Hmmm what's happened in the last month... not a whole lot. I was crazy busy with school, and finally wrote my two exams on April 20th. It's amazing how you can spend a week thinking about studying but not actually getting much done. I slept a maximum of 4 hours a night the week leading up to the exams, and only about 45 minutes the night before I wrote. Somehow I made it through the week! Lots of coffee and being extra silly with the kids helped a lot. One exam went well and one was not so great. They were both multiple choice (which I don't usually do well on because I over-think the questions), so it could go either way.
I had a mini heart attack at school the other day. I checked my marks online, and my career counselling mark was a C- (this was the exam that I didn't do so well on). Seeing as I went into the exam with an A+ I was completely taken by surprise and pretty upset... to the point where I started to cry! Oh Ashley. But, a C- in a course would probably keep me out of the grad program I want to get into. So Wennie got Jin (our counsellor) to take over my class for a few minutes while I went to the bathroom and pulled myself together. The kids were so cute, a couple of them saw me crying and asked if I was ok when I got back.
Anyway, turns out that the prof hasn't received my exam yet but had to post my mark. So I guess the good news is that I get a C- in the course no matter what! I'm still a little nervous though, and have been checking online every day to see if the mark has been updated yet.
The weekend of my exams I didn't do much except for sleep and go out for some drinks with a group of teachers. It was so nice to not have to worry about studying! A whole weekend to do nothing... imagine that. I spent most of it sleeping just because I could!!
Teacher's night out:
The next weekend one of the teachers had a big party at his place, so it was great to meet a bunch of new people. I actually met an awesome girl from Ottawa (she went to Lisgar), such a small world! We went out after the party, and it was a bit of a crazy night. Got home at 7am (the clubs here are open until 6)... made me realize that I don't at all miss partying all night and sleeping the days away. There's too much to do here, and the weather is finally nice. But, overall it was a great night with some great people.
Tuesday we had a day off, so a group of us went to the Korean War Museum in Seoul. My first trip to do something other than visit a mall or a bar!! So exciting. Well it wasn't really a trip, the museum was only about an hour by bus. It was amazing. I didn't know much about the history of Korean, so I learned a lot. Pretty powerful to learn about the history of war in a country where tension still exists between the North and the South, and two years of military service is still mandatory. It's not unusual to see soldiers walking around Seoul, or even Bundang (my small suburb), with their rifles over their shoulders.
After the museum we went to an Irish Pub owned by a Westerner where I had the best fish and chips I've had since White Rock. Mmmmm! My mouth is watering a bit right now just thinking about it. When you're used to eating kimbop (kind of like sushi, but without the fish) and noodles every day the fish and chips were a treat! I should have taken a picture... next time I will.
School is going well. I'm starting to feel the frustrations of working as a teacher here. The kids all moved up a level last month, and in some of the classes there's a huge difference in the difficulty of the material. It's a big jump for them, and some of the kids are really frustrated, which makes me frustrated. There's not much we can do if mom wants her child in a certain level, so you just have to make the best of it. It also doesn't help that some of the tests are REALLY hard. It takes me almost as long to write the senior vocabulary tests as it does for the kids to write them, and even then I'm not sure I have the right answers. There are usually lots of mistakes too, seeing as it's Koreans who have written the tests. So the kids study but don't do well, then the parents complain, then I'm asked why they're not doing well, and some of the blame is on me... it's a never-ending circle. So I have to remind myself to just go to work, do my job, have some fun with the kids and not worry about the rest. Or I'll drive myself crazy. I knew all this coming in though, so that helps a bit.
Here are some pictures from the museum:
I think that's it for now. We're going to a DJ Festival this weekend in Seoul, so it should be fun!!
Miss you all
Love
Ashley
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