My Students

I think I am in heaven. The last week and a half I have been working with ten students at a winter camp. I themed the Winter Camp "The English Camp Olympics" (because the winter olympics are coming up), and I taught them about the olympics, and each day we cover a different English speaking country that participates in the Olympics. Also, we play at least one game/day and I award gold/silver/bronze medals to the first/second/third place teams. Each team works together for the whole two weeks as a "country." On the first day, each team had to create a country, and a flag that represented their country. My four countries are: Yu Island, JaeSoHye, Kite (both of the girls in this team have "yeon" in their name, and yeon is korean for the word kite), and Big Bang & the Chocolate Factory. The girls had to create governments and a capital city, a motto, and tell how many people lived there.

My 10 winter camp students are easily the most wonderful and easy to work with students in the WHOLE WORLD. Today, instead of playing the games I had planned, or doing the lesson on New Zealand that I had planned, one student, Yujin said to me, "Allison, today, can we just talk. I like talking with you. It's very fun."

So we talked. For two hours. Me and 10 of my students spent the whole morning just talking. It was amazing. If only all my days could be like this I think I'd never leave this country ever. These girls actually want to learn English. They really really want to learn. It blows my mind.

Then, at the end of class, Yujin said to me, "Teacher, when you go home, we walk together. Come get me at library." So when I was ready to go home, I walked downstairs to the library and got Yujin and Hee-Jin, and we walked together down the street, and they told me about the people that are on the won bills.

I love these ten girls more than I think most of you can understand. They make me so incredibly happy, and all I can ever hope for them is the most success in the world. I will take pictures of my class tomorrow or Friday and I will post them. I think I will cry when I leave or when they graduate, whichever comes first.

I love being a teacher. I love it so so very much.

Cold Cold Night

Today is freaking freezing. This week shows highs in the 20s. Huzzah, winter is here! However, Christmas predictions show now snow. In fact, prediction looks like highs in the balmy 40s!

Thomas is coming here soooooon! I cannot wait! He gets in on the evening of December 30th, which is my last day of classes. Then we shall explore Incheon (blah) for a day. By that I mean, we will go to Chinatown and eat jjajjangmyeon and sweet and sour pork and maybe see the peru, and then we'll go to Seoul for New Year's. Shooting for an all-night, which is very plausible, if not likely. Then Dongdaemun, cheongyecheon, maybe that one palace that I haven't been to yet near city hall. Maybe Myeongdong. 63 building. Busan? Who really knows?

I'm making Christmas cards for my coworkers right now. Making a snowman card, a snowflake card, a santa card, and one more. Maybe a Christmas present? I need a good idea. I have glitter glue to use, which is quite exciting. Back into craft mode, which is a relief. Things have been really crazy lately, so it's nice to be able to take a break. I gotta find wrapping paper and then a white elephant gift before Saturday so I can go to the Christmas party on Saturday AND so I can mail my Christmas gifts next week sometime. God. Working full time (at a place that isn't the mall) really impedes my ability to get Christmas gifts.

I didn't teach any classes for the last two days, which is good because I've finally had a break. I got some planning done for a teacher class I'm doing over winter break (which is good because LPs are due on the 17th) and I came up with some ideas for the camp at the boys school. Still no idea what I'll do for the girls, but that's easy enough I only have 4 hours to plan. And two hours are supposed to pretty much just be games, so that'll be easy enough, I suppose. For the boys camp, it'll be about 20 hours, which is a lot more demanding. Unfortunately I've received no guidance or information regarding the boys camp, so idk what the hell is going on with that.