Well now, I have been away from my blog for a little while.
I have finally reached a point in my life out here that I have simply become content. I have become used to the food and whether I am enjoying it or not I am not sure but it os certainly what I expect. For instance finding octopus in my soup id no longer a problem, in fact I almost look forward to it. It's not just the food though, I am becoming somewhat more accepting of the culture. I think I would attribute this new found peace in Korea to the fact that I am soon to leave the country. One of my friends sugested that i may have entered the third state. The first being excitement of the new. The second state, where you feel out of place. Finally the third is acceptance. However the way emotions play out is quite that cut and dry. There are many peaks and troughs in a person's time working abroad. For most people in one year the would be a peal when one first arrives, which then tapers down into a trough at about the six month mark and then in the last couple of months you reach another peak, just in time for re-signing. I found this was not really the case for myself.
I had a peak when I arrives, just like everyody else, however I troughed after my NZ experience and then I pretty much flatlined up until this last month. Not a great looking chart, but I have been able to survive the year and finally I am being able to enjoy my last month. It's funny though. I can feel the tug of staying here for longer. But I know that on whole I do not want to stay here for another year (consecutively at least). I would in the future consider returning to Korea were I looking for work abroad again. However, were I to come back to Korea, I would have to work in a city.
Outside of my feeling for the country as a whole I have been working as normal and I continue to enjoy my job. I have been significantly enjoying my lessons with the 6th grade because I have seen the students become much more confident in the last year. Both in their attempts to speak English but also as peoplke generally. They are by far my favourite class to teach.
This last week, I finally finished the game I have been playing with the 5th and 6th grade. Each day for the last 2 months I have been playing a 5 minute game at the start of each class. The students were in two teams and they had to come up with as many words beginning with the letter of the day. I promised the winning team some sort of prize. This week we had the prizes. The 5th grade did not put all that much effort into it, therefore they were only rewarded with a cookie each. The 6th grade on the other hand had tried properly. Therefore they were rewarded with a party: food and watching Dr. Who. Next week we will get back to normal and I will speed up the lessons a little, just so that we are ahead of time. I need to make sure that the students have a couple of lessons prior to their test to revise. This will be the final test, for most of the school it has some inportance, but to the 6th graders it actually holds significant importance. The result of this test could have ramifications upon which middle school they can attend. However due to the area in which the school is and the size of the school it is near certain that all of my students will go the same, local middle school regardless of their results.
Well that's about all there is for now.
