It's Finally Friday!!!!!

This week has been very busy full of teaching and lesson planning. Nothing special has happened. My lesson with my grade 4 went well on Thursday. After the text book part of the lesson I taught them how to “Wobble.” For those of you that know me very well I love to have fun and dance. The 4^th graders are precious and most of the time they are sweet. So I like to have fun with them and reward them. They are still at the age where studying English is fun. So they always actively participate in class.

Wednesday evening was spent on the roof of a fellow EPIK teacher’s apartment. He has a great view of the small town. There were 8 EPIK teachers there along with a few other friends. We grilled pork, chicken and fish. It was so good to spend time with other teachers in the area that know about Seongju.

All week my friends and I have been planning the weekend. It was nice to have something to look forward to, although it is making today (Friday) drag slower than it ever has. After school I will be getting a bus to Waeghan and then a train to Gumi. I will meet up with a few teachers for dinner there. Saturday morning we are planning to leave early to head to Pohang. Pohang is on the East coast. We have other teacher friends that live there.

I’ve always loved the weekends but it was not until Korea that I learned how precious they were.

We learned at orientation the number one thing to always remember in Korea was to “Be Flexible.” Today I learned why. I was informed that starting next Friday I will teach grade 5. My co-teacher will be in the classroom but it is all on me for the 40 minute class. I already teach grades 1, 2 and 4 solo. It is a bit stressful thinking about it. But she said make it fun, don’t use the text book. So I will get to play English games and maybe even dance a little.

Next week will be rather stressful for me, but I know it will only make me stronger and become a better teacher. No one said this was an easy job. I love every minute of it. Everyday there is something new and different. Coming out of this in a years time I know I will have learned more about myself than I could have ever imagined possible. I have already learned a lot and it hasn’t even been a month. Being thrown into the unknown is part of the trill. Expecting the unexpected is an everyday activity. The only thing that is certain is that I get paid on the 25^th. This will be my first “real” pay check. I worked in high school. But this is different. A 40 hour a week job that was real, with a contract. I can not wait to go and check my bank balance on that day and know that the number in there is because of something I did. I earned every Won (Korean currency) on it.