it's beyond me

Is not my Word like Fire,  declares the Lord,

and like a Hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

— Jeremiah 23:29

So I’ve been here just over a week.  Wow..  It feels like I’ve been here forever already!  And at the same time I can’t believe the week is going by so quickly.  It’s already Thursday!  For all of yesterday I thought it was Tuesday…  (This is at the time I started writing this entry..  I was really busy yesterday and didn’t get to finish.)

I seem to be adjusting pretty well so far.  Sleeping has been getting a lot easier as the days go by.  Teaching is getting better and better as well.  I think I’m starting to get into the groove of my teaching style. :)  Teaching is starting to get kinda fun!  I really like teaching grammar too… I don’t know why… Is that weird??  It a lot harder though because some of the students really don’t understand sometimes.

So there are two, well really three, types of classes that I teach.  First, there’s the elite classes.  These classes are for the students who are already pretty good at English, and they are only allowed to speak English during class.  Even during the breaks they all speak in English.  They are learning Language Arts, Science and Social Studies (I teach these two) and Reading.  The textbooks we’re using for these classes are US textbooks too.  It’s a pretty cool program!  I and love teaching these classes!  It’s mainly because it’s so easy to interact with the students and make sure that they understand what they are learning.  I get to make quizzes and all this other stuff too.  It feels like teaching a real class almost! :)

The second type of class is for the students that are not forced to speak English, and actually don’t speak English that well.  I’m teaching two kinds of classes like this.  One of them is a class where my main goal is to help them speak clearly and properly.  I get to do a little bit of grammar work with them, and the kind of language we use is primarily conversational.  The kids in these classes are generally younger as well.  These classes are not that bad.

The other kind is preparing the students for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), and this class I literally have no idea what I’m doing whenever I walk in there… It’s really stressful.  And it doesn’t help that almost none of them are able to speak English very well at all, and none of them really even want to be in the classroom..   These kids are probably around Jr. High age.  I really don’t like these classes.. -__-

More later!  I have some other stuff to attend to right now and my mind isn’t really here right now!

Hello everybody!  I’ve arrived safely in Korea!!

First up, I know a lot of you want pictures, but I haven’t been taking my camera around with me, and my room is still an absolute disaster so I don’t want to show that off… haha.  Pictures will come soon!

So far, everything has been good!  I have no complaints at the moment. :)  My accommodations were basically all taken care of when I arrived.  I have water, electricity, cable, a landline, and internet.  There was a TV and a desk already here when I arrived.  My bed has no sheets on it yet, and its about as hard as a rock, but I’m going to try to sleep on it for a few days and maybe it’ll be better once I get sheets and a blanket.

My first official meal was lunch yesterday, and I had 설렁탕 (suh-lung-tang for you non-koreans) and burned my tongue off… x_x *sigh*  And it was super awkward when I walked into the restaurant…  I was sorta expecting to be seated at a table, like they do back home, but that didn’t happen.  So I was just kinda standing there, looking at the employees of the restaurant (because they were the only people there at the time) and I wasn’t really sure what to do…  It was pretty funny looking back on it, but man, I was so uncomfortable haha.

After lunch I took a walk around the block and looked through the stores and the different malls and such.  I honestly didn’t look very hard, but I realized just how hard it was going to be to find all of the things that I need or might need in the future on my own…  I have yet to get some money exchanged too, so I’m not really sure what’s going to go on with that.  I also need to get my resident card thing, so that I can get a cell phone and probably a bank account too.  So much to do…

Also, I went to my school yesterday to sit in on the classes I am going to be taking over.  I’m starting to get a little excited about all of it, just because I have a lot of random ideas that I may or may not end up implementing.  I’m going to be working with a lot of elementary kids, as well as Jr. High level kids, so I think I’m really going to be able to get a feel for what I’m getting myself into with teaching.  I really hope that I’m going to be able to enjoy my experience teaching here, but we’ll see!

I’m feeling pretty good right now about Korea.  It still feels a little overwhelming that I’m going to be here for a whole year, but for now, everything is new and I’m still adapting so I’m not really homesick or anything.  But I am a little worried that once all of the novelty wears off, I’m going to start missing home a lot…

Well, that’s it for now!  Here goes nothing!

Praise the Lord for He is Good :)