Have you ever had one of those moments when you forgot to post for a day and then it turned into forgetting to post for two months? Whoops! I've been putting of my 'return to the blog' post for a while mostly out of guilt but also because holy cow I'm so busy. I've been good at blogging in the past, but it's hard to find the time when I feel like I barely have time to sleep, much less to devote a solid hour to sitting down and typing (and then editing, re-typing, re-editing, then re-re-typing) pretty words that eloquently and wittily describe vignettes of my life here in SK. By the way, some life updates:
There's no real particular rhyme or reason as to why I chose today of all days to the blog, but since I'm already here, I might as well take the opportunity to set some goals for myself to work towards. Maybe if I put my intentions out in the open then it might be easier for somebody (myself included) to hold me accountable to them.
So here are my goals for at least the next month:
Maybe (hopefully) I can do a good job of holding myself accountable to these things. In the meantime, I'm going to make a concerted effort to post on this thing at least once or twice a week. I'm hoping that I'll be able to show you around my town in my next post, but I guess we'll see how long that takes to happen -_-
Much love from Ochang,
Haley~~~
- I am teaching at a co-ed (but gender segregated) advanced high school in Ochang, South Korea
- I live with a homestay family that consists of a younger (middle school) sister and a younger (high school) brother. My host mom is relatively young and absolutely amazing and my host dad is in United Arab Emirates working (he's an engineer) until December of 2015, so no, I have not met him and might not ever. That being said, my host family is spectacular and I adore them and there's nobody else I would rather live with! (If y'all ever find this blog and read this, then, 사랑해~~~!)
- I teach just the 1st and 2nd graders of high school, which means I teach the equivalent of the sophomore and junior years of high school. My students Korean ages are 17 and 18, but their US ages are closer to 15/16 and 16/17 because dude, lunar calendars are alive and kickin' in Korea.
- My students are astoundingly brilliant and I'm not just saying that because I'm blinded by their compliments of "Teacher! Beautiful!"- they really are little (and by little I mean most of them are taller than I am) geniuses. They take physics and chemistry and many math classes and many language classes and most have an intermediate level or higher understanding of English. They constantly surprise me and make me feel like I need to get it together with my studying of Korean.
There's no real particular rhyme or reason as to why I chose today of all days to the blog, but since I'm already here, I might as well take the opportunity to set some goals for myself to work towards. Maybe if I put my intentions out in the open then it might be easier for somebody (myself included) to hold me accountable to them.
So here are my goals for at least the next month:
- Study Korean. No, but actually sit down and study. If I say I want to study Korean for one hour a night then I'd better actually do it (without excuses about how exhausted you are, dummy!) because results don't come from wishing, they come from doing. Use those little moments of hatred that you can't join in on the conversation as little sparks that will light the fire under your ass to get going.
- Search out opportunities to connect with people your own age. If I'm going to be frustrated that I haven't really met anyone my own age then I need to make more of an effort to put myself out there and find ways to make it happen. (All of my coteachers are a solid 5 years older and most of 'em are engaged, meaning that their lives are kind of at a different stage than mine. My students are only 4 years younger than me, but my students are my students and so there's kind of a bit of a wall there as far as being friends are). Nobody is going to flock to me and beg me to be their friend- that's ludicrous. Try to find things to get involved in. Be active when it comes to doing social things. Don't slip into the comforts of your bedroom and K-dramas to bide your time.
- Learn to shower for shorter periods of time. A shower is a time for showering, not day dreaming.
Maybe (hopefully) I can do a good job of holding myself accountable to these things. In the meantime, I'm going to make a concerted effort to post on this thing at least once or twice a week. I'm hoping that I'll be able to show you around my town in my next post, but I guess we'll see how long that takes to happen -_-
Much love from Ochang,
Haley~~~
Korean Culture Corner
This song is by a rapper called San E who seems to be popping up in all of my host fam's music recently, so I looked him up and came to this video. The song isn't particularly hard to figure out, but I'm really proud because it's one of the first songs that I've come to understand without using subtitles. Yes, the song is repetitive and yes a fair bit of it is in English, but let me take my victories where I find them! (Plus the song is ridiculously catchy, so there's that.) Enjoy!