Day 306

Monday October 19

I don't have my package yet :( It has arrived to South Korea and was picked up at 2:03 in Incheon, South Korea. Its on its way to the destination. I should be getting it very soon!! I'm hoping it is at my house on Tuesday before I go to work! I can't wait to get my little debbie cakes! Oatmeal cream and fudge rounds. yum! I also have some new clothes! and books to read!

I left my house early today so I could pay some bills. I was wishing I had brought my coat with me and didn't have time go back and get it. It was cool today. But later at night it was in the upper 40's and I was walking around without a coat and it didn't feel all that bad. You'd think it was winter by the way some of the Koreans were dressed! They had on their big coats and I saw one person with a warm scarf on. Then there was me walking around in short sleeves. The only person not wearing a coat.haha.

My 1st class was good. We covered a few pages in spelling. We learned 2 new sets of words.

My 2nd class was good. We talked about "do you think.." questions..One of our questions was "Do you think rich people are happier than poor people?". One student answered that poor people were happier because they believe in Heaven and its harder for a rich person to get to Heaven. A few of my students say they are Christians so that's pretty cool. We had a good class. They all participated and had good answers. I asked every question to every student. We finished 10 mins early. I'm trying to get them in the habit of speaking in complete sentences so I write prompts on the board and correct them when they don't speak in complete sentences. Next week we have a speaking test. I made up a sheet that I'm going to use to grade the speaking test. There are going to be 11 questions. 9 points each. (yeah its 99 points-i'll give them one free point). I'm going to grade on speaking in complete sentences, correct answers, and correct grammar. The students in class are always asking me if I know about certain songs. They were asking me about "heal the world" and "Let it be" today. I didn't understand what they were saying at first until they sang it and I figured out it was 'let it be'. One student likes Avril Lavigne and is always asking me if I know her songs. I'm not too familiar with them.

My 3rd class was okay. 2 students were absent so only 2 were in class today. I had to keep telling them to stay in their seats. They like to get up and talk to each other and write on the white board. They like to ask me off topic questions. Today one of them was wanting to know the ages of all the people in my family. Then he told me about the ages of people in his family.

My conversation class is always difficult. It's full of students who just don't care. Half of them are talking while I'm talking. They won't do their work. They are always studying for vocabulary during my class. I made them close their vocab books today. I can't get them to practice conversation. Only a few people actually make an effort. One of the girls is never on the right page and she won't do her work no matter how much you ask her. Most of the others wont fill in their answers either. Today we were talking about personality traits like shy vs outgoing, angry vs calm, etc. Next week I'm giving them a test on 3 units that we've covered since last test. I only have 5 more weeks of that class!!

My last class is difficult also. All the students were eating in my class. All of them gave me some of their snacks. One of the boys kept begging to go get water during my class. He thinks if he keeps giving me some of his snack that I will let him go. I didn't. They need to get water before my class. Once you let one person go the whole class wants to go. They wouldn't pay attention today. I was talking and they kept talking to each other like I wasn't there. On one activity I just wrote the answers on the board because no one would give me an answer. I tried to get them to read along with me and they didn't want to do that either. I can't ever get anything accomplished in that class. I don't think I'll get caught up. There's no way. I never get more than 2-3 pages done. They don't study so most of their grades are low. One student does really well. The rest don't make good grades.

I skipped the gym again tonight. I was planning on going back. I just didn't want to go. I think I shouldn't renew in November. I'll miss the friends I made there but its expensive and I think I've lost my passion for working out.

My cable bill is due on the 25th, but I still haven't got the bill! Why do they wait till the last minute? I should be used to it. South Korea is the land of the last minute. They are expert procrastinators.