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Things are a bit crazy as we canceled my Visa order with a few bumps in the road and trying to get my Passport back so I can leave tomorrow at 6am on a booked flight. But God puts these little road blocks up for reasons. So my mom is being frantic and trying to get my passport as I am okay with the backup plan of changing my flight to leave on Sat. night. Two more days of nothing to do can't kill me too much. And at least I have been to Korea before and kind of know whats going on over there. So at least this didn't happen my first time.
More to post when I receive my passport back.

back.

I am going back to Korea to teach and I am very excited about it. I booked my plane ticket today and started reading a book LCMS sent me about traveling as a missionary!

art

this was created using http://wordle.net and the popular words off of this site.

pretty neat!

Paju Enlish Village

In Korea, August 15 is a National Holiday, for freedom and release from Japanese and any other country rule after the Korean War. There is a government holiday in March I believe, but Aug 15 is to celebrate the people from protesting and the uprising. So we did not have class today but offered a field trip to the students. 39 out or 48 students attended. We traveled to an English Village, 10+ years ago the government set up English Villages to help show the importance of learning English and teach people. It is used for tourism or field trips. You can take classes there and only speak English. The kids had a blast. As I was talking with Ms. Bang, the woman who drove me to the airport directly after the EV, I realized that that is one of the biggest factors in learning a language. Some of the kids really struggle with English, they only speak it in class, not at home, not with friends. Like me learning Spanish- though now I speak it at home or with friends, and I caught my self almost saying phrases to the kids like "ten cuidado" and what not... but at the English Village some of the kids were rather quiet and some really shown with their English. and Ms. Bang has a son in the class and she said she would like him to go to a English country to be fully immersed. Essie and Amanda, two of the assistants, have come to America before and are great at English because they were forced to use it. It makes a huge difference.

watching Ratatouille on the 1.5 hour bus ride there. The kids really got into it and were staring a the screen, I think partially so they could read the Korean subtitles. They all also opened their snacks and several shared with me, even the seaweed bars and fish. .........
first we had to go through Immigration, note- Stonehenge is on the right. This is the British English Village, all the architecture inside too in very European.
At the EV, the girls took a cooking or bear making class and the boys took a robot making class. And then all of them made stress balls... which were used as soccer balls once out of the classroom. Kids don't understand stress I guess. Here are the boys with their robots and the girls with their bears. Karla and I were not allowed in the classrooms, they said no adults allowed for some reason. But we did get to watch a really ridiculous musical about a Pumpkin Hero with them. and then help them in their last class- the stress ball making. A man from Australia and a woman taught that class. It would be fun to work here.

last views of Korea

Ella drawing a picture of me on the board. The circles on the side of my head are my India earrings, which was the only pair I had, so I wore them just about everyday.
Siblings, Seong Jin and JiEun playing a racing game I made up. I say a time, race to the board and draw it on the clock. They really got into it, thankfully!
Sam and SeongJin drawing the time on the board. I played against them and Sam was the only one that beat me.
class 3 in the afternoon, with Essie as my assitant.Class 1 in the morning, with Tambi and Amanda as my assistants.
Class 2, my morning homeroom, with Suji as my assisant. They called her Suji Teacher. and me Teacher.
class 4 my afternoon homeroom, the oldest group of kids and Bruce my assistant.
I tried, floor circle time for teaching and it worked sometimes because it made a different atmosphere. Some kids who had a hard time focusing in their desks, were the first ones finished on the floor. amazing!

Graduation for the kids! They all did wonderful and passed! It was very exciting to see them progress through out the three weeks. Here are a few shots of that.
Euri, my best Class2 Student, she received the most green stickers and got the 'green sticker prize'




my last dinner in Korea. After graduation for the kids, Dr. Roh wanted to treat us and give us a 'graduation' ceremony or a congratulations we're done ceremony and thanks!

It is great watching the Olympics in another country. I have been cheering for the Koreans. It is exciting to see all the shop tvs and restaurant tvs on the Olympics 24-7.