Hello again, friends and family. I am (still) exhausted ;) but wanted to at least upload some more photos and babble for a few paragraphs...

This Saturday was Graduation Day for the preschoolers so we watched hours of skits and songs performed by adorable 6, 7 and 8 year-olds. Sunday was move-in day at the apartment building up the street from the hotel we've been staying in since our arrival a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow (Monday) is a national holiday - Independence Movement Day, celebrating Korea's independence from Japan. I'll be spending the day cleaning and organizing my tiny but cozy apartment. I also plan to venture out into Seoul. I've hardly had time to do much sight-seeing so I'm looking forward to some touristy activities in the afternoon.

I really lucked out with this job. Though the hours are long and vacation time is limited, the school is great, the current teachers are so nice and helpful and my fellow 'newbies' are really, really nice people. I think we're going to have a lot of fun together over the next 11-ish months.

The first day of class is Wednesday. I found out I'll be teaching 7 year-olds! They're cute kids but, as I learned while observing a class this week, they can be little punks if you're not careful. I am a little nervous about it all. I think I will want to be nice and sweet to the kids but I've gotten the same advice over and over again from friends that have teaching experience: be strict at first, love them later...because if you don't, they'll walk all over you. Or something like that. So when my kids start to test boundaries and try to figure out whether 'Kelly Teacher' really will send them to the front desk if they misbehave...oh, yes, my new little friends. Kelly Teacher will send you ALL to the front desk if you don't sit nicely and work on your lessons. ;) Yikes....stay tuned.

This got long. I need sleep. Please enjoy a few photos from this week. I hope to share some pictures from my day of tourism in Seoul in the next post. Thanks again for following the blog and thanks for the comments! Hope all is well in MN/DC/LA/TX/Paris/wherever the heck y'all are living these days.

Nighty night!

Kelly



Some preschoolers performing a Lion King skit. :)


Some of the 'newbies', the next class of teachers, all coming from North America. We went out on the town Saturday night to bid farewell to outgoing teachers.


Mike, a fellow Minnesotan, shooting some hoops at an arcade in Hyewah.

Looks so much like Magic! The likeness is unreal....what?