Day 189 emotional rollercoaster

June 24 Wednesday

These days I'm on an emotional rollercoaster. I went up the hill on Monday. Tuesday I went down the hill. Today I was going up a hill. Who knows what tomorrow will hold?

Tomorrow is officially the start of Monsoon season in South Korea. So basically its time to take the umbrella with me everywhere I go. I checked the forecast--its suppose to rain with thunderstorms Monday-Friday of next week. This weekend actually looks pretty nice. sunny and anywhere from 86-90 degrees. Maybe I should get out and enjoy the weather while I can before it starts raining! Maybe I'll go to a palace. I might even consider going to the zoo.

My M/W/F classes are actually good. Tues/Thurs likes to give me problems. I told the Korean teacher that 2 of the classes gave me problems yesterday. She's going to talk to them before my classes on Thursday.

I went to the bank today to pay my internet bill. After I paid it there was this middle aged Korean lady who wanted me to show her how to use the machine. After I got through she was looking at me like 'show me' so I showed her. She said 'thank you' in Korean after I helped her.

Afterwards something funny happened. I was running to the bus because it was stopped behind another bus and right before I got to the bus I fell on the ground. I think I fell off the curb or something. haha. Then I got on the bus.

So today was actually a good day.

My first class was good. 3 of my students didn't bring their books so I had to make copies of the lesson for them. The students were very well behaved. They actually were begging to participate. We were writing an email to a email friend using an example in our book. "Hi! I'm Valerie. I'm American and I'm from the USA. I'm short and fat. I have light hair and green eyes. My favorite color is blue." After they wrote the information I got them to read to the class. I picked someone to go first then the students would say "me next, then me, then me". I feel like they enjoyed the lesson today.

In my 2nd class we took 2 tests and then I let them have free time to play a game. They did good on their speaking test. I took material from the book and took some white out and they had to fill in the blanks for a conversation. Then they had a writing test. The student that was absent last time didn't have to take the test but I showed him what pages to study so he can take it on Monday. I don't know how I'm going to test the student who has missed 2 classes. After the tests, there wasn't really enough time to cover much material. We played the same game we usually play. It was them against me. No one won or lost so we did rock/paper/scissors to determine who would buy the snacks.haha. I lost R/P/S so I gave the 2 children 500 won to buy a snack. The other child didn't want anything.

During my breaks I was talking to the new guy(he's korean). He thinks its boring working at our school. He's not a teacher. He's like an office assistant. Him and this other guy help out around the office making copies and other tasks. He kept sitting down at the Korean teacher's desk and had to keep getting up because she came to sit down.He told me his English name was Johnny Depp. Haha. His English is okay but there are a lot of times we don't understand each other.

My 3rd class was having a bit of trouble. I had to keep explaining to them how to do the speaking activities. They are in the highest level and don't usually need a lot of guidance. I think the concept of chores and using 'always, usually, sometimes and never' confused them. Hopefully they will do their CD ROM exercises so they can get a grasp on the material.

I asked most of my students if they had done the activities on the CD ROM and most of them said they hadn't.

My 4th class was good. We had a productive class. Everyone participated and they all had good behavior. I actually got 5 essays from this class!(there were 9 students present). I don't have my new books yet for this class. They just ordered them today. I asked them when were my new books coming and they said they haven't ordered them yet because they thought I wasn't finished with the other book yet. Well I wasn't finished with the other book but I would have liked to have my new books. I won't be able to finish the new book by the end of August. oh well. We'll get as much done as we can. Excuses, excuses. They knew I needed that book.

Yesterday the personal trainer at the gym asked me and Lesley if we could bring him an English newspaper. He wants to work on his English. I brought him one today. I also gave him 2 of my student newspapers that I got when I worked at Avalon. They are geared toward students but they will still be beneficial for someone who wants to practice English.