The Last 회식 at 옥계중학교

My main school during last year was a small middle school in 옥계.  I really enjoyed the school a lot and I was very lucky to get a chance to fully experience the 회식 (Hweshik) also known as a work dinner. Many people do not enjoy these, but I really enjoyed them. Actually it was always really nice food I would never buy for myself and that deserves its own post. But today I am…

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Goodbye Wangsan Middle School

Bittersweet goodbyes. Wangsan Middle School is my smallest school with 20 students. I only go to the school once a week to teach classes and I don’t always see my students every week. There was a two month hiatus after my coteacher was in an accident and a substitute teacher took his place.  I had learned to recognize most of my students names but unfortunately with the absence of not going I forgot almost all…

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A Year Ago Today…

A year ago today I boarded a plane at JFK Airport and met new EPIK friends in San Francisco before boarding our plane to Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Thinking back on the past year it is interesting to see how far I have come and how much my life has changed. A year ago, I went through orientation and upon completion was ushered by bus to a city in my province. I remember…

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Do you wanna build a snowman?! Damn you Frozen.

For those of you who haven’t seen Disney’s new animated movie, Frozen, you are lucky. Personally while the story was cute there was way too much singing for me. Unfortunately, if you are an English teacher in Korea this movie and its songs are pretty popular. My co-teacher wanted to do a lesson on the song, “Let it go,” lucky for us most of the students didn’t show up to school because of snow on…

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A Fork in the Cake

For the past few months a few of my third grade middle school girls have been asking me to cook for them. I normally go away on the weekends and they study for exams so it has been hard to organize a get together. Well, at the beginning of September we decided on September 28th, to cook. The girls requests included baked spaghetti and coconut cake.

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Reflections from a hospital bed

Thought #1 Is hospital beds suck. I have never been a patient before and the fact my back, ass, hips and leg hurt for days because of a terrible bed doesn’t sit well with me. Comfier beds would be a great improvement. Thought #2 Hospitalized grannies are very talkative and entertaining. I have been staying with four of them, one doesn’t speak but nods her head yes or no and smiles. One of the grannies…

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