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!