To start the post off, this weekend was AMAZING. My best time here so far, and I have plans for more awesomeness to come. But before I get to the weekend, a quick update on my classes :/ On the upside my students are getting used to me, on the downside they are getting used to me. This is both good and bad. In some classes it means that the students now know I'm serious about taking points. On the other hand it means they are more comfortable talking back to me because they know I'm fairly easy going about most things. My grade 4s this week informed me that I am the meanest foreign teacher in the entire school. I am not only stricter than Britton, but I also take more points (a lie), and "Hannah-teacher doesn't give a lot of homework" (another lie). I was advised that I have to stop being an American and I need to turn into a Korean to become a better teacher, another student then jumped in to say that I just needed to stop thinking like an American and start thinking like a Korean. The thing is, from what I've seen, the Korean teachers are a lot stricter/give more homework. But my grade 5s are having fun and talked me into not working from the book next time we see each other because they want to learn Latin (I LOVE THEM). I'll be doing the root-word unit with them, except altered because they are a little less advanced then the other students I've tried it with. My Grade 6s are finally starting to understand why I've been torturing them with prefixes/suffixes and root words. Which is a plus. All in all I'm getting used to teaching, definitely, and I love it. Even when the kids tell me they hate me (which is actually really funny, because it's only 2 or 3 of the boys, the rest of the class seems to like me).
This weekend I had my apartment warming party thing. I was a little nervous actually because I've had bad experiences planning parties and then no one showing up. I had nothing to be worried about. Hannah, Britton and Heather showed up first. Then Woo Hyeon. And we hung out talking for a little while. Then Mieka, Du Yeon and Prisca (a new friend) showed up and the party really got started. It was great. We ended up playing scrabble in pairs. Mieka and Hannah paired together, I was paired with Du Yeon, Woo Hyeon and Britton, and Prisca and Heather. It was so much fun, and hilarious. We had a good time, and somehow Hannah and Mieka ended up winning (and then failed 3 times at a high five). But all in all it was a success. Before the party Hannah and I hit E-Mart to get party supplies and cleaning supplies. I also got a fish. If he survives the week I shall name him Andre (because Hannah's fish is Steph, and Andre Agassi is married to Steffi Graff, so yeah...everything comes back to tennis!), and while discussing this at the party I learned something awesome. Mieka seems to be a tennis fan too! And she plays! I'm psyched.
So then, today (Sunday), we went out to brunch. There was wonderful planning and we ended up going in two groups, Heather and Britton went (and invited me but I was being a lazy bum and skipped out), and then me, Hannah, Prisca and Mieka. We all went to First Avenue which is delicious food. The other three got full English Breakfast. I got a strange breakfast burrito thing, with Spanish rice, egg, some sort of yummy salsa, all wrapped in a tortilla. It was so good. Then the four of us went shopping/wandering around downtown. I had a great time. So yeah, this weekend was the best weekend ever, so far. I have friends! :) I also learned about a running club group thing that meets every Sunday and goes for a run, then goes out to dinner. I'm joining and I'm excited.
Onto the less good portion of recent times. Our school is RIDICULOUS! Hannah's classes got all switched around and some new ones added and Britton got some new classes too. And I have to most open schedule they should add people to already huge classes (like they did with some of Hannah's classes) or give so many classes to just one teacher. It's crazy! And not only that. But we didn't find out things were going to be switched around until a couple days before they did, and they didn't even tell us everything. Apparently it's normal to find out these things at the last minute, but it sucks. Classes should be reorganized because right now they are really lopsided and mixed up, and then distributed evenly. But that might not happen. Oh well, such is life. We just have to deal with it. A good life lesson. That's all I got.
~Lyn~
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