A New Found Appreciation

The title of this blog serves for a number of things. I have a new found appreciation for meals that don't have faces, western toilets, civilization, but mostly my appreciation goes out to my high school teachers!!! I honestly don't know how any high school teacher stays sane and still loves their job. Teaching high school students is scary! Most of them are very nice but they are your typical teenagers...and not to mention most of them are bigger than I am and it's intimidating. I still wouldn't trade this job for anything though.

It's been a while since I updated this thing so I will try to fill everyone in on what's been going on here in South Korea. I began teaching about 3 weeks ago. I love my middle school classes. Most of the students here in Imgye don't really know that much English so it's like starting fresh. I find it difficult speaking to them slower and remembering that they have no clue as to what I'm talking about. I'm not a slow talker so it is definitely something I am trying to get used to. My students are very sweet but very loud!! They are so energetic, it's crazy...but I love them! My coteacher doesn't actually teach with me so I have the whole class to myself. It's nice but sometimes it's frustrating when the students don't get something and there is no one there to help translate. Tomorrow, I have my first day at JEEC which stands for Jeongseon English Educational Center. I am very excited about this! It has different parts in the building that are built as a stage for children to do role playing. It has an airport, movie theatre, and restaurant. It will be nice to get away from my desk and interact with the children all day!

I went and visited Miranda last weekend in Incheon. It's about a three hour bus ride from here to there. I left straight from work and got there Friday night. We went to Pizza Hut and it was definitely the best 40 dollars ever spent!! After that we went to her friend Mark's birthday party. It was a lot of fun! I met a lot of cool new people! The next day we went shopping and then sat in her apartment listening to music until it was time to go meet up with some people for the night. We ended up meeting some of the people from the birthday party the night before and this guy from Scotland who wasn't at the party also met up with us. His name is Garry. We went and grabbed some food and hung out for a while and then we went to Noraebang which is Korean Karaoke. It was so much fun!!! They have so many songs to choose from...it's great! After that, Miranda, Garry, me, and this guy Jayme who lives in Miranda's building all went back to Miranda's apartment. We hung out and talked forever...it was nice! The next day I had to catch the 2:40 bus in order to be able to catch the last bus that goes into my town from the city which is outside of my town. It's very confusing but anyway, we didn't get to do too much on Sunday because I had to leave early. Miranda took me to the bus station and I headed back to the sticks.

This past weekend I stayed around here. Lindsey and I went into Gangneung (the city near my town) and went shopping. I bought a lot of new stuff for my apartment which I am very excited about! I will post pictures of my apartment once I get everything set up and looking nice!

Miranda and Garry are coming to visit me this weekend! I am soooo excited!! I'm going to take them to the nicest beach on the east coast of Korea called Mangsang Beach in Donghae. Then we are going to go to this cave that is in the middle of the city...it looks really cool! After all of that we are going to come back to my apartment and attempt to go spear fishing in the river next to my apartment. Anyone who knows me, knows I have this thing about spear fishing...I have always wanted to do it!! We will probably be very unsuccessful but I am still super excited! It's going to be a good weekend!

Other than the things above, not too much has been going on. Just working and living! I will definitely update next week and let you all know how the spear fishing went! I will also post some pictures on here soon! I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you guys bunches!

xoxo,
Whitney