Week 1-- Fall comes to Korea

Flags
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Dear friends,

Well I can safely tuck week one away into the baggage of memories.

I am happy to say that I have survived my first week.

It was a full one filled with things that I would never imagine and other things that I was happy to say were easy. The teaching itself is great--- the hardest part is the disciplining the kids. As I mentioned before there is a scale of discipline that involves verbal warnings, 3 push-ups, 10 push-ups, in class "yeon don" or outside "yeon don". Yeon don is a strengthening exercise that builds energy and strength in your middle. The idea is that if kids are acting out they need to have their energy more centered--- so they are asked to do yeon don as a way to center them and calm them down. This can be a very difficult exercise, so kids are usually not eager to do it. To give you an idea of how crazy these kids can be I STARTED 4 of my 12 classes this week with whole class yeon-don. It was crazy. To be honest I think that they were all acting out because I am new and hell we all know that is what you do when WE had new teachers or subs. Everyone tells me that it gets easier--- well I hope so.

Busy streets of Ilsan
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So, my 12 classes range in ages from my babies (4-5yo) in Level 1 to my middle school kids in Level 6. Most range in the 7-11 age range making them very "special". While I really enjoy my little ones I love my older classes more--- there is more of an opportunity to actually converse and get get bogged down with the details of the language. It is also harder to keep those classes attentive, so I have to be more creative with my lesson plans.

Besides all the disciplining I really love the curriculum. There is a lot of creative things that can happen when kids are really focused on why they are there. At the end of each section there is a place for students to write and draw their vision for why they are learning English. For lower level classes it is "why am I here" type questions and in the higher level classes it gets kids thinking about a more global thinking of English and how they can use their skills in the greater world. Higher level classes learn in depth not just about the human body, but also about how each organ works and how they can holistically "fix" certain problems-- healing. Its too bad that most ages that kids are in these levels are middle school, so I think they are not as into the class lessons, but there is great messaging in the books. I only hope that they retain some of it.

Foot path loop.
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This week Fall has descending on Seoul. The mornings and afternoons are beautiful with temps in the 60s and 70s, but there is starting to be a steady chill in the air and at night it is down right cold. I hope that I can make it through--- winters are brutal here. Anyway, I am sitting in the office right now and my nose is freezing.....I know winter is on its way. That said today walking around Ilsan and through a beautiful park near my office-tel it was awesome to see Fall full bloom!

A little bit more about the neighborhood.....it is definitely the burbs, but in some good ways and some bad. The feel is very new and in fact Ilsan has only been around for about 10 years and you can tell because everything is newly built. Its nice because we have a nice new apartment, which they call office-tels here, but bad because there are things like Starbucks, Pizza Hut and TGIFridays within 2 blocks. The bottom of my building has a stationary store, 2 French bakeries--- one good and one bad---- and a convenience store. All along the main road there are dozens of shops and small restuarants--- that is the best part! Two blocks away is the closest subway stop which feeds into a large plaza that has small vendors selling fruit, nuts, dried things (dont really know what they are), veggies, and fried things--- there is a teriakki "bar" that reminds me of the small bench stalls in Africa that make omlets in front of you. The plaza is about a block from the office. If you walk past the plaza it leads you out onto this huge bridge over the expressway and you are looking out into the "undeveloped zone" of Seoul. The bridge takes you into Lake Park, which is BEAUTIFUL....nice walking trails and bike trails.

Man on the foot path loop in Lake Park
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Today I spent the better part of the day in the park. IT IS HUGE. I can compare it to Rock Creek park only more developed and much newer. The lake is disapointingly man-made, but really beautiful. The entrance into the park near the office is the northern most part of the park and is highlighted by a HUGE fountain blasting music of all genres--- the fountain and the music are in sync, which is really cool. It reminds me of Fantasia. Beyond that plaza there are set trails and then trails that lead off the main road. These so far have been my highlight. Today one lead me down by the lake where you can get a stunning view of the length of the lake and all of the marsh areas near by. I also discovered a small hiking trail that leads up a small hill overlooking the park. Later down the trail there was a catus garden featuring cati from all over Asia. Cati are big here--- as household plants especially. There is a part of the park that I have been to several times that is so far my favorite. It is a small foot path that is all reflexology. At the base of the trail there is a map of the human foot and points out all of the accupressure points on the bottom of your foot. You take off your shoes and the trail is a series of differnt kinds of rocks and logs that you walk on. The different kinds of rocks are suppose to stimulate different organs in your body. It is a VERY cool little trail and it is fun to be walking on it with people of all ages!

Busy Ilsan street scape
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Yesterday we had a huge event here in Ilsan--- an English "camp" for all potential students. There were about 40 kids split into about 5 groups. Each group went from room to room, which were themed of different western holidays--- Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentines Day and Halloween. In each room we spent a few moments going over vocabulary and then did an art project that highlighted the vocab. Afterwards we had snacks and a huge party for the kids. The kids put together a "dictionary" of all of their vcab words and we bound it for them so that they could show their parents all that they learned. All the parents have follow up meetings with the head teacher this week to get them registered. It was a very cool event but exhausting especailly since it was Saturday and I was pooped from the last week.

Afterwards the whole staff went out for dinner and drank a lot. Ilsan center has a reputation for being CRAZY yet FUN. Both the pricipal (called wonjanims) and our head teacher, Terri, are nuts. They are very "big picture" and are not as focused on the details. Therefore--- crazy. At the same time they are very dynamic and very focused on the bigger goal which is great to be challenged constantly by them.....they are great and I really love working with them. They treated everything last night and Wonjanim even gave us her credit card for our dance party after dinner.

After getting way too drunk at dinner we all went dancing in a part of town called "La Festa", which has a Adams Morgan 18th Street feel to it--- only newer. We went to a place called "Soul Train" which only played HipHop. We made our own party and within a hour we were fighting to get on the dance floor. It was a blast. It was great to kick back and really get to know my co-teachers and other earth stars.

I am happy to say that I have survived my first week. There are a lot of things that I am looking forward to within this place and this work. I am just glad that everything is meeting my expectations. I miss all of you! And hope to keep you posted from now on using this journal. Ill try and send out updates when I put up new pictures.

Peace and love, Rose