My first full week was amazing yet again! Teaching is starting to get a little - key word - a LITTLE easier. I definitely prefer the older kids, the younger ones are really hard to keep paying attention. Thank goodness I only have 4 - 6 year olds. I’m still not exactly sure how to plan for the lessons, but I feel like as long as I’m present and doing the best I know how, everything will work out.
Thursday, I met 2 business gentlemen that I’ll be giving private conversation lessons to. I’m excited, it’s an extra $400 a month. My evenings this week were pretty low key. Thursday, Rim and I met up with Brent and a bunch of his EPIK friends for one of his friends’ birthdays. I love meeting other people who teach - they are super friendly and I can't quite put my finger on it - but since we're all away from home - there seems to be some common thread of a personality that gravitates towards this kind of experience - and I love it! :)
Friday, I went to English club with Rim. It was fun, there were about 40 people there – mostly Koreans and a few Americans. I felt kind of like a dumb American because they were talking about idioms and asking me about commonly used phrases – it was sort of difficult to be the only American in our group. We were there for about 2 hours and then for “Round 2” we went out for a Korean meal and drinking. I
met some really nice people, and am looking forward to going again next week.
After that we met up with Brent’s crew and had a LATE LATE night. We stopped by a few restaurants and our last stop was a western bar called Whistler. When I say late – we watched the sun rise and topped the evening off by going swimming in what I think may have been the East Sea! I got home around 8:30 - ahem am that is. But it was perfect b/c then I was able to call and talk to my dad – first time since I’ve been here.
Last night (Saturday) we went to a non-touristy beach and camped out – campfire, cooked, played games and had a few drinks. Once again watched the sunrise! :) I’ve been a bum today – an absolute bum haha I fell asleep on the bus on the way home this morning, almost missing my stop. Slept for a while – did some laundry, and just got home from walking to the grocery store. Grocery shopping here is not so fun a) I don’t know how to cook Korean food and b) there’s no cheese or hummus (2 of my absolute staple foods) so I’m living on Korean ramen noodles, got some fruit at the local market (seeded grapes and bought some cereal – which I don’t even eat in the States, BUT if that’s my least favorite part of this experience – I still consider myself very blessed! :)
On my walk home, I was burning up and had a few bags by this point so I stopped at a mart and got a popcicle; decided I wanted a break from carrying my bags so sat down at the table and rested/people watched and enjoyed my popsicle. As I was packing up to leave, the clerk walked out and handed me a 2nd popsicle – the man that was sitting outside with me, had seen what I ate and bought me another one - I was floored by his sincerity! :) Little things like this make me smile and let me know that this is absolutely the best decision I’ve made in a long time.
Smiling from ear to ear,
Em :)
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