HOME AND BACK AGAIN!

This has been so busy and very hard for me. I went to Wisconsin last Thursday night, that  is a story of it's own. I went home to be in one of my best friend's weddings and it was worth the cost and exhaustion that followed.
   The trip started with my plane having a fuel leek and everyone had to sit on the plane for an hour and half while they fixed it. We got to San Francisco late and I, along with everyone else, had to run to their connecting flights. Luckily I made my flight and the next flight was the same way. I had to run through the Chicago airport and got to my flight to Milwaukee just as they were closing the doors. I must have looked tired and desperate because the workers opened the door and told me that I almost missed the plane. I made it safely to Milwaukee and Francis was there waiting for me which was so nice! 

The beautiful bride!

Rachael, the bride, and I.

Francis and I at the wedding.

  The next day I got to have breakfast with my family and tell them about some of the adventures I've had such as hiking, dinner with all of the teachers and living in Korea in general. My sister-in-law and niece even got to come and see me. I miss my family a lot so it was very good to see everyone.  Francis and I meet with our real estate agent and looked at some houses he liked. Then we drove to the rehearsal and had a wonderful time with our friends. The wedding was beautiful and I had a wonderful time. I am so glad that I went!
  I left Wisconsin early Sunday morning and got into Seoul on Monday night at about 9pm. I didn't get back to my room at CJ House until 11:30pm, which made for a rough Tuesday morning.  I have to say that getting on a plane to come back was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I know it would be hard, but didn't expect it to be as hard at it was.
 So I started the work week very tired, but Tuesday went surprisingly well. I taught the 3rd graders and 1st graders. This was the first time that I have had a class that I have taught in the past. It was nice to be able to review the rules and what we talked about the last time I was in their classroom. The students were all able to tell me the rules and what we had done the previous class. It made me feel like I was really teaching them something. I expanded the map lesson with the 3rd graders, which went very well. We worked on the sentences "Where am I?" and "I am in the____." I gave them clues and they had to guess where I was.  I played a game with the students and they loved guessing where I was. I wish that I could have done my lesson with both 3rd grade classes but because we had off on Monday I didn't get to have class with the other 3rd grade class.
  The 1st grade class went okay, I wouldn't say it went well, but it didn't go bad. I taught the students about families. The students did a very good just with the concept, but the activities I planned were a little bit to hard for the group of students I had on Tuesday. I was having students think about what they do with their families. Then they were to draw pictures in a mini book of those items.  The teacher told me that she thought that it was to difficult for the students and that maybe I could just have them draw one picture of something they do with their family. Taking that into consideration, I changed my lesson for the next day. Instead of making a book, I decided to have the students just draw a picture of their families and label the people they have in their family. It worked much better and the students seemed excited to show me their families.
  I also had lots of firsts this week. I had my first after school program with the 3rd graders and it was so much fun! I am teaching them about stories and discussing them. The students are so sweet and really want to be there. I have to plan something to do for next week and it has to be more difficult because this week was to easy for them.  I think I am going to start reading a chapter book and then have them try to retell the story in English.
  The Talk, Talk Magic Shop was also something that I got to help with this week and will be helping with every Wednesday and Friday for the rest of my time here in Korea. It is a little shop that the students get practice speaking English in. Students earn special money  to spend in this store and then get to pick out little items such as pencil cases, purses, baseballs, notebooks, etc. The students have to speak English to the volunteers who help run the store and are having fun will doing it. I loved being in the shop and talking with the students some of them were shy, but they all talked to me.

   Overall this weeks teaching went well, but I noticed that all the girls are much more down than we have been. After talking with most of the girls it seems like everyone is really missing home and is sick of everything here. I don't me to be a downer, but I know how they all feel. It seems like the homesickness has hit all of us at the same.  We are all talking about what we are going to do when we get home and what we will eat first...it's kind of funny. Falyn and I have received emails and a formal letter from CJ House about our room not being paid for yet and the letter said that if we didn't pay by Oct 9th, which is Sunday, then our room could be given to someone else. It just makes us a little worried, but I talked to our TA about it and she said not to worry about it. I hope she's right. 
  There is a big firework festival today, Saturday, I got all the way there and then got sick! I have been feeling sick a lot lately and it's not fun. I went to the fireworks with Erin and Falyn, but I had to leave because I wasn't feeling good and I didn't want to ruin it for them. I told them to take lots of pictures and I hope to be feeling better tomorrow.
 It's been a good week, but I think we all need to do something to make us feel more at home here. Now just to think of something to do.