A Day in the Life...and other notes

Here is a day in my life!

Wake up between 6 and 6:30am --Mountains in the not-so-far distance...this is the view from my bedroom window:

I shower and get ready, and then enjoy breakfast with the host-fam. Breakfast is normally a combination of cereal, pancakes, eggs, fruit or toast, and rice, kimchi, seaweed soup, fish, or some other meat (spam, pork, or sometimes beef). Breakfast is my most eclectic meal of the day to be sure!

I am at school from 7:50am-4pm Mon-Wed and 7:50-2pm Thurs/Friday! I spend most of my time in the teachers' giant office:

My desk & computer are on the far left in the corner. The chair pictured here is in front of my Co-T's desk (next to mine). Most of the teachers sit in rows like this.

...or when not in the teachers' office I am in my classroom. It is a really great place and the English teachers have their own private office in the back (which I don't often go into because I feel like a hermit when I hang around the English room by myself for half the day).:

 Facing the Front of the room 

- Two large-screens hooked up to the teacher's computer so I can use PPT

-Each cluster of tables have monitors that I can control (on/off) from the front of the room

 Face the back of my room:

-Note the door on the left leading to the private office for English teachers

-I have no more than 30 students per class (6 students/table)

There are often hours of down time...it's no wonder the other teachers are at school past 6pm...During the lunch hour I try to hang out with the students. There are a few teachers who coach basketball or other sports for the students during this time.

One high-light of the day is my ride home every day. Not the destination, so much as the ride. I clamber up into this old truck and bounce my way back to my apartment while attempting to hold a conversation in Korean with the office staff who kindly drives me. We see each other everyday and have no idea what to say. It is a lot of fun despite the awkward situation. I cannot help but just laugh some days! Here is the infamous truck and my driver:

I generally rest for a little while after getting back by watching DVDs, napping, reading/writing, or just thinking...I try to get to the gym at least by 5pm though. After the gym/health club, this week I started going to the TaeKwonDo gym to play my horn with the gym master! It is a lot of fun. I finally found my musical outlet in the most random of places. Here's the story: As I was standing in front of the health club last Friday I suddenly heard a trumpet being played. I of course was determined to track down the source of the music and upon further investigation I wound up standing in front of this TaeKwonDo gym. I peeked in the door and saw a room full of 12-year-old kids doing TaeKwonDo (kicking, punching...) AND the gym master --Mr. Sawl -- playing a trumpet. Long story short, this past Monday he and I started practicing together. I'm on horn and he's on trumpet/guitar/he sings. Also, he gave me a Nike brand TaeKwonDo uniform and started asking me to join in during part of the class! I have started a little archery, jump kicking, and sparring. Whew! It's great.
Since dinner is usually around 6:30pm this week I missed eating with the host family in order to spend time at the TKD gym. It isn't great missing out on that time with the h-fam, but nonetheless I am enjoying myself. The TKD teacher has really taken me under his wing.

A few weeks back I tried my hand at cooking and made spaghetti for the host family! I attempted to find the closest thing to Italian Sausage as I could and had to settle for pork-pepper sausage. It actually worked out well! I also made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. Y.U.M.

At some point in the evening I start to prep for school, answer emails, etc....I generally sleep after midnight o...this should change, because it's been getting pretty tiring.


Well....That's a day in the life of "Mr. C" (as my students call me)!!!

More things you don't want to miss out on:

(1) Hanging out friends in Jeonju city. It is ~30mins away from JeongEup City (where I live)

-This was taken at TGI Fridays!! I was so happy...everything on the menu wasssss.....mouth-watering.

-This is Mr. Lee, one of the math teachers at my H.S.

 More Friends! (MiHyang, Micah, and I)

 (2) Student Class Project:
-Part ONE: "Make your own Dream High School!"
-Part TWO: Vote to decide "The Best Dream School"

There were many great ideas, such as "Astronomy High School" that starts at 8pm and ends at 4am to ensure optimal star gazing time; the menu includes "Space food" and not to forget Kimchi as well :) ....but then of course I am at an ALL BOYS high school. So there were other ideas too...like this. I thought you would enjoy taking a gander:

-We voted in class for the "best school" ...this one won for this class

During the voting process slips of paper were used as ballots. While tallying I found this very nice message written to me by a student...I still am not exactly sure who wrote it. But...I saved the message :)