A Day in the life. . .

Okay, my apologies, it's been way too long since I've updated this blog. I will lose all my followers. . .

Did go to another Jjimjilbong the next weekend--a different one, this one close to the shuttle stop and equally nice. Had some really hard-pressure jets that were good for massage in the right places (tho they looked like they might just kill you if you got under them!)

This week we had a very light schedule--only three adult groups on campus (i.e. NO children!). I had to teach one 90-minute class on Monday afternoon, then two on Tuesday morning--then I was done for the week. Not a bad deal, huh? I absolutely LOVED teaching the adults, and hope to be able to do more of that whenever we get them on campus.

Some of you have asked questions regarding my day, so let me give you a typical day in the life of Connie in Korea. . .

Breakfast is from 8:00 - 9:00, so I usually get up pretty early, meditate, then either walk "the hill" (a 45-55 minute, sweat-inducing task) or go to the gym to pump some iron and walk the treadmill (in air-conditioned comfort, where I still manage to sweat!). A shower, sometimes a quick call from Anna to catch up on her day, breakfast, then I'm ready to teach my first class. If my schedule is full I teach from 9:00 to 10:30, 10:45 to 12:15, lunch, then two more classes, 2:00-3:30, and 3:45-5:15. Dinner starts at 5:30.

The Village has a variety of programs. In the summer when the kids are out of regular school, we get kids for "Intensives", which means they stay for a minimum of 2 weeks, some for 3 weeks, and some for a total of 4 weeks. The teachers who are teaching "intensives" plan to teach the same groups of kids for about (6) 90-minute lessons, over the course of the four weeks. Otherwise we only see the kids for a 90 minute period and they're on to other classes, never to be seen by the same teacher twice.

When I got here, they were just starting the intensives, so I was not put on the rotation for those. Which meant that I got to teach the other groups that were coming and going. They have a 5-day/4-night program, a 4-day/3-night program, a 3-day/2-night program, a 2-day/1-night program, and even a one-day "field trip" program. I know, confusing, huh? At one point at the height of the intensives, we probably had 200 kids on campus at one time. And in addition, we were teaching a group of local elementary school teachers as well, which added another 50 people or so to the pool. It was hectic! So this week is a nice reprieve.

Mostly I've been teaching what they call the "situationals"--classes like "grocery store", "airport", "video", "police", "hospital", "pet store", "gift shop", the list goes on and on. Most of these are held in separate rooms that have been constructed to resemble the actual "situation". For example, the grocery store has real food (non-perishables, and some not-so-non), paper products, plastic fruit, eggs, vegetables and meat/fish/chicken. The kids can pretend they are going shopping and have all the "realia" they could ever want. It can be fun, but occasionally the kids get a little wild with the stuff.

So, my first assignment was in the grocery store. I prepared my lesson and then, when I realized that some of the kids would have higher levels of English and some would have very low levels of English, I prepared again--and again. But after a few days of teaching the lesson, I felt prepared for any situation, and after a few more, it started to feel pretty routine--and boring. So I asked our "lead coordinator" if I could possibly do something else. I didn't want to be too pushy, so I told him it didn't matter what he gave me, just something different. Well, I guess in hindsight, I should have been more specific. I got "fast-food". Ugh! Now, I AM complaining. I try my best to stick to the curriculum, but end up talking about "healthy" foods most of the time. I had one group that was so "low-level" in their English skills, I really had to punt. At one point, I wrote the word "cat" on the board and asked the students to read it. They couldn't, so I drew a picture of a cat. They finally got it, so I tried writing the word "hat" (thinking to keep it simple). The class responded in unison: "dog"!! I actually had trouble convincing them that it was NOT dog. I knew I was in trouble with this group. . .

As I said, I LOVED teaching the adults. But now I'm done with that and next week we'll probably have about 100 kids here again. May God grant me patience. . .

With each group that comes in, there's an opening and closing ceremony. Usually in the gym, where the kids sit on the floor, lined up with the other 10-15 kids in their group. At the opening ceremony (which teachers are requested to attend) someone usually speaks (usually the lead coordinator, but sometimes there is more than one ceremony going on at the same time) and introduces the teachers and the "village guides". Then they are given the rules, take an oath to follow them, have their cell phones confiscated, and then the fun begins. They proceed to go thru the simulated "airport", where they have their "passports" (which actually look like real passports) stamped a million times as they pass through "customs", security, baggage claim, board a "real" plane, pick up their supplies/books, "check-in" to their "hotel", etc. Teachers are expected to "man" these stations. It's quite fun, actually. And the kids enjoy it. I'll try to get some pictures of the "airport"--it's quite realistic. At closing ceremony, the kids gather in the gym again, each of the teachers bid them farewell, they get their cellphones back, a group picture and certificate of completion is given to each one, then they board the buses to go back home.
So that's it for a typical day. If you would like to see a slide show of the campus and the kids, go to my facebook page and click on "Links". I'm actually in one of the slides, toward the end.
The cafeteria food is tolerable--usually enough variety that you can always find something to eat. And they try really hard to please us. Usually there will be Korean dishes and American dishes. Sometimes their attempts at American dishes are laughable at best (like the BLT's with sliced banana and sweet pickle), and inedible at worst. But the Korean dishes are pretty good, except for some of the dried fish. They have gardens out back and so some of the produce is grown right on the property. They are trying to provide us with more fresh fruit, at our request.
Okay, enough for now. I'll try to post some pictures. Coming next--a 4-day trip to Gyeongju.