The first day of the rest of my year

Hey everyone! By the time I post this, the majority of you will be waking up on the other side of the world, maybe hitting the snooze button a few times and giving yourself a pep talk to get out of bed. Sounds like my morning, actually.

Moving on...

Today was the first day back to school for the new academic year. I kind of wish that US school years ran a similar schedule, just for the fact that it can sometimes be confusing to keep track of what year you were in which grade. Plus, as an Arizonan I wouldn't mind a long winter vacation vs. summer. 

We spent the first day without classes to teach, but we kept pretty busy. First there was greeting the vice-principal, tea time, greeting the principal, finish up tea time, early lunch, talk about co-teaching plans, cleaning, meeting and the surprise arrival of some former 6th graders (in their middle school uniforms and uniform hairstyles, I might add). Busy day. I was so wiped out by the end of it all, I felt like I'd just gotten off a 12 hour flight.

I have one new co-teacher this year, and so far we're hitting it off pretty well. I'm actually feeling sad about the fact that she'll be leaving in October on maternity leave, especially since that means she's going to miss how gleefully insane I can become during that month. The co-teacher she replaced was on maternity leave up until the week of Halloween, and she missed out on my Halloween lessons too. Sigh~

Looking back a year, I can safely say I feel more comfortable and organized than I did the first time. I remember being shown to my desk, handed a pile of books and materials, and nervously blinking my way through planning sessions with my co-teachers. Orientation hardly prepares you for your first day. They might cover some lesson planning and "what to expect", but I can't help but think about the story of the blind men and the elephant when thinking back to orientation. You never got the whole picture, and in our case the blindness was induced by ambiguity.

Now, I understand how the textbooks work (for the most part, still can't read half the text since it's in Korean) and I know more of what to expect or what to ask. I was a little frazzled by the idea of working with a completely different co-teacher this year for half my classes, but we communicate like we've known each for a lot longer.

I'm also surprised to say that I'm not so easily surprised anymore. To clarify, one of my coworkers is very.... unique. I met her my first day at the school, and had no idea what to do. I kept saying yes when I meant no, feeling like I'd been caught in a compromising position when I hadn't, and just plain awkward the rest of the time.

So far, I'm just rolling with it and it's working. She might have asked me to come with her to the bathroom today and hand-fed me a piece of chocolate, among other things, but I managed to laugh it off. Which is good, because I have more important things to mull over than what unusual thing she'll do next. What important things? Tune in next time.

That's my way of saying I'm still mulling....... (Don't worry, it doesn't have anything to do with a secret boyfriend, marriage proposal or anything a wild imagination could cook up)

Thanks for reading!

  

What's Happened So Far: Part 1

I have seriously been lazy with the blog updates... and the picture taking. That's one thing everyone told me to do when I got here. "Take a lot of pictures."

Fail.

So, after half a week in training, a weekend in Seoul and being told yesterday that I would be desk-warming today, I decided it was about time that I updated my blog. FINALLY.

I've already been at my school for over a month now. Time has gone by a lot faster than I thought it would. When I first arrived here, during that first week at EPIK orientation, I was very unsure of myself. I'd be in bed, my head resting on the drinking straw filled pillow (pretty much what it was), when suddenly a thought would pop into my head: "I can't do this. Why did I think I could do this?"

I felt even more nervous after the lesson demonstrations at the end of orientation. Our evaluator had basically nothing but praise for the other girl in my group, while I was told I had an "angry face". This was probably true, but only because he had also told me I had a small voice and kept turning towards me when he was giving criticism. So, understandably I felt singled out and upset.

Then I get to my school the next day. At this point, I feel like they're going to take one look at my teaching style and change their minds. Surely, I'm going to do something wrong and they'll send me home. I'll do something taboo, offend the principal, look unprofessional -- take your pick.

And then I met my co-workers.  

I've never felt more taken care of by a group of strangers in my life. I got food, clothes, teaching materials, supplies... Here I am worrying about making them happy when they are concerned that I feel comfortable. I feel really blessed to have the co-workers that I do. We are still developing our relationship, but I feel more comfortable than I thought I would.

As for my classes, once I got through the first-time jitters, I did pretty well. There are definitely off days (and our 5th graders are just plain rowdy), and I'm still learning but I have realized that I shouldn't take so much of what the evaluator said to heart. My co-teachers tell me that I have a good teacher voice and that I'm a good teacher. I think I just do better in front of kids than in front of a group of my fellow peers.

And then in-service training began...

These training sessions are supposed to make you feel pumped up to teach, right? There were a lot of helpful tips and information provided, yes, but I felt like I was going through that emotional roller-coaster of ineptitude once again. AKA "High School: The in-service training edition".

It was during training that I remembered just how much of an introvert I am, and how much the majority of the other EPIK teachers are not. I got tired of making conversation after the first day, and was completely NOT up to participating in most of the game demonstrations in our last class.

I hate to sound like such a sourpuss, but it just wasn't a pleasant experience. It was like I'd entered a black hole. I'd start to say something and then realize no one was actually listening to me. They'd already turned to someone else, and the conversation I thought I'd been having was apparently dropped already. Oops.

 

At least I had a fun weekend after that, which I'll get into for my next blog update. I might have desk-warming time on my hands right now, but this post is already long enough. Thanks for reading!

TO BE CONTINUED...

When Life Changes

Someone said something recently that I want to share with those reading this. I was talking about how I planned to go to South Korea for a year, and they brought up the number of differences I was going to encounter. Different customs, different food, different everything.

I was aware that I would be encountering things like these, but I wasn't AWARE. As they talked to me, it just suddenly hit me like it hadn't before when they used two words -- BIG CHANGE.

My life is changing. Holy cow.

I've had a good life up 'til now. Great family, friends, mentors and experiences. But this... it's a big change for me, and I got more than a little emotional about it (I may have been emotional before that, whole other story). I can't think of any changes in my life as dramatic as this one, or where I haven't had my family by my side for the majority of the process, if not all of it.

Then the person I was talking to brought up one more thing, which I hope I'm remembering correctly, though I am definitely paraphrasing:

Big changes open us up to greater growth. 

There's a chance that things might not turn out the way I plan or the way I hope, but they could also exceed my expectations and introduce me to new wonders. I'm not going to find out unless I go for it and make the change.

I'm Going On An Adventure!

Bilbo and I have a few things in common. We're both short in stature, we both enjoy food and we've both been content to just sit in our comfortable homes until someone or something came along to remind us that we're adventurers at heart. I've dreamed of traveling, but most of my trips have been short and far between. A while back, however, I decided that I was going to do something a bit crazy -- go to South Korea and teach English for a year.

Yes, a year.

I may not be facing goblins, orcs, giant spiders (let's REALLY hope there won't be any giant spiders) or dragons, but I will be facing culture shock, a language I can barely understand and children who speak said language I can't understand.   And, let's not forget co-workers who I may or may not understand either.

There are a number of reasons why I decided to do this. First, I want to see more of the world and its cultures. Travel Channel can only show me so much. Second, I want to share my own culture with others. In order to better understand another language, understanding its culture is required, after all. Third, South Korea is intriguing. I'm not just talking about Kdramas and Kpop, here. There are symbols, customs and foods I'm itching to experience.  

I could probably keep listing reasons, but this post would get exceptionally long...

So, what have I done so far?

• Researched agencies
• Researched TEFL courses
• Registered for a TEFL course 
• Started to get up-to-date on vaccinations (Can I just say -- Ow!)
• Started passport renewal process

The TEFL course is through International TEFL Academy (ITA) and takes 3 months to finish. They have job guidance and the admissions advisor has been pretty helpful in answering my questions. She even helped set up an installment payment plan so that I could register now and simply pay in 3 installments.

I'll be starting my course in about 2 months. It's an exciting and nerve-wrecking experience. Meanwhile, I have a few things to attend to, like funding and getting paperwork together. Anyone who is willing to help me out, I'm coming up with some fundraising ideas right now.

I'll keep you posted.