Day 257

Monday August 31

This is insane. I have to be at school for 7 hours to teach one class.

I got a book list today of all the books I'll be using for the upcoming semester. When do we begin classes? I don't even know. We don't have a schedule today. I also got a lesson plan for some of my classes. We have a schedule of when we are suppose to teach in the book. It's just like Avalon. At least it cuts down on making a lesson plan. or trying to figure out how many pages I want to cover in class.

I got my books for the conversation class. I was told I had to make copies because the students weren't buying the book. So I made 14 copies because I had 14 kids in the class. 6 of them actually had books so I made more copies than I needed.

10 of the students were in class today. I knew all of them except one. I taught the rest of them in elementary classes last semester.

I'll be teaching this particular class every Monday from 6-6:55. Its only once a week. I'm not sure if I have to give tests and homework for this class. I don't know how you would test a conversation class. There's not much prep work for the class or much teaching. I just explain the vocabulary and let them talk. Today the class went okay. We were learning about introductions. I couldn't get the cd player to work so we couldn't listen to the cd. I just had them repeat after me. Some of them don't want to talk to each other. That's frustrating when you are trying to teach conversation and you can't get them to conversate with each other. There was a part in the book where they had to introduce themselves to a group. The shy girl that I had in elementary class is in this class and she wouldn't speak. Then later I asked them to ask questions to 3 people in the class and write their answers. They didn't ask. They just passed the book around to 3 people and had them write. Oh my. Hopefully they will be better as the semester progresses. I have 14 more classes with them. The Korean teacher said that there would be 15 classes, but it only goes through November which is 13 weeks. Not 15.

The students were asking me to spell Korean words. If they would have asked me a few months ago I wouldn't have had a clue! But now I'm actually studying korean so I can write the word in Korean and English. One student asked me 'how do you spell 'jeong'?" and I wrote it in Korean on the board. I asked her if that was was she was asking. Then I wrote it in English. Another student asked me how to spell something. I told him to write it in Korean and I'd write it in English.

Since I'm having a hard time getting them to talk I think I'm going to start them out with 100 points and if they don't participate I'm going to take away 5 points each class. I might even put them into teams and give away pieces of candy like suckers as motivation to do things the right way. The winning team gets a bonus point and a sucker.

Now I have to sit at my desk doing nothing from 7-9. It's quite boring.

I went to Kims club to get some groceries. I got some fruit. I also got some froot loops. I walked past them at first bc the price was ridiculous. Then the gravitational pull was so strong I just had to go back and get them! Even if they were $5.50 for one of the large boxes. oh well.

Then i went home and ate a lot of froot loops.

Day 256

Sunday August 30

Well I blog everyday even if I didn't really do anything.

Today I got up. went to the gym. walked on treadmill for 47 minutes.Played on internet. Watched a movie--"Sex and Death 101"-It was okay. Went grocery shopping at E-Mart. I'm going to try to eat healthy this coming week. I got some pasta and garden veggie sauce. I came home and ordered McDonalds delivery. did laundry. I also cleaned my entire apartment. It's almost spotless. I just wish it would stay that way! Cleaning the bathroom is so easy here! Just wipe down the bathroom then use the handheld showerhead to rinse. Just wet the whole bathroom including the floor.

Maybe when I get my own house I'll have my own asian bathroom. I had to get used to it at first but I like it now. No shower curtian. Just put a drain in the middle of the floor and a handheld showerhead on the wall. perfect.

I'm also going to have a glass stovetop. I love how you don't have to worry about something falling inside the burner and it catching on fire. If something jumps out of the pan it just falls on the glass. And its easy to keep clean. Just wipe it down instead of having to take out the burner bowl thing to clean it.

Day 255

Saturday August 29

Today I went to Sinchon for a private Korean lesson. My teacher rented a place. A nice place. It was a place where you can rent a small room with a table and a whiteboard. I went by myself today.Lesley had some sort of rash and was afraid it was contagious so she didn't want to take the chance of coming. I texted the teacher and asked him if he still wanted to meet since it would just be me. He said we could still meet if I wanted to.

I had a good lesson today. Its a lot easier when he helped me with sentence structure. I feel like I'm making good progress. I still have a lot to learn. He has a good teaching style. He wishes he could teach Korean in the USA. I think he'd make a good teacher. He takes the lesson slow so I can understand and we practice it a lot. We studied from 2:30 till 4pm.

I need to use a Korean keyboard so I can write some of what I'm learning.

After we got finished we went to eat at KFC and then we both went our separate ways.

When I got back to Eungam I wanted to see the progress of the stream. They are really making it look nice. I'll have to take some pictures. It was really plain before but now they added a rock wall and they put in a wheel. I'm ready to see the finished product. Maybe I'll take pictures tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent doing nothing at home.

I might go to the soccer game on Sunday. I'm also going to go to the gym on Sunday. I only went 4 times last week.

Day 254

Friday August 28

Still no package :( Its been a whole week! Please don't be lost!

I made it halfway through my contract! 6 more months! I know it sounds crazy, but part of me would love to stay for another year, but I am ready to be back home! There are a lot of people that I will miss when I'm gone!

Today was the best day of the semester. Also the last day of the semester which means we didn't do anything productive besides take tests. Its good to have one day where you just let the kids have fun. The Korean teachers didn't do any productive work either.

Before class I went to HomePlus Express to pick up some plates for our party and some candy. I saw 1 of my students on my way there. He came and found me in the store. He was asking me for money. All I had was a 10,000 bill. He followed me around the store. He asked me if I would buy him some coffee. I bought it for him. Then when I walked out a lot of my students saw me and wanted me to buy them something. I gave them all some candy that I had just bought. Note to self: Don't go to Home Plus 10 minutes before class. That's when all the students arrive and are also in Home Plus!

I went into my first class and the students saw the cookies and they were excited. I told them we'd have our 2 tests and then the rest of class would be free time. They all did pretty well on the tests. I gave them a few hints.We did our tests and then I put all the cookies on a desk in the back. All the students left the room to go wash their hands after the test. Then we had our cookie party. They were eating cookies and being silly and playing around with my camera. We took a lot of photos. most of the photos were taken by the kids. When class was over most of the kids thanked me for bringing the cookies.

My 2nd class was good. First I let them choose their prizes for having their homework. Its always funny to see them all crowded around the bag looking through it. I took the extra cookies that I had from my 1st class to give to these students. One of the students asked me "only 1 cookie?". I said you can have as many as you want. "Can I have 5?" sure. We took our 2 tests at the beginning of class. I let them use their book for the tests. Then we had free time. They played around with my camera.

My 3rd class was good also. I gave them their 2 tests and they were done in about 10 minutes. (They are my highest level students). They both got perfect scores. I never have to give them hints. Then I let them have free time for the rest of class. They were very quiet. They played on their cell phones. Either texting or playing a game. I stayed in the class because I didn't want to just give the tests and walk out. So I was just standing at the front updating my class attendance sheets.

My last class was good. One of the boys told me "level 10 had free time". They talk to each other between classes. Then I told him that I would give them free time after their tests. We took our 2 tests then they had the rest of class free. they were writing on the board and playing with my camera. One of the boys kept leaving the room walking up and down the hall. The boys from level 10 were also walking the halls. The kids liked playing around with my camera. They were taking photos of all kinds of things-the books, posters, the trashcan.haha. The class clown kept posing for photos so there were a lot of him on there. I took a picture of the whole class at the end of class. One student was in the picture but she wouldn't show her face.

It's been a good semester. Even though some of the students like to be bad in class I still adore all of the kids. They are all good kids when they want to be!!

I was through with classes at 8pm. I averaged up all of my grades and then I was done. I couldn't connect to a wireless connection so I was bored. I was listening to music and playing a game on my computer. The teachers were going out to eat after work so I had to sit around and wait for them. We finally went to the restaurant at 10pm.

Today was the last day for both of my co-teachers. They are resigning from the school. I met the person who will be taking one of their places. She looks familiar. I think she might be from one of our other campuses. I don't know if she is just standing in until they find a replacement or if she will be the replacement.

We don't even have a schedule yet for the semester that starts on Monday. All I know is that I have to teach one class on Monday. There will be a movie from 4-5:55. Then I have to teach one class from 6-6:55pm. I have to make a handout for the kids since we don't have books yet. I don't understand why we don't have the books for classes yet. They know that the new semester starts in September. I knew that I had to use my current books from June-August. When I finish a book my new books should be here. its crazy!

Let the confusion begin!!

After work the elementary and math teachers went out to eat. We were going out because 3 of the teachers are leaving-both elementary teachers and a math teacher. First we went to a chicken restaurant. They ate a spicy boiled chicken. I had fried chicken. They all sit around and talk in Korean and I just sit there and listen and eat. Afterwards we went to another chicken restaurant for more eating and drinking. We had some french fries and they had some korean dish that I didn't try. Again they all spoke in Korean and I just sat there and ate. We were finished around 12:30am.

I'll miss my co-teachers (now Im going to be confused all the time! no one to ask for help! I'll make it by somehow. I'll make my own rules!). They were nice girls. Even though I complained about them a lot. I think they hated their jobs just as much as I did. I know they didn't like all the changes at the school.

They asked me how I was going to get home. I told them I'd take a taxi. Then they said that the last train was at 12:53 so i decided to take the subway. I didn't know the train ran that late. I think its a recent change. The train ends at Eungam which is where I need to get off anyway!

Day 253

Thursday August 27

I'm getting worried about my package. My mom mailed in on Friday the 21st. I haven't received it. She sent it by International express so its suppose to be here within 3-5 business days. It's been at least 5 business days since it was sent. If it doesn't arrive by the guaranteed date I can get a refund on the shipping. It also comes with $100 free insurance so I'll try to claim that if I never receive it. With International express you can track your package online. Something is wrong though! Everytime I type in my confirmation code a message comes up "There is no record"....So no one has been scanning my package! I'd really hate for it to be lost. All that stuff was expensive! I bought 100 dollars worth of clothes (they dont ship internationally so I had to send it to my parents house and then have it sent here) THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF SOUTH KOREA WOULD MAKE CLOTHES FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T A SIZE 6 AND IMPORT AMERICAN PRODUCTS WITHOUT CHARGING AN ARM AND A LEG!!. My mom also put a lot of stuff in there (products I wanted from the USA). WHERE IS MY PACKAGE??

Today was the last day of the semester for our Tues/Thurs classes so we just took it easy today.

My 1st class was good. I gave them 2 tests and then we had the rest of the class as free time. I took some pictures of the kids and I let the kids play with my camera. The 2 boys wouldn't let me take their photo. The girls loved being photographed. They wrote their names on the board behind them so I could remember their names. One of the students told me to remember her. She is moving up to middle school so she won't be in my class anymore. (I teach elementary)

My 2nd class was also good. I let the students pick out their prizes for having their homework. Its funny to see them picking out their prizes. They all beg to have more than one prize, but I told them I had to have some left over for my other students. The students saw my camera and they all wanted to play with it. Most of the students didn't want to be photographed. There were 3 girls who loved having their photo taken. We took lots of photos before they picked one that was the best. I gave this class 2 tests and then we had some free time for the rest of class. 3 of my students in this class are moving up to middle school so I won't see them anymore. All 3 didnt want to be photographed.

My 3rd class was also good. They took their 2 tests and then I let them play for the rest of the class. They all let me take a photo of them (4 boys).

My 4th class was good today. They wanted to play. I told them if they took their tests then they could play. They were playing around with my camera. All the students love the camera. We played bingo during class-it was a game that one of the teachers brought today. Its a word bingo. I call out the word and they find it on their card. They weren't playing where you just get 5 in a row and you are the winner. They wanted to fill the whole card or have bingo 5 different ways on the board. The winner gets a prize. There were only 3 of them so I let them all have a prize.They let me take a photo after class. One of the students didn't take his test seriously. He just wrote the same word for every question. It was only right for one question so he got a 1 on his test. One of my students did really bad on the writing test. She made a 10 out of a possible 100 points.

My 5th class was good. They played with my camera for a long time then we took 2 tests. Then they played with the camera some more and we played word bingo.

I had a good lunch and supper today. I actually didn't eat any fast food! I cooked for myself. I made pasta for lunch and for dinner. I could actually lose some weight if I would be disciplined and eat vegetable pasta all the time. Maybe I'll try that one week.

Day 252

Wednesday August 26

36 weeks...thats how long I've been here.

I've almost made it through a whole session (semester).whatever you want to call it. I'm basically 99% finished. 50% finished with my contract!!

Wednesday is my easy day. I had 3 classes. I started at 4:10 and was done at 7:05. Then I just sit around and surf the web and play games for nearly 2 hours.

My first class was good as usual. We covered a few pages of material. Today we were talking about our favorite foods, cakes, drinks, etc. One of the kids asked to have a cookie party on Friday. I guess I'm suppose to just bring in various kinds of cookies. The other kids might get jealous bc I didnt have a party in their class, but this class specifically asked for a party.

In my 2nd class I was going to make them take 2 tests and then study hard for the rest of class. Its the last day of the semester for that class so I let them take the tests and then they played for the rest of class. It was the last day and there wasn't going to be a lot of time to cover new material because of the 2 tests. They all did well on the speaking test, but not so well on the writing test. The kids all had snacks during class. They gave me some. One was interesting. It was like a cheesepuff but it was banana flavored. That was something I'd never tried before.

One of the kids from my 2nd class came over to my desk before class. he had the school advertisement in his hand. He said "who is this?" and pointed to me. Later when i was at the copier he was having a good time pressing the copy button for me.haha.

My 3rd class was good. We covered a few pages of material. They were very good today. We learned a lot of fun facts today. There was a fact about a woman with the longest fingernails in the world-7.5 meters. One of the kids pointed to it and asked if it was real. One of the students said she was crazy. I agree. Why would you let your fingernails grow that long? I never let mine grow! I bite them off constantly.

I guess the Korean teacher who is resigning is just taking it easy for her last few days. She had 2 45 minute classes back to back with the same level. She went into the first one for 10 mins and then came out. She left them all alone for the whole class. Then she went back about 10 minutes before it was time to leave and basically walked in and walked back out. So she "taught" them for 10 mins today. While she was suppose to be in class she was at her desk making phone calls to parents.

After work I went to the gym. I haven't seen Lesley this week at the gym. I asked the front desk guy how he was doing and he said "not bad." One of the girls at the desk was asking me if "so-so" and "not bad" meant the same thing. I told her no. (I think "so-so" is worse than "not bad"...if youre "not bad" then that means things are pretty good. If you are "so-so" then thats more of a negative connotation-at least in my opinion). Then the front desk guy came over and said "I hope you become good at Korean". Haha. I asked him to help me read a text that was sent from the gym. It wasn't important but he explained it to me. He didn't quite know how to tell me what the message meant. His English is good, but sometimes he has a hard time trying to explain something. It said the showers would be off from 10pm sat to 8am on Sunday (doesn't apply to me anyway). I walked on the treadmill for 42 minutes. I saw Mr. Lee at the gym tonight.

After the gym I went to Burger King. yeah not a good choice but oh well. While I was there I met another foreigner-He's from Canada. He started talking to me. He said he'd been in Bulgwang for 5 years and he'd never met another foreigner. The only one I know is Lesley. He sat down and talked to me for a while.He kept telling me how drunk he was and that he was going to meet his Korean friend to drink some more. He was asking me if I came all the way there just to go to burger king (its only 2 subway stops). I told him I was there for the gym. He wanted to know how much I paid for the gym-90,000 a month. He wanted to know what I do at the gym. Really all I do is walk on the treadmill. He thought that was ridiculous. He said I should just take a walk instead of paying 90,000 (about 90 dollars) to walk on the treadmill. I paid for a 6 month membership when I signed up. I know its expensive, but I really enjoy there. The staff is really nice and a lot of them can speak English and have taken the time to speak to me almost everytime I come in. I am constantly meeting someone new. This week i met the Yoga teacher and there is a new girl at the reception desk. He thought it was crazy that I went to the gym and then came to eat at Burger King. I know. I'll be the first to admit that I've got problems!! He was telling me what I need to do to lose weight...eat less, exercise..blah, blah, blah..Yes I know this!! So he probably thinks I'm crazy, but I don't care!!

Korea is full of adventure....and I've met some of the craziest people here!

Day 251

Tuesday August 25

I think my life is about to get a lot harder! You'll see why near the end of this post.

My first class was good. We were talking about school subjects today. My students like math and science. One of the boys kept turning around in his seat to talk to the person behind him. I had to keep telling him to turn around.

My 2nd class was good. The quiet student was less willing to participate today. We studied our lesson up the last minute today. I wanted to cover half of the unit. The students tried to beg me to only make them study 3 pages instead of 4. At the end of class some of the students were asking me for questions to their homework for their reading class. Today in class we were talking about an amazing parrot who could do things like whistle, speak English, sing, etc. I had them draw an animal in their book and tell me what their animal could do. 3 of them drew people instead of an animal. I drew a cat on the board as an example. Then I wrote, "This is an amazing cat. She can speak English and play the piano." They all laughed at that.

My 3rd class was good. We covered 4 pages of material and then I let them play a game.

My 4th class was good. I made them study for almost the whole class. I wasn't able to study all that I wanted to cover. Today was our last speaking class for the semester.

My 5th class was terrible! They told me that their bus leaves at 9:05 and when they get out of class at 9 they are late for the bus. I let them go at 8:55. The boys didn't want to pay attention. The girls were participating but I had to beg the guys to participate. The boys kept playing with their cellphones. One of the girls answered the phone in class. She said it was her mother. One of the boys didn't know where we were in the book most of the time because he wasn't paying attention. I couldn't get the students to read correctly. They are suppose to have speaking time to practice. I gave them speaking time but they won't do it correctly. Today was our last speaking class of the session.

Our school made an advertisement and my picture is on it. Its a picture of me pointing to something in a student's book. It was a posed picture, but it looks like it was just happening during class.

The Korean teacher asked me if I had picked out a textbook. I told her I did't know how to pick out a book. She found one on the internet and chose it. She let me see a preview of it. It had some good topics to use. I guess she will look at the bookstore website and find books for me.

The Korean teacher asked me if I would eat dinner with them on Friday night. Then she told me we are going out to eat because 3 teachers are resigning. Both of my co-teachers are resigning and one math teacher. Oh my! I'm going to be the most experienced teacher in the elementary dept at my school. Thats scary! I'm not going to have anyone to help me! I don't know if they have hired replacements for them for next session yet. I am going to be so lost if I don't have anyone around who knows what's going on. A lot of Korean teachers have quit recently. They fired 4 middle school teachers from my school about a month ago. All the foreigners are still here, but I think almost all of the Korean staff has quit from all 3 campuses. I thought my school was the only school were all the teachers were staying but my teachers are leaving. We only had 2 Koreans who taught elementary school and they are both leaving. And now the students will have to adjust too. They have had these teachers for a while and now they will have new teachers. Then in 6 months they will have to adjust to a new foreign teacher.

Day 250

Monday August 24

1st class was good. We learned about animals. We studied a few pages of material and then they played hangman.

2nd class likes to misbehave as usual. One of the students was telling be about snakes. I think he was trying to find out what venom was. He just kept drawing pictures on the board of a snake biting someone's arm. I said "snake bite?" and he'd say no. One of the students left the class and went to the teachers room and came back and said "Poison". I knew what he wanted then. I told him it was called Venom. Another one of the students just kept asking me if I like different animals. They do all they can to keep from studying. We finished a few pages and then I let them play the ghost game. They said if we played a game today then we wont play one on Wed. Wednesday we are going to study hard.

During break I finished making my monthly tests and made 2 of my weekly tests. I hate that I don't have a way to print. I was going to print on the Korean teacher's computer while she was in class, but everytime I did I got an error. That really sucks. I think she's installed too many things on her computer.crazy. I'll try again tomorrow during break. I'm not even vauled enough to have my own computer. thats crazy! Lets get a foreign teacher and treat her like crap and expect her to teach our kids how to speak English!

My 3rd class is funny. We did a writing unit. Neither one of them did their homework or their essay. There is a part in the book where you inerview your classmate. The question was "how will your life be 50 years from now?" and one of them said "job, good, not bad". The other one said "good, fun, and rich". Then one of the questions was "what will your job be?" Both of them said they would be finished with their job. One said he will live in Korea. The other one said he will live at home. They are always coming up with crazy stuff. They were excited when I told them they didn't have any homework. (not like they would have done it anyway!)

When it was close to time to go the Korean teacher told me about a change for next session. I'll be teaching a conversation class once a week for 50 minutes. I'll have a beginner, intermediate and advanced level. I'll also be teaching a 6th grade class. She wants me to choose a textbook for all 3 classes. What? I don't know anything about textbooks. I dont know how to teach conversation! And they tell me this a week before the new session so its not like I have a lot of time to do research. I should expect the last minute craziness by now! I wonder if I'll even have my books on time for the new session.

I come to work and I look so happy all the time. No one would ever guess that I'm so unhappy with my job! I'm kinda scared to come back to the USA and start job searching again. Employers don't want you to bad mouth your former employer, but honestly I don't have anything positive to say!! I'll be stuck at some minimum wage job because no good paying job wants to hire me.

I found another English speaking person at the gym. He's the yoga teacher. It was hard to understand him at times esp when he kept speaking to me in Korean. They told him I could speak a little Korean, but I didn't understand anything he said bc Im still at the basic level. Sometimes when he was speaking in English he wasn't speaking clearly enough for me to understand. We kept laughing at each other. Then the girl at the desk would translate. He's 30. The girl at the front desk is 26.

Day 249

Sunday August 23

I watched a Korean movie early in the morning. I was searching for movies to watch on a website and I clicked on Korean Genre and I found one called "Jenny and Juno". It was posted on YouTube. Cute movie. Its basically a lot like the movie "Juno" from the USA except its set in Korea and is in Korean with English subtitles. In the movie a teen girl gets pregnant. Its funny though how unrealistic it was. The girl was suppose to be pregnant in the movie but she never looked like she was pregnant! They could have at least put her in a pregnant suit like they do in other movies.

I haven't gotten much accomplished today. I tried to stay in bed all day long. I went to bed around 4am. I finally got out of bed around 5pm.

I was having some weird dreams. I had a dream that I visited my church back home in Fort Mill. I went to church and I was thinking 'how did I get here in the middle of the week?' and 'how am I getting back to Korea for school?'. No one really paid any attention to me at church I walked by people and no one even said hey or was surprised to see me. I went out into the parking lot and it had snowed while we were in church. Someone told me to watch out for the black ice. Right before I woke up I was laying on the ground trying to get snow from behind my tires. There was someone standing right behind my car because I was in their way. They couldn't get out of their space. ha. Then I woke up...I've had at least 2 other dreams where I dreamt of going back to FMCOG.

I cleaned my apt a little. I swept the floor, cleaned the kitchen counter and the bathroom sink. Washed a load of laundry.

I went to E-Mart and bought some food for the week. I got bread to make sandwiches, some hamburger meat, and chicken breasts. I'm going to try to not eat out this week. I've got enough stuff at home to last all week. I also got some more prizes to give to my kids. This is the last full week of the semester so I'm giving out the homework prizes on Thursday and Friday. I got little things like erasers, pencils, notebooks, candy. Everything costed less than 1,000 won. A little less than a $1.00.

I didn't spend any money on eating out today. I think it really helps that Mcdonalds in E-mart is closed till November! I don't want to get on the subway to go to eat anywhere else. I do have Lotteria, but I don't eat there very often. I cooked some hamburger meat on my george foreman grill. Not exactly the most healthy choice but at least its better than Mcdonalds or Burger King.

I saw an advertisement on TV today about a Tango showcase in Seoul. I love the Argentine Tango. There is someone in Seoul who is putting on a show. Its from Sept 4-9. I really want to go, but the tickets are expensive. I was looking at a site called ticketlink and the cheapest one I saw was for 50,000 won (about $50). Yes I love the Argentine Tango but I don't think I love it that much.

One day I will take Argentine Tango lessons. I wonder if I can find them in Seoul. I bet if I did some serious searching I could find it somewhere.

Day 248...Studying Korean

Saturday August 22

I'm starting to learn some Korean. For me its hard to read the characters fast. I romanize it and it becomes a lot easier.

The pronunciation of some of the words is hard, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Tonight I got out my cd and my book and listened to it over and over. I have a notebook where I romanized the main parts-dialogues, conversations. I used to look at it and it took forever to say a sentence because I'd try to go character by character but now I have listened to the cd and romanized it so I can look at it and read it fast. It feels good to accomplish something.

I've really put a lot of study time into this (probably over an hour). I'm going to go to my lesson and look like I know what I'm doing! My progress from yesterday to today is good. When I was reading to the girls at the gym I was going so slow. Now I can read the sentence at a normal speed. Maybe I should tell them what I learned.

I think if my English students studied English like I study Korean they would be great students. To master a foreign language you need to write, listen and repeat over and over again.

I just think that I'll forget it when I go back to the USA because I don't have any use for Korean in America. I don't know any Koreans. At least it will be something good to put on my resume. I can put that I am at a beginner level in Korean and Spanish. After studying Spanish for 3 years I should be at a higher level but sadly after not using it I forgot a lot so I dropped myself back down to the beginner level. Studying Spanish is one of my goals when I get back to the USA.

We had our lesson in Hongdae at 2pm in a coffee shop. Today we learned some basic terms like This, That, Who, What. We started at a more basic level since our book is the 2nd level. We couldnt find the 1st level of the book. Before we get into the book we need to know the basics. We learned how to say "who is this?" "This is Valerie"."What is this?". This is a straw, etc. We studied for a long time. Their sentence structure is different from ours. We would say "Who is Lesley?" and in Korean it translates out to "Lesley is who?". The words are in a different order. I can't wait til I get to the point where I can actually understand what people are saying. Its going to take a while. By the time I leave I'd like to be able to carry on a conversation. I should have started studying a long time ago! I waited 8 months before I started studying. At first I wasn't even planning on learning any Korean but I want to make an effort. Now I can be trilingual.



I'm watching "High School Musical 2" on TV in English-OnStyle channel

Day 247

Friday August 21

Its finally Friday!!

My first class is always my favorite. We went over our homework. Then we read the story 3 times. I made them raise their hands and tell me one at a time who they wanted to read instead of everyone yelling at one time. They had a fun time reading the story. We had a great class today.

My 2nd class was also good. We took a test first. The teacher assistant came in and wanted to take pictures of me for marketing purposes for the school. He wanted a shot of me with the students but the students didn't want to be in the picture so he left. They wanted me to rush through class so we could play a game. We covered 3 pages of new material then they played a game. They played a game they call 'baskin robbins 31'. They basically count up to 31 saying 1, 2, or 3 numbers at a time. The person who lands on 31 loses.

My 3rd class was good. We covered a speaking unit. First we took a test. They didn't do their homework so we did that in class. Then we covered about 3 pages of new material. We learned some history today about Mount Rushmore. We also talked about other figures such as Mozart, the Wright Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Leonardi da Vinci, and Neil Armstrong. They had a column one with the person's name then they had to choose the correct verb and change to past tense then choose a selection from the 3rd column to make a full sentence. For example, Leonardi da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. They knew all the answers without my help.

My 4th class was also good. First we took a test on past tense verbs that we learned in our speaking unit. Some people did well and others didn't do so well. The TA came in again to take more photos. First he took some photos from the back of the room. Then he took some from the front. He wanted me to have some pictures where I was helping one student. Then he told me to put my arm around the student like I was helping them. the class couldnt stop laughing because of all the posing. he had to tell one student to put down his ice cream so it wouldn't be in the picture. It was funny. It was making me laugh too so I had to stop laughing so we could take the picture. Then we started class. We covered a writing unit today. They were really quiet. Its always quiet when one of the boys is absent. I have 3 boys and when they are all together they talk a lot, but when 1 of them is absent they are quieter. We had a good productive class today.

Its finally the weekend!!!

What are my plans? The only thing I have planned for Saturday is a Korean lesson at 2pm. I'm going to listen to my cd tonight so I will be prepared.

The rest of my weekend is wide open. I may try to find something to do. I may watch some movies online.

Day 246

Thursday August 20

In my 1st class one person turned in their essay early. 3 of the 5 students were late to class today. I gave them time to study for thier test and told them what pages to study. Class started at 4:00 but it was 4:15 by the time I got through letting them study since 3 of them were late. We still had enough time to cover what I wanted to cover. We went over homework first then covered 2 pages of material. Today we were talking about the mall of America and American dollars. One of my students was trying to do his listening homework in my class. I told him to put it away. I said "this isnt listening class. this is speaking". he tried to pull it out again to finish his homework but I wouldnt let him. We had a good class. One of the activities in the book was to draw money for their country so I gave them a piece of paper and told them to draw money.

My second class was good. We had a test and then we reviewed one unit and started a new unit. 2 people turned in their essay early in this class. I gave one of them back because she didn't write in sentence.

My 3rd class was good. We had a test and finished the unit. Then I let them play a game.

The Korean teacher took up more of my time today. I don't know why she obviously can't tell time! Her class was suppose to be over at 7:20. I stood outside the door at 7:25. She finally came out at 7:30. She took up 5 mins of my time. Then I gave the students a short break. And I had to take time to give a test so I didnt get much accomplished. If I have a full class I have 45 mins but with giving a test, waiting on the KT and giving a break I probably had less than 30 minutes. They all did poorly on the test. 2 people made a decent grade. 3 of them did poorly because they didn't change the verbs to past tense. 'the bank close 2 hours ago'.I told them that it was suppose to be in past tense like we've been covering in class. All of the things on the test came straight from the book. During my class they don't like to pay attention or do their work. One of the boys was looking at a comic book. They were all trying to do work from their listening class. Only 1 person did their homework. I just wrote the homework answers on the board and told them to copy it. By the time we got through with that I only covered one page. I think at least 3 of those students are moving up to middle school classes in Sept so they won't be in my class anymore. That level is so hard to manage. They are my worst class.

Then I went to my 5th class of the day. Again the KT didn't come out on time. When I went in the students were begging me to not make them do any work because they just had a test. I told them we had to finish our unit. No playing around today. We finished the whole unit 7. Next week we will finish unit 7 and we will be done with the book. Its the only writing book that I've had time to actually finish since we started new books in June.

After my class was over at 9pm I packed up my things and got out of there!

While I was in the gym Lesley brought my Korean textbook to me. She went to the bookstore to get it today-15,000 won. Its the book that we will be taught out of by our Korean teacher who is Lesley's coworker.

When I was leaving the gym the girls at the front desk wanted to know what my present was from Lesley. She wasn't exercising today. She just came in to give me my book. I guess she told them she had a present to give me-you have to go past them before going into the gym. I showed them my book and they were excited that I was learning Korean. They asked me to read a line in the book. Then the cute front desk guy told me that if I needed help I could ask him questions. He also got me to read a few lines from the book. Its always funny how Koreans get all excited when I speak their language even if I say something simple. But I never get excited when they speak English. I never clap or say OMG you're speaking English! HAHA.

Day 245

Wednesday August 19

I got to sleep in today! I left a few minutes early and went to pay all of my bills. I went in and I didn't see the bill machine.(you swipe your bank book, place your bills in the slot and it scans them, then you get a receipt) Then I walked over to the ATM side. they have a small room that is always open where there are about 5 atms. I think moving the bill machine is a good idea. Now I don't have to pay my bills during business hours. I can just walk up to the 24hr atm place and pay my bills. sweet! It makes so much more sense than only being able to pay during business hours.

My 1st class was good as always. We had a story to read today. At first they were all calling out who they wanted to be. I told them to wait till i wrote it on the board. Some of the students didn't want to read. I let them read it 3 times today. One of the boys picked a girl's part and read it in a girly voice. It was funny. I love this class. They are so eager to participate. We had a great class today.

The students are always asking me all kinds of questions and I have no clue what they are talking about. They ask me "do you understand?" and I say "no!". Today they were asking me about 'pettitoes'(they found the word in their korean-english dictionary on their phone). I didn't know what it was. All I knew was that it came from a pig but they way they explained it wasn't very clear. At one point they were asking me if I ate pigs legs. I looked it up when I got home and they were talking about "Pigs feet" except they didn't actually say 'pigs feet'.

I walked in my 2nd class(level 3) and the students from level 2 were in the class too. They were all taking a placement test together during the first class. Then the students told me we were having a mixed class today. I didn't have a problem with it. I thought it might have been one of those last min things they sprung on me. It wasn't planned. The students wanted to do it. The teacher from level 2 came over to my class to get her students and they begged her to stay in my class. She asked me if it was okay. I said it was fine. She made copies for the students from level 2. Today their lesson was from level 3. I had 8 students. 4 from level 2 and 4 from level 3. They range in age from 9-12. 5 boys and 3 girls. The boys sat on one side of the room and the girls sat on the other side. I had to give my level 3 class a test and that took a while because they are taking a test and trying to talk to their friends. They talked a lot to each other but at least they all read and paid attention. They are also begging for a game(there wasn't time for a game!). We didn't get to cover much today. Only one page. We were just reading passages about 2 characters in the book and what their parents do as a job and I just asked basic questions about the passages. I was rushing at the end and didn't get to explain the essay in detail. I'll check up with them on Friday and Monday in class and make sure they understand.

My students were good in my 3rd class. One of the boys didn't have his book. I asked him where it was and he said it disappeared. The students were really quiet today.In the 2nd part of our lesson we were talking about high, low, close, far, heavy, light. I drew a picture on the board. I used a tall tree to describe high. A box on the ground for low. For heavy I drew a big rock. For light I drew a leaf. One of the students said "Jeff is heavy. Is that right?".(In South Korea they love to tell you if they think you need to lose weight. No one says it to me-except the PT at the gym. Its no big deal to them. They will even ask you how much you weigh.'what's your kilogram?'. I always say 'i don't know'). I said "thats not nice" and continued on with the lesson. Yes the student is a little pudgy but I don't want the other student calling him heavy.

I was finished with all of my classes at 7:05.

I have all my lessons planned for Thursday. I just need to print out one test. I couldn't get it to print out on the Korean teacher's computer. I think her computer is so slow because she has installed so much junk on it. I really wish I had my own computer instead of having to get the other teachers to print everything out for me!

I also organized my desk. I was tired of always looking around for homework copies or copies of tests. I would just pile them in a stack on my desk. Last night I went to E-Mart and got some folders. Now I have homework in one folder, tests in another, things to give to students in another,etc. It will be so much easier to find things. I also put tons of old papers in the paper recycling bin. If I'm not going to use them again there's no use in keeping them. It feels good to be organized.

I'm also coming up with new ideas of how to do things differently for Fall semester. A new semester is a fresh new start and a way to implement new ideas. I'm trying to maximize the learning potential while maintaining classroom management. I still need to come up with discipine consequences. I want to see my students succeed. I want the next teacher to be amazed by their great English skills! I've got to find a way to make learning fun.

Day 244

Tuesday August 18

Before my 1st class the Korean teacher said she wanted to observe my class. Beginning next semester the Korean teachers have to teach English in English instead of teaching English in Korean. (I dont know how teachin in Korean is helping them!) She wants to watch my class to see how I teach and what kind of English I use.

My first class was good. The Korean teacher only came in for a few minutes. I don't konw why she didn't come in earlier. When she came in the students were practicing speaking with each other so she didn't hear me teach much. If she would have watched the whole class it would have been beneficial. We had a good class. There were a lot of speaking opportunities. At the end of class I assigned the essay. I wrote a korean word on the board in Hanguel. Its the korean word for imagination. They were so happy that I could write in korean. They asked me to write another word. I knew the first part of the word and the last part but not the middle so they showed me.

My 2nd class was good. We had a little speaking practice. I can't get the new student to speak. I asked her to speak with the guy in the class but she wouldnt so she didnt practice speaking today and I was his partner. We covered a lot of material today. At the end of class I assigned the essay. I wrote the korean word for imagination on the board and a few of the girls clapped. I only wrote one word and they loved it..haha.They asked me if I could write in korean. I told them just a little. I can actually read korean but I don't actually know what the words mean.

I was taught the korean word for imagination by a guy from who is also an English teacher at our school. I think that will help them know what they should use in the writing assignment. They might not understand what it is if I just use the English word.

My 3rd class was good. we talked about things like morning, afternoon, night, noon, midnight, etc and what you do during those times. There were pictures. He's getting up. It's the morning. etc. I assigned the essay. They started working on it in class. One of them was writing about a panda. I told him the panda is already an animal. I want him to create a new animal so he changed it to kung fu panda. Where is his imagination? I thought kids are full of imaginary ideas.

My 4th class was good. We talked about vacations. They had a poster in the book and they had to tell me what that person was going to do on vacation. Then they had to look at a passage and tell me what that person was doing for various days on their vacation. Then I got them to tell me what they were doing each day of the week and to tell me what their classmate was doing. I assigned the essay. They were surprised by me writing korean on the board. they asked 'where did you learn that?'

My 5th class is always bad. No one does their homework. One student actually pays attention. The 2 boys are the worst. The other girl pays attention most of the time. The boys are always playing with phones. One of the girls was reading a comic book whenever she got finished with an activityI think my last class actually grasped the concept of the essay. When I wrote the korean word for imagination they said I was clever. First, one girl said "what is imagination?" THen I wrote the korean word and it was like "oh I know now".I told them it could be any size and any shape or color and one of the girls was excited about the essay. I wanted to give them something fun to write about. I'm giving them the freedom to be as crazy as they want to be. They can let their imagination run wild.

I get to sleep in tomorrow!! We go back to our regular schedule! I can sleep til noon!

I can finally pay my bills tomorrow. I'm going to pay my cable, internet and gas bill.

I didn't eat any fast food today. For breakfast, I had grits. For lunch, I had a tuna sandwich. For supper I will have a grilled chicken breast on my george foreman and pasta.

Day 243

Monday August 17

I get to return to normal life on Wednesday! I am so glad I dont have any more morning classes after Tuesday!

I can pay my bills on Wednesday before going to class...one of them is due on Thursday so I'm paying it right on time!

My first class was good. We started a new unit talking about things like swimming pool, library, school and using directions "the library is next to the school". They didn't know what a library was. I drew pictures and explained and I think they understand now. They tried to rush me at the end of class because they wanted to play a game. We were at a good stopping point anyway. Then I gave them their homework. They like to do their homework in class and they love getting their sticker for doing it. When they got finished with their homework there wasnt enough time for a game.

My 2nd class acted the same way they always do. I'm up there talking and the boys are carrying on amongst themselves. The girl is the only one listening. Then when it gets to the activity part where they apply what they learned they dont have a clue what's going on. They begged for a game. We finished what I wanted to cover so I let them play for a few mins although they didn't deserve it. They never understand what it means when I say "if you are good you can play a game" There won't be a game on Wednesday!! We are going to cover as much as possible even if they arent listening. They told me "you let the other class play a game for 15 minutues." I told them "that class was good, didnt talk during class and paid attention so they got a game"

In my 3rd class neither of the boys had their homework so we covered it in class. They had funny answers to questions. In the book there is a part where you interview your classmate. Today's topic was 'favorite animal'. One of the students couldn't think of his favorite animal. It took him forever to come up with an answer. He would say 'my favorite animal is...then pause and look around the room to see if he could find any animal names. After thinking for a long time he came up with 'frog' from the alphabet chart in the room. One of the questions was what does it look like "It looks like a frog." Then where does it live? in the water. Do you want it as a pet? no because I don't have a lake. Then he asked the other student. The other student's favorite animal was a dog. What does it look like? It looks like a cat. Where does it live? On the ground. What does it eat? anything. Do you want it as a pet? No because it pees and its dirty. I assigned their essays today. I think it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

This months topic for all classes is "create an imaginary animal"..it can be as crazy as they want it to be. I can't wait to read all the essays.

I was done with classes at 2:05. Then I sat there and planned out all my classes for Tuesday and Wednesday. Made all the homework and printed out tests for 3 of my classes. I am way ahead! Tomorrow I won't have to plan anything because I already planned for Wednesday!

I went to the gym after school. They were having a photo shoot with Mr. Lee in the gym. He said hello to me in English. Thats the closest I'll ever get to a celebrity. I actually see him quite frequently.

I was tired tonight. I took a long nap. That's really bad!

I'm watching "Confessions of a Shopoholic"..its an okay movie. Some people just don't know how to stop when it comes to shopping! I'm glad I have no credit card debt. I don't even own a credit card. I'm proud of myself.

Day 242

Sunday August 16

Today was just a lazy day at home. I stayed in bed till around 3:30pm. I left the house once to go to E-mart.

I found some options for lunch and dinner this week. I've got to start eating better. I think for lunch I will take Tuna sandwiches. For supper I can eat chicken breasts that I make on my george foreman grill. I may also make some pasta. I really hope I can make it through the whole week without fast food.

I'm going to leave school tomorrow during my break and pay my bills at the post office. I don't have time to go to my bank so I'll just go to the post office. You can pay bills at the post office here.

I used one of my writing books to come up with topics for the next essay. The topic I chose was "create an imaginary animal". I want to see what they come up with. Hopefully I have some creative students. I just chose to do the same topic for everyone this month instead of a different topic for each class.

Day 241

Saturday August 15

Today I went to Hongdae for my first Korean lesson. It was me, Lesley and her boyfriend. We were being taught by a Korean that worked with Lesley.

When we got there we decided to eat first. We went to a fish restaurant. We had one type of fish called Sam Chi. And another type of fish that I dont know the name of. The whole fish was on the plate including the fin and the head and we just picked off pieces of the fish with the chopsticks. We also had rice and I dont know what the other stuff we ate was. It was the first time I've eaten the whole fish like that. (I usually only have like a fish filet or just a portion of fish but never the whole fish on a plate).It was very delicious.

Then we went to a cafe for our lesson. Today we just went over how to read and write the Korean alphabet. We could sorta read before it started but we have a hard time sometimes. Its always hard for me to read the characters. I know what the characters are but it takes a while for it to register in my brain. I have to look at it and then sound it out. He showed us the book we can use for our lessons. You have to know how to read Korean to read the book. There is the Hanguel and then the english translation. For this week he wants us to practice reading Hanguel.

When I got home I met this weird European guy in the conveinent store. Him and his friend were in there picking up some things. One of the guys was wearing a tshirt and boxer briefs. He spoke to me and said "I bet youre wondering why I'm wearing my underwear". I wouldnt have noticed if he didnt point it out. Then he told me that he was from Europe and its a European thing. okay.

I decided not to go to the soccer game. I just wanted to stay home and rest.

I watched 2 movies tonight(online): "Up" and "The Ugly Truth". Both were pretty good.

Day 240

August 14 Friday

I was so hungry! When I got to Gusan it was 5 mins till 9 so I decided to go to McDonalds. Their breakfast menu sucks! They only have like 5 choices. They don't have biscuits or mcgriddles which is what I would order in America. All they have are various things on a mcmuffin, hot cakes(pancakes), and big breakfast set. I got the big breakfast which consists of scrambled eggs, sausage patty, mcmuffin, hash browns, and jam. I'm not too fond of the mcmuffin but I ate it anyway.

My first class was good as always. One of my students changed his name to marshmellow. On Wednesday he was cookie. Today we were talking about weddings in the usa in our material. They asked tons of questions-whats a bride, whats a groom, whats a bouquet, etc.

My 2nd class was good also. We took a test then the students asked if we could play a game. I told them we had to finish our unit-we only had 2 pages to cover. Then I let them play a game. We played the English game. I wrote the words on the board and I didn't help them come up with the words. They are so funny. Lets say the letter E came up-we've already used the obvious choices for "E"-ears, eyes, elephant..so they start using 'elephant brother, elephant uncle, etc'...its hilarious! We played that game for about 10 minutes and they did a good job coming up with simple words.

In my 3rd class we covered a lot of material. We were able to cover more than I had originally planned to do. The class goes really fast when you have upper level students and no distractions. I don't have to stop to explain things, read slower, or stop for behavior problems. This is my highest level and they do really well with the material.

My 4th class was good. Today we did a writing unit. First I gave them a test. On wednesday i gave them the exact pages to study for their test. When I gave them the test today some of them said "what's this?" and I said "I wrote the page numbers on the board for you to study". Most of them did pretty good. Scores ranged from 4 to 10. We covered a writing review unit today in class. I stopped early and gave them some free time because they were asking for it.

While I was at the gym I was watching "Momma's Boys." Wow. I feel bad for one of the guys. His name is JoJo and he's really handsome, but his mom is crazy! The girls didn't like her from the start because she had a list of different kinds of girls her son shouldn't date. She said "I dont want a black, asian, jewish, etc". One of the black girls called her out on it and they got into an argument and the mom hates that girl. I won't get to see it anymore! It comes on right now on Fridays at 5. I'll be back on my night schedule.

After the gym I decided to go shoe shopping. I went to the mall at world cup stadium. There were lots of stores that sold tennis shoes. I didn't like most of them because they had pink or blue or some other color stripes. I need a shoe that matches with anything. After much looking I finally picked out a black pair of Converse shoes. They costed 69,000 won. ($55)I thought that was a decent price for a pair of tennis shoes.

I have my first korean lesson tomorrow at 3pm in Hongdae. Me and Lesley are being taught by a Korean that works at her school. He's going to find a textbook for us to work out of.

Tomorrow night I'm going to the soccer game. I love going to the soccer games. This will be my 3rd game so far. I love how they have so much team spirit. They are constantly cheering during the game. I like their theme song also. I dont know what they say but its to the tune of "if youre happy and you know it". I'm not going to take my camera to this game. I think I already have enough soccer pictures from the 2 previous games.

I ate 3 meals from McDonalds today. That is so horrible! What is my problem?

McDonalds delivers!

August 14 Friday

Well in South Korea you can get McDonalds delivered to your door for free. 24 hours.From 11AM-4AM you can order lunch items. From 4AM-11AM you can order breakfast items. They have a special delivery menu. The prices are about 600 won more but thats not much. You can't get everything delivered. Just the limited things they have on the delivery menu. They drive a scooter to deliver.

I decided to give the home delivery a try.

Ordering was pretty simple.

First I called the number-1600-5252--they forward your order to the nearest delivery chain.

They played an advertisement then the phone rang and a woman picked up. She was talking in Korean. I thought I'd try to see if she spoke any English. She did. She asked if it was my first time using the system. It was. She asked me for my address. She asked for the Gu and Dong first. She had some trouble understanding me so I just spelled it out. I can't pronounce korean stuff! Then I had to tell her the rest of my address. Then I placed my order.

I didnt have any trouble understanding her, but she had a few problems with me because of my horrible pronunciation of Korean places!

She told me it would take one hour. I guess they tell you an hour just in case are busy with a lot of deliveries then they don't promise a fast time. It arrived 15 mins later. I got my food and paid and it was done.

a fast and easy process!

Day 239

August 13 Thursday

My first class was good. We had a productive class with lots of speaking time. Today we were talking about items in a store such as bottle of lemonade, package of cookies, etc. One of my kids was out of character today. He is usually not paying attention and always turning around to talk to the boy behind him. He was actually paying attention today. He also had his homework. He never has his homework. He was a little late for class and ate his breakfast during class. He gave me his hash brown from Mcdonalds. He told me it was a potato. He said "eat this. It's a potato." It was delicious.

My 2nd class was good. We finished one unit and started a new unit. We actually covered more than I had planned so that was good.

In my 3rd class there were 4 boys sharing a bottle of coke. Its funny to see them holding the bottle up and not touching it with their mouth. We always have a good time in that class. There are 4 boys but they are all well behaved. One of the boys recently changed his name. He used to be Mario and now he wants to be "One". I called him his old name twice. We all started laughing.We finished the lesson early and I let them play a game.

The students weren't in their seat when it was time to start class in my 4th class. The 2 boys were out getting food and the 2 girls decide to go to the bathroom when its time to start class. They never do their homework. I'm getting to the point now where I will just write the answers on the board to the homework and let them copy instead of doing the homework in class. I don't have time to cover what they should have done at home. I wrote it on the board and they copied. They were better today. They were actually writing their answers and they were quiet and not constantly talkikng in korean. They were asking for a game so I finished class 5 mins early. They didn't actually play a game. The 2 girls just talked and the 2 boys ate some kimbap. One of the girls in class gave me some shrimp chips. They were different but pretty good. The children in all the classes are always giving me candy, chips, gum..all sorts of stuff.

We had a good productive class in my 5th class of the day. We were able to cover a whole writing unit. We will actually finish the book for that writing class in the last week of August.

I kept seeing a commercial for Veet in-shower hair removal on tv. I decided to go to E-Mart and try it out. I used it on my legs. I actually like it. I tried Nair once and it burned the heck out of my legs. Veet didn't burn at all. The only thing I don't like is the price! Its about $10 for a bottle. I don't know how many uses you'll get out of one tube.I know I won't buy it often because of the price.

I have to make it through one more day then its the weekend!

Tim Gunn's 10 Essential Items

Basic Black Dress - The basic black dress has been around for a long time. It is often called the "Little Black Dress", and it's true that shorter skirts on the basic black dress, when they hit you in the right place, can be more flattering than a long black dress.

Trench Coat - The trench coat is one of the pieces that is both classic and currently a hot fashion item. Most any store sells this piece now. It is great for fall and you can pick it up in a wide range of lengths.

Dress Pants - Although it doesn't say black, this is probably what you want to look for. Black is flattering on all figures and goes with everything.

Classic Shirt - The white shirt is a definite classic. But it can also come in many different styles to make it look trendy and not dated or like a man's piece of clothing. Find one that accentuates your best attributes and minimizes trouble spots. For example, if you have wide shoulders, stay away from large collars.

Jeans - Everyone has a pair of jeans, but does everyone have a pair of jeans that make them look great? The wider leg, low-rise jean style has been popular (and still is) but a narrower leg is coming back along with a higher waist, which eliminates the unflattering "muffin top" look.

Any Occasion Top - Find something you look great in that can look respectable under a jacket but bring on the fun after hours.

Skirt - If you need dress pants then you also need a skirt. A skirt is womanly and can be flirty or businesslike. Nowadays women do not wear many skirts or dresses, which makes a lot of them fall into a rut of dressing sloppily or like men. See number 8.

Day Dress - Women also are not wearing as many dresses anymore. It was certainly liberating to go from the '50s when women wore dresses every day to wearing more practical pants for gardening, exercising, and so forth. But the dress does not have to be abandoned altogether. They can be very flattering, and there is nothing wrong with "dressing up" for daytime.

Jacket - A jacket does not have to be masculine. Find one with a proper, fitted shape. Women's jackets should follow the silhouette of a woman's body and accent the hourglass curve at her waist. It is also a perfect piece to put with the skirt or dress pants, and white shirt. Or make it casual with a pair of jeans.

Sweatsuit Alternative - As mentioned before, women wear fewer skirts and dresses these days. But some women have taken casual to the extreme and spend days on end in sweatsuits. It is possible to be casual and comfortable without looking like a slob. Find a comfortable material (that's why this doesn't say jeans again – denim is not as comfortable as a nice soft cotton) that you would want to wear every day. It could be khakis, cords, a cotton dress, or much more.

Bonus: One Indulgent Trendy Item

Day 238

August 12 Wednesday

I am so tired. I took a long nap about 4 hours before my real bedtime. I know thats not good but I could barely stay awake! I'll be so happy when this morning schedule is over! I know I don't get enough sleep. I usually get less than 6 hours. I'd like to get 8 hours but I dont want to go to bed at 11:30pm. I usually stay up till at least 1am.

We had another day of heavy rain for most of the day. It cleared up in the afternoon and the sun came out and it was hot! I'm so ready for cooler weather. I'm not ready for winter, but I'm ready for fall. The forecast says its suppose to be sunny for the next week with a high temperature of 91 degrees.

My first class was good as always. I wish all of my classes would be that enthusiastic! I wrote the parts on the board at the beginning of class. At one point I had everybody yelling at one time. Then finally they started to go one by one. I usually write down the name of the person who says it first. So if someone yells "I want to be Oscar" then I write down their name. If more than one wants to then I'll write a second column. Today I made 3 columns so we read the story 3 times. We had tons of speaking practice today. 3 students changed their names. One wanted to be Doosan Bears. Another wanted to be cookie and another wanted to be LG Twins. The bears and the twins are baseball teams in korea.

My 2nd class was just a little bit better today. 2 of them are actually doing their homework to get the prize. Last month they didnt do any of their homework. One of them only did half of his homework so I didnt give him credit. I told him he had to do all of his homework. There were a few times where they didnt pay attention but not as bad as normal. They begged for a game. We had 5 mins left of class and I was at a good stopping point so I let them play a game.

My 3rd class was good. One of the students didn't bring his book. He had his writing book, but we were doing speaking today. He wrote a message in his writing book on the front cover that said "help me SOS". I went to make him copies of the book. I don't know why he constantly doesn't bring his book to class! We had a good class today. We covered around 3 pages. Its hard to cover a lot in this class because the lessons are harder and longer. bb

I was done with classes at 12:25. Thats nice. Wednesday is my easy day. After class I made all my tests and homework for Thursday and Friday. I also planned for my Thursday classes.

I exercised for an hour today at the gym. I walked at a slow pace. I was watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style 2 and I wanted to see how the show turned out. I was finished with my 45 min workout before the show was over so I reset the treadmill for 15 more mins to complete the show.

I like Tim Gunn's show. I like to see fashion transformations. I get a lot of good tips from those shows. I want to have a good fasion sense, but right now its just not possible. South Korea doesn't have pretty clothes in my size. I know of a few stores in Itaewon, but there isn't anything that is figure flattering so I look frumpy all the time. I wear jeans and knit tops. The same old stuff all the time. I think I'm going to order some things from the internet. I don't like to buy things without trying them on but I'll take a gamble. When I go back to America I need a whole new wardrobe for my new professional life. Hopefully I'll have lost some weight by then. I hate that its so easy to put on weight and so hard to take it off!

A woman needs 10 basic items in her wardrobe. When I get home I'm going to get all those items.

I need some new tennis shoes. I might go shopping for some this weekend.

On Saturday I'm taking Korean lessons from a Korean guy who works at Lesley's school. He wanted to teach free Korean lessons. Me and Lesley were interested.

Day 237

Tuesday August 11

Tuesday is my busy day...I have 5 classes with a 55 min break which I used to plan lessons. Then after class I plan my classes for the next day.

my first class was good. We got a lot accomplished. Today we were talking about birthdays and weddings.

My 2nd class was good also. I couldn't get 3 students to talk today. I asked one of the students to talk to the quiet girl. She told me she wanted to talk to another boy in the class through telepathy. She actually used the word in the right context. She wouldnt practice conversation. I was the new girl's partner once. Its so difficult. She speaks so low and you can't hardly hear what she says. The 2nd time we practiced I had 3 children who didn't even participate. Today we were learning about places that animals live like the forest, river, mountains, desert, etc. We also talked about what animals eat(food chain)-eagles eat snakes, snakes eat lizards, lizards eat insects and insects eat plants.

In my 3rd class we are talking about sports. We finished 4 pages of material and then I let them play a game.

In my 4th class I have a new student. Now I have 3 girls in that class. They are all good students. They know the set up of the lessons and they were already doing the lesson before we even started class. We covered 5 pages of material and got finished with 5 minutes left.We are a little behind so I had to cover a lot today. Its hard to cover a whole unit when you only see the class once a week for speaking.

My 5th class was better than they normally are. They were actually quiet in class insead of being loud and speaking in a lot of korean. They weren't perfect but better than normal. They wanted me to rush through the lesson. they said 'we can read fast' so I started reading faster. We actually covered more than I had planned to cover in class. They begged for a game so I let them. They rushed through the last page so they could have free time.

It was raining heavy today. I should have taken my big umbrella instead of my small one but I didnt know it was going to rain today. I always have my little umbrella with me. The weather is so unpredictable. Sometimes I look at the forecast and it says its going to rain and then there's no rain.

While I was in the gym Lesley texted me to see if I wanted to go to eat bbq. I said yes. We went to a Korean restaurant after I finished at the gym and ate samgyupsal(its like thick bacon and you cook it on a grill at your table).It costed 18,000 won for 400g (14 oz). Its a bit pricey but it was good.

Day 236

August 10 Monday

Monday is my easy day. Only 3 classes. 2 in a row then a 2 hr break before my last class.

Its payday!

2 of my classes are good and one is full of bad students.

My first class was good. We went over a few pages and they asked to play a game. We are at a good place in the book and they are very well behaved so I let them play a game. They played hangman.

My 2nd class wasn't so good. Before class one of the students came and asked me for a copy of homework. I made a copy for him and another student. When i got to class they showed me their homework and asked for a prize. I told them they had to have their homework for the whole month to get a prize. (this is the class that NEVER does homework!) So they had their homework once so far. They were bad in class. They won't ever pay attention to me. The girl pays attention but the 3 boys just talk and carry on like I'm not even talking. They probably couldn't even tell me what the lesson was about. I don't know what to do with this class. The Korean teacher punishes them but it doesn't seem to help. They begged for a game today. I told them no. I always tell them that if they are bad they don't get a game. They called me a bad teacher. I told them they were being bad students. They need to learn that if they want a game they have to be good, but we don't really have time for a game because I need to finish the book by the end of the month.

My 3rd class was okay. There are 2 boys. They never do their homework. One of them didn't bring his book so I had to make a copy for him. We just went over a writing unit in class.

I found out that I can send remittance through the internet banking. The only downside is it takes forever! I don't know why their site is set up to make the keyboard keys type a different letter. If I typed in microsoft word if I pressed the key "S" then an S would appear in the blank. Only when I was on their website the keys came up with different letters. If I pressed S and O would show up on the screen. Why? Why can't A be A?? Maybe it was an error on their site. I dont know.

Day 235

Sunday August 9

Well it was just another boring day. Same old routine-stay up late and sleep for a long time. Eat one meal at mcdonalds. skip the gym.

I was washing my clothes tonight and I kept hearing something hitting the glass on the front loader washing machine. I realized that I washed my headphones. oops! They must have been in my gym pants that I washed. I needed new ones anyway! These were crappy earbuds.

Even after going through the washing and drying cycle they still work...amazing.

Tomorrow is pay day!! I hate this working in the day schedule. When will I have time to go to the bank? I need to see how late the bank is open. I might could make it to the one in Bulgwang by 4:30 if I go really fast! I want to transfer money home on Tuesday.

Day 234 meeting another guy from MySpace

August 8 Saturday

Today I met a guy from MySpace. I generally have a rule that I don't meet people from MySpace, but he kinda begged and I didn't feel threatened by reading any of his emails so I gave it a chance. I was just meeting him as a friend. We established that from the beginning.

(I'm not here looking for love. I'm leaving in 7 months! That's one reason I'm so hesitant to ask out the cute Korean guy even though I really want to. Who says he would even like me anyway? I don't think 7 months is enough time to build a successful relationship esp when my free time is very limited and how could you ask someone to move to America to live with you after 7 months of dating? and I'm not becoming a South Korean citizen anytime soon!)

He is 32 from Morocco. He has 9 brothers and sisters! 4 boys and 5 girls. He is child number 7. His native language is French. He has an accounting degree. He speaks 5 languages. He lives near Itaewon. He has traveled to and lived in a lot of countries.He lived in the Netherlands for 8 years. He lived in Turkey for a while. He lived in Malaysia. He's lived in Seoul for the past 2 years. He starts a new job in Seoul in September as a trader.

We decided to meet in Itaewon at 3pm for lunch. We were going to eat at Gekkos. He texted me while I was on the subway and told me that he had already eaten lunch(he told me he was hungry and couldn't wait). He asked if it was okay if he was there with me while I ate. I said that was fine.

I had seen his picture on MySpace so when I saw him I recognized him. He recognized me too.

We went straight to Gekkos. He had a coke. I had a coke and a cheeseburger. We were there for over an hour just talking and I was eating and talking. We talked about all kinds of things.

He's really smart and able to carry on a conversation about almost anything. He has lived in many countries. He's also told me about all the places he's visited.

I feel dumb talking to him. He just seems to be so educated and well rounded. I don't have an opinion on a lot of the topics or a lot of knowledge on the subjects. Plus I'm not good at making conversation.

I was just planning on having a short meeting and leaving after lunch. He wanted to eat dinner together. I told him I didn't eat dinner till around 9 or 10 and that was fine with him.

After Gekkos he wanted to play pool. We went to a pub called Scrooge. Its a sports pub where people go to watch rugby. I'd been there before with Lesley. We watched some Korean guys playing pool and he put our name on the board to play next. I suck at pool. I actually won 2 of the games but only because he knocked the white ball in the hole, not because I was good. We played 3 games. Then someone had written their name to be next. They would play the winner which was me but I didn't want to play so I told him to play while I watched. He is really good. He was telling me how he used to play in tournaments. He won 2 or 3 games in a row. Then we just sat there for a long time watching pool and talking about all kinds of things.

One of the subjects we were talking about was past relationships. He (like everyone else) finds it odd that I've never been in a serious relationship. They can't believe it. They obviously see something that guys don't see. I think guys just take one look at me and because of my appearance think that I'm not worth knowing. He asked why didn't I date in high school. I told him I was very quiet and lonely in high school and that I didn't get asked out. I also said I was very busy. I don't see how I would have had time for dating. I was constantly on the go with chorus and marching band. Plus looking back at high school I don't remember actually seeing many people who I wanted to date. I personally think its because I'm shy and fat(i didn't tell him that reason).(I know I need to lose weight. i don't know what my problem is!)I feel like that has stunted my relationship potential. I think now I'm finally to the point where I'm not looking for love because I haven't been able to find it yet. I don't know if I'm capable of having a successful relationship because I've never had one. Would guys want to date someone who has no dating experience? They would say there has to be something wrong with me because I haven't dated. Part of me just doesn't care and part of me wants to feel loved. In a few years I'll just stop caring. I'm almost there!

Then we went to Myeong-dong to eat dinner. We walked around for a little while then we went to eat at Pizza Mall. I had bologna cheese spaghetti. It was good. Then we talked some more and then we made it back to the subway around 11pm so we could catch the last train home.

We ended up hanging out for 8 hours total.

Korean-Self introduction

Anyeonghaseyo!

Jeo-nuen Na Min Sol-imnida(my Korean name)

Jeo-nuen Valerie-imnida(English name)

Choeum Beopgesseumnida

Jeo-nuen Miguk saram-imnida


Translation:

Hello!

I am Na Min Sol

I am Valerie

It's nice to meet you.

I am American.

Day 233

August 7 Friday

The weekend is here! One day closer to being done with this morning schedule. I think I still have 8 more days where I have to be at work at 9am.

My first class was good as always. We took a test and they were all asking for hints and calling out answers.haha. We had a good class and everyone participated. We had a lot of speaking practice today.

My 2nd class was really good also. I let them all pick out their prize for having their homework for July. They all chose Candy. The students in the next classroom were in my class talking to those students and they saw my bag with prizes. They were looking in it. I told them they had to do their homework to get the prize (they are in the class that NEVER does their homework!) There was a moth flying around the classroom today. They were making a lot of noise and chasing it around the room. The finally killed it and threw it away. We took a test today and the students asked for hints. haha. Then we covered 2 pages of material. They had some good speaking practice. Today we learned about different toys-trampoline,skateboard,swing,hula hoop,scooter. This is a great class. They all participate and they do well in class. They are very well behaved. I've never had one behavior problem in this class. We are at a good place in the book so I let them play a game for the last 5 mins of class-they played hangman. I was guessing letters and I just happened to choose the right letters 3 times.They would clap when I got it right and then they asked me to guess more. Then the student who was at the board told me I couldn't play any more! He thought I knew the answer! I didn't really. and it was simple, too--Friday. They all did their homework in class and I already marked them off and gave them a sticker.

My 3rd class was good. We covered 2 units in our speaking book. We had a lot of opportunities to practice speaking today.

My 4th class was good. Only one person had their homework so I just wrote the answers on the board and let them all copy. One person didn't bring their book to class. They were all quiet today and they did thier work. I had 3 students who were absent. I have one student who has missed every class in summer vacation-4 classes so far.

After class I had to make all the report cards for the students. This month I just had to put one score on the card instead of two. They usually have one writing grade and one speaking grade. This month they have one grade that is the average of speaking and writing. I also had to fill in letter grades for behavior, doing assignments, attendance, contribution. The letters are A, B, C, D, E. I gave one of my students an E for attendance. He only came to 2 classes this month. I didn't even give him a grade this month because he didnt show up on any test days. I didn't give him a grade in June either. He only showed up for 4 classes. I gave my level 3 and level 9 class a B for behavior.

Day 232

August 6 Thursday

I've been here 33 weeks! wow! 29 weeks left!

My 1st class was good. We had a lot of speaking practice. I love the textbook we are using called "Welcome to America". It offers lots of guided activities for speaking. There are lots of examples and things for them to speak about. One of my students kept talking during the test. I had to keep telling him to turn around and quit talking. That same student was cheating for another class. He paid another girl 1,000 won to copy her homework for dictation class. If they just copy each other's work they aren't really going to learn the material. I see him copying all the time. He never copies for my class. He just doesn't do the homework at all.

My 2nd class was good. Last time I gave the students a small present for doing their homework for the whole month. Today they asked for another present. They were making up lies like "its my birthday-give me a present." Then the person beside them would say "she's lying." I told the Korean teacher about one of my students who is really quiet. She said that the student is quiet in everyone's class. Ok so it's not just my class. I had to get the Korean teacher to write out her name for me so I'd know what to call her in class. I call her by her Korean name since she didn't want to pick out an English name.

I went into my 3rd class and all of the lights were off and there were no students. That was odd. I turned on the lights and put down my materials on a desk. Then I hear giggling coming from somewhere. 2 of the boys were in the back of the classroom hiding under the desks. It was funny. My kids are so silly. Then the other 2 boys came in late to class. We had a good class. We covered a good amount of material. The 4 boys are really well behaved. We always cover a lot and they have free time to play a game. I always let them play a game because they are good.

I hate how my classes are always getting cut short because the Korean teachers can't seem to pay attention to the time. I always end my class on time. The korean teacher took up 5 minutes of my class time in my 4th and 5th class. Class was suppose to start at 12:50 but I didnt get to start until 12:55 and then another class was suppose to start at 1:40 but I didn't get to start till 1:45.

My 4th class always causes problems. Today we were going over a writing unit. No one did their homework so I had to just do those pages in class. I always have a hard time getting the students to write out their answers. I told them that its writing class so they have to write. I was writing notes on their behavior in my notebook and they wanted to see what I was writing. I wouldn't let them see. When I asked them to write in complete sentences one of the students was writing really messy where you couldn't even read what he wrote. Then they were using their cellphone in class. One of them was showing me that he was playing a "lets learn English" game. I don't care if you are learning English on your cell phone-you have to pay attention during my class! They saw in my notebook where I wrote that they were throwing things at each other on Tuesday and one of the students erased it from my notebook. I can't hardly ever get anything accomplished in that class. I have to beg them to do their work so I can't ever cover a whole unit. Then I assign what we don't finish for homework and they don't do it. I've mentioned what problems I have to the Korean teacher but I still have the same problems. At least I only have to put up with it for 3 more weeks. I think all of my students in that class are in 6th grade(except one) so they will be moving up to middle school. Currently, I only teach Elementary students.

My last class was good. Today they were asking me a lot of questions. We were talking about my gym. I told them that I go to Lee Hun's Energy Gym and that I see Mr. Lee all the time(he's a famous actor in Korea). They asked me if I ever talk to him. I've never said anything more than hello. (I dont know if he speaks English and I cant speak Korean).We covered a whole unit in our writing book and they had some free time. The 2 girls in that class are very well behaved and always do their work and homework so I let them have some free time if we finish early. One of the girls wrote a Korean phrase on the board and wanted me to say it. She had to keep correcting my pronunciation. Learning Korean is hard! I always have trouble with the vowels. I can read hanguel but a few of the vowel sounds confuse me. I said in korean "I can't speak Korean" and the girl said "where did you learn that?". I told her I was learning some Korean from the internet. I watch videos from koreanclass101. Yesterday I also signed up for the website koreanclass101. My goal is to be able to carry on a simple conversation before I leave in 7 months. Although i'm afraid I'll forget everything when I go back to the USA. I don't know any Koreans in America so I wouldn't have a chance to use it on a daily basis. I know if you don't use it you lose it. Thats what happened to my Spanish. I studied Spanish for 3 years and I didn't use it so I forgot most of it. I think it would actually be beneficial for me to start studying Spanish again since there is a large population of Latinos in the USA. I'd love to live in a Spanish speaking country for a year, but I don't know if I want to be away from everyone again. I know my family wouldn't be too happy about that!

Korea creating woman only parking spots.....

Here's the full article:
Women only parking spots

Seoul is trying to become more "woman friendly". They are creating special pink parking spots for use by women in high heels. The spots will be near shopping malls and businesses so women won't have to walk that far.

Almost 5,000 spots have already been made. Its part of the "Women Friendly Seoul Project". They also want to create more restrooms for women, improved lighting in public places and more public day care centers.

_______________________________________________________________

I'm a girl and I think this is just ridiculous! I could see making spots for pregnant women or handicapped. That makes a lot of sense,but parking spots for women in high heels? That's crazy!Fashion is pain. I'd never expect to get a better parking spot just because I was wearing heels. When I wear high heels(very rarely) I know they are going to hurt and I don't expect to get special treatment.

I don't see it actually being enforced (say if a man parked there). It seems like not much at all is enforced over here. People park everywhere.

Day 231

Wednesday August 5

Today seemed to go by fast. Maybe it was because I had 3 classes back to back and I was finished teaching at 12:25. I like Wednesday!

My first class was good. Its my favorite class. They were all well behaved and all participated. I love how when they see a story they all are telling me who they want to be even before I mention that we are going to read the story.None of my other classes are that enthusiastic! I write all the parts on the board and who wants to read them. I had 2 people who wanted to read the same part so I wrote who would read on the first time and who would read on the 2nd time. We read the story 3 times in all-once as a class and 2 times with the students taking the parts. I was having a hard time trying to describe cinnamon. They wanted to know what cinnamon was. All I knew to tell them was that it changes the flavor of something. Maybe I'll bring some to class if I can find it. A lot of students in that class say that they have an error on their cd. I don't know whether they just dont want to do it or they are telling the truth. I have no way of knowing. I wish they would all do the cd. It would be very beneficial to them.

My 2nd class is still the problem class. They were good for one day. They were bad today. The girl is good and participates but the boys are bad. They won't read. Sometimes its like I'm up there talking and they arent even paying attention. They carry on doing their own thing. They don't even pay attention when I stand right beside their desk to try to get them to do their work. The girl was reading along with me while they were just goofing around.They asked for a game today and I said no because they were bad. I told the Korean teacher that I was having problems with the boys in that class.

The head person at one of our branches sent me a message on MSN. In September our hagwon is changing. I don't know any details, but I know that now the Korean teachers have to teach English in ENGLISH instead of teaching in Korean. The head person wants me to help the Korean teachers and show them how to teach in English. I don't really know what to do. I'm not doing anything special. I'm just basically reading from the book. I guess I'll just do a mock lesson for them although I hate being watched! Maybe I'll pick out a really good lesson and let them see how I would teach it, but my class is geared toward speaking so I don't know how that would help them with teaching grammar or listening or reading.

My 3rd class was good. They were really quiet. Only half of the class was there. I have 10 students. 5 of the students were there in the class. Then one more came in late. I still have one student who hasn't taken their monthly test. He's been absent for 3 classes in a row. We covered a few pages of material. Finished one unit and started a new unit. We had 10 minutes left in class and one of the students asked to play a game so I let them play for the last 10 minutes. We weren't going to be able to finish the next page anyway.

After I was done at 12:25 I still had 3 1/2 hrs to be at work with nothing to do. I planned out all my classes and copied all the homework papers for tomorrow since I don't have much time in the morning. I have to be at work at 9 and class starts at 9:30. All I need to do tomorrow is print out all of my tests. I also went out to lunch with Johnny Depp(a korean guy at my school-thats his english name that he chose). We went to McDonalds.

I burned 315 calories at the gym today. I walked for 52 minutes. I'm gradually increasing my time. soon I'll be up to an hour. I enjoyed watching "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" while I was walking. Its crazy how I exercise 6 days a week, but I don't lose any weight because I don't eat the right foods. If I really applied myself I could have lost at least 10-15 pounds in the past 3 months that I've been at the gym. It's hard though. I can't find foods that I like so I choose stuff that I do like and they happen to be really bad for you! I haven't weighed myself since June, but I really doubt that I've lost any weight. People say I look smaller. My clothes still fit the same. no big change. Maybe I'm just losing inches or they are delusional. Maybe one day I'll finally get my act together. After I get paid I've got to make myself stop spending on fast food and save up for my life post Korea.

Student Assignment-Rules for my room

In one of our units at school the students were learning about rules for their room. There was a sample in the book.

The sample said "You can listen to music, but you can't take my cds. You can't eat and drink. You can visit me anytime (except late at night)"

They did this assignment with my substitute last week. He collected the papers for me.

The assignment was to come up with their own set of rules that they would post on their door. I got some funny responses. The grammar is pretty bad. No matter how much I try to show them the correct way to write they always do it wrong.

In my room you can listen to music
And you can read a my book.
But you can't jump.
And you can't run.
Can't you no noise!
You can visit me anytime.
(but not late at night!)
---------------------------------------------

In my room you can listen to the music
You can watch TV
But you can't don't touch my thing
You can visit me any time
But you can't drink in here
______________________________________

You can't visit
You can't pooping
______________________________________

Not my brother hit and sit
not kill
not pooping
not pee
not eat
_________________________________

My home not being silly
My home no steal

____________________________

In my room you can sleep.
You can playing computer games and you can study
_________________________________

My room is not being silly.
and not steal money
______________________________

This is Christian Bale room (that's one of my student's english names)
Please read this
In my room you can play game but being silly
_________________________

Rules is no!

____________________________________

I can definatly tell who was sitting together. They all have common themes!

Day 230

August 4 Tuesday

My first class was good. I had one new student and 1 student was absent. We had a good productive class. Lots of speaking time. Gave out a prize for the one student who had her homework for the month of July. She chose a notebook.

2nd class was also productive. 3 of my students were absent. The students loved the gifts I let them choose. Notebooks, erasers, pencils, candy. They were all excited and said thank you. They all wanted to choose a "bonus." I wouldn't let them pick more than one item, but they could choose candy as a bonus. I let them choose a bonus because they were the only class where all the students in the class did their homework every class in July. I let the new girl choose but she didnt want anything. We had a good class. Covered 4 pages of material and had some speaking time. Everytime we have speaking time I have to ask the new girl to talk to her partner. Then she talks very quietly. Its hard having someone who doesnt want to participate and partnering them with someone who likes to participate in class. I gave a makeup test to the student who was absent. she caught on really quickly. It only took her 5 minutes to complete and she made 100.

After class the Korean teacher said all the students were showing off their gifts to her. She said they really liked them. I wasn't sure how they would like notebooks, pencils and erasers, I'm glad they did.

My 3rd class was good. We covered a few pages of material and reviewed and only had 5minutes left for free time.

In my 4th class I usually have 2 girls but one was absent today. At the beginning of class I let the girl pick what she wanted for having her homework for July. She chose a little notebook. She said she was happy. She liked the song in the book. In every unit there is an English song that pertains to the lesson. Some are decent and some are really corny. This one actually had a nice beat. She wanted to listen to it twice. On the 2nd time she recorded the song on her cell phone. We covered a lot of material today.

My last class started out good. They were being really quiet and doing their work. Then mid way through class they started acting up. They were balling up paper and throwing it at each other and not paying attention at times but they still participated. We had an okay class. They begged to play hangman so I stopped the lesson early and let them play for 10 minutes.

I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes at the gym. While I was walking I was watching "House" season 2. Its really old, but it was the only interesting thing on tv. Yesterday while I was walking the PT came over to talk to me. He was asking me about the show and I told him that it was already on season 6 in America(i think) and that what was on now was season 2. He said in Korea their shows last one season and then they are over.

I'm always amazed by how long it takes to take the elevator in the building where my gym is. Its a heavily popluated area due to there being a mall, Kim's Club and a cinema. When the elevator does come all the Koreans rush to get on and there's no room left or there are so many people on the elevator that there isn't enough room to get on. And sometimes the elevator is packed as full as it can get. They like to cram the elevator so full that you are squished! They don't think 'oh that elevator looks full-lets wait'--its more like 'yeah its full, but lets see if we can fit 5 more people.' Then you have to push your way through if you are getting off at a lower floor than other people. The doors almost closed on me today when I was trying to get out but someone pushed the open button so I could get out.

Tip: If you like personal space--forget about it! I love my personal space. Personal space is a foreign concept in South Korea!