Apologies

It's been a while. A long while. Sorry. I definitely had more time and inclination to blog when I studied at Edae. Now that I'm actually working here my time and energy is sucked up too much for my liking. I'm going to try to post something every weekend or so.
A lot has happened. My job situation has improved drastically. Not only has my school stepped up its game by hiring more assistants and teachers (which it seriously needed), but now that I've gotten past the first few months I've learned enough to become a halfway decent teacher.

So since it's been a million years since I last wrote anything, I'll just give a little bit of storytime about what's been recently goin' on o'er here.
Had a good weekend. Been tired of partying and traveling to Seoul (it's exhausting now that I have to take a 40 min bus ride instead of just living there). Took a weekend for myself, just to stay home and recharge. Exercised, watched some movies, studied some Korean, went for a walk along the stream... nice stuff. While I was on my walk I even ended up having a conversation with someone. There was a woman who started talking to me in English and we ended up having a good conversation about the education system here, and differences between Suji and Seoul, and I learned that the river here actually ends up back at the Han river in Seoul-- I can rent a bike and be in the city in 4 hours. Seems like a good plan for some future weekend!

Well, I'm tired. And I should sleep soon cos I have to get up early- the repair man is coming to fix my air conditioner (not that I need it anymore, the nights are cool these days). The AC started spewing black mildew and I'm prettyyyyyy sure it gave me a cough soooo no AC the past week or so.
Oky doky I'mma post some pics of stuff recently and write some captions up for them later.

Something tells me this song isn't kid-appropriate

The first new update

The cherry blossoms bloomed literally overnight. It was dreary and blah one day and then we had a rainy night and we had cherry blossoms haha! 

Anyway this is my first post since I've arrived in Korea for the second time.  The first time I was here I was a student at Ewha Universiry, and that's what the past posts are about. This time I'm an English teacher in a city called Suji, near Yongin south of Seoul. 

Teaching is stressful in a far different way than learning as a student ever was. Even though I'm only teaching small children, it's a big load on my mind and body. Especially because it's such a new territory for me. 

In the mornings I teach 30 min lessons to classes of either 4-5 year olds on Tuesday/Thursday or 6-7 year olds on mon/wed/fri. Then after those classes are done at 2pm, I go with some of the students to a hakwon, or private acadh for after school lessons. Then I continue teaching kindergarteners from a book until about 4, then have various classes for elementary students. 

It's been pretty tough adjusting to this new schedule. It feels like such a long day. It's surprisingly hard to find easy and attention grabbing material suitable for students who are just past learning how to speak in their own language, let alone english. Also contrary to what my interview and contract led me to believe, there's not a lot of guidance as to what they expect from me and the kids. They've basically put me in front of a class, give me a book and said "go". Not even telling me where they last left off or what they've learned already. But it's worked out so far. And while the other teachers seem a bit oblivious to my plight they're kind and helpful when I ask. Well I won't be teaching forever, even if I do have no idea how I'm going to finish a whole year of this and stay sane haha. 

Anyway the main reason I'm teaching is to give me a good income and stable base while I explore other job options abroad. I've done some searching already and I'd like to go to some places like museums and universities to talk to people there. I'm also continuing korean lessons and I'm in the process of getting classes set up. Becoming fluent in korean will help. Even becoming a translator or proofreader would be a good job. 

Well I guess this post was mostly complaining but I can go over positives in another post. Here's the photos I took from the time I left the usa until now. 

I needed this after last week ughhh 

typical lunch at the school (yummyyyy)

Visited Ewha area last weekend :)

Ewha music performers came out and played on the street!

Taro smoothie is delicoussss and pastel purple <3

my indoor slippers for the school

sweet potato and cheese tonkatsu (pork cutlet) pan fried at home~ It's delicous

red bean filled bun

lunch last weekend- red bean bun and strawberry smootie

This is where I live! Im the lower left apartment :) So convenient to live above a bakery

Stream right outside the apartment

Fresca Pizza~ Basically salad on pita bread haha you just fold it and eat it and its amazing

sculpture at Narita Airport 

Narita Nikko Hotel lobby

view of restaurant at Nikko Hotel in Japan

More garden at Nikko Hotel Japan

Rock garden (while I waited for my room after the flight delay)