Homesick...for beef

Just thinking about cooking out on a grill. I have not had ground beef since leaving the States. (sniff) Mom said the other day how nice it will be for me to have fast food nearby when I get home but really what I miss is just NORMAL homecooked food. Steamed veggies. Mashed potatoes. Spaghetti. Pot Roast. Pot Pie. Just regular stuff. Can you believe though that I am at the 25% completion mark? I would say that it has flown by, but it really hasn't. Of course, some days have been faster than others (especially Saturdays and Sundays). Anyway, this week's girls are really sweet and I am enjoying the classes. Next week- an all boys school! AAGGHHH!!

God Bless the Weekend

So- a nice peaceful weekend has begun here in Gapyeong. Most all of the staff and teachers have left for the weekend. There are only 4 or 5 of us still on campus. I really don't mind though as it is nice to have peace and quiet. The clouds have finally burned off and it is sunny again. It was a pretty rainy week this week. I generally don't mind rain during the week, but I really appreciate a sunny weekend.
The girls school left on Friday, and they were honestly sad to leave. They are so funny on Fridays because they start requesting our "autographs" and asking for our emails and phone numbers. It is so odd to be such a celebrity. In the end, I think they had a good time. The same school is sending the second set of girls next week- so we are all assuming they will be at the same level. (LOW)
We did have the big performance on Thursday night of club activities. Mine was the music club, where the girls performed a "pop song". They chose a song called "I have a dream" by a group called Westlife. They all were excited to sign up for the club, until they realized that they would actually have to sing in front of their peers. Then it was total panic. They did get up there and perform, although they sang along with the track and not by themselves. There were 3 drama clubs, a dance club, a "broadcasting" club and an animation club. I hope each week we can refine and make things a little better as far as the performance goes.
I hope you had a chance to check out the website. I have been told that an English version of the PR film will be available soon. So I will let you know.
Not much else to report. We did have another teacher trainer arrive today. His name is Stanley and he is from Toronto. It is weird having someone join us three months into the process. However, he is lucky in that he will be able to dive right into things instead of waiting around for construction. Also- he has us to show him the few ropes we have learned.
Thanks to everyone who emailed this week. They are truly the brightest spots of my day!
Take care!

Is 6:00 pm too early for bed?

I feel like a wimp! Teaching English for 7 hours a day is exhausting! We have had an all-girls middle school this week and their level of comprehension is much lower than we all expected. It is definitely lower than the elementary school we had last week. It makes teaching that much harder. Getting a 13-year old girl to pretend she is interested is hard enough. Then, to get her to actively participate in something she doesn't understand is that much harder. Anyway, on the bright side, discipline has not been a problem.
This week, I have been teaching American culture and computers. Today I did 6 American culture lessons in a row. (phew) It is only 50 minutes, so I can't tell them everything their is to know. What I do is show them pictures of my state, city, house, family, dogs, friends, etc. Then, I show them about 20 US landmarks. Then we discuss landmarks and they create their own for their newly discovered country. I have had some really interesting countries such as: ice cream land, roller coaster land and make-up land. My computer lesson involves searching for information on IMDB. (Internet Movie Database) They get to look up movies currently at the box office as well as searching for older movies and their gross profits. They seem to like it.
Tomorrow, (5/22) is our official grand opening day. We are expecting about 200 visitors to come. This group will include the superintendent of education for Korea, mayors, council persons, etc. As you can imagine, the staff has been under a great deal of stress preparing every last detail. I thought things were mostly completed last week, but they have done even more this week. I will have to send home a whole new round of pictures of the school.
I wanted to share the website for the school: www.seec.go.kr. Of course the site is all in Korean, but there is a promotional video there where you can see me and the other teachers. Also, my room is featured (it's the one with the butterflies).
Hope you are all well and thinking about the next email you are going to send me!! :)
cheers- molly

Need the Rain...

So sometimes things in the midst of the storm are so bleak, you forget that no storm lasts forever. Case in point- the kids last week left on Friday. HOORAY! The picture on the left is my homeroom students, which I actually really liked. (not enough to ask them to stay) It was a really tough week and thank goodness our team survived intact. I was surprised at the lack of discipline we saw in the kids- but each school and class will have its own dynamic. After saying last week I was only going to give this three weeks before giving up, I feel much better now.

This week we had a whole new group come. The kids are much better behaved and the teachers from their school are much more involved and helpful. Added to that is that we have all become more comfortable in what we are doing and able to handle hiccups more easily. I am pleased to say that today I taught my last Drama lesson and the kids all had a great time. Next week I will move on to teach Computer Lab and Western Culture. I am really excited about teaching the Western Culture lesson- but the computer lesson will be difficult. These will be middle school kids (all girls) and they are qute familiar with computers. So- the difficulty will be in keeping them focused on the lady at the front speaking a foreign language instead of focusing on the computer sites they surf all day. But- these lessons will just be 50 minutes instead of 100- so I hope it will be easier.

The past few weekends, I haven't done much but hang around here. There really isn't much in Gapyeong, except for an International Jazz Festival in September. So, this weekend, I may try to venture to the next city over to see what's going on there. In Chuncheon, there is a large lake, so in the summer, there are lots of water sports.

Thank you for keeping me in your prayers. I guess sometimes you just need the rain so that you can grow strong through the challenges you are facing. Lots of rain last week. This coming week is also the "official opening" where there will be TV and newspaper coverage as well as the mayor and city council represetatives from Seoul. Big party next Thursday. If I can find a link for the coverage, I will post it.

Keep sending email. I need the connections from home!

I'm Not Dead....Yet

So- I know it has been 10 days since I last posted, but it feels like 10 months to me. We successfully moved to camp on May 1, with a LOADED bus. It looked like the circus was coming to town with all of our loads of stuff. You can imagine what 11 women and 4 men would be toting along for one year. Anyway, we were all so excited to see the camp and our rooms and we were just blown away by the progress that had been made since we last visited the site in March. Our rooms were mostly in "move in condition". I couldn't have been more pleased with my room. The view out of my window is into the mountains. There is a desk, a table with two chairs, a wardrobe, a cabinet, a frig/freezer, a vanity and a TV. So we spent the day on Thursday getting settled and took a quick run into town for some groceries for the weekend.
The classroom facilities are amazing. Of course, everything is shiny and new. Each room is equipped to the max. It is like a wonderland for the kids. I will post a picture of the station I am working in each week so you can see them all. The rest of the weekend, we just hung around and tried to brace ourselves.
Monday came (a holiday here in Korea) and the reality kind of started to settle in. There started to be a lot of worried faces around here as to how things were actually going to work. It is great to see a beautiful facility and all- but then you remember that 100 students are coming in the morning with the ability to destroy the facility in record time. So- we had a lot of meetings and planning on Monday...
Tuesday arrived and we started really getting things together. The kids were to arrive at 11 am. We are all supposed to meet them as the bus pulls in with posters and smiles. The first bus came at 10:30 and we all panicked! But- the first bus was just one elementary school of the two- so just about 40 kids. We went back up and waited for the call again. They finally came and we were all given our homeroom class group. It became quite clear immediately that these kids were rowdy and ready to rule. My homeroom was really sweet though. I had 5 boys and 5 girls. We started the day with just some name posters and checked in at "immigration". The program is set up with each child getting a passport. When they arrive they go to immigration to get a stamp and then as they go to each class, we stamp their passport upon completion. It is really neat.
My lesson (drama) is the only 2 hour lesson and I thought I was mentally prepared. Not so much. Having 24 kids for 2 hours is really difficult. The ability level is so varied. Some of the kids can get the gist of what you are trying to say and other kids you might as well be speaking Russian to them. I think the classes with 12 students ran a little more smoothly. So, the first day- I felt really defeated because my lesson did not go even close to what I wanted to do. The next day- I had the 4 worst behaved homerooms for my 2 classes and cried by the end of the day. The last day of classes for me was Thursday and FINALLY I got the better behaved classes and actually ran through my 2 hours fairly well. I think next week will be much better as far as knowing what to expect.
This weekend I want to get some mental rest and then plan ahead for next week. After next week, I will switch stations to Computer and Western Culture class.
Teaching English to 12 year olds is a lot harder than I anticipated. I love the challenge though. I know it will get easier with time. I will post more tomorrow.
M