I'm Choosing to Make Lemonade!

Man, time is just flying by here! The weeks and days are going my so fast! I have been here for over 4 months now! That is a 1/3 of the way there! I can’t believe it! Time just gets away from me here and before I know it, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve updated you! Sorry about that!

The weather here in Korea is definitely fall weather! It is starting to get cooler… which is a nice change! It is a lot less humid, so this makes for more pleasant days! The temperature is usually in the 70’s or 80’s. The weather here is actually very similar to the weather in Kansas. Usually when I talk to people at home, we are experiencing about the same! That’s nice… It’s like a little piece of home! J I must admit though, I miss getting ready for the fall. The smells aren’t quite the same here! They don’t have Halloween, so I haven’t seen pumpkins and I know there will be no pumpkin carving! I’m missing some of my favorites, like ‘pumpkin spice’ candles, caramel for my apples, Orange Oreos, and Pumpkin Shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter cups! Now those say ‘fall’ to me! There are definitely certain things that just aren’t home! Peanut butter and chocolate snacks together, just never caught on over here! So, you can’t find things like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! It’s all about sacrifice… right?!? J

We are about to celebrate Chusok here I know Korea. This is their Thanksgiving. It is the biggest holiday in Korea. They spend this time with their families and eat very traditional meals. They also buy gifts for each other. It is similar to Christmas for us in that way. We get Friday off, so no complaints here! I’m anxious to experience this here! I think it has potential to be a lot of fun!

Let’s see, how have my students been entertaining recently?!? I feel like they are always doing something! I’ve been teaching more so I have a lot more interaction with my students inside of the classroom! I’m really glad about that! It helps my days and weeks go by a lot faster!

They just come up with the cutest things to say! One of my students asked me if I was married. She couldn’t quite figure out how to ask me in English, so she started singing the ‘Wedding March!’ It was so funny!

I have one 6th grade boy who always comes into class early and says, “I love you!” and then puts up a heart over his head! I always just laugh at him. But this week my head teacher said, “Do you really have those feelings?” (She said this in English and this boy does not speak English. I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with this!) She told me he doesn’t so he shouldn’t say it. Yeah, he still says it!

I was looking at my Facebook account one day! (This is something I do often b/c I have so much free time!) One of my girls came in and said, “Oh, Facebook. I know that!” She hasn’t found me yet, which is quite surprising! I love that even in Korea, you can find Facebook!

My 6th grade boys are ornery, but they know exactly what to say to me! They will do something and then I will go to get on to them and then they will just smile at me! They have the cutest little smiles where their eyes twinkle. Yeah, I lose all of my power, b/c they just melt my heart! In one of my classes there are these 2 boys who are best friends. They are also very much the leaders in the class. Whatever they do, their classmates follow. So, one day they were coming in late and I met them in the hallway. I told them if they participated and listened in class, I’d have something for them after class. I gave them a ‘high-five’ to signify the fact that they got it and they were going to do it. Then one of the boys grabbed my hand and tried to walk into class that way! Oh boys… they never change… even half way around the world!

I also had one of my boys give me his phone number. He took my phone and typed in his number then called his phone so he’d have my number! If only older boys were that persistent! J (This is the same boy who wrote me the letter earlier in the year!) Then one day in class he was sitting with some girls and he was not paying attention in class. I had to tell their table a couple of times to get back on task. He came into my room during the next break and apologized to me for not listening. He said, “I’m sorry I was not listening and paying attention in class.” Of course I to tell him it was okay!

My 3rd graders are pretty cute, too! I am sad b/c this is my last week with them! I start 4th grade next week. They are just so funny. I pointed to a character in the book and I asked who this was. The class said ‘Joon,’ and I had to say no. So, one boy said, ‘July?’ I laughed out loud on that one! At least he was getting the months figured out!

For some reason, they don’t have screens here on their windows. They don’t like to run the air either. So, they have a whole wall of windows they open up everyday. Of course, if there are no screens, then things can fly in. For some reason last week wasps were really bad. We had one fly in during the middle of the class and the students freaked out! They started screaming and some tried to get under their tables! If they had coats on, they pulled their hoods up over their heads. The teacher turned the lights off and had them put their heads down! Like that’s going to make the wasp think that they weren’t there or something?!? So, we had to take about a 15 minute break until the wasp flew out! I had to hide my face with my paper so they wouldn’t see me laughing! There was one boy in one my classes who said while we were waiting, “Teacher, English please!” He didn’t want to just sit there, he wanted me to start teaching again! Finally, the teacher took a book and swatted it down when it landed! Now that was entertaining!

I also got to experience my first fire drill here at school! I’m in the middle of teaching and a voice comes over the loud speaker. My teacher told me they said there was going to be a fire drill. She then told me to keep teaching b/c we had about 10 or 15 minutes before it would go off. So, I start teaching again. Then she tells me to stop and they line the students up (no bell has rung yet!) I asked her if we needed to go and she said, “No, we will have a break time!” So, I went to my classroom, the bell rang and all of the students went outside. Well, as I’m sitting at my desk, I start to smell smoke! Now my first reaction was, what are the odds of a real fire happening during a drill?!? Then it hit me, I’m smelling smoke and I am still INSIDE the school! I hear the students outside so I run over to my windows and look outside! There is a fire… but it’s in a fire pit. They actually started a real fire for the drill. I’d like to see that happen in the states! I was relieved to know that it was really just a practice though!

There are times, many times actually, that I will be teaching in my books and find something misspelled or it will just be wrong. Usually it’s not a big deal and I can just move right past it and correct it as I go! But the other day I had to chuckle at one of them. I was showing the students flashcards that are magnets. We came across a picture of a zebra, but it was labeled as a horse! Thankfully, the students knew it as a zebra and not a horse… I would have been worried if it was the other way around!

I played volleyball again this past week. Man, I ‘m so glad I get to do this! It’s fun and I love getting to know the guys better. This is the reason I actually have a relationship with most of them! There’s this one older guy that I just love! He’s a setter, but for some reason we’re never on the same team! He’s a tricky little guy. But, he’s on of my biggest fans! He’s so fun! We also had some other fans there this week! My 5th and 6th grade boys that play basketball showed up at the gym. They came in like 1 or 2 at a time. They were so cute! They’d look at me and smile and wave. It was like they were shocked to see me playing. They started cheering for the team I was on! Then, they’d try to tell me something in Korean but I couldn’t understand them. So then they’d just start playing charades with me! I think I scored some major points with the 6th grade boys though, b/c the next 2 days they did great in class! It’s funny how different things can be for you inside the classroom when you can connect with the student outside of the classroom.

My teachers can tell me some funny things too. The other day after lunch, I went to one of the teacher’s rooms with a group. We were eating chestnuts (which I’m not too sure if I’m a fan of or not!) and they were asking me questions and we were talking. One of them told me that Korean guys like to marry teachers. They are a ‘hot commodities’ over here (those weren’t her exact words but that is definitely what she was meaning!!). I asked why and she told me b/c they get off of work earlier then other jobs, so they can come home and have dinner cooked and ready for the husband when he gets home! Are you kidding me?!? (And this is reason #92 why I could not marry a Korean!!) She was laughing when she said this, but it’s true! My, oh my!

My relationship with my teacher is a lot better now, too! My director called and talked to her. She told her if I wasn’t teaching then I’d have to change schools. She didn’t want to lose a native speaker, so now I teach! It’s fun and it helps the days go by a lot quicker! To be honest though, that was a huge growing time for me! I had to have a lot of “Becky—God time” during those weeks. It was tough. I wasn’t happy with my job, so that made for some rough weeks! Thankfully I had a few people here who would let me vent and then help me to move on. Those relationships are a lot closer now b/c of it! I’m just glad that’s behind me for now!

I’m finally starting to get into my groove here and boy does it feel good!