOVE!

I wish my best friend looked like a "cutey rabbit"! :)

Randoms galore

Hello world!

I will try to start theme-entry writing so that organization (and for your viewing pleasure) will be a bit better.

BUT for now, I have a conglomeration of pictures without much theme so I'm going to just give you a mixture of the past few weeks in Korea...some random shots I've taken.

A few silly flowers forgot it was fall...now all the flowers are gone but that's okay, it's winter time!

I wanted to get a picture of the little dog in his clothes and booties--he had been wandering around in circles bored. I whistled at him and he perked up, saw I was a waiguk (foreigner) and trotted right over to me. Such personality! He had no interest in my Korean friend I was with, too funny.

I had duk buki (duck-buck-ee) for the first time this past weekend! Yum. It's a rice patty boiled in this sweet and spicy red sauce. Monica my Korean coworker and I shared a dish. I found a star! There was a heart later on that she ate, too. :)

My "Miguk Chusok" (American Thanksgiving) as I described to the Hof owner, held with fellow ESL teachers. LeAnn and I made hand-turkey cutouts and colored them as namecards for the event. It was fun to celebrate...but I ended up not eating anything there through a miscommunication...and ended up going home and making a grilled soycheese sammich. It was really fun though and the hand-turkeys were a hit!

Patrick says my door looks like something out of a 1980's Bond flick. I agree. ^.^

First snow in Korea (taken safely from inside my apartment)!

The comforter suits my personality SO WELL, don't you think? Haha. The other side is worse--it's covered in huge pink 8-year-old-ballerina-stage flowers.

Look Mom, good eats! I'm staying healthy! I still need to buy sesame seeds, though.

Mmm, tasty.

The thermostat I luckily don't have to use much! I only turn it on to heat up my bathroom/water for a shower. My apartment is always warm because it's an old building and when other people turn on their heat, it heats my apartment, too! The heating is done by flowing hot water through pipes under the floor.

In a little yellow villa

Ahoy!

Yes, I am officially alive and well in Korea. (!)

It took me awhile to get settled in--truth be told I'm still working on it. However, I did have internet installed in my apartment yesterday (finally!) so I can communicate with the outside world on a regular basis now.

I live in a more remote location than I had previously thought I would. I'm okay with it right now but may look into trying to move. LeAnn moved really close to the subway but has to pay an extra $200 a month for her apartment and I'm....not going to do something that expensive. I'll have a talk with my boss Harry here pretty soon to find out my options. So where do I live? Bundang yes, but I'm in a villa instead of an officitel (like I was told I would be in).

My little yellow villa on a mountain

My little garden...it's gone now though. Snow tends to do that

Out my window!

My mountain across the street

HR where I work! (Honors Review English School)

Work at HR is good--more work than the average bear but the kids are awesome and I like the staff. I have grown quite close with some staff members, closest probably to Miki and Monica, two Korean teachers at the school. Several of us went hiking my first weekend (after my recovery stage) and bonded.

Aww, aren't we so cute!
Left to right: Miki, ME!, Heather, Vikki, Monica, LeAnn
(I work with everyone in the picture aside from Vikki)

I have to go get ready for school but will update more later...it's hard to believe I've been here for almost a month but am doing well so don't worry!

Bundang

Oh noes!

Delays and more delays but it really is just life telling me I need to settle down, get well again (yep, still sick with tonsillitis a month later), and make sure I have everything ready before I move to Bundang. Everything happens for a reason, right?! I will be leaving at the very end of October but seeing as I just heard a horror story from a fellow ESL teacher in SK who rushed into a contract with a not-so-great school...I'm just fine knowing my school is a good one, even if I was still here for an extra 2 months!

I googled Bundang and pulled up a few photos to put on here for your viewing pleasure (and so you won't freak out about where I'll be residing):

Bundang: ooh, ahh!

Bundang was designed to be a residential city so there are a lot of parks for me to explore! XD

I will be living in one of these big honkin' buildings

Bundang at night

Bundang during the day

See, nothing to worry about!
1.5-2 weeks in counting--excitedness ensues!

Affliction and thought.

I have an affliction; some sort of tonsillitis/earbodyneckache. I've been bed/couch-ridden for the past 5 days, aside from two heavily medicated stints at work Thursday and Friday and have had to be content with sucking down freeze pops and noodles (while watching far to many romantic comedies from the 90's). It has given me far too much time to think and a zap on energy so that I can get just about...yeah, nothing done in preparation for Korea or even the upcoming week. I'm sure I will find this all quite humorous at some point once I am able to be off ibuprofen and swallow properly. :)

Moving out of the country is both an exciting and expensive (ad)venture. I mailed a $65 letter yesterday to Korea, what the..?! Thanks FedEx!

Other than that, it's much like last time I prepared for Korea; I had no real set emotional path or feelings, rather I just lived my life daily and kept an open mind. I'm much the same, open and not entirely sure if I understand that I'm really leaving the country for a year+ in 2.5 weeks.

So after I am better I will go on my last shopping safari for shoes, boots, sheets, the "perfect jean" (that I so abhor shopping for), a year's supply of cold meds and ibuprofen, misc spices, a large piece of luggage, and anything else I'm going to need for...well, the next year.

I love this part, the part where life just seems so basic and normal and boring...so boring that you seemingly don't know what to do with yourself.

"What foods will I miss? I should eat them before I go" you say...but you're not entirely sure what you'll miss because you don't miss it yet.

I just need to remember to pack some things that will remind me of home (thanks mom!). Those are quite important.

Girl that has an icyhot patch on her back and if this body ache is what you get when you're old, definitely has decided not to get to that stage. Period.

Crossing t's and Dotting i's

Obviously it can be seen that I had to push back my deadline a bit, but I just was not feeling comfortable with the schools that were set forth before me. The GnB school wouldn't give me direct answers, gave me email addresses of Korean teachers but not English teachers, wouldn't change things in the contract AT ALL (warning flags!), and finally that recruiter stopped contacting me. I found and lost a seemingly amazing school with TOPIA not once, but twice...was jerked around by not one, not two, but three recruiters (that have since all fallen off the map), and had grown increasingly frustrated with the entire job search. Mom had even started talking about the option of starting my masters work in the spring...

Then I was contacted by a different recruiter out of the blue. I didn't put much stock in it, but figured I would at least stay optimistic and look at what they had to offer. To make a long story short, patience is a virtue that definitely tested me this summer but in the end, it turns out they found the best school for me.

So!

I signed a contract yesterday!

I will be in Bundang, South Korea. Bundang is a satellite city of Seoul and apparently a nice, clean, residential city. I'm going to be at HR English school teaching writing, reading, and conversational English. :)

I will be flying over on October 16th so that gives me roughly 3 weeks to get everything done! I'm excited that things are finally getting started for my big move.

Girl who is happy she finally has a school!