Day 205

July 10 Friday

My schedule is changing next week. Still the same classes but the times are earlier. We usually start class on Tues/Thurs at 4:10. Now we are starting at 4:00 and we have a 10 min break instead of 5 minutes. Now we also have a 10 min break on MWF between classes. class ends at 8:55 now instead of 8:45.

My first class was good. I had 2 absent students. I have one student who didnt bring his book to class on Wed or today so I had to make him a copy. Almost all of the kids did their homework.The kids were pretty well behaved today. We took a test then we did one page in the book. Checking homework and giving tests takes too much time away from teaching. They enjoy reading the stories in the book. We read it twice. I give everyone different characters to read. they are all shouting out "I want to be cindy", etc. They wanted to read it 3rd time but I needed to go forward in the book. We had 10 mins left in class and they asked for a game. I let them play because there wasn't enough time to finish the new concept.

I really dont like my 2nd class. Its my lowest level. I explained the directions and played the cd 3 times and they still didn't understand. I told them to listen to the description and match the person. The cd would say something like "he's short and she's tall" and they had to match the name with the person, but they werent even trying. I kept looking at the book and no one was writing. I finally just wrote it on the board. They all seem bored. Well I was too. The material isn't exciting. We were just talking about things like happy, sad, big, small, young, old, ugly, beautiful, short, tall.

So today during our 2nd block of classes the Korean teacher goes into the class then comes back out to her desk and sits down and eats. I never come out of my class and sit down during class. Even if she is giving them a test she should be in the room.

They like to eat peppers as a snack. Green bell peppers, and yellow peppers cut into pieces with some sort of sauce. yuck.

My last class was loud. There are a few boys and a few girls who love to talk during class. I keep telling them to be quiet. At least everyone still does their work. Everyone had thier homework except 3 people. The boys in the class beside us like to bang on the wall. Then my students go and bang back. I guess the teacher was out of the room while they were doing that. I know she wouldn't let them do that while she was in the room.

I was leaving at 9pm and one of the teachers said "its only 9". I told her that I'm suppose to leave at 9pm. My contract is for 2-9. (the woman at the Nokbeon school said she would tell the person in charge at my school...but obviously she didn't. the communication between schools is terrible!!)

When I was leaving the gym I noticed that I left my check card at the school. I panicked for a while because I had no cash on me. I'd have to go all weekend without any money. It was 10:45 when I noticed. I texted one of the teachers and asked her how late was someone at the school. She didn't know. So I decided I'd just take a chance and go to the school. I got to the school at 11pm and I could tell there were lights still on. I went in and there was one person still there at 11am. I was able to get my card! I'm always forgetting something because I have to carry so much junk around!

I got my gas bill today. It was only 3,000 won (thats less than $3 for the whole month of May). I'm going to pay it on Monday and transfer some money home to my American account.

I think I'm just going to relax on Saturday. Sleep in and skip the gym. I should be out doing something, but sometimes I just need to relax.

I was looking at the weather for this weekend.The weather channel said 100% chance of rain and they are expecting a large amount of heavy rain.. I really want to go to the soccer game. I think I'll just go and sit in the rain. Maybe the rain will have stopped by 8pm. I wonder if they play in heavy rain.

My laptop arrives by UPS at my parents house today!! Then in a few days (once my software arrives) they can ship it to me! I need to research what the cheapest and/or the most effective way to get my laptop sent to me. Maybe UPS or Fedex or DHL. I'm just afraid they will show up when Im not at home. Regular mail would take too long.