Well, I am starting to feel more at home. The signs are becoming more familiar, but I still don't understand what I am reading. I am also finally in a place to be able to learn Korean at a more ready pace, but still difficult as I don't have a teacher demanding I learn certain things by a date. That little shove we all need. I have found a couple of friends that I hang out with very often, but it will change because one needs to go off to school, sad, but good. I still love it here and more important I love my job, but there is one thing I don't love and that is the cold.
It was warm for a couple day and I was starting to think to get my spring pants out, but noooo, the winter had to sneak back in. today it is 28 F and it is cold in my apartment. I bought a new jacket to make the pain of cold less, lol.
As for my students they are enjoying my classes more and more. Yesterday we got messy because we were making puppets, the first step anyways. We will also start playing games once their vocabulary is up. I love my students and my employer is really enjoying the outcome of their speaking ability. I guess that is it for now... love you all ^~^
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
God is Awesome
I thought it was about time to put some new news up. Life here in Korea has finally settled down to a normal flow. This past week was the beginning of a new sememster for my students and have made a lot of changes in my own class to really stretch this minds, but most important is to make learning fun. As for my load of classes, it has deminished about five classes, this is good news. I ama ble to put more quality time into my students and give them the attention that is needed. One diffidulty that I have been having is becoming more familiar with the students names, even after two months still having difficult remember them. I am learning Korean names and have discovcovered that some of the sounds are very difficult for me to say, but the more I practice the more familiar I become with the sounds.
The good news I have saved for last. I have found a church and better yet, some more people who I enjoy being around. One has agreed to try and teach me Korean. I am pretty excited to do so. The church is a big church, but the service I go to is pretty small becasue it is an English speaking service. The funy thing there is only four Americans and the rest are Koreans. I think it is pretty exciting that God provided a church for me in this small town. The funny thing is how God brought me to this church.
It started about three weeks after I arrived here and one of my collegues asked me to go hiking with her. I went and while we were hiking we ran into another American. Now this mountain is about an hour from my small town and to run anyone from my town is very minimal. I found out he lives in Mokpo and works here teaching English. Well we went our seperate ways and had fun. Then about three weeks later I was exploring Mokpo, braving the fear of getting lost. lol I ran into another American and we talked about work and things I may need. We walked to E-Mart, local store, and he showed me some stuff. Then he told me he had to meet a friend and so we went and met his friend. I looked at his friend and we were in shock because it was that guy from the mountain. We were laughing at the irony of it. I ate dinner with them and then they told me about their service. I finally went about two weeks ago during the lunar new year holiday. It was very cool how God brought me to the church.
I think that is it for now. I am doing wonderfully and am in Love with Korea and the people. I also love my Job and students. I am trying to take more pix and will try to post some up. Thanks for all your prayers and support, without it I would be very lonely.
Prayer request that God will continue to provide for me.
I will stay healthy.
I will learn Korean quickly. lol Love you all Cheers Reha
The good news I have saved for last. I have found a church and better yet, some more people who I enjoy being around. One has agreed to try and teach me Korean. I am pretty excited to do so. The church is a big church, but the service I go to is pretty small becasue it is an English speaking service. The funy thing there is only four Americans and the rest are Koreans. I think it is pretty exciting that God provided a church for me in this small town. The funny thing is how God brought me to this church.
It started about three weeks after I arrived here and one of my collegues asked me to go hiking with her. I went and while we were hiking we ran into another American. Now this mountain is about an hour from my small town and to run anyone from my town is very minimal. I found out he lives in Mokpo and works here teaching English. Well we went our seperate ways and had fun. Then about three weeks later I was exploring Mokpo, braving the fear of getting lost. lol I ran into another American and we talked about work and things I may need. We walked to E-Mart, local store, and he showed me some stuff. Then he told me he had to meet a friend and so we went and met his friend. I looked at his friend and we were in shock because it was that guy from the mountain. We were laughing at the irony of it. I ate dinner with them and then they told me about their service. I finally went about two weeks ago during the lunar new year holiday. It was very cool how God brought me to the church.
I think that is it for now. I am doing wonderfully and am in Love with Korea and the people. I also love my Job and students. I am trying to take more pix and will try to post some up. Thanks for all your prayers and support, without it I would be very lonely.
Prayer request that God will continue to provide for me.
I will stay healthy.
I will learn Korean quickly. lol Love you all Cheers Reha
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Overwhelmed
It seems like it was long ago that I wrote anything on this blog, or anything having to do with computers. In these last few weeks it seems time as gotten the best of me and worn me down to almost nothing, but that is when God usually steps in and does something amazing.
I have been working too much for the last couple of months and my body shut down. I became really sick with a 103 F fever and still was working. A couple of weeks before that I had been trying to express the stretching thin of my time to my employer. When I was sick I finally was in a state of mind that I didn't care if I lost my job and told him I couldn't work like this anymore. I was dealing with culture shock, working with twelve different level books, creating 2 different curriculums, and teaching 27 classes each week. By the time the weekend would come I was sleeping twelve hours a day and the rest of my time was dedicated to working and eating.
I started to come into a state of mind numbness and was just doing actions of teaching and started to lose heart causing me to hate and despise teaching. After I talk to my employer he seemed to have heard when I told him that I was thinking of going back to America or work for a different English School in Korea. That got his attention and he finally realized that he was spreading me too thin. My schedule has changed for the month of February and I love it. I only am teaching eighteen to twenty classes each week with nine different level and creating curriculum for one class. My life has just become simplier. Culture shock is wearing off and I am sleeping a normal amount of hours, giving more time to do the everyday thing like cleaning and cooking. lol
This weekend I have a five day holiday, it is the last holiday I recieve until July or August, but have made plans to use some vacation time to enjoy life a little but more. In march I am going to Japan for a weekend to visit my best friend. We are both very excited to see each other and to experience a place I have dreamed about for so long. :)
Now, for those of you who are interested in being penpals to my students here are some instructions. I will have my students write you first so you won't have the difficulty trying to connect and get to know them. I first need to know if you are interested, if so please email me at redvwbug@sbcglobal.net marked penpal in the subject. I will then send you an email about your penpal so you will have some information about them. All my students are very polite and love to learn English. This is the first step to getting connected. Thank you for your interest in me and my students. Through writing and internet we can change the world. Love you all Reha
I have been working too much for the last couple of months and my body shut down. I became really sick with a 103 F fever and still was working. A couple of weeks before that I had been trying to express the stretching thin of my time to my employer. When I was sick I finally was in a state of mind that I didn't care if I lost my job and told him I couldn't work like this anymore. I was dealing with culture shock, working with twelve different level books, creating 2 different curriculums, and teaching 27 classes each week. By the time the weekend would come I was sleeping twelve hours a day and the rest of my time was dedicated to working and eating.
I started to come into a state of mind numbness and was just doing actions of teaching and started to lose heart causing me to hate and despise teaching. After I talk to my employer he seemed to have heard when I told him that I was thinking of going back to America or work for a different English School in Korea. That got his attention and he finally realized that he was spreading me too thin. My schedule has changed for the month of February and I love it. I only am teaching eighteen to twenty classes each week with nine different level and creating curriculum for one class. My life has just become simplier. Culture shock is wearing off and I am sleeping a normal amount of hours, giving more time to do the everyday thing like cleaning and cooking. lol
This weekend I have a five day holiday, it is the last holiday I recieve until July or August, but have made plans to use some vacation time to enjoy life a little but more. In march I am going to Japan for a weekend to visit my best friend. We are both very excited to see each other and to experience a place I have dreamed about for so long. :)
Now, for those of you who are interested in being penpals to my students here are some instructions. I will have my students write you first so you won't have the difficulty trying to connect and get to know them. I first need to know if you are interested, if so please email me at redvwbug@sbcglobal.net marked penpal in the subject. I will then send you an email about your penpal so you will have some information about them. All my students are very polite and love to learn English. This is the first step to getting connected. Thank you for your interest in me and my students. Through writing and internet we can change the world. Love you all Reha
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Celebrating Christmas
Hello all,
Ugh... I just wrote a blog and went to post, but it didn't work, ugh... So I will write a short message again. Christmas for me was simple, it is celbrated tha same as valentines day here. Nothing big, although, we do get the day off work. I celebrated it with my emploeyer here in Korea. We drove to a place called Najang sa, a fameous national park here. It is four hours from Mokpo and after one hour and a half we turned around because the weather was not good for an outing such as the mountains. The good thing about turning around early is that I had the chance to drive, Yipeeeeeee. I was so stoked. Since we didn't go to thte mountain we decided to go to a local history musem, it was ok. At least I didn't spend Christams alone.
As for Christmas Eve, the school does something called English Market. We decorate the office up like a store with items for the students to buy such as penciles, paper, food, and other items that children find interesting. With so many students it gets alittle crowded so they line up out in the hall, very exciting and I find that is the time to really get to know the students on a more personal level. It was fun.
After work my employer took me out for steak, it was good, but not the same without some A1 on it while it is cooked. lol Well that was how I celebrated Christmas. I will post a couple of piuctures from the English Market. Cheers and love all of you... Merry Christmas Everyone, Happy Birthday Jesus....
Prayer requests.
My health has been goos so far, just some migrains, pray that I stay healthy
I am starting to feel lazy and want to slack off, pray that I don't.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Experience culture
Hello all,
It is friday and I am glad it is friday, although I am not as tired as I was last week. Last weekend I had the awesome experience to go hiking at one of the tourists attraction here in the south of South Korea. We went hiking, I can't remember the name as I am told many words in Korean and forget a couple minutes later. lol I will eventually remember more. The hike was a short hike, maybe six miles, but it was almost straight uphill. Very rocky and by the time I was less than a quarter mile aaway from the top we had to turn around and go back as we were losing daylight. The hike was very painful for me because my knees were swelling from the rocks. It was ok, but I had to go slower so that is the main reason why we didn't reaach the top. We will do it next time and I will put up pix.
Work is work, but there have been some improvements. I was frusterated with the curriculum and was afraid to talk to my employer about it. Eventually I was soooo frusterated I talked to him and he seemed to understand. I was so grateful because he tries to improve himself to serve his employees. We discussed changes that I can make that will enhance the curriculum. This was the first week that I had that freedom and it has been a little crazy. I think once I find that happy medium place I will be able to fly and enjoy the culture more. Please pray that I can come up with good lessons that will meet the students needs, also for patience. Some of my first classes are kindergarten and first grade. I like these students, except the language barrier is making it difficult to give instructions, so I seem to lose my patience more. Pray that I learn Korean quickly so that language barrier will be less. Yesterday was a perfect example, I lost my patience and it wasn't a pleasant class. I will keep working on it.
Culture is something here that is completely different than America, but close enough to Japan that I have not experienced culture shock. In fact I love the life style and enjoy the food. There is so much respect that I feel it every where, the only think I am not liking is all the staring. I know and understand that I am different from everyone and at first it was ok, but now I just want to hide. I am tired of people staring. I hope I get use to it.
Well that is it for now, next week being Christmas I am sure I may have to wait until the next Friday. Cheers all and love you Reha
It is friday and I am glad it is friday, although I am not as tired as I was last week. Last weekend I had the awesome experience to go hiking at one of the tourists attraction here in the south of South Korea. We went hiking, I can't remember the name as I am told many words in Korean and forget a couple minutes later. lol I will eventually remember more. The hike was a short hike, maybe six miles, but it was almost straight uphill. Very rocky and by the time I was less than a quarter mile aaway from the top we had to turn around and go back as we were losing daylight. The hike was very painful for me because my knees were swelling from the rocks. It was ok, but I had to go slower so that is the main reason why we didn't reaach the top. We will do it next time and I will put up pix.
Work is work, but there have been some improvements. I was frusterated with the curriculum and was afraid to talk to my employer about it. Eventually I was soooo frusterated I talked to him and he seemed to understand. I was so grateful because he tries to improve himself to serve his employees. We discussed changes that I can make that will enhance the curriculum. This was the first week that I had that freedom and it has been a little crazy. I think once I find that happy medium place I will be able to fly and enjoy the culture more. Please pray that I can come up with good lessons that will meet the students needs, also for patience. Some of my first classes are kindergarten and first grade. I like these students, except the language barrier is making it difficult to give instructions, so I seem to lose my patience more. Pray that I learn Korean quickly so that language barrier will be less. Yesterday was a perfect example, I lost my patience and it wasn't a pleasant class. I will keep working on it.
Culture is something here that is completely different than America, but close enough to Japan that I have not experienced culture shock. In fact I love the life style and enjoy the food. There is so much respect that I feel it every where, the only think I am not liking is all the staring. I know and understand that I am different from everyone and at first it was ok, but now I just want to hide. I am tired of people staring. I hope I get use to it.
Well that is it for now, next week being Christmas I am sure I may have to wait until the next Friday. Cheers all and love you Reha
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Exhausted...
What an exhausting week. I have found that I am busy, but not as busy as I thought in the beginning. Near the end of this week my brain would not let me rest and could not get any sleep as I was thinking about the curriculum here. I was not pleassed with it and was concerned about my ability to teach students well. I have found I like to do my job too well, I am learning to relaax on the lessons, but I still require much from my students. There is deffinantly a language barrier, but it is ok as the students are becoming more use to hearing me speak English. I have found this week more exhausting because it seems all I do is work because I do not get any preperation time, so I end up taking my work home with me. HUH...
Also, my employer keeps asking me to do errands so I do not get to sleep, but these errands need to be done with me as they pertain to my being in Korea. I am super excited that it is Friday because I will be able to rest over the weekend, somewhat. Yesteeeerday I was treated to dinner as a celebration and welcome dinner with all my coworkers and employer. Afterwards we went and did karaoke. It was fun, but since I haad a long day on wednesday and a then a longer day yesterday, it was hard to keep awake. I am feeling the ffects of being overly busy. It seems that everytime I think I will get a small break it is filled with either the desire of people wanting me to hang with them or I spend half of it teaching my employer English. It is almost too much. I am currently a little upset with myself because I should be more patient with my emnployer and try to understand where he is coming from, but I don't think he tries to undeerstand where I am coming from. I think in time I will have some more breathing time. Please pray that I can get some rest and find some breathing room. Everyone here is in awe of my prescence and I am not use to it. I am now seeing the annoyance of popularity in being fameous. Pray that I learn to deal with it and move past that frusteration so I can enjoy my time more. I am sorry that this blog is more serioous, but I have been forwarned that certain things will happen, it seems I am dealing with other things that I was never forwarned. I still love being here... Cheers everyone, I am supre tired and forgot my glasses at home so I need to appologize for any misspelled words. Love you all. Reha
Also, my employer keeps asking me to do errands so I do not get to sleep, but these errands need to be done with me as they pertain to my being in Korea. I am super excited that it is Friday because I will be able to rest over the weekend, somewhat. Yesteeeerday I was treated to dinner as a celebration and welcome dinner with all my coworkers and employer. Afterwards we went and did karaoke. It was fun, but since I haad a long day on wednesday and a then a longer day yesterday, it was hard to keep awake. I am feeling the ffects of being overly busy. It seems that everytime I think I will get a small break it is filled with either the desire of people wanting me to hang with them or I spend half of it teaching my employer English. It is almost too much. I am currently a little upset with myself because I should be more patient with my emnployer and try to understand where he is coming from, but I don't think he tries to undeerstand where I am coming from. I think in time I will have some more breathing time. Please pray that I can get some rest and find some breathing room. Everyone here is in awe of my prescence and I am not use to it. I am now seeing the annoyance of popularity in being fameous. Pray that I learn to deal with it and move past that frusteration so I can enjoy my time more. I am sorry that this blog is more serioous, but I have been forwarned that certain things will happen, it seems I am dealing with other things that I was never forwarned. I still love being here... Cheers everyone, I am supre tired and forgot my glasses at home so I need to appologize for any misspelled words. Love you all. Reha
Friday, December 5, 2008
Getting Use To Routine!!!
Wow!!! I can't believe one week has already gone by. There has been lots to do and not enough time it seems. I work from 2:10 P.M. to 7:20 P.M. I have twelve different lessons to teach and a total of 23 different classes. Some classes I have twice. This past Monday I started my job and was very nervous. Once I started teaching all my training took over and got lost in my teaching, the time flew by quickly. At first the students weren't sure about me teaching them, but after a few classes had me, all the students loved me and couldn't wait to get to my class. I have a few classes that are challenging, but I will be able to meet the challenge once the students get use to me.
My coworkers are fanstatic and treat me very well. I have more classes than any of them because I teach all of their students where they each have three to four classes, the same classes. They too are excited to work with me and often ask me questions about English, whether it be articulation, cutlure, or syntax. There is one coworker that I have grown close to as she lives near me and we take the same bus to and from work. She speaks English well and helps me with my Korean. I love spending time with her. My employer is also good to me. He gets me anything I need and makes sure I eat everyday as I do not get a break like the other teacher. They also realized I love coffee and are always offering me coffee, lol. Today my employer bought me a washing machine and tomorrow will help me buy a cell phone, I am very happy :). He has also invited me over to his house for dinner because last week he had to cancel.
My appartment is getting things that it needs very slowly. My coworker and I have been going to this shopping store called Emart, to get supplies or when I need food. It is less than a five minute walk from my house. Emart is like Costco, except there is no pizza, but has a food court with Mcdonalds and other Korean food places. Very Good to eat. I have not had any trouble eating Korean food, in fact I love it very much. There is a lot of variety and different kinds of food, similiar to America. Things like Mexican and Chinese(surprise, surpise), Tiwanese, Etc... Hey little bro, when you come here you will like some of the food. Some of it is very spicy, while other is very bland. There is something for everyone.
Well, I guess that is it for now. I will do my best to keep this updated, but as I have not found an internet cafe yet and have been checking internet at work or my friends house can be diffcult. There is one thing I do ask, I have been having difficulty with finding things I need to teach, such as markers, stock cards and othere things. Please pray that I can find what I need to do my job well. Also pray for my health as it is now very cold and it seems everyone is getting a cold. I think that is it for now. Love you all and miss you. Please leave me comments, they are encouraging to me. P.S Today was our first snow!!!
My coworkers are fanstatic and treat me very well. I have more classes than any of them because I teach all of their students where they each have three to four classes, the same classes. They too are excited to work with me and often ask me questions about English, whether it be articulation, cutlure, or syntax. There is one coworker that I have grown close to as she lives near me and we take the same bus to and from work. She speaks English well and helps me with my Korean. I love spending time with her. My employer is also good to me. He gets me anything I need and makes sure I eat everyday as I do not get a break like the other teacher. They also realized I love coffee and are always offering me coffee, lol. Today my employer bought me a washing machine and tomorrow will help me buy a cell phone, I am very happy :). He has also invited me over to his house for dinner because last week he had to cancel.
My appartment is getting things that it needs very slowly. My coworker and I have been going to this shopping store called Emart, to get supplies or when I need food. It is less than a five minute walk from my house. Emart is like Costco, except there is no pizza, but has a food court with Mcdonalds and other Korean food places. Very Good to eat. I have not had any trouble eating Korean food, in fact I love it very much. There is a lot of variety and different kinds of food, similiar to America. Things like Mexican and Chinese(surprise, surpise), Tiwanese, Etc... Hey little bro, when you come here you will like some of the food. Some of it is very spicy, while other is very bland. There is something for everyone.
Well, I guess that is it for now. I will do my best to keep this updated, but as I have not found an internet cafe yet and have been checking internet at work or my friends house can be diffcult. There is one thing I do ask, I have been having difficulty with finding things I need to teach, such as markers, stock cards and othere things. Please pray that I can find what I need to do my job well. Also pray for my health as it is now very cold and it seems everyone is getting a cold. I think that is it for now. Love you all and miss you. Please leave me comments, they are encouraging to me. P.S Today was our first snow!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
