The Year of the Ram

At long last, spring is coming to Korea.  The air smells fresher, some tiny buds are appearing on trees, and even my drafty apartment doesn't seem to need layers of bubble wrap on the windows or frequent use of the boiler.  (Thankfully!  I've been shelling out ₩100,000 every month for heat!).

March 2nd marked the beginning of the new school year.  As expected, my schedule is completely different from last year's.  Rather than teaching only two-thirds of the student population, I now teach every student in the school.  Unlike last year, I no longer have to make every lesson from scratch because I am in charge of teaching the Speaking/Listening curriculum from the standard textbook.  Moreover, instead of teaching seven hours of after school classes each week, I now only teach a special class on Thursdays.  I was pleasantly surprised when informed that the class I'm teaching is a writing class and, after teaching it once already, I love it!

When Jun and I visited Seoul for the Lunar New Year, I went with my friends Gus and Helen to a sheep cafe.  What's a sheep cafe?  It's exactly how it sounds: a cafe with sheep.  Like a glorified petting zoo with espresso.

I have about a dozen of Daun Middle School's brightest English students on my class roster, including three surprisingly advanced first grade girls.  Since I'd only known about the existence of this class for a few days prior, I was a bit nervous before our first session.  Nerves quickly receded, though, once I began our first class by reading several Aesop's fables and discussing the definition of a moral.  The students were extremely receptive.  We watched the silent Disney short film of The Ugly Duckling; I wanted my students to be receptive to narrative without worrying about language.  Each student wrote their own version of the story we had watched on the screen.  I was excited to gauge their writing abilities and even more curious to discover the creativity we'd be working with this year.

One of my first graders, Ivy, wrote two stories: a fable about a solitary rose among tulips, and a version of The Ugly Ducking from the ambivalent and complex perspective of the mother duck.  (Keep in mind, I had no influence on these stories.  I just gave them the paper and told them to write).  To say I was impressed is an understatement.  I'm proud.

In other news, I've realized that I want to get out more; Kaela moved back to Minnesota and Soo's schedule keeps her too busy to meet regularly.  It's been seven months since I moved to Korea and the excuse of "settling in" no longer really applies to me.  (I now own a vacuum cleaner and a blender, both of which I love beyond explanation.  It's that's not settled in, I don't know what is).  At any rate, I joined a local writers group which meets every other week.  I'd forgotten how much I love to write and how much I love sharing and talking about writing with like-minded people.  Even better, Jun and I can attend the meetings together and encourage each other's writing during the week.  (I would be lying if I said I didn't need reminders to stay on task).

Maybe it's spring fever, but I feel like I'm bursting with energy and productivity.  After a long, cold winter, this feeling is incredible.  Life is good!