The Weekend Hath Arrived!

Though the week started rather dismally, the week took a turn for the best on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was my most successful day yet in the classroom. I introduced skits to my classes and the students were really into the idea. Since I am the new teacher, foreign and this is an ALL BOYS HIGH SCHOOL, a Korean teacher (who teaches English) will sometimes sit in on my classes to see how the students are behaving. Later in the day he told me how impressed he was with my teaching methods -- I did not even know I have a "method," so I felt very grateful that he shared his thoughts with me about the class. Now if I could only emulate the energy level and excitement "again...and again and again" (there is some "K-Pop," Korean Pop music, for you to CLICK ON & check out)! One of the key factors that helped with the flow of the class was my discipline system --Mom, thanks for your thoughts on this! It's great when everyone is learning AND having fun (the students and me!).

Now though, it's Friday night, dinner is over, my host family is at church, and I am in my room with the windows open, fan blowing, music on...*Le sigh* ...peace. of. mind.

Oh! Two awesome, 'non-classroom' things happened this week at school:

(1) I met the high school biology teacher. He seemed uncomfortable when I sat in on his class though...so that may not happen again :( ......What?  A socially awkward science teacher...? Who would have thought? As a science geek myself, I take the liberty to facetiously say that, "Yes, there are aplenty awkward science-goers out there."

(2) I met the high school music teacher! He is a little more social than the bio teacher. I came out of my first morning class today and heard singing...at first I was confused, and then I got REALLY excited!! I was running around the school with my backpack on, laptop bag, and a big accordion binder in hand desperately trying to find the music room. It was quite the scene! It suddenly occured to me though, after I found the room, that I could not just burst into the room -- as much as I wanted to do just that. Later in the day I wandered back to the room when the students were not in the room, and had a conversation about music in broken Korean and English. As it turns out, I now have a room in which to practice my horn! This is a big deal. It cost about $200 to ship my horn to Korea and it has been so hard to find a place to practice. In short, "Woohoo!" for Mr. Lee (the music teacher).

Quick update on the news from this end of the world. There was a typhoon that hit East Asia this week. In my town it was nothing more than a big summer rain storm, wind, and a touch of lighting and thunder here and there. I guess in Seoul though, some random accidents happened that killed a three people (tree limbs and electricity): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11161376
The biggest negative impact for me was not getting to see the Seoul National Orchestra -- due to the storm they were not able to come to my city's concert hall. So, my Thursday night plans with Jason and Sera (host parents) were sadly cancelled last-minute.

I have not taken a lot of photos recently, but here are some shots of the house I live in:

Apartment, 9th Floor

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My Bedroom (Bed, Closet, Desk, book shelf)

Living Room

The Kitchen (note the Three Refrigerators: 1 Regular, 2 Kimchi Refrigerator + Fruit, and 3 Random stuff)

Laundry Room

 (It has a washer and that's about it -- I dry my clothes on a rack in my room or take work clothes to the dry cleaners conveniently located next to my apartment building -I can see it from my bedroom window)

The Bidet, with heated seats and an auto-closing lid!

Well, that's my home, annnd, that's all for now :)

Have a great weekend!!

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