A Month Has Come and Gone

In three days is my one month anniversary in South Korea. I can't believe it's been that long. It feels like I was just saying goodbye to everyone and boarding the plane a week ago. As many of you may know or have read, I'm having a really great time here.

My job is going well. I'm really enjoying it and having fun with the kids. I finally don't a have a desk job and I find that I'm trying to challenge myself with new, fun ways to teach. The kids are starting to warm up to me. It's so comforting to have one of your students walk up to you and hug you for no reason. I can never get enough hugs :)


Let me give you a rundown on what it's been like for me at school these past few weeks. To begin, I survived my first week of lunch duty. Amen! Once every two-ish  months each teacher has to cover lunch duty for their classes. This past week was my first. I don't know if a lot of people know this, but I have never babysat in my life. So feeding nine kids all under the age of 8 made me really nervous. All I could think was, "please don't throw food at me". Come to find out, when kids are hungry, they will listen to you haha.


Also, this past week was Body Check Up for our kinder classes. So on Thursday, we had a mock physical. My job was to measure their chest. Many of them didn't want to put their arms up for me, because they thought I was going to tickle them. To begin the day, I had to go through the booklet and teach my Elmo class (ages 5) parts of the body. Good luck on that! They couldn't remember their Birthday and all they wanted to do was sing "head, shoulders, knees and toes".

Here's a few pictures of my Elmo and Tweety classes

My Elementary classes seem to be going well, too. I have one class that is only in their fourth month of learning English. It's a little frustrating only because the communication is harder. I also have a class with all boys. Man, is it hard to discipline boys especially when they think it's funny that "Billy" farted. I'm not sure if it's weird that I get really excited about teaching grammar to kids. I hope not, because I love it! My biggest pet peeve is when people don't use conjunctions properly. Well if god is my witness these kids will know when to use "your and you're".


A lot of people have been asking what the students call me. Well to answer this question, it really depends on the day. Some days it's "Jenn Teacher" and other days it's "pig" or "eskimo". Also, some of the students have found my tattoo on my wrist. I always cover it with a watch, but sometimes it slips. I get a lot of "oh no Teacher what happened". I just tell them I drew on myself.


Aside from teaching, I've been enjoying getting out and seeing a bit of Korea. This past weekend I went to the Sipripo Beach Festival in Incheon. It's an island right outside of Seoul. It was a fun time with good people. It almost was like the Spring Break, I never had. There were lots of foreigners which kind of made me feel uncomfortable. You get so used to only being around Koreans, that when you around a lot of people that resemble you, it's a little weird ha. Also, being around that many foreigners just made me realize just how impatient and rude us Americans are. 


On Tuesday, I will be going on my first field trip with the kids. We're going to a kids cafe which, from what I hear, is basically like a Chuck E. Cheese without games and pizza. I'll have to post pictures and update you all on that. Wish me luck!