First Week on the Job

Over the past week, I have become more settled into life here and have begun my "Conversation Classes." So far, I have six classes that range from one student in attendance to four students. I meet with them for one hour to discuss a wide-range of topics that the students have selected. Most of them are education majors, but I do have a mix of undergraduate and graduate students. These classes have been really informal but I hope still beneficial for my students as a means to practice English conversation in a relaxed environment.

The weather has been beautiful here. Sunshine almost everyday, who can complain? One of my classes was even outside today! I hear that the temperature is supposed to only get hotter from now on so my already somewhat sweaty 15 minute hikes up the mountain to my office may need to be rethought...

Today I had an interesting and challenging lunch. Every Tuesday and Friday, some of the people from the CTL take me out to lunch (they say to practice English, but I know its because they think that I am alone too much) at a little Asian food restaurant next to campus called Asian Moon. One thing that is a little different about eating out is that usually several dishes are ordered to share with the whole table; today this meant a shared salad and a dish of fried pork on sprouts. Then we each ordered a noodle dish for ourselves. Well long story short, I was the entertainment for the meal because I had to somehow eat the very long noodles using only chopsticks and a spoon. Let me just say that my skills with chopsticks are shaky at best. The graduate student who is kind of in charge of me, Bo-ra, also had long noodles so I tried to mimic her motions to eat them as gracefully as I could. First scoop up the noodles with the chopsticks, set on the spoon, and eat. Well, somehow that was just way too difficult for me and it took me at least 4 times longer to finish my meal. They even took pictures and decided that noodles were a big mistake for lunch because of the level of chopstick proficiency it required. I think next week we are going to the Italian restaurant right next door out of pity. Hopefully there I can prove my competency...

Changing subjects, last weekend was a super awesome weekend! Ms. Ellen, a fresh MACIE graduate, new Korean English teacher and one of the coolest ladies, came to Busan over the weekend! I was so happy to see a familiar face! She met some other English teachers here as well who have been in Korea for varying lengths of time. I joined the group for a day of kayaking, Indian food, fireworks and a girls night out. Since it was raining all day Sunday, we all decided a day of relaxation and catching a movie sounded perfect. We ended up grabbing some cheese popcorn and catching a showing of The Great Gatsby. I think the earlier version of the film was better, but I did enjoy it overall. (They do have American/English movies here but of course there are Korean subtitles on the bottom) It was great seeing Ellen and for me to know that a friend is going through similar things as we both settle into our new lives in Korea. 

As I look forward to a weekend of relaxation, shopping and the beach, I think about my fellow MACIE heading off to Japan. Best of luck Geoff!! Also, my lovely and (I hear) very pregnant sister Leah is expecting her first son with husband Ron any day now! So excited for them but sad that I will not be there to greet him.   Can't wait for you to meet cool Aunt Chelsea little one! 

Love and hugs!

 Wisteria tree path

 Orchestra concert at the temple

 All lit up for the festival!

This was on Na-hyun's plate. She LOVES squid (an 8 year old loves squid!) I did try some of the non-tenticly part but wasn't daring enough to try this part for fear it would crawl back out of my stomach.