Resolution: I will blog at least twice a month.

Hello everyone!

Long time, no writing - sorry! I just got very caught up with school & my extracurricular activities (a lot of binge drinking & money spending). But, as I'm using November as a month to restore my health, sanity, and checkbook, I thought I'd also use it as a month to catch up on communication.

My life is progressing quite splendidly! I feel completely settled into Korean life and I'm 80% sure I'll end up staying here for at least another year. Some things still irk me almost daily (such as not having hot water unless I physically go push the buttons to turn it on) and I don't think I'll ever get use to being stared at. However, that is part of life & I've just learned to accept the good parts of life in Korea with the bad.

Teaching is going really well, I think I'm getting better and better everyday. Either that or I'm just getting faster at lesson planning & better at improvising things at the last minute. I've also become a master of simplifying my language, I can now speak in the most basic of terms while simultaneously miming the most bizarre actions. At this point I would pass mime school with flying colors.

I still don't really care for teaching at the Middle School, but I think that is due to my coteachers/subject matters more than the students. The Middle School is very strict about having me stick to the book's curriculum, I basically spend my classes , repeating phrases, trying to get the students to create their own sentences, and checking pronunciation. It is just repetitive & I don't feel like I'm able to use my creative side during these days. I try to bring a litte bit of fun into the classes as I can only imagine how bored the kids are.

On the flip side, I love being at the High School, it gives me an amazing rush to stand up in front of those kids. You can actually see the enjoyment on their faces & they cheer for me when I walk into the room, it is a really great feeling. The High School has given me free reign over whatever I want to do. They basically told me as long as the kids are speaking in class & enjoying themselves they don't care what I do, so I'm able to use my creative side a little.

That is all for now, I promise to the few of you that actually read this that I will do it at least twice per month.