Nothing like blogging in my very own classroom!

Hey yo!

Welcome to the latest edition of the Korean Experience. Pull up a comfy chair, a hot cup of coffee, and settle in. I think it's going to be a good one.

I can't believe I'm already in my third week! Life goes fast in Korea! Maybe it's being surrounded by elementary school kids all day - they move at the speed of light. You blink once and suddenly one's been stabbed with an exact-o knife. They don't use scissors here, but every single-digit youngster has an exact-o knife tucked into their Hello Kitty pencil case. God forbid they ever start a revolution.

This is my first week of teaching the sixth-graders (nearly) all by myself. Its still difficult because of the fact that up until now they've had everything translated for them by my co-teacher. In my opinion, its mostly unnecessary. In my experience of learning languages, you're never going to understand every word in a sentence right off the bat. But they don't need to understand every word - in most cases, they just need one or two. I know my co-teacher means well, but these kids are smart, and in my opinion its time to cut some of the apron strings.

For today's lesson, I had them review our unit topic (How was your vacation?) and then make mini-books about their summer vacations. It involved both reading and writing full sentences and also caused them to have to be creative with their thoughts. This is great for Korean children because so often in their schooling there is one "right answer" stressed, and its routine memorization of the right answer. I'm still trying to convince them that when asked "How are you today?", "I feel terrible today" or "I'm great" are just as correct as "I'm fine, thank you" which is the phrase that they teach all Koreans to say all the time. For crying out loud, these people could be having a horrible day and you would have no idea.

But the lesson went well. They were very creative for the most part, and it kept their attention, plus they got to keep it to take home. My 6th-graders are good kids when they pay attention and feel encouraged. My 5th-graders are best when they're challenged and/or involved in competition. The 4th-graders are great when you interact with them personally and play learning games. The 3rd-graders are good at looking cute, but as far as English, you might as well be trying to teach them differential equations - either way, they'll probably spend the lesson picking their noses and giggling/hitting each other.

In other news, I think I'm becoming less of a bumbling Korean culture idiot. I will always be easy to pick out here, I will always be a foreigner - no Westerner will ever be Korean enough. But once you embrace that, it's pretty smooth sailing. If people on the subway or the bus or in the grocery store are talking about me, its not like I'd know anyway. And I've never really been one to care about how others view me (I come from the "If you don't like me, that's your problem" school of social interaction). But I am learning more about everything here...in order to survive, you must adapt.

This weekend was fun - we had our first weekend out on the town. Hil and I are getting braver with regards to riding the subway, so we went to go visit my orientation roommate Leigh who lives near downtown Seoul. She took us out to dinner and then to the Kyobo bookstore (ITS HUGE, and its a good thing, because there are always 5 million people there). Its basically like a Barnes and Noble, except there are no chairs. None. So if you want to sit and read, you pull up a nice spot of carpet in front of the Microeconomics section and just sit in the aisle. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in the way, but that's just how it works here. And how many people in a given day need an English Microecon book in Seoul?

Saturday we went to Insadong (more people in a small shopping district) and Itaewon (where all the foreigners hang out, and consequently the most dangerous neighborhood in all of Korea). We saw a bunch of other people from orientation and shopped for awhile.

Sunday we went to afternoon church at a place that regularly has an attendance of about 70,000 people for their Korean services on Sunday. Their English service attendance, however, is around 100-150 per service (2 services), so it feels like what I'm used to. I signed up to go on a retreat with the church during Cheosok, Korean thanksgiving (Sept 23-25). It sounds like its going to be a good time - and the people there seem really awesome. One thing I really feel like I need right now is fellowship...I mean, considering the fact that I'm the only fluent English-speaking Westerner in my area of town (not joking), it might be nice to have some friends. Other than the Jehovah's Witnesses that come every Sunday :)

The mosquitos here are voracious. Voracious means 'very hungry'. And apparently they like the taste of American food (ie. me). And the pollution is killing me slowly. But other than that everything is going really well!!!

These verses have been on my mind as of late, and (SURPRISE!) were spoken about at church on Sunday:

"My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." ~Psalm 139:15-16

I think of God writing my life in the Book...

"Sept. 11, 2007 - Today Jessica will dodge 5 scooters on her way to school. A kid who calls himself "Bobby" will ask her why she hasn't had a baby yet. And for lunch...well, we'll just keep that a secret, shall we?"

I can feel Him smiling on me all the time. Maybe even laughing, saying, "You asked for it, my dear." I know...I know. :)

That's all for now. I must start coloring...oh the life of an elementary school teacher!

-Love you - miss you - thinking of you - praying for you -

Jess