Or Kindies Are Exhausting.
So, a bunch has happened since I last got online to post. We had 추석, Chuseok in Roman letters, which, if you'll recall from this time last year, is basically Korean Thanksgiving. I went up to Seoul for it and made new friends from Germany and Malaysia and some other teachers here in Korea, except different cities. Yay new friends~! As always. That aside, it was a fun time. I wandered around a bit with a friend I made the first time I was in Seoul. We had fun even if the one thing I was looking for was probably closed and we couldn't find the other thing I wanted to see. Yay, non-existent planning skills. I eneded up at the National museum again, which was awesome, they had some new things which were wicked cool. I compared Mediterraean pottery and Korean/Asian pottery in my brain and felt like a complete geek/nerd. I'm probably going back because there's an exhibit that wasn't there yet that I want to see. So I'll be there again next weekend (it's a three day) probably.
Rosh Hashanah is almost here so I will say Shana Tova to everyone now. Yom Kippur is on a weekend and I'm ridiculously excited about that. I just looked at my calander so I felt the need to add that in.
In other news, my boss is friends with the boss at a Kindergarten school, ages 3-6, I think, so I'm now part-timing there three mornings a week. Monday and Tuesday it's 11-1 and Thursday its 1130-1, and they feed me lunch with the little ones. Its so freaking frustrating. The language barrier is ridiculous, their attention span is non-existent, and they take up so much energy. It's not all bad, I do enjoy the little kids, I love small children, it's just hard. After I have to go to ELC and do my normal classes, ugh, so much energy, Haha, I'm enjoying it. I had been complaining about too much free time, I guess this is a case of "careful what you wish for." I can't teach them, though, because they're so young, it's mostly playing with the hopes of them learning as we go. Also, they don't seem to understand that I don't know Korean very well so they'll say something in Korean and then looked expectantly at me. On the plus side no swearing in those classes like I have to deal with in my normal classes.
Work is going well. we're doing this special review class thingy for the middle school students because they have midterms coming up. It's boring for all involved, but it helps them and that's all that really matters. As an update. I do not work Saturdays. I got a new, rewritten, contract about it and everything. They're playing around with the schedule and that's one of the things they're playing with. Van and everyone else still has to go in, but I don't. I feel kinda bad, but I'm not going to complain because, even though I got a bit of a pay cut, no Saturdays! It's worth less money and a little guilt.
Insomnia and I made friends again, but I'm really trying to end the friendship firmly this time. It just can't seem to take a hint. I ended up not sleeping on Friday night, and then I drifted in and out from 8:30Am until a bit past noon with fake sleep. On Saturday, after being social downtown I went to bed at midnight and woke up at noon-thirty. Which was bad because I was volunteering at brunch at the First Alleyway restaurant. I was supposed to go in at 11. It ended up being ok, and I got there around 1 and helped out until closing. Tim gave me cooking things so all I need to do is rearrange my furniture a bit and I'm all settled in for the year. That's all for now.
Happy thoughts~
~Lyn
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
In Which Tempus Fugit
Or, I Can't Believe How Fast August Passed
Wow! August just flew by. After a few months of time dragging by at a snails pace and then WOOSH! August disappeared. Part of it is that I was so busy. Moving apartments, getting settled into my new job at ELC and so on. I feel like I blinked and suddenly it's September.
My perception of time aside, I feel like getting adjusted to ELC is a lot easier than getting adjusted to MunHwa was. It's amazing what having a year experience under your belt can do. Things make a little more sense. Not that's it's been a 100% smooth transition, I'm still a bit confused by my schedule and I have to re-write it out to make sense of it. I'm still getting used to teaching straight from a book and having a syllabus to follow. I really like it though. I'm given the book and a syllabus to follow. I mostly focus on speaking or writing, which is similar to at MunHwa, but it's more structured. We have different books for each class, each class is split up based on level more than grade. My classes are generally around the same level, I don't have any major splits which were a headache to deal with at MunHwa.
The students are much the same. I wasn't really expecting that big a difference with them. I like them though, I already have some favorite students and classes. I feel like I'm a better teacher than I was at MunHwa, and I'm not sure how much of that is just my brain acting strangely. I have less free time, which I'm sure my friends have noticed. I work from 2:30 pm until around 9:30 at night. It's a long day, but worth it. I supposedly work on Saturdays too, but that hasn't happened yet, so I'm just confused about that part. I started meeting with a tutor for my Korean, so I have that two mornings a week and I'll be helping out at a Kindergarten three times a week. I think. Still getting all the details figured out.
The apartment is MUCH smaller than my apartment before was. It's a one room, and I'll have pictures up just as soon as I finish re-arranging everything to my satisfaction. We have a break coming up this weekend and I'll be going up to Seoul for that. I can't think of what else to say at the moment. My insomnia has been acting up for a variety of reasons so I'm to exhausted to think or write more. I'll keep the updates coming as often as I can :D Promise not to disappear now that I'm the only one posting!
~Lyn~
Wow! August just flew by. After a few months of time dragging by at a snails pace and then WOOSH! August disappeared. Part of it is that I was so busy. Moving apartments, getting settled into my new job at ELC and so on. I feel like I blinked and suddenly it's September.
My perception of time aside, I feel like getting adjusted to ELC is a lot easier than getting adjusted to MunHwa was. It's amazing what having a year experience under your belt can do. Things make a little more sense. Not that's it's been a 100% smooth transition, I'm still a bit confused by my schedule and I have to re-write it out to make sense of it. I'm still getting used to teaching straight from a book and having a syllabus to follow. I really like it though. I'm given the book and a syllabus to follow. I mostly focus on speaking or writing, which is similar to at MunHwa, but it's more structured. We have different books for each class, each class is split up based on level more than grade. My classes are generally around the same level, I don't have any major splits which were a headache to deal with at MunHwa.
The students are much the same. I wasn't really expecting that big a difference with them. I like them though, I already have some favorite students and classes. I feel like I'm a better teacher than I was at MunHwa, and I'm not sure how much of that is just my brain acting strangely. I have less free time, which I'm sure my friends have noticed. I work from 2:30 pm until around 9:30 at night. It's a long day, but worth it. I supposedly work on Saturdays too, but that hasn't happened yet, so I'm just confused about that part. I started meeting with a tutor for my Korean, so I have that two mornings a week and I'll be helping out at a Kindergarten three times a week. I think. Still getting all the details figured out.
The apartment is MUCH smaller than my apartment before was. It's a one room, and I'll have pictures up just as soon as I finish re-arranging everything to my satisfaction. We have a break coming up this weekend and I'll be going up to Seoul for that. I can't think of what else to say at the moment. My insomnia has been acting up for a variety of reasons so I'm to exhausted to think or write more. I'll keep the updates coming as often as I can :D Promise not to disappear now that I'm the only one posting!
~Lyn~
Saturday, September 3, 2011
In Which Lyn Proves Her Uncle (and Father) Right
Or What I Did For Summer Vacation.
Sorry! This is two weeks later than I meant it to be. For once I have a small excuse (not a fully strong one though). Last week my Saba (my mother's father) passed and it's been rather difficult to deal with all alone, away from my family. However, I am dealing as well as I can .
Sad news aside, I'll get to the fun stuff. Now, as I mentioned before I went to Japan for five days to visit a college friend, Hanako Aoki. I've never been off the main island of Japan so this was very exciting for me. Also exciting was the ferry I took. It went so fast it literally lifted out of the water a few meters. We weren't allowed outside on deck because it was going so fast. On a normal ferry the trip is 13 hours, on the Beetle with the hydrofoil it was only 3 hours. I met two new friends on the trip over, one from outside of Gwangju about an hour and the other from Daegu (near Busan). Both of whom made plans to climb Mt. Fuji. They had hiking and winter gear. Once we got into Fukuoka port and through customs I used my awesome observation skills I got from my daddy to totally miss seeing my friend standing in front of me. She was worried it was because she'd changed, I had to reassure her I'm just that observant. Anyway, a quick train and bus ride later we arrived at her hometown an hour later. Her family was amazing. My limited Japanese
with Hanako's amazing translating abilities made communication fairly easy. My Japanese improved throughout the trip. Her family had planned out some amazing things for us to do. On the first day we went to an amusement park with awesome roller coasters (I only managed one of the big ones, this green one, before I 
got heat-sick because it was too hot outside and couldn't handle any other ones. Lame). On the second day her mom took us to make Japanese style pottery, and then we went to this neat little Soba restaurant. Soba is a Japanese noodle made from a kind of wheat. The couple who own the restaurant grown the plant, grind it by hand, and make the noodles themselves. Everything was from the plant, even the tea and dessert. It was delicious. The third day was amazing. We went to see her older brother's rugby game. Then we went to a traditional hotel and hot spring. We spent the night there. We met her aunt and uncle and they treated us to a delicious dinner (too much food for me...I did manage to try everything). The hot spring was an interesting experience for me, though not as embarrassing as I thought it would be. The room we stayed in was so cool. V
ery traditional, and I got to try on a Kimono (I ate dinner in it, it made me feel very special), and after mentioning I wanted to buy it, her father bought it for me. I was surprised and happy. Her family was incredible for the entire trip and really made me feel like part of the family. We stayed the night at the hot springs and then the next day her uncle took us around the Yamaguchi prefecture. He's a pretty big travel agent (I think) there so we got to see a lot of things that we may not have been able to without him. We ate more delicious food, saw some pretty awesome sights (all my pictures are up on facebook). Then we took a bullet train through the mountains back to where she lives (which I forgot the name of, again). After a delicious final dinner, and some presents, I went to bed for the last time on the futon. I really had a great time and plan on visiting her family again, they were amazing. I know I overused that word. Sorry.
Upon my return came a very hectic time. I arrived at my apartment in Bongseon Dong at 5:20 PM, my friend who was helping me move (he's amazing and has a truck) arrived at 5:45 PM and thus began my frantic move. I finally got to my new apartment in Shinchang and all the boxes and suitcases by, like 8:30 PM. I was exhausted. I rearranged a little bit and then passed out. I will cover my new teaching in my next blog entry (hopefully tomorrow, it's getting late so I don't think there'll be a double post tonight). After my first week and a half we had a three day weekend. For that weekend I went with my Korean friend Hye In, to Busan, the port city I had left from to get to Japan. I didn't have time to sight see then, so this trip was for that.
We were there for Saturday and Sunday. Most of the sight seeing happened on Saturday and we ended up wearing ourselves out. First we went to a temple that was right on the water. It was gorgeous! I forgot the name (I left my notebook that I wrote it in at school), but it was gorgeous. It was so hot we made our way straight to Haewondae Beach, the most famous beach in Korea, or so I've been told. It was ridiculous crowded, it didn't feel like Korea really at all because of all the foreigners. They had this cool system where we gave them some money and we got a bracelet that had a barcode on it that worked as money so we didn't have to carry around wallets. It was nifty. We got an inner tube and while I frolicked in the waves Hye-In rode the tube. I towed her back to where we were sitting after we drifted. Then we switched pl
aces a couple times. It was wicked fun. However, all the swimming and the waves ended up wearing us out. So after a trip to the aquarium (which was awesome, HAMMERHEAD SHARKS <3 and sad because of the small tanks) and seeing the nifty fish car they had outside, we headed to the Jimjilbang for the night. the Jjimjilbang is similar to the Hot Springs in Japan. However instead of natural water, it is normal water. That came out wrong, but I think you can understand what I mean. There's a place for people to sleep. It was an interesting experience, but not too weird. When we woke up on Sunday we were still physically exhausted. We shopped a little bit and then headed home. The whole trip was a cool experience.
All in all my summer vacation was pretty awesome. In my next entry I will cover my first month at ELC (my new school) and my trip this weekend. I hope I wake up for it. Stupid insomnia ;)
~Lyn
Sorry! This is two weeks later than I meant it to be. For once I have a small excuse (not a fully strong one though). Last week my Saba (my mother's father) passed and it's been rather difficult to deal with all alone, away from my family. However, I am dealing as well as I can .
Sad news aside, I'll get to the fun stuff. Now, as I mentioned before I went to Japan for five days to visit a college friend, Hanako Aoki. I've never been off the main island of Japan so this was very exciting for me. Also exciting was the ferry I took. It went so fast it literally lifted out of the water a few meters. We weren't allowed outside on deck because it was going so fast. On a normal ferry the trip is 13 hours, on the Beetle with the hydrofoil it was only 3 hours. I met two new friends on the trip over, one from outside of Gwangju about an hour and the other from Daegu (near Busan). Both of whom made plans to climb Mt. Fuji. They had hiking and winter gear. Once we got into Fukuoka port and through customs I used my awesome observation skills I got from my daddy to totally miss seeing my friend standing in front of me. She was worried it was because she'd changed, I had to reassure her I'm just that observant. Anyway, a quick train and bus ride later we arrived at her hometown an hour later. Her family was amazing. My limited Japanese
with Hanako's amazing translating abilities made communication fairly easy. My Japanese improved throughout the trip. Her family had planned out some amazing things for us to do. On the first day we went to an amusement park with awesome roller coasters (I only managed one of the big ones, this green one, before I 
got heat-sick because it was too hot outside and couldn't handle any other ones. Lame). On the second day her mom took us to make Japanese style pottery, and then we went to this neat little Soba restaurant. Soba is a Japanese noodle made from a kind of wheat. The couple who own the restaurant grown the plant, grind it by hand, and make the noodles themselves. Everything was from the plant, even the tea and dessert. It was delicious. The third day was amazing. We went to see her older brother's rugby game. Then we went to a traditional hotel and hot spring. We spent the night there. We met her aunt and uncle and they treated us to a delicious dinner (too much food for me...I did manage to try everything). The hot spring was an interesting experience for me, though not as embarrassing as I thought it would be. The room we stayed in was so cool. V
ery traditional, and I got to try on a Kimono (I ate dinner in it, it made me feel very special), and after mentioning I wanted to buy it, her father bought it for me. I was surprised and happy. Her family was incredible for the entire trip and really made me feel like part of the family. We stayed the night at the hot springs and then the next day her uncle took us around the Yamaguchi prefecture. He's a pretty big travel agent (I think) there so we got to see a lot of things that we may not have been able to without him. We ate more delicious food, saw some pretty awesome sights (all my pictures are up on facebook). Then we took a bullet train through the mountains back to where she lives (which I forgot the name of, again). After a delicious final dinner, and some presents, I went to bed for the last time on the futon. I really had a great time and plan on visiting her family again, they were amazing. I know I overused that word. Sorry.
Upon my return came a very hectic time. I arrived at my apartment in Bongseon Dong at 5:20 PM, my friend who was helping me move (he's amazing and has a truck) arrived at 5:45 PM and thus began my frantic move. I finally got to my new apartment in Shinchang and all the boxes and suitcases by, like 8:30 PM. I was exhausted. I rearranged a little bit and then passed out. I will cover my new teaching in my next blog entry (hopefully tomorrow, it's getting late so I don't think there'll be a double post tonight). After my first week and a half we had a three day weekend. For that weekend I went with my Korean friend Hye In, to Busan, the port city I had left from to get to Japan. I didn't have time to sight see then, so this trip was for that.
We were there for Saturday and Sunday. Most of the sight seeing happened on Saturday and we ended up wearing ourselves out. First we went to a temple that was right on the water. It was gorgeous! I forgot the name (I left my notebook that I wrote it in at school), but it was gorgeous. It was so hot we made our way straight to Haewondae Beach, the most famous beach in Korea, or so I've been told. It was ridiculous crowded, it didn't feel like Korea really at all because of all the foreigners. They had this cool system where we gave them some money and we got a bracelet that had a barcode on it that worked as money so we didn't have to carry around wallets. It was nifty. We got an inner tube and while I frolicked in the waves Hye-In rode the tube. I towed her back to where we were sitting after we drifted. Then we switched pl
aces a couple times. It was wicked fun. However, all the swimming and the waves ended up wearing us out. So after a trip to the aquarium (which was awesome, HAMMERHEAD SHARKS <3 and sad because of the small tanks) and seeing the nifty fish car they had outside, we headed to the Jimjilbang for the night. the Jjimjilbang is similar to the Hot Springs in Japan. However instead of natural water, it is normal water. That came out wrong, but I think you can understand what I mean. There's a place for people to sleep. It was an interesting experience, but not too weird. When we woke up on Sunday we were still physically exhausted. We shopped a little bit and then headed home. The whole trip was a cool experience.
All in all my summer vacation was pretty awesome. In my next entry I will cover my first month at ELC (my new school) and my trip this weekend. I hope I wake up for it. Stupid insomnia ;)
~Lyn
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