Almost There

After 2 long weeks in the class, I had 1 more week of English Camp before school started. Now, typically all the other teachers had English Camp for their actual students... not me, that’d be too easy! My teacher insisted we have English Camp for my teachers’ class. This takes a lot of planning on my part… but I guess that’s what I get paid for! (I’m not complaining by the way! J)

It was actually a nice transition, b/c I still had half a day off. I got to leave school at noon everyday… not a bad gig! I do love my teachers in my class, so it was fun! A couple highlights from the week:

We made Apple Crisp together. I found a recipe online for individual crisps that you make in the microwave… perfect! I didn’t have time to try it out before I had them do it… I know, I know, bad teacher! So I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best! We practice our listening skills. I tell them what to put in and they have to follow my directions. Well, at least that is the intentions. It ended up being 2 people measuring out the amounts for everyone… kind of defeated the purpose, but we rolled with it! After we mixed it, each person had to put theirs in the microwave for 2 minutes, so it took a little bit. The first couple people who tried it had interesting faces! I asked them if they liked it and they said it was okay. I told them it was okay if they didn’t like it. Then one lady was like, yeah, I don’t like it. The more that came out of the microwave, the more people were saying they really didn’t like it! I played it cool, but on the inside I was freaking out a bit! I thought I got the recipe messed up. I was kicking myself for being irresponsible and not making one first to try it out! The 2 guys in my class didn’t let me down though! One said it was really good and he likes to try foods from different cultures. I put my bowl in the microwave and just hoped it would turn out! I pulled it out for the moment of truth. I tasted it and I actually thought it was pretty good! It obviously wasn’t the best b/c it was in the microwave, not the oven, but the topping was great! It just reminded me yet again how different we are! They are not big ‘sweets’ people. Their idea of desserts is fruit and coffee. I had to chuckle to myself as we cleaned up! Some of them just threw it away b/c they didn’t like it! How many desserts get thrown away in America… uh, maybe that is our problem! J

I also taught them the Cha Cha Slide. It was straight comedy! Some of them have got moves! When they did the ‘cha cha’ part they were moving it! I’m sure if someone would have walked in on us they would have wondered what was going on! Koreans doing a line dance… priceless!

I also forgot to tell you a few things from a couple of weeks ago that I thought were pretty cool. The first week of English Camp, I got the unique opportunity to see the Eclipse. I honestly had no idea that it was coming. We were doing a morning free talk and one of the teachers told me about it. We took a break in the middle of class to go and see it! It was really neat and I’m so glad I got to experience it. The last eclipse I remember seeing was in 6th grade. I remember making little window things so we could look up at the sun and not have it hurt us! I found out later that day, that the eclipse was only in Asia… who knew?!? I’ll add to the list of cool experiences I’ve had in Korea!

I also think it’s interesting that I get a lot of the news headings from people’s Facebook statuses. I found out that Michael Jackson passed away, the Taco Bell dog is no longer with us, and the scores of most major sporting events! Facebook is taking over the world!! (Oh and if you have FB and we are not friends, look me up! I have all of my pictures posted on there!) Who knew that Facebook would be come the next news source?!?

I also found out that I am not moving off campus and into my own apartment until after January. They told me I’d be moving in August and then told me they miscounted and they didn’t need my apartment after all. Then I was told I could move into this girl’s apartment when her contract was over. Then I found out that she extended her contract, so now I won’t be moving until January! Yeah, I was bummed, but I figured no need to stress about it… nothing I can do about it now! So, I’m sitting tight in my on-campus room and trying to make the best of it!

My time off was officially over and I had to get ready for my normal schedule to start again. It’s so sad to say, but I was ready for routine. I love having time off, but sometimes you just need that stability! Oh, I must be getting old… I’m not losing my adventurous spirit though!!