[Note: I wrote this the week of Thanksgiving 2014 and have no idea why it was never published since it was a complete post. So here it is August 2015 and I'm posting it now. No need to not share these thoughts and blessings I was able to experience about 9 months ago.]
Being in Korea not in a work setting where I'm surrounded by many other Americans, its hard to remember that the holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving doesn't feel like Thanksgiving. I constantly had to remind myself that it was Thanksgiving week. Thankfully, the many posts on Facebook helped as well as talking with my family.
This year for Thanksgiving I was busy at work. From Thursday to Saturday there was an education fair/conference being held at BEXCO. My school had a booth that I had to help prepare materials for, but this year I did not work at my schools booth. I was asked to work all day Thursday and all day Saturday at the booth for the English library. They asked me to prepare a lesson for two picture books but I ended up not doing any of my plans. I ended up mostly doing tongue twisters with older students or coloring bookmarks with younger kids. It was busy but fun too. Nice to have a change of pace for a bit.
Anyway, since I was at BEXCO all day Thursday and then went straight to Korean class, I didn't have time to really post about Thanksgiving. Then Friday I taught four 5th grade classes alone since my co-teacher was at BEXCO working for our school and I worked all day Saturday. So basically I was busy.
Throughout the week I kept reminding myself it was Thanksgiving and kept seeing the many, many blessings I have here. So I wanted to share a few of the blessings just from last week.
On Tuesday, when I was walking into school I walk down a slight hill towards the schools gate. On the opposite side of me the 6th grade students were walking up the hill towards the subway to go to the English library on their field trip. As I passed the first few students, some of them saw me and said hello. I of course said hello back and then the next few students said hello. I felt like I was in a parade: waving and saying hello and good morning as I walked by all of the 6th graders. It always encouraging when I hear them greet me and to see their smile. True blessing.
Later on Tuesday, I saw one of the first graders from Summer Camp. She always greets me so warmly and seems so genuinely happy to see me. Her face brightens and she says "Hello, Caroline teacher" and then gives me a hug. Love it! I wish I could communicate a little more with her but still love it either way.
On Wednesday, when teaching the fourth grade students I had a few conversation with them that were just wonderful. They are small and don't have a lot of depth but to able to say something more than "Hello! How are you?" is always a blessing.
On Friday, I had to teach the 5th grade classes alone. I was a little worried about this because out of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades the 5th grades have the worst behavior. And if students were to get upset or start fighting I would struggle to get them to calm down because they wouldn't understand me. But they were good. I did have some students throwing paper across the room in teh first class but when I pointed them out and said "stop" in front of the whole class they did. I had some that didn't even try to pay attention, but their English level is so low that I know my classes are difficult for them. They were at least quiet. I did have many talkative students but mostly talkative on subject and they would stop talking when I reminded them to pay attention. It sounds like a lot of behavior issues to have but honestly they were better than they usually are and better than I expected. The first class was cheering when I arrived because they didn't know I was teaching. They were excited to have class. The second class also didn't know I was coming so they were in the library and we had to get them back to the classrom but they did well and seemed to understand alright. I even had a student give me a "Love you" sticker during the class. The third class was probably my favorite of the day. They worked hard to communicate with me in English and I used a little Korean to help them understand an activity which they loved! They were impressed and stayed focused most of the day. The fourth class was much better than usual but still had several that didn't seem to want to participate. However, I'm thankful for those who did and who made class seem like fun. The blessing for the day was teaching somewhat successfully and to interact with the students more so than I do normally. I was thankful for the opportunity and thankful that they were well behaved.
That afternoon after lunch I had a 10 minute conversation with a 6th grader who came into the English office. We talked about winter vacation, the weekend, when he goes to hagwons (after school English academies), and my studying Korean. He was impressed that I knew how to write my name in Korean and could write house and school in Korean. But it was absolutely wonderful to have the time to talk with him. Obviously he has a pretty high English level but still its not often I can have conversations like that with the students.
Later Friday afternoon, all the English teachers had gone to BEXCO and so I was alone in the English office. My wonderful friend Denae had gotten engaged just a few hours before that so I was able to Facetime with her and share in her joy and excitement of getting engaged. I got to watch her process the realization that she would not longer be thinking about if/when she would be engaged but the reality was that she was engaged! It was a lot of fun for me and was probably the only day this fall that I could have done that since usually there are other teachers in the office with me.
Friday night I had a lovely relaxing evening at home before I had to get up and go to BEXCO early Saturday morning. But Saturday at BEXCO stayed pretty busy which means the day went quickly. I got a free lunch for the second time and spent time with my previous head English teacher and co teacher Kim Young. I also got to see other Korean English teachers I knew and meet more. I also met several people from the board of education during my two days working at BEXCO. I unfortunately was at lunch when the superintendent came through. As I was leaving, I realized that I have been blessed to meet many well known and respected English teachers in Busan as well as getting to know people at the board of education. I'm so thankful for those opportunities. I'm also thankful that I got extra pay for working Saturday right here at the holidays when extra pay is always helpful.
I love that the longer I'm hear the more interactions and conversations I have with students outside of class. Also, the longer I'm here the more the students and I adjust to each other even to the point of joking around some. I noticed this especially in my afterschool class that just finished. I would ask them the weather and they would tell me something completely opposite, usually that it was snowing :) I love these interactions and hope and pray that I am not moved schools for the next school year. I love my job here and the students I get to work with. I'm truly blessed here.
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